Neil’s Official Keynote Predictions
“Welcome to Macworld. We got a lot of great stuff to show you today.”
Steve gives an update on retail stores and revenue. He then goes on to talk about iPhone sales.
“Last year, I stood up here and introduced the iPhone. In less than six months we’ve sold over 5 million iPhones, and we’re well on track to exceed our goal of selling 10 million units by the end of 2008.”
Next he discusses iTunes and compares it to other stores that sell music on “physical CDs”.
“We think the iTunes Store is the best way to purchase your music. Not only can you get music on iTunes, but you can also purchase TV shows and movies. Today, I’m really pleased to announce our new partnership with Twentieth Century Fox, to bring over 100 new movies to the iTunes Store.”
“Our partership with Twentieth Century Fox extends beyond selling movies through the iTunes Store. Because of our new partnership, we’re introducing a new service today called iTunes Movie Rentals. This is a great way to rent movies, and we think our customers are really going to enjoy it.”
Steve explains how the rental system will work. You have 30 days to watch the movie, and can watch the movie 5 complete times. After 30 days, you have an option to purchase the movie.
“Another result of our partnership is what we call iTunes DVDs. Starting this year, every DVD you buy from Twentieth Century Fox can be viewed by iTunes, and if you want to put that movie on your iPod, iTunes can rip the movie right from the DVD, just like you can rip songs from a CD.”
Steve demonstrates this system with “Star Wars: Episode III”. He starts the process by entering a code that is provided inside the DVD box. This code is sent to the iTunes Store, and the transfer is attached to your iTunes account. The transfer only takes 2 minutes, so apparently there is a DRM’ed file already on the DVD ready for iTunes. The movie is complete with album art and everything expected for a movie from the iTunes Store.
“This whole process works in reverse too. Let’s say you download a movie from the iTunes Store, and you want to put that on a DVD. We’re going to let you burn DVDs of your favorite movies, up to 5 times per movie.”
Steve starts talking about iPhones again.
“We have some great new applications for the iPhone that take advantage of its touch interface. The first is called “Directory” and it combines white pages and yellow pages into a simple resource. As always, you can just tap the phone number and your iPhone will automatically call that number.”
“The second applications is called “Showtimes”. This application gives you the showtimes for almost any movie at almost every movie theater, using Fandango. I know this is one application I will use quite often.”
“The third applications is a called “To Do List”, and that is exactly what is sounds like. It’s a very simple list of things you have left to do, and it syncs right up with the To Do system in Leopard. If you add a To Do item on the iPhone, it will get loaded onto your computer the next time you sync. We’re also going to start syncing the Notes application with Leopard.”
“All three of these applications will be available today, as part of a software update, version 1.2. However, there’s one aspect of the iPhone that I’m really excited about. I’m talking about third party applications. It’s no secret that we want native third party applications on the iPhone, and I’ve already expressed that we plan to have an SDK in developers’ hands in February. We are excited about creating a vibrant third party developer community around the iPhone and enabling hundreds of new applications for our users. With our revolutionary multi-touch interface, powerful hardware and advanced software architecture, we believe we have created the best mobile platform ever for developers.”
“The big question is: How is this going to work? One of the great aspects of web apps was that you could just update the application on the server. With native applications there needs to be a way for applications to be updated automatically. So, we looked at what we’ve done with updating third-party content in the past, and we noticed that this is exactly what we do with podcasts. People can simply submit a URL to iTunes for their podcasts, and podcasts are automatically updated every time an iTunes user syncs their iPod. This is exactly what we’re going to do with applications.”
“But what if you think of an application, and there isn’t a computer with iTunes nearby? Turns out, we’ve already solved this problem too. We have the iTunes Wi-Fi Store right on your iPhone, and come February we’re going to add a new button on the bottom for applications.”
Steve demonstrates what accessing third party applications will be like, although there obviously aren’t any applications available yet.
“With all the new applications that are going to be coming out once we roll out the SDK in February, you’re going to need more storage on your iPhone. So, we thought we’d do our part and increase the storage of the iPhone to 16GB for the same $399. We’ve also managed to make the iPhone even thinner; it’s just 8mm thin.”
“When we decided to put Intel processors into our computers, we found that the performance was significantly better than what we had with PowerPC. Developers have been able to take advantage of this performance by writing apps that run natively on Intel processors. Today, Microsoft is releasing a completely native version of Office. It’s my pleasure to invite Craig Eisler, the general manager of the Macintosh Business Unit, on stage to say a few words about Office 2008 for the Mac.”
Craig Eisler takes the stage and briefly explains some of the new features of Office 2008. He says you can find it on store shelves starting today, and there will be demos available after the keynote.
