Keynote ended
Jobs then showed off several prospective television ads to hype the
new iMacs, demonstrating iTunes and showing off the new designs.
Blue Dalmatian is white with blue spots.
low end – indigo, midrange – flower power, blue dalmatian, indigo,
high end – graphite too.
All available starting today.
Two new colors: Flower Power, white case with flower design injected
into the molding; and Blue Dalmatian.
Offered in Indigo and Graphite; 400, 500, 600MHz; CD-RW on the top two; $899, $1199, $1499.
Jobs announced new iMacs — most with CD-RW built in, all with
FireWire, iMovie, iTunes, AirPort ready.
iTools has been updated as well, updated in Japanese (it has been
available up to now only in English). Localized version up today.
A new model is being added with 128MB, a larger hard drive, CD-RW,
iMovie 2, iTunes, $1599. Available starting today.
The Cube price has been lowered to $1299, or 148,000 yen.
The applications from Apple, said Jobs, are the glue that makes all
this stuff work.
“The PC is evolving,” said Jobs, from the age of productivity to the
Internet age to the digital lifestyle age. The Mac is the digital
hub, since it can run complex applications like iMovie, iTunes and
iDVD.
DVD-R discs are available from Apple in 5 packs for 5,800 yen.
“This is a dream come true for me,” said Jobs, referring to the
ability to take video from a camcorder or other digital source and
transfer it to DVD. “I’ve wanted to do this for years.”
The demonstration was identical to the one shown in San Francisco —
Jobs manipulated video, audio, still imagery and other elements.
Jobs talked at length about the heretofore complex process of
mastering DVDs, and then demonstrated iDVD, Apple’s consumer-oriented
DVD mastering software, running on a Power Mac G4/733 with a
“SuperDrive.”
Jobs announced iTunes 1.1, a new update that supports over 25
different third-party CD-R drives. It has been released today on
Apple’s Web site.
Jobs said that iTunes has been downloaded over 750,000 times since
its release last week.
The iTunes demonstration was the same one that Jobs gave to crowds at
Macworld Expo in SF last month; he showed off the software’s browsing
abilities, ability to rip CD audio to MP3, and its support of
Internet radio.
Jobs talked about iTunes — Apple’s MP3 playback and ripping utility,
available for free download — and then demonstrated the software.
Jobs reiterated his message of “the age of the digital lifestyle,”
being driven by digital devices like cell phones, digital music,
digital camcorders, dvds, etc. The Mac, said Jobs, is the digital hub.
“The fact that we are able to bring this first to you on the Mac is
the result of a partnership that’s growing between Nvidia and Apple,”
said Jobs.
The GeForce3 will be available as a BTO option on the Power Mac G4
both for resellers and end-users in late March, $600 (68,000 yen).
“The GeForce3 is the most exciting thing” that his company has had to
work with in years, said Carmack.
Carmack also mentioned that Id used Maya to develop the animation
loops shown to the Expo keynote crowd.
John Carmack of Id Software demonstrated a new in-development gaming
engine. Carmack says that GeForce3 makes it possible for objects in
the engine to react the same way that they would in real-life, with
realistic lighting, shadows and other effects.
Jobs called the GeForce3 a “real revolution.”
Jobs talked about the hours needed to render individual seconds of
Luxo Jr ., the first Pixar movie, on a Cray supercomputer — Kirk
demonstrated Nvidia’s interpretation of Luxo Jrand showed the
cinematic effects being done in real-time.
“Have you seen Toy Story?” questioned Jobs. Jobs talked about the
work that goes into the development of computer graphics and
animation.
David Kirk, Nvidia chief scientist, demonstrated the GeForce 3.
“We’ve developed a great relationship with them,” said Jobs.
“The most advanced graphics chip ever,” said Jobs.
Nvidia and Apple are announcing the next generation of graphics
processors — the GeForce 3.
Cinema display has been lowered to 328,000 yen, or $2999.
Jobs talked about the new digital speakers, available for 7500 yen.
