macworld2006
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Found Footage: David Pogue at Macworld
David Pogue, bestselling author, NY Times columnist, and ham, has created a very clever overview of Macworld 2006. Using advanced technology David allows you to feel like you were there bounding the concrete floors of the Moscone with the rest of the Mac faithful, even though you were home working for the man.
Daring Fireball's Macworld 2006 roundup
John Gruber, of Daring Fireball, or 'the Grubs,' as I like to call him, has posted a lengthy review of this year's Macworld. He goes over what he expected to be announced, what was announced, and what he thinks of the whole thing.It is nice to see that we weren't the only people surprised by the Intel iMac announcement. Oh, Apple, you are a cruel mistress.
Girl tech at Macworld
Natalie Zee of Coquette has gathered together some of her picks from Macworld that are the best examples of 'girl tech' at Macworld. Since I am not a girl I must admit that I didn't notice any of these products (though some more observant men I am sure did see them).Her round up includes Casauri bags, Kiwali iPod nano cases, and Gyms Pac laptop sleeves.
Project X from Marware
When they are not busy creating new iPod cases it seems that the folks at Marware are creating project management software, perhaps so they can more effectively produce iPod cases.Project X bills itself as 'project management for the rest of us,' and it is very slick. I watched a demo at the Marware booth and I was impressed. Oh, if only I had projects to manage.The software will be carried in all Apple stores and sell for $199 and it is 'coming soon.'
Audioblog.com offers on the fly iPod video transcoding
TUAW has just learned from reliable sources that audioblog.com has just released a new feature for their venerable online podcasting/vlogging tool. You can now upload almost any video format to your audioblog account and it will transcode the file for you to an iPod ready video file, and post it to your blog or RSS stream.Imagine you have a Windows Media file (but for the love of god why would you) and you want to get it on the iPod. Simply upload it to audioblog.com and you're done.Membership costs $4.95 a month for 5GB bandwidth, and there is a free trial.
Cableyoyo introduces Pop
At Macworld Boston we were bowled over by Cableyoyo, and it seems that they have another trick up their sleeve. What is better than a thin cable management solution? A thin management solution with a suction cup called Pop, of course!The idea is that you would slap this thing on the back of your iPod, or what have you, and you wouldn't have to deal with unsightly cable clutter. They will even have 'pop art,' which are stickers designed to decorate your Pop in whimsical ways.Pricing and shipping date are not available at the moment.
iWeb code not so pretty
I put out a call for your iWeb produced pages and you answered in droves. Now, I'm no HTML/XHTML/CSS expert, but Todd Dominey is, and he isn't pleased with the code that he sees. The code is standards compliant, but it is doing some odd things that just aren't needed, or wanted.If you want the full scoop check out Todd's post.
iSale 3
While I was watching the iSale 3 demo I couldn't help but think, 'This is Delicious Library for eBay auctions.' This application allows you to list items on eBay, preview what it will look like, and track the status and the bids on your current auctions in real time. There is also a Dashboard Widget that lists your auctions in case you don't want to have the app open all the time.It costs $39.95.
harman/kardon Bridge
The harman/kardon Bridge allows you to integrate your iPod with a variety of harman/kardon audio equipment. You can control playback and see what tracks are playing on compatible gear, and it charges your iPod to boot. The nano and video enabled iPods can be used with this but it does not enable the display of videos or photos on your television.
maccontrol
Do you ever wish you can run all of your home entertainment stuff with your Mac and a remote? Well, the fine folks at maccontrol certainly hope that you do. They have two products that are designed to make this happen: the maccontrol connector and the maccontrol remote.The Connector can control but to 4 infrared devices and can use 4 serial connections to control other things. It links up with your WiFi network and leverages the power of BonJour to autodiscover your Mac, other Connectors, and the Remote.The Remote includes a 2.5 inch LCD and a scrollwheel which makes it very iPod like. The display can show a program guide, your iTunes library, or even RSS feeds.The bundle will set you back $800 but they are currently running a Macworld preorder special for $649.
