As MacWorld draws nearer and the rumors fly more fast and furious, I’ll do daily “rumor round ups” to keep track of them and add some thoughts… and avoid clogging people’s bandwidth with scads of Apple news multiple times a day.

Jay Z and Apple starting an iTunes Music Store record label: Makes sense to me. If Apple continues to deal with content rights holders bitching about pricing and yanking stuff out of iTunes - just go around the entertainment industry big wigs and make deals directly with artists. Heck - Apple could provide all the music studio software.

The MacBook subnotebook is also a tablet computer: If Apple does decide to go whole hog with a tablet / multitouch /subnotebook, I hope it retains the look of the current MacBook. That way people who like the current MacBook form factor and have no interest in the Tablet mode won’t have to deal with a ridiculously redesigned portable computer. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Perhaps the tabletmultitouchsubnotebook will be presented as the best laptop, best pda, and best tablet - similar to how the iPhone was called the best iPod, the best cellphone, and the best internet device.

Dynamic OLED-based keyboard: Even I drooled when Optimus did some mockups for a super expensive keyboard that would change its keys depending on context. This idea has much potential but it’s got to come at a decent price which depends on OLED display prices coming way down. Perhaps Apple with its connections to factories and bulk orders can make this geek-drool idea a reality - but I don’t think this is coming anytime soon.

A related idea is a small LED display that takes the place of a track pad - think an embedded iPhone display. It could mirror the main monitor or show widgets.

Apple to ship Macs with Blu-Ray support: I’m all for this. Any move to end the HD format wars and get me off the fence, and whatever format Apple chooses will be a huge nudge for that format, as far as I’m concerned.

Apple patent of an iMac-like monitor / docking station for an Apple subnotebook: I’m really ambivalent about this concept. How hard is it, really, to plug in a monitor cable to a laptop. I know this idea already came about with the old Powerbook Duos but I also think there’s a reason why this idea withered away between then and now. I think is semi-useful, but definitely not a necessity - kind of like the iPod HiFi.

More rumors to come, I’m sure - MacWorld is still over a week away.

Disclosure: I own a tiny amount of Apple stock.

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