Macworld - page 5

Someone is looking for a Steve Jobs look-alike for an “impersonator event” on Friday and Saturday in San Francisco’s SOMA — the area around Macworld.

The actual job isn’t specified, but looking like Steve is important, of course, but so is “punctuality.”

“If necessary, we can provide a black turtleneck and glasses,” the Craigslist ad says.

Pay is $100 a day. Wanna bet it’s handing out Gold Club flyers?

Full text of the Craigslist ad after the jump and check out our Gallery of Uncanny Steve Jobs Look-Alikes

Oh Groupon, you bring us such wonderful deals with your hyper local bulk buying business strategy. And today, of all days, you tell me I can pick up Macworld tix at incredible discounts? Tell me more.

Check out the San Francisco Groupon site for $10 3-Day General Admission tickets to the Macworld 2010 Expo $25 value). They also have Macworld Users Conference tickets for $50 ($105 value).

Groupon is like a woot! for events and services. Apparently they offer unbeatable deal a day in 30 cities across the U.S. They do group buys so they can offer tickets to events or spa certificates or car washes for a hefty discount. The discount is only good if they get enough people to sign up, which for this deal happened at 9am EST so you’re good to go.

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) organizers have supersized the iPod and iPhone showcase at the January 2010 event. The next iLounge Pavilion will offer over six times the floorspace dedicated to Apple accessories and software sellers, from 4,000 square feet to 25,000 square feet.

In a press release, Jeremy Horwitz, Editor-in-Chief of iLounge.com and co-sponsor of the iLounge Pavilion said the 525% space increase is due to the surge in iPhone and iPod touch popularity from the App store. It also probably has to do with Apple’s decision to pull out of Macworld and Macworld’s move to February.

Signed up companies so far include Griffin Technology, Scosche, Incase Designs, iSkin, Incipio Technologies, Jaybird Gear, MusicSkins and AAMP of America.

Via MacWorld

My friend Jeffy picked up this pack of stickers at a Macworld past. Do Mac users have a sense of humor ? Should they be printed up as stickers for MacBooks?

Hailed by event promoter IDG as the “Start of A New Era,” Macworld 2010 will be held in San Francisco at the Moscone Center but about a month later than usual,  from February 9-13.

After Apple made 2009 its last MacWorld, rumors abounded about changes, either site or dates. The new date puts it in less competition with the sprawling International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) held in Las Vegas around the same time.

In a statement, organizers said they thought the dates would make it easier for fans to attend.

“We firmly believe that these new dates will better meet the needs of everyone participating in Macworld, and are pleased to have been able to respond to this request from the community,” he added. “The journey toward a new era for Macworld has begun and we are more excited about this ride than ever before.”

But, in a tech calendar packed with trade shows, it presents a bit of a problem for some.

UK Mac fans (and we suspect most anyone coming from Europe) are grumpy about the new dates — because they can’t make one transatlantic trip to attend both Macworld and CES and the dates are too close to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, scheduled to start two days later on Feb. 15.

How much difference do the new dates make in your plans to attend?

Image courtesy IDG

Image © 2009 Nik Fletcher

This post is really more about Macworld, the trade show and conference, than it is about the device that spawned it. But for 24 of Mac’s 25 years, the two have gone hand-in-hand.

While indications seem clear the Mac and Apple are both healthy and vital at 25, with years of relevance and innovation ahead despite whatever rough patches the economy may present in the near term, the fate of what has been for many years the Apple community’s most anticipated event is very much up in the air.

Of course the entire world is aware by now Apple decided to make 2009 its final appearance at the huge trade show held the first week or so of January at San Francisco’s Moscone Center. The smart money immediately proclaimed Apple’s move to quit Macworld spelled doom for the event.

Rumors swirled during this year’s show that Apple itself might be moving next year to the larger, far more ambitious International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held in Las Vegas right around the same time as Macworld.

Just this week, iLounge announced plans to fund a high-profile unified pavilion area for iPod and iPhone products at CES in 2010.

Blogger John Gruber penned Friday a misty paean to the City and the Expo, one of the smarter, more comprehensive assessments of the overall picture I’ve yet seen.

Gruber and I agree on a couple of points worth noting: as he wrote,

1) “There is nothing else like Macworld Expo, and if it fades away, there will be nothing to take its place.” With Apple gone, Macworld will be different and if it is to survive, it will have to be different in a way that keeps it vital and active for the diverse mix of large and small exhibitors that make up a healthy event; and

2) The great majority of exhibitors who make up Macworld, 90 percent of whose products are not available at the Apple Store, want the conference and expo to survive, but almost to a one they confirmed to me, as I walked the floor at this year’s conference (and to Gruber as well), – they will wait and see who else is going to stay on board.

