Macworld 2011 & MacMania 11

It's nearly time to head out to Macworld 2011 and MacMania 11!

Hence the reason for my relative quietness on the blog and Twitter.

Since Christmas, I've been working really hard trying to get some shows together to cover my absence along with trying to finish off the presentations required for both events. The schedule is fairly punishing in that for Macworld I've two live podcasts from the show floor along with two 75 minute presentations for the User Conference.

But that's not all, I've also got eight 90 minute presentations to prepare for MacMania as well. (Yes, you read that correctly, eight 90 minute sessions)

I'm feeling a little Keynote punch drunk by this time!

The good thing is there are a couple of long haul flights ahead of me to tweak and finalise the sessions.

If you're going to Macworld, you can find me:

Thursday, January 27th

11:00 - MacBreak Weekly Live Podcast (Location TBA)

17:15 - MacRoundtable Live Podcast (Macworld Live Stage)

Friday, January 28th

The sessions on friday are part of the User Conference and are only open to User Conference ticket holders only. The previous days sessions are open to anyone with an Exhibit Hall only pass

10:30 AM - 11:45 - US931: ScreenFlow Master Class

1:00 PM - 2:15 PM - US941: Become a Finder Ninja

I'll of course be around and about in the Exhibit Hall and at the many social events that are part and parcel of the Macworld experience! Please feel free to say hi if you spot me!

Unfortunately, this year I'll not be around for the Saturday as I have to travel on the Saturday to pick up my connection for MacMania 11. But I'll leave that for another blog post.

The Bro Show - Episode 40

Thanks to Myke and Terry for inviting me onto another "The Bro Show" episode. Lots of discussions around the Verizon iPhone, The Mac App Store, Google and H.264.

We also went off on a spin about when Apple might release either a point release or a full release of iOS only to discover live on the show they they had just released 4.3 beta! So excuse our uninformed guesses in the first half of the show - the perils of Mac podcasting!

You can get a link to the episode here - The Bro Show - Episode 40

NSConference 2011

If you're a regular follower of ScreenCastsOnline, you'll know that there is currently a special prize draw for members for over $3000 worth of video training from iDeveloper.TV (see any members show for this month for details).

As well as top class video training, Scotty from iDTV has another string to his bow and that is producing an annual developer conference. In fact, he produces two, one in the UK and one in the US. I went to the first UK one in 2009 and found it to be an amazing event, even though I'm not a developer! The technical sessions were top notch and I was able to follow them, well most of them anyway.

The main draw for me was to get involved with the developer community, make some contacts and see things from the developers point of view. The conference delivered on all points.

I had to skip last years NSConference as it clashed with another event, but Scotty has just published the details of this years UK event.

It's in Reading, UK and runs from Monday 21st March for three days. This year, they are pulling together sessions from both OS X and iOS developers with a great line up of US and European speakers with some fascinating sessions. The full conference is a snip at £499.

Well recommended... I've booked my place!

Why Apple isn't announcing the Verizon iPhone

We all know that the iPad 2 launch must be imminent.

Imagine the speculation if they announced an Apple event on January 11th. The blogosphere would meltdown with the heightened anticipation of the iPad 2 launch.

Now, imagine the fallout if all that was announced was an update to an existing product - the iPhone 4 with no new features.

Jiminy!

The Beatles fiasco would fade into insignificance compared to the wailing and moaning generated by such a huge letdown.

And that's why Apple isn't announcing the Verizon iPhone, Verizon is!

Mac App Store Re-Buys - A different way of looking at it...

Ok, so the issue with existing apps installed on your Mac not being picked up by the Mac App Store (MAS) and having to re-buy them, is a bit of a pain!

It's not like you have to re-buy them, most vendors will continue supporting the original versions of the applications and you'll still be able to receive updates through the pre-Mac App Store channels.

However, after using the MAS for just 24 hours I've found I really like the install and update method. Plus the huge benefit of being able to use the MAS bought applications on any machine is a game changer as far as I'm concerned, and I need to move across my applications to the MAS.

The only way to do this is to re-buy them.

Bother!

But thinking about it, I think I can justify it to myself on one pretty important level:

Rather than thinking that I'm re-buying the application, I'm actually upgrading to a multi-computer licence.

Some Macs do already have a multi machine licence, but to be honest, do you know which?

Have you installed applications on both your laptop and your desktop? I know I have and I'm not always sure that I'm doing the right thing.

So by re-buying an application via the MAS, especially if it's at a lower price than usual, I'm in fact upgrading to a multi machine licence at usually a lower price than I bought the original.

I appreciate that not everyone will be in a position to do this, and it's also not feasible to do it in one big bang, but over the next 12 months or so, I can envisage "upgrading" all my important software to the MAS.

It's a no-brainer that any future software purchases will be done via the MAS as a first choice whenever that option is available.