The punditry were divided on whether Jobs would even show for today’s press event. Those opining he wouldn’t show claimed it was a nothing announcement — just a product refresh; no iTablet, why bother? He was done being the public face of Apple and was turning the keynotes over to Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing. He was still too weak to manage an event.

Jobs proved them wrong and surprised everyone by not only making an appearance at the “It’s Only Rock and Roll” event, he resumed his role as Master of Ceremonies.

Looking thin and a tad gaunt in his first appearance after a six-month medial leave, Jobs said to a standing ovation, “I now have the liver of a mid-20s person who died in a car crash and was generous enough to donate their organs, and I wouldn’t be here without such generosity.” Seeing how thin he is now — and assuming he’s put on some weight since his transplant — I hate to think about how thin he got.

While much has been said and joked about Jobs being the Leader of the Faithful, it was important for me to see him on stage again. It was important for me to see him take the reins and show he’s back at what, for all intents and purposes, was a meaningless event.

While Jobs makes products I enjoy using — and am able to pocket some coin writing about — I’m just happy to see him alive and well. It was nice to see him acknowledge the adoration of the Faithful and admit that he is human, and that had he not received the transplant, he would be dead. That’s a far cry from a “hormone imbalance.”

So, welcome back, Steve. We’ve missed you. It’s good to see you again.

Details regarding the fast-approaching Apple iPod event in September are beginning to firm up, as is the norm when we draw closer to the anticipated date of these kinds of Cupertino media circuses. By firm up, of course, I mean that various online sources appear to agree, but that’s often as close as we get to confirmation before Apple opts to spill the beans.

The date of the event is set for Sept. 9, according to AllThingsD, and the rest of the blogosphere seems to have accepted this as solid fact, despite the deviation from the usual pattern Apple has of holding press events on a Tuesday. Sept. 9 is a Wednesday, but 9to5Mac points out that it also happens to be the day Beatles Rock Band ships. They don’t see that as a coincidence, and instead suggest that the Beatles catalog could finally come to iTunes at the event.

More definite rumors include the much-publicized iTunes 9 update, which is expected to be bringing a lot of new features to the Mac media workhorse. One of those improvements is the “Cocktail” music format, which could be poised to be the album of the digital age, and includes lyrics, photos, and video in addition to music.

On top of iTunes 9, expect to see new iPod models introduced. The iPod touch is well overdue for a refresh, and with cases, pictures and videos popping up all over the place purporting to show a new, camera-toting model, it’s unlikely this event will pass without an unveiling of at least that device and a new iPod nano with similar features.

Less than likely is the possibility that Apple will unveil its tablet device at the event. Its existence at this point is not often debated among the blogging community, but release timelines continue to be fuzzy, and seem more likely to extend into 2010.

Update: Charny has updated his article now saying it is “not clear” if Jobs will attend. In addition Ryan Block, who was apparently there with Shaprio when he was talking about this, completely refutes the idea that Jobs was ever even asked to deliver the keynote.

He’s probably the best keynote presenter in the history of history. Probably. And now Steve Jobs has been asked to present the opening keynote at next year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Nevada.

A report yesterday from the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Charny reveals that Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) chief executive Gary Shapiro asked Jobs to deliver the keynote at next year’s show. The CES is the world’s biggest consumer electronics trade show. Apple is a confirmed attendee for 2010, marking the first time it has attended the event since the trade show began thirty-odd years ago.

Shapiro was at dinner with journalists who asked him if he had invited Steve Jobs to keynote the show. Charny writes:

Yes, Jobs has been asked, but nobody from Apple has gotten back to him, Shapiro said. This isn’t the first time he’s contacted Jobs and not gotten a response, he said.

When reminded that Jobs rarely grants interviews or responds to requests of this kind, Shapiro said:

“I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one in that position.”

Confirmed keynoters at next year’s show include Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini and Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer.

Apple pulled out of the MacWorld Expo trade shows so that it did not feel obliged to make announcements at the event that were not in-step with the company’s product roadmaps. If Apple has anything to brag about early in the new year (a MacTablet, anyone?) CES provides an enticing opportunity.

This year’s CES attendance was down a depressing 20 percent — blamed, naturally, on the global recession. If Jobs accepts the invitation, perhaps next year’s attendance figure will see a significant improvement. And I don’t know about you, but I’d much rather see Steve Jobs deliver the opening Keynote than Steve “I love this company!” Ballmer.

