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The Odds at Macworld

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the just-ship-me-review-units-please dept.

Moby Cock writes "Jason O'Grady has posted the odds on what is to be announced at the Macworld Expo beginning next week. Coming in at 100:1 is OS X 10.5 and even money on a new and sexy Intel Mac Minis and iBooks. Gentlemen, start your credit cards."

6 of 526 comments (clear)

  1. iLife '06 comes in at 10:1 by carou · · Score: 5, Interesting
    Personally I'd have said this was a dead certain - all the previous versions have come in at MacWorld with an annual release cycle. Surely the only question is what new features will be in it?

    • Front Row?
    • New program providing PVR functionality?
    • Blogging tool? - actually no, that should go in .Mac instead.
    • Backup moved from .Mac to iLife?
    • Finance program or tax calculator?

  2. Upcoming products by pieterh · · Score: 4, Interesting

    1. Improved video iPod with larger horizontal screen
    2. More tie-ins with TV producers

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    My blog
  3. My breakdown... by csoto · · Score: 5, Interesting


    10. OS 10.5 - not gonna happen. Apple is focused on Rosetta/Xcode QA for Mac OS X86. Whatever works well gets ported to 10.5 (think of 10.4 as the beta for X86)

    9. X86 Powerbook - Could be. I would bet on this one.

    8. iWork '06 - Could be. Who cares? I really like iWork '05. Pages is a treat, and Keynote is indespensible for me. But if they are working on a spreadsheet, yeah, this is the time to release it.

    7. iLive '06 - Unless it adds things similar to Front Row, I don't see that it needs anything more than bug fixes. I wouldn't bet on it.

    6. BT remote - Definitely going to be some kind of Front Row remote. Bluetooth? Probably. All new Macs have it, for several months now.

    5. iTunes price increases - Not gonna happen. Steve knows this market. The market will not ignore him, no matter how greedy they are. Too much money is being made.

    4. AirPort Ultra - Neat idea, but I won't bet on it. I would buy one, though :)

    3. 1GB iPod Nano - Don't think so. The shuffle fills this space, but that's not big enough for the Nano's market segment.

    2. X86 Mac Mini - I'd bet on this. I might even buy one for my parents. Their old IBM suck ass.

    1. Widescreen X86 iBook - This one is obviously going to happen, but probably not now. Apple will drop 4:3 format entirely, as will the rest of the world (showing they are, as always, technology leaders). They just won't cannibalize Powerbook sales with iBooks until they have milked it long enough.

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    There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
    1. Re:My breakdown... by antifoidulus · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It will be interesting to see whether or not Apple will update the powerbook or iBook first. Obviously the powerbook needs a serious upgrading, although I love the powerbook that I bought in May of last year, if I didn't get $400 off due to a very generous campus promotion, I would have never bought it. The machine is way too underpowered compared to the competetion.
      That being said, the switch over to Intel is obviously going to be a big one and the chances for serious bugs is still high even with a lot of testing. Apple could try rolling out the mini/iBooks first to test the waters, knowing that pro customers make up a lot of Apple's revenues and are much less tolerant of bugs than say consumers.
      Regardless, twenty-aught-six should be an interesting year for Apple!

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      Monstar L
  4. Re:Price increases for iTunes by JWW · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I would have to agree with you. The music industry is looking INSANELY greedy with this move. I hope Apple holds out and holds their feet to the fire.

    My prediction: If Apple goes to $ 1.99 for popular songs (read all but a small token number of the songs on the sight), allofmp3.com will begin to become an _enourmous_ hit (think Napster at its height). The RIAA is going to absolutely freak out and do everything in their power to shut them down. The funny thing is that that sight is bringing true market dynamics to selling music online (along with giving customers what they want, no DRM crap), but as much as they _say_ they are capitalists, the RIAA is just a price fixing oligarchy.

  5. SpeedBump's Mini wishlist by SpeedBump0619 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here's hoping that the new Mac Minis, whenever they arrive, have a few specific improvements:

    1) Optical Audio (we want surround sound!)
    2) Better DVD playback software (for a UI centered company like Apple, "DVD Player" program blows donkey wang)
    3) RF receiver (for my kick ass universal remote, or maybe Apple can make a bluetooth+RF remote)
    4) Better support for my TV (having to use VNC to set it up is beyond most people)

    I've been using a Mac Mini as my entertainment hub for a while now (almost a year), and its great. DVDs, AVI and WM files, ITunes though my stereo, internet surfing on my HD TV, flash, movie previews, games; the list goes on and on. Its quiet, low power, wakes quickly, and does what I want it to do.

    Oh, and can you guys please make it so I can autohide the menu bar? You know, like the dock can do.