WWDC06 is approaching, though perhaps not fast enough. Quite frankly, it's the only upcoming event in the foreseeable future that has the potential to disrupt - for the better I hope - the otherwise undulating fabric of my summer life (and that, I say, is a mite depressing). But, in summary, I am dead excited. Then again, Apple has clearly proclaimed over the last couple of years that it shall not put as much effort into these Conferences and Expos as it used to for the previous two decades because the company now wishes to announce products as they are ready rather than meeting an Expo deadline. Now that is all well and good, but (a) it makes the keynote presentations at the said Conferences and Expos into an even more elaborate statistical extravanganza than usual, and (b) releasing products with a little press release or a "special event" is just no fun… at least not for Apple-heads like me who've seen Macworlds for the past few years.
And, as much a fan of statistics as I am, and as much as I would love to sit and applaude at every number Steve Jobs animates on to the screen with a cool Three-Dimensional Inverse Ripple effect, I believe that the last two Macworlds have been relatively boring and have had little to offer in terms of new and exciting "Mac" products. Macworld 2003 was my last favourite Macworld. It was the last Macworld that was truly "exciting". On that occasion, Apple introduced perhaps six new software titles along with two completely new hardware models - the 12" and 17" PowerBook G4s. Also, that was the era when Apple had these really cool promotional videos which, as a Mac-head, I just loved to watch even though I was on a very slow connection at the time and had to wait for hours for the high-quality versions to finish downloading. It's because of Macworld 2003 that I discovered the song "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong… and today, after wondering for three years (well, not continuously) about who sang the remixed version of the same song for the Apple promo, I discovered it by chance on the iTunes Music Store and immediately downloaded it (the iTMS is rather good when it comes to impulse buys). I cropped and uploaded the ending bit of the Apple Promo containing said song to Google Video:
I blame the lack of Mac hardware innovation on the iPod, which seems to be the only thing Apple's really pushing these days. The iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac mini - they all have been transitioned to Intel chips but without an iota of change in their outward appearance, and that is just plain boring as far as my expectations from Apple is concerned. And as far as the case changes on the MacBook are concerned, my non-Apple friends did not notice any change at all in my desktop setup when one day the iBook G4 was quietly replaced by a white MacBook that had been loaned to me. I call for Innovation with a capital 'I'! Or has Apple, like the rest of the PC manufacturers, given up?
And, as much a fan of statistics as I am, and as much as I would love to sit and applaude at every number Steve Jobs animates on to the screen with a cool Three-Dimensional Inverse Ripple effect, I believe that the last two Macworlds have been relatively boring and have had little to offer in terms of new and exciting "Mac" products. Macworld 2003 was my last favourite Macworld. It was the last Macworld that was truly "exciting". On that occasion, Apple introduced perhaps six new software titles along with two completely new hardware models - the 12" and 17" PowerBook G4s. Also, that was the era when Apple had these really cool promotional videos which, as a Mac-head, I just loved to watch even though I was on a very slow connection at the time and had to wait for hours for the high-quality versions to finish downloading. It's because of Macworld 2003 that I discovered the song "What A Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong… and today, after wondering for three years (well, not continuously) about who sang the remixed version of the same song for the Apple promo, I discovered it by chance on the iTunes Music Store and immediately downloaded it (the iTMS is rather good when it comes to impulse buys). I cropped and uploaded the ending bit of the Apple Promo containing said song to Google Video:
I blame the lack of Mac hardware innovation on the iPod, which seems to be the only thing Apple's really pushing these days. The iMac, MacBook Pro and Mac mini - they all have been transitioned to Intel chips but without an iota of change in their outward appearance, and that is just plain boring as far as my expectations from Apple is concerned. And as far as the case changes on the MacBook are concerned, my non-Apple friends did not notice any change at all in my desktop setup when one day the iBook G4 was quietly replaced by a white MacBook that had been loaned to me. I call for Innovation with a capital 'I'! Or has Apple, like the rest of the PC manufacturers, given up?
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