MacWorld Expo 2008, San Francisco

Did any of you folks who are local go to MacWorld this year? (or are you planning on going?)

I went today and snapped a bunch of photos:

http://echeng.com/journal/2008/01/17/macworld-expo-2008/

Here are a few of them. Many more are linked from the above journal entry...

Hi Eric,

Any news on MBP upgrades in the coming months...really need to decide on buying one...

Dive safe

DeanB

... got the same problem. shall i grab a MBP now or should i wait ...?

According to the Buyers Guide to Apple Products over at macrumors.com, the MBP has gone 226 days since the last substantive upgrade as of today, and the average time between upgrades is 186 days, so on that metric at least the MBP is overdue for an upgrade.

Having said that, the MBP is a mature product line now and two possibilities apply for any future upgrade: Incremental processor speed bump or completely new product. I would personally avoid a new product line initially, my MBP is from the first release of this series and has had some problems that are less common in the current lines. So I would probably just buy now and get the mature product rather than waiting on an unproven design. Incremental processor upgrade would be nice, but is it worth waiting around for a 10% increase in processor speed vs. the amount you could do with the current machines right now.

Thanks Eric.

What do you think of the thin book as a travel photo PC?

I wrote about why I will not be getting the new machine over on my personal journal:

http://echeng.com/journal/2008/01/16/why-a...-a-macbook-air/

As for MBP, everyone expects it to be revved in the next few months, but I haven't heard any conclusive information about it!

I agree with Craig re: upgrades. I've had my MBP for 14 months now, and it is still fast. I'd love an LED LCD and maybe a couple of SSD drives that I can stripe together; other than that, I am satisfied.

I agree with Craig re: upgrades. I've had my MBP for 14 months now, and it is still fast. I'd love an LED LCD and maybe a couple of SSD drives that I can stripe together; other than that, I am satisfied.

Stripped SSD drives, I like the way you think

I agree with the blog you posted, for me the real kicker is the one port more than anything else, followed closely by the battery issue. I mentioned in the other thread the lack of extra ports means the MacBook seems more tempting over the Air, then the immediate slippery slope its into the 15" because it is not much heavier or larger. My tiBook was behaving strangely before I had to travel and I had to pick up a 17" MacBook Pro because at the time the 15" did not have FW800 and there were no ExpressCards out. It is heavy, but for extended trips it is nice to have. I have taken my 15" tiBook on trips, even after I bought the 17" MacBook Pro, when I was not concerned as much with power and wanted the smaller size. I think the 15" MacBook Pro would be my first choice for overall selection if I had to choose to have only one machine.

If there was a FW port on the MacBook Air, even if not a workhorse, for those trips where I am not going to be on the road for a long time and not using the MacBook Air for "real" - meaning no thought of editing video or photos passed looking to see what I got and what I should do differently. And the FW port is a big downside for both video and my FW card reader.

But with the airline restrictions, weight limits and the rest the Air is tempting. A USB Pen Drive to back up the system, a couple of those LaCie thin drives and I start smiling thinking about how easy it will be to carry. Now if I can only have the Nikonos made again in a digital format, I used to think carrying that and a strobe was alot