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

If you are an iPhone owner and you have not already heard, a major update (v1.1.3) became available last Tuesday during MacWorld. The update brings many anticipated features such as the ability to SMS multiple people at once and watch iTunes Rental Movies. The upgrade added an easier interface for bookmarking web pages through the Safari browser and the ability to add shortcuts to websites called “web clips” to home screen. The home screen also got a bit of a makeover, now allowing icons to be re-arranged and moved to multiple pages.

“iPhone doesn’t stand still—we’re making it better and better all the time,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We’ve delighted millions of users with this revolutionary and magical product and it’s great to share these improvements with them.”

The most notable upgrade is probably the Maps application. The iPhone can now utilize cell phone tower data to triangulate your exact location. We tested this feature a few times, but unfortunately it didn’t function as well as I had hoped for it to perform. In most scenarios the best it could do was to narrow down my location the the city I was in. In reality it wouldn’t be of much help. Hopefully it will do a better job when it’s used in areas with stronger cell phone signals. Another neat addition to the Maps was the new “hybrid” view feature which will display satellite images with a overlay of street names.

If you’ve got an iPhone and you would like to upgrade it, just connect it to a machine running the latest version of iTunes (v7.6) and press “Check for Updates” on the iPhone page. It should download a file about 150MB in size and then install the new firmware. It took us over 10 minutes to update our unit. Although it was successful, the installer wasn’t very clear about what was going on during certain points. Just be sure not to disconnect your iPhone if it is taking too long since that could brick the unit. Anyways if you have an iPhone spend a few minutes “upgrading” since it’s got quite a few neat features.

Links: Apple iTunes | Apple iPhone

There’s been a lot of stereo bluetooth headsets being released over the past few weeks, especially since many phones now support the technology. I had a chance to play with iSkin’s CERULEAN F1 Bluetooth Earphones this week at MacWorld. iSkin’s gizmo can be paired with both an iPod and a Cell Phone at once, allowing you to listen to music and answer calls without removing your earphones. To offer further freedom, the F1 has volume, playback, and answer/end controls embedded in the headset. The earphones will pair with any device such as laptop which has Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support. The headset weighs just 35 grams yet has a fairly powerful 15mm driver for crisp and clear sound. According to iSkin the earphones will work up to 33 feet away from your device and with the built in controls, you won’t even have to touch your iPod. The CERULEAN F1 should also work with VOIP application such as Skype, eliminating the need of multiple bluetooth devices for different devices.

The headset offers 6 hours of music playback and 10 hours of talk time. The gizmo can be charged using USB cable with a computer or with an included DC wall charger. Both the Cerulean F1 and the TX iPod Adapter are available for purchase from iSkin’s website (iSkin.com). The earphones themselves cost $129, however if you would also want an iPod adapter it will cost $189. We’re trying to get a hold of one of these, so check back for a in-depth review soon!

Links: iSkin CERULEAN | iSkin Store

Although the iPod Touch features just about all the hardware components that the iPhone has, except for the cellular chip, but despite this it lacks many essential applications. Fortunately Steve Jobs came to the rescue yesterday when he announced a major software update which would bring Mail, Maps, Stocks, Weather and Notes to the iPod Touch, brining on par with the iPhone. In addition the upgrade will also include some of the features that were added to the iPhone upgrade such as web clippings, customizable homepages, and iTunes movie rentals support. Unfortunately the upgrade isn’t free as previous firmwares have been. Newly purchased devices will have the upgrade pre-installed, however current owners will need to pay $19.99 to get the extra features.

“These amazing new mobile applications make iPod touch not only the best iPod, but the best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With its revolutionary touch interface and software, plus its stunning 3.5 inch screen, iPod touch is evolving into the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform of the 21st century.”

With the new Mail app and a WiFi connection, you now can check your POP3 or IMAP email accounts to read and compose messages. The Maps feature can now track your location using an IP Trace via a WiFi Hotspot and offers a Hybrid view to see Satellite Images and Street Names at the same time. And rental movies purchased from iTunes will transfer to your iPod Touch, but will retain the same 30-day retention and 24-hour limit after playback begins. This is a good improvement, but it should have already been in the iPod Touch when it was first released. Secondly the fact that they are charging $20 for the upgrade is even more annoying. Especially since newly purchased units with the upgrade will retain the same price. If you just purchased your unit and it is still eligible for return try to see if the Apple Store will offer the software upgrade for free, if they don’t agree return the unit and get another one.

