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MacworldEncore: Macworld Sessions Online and DVD
For all of us who couldn't make it to Macworld in January comes MacworldEncore. The folks behind the Macworld conference have collected more than 80 presentations on a whole variety of topics that were presented in San Francisco. For the most part these are 640x480 QuickTime movies that have the audio from the presentation along with what appears to be a video capture of the (I assume) Keynote presentation itself. They are available both all together on a $299 DVD (which will ship in 4-5 weeks) or now for individual download at prices ranging from $5 to $30 each. To whet your appetite they've put Rob Griffiths' 75 minute "The Best of Mac OS X Hints" online as a free download.[Via Macworld]Update: correction
TUAW Podcast #20: Macworld Interview with Guy Kawasaki (Extended Remix)
Wow - you overwhelmingly asked for it, and here it is. I was blown away by the response to the 'TUAW edit' of my Guy Kawasaki interview, so the extended remix is ready for download. This one clocks in at over 55 minutes, so it should satisfy the fans of Guy in the crowd. It was an honor to speak with Mr. Kawasaki, and as you'll discover, we touched on so many more topics throughout the rest of the interview. We covered being a venture capitalist, Guy's surprising humility, what a car from Apple would be like, whether Guy bought a Wii, how he gets his blogging on and so much more. I was admittedly speechless at times around Guy, and I'm glad Laurie Duncan, who graciously came along to handle the recording aspects, was there to help me keep from stumbling. You'll hear her pitch some great questions to Guy a few times throughout the interview.There is, however, one catch even with this extended cut: we wound up chatting with Guy for so long that the recording equipment we used ran out of juice just before we wrapped up. Don't worry - you have virtually all the juicy stuff we talked about, but I just wanted to give a heads up on the use of the canned conclusion.With that said, you can now grab my full interview with Guy Kawasaki, which weighs in at 50MB and 55 minutes. Enjoy it from this direct link, our iTunes Store Podcast directory or our own podcast RSS feed. Enjoy.
Hints of the Next Version of Keynote?
Many people noticed some unusual Keynote presentation effects in Job's recent keynote at MacWorld (e.g. the small text exploding above). Now Brian Peat over at KeynoteUser.com has gone through the keynote with a fine-toothed comb, identifying a bunch of new stuff, like path animations and lots of explosions that cannot be done with Keynote 3 (editorial note: explosions = good). Since it stands to reason that Jobs might just have access to some pre-release version of Keynote, it's a pretty safe guess that this is a preview of what's in store for Keynote 4. It's an interesting read and will probably have heavy Keynote users salivating for iWork '07.[Via MacRumors.com]
TidBITS Macworld Superlatives
TidBITS is perhaps the grand-daddy of electronic Mac publications (their motto should be: we were the Mac-web before the Mac-web was even invented). Anyway, they have published a lot of great articles over the years and their wrap up of MWSF '07 is no different. There are links to a variety of interesting things you may have missed in the flurry of coverage, and this superlative article (i.e. the best/worst/most whatever at Macworld) manages to sum up the Macworld experience nicely for those of us who couldn't make it to San Francisco. Enjoy.
TUAW Podcast #18: Macworld interview with Brent Simmons and Paul Kafasis
On Friday of last week at Macworld 07, Brent Simmons (of NewsGator/ NetNewsWire/ MarsEdit fame) and Paul Kafasis (of Rogue Amoeba/Audio Hijack/Airfoil fame) were kind enough to unite their powers and sit down with me for an interview. For just over 20 minutes we discussed Macworld, the iPhone, the state of Mac OS X, being a developer, whether competition or web services are slowing them down and a whole lot more. The interview turned out great, but the audio needed a little cleanup. My XtremeMac MicroMemo usually does a good recording job with my iPod, but we did the interview in the large press room hall at Macworld so it picked up some background noise. It sounds pretty good now (thanks Mike!), and it should be a good listen for anyone interested in a perspective on the state of Apple and their products from two influential 3rd party developers.This TUAW Podcast #18 weighs in at just under 21MB, and can be had from this direct link, our iTunes Store Podcast directory or our own podcast RSS feed. Enjoy.P.S. - On a related note, our TUAW podcast is now listed in the digg podcast directory. Why not head over and show some love by digging our podcast and your favorite individual episodes?
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.)
Keeping the iPhone Under Wraps
Fortune Magazine has a nice article on the challenges Apple faced in keeping the iPhone under wraps for the 30 months or so it was in development. When you think about the number of folks who must have been involved, not only at Apple, but also at Cingular, Google, Yahoo, and an "unnamed Asian manufacturer," it really was pretty amazing that it was kept this quiet for this long. As the article notes "pillow talk was a challenge... Keeping secrets from loved ones is especially hard." I had never thought about that, but it's hard to imagine being satisfied with a response like "that's classified" when your spouse works at Apple, not the NSA![Via Digg]
Live Streaming MWSF Keynote?
