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The Apple faithful are gathering in San Francisco ahead of Steve Jobs' annual keynote, in which he is expected to unveil new products. Top of the most-wanted list, according to reports, is anultra-slim laptop, using flash storage instead of a hard drive, and movie rentals for iTunes. Last year, Apple unveiled the iPhone to great fanfare and few observers expect Mr Jobs to be able to top that launch. The company is expected to sell 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
Steve Jobs will be hoping to build on the firm's success with the iPod and Mac line-up and to boost sales of products, such as the Apple TV, which have not performed so well. Analysts expect Apple to post record sales this year despite concerns of an overall slowdown in consumer spending. The company outpaced the overall PC industry last year:in its last quarterly report, it sold 2.16 million Macs, up 34% from the year earlier and more than double the worldwide PC growth r If Apple does launch a flash-based Mac Book, it will follow a trend among laptop manufacturers. Companies such as Sony, Asus, Dell and Toshiba a real ready offering laptops with solid state drives. More expensive than a hard drive, a solid state drive is also more reliable and more power efficient. Last week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas,Mooly Eden, Intel's head of global mobility, told BBC News that the move to solid state drives for all laptop manufacturers was inevitable. Mr Eden said: "This is a revolution that must happen.They have many advantages compared to rotational drives - they consume less power, they are more reliable because you don't have movingparts."
Intel provides the processors which power Apple's desktop and laptop machines.
The company is expected to unveil movie rentals for iTunes, which it hopes will boost its Apple TV product. The device connects to a computer and streams contentfrom the hard disc to the box and then on to the TV, or it can storemusic and films using its own local storage. Until now the device has not been able to connect to the net independently of a computer but this may change. Apple, along with many other consumer electronics firms, is battling for a place in the digital living room. Analysts Piper Jaffray estimates about 1.8 million AppleTV devices were sold in 2007 and expects another 2.9 million units toship this year.
"Steve Jobs started his Tuesday presentation with a recap of some ofApple’s highlights from the previous calendar quarter. He said thatApple now has 135 retail stores open around the world, and saw 26million visitors over the holiday quarter. Apple’s retail stores pulledin more than $1 billion in revenue for the quarter.
iPod and iTunes Jobssaid that Apple sold 14 million iPods this holiday season, compared to4.5 million for the 2004 holiday season — that averaged to more than100 sold every minute. The total number of iPods Apple has sold since the music play was first introduced in 2001 — 42 million. Apple has sold 850 million songs through its iTunes Music Store. Jobs said that 3 million songs are being sold per day, worldwide — a run rate of more than 1 billion songs per year. TV show sales have been going wel lsince they were introduced this past fall: Eight million have been sold and downloaded from iTunes since the video service went online inmid-October. Apple’s new $49 iPod remote control sports an integrated FM tuner, making it possible for iPod users to listen to FM radio stations while they use their iPods. The station frequency is displayed on the iPod’s screen. It’s compatible with current models.It’s on sale today. ABC Sports and ESPN content is now availablethrough iTunes — last week’s Rose Bowl was the top-selling sportsprogram on iTunes, said Jobs.
