I mentioned a couple of posts back that, even at 4:30 in the morning, there was a long line of Mac faithful already in line for Steve Jobs’ keynote.
People kept coming and getting in line behind us for hours, so I have no idea how long the line finally got.
In couple of weeks I will attend my first Macworld in San Francisco. 60,000 rabid Mac fans gather for a week of… well, I’m not quite sure but look forward to finding out.
Three Macworld veterans are letting me tag along and their enthusiasm is infectious. These guys are my age and they’re as giddy as a GTO full of college sophomores on their way to spring break.
They know the ropes and have planned our trip like a Delta Force strike. This morning at our planning meeting, I was informed that we’d be getting in line at 4:30 a.m. for the keynote by Steve Jobs.
Macworld sounds like a bouillabaisse of Burning Man, 60’s Be-In, and Jonestown (substitute microbrews for Kool Aid). Can’t wait.
The new iPod nano looked great at the product launch up on the big screen behind Steve Jobs. It looks great on the Apple website. And it looks great in the TV spot. But it looks/feels/smells even better in my hot, sweaty little hand.
How does video look on that wee screen? Amazing. I keep turning the nano over, tying to figure out how something that thin can play sharp, bright, crisp video.
I’m looking forward to watching more video podscasts and maybe a TV show or two.
In closing, a word about the iPod UI. I thought it was damn near perfect before but I must say they’ve improved it.
You know I’m not a cell phone guy. Nobody to call…nobody to call me (‘cept Barb). But the new Apple iPhone is so much more than a cell phone. Makes the Treo and the Blackberry look like Fisher Price toys. The iPod led me to purchase the MacBook…and the MacBook will probably lead me to buy an iPhone.
Update: Just watched Jobs’ keynote. Amazing. And take a look at the effect of the iPhone announcement on Palm (Treo) and Rimm (Blackberry) stock in the hours following.
A few nuggets from Lost Remote Managing Editor Steve Safran’s Newsroom New Year’s resolutions for 2007:
Start thinking of the web as more than our newscast online
Your website is a new channel, not just a new way of repurposing your news. If you were magically given a new TV channel, you wouldn’t populate it with your newscast over and over, would you? So why are you doing that online? … Think of the website as a new channel instead of a news site.Integrate blogging into our newsroom
I know, change is painful. It’s additional work, yes. Not a ton, but some. Get over it. Workflows change.Prepare my site for the 2008 elections
Now’s your chance. There will be a lot of money going into online advertising for the election. And you can get it. But only if you can make a compelling case that your site deserves it.Never allow the words “added value” in my shop again
As long as you are training your advertisers that the web is added value, you are telling them it is NO value.Existing newsies need to know the painful truth: we have to work on more platforms as part of our jobs now. If we don’t want to, that’s fine. Younger people who will work for less will be graduating this June. And next June. And the following June…
I started flogging this mule almost ten years ago. And I couldn’t fill a teacup with the progress I’ve made. But then, June is just around the corner.
“The iPod Revolution (Discovery Channel) goes behind the scenes to uncover how Steve Jobs brought Apple back from the grave to create one of the most popular electronics devices ever made: the iPod.”
This was a really interesting hour that did a nice job of explaining how the iPod came to be what someone called “The Perfect Thing.”
Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced some new stuff yesterday. These events get Mac users hopping from one foot to the other and –now that I have a Mac– I sort of understand why. I can’t explain why, but I kind of get it.
Speaking of “get it” … I’ll eventually have to get one of the slick new nano’s (I just watched the amazing ad for same). The new Shuffle is literally wearable computing.
And there’s a new version of iTunes. I’m a sucker for a pretty UI and this is about as nice as they come. I haven’t seen them but there’s talk of a new series of Get A Mac ads poking fun at Windows efforts to mimic the sleek look and feel of the Mac OS. I’m sure Vista is/will be pretty but if the new iTunes is a hint of what the new Mac OS is going to look like… it’s no contest for me.
If you spend 90% of every waking moment looking at a computer, that time is more pleasant…more fun… if it’s Mac.
Chrysler is the first American manufacture to offer iPod integration on their models. In 2006 over 40% of the cars sold in 2006 will offer iPod integration. They’ve sold over 42 million iPods, over 850 million songs, over 8 million videos. (From Steve Jobs keynote at Macworld via Engadget)
Garr Reynolds blogs about “professional presentation design” and offers some terrific insight into Steve Job’s presentation style, using his recent roll-out of the video iPod. Be sure to watch the video. This is how it’s done, kids. [via Micro Persuasion]
“What has always made Steve Jobs such a great presenter is that he seems relaxed and informal in tone and style (yet gracious), as if he were having a conversation with a group of friends at home in the backyard. … the essence of his masterful style is something many (most?) people can achieve in their own unique way. The secret is to communicate in front of a large group the same way you do everyday when you are talking with your spouse or your best friend down at the local Starbucks. The key is to look at presentations as conversations.”
“One thing Steve Jobs said to me that didn’t make it into my [June 28] story was that he’s getting interest from corporations about creating podcasts to reach customers and others directly without going through [traditional media], offers Markoff. An example might include something like Adobe wanting a podcast for Photoshop users.
His point: All of this breaks down old traditions everybody is getting dis-aggregated by new technologies, Markoff says. The lesson for PR practitioners, according to Markoff, is to recognize that things are changing in the media. More people are trying to reach [audiences directly].”
— From a story by NY Times’ John Markoff who recently interviewed Steve Jobs when Apple added podcasts to iTunes