Macworld Perspective

Another Macworld Expo has come and gone, along with the mystery of what the next big thing(s) from Apple would be announced at the show. Most surprisingly, in my opinion, was the fact that there was no reason for me to rush to the nearest Apple store after the keynote address and buy something. The same items on sale Monday were the same items on sale Tuesday, with nothing new. That said, I want to move on to my personal observations and thoughts on this years Macworld Expo, what I did, and some other tidbits.

For me, the Macworld Expo started out badly. My travel plans were for my wife and I to drive to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and catch a flight to Detroit, and then on to San Francisco. Leaving Michigan in the morning, and arriving in sunny California in the mid-afternoon would give me plenty of time to go and pick up my press badge, meet some of the MyMac staffers already there, and get the lay of the land. Sounded simple enough, but a nasty snow storm moved into West Michigan that morning, slowing my travel to Grand Rapids. Once there, my plane was also delayed, actually leaving about about ten minutes before my connecting flight would leave Detroit.

I was rerouted, and did not arrive in San Francisco until late Monday, around 8 PM. While I had my carry-on baggage with me, including the Cannon GL2 camcorder and MacBook Pro, my other luggage with such mundane things like shirts, pants, socks, and underwear, were on another flight two hours behind me. While I could have proceeded to my hotel and had the airport ship my bag to me, I did not want to take the chance of them losing it once again, so I decided to wait it out at the airport for a couple hours for it to arrive.

While waiting for my missing undies and socks, I parked myself outside to partake in my nasty nicotine habit. Between flight arrivals, it actually gets pretty quite. During one of these quite periods, I saw New York Times writer David Pogue arriving and then leaving by taxi. I yelled out (from fifteen feet away) “Hey, David Pogue!” as he walked by. I think I took him by surprise, as he looked up, smiled, said hi, and jumped in the cab before I could rob him. Hey, for all he knew, I was some crazy person stalking him. MyMac.com has a great and long relationship with David, but I had never actually met him in person. He had no idea who this strange person yelling at him in the airport was. And obviously I would not rob him. Well, at least not in the airport. There were Police officers around.

Luckily, my bag did arrive, so I was not forced to wear the same (stinky) cloths all week. I had fresh ones to dirty up every day.

My hotel, the Renoir on Mcallister St. in the Mission District, was wholly unimpressive. The walls are thin enough, and the single pane windows old enough, that I can hear the mice farting in the building across the street, to say nothing of the throngs of homeless people yelling at all hours of the night. Traffic noise I can handle, that is to be expected. But some guy yelling, at the top of his lungs, “Where’s Mr. T now, fool!” over and over for at least two hours, well, not so much.

There is no wired or wireless internet access in the hotel rooms at all. They do sport a wireless router in the lobby, which had great connection speeds, but the lobby was not a particularly fun place to hang out. My first night, as I sat down with the MacBook Pro to check email and a few other website, a homeless lady walked in and laid down to take a nap on one of the couches in the hotel lobby. Not sure if this is a daily occurrence in this hotel (I tend to doubt it) but it was off-putting to say the least.

The room itself was okay. I have had much better, and somewhat worse. But I won’t have any fond memories of the room after I leave. Smallish, and the shower is almost to small for me to bend down to wash my legs without cracking my forehead on the wall. Or freezing my butt on the cold tile behind me. I have seen better water pressure from a garden hose with a truck parked on it.

First full day of the expo, once I actually got my media badge, was fun. Met up with the other MyMac folks for the Steve Jobs keynote. David Weeks, Bakari, Nemo, Guy, Larry, and myself represented the website during the event. While they all were closer, Nemo and myself parked ourselves right in the front of the third column of seats, right on the edge. Great seats. And it was fantastic to sit next to Nemo and share our thoughts during the presentation.

Part two after I return home!