Jobs demonstrated Mac OS 9’s ability to master CD’s directly from the
desktop, using the Finder.
“Today, there’s also a few extras that pertain to the Power Mac G4.”
Apple VP Phil Schiller then demonstrated the Power Mac G4/733 side by
side with a PC-compatible running a Pentium 4 operating at 1.5GHz
with Windows 2000 Pro. Schiller demonstrated a “real world” example
of scripted actions done to the same complex Photoshop image. Of
course, the Power Mac soundly trounced the competition.
“All four of these models are now shipping,” said Jobs, confirming
Apple’s news earlier this week that the 733MHz Power Mac G4 is now
available.
No surprise, but Jobs spent time talking about the high-end Power Mac
G4’s DVD-R “SuperDrive.”
The new Power Mac G4 was next up to bat. The “Power to Burn” theme
was touted. Jobs talked about 133 MHz bus, faster bandwidth, AGP 4x,
CD-RW and Nvidia GeForce2 MX video.
The same five minute video showing off the PowerBook G4 shown at
Macworld Expo in January was also shown here (the video is available
from Apple’s Web site as well). The video features Apple designer
Jonathan Ives and a variety of luminaries fawning over the PowerBook
G4.
“When you buy an external DVD and another battery, they’re the same
price,” said Jobs, comparing the Sony VAIO laptop and the PowerBook
G4.
“One of the companies we admire is Sony,” said Jobs, when discussing
Apple’s influences for designing the PowerBook G4. His comparison of
the PowerBook’s smaller height, larger screen size, and composition
drew chuckles and applause from the crowd.
Jobs says that Apple’s “making lots of them,” and that the PowerBooks
are “shipping in high volume.”
Jobs focused his attention on the PowerBook G4, pushing his “Power +
Sex” message — slot-loading DVD, 5 hour battery,
AirPort/AirMac-ready, made out titanium, one inch thick.
Jobs then turned the floor over to a television ad currently being
broadcast in Japan featuring the PowerBook G4.
The Maya demonstration drew a large response from the crowd.
“Maya’s just one of many apps that we’ll see” throughout the rest of
the year, said Jobs.
“We have 400 committed developers worldwide — that represents over
1,200 applications committed for Carbon and Cocoa.”
Jobs explained to the crowd that “it’ll take us all year” to get
applications for Mac OS X, but the bulk of them will be released in
the summer, again reiterating his message to the San Francisco crowd
at the January Expo.
A demonstration of the Mac OS X version of Alias|Wavefront’s Maya 3D
visualization software, which recently reached its beta milestone,
was then given. Maya is scheduled to be released for Mac OS X next
quarter.
“I don’t think we’ve ever seen anything like this before,” he said,
concluding his font demonstration.
Jobs discussed the cost of licensing Japanese fonts, and said that
Mac OS X will bundle a Japanese font package with 17,500 characters.
Jobs’ demonstration got some polite applause from the audience. Jobs’
demonstration of font resizing drew a larger round of applause, as
well.
“As you know, there have never been good Japanese fonts shipping in a
US operating system.”
Jobs also demonstrated Mac OS X’s ability to view directories
hierarchically from the Dock, a feature that has been a big hit with
the Macworld Expo crowd in San Francisco.
Jobs showed off QuickTime working on OS X, using the now-familiar
trailer for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, showing the video running
live as he resized and put the movie in the dock.
Jobs talked about the architecture of Mac OS X: Darwin, the core
technology; the graphics engine — Quartz, OpenGL, QuickTime; and the
three core frameworks — Classic, Carbon and Cocoa; and the user
interface, Aqua. Jobs then demonstrated some of the new features of Mac OS X, showing
off some of the same features first shown to attendees of Macworld
Expo in San Francisco.
Steve Jobs presented to the audience in a pinstripe suit. Mac OS X led the presentation. Jobs reiterated the March 24th release date — 14,800 yen, shipping in Japanese on the same day. One CD is going out around the world with multiple language support.