Tech For Life

There has been a lot of talk on the net about whether Steve Jobs will announce an updated iPhone during his keynote speech tomorrow. Hell, there has been a lot of talk on the net about whether he will announce everything from a touch screen macbook, to a new iMac, to his own brand of washing powder…ok maybe not the washing powder, but you get the idea. Macworld is always like this, it’s a crazy, frantic, rumour-a-go-go!

I for one do not think that Mr Jobs is going to be announcing an updated iPhone. It’s too soon! What will all those punters think that bought one of the sleek multi-functional beauties in the last six months think of Apple then? OK it has it’s faults, especially for those of us in the UK (Four letters…E.D.G.E….), but to expect a new improved version right now is, I think a mistake. It would alienate exactly the crowd that Steve and co are wooing - the early adopters, and the cool kids.

As to the other rumours, I am not sure about the touchscreen Macbook. If you say it quick it sounds like a great idea, but if you stop to think about it, maybe not so. Firstly, how much would it cost? Especially if it’s a ‘multitouch’ screen like on the iphone. I think this could easily bump the Macbook up well out of the range of competing laptops, and the touchscreen wouldn’t add enough functionality to allow it to compete amongst higher powered machines. More likely might be the addition of a touchscreen option on the MB Pro. If it’s an option you don’t have to have it, and percentage wise, it wont add so much to an MB Pro. I don’t know, the whole idea is still a bit odd to me.

Much more likely, especially given the recently rumoured/released information on patents submitted by Apple recently, is a new baby laptop. Since the 12″ powerbook was abandoned when the first gen of Intel Macs appearedthere hasn’t been a reall tiny Mac. Sure the Macbook isn’t exactly huge, but at 13.3″ it isn’t tiny either. There was something about that little 12″ square screen that gave the old powerbook a real ‘road warrior’ feel to it. Of course square screens are completely out of fashion now, and I am not convinced how useful a 12″ widescreen would be (I would go blind trying to squint at it!), but I think this is a far more likely option than either of the rumours mentioned above.

One thing I have just noticed is that the tagline for this Macworld seems to be “There’s Something In The Air” which might point at some kind of Airtouch revamp? Other commenters are think it may be hinting at adding 3g to the iPhone - as stated above I am not convinced on that one.

At the end of the day, one thing is for sure, Mr Jobs very rarely disappoints during his Keynotes. The one phrase that I, and millions of other Mac fans around the world are of course witing for is….

“Oh…just one more thing…”