MacWorld 2008 Rumors: Ultra Portable, 10.5.2, iPhone 3G

December 7th, 2007

AppleMacworld is fast approaching, so here’s a rumor round up plus a bit of speculation as to what’s going to transpire in January.

HardMac predicts 10.5.2, a new Mac Pro, and Blu-Ray burners.

Computerworld reiterates the persistent rumor of an “ultra-light” Mac notebook. Price point is $1500, LED-backlit 13.3 inch screen, 50% lighter than current notebooks, and a thinner form factor due to flash memory for storage. There will be no hard drive or optical drive.

Apple Insider speculates a 3G iPhone by the middle of 2008. The beans were spilt on this one by AT&T themselves a few days ago.

Apple Gazette has eight predictions: iTunes update, AppleTV update, the strongest holiday season ever, updated Mac Books, No iTablet, iPhone and iTouch software updates, iPhone SDK, Mac Nano.

Cringley has some ideas as well. 

Thoughts

Most Likely:

Likely:

  • This subnotebook rumor is getting a lot of buzz. I’m thinking it will take design cues from the super-slim keyboards - meaning silver with white keys, and thin enough to slice cheese. The LED backlit screen and thinner form factor make sense. The flash storage I’m skeptical about as the prices are rather high, but the trade off of storage space for speed could be really appealing.
  • Some announcement about the Apple TV - hopefully a version 2.0 that merges it with the Mac Mini, making it more powerful and suitable for running OS X or acting as a PVR.
  • Beatles on iTunes. This rumor has been going on forever and recently Paul McCartney said it would happen at some point in 2008. Even a pre-announcement would be welcome.

Insanely Great (if these happen I’ll slap my forehead and drool):

Anyhow, I’ve already got a day pass for MacWorld 2008. I don’t know of my exact plans but similar to last year I hope to check out whatever’s announced in the flesh.

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

9 comments!

  1. comment Gravatar JC - December 7th, 2007

    I’ll be attending the Keynote live in person for the first time this January, so I am of course hoping for something truly spectacular to be announced. But I’m trying not to get my hopes up too much.

    I think there’s a good chance of some sort of video rental/ new deals with Fox and other movie studios type announcement, which will hopefully be accompanied by a new Apple TV announcement of some kind. I don’t see PVR as a possibility, though. It just doesn’t make financial sense for Apple.

    The subnotebook seems like it may really come to pass this time. But I just can’t get excited about a slightly lighter and thinner, far less powerful and more expensive Macbook. Maybe if I spent most of my time with Word and Excel, this would be appealing, but I live in Photoshop, Cubase, Logic territory. I think the subnotebook will appeal to longtime desktop owners, but once they get a feel for portable computing, they’ll beg for more power so they can drop their desktops altogether.

    New Mac Pros: very likely. Again, not somthing I tend to buy myself, but if there’s finally a new case design, that would be cool.

    10.5.2: This rumor is very interesting. There has to be more to it than meets the eye. The only time Steve ever talked about a point release of an OS that I can recall was when they switched to Intel.

    We’ll see in a few weeks I suppose.

  2. comment Gravatar webomatica - December 7th, 2007

    Wouldn’t it be crazy if some secret features of Leopard were held off until 10.5.2? One can dream…

  3. comment Gravatar iPod Touch » MacWorld 2008 Rumors: Ultra Portable, 10.5.2, iPhone 3G - December 7th, 2007

    [...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]

  4. comment Gravatar radiohead 2008 - December 9th, 2007

    hope that these rumors will come to reality, i really would like to have this mac! nice post!

  5. comment Gravatar » MacWorld 2008 Rumors Dvorak Uncensored: General interest observations and true web-log. - December 21st, 2007

    [...] educated guess Macworld is fast approaching, so here’s a rumor round up plus a bit of speculation as to what’s going to transpire in [...]

  6. comment Gravatar Fender Doc - December 22nd, 2007

    I would love to see an Apple TV with a Blu-ray player. This is the only way Apple TV would every sell to the masses (or at least the reason I would buy one).

    We will see!

  7. comment Gravatar get iphone for free - January 3rd, 2008

    wow..they really want to become portable with all the light things. I wish apple stuff are a bit cheaper though..

  8. comment Gravatar Mike - January 13th, 2008

    If they create a notebook that also converts into a tablet
    that would be absolutely amazing. This guy is good and I
    love that prediction. I am not excited for Mac World baby.

  9. comment Gravatar Claudiu Popa » Blog Archive » What was in the air? Pooff! - January 15th, 2008

    [...] un laptop intre MacBook si MacBook Pro - MacBook Air. Si are toate featurile pe care le auzisem din zvonuri. Deci.. so much cu secretizarea la [...]

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