Apple PR says next week's event a "very big deal."
Okay, iPod Nano 4Gs are coming with iPhone-proportioned sideways widescreens. Maybe we'll see that happen to the Classic. iTunes 8. Interesting, but big whoop. The iPhone 3G was already announced this year: surely Apple's September 9th event can be lazily snoozed through.
Not so, says Apple PR. They are pulling all the stops out, going as far as to push East Coast and foreign tech journalists to fly to San Francisco next week. It's going to be a big deal.
Rumors are flying. Crunchgear thinks we'll see a sub-$1000 touchscreen-based Mac. That may be a touchscreen MacBook, but my guess is we're talking about a more-than-$1000 touchscreen MacBook Pro: the line is past due for a refresh and a touchscreen would certainly help separate it from its little brother, especially if the MacBook goes aluminum.
What do you hope we'll see next week? More practically, what do you think we'll see next week? I'm sort of hoping against the new MBP: I simply can not afford the impulse buy of replacing my current one.
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The design on the invitation to the event (posted on Engadget) suggested to me that the announcements will only be iPod and iTunes related.
No one seems to be mentioning a new iTouch. But they've been dumping them along with Nanos as freebies with school purchases.
I'd love a tiny cheap(ish) MacBook. I'd also love a tablet. It's the one thing I miss from my old Windows days.
I don't have much expectations or hopes; I don't get that wrapped up in the next new thing. But I do need a new laptop, and if the MBP got a touch screen that might be the defining feature to make me do the jump. I've bought Dells in the past (sorry Zuzu) because they're cheap and reliable. But Apple might win me over with this!!
With all the "netbook" excitement out there, I'd really like them to focus on making the MacBook a little smaller or release a 10" Air. Either way, it would be great to see them lower prices on the smaller laptops to keep their growth going.
I don't think we'll see touch screens. I have yet to see a convertible tablet design elegant enough for Apple to even consider it, and the OS just isn't optimized for fingers like the iPhone is. Wouldn't the artsy Apple crowd prefer a Wacom screen anyway?
I predict updates across the board for the iPod line, a thinner and faster MBP with the Air keyboard, an aluminum MacBook and a price drop for the Air.
Maybe they will call the event "BURNING CHROME" and will release a new browser to stop Google dominance of humanity?
The host will be an holographic projection of Steve Jobs (since some media reported his dead)...
I'd like a cheaper mini.
i'd like the apple fanboys to STFU and DIAF.
Dive Into A Fjord?
An updated mini would send me to the apple store immediately.
I want something cheap and awesome. My 3G nano is fine, and the iPhone is way too spendy for me (and too locked-down). Maybe an Asus Eee competitor?
@1: I'd love a cheaper iPod Touch with higher storage. I don't want to have to choose between holding all my music and THE FUTURE.
This
Apple’s secret product is ‘MacBook touch’
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/rumor_apples_secret_product_is_macbook_touch/P100/
To look like this:
Phone Pro - The full power of Leopard in your pocket.
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/gallery/image_med/15417
http://www.ilounge.com/gallery/iphone_concept/iphonePro2.jpg
Because of this:
Inside the iPad: Why a $100 Apple Laptop Is Probably Inevitable
http://connectme.typepad.com/news/2008/07/inside-the-ipad.html
Apple invited European tech journalists/bloggers to London to watch... the online streaming of the conference!
What's next? Travel to Beijing to watch the Tokyo Game Show online?!
As if a PR flak is going to say "Don't bother coming, it's no big deal".
how about a loptop with actually decent speakers?
i mean, come on, it's not that hard to find nice sounding, small speakers. and at $1000 to $2000+, i think it should be a standard.
@12 I dunno, I listened to my PowerBook in the shower (with the PowerBook a safe distance away from the water) and managed to get some pretty good sound over the sound of the water and fan.
Remember Oppenheimer's talked about a "product transition" in semptember that would have caused worst gross margins because of the cost of the new technology involved?
Well I think it points right toward a new touchy thingy. I can't think of another pricy technology that Apple could deliver years ahead of all the other makers.
Would it be a new iPod Touch Nano or anything like that? Or maybe, like John pointed out it could mean MacBook Pro Touch. And screw that glass trackpad thing. Leave it to friggin' Murano glass artisans. We wanna spread our fingertips all over a big display, Apple!
Well, at first I thought the Big Deal could be a new iTunes Subscription mode. The hints:
- Apple Pr calling a journalist working for a East Coast weekly magazine (We all know we're talking about our lovely MacBook Air trasher extraordinare Steven Levy, right?): I call shenanigans.
- Journalist from the East Coast usually love boring things like the radical change of a business model from a big company and they're prone to call "revolution" many of these "innovations" that common users don't give a shit about.
But you know, I'd love me some iTunes subscription too, and I'm not even a East Coast journalist. I don't even live in the USA. That confutes my castle of cards and confuses me too.
At the end of my delirium (hyde park's speakers corner was already taken): let's introduce something touchy and very new, Steve. Would you?
damn, and i just bought the old mbp this effing week.. :(
"What do you hope we'll see next week?"
I'd like a sub-$800 10" netbook with a HDD, a decent keyboard, at least 2 USB ports and battey with 4+cells. If it looked like a MBP and had 2 mouse buttons, that'd be cool too.
I know they'll never do it, though. Apple only releases products that cost 30% more than I'm willing to spend and lack at least one feature I really desire (2-button mouse, FM radio, 2.5" HDD, etc).
Swell. More iPods, iPhones, and crap that I don't care about.
Macintosh, adieu. Nous, qui vous aiment, vous manquerons.
@15 if you bought it from the store and the new one turns out to be really what you want, bring it back. They might make an exception to the restocking fee. Unless you didn't even open it, in which case you're all set either way.
It's a new Mac Pro, with a built-in cold fusion reactor to power its sixty-four cores of power-guzzling goodness. Just buy an ordinary bottle of deuterium from the corner shop every few months to keep it going.
@6: "apple fanboys"
It's the anti-Mac equivalent of Godwin's Law. The post IS ABOUT MACS! Who else is going to post?
Besides, where are all the Dell fanboys? Lenovo fanboys? Hmm.
And Diving Into a Fjord can be a very bracing experience!
Anyone remember the iPhone Nano rumour?
I'm guessing new MBP look.
#16, I don't think they will miss us at all. They've forsaken us for the iPhone crowd. Unless, of course, you meant, "Vous nous manquerez," in which case, I'm with you. La solidarité!
/end french grammar pedantry
On-topic, I think they will make a grand show of corralling their Psystar captives, then draw, quarter and gibbet the lot of them.
I'd just like to see a hefty price reduction on the iPod Touch... Now!
i swear, i've been waiting since march for them to release these new macbooks.
i love my g3 ibook and all, but its not cutting it as of late.