Not being in the market for a pwetty netbook, I personally found the Back to The Mac Keynote rather underwhelming and all it did was make me long for more. For once my credit card thanked Steve, because while I do fancy the new 13″ MacBook Air, benchmarks confirmed that my Fall 2008 2.4Ghz 1st Gen unibody still a rather nifty machine is and the new lightweight comes nowhere near. At the same price for a totally souped up 13″3 MacBook Air, the MPB 15″4 i5 is a no-brainer for those who want a main machine rather than a droolbook.

While I might be a lover of all things Apple, I just don’t buy everything Steve launches. And Karma’s a bitch.

It is highly likely that there might be more updates over the next 10-15 days, just in time for the Holiday Season. So what can we expect to still be announced in 2010?

iPad Gen. 2

While one would expect this to be announced at the next early Summer event, just in time for the new fiscal year, progress made over the last months has been too huge to not expect an update. Additionally 9to5mac reported today that the second version of the iPad ads have been shot last month already.
The pointers are give-aways: Retina display, Facetime with dual camera, 720p screen to allow easy sync with AppleTV/iTunes HD rentals.
Plus iMovie HD app for iPad.

MacBookPro Hardware Bumps

• Screens on all MacBookPros will be updated and come with the new higher resolution, and thinner, screens setting the lower bar for a 13″ laptop at 1366*768px, the same as the resolution of the 11″ MBA. 15″4 MBP will receive 1680*1050px standard resolution with optional 1080p resolution.
  I doubt that the 17″ MBP will receive the optional screen display resolution known from the 27″ iMac, 2560*1440px.
• CPU processor speed bumps
• Facetime GM and HD iSight camera

While no iPad 2 leaks have been reported yet, this upgrade is a logic one right in time for the Holiday Season and also fit in with the new ‘content delivery’ approach massively boosted since the new AppleTV was launched. Does Apple think the iPad needs a new event is the question though or will the iPad replace the classic iPod event in the future?

The MBP hardware bumps might seem more doubtful with the latest models launched only in April 2010 but with the focus early next year being on iPhone 5 and Mac OS 10.7, AKA Lion, it is doubtful that we will see another update to laptops before a possible MBP overhaul at the Fall 2011 event when we might get MacBookPros without optical drives. No, we will not see Blu-Ray drives as they do compete with iTunes HD rentals.

So what happened at today’s Back to the Mac event? Here are the deets, provided in a convenient list form. Looking for commentary? It’s coming soon.

iLife ’11 Introduced – Free with every new Mac, $49 retail. Available Now.

• iPhoto ’11
• Full screen display for all features
• New Slideshow themes
• Album view very similar to the iPad
• Facebook and Flickr can automatically download into iPhone ’11, even if you didn’t have them in the software to begin with
• Share feature allows you to e-mail directly from iPhoto ’11
• Sharing menu shows where your images go, including Facebook responses
• Book Carousel gives you a preview of making a physical book for each theme
• Project view shows all projects on a wooden bookshelf, similar to iBook
• Printed and pressed cards as a project option
• iMovie ’11
• Better audio editing – color coded waveforms
• Audio levels adjustable
• Audio effects available
• Instant Replay feature – allows for cool effects in sports
• Movie Trailer feature for films you make
• Face detection technology in iMovie ’11
• Trailers can share to Facebook and Vimeo as well as the usual options
• Garageband ’11
• Groove Matching feature allows matching separate tracks to one beat or groove
• Flex Time allows for adjusting waveforms
• Music lessons built in, shown in full screen
• How did I play feature compares the notes you play to the lesson – It’s Guitar Hero for the Mac, essentially

FaceTime - Available for Mac in Beta today

• Full screen
• Uses Address Book for contacts
• Separate app from iChat
• Display turns with iPhone display

OS 10.7 Lion – Coming Summer 2011

• Bringing iOS features “Back to the Mac”
• Multi-Touch Gestures
• App Store
• App home screens
• Full screen apps
• Auto save (Man, do I wish I had that 6 months ago)
• Auto resume on Apps when launched
• App Store
• One click downloads
• Free and paid apps (70/30 split)
• Automatic install and updates
• All apps licensed for all registered Macs
• Launchpad
• App home screen
• Can sort apps based on category
• Can create folders, just like in iOS
• Mission Control
• View everything on your Mac, at one time
• Expose view of all windows, including full-screen apps

