The Windows 7 Upgrade Program is designed to reduce the purchase-postponement of end users who might push out their purchasing to such a time when Windows 7 is actually out on the market. Through this program, end users can avail themselves an upgrade — CONDITIONS APPLY.

The program, interim-named Windows 7 Upgrade Program, is a consumer-oriented program targeted at individual consumers and small businesses that have purchased eligible PCs during the Program Eligibility Period. End users will have to meet the following criteria to be deemed eligible for the upgrade to Windows 7 when it is released :

• Windows Vista PCs must be purchased by end users between July 1, 2009 through a to-be-determined date to qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade program.
• End users must purchase a new PC that is pre-installed with an eligible Windows Vista Operating System during the program eligibility window.
• The PC must have a valid Certificate of Authenticity (COA) attached.
• The only Windows Vista® versions eligible for the program are :
1. Windows Vista® Home Premium
2. Windows Vista® Business
3. Windows Vista® Ultimate

• Microsoft Windows Vista® Home Basic, Windows Vista® Starter Edition, and Windows® XP (all editions) are not qualifying products under the program.

CAVEAT: This is an optional program and all OEMs may not choose to participate. OEMs that, in fact, choose to participate in this upgrade program will have the freedom to determine the best way to provide qualifying end users with the details.

But we must mention that it was not an official nod from the software giant. The report was published based on an answer to a question in windowslivehelp.com, where the answerer states that "there is a plan on releasing POP3 to free Hotmail account users. However, he went ahead to say that they do not have a "definite date on when this will happen."

The share hit a low of Rs 58, as details of the extent of fraud perpetrated by the promoters shook the stock market and cast a grim cloud over the corporate practices of companies.

The BSE Sensex crashed 470.23 points or 4.55 per cent to 9,865.70, after rising to a high of 10,469.72 earlier Wednesday. Investors aggressively cut their positions. The BSE IT Index plunged 7.70 per cent and BSE Realty tumbled 11.20 per cent.

IT and other sectoral stocks were beaten down badly as the Satyam fraud raised question over corporate governance of other companies also, especially IT.

“The sectors which have done extraordinary well in a very short span of time such as IT and realty attracted distrust as Satyam’s case has made investors uncomfortable about these companies,” said Kapil Shah, analyst with DBM Wealth Management.

The Satyam fiasco has left a big question mark on corporate governance in India while sending a negative signal to the foreign institutional investors, analysts said.

Manish Sonthalia, VP – equity strategy, Motilal Oswal, said, “It is shocking! It has maligned India’s image before the FIIs. In view of the current event, a lot of new regulations are expected in the near term by the regulators. Balance Sheets will be scrutinized meticulously.”

The Satyam story poses a big question over the credibility of auditors in general, as PricewaterhouseCoopers was auditor of the company. The bankers to Satyam included Bank of Baroda, BNP Paribas, ICICI, HDFC, Citi Bank, HSBC.

Anita Gandhi, head-institutional business, Arihant Capital, said, “The Indian technology industry was a very important driver for the country’s stock market for nearly a decade. Satyam’s fraud is expected to lead a severe blow to the entire industry with investors being more cautious going ahead. This raises serious questions on the entire due diligence process conducted by the auditors of Satyam. What is more surprising is the chairman’s confession after his resignation. This means, all along, he did have vested interest in keeping the investors in darkness.”

Raju’s letter to the company board revealed a fraud of unprecedented proportions. He states that Satyam’s balance sheet as on Sep 30, 2008, carries an inflated (non-existent) cash and bank balances of Rs 5,040 crore (as against Rs 5,361 reflected in the books).

Further, it carries an accrued interest of Rs 376 crore which is non-existent. The books carry an understated liability of Rs 1,230 crore on account of funds arranged by Raju, and an over stated debtors position of Rs 490 crore (as against Rs 2,651 crore in the books).

We’ve heard so much of the Lenovo ThinkPad W700ds. The slide-out screen looks sturdy, and it’s capable of
swiveling 30 degrees forward and any steps in between. The tablet isn’t
going to replace a Wacom anytime soon, but it’ll get the job done in a
pinch. The laptop itself is rather bulky, but you come to expect it with the amount of features packed in.

10:38 PT - JS: And that’s the keynote! Thanks to Dan for an excellent job with the play by play. On with the show.

10:37 PT - DM: It’s a wrap. No new Mac mini, no Steve Jobs cameo. But we had Tony Bennett. So, you know, tradeoffs.

