Although it has been available in a beta version for the past several weeks, BlackBerry Desktop Manager 2.0 for Mac had yet to be given an official release date by maker Research In Motion… that is, until today. RIM has made version 2.0 of its desktop suite for Mac official. The update brings with it Wi-Fi music syncing, a new device switch wizard, and the ability to import and sync both photos and videos with iPhoto and iTunes. Desktop Manager 2.0 clocks in at just north of 40MB and is available as we type. Hit the read link to download the new goodies.

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iOS 4 has been available to the masses for only three hours, but we’ve already received a rash of bug complaints from early adopters. According to several of our readers, all photos synced to their device through iPhoto have been down-sampled so much that they’re now very, very blurry. We’ve tested this out on a few devices and have noticed the same thing. Anyone else suffering from this issues?

Thanks, Keon!

Over the past few days we’ve been playing around the latest beta release of Microsoft Office for Mac 2011. Many of the changes made are hard to appreciate without actually seeing the application suite in use, and for that reason alone we have assembled a massive gallery of screenshots. On the other hand, images can be meaningless without a bit of an explanation so we’ve put down a brief summary of our initial thoughts. You can check them all out after the jump.

Across the board, each application has had its UI completely overhauled as Microsoft has made the wise decision to redo the entire layout of the application suite. Instead of the awful configuration found in Office for Mac 2008, 2011 draws from both Office 2007 and Office 2010 for Windows. In fact, it did such a good job that we can’t think of a reason why someone who is used to one OS wouldn’t be able to jump into the other and get work done in Office. One of the main reasons for this is Ribbons. Microsoft has finally conceded that people don’t like using the attractive but horribly implemented Toolbox found in previous versions of Office for Mac. Yes, the option to use the Toolbox is still there, but it’s no longer nearly impossible to get away without using it. One nice thing we will say about the Toolbox is that if you’re heavily into incorporating multimedia into your documents, the Toolbox is now fully integrated with iPhoto, iTunes, Photo Booth and Garage Band. It works phenomenally well. Speaking of things working, Excel finally has working support for macros. We can’t even tell you how happy this makes nerds like us. But back to Ribbons. They just make life so much easier. Basically every option you could ever want to use is attractively presented to you through the ribbons. What this does is allow you to save yourself an awful lot of time navigating the menu bar, hence why Microsoft calls the Ribbon a “Fluent User Interface”.

Sadly there is a pretty big weak link in Office 2011: Outlook. It seems that Microsoft simply sacrificed brains for beauty. Don’t get us wrong. It’s definitely the best and most powerful email client we’ve ever used on OS X, but after using it for 10 minutes we honestly gave up on it. Why? Because it simply requires more work to get simple tasks done than on the Windows version. It sucks to say it, but given the choice between using the new Outlook for Mac and virtualizing Outlook for Windows, we’d go with the latter any day. We’ve got more that 50 screenshots lined up for your eyes to feast upon, so check them out, ok?

Click on over to our Microsoft Office for Mac 2011 gallery!

Mac users will be happy to learn that Apple is making iLife ’09 available, after what seemed forever since it was announced, beginning tomorrow. We’ve already covered the new features found in the updated bundle so we won’t go through it again but suffice it to say this is a pretty significant upgrade for each of the three applications in the pack. To recap pricing, iLife ’09 will be free with new computers purchased tomorrow or later. An upgrade for current Mac owners will run $79 for a single computer or $99 for a “Family Pack” good on five computers. Users who purchased a new Mac on or after January 6, 2009 should note that an “iLife Up-To-Date upgrade” can be had for a $10 shipping and handling fee. There will also be a Mac Box Set available, which includes iLife ’09, iWork ’09 and Leopard 10.5.6 for $169. Lastly, GarageBand ’09 Artist Lessons will be available for $5 a pop.

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Phil Schiller might not be wearing a black turtle neck but he’s still got some goods to dish this morning at the Macorld keynote. To kick things off, Schiller introduced a new version of iLife – iLife ’09. He showed off a newly updated version of iPhoto, featuring new “Faces” technology that will organize your photos of people, by name, using facial recognition! Select a photo and name a person once, then Faces will identify that person each time you add a new photo of him or her. Then there’s “Places”, which sorts photos according to where they were taken according to geotags. The UI features a map (street or satellite views) with pins representing the location of each photo in an album. Don’t worry if your camera doesn’t support geotagging of course, as you’ll be able to add locations manually within the UI.

iPhoto ’09 also has built in support for album syncing with both Facebook and Flickr. In fact, if people tag photos you upload in Facebook, that data will be synced back to your Mac so the info can be viewed locally! Very smooth Apple, very smooth. Other new features include themes, which allow you to add visual themes to slide shows that include backgrounds and even custom transitions. Slide shows can also be added to iTunes and synced to your iPhone or iPod. Another interesting addition is Travel Books, which allow you to create a cool-looking scrap book out of a series of photos.

Next up is iMovie ’09 which definitely offers some cool new features. Image stabilization for one – because not everyone has Hollywood-worthy filming skills. There is also a new precision editor interface, a bunch of cool video effects and a user friendly drag and drop update that allows you to simply drop a clip on a specific point and have the video inserted instantly. Apple also added video themes with some very nifty 3D effects that will be very fun to play with. The new ’09 version of iMovie is definitely more advanced than the ’08 version but it also seems well-designed to the point where even novice users will be able to take full advantage of its functionality.

Now we come to GarageBand ’09 – with a noteworthy new feature called “Learn to Play”. Think of it as a private music instructor that provides personal lessons, at your pace, in an effort to teach you how to play your instrument of choice. Did they include the bassoon in there? There is also an “Artist Lessons” feature which showcases various artists, such as John Fogerty and Sting, who help teach you how to play their songs.

The complete package will still ship for free on new Macs starting in late January and an upgrade can be purchased by existing customers for $79, or $99 for an upgrade good on five computers. Nice start Apple, we definitely didn’t see that one coming. Let’s see what Cupertino has lined up next…

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