Apple Intros Mac App Store, New MacBook Airs, iLife 11, OS X Lion

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Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage today to announce the new iLife ’11 software suite, FaceTime availability for Mac users, Apple’s upcoming operating system “OS X Lion,” and new 13.3- and 11.6-inch models of Apple’s ultraportable MacBook Air notebooks. Here’s a look at what’s new.

iLife ’11

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Apple has updated its iLife suite with new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, and more. It’ll be included for free with every new Mac or you can upgrade for $49. It’s available today.

iPhoto ’11 sports new full screen modes, Facebook enhancements, easier e-mailing of photos, enhanced slideshows, and new “Faces” and “Places” views.

Places view looks pretty cool. It brings up a map of a city or other geographic area full of pushpins representing photos you’ve taken with a camera featuring built-in geotagging (like the iPhone and most camera phones). You can then play an automated slideshow that zooms in on a particular photo, then flies out to an overhead view of the map before zooming back in on the next photo wherever it’s been tagged on the map.

The iPhoto info panel will let you share a particular photo via e-mail and several social networks or photo-sharing services and will even display comments left by your friends as they’re pulled in from your various social networking sites.

You can also create “Letterpress” cards, which are basically fancy embossed greeting cards with your photos added.

iMovie ’11 touts all new audio editing features, new audio effects, enhanced slow-motion controls, and a simple movie trailer maker that intelligently cuts your video footage together by asking you to provide certain shots to preset storyboards. The feature leverages the face recognition technology in iPhoto to automatically determine close-ups, group shots, action shots, and more.

GarageBand ’11 now features “Groove Matching” to intelligently match several audio tracks to one particular rhythm track. It’s “kind of like an automatic spell checker for bad rhythm,” according to Apple. A bunch of new guitar and piano lessons have been added, too, along with a play-along feature that lets you play a song on piano or guitar in real time to improve your accuracy. It’s kind of like Guitar Hero or Rock Band in real life.

FaceTime

Apple’s FaceTime video chatting feature that was introduced with the iPhone 4 is now available to Mac users. You can videoconference between iPhone 4, iPod Touch, and Mac computers. The beta version is available today.

Mac OS X Lion

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Mac OS X Lion will take popular features found in the iPad and integrate them into full Mac computers. Specifically, the iPad features multi-touch gestures, the App Store, home screens, full-screen applications, auto-saving applications, and applications that automatically resume where you left off.

Apple wants to bring these features “back to the Mac,” referring to the idea that Mac OS X was the basis for iOS (found on the iPhone and iPad).

Multi-touch will be possible using Apple’s new-ish Magic Trackpad. We won’t see touchscreen Apple computers.

The Mac App Store will be coming to Mac computers as well. It won’t contain all of the same apps found in the mobile app store, per se, but they’ll be as easy to download and install. They’ll also be useable on any Apple computers you own and will automatically update themselves. This is a mind-numbingly simple, yet ingenious idea. “We’ve taken everything users love about the iPad and brought it to the Mac,” says Apple.

There’s a new LaunchPad feature that shows all of your icons in a boxed grid like they’re arranged on an iOS device. You’re able to swipe left and right using the Magic Mouse or Magic Trackpad to switch home screens.

Many apps will now be available in full-screen, as well. You can toggle between open full-screen apps and your desktop using multi-touch flicks.

Mac OS X Lion won’t be available until Summer 2011, but the Mac App Store will be open for the current version of OS X within 90 days.

One More Thing – New 13.3- and 11.6-inch MacBook Air

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“What would happen if a MacBook and an iPad hooked up?” wonders Steve Jobs. It’s the new MacBook Air.

It’s 0.68 inches thick at its thickest and tapers down to 0.11 inches at its thinnest, with a weight of 2.9 pounds. It features Apple’s unibody construction and sports a full-size keyboard and trackpad. The screen is 13.3-inches and features a whopping 1440×900 resolution. There’s also an Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 320m graphics, no optical drive, and no hard drive.

The new MacBook Air will use solid-state flash memory, which means 7-hour battery life using Wi-Fi and 30 days of standby time. It’ll also feature instant-on startup, as well.

Apple is also rolling out an 11.6-inch version weighing 2.3 pounds. It’s got the same specs as the 13.3-inch version, but with a 1366×768-resolution screen. Battery life is five hours while using Wi-Fi, with 30 days of standby.

The 11.6-inch MacBook Air will start at $999 for 64GB of storage. All models include 2GB of RAM and all are available today.

More on Techland: What to Expect From Apple’s ‘Back to the Mac’ Event Today

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