10:37 PT - DM: And Tony Bennett is retreating on
the sliding stage, waving goodbye. Phil says “thank you very much” and
it appears that that’s our show. Phil is thanking family, people at
Apple, etc.

10:35 PT - JS: “I Left My Heart In
San Francisco.” You get extra points if you identified it from the
preamble, which begins with “The loveliness of Paris…”

10:32 PT - DM: I’m like twenty feet from Tony Bennett. That’s crazy. The man has still got it. Great voice.

10:32 PT - JS: “The Best Is Yet to Come,” Tony Bennett sings. Message from Apple received.

10:31 PT - DM: Just kidding, it’s Tony Bennett.

10:31 PT - DM: Annnnnnd it’s Hannah Montana!

10:30 PT - DM: We’re ending on music. Ending our
last Macworld keynote with an artist who’s a legend in the industry. 15
Grammy awards, 2 Emmy Awards, Kennedy Center Honoree.

10:28 PT - DM: The third new thing has to do with
iPhone. Now the iTunes Music Store is no longer iTunes Wi-Fi Music
Store; you can now download and buy on 3G network as well. Same price
and same selection on the iPhone as on iTunes. Same quality too. You
can preview and purchase and you can buy anytime, anywhere on 3G. This
starts today.

10:28 PT - JS: Big news. Amazon has
had this for a while now, and the record companies were withholding the
DRM-free songs from Apple’s store. Now they get variable pricing, and
Apple gets DRM-free. It makes it more likely that I’ll start buying
iTunes tracks again — I’ve been using Amazon MP3 for the past year,
almost exclusively.

10:26 PT - DM: First, the price: we’ve had one
pricing model for all songs. Starting in April they’re giving them more
flexibility: three tiers at $0.99, $0.69, and $1.29. More songs are
going to be offered at $0.69 than $1.29 says Phil. The second thing:
iTunes Plus which, as you know, is DRM-free. Encoded at 256kbps AAC
encoding. One-click upgrades. New today? Starting today 8 million songs
will be offered DRM-free (couldn’t get that last 2 million, huh?). By
end of quarter, entire catalog will be DRM-free. In case you missed it:
All songs will be DRM-free in iTunes.

10:24 PT - DM: But we’re actually going to talk
about iTunes too. Started music store in 2003. Now it’s 2009. 6 billion
songs sold (one for every person in the world?). Over 10 million songs
available, largest library. Over 75 million accounts with credit cards.
Wanted to give people a legal way to purchase songs over the Internet.
And, of course, they became the #1 channel for music. So what’s new in
2009? Three things.

10:22 PT - JS: (Off topic: I am told
we’re having a musical guest today. I am going to assume that someone
is going to teach us how to play guitar or piano.)

10:22 PT - DM: And here’s the environmental report
card. Take that, Greenpeace. Arsenci-free, BFR-free, Mercury-free,
PVC-free, highly recyclable, 34% smaller packaging, 1000-recharge
battery. EPEAT Gold certification.

10:22 PT - DM: One configuration, but you can
build-to-order. Still at $2,799. 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, both
graphics chips, 320GB hard drive, and a SuperDrive. Starts shipping in
late January.

10:21 PT - DM: They claim discrete graphics get you
7 hours of battery life; integrated gets you up to 8 hours. Three hours
longer than previous 17″ MacBook Pro; 60% increase. Will be interesting
to see how the real-life tests bear that out. MBP is PVC- and BFR-free
and takeback and recycling programs.

10:19 PT - DM: 17″ MacBook Pro is free of many
toxins. Highly recyclable aluminum and glass. The battery lifespan is
supposedly extended to 5 years, meaning fewer batteries in landfills.
There’s a shot of the bottom of the 17″, with no access panel (does
that mean no RAM/HD upgrades either?).

10:18 PT - DM: Adaptive charging reduces
wear-and-tear as you recharge. Up to 1000 recharges; 3x industry
standards. There’s a chip in the battery that talks to each the cells
and reports on state to system; system adjusts current accordingly.

10:19 PT - JS: Prediction: The
MacBook Pro battery video will be the new processor pathway video of
that Macworld Expo New York keynote earlier this decade. Legendarily
random and long and self-congratulatory. But it’s green, I’ll give ‘em
that.

10:17 PT - DM: Doesn’t use the same cylindrical AA
cells that most batteries do. Instead they use custom-shaped cells.
Lifespan of cells is 3x industry standard. It’s hypnotic, watching them
make batteries.

