Macworld San Francisco 2006 Rumor Roundup

[ScubaDuc]

Just itching in my pants!

I'm really sore in my groin area from all the scratching I've been doing the past few days, anxiously anticipating MWSF.

Thanks for the round-up, but I fear it has made my itching worse!

Are you sure it is not just a Candida albicans (yeast) infection? It usually does affect the groin area.... :

 

[generik]

Can iBooks be released with Intel before Powerbooks? My reaction is that they cannot, unless pro-apps are not ready OR that performance in Rosetta is unacceptable. Apple would have to keep something on which pro-apps could run sucessfully. If on the otherhand Pro-Apps are either ready or do run at acceptable speeds without glitches then Apple will not e able to upgrade the iBooks without also upgrading Powerbooks.

There are a lot of if's here, but my money is on both being upgraded. From what I have heard the GUI on OSX86 is as snappy as Windows, so there it feels as though the machines have gone through a hugh jump in performance, but I am not sure how they compare on non-graphical things such as encoding video.

Guess what? FCP 6 is coming out soon too, it is a hint to those loser "pros" to upgrade and get on with the program =)

 

[m-dogg]

Just itching in my pants!

I'm really sore in my groin area from all the scratching I've been doing the past few days, anxiously anticipating MWSF.

Thanks for the round-up, but I fear it has made my itching worse!

I hate to say it, but MWSF may not be causing that itch...

Anyway, thanks for the roundup!

 

[amateurmacfreak]

Add a PowerBook, and iLife '06.

David

Oops, of course iLife '06.... sort of forgot about that one. And I really hope a Powerbook is coming, although I'm not quite sure about that.... I doubt it right at MWSF. I think it'll be coming a few months later maybe...

 

[amateurmacfreak]

Just remember, whatever Macs are announced at MWSF, others can follow soon after.

I expect all G4 Macs to go Intel by the month after next... but I do not expect all G4 Macs to feature on Tuesday.

So if your particular dream (PowerBooks are mine) doesn't come true on the 10th, just keep an eye on every Tuesday for the next 2 months!

Agreed.

 

[amateurmacfreak]

I can't see Apple releasing two seperate "ihome" type products, along with new iLife, new shuffle (seems likely) and then possibly a new ibook or mac mini. That just seems like a whole hell of a lot of products. Not saying it couldn't happen, matter of fact I would LOVE for this to happen. Just don't see it as likely.

Yeah. Well, I'm starting to think this is going to be one heck of an expo though.... so excited.

 

[amateurmacfreak]

Can iBooks be released with Intel before Powerbooks? My reaction is that they cannot, unless pro-apps are not ready OR that performance in Rosetta is unacceptable. Apple would have to keep something on which pro-apps could run sucessfully. If on the otherhand Pro-Apps are either ready or do run at acceptable speeds without glitches then Apple will not e able to upgrade the iBooks without also upgrading Powerbooks.

There are a lot of if's here, but my money is on both being upgraded. From what I have heard the GUI on OSX86 is as snappy as Windows, so there it feels as though the machines have gone through a hugh jump in performance, but I am not sure how they compare on non-graphical things such as encoding video.

I think there is a very good chance that we'll see Intel iBooks at MWSF and the Powerbooks following at some point in the next few months. Awesome.
Oh crap. I'm gonna go broke.

 

[amateurmacfreak]

ack, isn't this year's rumour roundup a little early? i mean four days? wasn't it like hours before, last time?

hmm. most of it good, all i can say i hope for is a dual core powerbook. and maybe a new mac mini dvr..

Yep. Even though I think the Powerbook will be coming later.... that's what I really want.

 

[Island Dog]

I am really looking forward to what iLife '06 is going to bring.

 

[WindowsSUCKSX5]

I think there is a very good chance that we'll see Intel iBooks at MWSF and the Powerbooks following at some point in the next few months. Awesome.
Oh crap. I'm gonna go broke.

I agree with you on that. I would personally like to see the pricing of the new ibooks. I would think they would almost be forced into lowering prices. Apple needs a bigger market share. Now that mac has been given a little more notice, i would expect to see a bit of a price drop in consumer models such as the ibook. Many more people would by ibooks if they priced at 800$.

If these new intels comeput at mac world and are better more powerful computers, macs market share will surely go up.

