macworld07
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The Keynote boom count
We all know that Steve has a few words that are bound to crop up in his Keynotes, and other presentations. Automatic, great, and revolutionary are likely contenders but his favorite word seems to be 'boom' as evidenced by this video.Some enterprising Mac users set up Boomcounter.org to track the Jobsian exclamation. The tally for this year's Macworld keynote was 15 (to put that in context for WWDC it was 9, and Macworld 2006 clocked in at 17).Boom away, Steve, boom away.[via Micro Persuasion]
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with David Pogue
Continuing our Macworld Mac Moment series, I talk (more or less) to Macworld fave, New York Times' tech columnist and "Missing Manual" author David Pogue. I ask him "three" versioned questions about iPhone, the AppleTV and, of course, the surprising lack of Mac product announcements during the keynote. (He actually got to touch the iPhone. It's worth watching the interview just so you can say "I watched an interview with someone who actually touched the iPhone." Seriously.) Click here to avoid the flash player and download the original format (.mp4) version.
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with Leo Laporte, Part 2
We continue our conversation with Leo Laporte from the press room at Macworld. Today Leo and I discuss the iPhone, the Apple TV, and if Apple is still a computer company. For those of you who hate the Netscape player (you know who you are) here are links to the iPod ready version, and the full quality QuickTime file (which, oddly enough, is the largest file but looks the best. Funny how that works).Stay tuned for our final segment tomorrow, where Leo answers your questions.
Pen-it Bluetooth Digital Pen
Okay, this is just plain cool. Watching MacBreak 59 I came across the Pen-it from Hitachi Maxell. I suggest you watch the video (the segment starts about 6:35), but basically it's an ink pen with built-in Bluetooth. When you use it to write on special paper (which has been pre-printed with literally millions of little dots), it records your strokes for later wireless upload to your Mac. Apparently the pen has a tiny camera which makes this possible. The Pen-it NOTES application on the Mac then retrieves your scribbles as vector data(!) which can be saved or further edited on the Mac. Of course, as Merlin Mann notes, this locks you into their paper, and they don't say exactly how much it will cost. It is also not clear whether this is compatible with Apple's Inkwell technology. Since this is a brand new product for the Mac (though a PC version has been available for a while), their website is rather incomplete. However, they are running a special promotion for Macworld with a $100-off coupon, bringing the price down to $199 for the pen (and USB charger), one notebook, and the software. It appears that this is the same technology (from Anoto) behind Logitech's io2 Digital Writing System, but it's not clear at all whether the Logitech pen (which is Windows only), would actually be compatible. (If it is, three 128 page notebooks of the Logitech pen's paper sells for about $12.)
TUAW Show Floor Showoff: OWC's ModBook
There wasn't too much that was truly new and exciting on the Macworld Expo showfloor this year. Don't get me wrong, there was a ton of neat stuff but nothing huge. Nothing that is, other than the ModBook. We've covered it before, and now we have a video tour of the hottest item (other than the iPhone) on the showfloor. A little birdie tells me that OWC got lots of preorders for this baby, and I know their booth was packed for most of the Expo.Update: Some folks are complaining about the Netscape player, and the video quality. For all of these videos, if you head over to the Netscape page you can download the video in iPod format, or the original uploaded version. Here is the iPod version, and here is the original version (.mov) of this particular interview.
TUAW tours the Apple Company Store
David Chartier and I made the obligatory pilgrimage to Cupertino this week to snag some Apple swag for ourselves, friends, family and potentially even for you - to win in a future contest. We've posted some Company Store and generic campus pics in the gallery for your enjoyment. So... enjoy!
Start planning now for Macworld Expo 2008
The Stevenote was barely over on Tuesday and already the sign for next year's Macworld was up in the lobby of Moscone South. For the first time in years, Macworld Expo in San Francisco will not overlap with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Vegas. Macworld 2008 will take place January 14-18 2008, while CES is the prior week, January 7-10, 2008. I'm sure this has more to do with the fact that Apple is firmly a consumer electronics company itself now and will probably have a significant presence at both shows, and less to do with making Tech bloggers lives easier, but we'll take it however we can get it!So who is going to make the first Countdown to Macworld 2008 widget?
What camera is in the iPhone?
Everyone is speculating about what makes the iPhone tick, but one person is wondering about a feature Steve mentioned but didn't demo: the camera. Al-Manazir is trying to figure out what lens is being used in the iPhone, and with some impressive deductive reasoning has has narrowed it down to Micron and Largan. The only way we'll know for sure if when someone cracks open an iPhone for the first time.
