Apple’s Mac computers will soon have their very own App Store.
The store will open up in 90 days’ time, with developers able to start submitting apps from November.
Jobs also offered a “sneak peek” of where Apple is taking Mac OS X. It will be called Mac OS Lion, and arrive next summer.
Our plan is to release Lion this summer, summer 2011, and we are on schedule for that and feeling real good about it
“We started with Mac OS X, and created from it a version called iOS, which we used on the iPhone… and is now used in the iPad as well,” Jobs said. “What we’d like to do is bring some of those innovations back to the Mac.”
The Mac OS X App Store will be compatible with both Snow Leopard and Lion, and will offer full-screen applications and an app management system called Launchpad.
Multitouch support
The next Mac OS X version will also support multitouch. “Touch surfaces don’t want to be vertical,” he said. “It doesn’t work, it’s ergonomically terrible.” Because of that, multitouch input will be with laptop trackpads and Apple’s Magic Mouse.
Furthermore, Apple is creating a new system called Mission Control, which will let users manage everything that’s running in one clear view. FaceTime, the video conferencing system that arrived on the iPhone 4, is also being extended to the Mac. The beta is available today.
“Our plan is to release Lion this summer, summer 2011, and we are on schedule for that and feeling real good about it,” Jobs said.
iLife update
In a flurry of new software announcements, Apple has also upgraded iLife to version 11, showing off new features in iPhoto, iMovie and GarageBand.
While it’s free with new Macs, upgrading from a previous version will cost $49. It’s available from today.
iPhoto has a new full-screen mode, improved photo book creation tools, new slideshow themes and interfaces to find people by face or place, and the software now pulls photos and comments in from Flickr and Facebook.
It also offers a clever new “postcard” tool to email photo sets to friends and family from within iPhoto without having to attach them one by one.
iMovie gets more powerful audio editing and effects tools, one-click video effects, and themes to easily make movie trailer-style clips, complete with cast listings and background music, out of home movies. “We think people are going to have tons of fun,” Jobs said.
GarageBand, includes more amps, effects and tools, as well as lessons built in for guitar an piano.
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