MacworldExpo
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Daily Update for October 25, 2011
It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world. You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here. No Flash? Click here to listen.
Macworld Expo rebranding as Macworld | iWorld for 2012
In line with the ever-expanding impact of iOS devices and mobile technology on the userbase-formerly-known-as-the-Macintosh-market, the premiere tradeshow for all things Apple will have a new name in 2012. The 27-year-old Macworld Expo event will now be known as Macworld|iWorld: The Ultimate iFanEvent. The branding change acknowledges the reality that iOS is a huge and growing part of the Apple product ecosystem; registration for the January show/conference is open now. Paul Kent, IDG's maven for all things Macworld Expo -- sorry, Macworld|iWorld -- discussed the branding change with the expo's corporate cousins at Macworld magazine. "We want a heavy influence of OS X developers on the show floor this year," Kent said, but the show will be balancing the iOS impact as well as moving outward to re-emphasize the cultural connections to Apple products. Music will play a major role this year, with showcase performances at the Music Experience and expanded evening events outside the core Moscone venue. Film and other creative pursuits will take their turn on center stage as well. IDG is projecting about a 20% growth in total exhibitor count, which is a healthy step up from last year; the 2010 and 2011 shows represented a major downscaling from 2009, which was the last time Apple exhibited at the show. TUAW has been pleased to participate in Macworld Expo over the years, including our live video streaming interviews in 2010 and 2011. We don't know yet if we'll be back with a booth on the show floor for 2012 at MW|iW, but we'll certainly have some sort of presence -- and we look forward to seeing you there. [Any similarity to the name of Apple's short-lived online service, eWorld, is almost certainly unintentional.]
The best Steve Jobs Macworld Expo moments
Apple CEO and tech legend Steve Jobs doesn't present keynotes at Macworld Expo anymore, though he does occasionally rile crowds at WWDC and City Council meetings. Ranker, a website that publishes ranked lists of just about everything, has compiled a list of the top 10 Steve Jobs Macworld Expo moments. Each item on the list includes an accompanying video showing Steve at his best. Number one on the Ranker list is the 2007 Macworld Expo moment when Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world. That is my personal favorite -- I was in the audience and remember having the distinct feeling that the world was about to change. It was such a charged emotional moment that I ended up buying a Nitrozac painting of it that is on the wall in my office and at the top of this post. For those of you who have been Apple fans for a long, long time, what's your favorite Steve Jobs Macworld Expo moment? Leave a comment below.
Dear Apple: Thank you for pulling out of Macworld Expo
It feels weird to be thanking Apple for something it hasn't done, instead of one of the things it actually has done that I am very pleased with. But here goes: thank you, Apple, for finally and officially blowing off Macworld Expo. I attended two Macworld Expos with Apple, both in 2007 and 2008. I got to see the last two Stevenotes, attend a few of the talks and spend a lot of time on the show floor. Those were two big years as Macworld goes, with the iPhone and AppleTV at one and the first MacBook Air at the other. But really, it felt like the expo hall was dominated by Apple the entire time. And the Apple team wasn't really interacting with anyone there. Why should they, anyway? Everyone was there to see what Apple had, and anything else on the floor was just a bonus, right? That's certainly how it seemed. I think it was last year's Macworld wrap-up Talkcast where Mike Rose called it "Benevolent Neglect" of the community, and he nailed it. Apple always took for granted that if it released it, we would come. And we did. And then Apple left. At the end of 2008 it was announced that the company's 2009 Macworld appearance would be its last (which didn't even include Steve, that was a Philnote). Oh noes! What will we do? How can anyone care about a Macworld if there's no appearance by the team behind the Mac? Pretty easily, apparently.
