Home theater

If you want to bring your Apple products into the home theater, you might want to start with the new Epson Megaplex projectors with an integrated iPhone/iPad dock. The Epson MG-850HD provides 720p video (and integrated speakers) from a 3LCD system with 2800 lumens: plenty bright to use for business presentations by day and movie screenings by night. You can quickly set up a screening for the kids by playing a movie from the iPad or running an app that allows video output over the 30-pin dock connector. Priced at $800, the Epson Megaplex is perfect for setting up an outdoor movie night for the kids and their friends.

Crestron is well-known for its high-end home theater and automation equipment, and it’s a first-time exhibitor at Macworld, showing off the Crestron Mobile Pro control app for iOS. The app replaces proprietary touchscreen controllers, which can cost thousands of dollars, with a software solution that works just as well on your existing iPad.

Audiophiles

On the music side, we also have consumer and audiophile offerings. SRS Labs is showing off its iWOW 3D accessory to enhance the audio for headphones or the car stereo, as well as a music player app that incorporates the company’s sound processing technology along with some high-end features like 10-band EQ and tempo adjustment.

Audioengine is showing off its DACs (digital to audio converters) for improved sound quality to powered speakers. The D1 ($169) or the wireless D2 ($599/set) DACs work great with the Audioengine 5+ bookshelf speakers the company had on display. At the high end, Peachtree Audio is also showing off its converter offerings, ranging from the small DAC•iT ($449) to the world-class Grand Integrated ($4295). All these DACs are capable of playing high-resolution 24/96 audio files, far better than what you can get from CD.

Speakers and headphones

Monster has its Clarity HD bookshelf speakers ($749) on display. You can also check out the Audioengine 5+ speakers mentioned above. Bang & Olufsen is at the show with its BeoSound 8 iPhone dock boombox and the portable BeoLit 12 AirPlay system.

Accessories

MicW has a nice calibrated cardoid mic for the iPhone and iPad you can use with a sound pressure level meter iOS app to EQ your room or concert hall. Studio Six Digital is showing AudioTools, its acoustical test and measurement app.

Blinq is demonstrating a universal remote app (and IR emitter) to control your whole setup and connect to a social program guide. Another remote is the VooMote Zapper, which combines an app with an IR blaster built into a case, coming soon to an Apple Store near you.

That’s my list of highlights for sound, picture and video fans keen on what’s interesting at Macworld | iWorld this year. Let us know if you spotted anything equally interesting.

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The new show has been recast as a celebration of the best the Apple community has to offer, drawing from music and the arts for inspiration as well as sharing tips and tricks. The iFanEvent, as it’s being called, goes beyond the usual media personalities presenting tech topics in lectures or panel discussions. The Midway will highlight music performances, interactive sessions, and galleries for visual arts and film. I got a small preview Wednesday, and a visit to the South Park Gallery and the Digital Art Gallery  is worth the time it takes to ride the escalator up to the second floor. There will also be a full schedule of music performances and live art creation, as well as a film festival screening on Friday evening.

In addition to the iFanEvent itself, the concurrent MacIT Conference continues the tradition of more advanced technical training for professionals and educators. All-day workshops took place Wednesday, and various sessions are scheduled for Thursday, Friday and Saturday. I didn’t get a chance to visit all the workshops, but I did notice the Educator track presented by Computer-Using Educators, Inc. (CUE) was well attended compared to previous years, especially considering the Wednesday timing which would require teachers to arrange a sub in order to attend.

There was no Industry Showcase this year, but the Media Preview event yesterday highlighted a few interesting vendors, and the First Looks program brought together all the new product announcements in one place. Consigned to a few small folding tables in the lobby of Moscone West, I felt the First Looks program didn’t necessarily present the most attractive venue, but we hope to bring you details on some of the more interesting items in our ongoing coverage.

David Greenbaum and I will be roaming the show floor Thursday and Friday looking for all things new and interesting, in addition to meeting with various companies to get detailed looks at products to share with you over the next little while. If you’re at the show, be sure to stop and say hello if you see us on the floor and let us know what you liked. If you can’t make the show this year, let us know if there’s anything specific you’d like to hear about.

