360Mac.com

Following on from my WWDC 2008 Predictions Part Two - OSX 10.6 , lets look at the rumors around the refresh of the .Mac service.

.Mac refresh announcement - 50%

On the surface, any announcement about some trivial upgrade to the .Mac service would seem out of place at WWDC08. The rumors of a name change involving Apples recent acquisition of me.com - possibly point to something bigger to me.

Extending .Mac to Windows computers? Oh Yes Please! Even just for sharing Safari bookmarks.

Extending .Mac functionality to iPhones - seems obvious doesn’t it?

Making .Mac FREE and available to all Mac users in a “Beta” form (ala Bootcamp in Tiger) - this make more sense than anything to me regarding the “next step” for .Mac

(A “test” of .Mac for all could then form the basis for OSX 10.6)

FREE .Mac - 95%

Why make .Mac free? Sure it doesn’t have a huge take up with users - but I have seen figures somewhere it turns over $100 million in sales - a nice cherry on top for sure.

But make it free-for-all, and suddenly the opportunities for developers to create some really interesting “cloud based” stuff really opens up.

.Mac is the “cloud” that Apple has neglected for years. Let it go free and let developers and customers turn it into something awesome for Mac 2.0.

As for existing customers - like myself. Credit us @ the iTunes store and I’ll be happy. I’ll just be happy to see .Mac developed more.

Tags: Apple, Predictions, WWDC, iPhone by Michael Quinn
1 Comment »

Following on from my WWDC 2008 Predictions Part One - iPhone, lets look at the Mac OS - OSX.

OSX 10.6 Announced - 70%

Apple has updated OSX 10 on a regular basis since it was released. A fact they were pretty proud of - comparing 5 updates to OSX since the release of Windows XP. Give or take, it’s been about every 18 months between major updates.

Its now 8 months since the release of OSX 10.5 Leopard in October 2007.

Given they seem to like about 6 months of testing and build up for most releases - the time is kinda NOW to at least announce it. If not at the WWDC - then when? MacWorld 09 in another 6-7 months?

With the focus definitely on 3G iPhones and other possible announcements, 10.6 might be buried this week. But the timing shouldn’t be seen as “early” if they do. Perhaps 10.6 will have even more integration with the iPhone and other lifestyle / business options.

OSX 10.6 - No New Features? 0%

Would find it very hard to believe that OSX 10.6 would just be a “stability” upgrade. Sounds too much like a Service Pack 1 to me. Very Microsoft-ish.

It might not have the “300+ New Features” that 10.5 Leopard had, but it won’t be a glorified Point upgrade either.

OSX 10.6 Intel Macs Only - 65%

Apple have been switching to Intel based chips for over 2 years now. Sooner or later they will leave behind the old Power PC architecture. I’m not sure how long OS9 lasted once OSX was released - but it was 2-3 years.

If they DID support Power PC chips in 10.6, that would mean by the time it was released, and the life of the OS, they are likely to be supporting machines that are 5-6 years old at the end of it.

It seems a bit early - but long term I think its a great idea. Leopard is a great OSX to leave for older machines, but going forward I think intel only is the way to go.

Many programs are already specifying intel only machines.

10.6 Name - Snow Leopard - 90%

It’s as good as any.

Tags: Apple, OSX, Predictions, WWDC by Michael Quinn
1 Comment »

The Apple World Wide Developers Conference - WWDC08 - is barely days away from kicking off. Everyone is expecting some Pretty Big Things to be announced - 3G iPhones, OSX 10.6, new .Mac service, new MacBooks, iPhone Nano and lots more.

Rather than one big post, I’ll break up my thoughts on what I expect /hope to see. Let’s start with the iPhone.

iPhone 3G - 100%

Yes the 3G iPhone will be announced. There has been too many phone carriers around the world announcing plans to offer the iPhone “soon” for it not to be announced. There has been no “leak” or “rumor” from Apple to throw cold water on peoples expectations - nothing to say that it’s been delayed till the end of the year.

Availability might be another thing. I’d say it’s 50-50 as to the 3G iPhone being available as of the announcement on Monday, or available “in a few weeks - or even a few months” as the original iPhone was. I doubt the release would be more than 2 months away, and of course I’d love to see it available internationally as of this week.

Not to mention the hundreds of millions of dollars of FREE press and hype Apple got with the extended introduction last time.

iPhone 2.0 - 100%

Separate to the 3G iPhone being announced will be the upgrading of the software for all iPhones to version 2.0. This was announced back in February 08, but I expect a big deal will be made of the applications that people have already made with the SDK.

(The Software Developers Kit - SDK, and the new Apps Store, allows anyone to write and distribute application for the iPhone, rather than just Apple as it has been for the first 12 months of iPhone)

Expect to see Steve Jobs introducing some big name companies who have written apps for the iPhone covering games, enterprise, productivity etc.

GPS on 3G iPhone? - 90%

If they can keep the size and the battery life - then GPS should be included with the 3G iPhone.

Better camera? 95%

The chipset that Apple are supposedly including with the 3G iPhone supports a 5 Megapixel camera. As one of the disappointing “includes” with the original iPhone - I think upgrading it to what is basically the standard for decent phone cameras now, is a done deal.

Triple Band - Quad Band - 95%

The 3G iPhone has to be capable of working in all of the markets that it has been “unofficially announced” for. Plus too many travel now between countries and wont accept a phone that doesn’t go with them.

With all the effort Apple have put into iPhone 2.0 for getting it to work with enterprise - especially Microsoft Exchange, it only makes sense to make the 3G iPhone global as best they can.

Nano iPhone / Alternate Models - 10%

I don’t think Apple will release more than one model of iPhone. I’m 90% sure we will see a new model before Christmas, but Apple won’t want to take away from the 3G iPhone / 2.0 announcement itself.

A Premium 3G model will lead the way in sales and revenue before offering more models in September with a iPod refresh.

Plastic Back / Colors - 10% / 75%

I really hope Apple don’t give up the Aluminum back for a plastic thing. The mockups “leaked” onto the web look cheap and nasty - I just don’t like plastic. Given the noise they have made by converting a few million computers from plastic to Aluminum, I don’t see them replacing that with an iPhone they will sell 10 times the amount of.

I really DO hope we see a couple of colors. A Product (RED) iPhone would be awesome (perhaps Orange?). As long as its not the wusy bland pastels of the current Nano iPods.

Tags: Apple, Predictions, WWDC, iPhone by Michael Quinn
1 Comment »

Just a quick note to say I’m back writing for 360Mac again. Got off to a great start last year, but it got ignored and put on the back burner. Probably tried to do too many things at once and ended up doing none of them well.

Just finished a quick redesign of the site. I liked the old design when I first picked it, but coming back to it later I really didn’t like the white text on black background. I don’t know any site that pulls that off. The theme is based on the one I used at Down Under Geek - another site that was set up and ignore (should be back into that one soon too).

I fiddled around with the colors a bit to make 360Mac a bit different. I picked the OrangeRed for the header - I’m a bit of a fan of Orange lately. No idea why. I’m either 15 years too late or 3 years too early for it. Messed about with some variations and this is what we ended up with. I didn’t want to spend 6 months perfecting the CSS for it - just wanted to get going writing again.

So here we are - Another Apple Weblog - except this Apple is Orange…

Tags: Blog, Geek by Michael Quinn
No Comments »