As a follow-up to my article on the hidden gems of Apple’s design, and inspired by the comments that you, the readers, left, I wanted to take a closer look at some of the icons of OS X. In a follow-up article I will check out some of the hidden messages and “easter eggs” that Apple has hidden in its icons, but first, I felt it was important to revisit the history of some of these icons that we see on a daily basis.

Icon Garden

Any discussion of Apple’s icon design should begin with a discussion of some of Apple’s most infamous 8-bit icons from its original GUI. Apple used to feature large versions of these in its icon garden at 1 Infinite Loop, however at some point around 1998, Apple removed the icons. Featured amongst the garden were classic icons, such as the eraser, hand, stopwatch, and even Clarus the Dogcow. (Moof!)

Check out how the paint bucket is "filling" the grass with green and the paint brush and pencil have just finished "creating" the flowers.

Whoa! The eraser is erasing the flowers!

Similar Colors

Depending on how cluttered your Dock is, you may or may not have noticed that the most prominent colors chosen by Apple for its icons is from the blue family. This trend was originally favored in Apple’s hardware (the original Bondi blue iMac, for instance). Associated with the sky or the ocean (a la OS X’s original UI codename Aqua), the blue also evokes a sense of stability, trust and calmness. (It really does make the infamous Blue Screen of Death a lot less harsh than if it were red.) It wasn’t until the release of Leopard that Apple shipped with a default desktop background that wasn’t blue.

Evolution of Icons

Some icons in OS X have evolved over time. Occasionally there may be some rhyme and reason to changing icons, such as the inclusion of the video camera for when iChat AV was originally launched, or the major redesign of iMovie between iMovie HD and iMovie ’08.

Other times, icons are seemingly changed sporadically, like the evolution of the iTunes icons. Originally every new version came with a new icon, but even that trend has wavered.

Other applications have also seen different icons with new versions, such as Backup, iDVD, iPhoto and Keynote. Though the Keynote icon has not seen a drastic change since Keynote ’08, the version that ships with iWork ’09 updates the date of the fourth-quarter report on the icon to Q4 2009.

Alternative Uses

Some icons depict their contents, such as the icon for a photo or a typeface. Other icons present users with dynamically updating information, such as the iCal icon which changes to reflect the current date. Other icons “change” by badges that indicate various information (unread emails, download speeds, etc.).

Another example are icons for exported vCards. If you have set them up in Address Book, they will export with their photo in the icon.

With the introduction of Snow Leopard this fall, users will once again begin to find new uses for icons, as the operating system allows users to preview media directly on the icon itself.

Bonus iPhone Icon

If you haven’t had a chance yet to take your iPhone or iPod touch into Starbucks, when you do, you’ll notice a new icon in your iTunes Store app. Specifically the Starbucks icon, and it is the only navbar icon on the device that exists in full color and not the usual masked blue color as typically seen.

Have you noticed any other unique or interesting icon changes or features?

Having used Microsoft Office for many years, despite my utter disdain for it, nobody was happier than me when Apple launched the iWork applications. For my light office application needs, Pages, Keynote and Numbers are just perfect. Here are a few tips I use to make my time in the iWork apps a little easier.

Multiple Inspector Palettes

If you use any of the iWork ‘09 apps on a daily basis, you’ve no doubt been frustrated by the fact that you’re forever clicking different Inspector tabs to get to various features. Wouldn’t it be handy if you could have more than one Inspector palette open at a time, with different tabs displayed? Thankfully, Apple offers a way to do just that in all the iWork applications.

Multiple Inspector palettes in iWork apps

Hold down the Option key while clicking any of the tab icons at the top of the Inspector palette to have a new palette open with that group of settings showing. This works in Pages, Keynote and Numbers.

Saving Palette Locations

Open and arrange multiple iWork Inspector palettes in all three iWork apps and they’ll be “saved” for the next time you launch an app, opening in the same location as you last left them. As obvious as it may seem, many users never even notice this feature.

Using Document File Info

The Document tab of the Document Inspector palette in Pages contains some great features. Here you can view raw stats of your document, such as word and character count, enter author, title, and keyword info, and file comments.

At the bottom of the palette, just below where Pages indicates how many times the document has been printed, you’ll find a Show File Info button. Clicking this button opens the File Info box of your document in the Finder. From there, you can adjust permissions, hide the file extension, view more data about your file, and enter Spotlight comments for easy searching.

Saving Spotlight comments in Pages '09

The one thing that I’m left wondering is why Apple didn’t have Pages automatically place the Comments from within the Document Info palette into the Spotlight Comments area in the Get Info box, instead of forcing you to copy/paste.

