Keynote 4 Preview? Core Animation?

Brian Peat of Keynoteuser spent some time closely following Steve Jobs' version of the Apple Keynote presentation software during his Macworld Expo Keynote speech and provides a detailed breakdown of possible new features for the next version of Keynote. Interesting potential features include:

- New transitions, possibly Core Animation dependent:

Seeing the new animation makes us think we might have to wait until Leopard ships (remember its got Core Animation) before we see a new version of Keynote.

- Path animation? Several examples of possible Path animation.

This has not been the first time that there have been suggestions that Apple's Keynote and iWork '07 applications may be dependent on Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard and specifically Core Animation.

Apple first announced Core Animation when they previewed Leopard at WWDC 2006:

Using Core Animation, Mac developers can create snazzy animations in their programs using different media types, such as text, 2D graphics, OpenGL renderings, and video, simultaneously. Core Animation dynamically renders these media layers together, complete with transparency effects and Core Image filter and effects. When content changes, Core Animation updates it, automatically.

Core Animation is also used on the Apple iPhone and has been rumored to be utilized in Apple's upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard Finder, which has not yet been revealed. Indeed, Steve Jobs claimed to be holding back several "Top Secret" features of Leopard when it was first previewed at WWDC 2006. Several developers have noted that Apple's Finder has been untouched in all of the public previews of Mac OS X Leopard, suggesting a more substantial refresh will be announced later.