Hard drive storage company Western Digital was in attendance at Macworld | iWorld 2012 last week showing off its MyBook Thunderbolt Duo setup. The unit is a two-drive box that can hook up to your Mac through the Thunderbolt port, and it's Western Digital's first entry into the protocol.

As you might imagine, using Thunderbolt means the transfers are much faster. Western Digital's rep said that while a transfer of 6 terabytes (the drive will likely debut in 4 or 6 TB models) would normally take up to 6 days to completely write over, the Thunderbolt drives can do it in six hours. That's big news for backup fans, who are very much awaiting WD's new models.

The drive we saw was only a prototype model, and official pricing or release information hasn't yet been announced, unfortunately. But the units on display at the show had two built-in Thunderbolt ports, which actually allowed them to be daisy-chained off of the iMac on display. That means that users can either run the drives in Raid 0 or Raid 1 configuration, either using the two drives as one storage unit, or allowing one drive to back up the other. Additional units can then be added on to the setup -- the display at WD's both had three such units all hooked together, allowing for 18 TB of storage total, or any number of splits across those drives for backups.

It was all very impressive, though again, WD hasn't yet announced plans for release. We should see these drives hitting the market later on this year, however, so we'll stay tuned for that.

Western Digital shows off a Thunderbolt hard drive at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Western Digital shows off a Thunderbolt hard drive at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just before I headed out of San Francisco at the end of Macworld | iWorld last week, I met up with a few of the guys from BearExtender, who make an impressive product that will boost the Wi-Fi signal coming into your Mac. The guys were in San Francisco to show off the BearExtender Mini, which will eventually replace the current product.

The reason it will replace the standard BearExtender (so named, by the way, because it was developed for dorms at the University of California Berkeley, where the network is in fact called AirBears) is that it's just better. The standard Bear Extender runs at 700 milliwatts, where the mini is about half the size of the original product, and runs at 1000 milliwatts.

Your MacBook typically receives Wi-Fi at a range of about 200-400 feet maximum. The BearExtender expands that to about 1500 feet, which is a sizable difference. That varies, of course, depending on what kind of building you're in and your line of sight to the core signal. The Bear guys gave me a demonstration using Macworld | iWorld's press Wi-Fi network, which they boosted from a 50% signal all the way up to 100%

The BearExtender Mini should be out sometime in February, and should run about the same price as the current model, or US$49.97.

I also asked the guys about a possible model for the iPad, but they said that because of Apple's restrictions on power usage from the iPad's docking port (likely because Apple wants to make sure battery life is as high as it can be), the BearExtender wouldn't be able to pull enough power to work well. But they had a solution ready to go anyway -- if you need to reach a signal on the iPad and have a Mac around, you can use the BearExtender on the Mac, and then share the connection over to the iPad.

Finally, the guys had one more product on offer. The BearExtender Mini will sell with an optional powered cable that will extend the product out another 10 feet away from whatever USB port you're plugging it into. The power is required in the cable to keep the signal from degrading over that last 10 feet, and the cable will also help as an auxiliary antenna, to grow the reach even farther. There will be an extra charge for the cable, but it's clear the BearExtender team is very serious about making Wi-Fi signals reach where they need to go. If you're in a position (the guys say they've heard from soldiers in Afghanistan, and researchers out in the field as well) where you need to reach as far as possible for a Wi-Fi signal, the BearExtender setup is definitely worth a look.

BearExtender turns its product mini at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

BearExtender turns its product mini at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Attendance at this year's Macworld | iWorld event was approximately the same as last year's Macworld Expo -- about 25,000 people -- according to IDG World Expo, the group that organizes the "ultimate fan event."

A wrap-up news release from IDG World Expo noted that about 40 percent of the attendees at this year's event were first-time visitors, which may translate to growth in attendance for next year's event scheduled for January 31 - February 2, 2013.

Conference attendance was up a whopping 145 percent over last year, thanks in part to the $75 iFan Pass that made its debut in 2012. In the past, expo tickets were relatively inexpensive, but the cost of going to the conference sessions was prohibitively high. The iFan pass gave show-goers unlimited access to the educational sessions, show floor, music performances, and film screenings that made up this year's event.

IDG World Expo has posted a gallery of photos from Macworld | iWorld as well as a video (see below) of Friday's happenings at Moscone West. Both are worth checking out for a taste of this year's event.