This week a quiet campaign began, led by the community of Mac-o-philes who most definitely want to see Macworld survive and prosper. IDG, the event promoter, has agreed to give anyone who pre-registers now for next year’s event, January 4 – 8, 2010, a free Expo pass. Not buy one get one free, just register now and go for free.

IDG has also placed a big SUGGESTION BOX graphic on the front page of the website, a mailto: link the IDG PR representative I spoke with assures me the promoter will pay close attention to for feedback from attendees and exhibitors alike.

It may well be true that Apple no longer has a need for Macworld, that its growing chain of Retail Stores and increasing market awareness make it a bad business decision to spend millions of dollars to be the anchor tenant at the sprawling event.

For the hundreds of other businesses who’ve come to rely on Macworld as an opportunity to get their products in front of and tell their stories to thousands of people over four days in San Francisco, the stakes are very different.

News Monday that CES attendance figures for 2009 are down 22% comes as no surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to the big picture in the past six months..

In the wake of Apple’s decision to abandon Macworld, and despite rumors the Cupertino computer maker will join the big consumer electronics circus in Las Vegas next year, the fact remains the global economy is in a tailspin.

It says here expecting corporations to continue sinking major investment into expensive trade show PR going forward is a bad bet.

Which is not to say that innovation will come to a halt, or that producers of technology and electronic gadgetry are about to vanish from the landscape.

In the spirit of the relative dispersal of brick and mortar distribution outlets for any number of goods among an increasing web of online marketing vehicles, this writer believes it only makes sense that in a contracting economy, chances are the standard-bearers of communication and computing and entertainment will soon focus marketing budgets less on trying to woo live bodies to vast acreages of real-time exhibition space and more on leveraging the enticements of Web 2.0 and unified communications capabilities to rely on drawing eyeballs and attention to virtual marketing platforms.

In the coming year, look for fewer big-time confabs and more small-town events. Fewer shows at the Garden and more online specials.

It’s a brave new marketing world. Think different.

Image © 2009 Nik Fletcher

Despite nearly universal appraisals among the Apple press calling it “underwhelming” and “disappointing” and “lackluster,” Macworld 2009 proved to be a worthwhile and successful venture for many less well-known exhibitors, whose continuing support may determine the expo’s future viability.

I hit the floor for the final day of Macworld 2009 fully expecting to find an arena filled with weary exhibitors staring at empty aisles, counting the hours until they could pack up their booths and say goodbye, perhaps for the final time, to this seminal conference and expo dedicated to all things Mac and more.

Instead, the floors in both halls appeared to me to have as many people walking around, crowding into interesting demos and learning exhibitions as on any other day this week. Such interest is not traditionally shown on the final day at large industry trade shows such as Macworld, and may be even more notable in the case that that other big consumer electronics event got into full swing a day ago, several hundred miles away in Las Vegas.

Official attendance figures were not yet available for this year’s event according to a spokesperson in the Sales office for conference promoter/organizer IDG, but the participation of both attendees and exhibitors has been “in line with expectations” given uncertainties in the larger economy, and factoring in disappointment surrounding Apple’s decision to quit the event after 2009.

Follow me after the jump for the thoughts and impressions of several exhibitors whose enthusiasm may point to a less dire future for Macworld than some seem to expect.

Macworld announced its 10 Best of Show picks for 2009 Wednesday afternoon, reinforcing the uninspired pall Apple’s looming withdrawal has cast over this year’s entire event.

From the hundreds of thousands of feet of floorspace taken up by Conference exhibitors at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, Macworld editors’ only significant hardware find was the Windows Home Media Server from HP.

My purpose here is not to pick apart each official choice, or even to come up with my personal alternative Best of Show picks – though give me another couple of days to walk the Expo floor and I might. I aim only to point out that when your top hardware pick at a trade show dedicated to Apple and Macintosh-oriented computing is a device that requires a Windows-based PC for initial installation, it’s cause for a little existential self-reflection.

Macworld did ferret out one item at the show that looks quite promising in my view – a Bluetooth Web Cam from ecamm network. To be available by spring 2009 at an MSRP of $150, the ecamm BT-1 streams 640×480 H.264 video and 48 kHz AAC stereo audio from up to 30 feet away from a paired Mac.