Keynote and Numbers offer the same feature in their Document Inspector palette.

Protecting your files

Password Protecting Files

In iWork ’09, Apple added the ability to password protect your documents. Microsoft Office apps have had this feature for quite a long time, so it’s nice to finally see it in iWork’s applications.

In the same Document tab of the Document Inspector at the bottom, you’ll find a checkbox, which when clicked will pop open a dialog box where you can enter a password and hint for your file. This is a great addition to the iWork suite, especially if you work in a server/multi-user environment.

M.I.A.: Drag & Drop

Much of the Mac OS offers the ability to drag and drop files, text, and images from one app to another. For some inexplicable reason, iWork apps are different. Though you can drag text from one app to another, you can’t do the same with objects and images. For this reason, you should keep the Media Browser palette open to make it easy to drag images into your documents from iPhoto, or folders located on your hard drive.

Adding More Shadow

You probably know you can add a shadow to your text simply by selecting the text container and clicking the Shadow button in the main toolbar. If you’re looking for a bit more from your shadow, try adding a second one.

Adding a second drop shadow to text in Pages

Once you’ve customized the appearance of your shadow using the Graphic Inspector, select the text itself (rather than the text container) and apply a second shadow using the Fonts palette Shadow button. A second shadow will appear beneath your text, which is completely customizable separate from the original shadow.

While these tips are certainly not Earth-shattering, I hope I’ve been able to share at least one tip you didn’t know about. How about you, do you have any handy tips for using any of the iWork applications?

Today Apple revealed some more details about the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference via a press release available on their web site. Specifically, they give a firm date and time for the keynote speech of the event, and details about who will be involved.

Many had hoped that since Steve Jobs’ medical leave of absence is set to end in June, he would once again take the stage at WWDC ‘09 to deliver the keynote with the trademark showmanship that has made Apple events the media circuses they are today.

It looks like, for whatever reason, June will not mark such a comeback after all. Phil Schiller, SVP of Worldwide Product Marketing, will instead headline the bill, backed by “a team of Apple executives,” on June 8 at 10 a.m. Schiller recently took the stage as keynote speaker at Macworld in January, with mixed results. From the sounds of the press release, it looks like this time around, Apple may again use more of a multiple-speaker model, like the one that served them so well at the iPhone OS 3.0 announce in March.

Apple also partially confirmed a release timeline for OS X Snow Leopard put forward by AppleInsider by announcing that a Final Developer Preview version of the new operating system would be made available at WWDC. This official statement, which comes from Bertrand Serlet, Apple’s SVP of Software Engineering, should put the kibosh on rumors that the full retail release would arrive in time for the June event. Should, but probably won’t.

After our first week proper in 2009, we’ve run smack-bang in to a hurricane of Apple news courtesy of this year’s Macworld event.

Over at Apple’s final MacWorld Keynote, standing in for Papa Jobs, Uncle Phil unveiled brand new iLife and iWork suites, alongside completing the Macbook Pro lineup with a 17″ model touting 8 hours of battery life.

And, to finish proceedings off, Apple revealed special singing guest Tony Bennett, allowing the adoring audience to bask in the warmth of his orange glow as he crooned the keynote to a close.

While everyone else at TheAppleBlog has had their eye on Macworld, I’ve been rolling around in the App Store and getting friendly with the latest additions.

This week I’ve been looking at Keynote Remote, Wallpaper Notes, Cisco WebEx Meeting Center and Bank Panic.

Keynote Remote ($0.99)
If you’re passionate and prepared, presenting can be a true pleasure. Keynote, being the polished application that it is, makes both preparation and execution a breeze. When I present, the Apple Remote is a key tool: enabling me to present in a fluid and relaxed manner. Using the Remote, I’m not looking at a screen or even notes, I’m looking at — and engaging with — the audience. If you want your presentations to be more effective, don’t bother with this app, go back to basics — learn your subject inside out, practice, relax and, on the day, enthuse.

Wallpaper Notes ($0.99)
Apple’s embedded Notes app is already out-dated; there’s no desktop or web sync, no reminders functionality, no bells and a distinct absence of whistles. I replaced Notes with Evernote, which incorporates a cavalcade of note-taking features. Wallpaper Notes does nothing special, bar one killer feature: saving notes as iPhone wallpaper, meaning that a quick check of the screen keeps you informed. A cunning work-around indeed.