Macworld | iWorld attendance steady in 2012; many newbies in the crowd originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld | iWorld attendance steady in 2012; many newbies in the crowd originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 31 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foursaken Media is one of the most interesting companies I got to meet at last week's Macworld | iWorld 2012. It's made up of four real-life brothers who come from different backgrounds (one of them was a math teacher, and with their Dad a former band director and Mom a CS major turned nurse, they all have various affinities for art and technology), and have decided to release apps on the wild world of the App Store. The company has released a few games already, including the popular Bug Heroes, and the brothers showed me two more titles, one just released and one upcoming.

Mad Chef is out on the App Store now -- it's a very colorful little arcade game that has you tossing knives at food ordered by customers as they appear. The graphics are fairly goofy, but they're a nice fit for the action anyway, as you can do things like accidentally hit customers (making them walk away) and earn money and powerups at various restaurants, from a greasy spoon diner all the way up to a high-end steakhouse.

The other title the brothers showed off at Macworld was called Sky Gnomes -- it's a game they're still working on that features little gnomes falling on a snowball through the sky, which the player needs to guide around obstacles and into powerups and bonuses. The game looks like fun, and Foursaken is even planning some interesting multiplayer elements -- they're aiming to use ghosting to provide asynchronous gameplay, so your friends could record a run through one of the game's courses, and then you'd see them on your screen as you played, even though they aren't running at the same time.

There will also be elimination-style courses, and as you race, you'll be able to wear up to three trinkets at a time to boost your stats and abilities. Sky Gnomes seems like a lot of fun -- the brothers haven't settled on whether it will be available for cheap or free (with of course in-app purchases available), but it should be available on the App Store soon.

Foursaken's brothers seem like an interesting crew, and their games over the past few years have shown a lot of progression. We'll keep an eye out for Sky Gnomes and let you know when it hits the App Store.

Foursaken Media's four brothers take on the App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Foursaken Media's four brothers take on the App Store originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week at Macworld | iWorld 2012, the imaging company Epson had set up a large area on the second floor to show off its latest product, the MegaPlex Digital Dock Projector. Epson makes a number of imaging products, including printers and projectors, but this is its first project driven by an iOS device. It's a pretty standard portable projector (in fact, I'd argue that the image and speaker quality on the projector are a little below standard, unfortunately), but the kicker here is that there's an iOS dock connector on the back, so you can plug in your iPad or iPhone, and any app that allows you to send video out can be shown off on the screen.

There are two versions of the project for sale, priced at US$799 or $699, respectively. The difference is in the display. The higher-priced version will output 720p video at 2800 lumens, and the less expensive model does 540p video at 2200 lumens. There is a panel of standard video inputs on the side, including RCA, s-video, VGA, and HDMI, so you can plug just about anything else into the projector if you happen to not be using the dock.

But there's also a handle on the unit, so it's a (mostly) portable way to show movies or presentations directly from an iOS device. It does that well, despite a tradeoff for image quality. The projector itself doesn't have any audio out to hook up to an external speaker, and while you could just use the iOS device's audio jack, that solution seems less than elegant.

Still, it was kind of impressive to see the iPad's output up there on the big screen though Epson's box. If you've been looking into low cost projector solutions, and wouldn't mind have the option to get video right off of your iDevice, the MegaPlex might be what you're looking for.

Epson shows off the MegaPlex Digital Dock Projector at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Epson shows off the MegaPlex Digital Dock Projector at Macworld | iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Avatron's Elliot Chase just shrugs when asked about Air Dictate, an app his company had to remove from the App Store after Apple discovered it made use of Siri that they didn't approve of. "There's no good news," he said while talking to us at Macworld | iWorld 2012. The main issue is over Air Dictate's interface. Instead of using the standard, tiny Siri button on the native keyboard, Avatron hid the keyboard and used its own button. Apple would rather it used the standard UI, however unfitting. "If we make some changes, they might put us back," says Chase.

But outside of that issue, Avatron is continuing to update its popular Air Sharing and Air Display apps. In fact, the gang was showing off Air Sharing's beautiful new PDF viewer in San Francisco last week. It features an iBooks-style page flip and a scrubber for quickly scanning a document's pages. Chase said that many users are reading PDFs with the app, and his company saw an opportunity to create a better PDF viewer. The next update, which should be out soon, will add Egnyte to the list of cloud services that Air Sharing is compatible with.

