Apple Keynote: New MacBook Air announced

Apple’s most recent keynote address took place this afternoon in Cupertino, California. As expected, Apple announced the new version of the iLife suite, an update to OS X and a new MacBook Air. We’ve got a complete rundown of everything that was announced below.

Here’s a complete list of everything that went down at the event, along with our thoughts:

• The event began with Steve Jobs on stage in his trademark black turtleneck. He welcomed everyone.
• The first topic discussed was how great Apple is. There was bragging about Apple’s market share and how much money the company has made. This is par for the course at Apple events. We get it, Apple. You are a very successful company.
• Next, Steve announced the new iLife suite, called iLife 11. It includes new versions of iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.
• We saw a demo of iPhoto 11. To be honest, the demo was pretty boring. There aren’t really any new features that are worth mentioning. It’s now easier to e-mail photos and there are some new slideshow effects. Meh.
• Next, we got to see a demo of the new version of iMovie. Again, nothing revolutionary to report. The most interesting new feature is the ability to create movie trailers. Just what we need on Youtube… more crappy home-made movie trailers.
• The announcement of GarageBand 11 was next. Some new features that can help your home recordings sound less horrible, but anyone who’s serious about recording music wouldn’t be using GarageBand in the first place.
• Steve announces that iLife 11 will come free with every new Mac and is a $49 for current Mac users.
• Next, Steve announces that FaceTime is coming to the Mac. Mac users will be able to make video calls to iPhones and iPod Touches. We see a quick. Looks cool. The beta release of FaceTime for Mac comes out today.
• Next, Steve announces the “entree for today.” It’s a sneak peak of the next release of Mac OS X. This will be the 8th update to Apple’s popular operating system. It’s called ‘Lion‘. Lion will include some of the features that are popular in iOS (the iPhone/iPad operating system).
• Steve says that there isn’t time to show us all the new features of Lion (uh, Steve, you could have shaved about 10 minutes off of that boring iPhoto demo). He says we can see a sneak peak of a few of the new features, though.
• Lion will be the first Mac OS to have an App Store. There will be free and paid apps. Apps will download, install and update automatically. This could be big. There’s really no longer any reason to go to the store to buy software.
• Steve tells us about Mission Control, a combination of features like Spaces, Expose and the Dashboard. Only very serious Mac users are likely to be excited about this.
• Steve says that Lion won’t be available until next summer. Wow, that’s a long wait.
• Steve says there’s one more thing. There’s always one more thing.
• Steve: “What would happen if a MacBook met an iPad?”
• The result is the new MacBook Air. “One of the most amazing things we’ve ever created… We think it’s the future of notebooks.” The MacBook air will have great battery life, solid state storage and it will be “amazingly thin” and light.
• At its thickest point, the MacBook air is 0.68 inches thick. It weighs only 2.9 pounds. It has an aluminum unibody construction, though, so it should be durable.
• There will be a 13.3 inch version of the Air and also an 11.6 inch version. Even the smaller version can display more pixels than the current MacBook Pro.
• The Air has no optical drive and no hard drive. It has a solid state drive, which means is has “instant on” and is faster overall. It’s also quieter.
• The 11-inch MacBook Air with 64 GB of storage will sell for $999. The most expensive Air is the 13-inch model with 256 GB, which will sell for $1599. Both are on sale as of today.

It wouldn’t really be fair to call this event a disappointment, but it certainly lacked the luster of recent Apple events. Most people knew what was going to be announced and we got exactly what we expected. We didn’t get the announcement of a brand new device like the iPad or a massive update to an existing product like the iPhone 4. The big surprise at the end (and I use that term with tongue in cheek) wasn’t a surprise to anyone. That said, it was still and Apple keynote event and should satisfy all the Apple fanboys.