TUAW TV Live: All the Apple news that's fit to cover your iPad
This morning's yawner of a press conference about The Daily was quickly followed by a mad rush to install the new app and review it, but there's a lot of other news to cover today. Today on TUAW TV Live, I'll be picking up where Macworld Expo left off, with live reviews of the ZooGue Version 2 iPad case, TypeCase iPad case, a new and beautiful iSkin iPad case and some iPad cases and an iPad stand from NewerTech. Yep, it looks like this could be the iPad case episode of TUAW TV Live. But wait, there's more! I'll also be reviewing the Mophie Juice Pack Air for iPhone 4, the new Kanex HDMI adapter for mini-Display Port and a few apps for iPad and iPhone. Those LensPen Sidekick iPad screen cleaners? Yes, I'll show you how they work on a smudgy iPad screen. How about the Glif? We'll take a look at it, too. I'm pretty sure that Doc Rock will be joining us in the chat room for commentary about my behavior at some of the Macworld Expo parties (note: I'm always on my best behavior). I'll be getting started at 5 PM ET today, so be sure to point your browser back here to TUAW.com a few minutes ahead of that time to join the chat and start up the livestream.
Happy Fourth Birthday, iPhone!
We've already celebrated the 10th birthday of iTunes today; now it's time to remember the birth of another member of the Apple family. On January 9, 2007, I was one of the lucky folks who was sitting in the chairs at Moscone West in San Francisco, waiting for the Steve Jobs keynote address for Macworld Expo to kick off. The assembled crowd all knew that some sort of Apple phone was going to be announced, and when Jobs finally waved the phone to the crowd, the place went wild. To me, it was one of the most exciting Macworld Expo moments ever, and I actually have a painting by Nitrozac on my wall that commemorates that announcement. For the rest of the show, people flocked around a single rotating cylindrical case containing a prototype iPhone, and on June 29, 2007 a lot of us stood in lines at our local Apple Stores to actually get one in hand. We're now in the fourth generation of the device, which has redefined how a "smartphone" should look and act. The App Store opened about a year later (July 10, 2008) and has not only spawned a crowd of lookalikes, but was the impetus for the Mac App Store launched this week. The youngster has had a few stumbles along the way, but the iPhone is still the phone that everyone else emulates. As of the end of September, 2010, over 73.5 million iPhones had been sold -- that number may be well over 100 million by this point. Check out video of that historic moment we first saw the iPhone four years ago, after the break.
Macworld 2011 to be 30-35 percent larger, host Featured Artists sessions
We're still pre-Thanksgiving, so we have a whole three months of holidays to get through, but it's never too early to start thinking about the next iteration of Macworld. Macworld 2011 is taking place next January 26-29 in San Francisco, and just like last year, TUAW will be there all week long with live streaming video, interviews aplenty, and your inside track on everything going down at the Expo. This week, we prepared by talking to IDG General Manager Paul Kent, who's currently embroiled in a radio station battle of the bands poll with his band The Houserockers, and of course, getting things ready for the big show in January. He let us in on what to expect at the show next year -- hit the break to find out how much bigger he expects things to be, who else is coming, and what he expects attendees to be talking about this time around.
Macworld 2010: TUAW's Best in Show
Our videos are almost all posted, the interviews are all transcribed, and the impressions are all done and published -- we're finally bringing our Macworld 2010 coverage to conclusion. It was a heck of a show -- while there wasn't a lot of attention outside the conference floor from folks expecting more about Apple, on the show floor itself there was clearly an excitement and a sense of opportunity for lots of companies who might have been overshadowed by Apple's presence in the past. It was a smaller show, for sure, but in some ways it was also a better show. We're still not completely sure what will happen next year, but Macworld 2010 was a success -- not as big a success as it was when Apple was putting wind in the sails, but a success nevertheless. We saw a lot of stuff at the show, from dozens of accessories, to the wild Parrot AR.Drone, and even the closest thing to an iPad that we could find. After clicking on the link below, read on to see what a few of our bloggers had to say about the best of what they saw at the show. %Gallery-85255%
Macworld 2010: Steve Shepard of Storyist
Last year we reviewed Storyist, the software for writers. It's a great app that lets you manage all aspects of a writing project, like plot points, research, characters and more. Once you're done writing, you can export to many popular file formats, as well as prepare your document for an editor, for use as a screenplay or even digital distribution. I sat down with Steve Shepard at our Macworld booth to discuss the app, how to get the most out of it, his experiences at the show and finally whether or not he's got any plans for the iPad. Check out the video above to see our conversation.
