San Francisco: Two Gay Guys at Macworld

Author: scott, February 5th, 2012

We just got back from our annual pilgrimage to SF for Macworld – THE show for apple enthusiats from around the world. There used to be another one, Macworld Boston, but the SF show is now the sole survivor.

We’ve been going almost every year for at least a decade – and while the show has gotten smaller since Apple departed a few years back, there were still some interesting finds. Sad to say, at least a copule of them were at the local mall next to the conference center, not at the show itself.

Macworld is held every year at Moscone Center in late January – it’s in the SOMA district of SF, which boasts the lovely Yerba Buena Park, the Metreon (which as of this writing is due to re-open in a new incarnation with a Target – a far cry from the original concept as a multimedia showcase) and The San Francisco Galleria, a beautiful must-see mall.

The show itself runs three days, and this year offered a basic show floor only pass for $25, and an iFan pass (with access to a bunch of tech talks) for $75. We did the iFan pass, and enjoyed a great. talk on Siri, the iPhone’s new voice assistant – if you have an iPhone 4s, try these fun inquiries:

• Guess what.
• Open the pod bay doors.
• I need to hide a body.
• Beam me up, Scotty.
• What are you wearing? (repeat)
• Is there a God?
• How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
• Do you know HAL 9000?
• Tell me a joke.
• Tell me a story.

Thanks to Joe Kissell, Senior Editor at TidBITS, for these fun Siri queries!

Then there were the gadgets. As a whole, Macword has been moving away from computers and toward mobile devices, and this year was no exception. There must have been two score booths with colorful iPhone cases, and they all looked the same – brightly colored and plastic. Oh, except for the one with the beer bottle opener on the back. Seriously.

One bright spot – iPad cases with built-in bluetooth keyboards – in fact, I’m writing this article on one. These came in three basic flavors – built-into the case, removable (attached magnetically) and roll-up rubber keyboards. Apparently someone’s also working on an infrared projection keyboard, but we didn’t see that one at the show.

As anyone who has ever tried to type anything of any length using the onscreen keyboard on an iPad will tell you, an external keyboard is a godsend.

We also found an iPhone charger for the car with two ports for charging two phones at once – great for when we forget to charge up overnight at home!

But our favorite find this year was not on the showroom floor. Instead, we found it at the SF Center next door. Called the Aircurve Play, it’s a sound amplifier for the iPhone. Made entirely of plexiglass with a rubber holder insert, it uses an acoustic shape (no batteries) to add 10 decibels to the volume of your iPhone 4 or 4S.

While the sound is a little tinny with music, it’s ideal for broadcasting voice tracks to a large meeting room, and you never need to worry about forgetting batteries. Amazon sells it here.

Thinking about attending Macworld in 2013? We’re gonna go again, but next time we’ll probably just go for a day or two. But we have high hopes that this show will keep getting better!

Categories: Uncategorized Tags: 2012, gay travel, macworld, san francisco