Green Tech at the Expo

Green Tech was by no means prominent at Macworld 08, but there was still a pretty good amount on display. Environmental sustainability has become a major concern when it comes to technology products. Computers and most other electronic devices consume lots of energy while they’re living and produce lots of waste when they die. Hazardous waste, in many cases. But nearly all of the major manufacturers have begun thinking through the lifecycle of their products and designing them to have as little an impact on the environment as possible – not only because of the demand for Green Tech in the marketplace, but also because it’s just plain old good business.

January 18, 2008 at 11:24 pm by . | 6 Comments.

---

One last Best of the Booths

I do believe one final Best of the Booths post is in order.

There was so much to do and see this week, I didn’t even get a chance to take a nap in one of the sleeping pods Pzizz had been kind enough to set up for us.

January 18, 2008 at 10:57 pm by . | 2 Comments.

---

Technology as Necessity

At yesterday’s conference presentation on the Cybernetic Teen, Jason Cranford Teague used the word “necessity” when talking about technology for teens today. He provided an interesting comparison between a teen’s tech use in 1987 and a teen’s tech use today. He also provided a definition of the word “necessity” which made sense within the context of his presentation. And it got me thinking about whether or not I’d agree that certain technology is a necessity for teens today. Because it was on my mind, I talked it over with several people today and found that we all seem to be divided on the issue.

Teague said that a teenager in 1987 would have been unlikely to have a home computer, especially one with Internet and that a personal mobile phone for teens then was possible but highly unlikely. (He also noted that they’d be using a Walkman for music and playing a Nintendo Game System for fun.) Then he argued that today it’s a necessity for kids to have a computer with Internet access at home and that it’s almost a necessity for them to have a cell phone. (He also pointed out that they all have iPods and that they’ve got a choice between three different game systems, all of which are about as complex as their computer would have been in 1987).

His definition of necessity for making this argument was that more than 60-70% of their peer age group has one. He said that when a supermajority of your peers has a tool of communication, you become essentially incapable of proper communication with them in the way that communication is defined for your group. (Well, I paraphrased that a little, but that’s essentially what he was saying, I think.)

By this definition, it makes sense to me that he was saying these things are necessities. But in a general context, do I think that’s true? I do believe that a home computer with Internet access is a necessity for a majority of kids in a Western World today. (Teague did note that he was speaking about Western countries, but he didn’t differentiate between urban and rural teens and I believe that the argument could be made that teens in some rural areas don’t currently meet the minimum standard for the term “necessity” to be applicable. I don’t have the numbers on that handy, though, so I could be wrong.) Although I believe that his definition probably accurately describes the cell phone as necessity for teens, I’m not sure that I think it’s truly a necessity. I believe that teens today could appropriately communicate with their peers through IM and social networking sites without the use of their cell phones and not be “out of the communication loop”. But of course the underlying assumption for that is that I believe the home computer and high speed Internet to be “necessities”.

So I asked some other people what they thought about the issue and found that it’s something that people didn’t agree on. (In fact, there was something of a heated debate going around the lunch table today.) Everyone did seem to agree that Teague’s definition of “necessity” and the point that he was making seemed essentially to make sense. However, the whole topic took off on another tangent about whether this stuff is really necessary for teens. To me, it’s just a given that a teen in America today who is going to move forward in life is going to require Internet access at home. But I was surprised to find that even at a tech conference there are people who disagree with that. Based on the conversation, I’d even say there were some budding Luddites in the room today!

What do you think – is technology like in-home Internet a necessity for teens today?

January 18, 2008 at 7:40 pm by . | 3 Comments.

---

Only a Few Hours Left

With only about four hours left to see all that there is to see here at MacWorld, everyone’s running around trying to make it to the things that they’ve missed out on so far. From what I’m hearing as I’ve spoken with people this morning, everyone’s seen all of the things that they were especially interested in seeing. However, they’ve also all heard about tons of stuff that wasn’t at the top of their priority list which they want to check out before the Expo closes up shop.

