What is TUAW take on Macworld Philnote?

Today's Macworld Expo keynote presentation with Apple exec Phil Schiller was, as many expected, a snooze.

It occurred in the absence of his boss, Steve Jobs, who has historically done the honors and tends to keep major announcements for himself (and who is a much better showman).

Evolutionary-not-revolutionary news during this, the last-ever Apple keynote at Macworld, included:

• An iTunes music store entirely free of copy protection, along with tiered iTunes music pricing
• An upgraded 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop, as expected
• Updates to the iLife and iWork software suites, also as expected
• A new Web-based offshoot of iWork in a riff on the Google Docs and Microsoft Live office Web-based productivity suites

So what did the Apple experts at TUAW think about all this? I didn't ask Christina Warren and Michael Rose to rehash every detail, but just give me impressions.

iTunes changes. These seem to be generating the biggest buzz in the media (they may hit the Pioneer Press front page tomorrow).

In a nutshell, Apple is now able to sell all music without copy protection (or DRM, short for digital rights management), something it has wanted and will now do. It's also introducing tiered pricing, with songs between 69 cents to $1.29, which is a flexibility the music industry has demanded but long been denied.

A good deal? Christina colors herself unimpressed. Doing away with the DRM is fine, she says, but she worries that variable pricing might work out to consumers' disadvantage by making the music they want the most cost them more.
 
New iMovie. Many who are unhappy with iMovie '08, a revamping of the popular iLife movie-editing app, will like the look and feel of the new iMovie, Christina predicts. She is keen on a new image-stabilization feature that cleans up shaky video (such as that shot with inexpensive handheld HD vidcams).

New iPhoto. Google stole a bit of Apple's thunder with a new, Mac-based version of its Picasa photo app, Christina notes. But Apple one-upped Picasa during the keynote with iPhoto face-recognition features and geotagging capability along with other enticing features like Flickr and Facebook integration. Google who?

The emphasis with this iLife app is on fun, Michael says.

New GarageBand. The iLife music-authoring program now has piano and guitar lessons, which Michael predicts will "sell a lot of computers" to students and the like since iLife is bundles with new Macs.

New Keynote. The iWork presentation app, which Michael sees as "the marquee player" in the suite, now lets users run slide shows with an iPhone or iPod touch as a remote (or clicker or "pickle," in presentation parlance). That, too, will sell Macs -- to business users, in this case -- Michael says.

iWork online. Christina and Mike are a underwhelmed by the new iWork.com, which strikes them more as a lightweight offshoot of the iWork software (not unlike Live Office) than a robust Web-based office suite like Google Docs.

New MacBook Pro. Some will gripe about the nonremovable battery in the 17-incher, Christina predicts. But this is hardly unreasonable given the battery's eight-hour charge and impressive lifespan, she argues. Besides, she says, this MacBook Pro is really a "desktop replacement" that gets plugged into a wall outlet more often than smaller, lighter, more-mobile laptops.

A 17-incher is aimed at a very specialized audience, Michael says, and he thinks Apple did a good job of selling the built-in battery to that audience.

What was missing? TUAW sources predicted a new Mac mini, the compact desktop-Mac model, and Michael is certain that is coming soon.

The bottom line? Michael was struck by a lack of energetic enthusiasm among keynote attendees. This was to be expected with a presentation that was light on hardware announcements, he thinks. Only Tony Bennett, appearing to sing at the end of the keynote, got a standing ovation, he notes.

The elephant in the room was Steve Jobs' absence because of health issues, Michael says. But attendees were too busy being underwhelmed by keynote content to be maudlin about the context, he notes.