Comments on: Live from Apple's last Macworld

By: cynik, switzerland

cynik, switzerland — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:55:23 +0000

Now Jim, that's uncalled for. You are unkind. You are angry because you are stuck in Germany with the name "Jim". Everybody wonders why you are not named "Hans". I sense your anger.

Regarding the Macbook battery thing: Once again, the divine being and his team of crazy dwarves have left the market behind, and the market is SLOW to catch on. But they will catch on.

The thing about batteries, the crucial thing about them is…. They are boring.

People who are interested in batteries have no chance socially. The divine one understands this fact. His sense of grace is offended by people who sit around and talk about batteries.

And so, he set about taking away this nightmare from the lives of everyday folks. He worked out how to take the whole battery problem OUT OF THE PICTURE.

That is the point. Batteries don't matter, if they last for five years and stay charged for 8 hours. I mean, the battery itself matters, but people don't have to talk about them. they will just work, doing their thing, in the background with the nerds, where they belong.

The thing with the battery is that it is a old, old Apple technique.

Apple have always designed the products to remove the mundane and the ugly from the user experience. It has always been a core feature of the products, and they have been loved for it.

When Apple got rid of ugly lines of code, and made computing pictures and mice, the market was slow to catch on. When Apple pushed their machines towards servicing the desires of the family instead of the desires of the corporate boss, the market pundits were slow to catch on.

But the advantages of good industrial design are proven, and so Apple has managed to grow into a very high quality company, with enormous assets in human engineering capital.

The new macbook is more impressive than the air, but in a very quiet, advanced way. And they are not cheap.

I think Apple made a lot of money with this Macworld, but it didn;t have anything to do with Macworld.

By: Jim, Stuttgart, Germany

Jim, Stuttgart, Germany — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:01:33 +0000

Hey PED, when do you go the way of the MacWorld, like no more???

By: Jason, Los Angeles, CA

Jason, Los Angeles, CA — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:06:14 +0000

Happy to see an updated iLife, but Apple's move into the cloud for documents is very weak, not allowing editing, red-lining, etc. This would have been such a nice option due to the fact that documents could have synced with your iPhone and been edited on the go. Bummer.

Second, I figured at least there would have been a price reduction on notebooks, if not a price drop for one of the existing models such as the Mini.

Here's my breakdown of today including a breakdown of true-false rumors. http://tinycomb.com/2009/01/06/macworld-predicitons-2009/

Maybe next year.

By: Kenneth W. Regan, Amherst, NY

Kenneth W. Regan, Amherst, NY — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:21:28 +0000

It would have been cool if the "One Last Thing" had begun as a promise to be more "Green" by offering models with wood rather than metal cases. Then roll on stage a…casket! With the Apple logo. Lift the lid, and out pops SJ dressed as a vampire, still with the trademark sweater and jeans. His opening line could be, "Am I more like Edward, or like James?" Then take out of the casket an actual new product…

By: David Emery, Reston VA

David Emery, Reston VA — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:34:45 +0000

Quotes Jobs’ favorite pet journalists — Walt Mossberg, David Pogue

Disappointed to not make the list? (Seriously, I don't always agree with you but I do read this religiously…)

By: JAy., Houston, TX

JAy., Houston, TX — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:41:45 +0000

Interesting – at the Apple Store, iLife '08 is still there. AppleTV is gone (page goes back to "We'll be back soon!").

By: Hopeful, Omaha

Hopeful, Omaha — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 15:26:07 +0000

Apple Store is down for updating now.