When you watch a Steve Jobs keynote from home , you only get about two - third of the value . For one , there ’s unremarkably complimentary orange juice and danish on the way into the student residence . For another , you get to go hyper - grind obsessive on every observable detail .
And I ’m talkingComic Book Nerdobsessive . Which is still a track below Star Trek - level obsession , granted , but nevertheless when I attend these thing in person I do n’t feel like my experience is complete until I ’ve catch someone excitedly whispering , “ Check out the back of his belt ! He ’s get an Apple iPhone obliterate there for the final reveal ! ”
Yes indeed … and Steve has trickily camouflage it as the radio set pack for his microphone .
It just goes to demonstrate the form of push — weird , imperial , sentient energy that Stephen Hawking has never gotten drunk enough to suppose — that permeates a Steve Jobs keynote . There is no information in a Mysterious Boxy Shadow under the demo plinth or a Third And Seemingly Unnecessary iSight Camera Up There On The Stage thatwon’tbe explicitly revealed by the time Steve give thanks us all for prove up and publish us back into the world-wide universe . And yet , the speculation will keep everybody alert until One More Thing becomes One Final Thing .
I miss out on all of that at WWDC . So maybe that ’s why , after I get the the end of the resilient blogcast and the hold up QuickTime streamcast , I find myself with my chair interlace back into the Speculatin ’ positioning .
Our friends in Redmond
Do n’t get me wrong . It was a wild show that reincarnate my excitement about This World We Call Mac . If I were footing the bill for the dialysis treatments of three elderly relatives , I would now be pondering which one I ’d be cutting off to cover the monetary value of a novel Mac Pro . Just , you be intimate , for a few calendar month .
I ’m going on the evening news soon and I do n’t know how I ’m fit to excuse Time Machine without them experience to squeegee my excited spittle off of the lens system midway through . But as for the new core animation technology , well , I ’m not even going totry . How do you explain to the average drug user that a core spiritedness servicedoesn’tmean that we ’ll be unable to drop a line a bare one - page varsity letter without being confront by a T-10,000 edition of Clippy ? You know , the reason why so many Microsoft Office users have a violent stapling machine - sized crack in their screens ? How do I explain that instead , GUIs can be made far more effective in the precise same direction thatwatchingsomeone set up a bathroom fix on “ This Old House ” is much more efficacious than show about it in a Christian Bible ?
What ’s go me speculatin ’ ( and sippin ’ a national - brand beverage , break up by some sept doin’ some telemarketin ’ ) was one product line from Steve ’s keynote , explicate why Apple would n’t be demonstratingallof Leopard ’s new features during the tonic .
“ We do n’t want our friends to set out their photocopier any preferably than they have to . ”
These “ friend ” being “ Microsoft , ” naturally .
And this was damned neighborly of Steve . It ’s only appropriate for him to extend a small pathos up to Redmond . Why give the Windows Vista team evenmoreto do in the next few months ? It ’s the same pity that we see every calendar week on “ Project Runway ” when Tim Gunn makes his circle in the workroom . When the designers have a whole day left to eat up their latest challenge , Tim says , “ This dress take care like what would happen if a goat ate a whole bag of Skittles and then threw up all over the Kool - Aid Man . ”
( Only more … you know … nurture . )
But if there ’s only twenty moment leave and most of the model are in the Valvoline Hair And Makeup Room or the Red Man Smokeless Tobacco Fitting Stalls , the only humanistic thing he can do is encourage the designer to Make It Work and then go get a good seat for the fireworks .
Nonetheless …
No , it ’s probably nothing .
( thin . Sip . Ponder . Ring . Yes ? No , I never do any such job over the phone and I do n’t own a photocopier anyway . What ? No , I do n’t want to buy a photocopier . Click . Ponder . Sip . )
Well , it just pass to me that it was n’t necessary to manoeuvre out that this demonstration was n’t complete . Nor was it necessary to bid an explicit reason . When Steve is on a keynote stage , he ’s a complete promoter … and just as when you ’re find out a wizardly show , it ’s the moves that areapparentlyunnecessary that should appeal the closest scrutiny .
He doth protest too much
So why the explanation ?
Ideas :
1)Truly , because Microsoft might have swiped some more ideas from Mac OS X.
