MacNewsBlog

Happy New Year to all!

I hope you all had a safe and Happy New Year! Mac World is almost here now that 2006 has faded and 2007 has brought us January. What are your predictions for MacWorld 2007 annoucements? Here are my "guesses"

For Sure:
- iLife / iWork 07 - new features and possibly a spreadsheet. Let's also kill off Apple Works while we're at it... please?
- Leopard release date - this will be probably the biggest chunk of the event. With all the leaks about whats coming in OSX, it will really be the thing to kick Vista in the pants.
- iTV and accessories will ship
- New iSights and Cinema Display refresh
- iTunes / Movies announcements

Hopefully...
- New line of MacMini's with Core2Duo
- 8 core Apple Pro
- New iPod / possible iPhone
- slim pro version laptop

I seriously have my doubt about the Hopefully stuff but a guy can dream right?

What are your predictions?

Today Apple's iTunes Store added Classic Star Trek Season 1 to the list of available TV shows. I'm sure they'll be adding the rest as things progress. This is great news for all Star Trek fans!

MacDailyNews has this report from Goldman Sachs:

"Across the Mac line, Apple seems to have had an exceptional Thanksgiving weekend. Fourth-quarter demand for MacBook and MacBook Pro [notebooks] are running better than Apple's already aggressive targets. We expect 1.1 million notebooks and 1.8 million total Macs in the December quarter," Goldman Sachs reports. "Our retail checks point to strong Apple store results both on the Mac and the iPod side. Combined with a higher mix of Macs, higher retail sales should drive upside to our 28.6% gross margin forecast and Apple's 28.25% target. Based on strong demand, at least one key supplier is allocating even more capacity to Apple and taking it away from other areas."

They also expect to see a new Video iPod with larger screen that isn't considered a product refresh for the upcoming MacWorld.

A very well written guide for Windows or Linux users who want to switch to the mac. Includes items that I'd cover with any new mac user out there.

Read LifeHacker Guide to switching to the Mac.

Well the big day is tomorrow folks! I for one am glad that there hasn't been any product info leaks yet. I like being surprised when Steve does his keynote! The feeling of anticipation is in the air, and hopefully Apple won't disappoint tomorrow. I'm hoping for an application or hardware that will boggle my mind and take things to a whole new level.

Be it a iPhone or something totally different... MacWorld's keynote looks to be pretty awesome!

Here are some sites to see the live Keynote coverage of Steve Jobs Keynote at MacWorld:

All photos from MacRumors.com. Please go check the rest out over there!

Supports 802.11n!

From the apple store:
AirPort Extreme Base Station

The sleek, easy-to-use AirPort Extreme Base Station is the perfect wireless access point for home, school, or small business. Blazing fast, it delivers up to five times the performance and up to twice the range compared to 802.11g routers.1 And you can use it with both Macs and PCs.
Price: $179.00

Estimated Ship:
February
Free Shipping

Well MacWorld keynote is over and I must say I am blown away by the iPhone and all that will come from it. I am bummed that it will come out in June but I'm sure this will give Apple time to fine tune the phone.

What's interesting is what WASN'T talked about today: namely OSX Leopard and the new iLife Suite. The question isn't why didn't Steve talk about it the question is when will he talk about it. I think he willingly omitted anything about leopard simply because it was a day for iPhone and everything else would just get lost.

What we need to know is: HOW is OSX running on this phone? Is it a scaled down version? Is it a totally new build? Theres gotta be something to this because this type of miniaturization doesn't come easily and to get that much battery life makes me wonder... perhaps the OS is embedded in a chip? What the heck is the processor in this thing? How fast is it?

Edit: I just read on TUAW that the phone will run OSX as well as desktop-class applications. I need to get the 8 gig version I think!
The other question to raise: will developers be able to run their own apps on this phone? Is it a new platform based off of osx? Will we be able to run our own widgets as well? I can just see it now... using any widget builder, create your own apps and load it onto your iPhone. Also I'm assuming the wifi will allow people to connect to each other for sharing and creating social networks.

Finally I think that Mac OSX Leopard is going to be so full of surprises that Jobs didn't want to sensory overload people with it all. Expect another keynote event next month sometime is what I'm predicting.

This is something that I've been waiting years for. I'll have to drop T-mobile to get it though.

Here are some upcoming predictions. No bets placed please...

