And so I went to iWork.com and downloaded the 30-day Trial version of iWork ‘09. Installation onto my MacBook took less than a few minutes and I’m off to creating a new presentation for the purpose of this review.

Once I have the presentation ready, it’s time to link my iPod touch with the Keynote ‘09 application. Now, this is where the fun begins. To do this, you’ll need to ensure that both devices (the iPhone or iPod touch) and the Mac must be on the same Wi-Fi network. There are two ways to accomplish this. The most common method is to have both devices connected to the same router, this is the typical setup at most locations. I have both my MacBook and the iPod touch configured to connect to my Airport Express which provides internet access to both devices. The other method to accomplish this is to setup what is called an Ad-Hoc Wi-Fi network. This may be useful if you are traveling and do not have access to a router with which to setup your wireless network. Check out 1Password’s excellent step-by-step instructions here. I am happy to report that both methods actually worked fine for me.

After you have the Wi-Fi connection configured, open up Keynote’s Preferences pane, then select the Remote icon and tick the check box next to Enable iPhone and iPod touch Remotes. Start the Keynote Remote application on your device and proceed to create a link to Keynote. Follow the on-screen instructions. You shall be given a super-secret 4-digit passcode. Click on the Link button next to the device that you want to link to in Keynote’s Preference pane, and proceed to type in your super-secret 4-digit passcode.

Keynote Remote shall now attempt to establish a connection to the Keynote application on the Mac. I had some fun trying to figure out what went wrong here when Keynote Remote threw me an error saying that it “coult not play slideshow”. Rule of thumb when syncing iPhone with an app on the computer: make sure that the connection is not blocked by the firewall. It turns out that this was not the issue in my case. Firewall logs reported that connections are up and established between both Keynote and Keynote Remote.

Upon further investigation, I came to realise that the presentation I loaded is not an ‘actual’ Keynote presentation. I have actually loaded an older iWork Tour keynote which came with iWork ‘08. Well, that’s easy. I copied a few slides from iWork Tour and have them pasted into a new Keynote presentation. Then, I crossed my fingers as I launch Keynote Remote again. Voila, it works and I now have full control of Keynote!

Using Keynote Remote is simple. Just tap on Play Slideshow to begin. However, if you do that from the Keynote Remote app, the slideshow shall begin from whichever slide that is currently being displayed on Keynote’s screen. I’m not sure if this is by design, but it sure helps if the app provides options for this behavior.

Speaking of options, the Settings page within Keynote Remote is simple. It consists of a Keynote Link section to get you started, an Orientation section and a Presenters Note section. Note that Keynote Remote does not make use of the accelerometer to determine the interface’s orientation. You set it here in the Settings page. In portrait mode, the presenter’s note is displayed at the lower portion of the screen, while landscape mode places slides next to each other for easier preview. Presenter’s note are not displayed in landscape mode.

One of the problems I have with Keynote Remote is the speed. Your are allowed to swiftly move to the first slide in your presentation, but you can’t browse slides quickly like how we are able to do so using the Page Up/Page Down key on the computer. Making things worst is the fact that Keynote Remote does not implement any form of caching. Thumbnails of each slide are sent over the air as and when its needed. Both my devices are connected at 54Mbps, but that doesn’t seem to help at all. The swipe to advance feature which was advertised seems sluggish in this sense. Aside to that, your iPhone/iPod touch stays on throughout the duration of the slideshow.

Overall, the app is still in its infancy, iWork ‘09 has just been released a matter of hours ago. I sure hope Apple would fix those problems I mentioned here and perhaps add an extra feature or two, like sound feedback on the iPhone.

Get Keynote Remote from the iTunes Store here. Keynote Remote will only work with iWork ‘09 version of Keynote, so make sure you download the 30-day Trial beforehand.

Rating: 3.5/5.0 Taps

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iLife gets updated and is now known as iLife ‘09. One of the highlighted feature is the ability for iPhoto ‘09 to recognise faces. The photo-management application is also now compatible with Facebook and Flickr.

Meanwhile, iWork gets announced as iWork ‘09 together with a new iPhone/iPod touch application aptly-titled Keynote Remote. The $0.99 app allows remote control of a Keynote presentation. The default landscape mode displays the current and upcoming slide, one on top of the other. Switch to landscape mode and you get your slide and notes side by side. Change slides by simply swiping the screen. Innovate? Yes!