Macbook Pros come with Comic Life
I was under the impression that Comic Life would only be bundled with the new iMac. It makes sense, Comic Life is a fun application and the iMac is a the consumer level desktop. However, I have just learned that Comic Life is also being bundled with the Macbook Pros.I'm sure your presentations could be gussied up greatly with a few Comic Life generated pages.
Freeverse to release Heroes of Might and Magic V
Freeverse, that wonderfully wacky game developer and distributor, has just inked a deal to bring Heroes of Might and Magic V to a Mac near you. A release date hasn't been announced as of yet, but I have it on very good authority that the Mac version will have 20% more unicorns than the PC version.
Griffin SmartShare
Griffin has released their latest cool little accessory that you didn't know you needed until you heard about it. The SmartShare plugs into any mini-jack, like perhaps an iPod, and allows you to connect two set of headphones. It is basically a splitter, but the nice thing is that each separate headphone jack on the SmartShare has a separate volume control.The SmartShare is available for preorder and it costs $19.99.
Blackberry to offer 'PocketMac for BlackBerry'
Joining Microsoft in the 'we don't want to make a Mac version of this so let's just give someone else's away' school of thought Research in Motion, the makers of Blackberry, will be offering PocketMac for Blackberry as a free download for their customers sometime in February.PocketMac began life as a third party application, and now Blackberry is licensing the technology to allow Mac users to get addicted to always on email like our Windows friends.
Google Earth plugin for SketchUp
SketchUp has teamed up with Google to create a beta plugin for SketchUp (a very cool drafting program). Why is this cool? You can create a building in SketchUp and place that drawing in its context in Google Earth. This is a very powerful concept and I'm sure lots of small Mac shops are rejoicing about this plugin.
Hands on: Macbook Pro
I also had a chance to get my hands on one of the Macbook Pros today, and I was impressed by the responsiveness of this machine. It is the fastest Mac portable I have ever used, which makes sense but I was impressed by just how much faster it seems.The construction is solid, and the screen is much brighter than my stupid old Powerbooks (sorry, Ambrose!).I do have one complaint though, and it doesn't really have to do with the MacBook Pro. I wanted to pop the battery out and take a picture or two but I was told rather brusquely that I couldn't do that, nor could I even close the lid of the Macbook. What's up with that?Overall though, this thing is very cool
Vista will run on the Intel Macs
Now that we know Windows will be able to run on the new Intel Macs the question becomes which version of Windows will work with them. Due to the BIOS on the new Macs Windows XP will not run on them yet (we'll have to wait for a hacker to do something about that), however, Windows Vista supports this new Intel BIOS out of the box. This means we only have to wait 2 to 4 years for Vista to ship and then we can install it on our Intel Macs.I know Vista jokes are easy, but I just can't help myself.
Macworld unites iPod fanatics and Mac fanatics
During the keynote Steve gave the usual, 'the iPod is doing great' song and dance, however, he did say that this was Macworld and proceeded to talk about Macs for the majority of the keynote. The San Francisco Chronicle has a story up about the folks how have used the iPod as a 'gateway' drug into the Mac world and how many are attending their first Macworld.Ah, the mythical iPod halo effect, it seems less and less mythical every day.
No Apple key for Microsoft keyboard
Microsoft is showing off a wireless keyboard/mouse combo that they are working on just for the Mac (I'll post a picture later). This is good news for Mac folks since more peripherals are good. However, when Microsoft approached Apple about licensing the Apple logo for the Command key Apple declined.This isn't too shocking to me, since I can't think of any third party keyboard that has an Apple logo on the command key, can you?[via Paul Thurrott]
First look at iWeb via a blog made with iWeb
iWeb, the newest member of the iLife family, has garnered lots of interest from web developers, bloggers, and podcasters. Will it be the end all and be all of web development? Ok, probably not, but will it make creating blogs easier?Sam Kass isn't so sure. He takes iWeb for a spin and comments on it via a blog he created with iWeb. He says it is painfully obvious this is 1.0 release, but it has potential.And for everyone wondering about the HTML output of iWeb, just check out the source on Sam's blog.Thanks to everyone who sent this in.
