Chuboi Makes MacWorld Predictions, Somewhat Outrageous At Times

 

If you’re a recent Mac convert like myself, RIT student, or simply a tech obsessed fiend, you’ve been counting down the days (or even hours) until Steve Jobs takes center stage at the Apple’s MacWorld Expo. The days leading up to MacWorld are days of madness, where thousands (if not millions) of people get their Nastradmus on and predict what destruction Jobs is will unleash to the world. I am one of those people. Predicting is so much fun, though! How could I resist?

The Probable
- 16GB iPhone, no 3G yet, new firmware
- New Mac minis
- Slimmer cinema displays
- Apple TV revamp (with iTunes movie rentals)
- iPod takes the back seat until next Jobsnote
- Leopard gets a few new touches
- The Beatles will appear somewhere

The Improbable, But Would Love to See

- New touch-based, slimmer Macbooks (do not want, because I just bought a Macbook like 8 months ago!)

- Jobs announces record deal with Jay Z

- Apple TV gets Blu ray player, new interface, not useless anymore

- 3G iPhone

-  Jobs not wearing a turtleneck, maybe a hoody

 

The crazy sh*t that won’t happen, but hey, isn’t that why predicting is fun?

I’ve talked about this with my friends and it’s so crazy that it might work. The AppleTV Voltron* (or iTV, whatever). Before you laugh at the name, here me out. The Cinema Displays haven’t been updated in years, AppleTV sales are poor, and 2008 might be the year hi-def TV’s finally breakout.  Imagine a TV that syncs wirelessly with your Mac,  iTunes, Photos, HD movie rental capability, +200GB hard drive, 1080p, Ethernet port, HDMI…yeah, you know it would be sick. I’d buy that without thinking twice. I’m thinking something around the lines of 30”, 40” and 50” versions, and somewhat pricey. Apple could finally own your living room, and soon, your life (if that hasn’t happened already). They’d just have to give a better name than the one I came up with, of course. <

Guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Tuesday, Jan 15^th, 9AM PST/12PM EST.

*Blazing Sword not included

Steve Jobs Has a Little Something for Everybody

Unless you were recently on Oceanic Flight 815 from Sydney to LA that crashed on an uncharted island that habited by a large smoke monster and the remains of the Dharma Initiative, you would have known that new iPods were announced yesterday. Yup, Steve Jobs is at it again. Here’s what really mattered from the “And the Beat Goes On” keynote and how it affects the way you’ll be listening to your music in the near future.

Meet the new iPod family; the video iPod Nano, the iPod Classic and the iPod Touch. (*Nelly Futardo not included)

The new iPod Nano received a hobbit-style makeover and now plays video (which apparently was much demanded). That’s all you really need to know. It’s a bit slimmer and has about the same battery life as its predecessor. The interface is revamped as well. I’m not a big fan of the fat look, but I’m not complaining. It’s still a great device. The 4 gigger goes for a decent $150 and the 8GB goes for $200.

The regular iPod is slowly going out of style and is therefore named the “iPod Classic” to make it seem cool and vintage-y. Jobsy decided to beef up the storage, starting at 80GB ($250) and going up to 160GB ($350) as well. New interface, improved battery, blah blah blah. Moving on…

Now comes the much speculated iPod Touch, also known as the “iPhone that doesn’t make calls.” The gadget is sexy. Period. Apple haters have to drop the haterade for a second and respect how hot this mp3 player looks. It comes with most of the goodness found in the iPhone; 3.5 inch widescreen, multi-touch navigation, wi-fi browsing via Safari and instant YouTube-age. A great new feature is the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store which lets you preview and purchase songs on the fly. Pretty sweet all around, but what annoys me is the storage size which is limited to 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399). Not cool, but I’ll take it. I guarantee we’ll see twice the storage available by this fall or January.

Ok…enough with the iPhone. Please.

I was only slightly annoyed with the iPhone hype machine until I saw this:

Come on people! Get yourselves together!

I love the iPhone. I really do. And I’m not a big fan of cellphones all together (isn’t the whole point of them just to make effin’ phone calls?!]. Apple-doubters and cellphone know-it-alls (*cough* Sony Ericsson fanboys *cough*) have been paying alot of attention to its flaws and throwing some serious ahte, but I truly feel this phone is “revolutionary.” Why?

1) Although it doesn’t have 3G whatchamacallits or transfers meaningless crap at the speed of light like the latest phones do, it takes what has already been done and strives to perfect it. That’s it. It’s so simple. It’s what the majority of people want: simplicity. Cellphone geeks can whine about this phone all they want, but it doesn’t matter: they are the minority. Doesn’t this remind you about how Nintendo realized that they’re more people that don’t play video games religiously than people that do. And look at Nintendo now. (Yes, if you just read that link, you read it correctly. A company that makes only games is worth more than the entire Sony empire. The empire that has a dozen of its products in your house since you were born. )

For a person, such as myself, who isn’t into phones, that’s all i need. A phone that doesn’t try to do everything, but does everything it has well. I’d choose the iPhone’s lovely new, easy-to-navigate interface over some new Nokia N348975340 with like 25 buttons.

2) Apple, being the marketing & PR geniuses they are, have sucked you into their hype deathtrap. You might hate this phone, but you cannot avoid this phone. You might be telling your friends that it’s overrated, overpriced and over-hyped, but you’re still talking about it. You’re spreading its awareness. See? They’ve won. When’s the last time you’ve seen such a fuss over about a phone?!! A FREAKING PHONE! And by equipping it with an iPod ,they’ve made the hundred or so people who bought iPods turn their heads. My marketing professor would be proud.

So, yes, I think the phone is lovely (and shiny), but get a hold of yourselves people! Take it easy.

Imagine what would happen if the iPhone was cheap? Ugh. I don’t even want to think about it.

Tomorrow is gonna suck.