Macworld Expo's off year still lavish in geek appeal
This year's expo wasn't as vibrant as those of even a couple of years ago. The economy has taken its toll, and the amount of innovation remains small, compared with the steady and solid — but slow — improvements.
Apple's new toys
Apple tried to get out of the application-software business years ago, but in the immortal words of The Godfather, "I try to leave, but they keep pulling me back."
The latest addition to Apple's growing panoply of software includes Keynote, a PowerPoint replacement; Safari, an Internet Explorer replacement; and new versions of its digital-media programs iDVD, iMovie and iPhoto, packaged with the current release of iTunes under the label iLife. All of this new software works only in Mac OS X, and mostly in the 10.2 Jaguar release.
Apple gave the $99 Keynote package to all attendees of the Macworld keynote address, hoping to help light a fire by using the most enthusiastic core of Apple users among them to spread the word.
Keynote takes advantage of many built-in graphics features found in Mac OS X, like 2-D and 3-D rendering, for beautiful anti-aliased type and stunning transitions between slides.
Keynote doesn't yet have the sophistication of PowerPoint, but it has practically every feature needed, with the addition of multiple master slides, beautiful templates (not the garish absurdities that ship with PowerPoint) and a consistent interface.
Safari, while still in beta testing, beats Internet Explorer on every front, starting with remarkable speed. When loading pages from my local network, I can barely watch the page load before it's complete.
Safari also renders tables piecemeal: The page starts to display even before the entire table is loaded, which reduces the World Wide Wait. Tables are used for spacing and formatting on practically every Web page.
Safari's approach to bookmarks is a natural: Rather than use a separate window with a separate structure, bookmarks are organized into folders, in a pane at the left of the screen, and as items that can be dragged and dropped in a central window. Internet Explorer bookmarks are automatically imported.
Other browsers like Opera, Chimera, Mozilla, Netscape and OmniWeb have their advantages, mostly in managing multiple pages using tabbed windows, prefilling form fields and allowing more preferences.
These are minor quibbles. I've switched to Safari for 99 percent of my browsing — a few pages won't render or load correctly. But Apple has a built-in bug-report button, and I expect to hit 100 percent in just a few short weeks as Apple and the open-source community continue Safari's code-base improvements.
iLife's components ship later this month, along with the 12-inch PowerBook G4 ("lunch box" or "Mini Me"), and the AirPort Extreme Base Station. I plan to write about these in the future.
Macworld highlights
No one product shone at Macworld this year, but several individual items were of great interest, especially with their prices likely to drop or their sophistication increase over the next year.
Brother demonstrated the first Rendezvous-enabled laser printer, its HL-5070N ($500, due in February). Rendezvous allows Mac OS X 10.2-equipped computers to automatically recognize new devices, like a printer, and configure themselves automatically. The HL-5070N has 10/100-Mbps Ethernet and PostScript emulation. Brother also has USB-only printers in the same line at $300 or $350; Jaguar and earlier Mac OS versions can already automatically configure new USB devices.
The Slimp3 (www.slimdevices.com) plays music over an Ethernet network tying in to iTunes running on a computer on the same network. The Slimp3 has a two-line LCD display showing the current track, component stereo audio outputs and a remote control. The only caveat: a bit pricey at $240.
Macsense (www.macsense.com) demonstrated its HomePod wireless stereo player, which can send audio from a Mac over a wireless network. The HomePod won't ship until March and will cost $200. It has headphone and stereo outputs, as well as a front panel display with controls and both FireWire and USB ports.
Macwireless (www.macwireless.com) is a new maker of Wi-Fi/AirPort and Bluetooth networking gear, including excellent support for Mac OS 9 and earlier operating-system releases. Its $90 PC Card has drivers that work with Mac OS 7.5.5 through 9.2.2. Mac OS X drivers are due later this year for several products.
Hard as it is to believe, a cable was one of the more exciting offerings. The ND Dimension system (www.nd-dimension.com) offers a generic USB cable that has interchangeable tips for cellphones and handhelds. You can plug the USB cable into any computer USB port and then charge small devices. They also sell a car-charger and wall-plug adapter.
Glenn Fleishman writes the Practical Mac column for Personal Technology and about technology in general for The Seattle Times and other publications. Send questions to gfleishman@seattletimes.com. More columns at www.seattletimes.com/columnists.