A quick walk of Macworld.
I wanted to walk the entire floor, and take pictures of cool things along the way, and after two full days here, I have seen maybe 50%. This show is big, and it is crammed full of people.
Digression: As I walked to BART (the local commuter train) last night, I saw two business men standing on Market Street in San Francisco trying to get a cab. One looks at the other and says, “Why can’t we get a cab tonight?” To which the other answers, “It is all these damn Mac geeks.” Made me smile, because there was a long line of cabs at the convention center, just waiting for people to use them and few were. Most of the Mac PEOPLE I saw were walking!
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Nemo’s final 11 photos from Macworld SF 2006.
More observations of the show…and after effects.
I started the morning off with a keynote done by David Pogue, always an entertaining event. Actually, technically it started when my roommate staggered in after last night shindig, mumbled something about drinking too much in overly enunciated english, then passed out. But after I woke up for real, I went down to the Pogue Keynote. The early part of the show was maligning the rumor sites, and how wrong they got things. There was a special place for Jason O’Grady and the PowerPage’s “Apple Plasma Display”, earning him the butt of more than a few jokes. David was showing everyone how to use his Mac OS X Secrets to poison someone else’s machine (let’s call them Jason) with little tricks; like how to take a snapshot of their screen, use it as a desktop pattern, then hiding everything else so while it looked like their machine, they couldn’t click on anything. And other fun stuff. I personally used to like to assign shut-down as one of the users start up items. Good for about 15 minutes of fun. But with Pogue, there were guest speakers, demos, and lots of humor. But there’s only so much fun I can take in the middle of a serious show — so I wandered out about 3/4ths through and got back to the show.
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As is my habit, I get my best kicks at the Expo just rambling around the show floor, watching and listening. Here are some of Weeks’ 2006 MacWorld Expo observations.
The little booths way off in the corner are often the most interesting. These are usually operated by small companies that don’t have the scratch for giant pavilions with sound and light displays, voluptuous booth babes, and dozens of 30″ Cinema Displays. One such company is Rogue Amoeba Software, publishers of Audio HiJack and several other audio-related applications. They demoed Airfoil 2 for me. It’s a neat upgrade to the original Airfoil that let’s you stream music to multiple Airport Expresses simultaneously. Music all over the house, streaming from one computer! Look for a MyMac review in the future.
email Donny@mymac.com
After the keynote, I wanted to run around and see a little more of the show floor. After reading of my complaints about sore aching feet, Owen had taken pity on my plight, and brought gifts. Doctor Shoals foam inserts for my shoes, and scissors to make them fit. While they didn’t turn my loafers into walking shoes, they went a long way to making me hobble less, and feel a little more human – and I’m not looking at walking the floor with quite the dread I had been.
I went booth to booth, in total random order, just looking at whatever products caught my eye. The first one was Garmin, makers of GPS systems – which tied right in with the geocaching article I previously wrote (http://mymac.com/showarticle.php?id=2184), and hobby I’ve been playing with. They are working on porting all their software “before the end of the year”. That’s a great sign – it has been rumored that someone high up in Garmin is an anti-mac-bigot and was actively campaigning against Macs. This seems to show that isn’t true, or that person is gone or has seen the light that another 5-10%+ of the U.S. market could mean.
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Owen and I were stunned into silence by the magnificent sound from Shure’s new prototype highest-end “$10,000 speaker system in your ear” ultra premium $500 in-ear headphones. The Shure VP placed these mighty midgets into Owen’s ear, observed in full-body and ear closeup views.
I had an interview with Kevin Conner, Director of Product Management at Adobe. Do to timing windows, I had 15 minutes. Being the tactful guy that I am, I ask, “So everyone in the world is going to ask this, but I want your canned answer. Why did you make LightRoom directly against Aperture, and how do you think it is better than Apple’s Aperture?”
The guy looked like I had just passed gas in an elevator, loudly. I’m thinking “What, I don’t have a lot of time, and this is of course the most significant question on buyers minds”.
