Bow to the Jobstradamus.

In the words of Spiderman's Uncle, with great power comes great responsibility.   According to 9to5mac.com the "Mac Touch" was mentioned in a recent job posting for Apple.  With the January MacWorld event coming up, and the constant rumor of the "ultraportable" on it's way, it seems everyone is focused on the "duh" rumor of a flash memory laptop.  But there is mounting evidence to prove my "vision" of the Apple tablet to be correct.  While everyone pats themselves on the back for jumping on the ultra-portable bandwagon, Jobstradamus continues to see visions of a giant iPhone/Macbook like device. 

I will begin working on a rumor roundup and highlight the secret little hints here and there about the upcoming "Mac Touch".  

Jobstradamus - round 2.

I wish I could write in quatrains, that would be awesome. But alas, time is of the essence and thus I will get to my predictions.

For all you underestimators out there, the mighty genius Steve Jobs has a special surprise for everyone at Macworld 2008.

Of course, at this point the famed "ultra-portable" seems destined to be on it's way. The 13.3 inch Macbook Pro to replace the venerable (and my all-time favorite Mac ever) 12.1 inch Powerbook. I see this coming, and it's going to be sexy....but....

The one more thing that will come at this show or the next is going to be the little rumor that could...the iTablet. Here is my argument for the iTablet.

1. Apple, in order to pick up marketshare, has to find it's way into the "Dell super-cheap computer" sector. The iPhone is damn close to being all the computer I need when I travel. Close, but not quite ready for prime time. So at $399 it gets close, but that leaves about $900 between the iPhone and the first option in the Mac lineup.

2. The iPhone proved that Mac OS X can be downsized to fit on smaller screens using innovative UI changes. The touchscreen is awesome. But don't think for a moment that Apple is going to rest leaving the touchscreen OS X on the iPod/iPhone.

3. What Apple does is redefine a space when they enter it. iPod/mp3player - check. Macbook Pro/laptop - check. iMac/PC - check. iPhone/PDA/phone - check. They are getting rather good at it. So, if they are going to enter the $700-ish computer space, how else could they redefine it. The Mac Mini was good, but not...Jobsian. But, a true touchscreen, 13.3 inch tablet with iPhone styling and coolness but with real versions of iPhoto and iTunes this could be the real deal that finally makes the tablet PC sexy.

13.3 inch iTablet. Built in Wi-fi. Pre-configured with iPhoto and iTunes, as well as Apple's other consumer software (mail, calendar, etc.) NO CD input (trust me.) Touchscreen/multi-touch interface. 100GB. $799/$899.

Call me Jobstradamus.

Forgive me the following moment of arrogance...but HA! I did it again. I correctly identified the "One More Thing...." item from the latest Apple event.

Sure, we all expected the phatty Nano, and the iPod Touch - which he delivered. But ONCE AGAIN, I correctly figured out that those weren't the big WOW thing he was going to announce. The "anywhere you can get WiFi" iTunes store is a reality.

And now, I will be going by Jobstradamus.

Tick...tick...tick...

I'm pretty excited about tomorrow.  September 5th - the day that Apple is finally going to make the Zune laughable.  Oh wait, the Zune was laughable at launch.  Well, tomorrow will be the day that we see what the follow up to the coolest smartphone of all time will be for the coolest computer company of all time. 

While I've been on-again/off-again about my decision, I think my hope is maybe the iPod Touch and the iPhone Nano.  Really, it doesn't matter what is released tomorrow.  The iPhone is the first true convergence device and it's from Apple, making it wicked cool.  

Sure, Apple likes to torture us with new devices.  But maybe the 5G iPod lifecycle is a example of positive things to come for Apple.  I was totally pissed off about the 4G iPod and it's constant reiteration.  But really, from 4G to 5G to 5.5G was really a long time and all it really did was get flatter and brighter.  From what I've seen, I don't want the iPhone to get any flatter and I'm not sure how, without beaming 3D images ala "help me Obi Wan, you're my only hope", the screen could get any better on the iPhone.

So, barring an unbelievable iPhone derivative released on Verizon tomorrow, I will be waiting impatiently for the announce before going to get my iPhone in the next couple days. 

Stay tuned!

technorati tags:iphone, ipod, apple, itunes, zune, touch

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Why not commit?

So, next Wednesday is the big day - all new iPods.  New iTunes.  Probably something even cooler than anyone expects.  Which brings me back to the original idea for this blog - to chronicle my nagging indecision about the iPhone.  Which brings me to my point - with all the new, cool, wow items coming out next week, does it fundamentally change the beauty of the iPhone? 

Let me revisit this device.  It has 8GB of storage - good enough for the music I'm ACTUALLY listening to at the moment.  A video, tv show, movie or two.  Device storage such as contacts, applications, and documents.  Web access for maps (which anyone who has ever travelled with me knows is absolutely critical.)  Email, twitter, facebook, and SMS.  And of course, the phone.  I don't talk on my phone much anymore.  I think last month I used less than 200 minutes.  Texting is probably the bigger part of my bill.  And the iPhone does all of this.  VERY WELL.

So who cares what comes out on Wednesday?  Nothing that gets released next Wednesday seems to change whether or not I should get an iPhone.  It seems that no matter what Apple throws at me next week, no matter how cool the offer is, it doesn't make the iPhone any less perfect.

And...scene.

technorati tags:iphone, apple, ipod, itunes

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I am moving the needle in the Apple rumor blogosphere. SWEET.

So, there is absolutely NO WAY for me to actually lay claim to this...but if you read my earlier post, then this one from Engadget seems totally uncanny.

So far that makes Original Analog 2 - genius mac rumor specialists 0.

Hehehehe.

technorati tags:iphone, engadget, ipod, apple, itunes

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Where is the Wow in this event?

This is slightly outside the iPhone Diary conversation, but I think it's relevant.

I don't think the Touch iPod (the way it's being described) or the Beatles catalog coming to iTunes are the Wow in this event. The chubby nano with the big screen, clearly not wowing people. So what has his mighty genius Mr. Jobs decided to wow us with this September.

Beatles catalog. Unequivocably.

iPod refresh. Yes.

iPod "Touch" release. Yes.

Chubby Nano. Duh.

OS X w/ Coverflow on everything. Probably even Steve's belt will have OS X in it.

So what is the WOW.

The problem I have with is that everyone sees this coming, and just like I predicted with the iPhone, it's got to be BIG for Steve and Company to use the word wow. I guessed the iPhone would be the wi-fi + touchscreen + OS X + phone device, while almost everyone else was stuck only connecting one or two of those. When he showed it off, it wow-ed.

So what now? What could the iPod family introduce that would make even those folks like us with wicked high expectations sit up and say, "Wow."

How about this...

If you have wi-fi, and OS X on the iPod - why can't you just have iTunes there as well and be able to access and download songs from anywhere that you have wireless internet access? Think about it. They have already leaked info about ads on iTunes, and wireless controls/access, and the social aspect of iTunes. You spend more time with your iPod than you do iTunes, so if Apple can send you ads they've hit the motherload of monetizing iTunes. Then, having bigger screens and bigger form factor for the Nano makes sense.

Any other thoughts?

technorati tags:iphone, ipod, itunes, apple, nano, wifi, wireless, touch, rumors, wow, social

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