Jobs also used his time on the keynote stage to discuss Apple’s recent integration with Chrysler vehicles — as was recently announced, most of the new 2006 model year vehicles from Chrysler, Jeep and Dodge feature built-in iPod connectivity as an option. Forty percent of cars sold in the UnitedStates have iPod integration as an option, according to Jobs. Mac OS X v10.4.4 MacOS X v10.4 “Tiger’s” Dashboard feature has been a big success,according to Jobs: More than 1500 Dashboard widgets have already been created. Apple on Tuesday will release Mac OS X v10.4.4, the latestincremental update to Tiger — which includes updates to Dashboardincluding a new Google widget. Also new is an ESPN sports score widget,a “white pages,” calendaring widget, ski conditions and new widget thatworks with Apple’s Address Book application. iLife ‘06 Appleon Tuesday also announced a major update to its iLife package — iLife‘06. Calling it a “giant new release,” Jobs touted the dramatically improved speed of iPhoto, which also includes new one-click effects.iPhoto features a new limit of 250,000 photos. New full-screen editinghas been added to this release. A major new feature of iLife ‘06is what Apple calls “Photocasting.” Described as podcasting for photos,photocasting makes it possible to share photos over the Internet usingone mouse-click. The photos are updated to your .Mac account, whereusers can subscribe to them using Really Simple Syndication (RSS). iPhoto also has a new greeting card creation feature, and the ability to create calendars using iPhoto images. The new version of iMovie features the ability to open more than oneproject at a time. Trickling down from Apple’s pro video applications,iMovie now gains new real time titling effects. And, of course, with the introduction of the video-capable iPod, iMovie now supports theability to export to iPod and create vid casts — the video version of podcasts. At long last, support for third-party DVD burners has finally come to Apple’s DVD creation software, iDVD. “Magic DVD” is anew feature that lets you create a DVD using drag and drop techniques,rather than having to manually assemble your project. Also, you canproduce wide-screen menus for your DVD content. New themes and newslideshows have been added. Map view editing has also been enhanced. Podcastinghas been a major trend in 2005, with innumerable companies andindividuals hopping on the bandwagon to produce audio files that theyprovide for download using RSS feeds. Last year Apple updated iTuneswith podcasting support, and now Garageband gets the podcast treatmentwith new podcast studio features. You can incorporate artwork andmore than 200 different effects and sound snippets built-in toGarageBand in your podcasts. iChat, Apple’s own instant messaging,audio and video teleconferencing application, can now be used forpodcasting. Ducking is a new feature that will automatically lower thevolume of music when a voice track is introduced. A new World Music JamPack — an add-on for GarageBand — has also been produced.
iWeb Therumors were true: There’s also a new application bundled with iLife ‘06called iWeb. iWeb has been developed to help iLife users share theircontent — photos, blogs, music, movies and more — through Webpublishing. The integrated media browser provides you with directaccess to the content managed by your other iLife applications. iWebsupports one-click publishing to .Mac accounts, and features a varietyof built-in templates, support for RSS feeds and more. A theme-basedmotif lets you create a coherent site and update it whenever the moodstrikes without having to worry about breaking the site in the process.
iLife‘06 is now available, and costs $79 — the same price as last year’sversion. It’s also being bundled for free on new iMacs starting today. Jobsmentioned in passing that Apple’s .Mac service, a subscription-basedonline service that provides users with Web publishing, onlinesynchronization and other tools and features, now has more than onemillion paying subscribers.
iWork ‘06 Lastyear Apple introduced a new product suite called iWork. The suitecomprised Apple’s Keynote presentation software with a new wordprocessor/page layout application called Pages. iWork has been updatedfor 2006. Shipping today, iWork ‘06 costs $79, same as before.There are no new applications in iWork ‘06, but new to this release isthe ability to create 3D charts, more advanced imaging, masking,calculating tables and more. A 30-day free trial demo will be includedon new Macs.
Intel inside the new iMac IntelPresident and CEO Paul Otellini emerged from the stage in a white“bunny suit.” He called his company’s efforts to get their CPUs workingon the Mac “energizing, challenging and fun.” “We’re a little head of schedule,” said Jobs, introducing the first Mac to feature an Intel microprocessor.
Usingthe new Core Duo chip from Intel, Apple’s new iMac, which goes on saletoday in 17 and 20-inch versions, is two to three times faster than itspredecessor, according to Jobs. It’s available in the same design asbefore, with the same prices. Both cores of the new dual-coreIntel chip are faster than the G5 was, according to the benchmarks Jobsshowed on the screen. Mac OS X v10.4.4, which ships on the new machine,is running natively on the Intel microprocessor. What’s more, Apple’snew iLife ‘06 and iWork ‘06 applications have been produced as“universal binaries,” which means they’ll also run natively. Jobsindicated that Apple’s pro applications, including Final Cut Pro andAperture, will be available in universal binaries starting in March. Ifyou already own the software, you can trade up to the universal binaryversions for $49. For third-party pro application support,Microsoft is “on track” for universal binaries of Microsoft Office andMicrosoft Messenger, but for now, the company has made sure that itssoftware runs well using Rosetta, the emulation technology that makesit possible for Intel-based Macs to run PowerPC-optimized software.Quark is releasing a beta version of a QuarkXPress universal binaryversion today. Calling it an “incredibly successful product,”Microsoft’s spokesperson Roz Ho reiterated its support for theMacintosh version of Microsoft Office, and told the crowd that thecompany is “here to stay.” “Rosetta is going to be a great bridge until we get all apps Universal,” said Jobs.
