In its more than 20 years of existence, MacWorld Expo has always been held during the first weeks of January. Next year isn't any different to the previous conferences. One highlight of such activities are the keynote speeches, especially that of Steve Jobs. Probably the most celebrated of all Apple officials, Jobs words are sometimes as good as their company's stand on particular matters.

Again, next year shouldn't be any different as Steve Jobs would be present at the expo. The big question now is, what is he going to talk about? The last thing we heard from the guy was something about looking back and beyond the iPod...Or was it the CNBC interview? We can't remember anymore.

Anyway, some people are not willing to wait until January to find out. They would rather confer now and speculate on these matters. Nope, they are not spreading rumors. They. Are. Just. Talking. Since we don't want you guys waiting or getting left behind, here's their take on the matter:

• Steve will definitely talk about: OS X Leopard, iLife 07, and iTV
• Steve will probably talk about: MacPro revisions, revised cinema displays, MacMini revision, iPhone and full screen iPod
• Steve will possibly but not likely talk about: Apple Tablet and MacBook Sub Notebook

What do you think? Do you share the same opinions? Please feel free and share your own MacWorld opinions with us. Remember: we are just talking.

Financial analyst company American Technology Research (ATR) says Apple is right for the picking if your shopping for stocks. Historically, the company's value skyrockets after its annual MacWorld Expo held at the start of the year. But ATR thinks the ship will launch even before.

According to ATR, Apple's stocks will continue to float thanks to the Mac and iPod record-setting sales during the September Quarter which is predicted to continue into the holiday shopping season. Included in Apples catalog of winners for the next quarter are the MacBook notebooks and the new MacBook Pro running on Intel's Core 2 Duo processors.

Fifth-generation iPod video sales aren't slacking off, either. Apple's aggressive pricing, improved battery life, higher video resolution, movie content and video games are some of the factors that continue to fuel the iCraze. "We believe improved video battery life, higher video resolution, movie content, and video games are helping drive sales," ATR said. "Nanos continue to rebound helped by lower price points, 24-hour battery life, multiple colors, and scratch-resistant casing."

Then there's the new entry-level iPod shuffle. The $79 iBargain could be the top selling iPod this quarter says ATR. All in all ATR forecasts Apple's last quarter fortune to be around US$6.1 billion in revenues from the estimated sales of14 million iPods and 1.8 million Macs.

What happens after year 2006? ATR says Apple will continue to be a crunchy investment with the launch of its Mac OS X Leopard, iTV, movie content partners beyond Disney, new iPod features including widescreen and wireless Bluetooth capability, and cell phones.

We really won't want to bother you with a lot of technical stuff concerning the 2.33GHz MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo latest update, but we thought you might want to know some of the highlights of the update. Thanks to bcavanau, we learned that there have been lots of improvements that'll make a lot of MacBook Pro users happy.

Apple made sure that it was still consistent with the old  model though, with some features hardly changed such as the case (except that it comes with a new FW800 Port) and with far less noise. Here's a quick rundown of stuff you may find in the upgrade:

• Hard drive (120GB) is Fujitsu MHW2120BH
• DVD Drive (6X-DVD-DL) is Matshita UJ-857D
• Airport reception seems to be consistent with previous model
• ATI X1600 Core clock is 418.50 and Memory clock is 450.00
• Screenshots of the About Window and the Hardware Overview in Mac OS X

The Atheros AR5008 802.11n chipset runs up to 650% faster and five times farther than 802.11g. This is a draft 802.11n wireless card found in the MacBook Pro. Other users found a different draft in the iMacs, which means Apple may intend to use another faster wireless card for the upcoming iTV. If this is likely, then we're going to be hearing from Apple soon enough, so keep reading for more news.

Apple rumor mills are all abuzz with rabid reports of Apple coming out with an "ultra-portable" (or UMPC) Mac some time next year, according to a recent T3 story. The common guess is that it would be a tablet-styled Mac, with a cut-down Mac OS X running off flash memory. A "Mac Shuffle," maybe?

Could it be? We at QJ conduct our own line of speculation. We have a couple of touch-input patents from Cupertino - touchscreens are a core technology of tablet, pocket, and other UMPCs. We have this patent of a "multufunctional device" from them, too. We have that irascible technical evangelist Robert Scoble hinting at an Apple Tablet PC- although interpreting his hints tends to be even harder than interpreting Apple's patent applications.

