Phil Schiller, the SVP of Marketing at Apple, filled in for Jobs. He began by presenting a lot of new software applications that would soon become available to Mac users: iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09.

Let’s start with the applications included in iLife ‘09. The new version of iPhone features Facial Recognition, which will automatically scan through your entire library and tag people in each image once you assign a name to a face. Users will then have the ability to browse through their photos by “Faces” to find every instance that a person appears throughout your entire photo gallery. iPhoto will now also support Geo-tagging, which will take coordinates from GPS enabled imaging devices such as the  iPhone (or Blackberry Storm) and assigns locations to where they were taken. A built-in interactive mapping tool, based on Google Maps, will allow browsing through your photos by locating them as pinpoints on a map. Finally users will also have instant way of uploading images directly to Facebook or Flickr. Tagged faces will be tagged on Facebook while Geo-tagged images will be noted on Flickr. iMovie ‘09 and GarageBand ‘09 also received upgrades which add new functionality. iLife ‘09 will be included on all new Macs, but if you have an older machine it will become available for $79 this month.

Next up was iWork ‘09. Keynote ‘09 now offers the ability to create advance transition effects with simple commands.  The program will be able to support displaying 3D graphs and charts. A new iPhone and iPod Touch application will also become available for 99 cents, turning your portable device into a remote control. Unlike a standard clicker, the application will display presenter notes and slides, which many speakers may soon adore. Pages ’09 and Numbers ‘09 also received upgrades. Apple also announced iWork.com, which allows users to easily upload and share their documents online with others. iWork ‘09 is now available for $79 in retail stores; however it will only run you $49 if you buy it at the time you purchase a new Mac.

Last but not least was the new 17-inch MacBook Pro. When Apple released the new 13-inch MacBook and the 15-inch MacBook Pro late last year, the 17-inch model was left in the dark with the old body. Today Apple refreshed the design giving the 17-inch MacBook Pro the new single piece aluminum body that its smaller siblings share. Most notable about this monstrous machine might be the fact that Apple claims a whopping eight hour battery life. And the unit isn’t too bulky either. It retains .98-inches thick body throughout and weighs about 6.6 pounds making it both the thinnest and lightest 17-inch notebook on the market. The unit is loaded with a LED-backlit 1920×1080 resolution display, now offered in glossy and matte. Also has the newly introduced large glass Multi-Touch trackpad, which clicks. It can be configured with Intel latest Core 2 Duo processor running at 2.93 GHz, up to 8GB of DDR3 RAM, and either a 320GB 7200RPM HDD or a 256GB SSD. And just like the 15-inch MacBook Pro, it comes with both the NVIDIA GeForce 9400M and 9600GT for either saving battery life or for high performance, respectively. It all sounds great, but I personally don’t know too many people who are willing to spend $2,799, which is the starting price. But if you happen to be interested, units will begin to ship at the end of this month. Apple has already begun taking pre-orders.

Finally Schiller announced the new variable pricing scheme on iTunes. Previously all songs were priced at 99-cents; with the new scheme, songs will be available for download for as low as 67-cents, the standard 99-cent price, or for as high as $1.29 cents. Although Schiller claims more songs will become available at the lower price than the higher, time will show whether this will be beneficial to everyone. And as a bonus, Apple will begin to turn 8 million of its 10 million songs DRM Free, by the end of March. Those who wish to upgrade to the DRM Free tracks will have the ability to do so by paying 30 cents per song or 30% of the album price. I’m personally glad to see this day finally coming!

Overall, the entire Keynote seemed to be bummer. Other than the software, there’s wasn’t much that would excite the average Apple Fan or consumer. Unless you’ll planning on buying a notebook for nearly three grand, of course. Either way, CES in Las Vegas gets kicked off tomorrow with Press Day. Skatter Tech will be on the ground with coverage, so stick around!

Links: Apple.com | iLife 09 | iWork 09 | MacBook Pro 17-inch

Realtime Technologies
The folks over at RTT are using Nvidia graphics technologies to create real-time raytracing models of prototype cars. Jen-Hsun invited Peter Stevenson, COO of RTT, on stage to show us a live demo of a new prototype Lamborghini model. The car apparently costs over a million dollars and only 20 will become available worldwide. Changes to the virtual model can be made in real-time and is intricate enough to detail every single internal component of the vehicle, not just the exterior looks. The high quality details of the interior leather, stitching, and materials was quite impressive. Nike, for example, was able to save a couple million dollars using Nvidia to create virtual prototypes of shoes.

Nurien Software (MMO)
Next, Nvidia’s CEO introduced Taehoon Kim, co-founder of Nurien, who introduced a new Massive Multi-player Online game which is going to be released soon. It was pretty much Sims, but on steroids. (Lots of Steroids.) The game could render people in real time, simulate life-like movements, and looks damn good. Another neat feature that they mentioned was the ability to choose real videos to be playing on TV screens or uploaded photos on photo frames in virtual homes, so other players who enter your area will be able to see all of your personalized content since every component of the game is networked.

SportsVision
If you watch Football or paid any attention to the 2008 Olympics, you probably have noticed a lot of virtual graphics being added to the arena. For example in the swimming events, a line is overlaid on the screen to show the time that the contestants would need to beat to reach a world record. The graphics was added without harming the view of the athletes and this was done using GPUs to calculate fluid movement around objects. NASCAR is using Sportsvision technology to display the effects of drafting.

Photosynth
A new product Microsoft just launched a couple of days ago allows stitching multiple photos together in a virtual environment. It automatically creates reference points from objects in images and can put them together, the more photos the better. Joshua Edwards from Microsoft Live Labs previewed some samples of the Stonehenge in the U.K. and the National Archive building in D.C. in impressive detail. The best part is that anyone can create these high quality 360 virtual views of an area with just a digital camera.

Perceptive Pixel
Jeff Han stepped on stage to demonstrate the next generation user interfaces. Perceptive Pixel has taken UI graphics to the next level. He used a whopping 100-inch multi-touch display to demonstrate some stuff you can’t do with a mouse. Although he expects first practical applications to be for the military and high-end design, he expects simpler versions to reach consumers soon. And it already has with touch screen devices such as the Apple iPhone.

The Ending
I started making my way back to the expo hall, but Tricia Helfer, an actress, who’s on Battlestar Galactica and Burn Notice, was speaking about how virtual characters play a role in television. Nvidia plays a huge roll to make much of the graphics we see in Hollywood films actually be rendered and put on the big screen. It was Nvidia’s and the CEO’s first time hosting such a large event. It went pretty well and looks like it was success so far. I’ll be on the show floor covering some of the new stuff that’s being shown off. So keep checking back for more Nvision 08 content over the next two days!

Links: Nvision 2008 | Nvidia.com