4 October 2011 Tuesday, seems to be the date that Apple will hold a special media event to launch new products, according to many on the WWW. And the new product…or products?

According to John Paczkowski from All Things D:

That’s the day Apple is currently expected to hold its next big media event, according to sources close to the situation, where the tech giant will unveil the next iteration of its popular iPhone.

While Apple was expected to have a Fall event, what will be announced is still up in the air. While most will expect Apple to announce the next iteration of the iPhone 4, leaks on parts and cases have shown that there might not just one, but two iPhones that will be in market later this year. However, possible production delays might see only one iPhone being introduced.

What else will we see?

Something that will definitely be announced will be the availability of iOS5. Have been testing the developers beta on my iPhone 4 and the current one seems to be almost done. Apps run faster and the new notification centre is definitely much more user friendlier than before. Click here to find out the other new features coming soon with iOS5.

But what about hardware? Expect to see more – John Gruber of Daring Fireball wrote:

The fall event is important for Apple because it’s the one where they set their product lineup for the holiday quarter. The company prefers to announce new products simply when they’re ready, not when some arbitrary date on the calendar arrives. That’s why they stopped doing Macworld Expo keynotes. They showed this year that they’re not afraid to do a software-only WWDC keynote. But they can’t move Christmas. Apple is breaking profit and revenue records quarter after quarter. But Apple’s best-selling products sell best during the holiday quarter. iOS devices have “Christmas gift” written all over them. … Nine months into the year and Apple has announced but a single new iOS device: the iPad 2. Time’s up, pencils down.

We know we probably won’t see a new iPad this year, but how about a new iPod touch, with improved components and comes with 3G connectivity? This report from BGR quoted an analyst that said to expect a 3G iPod touch. Contrary to that report, a MacRumor posts also indicate an iPod touch but one that has minor improvements but spots the white case, similar to the iPhone 4.

One thing is certain, no one outside Cuppertino really knows what Tim Cook will be unveiling in the coming weeks. Yes, this is the first time Tim Cook will be holding fort at such an event. Will he be able to recreate Steve Jobs’ famous Reality Distortion Field as coined by cynics and more importantly, how will he do that “One More Thing”?

We will be there on whichever date that Apple holds the event and bring you up-to-date information as they come.

(Photo by Brendan McDermid / BoingBoing)

A few nights ago, Apple gave a sneak peak of the future of iPhone OS that will be launched sometime in the summer this year. Like how Snow Leopard was revealed as being an evolution of a maturing OS X, iPhone OS 4.0 reveal was similarly subdued. The new features were expected of a maturing operating platform but as usual given twists and redefinition of how they should work by Apple.

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The world will be focusing at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco come this January 27 (2am on 28/1 for us) where we await with baited breathe on what Apple’s revealing. While we won’t be there, there are many acclaimed journalists and bloggers who will be there to live-stream the event.

Here you will find the list of sites that you can follow that evening to catch the event. We will update this list as we find out:

• Macworld – live stream
• TWiT Live – live MacBreak Weekly show
• Arstechnica Infinite Loop – live blog
• MacRumors – Live coverage
• MacStories – Live coverage
• Friendfeed discussion – Live chat

We now know that there will be something happening on Jan 27 10am (2am Jan 28 SG) at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater in San Francisco. The headline of the invite says “Come see our latest creation” which is not surprising since almost everyone expects an announcement for a new Tablet-like product from Apple.

From the multitude of rumors mixed among news, a few things about the new product might have leaked:

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The updated softwares – iLife’09 and iWork’09 – are definitely worth looking into. Again, these are not revolutionary changes to the two application suits, but a maturing of softwares that targets the general consumers, but sprinkled with professional features that are made easy to use. Yes, even your grandma can definitely do those edits with these new tools.

You can see the new features here at their respective pages – iLife’09 and iWork’09. But here are some of the more interesting new features.

Pages

With iWork’08, Pages had gain tools and features that can match Microsoft Word. The updated Pages in iWork’09, hopes to improve your workflow and productivity when you are writing your documents. The new Dynamic Outliner tool makes it easier to organize and structure your thoughts while the Full-screen mode helps you to focus without distractions from your other applications.

There is also a focus to integrate the various applications within the iWork suit. In Pages, you can now do mail merge with spreadsheets done within Numbers. Previously you can only do so with the Address Book. This will be popular with the business world as many uses the spreadsheet to consolidate business associates and contacts for mail distribution.

Other improvements includes the integration with MathType and Endnote for creating sophisticated mathematical equations and adding citations respectively.

Numbers

Numbers was introduced with iWork’08 and it had marginal success over the incumbent Microsoft Excel. Much of the complains were the small sets of functions that were available in Numbers. With iWorks’09, Apple has expanded the function list to include up to 250+ functions. There is also a new Formula List view that gives an overview of all functions used within a spreadsheet.

Numbers also includes a new feature that can create table categories based on datas in existing tables. There are also some new charting tools to give you attractive looking charts for presentation.

Also as part of the tighter integration among the iWork application, any charts from Numbers that are pasted into Pages documents or Keynote presentation are automatically linked to the Numbers spreadsheet. Any changes in Numbers will be reflected in Pages or Keynote when you update the chart.

Keynote

Keynote has become my main tool for creating attractive looking and interactive presentations, especially when Powerpoint feels much bloated and slow when compared to Keynote. What makes Keynote stand out is also the interesting transitions that you can apply to individual objects or slides. With iWork’09, Apple has added a few more bells and whistles to the list – Magic Move, Text and Object based transitions and more 3D charts and chart animation.