Your Mac has a built-in web cam you say? Well, with the BT-1 and its mini flexible tripod, you get the freedom to adjust the position, pan, and tilt of your web cam imagery. It’s also mountable on any standard camera tripod to give you further flexibility in filming. You and the editors of Macworld seem to have forgotten that old slogan Apple rode to the success from which it now abandons the Macworld Conference and Expo:

Think Different.

Evidence, if it were needed, that even writers of the Best Mac E-zine Of All Time need to stop for a sit down every now and again.

Here, thanks to the CC-licensed photostream of TidBITS writer Glenn Fleishman, we can see the TidBITters relaxing between frantic article-writing. It’s funny that even the awesome TidBITS team ends up crouching on the floor, huddled up by the power sockets just like the rest of us.

But wait, who’s this walking past – possibly also on the hunt for an empty power outlet? Why, it’s none other than equally great Mac writers David Pogue and Jason Snell. Pogue, Engst and Snell all together in one image: congrats! You’ve collected the full set!

(Thanks to Glenn Fleishman for the CC photos.)

Today’s was the first MacWorld keynote I’ve missed in three years, and I have to say, I really didn’t miss anything. But then again, it was quite clear Apple was making a half-hearted showing as it was, revealing none of the products people are most excited about <cough>Mac mini</cough> and announcing several products that are either predictable, uninspiring, or just plain obnoxious toward consumers. Is anyone excited about variable iTunes song pricing who doesn’t work for a record label? Anyone? Or how about the “Indiana Jones” effect for iMovie 09 so you can have a fake plane fly over a fake globe to represent travel? This was worth gathering the world’s technology media?

It’s probably for the best that Steve Jobs didn’t show.

But all of the above was apparent to anyone watching. What was left implicit, though it was communicated loud and clear, is the fact that Apple now has to put its money where its mouth is, having dismissed MacWorld’s trade show atmosphere, and put together some truly special product launch events very quickly. The biggest advantage to not making the first Tuesday of January the holy grail of Apple announcements is that Apple can announce products when they’re ready and as it suits them, instead of forcing stuff to be ready ahead of time for MacWorld (and to beat out the CES news cycle). In other words, Apple should let the rest of the month pass, and then make a major hardware introduction on every Tuesday in February, culminating in a press event on the last Tuesday of the month to unveil the much-anticipated new Mac mini (and with the 32-gig iPhone coming somewhere beforehand).

At the end of the day, Apple is probably logically right that MacWorld doesn’t make sense for them anymore. I think it’s ungrateful, given how much the enthusiast community saved Apple during the mid-’90s, but it probably is the right thing from a business standpoint. But it also feels like they deliberately left a lot out of today’s announcements, as if to emphasize their rejection of the trade show model. It just felt cheap, you know?

The media and the public trickled onto the Macworld exhibit floor in the wake of Phil Schiller’s Keynote speech Tuesday in San Francisco with a collective yawn, casting a sad and listless pall over Apple’s final year at the seminal trade show dedicated to Mac and Macintosh innovation. Gone was the excitement generated in recent years by the introduction of revolutionary new products such as iPod and iPhone. Gone was the sense that Steve Jobs contagious’ enthusiasm and obsessive secrecy could somehow reward us with ever more new, beautiful, elegantly designed products that would change our relationship to technology and with each other.

Instead, Schiller left the Apple community pondering battery life and notebook aftermarket resale values, wondering how a little face paint and eye shadow applied to iWork and iLife is going to drive increasing revenue to One Infinite Loop between the end of Macworld on Thursday and the next Cupertino Town Hall event sometime later this year.

One the surface of things, a mood that I might liken to one in a household where the divorce has been agreed to but not yet finalized, is curiously appropriate to the uncertain economic horizon each and every one of the hundreds of Macworld exhibitors – as well as, of course, the show’s anchor tenant – is facing.

Sure it would have been exhilarating for Phil Schiller to have whipped out a thoroughbred upgrade to the Mac mini today, or a revamped Apple TV that might challenge the assumptions of what an interface between the office and the living room could look like. But I talked to several long time Mac addicts on the floor this afternoon, who confided they were relieved not to be tempted by any groundbreaking hardware innovations from Apple – because big ticket expenditures of every stripe are on hold until further notice.