Mac App Store

• Open within 90 days
• App submissions for developers start in November

MacBook Air - Available Today

• Wedge design, so no more drop down ports
• Preview images seem to be correct
• .68 inches at thickest. Tapers to .11 inches
• 2.9 lbs
• All unibody construction
• Full-size keyboard and glass trackpad
• 13.3-inch LED backlit display
• 1440X900 pixels – more than on 15-inch MacBook Pro
• Core 2 Duo processor
• NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics
• FaceTime camera
• No optical drive
• No hard drive
• Full flash storage – SSD
• Instant on, up to 2X faster
• More reliable in mobile environment
• 90% smaller and lighter
• Silent operation
• 7 hours wireless web tests
• 30 day standby time
• Inside shown, looks just like leaked images for the most part
• Almost all batteries
• Appears to be the matte finish display
• Two models: 13.3 inch, and 11.6 inch
• 11.6 inch
• 1366X768 display
• 2.3 lbs
• 5 hours wireless web
• 30 days standby
• Pricing
• $999 for 11.6 with 64GB
• $1199 for 11.6 with 128GB
• $1299 for 13.3 with 128GB
• 1599 for 13.3 with 256GB
• All come with 2GB of RAM

Well, it’s still early but at 10 am PST, Apple has an event called Back to the Mac, which is presumably about OS 10.7. But what else will be announced? As is tradition, I’m going to go out and make a few predictions here, and wildly speculate about what’s going to happen in a few hours. Ready? Here goes.

1. iWork and iLife ’12 announced. I think this one is a gimme. Both suites are still in ’09 flavors, and it would be great to see new versions of Pages and Numbers come out around the same time as Office ’11 is released. Plus, it fits the theme.
2. 10.7 Announced. The water cooler talk is that this one will be called Lion, but man does that rub me the wrong way. I’m hoping for Big Cat instead. Expect integration with iOS 4.2 in some manner, be it interface or imagery.
3. New MacBook Air. Thinner, lighter, and packing no replaceable hard drive, I’m hoping this one not only happens, but is cheaper than the current $1499 price tag.
4. Verizon iPhone. Yeah, a pretty big longshot on this one, particularly with the whole theme being Macs. But, it could happen, and this might be the time.
5. Intel i3 Bump for 13-inch MacBook Pro. It seems kind of silly that the 13-inch MBP isn’t running an i3, but I think that’s one potential upgrade. Might happen for the MacBook too, or even the whole lineup so that the Core 2 Duo is out for good.

There you have it, some random predictions. So will it happen? Guess we’ll find out soon.

Well, valued journalists in the field (read: not me) recently received a letter from Apple. They’re holding a special event next week at the mothership, and the image above was attached. Now it’s time for speculation.

1. OS 10.7 Introduced. The question is really whether or not it’s introduced here or announced for release, the latter of which seems less likely. The running bet right now is that it’s called Lion, but that’s a pretty obvious guess based on the picture.
2. Multi-Touch Macs. They’ve already patented the process, so the theory is that Apple introduces 10.7 which has multi-touch features to go along with multi-touch macs. IMacs with touch screens, all that jazz.
3. New MacBook Air. This thing needs a refresh, and the current gossip is that it’sgoing to be 11.6 inches and have magic unicorns inside. That shoot fire.
4. Verizon iPhone. Always a popular guess, this is in the running for the “one more thing” category.

So do you have any thoughts or theories? Let us know in the comments.

[Image via Engadget]

I have no interested in the Google TV. I’m sure that at first you’ll assume that it’s because I’m an Apple fanboy, but for me, it’s more about making my life easier than whose label is on the box. Frankly, if Microsoft comes out with a product and it makes my life easier, then I’ll go for it. I don’t have some special allegiance to Apple. I want products that work, and work well.

I also don’t want to look at my pictures on my TV. Or my Twitter account. Or Facebook. I want to watch TV and movies on my television, and that’s it. Call me old fashioned, but I still look at the television as a way for me to get my news and entertainment, not a way for me to surf the web. That’s what I have my iPad, iPhone, and laptop for.