10:17 PT - JS: This is amazing. It’s
really an entire video that’s been built to explain why Apple’s not
allowing the battery to be removable in the 17-inch MacBook Pro. I know
this is a controversial topic, though I do agree that most users will
never buy a second battery. However, Apple’s been pretty skimpy on
licensing the MagSafe power connector to allow people to build external
backup batteries. It would be nice if Apple would loosen the
restrictions on MagSafe while it’s preventing people from swapping
batteries.

10:15 PT - DM: Innovative new battery: longest
lasting battery life ever, but keeping notebook just as thin and late.
Phil’s going to run a video about *batteries*. Bigger battery means
more capacity, but the problem is where do you get the space? Turns out
it takes a lot of space to make a removable battery. Duh duh DUH!

10:13 PT - DM: Ports: FireWire 800. 3 USB ports,
ExpressCard 34 slot. Battery life indicator, Ethernet, mini
DisplayPort. About what you’d expect. New glass trackpad as on the
previous unibody MacBooks. 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB of memory at 1066 MHz
DDR3 ram. Built-in both the GeForce 9400M and the GeForce 9600MT. 320GB
hard drive standard. Up to 256GB SSD drive option. Plus the usual
backlit keyboard, iSight, magnetic latch, etc. Works with the new
DisplayPort Cinema Display.

10:11 PT - DM: For the last 8 months running, if
you look at the list of laptops sold in US, MacBook has been #1 on the
list. So here’s the 17″: 0.98 inches thin. World’s thinnest 17-inch
notebook. It’s 6.6 pounds, which also makes it the lightest 17-inch
notebook. 1920×1200 LED backlit. 140-degree height/120-degree width
viewing angle. 700:1 contrast ratio; 60% greater color gamut than
previous notebook display. It’s got a glossy display, so they’ve also
got a $50 anti-glare option. Same display properties as last 17″.

10:10 PT - DM: And on to thing #3. It’s the new 17″
MacBook Pro. It’s finally getting the unibody upgrade. Let’s take bets:
will it have FireWire? 400? 800?

10:09 PT - DM: Surprise! You can also share Keynote
presentations and, presumably, Numbers spreadsheets. This is the
beginning of a new service, says Phil. You can sign up free for the
beta, but there will be a fee later. There’s a place where people can
send in comments (and Apple can presumably ignore them). You can use it
to access your documents from anywhere in the world. It’s available as
the beta today.

10:05 PT - DM: Here’s what it looks like on the
other computer. There’s an email that asks you to view the document;
click it and it opens in any popular browser. You can flip through and
leave comments. There’s a download button that lets you choose to
download it as a Pages document, PDF, or Microsoft Word file.

10:04 PT - DM: A Pages document about the Mars
Phoenix Lander. “In my spare time I’m a rocket scientist,” says Phil.
There’s an iWork.com button on the toolbar; it prompts Phil to send an
invitation, linked in to your address book. Pages creates the different
formatted versions of the doc and sends it to iWork.com.

10:03 PT - DM: One more thing with iWork: it’s
iWork.com (I think *one* person just clapped). iWork.com is a new
service to share documents with other people online, including
collaboration. You can invite people who can then go view your
documents online, add comments and notes, and then download a copy in
multiple formats. Don’t have to copy-and-paste your documents in email.
Phil’s going to give us a demo.

10:02 PT - DM: But if you want to get both and
haven’t upgraded to Leopard. Now there’s a “Mac Box Set” where you can
get Leopard, iWork ‘09, and iLife ‘09 for $169 (that’s a pretty darn
good deal). It’ll shape in late January with iLife ‘09.

10:01 PT - DM: You can link charts into Pages as
well; change it in Numbers and it reflects the view in your Pages doc.
Lots of new templates in Numbers too. And that’s Numbers ‘09. And
that’s iWork ‘09. I can barely contain my excitement. $79 for iWork and
$99 for the Family Pack. Or $49 with a new Mac. iWork ‘09 is shipping
today.

10:01 PT - JS: My turn to woo-hoo.
Linked charts! So now you can make a great chart in Numbers and embed
it into a Keynote presenatation, with updates when the data changes.

10:00 PT - DM: New chart options. Mixed chart
types; multi-axis charts; charts with trendline; error bars. Really
important to people doing financial or scientific charts (yes, I
imagine you need error bars in the financial industry these days;
*zing!*).

