MacWorld SF 2005 Rumor Roundup

[MacRumors]

Steve Jobs will deliver the MacWorld San Francisco 2005's Keynote Speech on Tuesday, Jan 11th 2005. Contrary to previous years, it appears there will be no live broadcast of this event. In fact, according to a small (unconfirmed) blurb on Keynoteuser, it's claimed that Apple may not allow the press to post any live newsfeeds of the Keynote at all.

This year's pre-expo hype has been accentuated by a number of actions by Apple Legal. In December Apple filed suit against three developers for posting early versions of Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) on the internet. Apple also subpoenaed three Mac sites for information related to leaks about an unreleased product (presumed to be 'Asteroid').

Most striking, however, is the reported Apple lawsuit against ThinkSecret for posting trade secrets as well as soliciting contractually-protected information. In the past, Apple has brought legal action against individuals for leaking trade secrets (Worker Bee, PowerMac Photos) but this is the first time that it has brought direct legal action against a rumor website.

The surrounding legal action, of course, lends credence to certain rumors, published at the ThinkSecret site. This roundup reviews the most likely rumors for the upcoming MacWorld Expo.

Flash iPod

Talk of a Flash-memory based iPod has been ongoing for some time. An October analyst report indicated that a Flash based iPod was in the works with a 3rd party manufacturer of controller chips (SigmaTel). More hints in the following months led us to a rumor of a Flash memory-based iPod to be introduced in early 2005. A recent article provides confirmation as well as additional details: the Flash-memory based iPod is expected to come in 1GB and 2GB versions and start at $149.

Asteroid

In November, Appleinsider posted information of an hardware audio interface for GarageBand users which provides two XLR/ TRS audio input connectors, two RCA analog output jacks, and a standard headphone jack. This devices is reportedly at the heart of some of the previously mentioned legal action from Apple. In the initial report, this device was expected to be released at MWSF, but little additional information has been released.

New Apps

One of the most detailed reports of new Applications coming from Apple came from this ThinkSecret report which is one of the subjects of Apple's lawsuit. The article describes an iLife '05 update providing new releases to iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, and Garageband.

More significant is the rumored release of iWork '05 which will bundle two applications -- Keynote 2 and Pages. Pages is expected to be a word processing application to take place of Appleworks. It is unclear, however, if spreadsheet functionality will also be included.

Older rumors first labeled this application as "Document". Of uncertain significance, Apple also had previously trademarked iWrite in 2003. Finally, another historical rumor is that Apple reportedly acquired employees from GoBe, a BeOS productivity suite with an innovative design.

$499 Headless iMac

The most significant release from Apple at MacWorld SF may be this item. The $499 display-less iMac. The specs of the bare-bones machine is said to include a 1.25GHz G4 processor, Combo drive, and 256MB RAM.

The point for this machine is to lure PC users, already tempted by the iPod, to make a switch to the Mac platform (at least as a second computer system).

Other?

Most notable about the rumors leading up to MacWorld is the lack of rumors related to the other Apple hardware lines. Two hardware updates did occur last week -- Display Price Drops and Xserve updates, which ensures no further updates on those fronts.

Of the remaining hardware line, the PowerBook has the longest lead time since last introduction (April 2004), but no word on PowerBook updates have been heard.

Coverage

MacWorld SF 2005's Keynote kicks off at 9AM Pacific on January 11th, 2005. As always, MacRumors will try to provide live coverage for the keynote and/or provide links to the best available information.

[IDANNY]

Yay its so close. I am hoping for the imac mini or whatever it will be called.

[dobbin]

Looking forward to it - I hope there are a few surprises as well...

[zkmusa]

Can't wait.. less than 2 days left. This sounds like it will be an excellent keynote. Maybe a new preview of Tiger as well?

[maya]

I believe Apple wants some major hits to its site for the stream after the keynote.

[Dr. Dastardly]

One more day, just one more day.

[Zaty]

No live feeds at all? Does that mean we have to wait until the keynote is over Apple's sites are updated? I hope not. Anyway, tomorrow is going to be exciting. All this extras secrecy makes it even more exciting. Either we'll be surprised or disappointed, depending on which rumours are true.

