It’s going to be a big week of tech news, as Apple’s Macworld conference and expo in San Francisco
goes head-to-head with the 40th annual CES (Consumer
Electronics Association) show in Las Vegas. Both conferences kick off Monday 8 January
and there will be no shortage of blogs and other websites covering the news. What
Read/WriteWeb will do is filter the best of it for you, focusing on the most promising
web technology announcements and product demos.
So what will we see from the shows this year?
What Web technology we can expect from Macworld
According to Web 2.0 Workgroup member and Mac fan Joshua Porter, the sites to watch for Macworld news are MacRumors, ThinkSecret, and Daring Fireball. Josh thinks
that Apple will be “making a huge social software push” at Macworld 07, citing the
the next release of OS X (code-named Leopard) and the rumored iPhone as two key products.
He also suggests that Apple will add social and recommendation features to iTunes (a la
last.fm, Pandora and also Netflix), along with announcements around podcasting, iTV and
the iWeb/iLife suite of apps.
From a high level, what’s clear is that Apple will push more into the media field this
year. In 2006 they dominated online music, with the incredible success of iPod/iTunes –
so expect Apple to try to extend that with movies/TV. Also the iPhone is an intriguing
rumor. Several people have pointed out that there is room in the market for a
super-elegant VoIP-enabled mobile phone, which of course plays to Apple’s design
strengths.
Overall, I’m with Josh in that I would like to see more social Web features
from Apple in their products. What’s more, these features should be cross-platform and
allow Apple users to interact with Windows users via web standards. Especially when it
comes to iTV and Apple’s digital hub strategy, a.k.a. Apple in your living room – it is
crucial that users aren’t restricted to just Apple hardware in order to use the
likes of iTV. As Steve O’Hear pointed
out recently, Apple could easily create an Internet ecosystem around iTV, by
allowing third parties to create plug-ins to connect to web services other than
iTunes.
Also, from the ‘maybe asking too much’ department: how about a Web Office suite from
Apple based on iWorks
’07?
What Web technology we can expect from CES
CES is generally regarded as the world’s largest and most successful technology
launchpad and gadgets trade show. This year it will reportedly host 2,700
exhibitors. The following list of past product debuts shows that it’s a stage for big technology
announcements:
For this year’s CES, watch out for news on the
official CES blog, as well as the top gadgets blogs like Engadget and Crunchgear.
Expect Microsoft to make some announcements at CES. Bill Gates is doing a keynote
speech at 6.30pm tonight, discussing his thoughts on digital content’s future. However Mary Jo Foley isn’t expecting much in the way of
Windows Live announcements at CES, although it would be odd if they didn’t show off the
new Windows Live
for TV beta – particularly given Bill’s keynote topic. Note also there is a Windows
Vista RTM lab happening now, pre-CES, which fellow kiwi Mauricio Freitas is covering.
Will we see much from the other Internet powerhouses, Google and Yahoo, at CES? Yahoo
is holding a press conference on Monday at
12.15pm, to announce new Mobile Internet services. However there’s no official sign
of Google at CES ’07 – remember they did an
entertaining keynote last year, featuring co-founder Larry Page along with comedian
Robin Williams. So given the absence of Google and just one appearance by Yahoo, I’m beginning to wonder if we’ll see much in the way of Web technology
announcements at CES this year? As
Michael Gartenberg noted, “it’s about PCs, phones and traditonal media this
year.”
In any case making the first waves at CES is a ‘Digital Entertainer HD’ product from NETGEAR.
It will stream “HD [high definition] movies, YouTube videos, iTunes music and more from
PCs, Storage Devices and the Internet to Home Entertainment Systems.” Dave Winer is
skeptical about the product working “for most people”. NB: Photo above is from Dave.
Summary
It’s going to be an exciting week for technology. If Web Technology is your thing,
stay tuned (and subscribe if you
haven’t already) to Read/WriteWeb for as-it-happens analysis of Web Tech news from
Macworld and CES.