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First there is that date: DigiTimes’ source says Apple will do the unveiling on Jan. 26 at iWorld, which is a new component of Macworld, an annual conference Apple pulled out of years ago in favor of hosting and managing its own media events. The January date is also early compared to what we have heard recently, which suggests a later date in February might be more likely.

Then there is the description of the separate models Apple intends to launch. The iPad 2 will remain on sale as an entry-level device, the report claims, while Apple will introduce two new iPads to compete at the mid- to high-end tablet price points. While I think Apple would do well to keep the iPad 2 around as a low-cost option and have said as much in the past, the DigiTimes report’s description of the other two versions of the device leave me skeptical.

Both would have 9.7-inch screens, with 2,048 x 1,536 resolution Retina Displays, lit by dual-LED light bars for better brightness. Quad-core A6 processors would replace the iPad’s dual-core A5 as the chip powering the next-gen tablets, according to the sources, and they would be outfitted with high-capacity batteries that could offer double the juice of the current version. The only difference between the two, according to the report? The high-end model will get an 8 megapixel CMOS image sensor, while the mid-tier version will get only a 5 megapixel.

The problem is that the camera on the iPad is more of an afterthought than a feature that will prompt users to pay an extra hundred or more dollars to upgrade to a higher-tiered device. On the current iPad, the rear camera captures still photos at less than a megapixel, which is fine, because if you are using your 10-inch tablet as a camera for anything other than the odd emergency situation or when making a video call, you are doing it wrong. Especially since most people with iPads are walking around with 5 to 8 megapixel shooters in their smartphones anyway.

A lot of the report does make sense: the iPad 2 as a low-cost option; better backlighting and a high-resolution display, as we have seen in previous reports; and improved battery life. But overall, it doesn’t hang together. Instead, it reads like a wish list combined with a flight of fancy about camera components. We will see new iPads early in the next year, but don’t get your hopes up for three arriving in January.

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I was just as depressed as everyone else, when my boss called: Steve Jobs wanted to give Time Magazine an exclusive look at his next big thing. Would I like to write the story? I was ambivalent. Despite having written about tech since the early 1990s, I was not a proper “computer guy.” I was an Internet guy! My interest in Steve Jobs ran mainly to the historical. And, like too many other idiots at the time, I had written Apple off as little more than a (failed) hardware company that had totally missed the really important stuff, which was happening in the network, not the machines.

Still, I showed up in Cupertino, at 1 Infinite Loop, a few days later (it’s a living) and was brought into a conference room, where I met the legendary Steven P. Jobs. I am an ADD, fidgety kind of guy, and it was immediately and sadly clear to me that this was not going to be a fast, in-and-out kind of story. No, I was stuck here. A prisoner of the most controlling control freak the world had ever produced.

For the next three days, I was Steve’s personal project, and he orchestrated every second of my visit, right up until 10 a.m. of the morning of the last day, when I was frantic to catch a plane back to NY to write my story. My notebooks were full. I had 10 times as much as I needed for a cover story, and I was pretty cranky at having to come back to Steve’s office, yet again, for an exit interview. He was late — 15 minutes, and I was ready to walk. Just as I was gathering up my things he came in and, with all of his considerable charm, apologized. What had kept him? He was editing copy for some ads Apple was running around the new iMac computer that Apple was about to launch!

The guy paid attention and no detail was too trivial to escape his notice. And nothing was more important than Apple. Actually, that’s not true: The most important thing of all was secrecy. Steve REALLY cared about secrecy. He understood that keeping things secret had two enormous benefits to a great tech company: Secrets kept competitors at bay, and it kept your market crazy with anticipation.

I tell you all this to set up the enormity and horror of what happened next. I flew home and cranked out my story, toiling through much of the weekend to get it done. TIME had agreed to embargo the story, which wouldn’t be on newsstands until that Monday. That was when Steve was going to unveil the new product—it was the first, flat-panel iMac, which sat on a half-dome base—at the annual Macworld conference.

But at some point well after midnight Sunday in New York, my phone rang, rousing me from sleep: “Josh? It’s Steve Jobs. We have a really BIG problem,” he said.

I do not recommend this as a way to wake up. And it got worse: Apparently, the cover story had accidentally been published on Time Asia’s website. And now, of course, it had travelled around the world and back to Apple fans everywhere. We were able to pull down the story, but the damage had been done. Steve was pretty freaked out. For the first time, he wouldn’t be unveiling a new product—we had inadvertently done it for him.