- Apple will ship the iPhone ahead of schedule. IMO, they've got this thing just about wrapped up just need FCC approval and some last minute fixes, then off to production.

- iPod Nanos will sport 8 and 16 gig versions ahead of the iPhone. When iPhone is released it will actually come with 8 or 16 gig versions rather than 4 or 8 gig versions.

- Expect another Keynote event in February or the end of January to hear all about Mac OSX Leopard and iLife/iWork 06. Apple's got a lot up their sleeves.

- Expect Vista to go on sale on January 30. Apple will let them have their day... and then watch Apple tromp them with Leopard releasing the day of the next Steve Jobs keynote.

- Wide screen iPod will go on sale mid year for those that don't want a phone.

- The Beatles catalog will appear in iTunes on a very important day this year...

Here: http://events.apple.com.edgesuite.net/j47d52oo/event/

A early Zune adopter is quite upset but realizes why...
The article highlights my thoughts exactly!
Read more.

After reading this short article from Market Watch, I believe Apple has the right ideas and may in fact have a very good chance of making something out of this iTV... for those that don't have TIVO or dont want to subscribe to cable TV!

From Market Watch article:
"I spend $100 on cable TV, not because I want 190 channels, but because I want high-definition in two of my rooms. I only end up watching a little bit of the content," Guillaume continued. "A large part of the content I like is already available on iTunes, and assuming they'll be able to make it available in high-definition, that becomes compelling to me. If I downloaded 'The Office,' four times a month, and 'Grey's Anatomy' a couple of times a month, and a couple of movies, that's a lot less than $100."

Read complete article.

I've been visiting a few forums here and there and reading all of the hype, grumblings and dis-information being served up... just like all good forums should.

To everyone out there grumbling that the "iPhone doesn't have 3g, or a removable battery, or the screen is too large and it will get scratched" I have this to say: take a look at Apple's history of product releases and you'll see how they work.

Apple has historically released products with "just enough" features to get you in the door. Usually the UI or design of the product is enough to get some people to want to buy it at a higher price point. The hype for the product drives sales. Sales pays for R&D and ergonomics and that lovely UI. The sales eventually lead to product upgrades and the so called "next generation" of products. This whole process is cyclical.

So for those of you who are upset because of a lack of a feature, don't worry... Apple will cater to you soon. They'll release the iPhone 1st gen and get it out to the people who really want it (just about everyone else but the grumblers) then, once people have fallen in love with their iPhones, Apple will slowly add software/firmware updates that add features, correct bugs, then before you know it... BOOM (ala Steve Jobs) the next gen iPhone is out with updated and upgraded everything. Sky's the limit but in order to get there, Apple has to sell enough of these to warrant the next generation. And if the excitement I see and hear from people about the iPhone equals sales then Apple's gonna be able to come out with new iPhones for years to come.

Watch and see.

Direct from Apple!

About white MacBooks' palmrest area
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304058

Apple Product Tutorials
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304971

Can't connect to the iTunes Store
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=300870

Final Cut Express HD: Capture Project feature is not available with HDV projects
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304964

Final Cut Pro: Insert Edit/Assemble Edit unavailable in Edit to Tape window
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304959

How to identify keyboard localizations
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=304933

iPod only shows an Apple logo and doesn't start up
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61584

iPod: Minimum System Requirements
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60971

David Pogue has round two of his iPhone FAQ and it answers a lot of questions!

So far:
- NO Java MAYBE Flash
- Jobs says YouTube would work with deal with YouTube
- Adding ringtones from your iPod is undecided
- Charges with a sync dock or plug just like the iPod
- The phone doesn't run Leopard OSX but rather a stripped down OSX with a phone interface
- No bluetooth or wireless syncing
- Google Docs and Spreadsheet should work in theory.

Read More here.

Jay Savage over at the Dowload Squad wrote up a tutorial on how to set up and use MacFUSE. MacFUSE allows you to view other file systems on your mac such as NTFS.

Read the tutorial here. This is not for you if you don't like the terminal!!!

Well it's been a week since Steve Jobs and Co. blew the world away with the announcement of the iPhone. Oh yeah, and there was also that thing called Apple TV in there too. So we just want to know if any of you are excited for what comes next? Were any of you disappointed by anything that WASN'T announced at the MacWorld?

We can't wait till Leopard ships. It's 2007 after all... so Leopards leap cant be too far away. We've a feeling that Leopard wants to jump in on Vistas fun.

