Macworld thoughts

First, yes, I absolutely love the iPhone. It's definitely amazing. A beautiful and graceful UI. Some questions remain: what about downloading directly from iTunes Store to the phone, why 2G instead of 3G, why no VoIP client like Skype, why no iChat client with text and audio support, why, supposedly, can't 3rd party developers create apps for it (risky I know...), etc. Maybe those will all be in iPhone 2.0. Since it's based on Mac OS X then all of that is possible.

Second, yes, I thought Apple TV was pretty cool too. Of course, I wish they had a Elgato or TiVo-type functionality in there, or at least some easy extension so those devices could be integrated into the slick Apple TV UI. Perhaps that will be in Apple TV 2.0.

But, sadly, I was disappointed that there was very little "Mac" in the "Macworld" keynote speech. Others in the blogsphere have harped on this too but the lack of any news on any Apple's Mac software (you know: a Leopard update, iLife '07, iWork '07, pro apps, etc), Apple's Mac hardware (Mac Pros, cinema displays, etc), and Apple's .Mac service was surprising and disappointing.

I realize that Macworld is a huge venue, but, given all the pre-announcement hype for the iPhone, they really could have made a separate "special event" press conference like they've done in the past.

Then they could use Macworld for Mac news. I want to hear how Leopard and Apple's other Mac hardware and software are going to kick Vista's butt! :-)

Maybe they'll surprise us with more news in the next few days or weeks. After all, Steve is the king of PR events and certainly knows what he's doing.

Zen tea and our world

Good morning everyone.

As I sit here sipping my morning tea (Tazo Zen of course), I'm thinking about how we had the doors open all morning so Kat can run inside and out. It's going to be 70 degrees today and even slightly warmer this weekend.

This is certainly one of the mildest winters I can recall. Of course this summer, we also had a record number of 100-degree days.

We finally watched Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth which gave us a sobering look at the future. If you haven't seen it, you certainly need to see this film. In particular, check out the DVD because he gives an update on what's been happening in the past year since the theatrical release.

The site has some tips and a checklist with some simple items you can do to limit your carbon emissions. Be sure to check it out!