Macworld 2009, Day 3, January 8
Well I decided that today was going to be my last day at Macworld because I've already seen all the booths and there aren't really any sessions or anything going tomorrow, so I'm just going to fly back early which will be nice. So this being my last day at Macworld I decided to make the most of it. O, dangit. I completely forgot to mention in my post yesterday that I went to the feature presentation by David Pogue. So I guess I'll mention that now. This feature presentation was great, David Pogue is a tech writer for the New York Times and he was really entertaining. It was setup kinda like a talk show, he had a couple guests on stage including Matt Harding from the video "where the heck is Matt?", these guys from "You Suck at Photoshop" (they were pretty funny) and the creator of the Ocarina application for the iPhone ( and this was probably the coolest of them all). The guy who developed this application is the music professor at some big university (I can't remember right now, lol) and he has a laptop orchestra there. He gave us a small demo of how it works, and they use the accelerometer inside the Macbook Pro to create sound. In the demo he would hit the screen or touch anywhere on the laptop and it would make some sort of noise. It was so cool, I'll be uploading a video to facebook. So that was yesterday's feature presentation.
I kicked off today by attending a feature presentation by Leo Laporte. He talked about mass media and how media is changing with the internet, and now anyone can produce content and distribute it to the world. It was a really interesting talk. Plus it is always great to hear Leo talk, he is so smart and knows so much about media and the tech industry and always has good things to say. I then went from there and bought myself a tshirt from the Macworld store, it says "I'm a Mac" on the front and then "Macworld" on the back. I was pretty happy about it. I then waited for the expo hall to open.
I went back to the South hall because I had not finished looking at all the booths and such. I also had decided that I was going to buy an Invisible Shield for my iPod Touch. This is a really cool product because they use the same material that the military uses on their helicopter propellors to keep them from being damaged. I also decided to buy some skins for ipod touch as well as one for the back of my laptop. These are really cool first of all cause they have some sweet kick-butt artwork to choose from and because they are reusable, the company is called Gelaskins and I would highly recommend them.
Another cool thing about Macworld is that almost every company is doing some type of raffle or giveaway, so I signed for almost every giveaway possible, but unfortunately did not win anything. But what they do is, they use your badge to get all your information, because there is a barcode on my badge and every booth has a scanner so to enter into the giveaway they just scan my badge, but then they also have my email and all that stuff, but o well. Hopefully I won't get too much spam.
I didn't get to meet any famous people today, but it was still a great day. I got to sit in on a couple live podcasts which is always fun. I was going to go home a bit earlier than I had in the past 2 days, but it was 5:30pm meaning it was rush hour, so I knew I was gonna be sitting in traffic forever. But there was also a meetup at Jillian's at 7 that I wanted to go to, so I just went to McDonald's and got some food and by the time I was done it was time to go to the meetup. O, but wait, I forgot, I did get to meet Andy Ihnatko (a tech writer for the Chicago Sun Times) in McDonald's which was kinda funny. I was just sitting there talking to my dad and I glanced over and I saw Andy Ihnatko standing in line. So I waited till he was walking out and I turned around in my seat and introduced myself and told him I was a big fan of his writing, and that was about it because he had his hands full, but it was still pretty cool. So nevermind, I did get to meet someone famous today. LOL.
Then I went to the meetup and it turned out to be a great night. I ended up talking to this older woman for a bit. She was just asking me what I do on my Mac and I told her I did videography. She has been a school teacher, but she said her real passion is art. It was a really good conversation and so after that conversation was over I wanted to talk to some more people. I met two other guys who ran this news site in Santa Barbara, California, it is called SBLife http://www.sblife.com. We talked about podcasting and videography because they do a bit of that for their site, it was also a really good conversation. Buy by far the best conversation of the night was with the developers of the iPhone applications "Pull my finger" and "Stickie Notes." Their company is called Air-o-matic. It was just really interesting to talk to them about the development process and what the environment is like to develop for the iPhone. Let me just say that after talking to these guys I've realized that developing for the iPhone can be a gold mine. It's crazy how much money you can make from just simple application. I also met the developers of the iPhone app "MIMvista". This is an application that reads MRI's and CTscans of the body brain. It is an amazing application.
I ended staying at the meetup about 2 hours longer than I had planned. This meetup is an excellent example of the Mac community. You can start a relationship with anyone just because we have the simple commonality of the Macintosh. It made Macworld worth it all, and it made me happy and proud to be a Mac user.
