Steve Jobs' "One More Thing" pronouncements made for some of the most memorable and fun moments of the various Apple events he hosted over the years. Near the end of each show, he would usually pull out a "I've got one more thing to share with you" reveal, and it would always be something not necessarily groundbreaking, but always charming and fun. The G4 Cube, the iPod shuffle and FaceTime were all announced as "One More Thing," and while I'd argue that none of those were really that influential, they're definitely well-used and well-remembered by the Apple faithful.

And now, someone's collected (almost) all of the "One More Thing" mentions all together in one video below. It's fascinating for a number of reasons, both just as a collection of the "One More Thing" moments, but also as a timeline of Jobs' presentation style, as he slowly refined and cultivated the mystique that he was eventually so well-known for. At the beginning of the video, "One More Thing" is just something he says in the course of his talk, but near the end, it's become an event all its own. It's very cool to watch these back to back for sure.

Steve's 'One More Things' all in one video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Steve's 'One More Things' all in one video originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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If you haven't read it yet, please check out Lex Friedman's account on Macworld's site of his attempts to view the Starfish smartwatch prototype. Lex does an amazing job summarizing how the company stumbled and stumbled again in its attempts to show the Mac community its competitor to the Pebble smart watch.

TUAW got lucky. It was by pure chance that I happened to return to the booth just as the working prototype was being passed from hand to hand. After about five minutes, the prototype was handed to me.

Tale of a failed watch

Midway through our Friday afternoon coverage of the show, TUAW editor-in-chief Victor Agreda forwarded the team a tweet from Panic Inc. co-founder Cabel Sasser that talked about the watch. "An AirPlay mirroring... watch? But... how would it.. and how do you.. can someone at Macworld report from Booth 214?!" Sasser tweeted. I was in-between stories, so I scooped up my camera and headed to the show floor.

Starfish was on the far side of the exhibit space. A few booths were clustered near the tables where people grabbed a hurried bite to eat or rested their aching feet. It was easy to miss Starfish's booth at first. There were no products, no people clustered around the table like at the Square Jellyfish booth a couple steps away. Two women sat at the table doing what we all do when we're bored -- messing with their phones.

I asked one of the booth attendants if I could see a demo. There was a delay, and the prototypes aren't here yet, one told me. I could come back tomorrow. I asked them a few more questions about the watch, but they didn't know much about it.

Saturday morning, I returned to find no one at all at the Starfish booth. I shot a few photos of the empty table and headed off in search of a better story, namely the monkey across the room. A couple of hours later, I swung by the booth with TUAW colleague Randy Nelson shortly before 12:30 p.m. to find that the prototype had arrived, along with several watch bands with empty spaces where the device should be.

The man at the table, who was not CEO Jason Buzi, admitted that neither he nor Buzi had ever used the prototype, and that he wasn't even quite sure of what it did. He told me to come back in 30 minutes to an hour.

During that wait, I did some research. I found the Pocketables story from November 2012 with the initial ad in the November-December issue of iPhone Life. I found SlashGear's post about the plan to debut the watch at Macworld/iWorld 2013, and I checked out Starfish's Facebook page.

About 30 minutes later, Kelly Guimont sought us out. She and Rod Roddenberry had gone by the Starfish booth after my initial report that the prototype had arrived. They approached the booth to ask some questions. The man covering the booth told them that he would be right back -- and then he walked off, leaving the booth (and empty watchbands) unattended. Kelly wasn't impressed.

I decided to check the booth one more time. There was the usual throng of people wanting to check out a new product. And there was the watch, looking nothing like the magazine mockup. I made sure to capture a video for posterity.

When it was passed to me, I held it, not quite sure what to do with it. I pressed a few buttons, tapped the screen, and nothing happened. I gave it to Buzi and asked for a demonstration. You could tell he wasn't used to this sort of attention, and he admitted on Facebook that it was a stressful experience because he didn't have a product to show. But neither he nor his friend were as combative toward me as his friend (the one who spoke with me earlier) later was when speaking with Macworld's reporters.

I returned to the media room and showed the raw footage to Victor. "That's not an AirPlay watch," he said as soon as the first frames flickered on his MacBook Air. His guess? Buzi was obtaining a watch from China and trying to re-sell it here for a profit, and that's why he knew so little about his own prototype. Friedman's subsequent interview with Buzi confirmed Victor's suspicions.

