Hi there–long time no write. I’m only putting this in right now to sing the praises of my new 1 GB iPod shuffle.

Just when I thought there wasn’t anything else I needed from Apple, along came Macworld Expo SFO. Without even seeing Steve Jobs’ keynote address, I immediately placed an order for the stuff he touted. To wit:

• An iPod Shuffle. It’s totally cool! I’m still experimenting with the right way to balance my music shuffling out, but it sure is fun. It is small and sounds great. I anticipate that before the year’s out, it will become the latest “must have” fashion accessory for both Junior and Senior High School students, not to mention everyone else. It’s nice not having to worry about bumping it while the HD is accessing. I currently have about 275 tracks on it AND 128 MB leftover for data.
• iLife ’05. Though I’ve not yet truly delved into the new features of the suite, buying it was a no-brainer. I even got the “Family 5-pack” to share.
• iWork ’05. Now THIS is cool: Keynote was spiffy enough as it was (though, to be honest, I don’t do a lot of presentations from my PowerBook), but the new Pages software is AMAZING! It has prompted me to publish a personal newsletter just to put it to work (BTW, if you’re friends or family, email me and I’ll make sure you get a copy and/or access to the website where I post it). It is a brilliant example of Apple’s design elegance along with the simplicity of use the belies the incredible power it holds. This is the way document creation SHOULD be done.

Anyway, they just announced PowerBook “speed bumps” today, but I don’t know if I’ll trade up or not. I’m actually seriously eyeing a Mac Mini to connect to my plasma TV as an iTunes and later movie “jukebox”.