There are going to be a lot of out of work developers in 2009, all these idle man-months could be put to good use if companies opened up a little. Some of these developments could help drive the economy out of the downturn.

Apple, overall grade B+

Look what happened when Apple listened to developers and opened up the iPhone, the App Store. It has made quite a few developers rich and provided Apple with a valuable ecosystem for its products. 

iPhone/iPod Touch, grade A-

The second release of the iPhone software was a huge step forward, but there is still much room for improvement. All the ‘hidden’ APIs if properly documented will provide developers the tools to create some amazing applications.  

AppleTV, grade F

There were high hopes for AppleTV when it was first released. But it has largely failed to live up to expectations. This would all change if an API were created, imagine if you could play all your iPhone games on your Apple TV with your iPhone acting as the controller.

A hint at the viability of an AppleTV API is Boxee. But this maybe short lived if these predictions come true.

Un-announced tablet Mac

If in 2009 Apple finally release a tablet Mac or netbook, the iPhone APIs could provide new and innovative methods of interactions as-well-as providing next generation power saving facilities and processing with OpenCL.

Sony, overall grade E

Sony could of ruled the living-room in 2008, and all they needed was a FireFox port instead of the god-offal browser implementation they cooked up at Sony HQ. And why haven’t Facebook released a FREE download for the PS3? Profile integration anyone? People will still buy a PS3 and a laptop, “for the internet”. When all they need is a decent browser to check their Hotmail and place a bet or two.

Home (beta), grade D

Home beta will boast 3rd party features but not on the grand scale of the Apple App Store. And that a shame. We’ll get some nice game add-ons. spaces and eye candy. Demos will appear in the arcade but nothing independent, I can’t sell my Twitter app for 59p and make £10,000. They have to get a D for lack of vision. 

Twitter, grade A-

Twitter are the golden boys, no business model but a rapidly increasing user base and all fueled by their simple and open API (take note Sony). 

REST

Not much to say, simply send and receive XML, simple and well documented. top of the class.

Search

Search in Twitter is a powerful tool and is already the backbone of some notable web apps.

Google Friend Connect / Facebook Connect, grade C+

Although new (just out of private beta), GFC and FC are shaping up to simplify your social networking experience. It is beyond the scope of this post to debate the pros and cons of each but one thing is for sure, they need to work together! Must try harder!

The response to my previous post was immense, thanks for all you replies it seems like I rely struck a cord with the Mac community. Oh, I’m being sarcastic by the way!

So, wild speculation has engulfed the Mac rumors sites and every Tom, Dick and Harry has blogged terra bytes on the meaning of, “There’s something in the air.”.

What can you smell…

Well I’m fairly sure after a drunken conversation with a friend of a friend I’ve cracked the code. As with most of Apple’s recent announcements it wont be revolutionary bleeding edge technology, just cutting edge and repackaged with a sugary interface.

Time to Air

The Air moniker will come to represent the digital home hub product line headed by the Apple TV (possibly re-branded Apple Air) but incorporating a new MacBook, iPhone/iTouch, iTunes and a fancy new iLife application to tie them all together.

The premiss of the Air system is simple – everything, and I mean everything (Movies, Pictures, Songs, PDFs etc) sits at home on your computer (with iLife/iTunes/FrontRow installed) or Apple TV/Apple Air and you can access all these streamed over the internet anywhere in the known universe (with an internet connection).

No more making playlists for your iPhone you can access all your tracks streamed from your home computer, watch Extras you bought form iTunes, get it?

With a .Mac account you can sync tracks to your i(Pod)(Phone) for later playback when you have no connection or it’s too slow for streaming.

Up up and away

For all this to work you’ll need updated iTunes (7.6) update iPhone/iTouch (1.1.3) and a .Mac account (optional). I would expect Apple to add some value to a .Mac account (Google anyone?) to drive take up of yet another subscription service.

As most things in technology this system is a solution to a specific problem, namely battery life of the iPod. Apple need to move to SSD in all the iPods to increase the battery life but the capacity is still to low (a tenth of the the classic iPods) and still to expensive. So streaming over the internet is the obvious solution. It not a bad move either, could they reinvigorate WiMax? Just think of the data usage on a new iPhone 3G? Is this the kill app mobile operators have been searching for to boost 3G take up and drive data services?

One last thing…

Could we see a new iPhone I here you screaming? No, is my answer. But it is a 100/1 long shot, one last thing could indeed be a brand new iPhone Air with 3G priced at slightly more than the current 8 Gig model – £299 with 16 Gig and a price drop of the current offering – £229.

Check back on Tuesday to see how well I did.

