Disclaimer: this column: it’s a stream of consciousness series of impressions, opinions, and comments from the perspective of Yours Truly. It’s designed to offer the feel and spirit of this week’s Macworld Expo and New York Ciy (at least my impressions of them). It’s not designed to be a news article. You have been warned.
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The mood at this week’s Macworld Conference & Expo in the Big Apple is a mixture of good and bad vibes. The good vibes come from the 17-inch iMac (a beautiful machine you’ve gotta see up close to appreciate), updated i-applications, and the really nice features in Jaguar.
The bad vibes come from the (perceived) price tags on the new .Mac service and the lack of an upgrade cost for Jaguar for current Mac OS X 10.x users (everyone who doesn’t buy a Mac as of Wednesday pays the full US$129 price). Then there’s the confused vibe (as in “Huh? Why?”) over the song rating system in iTunes 3.
My two cents? Later. When I’ve recovered from MWNY, too much caffeine, and too little sleep. Now for some random observations.
Jennifer Lopez supposed made an appearance here in the Roosevelt Hotel where the Mac Publishing gang is staying. They’re filming scenes from her upcoming movie, “The Chambermaid.” They were auditioning for extras, but I didn’t apply. I didn’t want to tempt JLo (on the rebound, it seems) and distract her from her work. I was afraid that my Southern accent and devilish good looks might be too much for her to bear. (For the same reason, I’ll try to stay out of Angeline Jolie’s radar.)
My MacCentral compadre, Peter Cohen, is depressed. As is his custom, he’s had an Apple icon dyed in his hair for expo week (a giant “X”). At the opening of the SoHo store, I think he did cartwheels before Steve Jobs, hoping to get a comment on his dome decoration. Alas, the Apple CEO didn’t acknowledge the fantastic follicle display.
I’ve seen some pretty nifty goodies in the nooks and cranny of the show floor. There were some very interesting speakers called Eclipse Power Silvers. I would tell you more about ’em, but the press kit and info is all in Japanese. Another promising product is the iRise from the folks at Xtreme Mac. Coming in October, it’s a FireWire and USB pedestal hub for a flat panel iMac. More on that later. And I’ve just gotta have some Creature speakers from Harman Multimedia.
Join me tomorrow for one last Reporter’s Notebook from MWNY.