New PowerBooks, Airport Extreme, Safari, and iLife hilite upbeat Expo
Saying he had "two Macworld's worth of stuff for you today," Steve Jobs unveiled a host of new software (and hardware, covered elsewhere in this issue) offerings at his Macworld Expo San Francisco 2003 keynote address
Amid rumors of video iPods and tablet Macs appearing during the Macworld Expo keynote address, Steve Jobs calmly introduced a pair of new PowerBook models that slot neatly into Apple's existing iBook and PowerBook lines
As is becoming increasingly common at Macworld Expo, Apple dominated attendees' attention by introducing a wide-ranging set of new hardware and software products
Every year I worry that Macworld Expo will somehow fall flat, that there won't be many exhibitors, that no one will come, that there won't be anything that's even moderately interesting
Apple led the drive to offer Wi-Fi wireless networking equipment at reasonable prices to consumers way back in 1999, but the company's gateway product, the AirPort Base Station, had started to look under-featured and overpriced even by late 2001 - especially for broadband users who didn't need its built-in modem.
But Apple stayed the course: $300 for the AirPort Base Station and $100 for the proprietary AirPort card that inserted into a special PC Card-like slot in every model of the Macintosh
It's always telling when we lack enough space to publish our traditional Macworld Expo superlatives in a single article. Although Apple made most of the major show news, the TidBITS staff had no trouble finding other products on the show floor that were worthy of mention.
Best Use for a Finger -- Being forced to log in to Mac OS X all the time is annoying, even when it serves a valuable security purpose