macworldmagazine Alright so Macworld is just around the corner already and there's been a lot of speculation as to what will be announced.  Last year we got the first preview of the iPhone, will there be anything big like that this year?  It's difficult to say.  Most enthusiasts are sure that a new ultra-portable laptop will be debuted - something smaller than the Macbooks running a flash based hard drive and no optical disc drive in order to save space.  It seems that Apple would offer an external drive to remedy this problem.  Whether it' will be touch enabled (perhaps the Mac Touch?) or will have a keyboard is hard to say.  I'm personally interested in a nice tablet sized machine a little smaller than the current Macbook's screen with no keyboard that is completely touch controlled.  At the same time it seems like Apple has done a lot with their touch technology lately and I'm not sure if they'd want to expand the line so quickly.  Obviously releasing something like this would eventually cut into sales of the iPhone and the iPod Touch, not to mention move focus away from their best selling laptop so far in the Macbook.

Other users assume that we'll finally see an upgrade to the iPhone with 3G capability and (hopefully) larger storage sizes.  The same goes for the iPod Touch (minus the 3G).  Software updates are probably negligible...iWork and iLife have both been updated recently so I wouldn't expect anything new there.  The bulk of the focus is around this new ultra-portable that is supposed to be announced.  For a long time Apple (read Steve Jobs) has been against tablet PC's but maybe with the touch screen interface it might just happen.  I don't know how interested in it I would be because it is assumed that the main pull for a device like that would be that it could easily interface with other Apple products (iPods, Macs, and so on) and if I bought one it would be to replace or supplement the Macbook that I currently own.  It's basically just a wait and see game.  I would love for Apple to enhance the iPod Touch with a larger capacity though and maybe see some products get price drops but other than that I'm not sure about the event.  It's hard to top last year's iPhone announcement (which was arguably the tech story of the year, completely eclipsing CES at the time). 

ultraportablemacbook As far as concrete predictions I'd say to expect a new small laptop.  Not necessarily an ultra-portable addition, but at least an update to the look and feel of the Macbook.  I only say that because it makes sense - the Macbook is one of the longest running products Apple has left unchanged so it's due for an upgrade.  Whether the Macbook becomes the ultra-portable everyone is buzzing about is another thing completely.  I don't think Apple would want to add an additional laptop product to their line (Steve Jobs likes to have only 1 or 2 products to serve every need instead of having 15 different skews of laptops and so on).  For that reason I think it will either be one or the other - either the current Macbook will become the ultra-portable and that will represent the small scale of their product line or the Macbook will just be made a bit smaller and given a new look and that will be Apple's new laptop product.  Other than that there will be the usual price drops and product feature enhancements that most Apple events see.  Capacities will increase, batteries will last longer, and prices will drop.  Beyond that who knows.

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