But what I like best in the new Keynote, is the availability of the Keynote Remote – using your iPhone or iPod Touch to remotely control your presentation via WiFi. You can view your presentation note on your iPhone screen, or also view the upcoming slides. To control your slide, you just need to swipe your finger across the screen on your iPhone.

iWork.com

Lastly, Apple also introduced iWork.com, a web-based service that allows you to share your iWork documents, presentations and spreadsheets to anyone with a browser. This works across most modern browsers and operating systems and also can be viewed in iPhone/iPod Touch.

iWork.com at the moment, is an open beta which anyone can subscribe to via iWork’09. With it, comes 1GB of space and each document will be up there for 120 days. Apple said that it will become a fee-based service when it is officially released but not much detail on how it will be charged. Hopefully, this will be provided to MobileMe users as a new service.

iWork.com allows you to upload your Pages document, Keynote presentation and Numbers spreadsheet online for you to share with others to view and to comment. You can’t let others edit the document, unlike Google Docs. But others whom you have invited to view that document, can leave comments and notes on the document.

Your uploaded file is presented as you created it, with the same layout, fonts, graphics and the user-interface is just like an iWork application, minus the editing tools.

When you upload, you are also given the options to prepare the files in various formats – iWork’09 or iWork’08, Microsoft Office and PDF - which your viewers can easily download in the format of their choice.

Though the functions of iWork.com is quite fundamental – upload for viewing and sharing – the potential of Apple to develop this as an online collaboration and editing tool is there, though Apple might not do so to protect the iWork suit.

With its cross-OS and browser interface, iWork.com can become a useful productivity tool for business users who are looking for instant feedbacks on their documents.

As the display of the document online is exactly as what you have done offline, iWork.com can also be portable presentation tool that you can have without having to lug your laptop around. Just grab any work station and you can have your documents ready for show and tell.

To buy or not to buy?

Like iLife’09, the iWork’09 suit costs S$138 for a single license and S$168 for a 5 license family pack. In the US, you can pre-install iWork’09 onto any new Macs purchased by paying additional S$72 but that unfortunately is not available in the Singapore Store.

So are the new features worth the money? If you are an iWork’08 user, the updated features might not be sufficient to pay for a completely new pack as there are no upgrade path for existing users. But if are still a Microsoft Office user, I’d strongly recommend that you have a look at iWork’09. Try iWork’09 free at this page and see for yourself.

(REUTERS/Robert Galbraith)

Phil Schiller took slightly more than one and a half hour presenting Apple’s final keynote address at the Macworld Expo. It was, a mostly good and efficient presentation by Phil and though what he presented wasn’t earth shattering, Apple is pacing themselves for a difficult year ahead.

The hits

Here is a quick recap of the products that were presented:

• iLife ’09 – with new iMovie, iPhoto, GarageBand and iWeb, available at the end of the month at S$138 (single user) or S$168 (family pack)
• iWork ’09 – with improved Keynote, Pages and Numbers, available now at S$138 (single user) or S$168 (family pack), get the Trial copy to try out the features
• iWork.com – a new beta fee-based web service to share your iWork’09 documents, spreadsheets and presentations,
• new 17-inch MacBook Pro – with unibody case and an built-in battery that lasts up to 8 hours on a single charge and has a 1,000 charge cycle, available soon from S$4,388
• DRM-free iTunes Music store with flexible pricing and over-the-air purchase and downloading of the music onto iPhone 3G

The misses

So after looking back at the recap of pre-Macworld rumors, here are the items that didn’t turn up:

• there is no Mac mini, no revamp iMac, no iPhone nano, no new Mouse, no large iPod Touch
• no Snow Leopard demo
• iWork sort-of goes onto the cloud (just sharing but not editing like Google Docs)
• no web-based iMovie (never thought so)
• and no Steve Jobs

No surprises there. With the current economy situation, introduction of any new revolutionary hardware might faced with lukewarm response from the consumers, pair that with increasing cost of manufacturing, we were stuck with only the introduction of the 17-inch MacBook Pro, while many, including myself, were hoping for a make-over of the Mac mini. This and other hardware revamps, will definitely pop up sometime over the next half of the year.

As for the iPhone nano, I believe we won’t see it appearing anytime in the future.

Snow Leopard, as we already know, will not be one with many new features, but more an improvement of OS X 10.5 Leopard. There will be more bug-fixing, code optimizing and bloat reduction, and we will probably see the announcement of its delivery at WWDC’09 in June.

So how was Philnote?

As for the keynote address itself, Phil Schiller performed remarkably well, considering he has such huge shoes to follow. We felt that he started off with a tinge of nervousness, his pacing was a tad fast and he rattled on and on about the feature lists like a robot. As my friend Wai Keong said, he needs to learn to be a cocktease and milk the crowd with the new features. But as he progressed, he sounded more relaxed and the pacing was much better.

Having Tony Bennett I guess was a hit and miss for the audience, though the choice of songs – The Best Is Yet To Come and I Left My Heart In San Francisco – sure leaves many with more things to discuss, especially with Apple leaving Macworld Expo after this year.

I will look into those new products announced yesterday in the next post.

Goodbye Macworld Expo, hello … ?

So that, is the end of Apple’s involvement with Macworld Expo. No more anticipating at every start of the New Year for new products from Apple. No more pre-Macworld Expo speculations and rumors flying around.

Predicting the next new Apple products has just been made more difficult by a few notches. Instead of the annual events, we just have to wait for Cupertino to start sending out cryptic press invites to know when they will make any announcements.

You know, that might be more fun.

• Stream and watch the keynote here
• Or download the keynote in iTunes here