A very good day to everyone!
Today we will have two lots of NZ-specific topics. Yes, no boring
antics of my traveling life and my dependency on Apple products today,
but true blue Kiwi Content!
"Why?" I hear you scream in astonishment. Well, the main reason is
that I'm back in NZ, which makes writing about the place much easier
than if you're hopping from one country to the other on the other side
of the world. (Two "other" in one sentence. I apologize humbly to the
members of the academic departments for the English language all around
the world, but I didn't manage to turn the sentence any other way.
Again, humble apologies.)
So, what happened? Well, Apple decided to spread the word a bit, and
so Renaissance Ltd. (which in fact is Apple NZ) organised an
Apple Roadshow to demonstrate to us the power of OS X (again?) and the
new machines.
The show had its premiere today in Dunedin, so I entered the
crappiest car ever and drove the 100 km down. Why in the world they
started the bloody thing at 12:30 and closed it at 18:00, when most of
their target group is at work, is unfortunately a complete mystery to
me. Why bother setting the thing up anyway?
Anyway, they began with a presentation of the new product lineup,
some cheeky Australian chappy telling us all about the benefits of
OS X (again?), and some kiwi bloke then showed us the new ads
(that's the old ads for you, the one with that basketball player and
Warwick Davies in the plane), which all of us of course already checked
out on the QuickTime site.
Then four people won prizes, and we were all invited to the
exhibition: ca 15 companies showing their Apple related merchandise,
and Apple showing off the new gear (unfortunately, apart from the 17" PowerBook). I have to
admit that I wasn't overwhelmed: The presentation was geared towards
the Classic/Windows user who still hadn't made the switch, and the
hardware presentation just stated technical facts every fan already
knew by heart.
Interestingly enough, the ca 200 strong audience seemed to consist
to 75% of gentlemen over the age of 65. The rest was made up of the
usual expected mix of nerds and designers (about the same as the London
Macintosh User Group). I always thought that Apple would attract a
younger audience, but, hey, I am not a spring chicken myself, so who am
I to complain...
One of the exhibitors was New Zealand's only Mac mag, MacGuide, which has the wonderful
endearing slogan. "All Mac. All Kiwi." The inside is colourful, well
designed, and geared mostly towards entry-level users who are still
wondering what to do with their shiny new machines. Some of the
nontechnical editorial content is pretty good, as the recent article on
use of Macs at Wanganui's School of Design.
Their sales manager was certainly a nice bloke and unashamedly proud
of their product. Unfortunately, there's nothing for the hard-core
user, but we normally get our news from Low End
Mac anyway, so nothing's really lost.
Now in it's second year, they print about 12,000 copies (pretty good
for a NZ only title) and have 1,300 subscribers. I certainly wish them
well, as a well written homegrown Mac title was just what this place
needed.
So all is not lost yet!
As promised, two Kiwi stories. Happy? If you have more issues you
want to see torn apart by my horrible English, go to the Pilum and tell me!
Cheers. 
