MacWorld 2010
At first I did not think I would find the time to make it, but I did, and on a Saturday mind you. Last week was MacWorld 2010 in San Francisco. I went into the show this year not expecting much. I've become accustom to the rapid decline in attendance and quality of trade shows recently. That combined with the fact that Apple was not present, and Adobe not really welcome. I thought the show would be a little light. The show was actually pretty well attended, but the quality of the exhibitors not great. A lot of useless, almost Microsft'ish type clutter: mice, cases, keyboards with silly color coding systems that I'm still trying to figure out the point of and why that would make me more efficient, and an app pavilion that was so scrunched it was impossible to get an idea of what was even going on. There were a few things I would note from the show however.
Eye-Fi. I just like these guys, I like what they are doing, and I am impressed with the technology. Eye-Fi has a product that combines software and hardware embedded on an SD card to give you a way to automatically transfer photos and video from camera to your favorite location as soon as a Wi-Fi connection is available. There are several obvious limitations, but the future potential is outstanding. I don't like that they are tied to the DCIM file-system, but I'm sure that can be overcome.
Fujitsu ScanSnap + Evernote. Really played up their new scanning functionality. I like Everynote's App, but I don't like how proprietary it is. It is not easy ( takes a hack ) to get your documents out of the application. What if you need to use the data somewhere else, or heaven forbid need to migrate? They combined with Fujitsu's talk about there scanner profile on the ScanSnap to scan directly to Evernote now have created a complete personal content management system.
Neat Receipts. Always been a fan of the product. The particular scanner they use I'm very familiar with and have worked with directly on an OEM level. The great part about the scanner is not so much the quality of scan but the form-factor and convenience. As did all the other scanner guys, Neat talked mostly, not about the scanner, but about the software bundled with it. They also have a personal content management system or file cabinet application and they play up their recognition quality. Unfortunately optical character recognition ( OCR ) on the Mac is still not ported to the best version available on PC, so the quality is not great. I found it interesting in the time I was waiting to say hello how many complaints I heard about the business card ( BCR ) and receipt reading accuracy. I felt bad for the guys, but not too much. Vendors like Neat, ReadIRIS, etc. have painted a picture for end-users that is completely incorrect and they of course expect the reading of business cards and receipts to be very accurate, when actually on the desktop level it usually is not. They only hurt themselves with bad market education.
And finally, Microsoft. I found it humors there sarcastic marketing against Apple. Re-iterates the love-hate relationship that exists. It's like two brothers, one makes all the money off what the other creates. They know it, I know it, but we still pretend.
Not too much was said about the iPad at the show. Some companies quickly incorporated a photo or two into their marketing. And there was an amazing lack of Chotchkies. I Covered the show in 1.5 hours, and did not feel bad about the lack of effort. I doubt MacWorld will ever be what it was, but I'm hoping that next year brings more technology and less cases and accessories.
Eye-Fi. I just like these guys, I like what they are doing, and I am impressed with the technology. Eye-Fi has a product that combines software and hardware embedded on an SD card to give you a way to automatically transfer photos and video from camera to your favorite location as soon as a Wi-Fi connection is available. There are several obvious limitations, but the future potential is outstanding. I don't like that they are tied to the DCIM file-system, but I'm sure that can be overcome.
Fujitsu ScanSnap + Evernote. Really played up their new scanning functionality. I like Everynote's App, but I don't like how proprietary it is. It is not easy ( takes a hack ) to get your documents out of the application. What if you need to use the data somewhere else, or heaven forbid need to migrate? They combined with Fujitsu's talk about there scanner profile on the ScanSnap to scan directly to Evernote now have created a complete personal content management system.
Neat Receipts. Always been a fan of the product. The particular scanner they use I'm very familiar with and have worked with directly on an OEM level. The great part about the scanner is not so much the quality of scan but the form-factor and convenience. As did all the other scanner guys, Neat talked mostly, not about the scanner, but about the software bundled with it. They also have a personal content management system or file cabinet application and they play up their recognition quality. Unfortunately optical character recognition ( OCR ) on the Mac is still not ported to the best version available on PC, so the quality is not great. I found it interesting in the time I was waiting to say hello how many complaints I heard about the business card ( BCR ) and receipt reading accuracy. I felt bad for the guys, but not too much. Vendors like Neat, ReadIRIS, etc. have painted a picture for end-users that is completely incorrect and they of course expect the reading of business cards and receipts to be very accurate, when actually on the desktop level it usually is not. They only hurt themselves with bad market education.
And finally, Microsoft. I found it humors there sarcastic marketing against Apple. Re-iterates the love-hate relationship that exists. It's like two brothers, one makes all the money off what the other creates. They know it, I know it, but we still pretend.
Not too much was said about the iPad at the show. Some companies quickly incorporated a photo or two into their marketing. And there was an amazing lack of Chotchkies. I Covered the show in 1.5 hours, and did not feel bad about the lack of effort. I doubt MacWorld will ever be what it was, but I'm hoping that next year brings more technology and less cases and accessories.
Labels: 2010, adobe, apple, BCR, book OCR, business card scanning, evernote, eye-fi, fujitsu, image quality, ipad, mac, macworld, microsoft, neat, readiris, reciepts, san francisco, scansnap
