Nemo Thursday MWSF 2005 report from the Expo floor and beyond
10:00 — Timbuk2 (bag and case company)
http://www.timbuk2.com
Owen Rubin was running a little late, so I had a few minutes by myself with CEO Mark Dwight, a very upbeat fellow with loads of experience at Kensington, Cisco, and elsewhere. I gave Mark a hard time regarding the ridges on the round handle of my Detour combo bag (carry / shoulder / backpack). He promises to improve this in a future model.
We talked about shoulder straps, and how they need integrated pads. Other details of my very familiar Detour were discussed, each time with a promise to fix the annoyance. We agreed to continue the interview after lunch, when both Mark and Owen would be available.
10:30 — Dantz Retrospect (backup software)
http://www.dantz.com
EMC, a multi-billion-dollar enterprise complete storage management corporation, recently purchased Dantz. Owen and I each have reviewed their Retrospect Backup application in the past. Pat and Julie from EMC/Dantz guaranteed that Retro will endure. It’s currently in version 6.0 and an update will appear soon after Mac OS X Tiger 10.4 arrives mid-2005.
Owen is concerned with the heavy-duty use of Retro, and I’m interested in the single user aspect. We four talked at length about how Maxtor and other external drive companies bundle an Express edition of Retrospect that isn’t sold separately, and how much or how little ordinary folks should be involved in deciding what and when to back up their precious data.
EMC has acquired nineteen different companies for “end to end” storage, and their Dantz division wants MyMac.com and the rest of us MacPersons to maintain interest. Owen is considering an online tutorial on our site to help newcomers become comfy with the backup experience, and get a flying start, not just on Retrospect.
11:00 — Shure (audio products)
http://www.shure.com
Owen wasn’t really interested at first, but did he ever change his tune once we were with Kevin, National Sales Manager, for five minutes. Shure has two high-performance affordable mobile phone headsets (one with a boom microphone) that include noise-cancel earpiece and noise-reducing microphones. A worthy description is difficult, but Owen claims that in the noisy Moscone South Hall his wife on the other end of the conversation could only hear what Owen and Kevin were saying, and nothing from the awful crowd hubbub. Owen could hear her perfectly. He was sold on the boom model.
I was next, auditioning the two most expensive earbuds-with-earclips-style audio headphones in my life. Listening both to quiet and loud music from my iPod (I’m glad I brought it to Macworld!) the audio quality was excellent and the ambient noise was minimal. Not really different from hearing first-rate car speakers while driving at speed.
I’m not going to bore you with the specifications, because you can obtain them from the Shure web site. Just remember the concepts of high-end, high-definition drivers, and a two-year full warranty, plus stereo sound isolation and splendid audio quality, and you’re using sound judgment when considering Shure equipment. We’ll have review units soon for our personal evaluations, to be reported here in MyMac.com
11:30 — Lunch break and discussion, including:
• Don’t bother with Shure, because other companies, including at least two competitors here at Macworld, produce better budphones for less cost. Hmm. Have to investigate.
• A full range of accessories for iMac Mini are being created on every continent, to be appearing at an Apple retail store near you quicker than you can say whazzat. Thingamabobs for rack-mounting and much more will deliver many novel uses for these little silver boxes.
• Internet and email security stinks, even (especially) here at Macworld / Moscone Center. Without encryption, plenty of proprietary material is being transmitted, ripe for potential interception. Be careful what you write and where you click, because someone you hope never to meet may be watching your every move. How scary.
12:30 — Timbuk2 (again)
http://www.timbuk2.com
Owen picked up where I left off, giving the bouncy Mark Dwight some pointers on the 17” shoulder bag Owen has used for a full year. Strap needs pad. Little pocket should be here. Why not this, and you should that. Mark took notes and maintained his momentum, then showed us the latest TB2 product line: attractive quilted laptop sleeves, improved Classic Messenger bag with new 15” PowerBook sleeve ($90); top-loading 15” zip brief with accordion sides (sounds like men’s underwear, but it’s not — cost $100); true computer purse with tapered sides, padded all around, flower power fabric inside, for 12 or 15 inch computers, has iPod pocket inset, good shoulder handles (cost $80).