There are two reasons I am writing yet another hackneyed MacWorld prediction entry:

1. I always get it right but never tell anyone
2. Cash in on all the loverly Apple keywords, like sub-notebook, MacTouch and new iPhone

With all that unpleasantness over with I can begin. We all know Mr Jobs prides him self on secrecy and clandestine projects but the simple fact is Apple is a business and needs to make money and a quick look over their aging product line tell us 90% of the keynote.

Preemptive Strike   

As to ruin the narrative of this entry Apple have this week released update Xserves and Mac Pros. I won’t insult your intelligence dear reader with the pretense that, if I had written this entry last month I would of predicted these update before January 12th. But I would of. 
So, one nil to me. Ok one all. 

Portable Success

Lets start off with what has over the last 3 year become the bed rock of Apple’s resurgence, the MacBook Pro. The MacBook line is in desperate need of a make over but it the Pro version that you can bet the farm on.
Intel announced new processors (immediately incorporated into the Desktop and Server lines) so we can reason the MacBook Pro updates will be more significant. But how significant? I’m going to stick my neck out and list all the updates I expect to see:

1. Processor upgrade (duh!) – 45-nm Penryn procesors at 2.4GHz to 2.8GHz
2. Graphics upgrade – an NVIDIA with 256MB as standard up to 512MB in top models 
3. Thinner enclosure – not by much maybe 20%-25%
4. LED backlight screen – I’m just jumping on the bandwagon with this
5. Longer battery life – nothing revolutionary here, all down to the processors and screen
6. Gesture Pad – enhanced and much bigger track pad that will respond like the iPhone interface with; stretching, pinching, scrolling and all that CoverFlow goodness.
7. Blu-Ray Drive – high end models only or possibly on a ‘built to order’ only option
8. Mac OS X 10.5.2 – like shooting fish in a barrel!

So, 8 prediction for the MacBook Pro – check back after the Keynote to see how I scored. What this will mean for the more consumer focused MacBook it’s hard to say, but here we go:

1. Processor upgrade
2. Screen upgrade
3. Price drop

Only time will tell, but I don’t expect anything more than modest upgrades to the MacBooks. The upgrades will only bring the low end portables in line with the new Sub-Notebook and help define the product lines.
The real interesting thing about the new portable is its name. Looking back over the product lines we can surmise it will follow the Apple convention and take the moniker of Mini, Nano or Touch. These are surly different beasts.
The MacBook Mini/Nano – a sub-notebookw with 13″ screen no internal optical drive, SSD hard disk and about a micron thick.
The Mac Touch – the long rumored and tablet Mac, all kinds of wireless including GMS/GPRS  and WiMax but only a 64GB SSD hard drive. It wont be locked to a carrier like the iPhone but will take an optional SIM card for true mobility. It’s just a big fat iPhone.

Don’t Touch

 
I don’t think we’re be seeing the Mac Touch this time, mainly because of the same confusion you found when reading the previous paragraph and I felt writing it. To be a success it has to have so much and still I can see no market. It would just be too expensive.

Less is More

 
So that leaves us with the The MacBook Mini/Nano – we have a Mac Mini so to avoid the confusion The MacBook Nano will be born. As far a product positioning is concerned the MacBook Nano will sit between the MacBook and MacBook Pro and be priced accordingly. Below is a list of of expected features (by no means exhaustive): 

1. 13″ Screen, LED backlight
2. 64GB – 128GB SSD hard drive
3. 1GB RAM
4. Touch interface/Trackpad similar to the new MacBook Pro’s
5. WiFi – all flavors a/b/g/n 
6. USB 2.0 – possibly mini-USB
7. Very thin – is this a feature?
8. 45-nm Penryn processor at 2.1GHz
9. Non-removable battery (but it lasts 12 hours)  
10. Mac OS X 10.5.2
11. iPod style universal docking port
12.  Multi-Colourd – Apple uses this neat trick to reinvigorate ‘old’ lines, expect this on updated MacBooks too.

Wow! It’s like I have a crystal ball. Well, that’s not all we still have the Apple TV and Mac Mini to look at. This is where my predictions tend towards guess work as opposed to the well thought out and meticulously researched prose above.
I can however, say with some degree of certainty that if the Apple TV is not update next week, it’s dead. If it does get a second bite at the home entertainment cherry it will see a MAJOR upgrade; more Mac OS X like features, Safari, Blu-Ray (you heard me right!), bigger hard drive and iPod dock.

Mini Minor

 
I have even less of an idea about the Mac Mini – they are great, I’d love to see an upgrade and a price drop. But the updated Apple TV might just incorporate all the features.
So there you go, 100% guaranteed to happen next week* or never. Please feel free to rant about how wrong I am going to be – I will be publishing the emails of those that make fools of them selves.
One last thing… iPhone update, a new 16GB version followed by a modest price drop, oh and a iPhone Nano. * Not a guarantee.