Avatron is also working on Air Display updates. An Android version is in development, as is a Mac update that will allow it to work on older versions of Mac OS X . The current version requires the latest version of the Mac OS, but Avatron will release a downloadable version on its website that will work with previous versions, so you can share a display screen with your iPad from nearly any OS X build. There's a beta available now, but the software should be finalized in the next month or so.

Air Dictate was certainly a setback (Avatron even had the software's picture marked out on its booth at Macworld as "not available"), but it sounds like Avatron is keeping busy nevertheless.

Avatron soldiers on with Air Sharing after removing Air Dictate originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Avatron soldiers on with Air Sharing after removing Air Dictate originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 30 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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I'm live at the Best of Show awards, where Macworld has chosen the best products from the show (hence the name). Sorry about the lack of images, you'd basically see washed out photos of a projected image. Be sure to check out the links to each product.

3:07 Just now getting started! Up first, Boinx with iStopMotion. Florian from Boinx is doing a demo of iStopMotion. As we said back in December, it is pretty nice.

3:12 A beautiful little paper cutout animation from a kid who used iStopMotion -- really cool stuff.

3:15 PDFpen for iPad is up next from Smile. Really interesting to see how something as simple as a PDF tool (and there are several on the store) can be fresh and awesome.

PDFpen is basically Adobe Acrobat Pro for your iPad. But much, much easier to use. I just saw a signature from Photos applied to a tax document -- with transparency so it didn't block the field below! You can easily drag and drop text boxes and more. Oh, and iCloud storage. How cool is that?

There's a Mac version as well, but PDFpen looks fantastic either way.

3:20 TourWrist is up next. They call it "remote reality" -- sort of like QuickTime VR for your iPad. The authoring side of the app is really pretty nice. It uses a simple line to help you line up your images for a full panorama, better than a gyro-based solution that automatically lines them up.

3:25 The other winners:

DevMicro makes a small microphone in a cone shape that captures 6 channels of audio at once!

FileThis has a service called Fetch that will gather online docs from various financial accounts and puts them together for you.

Blue Microphones won for their Spark Digital microphone. It's a digital version of their analog mic of the same name.

i4software has a video studio app for your iPhone. It can handle multiple cameras, which is pretty amazing.

Global Delight has a product called Game Your Video, which adds effects to video (for iOS).

Ryz Media has blinQ, a remote control that uses your iPhone and adds some social sharing. Not sure how this won -- there are a bunch of apps (with hardware dongles) that do this. I'll give it a whirl and see what makes it special.

Adonit's Jot Touch won because it is the stylus that allows you to add pressure sensitivity to your iOS device. It's a cool product that will make you miss your Wacom tablet.

Lantronix won for the xPrintServer, a product that connects to your network and makes printers available for AirPrint.

3:35 And we're done! Early! Congratulations to the winners. Check out our Macworld hub for more coverage.

Macworld | iWorld Best of Show liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld | iWorld Best of Show liveblog originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Yesterday while I was on the show floor at Macworld | iWorld 2012, I came upon a 7-foot-tall scanner walking around. After I figured out that my cold medicine wasn't making me hallucinate, I knew that I was in the right place -- the Doxie booth. There I was able to interview Paul Scandariato of Doxie about their new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi mobile scanner and grab some video.

The new scanner communicates with your Mac or iOS device over Wi-Fi, and allowing you to scan straight to the cloud if you wish. Paul noted that many users scan their documents straight to Dropbox, then open them for viewing or annotation on the iPad.

The DoxieGo + Wi-Fi is priced at US$249, while the DoxieGo previously reviewed by TUAW remains at $199. For Macworld show-goers, you can the Doxie scanners for $50 off of list price through Saturday.

Here's the DoxieGo + Wi-Fi in action:

Doxie's new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi: Demo video at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Doxie's new DoxieGo + Wi-Fi: Demo video at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If there's one company at Macworld | iWorld 2012 that epitomizes the leading edge of Apple accessories, it's Other World Computing (OWC). At this year's event, the company is showcasing a number of new or soon-to-be-released products for Mac and iPad.

In the Mac realm, OWC is about to release two new versions of the venerable miniStack external drives for the Mac mini. The miniStack Max and miniStack have the same footprint as the post-2010 Mac minis, and features FW 400/800, USB 2.0/3.0 and eSATA (optional) ports, as well as an optical drive (Max only) and USB hub.

