I hope this post gets filed in the "I knew I wasn't the only one!" mental filing cabinets of many. Because if it doesn't, then it makes me the only one who really looks forward to the music Apple uses in its keynotes. Whether it's a song that leads up to Steve Jobs' entrance on stage, or one used in software or hardware demos, there's no denying that music is very much a part of Apple's DNA. Heck, the company's namesake reflects Steve's love for the Beatles. Apple occasionally invites some of music's biggest names to perform at its events because, as Steve says, "it's all about the music."

And this post is all about the music. It's all about the music that Apple has used in one way, shape, or form at its keynote events. Although by no means a definitive list, it's certainly a fair sample.

IDG World Expo has just announced the dates for Macworld Expo 2010, shifting the conference's historical January jaunt to February. The Macworld 2010 Conference and Expo will take place in San Francisco from February 9 - 13.

When I spoke to Paul Kent, the General Manager for Macworld Expo, earlier this afternoon, he stressed that IDG is answering a call from exhibitors and attendees to move the event to a less stressful time of year. Developers won't have to rush through the holidays to finish up software demos that might not be ready for a few months anyway, and exhibitors won't need to balance the holidays and booth-planning all at once.

The date change isn't the only new development: the Expo will run from Thursday February 11 - Saturday February 13 (the conference will run from the 9th - 13th). This means that attendees who are full-time professionals won't have to take off as much time from work. Can't make it on Thursday? Come on Saturday. Paul told me the real goal for Macworld 2010 is to make Macworld about the community.

After Apple announced that Macworld 2009 would be its last expo, the Mac community (and tech community at large) started speculating about the future of the event. Emerging from all this speculation is an interesting opportunity for Macworld to reinvent itself.

IDG announced during Macworld 2009 that Expo-only registration would be free. Already, more than 10,000 people have registered for the 2010 show.

Losing the largest show exhibitor does mean that the Expo floor will be scaled down. The Conference will be held in San Francisco's Moscone Center West, while the Expo will be in the North Hall (rather than the North and South as in years past). I think scaling the Expo down is a good idea. It's easier to interact with fellow show-goers in one space. In this economy, scaling down just makes sense.

Paul emphasized that there will be a real focus on independent software developers. I think this is a good thing and that Macworld has a real opportunity to define itself as not only a Mac community Woodstock, but also as a place for developers to talk, discuss, learn and show-off their wares. With iPhone development as hot as it is, a stronger focus on that audience has real potential.

Fortune's Apple 2.0 got a nice little graph up of just where and when the iPhone's hype machine went into overdrive. There's no question it was a gigantic brand last year, but what's interesting is just how manufactured and "by design" each of those spikes are. B on the chart above is the actual iPhone launch, and E and F are the 3G debut and store launch. Fortune relates point A to the Cisco lawsuit against Apple over the "iPhone" name, but let's be real: that was just part of the story of the gigantic iPhone reveal (which took place one day before, not two).

So the real story here isn't necessarily that Apple masterfully created a smartphone that revolutionized the industry and made tons of money doing it, but that they coordinated a hype machine that marched to their tune whenever they wanted. The red line above, as you can see, is Palm, and while there are a few spikes along that line (probably interest in various new products and releases), there's nothing like the excitement and hype that shoots up around a big Apple event. The iPhone is a feat of engineering in itself, but the hype machine behind it is pretty well-built, too.

Excited for Apple's Insomnia Film Festival? Don't hold your breath -- Apple has contacted participants via email to say that the event has been canceled.

The "festival" was supposed to be Apple giving participants a list of elements and 24 hours to make a three-minute film about them, but after some unexpected server problems, the festival was postponed until after the holidays last year. The website is gone, and they are now saying that they are "unable to reschedule the festival as hoped," which means it's off indefinitely. The email also says that Apple teams "constantly seek new and better ways to showcase your artistic expression," and that there will be other "opportunities to participate in Apple creative festivals."

Unfortunately, they're no more specific than that -- it's unknown whether the problems last year are still going on, or if Apple has something else going down that can't conflict with Insomnia.

It's too bad -- it would have been great to see what kinds of films came out of the competition. But of course given what's going on with the economy and what's happening at AAPL, this was probably just the first corner cut.