What can be learned from this?

One of the main reasons that the Pebble smartwatch was funded successfully was because of how prepared they were at the beginning of the process. While production delays caused the watch to be delivered months after it was funded, they had working prototypes on hand before beginning the publicity process.

Disclaimer: I have successfully run one Kickstarter in the past, and I'm in the middle of conducting a second one. Starfish has a long road to go if they want to succeed at funding any sort of Kickstarter, and to start with, they have to earn the trust of their potential backers. As one Macworld commenter pointed out, thanks to the catastrophic Macworld/iWorld experience, they're pretty much doomed from the start. As Friedman said, it's odd that this sort of vaporware doesn't show up more often at expos (though I am still waiting for that TARDIS iPhone dock from CES 2011).

What could Starfish have done differently?

• Hold off on advertising. They shouldn't have run any ads or reserved a Macworld spot until a working prototype was in hand. They should have known exactly where they were going with the watch before spending thousands of dollars on magazine ads and an expo booth. That's money that could have gone into research.
• Choose the friends helping you wisely. Whoever is helping to pitch the product -- from booth sitters to best friends -- needs to know just as much about it as the CEO, and given the circumstances that's not much of a bar. Supply them cheat sheets. We heard answers ranging from "the Kickstarter has been conducted" to that it was coming later (the latter being the right answer). Teach them how to interact with people asking the rough questions. The friend trying to help Buzi who got aggressive with the Macworld reporting staff wasn't doing him any favors. The entire point of the expo was for reporters to come and ask those questions.
• Make face time for yourself. A CEO launching a product should spend as much time as possible at the booth, even if the product isn't there. Have your laptop out, show people schematics and discuss the product with them. These are your potential backers, and you owe it to them to be as open as possible about the project. Also, show enthusiasm about your product. Be excited about it, be into it, and convey that to people. Yes, it's extremely hard when you're not used to doing that. But that passion about your own work will go a long way toward convincing people to back you.
• Use prior experience you have to show that this isn't just vaporware. When I launched our first Kickstarter, I had never published a print book. But, I did have 10 years of newspaper experience as a reporter and designer. My partner and co-creator had two books published in Canada. Between us, we had a 14-month archive of comic pages online. Having that content available, along with our combined experience, helped both Kickstarter projects to be successful.
• Be realistic about your project. As we know with Pebble and Nifty MiniDrive, there could be massive production delays. Components might be faulty, and other factors might cause you to adjust your schedule. Be open about them with potential backers. Perusing the Pebble and NiftyDrive update schedules on their Kickstarters will help you get a good idea as to what can go wrong. Even smaller products can have this happen. With my current Kickstarter, our printer suddenly bailed on us. I had to rearrange for the book to be printed elsewhere very fast.
• If all else fails, bail out of the expo. Yes, you'll be out a few thousand dollars, but it could have also saved face for Starfish in the end. A straightforward "our prototype didn't arrive on time, and we didn't want to show people a product we didn't have" will go a long way toward earning good will. It means you're acting in good faith and not trying to scam folks.

Things could turn around for Starfish, they could be successfully funded, and we could see Starfish watches alongside Pebble at some point in 2014. Or, they're not funded. Or, they could turn out like Code Hero developers and potentially face a class-action lawsuit, and that's something I don't want to see happen to anyone.

What Starfish can learn from its failed Macworld appearance originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

What Starfish can learn from its failed Macworld appearance originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 06 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For the TUAW staff, Macworld/iWorld 2013 enabled a good chunk of our staff to get together in a way that we normally can't because of distance. We had fun, as we do every year, and not everything we see on the show floor made it into a news article. So, here are three observations from each TUAW staffer that attended -- from the silly to the serious and everything in-between.

Mike Schramm

1. The iPad-equipped telepresence robot was probably the most impressive thing I saw on the show floor. The price means I personally won't get one, but just seeing the robot in action (and controlling it with another iPad) made me realize the possibilities for using Apple's extremely powerful tablet to support and enhance other technologies. That's what Macworld is all about these days: you own Apple products, and what else can you do with them?

