MacWorld

This post is from our west coast bureau: MacWorld 2010 Moscone Conference Center San Francisco, CA Maybe I’ve just been to too many of these shows. Almost didn’t make it to this one. But I had paid my registration long ago. (Yes, one has to pay to attend this series of infomercials.) And I has seen and heard the hype about the iPad. So when I got several emails teasing me with a conference session discussing same, I got myself across the Bay. In my rush to get there, I forgot my camera. But not to worry. I didn’t find much to take pictures of. The session, it turned out, didn’t even have a single live iPad. Just some foam mock-ups. Four talking heads and a moderator discussed their ‘extensive’ experience using the device. Extensive was defined as 20 minutes. None of the panelists quite matched the user demographic I identify with. So when the second one began to reiterate how comfortable it felt in his hands. I left for a more hands-on experience, feeling like I wasn’t even being given sizzle, let alone steak. I was hearing someone give me a second hand report that he had felt the sizzle briefly while under the direct tutelage of a sizzle-master. I couldn’t see spending my time without the shadow of an opportunity to see what the display is like, how the device as a whole fits together, and whether it’s visible in daylight, etc. And I’ve got a bunch of questions about downloading and uploading. As a potential consumer, I felt disrespected by Apple, or whoever pulled this event together. Since it was about an Apple product, in my mind Apple gets the credit, even though they are no longer an official sponsor of MacWorld. They can call back when they are ready to let me have a hands–on experience with my own hands and trying to use it as I anticipate I would in my world. The rest of the show didn’t go much better for me. Since I had forgotten my camera, I had thought I might pick up an inexpensive one. Nary a one to be had. Several tables of iPod skins. And some really bling jewelry for dressing up your Bluetooth earpiece. A very helpful Advanced PhotoShop tutorial, clear and well presented. Couldn’t get my schedule to coordinate with Beginning PhotoShop, which is more my level. The chairs were comfy. I’ve been eying several of the schemes to imprint pictures onto mugs and other paraphernalia. I work with a couple of high school classrooms that are looking for money-making ventures that they can conduct without having to leave campus. Transfer It has a series of presses, transfer paper and other materials. Wonder if we can get a micro-loan to start up a business? What else did I like? Tenonedesign has an app that turns your touchpad into a mini tablet and a touchpad stylus that won’t scratch. Fun and potentially useful. Wish I had access to a Mac with a relevant touchpad so I could experiment further with handwriting. (I think I have a handwriting program that would work it it comes in a Mac version.) GameSalad makes game creation and development look possible, if not downright fun and easy. It leaves the question of content quality still unanswered. 4i Thumbs has a clever tactile keypad for the iPhone. It functions as a pretty good screen protector, too.