MacBook Pro Ofcourse, no Steve Jobs keynote would be complete without his trademark“one more thing.” This year’s was a doozy: a new laptop computer calledthe MacBook Pro. That’s right — no more PowerBook. The MacBookpro features an Intel Duo Core chip that runs four to five times fasterthan the PowerBook G4, according to jobs — he called it the fastestnotebook ever. All this, in a chassis that’s actually slimmer thanApple’s 17-inch PowerBook G4 model, and weighs in at 5.6 pounds. Itfeatures a 15.4-inch LCD screen that’s as bright as Apple’s desktopCinema Displays. The new MacBook Pro features a built-in iSightcamera, much like Apple’s iMac systems, and an integrated InfraRed (IR)sensor supports Apple’s remote control, which can operate Front Row —the software that helps turn a Mac into a media center, which Applefirst introduced in a refreshed iMac model in 2005. Apple istaking orders today, but does not expect to begin shipping the MacBookPro until sometime in February. A 1.67GHz model will cost $1,999. A1.83GHz model will cost $2,499. The keynote address closed with an image of Steve Jobs and Steve “Woz”Wozniak, who founded Apple on April Fool’s Day, 1976. April 1, 2006will be Apple’s 30th anniversary.
With the calendar flipping from one year to the next this past week,it’s only natural to wonder what the next 365 days have in store. It’seven more understandable if you’re a Mac fan. After all, Macworld Expolooms just a week or so away, and with that annual trade show comes thepromise of new and exciting developments from Apple and beyond. Sofor the past eight Januarys, we’ve broken out the crystal ball andindulged in a little soothsaying. We gather up the brightest minds ofthe Mac universe and ask them to dig deep into their reservoir ofknowledge and expertise to determine which way the Mac market is headed. Usually, they wind up just making wild guesses. Sowithout further ado, here’s this year’s edition of our fearlessforecasts from four Mac observers hoping to be able to say the sweetestwords in the English language by this time next year: I told you so.
Dan Frakes, Macworld senior editor A Mac subnotebook:Apple will (finally) reintroduce a smaller, lighter laptop made forroad warriors. Like older entries in this market, such as the PowerBook 2400c,the new model will forgo an internal optical drive to achieve a smallersize, but it will also feature new technologies that let it slim downwhile providing better performance and improved battery life, such as asolid-state hard drive, an LED screen, and a low-power processor. A new desktop: Apple will (finally) give us a midrange, screenless Mac—somethingin between the Mac mini and the Mac Pro—for people who don’t want anall-in-one desktop system. It will have a reasonably powerfulprocessor, a decent (and upgradable) graphics card, and room for a PCIcard and an additional hard drive. This machine will be great for“switchers” accustomed to such configurations on the Windows side, aswell as for people who want upgradability but can’t afford—or justdon’t need—a Mac Pro. It will also be an excellent second Mac for manyin the Mac Pro market. A new Mac market: Thedebut of Leopard, along with a general dissatisfaction with WindowsVista, will open doors for the Mac in the enterprise market. In fact,we’ll see a few major U.S. companies switch to the Mac platform—somegradually, but at least a couple in a major public migration. We’llalso see a resurgence of the Mac platform in higher education.