Again, it all comes back to the community. This is probably the biggest thing that I took away from Macworld, how important the community of Macintosh is. Without the community the Mac would not be what it is today. And so that is how I will conclude this journal of my Macworld experience. If you a Mac user and have not yet been immersed in the Mac community, I would strongly encourage you to begin doing that, just by simply meeting another Mac user and talk about what you do on your Mac. If you are not a Mac user, I would say that this is one of the strongest arguments for switching to the Mac. Not only is the experience of working on a Mac unbeatable, but the community surround it is incomparable.
For pics and videos of my Macworld experience check out my facebook profile
Macworld 2010 here I come!
Showing posts with label macworld. Show all posts
Showing posts with label macworld. Show all posts
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Macworld 2009 Day 2 "Tiny Town"
Macworld 2009, Day 2, Wednesday, Jan. 7
Well, day 2 of Macworld was another great experience. I ventured over to the South Hall since I spent my whole day in the North Hall yesterday, and I ended up spending more time in the South Hall overall. In the South Hall there was what was called "Tiny Town." People kept referring to Tiny Town and I couldn't figure out what they were talking about and then entered the South Hall and saw exactly what they were talking about. I think people called it that because there were alot of small companies and vendors, but also because there were alot of things hanging from the ceiling, and it just looked like a little model city.
I spent the whole day in the South Hall and I still didn't get to see all the booths. There were also alot more companies doing demos and such in the South Hall. This is also where the official Apple booth was located. And of course it was larger than life. Literally it was the biggest booth there, if you can even call it a booth (you can check out pics on my facebook). I mean, the Apple booth was cool, but it wasn't really anything special. They just had a ton of iMacs, Macbooks, and iPods on display. And all of these computers were demoing the new iLife and iWork 09, so it was cool to get to demo those. But I mean I really don't think that it is going to be a big deal that Apple is not going to attend the conference next year. I mean, yes, there might be alot of empty space, because the booth was humungous, but as far as content on the booth goes, there really won't be that much missing. In fact, I'm already excited to attend next year's Macworld.
I got to meet yet another famous guy in the tech industry, Chris Pirillo. He did a small session on how to use Ustream and Camtwist together to do your own live show. I mean I already knew all of the stuff because that is what I use to produce the wheel seat but I just stuck around to see if I could meet him after he was done, and sure enough I got to meet him and get my picture taken with him. He seems like a cool guy, so much so that I saw him later that day in the South hall and he actually recognized me and said hi, and then again that night at the meetup at Jillians he saw me and said hi. None of these run-ins resulted in any conversations which I wish they would have, but I was just surprised that he remembered me. He may not have remembered my name, but he remembered my face.
Probably one of the biggest things that I have realized after yesterday and today is how some of these people lead just different lives than I do. And I'm not talking about like Leo Laporte and Chris Pirillo and the other famous guys, I'm just talking about the other people who are attending the conference. As I walked around to the different booths it seemed like alot of the products were really expensive. I saw alot of stuff that I would have liked to bought, but I just couldn't afford it. Heck I was just lucky to be at Macworld, I was saving every penny just for parking and eating food. But other people there, this is their life. I mean, I consider myself a pretty big geek, or nerd or whatever you wanna call it, but I consider myself a geek with not alot of money. But these other people are just buying things like its nothing. It got me thinking about what its like to just have money at your fingertips. It is interesting to think about. I know for a fact that if I had money that that would not satisfy me. I am reminded as I just started reading Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" that God is the only one who can satisfy, and glorifying Him is the only satisfying thing in life. It is our purpose as human beings.
I wrapped up the day with a viewing of the world premiere of "Macheads" the movie. This is a documentary about the history of Apple and about the Mac community. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was really good for me to learn more about the history of Apple and how far the company has come as well as the community of Mac users. The movie's purpose was to emphasize the importance of the community that has been created around the Macintosh. Yeah the Mac is a great computer, but it is not just about the computer, it is about the community that comes along with the computer. When you buy a Macintosh you suddenly enter into this community of people that just makes your experience as a user so much better than anything you will ever find on the PC side. I have now seen this firsthand by attending Macworld and meeting other Mac users who do different things with their macs but we all have the same type of experience. So I really enjoyed this documentary, if you are a Mac user and you get a chance to see this movie, I would recommend. I mean even if you are not a Mac user I would recommend it because maybe you will come to good side and finally see the light and get a Mac.
So that was my second day at Macworld and again, it was awesome. O yeah, and here's an example of the Mac community, as I was walking back to my car that night I walked by these fountains so I was taking some pictures of them, and as I was walking to my car this guy was walking next to me, and I saw that he was wearing a Macworld badge and I just started talking to him and ended just having a small conversation on my way back to my car. I mean, not a big deal, but just something small like that is part of the mac community.