Drobo is having a "Spirit of Macworld 2010" video contest
If you're an amateur or professional videographer and you'll be attending Macworld Expo 2010 in San Francisco this week, Data Robotics has a contest just for you. Come up with an original video (less than 60 seconds in length) that best captures the spirit of Macworld 2010, submit it to a special Drobo Flickr group by February 19, and you'll have an opportunity to win one of two Drobo S five-drive storage devices (note that non-Pro Flickr users are limited to 2 video uploads per month). The Drobo S connects to your Mac via USB 2.0, Firewire 800, or eSATA, and can be populated with up to five drives for tons of storage. TUAW has reported on the new Drobo S and Drobo Elite devices in the past, and they're a popular storage tool for anyone who needs vast amounts of expandable storage but doesn't want to hassle with administering a RAID array. To find out if you've won the contest after your entry has been made, just follow Data Robotics on Twitter at http://twitter.com/drobo. Full contest rules and instructions can be found here.
Contemplating the uncertain future of Macworld Expo
Jim Dalrymple has been around the Mac community for years, so when he talks, people listen. That's why yesterday's post at Dalrymple's blog, LoopInsight, was so fascinating and got me thinking about whether or not Dalrymple was right in his assertion that things don't look good for the future of Macworld Expo. The post was titled "Macworld Expo 2010: Success story or a disaster waiting to happen," and it outlined the reasons why this year's Expo in San Francisco could very well be the last. Dalrymple begins tolling the death knell with a list of the big names that won't be attending the show this year -- Apple (of course), Adobe, Epson, and Griffin to name a few. He then brings up the fact that with a month to go until the doors open on the Expo, there are only 157 listed exhibitors. Many of those exhibitors are familiar to Apple fans, but then again, there are a lot of small and unknown iPhone developers on the list as well. Dalrymple's point that even the press is turning away from the Expo is more daunting. Without a Steve Jobs keynote to attract the world media, the show seems to be entering its death throes. Less media attention means less attention to exhibitor products, which means fewer exhibitors are going to find it worthwhile to pay the price to display their wares.
Paul Kent gives TUAW the latest news about Macworld 2010
As a Mac-head who has attended the Macworld Expo and Conference on and off since the late 1980s, I met the announcement last December that Apple would no longer attend the event with a big, jaw-breaking yawn. Personally, I never attended Macworld for the Apple display, which was overcrowded and staffed by Apple employees who usually knew less about the new products than I did. The keynotes were usually a highlight, but hard to get into, and without Steve Jobs as the "star," it just wouldn't be the same. My reason for going to Macworld has always been the same; to see great new software or hardware made to work with Apple products, meet with manufacturers and developers, and to enjoy the camaraderie of the large group of buddies I've made at Macworld Expo in the past. So, when I saw that registration for Macworld 2010 had opened, I immediately jumped on the website and signed up. To me, it's a no-brainer to attend the original and only US conference that is all about Apple. Macworld Expo has been around for 25 years, and all indications are that it will continue for as long as the Macintosh and other Apple platforms exist. Yesterday, I talked with Paul Kent, General Manager, Macworld 2010 and Vice President of IDG World Expo, about Macworld 2010 and how preparations are coming along for the show.