Cisco WebEx Meeting Center (free)
Back when I worked for the European-arm of an American mobile media publisher, I learnt two important things: a white vest and organic American Apparel underwear are only ever acceptable work-wear when working from home, and, when we conducted large-scale meetings with our cousins ‘cross the pond, Cisco’s WebEx was an invaluable tool in bringing us together. Long-awaited by iPhone-touting business folk, this mobile implementation of WebEx incorporates audio-visual presentations and even chat functionality.

Bank Panic ($0.99)
It’s a morbidly apt premise for a simple iPhone game and I love it: bankrupt stock brokers have taken to hurling themselves out of high-rises due to the global financial crisis. It’s your job to stop the depressed Dow dealers snapping their supple skulls on the hard floor by catching their falling bodies in your miracle blanket. Now if this deliciously horrid plot wasn’t reason enough to purchase the game, here’s the really clever bit: the game’s difficulty is linked to the real-world value of the Dow Jones — the lower the Dow drops, the tougher the gameplay gets.

Just One More Thing

It seems that this week’s Roundup has been of a decidedly productive nature, covering tools for meetings, note-taking and presenting. Even Bank Panic has serious under-currents with its amusing use of the declining Dow Jones feeding the stock-brokers’ suicide rate.

So it’s time we lighten the mood a little as, like Sauron’s great big burning eye in the sky, I’m going to turn my cyclopean gaze to the future and draw your attention to a very promising iPhone game due out soon.

Bovine Dragon Software are the designers behind Trace, an inventive game that involves drawing the platforms that your character traverses in each stage, released last year. About to pop its youngling head out from the womb of development is Bovine Dragon’s latest creation, Gomi.

From the cutesy preview videos, it seems that Gomi is a mash-up of Mario Galaxy, Katamari Damacy and LocoRoco, wrapped in graphics that look like they were drawn in Microsoft Paint. According to the developers, the eco-friendly, grinning Gomi will be out by February, in the meantime, check out the videos to see the game in action.

Over the course of the holiday season, I decided to invest in Gameloft’s Uno for iPhone. The game is bug-ridden, clunky and slow, certainly not worth the five bucks I paid for it. And I should have known better – I’ve previously worked for a big mobile publisher and developer, based on my own experience and general industry chit-chat with my peers, I know exactly what goes in to the development of these games.

Perhaps it’s an effort to appease the needs of licensors, or to hit unrealistic release dates promised by uncommunicative marketing and sales departments, maybe it’s to please investors (who are often shielded from a proper overview of the business by misguided MDs) or it’s as distasteful as knowingly rushing a title out with a recognizable logo pasted on to it (that acts as a horridly misleading seal of quality), there are a multitude of possible reasons as to why games from the big developers and publishers are often offensively shoddy disappointments.

I’ll summarize my point as such: look at Tapulous, Hand Circus and Illusion Labs –  bastions of quality independent development. It’s time the big guys started taking notes from the little guys.

That’s all from the App Store for this week, I’m quitting my jibber jabber for another 7 days and I’ll be back next Saturday with more apps. In the meantime, drop by the comments and let me know what apps you’ve been looking at.

TheAppleBlog attended the Macworld Expo keynote presentation by Phil Schiller yesterday to bring you all the news from San Francisco. For your convenience, here is an overview of everything that Apple announced yesterday in one place. If you are interested in watching the full 90 minute presentation for yourself, Josh Pigford has the info on how to watch the keynote video stream.

iLife ‘09

Apple has updated the media software suite with some impressive new features. After playing around with it a bit yesterday, I really think that many home users will enjoy the new Faces and Places features. Personally, I think Faces and the Facebook integration are going to be the killer combination for the casual photographer that just wants to share their snapshots with friends. In a sense, Facebook becomes a crowd-sourced solution for identifying people in your photos. That’s cool. Read our review of iPhoto ‘09 to get the full story.

I’m still not convinced that the Garageband lessons will really teach people to play (I played guitar semi-professionally for several years in cover bands), but it sure is cool to see top music artists appear inside the music product. In general, I think it’s a great direction for Apple to bring music tools to even more people. Check out the first look at Garageband for the details.