In its way, then, Apple proved it still has the pulse of its audience well in hand – why offer revolutionary new products that would require hundreds or thousands of dollars in new investment (not to mention the huge investment in manufacturing required to roll out new hardware) when the company can let its legions of loyal consumers who have already bought Macs and iMacs over the years try on new software outfits at $50 – $80 a pop? Lean times may be coming for everyone but by golly you can spend your downtime learning how to play guitar with John Fogarty and marvel at the face recognition amazements of new iPhoto software.

Some of the busier booths on the exhibit floor this afternoon were ones hawking accessory items costing well under $100. Big gear manufacturers with shiny new products costing in the hundreds and thousands of dollars, not so much. And the reps of a couple of those exhibitors told me some of the newest stuff they have at the show are just prototypes, with no big production commitments coming into place until the economy and consumer spending shows signs of taking an upturn.

Compared to recent years, Day 1 attendance was significantly lower, something I could tell in the sparse lines at the concession stands and in the reliability of the WiFi connections available throughout the hall. But fewer people were here today because Steve Jobs was not here today. Tomorrow, when you’d expect the attendees interested in Macworld regardless of Steve Jobs’ presence, we’ll get a better idea of just how deflated the Mac community is over Apple’s final Macworld appearance and a sense of how much air has gone out of what was until pretty recently a high-flying market for computer technology.

For me, the most interesting part of that keynote was the stuff about batteries. I think it’s safe to predict that similar long-life, non-replacable custom batteries will be appearing in the smaller Apple notebook computers in coming months.

Apple’s gone to great lengths to push this battery idea. Witness the expensively-produced video on the MacBook Pro page, that spends a lot of time explaining why it had to be this way. This shows that Apple expected some backlash.

The negative feelings on this issue runs deeper, though, thanks to a problem that’s industry-wide, not just confined to Infinite Loop.

The big hardware news from Macworld 2009 was not a new Mac mini, but rather an update to the 17″ MacBook Pro featuring the same precision aluminum unibody enclosure introduced on the MacBook and MacBook Pros unveiled in October. This new notebook features a built-in battery that Apple claims will deliver up to eight hours of use and up to 1,000 recharges, for more than three times the lifespan of conventional notebook batteries. This design innovation is sure to have people lining up in short order on either side of the Apple is Awesome / Apple is Evil divide.

The new 17-inch MacBook Pro has a high resolution LED-backlit display and the same large glass Multi-Touch trackpad introduced with the new MacBook family in October. In addition, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro includes state of the art NVIDIA graphics and the latest generation Intel Core 2 Duo mobile processors.

As part of what the company calls “the industry’s greenest notebook family”, the new 17-inch MacBook Pro is made of highly recyclable materials, meets stringent energy efficiency standards and is made without many of the harmful toxins found in other computers.

Follow the jump for availability, pricing and full feature information on the new 17″ MacBook Pro.

Apple announced several changes to the iTunes Store today. All four major music labels–Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels, now offer their music in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality, which the cmpany claims is virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings.

iTunes customers can also choose to download their favorite songs from what it calls the world’s largest music catalog directly onto their iPhone 3G over the 3G network just as they do with Wi-Fi today, for the same price as downloading to their computer.

And beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29, with most albums still priced at $9.99.

None of this is earthshattering or unexpected, in fact, these changes have been rumored to be in the works for months. Still, it’s always good to see movement onward and upward.

Who says Apple has to roll out groundbreaking new hardware products to keep life interesting? Though the tweaks to its 17″ MacBook Pro (described in a post above) are noteworthy, upgrades to iLife, iWork and iTunes may end up having more relevance for more Mac users than any hardware introduction could.

Well, at least until we finally get that Mac Tablet, but that’s a story for another day.

Follow after the jump for details on the software upgrades rolled out today.

The baked-in rumor news calls for a DRM-related shift in music pricing and portability on iTunes, an AT&T play for new revenues through “sanctioned” iPhone tethering plans, and yes, an upgraded Mac mini.

Phil Schiller’s Keynote is now less than two hours away and we’ll be down at San Francisco’s Moscone center throughout the day with live reports from the conference and our first impressions of what lies ahead for Apple and the Mac community.

Join us here and at Twitter for the latest frm Macworld 2009.

Ladies and gentlemen!

Take your seats! Blow your noses! Switch off your iPhones! The time is drawing near for the annual Exposition Of Wonder And Amazement that is: Macworld Expo!

Pray cease your wild applause, ladies and gentlemen. We are gathered to celebrate the ending of Another Round Of Mostly Incorrect Rumors, and to cheer on our Leader, His Lordship Steve of Jobs, as he fails to take the Stage of Reality Distortion and instead leaves the task to his minion, Phil “Igor” Schiller.

