The Cult of the Cool Mac: Made with 100% USDA real meat!

Making predictions about the Macworld keynote is a time-honored tradition and I'd like to put my money down now on the top 5 announcements:

1. The sure bet: If you aren't in the educational channels - or willing to pay a hefty premium - you'll be stuck running OS X-only on any new Mac.

2. Powerbooks with built-in Bluetooth are a no-brainer. If Apple doesn't spill with this after 18 months of talking about it, they're going to lose whatever cred is left to them after the dot-Mac and OS X upgrade debacles.

3. The surprise announcement for Macworld will be a physical change to the TiBook line. It has been 2 years since the TiBook was introduced and the design is starting to look too familiar. Apple just bumped the speed on these babies, so don't expect another speed boost soon. The rumors about this go back at least a year... how about colors?

3. While we're talking portables, isn't it time to put a G4 into the iBooks? Sure, there'll be less motivation to buy a TiBook, but G3 CPUs just don't cut it under OS X. Apple will save the SuperDrive and the top video hardware for the TiBook and drop a low-power G4 into the iBook.

4. The rumor sites have been buzzing about a new multimedia device or touch-screen computer, but I'm going to be conservative and suggest that Apple is due to make a major change to the iPod line instead of releasing a brand new consumer device. An iPod that interfaces with your stereo, computer and cell-phone by Bluetooth would be lots of fun!

5. Finally, even though the desktop G4 is in desperate need of a speed-boost, Apple will try to hide the fact that they can't get faster CPUs right now by promoting Mac OS X 10.3 and updates to the iApps.

Comments? Rants? Do you agree with my predictions? Click on the "Comments" link below!

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