Cloud computing took another step forward with the announcement of Apple’s iWork.com initiative. The site allows users to easily upload, share and edit documents online. iWork.com is scheduled to go life today and will be in Beta testing phase for some time. Apple said that the service will later be offered thru a premium.

On the hardware side of things; we finally see an updated unibody MacBook Pro. Apple claims that the new 17-inch beauty is the world’s thinnest and longest lasting laptop. The device measures only 0.98 inches thick and has battery life of up to 8-hours, thanks to a new battery manufacturing process.

Of more interesting in today’s announcement is iTunes. It took them approximately six years and six-billion songs sold to proof to the world that an online music store is viable despite the high levels of music piracy, but today’s announcement of DRM-free iTunes downloads is more than welcomed. Finally, there’s no need to burn those iTunes-purchased songs onto a CD and then re-rip them with the purpose of stripping the DRM so that they can be played on devices other than the iPod. Apple expects is library of 10 million songs to be completely DRM-free by end of March 2009. Also announced is a new variable pricing of tracks at $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29 each, this shall take place starting April 2009. One more thing: you can now make song purchases from both the iTunes Store on your computer, or via your iPhone/iPod touch over Wi-Fi and the 3G network.

Sources
Mac Rumors – MacRumorsLive’s coverage got hacked half-way thru the keynote
CrunchGear – Live: Phil Schiller’s MacWorld 2009 Keynote
Engadget – Live from the Macworld 2009 Keynote
gdgt live – Live MacWorld 2009 Keynote Coverage

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The report which stemmed from TechCrunch, claims that three independent sources close to Apple told buyers to expect a large screen iPod touch device this coming fall of 2009. The sources claim that the rumored device will sport a 7 or 9 inch screen. One of the sources claimed to have even played around with a prototype build and that Apple is currently sourcing OEMs in Asia to mass produce the device.

I did a rough estimation, the “7 or 9 inch” screen measurement roughly matches most mini-notebooks available in the market currently.

At this moment, no pricing information is available for the device, but speculations seems to point towards a price between the iPhone and Apple’s low-end portable, the MacBook. Expect to see the device having more memory than the current iPod touch offerings, after all, you’ll be doing more than what you are currently using you iPod touch for. Current iPod touch models start at $229 for the 8 GB model, with the 32 GB model catching a $399 premium.

It is understood that Apple has been toying around with the idea of a table device for years now (remember the Newton) but were concerned over the marketability of such a device. Recently, netbooks or mini-notebooks have been quite popular among the PC crowd, which indicates to Apple that the time for such a device has arrived. Also, the device would definitely benefit from the secret recipe of an iTunes App Store with more than ten thousand applications, mobile Safari which rocks, and the Wi-Fi iTunes Store to allow purchase from basically anywhere.

Oh yeah, Macworld is just 6 days away?

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Here’s something to end 2008 with and give 2009 a good headstart. Looks like the iPhone nano could really be real. MacRumors has just spotted that Vaja Cases, a reputable and well-known case maker has just added iPhone nano as part of its offering.

The link from the navigation menu seems to be gone when I checked, but interested shoppers may still sign up to be notified when the cases are released.

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The case company that helped ‘announced’ both the iPhone 3G and 4th-gen iPod Nano to the world before Apple made it official, XSKN, has done it again. Before this, the company’s web site would only list iPhone nano as part of its offering category. The listing however does not link to any concrete detailed product images.

AppleInsider reported that the scene has now changed. The links are now live and points users to case renderings of the iPhone nano. XSKN is also taking pre-orders of the casing for the rumored device. Prices range between $24.95 and $26.95 for cases with different combination of colors.

iDealsChina first revealed that the iPhone nano would see the light of day during MacWorld 2009. That rumor was basically crushed when Apple announced the absence of a Steve-note.

I personally think that the iPhone nano is real. Even David Letterman is talking about it. LOL.

I believe the real device would maintain the same screen resolution as the current iPhone (e.g. 320 x 480), opening up space for an HD version of its big brother, the iPhone 3G. What about you?

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