There is a certain irony in coming from Thailand to San Francisco and then suffering food poisoning: mild only, but discomforting nonetheless; and this also meant that instead of heading down to MacWorld on Tuesday afternoon after writing the article for the Bangkok Post next week, I decided sleep was the better option.

It did not end there as, setting my alarm for 0700, I was awakened when the phone rang: a wrong number, of course, all the way from Thailand. Out of the window I could see people moving, so I grabbed some clothes as the Starbucks across the road would provide my breakfast. Just as I left, I checked the time. Not 0700, but 0330: my brain had registered the phone call as the alarm. I checked some email and laid down again.

After breakfast of fruit, coffee and a heavy doughnut, I was better prepared for the day and met our Apple minder down in the lobby, with media people from Malaysia and the Philippines. We were going for breakfast. I limited this to orange juice, coffee and toast. The Philippines media crew had a car -- a truck -- so we had a ride down to the Moscone Center. A shame really as the sun was shining and it would have done some good.

When I entered the exhibition hall, I stopped for a moment to get the feel of things and it was pretty apparent that the hall was almost empty of show-goers. I checked the time and put this down to the early hour. As it turned out, that was a good call as within 30 minutes, we could hardly move.

Taking the centre is the Apple booth -- but booth is a word that hardly does justice to the displays, computers, personnel and stage that take up the space. It looked empty early, but when the folks came in, there was not a seat in the house and standing room was a little tight round the stage and hardware displays too.

I wanted to sweep round the hall a couple of times, taking a few pictures, to see what was what, but I also had a shopping list that I could think about as I made the tour. There was a fair amount of financial software it seemed, while medical software was not evident unlike last year. Mind you, I was only in the north hall, leaving the south hall for another day.

While Canon had taken a booth right by one of the entrances, Nikon, which I was looking for, was a little further in and to the left. A nice clean display area with lenses and cameras prominent, and staff smartly dressed in black. I guess I must have brought my Thai invisibility cloak with me as I stood in front of two Nikon staff while they chatted away, my own Nikon round my neck. After what seemed an uncomfortably long time, one looked up and offered to help. I was after the cable remote for my camera. Yes we do them, no we don't have them with us, try the dealer: he indicated a camera dealer's booth some distance away and handed me the catalogue. I had no luck at the second booth: yes we have these, but we didn't bring any today.

I had the same luck with Maccally. I was after an iPod touch battery that can be added on to supplement the device's own. What they had was a different unit to what I had seen and considerably more expensive.

Bit by bit it trickles down that, although these large shows are generators of ideas, what is the point if I cannot find anything, or some exhibitors are not interested? Maybe Apple is ahead of the curve and MacWorld has run its time.

This year, disappointingly, there was to be no product briefing. I guess Apple figured that there was not much in the way of a product to show us, so we can see all we need to see out in the hall. While the double line of iMacs, each with its own black-attired attendant was impressive, I was after the 17" unibody MacBook Pro that had just been announced.

I found these at two ends of the notebook display section: the glossy screen and the matte one together. There was a crowd but the two computers were dominated by a couple of senior citizens, one of whom looked like Donald Rumsfeld. They were like a double act and having a great time with the Apple staff there. Others tried to get a look in but this pair, who may have been farmers or oil executives on vacation, stayed on. I did see one chance of a shot at the side with the ports, one a 17" MB Pro with the matte screen, but the moment I had my camera in focus, the Apple assistant, decided to straighten it up and I lost the shot.

I was surprised by the number of senior citizens attending the show and not just as people going to a show by default -- because it is there -- most were actively interested in the products displayed.

Normally I don't mind people walking into shots I am taking. I thank those who do stop, and wave people on: it is their show, not mine. I was patient, but this time it was running thin, so I tried the other end where a charming lady held the MacBook Pro at any angle I asked for and gave me all the time I wanted.

While getting those shots a young Californian, from Oakley, spotted the media badge I was wearing and was taken aback that I had come all the way from Thailand. I explained about the freelance aspect and the way Apple covers the trip and then he asked me about the Keynote. With 24 hours to reflect on this, I am still happy with the way Phil Schiller put his head on the line and it is clearer that the thin offerings he had to play with are part of a strategy: this format of show and Keynote is all very well but it restricts Apple to coming up with a major product at a time of year when there are other things going on.

iLife and iWork will have been in development for months, while the 17" was almost a given and required little development. The real genius is the battery: again something that has almost certainly had a long gestation and is a safe technology.