Steve comes back on stage to wrap up the keynote, but accordingly states:
“But there is one more thing…”
“You know, we have a great line of computers, and there seems to be at least one computer for whatever you’re looking for. In terms of desktop computers, we have a computer for professionals with the Mac Pro, a computer for consumers with the iMac, and a miniscule computer with the Mac mini.”
“Portable computers also seem to follow this same pattern. We have a computer for professionals with the MacBook Pro, a computer for consumers with the MacBook, but what seems to be missing is this last category. Where is the miniscule computer in the portables category? It’s time we introduce a new portable Mac that is ever more portable than either the MacBook Pro or the MacBook. We are calling it the MacBook mini.”
The MacBook mini lacks a disc drive of any sort, and it has a 32GB SSD with a 64GB SSD option. Steve says the battery will last up to 15 hours.
“You’ll notice there isn’t any keyboard or mouse on this computer. This computer uses a multitouch display that works very similarly to the iPhone. Your finger controls the pointer right on the screen. The keyboard is very smart. Just rest your palms on the display and begin to type like you would on any physical keyboard, and the MacBook mini will automatically figure out what you’re typing and adjust the keyboard on the display to compensate.”
Steve wraps up the keynote, but there is a quiet update that can be seen online for the Cinema Displays. The newer Cinema Displays have a much higher resolution and a built-in iSight camera. The form of the display is otherwise identical to the original.
I’m Going to Prison!
Well, sort of. On the Monday before the Expo starts, I’m going to be going on a tour of historic Alcatraz Island. Then, we’re going to the Aquarium of the Bay to see the pretty spectacular aquarium they have there. It should be a fun day, but I want to be home fairly early so I can get enough rest for Tuesday. I’ll be in line early for the keynote, because even though I’m guaranteed seats for the keynote, I’ll be even closer to the stage the sooner I get in line. I’ll need to pick up my conference badge sometime on Monday as well.
Flights to San Francisco
My parents paid for the trip to San Francisco as a sort of Christmas present, so now I guess travel really isn’t much of an issue now. We’re going to be leaving Portland at 6:00 am on Sunday, January 13. We’ll be in San Francisco by Noon, so once we get settled in the hotel, we’re planning on going to visit Pier 39 and all the attractions that are available there. That should keep us busy on Sunday.
Another Mac & Chipmunks Connection
I just happened to be watching a short video about how the new movie Alvin and the Chipmunks was made, and the got to a part where they were discussing how they made the chipmunk voices. Guess who the voice of Alvin is. Go ahead, just guess. It’s Justin Long. You might know him better as the guy who plays the Mac in the Get A Mac commercials from Apple. Who knew Justin could sing?
Frequent Flyer Miles
I’ve been offered frequent flyer miles from a couple teachers now. The first was Mr. Chovanes, and the second was Mrs. Deveau, my Speech & Debate coach. Although I really appreciate the offers, I’ve found that it is basically more expensive and troublesome to transfer the miles than to simply pay for the tickets. Although the flight is from Maine to California, I’m sure I’ll manage.
I’m Officially Going Now
I finally got my confirmation documents from IDG. It’s official. I’m going. Yes.
I hadn’t received any confirmation from IDG about my registration for Macworld for a few days, and I was starting to get a little worried. I sent in the registration a few days ago, so I thought they should have had it done by now.
We Got Hotel Reservations
My family is going to be going with me to San Francisco, and we already got reservations to a very nice hotel just a few blocks away from the Moscone Center. It’s called the Handerly Union Square Hotel, and it seems pretty nice. The high speed internet access is going to be crucial to being able to blog about my experiences in San Francisco, so they better not let me down. Another great aspect of the hotel is the heated pool. I’m definitely going to be using that!
Macworld Profile
I made a profile on Macworld’s own online social network. Sort of strange that they would set something like that up, but I decided to join anyway. Who knows, maybe I’ll meet someone at the expo that I’ve seen on the website. Anyway, you can check out my profile if you want, but there really isn’t much to it. At all.
Confirmation Emails Already
I posted a comment on the contest page, thanking the folks at Your Mac Life Show for the pass. Because I still didn’t receive an email, I’m still naturally skeptical about the authenticity of the contest.
This is Neil Pomerleau. I submitted the chipmunks video. You don’t realize how much I appreciate winning this contest! I can’t imagine ever being able to pull together the resources to go to Macworld without this opportunity. I’m still waiting for the email confirmation, because this is so amazing that I almost have a hard time believing that this is real. Please get back to me soon!
Thanks again,
Neil Pomerleau
The host of the show told me, “As the line in Blazing Saddles, goes, ‘It’s twue! It’s Twue!’ ” Others posted comments explaining what to expect at Macworld. I also got an email from Sly, the producer of Your Mac Life Show, regarding my submission to his contest. This is what he had to say:
Neil Neil Neil!
