Apple's absence from Macworld

What do you think of Apple not participating in Macworld anymore? It's so hard for me to thing of Macworld continuing when Apple doesn't participate. My first thought was what a lot of others were saying - Macworld is dead. Honestly Apple doesn't need Macworld anymore in my opinion. With the developers conference and all the special events, why do they have to present something at Macworld anymore? And I also think that having to do something every January doesn't always mesh with the product cycles, so it actually makes sense to me.

But I'm a Mac-head! It's hard for me to see the demise of the Macworld Expo! What's your take?

New Mac Mini?

Rumor has it that Apple will refresh its much ballyhooed Mac Mini at Macworld:

Mac Mini Refresh

Will this be a major announcement? Will it be a game changer? I think Apple does have an opportunity to hit the Mac Mini out of the park! What do you think would make it a huge winner?

Amazon MP3 Download service a distant second!

It surprised me that the Amazon download service has not picked up a big head of steam:

Amazon Download

When I shop at Amazon, it is incredibly convenient to download the MP3 tracks they offer, and if you have an Amazon account I think it is laughably simple! It seems like a really good service, so I'm happy that iTunes is still top dog. Apple does have a nice position in that if you use their iTunes software for organizing music, it is just a click away from shopping the iTunes music store.

You are probably right, Stitch, in that the DRM just isn't a huge factor. I mean, Amazon is currently selling these tracks DRM free, so maybe it just isn't the must have feature (no DRM) for digital music buyers. Most of us really don't care - I know I don't. As long as I can play them on my iPod and burn discs I want, I really don't care. How about you guys?

Coolest Microsoft Application

I will be the first to admit that for the most part virtually everything from Microsoft as far as software goes has been pretty much a pain to use. Usually bloated with rarely used features and odd interfaces, making it a chore to use. But I believe this latest application called PhotoSynth is groundbreaking. It comes from a part of MS called Live Labs. Which I guess is a technology research area. This program allows you to take a set of still photographs which have some overlap in some way. And the program interprets there spacial relationships. Then allowing the user to view the photos by moving from one to another as if moving through 3D space. As if you were walking around the scene from the photographers viewpoint. It does all this automatically without any special photography equipment. It also allows you link pictures that are taken at different zoom levels. Check out the video in the link.

Link to article

One other interesting point is that this will be MS's first iPhone application. The comment was that the iPhone has sophisticated graphics which allow for porting this application to the iPhone. Other mobile phones do not have this capability.

Windows Market Share below 90%

For the first time in a long time, Windows market share has dipped below 90%:

Marketshare

So it appears the Microsoft stranglehold is loosening a little. Apple is growing. The trends point in the right direction. Will it keep going that way?