Phil Schiller admitted that iMovie ‘08 took away some of the tools that people liked in iMovie ‘06 and one of the goals for ‘09 was to try to reach everyone with both ease of use and powerful editing tools in the same product. To a large degree, it appears that Apple has succeeded. The demonstration of video stabilization we saw at the keynote was astounding and the Precision Editor seems to be exactly what iMovie ‘06 holdouts have been asking for. David Appleyard hit all the highlights in his article about iMovie ‘09.

iWork ‘09

The changes to iWork ‘09 are great, but I am particularly encouraged that the software has managed to hold on for a third release. I think this is the year that iWork really begins to take off with Mac users, particularly with the newly offered $30 discount when you buy a new Mac. That bundling is going to help a lot of Mac users try out the software, and then the beta of iWork.com may help expose Windows users to the elegance of documents created in iWork apps through the online sharing feature. You can get a more detailed explanation in our overview of iWork ‘09.

iTunes

The big news here is that Apple and the record labels have finally come to an agreement to make all music in the iTunes store DRM-free. Apple is already the #1 channel for music sales in North America, but this is a consumer-friendly strategy that I’m sure will only help the sales of music online. Get all the pricing info from Omar McFarlane’s overview of the iTunes update.

New 17″ MacBook Pro

The new MacBook Pro was widely anticipated, and the resulting announcement did not disappoint. We get a unibody design that is both thinner and lighter than the previous generation, matte and glossy displays (the glossy model on display in the Apple booth looks gorgeous), and absolutely amazing battery life (8 hours!). There’s some tradeoffs (the battery is not user-replaceable), but the upside is big enough that this should be a popular choice for those that have been waiting for the bigger screen. You can get the full details as well as a good comparison to the previous generation in a look at the new 17″ MacBook Pro from Darrell Etherington. We also have a look at the technology behind the amazing battery life.

When iWork was first announced, I will admit that I had a sinking feeling there was a strong danger that the suite wouldn’t see a second release. I wasn’t particularly optimistic about Apple’s chances of producing a word processor and a presentation app that would survive, especially when Apple skipped releasing an update in ‘07. Today, I’m quite happy to see that iWork has not only survived, but is thriving in a third release, iWork ‘09.

Keynote

Apple broke out the polish for Keynote this year, adding several new features that pretty up your presentations and make advanced animation techniques even more accessible. There are several new themes, graph types, and textures for charts, including some chrome, wood and stone textures that just look beautiful.

Magic Move tracks objects from slide to slide so that Keynote can build transitions from one slide to another and animate the movement of the object across the page. This feature shows up when creating transitions that involve images for some very polished object transitions, but also works on text where it treats letters as individual objects that can be animated across the screen. One of the impressive demonstrations involved a pile of scattered playing cards that then flew around into neatly fanned stacks of cards in the next slide. Text effects included an “anagram” transition that reused the letters by rearranging them into a new word, flying unused letters off the screen and flying in new letters to complete the word.

Also new is a Keynote Remote iPhone app that gives you control over your presentations from the iPhone. The app is smart enough to present you with the slide and speaker’s notes when in vertical orientation and it switches to the current slide and the next slide when horizontal.

Pages

Pages adds a new full-screen view, outlining, mail-merge with Numbers, new templates, and integration with MathType and EndNote. I’m not a huge fan of full-screen — I see it as more of a gimmick than a real feature. If you want to write uninterrupted, quit IM, close Twitter, and turn off notifications of new email.

Outlining is a welcome addition and quite useful for longer documents. Dynamic outlining means that rearranging sections in outline view moves that the changes are reflected in the document view in realtime.

The best part of the new Numbers integration isn’t just being able to mailmerge from a list outside of Address Book, but rather the dynamic linking of charts and graphs between the two. Changes in a graph that was copied from Numbers will update the graph in Pages.

The MathType and EndNote integration reaches a smaller audience, but support for these two programs will be enthusiastically received by the academic and scientific communities. I actually like Sente for academic citation management, but EndNote is the most recognized brand in that space.

Numbers

Numbers has two big additions — functions and categories. Schiller mentioned that Apple’s goal for this release was to add more features that power-users were clamoring for. The number of functions has been increased to 250 and have been made easier to use with a new function view that lists the available choices with a plain language description of what each does and the variables accepted. Formula list view will show you all of the formulas in your spreadsheet. I imagine that this will be tremendously useful for tracking down an error through a long chain of formulas.

Categories are a simple way of creating a summary from a list that is organized by a particular field. In the example provided in the keynote presentation, Phil Schiller showed a baseball roster grouped by position with a count of players for each position. Creating this summary is as simple as selecting “Categorize by This Column” in the pull down menu in the column header.

iWork.com

iWork.com is a new public beta from Apple that allows you to share your iWork documents online. iWork.com does not go as far as Google Apps in allowing online editing and creation of documents. It is just a way to share documents and allow others to annotate directly on the page, or to comment on the document as a whole. While all the comments and annotations are tracked online, iWork adds a menu item under Share that allows you to go straight to the page for that document to find new posts from your friends or colleagues. It can also act as on online repository of your working documents that you can reference from anywhere.