So if you all haven't gotten the message by now, the point of this post is get a Mac. LOL. Just kiddin. I still love all you PC users out there.
More posts coming soon!
Well, day 2 of Macworld was another great experience. I ventured over to the South Hall since I spent my whole day in the North Hall yesterday, and I ended up spending more time in the South Hall overall. In the South Hall there was what was called "Tiny Town." People kept referring to Tiny Town and I couldn't figure out what they were talking about and then entered the South Hall and saw exactly what they were talking about. I think people called it that because there were alot of small companies and vendors, but also because there were alot of things hanging from the ceiling, and it just looked like a little model city.
I spent the whole day in the South Hall and I still didn't get to see all the booths. There were also alot more companies doing demos and such in the South Hall. This is also where the official Apple booth was located. And of course it was larger than life. Literally it was the biggest booth there, if you can even call it a booth (you can check out pics on my facebook). I mean, the Apple booth was cool, but it wasn't really anything special. They just had a ton of iMacs, Macbooks, and iPods on display. And all of these computers were demoing the new iLife and iWork 09, so it was cool to get to demo those. But I mean I really don't think that it is going to be a big deal that Apple is not going to attend the conference next year. I mean, yes, there might be alot of empty space, because the booth was humungous, but as far as content on the booth goes, there really won't be that much missing. In fact, I'm already excited to attend next year's Macworld.
I got to meet yet another famous guy in the tech industry, Chris Pirillo. He did a small session on how to use Ustream and Camtwist together to do your own live show. I mean I already knew all of the stuff because that is what I use to produce the wheel seat but I just stuck around to see if I could meet him after he was done, and sure enough I got to meet him and get my picture taken with him. He seems like a cool guy, so much so that I saw him later that day in the South hall and he actually recognized me and said hi, and then again that night at the meetup at Jillians he saw me and said hi. None of these run-ins resulted in any conversations which I wish they would have, but I was just surprised that he remembered me. He may not have remembered my name, but he remembered my face.
Probably one of the biggest things that I have realized after yesterday and today is how some of these people lead just different lives than I do. And I'm not talking about like Leo Laporte and Chris Pirillo and the other famous guys, I'm just talking about the other people who are attending the conference. As I walked around to the different booths it seemed like alot of the products were really expensive. I saw alot of stuff that I would have liked to bought, but I just couldn't afford it. Heck I was just lucky to be at Macworld, I was saving every penny just for parking and eating food. But other people there, this is their life. I mean, I consider myself a pretty big geek, or nerd or whatever you wanna call it, but I consider myself a geek with not alot of money. But these other people are just buying things like its nothing. It got me thinking about what its like to just have money at your fingertips. It is interesting to think about. I know for a fact that if I had money that that would not satisfy me. I am reminded as I just started reading Francis Chan's book "Crazy Love" that God is the only one who can satisfy, and glorifying Him is the only satisfying thing in life. It is our purpose as human beings.
I wrapped up the day with a viewing of the world premiere of "Macheads" the movie. This is a documentary about the history of Apple and about the Mac community. I really enjoyed the movie, and it was really good for me to learn more about the history of Apple and how far the company has come as well as the community of Mac users. The movie's purpose was to emphasize the importance of the community that has been created around the Macintosh. Yeah the Mac is a great computer, but it is not just about the computer, it is about the community that comes along with the computer. When you buy a Macintosh you suddenly enter into this community of people that just makes your experience as a user so much better than anything you will ever find on the PC side. I have now seen this firsthand by attending Macworld and meeting other Mac users who do different things with their macs but we all have the same type of experience. So I really enjoyed this documentary, if you are a Mac user and you get a chance to see this movie, I would recommend. I mean even if you are not a Mac user I would recommend it because maybe you will come to good side and finally see the light and get a Mac.
So that was my second day at Macworld and again, it was awesome. O yeah, and here's an example of the Mac community, as I was walking back to my car that night I walked by these fountains so I was taking some pictures of them, and as I was walking to my car this guy was walking next to me, and I saw that he was wearing a Macworld badge and I just started talking to him and ended just having a small conversation on my way back to my car. I mean, not a big deal, but just something small like that is part of the mac community.
So if you all haven't gotten the message by now, the point of this post is get a Mac. LOL. Just kiddin. I still love all you PC users out there.
More posts coming soon!