When it comes to enterprise storage, OWC has announced and was demonstrating their new Jupiter mini-SAS storage solutions. Jupiter features input/output speeds three times faster than fibre channel and twice as fast as Thunderbolt, all with an infrastructure cost much less than you'd pay for fibre channel storage.

Companies deploying iPads will like the new GripStand Station, which charges and secures up to eight iPads at a time. There's more to come in this short video from the show floor:

Other World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Other World Computing at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the past three years, I've had the pleasure to meet with HP at Macworld to find out what new Apple-centric products the company has produced. This year afforded another opportunity for HP to showcase their products, and I've put together a booth tour video with many of the highlights. If you can't make it to Macworld | iWorld 2012, I hope you'll enjoy this visit with the fantastic HP team.

Among the products you'll see in the video are the new HP LaserJet Pro 400 color M451 printer, an excellent device for small to medium businesses and home offices. There's also the HP LaserJet Pro 300 color MFP (multi-function printer) M375, an "all-in-one" printer/scanner/ copier/fax, and the faster HP LaserJet Pro 400 color MFP M475 printer. All of these devices are iOS compatible, using AirPrint for fast wireless discovery and printing.

Have you ever tried to scan a three-dimensional object on a flatbed scanner? It doesn't work. That's why HP has introduced the TopShot LaserJet Pro M275, a surprisingly affordable color laser printer with a unique 3D scanner.

HP has brought their top Apple support personnel to this year's event, and you'll meet two of the printer geniuses who are at Macworld | iWorld 2012 to answer any questions dealing with using HP products with Mac OS X and iOS devices.

You'll meet the man behind all of HP's mobile apps, including the free HP PrinterControl app demonstrated in the video. Anyone who needs to print large format output from a Mac should get a lot out of the discussion of HP's DesignJet printers and the vast variety of media they can print on.

Thanks again to the wonderful staff at HP, not only for taking time out of their work at the show today to talk with me, but for also sponsoring the highly successful TUAW Meetup at Jillian's last night (January 26). Several lucky TUAW readers in attendance are receiving HP printers as part of the awesome giveaways. Me? I was just happy to meet and talk with hundreds of TUAW readers.

And now, on with our video:

HP at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

HP at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On the second floor of Moscone West here at Macworld | iWorld 2012 is the Macworld Midway, a series of displays and events that are still Mac-related, but which veer a little out of the standard Apple community. One of those is this Art of South Park gallery, which features art from the very ribald (and hilarious) Comedy Central animated show. Not all of this art was created with Macs, but the show itself is developed and put together on Macs every week, and there's a panel here at Macworld in which artists from the show are talking about how they use Apple's technology.

If you're not here in San Francisco, you can walk through the gallery, and check out all of the art on display, below.

Gallery: The Art of South Park at Macworld 2012

Macworld | iWorld's Art of South Park gallery originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld | iWorld's Art of South Park gallery originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Just as soon as the show floor opened at this year's Macworld | iWorld 2012 in San Francisco, we grabbed a camera and did a run through the exhibitions on display. You can see all of the various booths and their vendors and showcases in the gallery below (everything from Mac and iOS accessories to app developers and even content producers), as well as shots from the "Macworld Midway" displays and the registration area.

Things are hopping on the first day of the conference. There are some big names missing from the show floor; Apple obviously isn't officially here, and some of the big vendors from previous years aren't around. But as you can see below, there are plenty of exhibitors here, both big and small. We'll have lots more coverage from Macworld | iWorld all this week, from most of the exhibitors in the gallery below and even more. Stay tuned!

Gallery: Macworld|iWorld 2012 show floor tour

Take a tour of the Macworld | iWorld 2012 show floor originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Take a tour of the Macworld | iWorld 2012 show floor originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the second year in a row, TUAW and HP are teaming up to bring you fun! Whether you're in the Bay Area for Macworld iWorld 2012 or a resident of the area, drop by Jillian's in San Francisco (4th and Market Streets, across from Moscone West) and enjoy an evening with the TUAW crew.

The festivities start at 8 PM and run until 11, and we have a huge cache of outstanding Mac, iPad, and iPhone accessories to give away to attendees. Refreshments will be served, and HP will have an array of their fine printing and scanning products on hand for demonstrations.

It's free, it's a blast, and it's our opportunity to meet with the people who give us a reason to work -- our readers!

