Macworld Reboot

My yearly pilgrimage to Macworld is now complete. This year it was special for several reasons. While I had great plans to report more regularly while in San Francisco, I was having way too much fun to stop and write. Regardless, I’m now back with a full night’s sleep and ready to report.

Going In

Since Apple’s announcement last year, the entire Internet has proclaimed Macworld as “dead.” Without waiting to see how IDG would respond to this challenge, many influential technology writers declared their verdict that it was simply impossible for this conference to continue without Apple’s continued participation. Indeed, for some, the “inevitable” implosion of Macworld became sport. I wrote about my opinions on this several months ago.

While the Internet was busy making funeral arrangements for Macworld, the IDG team quietly transformed the event. This started at Macworld 2009 with the standing room only session to discuss the future. Several suggestions were made and the IDG staff was present and taking notes. They heard and they acted.

The argument going in was whether or not the conference was sustainable without Apple’s continued participation. IDG took a lot of steps to answer this question in the affirmative. Paul Kent and his team added “feature speakers” to address timely and interesting topics to the Mac community. They expanded the conference sessions. They moved the date and worked with the vendors to secure their attendance. Put simply, they worked there assess off to save Macworld.

Because one of my sessions was early on the first day, I arrived on Monday, the night before the conference began. I gave (and attended) several conferences on Tuesday and Wednesday that were fantastic. Nevertheless, there was an underlying tension about Thursday, when the exposition opened. I wasn’t sure if anyone would show up.

Thursday was the big day. Except for taking an hour to watch the David Pogue presentation (which was brilliant), I was in lockdown mode preparing for my “Mac at Work” session. It was 4:00 PM before I could make my way to the exposition Hall and as I rode the escalator down, I knew the future of Macworld may be foretold with the Expo Hall attendance. The escalator provides an elevated look at the exposition hall and as I looked into the room, I was stunned by the crowd. There were so many people, you could not even tell the color of the carpet. In short, Paul Kent and his IDG team saved Macworld. Here are my observations of how they did it.

Feature Speakers

Several feature speakers were in attendance to provide standing room only presentations that were educational, entertaining, and thought-provoking. Indeed, there were so many feature speakers that you could have spent the entire conference attending their sessions. Two of my favorites were David Pogue and John Gruber. There were several more. The point is, with just an expo hall pass, attendees had the ability to see some of the sharpest technology minds. It did not require you to purchase an expensive pass and did not require you to wake up to 2:00 AM to stand in line.

This clearly was IDG’s response to no Apple Keynote. I think it was a good one. This allowed the attendees at large to see these fantastic speakers and I, for one, got much more out of listening to John Gruber speak about the 10 biggest issues facing Apple’s future than Phil Schiller expounding on the benefits of iWork.com.

The Conference

This year was the first time I was able to attend the educational conference. It was outstanding. I was able to spend 10 hours learning AppleScript from Sal Soghoian. I learned about the future of electronic music on portable devices from Ge Wang and power user tips from Dan Frakes that I could spend months geeking my way through. Looking through the conference schedule, your challenge is not to find the one session that interests you but instead decide which of the many sessions would help you today.

My sessions went well. I was particularly happy to see a full room for the “Mac at Work” session. In it, we went through software and networking solutions unique to the Mac. I received a lot of positive feedback from attendees afterwards and look forward to expanding on the subject next year.

The conference was a wonderful experience and highly recommended to anyone who wants to get more of their Mac.

The Exposition

The exposition was smaller than last year. The booth sizes for the big companies, like Microsoft, also got smaller. The floor traffic, however, was insane. You really had to be patient with the most interesting vendors. With the reduced size, the exposition also became easier to manage. Where last year it would take two days to cover the entire expo, this year it could have been done in one. This made the sustained traffic throughout the expo all that more impressive. I spoke with several vendors who stated their sales numbers were higher this year than last. Everyone I spoke to said they’d be back and I’m guessing several of those who sat out this year will also be back. I’ll be posting my thoughts on some of the more interesting vendors in the coming weeks.

I also had the thrill of recording a live session of the Mac Power Users on the show floor. The attendees seemed to enjoy the show and Katie and I had the pleasure of meeting several listeners after the recording.

Photo: Allison Sheridan

About Apple

There was a subtle change that took place in the debate about Apple on the floor of the Macworld exposition. People disagreed on whether or not the conference was better without Apple but no longer did people argue whether or not it could continue without the Apple. The show can thrive next year without Apple. (And that is even before all the iPad case makers get wound up.) My friend, Adam Christianson, phrased it best. This year was a Macworld reboot. As I walked on the show floor the first time, I almost expected to hear that all too-familiar chime. The conference is certainly different than before. Some of the changes are for the worse but a lot of them are for the better. Regardless, the interest I saw last week proved the conference is sustainable.

Why Should We Care?

Macworld really is about the community. The parties this year seemed particularly celebratory. I think everyone was relieved that IDG pulled off the show without Apple. This is a good thing in light of the fact Apple appears eager to distance itself from its own community. In the end, Apples absence doesn’t matter. Every year at Macworld I get to meet with some of my very best friends and make several new ones. Mac users, as a whole, are creative, compassionate, and enthusiastic people. It is this magic sauce that really made Macworld a success in 2010 and will do so again in 2011.

Long Live Macworld.