What really drives Mark and Timbuk2 is their quest for practical design. He and they recently sponsored a design major college student all the way to production and Apple Store availability. Her particular product is for home-grown discoPodders, who carry two iPods, full-sized headphones and accessories for disco jam sessions. Visit their web site for info on this Digital DJ and all their products.
1:00 — ThatPack (yes, another pack company)
http://www.thatpack.com
Dean is bursting out of his skin with enthusiasm for his emerging family of high-end computer and camera packs. On one single case you have wheels and handle for rolling around an airport, plus stowaway shoulder straps, and molded plastic grab handle. Owen’s quest for the perfect bag may (or may not) end with one of these “don’t leave home without it” cases, as may my search for a camera bag that can fit any and all equipment, then roll, lift, or shoulder its way around the globe. Review units will be available soon.
**Oh, by the way, in our companion photos from Macworld there are pictures of almost all of the items we’re discussing in our Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday written reports. Let us know if you can’t figure out which photo goes with which company, because captions are not given most of the time. We’ll try to provide them for MWSF 2006.**
2:00 — Prosoft Engineering (data utility company)
http://www.prosofteng.com
Gordon and Jen are coming to Tucson for a live presentation at my local user group, TMUG. They’ll bring copies of all their data recovery and other utilities, including the newest, Drive Genie.
I was with David Casseres and not Owen during this preview at the bustling Prosoft booth. The highlight was a meeting with the New Zealander who is lead software engineer for Drive Genie, which claims to be Norton Utilities, Tech Tool Pro, Disk Warrior, and Listerine mouthwash all in one. Jen handed each of us a review copy, so MyMac.com has no excuses for not giving it a run through. You’ll hear more from us as we look into the Prosoft catalog this year. MyMac.com applauds their persistence and courage in entering such a well-stocked existing market.
2:30 — Sybex Publishers
http://www.sybex.com
I needed to get caught up with Dan, associate publisher, and Rodney, their PR staff member. This doesn’t matter much to you readers, but Sybex appeared from an invisible dot on the horizon three years ago to enter the Mac and graphics book market, and now they are highly-regarded. Dan, Rodney, and I fine-tuned our strategy for getting Sybex books reviewed in a timely manner, agreeing that capsule commentaries delivered soon are better than long dissertations that take forever to post.
You can wake up again now, because the rest of our long conversation will remain off camera.
3:00 — Sonos (audio equipment)
http://www.sonos.com
This company makes an expensive contraption that wirelessly delivers top-quality audio sound to speakers located everywhere in your house. My appointment was brief, and I’ll need to return tomorrow for photos and a better description, because both the presenter, Morgan, and I were running low on energy by this time in a long day. To be continued, but you can go to their web site for some additional info.
3:30 — Intuit (financial management software)
Owen is an expert on Quicken, and I’m familiar with Turbo Tax. A loud band was giving a concert twenty feet away, so I made arrangements to obtain TTax for review here in MyMac.com, and Owen remained to discuss Quicken and QuickBooks with Peggy. Hoping Owen reports on his meeting.
That was my last formal appointment of the day, so at MyMac.com publisher Tim Robertson’s request I spent an hour taking photos of new products and people learning about them, all to be posted early on Friday (I hope).
Along the way I met briefly with the following companies, while doing the photography:
• Rain Design (beautiful computer furniture and accessories, including a laptop portable padded stand reviewed by David Weeks)
• Power Support and Bridgewell Associates and Tunewear and a couple other iPod accessory vendors
• Pressure Drop (computer stands containing combo FireWire and USB hubs)
• STM (“luggage for the global digerati” pack and case company — yes, another one!)
• Hoodman (glare-reducing visual accessories)
• Fujitsu Ten (groovy speakers for iPod and computers)
and several more I won’t remember until I see their photos on our site.
Okay. It’s late now on Thursday night and I need some rest before the final Friday fracas. I have some uncensored thoughts on the present and the future of Macworld and the world of Mac, that I hope to write before MWSF 2007! Let us know if we’re on the right track while it’s fresh in your mind, to assist in planning our coverage of future Expos.
See you Friday bright and early. My only two formal appointments are with I.R.I.S (booth 1644) and Altec Lansing (2149).
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