I found the Lacie booth, which was another of my shopping list items. I had the Porsche Design 250G hard disk a while back and it is full, so I need a second disk and missed getting one last year. Invisibility was gone for a moment and the charming young lady spotted my badge as I reached for the product list and rushed for a media pack - a CDROM with information that I shall digest back in the Land of Smiles.

The replacement for the Porsche is a design by Neil Poulton and there is also a smaller disk by Sam Hecht. It was the Neil Poulton one at $99 (for the show) I wanted. These are more than double in Bangkok. Sad to say, they were not selling at the show and suggested I try the Apple store. When I did later, that was not available and they had the Sam Hecht ones with 320G capacity, or a more robust disk at $159 which is still a lot cheaper than home.

As I carried on, I continued to snap away with the camera and I have put online a selection of images.

Apart from the LaCie booth a couple of others stuck out. I was most impressed with the booth run by AssistiveWare and intend to have an in-depth look at the products at a later stage.

The company produces Assistive Technology for Mac OS X and this is software that helps those with disabilities, particularly vision and physical impairments. There are combinations of touch screen and stylus, a camera that reflects off the forehead to position a cursor -- the user wears a small reflective patch low on the forehead -- and a hockey-puck sized device that a user clicks to select actions on the screen.

The languages that can be used are almost totally European currently. Thai is unsurprisingly not included, but nor is Chinese. An older couple (you see what I mean about seniors actively getting into the exhibition?) asked about this. Dr. David Niemeijer, Chief Technology Officer of the company answered this and many other questions while showing me (and the couple) the various options and languages that are available. He also directed me to some online videos which are available as podcasts or as downloads. He also told me there were some available on YouTube. They are also in the iTunes store.

I would direct anyone interested in these videos to the pair I viewed: episode 4, "One thumb to rule them all" which shows Mike Phillips, a gamer and freelance writer who can only use his thumb; and episode 8, "Head Designed", in which we see Giesbert Nijhuis who is paralyzed from the neck down due to a spinal cord injury. The speed with which both of these are able to create on their computers is amazing. I commented to Dr. Niemeijer that the videos were of people who probably had far more creative ideas than me. He agreed, saying that this technology went some of the way to set them free from their injuries. We have come a long way. In my childhood I remember people like David and they would have been left alone unable to communicate.

I also saw Moshi, a company partly based in California and part in Taiwan, whose beautifully-designed card reader I use almost every day, were in attendance. They had the card reader as well as a sleek cooler for notebooks and some lovely covers for the iPhone, called the iGlaze.

A lot of covers and attachment for the iPhone were available in the show, perhaps most notably from iSkin, whose booth was restful on the eyes while the products for iPhones and iPods were similarly tasteful. Even the catalogue was nicely done. The website was a little slow, but itself is worth a look for its visual appeal. I am going to have a second look at their earbuds.

One stall that was packed out was Dr. Bott's and they were selling products like hotcakes. Just around the back (or the front if you come from another direction) were a half dozen or so smaller exhibitors' booths and as I neared the first, I was attracted by the patter -- something I have never seen before. Actually it was something I had seen before from Its About Time products, and reviewed in May 2007. An interactive form of instruction with a moving demonstration of any parts of OS X being demonstrated for Switchers, with the instructor (whose face I recognised) speaking in a window at the top left. The product has been much updated and there is also an IPhone instruction module.

As the afternoon began to take hold, I thought it was about time to head back to the hotel, via the Apple store -- most helpful even if they did not have quite what I wanted.

As I made my way up the hill, I called in at Nieman Marcus looking for a brand of socks I had bought when I lived in the US years ago: no luck. Round the corner, was a trade dispute: a few men with placards and a massive blow up "fat cat" squeezing a working man. Carpenters this time, while in the streets here are almost as many beggars as one finds in Bangkok's tourist areas.

Tomorrow is another day.

A selection of images from the show.