Dan Markham

The point in all this anger, fear, incredulity and hopelessness directed towards Apple, on the part of the iPhone and iPod Touch developer community, as beautifully expressed by Jason Snell in an article over at Macworld (or, if you will, why you, as a “regular Joe” iPhone or iPod Touch user should care about what a bunch of coding monkey developers have to say):

Now you, as a user, may say something along these lines: Why does it matter to me? Maybe these developers are a bunch of spoiled brats, and they should just shut up and keep making money hand over fist from the App Store like those guys who wrote Trism.

If you don’t want to sympathize with developers, let me rephrase it to describe how this will affect users: If developers are afraid to write programs for the iPhone that aren’t games, to-do lists, and tip calculators, for fear that all their hard work will be wasted by a malicious or capricious Apple rejection notice, they will stop writing programs for the platform. And the well of innovative, interesting iPhone software will dry up.

Crystal clear on this end, Apple. Your move.

I can’t wait for Macworld.

Chart of Dante’s Hell…Moscone West at the Bottom

Every year, when Macworld comes around I am always both underwhelmed and overwhelmed at what I see. There are always disappointments. Things you hoped to see do not materialize but things you never imagined show up and delight you as you slap your forehead wondering why you didn’t see this or that feature, device or upgrade coming.

Apple giveth and Apple taketh away. Apple giveth movie rentals but Apple taketh away by giving only a 24 hour viewing window (I’m sticking with Netflix for now, Steve). Apple giveth the world’s thinnest laptop but taketh away the combo/Super drive, removable battery and easily upgradeable RAM. Apple giveth the same applications to the Touch that the iPhone has had since it’s inception (the Touch truly is an iPhone without the phone now) but taketh away by not rolling out a storage increase.

But, in my book, the biggest disappointment I have with this years’ Macworld had nothing to do with equipment or software. Indeed, my biggest disappointment had nothing to do with Apple, the company, at all. My biggest disappointment was with an activity. An ostensibly simple activity, one of the most basic activities one participates in at a Macworld Expo: getting a badge. Yes, simply getting a badge. No, hold up, let me modify that a little. Because it really was not an issue, with many people, with getting a badge at all. Many people had received theirs in the mail before hand. Really, the biggest disappointment was in getting a badge holder. The one that goes around your neck. The one you need, regardless of weather you already have your badge or not, to get into the expo. Getting a badge and/or badge holder at the opening day of this years’ Macworld Expo was a royal pain in the ass.

I have been going to Macworld for eight years and I have never, never, had as much trouble simply getting into the event as I did today. IDG took what was a relatively painless process and turned it into a nightmare. What must have been hundreds of people stood outside, in the cold, of Moscone West with no idea when they were going to be able to get their badge holders and therefore when they were going to be able to head back over to Moscone South (the site of this activity since I have been coming to Macworld) to wait for the Expo to open. The corner of Howard and Fourth was spilling over into the street with people who were left hanging in limbo with no information and getting more and more frustrated and angry by the minute. When the doors opened after what was, for many people, a good hour and a half wait, the scene didn’t improve. The doors were opened into the comparatively (next to Moscone South’s, that is) miniscule lobby at the same time the Keynote (also taking place in Moscone West, upstairs) ended. Now two streams of people converged. It was not a pretty sight.

A mob scene. Maybe 5 people behind a counter around ten feet in length for hundreds of people. People were packed together. There were dividers where the organizers thought people might have been able, under more organized circumstances, to line up around but they might as well have not even been there for all the use they were. The most disorganized mess I have ever had the displeasure of being a part of and the worst prelude to a Macworld Expo I have ever been through. What could have been exciting was simply frustrating. To their credit the poor people behind the counter handled the situation with aplomb. Kudos to them. By the time I made it to the floor the bad taste in my mouth had dissipated slightly but this is no way to run an Expo, IDG, no way at all.

UPDATE (1/16/08): Today, back at Macworld, I was having some trouble getting my MacBook to connect to the official Macworld hotspot. I must have approached ten official looking Macworld people about my problem – none having an answer for me – before I was sent to IDG’s office on the second floor of Moscone West (flashbacks!). While I was waiting to talk to the person behind the counter the woman in front of me began, very forcefully, complaining about the events of yesterday mentioned above. She was incredibly angry. She had obviously paid more than I did to get in to Macworld and she was appalled at what she considered the “inhumane” treatment she received from IDG in being made to wait even longer than I did. Right there with ya sister, that’s all I have to say.

The woman behind the counter listened to her complaints patiently, in fact she displayed much more patience than I would have been able to muster in her situation. She also had some insight into the matter. That was that the north hall – the hall in which registration, in past years, was taken care of – had been rented out by another entity and so was not available to IDG. I had heard this before and it sounds entirely plausible as a reason we had to trek over to Moscone West to get our badges this year.

The situation that resulted is still inexcusable but at least, unofficially anyway, I have some sort of explanation to what was a bad situation. Let’s hope that if the same situation presents itself to IDG again next year they are more prepared.

Oh yeah, and my wireless issues were solved. By the woman complaining about yesterday. Serendipity.