The overall functionality is a little limited, but it provides a really simple way to share Pages documents that PC users cannot open directly. Along with the web version for viewing, iWork will also upload PDF, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint versions to allow others to download a document that they can edit on their desktop. There’s no easy way to incorporate someone else’s edits or comments back into the document directly, but I’m hopeful for the future. I was really hoping for an online editing app that would be more like the MobileMe apps for email and Address Book. The first step is a small one, but a step that might entice some PC users to check out the native apps that created the nice-looking previews they can see online, but look a little funky when downloaded and opened in Office 2007.

Should I Buy It?

This upgrade isn’t the no-brainer that iLife ‘09 is for most people. If you need any of the features in Numbers or Pages, then I would say go for it. If you’re a Keynote maven, or in the financial, academic or scientific communities then I would think the new features would be really compelling to you and worth the cost of the new version. For anyone outside that community, iWork.com isn’t that exciting (yet) and the new features just expand on what you already have.

Apple’s last Macworld Keynote Address is now available to view online.

It was announced last month that today’s keynote would be Apple’s last at the Macworld Expo. It was also announced that Steve Jobs would not be delivering the address but that Phil Schiller, Apple’s Senior VP of Worldwide Product Marketing, would be instead.

The keynote went off without a hitch and Phil seemed well received by the crowd.

The video taps in right around an hour and half and is a great way to check out the new iLife and iWork ‘09 features.

I was walking ’round the Moscone Center this morning after I snagged my media badge and noticed a guy sitting at the entrance to the Moscone Center. I inquired.

Nick Lensander (of The MacTips Podcast) was, and currently still is, the first and only guy in line. He’s been manning his post since 6:30AM, meaning he’ll have sat in that spot for nearly 26 hours by the time they start letting folks in for the keynote.

It’s a fairly nasty morning here in SF with temperatures in the upper 40’s and rain, so he’s got some dedication. His MacBook, iPhone, and camera in hand, he’s set to keep himself occupied for quite sometime. Not sure how he’s keeping all his gear charged, though.

At any rate, if you’re wanting a seat in the keynote, you’ve been warned. The line has already started forming.

Macworld Attendees: Don’t forget to checkout our Macworld SCHED to plan your week!

Today, Jumsoft released their All-in-One Business Packs for Apple’s Keynote, Pages and iWeb.

Maintain the same style among your documents, Web site, e-mails, and even presentations.

With the great experience of developing various templates, Jumsoft has finally created amazing All-in-One template packs for your personal or small business. For the first time, there are three themed packs to choose from—Craft, Elite, and Rich. Our intuition has whispered us to provide the templates for all the applications you are likely to need in your business—iWeb, Keynote, Pages, and even Apple Mail. Be noticed among the rival firms and demonstrate your modern attitude towards your business image.

What is great about these packs is that small businesses can now easily brand themselves with high-quality templates and visuals. Many individuals and small businesses can’t afford outside design services let alone have the design skills to make their own templates. Thus, these All-in-One packs make their lives simpler.

As an owner of other Jumsoft products — I have the Keynote Quartet FX as well as their iWeb and RapidWeaver Themes pack — I know Jumsoft makes quality products. It’s also nice to see software companies provide value-adds to Apple’s iLife and iWork offerings. Apple does provide some basic templates for these products, although nothing that ties them all together in one seamless look and feel.

Of the three choices, I personally like the Rich business pack. Which one do you like?

If you missed seeing Steve-o live in person today (which you did), then you can now watch the entire “Let’s Rock” special event keynote online at Apple’s site.

The full event is a little over an hour long and gives you a few more details than our previous coverage of the event.

Two former Apple guys, one from the iPhone team and one from the iTunes team have created an online slideshow creator. that opened in public beta today. You can try it out and see if you like it better than PowerPoint, Keynote, Slideshare, Google Presentations, Sliderocket, or Zoho. I took one for the team and tried out this 280slides.com. First problem, 280. Why would they choose that number, especially in this age of Pecha Kucha? When you try to view a slideshow that you haven’t viewed before, it says, “Loading 280 slides.” I couldn’t help but think that I had to wait for 280 slides to load!

