Greetings from Macworld!
OK, that's not exactly true. I was keeping the Missing Manuals fort warm in Cambridge, Mass. today while many of you were in the Moscone Center in San Francisco for Macworld. Hopefully those of you who are out there are checking out the many great authors at our O'Reilly booth.
I, of course, wasn't the only one who wasn't at the show. Apple CEO Steve Jobs, just in case you hadn't heard, also passed on the event citing health issues.
So here I sat, watching literally hundreds of tweets fly by during today's keynote address, led by Phil Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide product marketing.
My intention was to pluck some of the best tweets and do another "missing feature" post. But, quite simply, I couldn't keep up. There were so many people twittering about the keynote that it dominated Twitter's Trending topics list.
At its peak, those topics were
In journalism, they talk about the "Five W's" (Who, What, When, Where and Why) which are the questions you answer to write a story. But this is 140-character Twitter, so I revised the plan and went with just two W's: "Wow" and "Why."
Wow!
Many people who were impressed with features they liked from the keynote included a "wow" in their tweets.
chris24 was impressed with the new 17-inch MacBook Pro.
Many, including jamesbressi, Thracks, sowens, and dlodewyk gave a big "wow" to the news that Garageband is set to include "lessons" from celebrity artists including Sting and Sarah McLachlan.
Twitterers weren't quite as busy saying "wow" to the news about iTunes ditching its digital rights management (DRM) restrictions. That's probably because the complexity of the deal takes a couple minutes to sink in. By the end of March, Apple said there will be three pricing levels (69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29) and users with existing iTunes libraries can pay to upgrade their music to DRM-free versions.
Following the news, thepixelpuncher appeared pleased with his procrastination. "Glad he waited to spend his gift card to the itunes store."
Why
This was far from an earth-shaking keynote address, as there was nothing on the level of an iPhone being introduced, or even updated one for that matter.
A search of the "why" tweets included some interesting feature requests and laments.
aulia asked "Why aren't Apple integrating iWork.com into MobileMe? Where are the promised additional MobileMe modules?"
fafner was one of many who lamented the absence of a Snow Leopard announcement "I just wonder why they didn't introduce Snow Leopard. Basically the only disappointing thing about this Philnote."
sib1013 doesn't necessarily think bigger is better when it comes to Apple's 17-inch MacBook Pro laptop with an extended, non-removable, 8-hour battery. "Why can't I get a 15" version of new MacBook Pro (extended batt, hi-res matte screen, ...)? I don't want a huge freakin' laptop!"
aulia was fairly fixated on Apple's new iWork '09 and announced iWork.com web site. "Why aren't Apple integrating iWork.com into MobileMe? Where are the promised additional MobileMe modules?"
[Speaking of iWork, this is a good time to "re-tweet" ourselves. Many of you have been asking for an iWork book from Missing Manuals for some time, and with the advent of iWork '09, we are happy to say that this is on the way. We can't say when yet, but we will keep you posted.]
PawLuxury doesn't deny that there were letdowns, but thinks some people need to take a deep breath. "Many were looking for iphone 2.3 update...This is why Apple is pulling out... We expect too much...Let them make it right, no rush"
The common theme of the day appeared to be the absence of Jobs. Many, like jamesbressi were defiantly predicting a surprise from Steve. "You will hear "one more thing" and Steve Jobs takes stage :) Out in style. He is a rock star."
No incorrect prediction, however, was more entertaining than that of kenyatta, who was "half expecting Steve Jobs to make a surprise #macworld appearance to announce his full recovery & a new product called iMmortal."
Roundup
ecc1977 #macworld keynote didn't disappoint me as much as others. all the things i use (iLife, iWork, and iTunes) got updated.
drcongo @peterandall no OpenDocument support as far as I can see on the site. That makes them as bad as Microsoft. #apple #iwork #macworld
zackmcdougall GarageBand '09 makes me want to start using it. New Learn to Play feature. Artists like Sara McLaughlin and Sting show you how! #mwsf09
TimRogers @jayen #mwsf09 Apple would make an absolute killing from doing GarageBand on Windows.
OmegaSpreem Numbers 09 will be more like Excel, less like Lotus Improv. Yaaaay. #Macworld
wpgrant Am I the only one who thinks iWork = Keynote? Numbers and Pages is not for me, good for a home user maybe. #mwsf09
shtikl Guess I am the only one on Twitter who thinks that iPhoto 09 rocks, and Pages w/ iWork.com and EndNote is a gamechanger. #macworld
