All Mac Considered

Afterglow

Moscone South Entrance

Now that we are entering February and MacWorld is beginning to fade into our memories as the afterglow of the quieting embers of the huge bonfire that was MacWorld San Francisco 2002, I decided to look back a bit and reminisce a bit about my experiences there.

To tell this tale properly we must go back to Sunday, January 6, 2002 back to the to the beginning. That's the night in North Hollywood, California that I put a suitcase, some cameras an myself into my trusty 1991 Isuzu Trooper and began my trek some 400 miles northward to the exotic wilds of the San Francisco Bay area, the West Coast home of that biannual festival known to us as MacWorld.

I was excited to go to MacWorld this year, not because it was my first one or even my first as a member of the Media for the simple reason that it was neither. I was excited because this was going to be my first SteveNote address. I was going to experience first hand the (in)famous "Reality Distortion Field" in action. Imagine, actually to have the experience of feeling the glow of the fabled "RDF" first hand. Wow! That anticipation made it much easier to deal with the 400 miles of a lot of nothing you see when driving up the Interstate 5 through the Great Central Valley, a huge expanse of flatness and boredom the dominates the center of the state of California. It's dull enough in daylight but at night... pure sleep inducement.

Day One

After several hours of driving through that expanse of blankness I turned west through the Livermore Valley, up through Hayward and northward towards the Bay Bridge and then over it to the Moscone Center. I arrived there at about 3:30 AM and took a quick look. Already there were about five or six early arrivals camping out to get in first when the doors officially opened at 7:00 AM to get their passes. Within a half hour or so the line grew until it started to go around the block to the west and north of Moscone Center. That's when I decided to find a "safe" place to park the Isuzu until the doors opened and get my media pass.

At 7:00 AM I found myself herded into a line that moved forward in an orderly manner and was aimed at the appropriate room downstairs to get my media pass. After that, a pleasant person in a yellow T-shirt very nicely misdirected most of the media types to the wrong place but we managed to figure out that his/her instructions were inaccurate and went across the street to the South Entrance of Moscone Center where the media was being slowly herded into the room where Steve was going to unveil whatever he had for us.

The room for the SteveNote was a rather large expanse and had TV cameras lined up against the far walls. There was a special section reserved for cameras and that meant me. I maneuvered myself into a reasonable spot and pulled out my camera. I looked around and discovered something interesting: I think I was one of only three people in the Observable Universe that actually used a camera that used film! Interesting, but archaic as was my chosen recording medium, I took my position to await His Jobness' arrival.

The event started pretty close to the correct time and Jobs introduced a variety of new things from a variety software developers showing that indeed there was support for Mac OS X from the major developers. Adobe's rep showed off what had already been moved to Mac OS X such as Illustrator and how well it used OS X' technology like the Quartz rendering engine. He even managed to keep the mob quiet by showing a nifty demonstration of the Mac OS X version of Photoshop, albeit a beta version. At least we now know that Adobe is seriously working on a Mac OS X version of Photoshop, so maybe some of the rumors might quiet down a bit.

Then Jobs introduced his to his newest hardware babies, first the new 14.1" LCD screen version of the iBook, and then the new iMac.

The new iMac is introduced.

It arose from a black pedestal that we had not noticed before. One minute we were watching Steve and the next, there it was. It was a surprise, not just because it didn't resemble anything any of the rumor sites had proposed, nor because it was so totally unlike anything we had expected. We were stunned by its remarkable feature set as well as its highly unconventional appearance. Many us didn't quite know what to make of it. Besides, although some of us had already seen the Time magazine cover pic of it, most of us had already dismissed the prematurely released picture as a nicely done hoax, kind of like the iWalk video. It was far too radical to be a real picture, or so most of us thought. Surprise! It wasn't a hoax. Score one for Apple's disinformation campaigns.

Steve shows off his baby.

Steve then went on to show off what his new baby could do.

That's when we were introduced to iPhoto. Yes, the rumors about its existence were true, but the rumor sites totally missed just what it was. Not only did it not compete with Photoshop or Photoshop Elements but it actually was designed to work smoothly with another image editing program for editing more advanced than simple cropping and redeye removal. In fact, Steve used the opportunity to stick a needle into the Adobe reps by telling us that it would work nicely with a Mac OS X version of Photoshop... if there were a Mac OS X version ready for it.

