It’s Beginning to Look a lot Like MacWorld

The air turns crisp, a hoar covers the landscape every morning, and individuals get visual confirmation of their continuing respiration every time they exhale (I, on the other hand, can see my breath all the time). The yearly atmospheric changes are accompanied by a bevy of more artificial changes: the faint aroma of burning hardwood, festive lights draped over any structure capable of supporting the electric companie’s seasonal boon and signs everywhere exhorting people that this particular moment is the best possible time for purchasing things unrequested by loved ones. True lovers of the digital lifestyle know, from years of experience, that the seasonal and artificial changes indicate the mot festive time of the year is at hand: The MacWorld Expo.

Every MacWorld brings a sense of anticipation, a feeling which people seemingly enjoy. Coupled with the excitement is an uncomfortable air of uncertainty. Rather than simply focusing on enjoyable anticipation Mac users fixate on eradicating the uncertainty.  Like the seven-year-old who shakes boxes under the tree with a sincere hope of divining something about the nature of the gift inside (note to prepubescent readers: clothes don’t rattle, open the silent presents last), Mac users do a bit of box shaking this time of year. Shaking a box won’t tell the ardent Mac enthusiast anything about what MacWorld might bring. Hence, instead of a tactile exercise the people yearning a glimpse into the future of Apple must rely on subtle clues, past history and unabashed rumors as their guide.

Which leaves us wondering just what we might expect from MacWorld this year. The easiest, and most natural, thing is to expect nothing less than something great. The reason for this expectation is two fold: Steve makes whatever he is introducing seem great and refuses to introduce anything that he can’t spin as the greatest thing ever produced by Apple. An excellent example of this behavior was the 2001 MacWorld. Steve introduced the Titanium PowerBook and people were floored. Less than a month later Apple revealed the Flower Power iMac. Where the PowerBook was a sleek creation that left writers hunting for sufficiently descriptive terms the Flower Power iMac featured case plastics that bore an incredibly strong resemblance to the spectacle that would ensue were you to ingest Cherry Kool-Aid, Lemon Jell-O and several circus peanuts all followed immediately by a big swig of syrup of ipecac. In short: Whatever Steve reveals will be something you want. Just what are the biggest rumors this year?

An Intel powered Apple laptop of some ilk

The change would make sense. Plenty of folks are, after all, holding on to their aging Apple laptops in anticipation of the switch. The more interesting question may be which line goes first? The pro level PowerBooks, which would then force pros to use emulation? Or will the consumer level iBooks, which would likely become much more attractive than the higher margin PowerBooks, receive the Intel treatment first? Just as likely as either of those two possibilities is the a lack of any ‘Book updates, especially if rumor #2 is true…

Apple PVR

A favorite of Think Secret, the story is that Apple will introduce an Apple branded Media Center PC that owes more to TiVo than Windows Media Center. When coupled with the recent introduction of the video capable iPod the move would seem to make sense (and likely make the purchasing of TV from iTunes decidedly anachronistic). Of course, the competition must be considered. People who use TiVo love the device with the same passion that Mac users reserve for OS X and TiVo has announced iPod compatibility. People who are not so enraptured by a television gadget will just live with whatever the cable/satellite company is offering. Perhaps Apple will take a chance on a PVR device for no other reason than the thin hope of replicating the iPod phenomena. Did someone mention iPods? What a lucky segue to rumor number three…

Redesigned iPod shuffle

The shuffle could use some redesigning. Specifically, some redesigning that includes a screen. That addition isn’t likely to happen but a smaller shuffle in black or multiple colors seems the closest thing to a stone cold lock for this year’s expo. If color and physical size aren’t your things then you might be out of luck, the chances of a storage capacity increase in the shuffle seem slim when the entry-level nano checks in at two GB.

Those are the big rumors. You can also find the semi-permanent personal wishful-thinking-masquerading-as-rumors around the web. You know, the notion that the Newton is on the way back or an Apple tablet is coming this January to a store near you. These are the rumors that crop up every MacWorld and will continue to crop up until Apple declares bankruptcy or actually introduces said product. While it is easy to dismiss the fervent hope-cum-speculation with a chuckle, recall the mere notion that Apple would switch to Intel was met with wide derision. With that in mind, I’m hoping for an iPod with an FM tuner.