A concept MacBook Pro from www.spicu.com (click image to enlarge)

Is it a coincidence that the MacBook Air, Time Capsule and the Apple TV 2 software update all come out in about two weeks time? I have a theory about this. There are definitely some overlapping technologies going on and in order to pull it all off I believe leopard is going to need that 10.5 2 update that we have all been hearing about to pull it all off…

The MacBook Air doesn’t have an Optical drive so it requires you purchase an External USB SuperDrive or you share another computer’s optical drive on your network. Strangely enough this feature would sure come in handy with an Apple TV since it also doesn’t have an internal optical drive, maybe this handy little Apple external USB SuperDrive could also be used with an Apple TV 2? Maybe an Apple TV 2 will allow you both options?

And then there’s Time Capsule! What gives here? What is so different about a drive being internal or externally connected to an AirPort Extreme’s USB port? I know people are talking about network drop outs and how they can affect transfers in mid process potentially corrupting or erasing data, but this is Apple we’re talking about, I’m sure they have this all figured out??

Basically what I’m saying is I think Apple has a few more ticks up their sleeve and it makes a lot of sense that the Leopard OS X 10.5.2 update will also play a big role in all of this. Stay tuned…

Lots of Macworld Keynote Rumors floating around but this one just about sums them all up and if it’s even remotely true then Steve is going to be pissed and someone is going down hard… The source for this find… Wikipedia! Can also be found here.

MacWorld January 2008 Keynote
Rough Outline; draft 5

Greetings! Welcome to Moscone Center

Quick Overview: iPod/iTunes
- iPod has been extremely profitable for us this holiday season
- Sales figures, market share
- Our new models are doing better than ever
- 3 iPod games released last month accidentally (supposed to be for today)
- Another new game today: Chess
- iTunes doing extremely well (sales figures/market share)
- Today: 30 indie labels releasing their entire catalogs in iTunes Plus
- Many more to follow in the next few months

iPhone
- Best iPod ever
- Sales figures, market share
- Sales beyond our wildest dreams
- Much more than the 1% market share we asked for in January
- Starting today: 8GB $399, 16GB $499
- Four times the memory as original iPhone for the same price
- iPhone is coming to Japan in March with NTT DoCoMo
- SDK is unveiled!

iPhone/iPod Touch SDK
- Apps and Widgets
- Using Cocoa with Objective-C
- Developers submit programs as source code, not executable
- Specify iPhone or both iPhone/Touch (certain features iPhone only)
- Set your own price: Apps $0-$6.99, Widgets $0-$2.99
- Users buy/download in iTunes Wi-Fi Store / iTunes Store (Mac/PC)
- Automatic updating wirelessly or docked

- Demonstration of exporting from XCode 3 to iTunes Store
- Submits source code to Apple for validation (make sure that people aren’t abusing the system, prevent malware and viruses)
- If using microphone or GSM, iPhone only; otherwise, available for both iPhone and iPod Touch
- Apps can be free or up to $6.99; Widgets free or up to $2.99
- Developers recieve 70% of revenue for their products
- Licensed under Apple Mobile Software License
- Can download wirelessly from iTunes Wi-Fi Store or docked to computer from iTunes Store
- Demonstration of wirelessly downloading (and running) the app submitted earlier
- Apps and widgets can be rearranged on front screen; front screen scrolls to show all apps/widgets
- Resubmit updated versions of apps; when added to store, iPhone/Touch will ask you to update it next time you use it (or next time you dock the iPhone/Touch)
- Developers can get their hands on a beta version of the SDK tomorrow on ADC and start developing; final version due early February
- iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch Software update 1.3 allowing for Apps mid-February

Example apps/widgets
Apps:
- iChat (coming with 1.3 update) (AIM, Jabber/Google Talk)
– Quick demonstration
- RSS Feed Reader (coming with 1.3 update) (read feeds online or off)
- One of our partners made something cool: Last.fm (scrobble tracks played on iPhone/touch wirelessly without syncing w/ computer)
Widgets:
- Dictionary (coming with 1.3 update) (quickly look up words, translate, use wikipedia)
– Quick demonstration
- Yellow/White Book (coming with 1.3 update) (search for contacts, add them to your address book directly from the app, will sync back with address book on your Mac/PC)
- Sports Ticker (coming with 1.3 update) (choose your sports and teams, get updates on their progress)
- Another partner: Twitter (update your Twitter on the fly, see your friends tweets)

- Try these out on the show floor today

Mac
- Sales are getting better and better every day
- Hardware sales figures/market share
- Leopard released October; doing spectacularly
- Sales figures/market share
- Selling extremely well; estimated to overtake Tiger in terms of marketshare by June if you only count the new Macs that come with it preinstalled; even quicker if you include boxed copies
- 10.5.2 out today - many bug fixes, also addressing a lot of issues and complaints users had such as list view with stacks and certain HIG non-compliance issues

New MacBooks!
- What would MacWorld be without a new Mac? (sorry about last year)
- Completely redesigned MacBook
- Completely aluminum body like MacBook Pro
- 13″ screen at 1440×900
- Two colors: Black and Silver
- Looks gorgeous at 0.8″ thin
- A major feat of engineering - patents abound
- DVD drive pops open on side when eject button is pressed
- New on all notebooks and iMac: iSight HD (720p)
- New backlit keyboard based on recent Apple Keyboard revisions (keys slightly lighter than that of laptop casing, colorwise)
- New matching MagSafe cable (Aluminum ends, cord color matches that of keyboard)
- New matching Apple Remote (slightly smaller with larger overall buttons)
- Intel GMA X3100 graphics
- 3 models