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times technology and computer columnist, and former Macworld columnist. Apple’s new platform:Look at the puzzle pieces. A sophisticated, gesture-based userinterface. OS X running on nontraditional devices. A new developerenvironment and API for iDevices that was so tricky thatApple couldn’t release it or even hint at it until three months afterthe iPhone was released… and even then, only under duress. Featuresembedded in Mac OS that help you invisibly tether two OS X devices’resources together, whether they’re in the same room or merely on thesame planet. A movement from Apple to put the bulk of its energy intoconsumer products and not computer products. I’m fairly sure that 2008 will see an entire new platform. The iPhone is a phone, and the iPod touch is an iPhone without the phone stuff. The next i-Suffixwill be a totally new thing. Not a Mac… not really. An iPhone, kind of,but sort of not. Take the screen off a MacBook and slice it in twovertically. That’s the device. It’ll play media—including Officedocuments, PDFs, and e-books—from its 16GB of flash storage. It’ll haveWi-Fi and the Safari browser… maybe even 3G or EDGE, as with an iPhone.It will secure-tunnel back to your home Mac or PC, and you’ll be ableto use this thing to access any resources you might have left behind.It will put every digital resource you have at your fingertips, in onecompact black slate. It will run native software, too. Curious, isn’t it, that in October Steve Jobs announced that Apple wouldn’t be taking the wrapper off the iPhone developers’ kit until February?It’s almost as if the resources that are plainly available in the SDKwould have spilled the beans on the device Steve intends to unveilduring his Macworld Expo keynote in January. Maybe I’m spot-onwith this. Maybe not. But I’ll make one prediction about Apple’s hotnew product of 2008 that I’ll stand behind without any waffling:whatever it is, people will complain that it costs way too much money,and they’ll happily stand in line for a minimum of 18 hours to get one. ] Dan Moren, Macworld associate editor and MacUser co-editor Why buy when you can rent?:People have become plenty comfortable with buying their music online,but sales of digital video have remained lukewarm. Despite its spatswith content providers like NBC, I expect to see a strong push fromApple on the digital video front in 2008, probably involving along-awaited update to the Apple TV and a video-rental download service. (Ed. Note: Mr. Moren submitted this prediction before reports surfaced of a possible Apple-Fox iTunes movie rental deal.) And perhaps even another open letter from Steve Jobs, containing a list of his all-time favorite romantic comedies. Touching the Mac:We’ve seen an evolution in the Mac over the past couple of years, butit’s been a while since we’ve had a real revolution. With all the workApple has put into the multitouch interface, which has jumped from theiPhone to the iPod line, the Mac seems a likely next stop. I’m guessingwe’ll see it in a portable form factor rather than a desktop. Sorry Minority Report fans; you’ll just have to wait. More iPhone developments: Even if the iPhone isn’t the best-selling product Apple has, it’s still the most iconic device of the past year, in anyindustry. Look for Apple to capitalize on that momentum with asecond-generation iPhone, based (at last) on 3G wireless technology.But the real question remains “Will the iPhone 2.0 cook me dinner?”
A thinner laptop:At Macworld Expo in January, Steve Jobs will unveil a wafer-thin,13-inch Mac laptop based on flash memory, giving it 12 hours of batterylife. The resulting nerdgasm will shatter the glass exterior of MosconeWest. NBC finds allies: More entertainmentcompanies will attempt to strong-arm Apple into raising prices at theiTunes Store. Apple will then be forced to create its own content, andJobs will form “Stevie and the Apple Execs,” a hip new boy band. Look out, ModBook:Apple will release a tablet device with pen-based input capability.Strangely, the device will be called “The First Person To Call It aNewton Gets Socked in the Throat.” iPhone: The sequel:The next-generation iPhone will be released in the second quarter ofthe year. AT&T will prompt customers to upgrade by sending themfrequent text messages informing them that their original iPhones areno longer cool. And one more thing…: Apple will introduce another lineof consumer products, this time in the realm of dental care. The AppleToothbrush will include the first user-friendly application ofDRM—dental rights management. Using its patented FairBrush technology,each Apple Toothbrush will be locked to a single Apple ID. The devicewill be wildly popular because nobody likes it when someone else usestheir toothbrush. Even John Dvorak will hail Apple’s move.
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