If so , this might be the most charitable thing that anybody ’s ever said about Microsoft . They ’ve hadfive yearsto ship Windows Vista , with nothing to show for it but some hats , I retrieve .
I mean , Microsoft is so do-or-die to distract attention from their inability to transport that they ’re send Bill Gates out to end hunger and disease as a diversionary tactic . That ’s heroic .
So it ’s flattering to indicate that anything that Steve evidence off in August could be coded , try , and ship by Microsoft by January .
Although perhaps he ’s just confident that in 2007 , Microsoft will annunciate another 11 - month delay . belike a smart bet . Hmm .
2)Because many Leopard feature film are n’t ready for prime - time yet .
Certainly plausible . But if dependable … why bother even offering an explanation ?
Apple ’s refusal to hash out unpredicted product can confuse users and diarist and analysts alike . But I think it ’s the only sensitive policy . Is Apple working on a earphone ? I have no unmediated information of any kind , but … sure . I count there ’s some test ironware somewhere on campus .
But because they have n’t announce or evenacknowledgedsuch a task , they ’re free to take their time . If they want to wait three years until a new wireless substructure is in place , so be it .
Mac OS X 10.5 has been announced and show , but the same principle utilise . There ’s no announced ship date and no commitment to any feature . Nobody would have been surprised or disappointed if Steve had said “ Naturally , we ’re not showing youeverythingtoday . ”
Okay . So I ’m ignore the idea that Leopard ’s new “ Print To Pastry ” feature is presently too unstable to demo .
3)Showing off Leopard ’s flashier feature would give too much off . But not in the means you think .
What if the account Steve give were on-key ?
What if the “ miss ” features from the demonstration would indeed have give too much away ? Not to Microsoft , who could glean features and concepts for Vista , but to users , diarist and analyst , who would figure outwaytoo much about the ironware that Apple mean to release in the coming months ?
Oooo … Ilikethat one .
We now know that there ’s a “ clip motorcar ” feature article that appropriate user to “ rewind ” their data point to a specific point . There ’s a system - wide Tasks / To - Do list . Neither of these features are akin to the full stop in Steve ’s first public demo of Tiger in which he shew Safari ’s new RSS features .
No , these features are system of rules - level imagination that tot up a ordered young experience to all apps .
What if — and I emphasise that I ’m just earn something up to illustrate a gunpoint — Leopard include a unexampled feature called “ Livingston ” ? The design of this feature article would be for the OS — or a web — to pay off your locating , route service to you , and allow your propinquity to a certain Mac to pretend how that Mac interacts with you .
How would Apple demo such a feature without , say , a wireless iPod with a Bluetooth chip ? Steve unpockets a novel iPod Shuffle the build of a silver dollar . He walks from an iMac to a Mac Pro . We see on screen that he ’s automatically been exit of the iMac and logged into the Pro .
Oops … they have n’t announced a wireless iPod .
How could Apple demonstrate a cool feature where we can “ move ” a thingamajig or even just an iChat academic term from the desktop onto a mobile phone , without a phone that ’s super - Apple - studly ?
Oops … the Apple sound does n’t exist .
Hmm .
Again I stress that I ’m making material up as I go . Just for good measure , I did n’t even break in to any rumor site to see which tales are getting lot of traction these day . I have n’t been brief about Leopard in secrecy , and when Iwassworn to privacy about Tiger , I right away ceased tattle about possible feature evenjokingly . It ’s all nonmeaningful entertainment .
Reality check
Okay , thanks for the fun , Andy . But why did n’t Steve show off all of Leopard ’s new features ?
Because it ’s a 90 - minute keynote , there was lots of coolheaded poppycock to talk about , and nobody has any reason to expect the companionship to topple over the entire basket of secrets at once .
Still . The chair’sawfullycomfortable when it ’s tilted into Speculatin ’ position , is n’t it ?
And besides , it ’s a testament to Apple that they routinely produce products that are deserving speculatingabout . When I get a new Microsoft product in the post it ’s often like that moment when you ’ve got both feet on the brakes but you know that the car ca n’t possibly halt in time . You do n’t love what ’s going to happen . You just hope it wo n’t hurttoomuch .
