So, I’ve written in the past about a convergence of technologies that I’m still amazed hasn’t made it to market. Here it is 2009 and still the leap hasn’t been made. All of the technology is in place, it’s just no one has pulled the trigger.

Here’s the scenario. I almost exclusively use my iPod in my car when on the road. One of the nicest features (on a long list, mind you) of my Q7 is the iPod interface. Plug the iPod into the dock connector under the arm rest and whammo, everything (except video) on the iPod is available thru the interface of the computer screen in the dashboard. Nice. Works great. Except for one thing.

Except for when the family is in the car with me, when they tend to drive the playlist, I listen almost exclusively to podcasts. I subscribe to 30 or so, which it plenty of content to keep up with on a weekly basis. I do this instead of radio. Much fewer commercials, content I’m interested in, and the ability to pause and pick up later when I get a phone call or reach my destination. Perfect.

The problem is in order to roll thru my content and get new content, I have to remove the iPod from the car, bring it in and physically plug it in to sync with the computer. Doesn’t sound like a big deal, but #1 it’s a little bit of a hassle to open up the special compartment below the arm rest and plug or unplug the iPod and #2 sometimes I forget (either leaving the iPod at home when I leave, or forgetting to get it out of the car when I come in. Then I have to wait 3 or 4 minutes for it to sync when I’m ready to get on the road. All minor annoyances, I agree, but still, it doesn’t have to be this way.

I’ve had wireless 802.11 (B then G and now N) at the house for 10 years now. Best thing since sliced bread. And the latest round of iPods (the Touch, based on the iPhone form factor) has 802.11 built in. My iPhone can see my wireless network from the driveway and garage. But here’s the rub: the iPod can’t sync with the host computer over the wireless network, even though it can see it. Why?

In the article I referred to above that I wrote just over 5 years ago now, I talked about a number of other pieces of functionality that would be nice. Of course, I was headed down the “Radio TiVo” path then, which is still a good idea and I still don’t see why it’s not built into modern car radios, but that was before podcasting. Now all the pieces are in place for such a combination.

I’d gladly buy an extra iPod Touch (just to leave in the car permanently) if I could do a few simple things with it that you currently CAN’T:

• Sync wirelessly with the host computer. I don’t care about multiple computers or other things that you’re currently limited to with the hard-cable syncing. That’s fine. I just want to be able to sync with my desktop in my office over the wireless network.
• Sync automatically on some sort of event. Either when the host computer notices an update to items synced with that device (like a new podcast download) or when the computer becomes “visible” because I just drove into the garage. It’s important for this to be automatic so that I don’t have to have some interface from within the car to start a sync and so that when I get ready to go, my device is as well.
• Smarter updating of many devices with current playhead location. It’d be nice if the meta-data information about current playhead location in a track would live a little more in the cloud. Especially if I have a MobileMe account.

With the app store and the programability of the new iPod Touch/iPhone platform, there could be some cool apps to help manage this functionality, but the core “sync over the air” functionality is going to have to be provided by Apple.

Come on, Apple, who do I have to bribe to get this done?

If I hear any more Obama comparisons to Lincoln, I think I’m gonna pop a vein.

That pretty much means I’ll be avoiding all media on Tuesday. And Wednesday.

Except Lost. I’ll be watching that (but fast forwarding thru the commercials, thank you Tivo!)

Do you have the knack?

This is a really cool spot for the new Audi Q5.

None of it was shot practically except the shot of the room and the car at the end (meaning it was all CG). Nice job!

So, the Schillernote was yesterday, and while not as flashy as Jobs standard, it was a fine delivery. I never have really cared a whole lot for Phil Schiller, but he’s definitely competent. ‘Nuff said.

The main three announcements from the keynote yesterday were iLife ‘09, iWork ‘09, and the new unibody MacBookPro 17″. Here’s my quick take on each.

iLife ‘09.
Very impressive upgrade. I am very anxious to try out the Faces and Places functionality of the new iPhoto ‘09. Face detection and recognition technology has come a long way in the past few years… I hope the functionality in iPhoto performs half as well as it did in the keynote. Very impressive. Additionally, I’m looking forward to Flickr integration, and the bi-directional syncing with facebook looks very interesting.

iMovie also looks to have some nice new features. Although I don’t personally use iMovie at all (I cut in Final Cut Studio), my son does and it looks like a very nice upgrade. I’m looking at solid-state-based camcorders, and right now it’s a lot easier to deal with AVCHD in iMovie than it is in FCP. Unfortunately, it looks like you’ll have to have a Core Duo-based Mac to use iMovie, so my middle son’s iMac G5 is out. Hmmm.

Not sure completely what to make of the Garage Band upgrade, Lessons, but it could be cool. We’ll see about that one. No upgrade to speak of to iDVD, not too surprising.

Lastly, Apple made some nice upgrades to iWeb, most notably the ability to upload directly (via FTP) to servers other than .Mac and the ability to work with multiple sites. Nice. Hopefully the upload function is smart enough to only upload the changed content.

iWork ‘09
I’m not a huge iWork user, but I do occasionally use Pages and Numbers, and use Keynote quite a bit. The main interesting point on the first two (for me) is the ability to share documents in the cloud via the new iWork website. Keynote, on the other hand, has a number of new features that make it even more snazzy and distances it even further from Power Point.

MacBook Pro 17
OK, I have to admit, I’m starting to drool a bit more today than I did yesterday over the new unibody MacBook Pro 17. My current MBP 17 is a little over 2 years old, and while it remains the best portable Mac I have ever owned, as I run down the specs on the new box I find myself jumping over to e-bay to see what the resell value would be towards a new one.

Things I noticed: faster CPU, 8GB max RAM, larger HDD, higher resolution screen, smaller, lighter, longer battery, new display connector. If anyone out there has about $4k burning a hole in their pocket, I’ll take one with a 24″ LED Cinema display, m’kay? thankyouverymuch.

The only other real thing of note is the removal of DRM (finally) from almost all of the iTunes catalog, with a feature to have iTunes analyze your purchases and give you a bottom line price to upgrade your library to 256kbps non-DRM. Mine was $68. Not bad. Remains to be seen if this will extend to movies any time soon. And, it appears there are certain strings attached to the upgrade.

Noticeably Missing
No upgrade to AppleTV. No preview of iPhone 3.0. No preview of Snow Leopard, nor even a mention that it’s still coming. And although highly anticipated, no Mac Mini upgrade.

I’d have to concur with the general consensus and and say the announcements are lackluster. Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to play around with the new iPhoto, iMovie and Keynote apps, and I do want a MBP 17 (just let me know if you need the shipping address). But I expected at least a little lip service to some other items.

And macrumors.com getting hacked, while a crime, was funny.