iWork '09: Pages

It just was not the same to see a Macworld Keynote without Steve Jobs, but I thought that Phil Schiller did an admirable job of showing off the latest from Apple.

The top four innovations from my point of view were:

1) iPhoto – the changes to iPhoto are simply astounding. It is the most advanced photo management system for consumers ever conceived. It will make your photo library more accessible, more manageable and more useful than ever before. iPhoto is reason enough all by itself to buy a Mac!

2) iMovie – the new features in iMovie have me thinking about taking a video camera with my on my upcoming safari to Tanzania. The ability to manipulate your videos and the new tools introduced make video editing even within my capabilities.

3) The Mac Box Set – The new package @ $169 of iWork, iLife and Leopard is a great way to get folks stuck back with Tiger finally into the modern age!

4) DRM-free iTunes – YES, this will make managing your music library as easy as managing your photo library. It is a credit to Apple that the record labels have finally seen the light and dropped the requirement for DRM on music. Apple has demonstrated that they have the market for music no one else can touch.

Plus, I like a lot of the features in the new MacBook Pro 17-inch, especially the new battery. While I know some will complain about the non-removable battery, I am sure that it can be replaced by Apple Service Providers and with a 1000-cycle life and up to 8-hours on a charge, you do not have to carry a spare battery just to get through the day!

I was surprised to see Tony Bennett as the musical star at the end of the keynote but Artie was enraptured and applauded wildly.

On Monday, Google finally released a public beta of Picasa for the Mac. Picasa is a free desktop app for importing, editing, organizing and sharing digital images–particularly digital photos.

Picasa for Macs is a free download from “Picasa.google.com/mac/”:http://picasa.google.com/mac/. You need an Intel Mac running OS 10.4 or later.

Picasa has been a popular photo app on the Windows side for years. It shares some features with iPhoto, and adds some unique killer features. These include the ability to sync your Picasa desktop and Picasa Web Albums edits, screen captures, create and edit movies within Picasa, add text/watermarks to photos, manage folders on your computer, a collage creation, screensaver creation, and Facial-recognition technology. Privacy and sharing settings can be adjusted for individual photos, collections or for your entire library.

Preliminary tests show Picasa to be as fast or faster than iPhoto and easy and elegant to use. We’ll test further and review Picasa in detail in the future.

Google also offers Picasa Web Albums, which is an excellent web service for sharing and organizing photos. This has been Mac-compatible for years. There is an iPhoto plugin if you want to use Picasa Web Albums without necessarily using the desktop version of Picasa. “Click here to download this.”:http://picasa.google.com/mac_tools.html

Also, the new version of iPhoto ’09 looks amazing. News about Picasa for Mac has been swept under the rug with the announcement of iPhoto ’09.

Picasa Web Albums integrates tightly with Google’s Blogger service, along with many other blog platforms and web services. Picasa Web Albums is very easy to use, uploading is a breeze, and photos are nicely displayed online. Picasa Web Albums offers up to 1GB (“enough space for 4,000 wallpaper-size photos”) of photo hosting for free.

Flickr is still more popular and has deeper social network components then Picasa Web Albums. Again, we’ll do a detailed comparison in the near future.

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.

iWeb also received minor updates for Macworld. In iWeb, it’s now easier to upload websites and website changes to MobileMe or to your own server via FTP with a single click. Like iWeb ’08, iWeb ’09 uploads only your changes when you publish, so you’ll enjoy quick site updates.

iWeb will now notify your Facebook friends when you update your site. Simply link any iWeb site to your Facebook account. Following an update, iWeb adds the changes to your profile, alerting your friends and providing them with a handy link. It’s now also easier to add web widgets to your site that update automatically.

iDVD didn’t appear to get any new features beyond performance and stability improvements. iMovie once again supports DVD chapter makers and titles for use with iDVD ’09, which is very welcome news.

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

Noted features:

* Easily create formulas, using *visual placeholders with plain language text.*
* Perform calculations using *over 250 functions.*
* Organize your data instantly using *Table Categories.*
* Check your calculations at a glance with *Formula List view.*
* Create two-axis charts and combine line, column, and area series in a single mixed chart.
* Choose from *twelve new Apple-designed templates* (30 total).
* *Open, save, and email Microsoft Excel files* from within Numbers.

Grace gave me an advance 60th birthday present just before I left for Macworld. She is taking me to Tanzania to see hippos in the wild. After watching the keynote with the new version of iMovie, we have decided to bring along a digicam, too!

Our friend Chet Newbold from Olympus is going to loan me one of their ultra zoom cameras, too, so I hope to bring back some great photos and video from this trip. I am so excited about fulfilling this dream and spending my 60th birthday in Africa!

I think we are going to see a lot of new products coming out of Apple this year. When they are ready on schedule, I am much more optimistic than most about 2009. I think that Apple is well-suited to innovate its way through this economic downturn.

Thank you so much for reading this issue of Kibbles & Bytes!

Your Kibbles & Bytes Team
_Don, Kali & Ed_