Here's my two cents on some of the Macworld announcements:

iTunes 3 and iPod - I'm most excited about the "Smart Playlist" feature in conjuction with the new ratings, play count, and last played additions. Constantly changing playlists is a subtle, but very useful idea. I never managed to make a traditional playlist, as it was too tedious with 1200+ plus songs to pick from. Now I can easily setup a multitude of playlists to suit my every whim: top 25 most recently played, top 25 most played, least played, highest rated, highest rated zither music. You name it. It's just plain cool.

iCal and iPod - iCal looks to be a slick little app and I'm anxious to check it out. I look forward to having my calendar on my iPod. I am curious about the format of the calendars and whether they could be easily exported for those poor souls without a Mac. The ability to share calendars won't do much good if they can only be shared with other Mac users.

.Mac - It seems more than a few people are ticked that Apple has started charging for their web services. I'm not one of them, but I do feel Apple may have dropped the ball on this one. Many have indicated that Apple pushed iTools on the premise that it was "free email for life". I personally don't remember reading anything like that, but iTools wasn't really on my radar. If Apple did make statements to that effect then they have an obligation to provide free email to, at the very least, the people who already have an iTools account. It would score a few more points if they provided a basic free email account and a small amount of web space free for Mac owners. Then those people who want the extra features can pay for them.

What I didn't like about the announcement was the reason Jobs indicated for the switch to paid services. He basically said the other companies who provided these types of free services are now charging for them, so Mac will too. It just didn't come off very well.

Jaguar - It looks really sweet. They've added a ton of valuable features and performance upgrades. It's going to cost $129 no matter who you are. It seems to me that Apple should throw a bone to those folks who made the switch early and tried to convince their friends and family to do the same. I don't know, maybe $69 if you upgrade withing 30 days or a free .Mac account for two years.

All in all, I think Apple is on the right track if they can keep their "proprietary" leanings in check and continue to listen to their customers. I'm still happy I made "the switch" a few months ago and I sure don't miss Windows.

1:13:54 AM