Graeme Thickins on Tech

Reflections & analysis about innovation, technology, startups, investing, healthcare, and more .... with a focus on Minnesota, Land of 10,000 Lakes. Blogging continuously since 2005.

Tag: Macworld

Macworld 2008: Thoughts and Images

January 16, 2008 / / 0 Comments

It was a long, hard day at the office-away-from-home.  My feet sure hurt, I’m on mega-sensory-overload, and more people are definitely not something I want to deal with right now — trust me.  But, somehow, I seem to have survived Macworld Day One, as I blog here from Annabelle’s Bar & Bistro next to the hotel, just up the street from site of this huge gathering. Annabellesbistro_3

Watching the Steve Jobs keynote on the live blogs, starting at 9:00 am, was quite an experience again — even if it was uneven as far as connections go here on-site, on the press room wi-fi. (This is the first time I’ve tried to watch the keynote from the event itself.) All the bandwidth the techies could muster here was being challenged beyond belief, I’m sure.  I Twittered a lot while I was watching live blog updates from Gizmodo and Engadget (simultaneously listening to a fun, live discussion of the proceedings streamed from Mactalk in Australia) — though a few of my tweets somehow just disappeared into the ether, I later realized. I was pretty happy with Twitter up till then, though I later saw bloggers saying it was a big disappointment this day. Anyway, a few images I snapped last night and today are included here, and everything I’ve shot so far on this
trip is now up on Flickr.

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As I said on my Twitters, the market sure didn’t seem to like the keynote today — AAPL just kept trending down throughout the whole thing.  Counting after-hours trading, Apple’s stock had drooped more than 9%, or more than $16, on the day.  That sure went against what the pundits were predicting!   And it also was the opposite of what happened during most, if not all, previous Macworlds — at least those in recent years that I’ve heard about. And Forbes’ take later in the afternoon sure echoed what the market was saying — with this less than complimentary headine: Jobs Fails to Wow at Macworld.  Maybe the worshiped one is losing the magic touch, huh?

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I’ll be here at Macworld till 1:00 pm or so tomorrow, when I must leave for the airport, so I may grab some more images with my new Canon Powershot before I leave.

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High Anticipation at Macworld

January 15, 2008 / / 1 Comment

The hotel is stirring early this morning. I thought I’d sleep in till maybe 5:30 or so (still kinda being on MN time and all), but no way — doors were slamming in the hallway early. [And then I found out this damn hotel doesn’t even put coffee out in the lobby till 7:00 am? Geez…] Anyway, the line for the Steve Jobs keynote must be hugely long already, two blocks down 4th Street. I’m convinced people were in it all night.Macworldkeynotesign

I don’t care — I’ll follow it on the blogs.  If all those bloggers really want to invest that much effort, work that hard, to type faster than the next guy, who am I not to relax and take advantage of it?  I did it last year while sitting comfortably in the CES Bloghaus — I’ll do the same this year.Stevejobsiflubbed

Which blogs are the best bet?  Well, Paul Kedrosky suggests these major names, but there are many. For the past several years, Apple has not provided a live video stream (rather, a tape-delayed broadcast hours later), but Kedrosky says they really have an obligation to, since it’s such a market-moving event.  And he’s right — an analyst on CNBC this morning even said GOOG and EMC will get a boost today from Macworld, with announcements related to the event. So, it’s more than just AAPL here, which is likely to get a 4-5% pop itself, I just heard.  Here’s what I said in comment on Kedrosky’s blog:

yeah – Walt Mossberg et al get unfair advantage to trade stocks 🙂

the competition to get into the keynote is unreal – soo restrictive – I talked to a guy in the press registration line yesterday who’s been to 12 Macworlds, and even he can’t get in this time

when I asked the lady behind the desk about a live stream, she said, "Well, I can’t say" – so there may be hope

We’ll see if that live stream happens. You might want to watch the Macworld Expo site.

