Freyburg

Yes, an Apple IIgs in laptop form. I think I’m in love.

Designer and fellow Vancouver beer n’ tech buddy Dave Shea just had his new Iphone/Touch icons featured on The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Congrats, Dave!

A little recursive, but apparently someone figured out how to emulate Palm apps on the iPhone. Sorta pointless but oddly compelling.

Some rich fella paid over $2,000 for a mint Apple //c off of eBay, and then proceeded to document the unboxing of said beast. The thing I noticed right away is that Apple has consistently had some amazing package design, even in the old days. Plus, the Apple //c just looks damned cool.

(picture by Flickr user Dansays)

My days mostly consist of hanging out in the Podcast Studio and getting my learn on (now that I have a business that depends on such things), so yesterday I checked out an awesome session on green screens for video podcasts, and later got to meet Stu Machwitz, the guy who wrote the DV Rebel Guide. I later made my way (and not without difficulty, San Francisco is pretty but its organizational skills leave a little to be desired in terms of street layout) to the Final Cut Pro Supermeet, which was a thing to behold. There were at least 500 if not more people there, and all of them knew a hell of a lot more about Final Cut Pro than I do. Well worth checking out. I kind of got lost on my way to the event, and dealt with a surly but ultimately helpful cabbie. Still, what would a working vacation be without adventure, uncertainty, and lots of gadgets?

Ok, let’s get this out of the way….it ain’t worth it to get up at 3 a.m. and stagger to a lineup for a Steve Jobs keynote. But that’s just what I did this morning, since I’d never been to one of Apple’s signature shindigs before. My verdict on the new gear Apple trotted out today? Meh. Canada doesn’t have movies for purchase on the iTunes store, let alone rentals, and we also don’t have iPhones. The Macbook Air is a nice bit of engineering, but it’s nothing I pine for.

Still, getting to see a live “Macbreak Weekly” was cool, as was finally meeting Merlin Mann and Andy Inhatko. Tonight there’s a party for attendees featuring non other thanDevo, and there’s a lot of informative podcast creation sessions over the next couple of days.

Just got to my hotel in San Francisco, and I’m headed out to the Moscone Center right away for Macworld. Wish me luck, fellow Macophiles!

This January I’ll be going to Macworld for the first time ever, and I’ll finally get to see Uncle Steve’s medicine show in person. Macworld is traditionally when the biggest announcement of the year comes from Apple, though how they’ll top last year’s iPhone roll-out, I have no idea. However, that hasn’t stopped mad internet speculation from frothing up in in anticipation of new Apple goodies. The top contender is a sub-notebook, or possibly a tablet, built around the same technology as the iPhone. We’ll see…now that I’m doing a lot of video work, I’m more interested in upgrades to the Mac Pro than anything else.

Also, keep an eye on Techvibes while I’m at Macworld, because I’ll be blogging for them throughout the week.

The pickings are a little sparse right now (and by a little, I mean there ain’t a hell of a lot besides Corner Gas, Robson Arms and South Park to choose from) but the Canadian iTunes store finally has some television content. On the one hand most of the TV I watch is from the UK, so this doesn’t do me a hell of a lot of good, but on the other hand spending $15 for a virtual box set doesn’t look like that bad of an option compared to torrenting a show for a week. Beats cable, at any rate.

Canada is well known as one of the most expensive places on the planet to use your cellphone, particularly if you want to get on the internet or perform other data-ntensive tasks. But there’s finally a hint of progress in the air, with Telus and Bell changing their data rate plans in anticipation of competition with the iPhone, which can only be carried on Rogers thanks to its use of the GSM band.

There’s also a low-priced iPhone competitor on the way in the form of the HTC Touch, which probably isn’t quite as good as Apple’s device, but at $99 is considerably cheaper.