Filed under: Macworld, One More Thing
TUAW Macworld 2008 Keynote Predictions
With the [in]famous Steve Jobs Macworld keynote address mere days away, speculation is, as always, running rampant as to just what new bits of shiny Apple goodness will be announced this year; of course, TUAW will be liveblogging the keynote to provide you the news as soon as it's announced. Last year, as I'm sure you all remember, was the big iPhone unveiling -- a milestone in Apple history and a keynote that will surely be remembered for many years to come.With all the hype, excitement and fever surrounding last year's Keynote and the Phone reveal (we might have caught a bit of iPhone fever here at TUAW as well), how will this year's event hope to compete with the exciting announcements of last year and perhaps even, dare I say it, surpass them? Of course, when considering this event and the impending announcements, these questions, and many others, come to mind.
How long will Steve talk about the success of iTunes and the iPod before moving on to the other more exciting announcements? Who will be the musical guest? Will Noah Wyle make another appearance? How about John Hodgman? Or maybe, Bill Gates? What will Steve be wearing? And most importantly: what will be that "one more thing?"
Your intrepid TUAW writers have considered those very questions, and more, through long days and nights of deliberation, discussion and discourse. In so doing, we have come up with some interesting, perhaps even controversial, prognostications, pre-visualizations and predictions of what new products and services will be announced at this year's keynote.
Sure, a few of our ideas may seem unusual or far-fetched to some of you. But really, a couple of years ago, who would have thought Apple would get into the cell phone business, let alone become a major player almost overnight? Exciting, mind-altering and business defining events can sometimes happen in an instant (or 90 minutes) so sit back, relax and consider our Macworld 2008 keynote predictions...
Brett
• Subnotebook - A glorified Touch exactly halfway between tablet and iPod
• 16 gig iPhone
• Retrofitting of the Mini into something more helpful to the bottom line
• Unveiling of competitively priced RAM, with apology to switchers who spent $1000 on memory upgrades
The firmware update that will politely brick your iPhone (just ask Erica).
Christina
• Ultraportable/tablet with external optical and touch-screen -- that's a given
• New MacBook Pros featuring 45 nm chip, no new MacBooks or Macbook upgrades (that will come in May)
• Merging of Apple TV and Apple Mini into Apple Media Center / iMedia, with requisite feature to take advantage of new rental/buying DVD equals free download access and wireless connectivity to other devices
• New Cinema displays that look more like the iMac
• One More Thing: 16 GB iPhone 3G
Cory
• New notebooks (possibly sub-notebook) featuring new design, processor, screen sizes (30" to be exact)
• New consumer based tower, possibly replacing the Mac Mini
• New Cinema displays with built-in iSight and IR sensor for Front Row (they'll be glass just like the current iMacs)
• AppleTV will undergo a facelift, bringing in a Blue-ray Disc drive and a 1TB hard disk
• iPhone will receive it's 1.1.3 firmware update (Steve will mention the iPhone firmware "leak" and chuckle slightly)
• One More Thing: iTunes 7.6 will be released along with a store re-design and video rentals
• One Last Thing: Steve will applaud the Apple engineers and will introduce some entertainment to end the show (possibly Feist singing "1...2...3...4...")
Dave
• iTunes 7.6 and iPhone 1.1.3; iTunes gets yet another facelift
• There will be much bitching Re: the iTunes makeover
• There will be much praise Re: the iTunes makeover
• Movie rentals
• Updates on the Starbucks deal
• Sub-notebook replaces the Macbook
• iMac performance bumps (no change in appearance)
• Rent movies directly from the AppleTV, Direct TV-style
• 16GB iPhones (the "one more thing")
• Free New Balance sneakers for all attendees!
Erica
• Mac Nano: ultraportable tablet, flash-based, touch-screen. My iNewton.
• iPhone 2.0: G3. (yawner) Shipping by July.
• iPhone SDK: apps that run as user, software distributed through iTunes
• Rentals: TV & Movies, distribution through the WiFi store and iTunes
• iTunes iPhone games sales: available today (being not today, but then)
• Mac mini tower: All the mini love, in a tower form for the able (read "non-iMac" user)
• Ubiquitous computing: Apple has partnered with more WiFi-ready storefronts beyond Starbucks
• Steve is retiring, this is his last Macworld keynote. (see Gates, Bill)
• John Mayer will play some music
Mat
• Subnotebook
• Rev'ed MacBook Pros
• Details on iPhone SDK and iPhone 3G
• iTunes 8.0 with rentals and HD content
• Blu-ray in a Mac with movie playback (or Apple TV 2)
Michael R.
