This time we got official word in the last one-on-one media briefing from Apple, in which they told Brian about the new iMac 27, the new Unibody MacBook and new Magic Mouse. We were talking casually about it, and he mentioned something that Phil Schiller told him: There are not going to be any new Apple products this year. Yes, that’s what my favourite Apple VP said.

It’s something obvious, sure, but since some people keep rumour-mongering about some imminent products from Cupertino, I thought it would be a good idea to post that nugget of information here and stop the stupid rumours on their tracks.

In other words: Don’t hold your breath or credit card. That magic MacBook with the new Intel CPU and chipset? Not gonna happen in 2009. Carry on.

Update: Interesting, after reading this, Apple called and said that the actual quote is “The holiday lineup is set.” Weird. As far as I know, if “the holiday lineup is set”, then there would not be any new products in 2009, right?

So what does this exactly mean? Maybe that there won’t be any new hardware products, but they may announce non-consumer software before the year ends? Or does this mean that there may have an event between now and December 24, but no other new products would be available in stores this year? Does this mean that there may be new products after the 24? Would an Apple Busty Ninja Cyborg be included in a consumer holiday lineup or is that considered a professional product? I think definitely professional.

Cupertino moves in mysterious ways.

But hey, don’t take it from me, just watch this adjective-only version of the latest iPod event. [YouTube via Fortune]

The unfair rejection of Rising Card (Apple felt the magic trick app would be confusing to customers, which is sort of the point) led to the story being covered on a magic blog and then TUAW, and became just one more example of Apple’s draconian and frequently ridiculous approval process. But Schiller, who is effectively the man at Apple right now (he’s been doing the keynotes for Steve Jobs), personally contacted the developers to apologise and promise special attention for the app. A few days later, the app was officially approved.

This is a good sign from Apple: They must be hearing the rising pitch of grumbling from users and tech writers who are upset with the App Store’s increasingly obvious faults. Of course, they’re probably also aware that they’re being sued for such weirdness as rejecting Google Voice, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction. The lesson, it seems, is that the squeaky wheel gets individual attention from a high-ranking executive. Or something like that. [Techcrunch]

Ninjawords was a victim of unfortunate timing, originally submitting their app in May, before iPhone 3.0’s parental controls went into effect, and rather than wait for the controls to arrive at a then-unknown date, they tried to scrub the bad words to hit the store as soon as possible. Which wasn’t enough to get in without a rating, and by the time everything was resolved, their scrubbed app was in the store with the 17+ rating suggested by the reviewer. Apple, Schiller says, simply wanted the app to carry a 17+ rating, with the entirety of its Wiktionary-powered language content—clean, dirty, downright disgusting—intact.

It’s worth reading the whole letter from Schiller over at Daring Fireball, though the best part might simply be the fact Apple is listening, and they recognise that the App Store approval process has to improve. Of course, whether or not it actually does is another story. [Daring Fireball]

I’m a sucker for any Apple keynote, whether I’m in the stands with the press or F5′ing away at my browser like most of you. There’s a certain hypnotic timing to them, a clean presentation and a controlled, meticulous unveiling process that makes even the less exciting products seem monumental in scope.

During today’s last Apple Macworld keynote, not having been there, I actually forgot at times that Steve Jobs wasn’t presenting with Phil Schiller taking his place instead. Indeed, from the text/content alone, I wouldn’t have even noticed. The presentation style was intact—from the clean slides to the dramatic structure, it was an Apple keynote, even if it wasn’t Steve’s Apple keynote. But I want to know, do you feel the same way?

The new Pro has a unibody aluminium build—and virtually everything else—in common with its smaller 15-inch predecessor. Now, though, you won’t have to put your fancy new notebook next to the cheaper 13-inch variant to see what you’ve paid for. There are plenty of under-the-hood upgrades too:

Available late this month, it’s just under an inch thick, weighs in at 3kg, and is claimed to be the “thinnest and lightest” 17-inch notebook on the market.

The 1920×1200 screen has LED backlighting as standard, 140×120 viewing angle, an impressive 700:1 contrast ratio and 60% greater colour gamut than the last 17-inch display. There’s a $US50 anti glare coating option for the screen.