2. The Jam monkey was an endless source of fascination for me as well. It was a live wild animal on the show floor of Macworld! I'm hoping someone tries to up the ante even higher next year by bringing, say, a real mountain lion.

3. Finally, aside from all of the silliness on the show floor, I think the community is why a lot of visitors still come to this show, and it's definitely one of my favorite features. It's always great to see everyone we've known for years now in this community, whether it's shaking hands in the hallway, sharing stories over dinner, or clinking drinks at the TUAW meetup. Yes, it's always good to see the new apps and new accessories, but my favorite thing about this show is the people.

Kelly Guimont

1. NOT all iPhone cases! I heard a lot of grumbling this year from people who were dismissive (I think the addition of "iWorld" to the name of the expo started it) of the entire experience, claiming it was just a room full of iPhone cases and that couldn't be further from the truth. There were a lot of iOS products, sure, but the show was, as Adam Christianson said, proportional.

2. There were some "novelty" items, but what I liked this year was the trend toward utility in accessories. Chef Sleeve is the first company that comes to mind, making kitchen accessories that incorporate the iPad. Now that people are done oohing and ahhing over The New Apple Thing, what other uses are there? It's exciting.

3. I'm going to crib from Mike, since this is always my favorite thing about Macworld: Community. I love getting to meet people, I love hearing about the new thing, and this year as a speaker I got to interact with a whole new group of people. We had the TUAW meetup, Smile's tenth anniversary party, Cirque du Mac, there were so many opportunities to hang out with the rest of the Mac community in a way that no amount of tweeting or podcasting will ever match.

Steve Sande

1. OK, so I'm cheating by reading what Kelly and Mike already wrote, but they are 100% correct when they say that Macworld/iWorld is all about community. Seriously, I talked with so many people so much during the three days I was in San Francisco that I could barely talk when I got home. It's not just the other bloggers; it's about meeting the developers and manufacturers that we work with, and getting to meet a bunch of TUAW readers. The TUAW Meetup (see picture below) was a blast, although next year we'll need to schedule it so that it doesn't conflict with Cirque du Mac.

2. I'm always impressed by what I see at the OWC booth, and this year's selection of products was amazing. Whether it was the upcoming 2 TB SSD or their big NAS box, or the updates to existing products like the Power2U wall socket, it was a blast meeting with the OWC folks again this year.

3. While attendance at Macworld/iWorld 2013 didn't seem to be lacking, the amount of open space on the floor at Moscone West seemed to indicate that not as many vendors decided to shell out the money to exhibit their wares this year. Many of the booths were smaller this year than they were in the past. It's beginning to look as if the real reason to attend Macworld/iWorld is for the conference sessions and community, not to wander the floor in search of non-dairy cheese or children's bicycles -- both of which were items on display.

Mike Rose

1. Appalooza. The "bullpen" exhibit area of small boothlets remains a dense yet pleasant sector. While it wasn't as packed solid as in years past (keeping in mind that I missed last year's show -- my comparisons are from 2011 to 2013), it still provides a much-needed opportunity for app developers and newcomers to the Apple ecosystem to get their products in front of people. In particular, it was great to talk to the guys from RAGE Software (EasyWeb), the ByteSquared team (Office2HD) and the VoiceOver-optimized VO Calendar developer.

2. San Francisco. So many of my friends, collaborators and past colleagues live in the Bay Area; it never seems like there's enough time to catch up with them all. Having a central event to pull everyone in makes it much easier to connect.

3. Loyalty. There's a solid economic argument to be made for participation in Macworld/iWorld as an exhibitor; one accessory vendor, with a centrally located booth, told me that they expected to make back their costs in sales alone -- meaning that all the brand awareness and user contact is just gravy. Still, the fact that some heavy hitters continue to bring full-size booths year after year is quite heartwarming. Thanks to you, HP and Crashplan, Belkin and OWC, Fujitsu and HYPER -- and thanks to your fellow travelers upstairs in the Mac IT mini-exhibit hall, Parallels, VMware, Absolute and JAMF. Your exhibitor fees help make the whole Macworld go round.

Victor Agreda, Jr.

1. Developers! Like Mike R. said, there's never enough time to catch up with everyone. That's why we have so many parties and meetups to choose from. Still, meeting and sharing feedback one-on-one is so valuable that it's probably my favorite part of the entire show.

