Tech journalism is not an oxymoron
IDG World Expo announced that it’s moving the dates for next year’s Macworld Conference & Expo from January to February 9-13. This is a great move on the part of the Macworld Staff. One of the few criticisms of the show was that it was held too close to the Holidays. The extra breathing room will benefit developers, attendees and even us lowly conference faculty.
But best of all, it will no longer coincide with my lovely wife’s birthday.
The latest installment of Chuck Joiner’s MacJury podcast is up. In it, I take part in a great panel discussion with a stellar lineup of “jurors:” Macworld’s Peter Cohen, Tonya Engst of TidBITs and Take Control, John Braun of The Mac Observer, Don McAllister of Screencasts Online and Adobe’s Terry White.
It’s a lively hour’s worth of talk about what’s in the update, what’s not and a little digging into what’s important and why. Panels this large can tend to get a little unwieldy, but thanks to Chuck Joiner’s expert choreography and the terrific panelists, the result is a spirited, friendly and fun discussion.
If you don’t already subscribe to the MacJury podcast, you should. It’s a consistently relevant, interesting and entertaining look at the issues surrounding Apple and the Macintosh.
Apple held its iPhone 3.0 event today and unveiled a slew of new features, but no real surprises. Cut and paste is finally here, Flash is still not, and Push Notifications are apparently here for real this time.
Perhaps the biggest news — or at least the news with the most far-reaching consequences — is related to commerce. The iApp store will now have support for “in-App” purchases along with subscriptions. That means you can buy new furniture within The Sims, buy new books within an eReader app, or subscribe to a magazine or online financial service. The “one-and-done” method of purchasing iPhone apps could well be over. As I “semi-live-Tweeted” the event, I called iPhone 3.0 the “Monetization” update and noted that it would be interesting to see how the inevitable attempts by developers to “nickel and dime” the iApp buying process would fly in the face of the existing 99ยข per app mentality that seems to be dominating the market.
If you’re reading this, it should come as no surprise whatsoever that I’m eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s Apple event where they’ll describe the upcoming 3.0 update to the iPhone software.
Here are a few of the things I’ll be looking for: