It is Macworld time again ladies and gentlemen and do you want to know what is going to be announced? Well so do I, but until Steve Jobs arrives on stage January 15th, all we can do is speculate. However, there has been a lot of rumblings in the rumor mills about potential new products and updates to existing ones. So what will we see at Macworld? Lets take a look at what I believe we will see from Apple.Unfortunately, I don’t work for Apple, yet, and I do not have any contacts at Apple so this list is simply my hopes and dreams.
Mac Hardware
Will we finally see a sub-notebook? Yes! Imagine a slimmer and 2 pound lighter MacBook Pro without the optical drive. It will roughly be 3/4″ thick and will feature a Solid State Hard Drive (SSD). It will also feature a 12″ or 13.3″ screen with an integrated iSight webcam trimmed with the standard MacBook Pro aluminum frame. It will be outfitted with 2 USB 2.0 ports and Firewire 400 but will not feature Firewire 800 due to the size constraints. It will of course run OS X 10.5.
We should also see revisions to the MacBook Pro. These will be processor bumps and could we finally see Apple adding an eSATA port to the MacBook Pro? Additionally could we see a revision to the Apple Cinema Displays? I say yes, but not a major redesign. Bump of the specs and a design that is half as thick as it predecessor.
iPhone
The iPhone stole the show last year at Macworld but it will not do it again this year. Apple will formally introduce the SDK that will allow additional programs on the iPhone will be made available through iTunes. Also we will see the 8GB model stay in the assortment and a 16GB model will be introduced as well. Maybe we will see some improvements with a new firmware being introduced. I do not believe we will see the much hyped and hoped for 3G iPhone but maybe a sneak preview similar to the Apple TV we saw in the past.
iPod and iTunes
At Macworld we will see all the familiar pie charts from Steve Jobs concerning the domination of the iPod and iTunes but we will not be see new iPods. The last couple of years the iPod revisions have come pre-holiday season not after the Christmas season. iTunes will get more attention at Macworld than the iPod. iTunes will get a new feature, the iPhone Software Store, or something like that. Basically, iTunes will allow you to browse, purchase and install programs on your iPhone. I am not that impressed by the idea of movie rentals on iTunes. The quality of the movies already on iTunes is bad when viewing on my MacBook Pro screen, viewing on the iPod/iPhone or streaming to Apple TV. Maybe Apple needs to go with HD movie rentals. HD rentals could be interesting, but I do not see that happening, at least this year.
Software
With the introduction of iLife and iWork ‘08 in August of last year, the consumer software lineup will stay the same for the second consecutive Macworld keynote. We might see a update of OS X 10.5 Leopard. With the rumors concerning the sub-notebook and potential laptop speed bumps, we might see Software Update get a work out on January 15th.
Conclusion
Will Macworld 2008 top last years Macworld? No, it will not. However, with the introduction of the sub-MacBook Pro and maybe a sneak preview of the 3G iPhone it may come very close.
Cody Clark is a visiting writer for Mac News Online, Cody writes about all things Apple and the latest Tech News at http://www.codyclark.org. You can email your questions or comments to Cody at codyclark.org@mac.com.
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The yearly software bundle offered by Phil Ryu & Co has released it’s 2008 bundle for immediate purchase at a price of $49 at MacHeist.com. This years bundle includes:
Apple today revised the Mac Pro and Xserves with a new architecture and the recently released Penryn Processors. The Mac Pro combines two 45-nm Quad-Core Xeon processors running up to 3.2GHz and up to 4TB of internal storage. The standard 8-core configuration starts at $2799. The xServe was also updated making them “the fastest servers ever.” Many were predicting this introduction at MacWorld, given it was released a week early, we can expect the expo’s unveilings to be that much more enticing.
