MW08: SteveNote Predictions
Well I can not help myself but to give out my predictions for the Steve Keynote this year. Its a very difficult matter to judge whats behind the black cloth covering the ads in the expo buildings in San Francisco today. What is almost certain is that there will be a new line of portables coming out of Cupertino. The question is just how portable it will be. The wild predictions on the net make it this über slim multitouch capable tablet book with flash harddrive, BlueRay, Wireless USB and Wireless Power and an antigravitation device (hence the name AirBook or MacBookAir), I think judging from apples past 3 keynote that everyone might be hugely dissapointed when the ultra slim MacBook with 1,6Ghz Wireless Power and no DVD drive, no multitouch and non tablet with alumnium foam casing (hence air?) will be released. It will probably be ultra sexy, ultra expensive (for its speed), have xxx amount of battery hours and can play HD film on its "backlit on demand" screen - but no multitouch no tablet. Wireless Power via an induction pad might come but I highly doubt it (yet I could see this coming as a marketing gimmik "look this comp doesnīt need any cables" - kinda thing - you know you gonna read in all those nontech newspapers "Apple has done it again and released a cable less computer as a worlds first" along those lines). But why the f*$k donīt I think multitouch is coming? Its developers stupid. To make the multitouch truly usefull and therefore a computer with it truly usefull the whole User Interface Experience must be though over. Coverflow in the Finder is something that is definitely going in this direction but not much else. If Apple brings out just one computer in its offerings with multitouch there is almost no incentive for software developers to make use of such a novel idea - hence Apple would have to supply all apps that take advantage of this themself for the time beeing - that would not incite people to buy the machine (the anti theory to this is that this computer is for developers to make such apps but I doubt it) - multitouch comes across the line or not at all. That would mean if the MacBookAir or whatever it will be called has multitouch then we also see an iMac with Multitouch and an Apple Cinema Display with multitouch, because the pros would love multitouch more then anyone else (see my earlier posting about the autodesk lab). I highly doubt that the technology is at that point yet - but hey would I love it :)
So if the new Book is a tablet then across the line updates (iMac with Mutlitouch and CinemaDisplays with multitouch).
Will the Book be Dockable? Its a very Apple like intriguing idea, BUT with the docking concept that was floating around you "through away" 13 inch of viewable display area and you would have to pay for much thicker screen that does nothing without the book - while nice idea I donīt see that coming, except if the screen in itself is an imac and the adding of the book gives the iMac more power and you can somehow flip open and use the screen of the Book in addition to the one in iMac - even then its a small small market and would be hugely costly in R&D - seeing the ultra conservative road apple takes after the cube massacre I donīt see it coming.
What else will we eventualysee? Maybe a sneak peek at the New OS 10.6? That would be lovely but I think Apples OS developers are on a break after the horrendous busy 2007 - I think we will see that at WWDC in Juli. AppleTV update? Very likely or they will forget about this idea and slowly phase it out - I vote for an update here with specs similar to the current offering but a build in blueray player (or maybe even recorder) and some extension capabilities (like playing other video codecs (unlikely) and generic browsing (with a innovative interface). Generally I think Apple is seeing the TV as the centerpiece of entertainment as NOT the strategy to move forward (but what do I know).
A new mouse similar dissapointing to all Apple mouse over the past 9 years but with wireless power.
A new iApp that manages all your media needs and adds automatic metadata in an iFriendly manner.
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A 3G iPhone - given Apples traditional product update cycle one is in the cards - but who knows. Maybe with wireless power but its unlikely as this would piss off people in Europe and with the piss off lecture they already had with the iPhone price drop they rather not go down that route again and just delay the announcement until spring time.
iPhone Nano (Air or whatever they call small scale devices these days) is a likely possibility if they manage to cram the interface on half the screen and make it still usable - half the price half the storage - but I think the keyboard functionality would go out the window and that might be the show stopper for such a device.
So quite generally I see not much coming other then an ultra thin but otherwise pretty conservative MacBookNano (and if they called it Air I will still call it nano because its unlikely as light as air ;) everything else is a complete wildcard today - but be prepared to be underwhelmed with the new conservative Apple.