Thursday, January 8, 2009
Macworld 2009 Day 1
My life these past couple days have been amazing, but busy. For those of you who do not know I have been at Macworld 2009 in San Francisco, which has been a dream come true for me ever since I switched to the Mac about 3 years ago. I got a PowerBook G4 in my Senior year of high school, and I have never looked back. I've been meaning to blog my experiences here at Macworld these past couple days, but I have been much busier than I expected, so I am a little disappointed by my procrastination/lack of time to give you my in depth thoughts and experiences. I have been updating my facebook status and twitter like literally at least 5 updates an hour, so I didn't spare anything with my updates there.
Since I'm already into Day 3 of Macworld and I'm just now blogging, I'm going to start with Day 1, and I might just start a new post with each day. We'll see how it goes, and how long my PowerBook's battery lasts sitting outside of the Expo hall.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2009:
Today was one of the peaks of my excitement this Christmas break. I have been staying at my friend's house, Savannah Flores for the past couple days which has been a blast. We went to the beach and just drove around California, and hung out with her family. It has been a great time. But today when I walked into the Moscone Center in San Francisco it was just an awesome feeling. I got registered and when they handed me that badge that said "Josh Burns, JSquared Productions, Covington, KY" I was about ready to explode with enthusiasm and excitement. I had to wait about an hour and a half after that to get into the expo hall but it was worth the wait because I immediately headed for the "Mac Learning Center" booth and got my seat for the recording of the Live episode of Macbreak Weekly. This is a podcast hosted by Leo Laporte, and is one of my favorites. It was so great to be able to see all of my favorite podcasters in person just feet away from me. So that was definitely a highlight.
Let me just go back to the first time walking into the expo hall. The gates opened, and as I was walking in I saw all of the booths and the feeling I got was so crazy. I guess the best way to describe is excited, but I don't even know if that captures my feelings. Ever since I switched to the mac and discovered Macworld I have wanted to go to Macworld, and now it was a reality. (Ok, so let me just stop here, and say that I realize that I may sound a little fanatical right now, but for those of you reading who are Mac fanboys as well, you can understand my fanaticism.)
I spent the whole first day in the North Hall of the Moscone Center, which was good, but when I went over to the South Hall I wish I would've spent more time there. But I at least walked past, if not visited every single booth in the North Hall and let me just say that there were some ridiculous products, and yet there were some really cool and innovative looking products. (I will go over these in a later post).
After a full day of visiting booths, talking to companies, and sitting in live podcasts and sessions, I made my way over to the restaurant, "Jillians" where there was a Macworld party going on. It was pretty cool, there was some free food, there were some football games on, and just lots of people to talk to. I stayed there for the giveaway and then jetted out of there because I had about an hour and fifteen minute drive ahead of me back home, and I was wiped.
So that was my first day at Macworld.
O BUT WAIT, I failed to mention my accidental meetup with one of the biggest podcasters in the world, Leo Laporte. So I was walking through the hall getting ready to leave at the end of the day and all of the sudden Leo Laporte just walked past me. I immediately recognized him but at first I was in shock. He walked past, and after I came to my senses I walked back towards him and yelled out, "Hey Leo, do you mind if I get a picture with you?" He kindly said "Yes" and and I told him that I enjoyed the live Macbreak weekly this morning and then I took the picture, I introduced myself and then I was so starstruck and at a loss for words that I just thanked him and just kinda turned away. After thinking about it later, I was so mad at myself that I didn't talk to him, cause I had so many questions for him. In fact I think he was expecting me to keep talking, but it all happened so fast that I was jut kinda caught off guard. But that was also a dream come true to get to meet him and get my picture taken with him. So that was also a HUGE highlight of week.
Well my battery warning just popped up so I'm gonna go.
More coming soon.
Macheads Unite!
Since I'm already into Day 3 of Macworld and I'm just now blogging, I'm going to start with Day 1, and I might just start a new post with each day. We'll see how it goes, and how long my PowerBook's battery lasts sitting outside of the Expo hall.
Tuesday, Jan. 1, 2009:
Today was one of the peaks of my excitement this Christmas break. I have been staying at my friend's house, Savannah Flores for the past couple days which has been a blast. We went to the beach and just drove around California, and hung out with her family. It has been a great time. But today when I walked into the Moscone Center in San Francisco it was just an awesome feeling. I got registered and when they handed me that badge that said "Josh Burns, JSquared Productions, Covington, KY" I was about ready to explode with enthusiasm and excitement. I had to wait about an hour and a half after that to get into the expo hall but it was worth the wait because I immediately headed for the "Mac Learning Center" booth and got my seat for the recording of the Live episode of Macbreak Weekly. This is a podcast hosted by Leo Laporte, and is one of my favorites. It was so great to be able to see all of my favorite podcasters in person just feet away from me. So that was definitely a highlight.