Macworld 2010 moves to February
IDG World Expo has just announced the dates for Macworld Expo 2010, shifting the conference's historical January jaunt to February. The Macworld 2010 Conference and Expo will take place in San Francisco from February 9 - 13. When I spoke to Paul Kent, the General Manager for Macworld Expo, earlier this afternoon, he stressed that IDG is answering a call from exhibitors and attendees to move the event to a less stressful time of year. Developers won't have to rush through the holidays to finish up software demos that might not be ready for a few months anyway, and exhibitors won't need to balance the holidays and booth-planning all at once. The date change isn't the only new development: the Expo will run from Thursday February 11 - Saturday February 13 (the conference will run from the 9th - 13th). This means that attendees who are full-time professionals won't have to take off as much time from work. Can't make it on Thursday? Come on Saturday. Paul told me the real goal for Macworld 2010 is to make Macworld about the community. After Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be its last expo, the Mac community (and tech community at large) started speculating about the future of the event. Emerging from all this speculation is an interesting opportunity for Macworld to reinvent itself. IDG announced during Macworld 2009 that Expo-only registration would be free. Already, more than 10,000 people have registered for the 2010 show. Losing the largest show exhibitor does mean that the Expo floor will be scaled down. The Conference will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center West, while the Expo will be in the North Hall (rather than the North and South as in years past). I think scaling the Expo down is a good idea. It's easier to interact with fellow show-goers in one space. In this economy, scaling down just makes sense. Paul emphasized that there will be a real focus on independent software developers. I think this is a good thing and that Macworld has a real opportunity to define itself as not only a Mac community Woodstock, but also as a place for developers to talk, discuss, learn and show-off their wares. With iPhone development as hot as it is, a stronger focus on that audience has real potential.
Rumor: Apple to attend CES in 2010
There's a rumor at AppleInsider today which states that Apple may attend CES next year. In fact, they report that their sources close to Apple have called the move "...a done deal."Why would Apple leave its own party to show up at one that is arguably Microsoft's? Here are a couple of guesses. With the iPhone, iPod, AppleTV, Macs and OS X, Apple seems ready to reinforce its position as a consumer electronics company, and not "...that company that makes iMacs."Also, consider the number of products that Microsoft has featured that never had a life off the stage. Here's Apple's chance to directly contrast such potential offerings with real products that are ready to ship.Of course, this is all conjecture and one blogger's best guesses. We heard rumblings of this rumor last month and the consensus was a clear "No way." Honestly, I still believe that Apple will focus on smaller, Cupertino-based press events, and I'd be surprised if they showed up at CES. But what do I know? I still use a Newton.
2009 Macworld Keynote video available
As usual, Apple has released a Quicktime video of the keynote address from this year's Macworld Expo. This one's rather historic, as well all know. It's simultaneously Phil Schiller's first and Apple's last.Right now it's available as a stream from Apple's website, but it typically shows up in the iTunes Store as a free download shortly thereafter. Be sure to grab a copy and "own a piece of history" as they say. Whoever "they" are.So, what did you think of this year's presentation? We think Phil did a great job and was greeted warmly by the crowd. Sure, a little bit of fanfare would have been nice, but that was Tony Bennet's role, right?
Apple shares slide following keynote
Here's a shocker -- Apple shares slid 0.7 percent (as of this writing) after Phil Schiller concluded the company's last official keyonte address at Macworld Expo. Robert Francello, head of equity trading for Apex Capital hedge fund in San Francisco, blamed "...no true blockbusters" for the market's reaction.With that, we have a large part of why Apple has abandoned the show. Ten or twelve years ago, Apple needed such a high-profile event to get its products noticed by as many people as possible. Additionally, they'd pack as much into those precious 90 minutes as they could, while they had everyone's attention.Today, that's not the case. Phil Schiller noted that 3.4 million customers visit their retail stores per week, worldwide. The "lesser" press events, like the annual September iPod announcement, attract all the attention Apple needs. These are much less expensive to produce and allow Apple to release products when they're ready, not when the calendar reads "January." Therefore, there's no cache of goodies waiting for the Moscone Center, which always disappoints Wall Street and adversely affects Apple's stock price.Sure, it's sad to see Apple go, but the "why" is clear.[Via MacDailyNews]
iPhoto, iMovie guided tours available
With new software from Apple comes new guided tours hosted by clean cut, well-dressed Apple employees in the requisite uniform.The iPhoto guided tour can be found here and features John, whom we've seen in other guided tours. It's a fun way to check out the new features that were demonstrated during the keynote, as well as others that didn't make the presentation.The iMovie tour can be found here, and again features our friend John. We must admit that the animated map is pretty cool, even though we expect it to be heavily abused in the next few months.Additionally, you'll find tutorials for the new versions of iPhoto, iMovie, GarageBand, iWeb and iDVD here. Check them out and decide if you're willing to pay the $79US upgrade fee.