Many years later, an Apple employee who was very close to the situation told me that Steve was so upset by the whole affair, he refused to go on stage at Macworld and show off his new creation. “What’s the point?” he reportedly complained. It was indeed a BIG problem—for his handlers, who had to convince him that the show must go on.

But here’s a side of Steve Jobs that you might not have heard about. He was actually a very sweet and stand-up guy and never held that awful escapade against me. In fact, a few months after Macworld, I was named editor of Business 2.0, a struggling magazine in San Francisco that was by no means on Apple’s radar. (They wouldn’t even talk to us for stories.) But one day shortly after I arrived, my publisher said that a neighbor of hers, a top-level executive at Pixar, had arranged for a number of us to take a tour. We all trundled out to nearby Emeryville to have a look around. Soon after the tour began, our guide said, “There’s someone here who wanted to see you guys,” and we were led into a small auditorium. There, seated in the middle, with his legs flopped up and over the seat in from of him, was Steve. “I wanted to say hello personally and welcome you to California, Josh,” he said. Then he graciously showed us around the place.

Josh Quittner is editorial director of Flipboard. Previously, he was the executive editor of Fortune and the editor of Business 2.0. Check out Flipboard’s tribute to Steve Jobs here.

Image courtesy of Flickr user acaben.

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Macworld 2011 opens today with the User Conferences and the Industry Forum. The Expo floor opens Thursday to the public. As mentioned, keynote duties this year are being handled by comedian Sinbad: not the first person that comes to mind when contemplating Apple and geek culture. I thought David Pogue did a great job of playing directly to the Macworld crowd last year, and I wonder if Sinbad will be able to do the same.

Today’s Industry Forum is a first this year, bringing together analysts, media, and influencers. I’m looking forward to seeing Jason Snell of Macworld and John Gruber of Daring Fireball discuss Apple and its past successes and current trajectory. I’m also excited to see Mike Lawrence of Computer Using Educators talk about technology in education. Maybe we can get some good tools into the hands of those 100,000 new math, science, and technology teachers that were called for in the State of the Union.

From a consumer perspective, the Expo is probably the most exciting part of the show. Despite Apple’s absence, and the departure of several large vendors from the show floor, there are quite a few new vendors making their first appearance this year. The exhibit hall moving to Thursday through Saturday, rather than Wednesday to Friday, provides an extra weekend day should help push general attendance numbers higher than last year. Will new vendors see good returns on their investment? How do they view Macworld in comparison to CES, which gets more media attention and happens earlier in the month? Will they all come back next year?

My personal take is that the unspoken theme of the event overall for this year is “momentum.” It will be interesting to see how Apple’s breakthrough financial results convey momentum to the surrounding ecosystem. Are vendors optimistic? Still cautious in the general economic climate? What kind of momentum is developing in the Mac/iOS industry? These are all questions that I hope to find answers to in the next few days. What are some of yours?

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Navigon for iPhone: The latest release of Navigon MobileNavigator for iPhone has added a new panorama 3D view that uses terrain elevation data from NASA. The feature is available via in-app purchase. I also got a hands-on demo of the MyRoutes feature which will show you three different route choices to find the best combination of speed and distance for you.

DJay Software with Spin Controller: The thing I love about the Djay Software with the Spin hardware controller is that it is a real DJ system for the Mac. It’s not a game like DJ Hero or something. You can spin records right from your iTunes library. You get some added digital benefits like automatic tempo matching so you can concentrate more on the music and less on the technical bits of DJ-ing. Here Karim of algoriddim (and the man behind the DJay software) demonstrates a few aspects of the controller.

Batteries: My iPhone was nearly dead at the end of every day at the Expo. For the first time, I started shopping for an extra battery. I like the ones that plug in to the dock connector with a cable like the Richard Solo and HyperMac batteries. The HyperMac stuff is not cheap, but really nice looking. I think I’m about ready to splash out for the HyperMac Micro. With this bad boy, I could play iPhone games for much longer on a weekend camping trip. Hmm, I wonder if that’s a good thing?

