All credit goes to YouTube user RTMorasonMD. He has a lot of HD concert vids. Be sure to go thank him if you watch.

What I really wanted to do was get some quick thoughts pounded out about today’s announcements specifically, because I think this time around is different for Apple. Over the last ten years (holy cow!) that I’ve been watching the Apple events, it’s usually gone something like this:

• Jobs: Surprise! Check this out!
• Me: I need that. I get it. I want it. Who wouldn’t want that?
• Jobs: Exactly. Now give me all of your money.

That is to say, Apple has almost always announced products that are very obviously desirable to me. I say almost because there have been a few products that didn’t quite hit the mark in terms of desirability for me, but I got why they might be desirable. (The Apple TV, for example.) The Apple tablet, however, is different.

The thing about the tablet device (based on what information is available so far) is that it fits in between two products that I know very well and happen to love, which are the iPhone and the MacBook Pro lineup. I use both of these products all day every day and I can’t say that I’ve ever thought I needed something in between them. It seems I’m not alone as almost every comment I’ve read on message boards, twitter, etc. indicate that people want Apple to convince them that they need one. I’m not so sure that can happen. I do see the potential for a tablet. I’ve at least come around to that. Be it as an “eReader”, a netbook substitute or whatever, there are lots of things a tablet could do. I’m just not sure potential is enough to make for the next big Apple revolution. The Apple TV has potential, but it’s still a niche product. To me the tablet’s functionality isn’t as obvious as the iMac, the iPod or the iPhone was. That’s not to say that Apple can’t announce and sell a bajillion of them. Still, today feels different. On the other hand, Apple has announced things out of the blue in the past and been very successful and taking me (and many others, it seems) from “potential” to “ohhh. That’s why I’d need that.” So, don’t get me wrong. I’m not totally down on the tablet. I’m just going to need some convincing, and that’s not usually the case for me with Apple.

As the rumors start to congeal a bit, I have become more skeptical again. If Engadget’s $800 w/ a Verizon contract (and $1k without) price point is accurate, I think this is a rare miss for Apple. It is a miss that would make sense, however, as Apple has sorely missed on price points in the past. The PowerMac G4 Cube is the best example of that. It was a great product but the price point was so far off that it ended up being killed completely. I don’t think that will happen to the tablet since Jobs is supposedly calling it the most important product of his life. However, I could see them having to revise the price point after slow sales. That’s only speculation based on a single source reporting to a gadget blog, however.

Then there’s the iPhone. If a tablet is released (which seems like a sure thing now), then we’ll undoubtedly see an update to the iPhone version of Mac OS X since that’s almost certainly what the tablet will be based off of. Updates are good and there are many features that I’d like to see implemented. I’ve seen a lot of lists with suggestions, but I think Ars Technica’s list did the best job of hitting some of my wants.

What the iPhone really needs is multiple carriers. I think that’s an inevitability at this point given the way AT&T has responded to their customer’s complaints about their network (they haven’t), but I’m not sure how that’d go right now. The most credible rumor I’ve seen is that Apple will announce availability on T-Mobile immediately and Verizon and Sprint in the Fall. This makes sense to me since the existing iPhone hardware is GSM-based and so is T-Mobile’s network. It wouldn’t require a hardware change for them. (Although I do think T-Mobile uses a frequency for their 3G services that isn’t compatible with the iPhone’s radio, so I’m not positive on the hardware change.) That plan would give Apple sometime until just before the Christmas season to announce new iPhone hardware. On the other hand, T-Mobile’s coverage is worse than AT&T (which is horrible. Sorry, Luke Wilson) and that doesn’t really solve any of their user complaints. I know that I won’t be happy until the iPhone hits Verizon’s network. As a former Alltel customer I feel quite sure of the superiority of Verizon’s coverage. So, for me, it’s CDMA or die. If Apple is waiting for a Verizon/AT&T/T-Mobile LTE launch before building new hardware, however, new hardware may be a while off. Regardless of what they do in terms of hardware, I sure hope they’ll not be secretive about their roadmap for multiple carriers. I want to hear that an iPhone is coming to Verizon. Today or in the Fall, I don’t care. It needs to happen. I can’t deal with the two lousy GSM networks in the U.S.

I’ve heard rumors that iLife will be updated today. Meh. I still don’t even have the latest version of that installed, so I’m obviously not hugely excited about that (even though it is great software). I’d like to see MacBooks bumped to the new Intel processors but I suspect that’ll be a non-announcement change in the next couple of weeks instead. I can’t imagine changes to any other products in their lineup, but Jobs does like to pull out a surprise from time to time so we’ll see.

Having said all of that, I’m ready. I’m an Apple fanboy (to an extent) and there’s no getting around that. So bring it on, El Jobso. Show me what you’ve got.

Cristin has posted all of the photos here.

I realize and understand that people who were once friends may no longer be. I realize and understand that for some people there is nothing I could ever say that would be acceptable for them to hear. Not even naming the tea that I’m having with my breakfast would be a welcomed piece of information. At the same time, I know that some people don’t want to deal with the awkwardness of blocking/un-friending/privacy-controlling so they avoid it. I also know that there are probably some people I should limit my exposure to for the sake of being able to breathe.

So, I’m hitting the social network reset button. I’m not mad at anyone and I don’t mean this to be offensive or passive-agressive. I’m just starting over because I don’t want to stop using these tools as a part of my life and I want to give everyone a chance to do the same (start over, that is) with no hard feelings. If you don’t want to follow me on twitter again or re-friend me on Facebook, that is perfectly fine. This is not my way of testing everyone. If I deny your request, please try to understand and not be offended. I’m still adapting to the new social landscape around me. Feel free to contact me about that offline if you’d like to talk more about it.