• iTunes rentals and DVD onboarding
• Mac Mini & AppleTV merge into "Mac Nano" form factor - TV tuner and HDMI
• iPhone 16GB + Exchange connector for iPhone
• MacBook Nano: subnotebook, but NOT the 'dockable' patent, no touchscreen
• One More Thing: iPhone SDK ships early
Mike S.
• iTunes 7.6
• Subnotebook announcement, but not on sale for a while
• Movie rentals along with an AppleTV update
• The mini isn't getting updated, but won't disappear from the store either
• iPhone SDK gets a demo, either of the tools or more likely of the sample software
Nik
• iTunes 7.6
• Movie Rentals
• AppleTV update of some description
• iPhone software update
• Cinema Displays updated, but perhaps not in the Stevenote
• One More Thing: Subnotebook sans optical drive
• Some hint about Office 2008
• NO 3G iPhone hardware announced
Victor
• nanoBook or ultraportable sans optical drive (sold separately at 200% markup like RAM) touchscreen
• iTunes gets a rebranding and makeover
• Mac mini and AppleTV merge
• One more thing: 3G iPhone in a variety of colors
Scott
• iTunes 8.0 (I'm with on Mat on this one) with rentals, more iTunes plus stuff
• A revamped Airport Express with N networking and some other cool features
• iPhone SDK
• New displays
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros
• That's about it. I don't think we'll see the 3G iPhone yet.
And finally, me. While I agree with most of my colleagues and really hope for a new subnotebook (my credit card is cleared, just in case) I don't think we will necessarily see any announcement of a new 3G iPhone. Why? Well, if I were considering the purchase of an iPhone right now and I heard there would be a better, stronger, faster one in a few months I would wait for it.
And so, I think, would a lot of other people on the fence -- which would basically kill sales of existing iPhones while people wait it out. So, no 3G iPhone announcement at the keynote. When they are ready to ship, Steve will announce them. Until then, no. However, we will likely see a 16GB iPhone to tide people over until 3G.
Here's my other predictions:
Chris
• Subnotebook- flash based, longer battery life, no touchscreen
• Updated MacBook Pros
• Updated Aperture (hopefully to accommodate RAW from the Nikon D300)
• Leopard 10.5.2 Update
• 16GB iPhone but not 3G
• Updated iTunes to accommodate the next two things on the list
• Movie rentals from studios including the already announced Fox plus one or two more. In HD too.
• Apple TV 2.0/Mac Mini - More storage, HD streaming from iTunes rented movies plus Blu-Ray
• Airport Express 2.0
Ok, that's us. What do you guys think will be announced?
The Steve Jobs keynote takes place Tuesday, January 15th at 9AM.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
zachary miller said 7:29AM on 1-11-2008
Well the At&t CEO said that a 3G iPhone would be out by quarter 4 2008, They may just announce it now since it has already been confirmed by the AT&T CEO, what the point in waiting, are they just gonna deny it.
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Hutch said 7:33AM on 1-11-2008
Fake Steve Jobs will come on at the beginning of the keynote to much hilarity talking about the frigtards who released some of the recent "leaks"
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drunkenoaf said 7:38AM on 1-11-2008
Airport Express 2.0? Wasn't that the Apple TV?
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antiorario said 7:41AM on 1-11-2008
Not sure why the keynote is "infamous," but OK.
:-)
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Mark Regan said 7:43AM on 1-11-2008
Movie Rentals & Movie Downloads will NOT be in HD.
iTunes will allow you to rip (certain) DVDs to your mac or Apple TV in HD quality.
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antiorario said 8:06AM on 1-11-2008
The regular DVD Video format is not HD, so ripping it to HD implies some upsampling that would make the result look worse than the original.
Blu-ray ripping, maybe? Being such a market niche, at the moment (not to mention the fact that current Macs can't natively even read Blu-ray) it would benefit very few people. Plus, Blu-ray could easily dedicate some disc space to a pre-ripped HD version of the movie.
On the whole HD vs. low-def issue, though, I find myself agreeing with Roughly Drafted:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2007/12/04/why-low-def-is-the-new-hd/
mark said 6:20PM on 1-11-2008
antiorario said...
"The regular DVD Video format is not HD, so ripping it to HD implies some upsampling that would make the result look worse than the original."
Uh, not exactly. The current Blu-Ray and HD DVD players already "upsample" SD DVDs and make them look *better* on HD TVs. The quality of a ripped movie would depend upon the type of compression being used (if any at all) during the conversion. Just as you have the option of ripping CDs at various compressions rates, the same applies to DVDs (and new compression codecs would no doubt become available specifically for ripping SD DVDs for the purpose of viewing them in HD).
