Apple hints at what's to come with message on New Year's Day
| by Joe Leo, Columnist | January 2, 2007 |
NEWS: (1.02.07)-- Will 2007 really be the year of the Mac? Never mind what the business analysts have to say. The Mac-makers themselves say it's going to be so, with their website's home page recently sporting a splash page that has the Apple logo shining on a horizon, and the tagline, "The first 30 years were just the beginning..."
"Welcome to 2007." [For a screenshot of the Apple home page, in case it changes, click here]
PBCentral.com came across this news via the Apple rumor mill, MacRumors.com (this columnist has their Apple website page linked to the start page, which is different from Apple's main home page) who reported yesterday that Cupertino had a New Year's greeting for all.
But they label it more as a "teaser," stating, "The last time Apple posted pre-Macworld teasers was in 2002." Which readers can infer by way of MacRumors.com's posting, that 2002 was the last time Apple made really big announcements that affected the Mac world as we know it.
Such as the farewell to the original iMac and OS 9, and thinking different with the new iMac G4 LCD, thinking bigger with the "son of Pismo" 14-inch iBook (called son of Pismo due to its relative size to the last model of G3-chipped PowerBook that was made, code-named "Pismo"), and...?
Farewell to Sherlock and hello to Spotlight, dropping Mac OS 9 in favor of the perfect ten, Mac OS X, that is, which would become the preferred and only available operating system that would come native on all Macs-- and has been the OS that all Mac users have come to get to know and love for the past five years since then.
(Though the Spotlight search function wouldn't debut until years later with Tiger. And OS 9 is still available in "Classic" mode for users of PowerPC-based machines).
So what's in store for 2007? Will similar heart stopping, ground breaking, history making, earth shaking announcements be made this year that rivals 2002? Only time will tell, and it's only a week away from today. But for those who can't wait...
Here's what various sources all around the web are predicting will be seen next Tuesday:
- Mac OS X, v 10.5 (The other features of the new Mac OS that haven't yet been seen)
- the "iTV" (more details on this new device, what it's final name and design will be)
- the "iPhone" (whether or not it's really true, and like the "iTV" more details on device)
- 8-core Mac Pro (the ultimate desktop Mac... how much more can they cram in there?)
- the "real" video-capable iPod (widescreen with virtual touch screen and bigger HD?)
- new Apple displays (sporting new features like built-in iSight, and a new 15" model)
- 12" MacBook Pro (same as 15" and 17" siblings, but will be lighter and thinner)
It's no coincidence that MacRumors.com also has most of this info on their website, and their article can be found here. (This rumor info is widely available all over the web from different sources, this site now included). Surprisingly, they make no mention of the 12" MacBook Pro in that article, but did mention it on their website during the first week of December.
The one question that everyone should be asking--and has been asked, but not by all--is, whether or not Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, will be making that Keynote address on the 9th, due to the recent stock options scandal which broke last week.
It seems that the word around the mill is people are keeping their options open on that one.
PBCentral.com will have the news for you, as it breaks--our intention and hope!--next Tuesday, January 9th, straight from Macworld in San Francisco, where rumors will become fact, and other rumors dismissed as just that. Steve or no Steve. (Steve Jobs that is, not our editor-in-chief).
Note: The Press Box intends to focus on that story as priority one, the possible debut of a 12" MacBook Pro, should that rumor become fact next week, since PBCentral.com is, "Your Mac Notebook Resource" and whenever possible, news stories centered around Mac notebooks is the main focus of this site.
(Also, if you didn't catch it, find our humorous start to the new year, in this feature from the first of the year, "Three Big Mac Stories You Missed in 2006")