Links: Apple iPod Touch | What’s New

We’re at the Keynote and here’s what is happening:

9:15 am – Leopard sales reach 5 million. (20% of Mac users have upgraded!)

9:20 am – Time Capsul announced for backing up computer via Time Machine. The device is a new AirPort Extreme with a HDD. Available in 500GB and 1TB for $299 and $499, respectively.

9:30 am – iPhone SDK in February. iPhone with GPS location. Custom main menu.

9:45 am – iTunes Movie Rentals. Works on Mac/Win and iPhone/iPods. $3.99 for New Movies and $2.99 for Older Movies. 30-day Retention on Movie, but 24-hour limit once playback begins.

9:50 am – High Definition movies for $4.99 via iTunes Movie Rentals. (5.1 Surround Sound!)

Note: Sorry for the delay, we are experiencing difficulty with our servers.

- iPod Touch gets iPhone apps such as Maps, Mail, Notes, Stocks, and Weather.

- Apple TV price reduced to just $229.

Around 10:00 am – Steve Jobs announces the MacBook Air! 13″ LED backlit display. “World’s Thinnest Laptop,” which is .16-inches to .76-inches thick. Huge Multi-Touch touch pad. Magnetic MagSafe charger. Monitor output via microDVI adapter. WiFi 802.11a/b/g/n and Bluetooth 2.0 + EDR. 80GB HDD or 64GB SSD. 5 hour long battery life! 2GB RAM Standard. Looks like one USB port and external CD/DVD reader+writer. We’ll get pictures of the unit posted ASAP.

Update: Watch the full Steve Jobs Keynote Here

Skatter Tech will be in San Fransisco tomorrow covering the MacWorld 2008 Keynote and Expo! Check back throughout the day to find out what Apple launches and for live pictures of their new products.

Links: Apple.com | MacWorld Expo

After about three years of rumors and thousands of mock ups of an Apple Phone, the iPhone has finally been announced. Apple’s “reinvented phone” features a wide screen display, full iPod functions, touch controls, email client, web browser, and much more. The new device is more of a powerful smart-phone rather than a regular cell phone.

“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” Steve Jobs, Apple CEO.

No More Keyboard:
Apple has eliminated the entire idea of a solid QWERTY keyboard, which appear on phones such as the RIM Blackberry and Palm Treo. According to their ideology, keyboards are a waste of space when not in use. To solve the issue they have replaced it with a touch sensitive virtual smart keyboard. The onscreen keyboard will appear while composing SMS messages, emails, chatting, or performing similar actions.

Visual VoiceMail:
Apple has “reinvented” voicemail as we know it. With the iPhone and Cingular service, Visual Voicemail will allow viewing messages in a list (similar to an email inbox) rather than having to call up a server and skip through multiple messages. With a click, any selected message can be played back instantly and can be paused/rewinded/forwarded like a song.

iPod Features:
The iPhone has “built-in iPod” which utilizes a 3.5-inch widescreen display. The unit is controlled using completely touch-sensitive controls. A new “scrolling” method is used to browse through lists of songs, albums, artists, or playlists. In addition to music, the iPhone supports playback of TV shows, movies (widescreen), audio books, podcasts (video and audio), and viewing photos. A cool feature it includes is the Cover Flow effect which appears while playing music, which was introduced into iTunes 7.0.

Syncing Content:
The iPhone includes a 30pin standard iPod connector. Data can be transferred between the phone and the unit using a standard USB cable. The iPhone will continue to use iTunes (probably v7.1) to manage music, video, and photos, in addition to phone book contacts and calendar.

Communications:
Unlike most smart phones, the iPhone features a full rich HTML email client. The unit can fetch email in the background using POP3 or IMAP services. It is already known to support Microsoft Exchange, Apple Mail, AOL, and Gmail for sure. In addition to mail, the unit features an advance Safari browser and can view regular web pages rather than having to visit special mobile websites. All web communications can be performed using either a local WiFi network or Cingular’s EDGE service.

Google Services:
After making a deal with Google, the Apple iPhone will include a variety of Google services built into the phone. A portable edition of Google Maps will be included on the phone and will offer maps, directions, traffic, and even satellite images. Google can also be found as the default search engine for their web browser. More services will be announced later.

Pricing & Release Date:
According to Apple, the phone will be available in 2 models: 4GB and 8GB. The units will retail for $499 and $599, respectively, with a Cingular contract. The phone will be available in Apple’s and Cingular’s online and retail stores sometime in June 2007.