[KlarkKent007]

Bring on the goods, we are ready (as usual)

[jesuscandle]

After doing a little digging on GoBe, it sounds a lot like it does a whole lot of things - Word Processing, Spreadsheets, HTML, Graphics, etc.

Doesn't it sounds like "Pages" would be more than just an electronic typewriter?

Anyone know more about GoBe and Apple's relationship?

[rikers_mailbox]

No mention of the iPhone in the rumor roundup?

I personally doubt an Apple branded phone, but I do expect some announcement pertaining to a mobile version of iTunes.

[plinkoman]

i really hope there is an update for the powerbooks, i really need to get one soon. the fact that there have been no rumors about them is leading me to beleive its either something big that they've put alot of effort into keeping it a secret, or nothing at all.

[Chip NoVaMac]

This is probably the keynote they should have had last year given the Mac anniversary.

[b-randomly]

Mark me as giddy -- I can't wait for the keynote! Despite the fact that I won't have Internet for the time of the actual presentation, I know it'll be everywhere afterwards.

[rjfiske]

Weird... I was at dotmac.info earlier tonight and saw that they ARE providing live coverage. Not sure if this means live coverage a la text or web stream. But interesting that keynoteuser would say NO coverage is possible. Still hoping (against my instinct) that a webstream will be available.

[Zaty]

Originally Posted by rjfiske

Weird... I was at dotmac.info earlier tonight and saw that they ARE providing live coverage. Not sure if this means live coverage a la text or web stream. But interesting that keynoteuser would say NO coverage is possible. Still hoping (against my instinct) that a webstream will be available.

That item was published January 5!

[LimeiBook86]

*rolls dice*

Come on G5 Updates!!

[polyesterlester]

MacShrine mentions a program in iWork called Cells. I wonder if they actually have a "source" (it's doubtful they have a reliable one, anyway), or if they're just making it up. I don't think I can trust them yet, but maybe MWSF will prove me wrong.

Here's hoping I'm wrong. I'd love a spreadsheet app from Apple.

[russed]

ooh, how exciting! i cant wait!

[Mechcozmo]

Lets see some of these rumors turn to reality, eh?

[guylafleur]

Well, I`ve been waiting to "switch" for the past 5 months, and it looks like I`ll finally have the impetus to do it.

As long as Tiger comes out within the next 4-5 months, this iWorks will be perfectly timed for my thesis which is due to start in April-May. I`m also hoping "pages" will have some kind of integrated web-page design functions that`ll make on-line publishing that much easier. Reading up on GoBe seems to point that way.

Ibook 12" here I come!

[JW Pepper]

And no speed bumps?

[nagromme]

Steel yourselves

Some of these rumors will be false.

Some will be true, but refer to products that Apple won't decide to actually ship.

Some will be true, but won't happen for another week, or month, or year.

Some will be half-true.

I can believe a headless low-end Mac... but $499 would surprise me. I think it will cost at least $599. Hopefully no more, unless it has some really cool features that make it NOT low-end. But 1.25 G4 sounds low-end to me.

[Devie]

I hope for Powermac updates, I pretty much have all the cash I need to buy the entry-level mac with 20" ACD, just gotta wait for speed bump till I can finally switch .

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

Of the remaining hardware line, the PowerBook has the longest lead time since last introduction (April 2004), but no word on PowerBook updates have been heard.

i was previously thinking powerbooks will not be updated now, but as no word has been heard, i'm beginning to think of a major bomb being dropped...

[oingoboingo]

Originally Posted by JFreak

i was previously thinking powerbooks will not be updated now, but as no word has been heard, i'm beginning to think of a major bomb being dropped...

I eagerly anticipate the launch of the PowerBook G5 so we can get a serious start on whining about how long it will be until the PowerBook G6 is released.

Actually I would expect that a dual-core G4 based system using one of the new FreeScale designs would come before a G5 system. Here's hoping!