Overall, the specs are mostly identical to the last MBP interation, with the big difference being the battery.

Apple says it’s the longest lasting MacBook battery ever—it’s a non-removable lithium polymer battery with “three times” the regular lifecycle. How long does it last? 7 hours with discrete graphics, 8 hours with integrated graphics. That’s 3 more hours than the last 17-inch MBP.

The new MBP comes in one configuration: At $US2799, you get the 2.66 ghz processor, 4gb ram, the dual-video card solution, a 320GB HDD and the Superdrive.

This is roughly the same pattern Apple set in 2006 with the original MacBook Pro, which debuted with a 15-inch screen and saw the two-inch upgrade just a few months later. It made sense then, and it makes sense now. [Giz at Macworld]

Apple Introduces 17-inch MacBook Pro With Revolutionary New Built-in Battery That Delivers Eight Hours of Use & 1,000 Recharges

SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Apple(R) today unveiled the new 17-inch MacBook(R) Pro featuring a durable and beautiful precision aluminium unibody enclosure, and a revolutionary new built-in battery that delivers up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit display and the same large glass Multi-Touch(TM) trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family in October. In addition, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors. As part of the industry’s greenest notebook family, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is made of highly recyclable materials, meets stringent energy efficiency standards and is made without many of the harmful toxins found in other computers.
“We’ve developed new battery technology that is better for the user and better for the environment,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Apple’s advanced chemistry and innovative technology deliver up to eight hours of use on a full charge cycle and up to 1,000 recharges.”
Apple uses advanced chemistry, intelligent monitoring of the system and battery, and Adaptive Charging technology to create a revolutionary new notebook battery that delivers up to eight hours of wireless productivity on a single charge and up to 1,000 recharges without adding thickness, weight or cost to the MacBook Pro’s incredible design.* The longer battery lifespan equals fewer depleted batteries and less waste, which is better for the environment.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes an ultra-thin, widescreen glossy 1920 x 1200 display with 78 percent more pixels than the 15-inch MacBook Pro and a 60 percent greater colour gamut that delivers desktop-quality colour in a notebook. The LED-backlit display has brilliant instant-on performance, uses up to 30 percent less energy and eliminates the mercury found in industry standard fluorescent tube backlights.

Measuring just 0.98-inches thin and weighing 6.6 pounds, the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the world’s thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook. The 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most powerful Mac(R) notebook yet with the latest Intel Core 2 Duo processors available up to 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB DDR3 main memory and a graphics architecture that allows users to switch between the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics processor for better battery life and the powerful NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics processor for higher performance. The new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a 320GB 5400 rpm hard drive standard with a 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive and 128GB and 256GB solid state drives as options. As with the rest of the new MacBook family, the 17-inch MacBook Pro includes a next generation, industry-standard Mini DisplayPort to connect with the new Apple LED Cinema Display featuring a 24-inch LED-backlit widescreen display with a built-in iSight(R) video camera, mic and speakers.
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro joins the aluminium unibody MacBook family in setting new standards for environmentally friendly notebooks with every model achieving EPEAT Gold status.** Each MacBook unibody enclosure is made of highly recyclable aluminium and comes standard with energy efficient LED-backlit displays that are mercury-free and made with arsenic-free glass. The new MacBook family meets stringent Energy Star 4.0 requirements, contains no brominated flame retardants and uses internal cables and components that are PVC-free. The battery in the new 17-inch MacBook Pro provides additional environmental benefit because its extended lifespan means fewer depleted batteries resulting in less waste. Depleted batteries can be replaced for $179 which includes installation and disposal of your old battery in an environmentally responsible manner.

