Explaining How to Approach the Steves

Actors Josh Gad (left) and Ashton Kutcher, who portray Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, respectively, in the upcoming biopic “Jobs” (coming out April 19) explain to the Macworld audience how they researched and prepared to perform their parts and the challenges they faced in understanding the personalities of the Apple co-founders. “Steve [Jobs] believed, first and foremost, that it is possible to do something impossible,” Kutcher said.

Here are actors Josh Gad (left) and Ashton Kutcher in their characters as Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs in the upcoming biopic “Jobs.” Attendees at Macworld were treated to a big-screen clip from the movie, which comes to theaters April 19.

Soonr, which makes a cloud-based workflow application for enterprises, demonstrated how by using an iPad, a user can take a photo of a document, file it in the Soonr cloud, and share it in real time with colleagues, who can then make annotations on it as needed.

Newcomer CrashPlan is now offering unlimited cloud and on-site storage backup with a simple-to-understand user interface and demonstrated the service at the show.

Eastern Europe-based ESET, which is starting to make a presence for itself in North America, can secure any type of PC but is focusing a lot of its resources on Mac OS. Macs in the past weren’t as targeted by hackers as they are currently. So the company is carving out a place with its services as the need continues to escalate.

The New York Times had a gimmicky giveaway at Macworld: Word Cloud Portrait. Attendees had their pictures taken with an iPad, and an AppStore application was used to turn the portrait into a drawing that uses words for all the dark areas. Those photographed could choose a section of The Times for the words. Available sections included Sports, Opinion, Arts, etc. The giveaways make memorable keepsakes.

The HyperDrive can store up to 1TB of content, such as videos, photos, music, anything—that is created through an iPad. It connects with the standard Apple connector. These were popular items at Macworld. They cost from $100 to $400, depending on capacity.

Apple is starting a whole new business with its Thunderbolt connectivity cables. These new designs carry more I/O and are easier to use because they are ambidextrous. Several different choices were offered at Macworld by Kanex.

Mobile storage for iPads and other tablets includes wireless streaming media; this includes streaming even when off the grid. Seagate Wireless Plus can store up to 500 movies and thousands of songs, photos and documents. It can also stream up to three high-definition movies to various screens in a home network and has up to 10 hours of battery life.

Black Eyed Peas lead rapper Will.i.am had a stage session to talk about his new iPhone accessories, including changeable lenses and better flash. The i.am+ foto.sosho camera accessory and app for iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S adds on-board editing, filters and social media connectivity to iPhone for $320.