Apple's Macworld Surprise Is the Software

Apple's Macworld Surprise Is the Software - News and Analysis by PC Magazine

"Apple senior vice president Phil Schiller kicked off the Macworld show Tuesday with a keynote focusing on a new 17-inch Macbook Pro that looked quite good, along with new versions of iLife and iWork.

Unlike the rumors, there was no new Mac Mini announced. But what may get the most attention may be the changes to iTunes, with new prices and lots more songs offered without DRM.

Schiller started by talking about iLife 09, and in particular, iPhoto 09, which adds both Faces and Places. The first is a new face detection feature, which lets you tag a person's face in a photo, and then the program will try to find other photos with that have the face. Schiller noted that no face detection algorithm is perfect, and that's certainly been true on the web sites and other programs that have offered similar features. The trick will be seeing how well it works in real practice."