More Macworld!

I’m beginning to burn out, but I think I’ve seen just about everything.

I think there are more ways to dress one’s iPod, iPhone, or MacBook here than there are ways to dress oneself at Bloomingdale’s (which I walked through on my way to lunch — I am not crazy enough to eat at Moscone itself). But I’m not terribly interested in any of them.

There are also a ton of iPod car accessories, some of which are on sale at attractive prices — but not attractive enough for me to buy without the prospect of returning if they don’t work.

Google’s got a huge booth and is giving away swag. Odd swag, like Google socks and flip-flops. I may resist.

And, as expected, there’s a ton of software (some specially priced). Lots of disk enclosures, too. And keyboards — including the Goldtouch keyboard, which I really liked once upon a time. They’ve even finally updated it to have real F11/F12 keys!

I did get to play with the MacBook Air briefly. It is incredibly light and sexy, but I still don’t think I need one. And, unlike the iPhone, I think I really mean it this time.

And I even found the IBM booth. It’s at the very back of the tiny-booth area in Moscone West, and is there to show the flag for the Mac port of Informix. Lotusphere is next week, and so if we have anything to announce (and, according to the press, we do), I’d expect it to be there. But next year, Macworld is at the very beginning of January, before Lotusphere (and, I suspect, before CES), so maybe things will be different then.

Macworld Expo interim report

I’m taking a couple of minutes from wandering the show floor – thanks to Microsoft for the blogger lounge!

The biggest thing I’ve seen so far is iPod/iPhone accessories – in fact, I invested $8 in a earbud Jack from WhatIf Widgets in hopes of being able to carry my Frankenbuds again. Cases are also a Big Deal here.

But I’ve just barely begun to prowl the main show floor; more to come.

I think my wallet is mostly safe

Maybe I’m too far from Moscone to be affected by the Reality Distortion Field, but there wasn’t much in today’s Macworld keynote which really interested me. Yes, the 1.1.3 level of iPhone software has some welcome improvements (and I’ve downloaded and installed it already), but I’m not sure I would have paid even $20 for it.

TimeCapsule is of some interest, especially if I can use it to back up the Windows box at home as well as the Macs — it’d be of even more interest if it could seamlessly and automatically do offsite backups as well.

The AppleTV and iTunes rentals leave me cold; we have more media in hand and unwatched than I can put in one shelf — I don’t need any more.

And the MacBook Air, while interesting, doesn’t meet any immediate need (though I look forward to playing with one sometime). I already have a very lightweight laptop, anyway.

I still plan to go up to Moscone tomorrow to look around on the show floor, though.