But before we embark on this journey of discovery, let us enjoy a few brief moments of quiet and calm. Let us take this opportunity to revel in some of the rumors and gossips that have slaked our thirst for actual Apple product news in recent weeks:

• iWork as a cloud app? I don’t think so. Well, iMovie then. Whaaaa? I can really see my ISP going crazy happy about people editing movie files over their pipes. More crazy than happy, though.
• iPhoto as an iPhone app? My iPhone crashes often enough as it is…
• How about a Red iPhone? I fear not with that font, dear friends, not with that font
• Updated Mac minis? Yes! Yes please!

Iiiiiin short: lots of waffle and claptrap. Some of it might even turn out to be true. Or so vague in the first instance that even the slightest mention of a product will validate the rumor.

Even though Steve won’t be on stage (which, as Leander has pointed out, isn’t necessarily a bad thing), the advice this year is the same as the advice every other year: sit back, relax, spend Tuesday with your loved ones, and worry about the keynote later. You can be sure that it will be summarized on one or two web sites. We might even mention it here.

Oh, and don’t buy any new Macs between now and tomorrow. But you knew that already.

(Picture: trialsanderrors, under CC License.)

Phil Schiller at a WWDC beerbash. Photo by Graham Ballantyne (CC license).

I’m actually looking forward to Phil Schiller’s keynote on Tuesday for three reasons:

1. He is genuinely funny. He’s been great in keynotes past, and he can easily carry a whole keynote alone. See Charles Arthur’s report from Paris Macworld in 2004, after Schiller stepped in for Jobs. The big surprise? Schiller was a gas: The dramatic news from the Apple Expo: Phil Schiller is *funny*!

2. He’s not Steve Jobs. He’s not perfect like Steve Jobs. He seems like a regular guy and a bit of a schlub — and I like that. Here he is at a programmer’s beer bash — the kind of event you could NEVER imagine Jobs attending.

3. He’ll deliver a great “One Last Thing.” Because of the controversy and disappointment surrounding the speech, Phil must go out on a high note. I’m hoping for a surprise appearance from Steve Jobs. Hopefully he won’t announce his retirement from Apple.

Phil Schiller has a posse; CC photo by JL! who snapped the poster near his office — no other info is given.

iPhone snap of a Macworld banner by Steve Rhodes (CC licensed).

Here’s some useful links for this week’s Macworld:

iMacworld iPhone app — IDG has a handy-looking show guide for the iPhone (I haven’t tried it yet). The app, iMacworld, includes exhibitors, products and conference sessions. You can download the application here.

Hess Memorial Events List — The Hess Memorial Events List (named after the late MacWeek editor Robert Hess and maintained by Ilene Hoffman) is probably the most comprehensive list of happenings, but unfortunately isn’t in a calendar friendly format.

#Macworld and MWSF 09 on Twitter — The Twitter hashtag for this year’s Macworld is a battle between #Macworld and #mwsf09. Try also Macworld

Macworld on FriendFeed

Macworld on Upcoming.org

Macworld on SocialCalendario

Macworld 2009 on Flickr

Several links via Macworldbound.com — “The Definitive Guide to Macworld for First-timers.”

Image © 2008 Victor Anselme

Brazilian designer and Apple fan Victor Anselme has a few ideas about how the Mac mini might evolve into a useful and desirable product.

From his description, helpfully translated by Google from the original Portuguese, as amended by your humble correspondent:

The case would be done in mostly aluminum; the largest piece would be the top along with the four sides. The bottom is black plastic similar to the back of the iMac, with a lever here to open the case, enabling easy upgrades to memory or the hard drive.

Air circulation is much higher now and is pretty much like the MacBook Pro, and this Mac Mini now comes with internal speakers.

In keeping with configuration of new Apple products the Mac mini will no longer support FireWire (note: say it isn’t so, Victor!) and the new Mini Display Port is used for output of digital audio and video.

iPhoneSavior reported on Anselme’s concept the other day, noting it appears inspired by a recent Mac Rumors report showing evidence that a refreshed Mac Mini would be based on the NVIDIA MCP79 chipset.

Along with rumors of an iPhone Nano, detailed below, talk of a refreshed Mac mini and iMac, as well as a 32GB iPhone 3G dominate pre-Macworld chatter leading up to the actual event kickoff on January 5.

