First feelings about the Keynote

Here are a first few comments on yesterday's keynote and its so much awaited announcements. Steve started with the software to had us wait, but we'll go for the hard stuff first, that is the brilliant update of the Powerbook and iMac:
- The iMac is by its own nature aimed at the consumer market. Far from our professional concerns, it is a market which does not care very much about what's inside the machine, or whether professional softs like Photoshop are optimized or not. And this very clever strategic move will indeed have real professionals turn to the more expensive G5 Powermac.
- The Macbook is a very clever move as well. With all PC makers announcing their dualcore laptops, Apple's Macbook can now be considered instead of these Windows based ones. There again, Photoshop's lack of optimization won't be an issue for professionals who, anyway, don't use this kind of configuration for the urgent processing of heavy workloads.
Hard to tell more now without more precise information. The Powerbook's heir now has up to 256 MB of VRAM and Radeon X1600 mobile graphic card, which is very good. However, it seems that Firewire 800 is now a dead and burried technology. A pity but not a critical loss given its limited use, especially on a laptop.
On the software part, iLife comes up with some upgrades but is more than ever tied to the .Mac service for an optimal use. While it's only $79, you also have to include the cost of an annual subscrition to get the most of it, and this is a real pity.
However, Apple seems to have lent an ear to its customers and took their concerns into consideration for the betterment of this software suite. We were thus very satisfied to hear Stevie announce the end of the iDVD locking system. It is a real victory against Apple, a victory gained battle after battle, patching after patching, for the freeing of the iApps and especially iDVD.
And then the cherry on the icing: Steve only briefly spoke of the iPods. Thank you Apple to let us be in good terms with them again!