TUAW Meetup: Join us tonight for fun and giveaways originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW Meetup: Join us tonight for fun and giveaways originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 26 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It's the TUAW Daily Update, your source for Apple news in a convenient audio format. You'll get all the top Apple stories of the day in three to five minutes for a quick review of what's happening in the Apple world.

You can listen to today's Apple stories by clicking the inline player (requires Flash) or the non-Flash link below. To subscribe to the podcast for daily listening through iTunes, click here.

No Flash? Click here to listen.

Daily Update for January 24, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Daily Update for January 24, 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Do you have an awesome app, accessory or hardware product you'd like to demo for the TUAW audience? We'd love to see it. While we're going to focus on what's on the Macworld iWorld floor during the event, we'd like to take the opportunity to talk to anyone at the event for later publication.

In particular, if you have a hot new unreleased product you're excited about, we'd like to see it. Similarly, if you've enjoyed stellar success on the App Store, tell us your story. We only have a limited number of interview times, so you'll have to use this form to apply.

We'll be recording interviews on Wednesday and Thursday (Jan. 25-26), so let us know when you want to sit down and chat.

Sign up for an interview with TUAW at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Sign up for an interview with TUAW at Macworld iWorld 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Sat, 21 Jan 2012 21:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Paul Kent, general manager of Macworld Expo, says that next week's renamed Macworld|iWorld show will be "the most interesting and certainly the most unique show that we've ever produced." The event begins next Thursday at San Francisco's Moscone Convention Center, and according to what Kent describes, there will be plenty going on.

First up is the exhibition hall itself -- just like last year, it will be in the first floor of Moscone West. There are 271 exhibitors total, and 130 of those are app developers. Like last year, there will be plenty of iOS developers around, but one of the big pushes this year is to represent the emerging Mac App Store, so Macworld has set up an "OS X Zone," which will feature OS X apps and their developers. There are also plenty of iOS accessory and lifestyle item makers as well, says Kent. "iWorld is not just a new name, it's really a direction for the show, where all aspects of the mobile lifestyle are going to be brought to life."

Upstairs in Moscone West will be the tech talks and the show's mainstage, and in those panels, says Kent, Apple users will find all sorts of great tips and insights on how their hardware and software works together. Some of the talks will be for a general Mac audience, featuring luminaries from the Mac community talking about their area of interest, and some of them will be very specific talks based on some technical issues, like dealing with Photoshop or Quicktime.

Elsewhere on the main stage, there will be plenty of celebrities and artists coming in throughout the week to talk about how they use Apple products in their work. Modest Mouse will open up the event, and during the week, visitors will see all kinds of artists and musicians showing off their work, including bands like moe, Atomic Tom, and legendary electronic musician BT.

And the last big exhibit is the Macworld Midway, also on the show's second floor, which will feature all kinds of different fan-centered exhibits based on Apple's hardware and software. In addition to musical shows and demonstrations, there will be an iPad sketch booth, where visitors can get sketched on an iPad, and a photo booth run with Apple devices. "In general show managers don't design attractions," says Kent, but Macworld this year is different -- he and his team have created a little something different from the standard convention. "We've kind of gone down the road of really creating this experiential environment."

Kent says that the past few years in the Apple community have shown that yes, there are two camps: Old school Mac users, and those jumping on board the iOS/mobile device train. But there's no reason why those two camps can't come together, and have "unified view of what it means to be an Apple platform user," Kent tells us, "I'd be surprised if there are many Mac users that don't have an iPhone or iPad."

The show definitely sounds fun, and of course TUAW will be there covering it from door to door, even if you're not in San Francisco and can't come by. We'll have a meetup next Thursday as well, so if you are headed to Macworld, make sure to visit us and say hi. Whether you're coming for a few hours, a day, or the whole show, it definitely sounds like there's a lot to do and see at Macworld this year.

Macworld transitions to Macworld|iWorld as conference begins next week originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld transitions to Macworld|iWorld as conference begins next week originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Are you attending Macworld | iWorld 2012 next week? If you are, be sure to keep your calendar open for the second annual TUAW Macworld Meetup, sponsored by HP.

The festivities last from 8 PM - 11 PM PST on Thursday, January 26 at Jillian's Billiards Club of San Francisco, located a stone's throw away from Macworld | iWorld at 101 4th Street. There will be appetizers and drinks, not to mention demos of HP's line of Mac OS X and iOS compatible printers and scanners.

