Back to Mac: A review to recent Apple event

Recently Apple held another medium sized event to introduce their new line of products. As a Mac user, I am very excited since the rumors Apple was going to introduce a new MacBook line. Well actually they did, but not as what I expected. Honestly the whole event was a yawning contest for me. Its damn boring!

First of all, they started the event with iLife 11 demos. As an iLife user, Im kinda excited about this one. I use Garage Band a lot and sometimes I use iWeb. But the demo was really really boring. The new features is more like a new downloadable package instead of new usability. Yes it makes your videos looks cooler than movie trailers, but do people really need that? The iMovie demo was all about making a trailer from your holiday video. Its basically do this do that and BAM!, theres your trailers. Is it cool? Yes. But Im not sure I want a trailer for my holiday movie. And its definitely not professional movie trailer. That kind of feature also made in Garage Band where the software automatically align your beat. Okay this one is pretty neat. But still I wish they put a better user interface.

iLife 11: Because your holiday movie need a cinematic trailer 

The second part is the OS X Lion introduction. Not much shown here. Even the OS X GUI hasn't made any progress. They only introduce a new expose feature (which is combination of old ones) and Apple Store on the Mac ala IOS. Considering the launch date is Summer 2011, I wont put a judgement on this.

What disappoint me more is the hardware lineup only introduce new lighter Macbook Air. There are no hardware improvement: it still use Intel C2D, 2-4 GB Memory. The three main improvement is the SSD in all Macbook Air, nVidia 320M, and more pixel on the screen. As a graphic programmer, those specs are less than what I needed even for everyday use. The only advancement from the current Macbook Air is the Graphic Card. I was expecting for them to introduce new Macbook Pro with better hardware, but no, they stick to Macbook Air only. And oh, the shape is uglier than ever.

The new MacBook Air. ugh, just ugly!

Those three are the main point of the whole event. What I'm worried about is Apple seems to pay less attention to heavy-performance user such as artist, scientific visualization or graphic programmer. These three is the most loyal Apple consumer in the engineering section. But Apple hasn't treat them well recently. The last Mac Pro update wasn't even have an event as it used to be. So does the Macbook Pro lineup. You'll notice the update when the site changes.

I've been an Apple user since 5 years ago. But this behavior concerns me a lot. Does it means Apple does not pay any attention to the engineering section? Does Apple give up to do a head to head fight against Microsoft hardware lineup? Do I have to stick to Apple hardware as a graphic programmer? Apple is so ignorant these days to respond the Macbook Pro user, thanks to behemoth sales of iPhone. But I hope they wont give up entirely on heavy performance user. There are still a market down there that needs a working-out-of-the-box computer.