Wowser! MacWorld 2006! The Keynote! All the new Macs! (Whoops, just used up all my exclamation points – sorry) Actually, you already know my views of this year’s MacWorld in my column earlier this week.
Having rolled the floor at the MacWorld Expo, in a wheelchair, hand powered (OK, I walked a little too), these following products have garnered some comment from me, and a few have earned my own personal recommendation. Actually, being in a wheelchair has its own perspective on things around you, but it does allow you to get in close when you want to. Interesting.
Amazing Pod Accessory Companies –
and powerbook covers too. Advanced art, astonishing design, with excellent construction. Fully a third of the expo was focused on iPods. That is some news by itself.
XtremeMac
the Hardcover Case
SUMO
Shawn Jackson Design
Timbuk2
Logic3
EVogue
Best Companies to buy from –
Canon (digital cameras, not printers)
HP (Mac products only)
Epson (higher end printers only. skip the rest as money drains)
MacPro (supercool electronics and Mac store)
Roxio (Toast, anyone?)
HomeAudio (their H5 iPod dock stereo clock radio was in our rooms at our hotel)
Skype (free web telephony)
Belkin (for all your connection needs)
Best Audio Products –
Neck and neck here for who has the best gear.
Anything from Griffin, Shure or Etymotic Research
Cool New Products To Watch Out For –
my-vu wearable video glasses from MicroOptical. First ones that actually work and don’t look silly when you wear them.
Jam Studio Pixound’s music creator driven by art, photos, or video, played by moving your mouse over the pixels.
Most Useless Product –
Blinkit an iPod nano strobelight (I know. Safety. But it uses up all your tiny nano battery!)
Worse Named Product –
TypeIt4Me I went there expecting to see a voice to type converter, but no, you have to type it yourself. However, MacSpeech with their iListen software will type it for you as you speak, if that is what you are looking for.
Anything instead of Adobe or Microsoft –
Why would I rant against such excellent (and large) companies?
Because their products are bloatware.
Because their products are too expensive.
Because their products have a big learning curve.
Because these companies like to buy up smaller software companies with excellent, easy-to-use applications, and kill them, so that their own lesser worthy applications will have no competition (think Aldus PageMaker, Aldus FreeHand, Macromind Director) Therefore, I have looked to find any smaller company at MacWorld that might offer some replacement for the software applications of these big bad bemouths.
SketchUp (an interesting but young FreeHand/AutoCAD 2D drawing replacement)
Animation Master from HASH.com (to perhaps replace MacroMind Director)
TurboCAD (to replace the dead and gone MacDraft – sorry Bruce),
formZ (3D modeling, to productively replace any 2D drawing program)
NewTek Lightwave (3D modeling, to replace any 2D drawing program)
GIMPmac (a free PhotoShop replacement – coming soon)
ThinkFree Office3 (to replace Microsoft Office – supercheap)
Nissus Writer Express (to replace any super expensive, bloated word processor)
Apple Computer Corporation (steadily replacing key applications of Adobe and Microsoft with free and easy to use software – Go Apple!)
Kudos to IDG for providing me with a wheelchair at MacWorld.
But raspberries to whomever decided to put six inch pile carpeting on the Expo floor. Impossible to roll a wheelchair over it, much less walk without thinking you are walking barefoot in sand. How about next year, bare concrete flooring everywhere, with carpet squares for the vendors to stand on? The Moscone exposition hall is not handicapped friendly. And neither are their restrooms. Yeah, they all have handicapped stalls, but who decided to put heavy spring loaded steel doors on the restrooms? I mean, you have to go around a corner after you get inside, so the doors are not there for privacy, but the doors are almost impossible to navigate in a wheelchair, either going in or going out. Take the stupid doors off your restrooms, Moscone!
Kudos to Debbie, Leah and Brenda for making my day. You ladies were a delight to meet with. Thank you for the lovely gift. (Sorry Nemo. I don’t know why the rest of you guys don’t have a fan club. Your writings are all better than mine, and you guys are all much better looking. . . uh, oh well. never mind.)
Cool places to visit while at Moscone – The Metreon, next to and to the West of, Moscone North. A large place where you can get lost in Sony large flat screen monitors, games, shops, and great food. Above the Moscone North and behind it, is Yerba Buena Gardens, perhaps the only place with grass in the area. Simply beautiful with trees and waterfalls.
Regards,
Roger Born
“sorry. no refunds”
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