As with last year's event, there will be giveaways aplenty. How plentiful? I'm just putting the finishing touches on shipping three huge boxes to the event, packed to the brim with an incredible assortment of goodies -- all of which will be going home with our guests.

Six TUAW bloggers will be in attendance at the event, and we'd love to meet you and talk with you about the latest from Macworld | iWorld 2012. We'll post another reminder next week, but take the time right now to update your calendar. Just tell Siri to "Set a meeting from 8 to 11 PM on January 26th" and it will get you set up for an evening of fun.

TUAW Macworld | iWorld Meetup: Add this event to your calendar originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

TUAW Macworld | iWorld Meetup: Add this event to your calendar originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 18 Jan 2012 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Last week, I interviewed IDG World Expo's Paul Kent about the upcoming Macworld | iWorld 2012. After discussing all of the exciting changes to this year's event (the video will be part of this Wednesday's TUAW TV Live), Paul said he had an announcement that he'd spring on us on Monday. That announcement was just sent out -- Macworld | iWorld starts off with a bang the night of January 25, 2012 with a concert headlined by Grammy-nominated indie rockers Modest Mouse.

The concert, known officially as the Macworld | iWorld Opening Night BLAST, is at The Warfield, a 2300-seat venue on Market Street not far away from the home of the expo at Moscone West. Doors for the concert open at 7 PM, and tickets are available now as part of a US$110 (today only) package that also includes the $75 iFan pass for attending all events that are part of Macworld | iWorld.

It's definitely not too early to start thinking about getting your iFan pass for Macworld | iWorld; the price with the concert jumps up to $135 tomorrow, and seats are limited.

Modest Mouse headlining Macworld | iWorld Opening Night BLAST originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Modest Mouse headlining Macworld | iWorld Opening Night BLAST originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 05 Dec 2011 16:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In line with the ever-expanding impact of iOS devices and mobile technology on the userbase-formerly-known-as-the-Macintosh-market, the premiere tradeshow for all things Apple will have a new name in 2012. The 27-year-old Macworld Expo event will now be known as Macworld|iWorld: The Ultimate iFanEvent. The branding change acknowledges the reality that iOS is a huge and growing part of the Apple product ecosystem; registration for the January show/conference is open now.

Paul Kent, IDG's maven for all things Macworld Expo -- sorry, Macworld|iWorld -- discussed the branding change with the expo's corporate cousins at Macworld magazine. "We want a heavy influence of OS X developers on the show floor this year," Kent said, but the show will be balancing the iOS impact as well as moving outward to re-emphasize the cultural connections to Apple products.

Music will play a major role this year, with showcase performances at the Music Experience and expanded evening events outside the core Moscone venue. Film and other creative pursuits will take their turn on center stage as well. IDG is projecting about a 20% growth in total exhibitor count, which is a healthy step up from last year; the 2010 and 2011 shows represented a major downscaling from 2009, which was the last time Apple exhibited at the show.

TUAW has been pleased to participate in Macworld Expo over the years, including our live video streaming interviews in 2010 and 2011. We don't know yet if we'll be back with a booth on the show floor for 2012 at MW|iW, but we'll certainly have some sort of presence -- and we look forward to seeing you there.

[Any similarity to the name of Apple's short-lived online service, eWorld, is almost certainly unintentional.]

Macworld Expo rebranding as Macworld | iWorld for 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Macworld Expo rebranding as Macworld | iWorld for 2012 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 25 Oct 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Why should they, anyway? Everyone was there to see what Apple had, and anything else on the floor was just a bonus, right? That's certainly how it seemed. I think it was last year's Macworld wrap-up Talkcast where Mike Rose called it "Benevolent Neglect" of the community, and he nailed it. Apple always took for granted that if it released it, we would come. And we did.

And then Apple left. At the end of 2008 it was announced that the company's 2009 Macworld appearance would be its last (which didn't even include Steve, that was a Philnote). Oh noes! What will we do? How can anyone care about a Macworld if there's no appearance by the team behind the Mac?

Pretty easily, apparently.

Continue reading Dear Apple: Thank you for pulling out of Macworld Expo

Dear Apple: Thank you for pulling out of Macworld Expo originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Dear Apple: Thank you for pulling out of Macworld Expo originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 08 Feb 2011 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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