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Mac OS X beta was released ten years ago yesterday
Happy (belated) birthday today to Mac OS X. Yes, the OS itself actually released to the public on March 24, 2001 (which means its actual "birthday," in my mind, isn't until next March), but Macworld points out that, on September 13, 2000, Steve gave us the very first peek at the foundation of modern Apple computing at the Apple Expo in Paris. That's ten years ago yesterday -- we never were all that good with remembering birthdays. Macworld lists out the ten most significant contributions of the OS to the Mac experience, but things like the Time Machine and Spotlight are on there, and of course, those weren't introduced until much later. The OS itself was actually announced six days after the year 2000 started, and the Apple Expo announcement was the beta reveal. Steve Jobs had just come back to the company, bringing his NeXT experience with him, and OS X made waves early on for being a Unix-based operating system. The Aqua user interface was the other big feature of the OS right away -- as Jobs said at that first Macworld Expo, "when you saw it you wanted to lick it." Customers found that out immediately: the beta product itself was released in stores for US$29.95. I'm sure we'll have more coverage of the past ten years of OS X as we move forward into next March, but it's pretty amazing to think how far both we and Apple have come over the last ten years already, all the way from OS X to iOS and everywhere in-between.
Apple Expo '08 dates announced, events detailed
The Apple Expo is Europe's Apple conference -- similar to the Macworld expo in the US. Apple Expo '08 has posted details about the expo, including dates for this year's conference: Wednesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 20, in Paris, France.Currently, there are only two iPhone events scheduled out of the over 30 planned events. It is a nice change to see that the iPhone will not "steal the show" in Europe like it does at Apple conferences in the US. You can see all of the details, exhibitors, and scheduled events on the Apple Expo website. As we noted earlier, Apple will not be attending this year's Apple Expo.
Apple: We are attending fewer trade shows each year
Macworld is reporting that Apple will not attend the Apple Expo in France this year. This year's expo is scheduled to take place on September 17 - 20. An Apple spokesperson was quoted by Macworld saying, "Apple is participating in fewer trade shows every year, because often there are better ways for us to reach our customers."Macworld notes that this was the same excuse given by Apple when they decided not to attend the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) tradeshow. Apple has, however, started using their Cupertino campus to host several special announcements including last year's iMac announcement and the recent iPhone SDK announcement.
Where the hell is the 3G iPhone for Europe? We might know.
The only thing more slippery than an iPhoneSIMFree release date has to be the magically, mystical 3G iPhone rumored for Europe. At least with the latter, Apple has been kind enough to drop a few dreggy hints. Add 'em all up and Apple Expo -- kicking off September 25th -- seems to be the prime time for Apple to announce a new flagship 16GB, 3G iPhone. Don't believe it? Check this:
Paris Expo attendance down, but UK MacExpo promises large Apple booth
The Apple Expo in Paris this year saw a drop in attendance from about 56,000 attendees last year down to 46,000. The downward trend from the 2000 Expo, which saw 80,000 attendees is even more dramatic. Even with the drop, however, the Paris Apple Expo still boasts higher numbers than recent Macworld Expos in San Francisco, which hosted less than 40,000 attendees in January 2006. The Paris decline was blamed on Apple's failure to give a keynote speech this year, amongst other things.Both Paris and San Francisco still topple London's MacExpo, which attracts an average of 25,000 visitors a year, hopefully including this year where MacExpo kicks off in two weeks. The show will benefit from a confirmed larger Apple booth than last year as well as a major announcement during the Quark Keynote presentation.If any of you will be attending the MacExpo, don't forget to send us your reports and links to your pics!
iPhone revealed finally?
A number of you have sent in this tip which points to an article in the French newspaper, iGeneration. A rough translation of the French text follows (French speakers: Feel free to "clean up" our translation!):"This morning, anyone with the current edition of '20 minute day' [which appears to be a french magazine] would have found a special 'Apple Expo' Booklet. What do we find in the middle of this booklet? A photograph of what would be the iPhone. It takes on the form of the iPod, and has a 20Gb Hard Drive. Fake or Scoop? We tend to side with the former, but who knows these days?""Fake or scoop" indeed. Reader Simon writes, "I've seen the paper, I live in France. They're covering the Apple Expo and it's a totally real newspaper." Time will tell (though I wish it had a lid, as I'm scratch-phobic).Thanks to everyone who sent this in.Update: False alarm, true believers. Apparantly the image of the phone is a mock-up that was used on the cover of the UK's MacUser magazine. Now I feel better about it not having a flip-lid.
Think Secret's skinny for Apple's September 12th event
Apple rumor mongering is at a fevered pitch with Apple's media event now just days away. Venerable rumor site Think Secret is citing sources calling for that 23-inch, Core 2 Duo iMac we heard about to drop along side 2nd generation iPod nanos. The new nanos, originally expected by TS in August, will be shoved out the door sporting new, multi-colored metalic cases presumably along the line of the now defunct iPod mini. But that's not enough for you is it fanboy? So TS is also calling for the launch of the highly anticipated iTunes Movie Store as well as capacity upgrades for the 5G iPod to store the new flix. No surprise on the bump in disk what with Toshiba already announcing their 40 and 80GB disks and all. Sorry folks, but that touch-screen video iPod just ain't gonna happen next week, according to TS that is.
Apple Expo 2006 registration now open
Apple Expo 2006, the Apple shindig in Paris, has started accepting registration. If you plan on being in Paris between September 12 - 16th you should check it out. I mean, there isn't that much to do in Paris anyway, so you might as well hang out with some other Macheads.Thanks, Nik.
