Registration
The line wrapped around the building, but we made it in within 30 minutes. Matt was given the badge of an Axiotron employee with his name. While that was not a Super Pass, IDG staff helpfully upgraded it (with no identification, mind you). Matt’s real ticket remains unclaimed.

The Keynote Line
I went off to the side of the building to start the line (10 A.M.) and after the AppleScript conference was joined by Matt. The line was split (a new practice this year) midday into Conference users (on Howard St.) and Media and Platinum/Super Pass users (on 4th St). We were alone on 4th until the next morning. (Lesson: don’t get a Super Pass in future years if you’re planning to arrive before 4 A.M. and want company.) We managed to get power run outside the building and set up a “power station” for everyone to charge their gadgets throughout the night. Internet came from theDigitalLifestyle.tv/Mogulus’s Nokia N95, so we were able to continue work on the Keynote live updater overnight. We were interviewed by a local TV station, several websites, and the San Francisco Chronicle.

The Keynote
Matt was the first non-V.I.P. into the Keynote! Liveblogging went off (nearly) without a hitch, save for threats to discontinue hosting for using way more server resources than we intended. SMS updates appeared to be sent out exactly as planned! If you had any problems, (as always) feel free to contact us.

The Show Floor
That day we explored South Hall, then promptly fell asleep at the hotel, totally missing the afterparty. We spent the next few days wandering the show floor, talking to the makers of all the Mac-related hardware and software we’ve all heard of.

Conclusion
The Macworld attendees weren’t as technical as we’d expected (leave that to WWDC), but we’ll have a hard time not going back next year and it was absolutely worth it. As always, feel free to contact us by email (Matt, Sidney), on Twitter, and on AIM.

AppleTV : State of the Apple TV : Apple TV sales have always been poor, and Apple’s seeming abandonment of the product hasn’t helped. Matt Dodd wrote an article about the state of “media centers” in general, but we can’t expect Apple to kill it off, so what can be improved?

iTunes Rentals : Consumers want to be able to watch movies cheaply; current iTunes prices are simply too much and most of them don’t want to buy movies digitally just yet (expecially with such restriction to iTunes). While signs of preparation for rentals have appeared in iPhone firmware, iTunes and the iPod may not be a focus of MacWorld ‘08.

Beatles : We’ve heard Steve Jobs play Beatles songs and seen the albums flash by in Cover Flow. When will the Beatles finally come to the iTS?

The iPhone:

iPhone 2.0 : The technology behind the current iPhone was introduced a year ago; has Apple been working toward more than just 16GB of storage and 3G and is it time for the new tech to be introduced?

iPhone nano : An iPhone without the smartphone or iPod features? For those who didn’t need thane phone we have the iPod Touch, but what about those who just want “the best phone ever”?

iTablet : The iTablet is pretty much never going to happen. Tablets exsist only as a small niche market of PC users who enjoy stylus. We actually give the rumor about 1 minute. Why won’t this rumor ever die?!

The Mac

Mac Mini : Concerning a possible re-design, re-marketing or re-naming. Discussing the possibilities for ’switchers’ from Vista, putting it in the place of the PC tower.

Macbooks : Similar to the Mac Mini, a re-tooling or slight redesgin would be in favor for the line. Also discussing a possible MacBook color change to reflect the iPod Classics (as they used to reflect the iPod line).

Pro Displays : Since the iSights have been discontinued for over a year now and, the Pro Displays haven’t changed since 2004, a possible redesign with LED backlighting and a built-in iSight.

A Greener Apple

Format Wars : Apple has been supporting Blu-Ray since 2005 and the possiblity of Blu-Ray being added as an option is likely to appear at some point this year.

Wrapping Up : If you would like to contact us, please email either of us at sidney@theilife.com or matt@theilife.com, or comment anywhere on the site!

An unnoticed issue in our recording system caused corruption of the audio coming in from the mixer. We fell back to in-camera audio (which doesn't sound all that bad), but note that we do actually have a quite nice sound setup.