Macworld 2010: A Technology Showcase

Photo Credit: Evan Peairs

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Written by Evan Peairs

Macworld 2010 was a great success, even though Apple didn’t have an official presence. Hundreds of companies catering to every taste and interest still came to advertise their various products.

The best product at Macworld for the hard-working student was definitely the Pulse Smartpen. This pen is an ordinary writing utensil- that doubles a compact computer that records all the sound it hears while you write. It comes with specially-printed paper that allows the pen to sense where it’s writing, so you can press buttons printed into the paper as well as upload your lecture notes to your computer. With two quick taps on any word written on the paper, the pen will play back the sounds it recorded at the time the words were written. However, at $150 it isn’t really within the average student’s price range.

Many headphone companies also attended, including Beats by Dre. Though they were very snazzy looking, I thought the sound quality wasn’t as good as Shure’s competing models, which sold for $200 less than Dre’s.

For the musically inclined, one booth featured a mixing program called Djay. This program acts as a virtual turntable, letting the user pick tracks out of their library to spin and scratch together with others. Along with it came the Spin attachment, an electronic turntable that lets you control the program with your hands directly with various sliders, discs, and buttons. Though it was very shiny and was easy to use, I don’t feel like it lived up to professional standards for a spin station. Also, it cost $250, also a bit out of the average reasonable price range.

Though Macworld didn’t quite live up to the previous years’ hype that Apple generated in its presence, it was still a success. People still flocked to see the new products, and it looks like Macworld wasn’t going away any time soon.