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

Immediately after the keynote was over, I hung around Moscone West and actually got to see Steve Jobs a little bit closer. Sidney was in Moscone South but they were not letting people onto the floor yet. After about 5 minutes of hanging around with Jobs and the media, I decided to join Sidney so we could get our hands on the new products (and livecast for The Digital Lifestyle). I ended up arriving just in time and was among the first to lay hands on the MacBook Air’s.

After spending about 30 minutes at the Apple booth, we moved on to the other parts of the show floor. Slowly, however, we began to feel the effects of limited sleep over the past night and decided to head back to our hotel room at about 4PM. When we woke up that next morning, we started to upload all the content from the keynote and show floor. Afterwards, we ate breakfast and hit Moscone West.

For those not familiar how Macworld Expo is run, they split the show floor into 2 buildings. This year, it happened to be Moscone West and South- typically it is North and South. Moscone South is filled with the booths from the large companies such as Microsoft, Google, Apple, Adobe, Griffin, Belkin and more. Moscone West had some of the smaller vendors, and gets much less traffic and attention.

Knowing we lost time in the morning, we figured that we could tackle the West Hall that day. We carefully walked down each of the isles, talking with each of the exhibitors. Seeing anything interesting or funny, we would instantly start recording. Among my favorites were McAffe, who had a booth with only one person in it, preaching about Anti-Virus software for the Mac, yet counting Mac viruses dating back to OS 6 (we have an interview coming soon). We also met some really interesting people as well- a guy who converts Mac Minis to be Military Grade (VictorSystems) or the Remote Time Machine (MiraLink) people. As always, there was an endless count of iPod accessory makers which quickly got repetitive.

The West hall was a lot calmer and had a more intimate vibe than the bustling South Hall. Buried amongst the loads of iPod accessory makers were some great smaller vendors: Ambrosia Software, Aspyr, Polar Bear Farm to name a few. Before we knew it, 6 o’clock came around and we had to leave.

Part II coming tomorrow but for now, check out the EXPO video or the two interviews (Ecamm Network or MacSpeech) from the show floor.

Pictures after the jump. Read more…

In the MacSpeech booth, a representative demoed their new software to us called Dictate. Dictate is speech software that allows you to dictate commands and sentences to any program in OS X. For those familiar with iListen- Dictate is not just a new version- it is completely redesigned. From what we saw the software was extremely accurate and seemed very intuitive. From MacSpeech: “Written from the ground up for the Mac, MacSpeech Dictate’s features, accuracy, and capabilities make it as fun, productive, and intuitive to use as the Mac itself.”

We were drawn to Ecamm Networks booth by their iLidz hat which was on display. They actually have a lot of neat software products: iChatUSBCam (to use USB cameras in iChat), iPhone Drive for file storage on the iPhone or iPod Touch and DockStar for customizing the Mail dock icon. As explained in the video, “We are a software company, but every year we like to find something really unique to bring to the show.” Last year, they created the Huckleberry mirror for your built in iSight.

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.

It has been a fairly slow weekend but, regardless, we have been working on the site! We have fully integrated Twitter into the site, visible with the widget on your right hand side (our Twitter username is “theilife”). Also, we have setup an AIM account for anyone wanting to contact us (again, our screen name is “theilife). Lastly we are proud to announce that we have another writer for theiLife.com. Our third Matt on staff, Matt Hamilton will now be writing for us on a weekly basis- so start looking for his work coming soon! We hope you enjoy these enhancements and have a happy Sunday!

At Macworld, Apple introduced the MacBook Air with this commercial. It is the first commercial for the MacBook family line! It has been added to The Daily iLife podcast today, which you can subscribe to in iTunes or watch here.

The first MacBook Air commercial as the MacBook Air is revealed from a manila envelope.

Our AIM address really is theilife

A friend of mine recently suggested we reach out to our community a little more. So I have opened an AIM (AOL Instant Messenger) account for those who would like to discuss anything with the Admins at theiLife.com. Feel free to hit us up, anytime, with anything you would like to discuss- or just to leave us a comment or suggestion. As always, you can still leave a comment on the site or email us too! Instant Message away at “theilife” (no quotes, though).

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.
Read more…

This is a continuation of Macworld Registration Part I.

So if you have read Part I, I discussed experiences from my first day at Macworld fairly briefly. However, this is a side story about my registration- or lack there of.

Basically, I won a Super Pass to Macworld through an online contest held by The Mac Observer. This is what allowed me to get to Macworld- I would otherwise never had the opportunity! I spoke with Dave Hamilton, President of The Mac Observer after winning the contest; he took some information and then passed me on to IDG to finish the registration. At this point, I was a bit skeptical- almost two weeks had passed with no contact.

Right around Christmas, almost one month since I won the contest, I received an email from Sarah Hindmarsh, Marketing Manager of IDG. She was quite helpful and responsive to my emails, and understood my concerns. I emailed her a PDF of my registration and that was the last I heard from her. I didn’t do anything after that, in fear of being annoying. I figured I had established myself with those two people and I should be fine, whatever the outcome.

When Sidney and I snuck into Moscone South on Sunday afternoon, I used one of the MacBooks to register myself. I entered my first and last name, along with my zip code (which was optional) and saw a list of three people pop up, one of them: Matthew Dodd. Delighted, I printed the badge- only to find I it was only a User Conference attendee, and my company was Axiotron. Strange, I am not an Engineer for Axiotron- although I’ll take a free Modbook!

Constantly assuring myself there wouldn’t be an issue, I let it go and waited until Monday to register with everyone else. Of course, when we got there, everyone already had confirmation bar codes printed- but I still continued waiting in line. When I got to the desk, they quickly took my name and printed my badge, again with Axiotron. While I was happy to have a registration, I was annoyed that it still said Axiotron. Either way, I went to my AppleScript workshop until I became hungry- I wanted my free lunch, which came with my SuperPass!

I went downstairs and spoke to someone from IDG, who was helpful and promptly got my registration changed to a SuperPass. However, they kept ignoring me, explaining that I didn’t work for Axiotron- in fact they didn’t change the company or any of my contact information. So, hungry, I proceeded to get my free lunch and forgot about it. I visited Axiotron on Tuesday, and was laughed at- apparently Matthew Dodd does work for them and was registered for Macworld.

On Wednesday I went back to IDG and asked them to change my information, after explaining my story again. After going through a few people, they got me to someone who angrily asked me for my contact information and printed my correct badge! What amazes me, however is the lack of security at Macworld! I accomplished this without any photo or text identification! I was also not happy about having to do all of this after being afraid of this happening a month earlier. I also apologize for Matthew Dodd at Axiotron for spamming him when I scanned my badge- I assumed it was me.

Either way, I got into the keynote first- which I will detail in tomorrows segment.