Mac opinion. Punditry. Whatever.

I missed the opportunity to pimp a couple of my recent contributions to the collective consciousness lately. In my latest piece for the Mac Observer, for instance, I presume to discover the true and heretofore hidden appeal of the iPad.

Meanwhile, over at the MacJury, I participated in a panel discussing AT&T’s new data plans, and give them them a lot (perhaps too much) credit for devising a way to expand their user base in a highly saturated universe while ensuring they don’t take a proportional hit on their infrastructure. Whew, that’s a lot of marketing jargon, even for me.

I just returned from a week at San Francisco’s Macworld Conference and Expo 2010. Hopefully, you’ve been frequenting The Mac Observer, where I’ve had a few posts on the subject lately, including one that appeared today entitled “They Said it Couldn’t Be Done: IDG Pulls Off an Apple-less Expo Hit.”

I also spoke at the Conference, delivering a session called on keyboard shortcuts called “Look Ma, No Mouse!” If you attended the conference, you already know where to find the slides. IDG, the show’s organizer, will be sending out more information on that soon as well.

On the show floor, I was lucky enough to be asked to participate in MacJury Live – a session of Chuck Joiner’s excellent podcast done in front of a live audience. It was great fun talking about the show with Chuck and fellow jurors Jeff Gamet, Tanya Engst and Ted Landau — some of the smartest people in the Mac community. As soon as the show is posted (in video, no less!) I’ll put a link to it here.

Between the Mac Observer article and the MacJury podcast, I’ve said pretty much all I have to say on the topic, other than to reiterate that it was a great show, ironically made perhaps even better by Apple’s absence.

Jumping on the speculation bandwagon thisclose to the finish line, I wrote an article for The Mac Observer on what I think we’ll see at Apple’s special event on January 27th. What’s missing in my predictions is the “killer feature” I think the device needs to make it compelling enough to fill the very narrow void between the iPhone and a laptop. In fact, my guess is that this won’t be quite like either of these devices and that Apple is poised to unveil a totally different kind of device. A computer, for sure (but then again, so is the iPhone), but not something that will be thought of as a computer — and certainly nothing like the “tablet computers” we’ve seen on the Windows side for years.

Give it a read. There’s only a few hours to wait to see how prescient — or off-base — I really am.

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“One Thing’s for Sure: Apple Won’t Unveil a ‘Tablet Computer’ on Wednesday” on the Mac Observer

I just wrote a post for The Mac Observer as part of a series on how the site’s staffers use their iPhones. (My contribution is Part III of II; you have to read it to understand.) Here’s a snippet:

One of the best things I’ve found about the iPhone is that it’s not really a separate device at all – it acts as an extension of not just my Mac at home, but of the accumulated knowledge of the human race. OK, that’s a bit hyperbolic, but that’s the way it feels. Before the iPhone came out, I wrote about the need for a “convergence device” – one that could be used away from my home Mac, but allowed me to access its power and functionality. The iPhone has very much become that convergence device for me. And that convergence has, well, converged even more over time, thanks in large part to the over-the-air synching capabilities rolled out via MobileMe and the speed of 3G networking.

The full article is on The Mac Observer — Don’t forget to read parts 1 and 2 for some insights from more “regular” staffers like Dave Hamilton, Bryan Chaffin, Bob LeVitus, Jeff Gamet and others.

At New Media Expo in Las Vegas last month, I joined Chuck Joiner for a discussion of Social Media and its implications for corporations. We discussed whether or not corporations “get” Tweeting, blogging and other aspects of Social Media and whether it’s too late for those who don’t. As always, it was a lively and (I hope) interesting conversation. My apologies in advance for the fact that it’s a video interview.

You can watch the interview below or on Chuck’s MacVoices website.

My wonderful family gave me a new iPhone 3GS for Father’s Day this year. It’s an amazing device that has enough improvements in speed and new features that it feels like as big a game-changer to me as the original iPhone. I wrote a short piece for The Mac Observer that explains why I thought this was a very compelling upgrade—at least for someone who had skipped the last one. [UPDATE: The article is now available on The MacObserver. If you feel so inclined, please leave a nice comment.]

The latest installment of Chuck Joiner’s MacJury podcast is up. In it, I take part in a great panel discussion with a stellar lineup of “jurors:” Macworld’s Peter Cohen, Tonya Engst of TidBITs and Take Control, John Braun of The Mac Observer, Don McAllister of Screencasts Online and Adobe’s Terry White.

It’s a lively hour’s worth of talk about what’s in the update, what’s not and a little digging into what’s important and why. Panels this large can tend to get a little unwieldy, but thanks to Chuck Joiner’s expert choreography and the terrific panelists, the result is a spirited, friendly and fun discussion.

If you don’t already subscribe to the MacJury podcast, you should. It’s a consistently relevant, interesting and entertaining look at the issues surrounding Apple and the Macintosh.

If you’re reading this, it should come as no surprise whatsoever that I’m eagerly anticipating tomorrow’s Apple event where they’ll describe the upcoming 3.0 update to the iPhone software.

Here are a few of the things I’ll be looking for:

Read more

I don’t do much breaking news these days, but word is getting out that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is taking a medical leave until the end of June and leaving COO Tim Cook in charge of day to day management of the company.

According to Silicon Valley Insider, Jobs sent an internal email to Apple employees informing them of the decision:

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

Trading on Apple stock was briefly suspended today on the news, and is scheduled to resume in about five minutes (in after-hours trading) as I write this. According to Yahoo, Apple is currently selling at $85.33.

This should be some ride.

(Hat tip to Shawn King for the news.)

I joined a great group of Mac pundits for a session of Chuck Joiner’s new MacVoices TV podcast. It’s a 20-minute or so round table discussion about Apple’s last Macworld keynote and Phil Schiller’s performance as a substitute for Apple CEO Steve Jobs. The panel included Bob “Dr. Mac” LeVitus, Mac author and columnist for the Houston Chronicle and The Mac Observer, Terry White of Adobe, Adam Christianson of the MacCast and of course, Host Chuck Joiner.

I like the video format and I think Chuck Joiner’s onto something here. Video’s bound to have a different set of obstacles, especially once the panelists are no longer in the same location, but the production values so far have been pretty good and improving. While podcasts are likely to remain a commuting activity (and therefore audio-only) for me, seeing the panel is a lot more compelling than just hearing them. It will be interesting to see how the format works over Skype, but given Chuck’s track record, I’m optimistic that he’s got another hit on his hands. For the video-resistant, the show is also available in an audio-only version through the MacJury feed.