iLife '09 Update: GarageBand

At Macworld, Phil Schiller introduced a new version of GarageBand. The biggest new feature is called “Learn to Play.” It is designed to teach people to play instruments such as guitar and keyboards. You see the a representation of the instrument on the screen with a video of the instructor facing you.

Celebrity instructors include Sting, Sarah McLachlan, John Fogerty, and more. Apple says “learn to play a hit song from the artist who made it famous,” which I think sounds pretty cool. Additional video lessons can be purchased from the new GarageBand store for $4.99.

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  • iWork '09: Keynote

    Featured updates:

    * Easily create sophisticated animations with *Magic Move.*
    * Add dramatic object and text transitions using *new visual effects.*
    * Visualize your data with *new styles and animations* for 3D charts.
    * Dramatically *reduce file size* without compromising quality.
    * Create dynamic flowcharts and diagrams using *connection lines.*
    * Choose from *eight new Apple-designed themes* (44 total).
    * *Open, save, and email Microsoft PowerPoint files* from within Keynote.

  • Correction!

    In “6GB of RAM in your MacBook?” published last week, my description of eligible computers included 2.33GHz MacBook Pros. Unfortunately, these models have a capacity of three gigabytes, not six. If there is any question whether your machine can handle the upgrade, give us a call at 800-511-MACS and we’d be happy to confirm for you. Sorry for the confusion!

  • iLife '09 Update: iPhoto

    iPhoto has gotten many updates in the iLife ’09 edition. iPhoto is arguably the most-used application in the iLife suite, behind iTunes.

    For starters, there are now three ways to sort your photos:

    * Events
    * Faces
    * Places

    Events was a new way to view and sort photos with the last iLife release, but both Faces and Places are new.

    Faces relies on face recognition, and assists in tagging photos. Amazingly, it will find a face and ask in other photos if it is the same person… I guess we’ll see! There’s also integration with Facebook and Flickr.

    Places works with Google Maps to zoom in on a location. It uses latitude and longitude, and will automatically add a location to your photos. This is great because you’ll be able to ‘geotag’ your entire set of photos. Phil uses the example of “Yosemite” in that if you have just taken a vacation there, it will geotag all of your photos from the trip!

    I’m really excited to check iPhoto ’09 out, especially the tagging and face recognition features. As Don mused, “will it be able to recognize dog’s faces, too?” We’ll be checking out iLife ’09 in detail soon and will give you our feedback in upcoming issues of Tech Tails!

    “Learn more and pre-order iLife 09 here.”:http://www.smalldog.com/product/72885

  • Changes in the iTunes Store

    Millions of cheers were heard ’round the world when Phil Schiller announced some of the changes coming to the iTunes Store in April. The main one: all DRM-free music, meaning that songs can be played and burned without restriction. The four major record companies (Sony, Universal, Warner and EMI) are all now on board with the change, which was crucial to feature songs without the “DRM”:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_rights_management encoding.

    Beginning today, over 8 million songs in the iTunes Store feature:

    * No DRM restrictions
    * Higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually unchanged from the original
    * Same price for song downloads onto iPhone 3G over their 3G network

    The remaining 2 million songs in the 10 million+ iTunes library will be available without the DRM restrictions by the end of March. According to Apple, they will offer a “simple, one-click option to easily upgrade their entire library of previously purchased songs to the higher quality DRM-free iTunes Plus format” for 30 cents per song or 30 percent of the album price. Sounds intriguing, but it could get expensive… I say choose your favorites wisely!

    In April, songs will be available at three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. This will be dictated by what the music labels charge Apple for the above licensing.

    “Read Apple’s entire press release here.”:http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/01/06itunes.html

  • FEATURED SPECIAL | 01/06/09 – 01/13/09

    This week we are reviving a very popular special offer on previous generation 15-inch MacBook Pros. This special offer includes a MacBook Pro with 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB RAM, a 250GB hard drive, SuperDrive, a free Isis sleeve, and free shipping. “Click here to see this.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18719/

    Before the introduction of the unibody MacBook Pros in late 2008, these were the top-of-the-line 15-inch MacBook Pros. We sold out of them a couple of weeks ago, but fortunately were able to find a few more at one of our distributors. It’s a great price on a fully loaded portable Mac.

    “Note that this bundle is also available with AppleCare for $2199.99.”:http://www.smalldog.com/wag18718/