salutation from Boston , where it ’s rainy and warm and there ’s some variety of Mac group discussion and trade show going on .
Much has been made about the long tale of Macworld Expo ’s east coast trade show , but from this advantage item I ’m seeing a pretty courteous , well - run group discussion with a belittled but lively trade show floor . No , it ’s not the Macworld Expo of old — but neither are there tumbleweeds blow through the Boston Convention Center .
Today I talked to a clump of interesting family line . I had a large sentence talking to the very nice the great unwashed atBelight Software , makers of the well - reviewedBusiness Card Composer . They ’re a little party from Odessa , Ukraine , and the three people from Belight are in the U.S. for the first time . Their new product , Mail Factory , promises to do for creating envelopes and mailing label what Business Card Composer did for business cards — namely , provide you with an easy - to - utilization , iLife - expressive style user interface .
Bruce Gee ofGeeThreeis on the story demonstrating his excellent Slick Transitions & Effects , which have now reach volumes 7 and 8 . Bruce is as surprised as anyone that he ’s gotten that many volumes of iMovie plug - Immigration and Naturalization Service , but the hits just keep on coming . This stage set includes a mind - fluff trope - stabilisation plug in , a morph impression , and some really cool OpenGL - found transitions , among scores of others . The Slick packages are definitely deserving look into if you ’re an iMovie rooter .
I saw several interesting PowerBook- and iPod - bag booths , including the cool work - in - your - base designs ofShaun Jackson Designand the comfortable and stylish bag fromSTM . I feel a piddling risky wear myBrenthavenbackpack while I talked to them , but hey — diversity is a respectable thing , right-hand ? I ’ve tried the STM backback and found it really , really comfortable . I ’m looking forward to giving Shaun Jackson Design ’s bags a try down the route as well .
I experience a bunch of other good stuff , with more to come . There ’s a newfangled reading of Parliant ’s PhoneValet . I caught a glimpse of ( and plan to spend more prison term tomorrow with ) JBL ’s two unexampled verbalizer sets . The On Tour is a really , really small AAA - battery - powered curing of two-channel speakers for iPod users to take on the road . More impressively , the On Stage is a rotary iPod “ sound post ” that uses your iPod ’s pier connector to keep it charged while using high - lineament line - out audio to feed the speaker system .
The kick - off event today was a conversation between David Pogue and four members of the original Mac squad . It was aninteresting time , although I have to say that although Jef Raskin is probably a brilliant guy cable , he ’s also a bit of an egomaniac . Every prison term he mouth , he was pointing out how authoritative his work was . I ’m sure he was smart as a whip and that many of his claim are honest … but his attitude still chafe me faulty . Which is too sorry , since he came fromUC San Diego , just like me . So did Bill Atkinson — and he was a really enjoyable panellist , as was Andy Hertzfeld , Almighty of the fantasticfolklore.org . And it was great to hear fromJerry Manock , one of the key industrial fashion designer on the Mac team .
Anyway , there ’s still plenty for me to do here . Still a lot of coolheaded hooey to see . Do I wish the show floor was twice the sizing ? Sure . Do I wish well Apple was here ? Sure . But as it is , things are still interesting . I ’m glad I come — despite all of this pelting .