VESA mounts: I’ve been wanting to mount my screen on an adjustable arm for a long time, if only to clear some desk space. If you need an arm, then you should check out the top-quality products from Flatscreen Arms. These are unique in that they connect directly to the built-in pivot in the 24″ and 27″ iMacs rather than relying on the Apple VESA-mount adapter. It is a much cleaner look than what is normally available and the gas-shock arms will hold a 27″ iMac without drooping. You’ll find cheaper arms out there, but I do not know of anything better.

MacSpeech Scribe: This new product from MacSpeech lets you transcribe recordings to text. You can “train” the software to learn a certain voice from recordings by correcting the transcription. I see a lot of uses for this software where the full MacSpeech product does not always make sense. For example, a professor can use MacSpeech Scribe to create a transcription of a lecture podcast to make the lecture searchable on the web.

Microvision ShowWX: $499 for a tiny battery-powered ShowWX microprojector sounds like a great deal for all the road warriors out there. I’d much rather throw this in my bag instead of taking another carry-on. Check out the demo of the infinite focus. The scan lines and hot spot are an artifact of the camcorder and are not visible in person.

What did you see at Macworld Expo that you thought was cool?

In any other year, the start of Macworld Expo would mean looking forward to a riveting Stevenote with all sorts of product announcements. This year, the Expo started with David Pogue of the New York Times leaping on stage to do his best Steve Ballmer impersonation.

The highlight of the opener was a clever and entertaining stage play of “It’s a Wonderful Mac” which riffs on the premise of “It’s a Wonderful Life” starring Jimmy Stewart by imaging what the world would be like without Apple.

The Gregory Brothers (who are actually three brothers, Andrew, Evan, Michael and Evan’s wife, Sarah) from Auto-Tune the News on YouTube nailed the parts of Old Man Potter, Uncle Billy and others while the part of George Bailey was replaced by Steve Jobs, played by LeVar Burton (Roots, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and Reading Rainbow). Steve is placed into a situation where he laments that the world might be better off if he had never created Apple.  “Claris” the guardian angel shows him what the world would be like — a world where DOS 27.0 is the standard and Windows was never invented because the Mac was never created for Microsoft to copy. Ultimately, a world without the graphical web browser because the concept of “clicking” on the screen was never imagined.

The stage play was clever and entertaining, and the Gregory Brothers are immensely talented and funny, but the irony of the moment was that the actual Expo gave us a real look at life without Apple. And you know what? It wasn’t that bad. Actually, it was pretty darn good.

Macworld is About Mac People

I’ve been to a few Macworld Expos (I still have my VHS of Independence Day, velcroed to the bottom of our seats at the 1997 keynote), and while I miss seeing Steve Jobs, I was really pleased at seeing the friends (both individuals and companies) that I have made over the years. I even had a chance to get accosted by some random Mac fanatics that are every bit as addled and creepy as some of the interesting folks haunting the sidewalks of downtown San Francisco. At least no one took a leak in the aisle like I saw happen on the street one day walking back from lunch.

Was It as Good for You as It Was for Me?

The value of Macworld depends a lot on who you are.

Media Types

Macworld Expo provides a great opportunity to see products, talk with vendors, and attend special briefings on upcoming products. Here at TheAppleBlog, I have several interesting bits of information to share with you over the next few weeks.

Vendors

The Expo is a chance to show off your wares to the above media types, but also a chance to interact with some of the most die-hard Mac users out there. Yes, it is only a small sampling of the Mac community, but these people care about telling you what they think of your product.

Users

The conference sessions still represent a good value because of the chance to mix and mingle with other Mac professionals. The speakers often target their talks to beginner/intermediate levels to hit a wide audience, but the guy sitting next to you could be an absolute expert on Aperture, Mac OS X Server, Photoshop, etc. If you’re not talking to people at the show, you’re missing out.

I Will Be There Next Year, Will You?

If you went to Macworld Expo last week, I would love to hear about your thoughts in the comments. Also, let us know if you plan to be there next year.

iMacworld (Free)

The iMacworld is a handy guide for navigating the show floor and planning your day. iMacworld, featuring maps and a show directory, was just recently updated for 2010, so jump onboard.

