It's been about a week since Steve's Expo keynote, but the echoes remain. The memories are still etched sharply in our minds: Steve sharing the stage with Noah Wyle, the ripple through the audience as they noted the addition of Disney content to QuickTime TV, the audible smiles (if that's possible) following the Sherlock 2 comparison shopping demo, the stunned silence during the Halo demo, the cheers of anticipation and the thunderous applause at that first public glimpse of the iBook. It was a heck of a show. But the funny thing is, one of the most vivid visual memories we've got is the mental picture of the people waiting in line to get into the conference hall. Last year when we showed up about an hour and a half early to get in line, there were only a handful of earlybirds camped out inside the center. This year when we showed up at the same time, we experienced a moment of panic when we saw that the line had already filled up the twisty line-up area inside and extended out the door and halfway down the side of the conference center.

Expo personnel assured us that there were 4500 seats available and that we'd definitely get in, which placated us somewhat and let us watch the line grow ever longer. By the time we actually started shuffling into the auditorium, the line stretched out the front door, all the way along the front of the Javits Center, and around the corner-- at which point it apparently extended up a ramp or some stairs and doubled back on the sidewalk by the street. The end of the line wasn't far from the front, if you're talking point-to-point distance; we could wave to them and pity their chances of getting in to see Steve. But since the whole line followed a weird bent-hairpin pattern, if you stretched it out straight, it'd have been long enough to reach back to Tulsa.

Well, okay, maybe not that far, but according to MacWEEK, the keynote attendance did set a record. Reportedly 5500 people were admitted-- we presume a thousand of them were standing-- which was more than at any Macworld keynote address in the past. That's significant, because "only" about 46,000 people attended this past show, compared to 70,000 at last January's shindig. Apparently that virtual guarantee of the iBook introduction really pulled in the eyeballs, and that bodes well for the future success of the product. Next year we'll have to camp out at dawn to secure the best seats...