A Dummies guide to Macworld

Bob LeVitus is back at Macworld this week for the 20th time or so. He’s lost track, but you can’t really blame him. After 25 years of visiting the Apple (AAPL) fan fest, pontificating and penning 22 Dummies guides to the iPhone, iPad and other Apple toys, LeVitus proudly wears the well-earned moniker of “Dr. Mac.”

He’s the perfect guide to walk you through Macworld/iWorld 2012, the three-day convention that runs through Saturday evening at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The annual pilgrimage by Apple fans shows no sign of letting up, even though Apple pulled out three years ago. After all, says Kelly Trent with Wiley Publishing, which puts out the Dummies guides, “Macworld has always been a fan event for people who live and breathe Apple. That hasn’t changed just because Apple’s not here. Their love remains so strong.”

Earlier this week, Dr. Mac took a reporter on a walking tour of the show, a sort of Macworld for Dummies. As he doled out insider tips on ways to navigate the sometimes chaotic scrum of fanboy hordes and 300 vendors, LeVitus pointed out at every turn reasons why this iconic gathering still has legs to it.

“Before Apple pulled out, this was the 1,200-pound gorilla of all the Macworld shows around the world,” he said. “Apple leaves, and now it’s more like a 500-pound gorilla hoping to gain some more weight soon.”

Organizers expect as many as 25,000 visitors, up about 10 percent from last year’s show. Wading into the crowd, LeVitus says the increased popularity may be due to the event’s more intimate feel, with more smaller app developers replacing the large companies that used to come each year.

Passion pervades

“In the past you had the big players,” he said. “But the consumers already know the big guys because they’re in your face all year long. What you don’t normally get to see is the little guys, the smaller vendors with passion and cool products who are here to surprise and wow you.”

Pay attention and you’ll see a crowd full of old friends catching up, a thriving subculture of folks from around the country who share a childlike giddiness for Apple products. LeVitus seems to know them all. Herb Dang of San Francisco stops to say hello. Like LeVitus, Dang says “it’s the little booths that make this show special. And even if the product isn’t great, they’ll still give you one hell of a sales pitch.”

Dummies Tip No. 1, says LeVitus, is to pick up your pass the day before the show opens, “and then make a game plan, because Macworld can be overwhelming when you first walk in.” He says you can find discounted tickets online at sites like Groupon and FunCheap. Once you enter the hall, immediately download the map and vendor list by scanning the QR code on the front of the program.

The iPhone — or Android if you dare to bring one — is also handy for taking photos of products so you can listen to the pitch upfront and then research the thing online later. LeVitus uses his Reminders app to schedule alerts of upcoming demos and tech workshops. Those take place on the second floor, cost extra, and feature well-known experts who’ll give you what LeVitus calls “a real education in all things Apple in three days.”

Dummies Tip 2: “Don’t buy anything on your first walk-through,” he said. “Some of these pitchmen are as good at reality distortion as you-know-who” (read: Steve Jobs). By Saturday afternoon, he said, “you’ll start to see the discount signs go up for things like iPhone accessories because these guys don’t want to have to pack up all this stuff up to take home.”

Passing booths that hawk digitized backrub devices, sophisticated audio-engineering apps for a just a few bucks, and calendar software programs, the doctor makes his way through the center of the hall. This, he says, is prime real estate, where flashy salesmen and scantily clad female assistants whip the crowd into a frenzy.

“As you get away from the center, things get calmer as you move toward the outside walls,” he says, doing just that. The blue carpet turns black as we enter the Mobile Apps Showcase.

Startups on shoestring

“These folks are often one- or two-man startups,” he says, approaching an audio-manipulating app called Audioforge Labs. “They set up in little kiosks because they can’t afford the bigger booths, and a lot of these app developers are here on passion and mom’s credit card.”

LeVitus stops to talk to Tibor Horvath from Vancouver, the guy behind this app, which lets musicians and singers engineer their tracks with reverb and other sound-mixing magic tricks. Now in his second year at the show, Horvath says the exposure he gets to fans, media and consultants is worth the few thousand dollars he spent on his little kiosk. “I get to learn what my users really want versus what I think they want,” he says.

Passing a guy with skis doing tricks on a trampoline at the Polk Audio booth, LeVitus points out navigating tips — the paper icons hanging from the ceiling leading you to the app showcase, the banners numbered 100 to 1000 above the aisles to help you figure out where Booth 516 or 742 is. He passes through the OS X Zone. This is home to the true Mac-heads, perhaps the most hard-core of Apple’s fan base. And you can practically feel the intensity.

Coming around a corner, LeVitus has one of his “WOW” moments.

“Oh, there’s the turquoise trailer!” he exclaims as he makes his way to the guys behind iBallz, a product featuring four foam rubber balls that attach to an iPad’s corners and render it virtually indestructible. Even if you drop it on the floor, as iBallz founder Lee Doerr is demonstrating, the balls take the brunt of the impact and the iPad just keeps ticking.

Last year, the iBallz team couldn’t afford a booth so they set up outside the convention, dropping the iPad on the ground over and over again in front of the dazzled masses. But business picked up and now they’re on the inside, which makes LeVitus’ day.

“I want to be amazed and delighted by some new product each year,” he says. “And this year it’s iBallz!”

Contact Patrick May at 408-920-5689.