Macworld Expo: The Keynote address; the iBook; OS 9.0; QTV; etc.

Here's an amazing thought: A year ago today, none of Apple's current product line was shipping. Only the iMac was even visible on the radar screen - although it was still weeks away from hitting the streets. The remaining models would not see the light of day until months later. Talk about an overhaul.

iBook and more And while we're talking, let's talk briefly about yesterday's keynote address. As you have probably seen or heard by now, Steve Jobs introduced the iBook- the long awaited consumer portable. While Mac users waited with eager anticipation for this announcement, it was also mixed with a sense of anxiety. There was concern that, unless the iBook could match the excitement and appeal generated by the iMac, it would be deemed a failure before it even left the starting gate. Not to worry. The iBook delivered. While I doubt it will match the iMac for sales (how could it?), it matches the iMac in its visual appeal and its "coolness quotient." It will be a big success. Apple will have a smashing 4th quarter of 1999, ending the 1900's on the highest of high notes.

The keynote address itself was up to Steve's now usual standards for mixing entertainment and "news" in a way that leaves you feeling more like you've just watched a great movie than a speech about computer products. It began and ended with jaw-dropping surprises. The first was when Noah Wylie walked out, impersonating Steve Jobs. I am certain it took at least several seconds before most people realized it was not Steve. It ended with the announcement of the AirPort, the wireless LAN device (developed with Lucent Technologies) that allows up to ten iBooks to be connected to the Internet - without any wires attached to the iBook itself. It works for a distance of up to 150 feet. Steve revealed this as almost an afterthought. He demonstrated it by simply taking the iBook and walking to the middle of the stage with it, all the while continuing to load web content. He never mentioned the significance of this. Again, it took seconds (at least) before it started dawning on the audience that the connection was wireless. This was capped by a preview of 5 iBook commercials (including a great one with Barry White) and an opportunity to actual try out an iBook before you even left the hall - via 100 Apple employees with iBooks that had been secretly been placed throughout the audience waiting for this moment to reveal them [see photo]. I had a chance to play with one and tried to bring up MacFixIt on the wireless connection. It worked!

In between all of this was the description of the iBook itself, with its built-in modem, Ethernet support and CD-ROM drive, 32MB of RAM and 300MHz G3 processor. It also features a 12.1 inch active matrix display, a retractable power cord on the recharger and a 6 hour battery. It comes in Blueberry and Tangerine. [Did I mention that the iBook has a handle?] It's not expandable in any way (beyond adding memory). But that's what the PowerBook G3 is for. Priced at $1599, this is definitely an "iMac to go." [It's another $400 to get started with AirPort.] It's all due to land by the end of September.

Mac OS 9 Steve also used the keynote to announce that the next version of the Mac OS will be called Mac OS 9 (not 8.7). A demonstration of Sherlock II (similar to what was shown at the WWDC last May) - featuring its new Search Sets feature - was shown. It's due out by October.

Bungie's Halo The audience got to see a knock-your-socks-off demo of Bungie's new game (not due until early next year) called Halo. It shows what the combination of fast 3D acceleration and OpenGL can deliver: real time rendered graphics that were as good as the cut scenes and QuickTime movies that are inserted into most other comparable games in use today.

QuickTime TV ABC-TV, VH-1, Disney, Rolling Stone, ESPN and others were added to QuickTime's streaming media sites. Together with Akamai Technologies' global network for improving the quality of the streaming media display (also announced at the Expo), it produced what Apple dubbed QuickTime TV.

ViaVoice Finally, IBM announced it was bringing its ViaVoice speech recognition technology to the Mac. The demo was very effective in showing just how capable and accurate it could be.

[For more details, see these press releases: a, b, c, and d.]