Steve Jobs today unveiled the long-awaited Apple iPhone, available in June for $499 (4GB) and $599 (8GB). It will run a stripped-down version of OS X, and service will be provided by Cingular (in the US).

It will have “desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching,” according to Jobs. Of course it has all the capabilities of an iPod, most notably widescreen video for TV shows and movies.
Features:

• 3.5″ Widescreen touch-sensitive display
• 11.6 mm thin
• 2 megapixel camera
• proximity sensor, accelerometer, and ambient light sensors
• GSM/EDGE
• WiFI
• Bluetooth
• Battery Life: 16 hours audio, 5 hour

While clearly labeled a concept, the phone device looks about right for the intersection of Apple design, rumored features, and the rumored ~$500 price tag. Continue reading »

Someone I know who works in [Apple] shipping said they recieved a high number of shipments, more then the usual amount, of apple products. But they weren’t allowed to open the boxes at all to count the number of products in their to be sure none were missing.

… from a forum post at insanelymac.com

Of course the most important question — what is it? — remains unanswered.

Other things MacWorld:

• The AV kit Jobs will use tomorrow for his keynote [video]
• List of live MacWorld coverage sites
  
• MacWorld 2007 predictions thread [AppleSwitcher forum]

After a four-year hiatus, Mac users (whose Macs have Intel chips) will sometime in 2007 be able to buy Adobe’s video editing application Premiere.

Adobe will announce on Thursday that it will revive a Mac version of Premiere, the software maker’s video program aimed at professional editors. The new Mac version will only run on Intel-based Macs and will be part of a larger Adobe Production Studio suite that will include Adobe Encore DVD and Adobe Soundbooth.

The move may have been sparked by the Mac’s increasing market share, but was almost certainly a cause of Apple’s use of Intel chips, which makes porting applications from Windows to Mac easier for developers.

Don’t expect to find many similarities with the old Mac version of Premiere. “They both have wheels and body frame, but that as far as the similarities go. This is a completely different animal, except for the name,” Hayhurst said. “The team has done an outstanding job.”

Thank goodness for that. Premiere was a tough nut to crack back in its late-1990s verions, with somewhat non-intuitive controls, and it took Apple to show the way to simple moviemaking with iMovie.

With less than a week until Steve Jobs takes the stage for a longer-than-usual 2 hour keynote speech at MacWorld 2007, rumors of new Apple products are in full banshee wail. As AppleSwitcher’s very own Fred N. remarked, even Apple seems to be hinting this MacWorld will be on par with the biggest MacWorlds in recent years.

iPhone? This would be the biggest announcement of any. The market for an iPod that takes calls is estimated to be massive. If it’s done right. Big if, but of all companies that can do it, Apple’s most likely to.

iTV? Also very big, if it were to occur, would be Apple’s full entry into the living room. The device would merge the PC with the television with the stereo with the movie and music collection with the iTunes Store. Not a small job that.
(Google search results for “iphone rumors” vs. “itv rumors” are currently running 4.5:1)

Neither? Something else? The iPhone rumor has been echoing through these halls for over 2 years, and every time it’s next year.

Certainly OS X 10.5 “Leopard” demonstrations will be in order, as will the usual announcements of upgrades to Apple products like the iLife family, iWork family, .Mac service, and Apple’s not-insubstantial line of professional creative software titles like Aperture and Final Cut. Mac Minis and Mac Pro lines stand to see a processor upgrade also.

In a way, Apple doesn’t have to release a thing this MacWorld because the massive attention from all the product release speculation (this very post, natch) and publicity will surely sell more iPods and Macs as is. But that’s part of the fun of early January every year — Apple raises the bar for itself, Jobs puts himself on the spot, and we see if he can possibly rise above it and top the speculation.