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Mac Corner: Predictions and other stuff  

  
By Larry Grinnell, Palm Beach Phoenix Apple Users Group

larry grinnellThe huge Macworld Expo in San Francisco is coming up in a few weeks and it’s probably as good a time as any to speculate on what may be coming up this year from Apple.

iPad:

The second-generation iPad will probably be announced this summer at the World Wide Developer’s Conference, though some are saying as early as the upcoming Macworld Expo. New features? Your guess is as good as mine. Some sites are saying the iPad will finally get a USB port, expanding its functionality in many ways.

The Mac rumor sites are as good a source as any. Sites like Appleinsider.com, MacRumors.com, and some of the broader appeal sites like Engadget and Gizmodo publish delicious rumors about Apple products almost every day. I also like the venerable MacInTouch website for current news and views. MacInTouch also has a very active user forum that discusses problems and solutions for users of most Apple products.

There was an interesting thread on Macrumors.com about how users are letting their laptops gather dust while they use their iPad for more and more of those duties. Applications like Dropbox, iWork, iBook apps, and Hulu+ were cited as examples of apps that work great on an iPad and that perform well enough to substitute for bigger, more complicated apps on their desktops and laptops. The key phrase is “good enough.” Most users barely scratch the surface of their desktop/laptop applications, so a pared-down app for a touch pad device really is “good enough” for many.

iPhone:

The iPhone was just refreshed with IOS 4.2, so if a new phone is to be released this year, and there probably will be one, it will likely be later in the year rather than sooner.

The big rumor continues to be a new version of the iPhone for Verizon customers. It has been suggested that Apple wanted to wait until Verizon launched their new 4G services across much of the country, so as to avoid the bottlenecks suffered by long-suffering AT&T customers — especially in several major metropolitan areas, such as New York and San Francisco.

One rumor site predicts it will be announced this week. Apple’s exclusive contract with AT&T has expired, so there are no reasons other than engineering ones that dictate whether CDMA carriers like Verizon, Sprint, Virgin, etc. can offer the iPhone. If it does happen, count on an exclusive deal with Verizon for several years before other carriers are permitted to play. Remember, in the US, carriers (AT&T, Verizon, etc.) call all the shots. They and they alone determine what phones can be sold for their network and what features can be carried on those phones.

Desktops:

New Mac Pro desktop machines are unlikely, other than speed bumps as faster processors become available. Except for media professionals, there are few users of these power-packed behemoths, and for good reason: the 27 inch iMac with a Core i7 processor packs nearly as much punch as the big towers but for a whole lot less money. The Mac Pros are solid, profitable devices, but the sales have been falling off for some time, so I personally don’t see new ones coming any time soon.

The iMacs also recently received major speedbumps including the aforementioned optional Core i7 processor on the top-line 27 incher. The physical design hasn’t been refreshed in about a year, so some minor styling changes may be on the horizon for 2011. Personally, I don’t see anything major, but Apple has continued to surprise and amaze me for years, so again, who knows?

The Mac mini just received a major and welcome redesign, so other than speedbumps, I don’t see big changes ahead for the mini line.

Laptops:

The MacBook Air just received a radical redesign that surprised and amazed with what was left out, compared to previous models. Probably nothing new for a while.

The consumer MacBook line could be due for a facelift, as it has not received major design changes in about a year. Ditto the MacBook Pro line. Maybe something thinner and sleeker is in the pipeline, or maybe not.

Well, these are my predictions for Apple computing hardware for the coming year. It’s always fun to speculate and at year’s end, it’s always fun to laugh at ourselves for thinking we can outthink Steve Jobs and his band of merry product designers and engineers, when we find ourselves so completely wrong once again.

Oh, and if you get a chance, if you are as much of an Apple fanboy as I am, you have to attend at least one Macworld Expo. I am proud to say that I have attended four: two on the east coast in the 90s, and two in San Francisco, including the 2007 show where Steve Jobs announced the new iPhone. I was in the audience and like everyone else there, I was enthralled, and would have drunk the Kool-Aid, had it been offered.

I even briefly (but clearly) appeared in the documentary Macheads, where the roving cameras caught me at about the 5:00 and 6:00 minute points, as they were scanning the audience during Steve’s 2007 keynote address.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Readers are welcome to comment on this or any Mac Corner columns by visiting the Palm Beach Phoenix blog as well as by writing the editor of Palm Beach Business.com.

Mac Corner runs every Wednesday only in Palm Beach Business.com. Click to read the previous column.

About Larry Grinnell: Larry has been working with Macintosh and Windows PCs for over 25 years and worked as a senior technical writer and IT support professional for a major midwest-based consumer electronics and telecommunications equipment manufacturer here in South Florida. His musings on a wide variety of topics from computers to jazz guitar to strange foreign cars from the 1950s can be viewed at the MyMac.com website. Click here to reach him by email.

palm beach phoenix logoWriters of this column are members of the Palm Beach Phoenix Apple User Group, a nonprofit organization for Apple Computing Device Users, recognized by Apple Inc., with the purpose of providing educational training and coaching to its members (students, professionals and seniors alike) in a cordial social environment. The club meets the second Saturday (1-4 p.m.) and fourth Wednesday (6-8 p.m.) of each month at the Fire Station #2, 4301 Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach (just two block south of Southern Boulevard). Click here to visit their website. Click here to reach them by email.

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