Macworld and the 'philnote'
11/01/09 09:43 Filed in: Software
I know posts have slowed a bit in the last month, so
it’s now time to start catching up. First this years
Macworld...
I’ve got lots of thoughts on this years macworld, the
fact that it’s the last one Apple will be attending
and that the was no ‘stevenote’. Is the end for
Apple? No, of course not. Is the end for macworld,
maybe not, that one is not so clear.
There have been lots of reasons put about for why Apple is pulling out, and most of them in the end I think mean good news for Apple fans. The fact that macworld is right at the start of the year after the Christmas break means that staff have to work through there Christmas breaks to get things ready for the show. This can’t be good for either morale or quality, I’m thinking.
Also the fact that it is a fixed date, means that perhaps products have to be ready for release on that date rather than when they are actually ready for release (mobile me perhaps?)
Also visiting a show like this is massively expensive for a big company like Apple. We are probably talking a few million here, now that figure is not actually a lot for a company like Apple, but I would rather see that money put toward product development rather than attending the show.
And just because Apple won’t be at the show next year doesn’t, I hope, mean that there won’t be any new product announcements. Apple have done a number of announcements at special events outside of macworld. These events can be planed once the product is ready to go and are probably better from Apples PR point of view since they have control of who is there. I’m not sure if that last point is good for Apple fans or not!
As for the lack of a Steve Jobs keynote, well that is kind of sad, but again it’s not the end of the world. I think this is all part of the process of weaning us Apple fans off Steve Jobs. This has been happening for a while now, with more and more other people sharing the stage with him at recent product releases.
We need to know that he is not Apple by him self. Yes he is the man that has rebuild Apple and as part of that I’m sure he has people in place now that share his vision. It will be a sad day when he retires from Apple and yes there will be changes when that happens, but I’ve said this before when things stop changing they die! And in any case I suspect Steve Job will be around for a few years more.
So on to the keynote it’s self, or the ‘philnote’ as it’s being called.
Well I’ve seen lots a loud wailing and crying from Apple fans in the internet that nothing good was announced. Okay yes there was no huge announcements, but we can’t have huge announcements every time and there was at least one very interesting thing for me there.
We have updates to iLife. Some of which look very cool, but since I only ever use iPhoto I don’t see the updates making much difference to me. I’m guessing that I’ll get this latest update when I next update my hardware (which given my current situation, could be while!) However the updates to iWork are much more interesting to me. Keynote I can take or leave, I’ve only used it in anger once, but updates to Pages and Numbers are big news to me. Yes I’ll downloaded the trail, which does run nicely along side my existing install.
The biggest news for me was not actually announced in the keynote, for probably very good reasons. Numbers now has applescript support! This for me a programing and spreadsheet geek is huge news. Part of what I love about excel is the fact that there is nothing that you can’t do through the interface that can’t also be done via Visual Basic for applications. I’’ve not really had a chance to play around with the applescript in Numbers yet, but you be sure that I will be seeing just how far I can push this spreadsheet!
The new MacBook Pro looks very nice, but I, like many others, am worried about the non-removable battery. I can see Apples point that by making it non-removable they can make the battery bigger, but I am worried that this has happened in biggest laptop in the range. Yes they have also done this in the MacBook Air, the smallest in the range which doesn’t worry me, I don’t see my self every wanting a MacBook Air, but I think that this will spread to all of the laptops in the range. That does worry me a bit. My next laptop is likely to be an update to my existing MacBook or maybe a 15 inch MacBook Pro (the 17 inch is more of a desktop replacement in my eyes), but this won’t be for a while. By the time I do update the battery technology I hope will have been proved or dropped because it didn’t work!
On to things that where not announced. An Apple netbook, I don’t think this will ever happen while Steve Jobs is in charge. It’s just not Apples market. I do see the iPod touch and iPhone developing towards something which works the same as a netbook, but which is better and more usable, but a netbook as we know it now? No Apple won’t do that.
And finally what about Snow Leopard? Well I think that Apple where right not to make any mention of this. Windows 7 was released in to public beta this week as well, and Snow Leopard with it’s minimal visible changes would have a hard time competing with the big changes that Windows 7 is bringing in it’s looks. Plus it’s difficult to make more speed and stability look sexy in keynote. It is, however, those things that we will appreciate every day while using the operating system. I also get the feeling that while Snow Leopard will work and will be faster on current machines, it will really need new hardware (with the intel i7Core) to fly!