OMG – that was the funniest thing we’ve seen!!!! (I hope you don’t mind, but
I’d like to forward your video link to the guys at IDG – they will love it!)Congratulations. You’re a winner of the PLATINUM PASS from Your Mac Life and
IDG World Expo!Please respond to this email with your shipping address and tel # once
again, just so we have confirmation and also to confirm that you are indeed
going to be attending Macworld in January.Your contact information is being forwarded to IDG so they can process your
registration. If you don’t hear from them by December 14th, please let me
know. And again, if you are unable to attend, please advise asap, so that
we can award the pass to another listener.Looking forward to hearing back from you and hopefully to see ya in San
Francisco!Congratulations!
Then I got an email from Sarah Hindmarsh, the marketing manager at IDG. She provided the registration form.
Congratulations to all of the winners of the Macworld Conference & Expo conference passes. I’ve attached our registration form below. If you could please fill the form out and either email it or fax it back to the attention of Tara Wislocki…I’d greatly appreciate it. For the Platinum and Super Pass winners please not the session code for included programs you’d like to take.
Congratulations again and I look forward to seeing you in January,
Sarah
Looks like it’s real. I still can’t believe it.
Everything That Has Happened So Far…
November 9, 2007 – While randomly perusing upcoming stories on the Apple section of Digg, I notice a story titled “Win a Macworld Expo 2008 Conference Pass”. Well, the first thought that came into my head was that if I was going to have any chance of winning this pass, there was no way I could let this hit the Digg front page. I quickly “buried” the story and blatantly posted the comment “Buried because I want to win.” I then proceeded to see the details of the contest.
To enter, listeners must send an email telling us why they need/want to go to Macworld Expo SF 2008. (This could be something as simple as a letter/poem, or as involved as a self-created video/movie.)
I love creative projects like this. People that know me realize that I make little random movies all the time. I pondered making some kind of silly music video, but the idea didn’t really materialize. I knew I would find some sort of inspiration in the upcoming month. Submissions would be due December 5, 2007. For the chance to win a Super Pass or possibly even a Platinum Pass to Macworld 2008, the small project would be well worth my time.
November 13, 2007 – While in the car with my dad, I casually asked him, “Hey, do you think we could ever manage to take a trip to San Francisco this January?” I explained to him that there was a contest I was planning on entering, and if I won I would get to go to Macworld in San Francisco sometime in January. He said, “Yeah, sure we could go,” but he later confessed he only said this because he was fairly confident that I had no realistic chance of winning the pass.
November 14, 2007 – At school, I’m taking a Digital Video Production class with Mr. Chovanes. Mr. Chovanes just happens to be an Apple fan, so I always make video projects that are Apple-related in some way. My first project was a stop motion film, so I made a stop motion featuring my iPod touch in the style of the Apple commercials. The next project was an instructional movie, so I made a video explaining how it’s possible to customize an iPod touch. It very closely followed the style of the guided tours on Apple’s website. You can see these videos, among others, on Youtube. Anyway, our next project was a commercial, but when I introduced the contest to him, he told me I could substitute my submission to the contest for that project. We were equally excited about the possibility, but we were both realistic and realized how unlikely it was I would win.
November 25, 2007 – Thanksgiving is over, and that means Christmas music is perpetually playing on the radio. I was in the kitchen when I heard the Chipmunks Song start playing. Little did I realize that this would become the inspiration for my contest submission. When I heard the song, I wondered what it would sound like slowed down to half the speed. That is, did they simply speed up the audio to get the “chipmunk” effect, or was there more to it? A few minutes later, I downloaded the song and slowed it down. Guess what? The chipmunks were simply this creepy sounding guy at half speed! I could do that! I played around with recording my voice very slowly, and then speeding it up. This entertained me until I remembered I had homework left to do. Tomorrow was the first day of school after vacation, and I wasn’t exactly looking forward to it.
November 26, 2007 – Before the bell rings for classes to start at 7:45, I always sit in the hallway with my friends. Today was no different, and I had all my homework finished so I had time to fool around with the chipmunk effects. I took the bridge out of the original song (since that part has no vocals) and slowed it down. Me and one of my friends, Chris, sang along slowly with the original lyrics to the slowed-down bridge. I recorded this and sped up both tracks after. The result sounded just like the original song, except for the random laughing as we sang. It was then that I realized I could imitate the Chipmunks Song completely, but I still didn’t make the connection to the contest.