But more importantly, I see history repeating itself. Remember WebTV? I do, and I remember it being a flop. Now you could make the argument that the product was ahead of its time, and that since broadband Internet wasn’t widely available that the product didn’t have a chance. But it’s still around, and I don’t know anyone who’s buying it. Why would they? Fact is, websites are made for viewing on small screens, not 60-inch plasmas in the living room.

So no, I have no interest in the Google TV. For me, it looks like Google is trying to bring the Internet to the living room again, and that doesn’t interest me in the slightest. Besides, have you seen that remote? Who wants to use that thing?

Excited about the big event? Of course you are. Well here’s the wrap up on today’s big events. Snarky commentary to follow shortly.

iOS

• 120 Million iPads, iPhones and iPod Touch devices shipped.
• 230,000 iOS activations per day, not including upgrades
• 6.5 billion downloads from app store, 200 apps every second
• iOS 4.1 introduced
• Bugs fixed: Proximity sensor, Bluetooth, and iPhone 3G performance issues
• HDR Photos standard in 4.1 (3 exposures combined to create one image)
• HD video upload via WiFi
• TV Show rentals
• Game Center goes live
• GC is about Multi-Player games, including auto matching
• Epic introduces Project Sword, an unreal looking RPG, powered by Unreal Technology, natch.
• Available Next Week, free download

iOS4.2 Preview

• Everything goes to iPad
• Wireless printing for iPad
• AirPlay introduced
• AirTunes if now AirPlay
• Streaming audio, video & photos over Wi-Fi
• Comes out in November. Free for iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch

iPods

• 275 million iPods sold
• Every iPod redesigned
• New Shuffle, Nano and iPod Touch available next week. Preorder today

iPod Shuffle

• Smaller than second gen
• Buttons and voiceover playlists, combining second and third gen
• Added Genius mixes
• 15 hours of music
• 5 colors: Blue, pink, silver, green, yellow
• $49 for 2GB

iPod Nano

• Touchscreen
• Multi-Touch features
• Square, just like the case previews
• Clip on the back, just like the Shuffle
• 46% smaller – 42% lighter
• Volume buttons
• Nike+, Pedometer
• VoiceOver
• 24 hours of playback
• Built-in FM radio
• Screen can be rotated for orientation
• Same four colors as shuffle, plus graphite and a Product(RED)
• $149 8GB
• $179 16GB

iPod Touch

• Most popular iPod
• #1 portable game player – outsells Nintendo and Sony combined
• Thinner than previous version – looks nothing like iPhone 4, more like 3GS
• Retina display from iPhone 4
• A4 processor from iPhone 4
• 3 axis Gyro
• iOS 4.1
• FaceTime with front camera, can be between iPhones and iPod Touch
• Rear camera, HD video recording
• 40 hours of music playback
• $229 8GB
• $299 32GB
• $399 64GB

iTunes 10

• 11.7 Billion songs downloaded
• 450 million TV episodes
• 100 million movies
• 35 million books
• 160 million accounts
• New logo – no more CD
• New hybrid view for album titles
• Ping introduced – Social network for music built into iTunes 10
• Follow people and artists
• Custom top 10 for people you follow
• Follow or be followed. Privacy built in
• Circle of friends can be created
• Available Today

AppleTV

• 1/4 of size of original
• Black in color
• Power, HDMI, USB, Ethernet on back
• Wi-Fi built in
• Comes with standard Apple Remote
• All HD when available
• All rentals, no purchases
• No storage problem
• Stream content from computer
• $4.99 first run HD movie rentals, cheaper as time goes on
• $.99 HD TV show rentals, commercial free (ABC and FOX onboard)
• Stream Netflix from AppleTV
• YouTube, Flickr and Mobile Me included
• Rotten Tomatoes meter on UI as well
• $99, released within 4 weeks

Airplay in depth

• Streaming content from any iOS device to another
• AppleTV to iPad used as example

So there you have it, the event in summary. Commentary to follow soon.

Not sure if you’ve heard this already, but Apple has an event going on today. Want to find out the news as it happens? Well you have a few different options. Check out one of the various live blogs going on across the net, or just go to Apple. Really? Really.

