Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Apple Announces iLife '11, FaceTime Mac, Lion, Mac App Store, MacBook Air

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the get-an-ilife dept.

Apple once again streamed their latest keynote where they unveiled iLife '11 (more fullscreen and Facebook in iPhoto, Audio editing and automatic trailers in iMovie, Rhythm correction and lessons in Garage Band). FaceTime for the Mac will connect video chat to phones with a Beta starting today. Next we get a preview of OS X Lion which will have an App Store and new UI bits shipping this summer. The Mac App Store will launch on Snow Leopard in 90 days. The New MacBook Air is under 3lbs, 13.3" screen, Core 2 Duo, solid state only storage. There's also an 11.6" version starting at $999 with 64gb of storage shipping today.

8 of 827 comments (clear)

  1. Is there really a market for this? by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I mean, App Store for iPhone / iPod touch? I get that. It's basically the first of its kind and creates its own market share. Apps which would have been trivial and/or freeware for a desktop could be sold to mobile users if they were good or early to market enough. Kinds of apps that would be made wholly useless given a full-size-screen web browser and a keyboard could have a market, too.

    But for the Mac? When roughly all Mac users are dual booting Windows anyway?

    1. Re:Is there really a market for this? by DDLKermit007 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      People are already doing this with Steam. If anything this is a warning shot across Valve's bow for doing all the hard work of getting Steam up on Mac. Have your game just on the Steam store, or get it on the Mac Store too? Well crap...I'm all for this though as long as Apple doesn't have such a jacked approval process as the iTunes store.

    2. Re:Is there really a market for this? by imamac · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "Roughly all"?? I would characterize it as "relatively few".

    3. Re:Is there really a market for this? by cgenman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      While it may be a warning shot, Steam does still have distinct advantages:

      1. Little to no censorship. I'm trying to imagine Left 4 Dead 2 on the app store, and I just can't see it.
      2. Login anywhere, download anywhere. With a username and password on Steam, you can get at all of your games.
      3. Friends / Teams. Teams are especially important for online games.
      4. PC compatibility. Write once for Steam on the PC, utilize for Steam on the Mac.
      5. PC cross purchase. Buy once for the Mac, have it for the PC. Just in case.

      It's not perfect, but it definitely helps them.

      --
      The ______ Agenda
  2. Anyone else noticing the CPU situation? by TellarHK · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I know that every other comment under the sun here is going to focus on the app store and DRM concerns, but I'm also somewhat concerned about the fact that CPU speeds on these new Macbook Airs seem to be... rather pathetic. C2D 1.4 and 1.86 Ghz processors? Is Xcode really that much better at leveraging the GPU, to where they can release something like this when announcing Lion and its new features that sound like they're going to brutalize processing power. With CPU speeds like these, it almost seems like they just didn't want to say the word 'Atom'.

    --
    My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
  3. Re:App Store looks interesting... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Wow, and people talk about the "Microsoft tax".

    It's not exactly free to do it on your own. For a small shop it's a huge benefit to not have to deal with all that infrastructure and hiring and payment processing. A one or two person team can focus on development and not worry about the other headaches. It will bring me back to developing Mac software.

  4. Re:Not a fan, but Jobs is right by Mongoose+Disciple · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Your father-in-law is apparently ridiculously more tech-savvy than mine, who needs to visit the Apple Store Geniuses for help multiple times every month.

    I honestly don't think Apple has made money off of him, in the grand scheme of things.

  5. Re:App Store looks interesting... by getNewNickName · · Score: 3, Interesting

    How do you propose to filter out the "useless and annoying" apps? When Apple tried to do some filtering people called them draconian and not being transparent with the review process. Please define "useless and annoying" such that both consumers and developers would be satisfied.