Macworld day too

Macworld day too!

Not a misspelling, just another day of facing east (South? West?) toward the Apple mecca!

I’m actually started writing this on the last day of Macworld, but after all the happenings of Macworld it almost feels like I’ve been here forever. I’m at the airport now getting ready to go back home. My feet hurt, my ankles aches, my back is twanging from dragging my backpack with all the gear I either needed or am too paranoid to just leave unattended even in the luxurious media room (HA!) in the South Hall of the Moscone Center. It’s a good pain though and I wouldn’t trade it for almost anything. This is something that only happens once a year and I always hated being on the sidelines in years past since the New York/Boston show ended.

This has been an amazing show and I’m hard pressed to decide what the absolute best highlight was. Start with bad I guess and work my way up.

Bad:
Press Pass snafus…plural. We couldn’t get our Media Badges the day before the show because they were limiting the number of Press allowed into the Keynote. Fine and dandy as I went last year and it’s too easy to get all the up-to-date info online while it’s happening, but how hard would it have been to have two different colored press passes or plastic sleeves? Sometimes I don’t mind being considered second tier, but don’t inconvenience me repeatedly so someone else isn’t. They also lost my record in their system for me actually getting a press pass. I had a confirmation email from the “Powers that be”, so who the heck knows why they didn’t have me in their records. It was a CF of monumental proportions because I also had the nerve to want to give them MORE money for the Tuesday night Macblast party. I actually had to get a regular hall pass in order to purchase a ticket so it was back and forth between two or three different kiosks to work that out. Finally got it though and I’m glad I did as I will go into later. On the day of the Keynote, we STILL couldn’t get our press passes until the presentation was almost over. Bad organizational skills on IDG’s part (or was it Apple?) that could have easily been avoided.

Apple’s AppleTV was also a low point as far as I was concerned. The only real advantage over the older one was a slightly lower price and movie rentals in HD which I believe will also be available for the 1st generation of the product. Two things in my mind that would make the AppleTV a must have product for me. An optical drive (either Blu-Ray or just an upscale DVD player) and addition HDMI inputs for any other devices that required them in your entertainment system. Switch between them in Apple’s Front Row. Most Newer TVs have either one or two HDMI inputs and almost every piece of video gear hooked up these days has a HDMI output. You can certainly go out and buy a HDMI switcher, most with a remote so you don’t have to get up and physically push a button, but it’s just another layer of complication that Apple could have addressed. As far as the optical drive goes, I want to put less components in my home system not more. I could have removed my older DVD player and just used the one in the AppleTV IF it had had one, but of course it doesn’t. So for now, no AppleTV for me.

The Moscone West Media Center was located at the east end of that building and in the morning the sun was shinning so brightly that you could barely see the screen of whatever laptop that you had. Tim and I went over there one morning really just to check it out and between that and the WiFi that refused to actually connect, gave it up for bad job.

Good:
Our Hotel was an improvement over last years and I know for a fact that our fearless leader Tim was very happy with his accommodations as compared to the homeless shelter he slept in before. Decent WiFi (though it was saturated to near uselessness sometimes with all the Mac people in town), comfortable beds, not to many panhandlers nearby (it IS San Fran after all), and not a bad walk to the Moscone Center (about 4 city blocks). We did however grab a cab sometimes at the end of yet another exhausting day.

Mel’s Diner around the corner from the Moscone Center became the de-facto MyMac headquarters from almost the very first day. We ended having breakfast there almost every morning and quite a few dinners as well. Near the end we ended up eating breakfast at the Denny’s (very expensive by comparison) across the street because it seems that Mel’s ended up being the restaurant of choice for many other Mac people as well. Few of us wanted to wait 15-20 minutes for a table at what is essentially a diner.

The Macblast party hosted by IDG and Microsoft was a fantastic time. From the free goodies handed out, two free drinks, and a great set by that little band from Akron, Ohio Devo, a good time was had by all. The sound equipment used was first rate and really booming! They played all their big hits and even my Jazz-loving brother Larry was impressed by the evenings entertainment as you’ve probably already read in his blog. I’m not sure how they can top this next year, but I felt the same after Cheap Trick played at Macblast last year so we’ll see what they pull out of the hat next year.

BackBeat Media’s party on Wednesday night was another high point. They held it at the Red Devil Lounge again and the Mac Media band (or whatever they call themselves) did not disappoint. We had quite an adventure on our way there and just before entering as well. Our cab driver actually hit someone as we were on our way. Tim, Larry, and I had been talking about tech stuff in the back seat (because after two days of Macworld we still hadn’t had enough of that) and saw the guy crossing the street that out driver claimed he didn’t see. It got very quiet in the cab after that since apparently not only were we paying customers but a seeing eye dog as well. The guy that got hit wasn’t hurt and we went on way shortly after, but it wasn’t the most auspicious beginning to the evening. All that was weird enough, but since we hadn’t had a chance to eat before leaving we decided to venture out and get our grub on before the show started. We ended up at some fish and chips place that may or may not have passed its last health inspection but we were very hungry and sat down to eat. it wasn’t as bad as it could have been (not the greatest recommendation I know) and even had some street theater as some drunk decided to attack a moving car with a broom held like a samurai warrior. On our way back we were also treated to another guy deciding that the middle of the street was absolutely the best place to relieve himself. Gotta love San Fran.

Apple’s MacBook Air was actually better than I first thought once I had a moment to play with it some. Incredibly light but was certainly all Macintosh. Is it a machine I would choose for that kind of money? Well no, but it was cool nonetheless.

XtremeMac has a new product coming out hopefully this year that looked really cool in its beta phase. We used their iPod microphone for many of our interviews and it worked well, but wasn’t exactly a fashion statement. They’re coming out with a new one that is simply connected to the dock of an iPod and has pause and record buttons on it. I hope they’ll send me to try out.

Feral Interactive and Ambrosia were located in the West hall of the Moscone complex and were great guys to talk to and I really appreciate the guys at Ambrosia letting me use their space to talk to the Feral rep as it was much quieter than their own space. If you’ve never gone to Ambrosia’s site, do yourself a favor a check it out.

iFrogz had a really small and powerful speaker for the iPod called the “Vibez”. I was blown away by how good it sounded and although it won’t challenge any really high-end system, that’s not what it’s competing with. It’s more for going to the beach or on the run, that sort of thing. Inexpensive too.

Pleasant Software was showing off their new version of Ubercaster that I plan on downloading as soon as I get home. They just keep making a good product better. It really makes making podcasts easier and if you’re a one-man show, don’t pass this product by.

I’m looking forward to trying out the new Microsoft Office for the Mac at my earliest convenience. I’m certainly not a power user, but being Intel-native with lots of templates that reminds me of iWork (this is not bad and certainly not a matter of copying as many other products use templates in this fashion too).

That’s about it amigos. I’m in Denver on my way home and can’t wait to see my family. I love Macworld, but I’m glad it’s over.