Anon said 7:50AM on 1-11-2008
The current Macbook will be replaced by a 15" model (Apple must be losing piles of money by not having a reasonably sized notebook in their lineup) with a sub-notebook "Macbook nano" making an appearance.
The Apple tv will be updated to include video rental but Apple will once again ignore the PVR market and not include a TV tuner.
The Mac mini will be replaced by a mid-range desktop. Possibly the revival of the Cube. Much the same specs as the mini but utilising desktop components and allowing minimal upgrades.
Half the keynote taken up with iPod/iPhone marketing stats.
Leopard 10.5.2 release, fixing some of the stupid decisions Apple made with Leopard (Dock, Stacks, Menubar).
iTunes 7.6 release, now including video rental. Accompanied by 10 minutes of Jobs playing with it and previewing various videos.
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Jon said 9:09AM on 1-11-2008
You do realize that the MacBook Pro already comes in 15", right?
Anon said 10:06AM on 1-11-2008
Jon, yes i realise the Macbook Pro comes in a 15" model. I meant "consumer" notebook and the Pro's price is anything but consumer.
Anon said 10:07AM on 1-11-2008
Jon, yes i realise the Macbook Pro comes in a 15" model. I meant "consumer" notebook and the Pro's price is anything but consumer.
Reuven said 7:58AM on 1-11-2008
I don't get it - if it's such a sure thing that they're going to do movie rentals, why can't they also do music rentals, i.e., subscription? Rent the entire iTunes catalog for one month for $10.
That would be awesome. Rhapsody is the one thing that still has me Parallelsing into Windows.
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DR said 8:01AM on 1-11-2008
Whenever the new iPhone is announced, it will surely be months away from a shipdate. Unlike Apples other products the iPhone needs to be approved by the FCC before it can ship. This, I believe, is the main reason that the initial iPhone was announced 6 months before shipdate in the first place. So I have to disagree with you there Chris:
"So, no 3G iPhone announcement at the keynote. When they are ready to ship, Steve will announce them. Until then, no."
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Ludwik said 8:12AM on 1-11-2008
How bout Mac OS X 10.5.2 with some additional features that did not make it with the final release of the cat. Maybe improved stacks, maybe bit a redesigned timemachine (excluding some folders is a pain), maybe a bit improved stability and so on.
But frankly, I suppose that 1,5 hours that SJ has to talk about will not bring much. 15-30 minutes on iPod-Mac-iPhone industry, 30 minutes on movie rentals, makes only 30 minutes on anything else. May it be improved Leopard.
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Beau said 8:27PM on 1-11-2008
Yeah, bring on the Leopard Update!
Rilindo Foster said 9:32AM on 1-11-2008
I am going to out of the limb and say that Apple is going to license Leopard to clones. Of course, other than the activation patent that Apple filed, I don't really have any other proof that it will happen. :)
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Jon said 8:17AM on 1-11-2008
I'm going to go out on a limb and say no ultra-portable.
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umijin said 8:21AM on 1-11-2008
I think:
Small MacBook - at a hefty 5+lbs, the current MacBooks are not really portable. Whether Apple overdoes it with a functionally crippled ultralight MacBook or just a thinner, small screen version of the current line - I'm not sure.
Speed Bump MacBooks - could be the whole current line up, and maybe upgrade the screens of the 17" Pro to backlit.
Monitor Refresh - new versions of the current crop with built in iSight and more ports (USB/FW).
16GB GSM iPhone - no 3G yet.
MacTV 2.0 - BluRay whatever.... Yawn
iPhone/Touch SDK Kit - Announced, but not shipping yet.
iPhone/Touch Games - Way late, but hey.
iTunes - ≥v.7.6
OSX 10.5.2 - Make things like Back to your Mac and Spaces actually useful.
Mac Mini - no change in configuration, but decreased price.
Some of the product upgrades won't be announced at the Keynote, but be discovered as new products on the Apple Store - like before.
FWIW...
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SteveT said 8:22AM on 1-11-2008
While I've seen quite a few posters predict a 16gig iPhone, no one is talking about other logical iPhone enhancements, (some probably just need software) like an upgraded camera, the ability to shoot h264 video, MMS, voice dialing, GPS (not sure if that will be a 3G thing), copy & paste, and games; which could be another huge revenue stream from the device to Apple.
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Mark Haycock said 8:54AM on 1-11-2008
Random ideas:
iWeb Express.
And maybe not in the keynote but at the separate event the unveiling of the Shake replacement code named Phenomenon.
iPhone/iPod Touch games.
iPhone/iPod Touch applications (like google gears apps)
Apple TV / Mac Mini with Blue Ray drive.
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