I have to apologize for the lack of updates today- we have been busy encoding the gigabytes of interviews from Macworld. Late, yeah we know, but there is only two people running this site! Regardless, I have readied a bunch of interviews that will be appearing over the corse of this week (as they finish rendering). Additionally, Sidney and I will be recording a podcast on Wednesday which you should see later this week. Of course, you can expect the regular text posts as well (just not today). So keep tuned for the interviews- there should be at least one out within the hour. Feel free to contact us via email, Twitter or on AIM (theilife) with any questions, concerns, etc.

This is a continuation of Macworld Keynote Part I and, Macworld Registration Part I and Part II.

Sidney woke me up at about 6 o’clock, explaining that they were preparing to let us in. The line was jumping with excitement. The once empty Super and Platinum pass line was now full of people, to the end of the Moscone Center, down 4th Street! The media were finally beginning to fill there designated spot and the “General Users” line wrapped around Howard to 5th Street. By 6:30AM, everyone was standing in line formation- preparing to enter the Moscone West.

At approximately 7AM our line leader let us inside, guided by two Apple employees, and we lined up around the second floor. Everyone sat down and used the bathrooms durring the hour we had to wait for the VIP’s to slowly move in. We were being told- as rumored- not many of the “General Users” were going to be admitted because there were almost 1,000 Super and Platinum Pass users ahead of them (plus VIP’s and media). I was laying on the floor, gathering up energy for the Keynote while bomb sniffing dogs were circling around us.

After the wait was over, we were escorted up the escalator in pairs, to the third floor. As we reached the top, the large Garage doors were open and our line broke up into a scramble for seats. Because I was the first one in, and walked ‘briskly’, I made it up to the second row behind the VIP section. This second section was already infiltrated with VIPs- but I was sitting amongst them!

Once I got my seat, I quickly booted up the Nokia N95, connected via Bluetooth Modem and began to liveblog and take pictures. About halfway through I noticed the page would occasionally 503 “Server Busy”- which was not because the server couldn’t handle the load- but because our hosting company decided to limit our usage of the server. They later threatened to terminate our account if we didn’t upgrade- but luckily we were pardoned. (Thanks SiteGround!)

Throughout the Keynote, Sidney was hanging out in Moscone South maintaining the feed. When the Keynote was over, he went downstairs and began to take pictures of the new Apple products. I hung around the keynote a little bit to watch Steve demo the MacBook Air to the Media. After about 5 minutes, I went and joined Sidney across the street.

We spent a good amount of time at the Apple booth, but also explored some of the other booths in the South Hall until about 4 o’clock- when we began to feel very tired (for some strange reason). We decided for our sanity and health, we should go back and take a nap.

This was, in its entirety, our Macworld experience up until Tuesday. Stick around for more stories of our journey to the world of Macs tomorrow!

Meanwhile check out some images after the jump. Read more…

This is a continuation of Macworld Registration Part I and Part II.

After Sidney and I registered we split up- I went to my AppleScript workshop and he went to start the Keynote line. Sidney waited, for the most part, by himself until about 12PM. I got my lunch from inside and took his place for about an hour from 12-1PM. Within this time, at approximately 12:30PM, the second and third people showed up for the Keynote line. Sidney came back with his lunch, and I continued on to my AppleScript workshop.

From what I hear, two guys from IDG came out at about 2:30PM and informed us that the line was going to be “different this year.” They told us that they were splitting the lines up outside (opposed to inside), lining the Media, Super Pass and Platinum Pass users down 4th Street, and the “General Users” down Howard Street. Contrary to years past, where the line consisted of a heterogeneous mix of badge types- all of my ‘linemates’ packed there stuff up for the “General” line and left us alone.

This came as a major disappointment to us- I was blessed with a Super Pass but Sidney only had a Floor Pass (with no Keynote access). Our hopes were to actually wait in line with everyone else! However, not deterred with the bad news, we moved our stuff down two poles to leave room for the media, and continued waiting in our new line. Throughout the night, Sidney and I journeyed back and forth to the “General” line to speak with our friends and stay sane. But unfortunately, we were not joined with anyone else on the Super Pass line until about 1:30AM.

Later that night, at 3AM, there were a total of about 8 people on line and the cold had begun to sink in. A friend from the “General” line (which had grown to almost 50) invited me to go to his hotel room and sneak out blankets and pillows for the other guys in line. At this point, San Francisco was shut down- all the bars and local shops we were using for Bathrooms had closed, and there were no places open except Dennys.

Sidney and I finished coding the AJAX app and SMS updater around this time, so we started charging all of our dying gadgets and computers at our power station (pictured below). We noticed some media presence beginning as Gizmodo and TUAW made rounds, of course ignoring us as the true first on line (but we did get an awesome TUAW T-Shirt!). I fell asleep at 4AM, so my memory is a bit faded, but at 6AM- I was awoken by the growing line.

