Let the Speculation begin!
 

http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/new...ent-on-feb-28/

look at the location...

hmm...why Apple Town Hall this time?

I don't care so much about an intel iBook. I would rather see a new, better video iPod. The current iPod is a bit sluggish as far as the interface, I think.

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Saw this on yesterday’s MacRumors as well.

No speculation from me; I haven’t a clue.

But what I really do like, is that Apple is continuing its wonderfully accelerated pace of innovation. :)


Best regards,
ArcticStones

Intel Mac Mini with a built in iPod dock on the top.

New Intel iBook

re-birth of the eMac with an Intel chip


hows that for a wild stab in the dark!

I'd like to hear more about Leopard, but that probably won't happen until WWDC.

I wouldn't be suprised to see a Video iPod similar to this...


http://www.mobilemag.com/content/images/6597_large.jpg
http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/337/C6597/


However, If a *true* Video iPod is unveiled then I suspect movies on iTunes to be announced too.

I want that!

I was told the new iPod might have a touch screen. Also, there is some speculation on Apple introducing a 13" widescreen MacBook (or iBook) and also the Mini is expected to be hit up for the change.

Me personally, I don't see the videp iPod until April 1st. And also, if the video iPod does come out feb. 28...look out for April 1st, it's sure to be a duzy.

A 12" dual core with high resolution would make my year.

iTunes will pass 1 billion songs within the next hour. I expect next Tuesday's announcements to piggyback upon that milestone.

Chris

Excellent observation, Chris.

I doubt that Apple is going to release another ipod. Right now they don't have anyone to compete with except themselves. I think Apple knows this. I would expect, however, a new ipod to be released again around the holidays at the end of this year. I think that makes the most sense. Because then people's ipods will be "out dated" and they will buy the new one...more money for Apple

Now, just a little while ago, Apple stopped accepting bulk purchases of the mac mini. Hmmmmmm.....? I wonder. Will Apple come out with a new mac mini? Who knows, but I wouldn't be surprised. http://www.tuaw.com/2006/02/22/apple...-of-mac-minis/

i think the winner of the Billion Song download competition will be announced.. as well as well as the rest of the lower end intel single core range..

L&D

I'm sure he'll talk about the billion songs and the winner but it won't be new news.


"The billionth song ”Speed of Sound” was purchased as part of Coldplay’s “X&Y” album by Alex Ostrovsky from West Bloomfield, Michigan and as the grand prize winner he will receive a 20-inch iMac, 10 fifth generation iPods and a $10,000 gift card good for any item on the iTunes Music Store. In addition, Apple will establish a scholarship to the world-renowned Juilliard School in his name to commemorate this milestone."
( source )

The Ostrovsky Scholarship to the Juilliard School - in twenty years, everyone will see that and assume it's something that was provided for in the will of an obscure 19th century Polish composer. :p

I agree, I like my portable computers, well that's it portable. I like my 12" HP/Compaq laptop running linux. It is fast, it is portable, it weighs nothing. The optical drives are detachable, so I don't have the weight of that (plus I do most of my installs via network anyways), but it is lacking one thing...

A high resolution screen. It is suppose to support up to 1600X1200 res, but ultimately X can only get running at 1024x768.

However, I probably won't want to pay the price tag associated with that 12" mac book pro.

I am however I think done with all 15" laptops, and I always thought that 17" laptops were just insanely too big for me to begin with. Try hauling a 17" plus your tools, diagnostics, and cd book with you all day every day, and you will appreciate the weight difference of a 12" laptop.

I have no problem with hauling the 17" around all day and while traveling. It just doesn't suit me for walking around the office and taking it to meetings.

I just put the 12" and the MacBook next to each other, and the size difference is huge. I swear the MacBook feels like a 17" to me, don't know why. I was considering getting that to replace two G5s and the 12" but now I don't think I will.

