Macworld Expo report

I love going to Macworld Expo, as I did yesterday, because I get to see dozens of old friends. The sense of community in the Macintosh world is amazing, even for a reformed apostate like me.

The Expo itself was pretty disappointing. There are fewer exhibitor booths than there have been in a long time (ever?). Many of the booths that are there are iPod cases, luggage, and some kinda feedback therapy to cure your backache.

The Steve Jobs keynote didn't feature as many great announcements as recent speeches. Steve himself seemed to sense that by saying more than once that lots of great stuff was coming out this year, but not necessarily today. iPod Mini is cool, and I'm very happy at the return to a circular button arrangement, but the smaller capacity makes it a product that's not for me, which tempers my excitement. I knew there would be fewer announcements than usual when the next version of Microsoft Office, not shipping for months, got several minutes of time.

Presenter pet peeve: folks giving demos, like Microsoft's Roz Ho, who say "I'm very excited to be here", but read it with all the enthusiasm of prisoners of war announcing support for their captors. Another one: executives who appear in demos but don't do the actual demoing and add nothing by their appearance (Microsoft's Roz Ho was guilty of this one again). I know there are passionate Mac folks at Microsoft. A really good way to convey that to a Mac audience is through the use of self-deprecating humor.

Best products I saw: HomePod and Squeezebox, devices that let you play music streamed wirelessly from a Mac on your stereo.

Best hack: Scott Boyd and a bunch of friends took over an empty booth in the Developer Depot section and started answering random questions for folks who wandered over. As Adam Engst pointed out, we hacked the booth!

Comments

[Scott]

Why I'm a former apostate: http://archive.salon.com/sept97/21st/apple970925.html