The good thing about this slideshow program is that it looks very much like Keynote, and is very easy to use. Everything they have done with the design helps you feel like you are using a desktop application. I found myself going to the menu bar to change settings more than once. It also looks very much like Leopard.

Perhaps 280 slides’ best addition to the online offering is the ability to search and add video and images from popular websites like flickr, and YouTube.

I think it is a pretty good platform for slideshows, but then again, I don’t make slideshows that often. It is definitely better for me than Zoho and Google.

Give it a whirl (it is still in beta) and let us all know how it goes.

[via TechCrunch]

Since we all know that Steve Jobs is Mr. Secretive, everything that is “announced” before his keynote is pure speculation. Of course, it sure is fun to think about all of these.

• Subsidy for iPhone
• 3G iPhone
• Mac Clones
• Smaller iPhone with better battery life
• GPS in the iPhone
• Two sizes. iPhone and iPhone Nano
• Rebranded and revamped .Mac service
• OS 10.6
• Or Mac OS 10.5.4
• Mac Tablet

I am sure there are more and will be more before the weekend is over. I think the 10.6 and Tablet rumors are most far-fetched. And if there isn’t a 3G iPhone expect Apple’s stock to drop and look for many, many upset people!

Feel free to add to the list in the comments, and tell me what you most want announced at Steve’s keynote on Monday.

Today marks one of the most anticipated days of every year. At 9AM CST, Steve Jobs will give his annual Macworld keynote where he’ll talk about Apple’s accomplishments for the past year as well as plans for the upcoming year. But more importantly, he’ll be announcing new products.

Macworld is an event that causes more speculation than probably any other even Apple participates in.

The two biggest rumors revolve around the possibility that Apple will begin offering movie rentals via iTunes and the possibility of a new ultra-thin MacBook.

The movie rental rumor is probably one of the only rumors in the past years that seems almost a shoe-in for happening. Many major film studios have reportedly confirmed their involvement with Apple on a rental service and on top of that…it just makes sense.

The ultra-thing MacBook rumor, however, is a bit more speculation. Supposedly this ultra-thin laptop will supposedly be almost completely cable-free (supported by Apple’s “There’s something in the air. banner).

I’m just not so sure Apple would release something like this. I do think Apple could release something like a 12″ MacBook (a size that’s currently missing from their lineup), but just releasing a thinner version something in their lineup just doesn’t add up for me. I don’t think the average consumer is really ready for something that “doesn’t use any cables”. The idea just feels a bit too gimmicky to me.

What do you think Apple’s “There’s something in the air.” banner means?

Today, Apple updated their home page with the graphic above showing what appears to be Apple’s main slogan for Macworld 2008.

Many readers are predicting that “air” is the name of a new line of MacBooks from Apple that will be released tomorrow. Other’s are guessing it has something to do with wireless networking or WiFi. I’m guessing no one really has a clue.

Tomorrow at 9am PST, Steve Jobs will deliver his infamous keynote speech and is sure to release and announce things that will make your head explode.

Tune in tomorrow for commentary and updates on new announcements related to all things Macworld.

In just a little over 2 weeks us Mac geeks get to have second Christmas (or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa or …) When Steve Jobs takes the stage to offer the first of his two major Keynotes each year. (Otherwise dubbed, ‘Stevenote’ by super Apple nerds.) There are likely to be some exciting new hardware announcements and maybe even some new software if we’ve been extra good all year.

After a friend started asking for my thoughts on what to expect, it got the obsessive compulsive (Apple) portion of my brain going. All day long I have been contemplating my buddy’s question, and just as I convince myself of one thing, I begin rethinking the possibilities again. So, based on little more than logic and hope, here are some of the things I think we might see on January Fifteenth.