9:58 PT - DM: And the third product is, of course,
Numbers ‘09. Finally, a fun, easy-to-use spreadsheets (uh huh). So
they’ve added table categories. A new “categorize by this column”
choice and it automatically creates a table based on that category.
Most advanced feature requested was more powerful formulas. Over 250
functions; new function view, type in and search for the function you
want. Passing your mouse over a variable in a function gives you a
tool-tip and it’s all color coded.

9:57 PT - DM: Support for MathType & EndNote:
formulas that scientists and engineers want to use. EndNote is for
scientists, engineers, people publishing papers. EndNote support is
pretty huge in academia; nice to see integration in Pages, since it’s a
big Microsoft Word feature. New templates as well: certificates,
envelopes and letters, etc. And that’s Pages ‘09.

9:55 PT - DM: Pages ‘09. First up: full screen
view. “It was a dark and stormy night” says the page. But you want to
stop and focus on your writing (oh, boy, that’s for me!). It excludes
everything else so you can just see your work, like WriteRoom or many
other Mac writing apps. Move your mouse up and you still have access to
the menus. Dynamic outlines: type your outline, different levels,
different font sizes; reorganize your thoughts; and your page view
reflects any changes.

9:55 PT - JS: It’s rare to get woos and cheers for a presentation program. But the animation effects are very cute. And more importantly, the Keynote Remote app will be a boon to presenters. Although, 99 cents, Apple? Do you really need that cash? Why not free? Or if it’s really valuable, why not $10?

9:51 PT - DM: Object transitions: simple animated transitions. Text transitions: swing transition. Energy shimmers into Efficient. (”That’s for you Al,” Phil says to Al Gore, who’s sitting right in front.) Anagram: “twice as fast” to “half the price.” There are plenty of transitions between charts and graphs as well. Woooo…? New themes as well: Kyoto, Showroom, Brushed Canvas, Venetian. One more feature: new Keynote Remote. It’s an iPhone/iPod touch application that lets you control your keynote presentation. In vertical mode it shows you slide plus speaker notes; horizontally shows you current slide and next slide; flicking through your presentation advances in your slides. It’s a $0.99 application—”you can see we’ve already given it five star reviews.”

9:51 PT - JS: Yeah, in a more
professional tool you’d call Magic Move “tweening” — you set a start
and an endpoint and the program figures out the in-between. Also, this
appears to be an example of Apple’s Core Animation framework in action.

9:50 PT - DM: Magic Move: you set up your slides
and Keynote does all the options for moving objects between your
slides. Looks a bit like the way Flash does animation.

9:49 PT - DM: Moving right along. A completely new
version of iWork ‘09. Very, very sparse applause. Keynote ‘09: Phil’s
using it for this presentation (taking a page from Steve’s playbook).
Here’s what’s new.

9:49 PT - JS: That’s a lot of stuff
in iLife ‘09, and of course you know there’s a lot more that we didn’t
even see. Sorry, iWeb, you’re in the penalty box with iDVD now.

9:48 PT - DM: There are also new versions of iWeb
and iDVD ‘09 as well…but we’re not going to talk about those today.
$79 for upgrade; $99 for Family Pack. It ships at at the end of the
month. That’s the first thing Phil wanted to talk about.

9:46 PT - DM: Here’s another clip of one of the
lessons, John Fogerty talking about being fascinated with Beethoven’s
5th symphony opening. Pretty cool: but I bet they can’t teach you how
to play Guitar Hero.

9:44 PT - DM: They’ve also got Artist Lessons:
musicians teach you to play their songs. Here’s a few: John Fogerty;
Colbie Caillat; Patrick Stump; Sting. Piano: Sarah McLachlan; Ryan
Tedder; Norah Jones. They’re going to add more and more. I think this
really illustrates how much Apple really loves music. Can’t wait for
the iMovie feature where Martin Scorsese tells you how to direct a
world-class drama.

9:44 PT - JS: Important point: Instructor Tim is the teacher in both videos. I wonder how many instruments he knows how to play?

9:41 PT - DM: Just one more app Phil wants to spend
some time on: GarageBand ‘09. And here’s the one feature Phil loves:
“Learn to Play.” Built in HD videos of instructor, and it shows you the
instrument in front of you. The instructor talks just like Bob from the
iPhone videos. It includes 9 basic lessons for guitar and piano for
free. Download them when you need to use them.

