The Keynote exodus was quiet and restrained, compared to the surging mass of humanity on the way in. The MyMac crew rendezvoused back at the Media Center to do some groupthink on the Keynote.
Me? I ate lunch. Listening to the keynote is hungry work, especially when gadget lust kicks in.
Once fed, I could think.
I decided to reflect on the phone and the Keynote a bit later, and head out now onto the floor, and take the Expo’s temperature.
With the door to the big room of the South Hall just steps away from the Media Center, I made that my destination.
Compared to my last Macworld Expo (2005) this year’s model has more presence, more kick, more enthusiasm.
The air was full of snippets of conversation;
“…ordered the iPhone…”
“My kids won’t need to go to college. I’m getting that phone.”
“…too much money. Way too much money.”
“Honey I’m glad we got that big TV for Christmas, now you can buy me the Apple TV thingie.”
“So I spend $599 for a phone. What if I leave it in a cab?
That was just the background noise around the Apple booth. The crowd around the booth was as packed as I could remember. Empty seats at the Apple Theater to watch the iPhone demo filled up instantly, and no one left during the demo, at least during the 15 minutes I was able to watch from the far bleacher seats.
Apple TV had at least 15 demo stations, so the wait was not too bad, and you could test drive at will. I took my turn wielding the Apple Remote, and managed to not embarrass myself. The booth’s flip side was devoted to iTunes/iPhoto, and it too had a respectable crowd, even if it was not as jammed as the Apple TV side.
After the 2005 Expo, I reviewed the HP Photosmart 2610 all-in-one printer/canner/copier/fax. I stopped by to chat with Andrew from HP, and to see what has replaced the 2610 unit. He gave me the once-over for the HP C6180, and it seems to be a good unit.
“What do I get for $299?, asides from it tastes great, is less filling with better printing, scanning, copying, and faxing?”
“All of the above,” says Andrew.
I hope to get a review unit sometime soon.
Next stop was Prosoft, to say hi to our press contact Jennifer Bell. She wasn’t there, but I was able to get a quickie demo of Jax, Prosoft’s new application to add functionality to iTunes.
Jax for iTunes can control the iTunes visualizer, get song lyrics and album art, get stock quotes, gasoline prices, and weather.
Possibly the neatest feature is Jax’s ability to download your email onto your iPod as text, or as spoken words as tracks in MP3 format. Use the voice of your choice, too.
The version of Jax I saw was not feature-complete, but Prosoft hopes to ship in a month or so. I’ll try to get my hands on a copy to review as soon as I can get Prosoft to part with one!
Over to one side of the South Hall was Endicia’s booth. Endicia is a small company, but the folks were friendly. Endicia is a postage application for Mac OS X. using Endicia, you can print stamps and mailing labels with your inject or laser printer. The company sells USB scales for weighing your shipments, so you always have just the right postage. Pay by the month, or by the year. I’ve always been intrigued by printing stamps (it’s almost like printing money, right?), so look for a MyMac.com review of Endicia.
As I left the booth, I asked “what does Endicia mean,” figuring it would be another made-up meaningless brand name. I got a quick answer. It refers to the permit or imprint that allows the sender to mail without putting postage on each piece. So there!
At the end of Day One, I can confidently state that Apple is in great shape.
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