Nearly 100,000 Apple Computer enthusiasts from around the world converge upon San Francisco each year to attend the city's largest trade show, Macworld Expo. If you are a fan of Apple products, this is the show to see and be seen at, as Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO, makes his "one more thing" edge-of-your-seat announcements for upcoming cool products.  

Despite its coinciding with the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), the largest electronics show of the year, Macworld holds its own. To this point, 356 vendors were on hand to display their wares for the company which does not allow third parties to manufacture its hardware products. Still, these companies do a great job developing software for and accessorizing the line of designer hardware it creates.

Griffin Technologies, a company that was an early entry to the Apple accessory market, had several new speaker and docking systems at the show, which sounded great. Two "Best of Show" awards went to its Evolve wireless speaker system. This new product docks your iPod, then feeds CD quality music to speakers up to 150 feet away. The act of placing the speaker in the charging stand sets its "left or right" audio channel and charges it for 10 hours of remote playback. 

Griffin Technologies' TuneCenter dock gives your iPod the ability to display photos, videos and play lists on your television, as well as stream Internet radio stations for literally a world of live content. Its 14-button remote control also lets you operate the iPod from the comfort of your couch. Finally, for the fun department, the company's iKaraoke uses an ingenious audio "phase flipping" anomaly to remove the lead vocals from most songs, and a wired microphone lets you add your own. A built-in FM modulator sends your voice along with the music to a nearby radio, or line output jack, which will plug into your amplifier or stereo. The product works as advertised, although it sometimes generates some "squealing" during use. Those without musical aptitude can add lyrics to their iPod-stored tracks through the advanced editing capability within iTunes. The product doesn't even need batteries, so you can sing to your heart's content as long as your iPod stays powered up.

For 2007, the hot items at Apple were not computers at all, which explains why the company, Apple Computer, Inc., was renamed to just Apple Inc. at the start of the show. No doubt the five-year successful run of the iPod along with a focus toward digital lifestyle products provided the impetus to this change.

With nearly 90 million iPods sold since its introduction in 2001, even more computers are now running its iTunes software to manage media collections. This software has grown up significantly in the past few years, gaining a music store in 2003 and the inclusion of movies and TV shows in 2005, as well as user-created Podcasts, which are typically free.  As this content is "stuck" on computers or iPods, it was time to take advantage of the big-screen. The AppleTV product was shown to bridge media stored on the PC onto the TV. With flat-panel digital televisions the hot ticket, this product is designed to plug directly in with one HDMI cable, or legacy component connections, and play back the media synced within its internal 40GB hard disk drive. 

All content that the iPod can play will also play on the AppleTV, with the benefit of the "10-foot remote controlled user interface" to facilitate a typical living room TV experience. Pictures, music album art, downloaded TV shows and movies can be enjoyed by the family all at once, assuming the files have been synched through a computer running iTunes.

The on-screen AppleTV interface and the six-button remote control are fast, sharp and clean. With the many features present on the platform, the fact that the remote is so uncluttered is proof to Apple's design expertise. I have mine on order, despite the fact that it has its own spinning hard drive and requires a computer running iTunes to synch.  I prefer a system that could attach to a file server or network storage device over a computer that is running its proprietary application.

The biggest announcement at the show was the convergence of the iPod with a communications device - the iPhone. To call it either an iPod or a phone does not do it justice. You are quickly drawn in by a 3.5" screen due to its amazing resolution (160-pixels per inch). An innovative touch screen interface offers unique features such as two-finger navigation, but until I use the screen to dial or send an email, I reserve the right to detest it. I prefer a tactile keyboard to provide feedback when entering information. Functions such as a web browser that automatically synchs bookmarks from your computer and the ability to multitask make this a smart workhorse. It even supports the same automatic push email that made the Blackberry a market leader. High-end applications such as Google maps and visual voicemail, which lets you access recorded messages such as email attachments, are neat treats on this mobile platform.

With its high introductory price point, $499 for 4GB of storage and $599 for the 8GB digital device, reliance on the carrier AT&T (formerly known as Cingular) and lack of a high-speed 3G service, I think that I will wait this one out until a tactile keyboard is accessorized for it, as I do not trust the predictive, self-correcting on-screen keyboard. The iPhone will support 802.11b and g for high-speed LAN connectivity, and you can bet that many applications will be ported to the device since it runs on a full version of Apple's OS-X. 

Just know that Apple and AT&T will both be trying to make some extra money when they sell those applications to users. It is also yet to be proven if consumers will pay for a high-end smartphone device. For example, it has taken the Palm Treo a long time to achieve its market penetration and that product line has phones available on all of the major carriers.

Despite coexisting the same week, somehow I made it to both CES and Macworld but lost a lot of sleep in the process. Being in the middle of the buzz is what it is all about, and I am glad that I got to see the iPhone, even if it was entombed in a Plexiglas cylinder. If you want to attend both shows in 2008, you're in luck. CES is scheduled a week before Macworld next year.

As the "Gadget Guy" Dave Mathews never misses an electronics trade show, even when they take place the same week.  His writings and video clips can be found at www.davemathews.com.

© 2007, InCharge® Education Foundation, Inc.