9:39 PT - DM: On to Themes. There are five themes,
he’s going to show us Photo Album. Adds titles and transitions, mixing
with cross dissolves and it puts in a credit “Directed by Phil
Schiller.” Ooh, meerkats. Looks almost professional (assuming you have
a really, really nice camera and some skills).

9:38 PT - DM: Animated Travel Maps. Alright, I
admit: I’ve always wanted to be Indiana Jones. Drag a map in, type a
couple letters and it helps you find the location. You can drag a new
map in and it just replaces it, remembering the location. Works with
multiple cities, just in case you’re running around the world looking
for the Ark of the Covenant.

9:37 PT - DM: Now he’s going to show us clip
adjustments, like the speed. So you can slow down that really quick
moment, like this shot of a leopard jumping down the tree. There’s
video effects; instant previewing, no rendering. Ooh, aged film. For
your home silent film movie projects.

9:36 PT - JS: That is one of the most
impressive demo tricks I have ever seen. (I imagine he’s using a Mac
Pro with a zillion cores to demo the image-stabilization feature, but
it’s still very cool.)

9:35 PT - DM: There’s a new Project Library that
shows you all your film clips. Showing us a clip taken in a jeep in
Africa. But iMovie does stabliziation; it figures out the motion by
comparing frames to subsequent and previous frames. Okay, that’s pretty
darn impressive.

9:33 PT - DM: The new “action” pop-up shows the
precision editor. It shows all the different material that could be
used for the edit; just a click lets you move the edit seamlessly. You
can easily join two clips together and set the point at which you want
to cut between them. If the audio isn’t as smooth as the video, you can
edit the audio separately from the video, extending audio from the
first clip over audio from the second clip to cover the sound
differences. That’s nice.

9:33 PT - JS: The pop-up item that
lets you select what you want to do with a clip — insert it, just
insert the audio, etc., is going to add a huge amount of power to
iMovie. Really nice. Can’t wait to get my hands on it. And I like iMovie ‘08. iMovie skeptics, feel free to remain skeptical. We’ll report more when we get our hands on it.

9:32 PT - DM: He’s skimming along to take dialog
from one segment, then dropping it in the project; he gets the audio
only part and it layers that in under the other videos. That kid’s
acting is worse than Jake Lloyd in The Phantom Menace, though.

9:31 PT - JS: Randy was the guy who
came up with the original software that became iMovie ‘08. Don’t blame
him, friends — iMovie ‘08 is great for what it is. The fact that it
replaced the old iMovie, that wasn’t Randy’s doing. He’s a really smart
guy, and it will be interesting to see just how much Apple has done in
iMovie ‘09 to address the issues with iMovie ‘08 and make it a more
suitable tool for people who need to do more advanced work.

9:30 PT - DM: Automatic video stabilization to help
take away the caffeine jitters. So let’s take a look at the demo. And
they’ve asked the engineer who recreated the movie to come up: Randy
Ubillos, Chief Architect of Video Applications.

9:30 PT - JS: In terms of serious
interface features mentioned during the keynote, the “precision editor”
wins the prize. Dynamic themes and animated travel maps are fun but
maybe window dressing. And automatic video stabilization! Nice one.

9:29 PT - DM: A new precision editor, expanded
timeline view for advanced users. Advanced drag & drop: it gives
you the option to replace, insert, use audio only. New dynamic themes
with titles, transitions, even credits. Animated travel maps: now you
too can be Indiana Jones!

9:29 PT - JS: iMovie ‘09: The Apology! In a nice way Phil admits that a lot of people were frustrated by the limitations of the last version.

9:28 PT - DM: That’s just the first product. Now
we’re moving onto iMovie. Somewhat hesitant applause from the people
who kind of preferred iMovie ‘06, I think. Not every feature made it in
when they rewrote iMovie back in ‘08. They’ve added “depth and power.”

9:27 PT - JS: Man, Apple is going to sell a lot of GPS-capable camera equipment.

9:27 PT - DM: There’s a second view in Places,
column view. Lists all the places you’ve taken photos: countries,
cities, states, locations—looks a lot like the “browse” view in iTunes.
That’s Faces and Places in iPhoto ‘09.

9:25 PT - DM: Wow. In one event taken with a
geotagging-capable camera, it zooms into the city level and shows you
the locations within the city where each photo was taken. You can hover
over any of them and it shows you which photos were taken where. Phil
clicks on the Eiffel Tower and it shows just the pictures taken on the
tower.

