Back to the Mac.

The event has only just finished, and to be honest, I'm pretty disappointed with what Apple had to offer. Here is a quick review of what was announced and what I think about it:

-iLife 11: It started off well, with iPhoto being shown off, and I can't deny it looked good, with some cool new things like an improved fullscreen mode and picture geo-location and just generally a way better user interface. However then it came to iMovie, and I was really excited about this before hand, but in fact they've just made it more complicated. They've added all sorts of audio editing features that look complicated and also all sorts of complicated effects and stuff. Probably the only thing I liked in the new iMovie was the fact that they allow you to easily create trailers. But if you're movie is short, what's the point? They then talked about Garageband, but nobody really cares about that. The one thing that surprised me was that they didn't mention the new iWeb, meaning that it's probably not changed, which for me is disappointing. Costs 59 dollars and you can order it off Apple today.

-Facetime for Mac: For me, this was the best announcement of the morning or evening, depending on where you are. It looks really good and simple, and syncs all your contacts you already have on your computer. You can download it today for free off Apple's website.

-Mac OSX Lion: This was only a sneak peek, but we got the concept. Lion will basically combine iOS and Snow Leopard. There will be a new Mac App Store (which comes out in around 90 days for Snow Leopard) and other features such as Launchpad, which basically takes you to your pages of apps, like on the iPhone or iPad. I have to say I like the idea. I will get it when it comes out and I think it's really ingenious: essentially the Mac will become like the iPhone or iPad. Lion will be released next summer (2011).

-MacBook Air: By a lightyear the biggest disappointment of the night for me. They released two different versions an 13.3 inch version and an 11.6 inch version. They have based them all on flash memory so no hard drives. What Apple have done in doing this is made the Macbook Air practically unmodifiable, which for me is insane. The SSD is, from the pictures, soldered to the motherboard and the RAM looks pretty hard to change as well. I've never honestly liked the Macbook Air, and for me it's got worse. The only good thing I can say about the MB Air is that it has got a bit thinner. They are on sale today with prices going from 999 to 1599 dollars depending on the model.

I think that out of all the new stuff announced, I'm only really interested in Mac OSX Lion which I'll buy when it comes out and Facetime, which I'll download as soon as I can.