The keynote given by Steve jobs at this year's MacWorld in San Francisco gave us great products once again. While I feel that it wasn't up to the caliber of recent keynotes, it was still a great show. If you haven't seen it yet, you can always watch the recorded version here. Now, onto the announcements.

The first thing Steve did was give yet another demo of Mac OS X. He showed the same effects we saw many times before, but this time he really acknowledged the power of 100,000 plus beta testers. Due to huge amounts of complaints, Apple has moved the Apple Menu back to the left side of the menu bar, and made it so it will act just like the current Apple menu. It's about time. Having a non-functional Apple symbol in the middle of the menu bar was worthless.

Moreover, Steve displayed how the toolbars are now fully customizable, and the dock has contextual menus. These are some great modifications. Now, if only we could get the control strip back. Oh, and now there is a definite shipping date for OS X, March 24, and will cost $129. Click here for more information.

Steve gave way to a represenative from Alias|Wavefront to show us a demo of their upcoming release for Mac OS X, Maya. This software is used for awesome 3D. Every winner of an Academy Award for special effts used this software. It is really something to behold. As the guy said "Maya is to 3D, what Photoshop is to 2D." Click here for more information.

The G4

Then, Mr. Jobs moved on to the new G4's. Starting at 466 MHz, and going up to 733 MHz, these are some of the fastest Mac to date. Now with a 133 MHz System bus, 4 PCI slots, Rage 128 or nVidia Graphics cards in the 4x AGP slot, and CD-RW drives in every configuration. Plus, the 533 MHz model will be available with two CPUs if you like. Click here for specs.

Superdisk Drive

Not to mention the new Superdrive. This new drive (which retails at $5000 according to Steve) will be included with every 733 MHz G4. This drive reads CDs, DVDs, Writes CDs, and even Writes DVDs. This is one sweet drive! Plus, how you burn CDs with it is just like using a floppy. Pop it in, open it up, and drag files to it. When you eject it, the files will be burnt in. VERY cool!

iTunes

Next, Steve got to Apple's newest focus: Audio. For download FREE from here is a new software package called iTunes. It will play MP3s, burn CDs, RIP MP3s, and has more features than your average MP3 player. This thing is very sleek, and will be an instant hit with Mac users around the world.

After that, Steve showed off another new software package called iDVD. With it, you can easily create your own DVDs. With drag and drop capabilities, and easy to edit EVERYTHING, this is one cool package. Plus, Apple will be selling DVD writable media for a ground breaking $10/disk. Also, when used in conjunction with the Superdrive, it will burn DVDs that are playable in commercial DVD players. Something no PC to date can do. Click here for more information.

The Powerbook G4

"But wait, there's more!" Finally, at the end of the show, Apple unveiled it's new Powerbook G4. This thing comes in 400 MHz and 500 MHz variations, with a 15.2" screen, DVD drive, full sized keyboard, and fits up to 1 GB of RAM. All this in a VERY VERY small package. In fact, the Powerbook G4 it only 1 inch think, and weighs only 5.3 lbs! On top of everything, it's made out of the very strong, yet lightweight metal Titanium! Click here for specs.

However, there is one thing I discovered that Steve never said a thing about. A free update to Mac OS 9.1 has been posted. This update is featured by some as one of the most stable, fastest, sleekest update to come out of Apple. I don't have any idea why Steve wouldn't even mention it, but it's here at last. You can download it from here.

This keynote left out any mention of the Cube, iMac, or iBook, so now starts the wait until July, when Steve will probably announce updates of this other great hardware. But for now, I think we are all satisfied. Time to check out those pictures :)