• Updated Displays – It’s been years since the current form factor came to light and there haven’t been any real changes to the line. I think built-in iSight cameras is a no-brainer at this point. Think we’ll see anything larger than 30″? I wouldn’t be shocked if Apple went nuts with a 42-incher…
• Slimmer MacBooks – My feeling is this will affect the lower end of the notebook line, and not affect the Pro series ‘books. However I suspect the MacBook Pro line will see some spec bumps.
• A Sleeker Mac Pro – With today’s technology getting smaller and smaller, I’d be surprised if the Mac Pro doesn’t begin to shrink somewhat in size. I know it needs room for its eleventy cooling fans, but c’mon! This isn’t based on any kind of information whatsoever, just a thought I had. Maybe it was a dream.
• Revamped Apple TV – This is a super long shot. But seeing as this product is sort of the red-headed step child (no offense to all the RHS children out there) of the current line of Apple products, they could do well with a major overhaul of the box. I don’t put a lot of stock in this one, but why not throw it out there just in case?
• One Last Thing – 3G iPhones available now. This isn’t my expectation, but rather that of my friend. (He really wants to wait for a 3G iPhone.) I feel it’s too early for the 3G to come available – I would think they would wait at least until the iPhone SDK is available to hype that angle, but what do I know? Still, that would be pretty sweet. (Should this happen, look for a decent drop in Edge iPhone prices.) Other enhancements to the forthcoming 3G iPhone? I think onboard GPS and at least a bit larger HDD are musts…

So there’s my list. Maybe it’s totally off base, but I’d be jazzed about some announcements like that. Who knows – maybe a brand new mystery device will instantly drain millions of nerds’ wallets… What do you think? Got any of your own predictions for the upcoming Macworld Expo?

Only a small number of people were invited to “The Beat Goes On” keynote but Apple has quickly made the entire keynote available for streaming here.

The full video is about 1 hour and 30 minutes long and covers everything from the intro of Steve Jobs to the ending with KT Tunstall playing.

Today Apple announced and updated a whole slew of products in both their hardware and software lines.

Updates include a new iMac, new keyboard, updated iWork, updated iLife, and more. It was certainly an exciting day and arguably more exciting than the past few major WWDC or Macworld events.

Check out the full details after the jump.

New iMac

The much rumored new aluminum iMac was indeed true. The overall new look is significantly more…”professional” (or Star Trek-ish, depending on who you ask).

• New glass screen enclosure
• Pricing starting at $1199
• 17″ model was trashed. Now only 20″ and 24″ models are available
• Up to 2.8 GHz Core 2 Extreme Processor
• Up to 4GB of memory
• Up to 1TB of storage space

New Keyboard(s)

Along with the new iMacs, Apple also released a new keyboard that fits in quite while with Apple’s line of “aluminum” covered products (Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and now the iMac).

The new keyboards are significantly thinner than previous keyboards by Apple, with the smaller wireless keyboard coming in at only 0.33 inches. No, that isn’t a typo.

The new keys are almost identical to those on the MacBooks with much better finger response.

iLife ‘08

It has been almost 2 years since iLife was updated with the last major version being iLife ‘06. Today Apple released a major revision to the iLife suite with iLife ‘08.

Every application received a pretty major overall with iMovie getting a complete rewrite.

Major points:
• iPhoto – Organizes photos by Event automatically
• iPhoto – New book and calendar printing
• iPhoto – Web gallery creation lets you creating extremely interactive photo galleries
• iMovie – Has a completely new interface that lets you create movies much more quickly and easily
• iMovie – .Mac web gallery and YouTube integration.
• iDVD – Better encoding and new themes
• GarageBand – New “Magic GarageBand” lets you create your own virtual band to jam with
• iWeb – Now you can upload to your own custom domain
• iWeb – Easier template and design creation

iWork ‘08

Along with the iLife update came an update to Apple’s business suite of applications, iWork ‘08.

The biggest thing to note with iWork ‘08 is the addition of Numbers, the much sought after spreadsheet application.

Numbers is described as “spreadsheets the Mac way,” which simply means this isn’t your normal “spreadsheet” app.

With Numbers you can create intelligent tables with multiple spreadsheets in a single document, easily create charts and graphs in the same document, and you can even import your Excel files.

Ultimately Numbers is a solid mix of boring tabular data and a desktop publishing application.

A few other iWork high points:
• Pages – Switch between “writing” and “layout” mode depending on task
• Pages – Change tracking to keep up with document revisions
• Pages – Many new design templates
• Keynote – Tons of new text and transition effects
• Keynote – Voice-over recording
• Keynote – Simple animation tools

.Mac Updated

For some time now, .Mac has been Apple’s evil little stepchild that everyone has been on the verge of kicking to the curb.

Updates here include:
• Increased storage and bandwidth going from 1GB to 10GB of storage and up to 100GB of bandwidth
• You can now associate an actual domain with your .Mac account

Mac mini Updates

It’s been over a year since Apple last updated the Mac mini. Many people were convinced it would be removed from Apple’s line up, but today Apple quietly upgraded the Mac mini.

The update isn’t much to get excited about, though. The main updates to it are really just a bit more speed and memory. Nothing to write home about.