After we saw what iPhoto could do on a nice new iMac connected to a digital camera we realized that Apple's vision of the Mac as a "digital hub" was well on its way to placing Apple far ahead of the pack of Wintel boxes that try to copy Apple as digital hubs but as usual are a day late and a dollar short.

Steve then ended the keynote but I noticed that as he was walking off of the stage, he stopped for a moment and looked as if he was going to give another of his famous "Oh yes, one more thing..." bits, but he looked as if he thought better of it and left. It wasn't until a few days ago that we learned about Apple breaking the GHz barrier by using a version of the Apollo processor in the new PowerMacs. Perhaps he was thinking of telling us about it, but decided not to detract attention from the new iMac. If so, then it was a smart move.

After the keynote we were were herded into the main floor of the hall where we got our first close up views of the new iBooks and iMac. Although the new iBook was indeed impressive, it was definitely the iMac that was the center of attention.

First close up look at the new iMac.

I had to patiently wade through a mob of media types who were crowded around the new iMacs. Even though Apple had a large number of them up for view it was still difficult to find an opening just to take a look.

The new iMac has to be seen up close to really appreciate it. Where the Cube looked much better in pictures than in reality, the new iMac reverses that. It is really a marvelous thing to behold close up. The best pictures to date simply fail to convey the feeling of its presence.

That 15" screen has to be seen to be appreciated. Not only is the iMac the first consumer level computer whose screen adjusts itself to you rather than forcing you to adjust to it, that screen is bright and incredibly sharp. I could not stop feeling awed by what Apple's designers and engineers had accomplished.

This would be a marvel if they had stopped with redoing the design but they went further replacing the G3 processor with a G4 processor running up to 800 MHz, an nVidia GeForce 2 graphics processor, a SuperDrive and a 60 GB hard drive, not to mention a passel of USB ports, FireWire and EtherNet. The result is a marvelous bundle of power and features wrapped up in a design that is not only unusually functional but won't take over your life. Although the original iMac was an unobtrusive design, the new iMac actually wants to sit out in plain view blending with your other tastefully chosen household furnishings a la Sharper Image. I wonder how long it will take before they start showing up in Ikea ads?

The polished stainless steel of the iMac

The design has managed to appeal to both male and female aesthetic sensibilities simultaneously. The soft white matte finish and rounded design of the base would appeal to the ladies and the smooth polished stainless steel of the neck and perfectly machine finished screws and joint connectors at the neck and around the screen give it just enough of a "guy" touch to appeal to most thinking males.

After I managed to get close enough to get some pictures and a good view, I had to go take a look at the new iBooks. Apple had surprised us all by providing a 14.1" screen version of the iBook at the top end (including a 50% larger and longer lasting battery) as well as keeping two 12.1" models at the low and middle. Now a potential iBook buyer has better choices than ever. Naturally, another mob crowded around the iBooks. The problem was that although the crowd was smaller, the number of iBooks was also smaller. Where there were a couple of dozen new iMacs on display, I saw only two or so iBooks. Some of the more enthusiastic Japanese members of the media were really excited not only about the new iMac but the new iBook as well. The Japanese really have a thing for small gadgets and that includes laptops.

A look at the iBook

I finally managed to get a clear view of the new iBooks. The new larger iBook is really a no-brainer once you think about it. It isn't really revolutionary, but it fills a hole in Apple's product lineup nicely.

After the press conference, I met Dave Schultz, the founder and chief editor of Applelust in person for the first time. He was speaking with Jonathon Ives, the designer of the new iMac. Dave did send me a suggested description of the meeting, but out of modesty I refrained from using it. After the meeting Dave, his wife and I got some of the free lunch that Apple provided for the media types, talked a bit about things Mac, Applelust and a lot of stuff that I don't recall right now.

I finally started to feel the effects of too many hours without sleep and so I left the hall, located a cheap little motel to stay in for a couple of days. I had originally planned to stay at a Motel 6 while I was in San Francisco but decided to opt for a cheap motel in an industrial neighborhood because Motel 6 had jacked up their rates to higher than most decent hotels in the area. Talk about self-defeating greed!

Strangely, I don't remember much of what I did after that so I must have gotten something to eat and sacked out.

Day two

A look inside the South hall

Tuesday, the day that the Common Herd gets to come in. That's when I got to have some fun just wandering around looking at the goodies. I decided to spend most of Tuesday in the South hall leaving the North hall for the Wednesday.