Pricing & Availability
The new 17-inch MacBook Pro will be shipping at the end of January and will be available through the Apple Store(R) (http://www.apple.com), Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorised Resellers for a suggested retail price of $2,799 (US), and includes:

— 17-inch widescreen LED-backlit 1920 x 1200, glossy display;
— 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 6MB shared L2 cache;
— 1066 MHz front-side bus;
— 4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRAM;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9400M integrated graphics;
— NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT discrete graphics with 512MB GDDR3 video
memory;
— 320GB Serial ATA hard drive running at 5400 rpm, with Sudden Motion
Sensor;
— a slot-load 8X SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD+/-R
DL/DVD+/-RW/CD-RW) optical drive;
— Mini DisplayPort for video output (adapters sold separately);
— built-in AirPort Extreme(R) 802.11n wireless networking and Bluetooth
2.1+EDR;
— Gigabit Ethernet port;
— built-in iSight video camera;
— three USB 2.0 ports;
— one FireWire(R) 800 port (FireWire 400 compatible);
— ExpressCard/34 expansion card slot;
— one audio line in and one audio line out port, each supporting both
optical digital and analog;
— glass Multi-Touch trackpad and illuminated keyboard;
— built-in, 95WHr lithium polymer battery; and
— 85 Watt MagSafe(R) Power Adapter.

Build-to-order options for the 17-inch MacBook Pro include a 2.93 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 8GB 1066 MHz DDR 3 memory, 320GB 7200 rpm hard drive, a 128GB or 256GB solid state drive, anti-glare display for $50 (US), Mini DisplayPort t
o DVI Adaptor, Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adaptor (for 30-inch DVI display), Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adaptor, Apple Remote, Apple MagSafe Airline Adaptor and the AppleCare Protection Plan.

*A properly maintained Apple 17-inch MacBook Pro battery is designed to retain 80 percent or more of its original capacity during a lifespan of up to 1,000 recharge cycles. Battery life and charge cycles vary by use and settings. For more information visit
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/17inch-battery.

**EPEAT is an independent organisation that helps customers compare the environmental performance of notebooks and desktops. Products meeting all of the 23 required criteria and at least 75 percent of the optional criteria are recognised as EPEAT Gold products. The EPEAT program was conceived by the US EPA and is based on IEEE 1680 standard for Environmental Assessment of Personal Computer Products. For more information visit http://www.epeat.net.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

(C) 2009 Apple Inc. All rights reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, MacBook, Multi-Touch, iSight, Apple Store, AirPort Extreme, FireWire and MagSafe are trademarks of Apple. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

iPhoto stuff:

Faces: Goes through and identifies distinct faces, automatically tagging them so you don’t have to slog through all your photos yourself.

Places: Geotagging, basically. iPhoto gives you a map with pins of where photos are taken. If your camera or iPhone encodes GPS info, iPhoto can figure out if the shot was taken at a particular landmark.

Facebook and Flickr support: Automatically upload your pics straight to your service of choice. (So glad to hear that one!) iPhoto will even grab Facebook image tags and use them in Faces. Flickr geo tags can be used in Places.

Themes: Page layouts for slideshows, with different fonts, caption boxes, etc., with crazy transitions. You can save slideshows to iPhone and iPod touch. It can detect faces in shots, so that they are centered during the slideshow. There’s a geo-tag slideshow called Travel Books that looks and acts like a scrapbook.

iMovie stuff: Sounds like they’re finally putting back some power functionality—let’s hope so…

Precision editor: It’s an expanded timeline for audio and video, for tighter cutting.

Advanced drag and drop: You can drag one video on top of another and get advanced context menus.

Themes: Select a theme and it automatically sets style for titles, transitions and credits.

Advanced travel maps: Put in starting and ending points, and it renders a 3D globe of where you traveled.

Video stabilisation: Helps you fix shaky shooting when you’re editing. Takes some processing time, but the results are amazing.

Other editing features: Skimming, seeing edits (before and after cuts), overlaying audio.

New project library: Organise videos in a more logical way with helpful thumbs.

Garageband stuff:
Yes, Garageband is still getting developed, even though I think it’s been a while since even Walt Mossberg recorded a solo project. (Knowing Pogue’s talents, he probably has a nice ProTools rig, or at least Logic.) Good thing this version is apparently looking for new musical recruits…

Learn to play: It has an instructional feature that helps teach you how to play instruments like guitar and piano.

Artist Lessons: Norah Jones, Sarah McLachlan, John Fogerty, Sting and other FOJ jam for your edification. Only $US5 a lesson. Hmmm.

There are also updates to iWeb and iDVD