As expected, Apple releases iWork '09 at Macworld Expo
During today's Macworld Keynote Phil Schiller announced the immediate release of iWork '09. We previously reported this was fairly likely given the slip-up over at Apple.com. The updated version of iWork is definitely more evolutionary than revolutionary.KeynoteThe first new feature of Keynote are the "Magic Move" transitions. Essentially, you set up your slides and Keynote automatically animates your objects and moves them from slide-to-slide. Additional text and object transitions have been added as well. For example, the text from one slide can morph into the text on the following slide.The Theme Chooser has been updated as well. It now allows you to easily and quickly view and apply a theme as well. The Theme Chooser also makes it easy to quickly apply a particular slide size. The 3D charts and graphs have been updated as well to include additional textures and new animations. The killer new feature in Keynote is the introduction of the Keynote Remote application for the iPhone or iPod touch. Using Wi-Fi you can view your slide as well as notes on the slide wirelessly from your iPhone or iPod touch. If you rotate your device into a landscape orientation you can view the current slide as well as the next slide. In true touchscreen form you can swipe your finger across the screen to advance to the next slide.Click the read link for more information about iWork '09.For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page. If you missed our liveblog coverage, you can review it here.
New 17-inch MacBook Pro unveiled with integrated battery
In Phil Schiller's keynote speech this morning, Apple announced a new version of the 17-inch MacBook Pro that features a long-life, non-removable battery, thinner profile, and an optional anti-glare screen. The laptop is less than an inch thick, and weighs 6.6 pounds. It features a 2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo process, 6 MB of L2 cache, GeForce 9600M GT video card, and supports up to 8GB of memory. The default configuration with 4GB of memory and a 320GB hard disk ships for the same price as before: $2,799. The 17-inch MacBook Pro now features a non-removable battery with an estimated eight-hour life. The battery will also last for 1,000 cycles, according to the presentation. The battery is 40 percent larger than its predecessor, which allows for a greater charge and better life. The trade off, of course, is the fact that it's not user-replaceable. Apple is touting the new MacBook Pro as among its greenest line of laptops ever. The new battery for this model has three times the life of older MacBooks, lasting up to five years, which for many may be the life of the computer. It also earns an EPEAT Gold rating, and it contains no arsenic, BFR, mercury, and less PVC.
Apple introduces iLife '09 at Macworld Expo
Earlier today at Macworld Expo, Phill Schiller announced that availability of iLife '09. Not a huge surprise, as a few of us guessed we'd see an iLife update today, but it does offer some cool new features.iPhotoiPhoto has been updated with two features called "Faces" and "Places." Faces, as you may have guessed, lets you tag photos by subjects' faces, similar to what Facebook and Picasa have done. iPhoto makes its best guess as to the identity of a subject based on previous tags and asks for confirmation. Of course, Phil called it "..the best technology we've found for face detection."Places allows for geotagging of photos. Some cameras and the 3G iPhone will use GPS information to tag photos on longitude and latitude. iPhoto then organizes those photos by location, or "place." Also, Flickr and Facebook support are built-in. Those without GPS access can retro-tag photos by hand.Other iPhoto features include enhanced slideshows and travel books.Click below to read more about iLife '09Update: Reader Lou purchased iLife '09 today, and says his receipt shows a ship date of Feb. 09.For full Macworld Expo coverage, bookmark the TUAW Macworld Expo 2009 landing page. If you missed our liveblog coverage, you can review it here.