I know that most Mac media types are interested in the Big Boys like Adobe or Microsoft, or Maya and the like, but since I am not doing a lot of high end image editing, don't like to get stuck with Microsoft problems (Don't you just LOVE Word macro virii or Outlook Express security holes?) and have no immediate plans to start up a rival to Industrial Light & Magic, I really am not greatly interested in them. I like to look at the "lesser" stuff that I find a lot more interesting.

One of the first things I saw that caught my eye was the AppleSkinz booth.

If you are getting bored with the appearance of your PowerMac (B&W G3 through QuickSilver cases) you can change the appearance as easily as you change your own clothes. For $50 for a pair of skinz you can choose from a variety of available designs or even add your own photos to your PowerMac. You could even get several pairs of skinz and change your Mac's appearance to suit the occasion. I am sure that purchasing more than one set of skinz wouldn't hurt their feelings any.

The AppleSkinz people also have plans for making skinz for the iBook series, older iMacs and the Titanium PowerBook. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the more fanatical in the Mac community wind up spending more on skinz for their Macs than they spend on their own wardrobes.

Apple's Procreate area

In the South Hall Apple had set up a big "Procreate" area. One one side of the area there were Macs set up where users could get hands-on instruction from experts on various graphics programs. On one side of the booth they had various software vendors demo'ing their own content creation software for interested passersby.

While I was wandering about I ran across the booth of Carina Software where they were demonstrating their new Voyager III planetarium program (MSRP US$120). Since I am a long-time amateur astronomer, I took a look and got a demo disk to check out when I got home.

Not far away was the booth of Starry Night. I reviewed Starry Night version 3 over a year ago and so I was interested to see if they had any plans for a Mac OS X version. The good news is yes, they do. Version 4 will be announced for MacWorld in New York this summer. The bad news is that it will have a substantial price increase. Since the exact final price has not yet been set they asked me not to publish the tentative price they are thinking of asking for version 4. All I will tell you is that the increase is very substantial. I hope it is worth it.

The MacAddict Loonies

I also found the MacAddict booth. True to form, they were as irreverent as ever, selling subscriptions, T-shirts and giving away polyurethane hats that resembled nothing so much as very comfy looking toilet seat shields. Somehow I don't think that the resemblance was unnoticed by the MacAddict staffers. Yes, I got one.

The Media Center room

Later on I went back to the Media Center room. This was a large area for media types to grab a free lunch (Thank you, Apple...) schmooze with your peers and use provided iMacs to communicate via the web with your home sites, publishing companies, etc.

The AirPort area

There was another table where the Apple laptop users congregated to use AirPort wireless connections to the web. I saw just about every type of Apple laptop from PowerBook G3s through current iBooks and Titanium PowerBooks in use. I even saw one lonely clam shell model iBook user at work. The sight of all of those different model Apple laptops running under a variety of Mac OS op systems from Mac OS 9.x through Mac OS X on the same wireless network brought home the level of flexibility that AirPort has.

One of the Japanese media people there had already gotten his pictures from his digicam and had transmitted them to his site in Japan. It was already posted and ready for any of his readers to check out. Imagine, posting and administering a web site from half way around the planet via an Apple laptop and AirPort wireless networking within an hour of seeing the new iMacs and iBooks.

Media pundits at work

In fact, some laptop wireless users didn't even bother to sit at the table at all but found a quiet spot on the floor against the wall to communicate with the great outer world.

After I indulged in the free lunch in the media Center I made my way back to the South hall and started looking for NFRs (Not For Resale items). Dave had managed to finagle a FireWire external hard drive for a test and I did get a couple of copies of Suitcase 10 from the Extensis booth for a future review.

I also was wowed by the demos of some of the new Mac OS X compatible software that is being published. Just to name a couple of the biggies, there was VectorWorks 9 published by Nemetschek. VectorWorks 9 is a CAD program that is not only cross-platform but blows away the so-called industry standard, AutoCAD. Another product related to Nemetschek is Cinema 4D. If you find Maya a bit pricey at US$7,500 then perhaps Cinema 4D XL Release 7 might be a bit better suited for you. Info can be found by contacting the home company, Maxon Computer.

One booth I saw was for Artbeats Digital Film Library. Serious videographers need to have stock footage just like photographic artists need to have stock pictures. Artbeats provides a royalty free library of available stock footage from movie and video sources in a variety of quality levels. If you are a serious videographer, you really need to check these guys out.

