Matt goes to Macworld Expo
My First Macworld
by Matt Beckwith
I am a Macworld virgin no more. Today, I went to my first Macworld Expo. I also got a chance to make it to the Mac Podcasters meet-up hosted by Adam Christianson of the The Mac Cast. There was so many memorable moments, so many great products… I’ll just sum up the best parts.
The winner of the “what iPod accessory will they think of next” award goes to the iPod dock / toilet paper dispenser. I think we are officially at the point where every possible accessory has been done (perfect time for Apple to go wide-screen on the next generation of iPods).
I saw a lot of interesting software applications but by late morning I was really looking for that new feel-good, screwin’ around at home on a rainy afternoon type program. We hit the jackpot when we stumbled upon the plasq booth. These guys already have a great application in Comic Life and gave us a demo of their new product, Skitch. This application makes editing and sharing pictures fun again. Skitch makes it so easy yo add images on top of one another or to spice up photos with great looking call-outs and text. Quick publishing to .Mac or to another server via ftp is a snap, as is sending the image to Mail or iWeb. These guys really did a great job showing off this new product.
At the end of the afternoon we walked over to the Apple store for the Mac Podcaster meet up. We got there a little after 5 and the place was already crowded. Lucky for us, the guys at the genius bar brought over some more benches so we could sit in the back row. After an hour or so (no complaints here; the wait was worth it) the event got underway. Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Scott Bourne, Merlin Mann, Ken Ray, Don McAllister and Derrick Story were some of podcasters that joined Adam. The conversation started out by answering what the term “podcast” meant to everyone and quickly moved back and forth to what the future held for this type of media. Although I didn’t get a chance to meet Adam, I did have an opportunity to talk a little to Merlin and Ken – which was so cool. Getting a chance to meet these guys was awesome, they are the new breed of celebrities. Adam Christianson did an awesome job with this panel discussion. All of the podcasters on the panel seemed to be very generous as well as very appreciative of their respective audiences. Given the talk about the differences between the “old” and “new” medias, it was that generousness and sense of appreciation that makes this new medium of content delivery so refreshing.
