I just watched the keynote presentation from last month's Apple WWDC, which, for me, is what I imagine it is like for Catholics who actually like the Pope* to watch him give Easter Mass at the Vatican for Catholics. (*Footnote: I know primarily "recovering Catholics.") And I'm not even especially fanatical: while I had an Apple clone in my youth, I didn't, um, convert as an adult until OS X, because in my heart of hearts I will love UNIX forever, and always had a crush on NeXTStep, and that is what it is under the shiny silver frosting.
Anyway, this was the keynote that crossed the line from 'I love these people who know that computers are a means to an end, and they are focused on delivering that end' to 'holy crap, I lived long enough to see the future.'
They keynote is probably longer than Easter mass, no one was wearing funny hats, and the backdrop wasn't palatial. But the fact that Apple is the first to say, 'yes, actually, if you take a photo on your phone, our infrastructure can put it on all of your other net-connected devices almost simultaneously without you even thinking about it, and we'll do the same with your documents, and anything else you're working on...' Not a camera maker, not a website, not a lifestyle service, but Apple... THEY HAVE EXCEEDED MY EXPECTATIONS.
http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/11piubpwiqubf06/event/