What would an impending Apple-oriented convention be without some rumor-mongering to pique the interest of the faithful and get tongues a wagging? Ahead of Macworld 2009, slated for January 5 – 9 at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, one of the more persistent rumors has involved the supposed announcement of a smaller form-factor iPhone, dubbed the iPhone Nano.

TUAW reported an interesting escalation of the iPhone Nano rumor Monday, showing evidence of an iPhone Nano case being marketed by XSKN, a company that began selling iPhone 3G cases in mid-May of 2008, almost 2 months prior to Apple’s release of the phone. In early September, XSKN was showing off new 4th Generation iPod nano cases, prior to the Let’s Rock event where they were officially unveiled.

As you can see from the screen shot I captured tonight from the XSKN website, the company is taking orders for cases for a product called iPhone Nano.

If that’s not enough to whet your whistle, how about the photo, below, which someone submitted late Monday on the down-low to MacRumors.

Wonder if Phil Schiller will use the traditional “one more thing” phrase on this item or if perhaps Apple has something else up its sleeve.

Via TUAW, MacRumors

Phil Schiller, watch out. Some people are so annoyed at Apple’s decision to quit the Macworld Expo that they are planning a humiliating revenge.

Lesa Snider King loves Macworld so much that she’s declared herself “mad at Apple” with a brand new call to arms web site: Silent Keynote.

“Apple is sending a message to the entire community–professionals, hobbyists, media, Mac User Groups, and even IDG themselves–that they care nothing for the community who supported them through thick and thin,” she declares.

And so: “If you’re attending the Macworld Expo keynote on Tuesday, Jan. 6, you can send a message to Apple by remaining silent during the 2009 keynote. While Phil Schiller is on the stage, let there be no applause, no whistling… just utter and complete silence.”

What do you think of Lesa’s plan? Will you join her in silent protest? If you do, and Apple DOES finally unveil that updated Newton-Pippin-Tablet-iPhone crossover that everyone’s been going on about for so long, how will you manage to contain yourself?

I can’t help thinking that Lesa’s just shooting herself in the foot here. By announcing that it will quit Macworld, Apple has already made clear that it doesn’t care what Macworld attendees think. It’s going to do its own thing, regardless.

(Photo used under Creative Commons license: thanks kradlum.)

Politics, not platelets, are why Steve Jobs is turning over the Keynote responsibility to Phil Schiller at next month’s Macworld Conference & Expo, according to CNBC correspondent Jim Goldman.

Citing “sources inside the company,” Goldman writes that Jobs’ demurral from the Keynote address for Apple’s last appearance at the venerable trade show in San Francisco is assuredly not a product of any inability on his part to perform for health reasons, but is rather a result of the company’s “trying to separate itself from Macworld for some time.” Amid the growing trend of big companies scaling back participation in traditional trade shows world wide, Apple has also in recent years taken the lead in producing its own product release events, such as the ones that introduced the company’s new iPods this summer and new notebook computers in the fall.

Apple also directly reaches millions of visitors who come weekly to its growing chain of world-wide retail stores, and millions more who receive the company’s carefully designed and controlled messaging through visits to the company’s iTunes stores.

Knowing how the Apple-interested universe’s collective pulse begins to race with every inkling of Jobs’ mortality, it’s no surprise to see Monday’s announcement generate lots of speculation and extra volatility in the movement of the company’s stock price. As Goldman writes, however, the party to be concerned about is not Jobs, and not Apple, but Macworld. For some time now it’s been fashionable to imagine scenarios about Apple in the inevitable post-Jobs era. But will there even be a Macworld in the post-Apple era?

Apple’s decision not to attend Macworld might mean any of the following:

• – Yeah, maybe Steve Jobs is really ill. It’s none of our business, though
• – Apple no longer wishes to indulge the trade show industry
• – Apple would rather present stuff on its own agenda, to its own timetable, when there is stuff ready to present. And if it wishes to hire a big room in which to do so, it will certainly have the money to do that
• – Apple would rather devote itself to WWDC
• – Perhaps, given the success of the iPhone, Apple would rather devote its energies to publicising and marketing the iPhone and the App Store

What Apple’s decision not to attend Macworld might NOT mean:

• – All of the above
• – Any other speculation you read elsewhere today

Meanwhile, keep injecting the rumor sites if that’s what grabs you. New Mac minis! Some kind of netbook! iPhones on skis! Yeah yeah yeah; it’s all just hot air and page impressions until Phil Schiller stands on that stage. And even after that, it’ll mostly be page impressions.