Apple earnings rose 78% due to strong holiday sales of iPods and Macs. Today Apple released their Q1 financials and in it they revealed that it earned $1 billion, or $1.14 per share, compared to $565 million, or 65 cents a share a year ago.

Apple also reportedly shipped 21 million iPods and 1.6 million Macs during that same period.

Not even record earnings could stop investors from taking profits today for Apple stock. The stock was down 4.34% trading at 90.85. The low for the day had been 89.37. The sell off was based on Apples conservative outlook for the next quarter and perhaps the fact that the conference call with Apple's Peter Openheimer didn't include any info on the new products like AppleTV and the iPhone.

TheStreet.com had this from analysts this morning:

"UBS analyst Benjamin Reitzes added a penny to his EPS estimate, to 61 cents for the second quarter. For fiscal year 2007, he raised his EPS forecast to $3.20 from $2.87 and moved his target price to $124 from $118. Reitzes has a long common stock position in Apple, and his firm has provided nonsecurities services to Apple."

Read more from thestreet.com.

MacNN has some great excerpts from the Apple Q1 conference call the other day. It highlights Mac Sales, iPod Sales, Leopard, Cisco lawsuit, iTV, Parallels and the Japan marketplace.

Read more here: MacNN - Conference Call

AppleInsider ran a story today that 10.4.9 blah

A post by user virtualball on Digg.com had a list of updates coming to the update:

"For those who wan't whats new, SORRY THIS IS SO LONG, ITS THE LIST OF CHANGES IN 10.4.9!!!!

Mac OS X 10.4.9 - 8P2120 (Intel) & 8P120 (PPC) Seeded

To recap,
Mac OS X 10.4.9 - 8P2120 (Intel)
Complete Package: 320.2 MB
Delta Package: 178.4 MB

Mac OS X 10.4.9 - 8P120 (PPC)
Complete Package: 177.8 MB
Delta Package: 83.4 MB

Areas of Change
New in this seed:
- Fixed problem with Smartcard and securityd
- Fixed issue with X11 Xplugin and 256 color mode
- Fixed issue with Rosetta and rint
- Fixed problem with dyld
- Fixed issue with USB Isoc receivers
- Fixed issue with wake from Sleep and SecurityAgent
- Fixed issue with Rosetta and cache
- Fixed issue with Bluetooth and Bluetooth mouse when waking from sleep
- Fixed issue with ConsoleUser/SecureConsoleUser and IOKit Kernel
- Fixed issue with 'at' command and system_cmds
- Fixed onkeyup/onkeydown issue with WebCore JavaScript
- Fixed problem with rsync and extended attributes
- Fixed issue with NAT-PMP and port mapping
- Fixed issue where KEV_DL_IF_ATTACHED was not being received by kext
- Fixed issue with Color Sync and V4 profiles
- Fixed issue with MSDOS FS
- Issue where .m4v file extensions may not be recognized has been fixed
- Fixed issue with copying read-only files Xsan/UFS-backed AFP volumes
- Fixed issue with DVD Player
- Fixed problem with Crash Reporter
- Fixed issue with headset pairing and Bluetooth
- Fixed issue with incorrect time zones in certain areas
- Fixed problem with enabling/disabling Bluetooth
- Fixed issue with rsync and the copying of mod times
- Fixed problem with .Mac and Sync Services
- Addressed issue with USB modem record level
- Fixed syncing issue with internal and external modem driver
- Fixed DRON/DROF issue with USB modem
- Fixed problem where USB modem may not detect busy tone
- Fixed issue with CFNetwork and network-aware USB devices
- Fixed issue with Sync Services and Address Book
- Fixed problem with USBInterfaceOpen and IOUSBLib
- Fixed issue with QC Engine
- Fixed problem with Kerberos OpenSSH patch
- Fixed problem with Open SSH and LaunchDaemon
- Fixed issue with HLTB Events (Carbon)
- Fixed issue with HLTB Accessibility (Carbon)
- Fixed issue with HLTB Control Manager (Carbon)
- Fixed issue with HLTB Windows (Carbon)
- Fixed issue with HID and IOKit
- Fixed problem with PDFKit and MalloGuardEdges
- Fixed issue with CoreAudio and MIDI files
- Fixed problem with natd NAT-PMP and port mapping

