I downloaded the iPhone 2.2 update today, after a few weeks of avoiding it. The upgrade from 1.0 to 1.1 blew away my playlists early this year, but Apple has made the update process safer now. The new level of assurance arrived at about the same time as the Apple iTunes App Store opened. What a coincidence.

The 2.2 update works on my iPod Touch, of course, with the exception of that Google Maps Street View wizardry. On a Touch this would be pretty meaningless unless you were next to a Wi-Fi access point.  I don’t use Google Maps on the Touch for just this reason. But my Touch ownership is sometimes just an audition for the iPhone in my future, once my scruffy-but-brave Nokia 3210 gives out. Maybe by the time an iPhone arrives Maps will be even better. It’s getting mixed reviews over at TidBits.

The biggest surprise so far of the upgrade has been its size. 248MB, I kid you not, a quarter-gig. Apple has had OS X updates that have been smaller. It took the better part of 15 minutes to get off the wireless network here at Bites HQ. The smartest way to cut down this time is to plug the Touch or iPhone into a wired Mac to get the fastest download rate.

After more than 25 years of computer conference press coverage, I’m just now approved for only my fourth MacWorld. But even as I line up my friend’s spare bedroom in the Bay Area suburbs for Jan. 6-9, it looks like Adobe won’t be bedding down at the annual Mac mecca.

There’s a report up on Daring Fireball that Belkin has decided to skip the show next month, too. Veterans of the Macworld experience recall the days when the massive Moscone Center trade show floors were not overrun by iPod accessory outlets. So maybe Belkin won’t be missed quite as much. But Adobe? I remember seeing a demo of the company’s sound editing application at my first MacWorld, every single toggle and pull-down and tabbed preference available for a guided tour by one of the development engineers. Adobe displayed it all on a 35-inch monitor under a glass-topped table. Read the rest of this entry »