The first Macworld Expo to be held in New York City was marked by smallish crowds, few exhibitors, and little in the way of exciting new products. Most notable were the paucity of attendees and exhibitors; after the crush of the crowds in both San Francisco and Boston in recent years, plus the need for multiple exhibition halls in Boston, this year's Macworld NYC seemed adrift in the enormous Jacob Javits Convention Center.
The show started on a promising note - Steve Jobs's keynote was packed, and the press line stretched far back into the recesses of the Javits Center
In keeping with our tradition of recognizing and reporting the best and worst from each Macworld Expo, here's this year's installment.
Best Slogan -- Apple Computer takes this award home for the "I think, therefore iMac" adage
AirPort security is dead. Not the airline terminal kind, but the built-in variety found in Apple's AirPort technology and other 802.11b (also known as Wi-Fi) wireless networking hardware from many different manufacturers
The evolution of the computer is a tale of continually added capability, marked by the same fits and starts that are the hallmark of biological evolution
As you may remember from back in April, we had to move a number of TidBITS servers from Geoff's suddenly darkened broadband connection to the relatively poky 56 Kbps frame relay connection at our old house in Seattle
One of the perks of being a computer journalist is that every so often products arrive on the doorstep to test - some we rip open and start using immediately, others elicit yawns and never even make it out of their shrink wrap
The first MacMania Geek Cruise has now sailed into the sunset, and I've had a few days to digest what was a truly fascinating experience. We sailed from Vancouver, British Columbia, on 27-May-02, headed out into the Pacific to zip up to Alaska, and then worked our way back down through the Inside Passage, stopping at Juneau, Skagway, and Ketchikan before arriving back in Vancouver seven days later
The MacHack developers conference - the 17th of which was held last week in Dearborn, Michigan - is tremendously unusual. The keynote starts at midnight, wireless (and wired) Ethernet access is available throughout the lobby of the venue (the Holiday Inn Fairlane), and the age of the attendees ranges from those in elementary school to those approaching retirement
The centerpiece of the annual MacHack conference is the MacHax Group's Best Hack Contest, in which the world's best programmers compete (preferably during the preceding 48 hours) to come up with software that displays the ultimate in programming creativity, knowledge, or arcana, ideally presented with tongue firmly planted in cheek
Want to see some cool hacks? The 2002 MacHax Best Hack Contest CD is now available directly from the MacHax Group for $20 plus shipping and handling. Check out our contest coverage in TidBITS 636 for descriptions of some of the most interesting entries
MacHax Best Hack Contest CD 2002 Now Available -- Want to see some cool hacks? The 2002 MacHax Best Hack Contest CD is now available directly from the MacHax Group for $20 plus shipping and handling
So you've built what you think is a great application. All your Mac-using friends think it's cool. Your beta testers tell you that it works. All you've got to do now is post it to VersionTracker and Download.com and you can quit your day job, right?
Don't do it
Next week, after celebrating Tonya's birthday on Sunday, I'm jetting off to Santa Clara, CA to speak at and attend the O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference from September 30th through October 3rd
Last week's O'Reilly Mac OS X Conference marked the rise of the first major new Macintosh conference in years. Luminaries from the Macintosh and Unix worlds, brought together by Apple's melding of the Mac OS and Unix in Mac OS X, mingled with a similarly eclectic mix of several hundred attendees
At the beginning of 2002 in TidBITS-612, I wrote "Peering Into 2002's Tea Leaves," an article that made some general predictions about which topics would garner the most attention this year