Apple® will broadcast its September 1 event online using Apple’s industry-leading HTTP Live Streaming, which is based on open standards. Viewing requires either a Mac® running Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10.6 Snow Leopard®, an iPhone® or iPod touch® running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad™. The live broadcast will begin at 10:00 a.m. PDT on September 1, 2010 at www.apple.com.

No kidding. I imagine that this is going to be a big deal, and it’s most likely going to crash Apple’s servers pretty hard. But if it doesn’t, it could be pretty cool. I know it’ll be one of the windows I’ll have open today.

Speaking of, keep your eyes here, as I’ll be reporting news during and after the event. Stay tuned.

I will be providing some updates during the event which will be pulled from Gizmodo, Engadget, and GDGT coverage. So feel free to stop by and discuss the iPhone 3.0 event as it happens.

Lesa Snider King is mad at Apple – and she’s not shy about it. She is calling for a “silent protest” at the Phil Schiller Keynote to let Apple know how upset you are about Apple abandoning Macworld.

Here’s her take on the situation:

On Tuesday, Dec. 16 Apple Inc. announced that Steve Jobs would not do the keynote at the 2009 Macworld Conference & Expo. That’s okay. They also announced that they would no longer attend the conference in the future. That’s not okay. For 25 years, a very loyal and passionate Mac community has descended upon the halls of Moscone Center in San Francisco, CA to see, hear, and learn more about the computers they love. By announcing their departure from this beloved show hosted by IDG, Apple is sending a message to the entire community–professionals, hobbyists, media, Mac User Groups, and even IDG themselves–that they care nothing for the community who supported them through thick and thin.

Find out more here.

I can’t say that I share her rage – but I’m sure some of you do. Now that I’ve had some time to think about it, I think Apple is making a good move here. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Apple one day held their own San Francisco based event much like Macworld after it dies. Apple is the reason the show is successful, and without it, I don’t think it’ll last.

I wouldn’t think it was out of the realm of possibility, though, for Apple to host their own event (so they can make the actual money off the thing) once Macworld is gone.

What do you think?

Today’s Show: Apple “Notebook” Special Event Recap!

You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…

you can listen to the episode right here: right here

In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.

Today’s big Apple notebook event starts at 10:00 am PST. So exactly when is that in your time zone?

Here’s a list to break it down:

12:00PM – Central
01:00PM – Eastern
07:00AM – Hawaii
06:00PM – London
09:00PM – Moscow
11:00AM – Mountain
10:00AM – Pacific
07:00PM – Paris
02:00AM – Tokyo (October 15th)

Since I don’t have live access to this event directly, I’m going to be following the coverage on Engadget and Gizmodo.

BUT – instead, we’ll be having a Live Discussion here using the Cover It Live live blogging software. I’ll be hitting the high notes as discussion topics while we all follow along with various live blogging coverage around the web.

So be back here at whatever time is appropriate – and join in!

Today’s Show: AT&T, Apple Rumors, Tomorrow’s Event, and more!

You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…

you can listen to the episode right here: right here

In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.

I don’t have direct access for tomorrow’s Special Event, and instead of doing some kind of “meta blog” coverage or something like that – I thought we’d do something a little different.

You can get full live coverage of the event on Gizmodo, Engadget and several other places. Here, however, we’re going to have a live blogging app on the site from Cover It Live – and we’re going to have an ongoing discussion of the event as it happens. I’ll still post the important bits, but you can follow most of the coverage on other sites. While you’re waiting for those sites to update – tab back over to here, and let’s talk about what’s going on.

We’ll have instant polls to judge reactions to what’s happening at the event, and hopefully Cover It Live will be able to stay up while the event is happening. I actually think this will be much more fun than actually live blogging every second of the event.

We’re going to use Cover It Live instead of a chat client because of the advanced polling, moderation, and other features that I really like from the service.

The “October Surprise” device will be an 8.5 x 11 unit with an HD display and multi-touch technology built right into the glass surface. It will be as thin as a piece of paper and feature remote wireless charging (which can be activated through mere thought alone with the purchase of the “iThink” accessory headband), a full qwerty on screen keyboard, iSmell sniffing technology, and the ability to make sandwiches customized to your liking through the brand new “iSandwich” application which will be a part of “iLife ’09″.

