How original. I do like the walls, though. Wanna bet on how long untill someone posts a picture of them blue-screening?

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?

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.

Well, I’m very dissapointed, to say the least, to learn today that Warner has announced that they’ll be leaving the HD-DVD format for Blu-ray exclusivity in May. Ouch. Unfortunately, this is an almost certainly fatal blow, long term, to the HD-DVD format.

Which means, unfortunately, that a less capable, more restrictive, more expensive format will win this time around. Remember, Beta(max) was/is Sony’s format. And while Beta was superior to VHS, it was VHS that got home video off the ground. That was achieved by breaking the perceived pricing limits that the consumer will endure. HD-DVD players were on the market this Christmas at sub $100 levels (I saw some as low as $84 at one point). Blu-ray is struggling to break $400 consistently. Their spec isn’t completely fleshed out and implemented, their product line-up is confusing (all players can’t play all content, and some can’t be upgraded to do so in the future). HD-DVD, on the other hand, is a single solid spec and all players have all features of the spec, meaning one HD-DVD disc will play in all HD-DVD players, something consumers will assume (incorrectly) with Blu-ray.

The numbers of titles released have been roughly the same (458 BR to 429 HD as of this writing). While more Blu-ray players have been sold in the form of the PlayStation 3, more computer-based drives for HD-DVD have been sold, and the stand-alone dedicated players are selling 3:1 in favor of HD-DVD, driving almost certainly by price point. Yet, current statistics show a flip from an almost 60%/40% HD-DVD advantage in software units sold to a 60%/40% Blu-ray titles sold between 2006 and 2007. So why are so many more units (titles) selling on the Blu-ray side of the fence? My guess, in a word: Disney.

Here’s the deal. On average (we’re not talking about the strange ones like me), the average consumer will RENT titles that are PG-13 or R-type fare, but they BUY titles for the kids. The concept is pretty simple: the average adult doesn’t watch the same movie over and over. But kids do. The fact that Disney landed exclusively in the Blu-ray camp a while back was what turned the tide. Many of the top 10 titles are the same on either side of the fence, thanks to studios that have produced content in both formats to this point (Warner, being the biggest). However, now that Warner has chosen a side, things are looking pretty grim for the HD-DVD camp. So much so, that in the wake of this announcement from Warner, the HD-DVD Promotional Group has cancelled its press conference scheduled for THIS SUNDAY at CES in Vegas. Ouch indeed.

I have an already significant investment in HD-DVD at this point (40+ titles so far). While the news has a certain degree of initial sting to it, in the long run it doesn’t bother me too much. I knew anyway at some point I’d get a Blu-ray player and hook it up as another device in my system.

It’s a bit disappointing, though, especially from a consumer’s point of view. The Blu-ray feature list has some serious problems. There have been production issues in both the media and the players. The price is too high. I’m sure Blu-ray will get over these problems eventually. But will the player I buy today be able to be upgraded to the format of tomorrow? I say that bet’s 50:50.

So, what’s the other shoe to drop? Look for that at Mac World at the end of the month. I have a sneaking suspicion that Apple’s going to announce not only a shipping Blu-ray burner in their machines, but an upgrade to DVD Studio Pro that will enable Blu-ray authoring. Do you think Disney going Blu-ray was coincidence? Who sits on Disney’s board and is their largest single shareholder? That’s right, Steve Jobs.

Now I just want an Apple TV that fixes all the problems I wrote about a few months ago, and has a Blu-ray drive in it. Is that so much to ask for?

This is hilarious:

Yes, I waited in line.

Only about 45 minutes.

Yes, it’s cool.

Very cool.

Very, very cool.

It’s official!

June 29.

Time to get in line.

Well, day one is done and I’m beat. I spent most of my time in Apple’s booth checking out all the new goodness that is Final Cut Studio 2, but managed to see a little bit more in the south hall, including a new camera from Sony and various other booths.

Being an Apple guy and an Apple integrator, I’m most interested in what Cupertino has been up to. Here’s what it boils down to:

• Final Cut Pro 6. They’ve expanded and refined the capabilities of RT Extreme to more gracefully deal with multiple formats in the same timeline. They’ve made the UI a little more friendly by asking you if you want to set up a new sequence’s settings based on the first clip you drag in. They’ve made roundtripping to the other apps a little smoother, including templating of motion projects. They’ve increased the usage of FXPlug filters, including some technology from Shake for motion tracking and shake removal. And they’ve added the new Apple ProRes 4:2:2 codec for extremely efficient HD resolution with 4:2:2 colorspace in SD filesizes.
• Motion 3. This is perhaps the strongest upgrade in the lot. Motion is now fully 3-D in it’s capabilities, from cameras to lighting to particle systems to text effects to behaviors. They’ve added an extremely cool new feature to the HUD to control the positioning and movement of objects in 3-D space without the normal complexities of dealing with many objects in the scene. They’ve added significant new filters with FX Plug technology, including some inheritance from Shake. Very cool indeed.
• Soundtrack Pro 2. Surround sound. Advanced take management and audio restoration tools. Multipoint spotting display. Podcasting. All around, a significant upgrade to an already powerful tool.
• Compressor 3. This appears to be almost a from-the-ground-up rewrite of compressor as we’ve known it. New workflow to include migration of transcoded assets to remote servers, dozens of new presets, the ability to overlay animated watermarks and timecode burn-ins at transcode, and more efficient use of multi-core Macs, this is a strong contender.
• Color. Here’s something groundshaking. Apple bought Final Touch last year, and now we see that repackaged with enhancements into Color. While it is a first-class color timing package (not just a set of filters), the amazing thing is what was once a $5,000+ package is now “in the box.”
• The Rest. DVD Studio Pro remains unchanged at version 4. Live Type 2 and Cinema Tools are unchanged as well. But in the box with all of these other tools at a price point of $1,299 new and $499 upgrade… simply astounding.

I look forward to getting my hands on these tools when they finally ship in May. Go check out all the demos at Apple.

I’m curious about the DVDSP non-upgrade, tho. Methinks this has to do with hardware arrangements more than anything. There’s got to be a reason they’ve been shipping the Mac Pro towers with two optical bays… I think Apple hasn’t finalized negotiations with Blu-Ray and HD-DVD burner providers, and is holding the next version of DVDSP until those arrangements are made. Surely that won’t slip until next NAB.

The other huge introduction, as if the above isn’t enough, is Final Cut Server. FCS is a repackaging of Proximity’s ArtBox media asset server product, which Apple purchased back in December 2006. Used in conjunction with Xsan systems, it looks to be a very powerful way to aggregate and catalog media in a production environment. And the price point again is hard to beat: $999 for 10 concurrent users, and $1,999 for unlimited users. This will be very useful for some of my clients.

Since I’ve only a day more on the floor, I’m going to hit it commando-style tomorrow and try to see as much as I can. I need to ask some more questions at Apple’s booth, since that most directly relates to things that make money for me, but I want to see what else is out there as well. Let’s hope the old feet hold up.

I’m headed for a plane in a few hours, but the news is already starting to flow out of NAB in Las Vegas. Apple announced the release of Final Cut Studio 2, including upgrades to FCP, Motion, Sound Track Pro, and Compressor, plus the inclusion of Color, which was acquired from Silicon Touch. DVD Studio Pro seems to remain at version 4, which is a little surprising; many expected HD-DVD or Blu-Ray announcements from Cupertino this NAB.

Apple also announced Final Cut Server, a multi-user asset management and workflow app that I believe comes from the acquisition of Proximity.

Anyway, good stuff to see. I’ll report more from Vegas once I’m on the ground there.