Pre-Apple 30^th birthday notes

I’ve decided to write a quick summary to refresh your memories as to the major announcements we can expect to see and hear about over the next week or so.

Probably the most frequently talked about rumour is the sixth coming of the iPod, the true video iPod. We’ve seen all the fakes and the concepts but nothing solid to go on. The widely speculated iPod video is expected to feature a large widescreen display of approximately 3-inches and will have no click wheel. The most popular design choice for the fakes and concepts is a device that has just a screen covering the entire front of the unit. Based on the confirmed patents that Apple submitted for a touch-screen/tablet device, everyone believes an on-screen click wheel will be used. This would be operated using your hands and will appear when touched and disappear when not used. A possible and likely feature to appear but anyone’s guess is as good as the next.

Along with the iPod video we also expect more full feature length movie downloads for the iTunes Store. I say Store rather than Music Store because they sell more than just music now. This would go along with the recent acquisition of the data centre in Newark for $45 million. More videos have been made available for download lately and the list grows by the week as studios unleash more and more content on the iTunes service. Episodes of the US version of The Office are expected to be released on iTunes exclusively later this year. A sign that video downloads on iTunes has proven a viable solution for distributing content and is growing in popularity amongst downloaders and the studios themselves. I’d expect to see some sort of announcement to the unveiling of the iPod video and if that’s the case, then the ability to download feature length movies on iTunes.

The unveiling of the Apple iPhone could show up. It would make sense as the hype and excitement over the Motorola ROKR is pretty much extinct and recent reports that such a product has been talked about a lot between many Taiwanese manufacturers, supports that theory. It’s possible and what better time to make an announcement than on anniversary day to unveil a brand new generation of device in a brand new market. The press and the web would have a field day over it. Details are sparse but you can guess what kind of features it will have. I expect to see some kind of killer design that hopefully will be made out of different materials than the iPod. PhotoBooth on your phone anyone? Usual workings such as syncing with your Mac through the usual methods and you’ll probably find a lot of similar features to the iPod including integration with iTunes and iPhoto. Maybe we’ll see a video recording app on the handset itself which will record directly in to iPod format - a new method of video podcasting?

A brand new replacement with a ground-up design for the iBook is speculated to be renamed the MacBook based on recent trademark submissions from Apple. It would certainly make sense to rename the iBook as MacBook considering its big brother is called the MacBook Pro. Features that are often talked about on the usual rumour sites are the screen size. A 13-inch widescreen display seems to be the most popular figure for this new iBook. Personally I find it difficult to believe they would release just one model at 13-inches. Many iBook owners who are looking for the new model will probably be disappointed to not be able to have a 14 or 15-inch model. The only other thing they could be doing is planning on removing the PowerBook 12-inch model and replacing that with the new iBook. This would make sense since the new iBook hardware will be far quicker and at 13-inches is still going to retain its ultra-portability side. My guess would be a line up with a similar formula to what you have now with the iBook and PowerBook. Three ranges featuring the portable 13-inch version and a larger 14 or 15-inch version. The hardware will remain with the Intel Core Solo processor and just might possibly squeeze a slower Core Duo processor in the higher end model or as a BTO upgrade. 512MB of DDR2 RAM and 40GB to 60GB hard drives with 80GB as a BTO. The usual kit such as a Radeon or Intel integrated graphics chip, Wi Fi, SuperDrive, Front Row and possibly iSight, etc.

Some new tech that has appeared over the last few months and talked about quite a lot is the new flash drives being integrated in to laptops. Intel and Samsung are some of the names that come in to the picture. Samsung recently unveiled the 32GB flash drive. At 32GB this is more than enough to contain your core system files. Whilst it’s not expected Apple will be using these particular drives, it has been rumoured that some form of flash memory will be integrated in to the new iBook to lower power consumption as well as improve boot speed. However should the 32GB Samsung drive make its way in to the new iBook, you can expect an ultra-slim and ultra-portable laptop. I find it unlikely to be honest because the new iBook is meant to be aimed at the entry level range for Apple laptop customers. 32GB of flash memory is not going to come cheap even if the customer is Apple. This is a feature that I find unlikely to find its way in to any of the product announcements.

The PowerBook 17-inch model is expected to be killed of to make way for the 17-inch MacBook Pro. The design will probably remain the same but with the same slim profile of its smaller brethren; now at a shade under 1-inch. The usual features such as Front Row and iSight are without doubt going to make its way on to this model. With regards to flash based hard drives, if it does make an appearance I would say that the 17-inch MacBook Pro is the most likely candidate to receive this upgrade alongside a large 100GB+ hard drive. I also think that FireWire 400 and 800 will remain and come with 2 USB 2.0 ports, DVI, S-Video, Gigabit Ethernet, ExpressCard and MagSafe. An 8x Dual Layer SuperDrive may also be ready for mass production and I would expect to see the new Macs featuring these. A 2.0GHz Core Duo processor will likely be featured and a second model at 2.16GHz. I think those figures are likely with the usual 512MB of DDR2 RAM. What I’d like to see is Apple bumping memory to 1024MB of RAM as standard and an upgraded screen supporting High-Definition 1080p resolutions. Current PowerBook 17-inch models feature a 1680×1050 resolution so an increase to 1920×1080 shouldn’t be too much of an ask especially since this model will be the laptop of choice for Pro users.

Steve Jobs will give a brief technical preview of the next version of Mac OS X. Code named Leopard, details of this release is still very sketchy and most of what you hear is just speculation and rumour. Virtualisation is largely talked about and crazy as it may seem, the ability to run Windows apps on a Mac! Jobs has always talked about OS X being a Windows friendly neighbour, perhaps the next level of friendliness will make an appearance. I think long-time tech journalist John C. Dvorak is going a bit too far in saying that Apple is going to scrap OS X completely and transition to Windows. I find that very difficult to believe.

So there you have it Mac fans. Be on the look out for my podcast at techcastnetwork.co.uk and techcastuk.co.uk for the latest news and updates on what we think is going to be announced and what does get announced. Fingers crossed that I got at least half of the above correct!

I guess we’ll all see in a weeks time.