Thursday, October 28, 2004
Don't look now, but here comes Keynote 2.0
Well, Tuesday sure did have its share of new Apple products: iPod Photo, the U2 iPod, even iPod socks. So which of the new Apple products unveiled at Tuesday's event will I likely be buying next?
Keynote 2.0, of course.
Yeah, you read that right.
You probably know the back-story about how Keynote came into existence by now. Steve Jobs wanted something better than PowerPoint to use for making his own keynote presentations at events such as MacWorld Expo, so he had Apple's software engineers cook up something that took advantage of the Mac's inherent strengths and put PowerPoint to seventeen kinds of shame. And then in early 2002, Apple decided to release the software to the Mac-using general public, under the rather self-evident title of "Keynote."
It turned out that Keynote was so good, so powerful, so easy, so cool, so intuitive, that it was equally at home in the hands of a CEO making a worldwide presenation, or a team of fifth graders integrating technology into their latest classroom project. So it's been more than a little disappointing that Keynote has seen little more than minor updates in the twenty-two months since its release. Far from orphaned, it's still the most powerful tool on the Mac today, but just how long can you wait for a new version? Especially when this much intelligence and potential was already present with the initial release.
I'm afraid that I haven't personally had the opportunity to watch the QuickTimes stream of Tuesday's event yet, but Mac blogger Les Posen has, and sure enough, he saw Steve Jobs manage to unveil Keynote 2.0 without even once so much as mentioning the product's name or the fact that it was a new product. So how did old Steve manage to pull that off? Well, remember the part about Steve Jobs using Keynote during his own keynote addresses? Yeah, now you get it.
Les actually managed to capture still frames of some of the new Keynote effects and transitions, and has posted the pics on his site, and something tells me that cool new effects just barely scratch the surface. Just can't wait.
You know, I've been saying for awhile now that I wanted to write a book about all the ways in which I've managed to "mis-use" Keynote in ways that have nothing at all to do with making presentations, but with my luck, Keynote 2.0 would be released the day after I shipped the book. For that reason I decided to put off even beginning to pen the book until after Keynote 2.0 was finally in my hands.
Well, it looks like perhaps I'll soon get the chance to start on that book after all. As much as I'd love to see the software released within the next few weeks, my guess is that Keynote 2.0 will be "officially" announced at MacWorld Expo San Francisco in January, and will be available shortly thereafter.
Guess I'd better start looking for a publisher ;)
Well, Tuesday sure did have its share of new Apple products: iPod Photo, the U2 iPod, even iPod socks. So which of the new Apple products unveiled at Tuesday's event will I likely be buying next?
Keynote 2.0, of course.
Yeah, you read that right.
You probably know the back-story about how Keynote came into existence by now. Steve Jobs wanted something better than PowerPoint to use for making his own keynote presentations at events such as MacWorld Expo, so he had Apple's software engineers cook up something that took advantage of the Mac's inherent strengths and put PowerPoint to seventeen kinds of shame. And then in early 2002, Apple decided to release the software to the Mac-using general public, under the rather self-evident title of "Keynote."
It turned out that Keynote was so good, so powerful, so easy, so cool, so intuitive, that it was equally at home in the hands of a CEO making a worldwide presenation, or a team of fifth graders integrating technology into their latest classroom project. So it's been more than a little disappointing that Keynote has seen little more than minor updates in the twenty-two months since its release. Far from orphaned, it's still the most powerful tool on the Mac today, but just how long can you wait for a new version? Especially when this much intelligence and potential was already present with the initial release.
I'm afraid that I haven't personally had the opportunity to watch the QuickTimes stream of Tuesday's event yet, but Mac blogger Les Posen has, and sure enough, he saw Steve Jobs manage to unveil Keynote 2.0 without even once so much as mentioning the product's name or the fact that it was a new product. So how did old Steve manage to pull that off? Well, remember the part about Steve Jobs using Keynote during his own keynote addresses? Yeah, now you get it.
Les actually managed to capture still frames of some of the new Keynote effects and transitions, and has posted the pics on his site, and something tells me that cool new effects just barely scratch the surface. Just can't wait.
You know, I've been saying for awhile now that I wanted to write a book about all the ways in which I've managed to "mis-use" Keynote in ways that have nothing at all to do with making presentations, but with my luck, Keynote 2.0 would be released the day after I shipped the book. For that reason I decided to put off even beginning to pen the book until after Keynote 2.0 was finally in my hands.
Well, it looks like perhaps I'll soon get the chance to start on that book after all. As much as I'd love to see the software released within the next few weeks, my guess is that Keynote 2.0 will be "officially" announced at MacWorld Expo San Francisco in January, and will be available shortly thereafter.
Guess I'd better start looking for a publisher ;)
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