2. Wacky products. Starfish, the vaporware hit of the show is an example of bad execution. But then there's the Bowblade, which I dismissed at first. Then I went by the booth, spoke to the father/son team who made it, and understood that it's more of an exercise tool than archery simulator. A lot of writers seemed to chuckle at the homebrew nature of the device, and the price -- as did I -- but the creators have their hearts in the right place. Macworld's expo floor is a fun jaunt if you love entrepreneurs and creativity.

3. Programming. Not code, but the sessions, the presentations, the IT track... Even with quite a few TUAW writers on deck every day we weren't able to cover it all. As I wandered about I saw engaged viewers really digging whatever they were watching. We had a few attendees and speakers at sessions, and from what I hear the audience was thrilled with the content. I was pleasantly surprised by how good the talk with Josh Gad and Ashton Kutcher went, and was sad that I missed Fred Armisen. There's a lot more to the Macworld/iWorld experience than just the parties and show floor, and as a learning and growing experience, it's still one of the best conferences I attend.

Oh, and I got a hug from Paul Kent.

Randy Nelson

1. This was my first Macworld, so I went into it with only my own notions of what it would be like, and I have to say that they were pretty spot-on. I expected to see a lot of innovation and creativity and I wasn't disappointed. This was evident in all of the new approches to using iOS devices I saw, from the semi-ludicrous Bowblade to the imminently more functional (and portable) Olloclip lens system. It was just great to see so many new ways to use the technology we love in different ways.

2. Sharing! Even if there weren't exhibitors to visit or panels to attend, I would go to Macworld purely for the chance to meet so many devoted Apple fans and share the ways we've come up with to use the technology or use it better.

3. For the fans. Unlike other expos I attend every year such as E3 and Game Developers Conference, Macworld is open to the public. This means that it has a very different vibe, and frankly one that I like a lot more. It's not just about product demos and interviews with various companies; there's a chance for the everyday fan to interact with the people and businesses that drive their hobby, and I think it benefits both sides. I have to imagine the companies that attend leave the show with a much better appreciation for their customers along with a lot of ideas of how to better serve their needs with new products and enhancements to existing ones.

Megan Lavey-Heaton

1. I'm the last one to add my thoughts, ergo I get to peek at what the rest of my co-conspirators wrote, and I agree with them on community and fans. My first Macworld was last year, and I was so overwhelmed that I didn't get as much out of it as I thought I had. This year was better in every respective -- from interaction with fans to networking with other people in the Mac community, vendors and developers. It felt like I had a place in this community, or as Randy told me at one point, I had found my people. San Francisco and the expo were no longer strangers, and I could navigate the show floor without having a map. That being said ...

2. I found that the show floor was laid out much better than last year's. I agree that it appeared that the number of vendors was less, but I think repeat vendors were also using their space more effectively. There was a nice seating area in the middle of the Appalooza, and the tables that were at the back last year was moved to the unused space on the sides. I noticed that they allowed the doors to open a few minutes early rather than have a huge mass of people force their way through right at opening time. It's these little touches that make the experience not only better for media, but for fans as well.

3. The tech talks, workshops and other sessions. They weren't just on the show floor either. OmniFocus had hosted one-on-one sessions at the Cartoon Art Museum to help users leap over the learning curve in using the program. I chatted with Macworld's Serenity Caldwell on Friday about her session on the basics of building ebooks, and other tech talks included digital art, photography, design, development security and more. They even allowed a couple of ne'er-do-wells (and Jeff Gamet) to run a session on how to pitch your app to the media. These sessions weren't just interesting, they were extremely useful for fans and the media. I just wish I had managed to attend some of them!

Three things about Macworld/iWorld 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Three things about Macworld/iWorld 2013 originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 05 Feb 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Here's a little taste of the atmosphere on the floor of Macworld/iWorld 2013, plus a closer look at the Bowblade we wrote up yesterday, a chat with the antivirus/anti-malware maker Eset, and a look at what's new from Kanex. Enjoy!

A taste of Macworld/iWorld 2013: Bowblade, Eset, Kanex and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A taste of Macworld/iWorld 2013: Bowblade, Eset, Kanex and more originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 01 Feb 2013 10:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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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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