9:24 PT - DM: On to places. We’re going to look at
the map and zoom in on some pictures taken in Aspen: it shows you all
the photos taken at that location even over multiple events. If you’re
adding a location to events, it auto-suggests locations from its
databases.

9:23 PT - DM: iPhoto can also make a Smart Album
that shows you all the picture of a particular group of people, like
your family: drag multiple faces into the sidebar and it creates a
smart album with pictures that contain at least one of those people.

9:22 PT - DM: So the face detection pulls up all
the other photos in your library that it thinks might be the person
you’ve identified. If you drag over, you can confirm multiple photos.
And as you identify more photos, iPhoto can do a better job of
identifying the faces from your library (kind of like the way your spam
filter improves).

9:21 PT - JS: So when you are looking
at an image in iPhoto, there’s an Add Name button you can click. Then
it draws a box around the face (face detection in action) with a box
below it that says “unknown face.” You can click and add a name. Then
it tries to find that face in other photos. In another photo, it might
ask, “Is this [name]?” and you can say yes or no, teaching it what the
faces are.

9:20 PT - DM: He’s showing us Faces. But where’s
Steve? No pictures of Steve? I kind of wonder how this Faces feature
will work with pictures as bad as the ones that I take. Or where the
faces aren’t front-and-center. It’s a cool idea, though.

9:19 PT - DM: They’ve added more themes to printing
and books. There’s a “Travel Books” theme now which actually
incorporates maps into your books, using the geotagging. Available in
soft- and hardcover. And it’s demo time!

9:18 PT - JS: Intelligently dealing
with photos in order to keep faces from getting misplaced in a
slideshow is great, since that happens all the time when you generate
random slideshows.

9:17 PT - DM: There’s a new panel for slideshows.
Just click an Event, and it gives you built-in themes as options. He’s
playing a slideshow with Vince Guaraladi’s “Linus & Lucy” in the
background. They actually use the face detection to properly place the
photos in your slideshow, so the faces are centered. The “shattered”
theme is pretty cool looking. It’s hard to describe, but it kind of
pulls the photo apart and then reassembles the next one. You can save
iPhoto slideshows directly to iTunes so it syncs to your iPhone and you
have the same slideshow there. Nifty.

9:15 PT - DM: Those would be enough, says Phil, but
they’ve also added support for Facebook & Flickr. If you have
Facebook set up, click the Facebook button and it sends the photo to
Facebook. And if someone assigns a name to a person in your photo, the
name gets synced back down to Facebook. And you can upload to Flickr
with your geotags, etc.

9:14 PT - JS: iPhoto has a database
of place names, too, so you don’t just have to navigate to the map. You
can, for instance, type “Yosemite”, and it’ll zoom in

9:13 PT - DM: What about the photos you took where
you didn’t have a geotag? You can assign a location to existing events
by just typing in where you went (integration with Google Maps). You
can double click to zoom in, go to street level, and click on any pin
to go to the photos you took there, even if they were taken at
different times. They’ve got satellite imagery as well.

9:11 PT - DM: They’re adding a third way to help
you find your favorite photos, called “Places.” Wouldn’t it be great if
you could organize by place? Click on Places in the Library and you get
a map with pins for where your photos are. It uses GPS Geotagging,
integrated in many new cameras and in “the most advanced cell phone on
the market.” (It’s the iPhone - maybe you’ve heard of it?) Phil
explains that your geotag stores your longitude and latitude.

9:11 PT - JS: I’m gonna guess that it doesn’t work with pets, but we’ll get back to you on that one.

9:09 PT - DM: Turns out it uses face detection. It
highlights the face and asks you to give them a name. Click on it, type
in a name; it adds a snapshot. Then it uses face recognition to find
the same person across multiple photos. (Senior Editor Jon Seff wonders
if it works with pets—good question!) You can click to confirm it’s a
picture of the person, or double-click to say it’s not them. Phil says
it’s not perfect, but it’s the best technology they’ve found.

9:08 PT - DM: Brand new iPhoto ‘09. Last year they
introduced “Events”, which took thousands of photos and turned them
into a few hundred events. This year they’re adding “Faces.” Wouldn’t
it be great if you could organize your photos around the people you
know? There’s a new item, Faces, in the Library pane. When you click on
it, you get a corkboard of snapshots of your favorite people. How does
it work?

9:08 PT - JS: Is it me, or are the
references to Microsoft seeming old fashioned these days? Is Microsoft
even a worthy competitor anymore? Especially when it comes to what
Apple’s doing with iLife? I think the time has come for Apple to just
ignore what Microsoft is or isn’t doing.