 

[BlueRevolution]

with all the talk of the number of things Steve has to roll out at MWSF... anybody remember last year's WWDC? specifically, how many products we got then? that's right, none. just Steve talking about Intel a lot, then Intel's CEO talking about Apple a lot. no new toys.

wait, did they announce the ROKR then too? wow, chalk it up to the most useless WWDC ever. so, Steve... you have a lot of time to make up.

"one more thing" aside...

 

[Porchland]

One more thing...

Don't forget the reports a few months ago that music was going to be one of the big stories at Macworld.

Maybe some holdouts like the full Dave Matthews Band catalog, Radiohead or dare I say... The Bea-- No! Surely not.

The Disney announcement earlier this week about new video content also makes me think Disney was getting out of the way for bigger content announcements like maybe CBS, Warner or Fox titles. I'm looking for some kind of iTunes-only content, too, like webisodes or extra scenes from popular shows and maybe some kind of season pass for a January show like "American Idol" or "24."

 

[windowuser82]

Agree about the Mini. A $500 / £350 price point Mini with Pentium or Celeron M and X300 should be possible at that price point and have enough oomph for things like the Sims 2 and powering a 17-19" monitor, home use it really struggles with now.

I haven't been following CES that closely but given the prices of the Core Uno, I am dubious that Apple would cram that in there (but keep fingers crossed none the less!) and I don't see how the Mini is going to evolve into some home media centre without a substantial price increase, although IIRC ATI are bringing out cards with on-board MPEG4 decoding.

The Mini's forté has always been it's prices and even 'budget' PC technology would give it a decent performance boost.

I agree. I highly doubt a Mac Mini DVR -thing- is on it's way. As you said, the price point, and, it just seems something of that nature would take a lot of planning and with the Intel transition....ya know? Plus the iPod w/ video thing and iTunes with the tv shows...

I, personally, wouldn't mind a larger (not by much) form factor sort of like the Cube thing from years back. More room for a better hard drive, a graphics card worth a plug damn, and more than two lousy usb ports.

OoOoO.... and in that nifty black used on the iPods

 

[WindowsSUCKSX5]

with all the talk of the number of things Steve has to roll out at MWSF... anybody remember last year's WWDC? specifically, how many products we got then? that's right, none. just Steve talking about Intel a lot, then Intel's CEO talking about Apple a lot. no new toys.

wait, did they announce the ROKR then too? wow, chalk it up to the most useless WWDC ever. so, Steve... you have a lot of time to make up.

"one more thing" aside...

Well when you think about mac world is the biggest thing for mac every year so it would make sense to release the most stuff at mac world. I guess when you think about it, other than some minor minor updates, mac laptops (specifically ibooks havent been updated lately). Jobs needs to come out with more than one or two things to satisfy mac users/mac future users. I expect shuffles, mac minis, ibooks, and some updated software. Such as ilife06 which was already leaked out on apple.com.

 

[mdavey]

I agree. I highly doubt a [home theater] -thing- is on it's way... something of that nature would take a lot of planning and with the Intel transition....

Depends. Over on AppleInsider, there are rumors of a large-screen iMac-like home theater -thing- on its way. The project could have been kicked off in Summer 2004 or before with an expected debut at WWDC 2005. I am assuming that the Intel transition was announced internally during Q1 or Q2 2005. For whatever reason (perhaps FrontRow wasn't ready and perhaps they decided to go back to the drawing board so the project to take advantage of Viiv), the product wasn't ready for its WWDC debut.

Edit: link: http://forums.appleinsider.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=59881&perpage=40&pagenumber=4

 

[HelloKitty]

Here's what I think will happen:

Jan. 10 2006:

​

Apple released Intel based Mac Mini at its annual MWSF event.

Jan. 11 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $80 a share, due expectation in increase in sale.

Jan. 15, 2006:

​

A file named "Mac OSX Tiger for PC (cracked) (work!).iso" appeared in eMule community.

Jan. 16, 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $25 a share.

Hope this won't happen..

 

[Stella]

Apple are yet again doing a good job of supressing leaks from inside the company.. either that or rumour sites aren't publishing what they know.

 

[Porchland]

You schedule your spring courses so you get Tuesdays free to watch Steve Keynotes...

Yeah, particularly given that they're not live and probably won't be out in QuickTime until after your last class anyway.

