The 2010 rendition of the Macworld Expo kicked off in San Francisco today, although this time without a major Apple presence. The annual five-day event will showcase hundreds of Mac products and services, expert advice, and demonstrations — but this year mobile apps may steal the show.
According to expo organizers, Macworld 2010 is hosting the largest viewing of applications for Apple’s iPhone and iPod touch. Attendees can test-drive more than 100 of the hottest apps from companies like TomTom, Tap 11, and BeeJive.
Apple Launches Aperture 3
Although Apple won’t be exhibiting at Macworld 2010, the company released a major product update in time to leverage the expo buzz. This announcement comes, in addition of course, to Apple’s recent iPad launch, which has been generating buzz for several weeks now.
Today’s announcement focuses on Aperture 3, the latest version of Apple’s photo-editing and management software. Apple said the new version has more than 200 new features, including Faces, Places and Brushes.
The Faces feature uses face detection and recognition to find and organize photos by the people in them. Consumers can view faces across an entire photo library or just the faces that appear in selected projects. Aperture 3 also displays faces that have been detected but not yet named.
The Places capability lets users explore photos based on where they were taken, and like iPhoto, Places automatically reverse-geocodes GPS data into user-friendly locations. In Aperture 3, consumers can assign locations by dragging and dropping photos onto a map or by using location information from GPS-enabled cameras, tracking devices, or iPhone photos.
Aperture 3 also includes new tools to refine photos, including brushes for painting image adjustments onto parts of a photo and adjustment presets for applying professional photo effects with a single click. A new slideshow function lets consumers share their…