There is nothing like an Apple event to remind me why I started blogging. Hundreds of reporters will cover today’s events and it may seem that there is nothing more to be said. Indeed there is not; it’s all obvious. Turn-by-turn directions, expanding on Siri, cross-platform iMessages and retina displays on the laptop line are all things that have either been expected for awhile now or were so severely lacking that they were necessary. From the very first time I picked up an iPhone I was as dazzled as anyone else, but I immediately found the onboard maps a great disappointment. What seems like many years ago my last standard phone had been a Verizon Envy, and while I was willing to ditch the feel of a solid keyboard I genuinely missed the reliable VZ navigator that debuted on my old phone. Sure my new AT&T carrier eventually offered a fee-based navigation app, but this seemed no better than what I had before the supposedly smarter iPhone.

I am anxious to see if some of the other limitations with the current Google maps will be overcome when Apple launches their own integrated maps, in particular the ability to modify directions by dragging parts of the suggested route to new streets. On the other hand I am not at all excited about the thought of Apple flying over cities to develop 3D renderings of the urban landscape for what at least in its early days will amount to much pomp and less circumstance. On a real time navigator I value the safety afforded by a simplified interface, with timely and accurate spoken directions. I worry that too many enhancements may cause a driver to be dangerously more lost than just in space and time. The updates to Siri still seem like a novelty and if I really do need answers I will ask Wolfram. As of yet when I have queried the Apple voice assistant I have been dumbfounded that basic questions about the contents of my phone (address book information) could not be completed “at this time” because Siri must use the internet to get answers to what is quite literally in front of her. With plans to add her mechanical voice to the navigation system I do hope to see improvements in this space. I would like to think of Siri as my personal assistant and not an automated call center for every iOS owning geek vying for her attention.

Finally, I will say that two improvements to the laptop line are much welcome enhancements. No, not the screen quality or lack of DVD drive; these are the obvious apples. One thing that really has me excited are the documents in the cloud that will work on Apple’s office suite of word processing, presentation, and spreadsheet programs. Finally, a computer crash does not mean the end of one’s hard work. All documents will be automatically backed up. Forget about hooking up your TimeMachine or developing a domestic disaster recovery plan, the cloud approach makes it wireless, automatic, and off-site. Now I can stop chasing my wife around with a backup drive, worrying that her IP will melt away with a failed hard drive. The second major improvement is the solid state drive that Apple has has added to the laptop to replace the archaic hard drive technology of the old PC world. This new approach will not only make data access faster, but by dropping the weight of the traditional laptop Apple is beginning to blur the line between what is a computer and a mobile device.

Both the appeal and limitations of iOS devices have become demonstrably apparent as I have adopted them at home and office. If we are moving toward a post PC world, then the ability to create new content and manipulate complex data sets must be improved on the mobile interfaces of the future. Handling large spreadsheets like those being generated in our scientific fields is still not practical without a mouse and keyboard. To this end the convergence of slimmed down laptops, with iOS inspired interfaces and cloud based connections may allow the traditional computer to create a newly emerging mobile paradigm.