First-Person: Mac World Expo Unveils New MacBook Air, Pro Tools Demonstrations and IPhone Updates

First-Person: Mac World Expo unveils new MacBook Air, Pro Tools demonstrations and iPhone updates: The Mac World Expo brings out Apple's latest inventions as well as updates to current software to better serve the users of these products. Apple is one of the world's leaders in electronic technology. They brought us the famous Apple computers which now just go by the name of Mac. Just a few short years ago they brought us one of the first digital media players, the iPod. Since the release, they have gone through several updates and upgrades, providing us with the most unique media player on the go. Just this past year, they took the idea of the iPod and jammed it with a cell phone called the iPhone. This year, the powerhouse company revealed a new notebook and some updates for the iPhone.

The iPhone was released in June of 2007. By the end of the year, over 4 million of the powerful little phones had been sold. The iPhone combined a cell phone with a 4GB or 8GB hard drive to store all the user information and music. It was also the first as a touchscreen unit. Several bugs and fixes were needed in the first round of its release. Now at the Mac World Expo, updates and security fixes have been released with the software version 1.1.3.

Security updates to the software have been made. Users will feel safe from hackers with the new updates. What users of the iPhone will also appreciate is the new features such as Google Map Locator and SMS to multiple recipients. Google Map Locator will allow users to use the WiFi or EDGE (GPS) on their device to locate themselves and give them directions to their destination. Not only that, but the device also monitors traffic so iPhone carriers will be free from traffic jams. Common in many regular cell phones, text messaging fans will now be able to send the same message to more than one person, not a feature available with the iPhone's first release. Another new feature to the iPhone is customizable home page icons. Webclips can be taken now as well and can be used to set as the background on the phone. This comes on iTunes as an update and takes about 15 minutes to install. However, if it's not an iPhone and only an iPod Touch, it will cost users a small amount.

Interestingly enough, one of the music industry's leading software designers, Digi Design, brought the world Pro Tools. Pro Tools is used in a majority of recording studios across the globe in various definition levels. Mac World Expo offered a conference on Pro Tools as it is more commonly used on Macintosh computers over PCs because of the reliability of the Mac. Mac notebooks are the most common computers used for digital recording. In the conference, the speaker demonstrated how to use the latest version of Pro Tools in conjunction with hardware peripherals. One of the features stressed is the use of keyboard shortcuts, making the use of Pro Tools easier and more accessible for on the spot recording. One touch recording allows users to quickly access the most common features.

Making news headlines everywhere is the MacBook Air. The ultra thin notebook is only .16 of an inch thin. The MacBook features a full keyboard with a 13 inch LCD screen. One of the most unique features is the touchpad that allows multiple uses. Just like the iPhone, users will be able to use two fingers to scroll through webpages. How was this made possible to be so small? Apple used the same hard drive dimensions as used in the iPod Classic. The conference revealed that the MacBook Air is 50% less space than the traditional MacBook. The price of the notebook is no shocker however. It runs for about $1800 retail, very similar to other comparable Macintosh computer prices.