Macworld is just over a month away and it seems a good time to comment on what I think we’ll see this year.
iWork ‘07 Given the naming scheme Apple has chosen we are all but guaranteed for a new release of iWork. Keynote is fairly mature at this point but I think we can expect new templates and possibly new builds. Pages should also receive some new templates and hopefully some fixes for things like object selection. There may be some additional features for each but I think we’ll see a spreadsheet app added to the bundle and integration with both Keynote and Pages will be the major changes to those apps. Will we also see a database front-end of some sort? It would be nice, and AppleWorks has one.
iLife ‘07 Again the naming scheme gives it away. I hope we’ll see some major improvements to iWeb but that may depend on how much demand Apple sees for the app. Garageband seems to be Steve’s baby so I won’t be surprised by improvements there. iMovie and iDVD seem fairly mature but possibly there will be something new to add. I expect iPhoto to get some additional editing capability. Most if not all of the apps will get some integration with iTV.
iTV It’s already been shown and I’m sure we’ll see it again. The only real surprise will be what the official name becomes. Expect integration with iLife ‘07 to be shown.
Leopard Preview It is possible that we’ll see a preview of Leopard if Steve doesn’t have a lot to cover. It will certainly not be released at Macworld.
iPhone Rumors abound about the iPhone, but what will it really be? Personally I’d rather see an iChat hardware device that is capable of storing and playing 2 to 4 gig of music. Something that would allow you to do regular text chat with a novel input mechanism (not a crummy cell keyboard) and when you are part of a WiFi network allows you to do both audio and video chat. Anyone who has seen a new Mac knows how small the iSight camera is. I think a thumb keyboard could be possible but why not utilize Ink and some sort of gestures implementation? Maybe it will be more traditional cell phone but I don’t see how Apple is going to make a splash with such a device. I really think they will try to tie it to an existing brand.
Core 2 Duo mini The mini is the only Mac that isn’t using the Core 2 Duo chip so it seems like a bump is in order. This will possibly coincide with the release of a smaller LCD.
New and Rotatable LCDs There are rumors about a 17″ LCD and I see no reason to doubt those. These new displays may also be 100dpi. I’d also love to see the stands modified such that the screens can be rotated. You may have noticed in Display preferences that the screens support rotation. Unlikely? Yes, but not as unlikely as my next offering…
New input device Apple will give us some sort of keyboard replacement that allows us to Ink as well as “type”. This will finally begin the journey away from the clunky keyboard we’ve be saddled with since the dawn of the personal computer age.
December 1, 2006 at 5:09 pm
Why do you think there is a need to move away from the clunky keyboard? I don’t see the value to most non-professional mac users. Is there a deficiency you see in Wacom and similar tablets? Or do you just prefer writing to typing? I find that even with my hunt/peck typing skills, I’m still faster at typing than writing, and my hands get less fatigued. I use keyboard shortcuts to gain efficiency over point/click in the one semi-pro app I own (FCE HD), so I don’t see where Ink gestures would help there. Thoughts?
I really like your idea of an iChat device instead of an iPhone that would essentially mimic the phones already out that have iTunes integration. Though a smart phone/pda would be cool to see.
Nice article.
December 2, 2006 at 2:28 pm
I don’t really expect the keyboard replacement but I do believe that if anyone is going to bring us a better way to interact with the computer it will be Apple. The QWERTY keyboard was designed specifically to slow down typing speed. Granted I’m not a touch typer so that doesn’t really matter to me and the DVORAK keyboard already exists. Still the keyboard is fairly archaic and doesn’t lend itself easily to two hand input along with the mouse. A chording keyboard where one hand keyed and the other pointed might be more efficient. Those exist too of course. The challenge is that whatever replaces our current input mechanisms needs to be fairly easy to get the hang of. Apple is great at taking a complex concept and making it easy for people. For the time being I’d actually be happy with their excellent laptop keyboard packaged in an external, bluetooth-enabled case.