 

[dernhelm]

Here's what I think will happen:

Jan. 10 2006:

​

Apple released Intel based Mac Mini at its annual MWSF event.

Jan. 11 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $80 a share, due expectation in increase in sale.

Jan. 15, 2006:

​

A file named "Mac OSX Tiger for PC (cracked) (work!).iso" appeared in eMule community.

Jan. 16, 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $25 a share.

Hope this won't happen..

You forgot:
Jan. 20, 2006:

​

PC Users sick of Windows security holes start installing OS/X en-masse.

Feb 20, 2006:

​

Apple starts selling OS/X that will install on any PC officially.

Dec 30, 2006:

​

OS/X carves out 49% market share one day before Vista actually ships...

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

 

[Porchland]

Depends. Over on AppleInsider, there are rumors of a large-screen iMac-like home theater -thing- on its way. The project could have been kicked off in Summer 2004 or before with an expected debut at WWDC 2005. I am assuming that the Intel transition was announced internally during Q1 or Q2 2005. For whatever reason (perhaps FrontRow wasn't ready and perhaps they decided to go back to the drawing board so the project to take advantage of Viiv), the product wasn't ready for its WWDC debut.

The rumors of a Mac mini media center and a super-large HD displays make a lot of sense when taken together. The pieces are all there; the difficulty is figuring out how to:

* manage the bandwidth it's going to take to display content in HD;

* get it from your Internet connection to your box to your TV without un-Apple-like complexity;

* reconcile HD content with the $1.99 TV episodes that Apple has had so much success with already (will each purchase you've already made give you access to higher-quality versions for TV?); and

* not spend your last dollar on content (if you downloaded just one TV episode a day, that's $62 a month you're spending on content).

 

[SiliconAddict]

Yah know. (Please don't beat me.) The masochist in me is probably going to boot up my PowerBook, register it, pop in a Windows XP CD and see how far I can get at installing it. Sure I'm going to kill OS X. But it a geek thing. Just to see how far it can install. Of course I'm going to reformat and put OS X back on there almost immediately but still. It will be an interesting experiment. Assuming someone else doesn't beat me to the punch which is pretty much a given. That is assuming there will be PowerBooks. Gah I'm jinxing it. Watch. No PowerBooks.

 

[TheMasin9]

well see what we got

im bettin we see most if not all of the aforementioned of the different products at mw. woo hoo intel books i may get one11

 

[SiliconAddict]

Here's what I think will happen:

Jan. 10 2006:

​

Apple released Intel based Mac Mini at its annual MWSF event.

Jan. 11 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $80 a share, due expectation in increase in sale.

Jan. 15, 2006:

​

A file named "Mac OSX Tiger for PC (cracked) (work!).iso" appeared in eMule community.

Jan. 16, 2006:

​

At NYSE, AAPL traded at $25 a share.

Hope this won't happen..

Anything that shows up on BitTorrent is going to prob be a PITA to install. I gave up trying to get X on my ThinkPad. Investors aren't going to care that geeks are pirating X. Now it it starts going mainstream that is another matter altogether.

 

[blakbyrd]

Yah know. (Please don't beat me.) The masochist in me is probably going to boot up my PowerBook, register it, pop in a Windows XP CD and see how far I can get at installing it. Sure I'm going to kill OS X. But it a geek thing. Just to see how far it can install. Of course I'm going to reformat and put OS X back on there almost immediately but still. It will be an interesting experiment. Assuming someone else doesn't beat me to the punch which is pretty much a given. That is assuming there will be PowerBooks. Gah I'm jinxing it. Watch. No PowerBooks.

Blasphemy!!! J/K

Seriously, though, I hope we get Intel Powerbooks, or at least iBooks.

 

[Randall]

Yah know. (Please don't beat me.) The masochist in me is probably going to boot up my PowerBook, register it, pop in a Windows XP CD and see how far I can get at installing it. Sure I'm going to kill OS X. But it a geek thing. Just to see how far it can install. Of course I'm going to reformat and put OS X back on there almost immediately but still. It will be an interesting experiment. Assuming someone else doesn't beat me to the punch which is pretty much a given. That is assuming there will be PowerBooks. Gah I'm jinxing it. Watch. No PowerBooks.

There will be PowerBooks! Either that or there will be no Core Duo processors available for Mac products at MWSF.