Monday, January 12, 2009 at 9:23AM Safely back home from Macworld. After the first few blog posts, I decided to just twitter for the rest of the show. Great seeing old and new friends and feeling the buzz that is Macworld. Now to catch up on a pile of stuff!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 4:03PM Another packed day at Macworld and I was up a bit too early due to jet lag. I'd already decided to leave it a bit later to join the line for the Keynote so 3am didn't really fit in with my plans! At a more reasonable 6:30am I wandered over to take my place and was struck immediately by how much smaller the line was from the same time last year - only to be expected I suppose. A fairly uneventful Keynote with Phil Schiller doing a great job (the guy must have been under so much pressure) but I have to say the iPhoto and iMovie updates look incredible. A minor slip at the end of the Keynote announcing this was the last Macworld did make me wince somewhat but I'm sure it was just a slip of tongue and he really meant the last time Apple would be at Macworld. Skipped heading straight to the show floor and did some catch emails and stuff before heading out for a lunch. Hit the show floor in the afternoon but only covered a third of it if that. Damm the place is huge! Then off to do the Live Mac Weekly Podcast taping in front of a live audience. Wasn't really sure what the format would be as I knew space was limited and there were several guests but much to my delightand suprise, Leo invited me up onto the main stage and take part in the main panel. Wow! I escaped with my life and think I did OK :-) Hit the show floor again and back to the Hotel room for more email catchup and twittering. One problem for me is that the wifi and even the 3G at Macworld has been flakey and I've not really been able to stay online much. I've now got my Media badge so should be able to access the better wifi in the Press room from now on. The day was rounded off by a trip to the House of Prime Rib with Leo and the rest of the TWIT family where I indulged in a massive steak, some great red wine and extremely pleasant company! A great way to finish off another Macworld day!
Wednesday, January 7, 2009 at 3:46PM Much to my delight, Leo invited me onto the full panel for the Live MacBreak Weekly taping here at Macworld!
Tuesday, January 6, 2009 at 7:18AM OK, so Macworld hasn't officially started but I have a feeling it's going to be the best yet. After a rather long journey via Chicago, I got in early evening last night and stayed up as late as I could (including a meal with Chuck Joiner and friends over at Fishermans Wharf) Today started with registration an a quick look around the North Hall. Very impressed with the design and layout of the registration area and stands on the lower level. Seems like IDG have invested a lot in new signage and displays which look really nice. Even the registration area seems to have been re-designed to speed up the registration process. After registration, a trip to Apples staff store at the Cupertino headquarters "The Mothership" Kudos to Shawn, Lesa and Sly at "Your Mac Life" for organising such a great trip. Must have been 40-50 people on the trip which included a buffet lunch at BJs just across from the Apple campus. I ended up with some unique Apple goodies some for me but some to be given away as part of the monthly ScreenCastsOnline prize draw. A great bunch of people and really nice to hang out with friends. After the trip, time to catch up on my emails and then out for Dinner with Adam Christianson (The Maccast), Victor Cajaio (Typical Mac User Podcast) and Ken Ray (Mac OS Ken). The first steak of the trip and very nice it was too. Straight over to the 21st Amendment for a last minute tweetup and a few beers. As well as meeting up with my favourite New Media peeps Tim Street and Paul Colligan (not forgetting Dan the Maths Guy and many others), Leo Laporte was also in attendance although difficult to get to! Finished off the night with a super party hosted by Phillip, Greg and Jean from Smile On My Mac. Really pleasant company with friends from MacMania, the 1Password crew, Ken Case from the OmniGroup, Dave and John from the Mac Geek Gab and too many more to mention. So now I'm back in the hotel room for a "relatively" early night in advance of the keynote. I think there may be something special this year!
Friday, January 2, 2009 at 9:32AM 
Well, what a start to 2009!
Woke up this morning to find an email pointing me to the Joy of Techs Annual Macworld Expo Celebrity Checklist for 2009 and guess what?
I'm on it!!
It's such an honour to be in such esteemed company and a complete surprise. A big shout out to Nitrozac and Shaggy for including me, I'm absolutely "chuffed to bits".
Now I wonder if I can print off a copy and use it to get into the keynote. Probably not, so I guess you'll find me in line at 4am as usual.