In years past, Apple streamed the Macworld San Francisco Keynote (aka Stevenote) live for your delectation. Unfortunately, they seemed to have suspended the practice. Well what's a Mac news junkie to do? Of course you'll be able to count on TUAW and others for live text feeds of the event, but World of Apple Live is promising their own grassroots broadcast via an advertising-supported Flash player.According to the site, they "will be [in] attendance at the Keynote with a laptop that has a flash encoder which captures sound and uploads it to a streaming server which then delivers it to a client-side player at your computer, delivering you with audio live from the Keynote." However, since they don't have guaranteed bandwidth (I'm guessing they'll be using a "Wireless Broadband" card on one of the cell networks), they can't guarantee success. As some commenters have pointed out, this is of questionable legality (and Apple is certainly not known for being reticent with the lawyers), but if they can pull it off it'll be worth checking out on Jan 9th.[Via Digg]
Macworld SF 2007: O'Reilly Speaker Schedule
It's that time of the year again-that wonderful sense of anticipation while we wait for the big day and the new toys. No, not Christmas, Macworld San Francisco! Well O'Reilly and company are trotting out their heavyweights for MWSF, including David Pogue, Derrick Story, and others. Anybody who is thinking of going, check out the schedule to whet your appetites (and on that cold January morning, spare a kind thought for your faithful scribe who will be gazing fondly in a westerly direction while his unpardonably lucky fellow-bloggers are in San Francisco providing TUAW coverage).[Via MacVolPlace]
Michael Bartosh MacIT Scholarship Fund
The organizers of the MacWorld Conference and Expo are setting up a memorial scholarship in honor of Mac author, Michael Bartosh, who recently passed away from a tragic accident in Tokyo. The Michael Bartosh MacIT Scholarship will pay the travel expenses and MacIT conference fees for one or more University/College-age Network Engineering students. Knowing Michael and his work, I can't think of a better way to honor him. Bravo.
Macworld Magazine reveals "Best of Show" list
iLounge was first, and now Macworld Magazine has released their "Best of Show" list from the MWSF expo floor. Their list of show highlights include: Adobe Lightroom The Macbook Pro (didn't see that one coming) iLife '06 Browseback (We took a look at Browseback when it was in beta. It has since reached version 1.0.1) Docktopus (We checked out Docktopus in September) EyeTV 2 by El Gato JBL On Time speakers (which also made iLounge's list) Google Earth (I have not stopped playing with this since downloading it on Tuesday) iSee 360i LightZone 1.0 Marware Project X MemoryMiner Micromat Techtool Protégé Suitcase Fusion
.Mac is down
We knew it was coming, and a visit to the .Mac homepage has confirmed that it's down for "maintenance" (but we all know that really means "adding cool new stuff"). As of this posting, at least, my .Mac email seems to be still working. Still, I've let my contacts know to use my Gmail address for the day. Is a post about the status of the .Mac hompage a little obsessive? Probably, but at least I'm not watching Steve get into his car.Thanks, Berko!
New Apple Logo and Ad Campaign for first Intel Macs?
Admittedly, this is way out in left field, but check this out. The English language page of a Chinese newspaper has published this article today rehashing some of the rumors flying around the Mac web about what will be announced tomorrow during the Stevenote. However, what's most interesting to me is the accompanying graphic with the article. I've added it to this post, here the right.Now, of course, this might just be some artwork created by the newspaper staff to accompany the story. However, what if it's not. What does the text "think twice" mean? Could it be a part of a new Apple advertising campaign for the new Intel Macs? Perhaps it refers to something "dual core" in nature? The two Apple logos, one inside the other also plays into this speculation.Might this be another clue as to what will be announced tomorrow? Or is my imagination just running overtime?
No live Keynote webcast, again
The only thing more fun than poring over all of the new stuff that's revealed during a Steve Jobs keynote is watching Jobs himself deliver the goods. He's such a talented public speaker, and knows precisely how to work a Mac geek like me into a credit card-fueled frenzy. For the past couple of years at least, Apple has not provided a live web broadcast of the keynote, opting instead to post the video to its website after the fact. It looks like that's the plan for this Tuesday as well, which is disappointing. I'll watch the video, of course, but watching it happen live is so much more pleasant than impatiently waiting for a bare-bones and overburdened website to refresh its content.Come on, Steve, let us have the webcasts back. Aside from feeding my adolescent need for instant gratification, the webcasts are a real display of Apple's technical prowess. Or something.
Explaining MWSF and the Keynote to Non-Mac People
Explaining the importance of the Macworld Expo and the Keynote to non-Mac people isn't easy. Heck, I was briefly considering trying to squeeze in an attendance to MWSF this year and therefore risking missing my own twin brother's wedding, but I decided in the end that family (and a nice trip to St. Croix) is a bit more important than the Stevenote. However, the fact that I actually considered doing so means something. MWSF is a pilgrimage; it's the event of the year for many of us; it's religious in nature. Explaining to a layman why this is so important to us just isn't easy. Luckily, Tom Bridge has stepped forward to give us a great post to help us do just that.