There have been lots of reasons put about for why Apple is pulling out, and most of them in the end I think mean good news for Apple fans. The fact that macworld is right at the start of the year after the Christmas break means that staff have to work through there Christmas breaks to get things ready for the show. This can’t be good for either morale or quality, I’m thinking.
Also the fact that it is a fixed date, means that perhaps products have to be ready for release on that date rather than when they are actually ready for release (mobile me perhaps?)
Also visiting a show like this is massively expensive for a big company like Apple. We are probably talking a few million here, now that figure is not actually a lot for a company like Apple, but I would rather see that money put toward product development rather than attending the show.
And just because Apple won’t be at the show next year doesn’t, I hope, mean that there won’t be any new product announcements. Apple have done a number of announcements at special events outside of macworld. These events can be planed once the product is ready to go and are probably better from Apples PR point of view since they have control of who is there. I’m not sure if that last point is good for Apple fans or not!
As for the lack of a Steve Jobs keynote, well that is kind of sad, but again it’s not the end of the world. I think this is all part of the process of weaning us Apple fans off Steve Jobs. This has been happening for a while now, with more and more other people sharing the stage with him at recent product releases.
We need to know that he is not Apple by him self. Yes he is the man that has rebuild Apple and as part of that I’m sure he has people in place now that share his vision. It will be a sad day when he retires from Apple and yes there will be changes when that happens, but I’ve said this before when things stop changing they die! And in any case I suspect Steve Job will be around for a few years more.
So on to the keynote it’s self, or the ‘philnote’ as it’s being called.
Well I’ve seen lots a loud wailing and crying from Apple fans in the internet that nothing good was announced. Okay yes there was no huge announcements, but we can’t have huge announcements every time and there was at least one very interesting thing for me there.
We have updates to iLife. Some of which look very cool, but since I only ever use iPhoto I don’t see the updates making much difference to me. I’m guessing that I’ll get this latest update when I next update my hardware (which given my current situation, could be while!) However the updates to iWork are much more interesting to me. Keynote I can take or leave, I’ve only used it in anger once, but updates to Pages and Numbers are big news to me. Yes I’ll downloaded the trail, which does run nicely along side my existing install.
The biggest news for me was not actually announced in the keynote, for probably very good reasons. Numbers now has applescript support! This for me a programing and spreadsheet geek is huge news. Part of what I love about excel is the fact that there is nothing that you can’t do through the interface that can’t also be done via Visual Basic for applications. I’’ve not really had a chance to play around with the applescript in Numbers yet, but you be sure that I will be seeing just how far I can push this spreadsheet!
The new MacBook Pro looks very nice, but I, like many others, am worried about the non-removable battery. I can see Apples point that by making it non-removable they can make the battery bigger, but I am worried that this has happened in biggest laptop in the range. Yes they have also done this in the MacBook Air, the smallest in the range which doesn’t worry me, I don’t see my self every wanting a MacBook Air, but I think that this will spread to all of the laptops in the range. That does worry me a bit. My next laptop is likely to be an update to my existing MacBook or maybe a 15 inch MacBook Pro (the 17 inch is more of a desktop replacement in my eyes), but this won’t be for a while. By the time I do update the battery technology I hope will have been proved or dropped because it didn’t work!
On to things that where not announced. An Apple netbook, I don’t think this will ever happen while Steve Jobs is in charge. It’s just not Apples market. I do see the iPod touch and iPhone developing towards something which works the same as a netbook, but which is better and more usable, but a netbook as we know it now? No Apple won’t do that.
And finally what about Snow Leopard? Well I think that Apple where right not to make any mention of this. Windows 7 was released in to public beta this week as well, and Snow Leopard with it’s minimal visible changes would have a hard time competing with the big changes that Windows 7 is bringing in it’s looks. Plus it’s difficult to make more speed and stability look sexy in keynote. It is, however, those things that we will appreciate every day while using the operating system. I also get the feeling that while Snow Leopard will work and will be faster on current machines, it will really need new hardware (with the intel i7Core) to fly!
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