Soup of the Day

One more thing…

So it is time once again to turn all of our attention away from the ills of this world and focus intently on events that are about to un-ravel in San Francisco today at WWDC ‘06. At 10am PST (6pm BST) Steve Jobs will take the stage and talk about a number of new products that are or will be released by Apple within six to eight months.

One thing we do know he will talk about is the new version of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. However, what new features the next incarnation of OS X will have been a tightly kept secret, until today. Many rumours on the web talk of VoIP capabilities of iChat, Virtualisation Technology, better 64-bit utilisation, better Spotlight search integration, and so on… To be honest, I doubt many people know what Apple have up their sleeves this time round as this has been the quietest run into a new OS that Apple has had in recent years. No doubt Apple’s closed attitude is in response to the fact that Microsoft are about to release their new OS, Windows Vista. Microsoft are known for stealing good ideas, so to keep the edge Apple are not giving anything away.

Outside of software, Apple are expected to announce that their transition to Intel is complete with the launch of the Mac Pro (replaces the Power Mac G5) and the new Xserve. Which Intel processor is powering the Mac Pro is a matter for debate, but it will certainly be at least dual-core and 64-bit. There have also been rumours that new displays will also be announced, but as the enclosure for the new Mac Pro is apparently not all that difference from the current G5’s it wouldn’t be too bad for Apple is they didn’t - a price drop would be well received though.

I think that is probably pretty much all Apple will announce today, as this is a developers event and both the above products would be of interest to the development community. However Apple are know to pull surprises out of the hat and here are some of the other rumours of what we’ll see later today.

• New iPod Nano
  There have been a lot of rumours that a new iPod Nano, with new enclosure, is ready for release. This is support by Apple’s hording of NAND Flash Memory modules that support the iPod Nano. Although this may be ready for imminent release, is WWDC really the place for such an announcement?
• New iPod Phone
  Since Apple recently dropped the hint at their recent financial report question and answer session that they are looking at a phone-like device, rumours (and images) have sprung up all over the internet. I imagine it is highly likely that an iPod/Newton/iPhone device will surface soon, giving SonyEricsson’s success with their Walkman Phones. But is it too soon and the wrong occasion for such a release? Most likely!
• iTunes Movie Rental and vPod
  Apple finally settled on a deal with Hollywood to rent movies rather than sell them, much to the disappointment of many. But we still need a device to play these movies on, and the current iPod with video are not going to cut it. I predict we have more to see on this, but again, WWDC is not the venue.
• New processors and speed bumps for existing Intel powered Mac’s
  As Intel recently release their new Xeon and Core 2 Duo (one for desktop and one mobile) processors, it is possible that Apple will speed-bump the existing Mac Book, Mac Book Pro, Mac Mini and iMac lines. This is highly likely, although I would predict that people should look for it in the next few weeks.

But in the true ‘and one more thing…’ tradition of Apple, anything can happen at these events and I am by no means an expert, or have any insider knowledge. I am just going on previous experience.