by Ron Albu

First, I want to extend my immense appreciation for the privilege of allowing Terrence Young and me to represent HMAUS at Macworld 2011, and for  having the opportunity and luxury of being immersed in tech for a few days. Tomorrow, it’s back to reality and the work that has piled up.

I want to convey some of my thoughts about where I see Apple and tech in general are going and to lay out some issues for HMAUS to consider as we move forward.

The iPad has brought a sea change to the world of computing and communication. The iPad and the iPhone (and thus iOS) now outsell all other Apple computers (i.e. OS X) by a long shot. The tech world is still reeling from the impacts and figuring out how to respond to iOS. Hearing the leaders expressing their experience with what is happening and their thoughts about the future has been very thought provoking, and I am still digesting all of the information.

My week started with Les Posen explaining the art of Presentation Magic, and as the week progressed, I saw many things that I had not realized before. As Les points out, Apple, as embodied by the leadership of Steve Jobs, is all about magic. Witness the magic mouse, the magic trackpad, and Steve’s keynote when he first revealed the iPad, describing it as magical. Apple knows how to get the tech world as excited as a crowd waiting to see what tricks a magician will pull off next.  Apple truly is magical in that, with everyone speculating about the next big thing, or what changes will be revealed in the next product refresh, or wondering when the next new thing will happen; Apple rarely fails to surprise. Even on the financial side, Apple consistently provides conservative guidance on future income and market share, and then consistently outperforms the financial markets’ expectations. Apple has grown to the extent that it is now the second largest enterprise in the world, based on market capitalization.

Because the iPhone and the iPad are now the most important part of Apple’s business from the financial standpoint, it is not surprising that much of Macworld 2011 was focused on the iPad and what it means, what it can do, and where it and iOS are going. Some of the big names in the Apple world, such as Andy Ihnatko, have focused on learning to use the iPad as a Macbook substitute when traveling. He believes that an external keyboard is an important accessory to iPad use. When attending sessions, many attendees were taking notes on their iPads using keyboards and stands to prop up the iPad to act as a monitor. Others see the iPad as a totally new tool for doing things in different ways. Witness the exploding growth of apps and downloads and the expectations for print media moving to the Internet and tablet devices. For this type of computing, a physical keyboard is unnecessary and creates more, not less, baggage.

As usual, it was common to hear comments about the things that Apple should have included in the 1st generation iPad, or are hoped will be included in the next generation iPad (about which there is lots of speculation as to when exactly it will appear and what the changes will be). Sometimes when hearing these comments, I am reminded of Microsoft machines that try to cram in every possible feature to try to please everybody. But if you step back, you will realize that the heart of Jobs’ approach is to keep Apple products elegant and easy to use. Apple does not include every bell and whistle and clutter up its works of art. Rather, the features evolve with many magical surprises along the way.

Several presenters noted that, while iOS is basically a stripped down OS X, iOS does have some enhancements and features that are not yet available in OS X. Some complain that iPhone and iPad lack wireless syncing, a USB port, and easy wireless printing. Personally, I have concluded that these things are missing simply because Jobs wants to start clean and simple and then develop future generation products with these types of features only after they are perfected (i.e. easy, elegant, and reliable) and there has been some time to see how users react to the products. Similarly, many experts see OS X evolving to include some of the new features found only in iOS. Swiping and the magic trackpad are hints as to what may be coming. Indeed, as the power of the iOS hardware advances, along with battery technology, it is likely that these two systems will merge.

Adam Engst led a session about what we know and don’t know about Lion. Given Apple’s secrecy, there simply is not much knowledge about Lion. Although Steve Jobs pretty much promised that Lion will debut this summer, not a single build has been seeded to developers and January is already over. That simply does not leave much time for developers to make sure that their existing products will function under Lion without any glitches. This could indicate that Lion will not be a major upgrade, or, it could mean that Apple is preparing some new magic and doesn’t want any competitors to have a chance to catch up. Apple appears to have a tremendous lead over everybody else when it comes to new products. I expect rapid development of faster and more powerful processors for the iPad along with battery technology that will continue to enhance the mobility of the iPad.