Yahoo! Messenger sneak peek
There was a time when Yahoo! Messenger on OS X, well, sucked. That time has long since passed thanks to the great Mac focused team that Yahoo! has created (the Mac team may be small, but they are passionate). I was able to sit down with Matthew Skyrm, Director of Product Management for Yahoo! Messenger, and take a look at what Yahoo! is cooking up for the next beta. It looks good folks, really good.The UI won't be changing too much, but it will be modified to allow for some new features: Tabs - this one is huge. We all know tabs, and the team decided to go with the classic one IM window with tabs on the bottom. If you close the window, it only closes the Tab that you are currently in (which is a nice touch). Voice chat support - one of the most highly requested features it would seem. You can make free computer to computer calls and you can even call phones (and have a phone number associated with your Yahoo! Messenger) thanks to Yahoo! Voice. A new notifications section - one of the nice things about Yahoo! Messenger is that you can IM someone who isn't online and they'll get that IM when they sign on. Sadly, that means if you haven't been online in a while you can face an onslaught of windows when you start up Messenger. Tabs remedy this somewhat, but the good folks at Yahoo! went one step further and create a new section in Messenger that will show you, in your buddy list, any IMs you might have missed. You will find your voice mail here, yes you will be able to get voice mail on Yahoo! Messenger. Archiving - finally the next beta will offer a way for you to archive your messages, and not just in an ugly text file. It is clear that the team spent some serious time on the UI for the archives, and it shows. The archives also offer full Spotlight integration so now you can search your IMs just as easily as you can search the rest of your Mac. I tried to get a firm date for the release of this beta, but that Matthew is cagey. He told me to expect it sometime in the next several months because he would 'rather be vague than late.' Fair enough. This beta of Yahoo! Messenger is looking to be a very compelling upgrade, my only complaint is that I didn't get one bit of Yahoo! swag. Perhaps next Macworld.
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with Jacqui Cheng
I sat down with Infinite Loop's Jacqui Cheng, one of our most hated rivals (I kid, I kid). Jacqui tells us about her encounter with Woz, her thoughts about the iPhone, and Apple TV. See? We Apple bloggers are one big happy family (though TUAW is totally better than Infinite Loop).
Prosoft Engineering gives sneak peek of Jax for iPod
Prosoft Engineering, makers of some popular Mac utilities like Data Rescue and Drive Genius, are getting ready to introduce something a little different than their flagship products. It's called Jax for iPod and it's expected to ship next month. I stopped by their Macworld booth for a preview and, unfortunately, left almost as confused about the product as I was before I got there. Not to mention, struck by how similar the Jax icon is to a certain iPhone carrier's logo. Jax for iPod is difficult to describe. Not just for me - the press release and the people at the booth also failed the "elevator pitch." But I'll try to sum it up. It's an iPod/iTunes utility with a myriad of modules (er... Jaks, as they call them) that do a little bit of everything. Jax includes some new iTunes visualizers, a song lyric downloader, and an album art importer. It also allows you to sync up various bit of information with your iPod, such as directions, weather forecasts, stock quotes, movie listings, even local gas prices! It can sync RSS feeds, the contents of your email and your text documents in iPod notes format and play them back to you as spoken word tracks if you want. In addition, Jax allows you to download directly from YouTube and Google Video to your iPod, without going through another converter first. Jax features are upgradeable and many more plug-ins will be available for free as time goes on. What I saw at the booth was an unfinished product, so it's hard to really judge until I get a full copy for review, but all of the Jaks are controlled through a menu in iTunes and the whole interface and concept reminds me a lot of Sherlock or Watson with all the different channels. That's what makes it so hard for me to grasp why I'd want it - it's doing too much. It seems to be trying to give my iPod a lot of PDA functionality, and make it a more versatile video viewer and feed me quickly-outdated information on stocks, weather and gas prices. Oh yeah, and give my iTunes some new visualizers. So far, I can't say I find the premise of Jax very appealing, and I can't help but wonder why they'd create this single app that serves so many different purposes, but I'll reserve further judgment until I see the finished product in February.
TUAW Video: A Mac Moment with Leo Laporte, Part 1
Here is part one of a three part discussion with lead TWiT Leo LaPorte. Leo and talk about Macworld Expo and all things iPhone. We'll have part two up on Monday.