Macworld Conference – Day 1

Today was day 1 of the Macworld conference. My Numbers Lab session had a full room and went well. I also was able to spend several hours learning Applescript from Sal Soghoian who did a great job demystifying several topics. Finally, I got the chance to meet Bill Atkinson, who was on the original Apple Macintosh team, wrote MacPaint, QuickDraw, and Hypercard. In addition to bringing the Macintosh to life, Bill is an amazing photographer. He has combined his interests to release an iPhone application, Bill Atkinson PhotoCard. In it you can create email postcards using Bill’s own photography (or your own pictures) and embellish them with stickers and custom stamps. Even better, for $1.50 you can have the card sent automatically via US postal delivery. The card samples are thick, glossy, heavy cardstock and look fantastic. It is great having some Bill Atkinson software on my Apple device again.

Dave at Macworld

I’ve got boots on the ground in San Francisco and am ready for Macworld. Here is my Macworld coverage plan:

The Links

Twitter

I will be putting with messages and pictures. I ‘m going to be taking (and giving) several sessions and plan to twitter often.

MacSparky Blog

Expect several MacSparky posts throughout the week

Mac Power Users

We are recording live on February 13 and should have a show up soon thereafter.

The Schedule

Numbers Lab

February 9 – 10:00 a.m.
Moscone West Hall – Room 2011

This 2 hour session is going to turn you into an iWork Numbers ninja as we manage the (fictional?) Area 51 Tin Foil Hat Club.

Mac At Work

February 11 – 1:00 p.m.
Moscone West Hall – Room 2004

This session is all about making you look great at work using your Macintosh to run circles around your co-workers and impress your clients and bosses.

Mac Roundtable

February 13 – 10:30 a.m.
Expo Hall Main Stage

The Mac Roundtable gang is going to reunite again to share our take on Macworld. This is a really fun group.

Mac Power Users

February 13 – 2:15 p.m.
Expo Hall Main Stage

Katie and I will be talking about our own “Best in Show” picks and share other observations from Macworld Expo.

Otherwise I will be enjoying the sights and sounds of Macworld. Keep an eye out for me.

Flashtastrophy – Flash and the iPad

One result of the iPad announcement is the Jerry Springer-like feud between Adobe and Apple over Flash support on the iPad and iPhone. In case you’ve been living under a rock, the iPad doesn’t support the Flash plug-in in Mobile Safari.

Apple’s public reason for this is that Flash sucks. I tend to agree. Flash stems back to 1996 and, while it empowers web designers to add many bells and whistles to their sites, it also enables them to cripple my browser. While Apple has not said this publicly, Steve Jobs reportedly said as much at an Apple Town Hall Meeting after announcing the iPad. I don’t need any Apple crash reports to verify this; I see it on my own Mac. The lack of Flash stability is a big reason why the web is moving on with the .h264 and html5 standards.

Another reason I suspect Apple is distancing itself from Flash is the fact that Flash is Adobe’s proprietary code and the only proprietary code Apple wants on its mobile devices is its own. Some pundits have seized on this to claim Apple is trying to foist its own Quicktime format on people but I don’t think so. There have been no such overt moves and Apple seems more interested in the open html5 standard which does not match Flash’s feature set (yet) but is open and less prone to throttle your browser.

Adobe’s reason for wanting Flash on Apple mobile devices is simple. There are a lot of them. The more devices that turn their back on Flash, the less likely developers are to use it. Flash then losses its ubiquity. Today, Flash’s CTO, Kevin Lynch, explains, in essence, the ball is in Apple’s court. Apparently Adobe doesn’t realize or is ignoring the fact that Apple is not in the court. Indeed, Apple is not even in the stadium. Interestingly, the Lynch article also talks about how the web should be “open.”

We strongly believe the Web should remain an open
environment with consistent access to content and
applications regardless of your viewing device,

I’m not sure how that makes sense while Flash remains proprietary (closed) code.

Regardless, this issue is now very exciting and subject to much public gnashing of teeth. I think a significant portion of the “No Flash=No Purchase” posts/rants/comments are disingenuous. There are a lot of people that for reasons, both rational and irrational, want the iPad to fail, miserably. These folks had their posts written before January 27 and were simply waiting to fill in the blank on the fatal missing features.

For those genuinely upset about the absence of Flash, I think they should not be surprised given Apple’s prior exclusion of Flash. To those people I would first ask, “Do you really need Flash? Really?” Last year I installed Click2Flash on my Mac. This application stops all Flash code in its tracks unless you specifically allow it. Immediately after installing it, I witnessed a noticeable speed increase and stability improvement in Safari. I’ve also discovered it is a very rare case when I actually need to click to see a flash box. Whatever I’ve lost in the display of colorful (and distracting) advertising has been gained in clock cycles and stability.

The fact is, content creators don’t care about a religious war over browser plugins. They will use whatever will get their content before people’s eyes. That means they will code to the open standards if that’s what it takes. Sadly, it won’t be long before even Adobe’s listed pornography site will work just fine without Flash. Finally, If the availability of Flash is that important to you, don’t buy an iPad. There will be countless “iPad Killers” released in the next year chock full of Flash and other code to slow you down.

Another casualty of Apple’s removal of Flash is the loss of Flash gaming. This also seems to me a straw man argument. All of the internet Flash games I’ve ever experienced are largely keyboard based and I don’t see them translating well to a tablet device. Furthermore, there is the App store that includes many free mind-numbing games, many of which are direct ports of their Flash counterparts.

The scrap heap of technology includes many items Apple was “crazy” to abandon. Unless Adobe takes extreme measures to change course, in the not so distant future I suspect Flash will be sitting there right next to a dusty floppy drive.