- Completely phasing out the combo drive on all product lines today
- BTO models can upgrade all the way to 2.6GHz/4GB Memory/320GB hard drive
- 4.5 hours of battery life
- Starting at $1199

Product Refreshes
- Refreshing Mac Pro and Mac mini today
- Mac Pro now with Penryn!
- Base model 2×2.8GHz dual-core/1GB/NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB/250GB(1×250GB)/1×16x double-layer SuperDrive
- Upgradeable to 2×3.2GHz quad-core/16GB/NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB/4TB(4×1TB)/2×16x double-layer SuperDrives
- Starting at $2,499
- Mac mini gets slight speed bumps and double-layer SuperDrive in all models
- Base model 2.0GHz IC2D/1GB/100GB
- BTO Upgradeable to 2.4GHz IC2D/4GB/320GB
- Starting at $599

One More Thing
- Been brewing for a while
- YouTube’s been in Apple TV and iPhone/iPod touch: now it’s in iTunes
- Download YouTube videos straight to iTunes or from iPhone/iPod Touch for later offline viewing (sync back to computer)
- Coming in iTunes 7.6 and iPhone/iPod Touch 1.3 updates

Could this be a real photo of the New Apple Sub-notebook with Multi-touch Trackpad? Guess we’re just going to have to wait till the 15th to find out…

Picture courtesy of Crunch Gear

Slot loading DVD and CD drives are really cool, I like the way one of these drives just kind of takes a hold of your CD or DVD media and swallows it up, that’s until someone or some company thinks it’s a cool idea to put their data on one of these 12 cm mini CDs or DVDs, It’s most common with CD business cards and again with mini DVD video recorders. It can get real ugly especially when someone tries to force their Slot loading Mac to accept a mini DVD or CD, just try and get one of these out… Usually a trip to your local Apple Service Center is in order!

Well it looks like Apple iPod chief Tony Fadell  has developed a mini-disc adapter for slot-loading drives, who would of thought, and it looks fairly simple as far as a concepts goes.

Check it out on AppleInsider

iPhoneSimFree.com has announced that next week they will be selling their iPhone Software Unlock Solution with no need to open or solder your iPhone. This iPhone Software Unlock Solution claims to be iPhone upgrade and restore resistant.

Major Benefits: You can use an iPhone with any GSM provider in virtually any country.

Here is confirmation from engadget stating with 100% certainty that the iPhone Software Unlock Solution completely SIM unlocks the iPhone and is restore-resistant and is fully functional outside of the US.

No price point has been set to date.

Engadget has posted some photos of what they claim may be the next iMac Keyboard, it’s super slim and has a brushed aluminum finish. It has similar characteristics to the MacBooks keyboard.

Checkout all the Photos

DigiTimes is now saying Wintek, a Taiwan-based company will be the supplier of the upcoming iPod touch screen panel similar to the one used in the popular Apple iPhone. Wintek has declined any comment due to customer confidentiality but supplier sources upstream from Wintek have confirmed this statement.

Estimated iPod touch screen panel shipping date from Wintek is expected in the second half of 2007 according to sources.

It is also expected to see a similar iPhone type OS X on the to-be-releases iPod, Steve Jobs stated during a town hall meeting with Apple Employees that his Mac OS X division has been working not only with the iPhone interface but also the iPod interface. The question remains, will this new OS X based touch screen iPod share similar features with the iPhone?

OS X Based iPods
Analyst Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster believes OS X is coming to the iPod. That’s no surprise, I’m no analyst, back in January I said basically the same thing and I would bet huge amounts of money - OK all I got is a few bucks but I would bet it all that the next major rev of the iPod will be very iPhone-sih in design and interface but rather with a mucho bigger hard drive then the 8GB iPhone. It only makes for Apple to take all the R&D that Apple spent on the iPhone and incorporate it into the iPod! When is the only question… Maybe this year, for-sure before MacWorld 2008.

iPhone Nano
JP Morgan analysts speculate that Apple will follow up the iPhone with a cheaper under $300 Nano based iPhone with less features than the current iPhone model (Not everyone has $599 sitting around right!) Kevin Chang a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan said “We believe that iPod Nano will be converted into a phone because it’s probably the only way for Apple to launch a lower end phone without severely cannibalizing iPod Nano,”

Ultra-Thin-Light Mac Notebook
Trusted sources from MacScoop are scheduled to release possibly this year the smallest, thinnest, lightest Notebook ever that will redefine the standard for ultra-portable computers. It is expected to have a 12 inch screen and be between 0.6 an 0.7 inches thick with a total weight of less than 3 pounds. The only question is will ti have an optical drive? Maybe, Apple’s current MacBook Pros have 0.37 inch optical drives in them. Panasonic also announced earlier this year they have a 0.27 inch 0.218 pound optical drive so ultra-thin-light Mac Notebooks with optical drives are a possibility.

ThinkSecret claims sources are saying the now 10 month old iMac will see a new revision as soon as this August and will share similar Santa Rosa internals as the current MacBook Pro.

The new 20 and 24 inch models will sport a brushed aluminum finish similar to the current white iMacs and will not only be slimmer at 2 inches thick but will also be shorter in the area under the actual display where much of the internal components are situated. It looks like the 17 inch iMac may be dropped.