Welcome to Apple Computer, Inc.
Honestly, I was ambivalent about MWSF this year. On the one hand, I was excited to see just what Apple had up its sleeve for their "reinvention of the phone." On the other hand, I still don't own an Intel Mac and don't yet feel the need to. So while new Macs at the Keynote might have been exciting to some, to me they honestly wouldn't have meant that much.

Don't get me wrong - advancements are great, and increased computing power means time and money to a lot of professionals out there. But as my career has become more specialized, so have my computing needs. And while it'd be nice to be able to edit video faster, sort through photos in less time, and preview Web sites in IE for Windows without having to walk across the room to borrow my wife's laptop, the truth is that none of this things are really that critical to my work. So long as I can write, IM, Skype, FTP, Email, and successfully browse Web sites (including several Web-based applications and content management interfaces), I can work. Through iTunes into the mix and I'm happy.

I was still curious to check out Apple's "computer related" displays at MacWorld, though, particularly so considering the relative lack of attention paid to the Mac during Steve Jobs' two hour Keynote address. So I tore myself away from iPhone and Apple TV (the latter wasn't so hard) to check out some of a Leopard sneak peek at one of Apple's demo theaters.

Dashboard? Spotlight? What about Time Machine?

I'll be honest with you. I think I'm happier with 10.4 than I was with 10.3, but off the top of my head I can't remember why. I'm sure plenty of you reading this are shaking your heads and wondering whether or not it'd be worth it to fire off an email telling the so-called computer columnist about his own computer. Seriously, though - I never use Dashboard, hardly use Spotlight (and when I do it's only sometimes useful to me), and activate expose accidentally four or five times more often than I use it on purpose.

I'm kind of a stubborn dinosaur, I'll admit - I get set in my odd ways (I've always gone up for layups off the wrong foot, and often cut my food with the knife in my off hand) and it's hard for me to break them, even if I know a new method would be more efficient. So, again, many of you may be diehard widget lovers and indexed searchers. But me, I tried 'em both a few times and that was basically that; though I could see all of that changing depending on how Widgets are implemented on iPhone and how "cross-platform" compatible they are with Widgets that run on the Mac. iChat is nicer in 10.4 (though I generally use Skype for voice chatting and never video chat) and obviously there's core support and UI features that 10.3 didn't have. But I'd probably be getting along fine if 10.4 had never come out.

Which brings me to OS X 10.5 Leopard. Apple didn't make too much of a fuss about Leopard at MWSF, though Jobs did mention it in the Keynote and the aforementioned demos were running. I checked out one of the demos and was most impressed with Time Machine. As with most things Apple, it's not that they're promising anything all that new - it's just that they seem to have figured out how to make it nicer and easier to use than anyone else has. Goofy "time travel" background graphics aside, Time Machine's UI looks to be killer. There's a timeline, there are preview windows that change to match your selection on the timeline, and that's more or less it. Pick a directory window from your backup drive, scroll through the timeline to a selected date, and preview what was in that directory back then. Hit a button or drag and drop selected windows and files, and that's it - or so it would seem.

I was watching the Time Machine demo and started having those, "My Mom could do this!"-type thoughts that generally mean you're looking at a good solution.

64-bit compatibility is cool but won't really affect me unless I upgrade to a "new new" machine (as opposed to the refurb'd MacBook I'm more likely to eventually buy), and Core Animation ... well, I'm more into watching video content online than "whiz bang animations" in my apps. Beyond that, I saw some things that looked nice but I can't imagine actually using very much (like Spaces, which I'm sure will be a productivity boon to some people - just not me) and then I got up to walk around the show floor some more. It was kind of like that at MacWorld this year - lots to look at but not that much to get excited about. Except, of course, for that phone thing ... but it wasn't available to actually try out, let alone purchase, so it wasn't worth getting that excited about.

The Future of the Platform

A friend of mine said, "This should be an interesting summer for Apple between the phone launch and Leopard at WWDC." He's right, it will be interesting. He thinks - and I agree - that the iPhone represents the future of Apple's consumer product line. Professional computer users are particular about their equpiment and loyal to their favorite hardware and software, so Apple doesn't need to court them as such so long as they keep churning out faster boxes and solid OS releases.

It's hard to say how effective the whole "Switch" campaign has been, but Apple has dominated the mp3 player market like they never dominated the computer market. And now they're going after the cell phone market, where they have a chance to sell more units to more people who uprgrade more often than consumer computer users do. Thing is, cell phones nowadays are more handheld computers than they are phones - now that everyone who can afford a computer has at least one or two at home, cell phones - with their onboard cameras and music players and Web browsers - are poised to become the new personal computer

Apple has said that iPhone will run on OS X. What, exactly, this means nobody not working on the product really knows - but it's good news for the future of the Mac. However much - or little - Apple opens iPhone up to third party software development, so long as it relies on the same operating system as do Macs, Mac users have little to fear from Apple's official transformation into "The iPod, Cell Phone, and - oh yeah - Computer Company (Inc.)."

Apple's going to have its guns blazing come summer when iPhone launches. Could be that by then another version of the phone and/or a new iPod have hit store shelves, as well. Either way, if Apple's Website is to be believed, Leopard will be on the shelves by then as well. Will one OS be enough for cell phone users, consumers, and Pros alike? Will Apple continue to back its computers - and their operating system - with the enthusiasm they've shown for the iPod and no doubt will put behind the iPhone?

Should be an interesting summer...