n3wblog tech commentary and observations from the early 21st century

MWSF2007: iPhone, tv

In Computing, Technology on 10 January 2007 tagged Apple, Computing, Handhelds, Software with 4 comments

While everyone recovers from yesterday’s mind-blowing MWSF keynote, sober heads are beginning to post reactions and even criticisms to the iPhone. The most obvious criticism to me is the Cingular deal which will be a blocker for many people wishing to get their hands on this device, including yours truly. While I expect additional carriers to come online in other countries at a suitably-long delay, it could be a long time before we see them in Canada. The more I think about it, the more I’m considering the Blackberry 8800 in March.*

Still more annoying, the tv** (font-permitting, this is probably the most-onerous product to type of any other in the history of consumerist blogging), is both extremely promising and severely limiting. Restricted to playing back H.264-encoded MPEG4 or Quicktime files, the vast bulk of all video that lands on a person’s computer will have to be re-encoded. I hear there are other devices that can get your DivX (XviD) to the television, but none will do so with an interface that isn’t a pain to use or require you to configure device drivers or recompile kernels. I will probably continue to lug my MacBook Pro into the living room and attach it to an array of cables that would make a NASA mission control specialist blush in order to view my internet videos on my entertainment system until I hear the (`)tv can be coerced into usefulness.

Finally, the coup-de-grâce on the whole affair was Steve Jobs declaring that Apple Computer, Inc. is now simply-known-as, Apple Inc. There was no “One-more-thing”. There wasn’t even mention of any new software (Leopard) or hardware (8-core MacPro, 12″ MacBook Pro, …). As if to emphasize the de-emphasis of “Computers” within the corporate name, he all but ignored them in the keynote. Why call it “Mac”World at all?

It may be early to begin predictions for next year’s MacWorld, but I predict it will be called AppleWorld and there will be even less focus on our computing platform of choice. Get ready for 5 days of iTunes Store coverage!

* – the victory meal and wine still tasted delicious, despite my somewhat confused feelings over the product itself. Thanks, dria!

** – this might show up correctly if this page were using Lucida Grande in UTF-8. Maybe only on a Mac. It should be an Apple.

Technorati Tags: Apple, Computing, Hardware, OS X, Software, Technology, TV

4 Comments