Mac|Life MacWorld Expo 08 RSS Feed

The Mac|Life Quiz Show

Roberto Baldwin — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:34:02 -0600

Most expo goers consider themselves pretty savvy when it comes Apple and their products. We put the them to the test with our Mac|Life mobile booth Quiz Show.

Let's see how smart they really are.

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What a Difference a Decade Makes

Lon Lazar — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 23:16:40 -0600

In January of 1998, you could have bought as much Apple stock as you wanted for $4 per share. There was no iTunes, no iPod, no iPhone, MacBook, or really, much of anything save for the solid operating system software known then as Macintosh.

But even that was mainly the private little secret of a handful of graphic designers, music producers, and elementary school students sprinkled across the country.

As the 2008 Macworld Expo opened on Tuesday at San Francisco's Moscone Center, Apple's share price was $175 and the company's market capitalization was over $140 billion.

The newest version of its Mac OS X software, released just three months ago, has already shipped over 5 million copies, and its latest revolutionary gadget, the iPhone, captured nearly 20% of the domestic cellular telephone market in its first six months for sale.

Clearly the company is on roll and more and more people are finding reasons to investigate its line of premium software and hardware products.

When founder and CEO Steven Jobs announced the arrival of iTunes at Macworld on January 9, 2001, few observers understood that Apple would be revolutionizing the music industry and its product distribution model, nor did they recognize the cash cow being led from the barn. Today, the purchase of music and the purchase and rental of cinema products online makes up an ever-increasing share of total sales for the music and movie industries -- and for Apple.

Later in 2001, the company introduced the iPod, a line of digital media players now nearing the 120 million units sold mark.

Other significant innovations introduced at Macworld Expos in recent years include the partnership between Apple and Intel, with Intel Duo processors replacing PowerPC chips in all Apple's computers and servers manufactured since 2006, and of course, the iPhone in 2007.

This year the company turned its attention less toward personal entertainment/communication devices and back to computing hardware.

Jobs announced yesterday the availability of The MacBook Air, a super-thin, super-light, notebook computer destined immediately for top-of-the-line status among all portable computers.

The success of the device is predictable, with the intuitive soundness of its marketing campaign based on "Thinovation," and the company's unblemished record for pleasing, impressive, simple design.

Everything about the MacBook Air exudes "the Future", and since that's where we are headed anyway, many people are going to want to get there toting one of these computers.

I ran into influential publicist and tech blogger, Andy Abramson, on the floor of the Expo Wednesday and asked him what was his big take away from this year's show. He answered without hesitation, the MacBook Air. "I had mine ordered as soon as the slide came up in Job's address this morning," he said.

Some critics may claim the company really hasn't offered up anything as groundbreaking as iTunes or the iPod, however, to this writer, the new notebook computer and the company's new "Time Capsule", a beefy (500 gigabyte and 1 terabyte versions) external storage device that doubles as a wi-fi base station both constitute solid new products that will add revenue to the company's growing stream of funds from streamed media and software sales.

And as Farhad Manjoo, the tech critic at salon.com noted Wednesday morning, software updates for the iPhone announced yesterday make "the iPhone you bought last June...actually better now than it was back then." In an industry where obsolescence is usually measured in weeks or months, the fact that Apple can improve the value of its devices over time speaks volumes about the foundations of the company's success.

It's hard to imagine Apple could possibly replicate over the next decade the phenomenal growth it has seen since Jobs returned to the C level in 1999. But even if it only doubles its share price and market cap, as Microsoft, its only true rival has since then (Jan 98 - $15 per share; Jan 08 - $34), it would be quite an achievement.

Pre-Expo Picture Show

Roberto Baldwin — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 20:16:01 -0600

The aura of secrecy that precedes each Mac Expo is almost too much for one Mac|Life staffer. I decided to grab my camera and snoop around the Moscone center today. You know, in case Steve showed up holding a new product and was giving out iTunes gift cards. It could happen.

Here is what I found.

Anything with the words San Francisco on it must have a Cable Car. It's the law.

That something in the air is security, and lots of it.

I really want an Apple security jacket.

Clean sidewalks are important to a successful expo.

Conference registration.

While Apple security wasn't too happy to see me snooping around with a camera, the Jolibee mascot down the block seemed ecstatic at my presence.

Don't tell Steve, but some of the Apple employees are litter bugs. Did I pick this piece of trash up out of civic duty or because I'm a giddy fanboy?

For now, this is as close as most people will get to the Moscone center before the expo doors open. The security folks were cordial, even when I spent too long looking at the broadcast truck outside Moscone north. The security guard made sure I knew I should move along. He was nice about it in an intimidating way and I left. They have a tough job keeping pasty-faced fanboys from taking pictures of top-secret Apple stuff. Maybe tomorrow I'll bring a peace offering of donuts.

I never did find Steve, not even in the Jolibee.

Say Hello to a New Apple Font

Michael Simon — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 18:39:57 -0600

This year’s Mac Expo teaser banner uses a lighter Myriad font than the company has used in recent years.

An early peek at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, site of the upcoming Mac Expo and, more importantly, Steve Jobs’ foremost keynote presentation of the new year, reveals a new slogan for 2008: “There’s something in the air.”

Those of us who dissect every clue and rumor leading up to the big day will immediately notice something askew with the trademark black banner: It seems Apple has a new font in its arsenal.

Whether this represents the beginning of a product-wide shift or an expo-only appearance remains to be seen, but it is certainly a conscious move away from its traditional font, Apple Myriad. Conceived as “a modification” of Adobe’s Myriad font family, Apple Myriad was “produced by Galápagos Design Group,” as noted by Wikipedia, and “incorporates minor spacing and weight differences from the standard varieties.” Apple began using this clean, semi-bold font across its product line around the time the iPod landed, and it has since become as recognizable as the partly eaten fruit it flanks.

Apple’s Think Different campaign featured the Apple Garmond font, like on this Muhammad Ali ad.

Before the unique Myriad font, Apple was partial to serifs, a simple, stylish font popularized by the ubiquitous “Think Different” campaign. Dubbed Apple Garamond, it was first used in the original Mac ad and can be found on nearly two decades of products and marketing materials, from PowerBooks to posters and everything in between.

The infamous 1981 ad where Apple welcomed IBM into the computer market with open arms used the company’s original logo, adorned with the Motter Tektura font. Interestingly, the font for the ad copy is closer to Apple Garamond, which wouldn’t make an official appearance until 1984.

And prior to Garamond’s appearance, Apple font of choice for its logo was Motter Tektura, a futuristic, space-aged series of letters with slants and curves that was just slightly ahead of its time. It didn’t last too long, but Motter Tektura set Apple apart from its contemporaries and established its rebel mindset from the get-go.

In short, Apple chooses its fonts carefully and a change – even one as simple as skinnier letters – is no small matter. And coming on the eve of a Mac Expo, it’s sure to get people talking.

And to think, we haven’t even heard a single word from Steve yet.