Traveling to San Francisco

Gate Guru (99 cents)

For those who don’t travel often, favorite airport amenities frequently change and may be difficult to find. You’ve got 30 minutes between flights and can’t play “Where’s Waldo” to find your favorite coffee dispensary. Did Peet’s moved to gate 12 from gate 18? Gate Guru can help. Additionally, the app has a review function so if you aren’t sure where to eat, let the wisdom of crowds guide you. The interface is a bit clunky as you can’t search by airport, only by terminal within the airport, but otherwise it is handy and accurate.

TripIt (Free)

Traveling requires corralling an endless stream of alpha-numeric confirmation codes and repeating the same information over and over again to family and friends. Setup a TripIt account and email TripIt your confirmations, and they’ll automatically put it all into an itinerary complete with additional hotel information and links that you can share with others. When the front desks says they have no record of your reservation, pull up your TripIt app and you’ll have all the data handy.

FlightTrack Pro ($9.99)

Flight delays are a fact of life and getting accurate information is sometimes a challenge. Like many other apps, FlightTrack Pro will track flights for you. What’s special about this app is that it will also give you handy access to the airline’s phone number and provide push notifications. An indispensable feature is its ability to find alternate flights that match your planned itinerary should your flight be cancelled, as well as integrated access with TripIt.

Getting Around in San Francisco

iCommuteSF ($3.99)

iCommute is similar to MuniApp and iBART, except that it also covers the AC Transit system which serves the East Bay. Utilizing Nextbus information, it offers real time and predictive information as to when the bus or train will arrive. It might be the best “jack of all trades” for general getting around, but the interface was a bit more cluttered the MuniApp’s UI. Still, with the more complete data, if you had to pick a single app, iCommute is probably the one.

MuniApp ($2.99)

MuniApp focuses on San Francisco’s citywide bus and light rail network. It also includes BART info for the stations in SF, making it a good all-around solution if you plan to do heavy traveling within the city limits of San Francisco. The app will predict when the next bus will arrive, and has a good interface for sorting out the sometime confusing amount of bus routes in the city.

HopStop (Free)

HopStop allows you to enter a start and end location (or it will use your GPS as the starting point) and will build a route, mixing rail, bus and walking, taking into account the time of day. It is free and accurate, although the quality of the maps is poor. Similar to a GPS, it gets you from point A to B, though locals might disagree on the route it picks.

Exploring San Francisco

Yelp (Free)

Yelp is not San Francisco-specific, but of all the apps for finding what is cool in the neighborhood from where you are standing, Yelp stands above. There’s no better app for finding hidden restaurant gems and seeing what the locals think, and with the “VR camera mode” you can hold the phone in front of you and actually see places to eat and shop in real time as you move around. Don’t leave home without this app!

NFT San Francisco ($4.99)

“Not For Tourists” promises to show you the cool local places that tourists like you would never stumble upon on your own. That’s their line, but in reality, this is another generic guidebook to San Francisco with a hipster edge, and while not bad, it certainly isn’t that much better than other similar apps. It has a good selection of bars and restaurants, but you need to search specific categories.

Lonely Planet Travel Guide (Free)
This app automatically includes their SF guide and allows in app purchases for other destinations. Unfortunately, the app is slow to load and is a whopping 65MB in size. This is the most comprehensive guide out and contains the entire printed volume in a location-aware e-book format. Lonely Planet includes the depth of detail on the city’s culture and sights that other guides fail to include. Since the SF content is free, it is definitely worth the “price,” just remember to load it in advance due to the size.

And just for the fun of it, two bonus apps.  These aren’t necessary, but sure are fun for people with special interests.

Fido Factor (Free)

FidoFactor helps you find all things dog friendly in SF and includes dog pictures at each location. It’s Yelp for dog lovers. As a dog owner, I appreciate businesses that are dog friendly and like to patronize them. By reviewing or adding locations, money is donated to the SF SPCA. Nice!

SF Beer Week (Free)

Technology is my first passion, but being a beer nerd is a close second. By moving Macworld to February, Macworld coincides with SF Beer Week. This app isn’t location or date aware and is pretty much just an easy way view the static schedule for the Beer Week, but finding what beer related activities are going on while in SF is priceless. Mmm, beer!

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Macworld was in intensive care in 2008 and Apple’s decision to not exhibit in the future killed it, right? Maybe not. Macworld may end up stronger than ever. It reminds me of the classic science fiction plot where the main character goes through some strange metamorphosis on his deathbed (Doctor Who anyone?).

