MACWORLD 2009 BRINGS IPHONE NEWS

Macworld 2009 kicked off today in earnest with the traditional Apple keynote (sans Steve Jobs). This will be the last time Apple makes an official appearance at the Macworld, and today amidst all the Mac-centric announcements some really cool iPhone news was made too.

Apple demoed new versions of their iLife '09 and iWork '09 suites of applications. iLife consists of iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, and Garageband and offers consumers friendly and powerful tools for working with their digital media. iWork is more of an "Office-lite" solution and offers Pages, Numbers, and Keynote.

Keynote is where the first iPhone announcement comes into play. Keynote is Apple's presentation software offering superior graphics, transitions, and features when compared to a counterpart like Microsoft PowerPoint. Apple will be releasing a 0.99 cent Keynote Remote application via iTunes, as opposed to the free Remote app which they offer to control iTunes. This new app allows you to control your keynote presentation when connected to a WiFi network and works with both the iPhone and iPod touch. You can use native iPhone gestures like swipe to move back and forth between slides, even view everything in horizontal mode and see notes for yourself if you added them. More than worth the price I'd say (especially if you're big into presentations).

The other announcement today related to the mobile iTunes store embedded into every iPhone (also the iPod touch, though not applicable here). Previously you could purchase all songs available on iTunes via your iPhone, but only over WiFi. Today Apple opened that up to 3G downloads as well, so if you own an iPhone 3G, and as long as you have 3G signal, you can purchase songs via iTunes. When you connect your iPhone to your computer they will sync back up with your iTunes library as usual.

This final announcement will really rock (no pun intended) the mobile handset world when you consider new iTunes pricing (now 0.69/0.99/1.29) and that all iTunes tracks are now DRM-free as of today. This means you can now purchase full length high quality DRM-free music on your cell phone over 3G for as little as 0.69 cents, transfer it to your computer, to your iPod, burn it to a CD. And it's completely yours, with no silly subscriptions or copy protection.

Well done Apple.