12/22/2008

'tis the season for Apple Rumors...

Christmas is a wonderful time of year.  It gives us a chance to break away from the doom and gloom media coverage of the current global economic crisis and shut out the ongoing lies our Prime Minister has force-fed us with in the last month scrambling to save his ass from the inevitable no-confidence vote in the House of Commons.

It is also a time to get excited for what the new year will bring: especially what Apple has in store for its final appearance at Macworld.  It is no revelation that everyone loves Apple rumors; why should a simple recession hamper in our annual Christmas rituals?  In fact there are probably more blogs and websites dedicated to Apple rumors than there are rumors.  So far on the net this year,  some old reoccurring themes and some new ones...


Snow Leopard. A new OS X version Phil Sshiller is expected to showcase this year for his keynote speech.  It's supposed to included Grand Central and OpenCL.  This will increase graphics performance especially in new Macs with Nvidia chipsets; there is rumor that Apple will introduce a new 3D OS X user interface in Snow Leopard giving way to more real estate on screen that ever before.


New iMacs and Mac Mini's are expected to be unveiled with new Nvidia video chipsets.  Apple has already recently switched over to those video chipsets in their Macbook, Macbook Pro, and Macbook Air models.

A new Apple Netbook was rumored to be released but is highly doubtful.  This old ongoing rumor is supposedly be something along the lines between a iPhone and a Macbook Air, with touchscreen and 3G network capabilities. Netbooks' increasing popularity is something that Apple surely cannot ignore as desktops sales for all computer manufacturers have begun to take a sharp downturn.  A new Apple Netbook still won't be cheap, but, it is something people will buy regardless of the current economic crisis; and, Apple has opportunity to redefine the Netbook as it did the 'smartphone'. 


The iPhone and iPod Touch will get a boost in memory: 32GB iPhones and 64GB iPod Touches. A iPhone launch in China is also expected for 2009.


A iPhone Nano is rumored but also doubtful.  But, by targeting the cheaper pay-as-you-go market, a smaller and cheaper iPhone having the 'candy-bar' shape and engineered like that of the iPod Shuffle, may not be that far-fetched.  There would be more likely chance of a 4Gb iPhone will be released for its Wal-Mart customers for $99 and a smaller contract.


Rumor has it that Apple may be working on a new search engine.  Seems very unlikely with the market totally dominated by heavyweights Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft, but consider what the competition it faced in the cellular phone market two years prior when iPhone rumors were floating about the internet.  Now would be a great time to cut a deal with Yahoo! as it finds ways to gain back its market share from Google; also, Apple may not be pleased with Google as of late for releasing more iPhone competition in Android.

Blu-Ray burners may be an option in the new 2009 iMacs and Macbook lines. Perhaps an external Blu-Ray drive by a third-party developer is more likely.  New Apple products will probably go the way of non- moving parts, introducing flash drives and media to its line-up instead. 

A EVDO iPhone for Verizon may be coming in 2009.  Adobe releasing flash software for iPhones is more likely to happen.

An Apple branded HDTV set with built in AppleTV.  Considering AppleTV's lack of success..it's worth a try.  At least they should bundle the AppleTV units with HDTVs made by other manufacturers.

DRM-free music on iTunes entire library.  Removing copy protection from its iTunes library would keep Apple ahead of its competitors who have already begun selling DRM-free downloads for quite awhile.

An Apple home video gaming console. Perhaps to revive the flailing AppleTV or take advantage of Apple's App Store capabilities and the iPod Touch and iPhone's success as gaming machines. But, remember the "Pippin"?  Does Apple really want to go there again?

And, lastly, yeah, this one again.. The Beatles' entire catalog on iTunes.  Along with it a special edition Beatles iPod launch.  And, an iTunes subscription service.




 

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