Panasonic CEO left CES to see Jobs introduce iPhone
As if Apple's spotlight isn't large enough lately, it appears they stole some of CES's 15 minutes with the announcement of the iPhone. Forbes is reporting that Yoshi Yamada, CEO of Panasonic, left CES on Tuesday and traveled 600 miles to see Steve Jobs' iPhone-unveiling keynote (perhaps he knew he was going to get his money's worth?). Even though CES is filled to the brim with gadgets and gizmos, Apple's fanatically-anticipated iPhone may have upstaged most of them: as Yahoo's Christopher Null told Forbes, "[It] is unfortunate that people are trying to get the word out about their products, and they're one-upped by Steve Jobs."Maybe CES will have better luck in 2008; we hear the CEA and IDG finally stopped playing phone tag and agreed on separate weeks for their respective festivals.
TUAW Video: Macworld Expo Moscone South quick tour
I took a camera and walked up and down every aisle of the Macworld Expo showfloor in Moscone South, just so you could feel like you were there. Sit back, open your favorite beverage, and enjoy this 5 minute walk of Moscone South.Update: Embedded the correct video. It has been a long Macworld, folks.
TUAW Video: Interview with iLounge's Jeremy Horwitz
We sat down with iLounge's Editor-in-chief Jeremy Horwitz today and talking about the iPhone, iPod accessories, earphones and more. Give it a watch and I bet you'll learn something.
Macworld 2007 Keynote available on iTunes
It seemed that every other comment on my post about the Keynote QuickTime stream was, 'Why isn't Apple putting this on the iTunes Store?' Well, folks, Apple has heard your pleas and has made the Keynote available from the iTunes Store. At least, they are going to. At the time of this post the Keynote page was set up, but the file itself was not available (soon, I am sure).It is interesting to note that this Keynote appears under 'podcasts,' which seems to be a trend.Update: The file is now available.
MWSF Keynote in a nutshell
Macworld2007's keynote left a lot of things unsaid. Any of you expecting a Leopard ship date, 2007 iSoftware announcements, or even coverage of Adobe and Microsoft flagship products were left wanting. In fact, going back through my notes, the keynote basically came down to this: 9:15 The Intel transition. 9:20 Paramount movies and the new iTunes ads. 9:25 AppleTV announcement and demo. Ships February 2007. 9:40 The iPhone. Ships June 2007. 11:10 The end. By my calculations, that turns out to about 5 minutes each for Intel and Paramount/iTunes, 15 minutes for AppleTV and an hour and a half for iPhone. Steve never even got to announce the new Airport Extreme with its wireless hard disk capabilities. It was all about the iPhone. And here's how the iPhone presentation broke down: 9:40 It's an iPhone. It has no keyboard, runs on "OS X", syncs to your home computer OS X data, and has the following hardware features. 9:55 Interaction demo: multi-finger gestures, iPod functionality and cover flow. 10:00 Call-making demo: Conference calls and visual voice mail. 10:15 Content demo: iPhotos and rich text e-mail; surfing with Safari and Widgets. 10:30 Content providers: Google and Yahoo executives. 10:40 Accessories and Price announcement. 10:50 Cingular partnership discussed. 10:55 Wrapping up, thanking employees, mini-Concert. All things considered, it was an exciting and productive keynote but after twenty five minutes of introductory material, it was all iPhone all the way.
iLounge posts their Best of Show 2007
Our friends at iLounge have been pounding the show floor looking for the best stuff out there. As usual, they have produced their famous 'Best of Show 2007' awards, and the list up for you to marvel at. The iPhone, of course, made the list but check out the iPod accessories you'll find. Jeremy and I sat down and spoke about the awards (the interview will be online later today) and he told me that while nothing on the list was revolutionary there are lots of solid products that should make anyone happy.
Everybody just breathe...
What a whirlwind, huh? The past few days the words iPhone have been on the lips of people I'd never imagined would ever glance at an Apple product. If you're sick of hearing about it, I have advice: just breathe. Collect yourself, and brace for more of the same. Why? Because Apple Inc. is betting the farm, quite literally, on this product. AppleTV be darned, the iPhone, exactly as Steve described, is Apple's next great revolution of the highest order. And it's their transition into a new sort of company.That being said, TUAW isn't going to transition to "The Unofficial iPhone Blog" or anything. Later today we've got a few special treats for you, so stay tuned. Our bloggers are hard at work putting all this together, so if posting seems a little light today, just remember the core Apple fandom is running on Pacific time for the next 48 hours!
Found Video: Macworld Magazine's Best of Show
Macworld magazine has released a Macworld San Francisco 2007 Best of Show video podcast. While it's mostly big name products, they've also rounded up a couple of nice out-of-the-way products like the George iPod speaker system which we previously mentioned. As things wind down you can expect more information about interesting smaller exhibitors here at TUAW.
