You can save 20% on Culture Code’s excellent task manager, Things, by using the coupon code, “thingspresale20” before January 15th, 2009.
I was using OmniFocus, but after a demo at Macworld I decided to make the switch to Things. I don’t have time to write a full review right now, but I wanted to mention the coupon code, incase there’s anyone out there who was about to buy it.
When Apple first announced that they were moving all of their displays to glossy, I was, in a word, horrified. I’ve always preferred the matte displays and I didn’t like this move at all.
When Apple announced the new 17″ Macbook Pro at Macworld 2009, they said we would actually still have the choice on this model to go with glossy (default) or matte finish (now called “anti-glare”). I jumped for joy because I buy the 17″ model anyway, so this meant I could keep using the matte display.
While I was at Macworld I had a chance to view both screens side-by-side, and even though I’ve always preferred matte, I’m not so sure I like it on the new model. The picture above doesn’t really do either justice, but I can tell you that in person, the glossy looked so much better. It actually wasn’t so much that the glossy looked good, but rather the matte looked bad. At first I thought the brightness on the matte model was turned way down, but it wasn’t. The new matte display is just dim, and rather flat. Even though Apple offers the 17″ model in matte, I may be forced to go with glossy.
One caveat to this is, the Apple guy on the show floor said these were “pre-production” models. They could actually change when they start to ship at the end of January. I’ll hold my final review until I see them in the Apple store.
On a related note, Macworld has an article about a company that will physically swap a matte display for the glossy one in 15″ models.
Techtool Pro is a great utility for monitoring your Macs hardware for problems, and repairing problems with your files and directory structure. Last year at Macworld (Jan. ’08) I bought the upgrade to Techtool Pro 4.6.1, and it came with a free upgrade to the radically redesigned Techtool Pro 5, which was not yet ready to be released. Version 5 was supposed to be released around April of 2008.
Fast forward to January 2009 and there was still no sign of Techtool Pro 5. In fact, as of today their website still lists it as, “coming soon”. So, I stopped by their booth at this years Macworld to see what was up, and surprise, surprise… they handed me my copy of the finished product. Apparently it’s ready to go. I’m not sure why they haven’t told anyone yet, but if you’ve been waiting for your copy, you may want to send them an email.
If you haven’t already read this at a hundred other Mac sites, here’s what Apple announced today at Macworld:
17″ Aluminum Unibody Macbook Pro
Starting at $2799, the new 17″ Macbook pro will ship in late January. The good news is this thing can take up to 8GB of RAM. The bad news is, rumors were true… the battery is no longer a user-replacable part. That just sucks. Although, Apple is saying that this new and improved battery will last 8 hours on a single charge and can be recharged 1000 times (5 times the industry standard). Apple is also saying this new model is the slimmest and lightest 17″ notebook available.
It should also be noted that while the 17″ version uses the same Glossy display now used in its 15″ cousin, Apple is offering a $50 upgrade to an “antiglare display”. I thought they use to call this “matte”, so I’m not sure if this is the same option as previous models. Also, the new native resolution is 1920×1200, up from 1680×1050. In the previous 17″ model, it was a $100 upgrade to the higher resolution display. When I was shopping for my current 17″ Macbook Pro, I actually thought 1920 was a little too much for 17 inches.
You can read all the specs on Apple’s site.
iLife ’09
iPhoto now has face-recognition and geotagging built-in. It can also link with Facebook and Flickr. It actually looks pretty cool. Too bad I’m not really using iPhoto anymore. I’ve started moving everything into Adobe Lightroom.
iMovie has several new features bringing it back a little closer to iMovie ’06, instead of the radically different iMovie ’08.
There’s new versions of Garage Band, iWeb and iDVD as well. iLife ’09 will ship at the end of January. Read all about it on Apple’s site.
iWork ’09
I like iWork, but there’s nothing terrible exciting to talk about… seems like mostly basic improvements and refinements. iWork ’09 ships today.
iWork.com
Apple is starting iWork.com. Currently in beta, this will be a site for sharing and collaboration. It’s free while in beta, but Apple will charge for it in its final release.
DRM Free Music, Price Changes, and Purchase via 3G
Apple is moving away from $0.99 songs. Instead, there will now be a tiered structure of $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29 per song. Starting today they will offer 8 million songs as DRM free. The entire catalogue will be DRM free by the end of the quarter. You can also now buy music on you iPhone over the 3G or Edge networks, instead of wi-fi only.
My Thoughts
I didn’t think there was going to be any huge announcements today, but I am a little disappointed at what was announced. There were a few things that I would have bet money on:
Oh well, I guess we’ll have things to look forward to in 2009. I’ll be heading over to the Expo after Lunch. I’ll write about any must-haves that I find.