Macworld SF 2007 recap, Part 2

On the walk over to Moscone South to pick up my badge, I passed by the blocks-long keynote line. There were quite a few media crews there trying to gather footage, so it was a little tricky to walk around without getting in the middle of somebody's shoot. Some of the crews would set up their cameras across the street, so you might just see the reporter speaking to air. They generally seek out the craziest-looking people in the line (it is a visual medium, after all) and it reminded me a little of WonderCon (which was held in the same location last year) because news crews covering that convention typically focus on the people in costume. It generally gives a vibe of "Hey, look at these geeks/freaks!" which is a little annoying considering how much money gets poured into the area due to these conventions.

There is a separate line for those with media badges and if you read my recap from 2005, you might remember that they usually put up a 'Media Enter Here' sign and then after you wait in line for an hour or so someone would come by and say 'Oh, actually, you need to go over there.' This year they skipped putting up a sign, and I was told by a door guard to go 'wait over there with the rest of them.' There was no line, per se, just a loose group of people glomming around. Most people don't like to be at the end of a line, and instead prefer to hover near the side of a line and then slowly, casually work their way into the middle. Classy.

There are always quite a few Asian journalists and this year was no exception. I was standing near a group of them and noticed the one in front of me writing out questions in advance, including one that went something like 'You've chosen Cingular as your exclusive partner. Any plans to expand to other carriers?' Hmmmm, how did he know?

The press mob was generally lined up at the door on the far right of 12 doors. Suddenly the press surged ... toward the far left doors. And after about 10 people went through, they shut the doors. Then we were all told to back up. Which didn't happen until someone said we needed to back up because we were actually going to be let in the far right doors. And another 10 people went through those doors until they shut them. And after another few minutes they decided to mix it up again and open some doors in-between, which the rest of us went through. You can see it from this picture.

We went up one escalator and then waited at the bottom of another, which is where you saw me in the photo from part 1. What you might find surprising is that the person who took that photo (Daring Fireball's John Gruber) was actually standing "behind" me in line before we were let in through the doors. We waited at the bottom of that escalator for about an hour while media VIPs (Newsweek, the New York Times, etc.) ascended. It wasn't until about 8:50 a.m. that we were allowed up and into the giant hall.

This is the first year the keynote has been held here and it probably moved here because of the larger size of the hall. It was a good choice because I'm sure less people that waited in line since the early morning were turned away. I can't imagine waiting outside in line for hours in the cold and then be told 'Sorry, not enough room!'

There were giant video screens located about halfway back, and having had some experience at Comic-Con with this type of setup, I chose to hang back right behind one of these rather than move forward 10 or so rows where I wouldn't really be close enough to get a good view of Steve Jobs on the stage.

After settling in, I got out my laptop and cell phone to get an Internet connection via T-Mobile's data service and begin relaying the keynote news to The Apple Blog via iChat. Unfortunately, I still had no signal on my phone. This seemed odd to me because plenty of other media were talking on their cell phones. But I had no solution and no way to communicate with my editor. Although folks set up wireless computer-to-computer networks in the hall, there is no Internet access available.

So I sat back and enjoyed the music playing, which was quite good: Coldplay, Beck, Gorillaz, Gnarls Barkley, Sheryl Crow and James Brown. At 9:08 there was an announcement to silence all cell phones (not a problem for me...) and at 9:14 the lights went down, Steve came out and announced "We're gonna make some history together today."

I took copious notes during the keynote up until some point during the 90-minute iPhone introduction when I was just too overwhelmed by it all. I caught back up during the interminable speeches by the CEOs of Google and Yahoo.

I wrote up my full-fledged keynote recap for macCompanion ("A Keynote for the history books), and it's on page 12 of the February issue. But here's a few random things recollected from my notes that didn't make it into that:

The iPod ads that are currently un-missable on TV were premiered, which is not particularly remarkable. But Steve noted that they featured music by "an up-and-coming British pop group" (Flathead by The Fratellis) and whoever is finding these songs is doing a great job.

Someone sitting a couple of seats away from me was noting whenever Steve said "Boom!" and it happened so often I lost count.

The Bluetooth headset accessory shown for the iPhone was black. This seemed odd to me, considering that one of the defining (and to-date unchanged) characteristics of the iPod is the white color of the earbuds.

Near the end of the keynote, Steve's remote stopped working and would not advance the slides. He ended up stalling by telling a nostalgic story of when he and Woz pranked the students watching TV at Berkeley. A widely reprinted photo of Steve in a strange body position was taken during the recounting of this story.

The keynote ended at 11 a.m. and there was a standing ovation, the first of the few keynotes I've attended. John Mayer returned to perform a pair of songs and explained that because Apple made people's lives fun they are "the exact opposite of terrorism."

To Be Continued in Part 3: But when do I get to eat lunch?