The Big Squeeze

My first Macworld was 1995. The clone wars were about to begin, but it was still Apple’s show. I had an absolute blast, and it wasn’t just because Sandra Bullock was filming “The Net” on the show floor. Back then there were detailed product demos and face time with a vendor’s sales and support team. Schwag bags were so big I’d have to ship a separate box back to Kansas.

As time marched on, smaller vendors were squeezed out by the big shots. Just like in any business, big national chains increased costs and make it more expensive for the little guys. Eventually, vendors stopped sending top personnel and often just hired warm bodies to staff their booths.

After over a decade of attendance, I decided in 2008 to pack it in. Too many exhibitors were doing “engineering via PowerPoint,” showing off screenshots and mockups of future products in lieu of real demos. Quicken Financial Life is still M.I.A. Any word on NightHawk? When I asked an exhibitor a moderately difficult question I was simply handed a card and told to call some support or sales number, or pointed towards the FAQ on their website. Furthermore, the show’s emphasis on Mac hardware and software had been overwhelmed by a preponderance of laptop and iPod cases and sometimes seemed to be more of a fashion show than a technical conference.

As a press person, qualifying for passes became difficult as the show management became overly bureaucratic. Many attendees and exhibitors hated the event’s timing, right after the holidays and New Year. After the second day in 2008, I decided it would be my last Macworld due to the increased hassle and decreased value. Apparently Steve Jobs agreed with me and took a pass on 2009, and then Apple soon followed suit.

Better, Faster, Stronger

With Macworld declared dead, IDG can take the opportunity to completely upgrade the event. They can rebuild it. They have the technology. Better than it was before. Better, stronger, faster. Now instead of the beginning of January, the Expo takes place in February. This gives all of us time to breathe after the first of the year and the busy holiday season. Additionally, the expo is at the end of the week and includes a weekend day.

Better hours will attract the casual Mac user who wouldn’t necessarily take time off from work to attend, but who simply wants to learn about new Mac products. These are the people who go to the Apple store “just to browse.” Registration is currently free for an exhibit-only pass thereby encourage those window shoppers (not to be confused with Windows shoppers). IDG is also focusing on attracting more small and independent developers who had been priced out of previous Expos. These are all very smart moves by IDG and will greatly increase the show’s value.

I’m psyched to attend in 2010. I’ll have plenty of time to recover from the holiday rush. I’ll attend on Saturday so I won’t be missing as much work. The outreach to small and independent developers will act as a tonic to boost the show’s technical and Mac-focused content. I’ve always loved the developer pavilion and am glad to see this concept extended. Not only is the person working these smaller booths the sales agent, but he or she may also be the developer! Want a feature in the program? Just ask and they’ll try and accommodate you. Like a rainforest, removing a couple big trees lets the underbrush grow and flourish.

Will attendance increase in 2010? I predict it will, and I plan to be part of this. Are you attending? Exhibiting? Thinking about it?

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Apple may have cut official ties with Macworld Expo, but that doesn’t mean the show is closing for good, as some originally thought. But don’t go looking for Macworld news next January either, because for the 2010 installment, it will take place in February instead. Specifically, February 9-13, at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

The reason for the change, according to TUAW and IDG World Expo, the event’s organizers, is mainly to allow attendees and presenters some time to chill out and let things settle down between the busy (and stressful) holiday season and Macworld. It makes a lot of sense, since main travel routes will also probably be less congested in February, when few people are likely to be returning home from holiday vacations.

If you’ll recall, this year Macworld and CES overlapped, forcing some exhibitors to choose one over the other. Given the increased Mac presence CES has planned for next year, avoiding such an overlap in the future makes even more sense. The move will benefit both conventions, as neither will have to vie for the attention of media outlets.

Depending on whether or not you have the amazing gift of being able to tell instantly what day of the week any given date falls on, or you checked iCal, you might’ve noticed that February 9-13 includes a Saturday, marking the first time the expo has extended into the weekend. Show organizers hope the addition of a Saturday date will help people who cannot take time off during the week to attend, broadening the audience to schoolteachers and others.

So, Macworld will survive for at least another year, and likely beyond. It may not have the flash and pomp of previous years, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Maybe it’ll give the little guy a chance to shine.

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