As most of you know, I am a huge Apple fan. While I did not get to go to MacWorld, I did watch the keynote from the comfort of my living room via Quicktime on one of our Macs. You may have heard that tech god and genius Steve Jobs did not deliver this year’s keynote. Expectations were for a disappointing event without him there in his trademark black turtleneck and Levis, but Phil Schiller (SVP of Worldwide Marketing) took the stage for what would be Apple’s last MacWorld keynote. Pretty big challenge for Phil, but he did the job well. Please note that Sam’s does not carry Apple computers. We do carry their Apple TV and iPods. I WISH that we would carry their incredible line of computers. Personally, I am waiting to upgrade as soon as Apple integrates a blu-ray Super Drive into the line up. Come on guys, what are you waiting for?

What did we learn? Well there were some pretty cool announcements as one might expect from Apple. Here is what we took away from the broadcast:

1)      DRM free music is now available on ALL iTunes music. One can now download songs on an iPhone without being connected to WiFi. It is about time! Great move Apple. DRM is not doing anything but inconveniencing folks. Glad to see that Apple and the studios are making this change.

2)      Iwork, Apple’s productivity suite, got a nice facelift. Pages, Numbers and Keynote got some nice touches added to them. As one might expect, they all work seamlessly together to deliver professional looking results for the home user.

3)      Ilife, Apple’s, personal productivity suite, got some major upgrades. IMovie has better transitions and can now reduce/eliminate “shaky cam” jitters via the software. Really important for us home movie types. iPhoto also has some incredible coding built into it. Some newer cameras, our camera buyer tells me that they will be coming to a Sam’s Club near you shortly (and the iPhone) have GPS built in. So now you can tell that the picture you took was at 40.4 degrees Latitude and -79.9 degrees Longitude. What is even cooler is that iPhoto can tell you that that is Pittsburgh PA. They showed photos in Paris at the Eifel Tower and iPhoto knew where they were taken. In addition to this feature, called “Places” they have added a new one called “Faces”. Yes, iPhoto can learn and recognize the faces in your photos. Your Mac asks, in essence, “is that ‘Dave’”? Your train it when it is and is not and it will scan your entire library of photos and find ‘Dave’. Yeah, it is like playing “Where’s Waldo” are really high speed and for a reason. Finally, Garage Band gets a training tool to help us learn to play instruments. I like Garage Band and can play the piano. So some of my playing makes its way to some family music. I cannot however, play real guitar. Apple has lessons that come with and are downloadable for the Mac. Oh, and your “professors” are not just some guitar teacher. No, you are being taught by Sting, John Fogerty and others. Oh and the same thing is available for the piano/keyboard. That would have made my years from ages 5 through 14 a lot more exciting than learning from Mrs. Pritchard as a kid. She was a very nice lady, but Sting? Come on! If Neil Peart is teaching drum lessons anytime soon…

4)      Finally, the big announcement, the 17” Mac book pro. If a laptop computer can be sexy, this is it. Beautiful on the inside and out and really green too! Apple has built it with a special Lithium Polymer battery (like the iPhone and the Air). The advantages are that this can be shaped to be any size. Additionally, it is not able to be replaced by the user, so all of the hinges, doors, adapters etc that create a lot of wasted space are eliminated allowing for more battery in the battery compartment. Yes, Apple can replace them for you when they go. Due to Adaptive Charging, they estimate a life cycle of 1000 recharges or about 5 years of “normal”use, YMMV. Made of a chunk of aluminum in a unibody enclosure, this is a thing of beauty. Minimal hinges, screws etc… It reminds me of the look of an exotic Italian Motorcycle, smooth, light and powerful. If Ducati made computer externals and BMW’s motorcycle division made the internals/operating systems (durable, low maintenance and easy to use) this would be it. WOW.

Well, I was impressed and wrote a bit more than I planned to. In closing, we all hope that Steve Jobs continues to improve his health. I am glad that he and Apple each made a public statement about this to put any fears to rest. The world would be a lot less of a cool place without him and the great vision he has. We should rightly be impressed with what Phil Schiller brought to the table. We can only wish the best for Apple and their team of engineers and designers. Keep up the great work, you make things that we not only want but need.