Although the Macbook Air did not get much discussion at Macworld 2011, I did see a number of them. Personally, I envision that  the Air might simply be the first in a new lineup of Macbooks with both hard drives and DVD drives/burners going the way of the dodo, making room for larger, more long life batteries, yet thinner and lighter machines. Cloud computing will significantly reduce the need for storage and DVDs for loading media and music. I also believe that the pace of development of faster processors and graphics, along with ever improving battery life and larger and more available flash storage will revitalize the Macbook line as more portable, yet still very powerful machines. Even if the personal computer market slows down in general, I believe that Macbooks will continue to increase sales and market share as they change with the times.

Other trends.

Macworld Editors Jason Snell, Christopher Breen, Dan Frakes, and Dan Moren held an “Ask the Editors” session in which they were asked about the debut of their iPad magazine. At last year’s Macworld, they had announced that the iPad edition of Macworld magazine was coming soon, but it took them much longer than they had anticipated to roll out 1.0. Part of the problem is that Apple has so far refused to allow a magazine subscription model, so that magazines have been available only at news stand prices, rather than the usual much lower subscription prices for print magazines. This is about to change with the new announcement about a new Rupert Murdoch subscription publication. The debut is a big deal with a joint announcement being scheduled with Murdoch and Tim Cook. Murdoch has set up a completely new news organization with all new staff and reporters for their iPad publication. Since Apple is prominently involved in this announcement, the Macworld editors believe that, once again, Apple has come up with a new and magical approach to online news that could change journalism, or at least give it new life, rather than simply just producing a digital copy of the print media.

Personally, I have watched the decline of the print news media and have seen journalism devolve into a 24 hour news cycle with endless mindless talking points and little in depth coverage or reflection. What we have is lazy journalism. Our Fourth Estate is in trouble. If Murdoch is involved, I have to confess some trepidation about the hopes that iPad and tablets would provide for the revival of healthy professional journalism. We shall see. I was delighted to see that the Macworld editors are very thoughtful and well informed journalists and that they demonstrate the kind of analytical thinking that is critical to honest, quality journalism. I was equally delighted to hear that the print magazine portion of their business remains profitable. They are the first to acknowledge that we are in fact in the middle of a sea change in technology and communication powered by technology, and that the industry is having to deal with and adapt to this change on a daily basis.

We live in very interesting times.

Of course, these changing times raise questions about HMAUS, what we do, and what we should be doing to help our members adapt to, and stay ahead of the curve of new technology. HMAUS needs to change with the times and continue to be an important resource for the community.

Finally, I am happy to report that when Terrence and I approached presenters as well as vendors with requests for program presentations and donations of raffle items for our events, we were warmly received and our requests are being considered.  Everyone chuckled with delight when we presented them with small packages of macadamia nuts, and appreciated the Aloha spirit. Who doesn’t want to come to Hawaii? It was a great experience, but I’m also glad to be home.

Aloha and Mahalo,
Ron Albu

by Terrence Young

Saturday was a slow conference day. The rooms were not as crowded as before but the sessions were still excellent.

“Going Paperless,” led by Katie Floyd, was about reducing paper document archives through scanning and digitizing. Do you realize the space you could liberate if you didn’t have to store all those receipts, statements, tax returns, and utility bills? With a good scanner, a little effort, plus a good document management plan, you could really clear a lot of the clutter out of your office or closet.

“FaceTime and Video Chat” was led by Tidbits editor Glenn Fleishman. Video chat and conferencing have come a long way in the last couple of years, and while the technology is still evolving, its usefulness is becoming apparent to more and more people, especially to families who can use FaceTime so easily — with simply a phone call.

Both Katie and Glenn frequently use video chat to communicate with their audiences and they were very enthusiastic about the prospect of sharing their expertise with HMAUS, via video chat, just like Joe Kissell did at Mactoberfest.

We met some really smart, interesting, inventive people this week, and we’re making connections!

Thanks to HMAUS for making it possible for me and Ron Albu to have this stimulating experience.

One last circuit around the trade show floor…

And all the macadamia nuts are gone!

Bye Bye Macworld

For the woman who has everything

“We are still going strong.”

by Terrence Young

Now that we know our way around the Big City a little better, we can spend more time focusing on connecting with other conference participants. For example, first thing this morning, just as we entered the main hall, we spotted an unmistakable face — it was Lynda Weinman, the founder of the super online tutorial website Lynda.com. We immediately seized the opportunity to introduce ourselves and couldn’t refrain from extending our praises for the wonderful training service that is Lynda.com. (If you haven’t tried the extensive catalog of tutorials on the site, you simply don’t know how much information you are missing.) Lynda was accompanied by one of her best (and to date my personal favorite) trainers, Garrick Chow. It certainly was a great way to start the day.

