MWSF – Larry’s Final Thoughts

What a week! What a show! Frankly, the new MacBook Air was anticlimactic, the rumor sites having described it so well (though I am really impressed with the execution–it just seems impossibly thin). It’s going to be a great tool for the road warrior who doesn’t want or need a larger, heavier laptop while they rack up those frequent flyer miles.

What it was all about for me, as already described in previous blogs, was the wealth of small developers, Mac-devotees to the core. These are the heroes, the true believers who, in spite of how difficult it can often be to work with Apple, they do so, and create amazing products.

I was heartened to see so few iPod/iPhone case vendors this year as compared to last year’s gathering. Real Macintosh products, hardware and software were the winners this year. Also growing in importance are the wide variety of storage devices, from high capacity hard drives to RAID arrays, Network Attached Storage devices, and more. This could be the year, especially with the improved new AppleTV, that media centers and supporting software are going to make a big splash. Microsoft has their Media Center version of their OS, but for some odd reason, in spite of pretty favorable reviews in the PC press, it is not being promoted as it should. This is another big opportunity for Apple, and I hope to see more interesting hardware and software in this growing niche market this year.

For a person who is really not a huge rock music fan, I sure got my fill this week with luminaries like Devo at the Macworld Blast, the Macworld Writer’s band at the Cirque du Mac, to Shaw-Blades at the special invitation-only JBL/AKG room, even I was pretty impressed. Then, to top it off, there were a few extra guest-stars such as comedian Sinbad, and distinguished actor F. Murray Abraham. All in all, a star-studded week. Gee, does former TechTV and DL.TV host Patrick Norton count as a celeb?

I saw a lot of friends I made last year on the MyMac.com crew, from El Jefe Tim Robertson, inexhaustible worker-bee (and more) John Nemerovski, Bakari, Owen, Artie, and yes, even my kid brother Guy Serle thrown into the mix just for the fun of it. We had some new ones, too. Dan Robinson joined us from Charlotte, NC, for the show, the real David Cohen and his brother Jeremy were there for a few days, coming all the way from the UK (David was able to combine this with a business trip, so he was able to save enough to buy himself a new MacBook). Jim Dicker took over video duties, which freed Tim up for other activities (thanks for helping out with the OCR interview!). Bill Palmer of iProng was a valued member of our entourage with his knowledge and insights into the iPod sphere and the entertainment industry. Thanks so much for that. Oh, and if I missed anyone, and I’m sure I did, it was a sin of omission–not commission.

Finally, I want to spend a few moments on our latest addition, the most fascinating BeeJay. He has been a MyMac.com fan for some time, and decided to come to MWSF from Leicester, England this year to see what a Macworld Expo is all about, and to meet the MyMac.com gang. Almost immediately, he volunteered to help chauffeur a few of us from the airport to our hotel. Soon after we picked Guy up, Beejay decided it was time for some coffee at Starbucks, one of his favorites–just the thing to sustain his incredibly high energy level. As this was downtown San Francisco, accept it as a given that parking is pretty hard to come by. Didn’t bother Beejay a bit. We literally stopped and parked on the street in a bike lane, we climbed out of his cramped Pontiac G6 Coupe (a rental), jaywalked across the street, and got our coffee just as if everybody parked on a major city thoroughfare. The most amazing part of all this is that even though there were police around, we were not stopped. We jaywalked back across Market Street (I think it was Market…), jumped back in the car, and made our way back to the hotel. I can only surmise that Beejay has someone looking out for him–a charmed life indeed. Earlier that day, when leaving the rental car agency, he made a minor driving error, and wound up driving down the wrong side of an expressway. The local police were able to get him turned around (they’ve likely seen it all before…) and on his way without a citation. He popped in and out of our group for the duration of the show with his friend David, also from England. Beejay brought a high level of energy to the group as well as an unceasing sense of fun and adventure. I look forward to seeing him again next year.

So, there you have it. Another outstanding Macworld Expo has come and gone, but the fellowship remains. I saw lots of goodies, ate way too much food, drank only a little too much, walked too much, and once again enjoyed the company of a whole big bunch of Mac crazies. Is it too early to make reservations for next year?