Other Specs:

• Provider: Cingular (quad-band GSM)
• Software: Apple OS X (cut down)
• Battery Life: 5hrs Talktime / 16hrs Music
• Camera / Camcorder: 2.0 megapixels
• Storage Space: 4GB or 8GB
• Screen: 3.5″ 320×480 pixels at 160ppi
• Wireless: WiFi 802.11b/g & Bluetooth v2.0
• Weight: 4.8 oz | Price: $499/$599

Other Announcements:
Apple also made a few other announcements yesterday in addition to the iPhone. The Apple TV, originally named iTV, was announced for launch in February 2007 for $299. The AppleTV features a 40GB hard drive, WiFi 802.llb/g/n, and HDMI 720p support. The purpose of the unit is to easily bring content from Macs or PCs to home TVs. With a Apple TV plugged in, you can access downloaded movies, music, photos, and more. Apple also stated that the reached a record setting 2 Billion Songs sold on iTunes since it first opened. A new deal with Paramount will bring add 150 movies to the iTunes Store. Finally, Apple Computers has changed their name to simply “Apple” because they are no longer just in the computer market.

Links: Apple iPhone | Apple TV
iPhone Demos: iPod | Phone | Internet | Specs

2006 was an amazing year for Skatter Tech. I thought I’d let everyone know some interesting statistics about our site. Last year alone, we had about 1.12 Million visitors from all 193 internationally recognized countries in the world. The most popular Operating System is still Windows XP and Internet Explorer is still the most popular browser. About 80% of our readers are now using Cable or DSL, while 8% are still on Dial-Up. There are many more interesting statistics below such as popular ISPs, Keywords, Screen Resolutions and so on… (P.S. The data provided is not 100% accurate!)

Total Visitors for 2006: 1.12 Million
Average Per Day: 2,100
Countries Visited From: 195 (thats all of them!)

Popular Posts:
1) Stream iTunes To PSP
2) Soda Machine Hack
3) Russell Peters Video
4) Motorola KRZR Review
5) Sony Pocket Station
6) How To Block Fasterfox
7) Royale Theme For XP
8) LG VX9900 Review

Top Web Browsers:
1) Internet Explorer – 55%
2) Mozilla Firefox – 36%
3) Apple Safari – 5%
4) Opera – 2%

Popular Operating Systems:
1) Windows – 90%
2) Macintosh – 7%
3) Linux – 2%

Network Connection Type:
1) Cable/DSL – 79%
2) DialUP – 8%
3) Others – 12%

Geographical Location:
1) USA – 56%
2) Canada – 10%
3) U.K. – 10%
4) Australia – 4%
5) Remaining 20%: Singapore, Germany, Netherlands, India, France, Sweden and so on…

Referring Source:
1) Google.com
2) Direct Access (skattertech.com)
3) Digg.com
4) Yahoo.com
5) CollegeHumor.com

Top Search Keywords:
1) PSP
2) KRZR
3) Fasterfox
4) iTunes
5) enV

Top Internet Service Providers:
1) Comcast – 9.5%
2) SBC – 5.6%
3) Verizon – 4.5%
4) Road Runner – 3.9%
5) Other ISPs – approx. 74%

Screen Resolutions:
1) 1024×768 – 46%
2) 1280×1024 – 19%
3) 1280×800 – 7%
4) 800×600 – 6%

For the past few months we have been running off our new new servers hosted by MediaTemple and the results have been extremely satisfying compared to 1and1. If you haven’t already done so take a look at our new “Tag Browsing” feature,the new Skatter Tech Mobile, and our Message Boards. We’d also like to let everyone know that we will be getting new authors soon, therefore increasing the content on our site. Also check back next week as we will have heavy duty MacWorld 2007 Coverage.

And Finally, Happy New Year!

Apple first announced the MacBook Pro in MacWorld in early January this year. This laptop was the first computer from Apple to be using an Intel Processor (Core Duo). The first two models Apple released offered either a 1.67 or a 1.83 GHz processor. The new faster model, which is now available on the Apple Store, has a 2.0 GHz processor. Apple also allows upgrading the 2.0 GHz processor to a 2.16 GHz processor for an additional $300. The 1.67 GHz model has been replaced with the 1.83 GHz model at no additional cost. Many will soon be upset with Apple for releasing a new MacBook Pro so fast and even before most pre-orders have even been shipped. Apple also stated that they would upgrade all the 1.67 GHz models that have not yet been shipped to a 1.83 GHz processor. More news should be released soon, so check back for updates.

Update: MacBook Pros are actually suppose to start to ship this week!

Links: Apple MacBook Pro | Buy at Apple Store
Related: Apple Announces 1GB iPod Nano