CES Post 3: Early Morning at BlogHaus

January 8, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Well, I was the first to arrive this morning at 7:30 am, just as the housekeeping crew was finishing up. Only me alone with the breakfast buffet and a tub full of beer on ice at the bar (no, please….). Feeling good that I bailed last night about 10:30, I plugged into the T1 in the conference room, grabbed some much-needed caffeine, and started catching up on the buzz online. Bloghaus6 Seems the reaction to the Gates keynote yesterday wasn’t all that great — a lot of the same themes as last year. (But as Robert Scoble said to me later, at least everything worked this time…..ha!) More of the buzz online this morning seemed to be focused on how Macworld is already starting to suck away the oxygen from CES — an event that will draw only about one-fifth as many people.

About ten minutes later, a two-person video crew from PodTech arrived, followed closely by head PodTech dude, John Furrier. He said he and the crew were headed off to Cisco and lots of other interviews today. Other PodTech people started to arrive, and I heard the Haus was rocking till at least 5:00 am…..ooo, ouch. Glad my head is clear.

I’m gonna monitor the live coverage of what’s happening at the keynotes and on the showfloor from right here and do some blogging. The PodTech site is one good place for you to keep up on stuff ongoing, and note it also includes a page where all the BlogHaus-registered bloggers’ posts are aggregated. Events for me today include the Aussie companies’ press conference at the Hilton, followed by Yahoo press event/luncheon close by, and Disney CEO Robert Iger’s keynote at 4:30 at the Venetian (only because he might drop a hint of what’s to come in his largest shareholder’s keynote tomorrow at Macworld). Then the Showstoppers event this evening, and back here more for at the BlogHaus after that. Hey, this is work, people! Cheers for now…

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Predictions for Macworld

January 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Okay, while I’m on the plane to CES, I thought I’d write about — what else? — the next big show after this one… 🙂 It’s actually an even more significant event — in news terms, anyway. I’m of course talking about Macworld. Wish I could travel to that one, too, but I just can’t afford to be away that long from work and other matters back home. Stevejobs Nonetheless, I’m sure anxiously following all the talk about what will be announced later next week in SF by his royal supremeness, Chairman Steve. And I’m sure I’ll be spending some time in the next few days in Vegas talking with people about what they think is coming.

But my favorite prediction so far is from my longtime colleague, designer Randy Geise, who heads GeiseDesign in the Twin Cities. He’s a huge Apple follower and a fanatically loyal Mac enthusiast, and I’ve found he gets these predictions right more often than not. Here’s his take on what’s we can expect this time:

“Ok, I’m going to go out on a limb about MacWorld…

“I don’t think the iPhone will be ready and I think Jobs would more than likely do a special event for that like he did for iPod and other major hardware introductions. In addition to a whole lot of things, including software and the iTV, I’m betting he has finalized the exclusive agreement with The Beatles, and his ‘one more thing’ will be a limited edition Beatles iPod (ordered blank or pre-filled with all The Beatles’ songs, including some we haven’t heard). Like the ‘red’ iPods, where a certain amount goes to charity, this iPod will be tied into breast cancer charities (since Linda died from that). I don’t think McCartney will make a live appearance but will do a transatlantic iChat with Jobs. This will also tie into the iTV, as all the Beatles’ movies will be available on iTunes and ready to be streamed to your HDtv via iTV.”

What Randy thinks would be “the perfect MacWorld keynote” this time is the following sequence of events:
1) Numbers/performance review.
2) Updated iLife with each app getting something, especially more podcasting features.
3) Updated iWork with spreadsheet and database added (replaces Appleworks).
4) Leopard review/preview/date.
5) iTV intro, shipping now or shortly.
6) Announcement of the exclusive Beatles deal including a Beatles iPod, bare or loaded with every Beatles song ever recorded. Jobs gets McCartney on iChat for an interview.
7) He gets up, announces “one more thing,” pulls out an iPhone, continues his live video chat with Paul, where he announces that, in addition to songs, all The Beatles’ movies are now available for download and streaming over iTV.
8) He demos the phone features and announce pricing and availability.

Says Randy: “I don’t really think The Beatles thing is that far-fetched. From what I’ve read, the whole British copyright law has changed and shortened the lifespan — so, in order to monetize their portfolio, The Beatles have to get their stuff out in wide circulation before it hits the public domain. And there have been rumors, for quite some time, that Jobs has a deal.”

Hope you’re right, Randy — hey, I’m ready for some iBeatles! We’ll know in less than a week….

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