The morning gained further momentum with the first session — How to Publish Your Video Creations — led by prolific digital media author Richard Harrington (RHED Pixel). It was an intense hour learning about how to prepare video for distribution to an online audience. Compression, bit rate, interlace, de-interlace, sample, aspect ratio, FLV, H.264, MPEG-4; it’s complex to be sure, but video is where it’s going to be. “Get wit da program!”

Geekettes

The bulk of the rest of the day was spent scouting the trade-show floor checking out the extraordinary booth-babes … I mean products … as well as drumming up vendor interest in donating products to HMAUS for future giveaways.

A very smart white board

There are some very interesting products being promoted. One item that was particularly attractive was the Smart whiteboard. Maybe you’ve seen it? The technology has been around for over twenty years but has evolved to … take my word for it, it is amazing! If it weren’t so expensive ($6500+) it would be a great tool for HMAUS to have for making presentations. So what is it?! Think more-than-advanced multi-touch whiteboard … sorry, you have to see it to appreciate it.

Macworld Expo is certainly no CES, but on the other hand, all the products on exhibit are real-world, useful and available now. Hopefully, the generosity of the vendors we’ve met will allow HMAUS to give some of the great stuff away … at Mac Springfest perhaps?

So whaddya think of the view from my hotel?

Wish you were here!

Terrence Young

PS.  Ran into Guy Kawasaki;  plus invited Adam and Tonya Engst to visit us sometime.  Tonya has the idea of gathering all the authors for a retreat on Hawaii … interesting idea, yes?

by Ron Albu

Terrence and I attended a standing room only Super Session presented by Christopher Breen and Ben Long providing in depth information about the iPad, with lots of tips and tricks and information about apps and accessories. We also presented these two Mac nuts with chocolate mac nuts from Hawaii and invited them to present for us if they visit Hawaii.

Christopher Breen has visited the user group on the island of Hawaii and told us that he hopes to come to Hawaii again this year. Ben also said that he would present for us either in person or virtually. Both of these Macworld stars are very knowledgable and personable presenters who are very popular with Mac users.

We also went to another session about using the iPad for presentations and got to talk to Les Posen some more about coming to Hawaii. He said that there is a good chance he could come to Hawaii this summer and he would love to work with us on doing some projects in Hawaii.

We also got to spend some time on the expo floor visiting vendors and spreading some aloha by giving out more mac nuts to the Mac nut vendors. They scanned our Expo passes into their data bases and showed great interest in sending us some of their products for door prizes at our events. The floor was crowded with Mac users exploring all of the great new products and software for Apple fans. There are so many vendors that it will take days to visit all of the booths.

The day ended with a sold out Mac User Group Reunion. The MUG Board was so successful in getting donations that their door prize awards often consisted of two or three items because they had collected so much material from donors. Everybody in the room won something and some people won more than one item. We were also pleased to see Guy Kawasaki who donated some of his books, including a new one that will soon be out.

Guy Kawasaki graciously posed for pictures with many of the MUG members in attendance. Terrence worked to encourage some of the writers to have a retreat in Hawaii which would provide even more opportunities for our members to benefit from meeting with these knowledgable Apple stars.

It really is a great experience to be among so many people who share our passion for the all the new technology and how it is changing our world.

Aloha,
Ron

Today was awesome. Not too many people signed up for the all-day pre-conference workshops and tomorrow starts the regular Macworld with all the exhibitors showing up tomorrow.

My session on Presentation Magic using Keynote was awesome. I have learned to approach these seminars with high hopes but moderate expectations so as not to be disappointed. I was not disappointed.

Les Posen from Down Under presented for the third year in a row, and I understand why he has been invited back twice. He is a psychologist and uses his knowledge about neuropsychology to design his presentations.

He kept us enthralled all day long with great ideas and concepts about how to construct a presentation and get your points across to the audience and keep them involved without boring them and using the same old rote techniques which makes Power Point so stale. He showed us some amazing uses of Keynote features that really help to illustrate what the presenter is trying to teach. Now I really want to do more hands-on with Keynote to learn and practice these skills.

Terrence got in tonight and we are meeting in the morning to split up the sessions that we will attend during the day. The MUG reunion is tomorrow at the end of the day.

If you want to check out some of the sessions, you can  go to Macworldexpo.com and/or download the iMacworld app for the iPhone.

Aloha,
Ron

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