The best thing about Apple events isn't whatever they've announced. It's the after-party, which is kinda like a Christmas-party-slash-reunion, but without the crushing holiday depression and teeth-gnashing. Everybody's actually happy. And it's great to see all of our friends.
It was the perfect kind of post-explosion gathering: Low key, but vibrant. Of course, everybody was buzzing about the iPad, and what it meant for our futures as prickly little media people. Lots of people we love, respect and just plain like drinking with dropped by, like: David Carr from the NYT. Maximum PC's recently departed EIC Will Smith (not that one). Noah, from Fast Company—and before, Gizmodo and Gawker. From Wired, Brian X. Chen, Mark McClusky, Adam Rogers and Danny Dumas, along with Kourosh Karimkhany, from CondeNet. Leander Kahney, of Inside Steve's Brain fame and of course, Cult of Mac. Owen Thomas, perhaps the definitive Valleywag, now at NBC Bay Area. Megan McCarthy, another Valleywag alum, now at Techmeme—and Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera. Popular Science's John Mahoney and Bonnier's Sara Ohrvall. Ed Baig, from USA Today. Michael Gartenberg, analyst and tech columnist extraordinaire, along with Ross Miller, from Engadget. UberGizmo's Hubert and Eliane. Mark Spoonauer, Laptop's el capitano. Erica Ogg from Cnet. And many, many more, though I didn't get to talk to them all, since I got pretty engrossed in some conversations, which was, thankfully, blissfully possible, thanks to the general excellence of the venue, barring a few horrible misfires with the DJ's music selection. But hey, we lived.
Anyways, that's why I'm looking forward to the next Apple event—for everything that happens after it.