| by Joe Leo, Columnist | January 12, 2007 |
continued... from: previous page
Speaking of Microsoft, I think the funniest thing that they could have done this year, since Bill Gates is no longer CEO and Chairman of Microsoft, was to have him come out on stage in the flesh--not like his appearance a few years ago on the projector screen--and start talking for about 2 minutes, and then Steve Jobs comes out from behind, eventually revealing the true keynote speaker for the day. Kind of like that Apple logo and the light.
That would have been hilarious. Well, shocking at first, but forever memorable. (Unless you had a heart attack from seeing Gates onstage and you became forever memorable).
And speaking of hilarious? I personally motion to have New York Times tech columnist, David Pogue be an honorary keynote speaker at Keynote in the future. He is one hilarious guy, and like Steve Jobs, can mesmerize/captivate/entertain a crowd. Not to mention that he uses a Mac! I only "met" him recently when I watched his humorous video review of Windows Vista and Mac OS X. [SEE EXTERNAL LINK]
I got the chance to see him in person yesterday afternoon at the last conference I chose to take as part of my conference package (which got me into Keynote in the first place, and remember that I was here at Macworld for three purposes-- on assignment for PBCentral.com, for personal enjoyment, and for my other job) which was "The Digital Camera of 2015." I made sure to go to it when I found out he was here in S.F.!
(Plus, as you can probably tell, photography is something else I like to do).
The information he presented was very interesting and thought-provoking. Remember, this was his prediction of technology, almost a decade from now. But he, like Jobs, had that kind of "magic" that keeps everyone engaged and wanting more. Heck, his presentation went overtime by 10 minutes, but no one cared. They sat down and continued to listen. Afterwards, people stayed longer to ask questions and take pictures.
Like I did. Well, at least, the picture part. [Yes, you can click here for some shots... and it was AFTER the presentation was over, so pulling our "recording device" which is prohibited, probably was okay, I hope!]. I'm surprised that he doesn't have a huge line around the block waiting to get into his "keynote" every year. And I wouldn't be surprised if that starts happening in the near future!
And finally, back to the iPhone, I think this might have been a good move for Apple. Not everyone has a Mac computer so not everyone enjoys OS X. Almost everyone has an iPod, if not some type of mp3 player, but there's not much of a solid Mac experience there other than the easy-to-use factor. Everyone has a cell phone (if you don't, very rare... are you using the rotary dial?) and probably has more of a need for a cell phone than an mp3 player.
Question is, though, does everyone want an iPhone? "If you build it, will they come?" (We'll see. And by the way, David Pogue was our official, unofficial source on the aforementioned OS X system software in the iPhone, since he was addressing the group which I was a part of, about the iPhone's features-- someone asked him about it after the presentation was over and he talked in-depth about it).
Thanks for keeping it tuned right here to "The Press Box" for PBCentral.com's coverage of Macworld this year. Don't forget to write in with your thoughts and comments, and to also check out related coverage from our colleagues Noah Kravitz, and Charles W. Moore (which can be found on their column pages).
See you at Macworld Expo & Conference 2008. Hopefully we'll finally see our beloved 12" MacBook Pro see the light, if not before then?