According to posts appearing on MacRumors and BoyGeniusReport tonight, Best Buy has been receiving new part numbers and pricing for unknown devices that are shipping to stores right now. MacRumors took the part numbers and price list and came up with the following assumption for what's going to be announced during tomorrow's notebook event:

• K29, MB382LL/A $899.00 - MacBook?
• M97, MB466LL/A $1,299.00 - MacBook
• M97, MB467LL/A $1,599.00 - MacBook
• M96, MB543LL/A $1,799.00 - MacBook Air
• M96, MB940LL/A $2,499.00 - MacBook Air
• M98, MB470LL/A $1,999.00 - 15" MacBook Pro
• M98, MB471LL/A $2,499.00 - 15" MacBook Pro
• M88, MB766LL/A $2,799.00 - 17" MacBook Pro

While the entry-level MacBook isn't as inexpensive as some rumors had forecast, a Fortune / CNN analysis today noted that an $899 price point could expand Apple's notebook market by 50% in terms of revenue.

What do you think about this pricing rumor? My personal feeling is that the numbers are valid, considering they're appearing this close to a major event. Leave your comments below.

With the October 14th Apple Notebook Event just around the corner, the TUAW blogger squad decided it was time to look into our iCrystalBalls and make a SWAG predictions about what laptop goodness will be announced by the Cupertino Kids on Tuesday. To make this extra crunchy, we're not only posting our best guesses as to what will actually be announced, but what Steve J. will announce as "one more thing".

Steve Sande

Best Guess -- The entire MacBook line will be made of aluminum, and the 15" and 17" models will get slightly faster processors and more installed RAM. If that's the only announcement, expect Apple's stock to dive even further than it has during the recent stock market freefall.

One More Thing -- The iTablet. Netbooks are selling like hotcakes, so Apple will get in on the action by coming out with a 9" tablet with a virtual keyboard and multi-touch support. Since it is all display and no keyboard, it will weigh less than two pounds. Think of an über-iPhone.

Victor Agreda, Jr.

Best Guess -- Ditto what Steve said, except I think a drop in price will happen in light of tough economic times. Despite what some analysts may babble about, Apple is interested in the long game, and that means building more market share. To stay in the game they have to get more price competitive on the low end.

One More Thing -- Again, I agree with Steve, although I wouldn't call this a tablet. More like a mini-Air with a decent keyboard (Apple has long been in favor of keeping decent-sized keyboards on smaller laptops) and touchscreen up top. I think the form factor will be something clever and surprising. If it appears at all, of course.

Robert Palmer

I think we'll see higher-end MacBook enclosures made of aluminum, and a sub-$1,000 model still made from white plastic. There's a part of me that says they won't ditch plastic altogether, because of the style factor: I bet there will be some people who still want a black MacBook. Hey, maybe there will be a black aluminum MacBook. Classy.

One More Thing -- I'm still bearish on the iTablet. I think Apple has too much invested in the iPhone as a mobile platform to try and dilute it with another form factor with a different screen size. If it's a Mac, I'm not a fan of jury-rigging traditionally mouse-driven operating systems for styluses. Personally, I just don't think there will be "one more thing." He hasn't done that in a while, especially at "themed" events (like the music event last month).

Michael Rose

I'm also fairly well convinced that the $800 MacBook (dare we call it the MacBook Jr.?) is inbound on Tuesday, although I'm not sure that the manufacturing rumors are completely on target. The mutterings about a mystery port on the new MacBook -- and a dockability patent from years past -- are starting to sound credible too.

One More Thing: I would love to see a BTO touchscreen option... and maybe a technology preview of an iTablet for delivery later in 2009.

Mike Schramm

New MacBooks are a given -- the Nvidia rumor sounds credible to me, not to mention that it's just what would push me to finally replace my old G4 Powerbook (though I'll miss my little 12" screen). "One more thing" seems like it's trending towards an AppleTV upgrade -- we've got HD content on the iTunes store, so it's time to have a set-top box that's fitting to play that content on. I'm hearing lots of Mac mini rumors as well, but I wonder if Apple will ever upgrade the mini -- it's small, it sells as-is, why break what's not broken?

Of course, as Victor mentioned in an email, "Whatever happens, AAPL will drop 10% because iUnicorn wasn't announced..." Think we're out of our minds? Let's hear your prediction in the comment section!

