Time to jump on the rumour mill and predict, with scary accuracy what Apple’s event due to take place at the end of January (’10), will hold.

Update: Looks like once again I have been spot on with my Apple predictions. I have linked to stories confirming my assertions where appropriate.

Mac OS X Touch

The new name for iPhone OS. Currently the iPhone OS runs on iPhone’s, iPod’s and inside developers Mac Pro’s.

It’s time for a name change — Mac OS X Touch 1.0. It will effectively be iPhone OS 4.0, we might get a few 3.x updates to smooth the transition but by the end of 2010 iPhone OS will be dead — Long live Mac OS X Touch.

Features

These features all taken form my musings on Twitter.

Naming

• UPDATE: Touch OS 4.0
• UPDATE: Mac Touch OS 4.0

API

• Voice Control API
• Low level camera API
• Bluetooth API
• launchd API (instead of multi-process support)
• Data detectors API
• Advanced gesture API
• Advanced iSync API (for 3rd parties)

Updates

• USB support (for iSlate)
• Extra non-standard WebKit extentions
• Definitely no Flash support
• Multi-camera support (see Apps below)
• Video output
• Handwriting recognition

Interface Updates

• Animated springboard icons
• Advanced App management
• Lock App positions in springboard

Apps

• RELEASED: iWork App (instead of file system) [MacRumours.com] [AppleInsider]
• iChat [Orange Exec Confirms Apple Tablet Is On The Way]
• UPDATE: Remote Desktop App (iPad Only)
• UPDATE: Apple TV App (iPad Only)

The rumour mill has been swirling – Apple Tablet they cry. “Doom to fail” they sneer. I’m not so stupid as to predict an Apple device to fail, if we’ve learnt anything since SJ’s return it’s that, Apple learns from it’s mistakes!

I shall enumerate these “mistakes” and point out the silver lining:

1. Apple Cube… Mac Mini and Apple TV
2. Newton (and killing it)… iPhone/iPod Touch
3. Mac Clones… Intel processors
4. No iPhone SDK (at launch)… The App Store
5. Apple TV… Apple TV 2
6. Apple TV 2… TBA

Recently I wrote a post called iDevice, the one paragraph that keeps popping into my head is this:

Back in the late 90’s when Steve came back to Apple he gave a Keynote (I have it on VHS somewhere), where he talked about the similarities of digital watches and computers (bare with me). He pointed out that in the 80’s the average American household had 1 digital watch and today (late 90’s) it’s 8 (NB: I’m writing form memory but the point stands). — iDevice

I now believe this to been even more relevant. Any new iDevice from Apple will try and fill the gap between laptop and iPhone. Just as we all now own 8 digital watches we’ll all have 3 or 4 iPads/iDevices/What-ever by the dawn of the next decade.

Apple has no interest in Netbooks, it has MacBooks to fill that gap. It is however, very interested in selling a few billion more Apps and defining an entirely new market segment.

The killer App here is an eBook reader, but not necessarily for novels. The iPhone SDK 3.0 has in App purchase, and the ability for subscriptions. My guess is; newspapers and magazines.

Download the OK Magazine App or New York Times App, the publishers finally get a revenue from online content, Apple gets 30% (or more like 10% form big publishers) and you get the daily papers downloaded to your iDevice before you leave the house in the morning — ready to read on the train.

Add to the mix; games, web access, external keyboard and mouse and you get a Netbook killer not iPhone sales eroding.

Don’t expect an Office type suite, Google Docs or what ever Microsoft are calling Office online today, (Office Live.Net XP SP 3?) will do just fine thanks (oh and Apple’s own Mobile Me).

The best guess for price will be $100 more that the most expensive iPod Touch. But, a subscription to a mobile data plan at $10 / month might half that price. Apple want you to buy 2 or more of these; office, lounge, bed room and one for the kids. So a 3 pack — as bizarre as it sounds — is a real option, maybe for as little as $899 (with a data plan). You can’t get a MacBook for that, the family pack; 3 iDevices for under $1000 would be very attractive.

*Pricing: I’ve used $ and not £ values because Apple seem to price every thing in $ and then use their own exchange rate to convert to £. I love to see 3 devices for £500 but it’ll be more like £800.

Appy Go Lucky today released their first iPhone App. It was a long hard slog, involving calls form Apple HQ in Cupertino and bizarre conversations about the meaning of, Gypo.

On the whole our experience with Apple was very positive, they showed a genuine interest in expanding the boundaries of the often restrictive App Policies.

With over 150,000 profane phrases available, the Profanity App for the iPhone and iPod Touch is essential for anyone looking to correctly label their friends and enemies. Just give the app a quick shake and you’ll be provided with insults ranging from the almost innocent ‘You vacant clumsy boob!’ right up to the sort of blue language that would take a seasoned dockside worker by surprise.

Profanity is the first in a long line of experimental iPhone Apps and Appy Go Lucky are looking to expand the languages and scope of “the sweariest available”.

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!

This was going to be a Twitter tweet, but I decided I wanted your suggestions too, enjoy. Remember to add your suggestions to the comments.

1. Obama’s face on Mt. Rushmore – I also hope he does what we hope he will, and earns that place.

2. Phoenix Lander brought home and displayed in a museum.

3. One more funny Steve Martin film. Just one! Or some new stand-up.

4. Proof of the Higgs-Boson or proof it doesn’t exist.

5. Affordable electric cars.

6. Cold Fusion.

7. Cut and Paste in the iPhone.

8. Rupert Murdoch bankrupt. 

9. Ubuntu in state schools.

10. A Kids In The Hall reunion tour.

11. Charlie Brooker controller of the BBC.

Don’t forget to add your suggestions in the comments.

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.