Evan Agee: Live from Richmond Indiana

Back in 1997 typographer David Siegel changed the way web designers made websites; some would say he even changed the web itself. He wrote about an emerging technique for pixel-perfect designs. The technique involved combining the <table> tag with sliced images and spacer gif images to achieve a design that was all but impossible back then. Web designers were overjoyed with this new found wisdom. They could now create web page designs that were as graphically rich and fluid as their traditional print media cousins. But as happy as the designers around the world were, David began to recognize the implications of his discovery.

In David’s “The Web Is Ruined and I Ruined It�? he writes:

“I ruined the Web by mixing chocolate and peanut butter so they could never become unmixed. I committed the hangable offense of mixing structure with presentation, and in HTML and SGML circles, that’s a big no-no. The reason the HTML purists never carried out their threats is not that they’re against violence, it’s that they know that if they kill me, someone else will rise to take my place. It seems that structure and presentation have been mixed forever, and the Web is in the fast lane of the road to Hell. Fortunately, nothing on the Web is what it seems, and “forever“ lasts only about six months.�?

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The 2007 Macworld conference and expo is happening next week and as any Apple user will tell you this is a big deal. Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple gives the keynote presentation in which he almost always introduces or announces new products. There’s no shortage of Macworld predictions out there. From the iPhone to the announced but yet unreleased iTV, there are plenty of predictions out there. But I thought of a couple of likely announcements that I haven’t seen elsewhere. So, at the risk of looking like a typical Apple fan boy, here are my 2007 Macworld predictions.

More color options for MacBook

Apple has made it clear over the last couple of years that it is trying to use its popular iPod to help and sell more of their computers, and to a large extent they’ve been very successful at doing so. In most cases this has meant MacBooks (previously iBook) that closely resemble the industrial design of the iPod. Smooth curves and glossy white as well as black finishes are obvious similarities on both the iPod and the MacBook. So, now that we’ve got a highly colorful assortment of iPod Nanos can we expect Apple to roll out new color options for the MacBooks? We’ll see! I have to admit that a lime green MacBook would almost put my MacBook lust over the edge.

iTunes Movie Store Rental Option

Apple didn’t exactly surprise the world when they announced the inclusion of movies on the iTunes store. There had been speculation for many months before the event that suggested Apple would do so. However, what was surprising was the lack of movie studio support and the absence of a rental option. Purchasing a digital copy of a movie is a great idea, but paying around $10 for it isn’t that enticing when many DVDs are nearly the same price.

I believe we’ll see a new DRM-controlled rental option on the iTunes movie store. You pay $3 or less for a digital download of the movie that will play as expected on your computer for 30 days or so. Then, after that period, the file (which can no longer be played) can be deleted.

Apple Video Tablet

Some time ago there was a big to-do made about Apple patent filings for what appeared to be a large tablet PC with a touch screen display that was around 8�? in size. After the TabletMac was all but dismissed some others started to speculate about the possibility of this being a new portable video device that Apple was planning to release. With Apple’s recent interest in the movie field this seems highly possible. It also sounds like a good companion to the iTV. Movies streamed wirelessly to your portable video screen anyone?

Some other well known predictions that I also agree with are:

• Video iPod with larger, widescreen display
• iPhone
• iTV release (finally)

However, those who have visited Apple’s website recently likely noted the new graphical feature which states “The first 30 years were just the beginning.�?. So could we all selling Apple’s announcements short?