From previous seeds:
- Fixed problem with USB Isoc receivers
- Fixed issue with Rossetta applications and printing with SMB home directory
- Fixed gssapi-with-mic and Open SSH issue
- Fixed issue with Unix 'at' command
- Fixed problem with CoreData Framework
- Fixed problem with CUPS
- Fixed issue with Network Diagnostics and WPA2 encryption
- Fixed issue where internal modem may not sync with external modem driver
- Fixed problem with CFNetwork and network-aware USB devices
- Fixed issue with dyld
- Fixed issue with MSDOS FS
- Fixed issue with Sync Services and Address Book
- Fixed problem with Apple internal modem and busy tone detection
- Fixed problem with Kerberos OpenSSH patch
- Fixed problem with Open SSH and LaunchDaemon
- Fixed issue with SMB File Server
- Fixed problem with IOkit Kernel
- Fixed issue with connecting a system to display while in Sleep mode
- Fixed problem with WebCore JavaScript and onkeyup/onkeydown event handler
- Issue where .m4v file extensions may not be recognized has been fixed
- Fixed issue with File Systems and copying read-only files
- Fixed issue with Software Update and format string
- Fixed problem with Sync Services Engine
- Fixed issue with rsync and extended attributes
- Fixed issue with Sync Services and .Mac Sync
- Addressed USB Modem and record level
- Fixed issue with Universal Access preferences pane
- Fixed problem with USB Modem and caller ID
- Fixed problem with Bluetooth and device pairing
- Fixed issue where USB modem may not detect busy tone
- Fixed issue with QC Engine
- Fixed issue with CoreGraphics and HID Manager
- Fixed issue with PDFKit and MallocGuardEdges
- Issue with Automator Actions and generated text fixed
- Fixed issue with .Mac and syncing"

Read AppleInsider.com article.
Read Digg comment thread.

A Business 2.0 article touts Apple as the Next Sony:

"Let me be the first to say that anyone who claims the ability to specifically divine Apple's future is delusional; the best any longtime Apple watcher can do is read between the lines. That's what I'm doing here."

Jon Fortt goes on to examine how Apple might actually do this by using iTunes. Interesting? Read more here.

I sort of remember this, but back when the Macintosh was introduced there was a lawsuit regarding the use of the name MAC. The lawsuit of course was settled and the rest is history. Perhaps we'll see the same thing happen with the iPhone as well.

Read about this over at Wired.

The AP is reporting that German and French groups have joined forces to get Apple to open up iTunes and make the store more compatible with other media players.

The group argues that Apples closed system isn't good for the music industry.

Apple responded: "Apple is aware of the concerns we've heard from several agencies in Europe and we're looking forward to resolving these issues as quickly as possible," Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said Monday. "Apple hopes that European governments will encourage a competitive environment that lets innovation thrive, protects intellectual property and allows consumers to decide which products are successful."

Read more here.

Over at iPhone News Blog, they have a prediction about the next iPod being the next PDA. We'll place our bets on this one. Will you?

Take a read: Prediction: iPod will Become the Next PDA.

Fortune magazine chimes in about Parallels, the company that has brought us the software that allows Intel Macs to run Windows software without having to reboot.

Turns out Parallels isn't such a small company after all. They were bought out three years ago by virtualization company SWSoft:
"SWsoft and its Parallels subsidiary are both Russian-American operations. SWsoft CEO Serguei Beloussov, based in Virginia, calls the shots for programmers who are based in Moscow. Parallels employed only seven when SWsoft bought it, but today has 100 people, mostly in Russian R&D."

The article goes on to quote Michael Dell who is still wondering if Jobs will allow OSX to run on regular PC's sold by other companies as well as license it.

An interesting read: Windows on the Mac changes everything

According to an AP report, a plaintif has been named in the Apple shareholders lawsuit. The New York City Employees Retirement System was name the plaintiff this past Friday by U.S. District Judge Jeremy Fogel.

More info on this pending litigation here.

Steve Jobs was questioned by the SEC according to a breaking Bloomberg story.

"Jobs met with officials from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Justice Department last week in San Francisco, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the interviews are confidential. Apple said last month that an internal review found ``no misconduct'' by Jobs or current management."

So far no one is talking about what happened or whats going to happen next. All we can do is wait and see... oh and watch the Apple stock drop a few when this news hits tomorrow morning.