9:07 PT - DM: An entire new version of iLife. It’s
iLife ‘09. Check that one off the list. iLife is “one of the reasons
people buy a Mac today.” Phil says there’s nothing like it on any other
platform, despite what the people “up north” think.

9:06 PT - DM: 2008 was the biggest year in the
history of company in Mac sales, sold 9.7 million Macs. They grew over
twice as fast as the rest of the industry. A picture of the very, very
shiny Mac product line. It’s all aluminum, baby. “If you want to hear a
few new things today—and I assume some people do.” Phil’s got three new
things for us today.

9:05 PT - DM: 3.4 million customers visiting an
Apple Store around the world every week. That’s 100 Macworlds each and
every week (ouch). The Mac is still an important part of business. “And
so today is all about the Mac. I think that’s appropriate, at Macworld,
to talk about the Mac.”

9:04 PT - JS: A very nice aknowledgement of the issues around this keynote without actually bring up the details. Deftly handled.

9:04 PT - DM: “I can’t tell you how much I
appreciate you all showing up.” That got a laugh from the audience.
Phil’s gonna start off with a little overview. First thing we’re going
to talk about is how great the Apple Stores are, talking about the
Beijing store they opened last year. Munich. Sydney, Australia. He’s
pointing out the crowds of people. “What other company’s logo could you
ever imagine in that photo?”

9:03 PT - DM: And there go the lights. We’re
dimming and the show is ready to being. Here comes P{hil up on the
stage. For those wondering about wardrobe, he’s wearing a blue collared
shirt and jeans. And looking well coiffed as always. He gets a nice
round of applause as he comes on stage.

9:02 PT - DM: Which should be any moment now, as the hour has just ticked past 9AM.

9:01 PT - JS: It’s “Life in
Technicolor II” by Coldplay, from the recent EP Prospekt’s March. Wow,
I know as much about Coldplay as Dan Frakes knows about Jack Johnson.
(That’s a callback to a previous Apple event — we promise to stop
being quite as self-indulgent once we get started with actual keynote
material.)

9:00 PT - DM: That’s because it’s Phil’s iPod, Jason. That’s the way the Schiller rolls.

8:59 PT - JS: Coldplay follows the
announcement to silence our cellphones and paging devices. Does it say
something about me that I can recognize The Killers and Coldplay? I
will say this: the music we’re hearing does not sound like it was
played directly from Steve Jobs’s iPod. By which I mean, no sign of Bob
Dylan.

8:59 PT - DM: You’ve brought a tear to my eye,
Jason. We’re getting underway. They’ve asked us to silence our
cellphones and paging devices as a courtesy. They didn’t say “iPhones”
this time, though.

8:57 PT - JS: Not to throw out a
sports analogy, but really, we cover these live events as if they were
sporting events. Dan will be providing the play-by-play, I’ll be your
color commentator, and Macworld’s own Dan Frakes, perched between us,
is our “spotter.” He’s the guy we’ll go to if we miss a particular
dollar figure or specification for a new product. So thanks in advance
to Dan and the rest of the team surrounding us this morning. We hope we
can help make this final Apple keynote at Macworld Expo a good one.

8:55 PT - DM: I can’t hear precisely what they’re
talking about, but I imagine it’s in reference to the lovely San
Francisco weather we’re having. I mean, what else is there to talk
about, really?

8:54 PT - JS: This is the portion of
the show where Dan and I tend to talk about the music that Apple’s
playing as the hall fills up. And indeed, we just had The Killers,
though I can’t quite place who’s singing the current selection. The
press and Macworld Expo speakers have been seated and the rest of the
hall is filling up right now. There’s a definite rumble of people
talking behind us.

8:53 PT - DM: Hello live update followers. As Jason
said, we’re ready to type furiously from the second row here at the
keynote. So close that we can see the fabulous lines of Phil Schiller’s
impeccable hairdo. These are the details that you want—nay, need to know.

8:51 PT - JS: Hi everyone. Jason
Snell here from the Apple Keynote at Macworld Expo. Dan Moren is with
me as well, and we’ll be reporting to you live as Phil Schiller takes
the stage to present new Apple announcements (we hope!) in a few
minutes.

Live Update: Macworld Expo Keynote by Jason Snell and Dan Moren from Macworld.

For the first time in a decade, I’m getting to spend the holiday season
with my family, rather than intensely preparing for a Macworld keynote.

