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Macworld Expo: The Rumors and likely realities
Going into the the 2007 Macworld show, the rumor mill was pretty well
dead. And right in line with that - Apple had no major new MAC
announcement... the iPhone was introduced of course... and right in line
Apple Computer, Inc. became just 'Apple, Inc.' - that too announced at
the once a year major US Apple Mac 'Computer' show. No, I've still not
let go of that.... Regardless, while the show was a little light for us
Mac users - Apple certainly didn't disappoint with the Mac roll outs
that occurred throughout the rest of 2007. Anyway... there's a little
more life out there this year and this show looks likely to live well up
to the 'Mac'world name. These are the things I hear and how they rank to me:
#1 - Funny enough, the same Apple 12" Superslim notebook that was the
only real new Mac rumor prior to the 2007 show is the number 1 rumored
Mac expected at the 2008 show. It's evolved a little - possible use of a
flash (solid state) hard drive and featuring a multi-touch enabled
display (like the iPhone) would well set it a part from Apple's current
line as well as pretty much any other notebok out there.
#2 - Expect to see new Mac Pro Quad and 8-Way Xeons.. with a new 1.6GHz
FSB (current is 1333MHz), with more massive on-chip cache, and clock
speeds up to 3.2GHz or possibly 3.4GHz. Although that is just a little
faster in clock than the current 3.0GHz offering - the faster bus +
larger processor caches are said to increase performance by as much as
45% - huge!
#3 - HD format support finally introduced. You can get an HD-DVD or
Blu-Ray for a PC and the software to author as well as watch movies has
been available on Windows for quite some time. To this point, the same
devices on a Mac are good for Data storage only. Going with Disney's
choice of Blu-ray + going against all things Microsoft which includes
Microsoft's strong support of the competing HD-DVD format, I expect that
Apple will officially introduce full Blu-Ray support as well as make
Blu-Ray drives an option or the full line of iMacs, MacBook Pros, and
Mac Pro systems. The video chipsets in all of these Macs now have
specific HD video playback optimized support and Blu-Ray players are
available in both slot load as well as the 5.25" desktop versions. In
the case of the Mac Pro, there have been two unused SATA ports on the
logic boards since first introduction.... the latest optical drives area
all going to SATA interface and the Mac Pro has two optical drive bays.
Probably not going to be unused for much longer.
#4 - A new AppleTV media station - in so many ways Apple has crippled
the functionality that the AppleTV could offer. Without a desire to play
iTunes content, there are far better solutions (like the Ziova) which
cost less and play more formats with less hassle. Such solutions deliver
what customer's want and I'd love to see an AppleTV product that goes
more open to achieve more of just that. Then... maybe not - in various
rumored deals, including one to get iTunes compatible versions of a
movie included on distributed DVDs - there will be a real cost for that
convenience that we should be able to have for free, the convenience
being a right to play owned media via the method of choice. FWIW -
software out there already lets you (albeit in the gray) do that without
having to pay that extra. We'll see... Still, I like the AppleTV concept
- and it's a huge winner if it's just opened up some.
#5 - My own ongoing pipe dream.... My hope is still there for a
mid-level 'headless' Mac. Maybe the size of the original Cube G4 - with
fast Core 2 Duo processors, two PCIExpress slots and a convenient
Express34 card slot.. Not a Mac Pro, but nicely expandable - unlike the
iMacs and the especially crippled Mac mini. I'd bet such a system in the
$900-1500 price range would sell like crazy just for the upgrade
flexibility. Alright, I can dream.
#6 - not so much else... we know Microsoft Office 2008 is finally
getting it's official intro at Macworld -this is good news, Intel Macs
have been out for two years now - about time Office goes native.
Probably see some speed bumps to other existing Mac lines, seems about
the right time - be it video or some processor upgrade. Noise about the
next iPhone is out there, iPod stuff... but that's about all I got for Mac.
At last year's show, Apple kinda disappointed. The iPhone is certainly
the product of 2007 and all - but as the only major new hardware at the
Mac expo and not a Mac and not available till June... Anyway - I'm
betting this year will be loaded with Mac Action and maybe a few well
kept secret zingers to see first light too. Today's speculation is just
two weeks from revelations to reality. :)
Other World Computing
div. of New Concepts Development Corp.
1004 Courtaulds Drive
Woodstock, IL 60098
815-338-8685
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Rgds. Grüße, Mvh. Erik Richard Sørensen, Member of ADC
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