Again, I mean no offense or for anyone to have hard feelings over this. It’s just something that seems like a necessary adjustment going forward as I plan to continue to live my life online.

Quicksilver – Quicksilver is a hard app to pin down. It’s an application launcher, a text editor, a universal shortcut machine and much more. I primarily use it as an application launcher but I’m quite addicted to being able to add custom keyboard triggers for just about anything. Let me explain “application launcher” first. By pressing a set of keys (Command + Space, in my case) I make the main Quicksilver window pop up on the screen. From there I begin typing the name of the application (or file) that I want. Within two or three keystrokes, Quicksilver has landed on the correct one and I hit enter to launch. This is far more efficient than using the mouse to click on an icon in the dock or navigating in the Finder to an application I rarely use. In fact, because of Quicksilver my dock has been hidden for over two years now. I still use it, but it doesn’t need to be on the screen at all times anymore. Quicksilver is SO much more than an application launcher, however. I couldn’t begin to cover it all here. For more on it, I suggest watching this episode of the MacBreak podcast. A final note on Quicksilver. The developer of the application stopped work on it prior to the release of Snow Leopard. Fortunately it is an open source project and a group has picked up development of the app. Build B56a7 works well in Snow Leopard. Download it for free here.

Adium – I cannot say enough good things about Adium or the folks who develop it. It is very rare that I encounter an application I feel gets everything right, but Adium has always felt that way. Adium is an instant messaging application that supports multiple services. Actually, it supports every service. (Except for one.) Covering all of the services available out there is a big deal, but that’s not what makes Adium awesome. What really seals it are the number of configurable options. You can make the interface as simple or as complex as you’d like. The look is completely customizable. There are options for everything, but it’s not overwhelming. Adium is about as perfect as they come to me. Download it for free here.

SpamSieve – Spam is pretty much the worst part of the Internet. (Well, aside from The Huffington Post.) It’s annoying and, at it’s worst, can make email almost unusable. Hosted services (like Gmail, Yahoo, etc.) and most e-mail client applications have some sort of spam filtering, but I’ve always found it to be lacking. SpamSieve has fixed that for me. SpamSieve is a Bayesian filtering plugin that works for most mail applications available for Mac OS X. I’ve been using it for a little over a year now and I can say without hesitation that I never think about spam anymore. Combined with SpamAssassin on my mail server, I live in a spam-free world and it is wonderful. SpamSieve is available for $30 and is worth every penny, in my opinion. Download it here.

Letterbox Plugin for Apple Mail – This plugin enables a three-column widescreen view for Apple Mail. That’s it. It’s simple, it works and there is absolutely no reason it should exist. Come on, Apple. Every mail application out there has this view and once you install this plugin, it’s obvious that Mail should too. If you use mail and have a widescreen display (and who doesn’t on a Mac?), you should be using this. The Letterbox plugin for Apple Mail is free. Download it here.

Mail Unread Menu – A simple application that adds an icon to the menu bar for notification of new mail. If you’re using a hidden dock like me, this is a must. Otherwise you’re relying on audible notifications for new mail, which is not always the best idea. Mail Unread Menu is free. Download it here.

Little Snitch – Little Snitch is a powerful outbound firewall. Why would you care about firewalling your outbound traffic? Malware. Yes, I said the bad word. Yes, I am a Mac user. While I have yet to encounter a piece of malware in the use of Mac OS X and while I don’t run any anti-virus software, I am not naive. At some point someone is going to try to slip something past me. I want to know when my computer communicates with the outside world and Little Snitch lets me manage that. When a process attempts an outbound connection a pop-up is displayed with options for how to manage traffic from that process. You can set rules to permanently allow your known good traffic from the applications you use. It usually takes two or three days of average use to work your way through those rules. After that, you’ll only get a pop-up if something new attempts an outbound connection. In theory, this should mean any malware trying to sneak something past you would be caught by Little Snitch. There’s a little more to this app than just that, but that’s the gist of it. Little Snitch is free to try and $29.95 to buy. Download it here.

Tweetie for Mac – I know that right now it’s hard to believe if you follow me there, but I do use Twitter. I like it quite a lot, actually and Tweetie is my preferred client. It’s simple, clean and fast. It’s not buggy and it does the job. I like it. I do have to give a nod to Nambu for it’s feature set, but the stability just isn’t there for me to use it daily yet. I’ve fast become a Tweetie fan. Additionally I have to mention Tweetie 2 for the iPhone. It is, hands down, the best iPhone client out there. If you’ve got an iPhone, you should definitely pick it up. Tweetie for Mac is free with ad support or $19.95 to run without ads. Download it here.

Safari AdBlock – Suck the ads out of websites and make better use of your bandwidth. Safari AdBlock is a simple plugin that does exactly what it should. You can add custom filters or whitelists in a tab that gets added to the Safari preferences menu. Another must-have on a Mac, in my opinion.Download it here.

These are the apps I absolutely can’t live without. A few others should get mentions here. In particular I’m a big fan of Transmit (for SFTP) and Transmission (for BitTorrent). They’re great apps but I could live without them, so I’ll just leave it at that. Hopefully there’s something in this list that’s new and useful to you. I’d love to hear of any apps I didn’t list that you think are necessities on the Mac. Share, please.

Yes, I stopped and helped him. I had to record it, though. It was too cute and funny.

I’ll be back someday.