Unfortunately, my decision to have Phil deliver the Macworld keynote
set off another flurry of rumors about my health, with some even
publishing stories of me on my deathbed.

I’ve decided to share something very personal with the Apple community so that we can all relax and enjoy the show tomorrow.

As many of you know, I have been losing weight throughout 2008. The
reason has been a mystery to me and my doctors. A few weeks ago, I
decided that getting to the root cause of this and reversing it needed
to become my #1 priority.

Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found
the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the
proteins my body needs to be healthy. Sophisticated blood tests have
confirmed this diagnosis.

The remedy for this nutritional problem is relatively simple and
straightforward, and I’ve already begun treatment. But, just like I
didn’t lose this much weight and body mass in a week or a month, my
doctors expect it will take me until late this Spring to regain it. I
will continue as Apple’s CEO during my recovery.

I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I
will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I
can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the
Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will
always put what is best for Apple first.

So now I’ve said more than I wanted to say, and all that I am going to say, about this.

Steve

According to a previously reliable source, Apple misrepresented the reasons behind Macworld and Jobs’ keynote cancellation. Allegedly, the real cause is his rapidly declining health. In fact, it may be even worse than we imagined:

Steves health is rapidly declining. Apple is choosing to remove the hype factor strategically vs letting the hype destroy apple when the inevitable news comes later this spring.

This strategic loss will be less of a bang with investors. This is why Macworld is a no-go anymore. No more Steve means no more hype. Saying they are no longer needing [Macworld] is the cover designed by the worldwide “loyalty” department.

This source has repeatedly been 100% correct before. Those times, however, were always related to news and images of unreleased Apple products. I can only hope that, in this more personal matter, it is absolutely wrong. And that if he is not, that sentence just means that Steve Jobs is retiring according to his plan.

While Steve Jobs’ health is nobody’s business—not the press, not investors, not the public—we believe that there’s a line between saying “no-comment” and plainly misleading—once again—the public.

Steve Jobs have been giving Macworld Expo keynotes since he came back as interim CEO of the company in 1997. Since then he has never failed once, always introducing notable products both at Macworld San Francisco and Macworld New York. During his latest Macworld keynote, in 2008, he introduced the MacBook Air. Later this year, he used his WWDC presentation to announce the new iPhone 3G. In his last two show-n-tells, for the new iPods and the new MacBooks, he used less time on stage, giving more limelight to key members of Apple’s executive team.

According to our Deep Throat’s report, the fact seems to be that, whether or not Apple had other reasons to pull out of Macworld, they weren’t the only ones, and they certainly weren’t the same ones used for not putting Steve Jobs through the ordeal of a two-hour presentation.

From Gizmodo

Technorati Tags: apple, iphone, rumor

ASUS, a provider of digital home solutions, has launched the new ASUS AIR3, which integrates an iPod speaker with Internet radio. According to the company, the HDSS (High Definition Sound Standard) certified speakers and the ETL (Embedded Transmission Line) module within the chambers provide natural, real and clear sound quality.

“The AIR3 is equipped with HDSS® certified speakers with embedded ETL™ modules. The ETL™ module is a physical structure inside the chambers that reorganizes sound energy to reduce the disruptive vibration that would otherwise make listeners feel fatigued and uncomfortable. With ETL™, the AIR3 is able to deliver audio relaxation to users with pristine clarity.Besides adopting the ETL™ module in the chamber design, the AIR3 also utilizes a TI (Texas Instruments) class-D audio power amplifier TPA3120D2 to deliver perfect sounds, delivering cinematic audio reproduction for a home entertainment experience that is truly relaxing.” 

Salient Features:

• The AIR3 is compatible with all iPods (except iPod shuffle) through its HDSS® speakers, and charges the iPod concurrently while playing audio files. Also, the video and image files in the connected iPod can be displayed on TVs and LCD monitors connected (via S-Video and composite video) to the AIR3.
• Internet radio provides users with music and news from around the world. Connecting to the Internet via a wired or wireless network, users can tune in to more than 10,000 radio stations worldwide.
• By placing the AIR3 and PCs on the same network; and utilizing an UPnP-enabled application such as Windows® Media Player 11, audio files can be accessed and streamed via the AIR3.
• Multimedia players can be connected to the AIR3 via an Aux-In jack located at the back of the AIR3 and the bundled cable.
• The AIR3 provides weather forecasts for major cities around the world via the Internet.