The Apple Expo is Europe's Apple conference -- similar to the Macworld expo in the US. Apple Expo '08 has posted details about the expo, including dates for this year's conference: Wednesday, September 17 through Saturday, September 20, in Paris, France.

Currently, there are only two iPhone events scheduled out of the over 30 planned events. It is a nice change to see that the iPhone will not "steal the show" in Europe like it does at Apple conferences in the US. You can see all of the details, exhibitors, and scheduled events on the Apple Expo website.

As we noted earlier, Apple will not be attending this year's Apple Expo.

Second Gear, the same developers who bring you the PocketTweets Twitter client for the iPhone, have announced that Today 1.1 is now available.

Today is an app that works with your iCal database and provides easy browsing of your events and tasks in an attractive and unobtrusive window. Clicking the icons at the bottom of the window opens dialogs for entering new events and tasks in a way that is much easier than entering them into iCal directly.

What's new in Today 1.1?

• Better performance for those of us with big calendaring needs
• Filtering of the calendars that appear in the Today window
• Locations can be assigned for new events
• All day events have a new, more obvious appearance
• New event and task due dates default to the day that you're viewing
• Bugs have been squashed

Second Gear provides a 7-day test drive for download. The update is free for existing Today users, or you can purchase Today for $15.

Save, save, save! Deals, deals, deals!

An email from Apple is making the rounds this morning with the announcement that early registration pricing has been extended to May 9th. Sign up between now and then and save $300US. Yippee!

WWDC '08 will take place between June 9-13 in San Francisco, CA. There are more than 150 sessions scheduled, including the new iPhone track.

As usual, anticipation (and rumors) abounds as visions of iPhone 2.0, the App Store and more tease us all. Oh, and if you happen to run into Woz, console him on his recent breakup.

Yesterday my co-blogger Dave Caolo was lamenting the fact that there's no easy way to get his iPhone and Google Calendar to sync (although purchasing Spanning Sync is certainly an option). While it is true that the iPhone's Calendar app only syncs with iCal on a Mac (or, via this trick, Entourage as well), I replied to Dave's woes with: who needs sync, anyway?

I am a happy iCal/iPhone/Google Calendar syncher, thanks to Spanning Sync, but I realize that one man's cup of tea is another man's grubby water. For those that would prefer to simply stick with Google Calendar for all their calendaring, the service actually scales incredibly well for an iPhone. This isn't an iPhone-specific UI or portal like so many other companies are launching. Rather, it seems to be their streamlined UI designed for most mobile phones. Either way, the list of upcoming events looks great, and all you need to do is visit the standard calendar.google.com on your iPhone to get redirected.

As many of you know, iGTD is a killer task management app that can't stop bringing cool features to the table. As fewer of you might know, Brett Terpstra at the Circle Six Design blog also can't seem to stop bringing awesome tools and features to the table; he's responsible for stuff like the FlickrMate bundle that provides some powerful Flickr integration with your TextMate projects, as well as the TextMate AutoTag bundle for WordPress, offering some great tagging features that integrate well with your WordPress blog. Amazingly, Brett's at it again, and this time he's allowing you to add tasks to iGTD using only the power of your voice - with a little help from Jott and Apple Mail, of course.

Jott is a service that allows you to send email and text messages by calling a private phone number. Calling this number allows you to leave a message which then gets dictated and sent to a recipient, including yourself. With the power of Brett's new Jott2iGTD utility and a customized rule you created in Apple Mail, you can leave a message with Jott that is emailed to you, which Mail processes and automatically converts into an iGTD task. Jotting (ha!) down a reminder or idea probably can't get much easier than this, though some setup and file shuffling is involved to get this all running properly.

As with his other goodies, Brett amazingly provides Jott2iGTD as donationware, with a PayPal link hidden at the bottom of the page (I really think you should move it above the fold, Brett!). A changelog is provided, along with instructions to get you all set up.

Oh Apple, you're so sly with the way you slip in the useful (and sometimes bizarre) details with your iPhone demo videos. In the activation video posted today, more intricacies of what and how the iPhone synchs have been revealed with a walk-through of how to get one's iPhone set up at home with iTunes. First, it appears as though Apple and AT&T have thought of just about everything:


The setup asks whether you already have an AT&T account and you'd just like to add your iPhone to it, or if you're creating a brand new account. Users can also activate two or more phones all from the comforts of their pajamas and iTunes.