“Sandwich making has never seemed so possible.” Our source reports. “All you have to do is select your bread, choice of meats and cheese, and condiments and accessories. You click order, and Apple ships it to you in the mail like a photo book in 3 to 6 weeks. Awesome”

Our lonely and depressed informant even managed to snap a picture of the amazing new device (although, admittedly it is a bit far a way, and slightly blurry – still, if you have eyes in your head you can CLEARLY make it out in the image below).

Our source further indicates that the name of the device is the “iTablitron 2000″, and it will come in two models – the 32 GB model will run a shockingly cheap $29.37, while the heftier 64 GB version will cost you $43 and a hay penny.

Sure the sources are unconfirmed – sure they have no credibility – but this is just a blog right? Who needs to confirm sources and verify facts. That is SOOO “old media”.

For those of you that want to get a better look at what Steve Jobs looked like at the event, or who want to see Phil Schiller loving him some Spore, you can now get the “Let’s Rock” Special Event via the Apple Keynote Podcast feed.

You can also watch the event streaming online right here.

UPDATE – CoverItLive seems to have died. You can continue to follow updates on Twitter.

Today’s Show: iPod 4G confirmation, Sept. 9 event confirmed and more!

You can subscribe via iTunes, or by RSS feed, or…

you can listen to the episode right here: right here

In addition to that, you can also download the Apple Gazette Daily Widget and listen to every episode of the show right on your Dashboard. Click Here to download.

Sept. 9th has become the rumored date for the big Apple Special event. The company normally doesn’t announce this time of thing until the Friday before. Today, however, Microsoft has announced that they will be making a special announcement on Sept 9th featuring the tag line “say goodbye to laser”.

It’s fairly obvious that they’re talking about the laser mouse, and further investigation by Engadget has revealed that a “Blue Track” mouse is already in the Amazon.de store. So it’s likely that’s the announcement.

The question now is, will Apple have a special event on the same day as the Microsoft announcement and the DEMO Conference?

Macenstein reports a bit of surprising news this afternoon. Apple has apparently dropped out of NAB 2008. For fans of Apple’s professional film/video editing products this is quite a surprise. Apple has, in the past, had one of the largest booths at NAB, showcasing the amazing Final Cut Studio suite, and other professional software options. This year, however, they are “scaling back”.

“Apple is participating in fewer trade shows this year,” said Anuj Nayar, senior manager of PR at Apple. “Often there are better ways to reach our customers. The increasing popularity of our retail stores and Apple.com Web site allows us to directly reach more than 100 million customers around the world in innovative new ways.”

To me, that statement is not only a commentary about NAB, but all tradeshows. Could we see a day where the trade show is ineffective because of the limited number of people that are able to attend?

This has to come as a huge blow to the promotors of NAB, because not only has Apple chosen skip the expense of a booth – so has AVID. That’s two MAJOR players in the world of video editing that won’t be on the NAB floor.

Now, this doesn’t mean that Apple won’t have ANY presence at NAB. It’s still possible they could put on some small hands-on events, or conduct user groups, but the lack of Avid or Apple at NAB, it looks like the event isn’t going to be quite as big as it has been in the past.

Just a note to everyone…we’ll be Live Blogging the Special Event tomorrow at the usual place.

You can bookmark our Live Section and join us for the event tomorrow at the following time:

10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
1:00PM – Eastern
5:00PM – GMT
6:00PM – London
7:00PM – Paris

As usual, the speculation and rumor is running rampant, and their have been speculative guesses ranging from iPod refreshes to the entire line, iPhone ringtones, The Beatles, and all other kinds of stuff that isn’t going to happen (btw – I’m not saying that we’re not going to see ringtones, or iPod refreshes…but some of the stuff I’ve read has just been…”out there”).

Still – it’s supposed to be a “wow” level event…so let’s hope we have some cool stuff to talk about when it’s all said and done.

Head over to our Apple Gazette Live Coverage area for live blogging of the Apple Town Hall Meeting!

Apple’s Townhall Meeting will be held today at 10:00 am Pacific time. Below are a few other timezones to help you keep track of when the event is happening in your area.

10:00AM – Pacific
11:00AM – Mountain
12:00PM – Central
1:00PM - Eastern
5:00PM - GMT
6:00PM – London
7:00PM - Paris

Check back here for LIVE coverage of the event in our Apple Gazette LIVE coverage area.