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COMPUTE: MAC by Roger Born, Macworld, 2006
This year, here at the Macworld Expo, I am not taking pictures. Nor am I interviewing vendors or reviewing new products. Present physical limitations have prevented all that. So what am I doing here? I sit in the midst of the milieu, watching and listening to the people here. In the process, I have made astonishing discoveries, which I want to share with you.
Compute: In the history of Man, there have been few all-encompassing discoveries and inventions. These are evident. (1) The control of fire, (2) the invention of the wheel, (3) the screw and the lever; (4) the control of steam which began the Industrial Revolution; (5) the control of electricity; and (6) the computer.
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MyMac Podcast 63
Day 2 of Macworld Expo. Tim and Chad check out the latest Mac news, David K. Every phones in to the show (without meaning to) and we look at the updates to both iLife 06 and iWork 06.
Mac News from MacMinute.com
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Here are some requested pictures of the MyMac.com staff members at the Macworld Expo.
Nemo’s Ten Point Tutorial – 6 – Macworld Expo Survival Guide
What to bring to San Francisco for hours and hours and miles and miles and booths and booths and presentations and presentations during an entire week of Macworld Expo? In rough priority order, here is John’s must have list. We welcome your additions, based upon personal experience. Happy Macworld to all.
1 = REALLY GOOD SHOES. Moscone Center’s basement Expo showroom floor is carpeted throughout, but sturdy, comfortable, loose-fitting shoes with fresh innersoles and padded socks allow you to forget about your feet so your hands and head can pursue total immersion in everything Macintosh from opening bell to closing broom.
2 = EXTRA CARRY BAG with plenty of space and decent shoulder straps. You’ll pick up mountains of handouts, samples, demos, shirts, pens, software, hardware, otherware, younameit. Begin the day with an empty bag or case and it will be loaded by the time you drag it and yourself up and out to the “real” world.
3 = PACKED LUNCH OR PLENTY OF $$$. You’ll become hungry and thirsty mid-morning and late afternoon, so eat! Time loses ordinary meaning within the Macworld Expo. Food is plentiful in variety and quantity, if a bit overpriced, and located in several places in the Expo hall. Water bottle and snack also come in handy.
4 = BUSINESS CARDS, PEN, AND PAD OF PAPER for exchanging contact info and writing down notes for future retrieval.
5 = BRIGHTLY COLORED HAT AND SHIRT OR JACKET so your friends, coworkers, and family members can easily locate you across a crowded exhibit area.
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So here I am, waiting for the show. In a few hours, you’re going to be bombarded with every Mac website (including this one), discussing what was released. But I figured I’d relay a few stories about what it like being at the show, waiting for the release.
First, Pasadena high-society Women have nothing on Mac-Heads in the ways of gossip when it comes to MacWorld and new product announcements. “Oh, John, did you hear what’s going to be released? I heard Marsha tell Sally that Sue’s cousin who works at Apple told him that he read on the Rumor sites, that we’re getting” and so on. It is the talk of the town.
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MyMac Podcast 62 Macworld Expo Day 1
Tim and Chad look at Day 1 of the Macworld Conference and Expo. The five MyMac.com Staffers at the event try and call in via Skype and iChat, but
We announce the winner of the KR-6810M X-Slim Lighted Keyboard from i-Rocks USA.
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Photos from Macworld Expo 06 – Photo Gallery 1
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Specs you really care about? – If you’re a geek
Lots of people will parrot specs — this is more observation. I played with one, asked questions, and just dinked around. Here’s what I found out.
While Apple doesn’t have a party line for battery performance (yet), they will say they are hard at work getting numbers. By yanking the cool new magnetic cord (which takes a lot more force than you’d suspect, and leaps back to position at the slightest opportunity) the new machines said they had about 3:11 of battery life. I thought this was a little less than the current generation of PowerBook. However, I tried on a few Aluminums, and they showed numbers in the high 2′s (2:58 or so). And with the MacBook, the display was brighter (on full), it is far better performing (I couldn’t find a way to disable one-processor while on battery, or other tuning options). Of course that little time menu has never been horribly accurate for me. So I suspect things will get better over time, and the MacBook will outperform the current machines in both speed AND battery life.
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