I spent the rest of Tuesday checking out the new toys to be found in the South hall and then met up with Dave Schultz, his wife and some of the other Applelusters at MWSF for a quick dinner, a bit of conversation that centered on MacWorld and Applelust (what else?) and then dragged myself off to check out a few sights and then go to bed.

Day Three

I woke up Wednesday morning and discovered that my Isuzu had mysteriously sprung a sizable oil leak. All I could do was pour a quart or so of oil into it and hope it didn't leak out too fast. Since I didn't know where I could find an auto supply store nearby I had to pay too much at a local convenience market for it. Such is life.

After I made it back over the Bay Bridge and back to MacWorld I decided to check out what was in the North Hall. Although there were fewer exhibitors this year (due to the sour economy) and parts of the North Hall were draped off in black I did find some interesting stuff.

Mac Art Gallery

One thing I found interesting was the art gallery. I never cease to be amazed at what really talented people can do with a Mac, and without getting paint all over the place. I still remember how when I was in college that you could always spot the art students. They were the ones who wore paint stained grungy clothes as a badge of honor.

These days they may still wear the paint stained stuff but with the way fads change you can never be sure if it they are really art students or if it is just another tasteless clothing fad pushed by clothing manufacturers. To make matters more difficult, art students who work on computers don't have paint stained clothes unless they carelessly spill a toner cartridge all over themselves.

One interesting small booth I saw in the North hall was for Revolution. This small Scottish firm is providing a fully cross-platform development system with a complete scripting system so that you literally do write it once and run it on anything from Windows to Mac OS to Unix. The current version 1.0 runs only on Mac OS Classic but version 1.1 will be carbonized.

Marathon File Cabinet

Some of the exhibitors in the North hall definitely had a sense of humor. Marathon Computer, maker of rack mounting systems for PowerMacs, used the cases and internal frames of three graphite case PowerMacs to turn them into a file cabinet for their show literature. I wonder what they did with the original innards?

I ran across the small booth of FreeBSD where they were giving away little red devil FreeBSD stickers so Mac OS X users could put them on their computers.

Speaking of Darwin, there was a Darwin booth demonstrating it running happily on an x86 box. For Unix geeks out there, Darwin is just another flavor of BSD Unix that runs on PPC and x86 based hardware, and if you love command line interfaces you will be in pig heaven.

The Big Nerd Ranch

One rather remarkable little booth was for the Big Nerd Ranch. The name may be humorous, but the intent is serious. The Big Nerd Ranch provides serious training in Cocoa environment programming in a beautiful rural setting near Asheville, North Carolina. The site for the instruction is a lodge set in the hills and on a lake. If you are really serious about becoming a Mac OS X Cocoa programmer, check them out. Besides, the site of the training alone may be worth the trip.

Kreative Komix Booth

On the lighter side, Kreative Komix presented a product lineup designed to make it easy to make multimedia presentations. Although they are primarily meant for the easy production of your own comic publications they can also be used for any sort of multimedia publications. Still, despite the fact that Kreative Komix can be used for serious applications I think the original intent is more interesting and fun.

Gamers in action

As the day was starting to wind down and I was starting to run low on my own internal batteries, I checked out the gamers' area. There was a lot of hot stuff out there, especially with ATI pushing its new Radeon 8500 and nVidia responding with the GeForce 3 graphics. It's too bad that I can't really do the offerings real justice here. I would have to have a video of the gaming action to let you get a real feel of it. Needless to say the game demos were surrounded with young people getting hands-on experiences. I was also very glad that whoever set up the demos quite nicely kept the sound volume down. My aging ears appreciated that.

The Rubdown booth

As the day wound down I passed the booth that was probably the most appreciated there... the rubdown booth. I saw the look of relief on the faces of those who decided to take advantage of the services provided. I almost regretted not having done the same.

Home Sweet Home

Finally the day ended and I had to leave. Since Dave and his wife had left earlier to go catch a Pacific Sunset at Half Moon Bay I had said good bye to him earlier in the day. I had already checked out of the motel that morning so there wasn't much left to do but catch dinner and go home. After paying eleven bucks for a bowl of soba noodles, chicken and shrimp I got back into my trusty Isuzu (still leaking oil) and started the trek back 400 miles south to home. I did get back in the wee hours of Thursday with the car leaking oil the whole way. After I got back I took it in and it cost over $300 to replace an oil cooler hose with a rather large hole in it. At least now it holds the oil.

I wonder what surprises Steve will have for us at MacWorld in New York?

- Joe Carson

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