Though Macworld|iWorld seemed to be focused on the latest in software and accessories for your personal iDevice, the Expo also serves as a gathering place for another group of Apple product customers. It’s a segment that may be growing more quietly, but no less dramatically. These are the system administrators, IT managers and technicians responsible for deploying and maintaining the Mac and iOS devices in business, government and education. Where most of us are concerned with keeping our personal Mac or iOS device happy, they need to think in terms of hundreds or thousands of them. While the majority of Expo-goers were reveling in the ...

Wandering around the show floor, it seemed like there were at least a hundred different ways to hold our mount an iPad. At the time, it seemed to me to represent a certain lack of innovation in a market usually brimming with new and unique ideas. It was some hours after the show closed that I was finally set straight. Waiting for our rides at Portland International after several long days at the Expo, I found myself talking to Preston Hodges from Hub Innovations , a local company immersed in this segment of the market. He concurred that consumer interest in iPad holders was not their sweet spot. But with iPads moving into retail spaces, ...

Whether it’s a matter of getting the best sound out of your Mac and iDevice or putting it in, the Macworld|iWorld 2012 exhibit hall made it crystal clear that this is going to be a great year for audiophiles and audio pros. There were literally hundreds of audio products on the show floor with some of the biggest names in the business taking prominent positions and going to great lengths to get attention, like Polk Audio’s ongoing trampoline act. There are a few products that got ours... MicW debuted a series of broadcast-quality plug-in mics for iOS devices. The new “i" series of microphones snap directly into the headphone jack ...

Sure. We all remember the days when the Macworld Expo was as crowded with both company logos from the Fortune 100 and people. In recent years, many of the big names have fled and have been replaced by a surge of smaller upstarts with great ideas, innovative products and a grand sense of what Macworld has always been about. In terms of numbers and fervor, the change didn’t seem to make a bit of difference in attendance. This year, the show has been renamed Macworld|iWorld, reflecting a broadening of focus that has been increasingly obvious for some years now. However, there’s always been a lot of “Mac” at the heart of the iOS and ...

It's a new record! Just 10 hours after Apple opened up registrations for its Worldwide Developers Conference Monday at 8:30 a.m. eastern time, the entire conference was sold out. That shatters last year's record of 8 days. The conference accepts about 5,000 attendees, which may not seem like a huge number, but each one had to plunk down the $1,600 entrance fee. That's a lot of dough right there. The writing on the wall says that this year's WWDC will be almost entirely focused on software, with one rumor saying that there won't be any new hardware on display. Apparently that's not a deterrent to at least 5,000 folks out there. [Apple ...

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference will run from June 6 through June 10 this year at San Francisco's Moscone West. The rumors were off by one day, though in retrospect this makes sense because Apple still probably needs time to set everything up for the greedy masses. Apple's press release also announced that the conference will feature more than 100 technical sessions hosted by Apple engineers, with 1,000 of those engineers on hand to provide code-level assistance and more general guidance. Mac Apps will again have their own design award category after a year off. Not confirmed but also expected to make an appearance: iOS 5 ...

Though it was unquestionably the Year of the iOS, Macworld 2011, there were enough product debuts and major upgrades to keep life interesting for just about everyone. Here’s a rundown of several that caught our eye (and we’ll be following-up with some reviews in the coming weeks): Other World Computing is never afraid to field big products for comparatively small markets. That was literally the case with the introduction of its line of speedy and captious Aura Pro Express solid state drives (SSD) for the 2010 MacBook Airs. These drives start at $499 for a 180GB model. The “best-buy” 240GB model is $579 with the largest 360GB Aura ...

A growing number of signs are pointing to Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference starting on June 5 this year at San Francisco's Moscone Center. The center has a "Corporate Meeting" scheduled from June 5 through June 9 –– a time that fits with the traditional WWDC timeframe (last year it was June 7-11). Several other "Corporate Meeting" bookings, all of which were spotted by AppleBitch.com, are sprinkled in the center's calendar for May and June. Could these be more Apple events? Perhaps, perhaps. So what can we expect from this year's WWDC? The release of OS X 10.7 Lion should shake things up and bring more attention to the ...

