We started our adventure very early Tuesday morning, 4:30 AM to be exact, made our way over to the East Bay to catch a 6 AM train to San Francisco. After a short walk to the Mascone Center we proceeded to registration and found our spot in line for the Philnote (the Apple Keynote presented by Phil Schiller not Steve jobs) at about 7:30 AM. We were pleasantly surprised to get a great seat in the middle of 2500 others waiting with baited breath at the much anticipated and rumored announcements. What would it be? iPhone Nano, Mac Mini refresh, new 3.0 iPhone software, DRM free iTunes songs? These seemed to be the most likely. Uh, well we got one of them. Let’s start from the beginning, iLife ’09 gets a refresh, I know at first I was groaning also, but then I found myself quickly applauding at the improvements.

iPhoto adds “faces” and “places” to the events menu and these are extremely cool features. “Faces” implements face recognition software, tell iPhoto whoa picture is of, confirm a few more photo are the correct person and an “event” style folder is made of all the pictures of that person. As a parent being able to group photos of each child and their friends in their own “Faces event” is very appealing. “Places” works very similar to “faces” but will group by location via geo-tagging. GPS enable cameras will do this automatically but if you don’t have a GPS enabled camera don’t worry just choose the location the photo was taken and iPhoto will tag it for you.

iWork was by far the least exciting part of the keynote with very little reportable upgrades but the beta seems to be going in the direction of the cloud. If Apple integrates iWork with Mobile Me we may see an increase in usage simply because of the ability to collaborate with colleagues with a web applications. Before you stop reading I will stop talking about iWork, not like anyone actually uses it.

Next the Philler spoke about DRM free music (8 of the 10 million songs are DRM free right now and the other 2 million will be DRM free soon) and a change in pricing strategy in the iTunes Music Store and I must say it’s about time. This was a big point for Apple haters and now there is nothing to complain about with protected music. Oh, let me correct myself, like my buddy NOW says, “But why should I have to pay for music”, you can please some people some of the time, but not all the people all of the time, and in his case, some people none of the time. When will he get it through his head that he is stealing? I know some of you are on his boat but that’s a debate for another day. The point is you can do whatever you want with your iTunes music now be it legal or not. DRM free music also comes with a new pricing strategy: three tiers .69 cents, .99 cents, and $1.29. Phil says more songs will be at the .69-cent price point than the $1.29 but only time will tell. I tend to think that was a negotiation point with the record companies. Apple agrees to charge more on some songs but wants the majority of songs to be the lower tier price point. You may be asking “What about all the music I have already purchased?” well you can upgrade to what Apple is calling iTunes+, a.k.a DRM free, for .30 cents per song which in theory sounds great but what I have found is you either upgrade all your eligible music to DRM free or you upgrade none. I would have preferred to be able to upgrade certain songs that I would like to upgrade due to the fact that there are some songs that I would be forced to upgrade that I barley listen to anymore. Oh well its in the step in the right direction and I am excited about DRM free music. One last note on this subject, I wonder how this will affect the ringtone market in the iTunes store since now I can make my own ringtones in Garage Band with my newly purchased DRM free music. Why pay .99 cents for a ringtone when now I can make it myself for free?

Finally, “One Last Thing”, the 17” Macbook pro which completes the new laptop initiative. Include are the newly introduced aluminum unibody, clickable trackpad, and new display including the choice of glossy or matte screen. The biggest change in the 17” Macbook would have to be the new battery technology. Due to some intuitive engineering the battery should last between 7 and 8 hours depending on what graphics chip you have, last up to 5 years which is approximately 1000 charge cycles, and is not user replaceable. And Oh boy did I hear complaints about not being user replaceable, due to the space requirements of the new battery those millimeters previously used to house the battery and make it user replaceable were sacrificed for more power and less user flexibility. After some careful consideration I thought how many people are really going to need to replace the battery with 1000 charge cycles and five-year battery life? By that time I will be ready for a new Mac won’t I? I mean really how many people have needed to replace the battery on their iPod and that’s not user replaceable. I have had 4 iPod and have never needed a battery replacement. Anyway I like the new 17” Macbooks and 7-8 hour battery life is very nice especially when I talk to my PC toting friends and they get about 3 hours max. The biggest surprise really was having Tony Bennett serenade us with a few songs culminating with “I Left My Heart in San Francisco” which I think is a fitting farewell to the relationship between Apple and IDG, the organizers of Macworld.

Now I know we have talked all Mac and keynote and you are probably yelling “Tom this is an iPhone site” and yes I did scope out all the iPhone related stuff on the show floor. I won’t go into a lot of detail here, for that, go check out the video interviews I posted from the show. What I will go into is the people, what I believe makes Macworld the event that it is, is the people. We all expect the “big dogs” to be there showing their products, you know the Griffins and Kensington’s of the world, and they were great people to talk to. What I didn’t expect to see much of were the small family owned entrepreneurial companies, those folks who love Apple and their products and have taken steps to innovate and bring useful problem solving units to market. Those folks like Hans and Marion Kohte who designed and brought to market “In Your Face” a solution for viewing movies, or frankly anything on your portable device with out crapping your arm by holding your phone for hours on end. Check out their site.

We really hustled for 2 days in San Francisco and at this point we have to give a big thanks to my kid sister Valerie Bell. Valerie is a Freshman at Boston College; she traveled out to the West Coast to visit for a few weeks. What she didn’t know was that I was going to recruit her to be my camera person for the interviews at Macworld. I really ran her ragged and she kept up like a trooper. We started early in the morning and got home late at night, and without her the interviews we conducted at Macworld would not have been near the quality that they are, so a big “Thanks!!” goes out to Valerie.

We didn’t get what we expected from Macworld 2009 in San Francisco and it might very well have been the last. Some folks were disappointed at the last of a big time announcement. I, on the other hand look at it in a different light, more opportunity for speculation and rumor. Will there ever be an iPhone nano? What will be the fate of the Mac Mini? Will there actually be a Macworld in 2010 and if so what will it look like or not look like? How is the health of our hero Steve Jobs? Is Apple really going to be at CES 2010 in Vegas? Let the rumor mill start turning. I don’t know what the next 12 months will bring what I do know is I already registered for Macworld 2010 just in case it actually happens and I have looked into travel plans to Las Vegas next January. Stay tuned, we will all learn the answers to these questions together.

If you would like to see a particular product or application reviewed or just want to drop me a line please do so at tommoccia@buymeaniphone.com I always love hearing from our readers.