Last. MacWorld. Ever.
Okay, not technically, since the show is scheduled for 2010. But without Apple, will it really be MacWorld? Hard to say. Anyway, here are my random impressions of the 2009 show.
Theme
Sometimes it seems that MacWorld has an unofficial theme, like translucent plastic (original iMac) or iPodWorld. To my mind, if there was a theme here, it was iPhone integration: Mac-based applications that have an iPhone (or iPod Touch) app associated with them. Apple's Keynote presenter app is one, of course, but there were enough others to catch my notice.
Of course, there was a substantial amount of space devoted to cases and skins for pods and phones. As the last person on my block without an iPhone (and the last on the planet without an iPod), I didn't give them a great deal of attention, but leather continues to be popular.
Interesting Products
Not too many things caught my eye, I have to say. There didn't seem to be a lot of new software products on the floor. It may be my imagination, but I kind of thought there was a slightly higher ratio of enterprise/business apps to creative apps than in days past. Of course, the absence of Adobe was pretty significant there. Russell Brown declared the presentation theater to be "the virtual Adobe booth" at the start of his Photoshop presentation, but that's a far cry from the usual Adobe presence.
On the hardware front, NEC had an ultrawide curved monitor that was actually a rear-projection screen with several LED-illuminated DLP projectors built in. But the one on display was definitely
not seamless, so either it was a poor sample or the technology isn't quite ready yet. A tiny portable video projector was interesting, but it was not very bright, so I'm not sure how useful it would be. I liked a solar-powered visor-mounted Bluetooth hands-free kit; Michelle needs a hands-free system for her car and one that doesn't have to to be charged would be handy.
Shenanigans
I have long suspected that the exhibitors have some kind of informal contest to see what is the silliest thing that they can get people to wear while walking around the show floor in hopes of winning a prize. If there is such a contest, Peachpit Press won it hands down for managing to get huge numbers of people to walk around with fuzzy rabbit ears on their heads.
And then there were the Delicious Librarians. Yes, it's an homage to the days of “booth babes” and a cute idea, but it just left me feeling uncomfortable for the women who dressed up. Even if they came up with the idea themselves, it still seems a little icky. But I'll let one of the librarians have
the last word on that.Reunions
I usually run into a couple of familiar faces just wandering around. This year was surprisingly light in that area; maybe I just picked the wrong day (Thursday).
