Apple is celebrating at its annual rite of passage — Macworld Expo — in San Francisco. I highly recommend it, at least once in a lifetime. To be sure the exhibit hall is loud, and the smarmy ones among us may complain the presentations are not challenging enough, but it is one amazing immersion in some of the most fun and creative uses of technology one can find. Mac users being the friendly types, there is also this rather rare open-hearted energy that infuses not just the convention center but the environs of San Francisco as well. I was there a few years ago, and ended up iChatting in my hotel lobby with other attendees. We had chosen the venue because it had Wi-Fi, and we were all toting our PowerBooks and iPods around.
I don’t which came first: the apple or the fun and friendly. But Apple people are like Toastmasters with groove: you can go anywhere in the world and find a Mac User Group and be welcomed in. Or you can be sitting in Borders with your laptop and an iSight and when another Apple laptop user appears… there is a wink in the eye and an energetic “hey sis/hey bro” message shared between the two.