The virtual dust has settled and Macworld 2011 is now a fond memory, so it’s time to take a look back and see what we could take away from this annual community gathering (beyond the pile of business cards, assorted swag, and a couple of goodies I have yet to tell my wife about). Macworld Conference and Exposition continues to be a very different animal from the mega-show that was dominated by the likes of Apple, Adobe and Microsoft and spanned the center’s two largest halls. The move to Moscone’s smaller (and newer) West Hall was controversial and, for some, a bit confusing. I saw at least one local TV crew deploy to the wrong venue.

One of our senior editors, Ric Getter, attended MacWorld to get the inside scoop on all the latest products that our readers want to know about. While he was there, he took several pictures to give you a general overview of what all went down at the conference. Check them out at the link below! MacDirectory MacWorld 2011 Gallery While you are at it, you can also check through the news section here on MacDirectory for his reviews of some of the products that caught his eye.

Rather than the usual first-day mad rush, it took a couple of hours for the Macworld Expo exhibit hall to fill, but by the time the first conference sessions let out for lunch, it became very hard to make any headway though Moscone Center’s smaller West Hall. The day featured any number of product announcements and a solid hour of high-tech standup by comedian Sinbad. The latter may not have been quite as thrilling as the Apple keynotes of yore, but there were definitely more laughs. Based on the sheer number of exhibitors, 2011 can be considered the Year of the iPad. It is safe to say that there are now more ways to carry, mount, ...

This is traditionally the calm before the storm that is Macworld (calm, that is, if you’re not an exhibitor frantically working to set up your booth). However, the upper floors of Moscone West were still buzzing with a variety of conference sessions. Normally, Moscone West houses only the conference sessions, but this year the Exhibit Hall has moved to this somewhat more intimate venue as well. Industry Forum One of the new events at this year’s Expo is the daylong Industry Forum, a string of twenty-minute mini-sessions for the media and industry experts covering a variety of narrow but timely topics. Coming a day before the exhibit ...

Going to the Macworld Expo but still don’t have your badge? Thinking about it but not sure you can spare the $25? IDG, the Macworld Expo people have just opened up a special offer for MacDirectory readers. Use this link to register online and you can get an exhibit hall pass for free! Better still, if you want to attend any of the conference sessions, the above link will get you a 10% discount. (Sorry, but this only works for online registration.) And one more thing (bet you’ve heard that line before), if you’re the first one to spot MacDirectory’s intrepid reporter at the show, you may wind up with a coveted ticket to Cirque du ...

Every year about this time, there is a joyful and intimate gathering of two thousand or so technological soul mates that is known as the Macworld Conference and Expo. Starting in the 80’s as a congregation of Apple enthusiasts, it grew to become an Apple-centered extravaganza whose popularity rose and fell in lockstep with Apple’s share prices. A funny thing happened after Apple and a few other large exhibitors pulled out after 2009. The Expo continued to thrive and the atmosphere and vibe of the show more resembled its heady early days as a gathering of dedicated enthusiasts. Part of the reason for this is the nature of the Mac and ...

In case you missed our rundown of Apple's recent "Back to the Mac" event, YouTube user Lockheed 91 has graciously edited down the original 1.5-hour-plus broadcast into just over a minute and a half. And superlatives don't do it justice. Take a look for yourself. Actually, it's hilarious. Apparently all Apple presenters receive bonuses according to how many superlatives they use, similar to the way Arnold Schwarzenegger was paid by the word in Terminator 2. [Daring Fireball]

Describing Apple CEO Steve Job's WWDC keynote address as "highly anticipated" would be a massive understatement. The entire five-day event sold out in barely more than a week after it went on sale early last month and the expected announcement of the newest iPhone was possibly Apple's worst-kept secret since... ever. If you just want to hear the highlights, check out our summary of what to expect from the latest and greatest iPhone, but if you want to see the entire spiel by Jobs then head over here where Apple has been kind enough to post all 1 hour and 51 minutes of Jobs' presentation in Quicktime. As they say, it's magical.

Skeptics have wondered how Apple can hope to outdo Google's launch of Froyo and Google TV at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference, especially since the next-gen iPhone is practically old news. Do you think a surprise Steve Ballmer appearance could help stir things up? That's what Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry believes could happen. Chowdhry says that Microsoft's head honcho himself could present his company's Visual Studio 2010 during the June 7 keynote and bring his unique brand of energy to the suite of development tools that allow developers to design native apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac OS. Jobs did ...