A few of the things that people have said they want to do today:

- Play games. Apparently not everyone has been over at the MacGames Paviliion wasting all of their time like I was. Several people I talked with this morning said they wanted to make it over there to test out some of the games that they’ve been hearing about all week.

- Get signed up with EFF. One person mentioned that she hadn’t become a member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation yet so she was going to stop by the booth in West Hall and get some more information. They’re giving away T-shirts if you donate a certain amount of money and they’ve also got free literature on things like blogger’s copyrights.

- Take a stroll along Mac Developer Blvd. Also over in West Hall is this area which one guy said he’d seen passing through but hadn’t spent any time in yet. He’s hoping to get over there today and get some new information on some mobile technology stuff that he had questions about.

It sounds like almost everyone spent a good chunk of time in South Hall this week and wants to get over to West Hall today to see the exhibits that they missed out on there. I’m on the opposite side of that spectrum. Having spent most of the week in West Hall, I’m going to check out South Hall to see what I’ve missed over there.

January 18, 2008 at 3:22 pm by . | 1 Comment.

---

More Mac games at the Expo, Part 2

I’m very glad EA has returned to releasing games for the Mac, because they have some of the coolest titles that are available on the platform. I already discussed Spore at length, so I’ll concentrate on a few of their other games that are demoing at Macworld 08.

January 18, 2008 at 3:19 pm by . | 6 Comments.

---

The Washington Post and the news on the net

If you haven’t ever seen any of the short videos in the onBeing section of WashingtonPost.com, you should do yourself a favor and check them out. They are incredibly funny and profound, yet the idea is simple: People from the Washington D.C. area talking on the subject of being themselves.

The web arm of The Washington Post is one of the most innovative news organs out there. Rob Curley is head of the “skunkworks” team that conceives and builds the newspaper’s creative web presence. He gave a presentation on Thursday at Macworld in which he described himself and his team as “Mac nerds from Kansas trying to save a dying industry from the Internet.” He sees that salvation coming from local and even hyper-local news delivered through a variety of inventive web tools.

January 18, 2008 at 3:43 am by . | 1 Comment.

---

More Mac games at the Expo, Part 1

I promised more coverage of the game offerings here at Macworld 08, and I’m delivering. This is going to be a three-part series of blogs detailing the plans that various companies have for games on the Mac in 2008.

I’m going to start with Aspyr. You may remember from my last post on Mac games at the Expo that they specialize in porting games from the PC to the Mac. They’ve got a huge year coming up, as their new releases are all big gaming franchises being made available for the first time on the Mac.

January 18, 2008 at 1:16 am by . | 4 Comments.

---

Thursday’s Best of the Booths rundown

Chris and I happened by the never-ending table of MacBook Airs and I snapped a few photos of it for you to enjoy. Enjoy.

There’s a lot more pictures of Expo booths after the jump.

January 18, 2008 at 12:42 am by . | 1 Comment.

---

Make Your Own Mac Games

Macworld Senior Editor Peter Cohen gave a presentation at MacWorld Expo today providing resources for Mac users to learn how to make their own games. The sites that he suggested were mostly for the creation of simple games but provided some options for more advanced users as well.

Here are the five sites that Cohen suggested would be good for guys (or gals) interested in making their own Mac games:

January 17, 2008 at 9:59 pm by . | 1 Comment.

---

Tech Tips for Teachers

There have been two presentations at MacWorld’s Users Conference which have focused on using today’s technology to be a better teacher. The one I went to yesterday was about Web 2.0 and its impact on e-Learning. The one I just came out of was on Teaching the Cybernetic Teen. Both of these presentations provided some great tips about how teachers can make use of the way that kids communicate through technology today to improve the way they educate those kids.

Here are some tech tips for teachers to take advantage of:

January 17, 2008 at 8:31 pm by . | 2 Comments.

---