Let me just go back to the first time walking into the expo hall. The gates opened, and as I was walking in I saw all of the booths and the feeling I got was so crazy. I guess the best way to describe is excited, but I don't even know if that captures my feelings. Ever since I switched to the mac and discovered Macworld I have wanted to go to Macworld, and now it was a reality. (Ok, so let me just stop here, and say that I realize that I may sound a little fanatical right now, but for those of you reading who are Mac fanboys as well, you can understand my fanaticism.)
I spent the whole first day in the North Hall of the Moscone Center, which was good, but when I went over to the South Hall I wish I would've spent more time there. But I at least walked past, if not visited every single booth in the North Hall and let me just say that there were some ridiculous products, and yet there were some really cool and innovative looking products. (I will go over these in a later post).
After a full day of visiting booths, talking to companies, and sitting in live podcasts and sessions, I made my way over to the restaurant, "Jillians" where there was a Macworld party going on. It was pretty cool, there was some free food, there were some football games on, and just lots of people to talk to. I stayed there for the giveaway and then jetted out of there because I had about an hour and fifteen minute drive ahead of me back home, and I was wiped.
So that was my first day at Macworld.
O BUT WAIT, I failed to mention my accidental meetup with one of the biggest podcasters in the world, Leo Laporte. So I was walking through the hall getting ready to leave at the end of the day and all of the sudden Leo Laporte just walked past me. I immediately recognized him but at first I was in shock. He walked past, and after I came to my senses I walked back towards him and yelled out, "Hey Leo, do you mind if I get a picture with you?" He kindly said "Yes" and and I told him that I enjoyed the live Macbreak weekly this morning and then I took the picture, I introduced myself and then I was so starstruck and at a loss for words that I just thanked him and just kinda turned away. After thinking about it later, I was so mad at myself that I didn't talk to him, cause I had so many questions for him. In fact I think he was expecting me to keep talking, but it all happened so fast that I was jut kinda caught off guard. But that was also a dream come true to get to meet him and get my picture taken with him. So that was also a HUGE highlight of week.
Well my battery warning just popped up so I'm gonna go.
More coming soon.
Macheads Unite!
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
one down, one to go
Well, one big paper down, one more to go. I finished my Doctrinal Position paper at about 2:30am this morning. Glad to have it done, but now I gotta turn right back around and do another research paper for my sports ministry class. Hopefully it won't be too hard. And then once I'm done with that I'll be done for the week thankfully. But hey, the fun isn't over yet. Then I gotta come a couple days later and take 3 finals which I'm not looking forward to at all, especially Greek and Systematic Theology. But after those are done, I am home free.
Home free...wow, those words sound so delicious right now. Home free from December 17th-January 11th. And then, yes, I have an important announcement to make here on my blog, (warning: geekiness coming up) I am going to be attending Macworld Expo this year. Some of you may not know what this is, so I'll fill you in. Macworld is like the biggest conference once a year for Mac Computers. I am so psyched about going to this, 1. It takes place in San Francisco, California, and 2. Its gonna be awesome, cause I'm a geek. So anyways, that is happening January 6-9, I am flying out there and then flying back home, and then driving back here to school. Its gonna be an awesome break, and I can't wait to just be home, as you all know.
That's just a quick update for right now. I'll give some more once I'm a little less stressed. O yes, and another important announcement, the Live episode of The Wheel Seat is going to be taking place on Thursday Dec. 11, at 11:30pm. So be sure to tune in to http://ustream.tv/channel/thewheelseatlive
sorry for that little plug there.
stay strong
Home free...wow, those words sound so delicious right now. Home free from December 17th-January 11th. And then, yes, I have an important announcement to make here on my blog, (warning: geekiness coming up) I am going to be attending Macworld Expo this year. Some of you may not know what this is, so I'll fill you in. Macworld is like the biggest conference once a year for Mac Computers. I am so psyched about going to this, 1. It takes place in San Francisco, California, and 2. Its gonna be awesome, cause I'm a geek. So anyways, that is happening January 6-9, I am flying out there and then flying back home, and then driving back here to school. Its gonna be an awesome break, and I can't wait to just be home, as you all know.
That's just a quick update for right now. I'll give some more once I'm a little less stressed. O yes, and another important announcement, the Live episode of The Wheel Seat is going to be taking place on Thursday Dec. 11, at 11:30pm. So be sure to tune in to http://ustream.tv/channel/thewheelseatlive
sorry for that little plug there.
stay strong
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