One day before it officially launches
Tag Archive for 'Apple'
Today is the day we receive our new, shinny, sexy, super slim MacBooks Air…
Much has been written already about these but I simply wanted to share this simple moment called “Unboxing”…
Mike received his around 11:00AM this morning, just before our weekly staff meeting and mine was waiting in another office. The staff meeting got followed by another meeting and finally, after 2 long hours, I managed to reach the box and unwrap it…
First impression is simple. The box is tiny. It is SUPER tiny compared to the already tiny MacBook Pro box!
The box, once open, looks like an iPod Touch or iPhone box. Actually, it seems to be the very same 2 layers system.
I remove the plastic wrapper and voilà , the new “Must Have” gadget is alive on my desk.
Just a couple more seconds and Perigil starts the machine, to the classic “Moohaaahhhh” apple sound and we are enjoying the now classic Mac OS X 10.5 welcome screen.
Little glitch, the installed OS is still 10.5.1 and we have to enjoy a full 20 minutes system update to reach the recently released 10.5.2, which gives me the time to open the bag of goodies contained in the main box and realize that this contains both a DVI and a VGA connector.
The machine looks slicker than what I remembered. One thing I didn’t notice during our MacWorld visit is the new keyboard layout, including new Keyboard backlight controls, Exposé and iTunes control function keys.
Last but not least, I had to find a manilla envelope and check that it can really fit into it! And yes, it does!
All in all, I am positively surprised by a couple of things (DVI/VGA, keyboard layout, micro power adapter) but still don’t see why I would swap my brand new replacement MacBook Pro for this underpowered, despite sexy machine…
Actually, let me take a closer look. My good MacBook Pro looks like an old Sony Vaio machine!!! Ahhhh!!!
Complete unboxing action in the prettypics section
My laptop seems to sometimes disagree with me and decides to crash at the most inappropriate times (generally causing a flow of sarcastic comments about how Macs are better than PC, etc)… So this morning I looked at my dock and realized that I was currently running mostly beta if not even alpha software for my day to day job… The list I could see straight is the following:
- Entourage 2008 (Part of Office 2008): Beta
- Things (GTD Tool): Beta
- Skype (IM): Beta
- Minefield (Web Browser): Alpha
- Firefox (Web Browser): Beta
- Songbird (Media Player): Alpha
- OmniPlan (Project Management Tool): Beta
- OmniGraffle (Diagramming Tool): Beta
And I dare to wonder why oh why I might suffer weird crashes and unstable OS… Well, at least, I am not running any pre-release version of Mac OS X any longer… That’s a thing, right?
Following the Stevenote post, here is actually what I queued for, all of it down to 60 seconds
There are only 2 ways to attend the Stevenote these days…
The first one, which can be compared to flying first class, is to have managed to put your hands on a VIP pass and show up (quoting the VIP invite) “no later than 8:25AM”, which I sadly haven’t…
The second one, which would be the equivalent of a long haul flight in economy class in a smoking cabin, is to start queuing early!
So it is now 4:49AM and I am getting ready to join my brothers and sisters from the cattle class cabin in the cold, around the Moscone Center… I hope the queue wont already be as long as the one from WWDC which was going around the building at 7:00AM…
So, as I know I might have one reader, I will try to update this post in real time!
6:20 I am in the queue which already goes around the block. We’re all wondering what we’re doing here!
6:40 We’re moving!
7:40 the queue has stopped an hour ago. We’re 100 yards from the main entrance. Mike came by to say “Hi” and offered me his gloves.
And this is my last live update of the morning… From that point, there were so many iPhones trying to connect to the AT&T EDGE network around the Moscone Center that the local network went down. Not even mentioning the local WiFi hotspot that had been submerged by the several thousands of iPhone and laptop users around me… But let me tell you the rest of the story!
8:00: We suspect Steve Jobs just entered the building…
8:25: I text Mike to let him know that we still haven’t moved and are still in the cold. My iPhone is unable to connect to any form of network, I’m cold and I don’t have any cigarettes with me… The day is looking grim!
8:48: Mike informs me that the VIP are finally allowed in while some of my new found friends in the queue receive text messages telling them that the main room is already 50% full…
9:00: The Stevenote is meant to start any minute and guess what… We are still 100 yards away from the main entrance. Some IDG (the guys behind MacWorld) staff comes to us to let us know that the keynote is delayed due to technical issues…
9:13 (thanks to TUAW): The Keynote starts
9:19: The same lady comes to us and informs us that she “hopes, she will able to get us in an overflow room”. By that time, I am close to hysteria! If I cross the path of any IDG staff, the guys we have paid money to attend a keynote, money they have cashed in but forgot to do the math in terms of space planning, I am going to bite, punch, have a fit, kill, destroy!!!!
9:25: We are moving!!!! We are almost there!!!! On my way, a guy is filming the scene of the cattle trying to enter the show. My sense of humor is close to zero and all I can do is look at his camera and scream “Screw IDG!”… Now feeling better, I can finally enter the Moscone Center.
9:30: We are told that the keynote has actually started but there are a couple of seat left in some kind of training room
9:35: I finally sit down and can enjoy the Keynote… Oh, Steve announces that “…this was my third point of the day”… Fuming!
From there on, you can go to any technology related site and find out what the announcements were…
This time, I hit (through rumors and well informed sources) over 90% of the announcements:
- iPhone update: check
- iPod Touch update: check
- iPod Touch update costs $20: miss. Comment: WTF?
- iTunes update and movie rentals: check
- appleTV update: check
- MacBook Air: check
- No Mac OS X10.5.2 update:miss
Well, next year, our friends at Apple will have to do much better than this and find a way to at least get me in the room before the beginning of the event if they want to keep my devotion for their products!
The rest of the day was split between walking the show floor and a lunch with… Apple!
The show itself seemed pretty dull when compared to CES last week and to be honest, after such a great start of the day, being back in a loud environment, walking from both to both, had a feel of a bad dejà-vu!
On this, it is now late, I am exhausted, in the lounge at the airport, waiting for my (delayed) flight to go back to Los Angeles!
Definitely my best Apple event ever! Oh and Steve didn’t even use the usual “One more thing…”!!!!