Look out for Part II tomorrow!

Pictures after the jump.
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After a very intensive week, with memories fresh, is time to reflect upon Macworld. This was my first Macworld, I actually won a Super Pass through the Mac Observer! The entire Macworld experience was amazing! It was the first time I was surrounded with people who are as obsessed with Apple as me not to mention, meet all the developers whose products I use everyday.

When we arrived to Moscone West Monday morning, we were met with a large, yet orginized line wrapping around the Moscone Center- very unlike other lines we’ve seen in New York City. The line was quick and painless and once inside I printed my badge from Axiotron, which is another story within itself.

Once inside and registered, we split up- Sidney went to start the keynote line, and I went to my AppleScript workshop. Durring my lunch break, I visited Sidney and let him use the facilites and eat food. You can read more about our line experiences here.

The workshop was interesting, and I also got a chance to peek around to the other workshops as well. After Monday, however, I didn’t get much time to go to my workshops and conferences because between waiting on line for the Keynote, the Keynote itself, and the show floor, there was no time to spare!

Now with some free time, I can sit and reflect upon the past week- so expect a number of articles about the many events. You should also start seeing all the interviews we conducted, coming up over the next week as well.

Joining the “Boom” Macworld video, “Expo”, is the recap of the actual Macworld Expo. It comes from hours of footage obtained while on the show floor over the past week. This will be the last recap type video from Macworld, we are working on uploading all of the interviews with exhibitors shortly. Again, apologies for the lack of High Quality, our Hotels internet connection doesn’t allow for fast uploads.

Finally we’ve sorted through (a few of) the tapes and tapes of video from our trip to San Francisco (including Macworld) and have put together a cool video recapping our time so far. It’s not done — look for a more polished release soon and many other videos to boot.

We slept in late after being up for 48 hours (and being first in line). Twenty-something hours of sleep, to be exact! But, we are again alive and awake — ready to continue coverage from the show floor. We should start uploading videos and pictures later this afternoon with text updates fairly constant, throughout the day. Currently I am uploading photos from yesterday on Flickr — so after the jump, check out the slideshow!
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We’ve just finished our 22-hour stint on the keynote line, and I’m joining you live from… Moscone South. No opportunities presented themselves for me to be admitted, so I was forced to part ways with Matt as he entered the building just minutes ago. I’ll be here throughout the keynote, monitoring and maintaining the liveblog. If anything at all’s awry, drop me an email at [email protected] or a message on GTalk (SidneySM).

So, again, I apologize for the lack of content over the past few days. Sidney and I have been working hard to get the AJAX and SMS updaters working (and properly!) and packing. Early tomorrow afternoon, Sidney and I are flying off to SFO. You can track us and our flight here (Continental Flight 1702). We will be beginning our extensive Macworld coverage on Sunday. Again, sincere apologies for the lack of updates over these past two days! If you are going to Macworld, drop us a line — we look forward to seeing new faces!

For the coming days leading up to Macworld, I will be releasing a series of articles focused on specific rumors slated for Macworld 2008.

Todays article is about the rumored iPhone updates and enhancements.

On January 9th, 2007, Steve Jobs finally broke the rumors and announced the iPhone. Today, one day short of it’s first birthday, the world is wondering what the next iPhone has in store for us. There are many rumors regarding the iPhone at Macworld 2008- some predicting just a firmware update while others believe the introduction of the iPhone 2 is eminent. Somewhere in between the broad line of speculation lies the truth- we are definitely going to hear something about the iPhone next week.

The cell phone industry is extremely hard to keep on top of. From the four major carriers in the US all releasing products through a myriad of hardware companies, all running different firmware- some even Operating Systems. The iPhone has broken many of the molds of the cell phone industry but the competitors aren’t sleeping on it (like with the iPod). LG is offering arguably the closest competition to the iPhone, the LG Voyager, which is offered by Verizon Wireless.

All of this keeps extra pressure on Apple, who is already busy leading the market with the iPod and keeping the Macintosh (and it’s OS) shiny for those three percent of the world. The iPhone, while revolutionary- is now a year old, which is about mid-aged for a cellphone, and basically outdated for an iPod. While they can’t re-re invent the wheel, Apple can keep it’s consumers (and critics) happy by adding small refinements and refreshes. This can come in the form of firmware updates or hardware refreshes.

The upcoming February iPhone SDK will certainly please all, and we can begin to see the true power of the iPhone unfold as they progress. The upcoming 1.1.3 update looks promising (if the pictures are actually real). However, hardware wise- the iPhone could use 3G and a storage bump- to name a few. We should definitely see something pertaining to the iPhone at Macworld.

Read more…