I’m not so sure about that. A true iPod Video coupled with expanding iTMS’ offerings with, say, 50 000 full-length movies (including everything Disney ever made), would give Apple a solid grip on a new market -- and (here’s the crux) long before any competitors are even close to seriously entering the field.

That would give Apple a new Wow in its PR, set the stage for a full-fledged home entertainment machine (they’ve already given us Front Row and Apple Remote), and (equally important!) give Apple more clout in regards to the entertainment industry.

So, I may not be making predictions, but iPod Video makes perfect strategic sense to me.


Best regards,
ArcticStones


PS. Perhaps a dual-bootable home entertainment machine? :D

I felt the keynote this coming Tuesday would cover these key points:

• iTunes incredible --and legal-- music sales results

• Intel based Mac's sales results

• New laptops to made available (12" & 17" MBP and the new iBooks*)

• Perhaps some apps that have been optmized for the Intel Macs

Then I saw this: Microsoft's Origami Project

The stylus points to tablet PC capabilites and with a huge gaming market I don't see why MS couldn't have a device that works like PSP and an iPod and a tablet PC all in one. They have the pieces already, perhaps they <i>finally</i> put it all together.

Anyway, this is slated to be offically announced March 2nd. I'm sure Apple's Super Secret Spy Team knew about this and I wonder if Jobs doesn't want to trump MS by offically annoucing a portable touchscreeen device first.


http://www.engadget.com/media/2006/02/origami_1.jpghttp://www.engadget.com/media/2006/02/origami_2.jpg



* Could the new iBook line simply be called MacBook?

Most likely, yeah.

They kept the name iMac, why not keep iBook?

Well I tip my hat to you sir! My back pack is about 30lbs as is. With all my tools (yeah I can thank apple for that), my book of cds (diagnostics, boot disks, etc etc), my laptop, and the few vital spare parts (video cards and ram - for onsite testing), I prefer to have the lightest laptop possible. The smaller the better IMHO.

Mind you I support both PCs and Macintosh though, so I might carry more than the average IT person does. It seems a lot of times you are either a PC tech or a Mac tech, and never usually both.

Because "iMac" has got "Mac" in the name and "iBook" has not. Jobs explained the intention for "Mac" to be in all Macintosh product names when he unveiled the MacBook Pro - speaking of which, why have MacBook "Pro" without a normal MacBook?

good point :rolleyes:

New information has come up. I got this from a reputable source:

• Will go after Swiss Army Knive market. New iPod will have 40 different acccesories, including scissors, a nail file and a fish descaler.

• It will have bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Wi-Max and satellite. But do to power consumption will only work for 5 minutes.

• The casing will be made of heavy metals to help resist scratching. This, however, won't protect you from radiation posioning.

• Jobs will annouce that he forget to carry the one and that iTunes has only reached 100 million songs, not a billion.

You heard it hear first, folks.

Solipsism -- is that a pseudonym for John Dvorak?

:D

HAHA Possibly. Though I think Apple wanting Windows as an OS is even more obsurd than my post.

You know what would be a really funny April fools joke from Steve Jobs? ...

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So, what’s the bet on the Apple news? What’re they rolling out today? Less than 40 minutes left. :)

What Steve said:

• Mac Minis (1.5GHz Intel Core Solo, 512MB RAM, 60GB HDD, Combo Drive ($599) and 1.67GHz Core Duo, 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD,Super Drive ($799)

• Leather Cases for iPods ($99) (mid-March)

• iPod Hi-FI (boombox) (fits all iPods and can be ussed with D batteries)($349)

Pretty crappy keynote, IMO. Mac Minis seem expensive, the leather case means nothing to me at this point and as for the Hi-Fi, I'd rather jsut get attach nice speakers to my PB and save the trouble for that price. Also, I would have thought a Li-{Ion|Poly} battery would be more adventagous in this day an age that D-batteries.

word. Apple has come in WAY late to the iPod accessory market. The Bose and JBL systems have been selling like hot cakes for quite some time now.

