Copywriting, Advertising Creative, Voice Over Talent and a few surprises

Apple Macworld/ iWorld 2013 – A Few Things That I Liked.

Well, it’s been several months since I attended Macworld at San Francisco’s Moscone Center and the fact that I’ve waited until now to “report” on it may be more telling than anything else.

This was the third Macworld since Apple has pulled out, and the first one since Steve Jobs passed away. Apple’s lack of presence in any way, shape or form was glaringly obvious. Obvious too, is the fact that they are gone for good, with respects to both Macworld and many other events where Apple would formerly have some kind of presence. Another very noticeable thing was the “lack of Mac”. This might have been better described as “iOS World”. We see the not-so-subtle shift in the oh-so-subtle, title of the event, “Macworld/iWorld”

And after walking around the place, I think it could better be called, “I had absolutely no idea they sold this much crap for iPhones and iPads”. I saw Hercules walking the floor in an attempt to accomplish his 13th labor, counting the variety of iPhone cases for sale.

Still, there were actually some pretty cool apps and some decent gadgets being shown and a few good deals to be had. There was scant little to be had for the Mac however. A couple of booths were offering various cable options and some storage devices. A few other booths had the odd keyboard or mouse for sale, but the choices and value seemed about the same as aisle 8 at my local Office Depot.

Invariably, what floats your boat may not be what floats mine, so I’m going to mention a few things that tickled my fancy and a few other things that didn’t appeal to me, but may be something you like. Then again, by the time you read this, we could be on to hardwired phones and tablets embedded into our brains. Double check the deals, free offers, prices, etc. as they are all likely to change and certainly keep an eye out for anything new from these folks.

Right now, the folks at QUE, who make cool books, tutorials, ebooks, etc. are offering 40% off with this little discount code, “IWORLD” (no quotes needed). They are at Que Publishing or the link from Macworld/ iWorld may still work at Que Publishing/ iWorld

I also enjoyed some of the things that the folks at Hypershop.com were showing. In particular they had a remote control device that works with Canon and Nikon DSLR cameras that allowed you to both monitor and control camera functions remotely (to Android, iOS, MAC or PC). It’s a $300 item that could be worth a heck of a lot more. HyperDrive

Fab, whose incredibly crisp, sharp, colorful and interesting offerings of the ubertrendy, gotta have it items, offers a really great sensory experience for the iPhone, iPad and Android, although on an iPhone 3 with that dynamite retina screen, I tend to salivate just a little more. You can download their app(s) at Fab.com

Here’s something that is exactly what it says, it’s the Daylight Viewfinder. With more and more people using their phones as cameras, here’s a little solution for seeing what you’re shooting outdoors on a sunny day or in high glare areas. Daylight Viewfinder

There were a bunch of people going to town with ArtRage Studio , running 2 to 5 bucks, this is a great creation tool for iPad and iPhone. There’s a more powerful version for MAC and PC, for $50 called ArtRage Studio Pro. ArtRage

Until June 30,2013, Schneider Optics is running a sale on professional lenses for your iPhone. They are pretty reasonable considering the quality and if you use the code, “MACWORLD2013”, you get 10% off until June 30th. Who knows, maybe if you ask nicely they’ll extend that discount for you. FInd them at iPro Lens

If you’re not hip to xTuple, then check them out at xTuple. They are an opensource solutions company for Customer Relationship Management, CRM and ERP, Enterprise Resource Planning. This may actually be the best piece of fruit on the whole darn tree. Their “Postbooks” solution isn’t just free, it’s actually pretty incredible.

I’m thinking about taking CrashPlan out for a spin. Currently my backup solutions are a little convoluted and tend to still incorporate “sneaker net” as an integral part of the equation. I tried Carbonite and almost turned to stone waiting for a few megs of data to trickle to their backup program. Take a look at They have a ton of features and a pretty reasonable pricing structure. CrashPlan Let me know what you think.

Of all the booths offering tablet and phone accessories, the one that stood out as having items with a somewhat better “fit and form”, were at Scosche. Visit their site at . As of this writing, the Macworld discount code was still working for 25% off. Hopefully they’ll keep it going a while longer. It’s “MACWORLD13” (no quotes) They’re at Scosche

One of the few exceptions to this not being an event about MAC’s was the OWC booth. Catch them at They’re at OWC – MacSales.com. They have a huge assortment of peripherals, hardware, memory, etc. for Mac’s, and iOS devices. Data doublers, SSD drives, expansion chasis and lots more.

Well, maybe I did find more than just a “few” interesting things at Macworld/ iWorld 2013. I’m only about half way through the list and realizing I should save the rest for a Part II.

You can find Part II here: http://jsgilbert.com/best-of-macworld-iworld-part-ii.html

Please let me know what you think of my “picks” so far and if you think there’s something noteworthy to add, please leave a comment. Heck, leave a comment anyway, just so I know you stopped by and don’t forget to share.

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