apple expo
Over at Apple Expo – not so many surprise announcements on account of the really big new launches being handled at a separate media event previously; but the show still went on (This year the Expo moved across to a newly built hall across the road from last year’s venue at Porte de Versailles).
Murmurs were caused on the night before, as .Mac members were informed that the whole service was going to be taken down for routine maintenance. By the next morning – at the Expo’s opening the reason for this was made apparent – as the .Mac service got a sizeable overhaul: no doubt Apple were feeling the squeeze from the likes of GMail. Now, the standard combined storage quotas have been increased from 250Mb to 1GB. Also, the new .Mac Groups feature means that the online blog, photo and schedule publishing tools were all substantially updated and made that much more intuitive to use. Lastly, one of the most useful but overlooked tools – Backup – has a major update allowing the automated setting of many backup profiles.
A few other things noticed on the show floor:
NikeID had a sizeable stand promoting its custom trainer design website. While this is not a specifically geared Mac product – they obviously realised that most Mac users are quite conscious about the design of their footwear. A number of Expo exclusive designs were on show too.
After the Adobe/Macromedia merger we were expecting a huge joint stand from this new media authoring giant – but both companies still kept their own separate areas. However, Adobe had just overgrown it’s rather limited floor space – wedged round the side of Apple. Throughout the day large crowds were attracted to their excellent Creative Suite demonstrations, but their stand area really wasn’t big enough to cope. On the other hand Macromedia had recently released a major update to their web authoring software Studio 8, yet they had a pitifully small stand (barely 2 chairs and 1 terminal) – and it was quite a job to locate. No doubt many expo attendees would have wanted to get hands-on experience and walk through demonstrations of many of Studio 8's new features. This may be found to be a disappointment from one of the world’s most highly respected web design companies.
Microsoft has always been a long time attendee at Expo – usually to promote its range of hardware peripherals and Office suite for Mac, but this year saw the addition of an Xbox 360 stand – just in time for Christmas!
One aspect of the Expo where a little more thought could have helped greatly - and this was related to the fact there were hardly any seats! This is no doubt the largest Mac user gathering in Europe – so it is safe to assume that many of the attendees will be owners of one (or more) of Apple’s portable computers. But on casting an eye round the huge hall, there always sights of people precariously balancing their PowerBooks or iBooks on their laps, while perched on a step or off the side of a conference stand. A corner of the hall with nice high backed chairs will go a long way to make portable owners feel that much more comfortable!
Murmurs were caused on the night before, as .Mac members were informed that the whole service was going to be taken down for routine maintenance. By the next morning – at the Expo’s opening the reason for this was made apparent – as the .Mac service got a sizeable overhaul: no doubt Apple were feeling the squeeze from the likes of GMail. Now, the standard combined storage quotas have been increased from 250Mb to 1GB. Also, the new .Mac Groups feature means that the online blog, photo and schedule publishing tools were all substantially updated and made that much more intuitive to use. Lastly, one of the most useful but overlooked tools – Backup – has a major update allowing the automated setting of many backup profiles.
A few other things noticed on the show floor:
One aspect of the Expo where a little more thought could have helped greatly - and this was related to the fact there were hardly any seats! This is no doubt the largest Mac user gathering in Europe – so it is safe to assume that many of the attendees will be owners of one (or more) of Apple’s portable computers. But on casting an eye round the huge hall, there always sights of people precariously balancing their PowerBooks or iBooks on their laps, while perched on a step or off the side of a conference stand. A corner of the hall with nice high backed chairs will go a long way to make portable owners feel that much more comfortable!
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, September 20, 2005 at 7:58 pm.
