#1 - iLife ‘09

First release was iLife ‘09, new versions of all products in the suite. The most remarkable though in iPhoto, iMovie and Garageband. iPhoto has gotten quite a few new sorting settings, sorting by faces and places. Both really cool and should work really good. In iMovie we have a lot more advanced editing capabilities again and in Garageband the main new feature is instrument lessons.

You can check out more of iLife ‘09 over on the Apple website. It will be available in late January for $79.

#2 - iWork ‘09

Second release was iWork ‘09. New features in all of the apps in the suite. First off in Keynote, there are some cool new transitions, both between objects and text. Honestly, really cool stuff in Keynote that I know I will love. In Pages the news are fullscreen mode, integration with MathType for example and a lot more. In Numbers they’re working on making it a lot more professional. Better formulas, column sorting and better chart are just few of new things there as well. In all three of the applications, you can find new templates as well.

You can check out more of iWork ‘09 over on Apple’s website. It is available right now for $79. You can also download a free 30-day trial.

#3 - MacBook Pro 17"

The third news was the upgraded 17" MacBook Pro. The most notable news here is a much better battery with up to 8 hours of battery time. Bad news about the battery is that you can’t replace it. You also have the option to get it with a matte screen for another $50.

You can read a lot more about this upgraded MacBook Pro over at Apple’s website. It’ll be available in late January for $2799.

One More Thing - iTunes

Yes, as usual they had one more thing for us as well. The news about iTunes now is that they are introducing three different price tiers at the demand of music companies. They are also making the entire iTunes library available DRM free. If you have an iPhone you can also visit and download music over 3G on the Music Store!

To be honest, Phil Schiller did a great job with the keynote although benefical to Apple would probably have been more new hardware. In any case, they have some great news now! I have a feeling that it’s good for Apple to be able to focus on product releases when they feel they can pull them out instead of on a fixed base in their keynotes. Perhaps they are working on something big!

Surprisingly enough, I get this question a whole lot and thought I should answer it today. People do want to know which podcasts I subscribe to. I am right off going to say that the interest is mutual. I’d love to hear about new great podcasts to watch/listen to within my interest fields. Leave your favourites in the comments if you want to suggest some!

Photoshop User TV

I started watching this a couple of years back and I’ve been hooked since. It’s as crazy as it is good. It’s made by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and hosted by Scott Kelby, Matt Kloskowski and Dave Cross. They each have tutorials each week, have other professionals as guests and generally goof around!

Layers TV

Produced by the Layers Magazine (and the folks at NAPP), Layers TV is hosted by Corey Barker and Rafael "RC" Concepcion. They bring great tutorials every week on everything about the Creative Suite and is a lot more serious than PSU TV mentioned above. Really good stuff and they also bring brilliant guests on a lot as well.

This Week In Photography

A great photography audio podcast talking about a diversity of subjects every week. Great topics and great hosts make for a great listening time. Discussions are about anything in the photography industry and filled with a good rate of humour as well.

Nikonians Image Doctors

I’ve been listening to this one for over a year now and for a Nikon shooter this is a superb podcast. They discuss photography techniques based at the Nikon shooter so a lot of Nikon gear constantly pops up. Still for any digital photographer, this is a good podcast to subscribe to.

Steve Jobs and the Apple Board of Directors has today each issued a public statement to the Apple community about the recent rumors on Jobs health. They can be read below by clicking the continue reading link.

Letter from Steve Jobs to Apple Community

Dear Apple Community,

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

Letter from Apple Board of Directors

It is widely recognized both inside and outside of Apple that Steve Jobs is one of the most talented and effective CEOs in the world.

As we have said before, if there ever comes a day when Steve wants to retire or for other reasons cannot continue to fulfill his duties as Apple’s CEO, you will know it.

Apple is very lucky to have Steve as its leader and CEO, and he deserves our complete and unwavering support during his recuperation. He most certainly has that from Apple and its Board.

 I’ve been hard at work for the past few days on a new website design for my design company, XLD Studios and I feel I’ve come up with something nice that’s just been released. I’m happy to be able to start 2009 off with concluding both a successful 2008 for my company (which kinda includes this site) and to be able to start off 2009 with giving both my sites refreshers.

• Visit XLD Studios

A couple of days ago, JPG Magazine announced that they were closing down because of funding. They also said that the site would be closing on January 5th. As of today though, there is a new blog post on their blog thanking everyone for the tremendous support and because of that and also because several companies have approached them wanting to help, they have a bit more time to look at things and they are looking at keeping the site up for at least another week.

I’m seriously hoping that they get a bunch of donations or that a company accuires them or donates to them to keep them alive. JPG Magazine is a great mag and a great website and it would be terrible to see it go.

There were a lot of cool Fireworks here on News Years and as usual I went to the local city display of the fireworks and I thought I should share a couple of them with y’all! After all, the new year started really good and I plan to shoot a lot more this year (which means post and share thoughts and photos as well).