There’s Something in the Air
The interwebs are all atwitter with news of a big MacWorld banner spotted at the Moscone Center. It says “There’s Something in the Air”. Let the speculation begin.
My guess:
Internal 3G cards on MacBook Pro laptops (and maybe MacBooks). Of course, these will be HSDPA chips for the AT&T network.
If there is a media tablet (iNewton) or a subnotebook, the internal 3G will also be a big part.
There might be an announcement of a 3G iPhone, but I seriously doubt it. If there is, I may return my Blackberry Curve (but then again, I might not since I love this keyboard).
(No points for knowing about the movie rentals in iTunes ahead of time)
Update: Techmeme discussion where others are starting to say it will be WiMax. I am a fan of WiMax, but I don’t think this will happen. There is no way Apple would roll this out unless they were absolutely sure that Sprint was going to be able to get the WiMax network in the US off the ground. I am banking on HSDPA. My second choice would be LTE over WiMax.
A macbook (pro) with an internal 3G card? I have to say, that would be pretty radical. I wonder if my AT&T data plan for my phone would get me 3G access via the MBP? I really hope you’re right. Either way, I’m sure whatever they announce is going to be pretty cool.
My guesses:
Update to the apple tv probably with a tv tuner.
New big tvs with apple tv built in.
Update to the displays that will make them more competitive with other manufacturers.
One more thing?
Everything has a touch interface. MacBooks, Pros, iMac. All of it.
An internal 3G card would not be very radical. Quite a few high end PC laptops are shipping with internal 3G cards. It is one of the few ways Apple is falling behind on their notebooks. I am thinking the odds of internal 3G cards in MBP is 90%.
As for will it work with your existing AT&T data plan, my guess is “no”. However, AT&T just changed the wording in the contracts of their data plans to put soft limits on the “unlimited” plans. This could be in preparation of some sort of arrangement where if your data plan is attached to an iPhone then you can use your computer as well (or maybe as an additional line for $10/mo). I am a lot less sure on that one though.
Wireless sync (and maybe wireless charging) for iPod touch, iPhone and the new thin MacBook (MacBook Air?).
Support for wireless Time Machine back-up to hard drives attached to Airport Extreme routers.
I am really looking forward to wireless Time Machine. I bought an Airport Extreme router last month and 1TB drives are under $300. I put a 250GB drive in my MBP and would like to backup all the macs to one physical drives (though I would imagine I would have to partition it).
@Jackson
Just to clarify, when I said “radical”, I meant that it would be pretty cool. I didn’t mean it literally. It’s just some of my old skateboarder slang.
Also, I must say that I was pretty disappointed with the actual macbook air announcement.
Did you ever get the time machine?