We'll always have Paris

Usergland will be in the French capital from Monday 19th September for the Apple Expo, so expect some postings from the ever-delighful rive gauche. Actually the Apple Expo is just my excuse, if one is necessary, for spending some time in Paris on, an at minimum, annual basis. This year's Expo is gearing up (if the media is to be believed) to be a bit of a damp squib, with little new to announce, a way to go to the Intel-based Macs & Leopard (and they won't be talking transitions at a consumer show), the big iPod announcements done in SF this week, and (shockingly) no keynote. I'll be wearing my 'K' marked Expo badge as a sign of silent protest. So what is there to look forward to? Well the big thing for most folks will be hands-on time with the iPod nano (mine has shipped, I'll review it here soon), the beginnings of an ecosystem of nano accessories (Paris last year was one big fashion show for the iPod), and most likely the European launch of the Motorola ROKR E1 with iTunes. While I'm not the market for this phone, and I'm not a fan of Moto's kit (ok the RAZR is cool from an industrial design perspective, but the UI still stinks) it's the iTunes integration (and the licensing of Apple's DRM) that makes this an important move. It's a fair bet we'll see some new moves on the pro software side, and there's an outside chance of a final increment on the G4 PowerBooks. There's almost no chance of a G5 Mac mini, though a space on my shelf awaits one, and I fancy pairing it with one of these Sony TV tuner/monitors, unless anyone can tell me a good reason why I shouldn't. Entirely co-incidentally, the fantastic 7" Cinema is holding a French-themed night in Birmingham the following week (27 Sept), and I'm hoping for a chance to interview some of the contributing film-makers for Radio Usergland while I'm in Paris. We'll also be teaming up with Ian Francis and the 7" team to bring some exciting content to the podcast on a regular basis, beginning in October. Stay tuned, and if anyone wants to hook up in Paris during the Apple Expo, let me know here.

Technorati Tags: Apple, iPod, Paris, Macintosh, Film, technology