Even though the true nature of the iPhone's capabilities when it comes to browsing the Web have yet to be confirmed or denied, a group of eager web developers, designers, and other enterprising folks are anticipating the iPhone's impending release. Not only that, they are already planning an event to help improve the Web browsing experience for all users of the device. According to Apple Insider, the free event, dubbed the iPhone Developers Camp, will feature an agenda of classes and seminars aimed at "making the Web a better place for Apple, Inc.'s upcoming mobile handset."

So, if you're a developer, a designer, an interested party who wants to help out or you just want to see a bunch of people with using iPhones in the wild, you may want to mark July 6-8 on your calendar and plan on attending the event. For more info, there's always the event's official site. I admit to not knowing a whole bunch about developing Web applications or designing anything of real value, but as someone who will definitely be getting an iPhone as soon as I possibly can, having the best possible Web browsing experience while using it sounds like a great thing to me.

Something tells me the crew who writes iGTD (fortunately) never really grasped how application version systems work (for the record: I say this with the warmest of intentions; iGTD is the first GTD-based app that I really 'get' and use). Typically, a company releases a 1.0, follows up with a few 1.x.x updates to fix bugs and quirks, and maybe a few 1.x releases that add a new feature or two. But as anyone who has been following the last few minor updates can tell, the new features brought with each 1.x.x release are really worthy of major 2.x and 3.x releases. This morning I woke to just such an update (v1.4.4) that brings a landslide of new and handy feature updates, including:

• F-key integration with Journler, endo RSS news reader, VoodooPad Pro, EagleFiler and WebnoteHappy
  
• exporting smart folders added ('To complete' tab)
  
• Don't forget! feature - use the Tasks menu option to display a sticky reminder about a task... click it to jump to the task
  
• Send to stickies feature - use the Tasks menu option to display selected tasks as Apple Sticky note
  
• E-mail feature - use the Tasks menu option to e-mail selected tasks via Apple Mail
  
• MailTags 2.0. enhancement: flagged e-mails are imported as flagged tasks
  
• MailTags 2.0. enhancement: a prefs setting to use the MT e-mail notes as a name for task in iGTD
  
• last selected smart folder is saved and restored between launches
  
• integration with Services menu (logout/login required): select a text in any app, go to app menu / Services submenu and use the 'iGTD/Put into iGTD inbox option'
  
• new mode for search panel: 'Search by project name or note'
• and much, much more

This update also includes a large batch of bug fixes, as well as enhancements to adding new items to lists that are sorted by various methods. Amazingly, iGTD is still donationware, and this new version should be available by choosing Check for Updates from the application menu, or simply by heading over to the iGTD site.

Scott Morrison's fantastic MailTags 2.0 is hands-down the best (and not because it is the only) plug-in that brings the wonders of tagging and iCal integration to Apple Mail. We've mentioned it plenty of times here on TUAW, and with good reason: Scott has put this new version of MailTags and its healthy dose of new features through a rigorous beta testing period, and tonight the plug-in makes that coveted leap from 'beta' to 'official release.' While Scott pops some well-deserved bubbly to celebrate his hard work, check out this list of tasty features designed for those who need more from an integrated desktop email client:

• IMAP support - sync your tags over IMAP servers and use them to keep your mail organized and synced across any Mac you have MailTags installed on
• A much-improved integrated interface for viewing and editing tags
• The ability to view tags in Mail's List view (an extra, optional column to let you know a message is tagged)
• Dynamic coloring of messages based on project, approaching due dates and priorities
• Integration with iCal, allowing you to create to dos and events right from Mail
• Including tags in your outbound messages for other MailTags users
• Better integration with Mail's search tools, allowing you to specify searching only for message tags, projects or even notes you've applied with MailTags (in addition to Mail's default criteria of Entire Message, From, To, etc.)
• Better integration with Mail's smart mailboxes
• Applescript compatibility

I've been a happy user of MailTags 2.0 since it the early days of the beta, and I tip my hat to Scott for releasing such a great product. You can grab your own demo that runs for 21 days, while a license costs $29.95, with educational and volume discounts available upon requests.