...and the about the iPod hi-fi replacing a home system is rubbish. Unless you have a crappy little boom box, it will not be a suitable replacement. I use my kenwood receiver and a cable straight into my iPod. Sure it doesn't charge it or display the album art...but it sounds terrific. I'll be saving my $349 for the impending video iPod.

Okay, after a little thought and a little research I have come to this conclusion...

The iPod Hi-Fi isn't so bad, I like that it can be connected to an Airport Base so I can use it to control audio from any machine with iTunes. I'm thinking of one connected to my HDTV audio out and a Mac Mini would make for a nice setup. But before I go out and buy one, I am curious to see how good the sound really is. As for a lack of an FM-receiver, I'm certain one can use the iPod FM-reciver adapter ($49).

The Mac Mini price was a surprise as Apple has an excellent history of adding functionality while keeping the cost down. Does this mean that the old Mac Mini was under priced to make a bigger impact in that market? Maybe/maybe not, but if given the option would you pay an extra $100 for the increased speed, increased HDD size, added IR port w/remote, increased video out functionality, etc? I certainly would.

The keynote speech was lackluster but it's a mere 32 days until the next one. Apple's 30th anniversary! I imagine from a marketing standpoint that it may be good to get these less salient items out of the way to make way for a phenomenal presentation on the April 1st. Hmm, perhaps I'm just making excuses now.

And in his anniversary speech, I would like to hears Steve Jobs reveal the numbers on Apple’s true market share. Time to wow us with figures that show Macs increasing in popularity by leaps and bounds.

What else? A review of status on the "digital hub" strategy. At last a roll-out of a full-fledged movie download service on iTMS. And an accellerated opening of Apple stores in new geographic markets. I also suspect some price specials as Apple cranks up the volumes on its production lines.

And what would I like to see? iTMS goes hi-fi, that’s what!! An option to download purchased tunes at 320 kbps or loss-less; after all, we’re paying for the stuff.

I would be willing to wager my last penny that we have great stuff in store for us the next 10 months! With the Intel roll-out half a year ahead of schedule, Apple has really impressed me. But I think we’re going to see innovative products few of us have even thought of -- products that will have the average Windows addict running to queue up.

The difference between innovative Apple and boring PC companies couldn’t appear greater.


With best regards,
Olav

I don't think we'll ever 320kbps at iTunes. I have no problem with 128kbps AAC (I've been toold many times it's equivielent to 192kbps Mp3 though I haven't been able to verify that) but I think a higher kbps will make a lot of people happier with using ITMS.

As for the Intel switch, I think Apple is right on schedule, though they'd never admit that to us. One of the biggest marketing differences i see between Apple and MS is that Apple promises something and then always delivers ahead of schedule while MS promises somethng and then trys to keep you on a leach waiting for it (id est Vista).

As for Jobs as an audiophile. Why not? I'm certain Apple has complete copies of all their music at the highest posssible data rate. if I were CEO of Apple I'd have my factotums grab me copies of those. I would be Steve Jobs after all. :-)

ITMS wants to sell movies; I think we all feel this way. The Movie trailer setup (when it works) is nice. How hard would it be to have funds in your ITMS, on your new Mac Mini, connected to your HDTV, where you can use Front Row to rent a movie. How many clicks of the Apple Remote would it take to rent or buy a movie? 6 to 10? I think it's inevitable. Probably Disney and Pixar films first as Disney is at Jobs mercy, in a sense. What would happen to Disney is Jobs sold all his stock at once? (hmm, maybe that is going to far) Anyway, if Disney is on board then the rest will follow.

Personally I find 128 kbps (whether AAC or Mp3) to be woefully inadequate. I can really hear the difference between that and a 320 kbps file that I rip from a store-bought CD.

the intel mac mini does not really seem worth it to me, but that is just me i suppose.