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Closing
thoughts on MacWorld Expo
-
How much healthier
has the Mac platform gotten that some Mac users actually came out
of the Keynote thinking that the announcements "sucked"? Six or
seven years ago, we'd have given our left shift key for those kinds
of announcements. Expectations continue to grow higher. That's
a good sign for the platform.
- Along those
lines, we Mac users been spoiled rotten by Apple. Microsoft
unveils a new version of Mac Office that offers no real usability
improvements
but
costs several hundred dollars, and that's accepted as Microsoft
just
being greedy old Microsoft. But then a few minutes later Apple
announces a new version of iLife that gives users precisely the
enhancements that they asked for in the existing applications,
and throws in a groundbreaking new app on top of it...and Mac
users go ballistic because Apple wants a mere $49 for the whole
package. Not only is Apple creating the software that's changing
our lives, they're supposed to do so for free, apparently.
- The best on-site
coverage of the Expo this year? The ongoing back-and-forth between
teenage sites MacTeens and TheMacMind. MacTeens posted this screenshot of
what appears to have been a wireless turf war that played out
in the press section of the keynote audience. In apparent retaliation,
TheMacMind posted footage of
one of the MacTeens reporters hanging out with them, with the
comment that "he's gonna get
fired!". It all appears to be good-natured. The whole Mac Web
should be having this much fun. Maybe it's because these guys
are all teenagers. I'm only 26, but watching these guys' antics
makes me feel like an old man.
- As cool as
GarageBand may be, some skeptics are already dismissing it by
pointing out how few people actually do this sort of music recording/mixing
thing in their homes in their spare time. Seems like the same
thing was true about amateur digital video editing and digital
photography five years ago, and we all know how that turned out.
- Apple could
do more to attract people into its stores for MacWorld Keynote
broadcasts. You know, attack the food court, drag people in kicking
and screaming...force them to take in just a little bit of the
kool-aid. Of the perhaps sixty people in the Tampa Apple Store
watching the Keynote with me, at least ten of them entered after
it began, and so I wonder if they even realized they were watching
live coverage...of if they even knew who that guy on the screen
was. But I guess such guerilla marketing tactics just wouldn't
be Apple's style.
- The more I
think about the iPod mini, the more I like its chances of selling
well. The one (and only) argument I keep reading for why it won't
sell is that for fifty bucks more, you can get an extra eleven
gigabytes. Newsflash: some people just don't care. Their line
of thinking is that they can save fifty bucks and shed an ounce
and a half
of capacity that they were never going to use anyway. I haven't
heard anyone criticize the mini for its design, specs, functionality,
or looks. That tells me that it's going to sell.
- I distinctly
remember another Apple digital device that held a thousand songs
yet critics predicted it wouldn't sell because of its price.
That was, of course, the original iPod. We also know how that
turned out.
- Bummed that
Apple didn't do more for the Mac's twentieth anniversary? You're
thinking in the wrong terms. You might as well consider everything
that Apple does in 2004 to be part of thy birthday bash. From
that angle, we're doing pretty well for only being ten days into
the year.
- The fact that
the summer 2004 event in Boston is actually being called "MacWorld
Expo" instead of "CreativePro" is encouraging. The real questions
will be first, whether Apple chooses to exhibit, and second,
whether Steve Jobs chooses to keynote. Even if the first happens,
the second one will probably be required for the event to grow
into something that can gain enough traction to be worth attending.
- On that note,
it's been 18 months since I've been to a MacWorld Expo. I wonder
what the summer weather is like in Boston...
- KidPix Studio
has been released for MacOS X, and -- get this -- it claims to
feature full integration with the iLife apps. You can pull soundtracks
out of iTunes, pull photos out of iPhoto, and (best of all) pull
still clips out of iMovie, scrawl on them with KidPix tools,
and drop them right back into iMovie. If this isn't the final
nail in the coffin of MacOS 9 in education circles, well it sure
should be.
- Was it just
me, or did Elijah Wood deliver the exact same Apple-gushing speech
this year that U2's Bono gave last year? I think it was word
for word. And with the same accent for that matter.
Sorta creepy.
- Am I the only
one whose curiosity is aroused by the fact that iPhoto is jumping
from version 2 directly to version 4? Did Apple simply skip a
version number for uniformity's sake, or
is there
a copy
of a never-to-be-touched-by-human-hands version of iPhoto
3 locked away in a vault somewhere along with MacOS 9.5 and that
version of OS X that runs on a Pentium?
- Here's the
difference between Apple and everyone else: Apple has a famous
musician come onstage during its keynote to help demonstrate
its revolutionary new consumer-level music production software,
while
Hewlett-Packard
has half
a dozen famous musicians come onstage during its
keynote to...just stand there. Most companies pay for their
celebrity endorsements. Apple
has celebrities whose lives have been changed by its products
beating down the door begging for a chance to brag about it.
- So what if
I live a good three thousand miles east of San Francisco? For
the 2005 Expo, I'm thinking road trip. Anybody
with me?
- Michael Dell's
initial
response to
the iPod deal between Apple and HP? Apparently he had "nothing
to say". Probably because it's difficult to speak when your head
has just
exploded.
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