Stevenote Day Is Here
Well, the big day has actually dawned. If you are a Mac owner you have probably been counting down the days since long before Christmas. All the mystery, intrigue, speculation, and wild guessing will be put to rest before the day is out. Bring on the Stevenote, we are all more than ready. Today is the beginning of the Apple new year.
It is going to be a long day, a very long day here in Stockholm. Due to the time difference I have to spend an entire work day boding over what's to come at 6:30 PM this evening when Steve Jobs takes the stage and unveils all the new Apple stuff that will hopefully impress us as much as it has kept us in suspense. 10 very slow hours seperate the "What will actually be announced?" thinking from the "Ooohhs and aahhhs". One final day of dwelling on the possibilities of these so called giant plasma screen Macs (unlikely), what iWeb will actually do, what it's icon will look like, if there will be Intel based Macs, if we'll get a Leopard preview, and whether or not we are all completely wrong and way off the mark with our hypothetical assumptions.
I will also spend the day weighing the options for how I will take in ye ol' Stevenote. Will I, as in previous years, let my interest get the better of me and follow the events live via a Mac site posting periodic text updates as the event goes down? Or will I manage to muster up the will power to wait until it's all over and watch the streaming video of the spectacle via Apple.com. That is a tough call, and I probably won't have an answer till 6:25 PM. What on earth will I find to do for 2 hours that will keep me away from the refresh button? Whatever it is it will have to be pretty damn entertaining. The idea of being able to watch the event, without any prior knowledge of the key moments, is an alluring one. But do I have the strength to wait 2 measley hours more...
What am I actually hoping for? And why do I care so much? Well, believe it or not, I really don't have any expectations. Which means, no matter what, I probably won't be dissapointed. At the moment I couldn't afford any new hardware anyways. I'm not even in the market to buy a new Mac. New software is always nice, and iLife '06 will probably be an inevitable purchase down the road, but again, I'm not going to be sitting here with my credit card waiting for the Apple store to come back on-line. Updates to .Mac seem imminent. That may be the one thing I am most curious about. Mostly because I have a .Mac account and have been debating strongly as to whether or not I can find a reason to renew it in 3 months. Till now, I have been thinking: no. Maybe Apple will change my mind tonight.
I think I care because, well, I have to. The future of my, and all other Mac users, computing life hinges upon these events. The revealing of what's to come for our little niche in the OS market is entirely dependent on Apple and MacWorld is the platform from which it is outlined. This year is different from many others because it is one of major changes. Apple's move to Intel has us all on our toes, still waiting for the answer as to what all this means for us. We may see more pieces of that puzzle fall into place today.
Yes, Stevenote Day is a special day. A holiday almost. A day shrouded in myth and modern day folklore. A day that will be talked about at water coolers, pubs, and on-line forums for days to come. And a day of basking in the smugness of being an Apple minion and rooting on your fearless leader. Just try and explain why a man, a couple thousand miles a way, standing on a stage talking about gadgets and computer systems for 90 minutes captivates so much of your interest, for weeks on end, to someone unfamiliar with the Mac world and you will begin to understand yourself a bit more. Not to mention the questioning of your allegiance to a particular company and it being a major factor in your life. And if after answering those questions you can laugh, then good for you. Afterall, it is just a man talking about some new products his company is going to be selling. The rest of the show is created by us.
K. Panda