November 27, 2007 – I impressed more people during Spanish class, during which I got about 4-5 people together to sing La Cucaracha slowly, and then speed it up. I also read the introduction of an essay I was working on for that class (which was what we were supposed to be working on), and sped that up. The results were fantastic. Next period, I had Digital Video Production again with Mr. Chovanes. During class, I again demonstrated the chipmunk effect, this time with my own rendition of the Lollipop Guild. Mr. Chovanes seemed impressed in a you-are-so-ridiculous sort of way.
November 29, 2007 – I told Mr. Chovanes that the video was due December 5, so my only opportunity was to finish the video during the upcoming weekend. Since the commercial project wasn’t due for quite a while, I told him I would do the commercial as well.
December 1, 2007 – I spent the day with the Lego League team that I coach down at the middle school. The name of the team was “The Seventh Sense: We See Lego People”, and they thought they should have a theme song. I recorded everyone singing the Lollipop Guild with the words changed slightly for our team. It was the first time I had changed the words of a song in a sort of parody, chipmunk style.
December 2, 2007 – Remember that Spanish essay I mentioned earlier. That’s due tomorrow. And I have no more than the introduction done. With that on track to take over the rest of the day, there is simply no way I can get this done in the next few days with school. My only hope: there is a huge snow storm coming tomorrow, and if I’m lucky, that will mean school is canceled for the day.
December 3, 2007 – Two words: Snow Day. That’s right, there’s no school today, and it’s a good thing too. Between you and me, that essay wasn’t finished. It was 5:00 am when I found out school was canceled, so first thing on my priority list was to go to sleep. A few hours later, I got up and started thinking about what to do for the contest. I’m not sure what exactly made me think of the connection between the Chipmunks Song and Macworld, but I finally decided that I would just do a parody of the Chipmunks Song for the contest. I remember not even really being all that excited about the idea, because I wanted to do something more elaborate. But, I figured I was pressured for time, so I settled on that.
I started with the lyrics, with a couple ideas right from the start. First, I made certain I would find a way rhyme something with “Steve”, “One more thing”, and “Macworld 2008”. With the exception of getting stuck a couple times, everything else seemed to fall into place after that. I put together an instrumental version of the song, sang along slowly three times (to make it sound like a group), and sped everything up. It was kind of awkward when my parents asked why I was singing. Add a couple clips of chipmunks and Macworld things, and boom! A contest entry ready for submission.
By the way, if you appreciate your ears, don’t slow down the audio of the movie I made. You may go deaf.
December 5, 2007 – Before I went to school that morning, I played the video for my parents, who seemed impressed with the video but confused about Macworld. I also played the video for my friends that morning at school. I had class with Mr. Chovanes today, so I showed him and the rest of the class the video. Jake, my good friend and Apple fan who also happens to be in that class, told me, “If that doesn’t win, I’m going to have to kill someone.” I gave Mr. Chovanes the URL of the website for the contest, so we would both know who the winners are at 8:30 pm that night.I’m on our school’s Speech & Debate team, so I had to be at school from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm. I didn’t get home until 8:45 pm, when I instantly went to the website to see who the winners were. Oh…my…god…
Congratulations to Neil Pomerleau of Auburn, ME for his video submission, “Why I Wanna go to Macworld Expo!”
I’ve never jumped so high. Not only would I be going to Macworld for the first time, but I would be going with a Platinum Pass, valued at almost $2000. I ran downstairs to show my parents the announcement, who took a few minutes to internalize it and believe it was real. Everything was happening so fast. After going over the ramifications in my head, I reluctantly got back to studying for tomorrow’s Physics test.
December 6, 2007 – The first person I told was my friend, Dan. “Do you remember that video I showed you yesterday morning?” I asked. I played the audio from the winners being announced. I don’t think he could believe it either. I told some of my other friends, who were either amazed or didn’t realize exactly what I won. I went to see Mr. Chovanes, and I could tell he already knew by the look on his face. We ran toward each other and (literally) did a little jumpy dance in the hall. “You’re going to Macworld!” he screamed. “I’m going to Macworld!” I confirmed. We were both confirming what I could hardly believe. My spontaneous history teacher from last year walked by, giving us the same awkward look that everyone else in the hallway was giving us. When we explained everything, she joined us in our ceremonial dance.
Classes started a few minutes later, and I had Physics. Right before the test was about to start, there was an announcement made over the intercom. Our assistant principal said, “And now, a message from Santa Claus,” referring to Mr. Chovanes because of his crazy hair and beard. Mr. Chovanes explained that I won a $2000 pass to Macworld, but unfortunately, he didn’t explain exactly what Macworld is. From that point on, everyone was convinced that Macworld was some sort of computer store, and I won a $2000 shopping spree.
Macworld 2008 is going to be the week before finals week for me, so I already started getting work ahead from teachers. I also decided to make this blog. So, that is everything that has happened so far.