Apple launches MacBook pro

SAN FRANCISCO: Apple Inc on Tuesday (Jan 6) introduced what it claims to be the world's thinnest and lightest 17-inch laptop with a new unibody aluminium enclosure and a built-in battery said to deliver up to eight hours of use and a lifespan three times longer than conventional laptop batteries. It also announced a revamp of its iLife suite of digital lifestyle software at the Macworld Expo trade show here, in particular the iPhoto photo management software which now comes with face detection technology and built-in support for Facebook. Consumers can also teach themselves to play musical instruments with the new version of GarageBand music creation software. Conspicuously missing from this year's expo is the company's iconic CEO Steve Jobs, who is recuperating from a health problem. His place as keynote presenter was taken over by vice-president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller.

In a two hour-long keynote, Schiller showcased the star attraction of the expo, the top-of-the-line 17-inch Apple MacBook Pro that now features a design similar to Apple's two other laptops, the 13-inch MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro. Its body, carved out of a single block of aluminium, measures just 2.5cm thick. The laptop weighs less than 2.99kg. A high resolution, low power consumption LED-backlit display and a large button-less trackpad made of glass has now made its way into the laptop as well. A new built-in battery powers the laptop for eight hours on a single charge. Touted as the greenest notebook family, the new MacBook Pro's
battery allows up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional laptop batteries. The typical lifespan for laptop batteries is about three years. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will retail in Malaysia for RM10,099. iPhoto, one of five digital lifestyle software in the iLife 09 suite now, has new features called Places and Faces. Places automatically imports photo location data from a GPS-enabled camera or an Apple iPhone, while with Faces, iPhoto automatically scans photos to detect people's faces and when names are assigned to those faces, iPhoto will find more pictures of that person.

Taking things a step further, a button in iPhoto enables not just convenient publishing of photos on photo sharing websites such as Facebook and Flickr, but also to detect even more faces on the
Internet. Calling them "really powerful", Schiller demonstrated how these features help organise thousands of photos.

The updated GarageBand 09 allows budding musicians to learn to play the piano and guitar at their own pace. Basic Lessons allow newbies to learn the fundamentals while a feature called Artist Lessons has original artists including John Fogerty, Colbie Caillat, Norah Jones and Sting showing how to play their hit songs. "iLife has become one of the reasons people buy a Mac today. There's nothing like it on any other computing platform," said Schiller. Priced at RM299 for single user, iLife 09 will ship end of January. Also announced at Macworld were updates to the company's iWork office productivity suite. Called iWork 09, the three software that makes up the suite, namely Keynote, Pages and Numbers have received new themes, sophisticated transition effects and a quick way to group and summarise data. iWork 09 is available immediately for RM299.

The "one more thing" announcement -- Jobs' trademark way of announcing something unexpected -- was reserved for a new three-tier pricing for Apple's iTunes online music store which is not available in Malaysia.

Jobs, who survived a pancreatic cancer in 2004 and appeared to be losing weight throughout 2008, on Monday (Jan 5) wrote a personal letter addressed to the Apple community, saying doctors have pinpointed hormone imbalance as the reason for his illness. "The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and straightforward, and I've already begun treatment," he wrote, adding that he would remain as Apple's CEO and expects to be back in shape by Spring this year.