The best thing about having a blog is Macworld predictions time. Here are mine:
Steve is going to come out on stage and put out record iPod and Mac sales for the holiday quarter.
Taking into consideration the now famous teaser “There’s something in the air” he is going to call it the year of wireless (just like the disappointing year of HD announcement a couple of years back).
Things that might be unveiled:
Apple TV 2.0 : with direct movie downloads over WiFi, a la Podcast (or Netflix-like cue).
iTunes: movie rentals from all mayor studios. $3-6 USD per 24 hours period.
iPhone SDK: a preview with a few early third party developers (probably showing off games). It won’t be a technical demo, but rather a show and tell type announcement.
Appliance-like Wireless Media Backup: Via John Gruber
But so why not sell a device as a dedicated product — a big 500 GB or larger hard drive (or array of them) with built-in AirPort networking. No need to attach it to a separate AirPort base station, no temptation to use the device for anything other than one purpose: backing up via Time Machine. Just plug it into a power outlet, run through a simple configuration tool a la AirPort Utility, and it’s ready. When it first appears on your network, your (Leopard-running) Mac could prompt to ask if you’d like to use it for Time Machine, the same way it prompts when you first plug in a new USB or FireWire drive.
Macbook Air: the most talked about new product since the iPhone. Apparently there is a huge demand for an ultra-portable mac laptop since the PowerBook 12″ was discontinued. If all the rumors are correct, it is going be less than 1 inch thick, no ethernet (usb adapter) and have an external drive. When I started reading the rumors, I was unsure if I would buy something like this, but after looking at my usage habits I realized it makes total sense. I hardly ever use my DVD drive and ethernet conection. I think Apple pays more attention than we might give them credit for. And for the big umff (courtesy of my brother) wireless battery charging. Although it’s nothing new…nobody has actually done it in a big product launch.
New rumors(wishful thinking) are stating that it might even come with a AT&T wireless card. If that is true, Apple might really be helping AT&T find new revenue streams through data.
What would really seal the deal on this ultra portable would be a new local .Mac-like sync for the laptop-desktop. A huge problem with having a small laptop and a desktop is always syncing stuff. If you could dock your ultra portable into a desktop and sync it fast, it would make it the ultimate Mac accessory (the irony).
Ohh and the usual software updates: 10.5.2, iTunes 8 and iPhone 1.1.3 firmware upgrade.
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