On the other hand, the big news of the Mac Expo has been the iTV and the new iTunes. Now this isn't to say that all of Apple is focused on getting iTV to market next year. There could be more tricks left up Apple's sleeve that it has yet to lay down. Speculation over a tablet or pocket Mac have been rife for quite some time, however - T3 had a story as early as June about it, and we had one back in April - and it still would be nice to actually have a bit of insider information, though.

So how about it? A Mac-More-Than-Mini? A MacTablet? The PocketMac? It would be an interesting addition to the current Mac lineup. But nothing hard or firm out there yet to confirm this.

Since its announcement, Apple fanatics - and video enthusiasts in general - have been entranced by what Apple is currently calling its iTV video extender. Speculations,  rumors, and various what-have-yous have surrounded this little doodad, mostly regarding its technical and hardware aspects. We've also done our part in bringing these speculations and rumors into the light (who hasn't, really?) and now, just for some balance, we'll be taking a look at an opinion/analysis piece that deals with Apple's business strategy for the home entertainment market.

On his PBS blog, Robert X. Cringely has written a piece that seeks to cast some light into Apple's strategy for the iTV. He touches on topics such as the lack of a Blu-Ray player bundled with Apple computers and that little USB port on the back of each iTV box ("It's not for a USB hard drive, that's for sure"). Wanna know what he reckons it's for? An Apple iSight camera. This is why Cringely dubs Apple's strategy, "iChat on steroids."

Says Cringely:

"This is the heart of Apple's emerging communication strategy. I was tempted to write "voice-over-IP strategy," except that wouldn't have been correct. For Jobs, this particular road less traveled is about video conferencing, not voice. VoIP is not grand enough, not experiential. If eBay can dominate it, Apple doesn't want to be a part of it, and won't be. Jobs will be much happier enabling a smaller audience to do multi-person chats on their HDTVs."

Cringely doesn't only talk about the iTV. He also throws in a little Leopard into the mix: "All of this comes together with Leopard, the next version of OS X, which will ship in January. iChat, which started back in 2003 as a simple real-time chat client to keep Macs from being frozen completely out of AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), has grown a lot since then. iChat now has H.264 video support, and with Leopard it will integrate all the iLife (iPhoto, iCal, iMovie, etc.) functions into a system that can support remote users. So you'll not only be able to see and talk with Grandma, you'll be able to show her pictures and home movies. If Grandma's a corporate executive, you can show her a marketing presentation, too."

Check out the piece. The man has put quite a lot of thought into the topic and puts forth some very good ideas. If you're interested, click on the 'read' link below for the full article.

Apple's upcoming iTV device has a hard drive. This is what Disney CEO Bob Iger revealed during a Goldman Sachs conference where he announced first-week sales of Disney movies through iTunes.

According to Iger, the device "can also stream it live through the box to the TV or it has a small hard drive on it so they can download what you put on the device on your computer, on your iTunes, through the television set."

Iger was able to see the device in action and said that the iTV "plugs into the television like any other peripheral would... It's wireless. It detects the presence of computers in your home; in a very simple way you designate the computer you want to feed it and it wirelessly feeds whatever you downloaded on iTunes... to your television set."

The hard drive feature has been something that many assumed would be missing from the iTV. In addition, Iger also revealed that at this point, the iTV's playback quality is currently at DVD and not HD level, but that's something that we expect to change in the near future. We'll be sure to keep our eyes peeled for more news about the iTV so stay posted.

So far it's still a rumor - neither Apple nor Google is confirming anything. But a report in Newsweek suggests that the quintessential search engine company will offer content through the newest product of the quintessential high-tech company. Given that the iTV will communicate wirelessly with a Mac CPU, and that it has a port for an Ethernet connection, chances are it will be the TV's gateway to the Internet - or at least the content in the Internet.

Like Google Video. Maybe. Google's saying that they're in talks with Apple, but they're not saying what they're talking about. Cupertino's not saying anything at all. We have no comment, either.

The iTV was the big, pleasant surprise Steve Jobs had for the world at the San Francisco event only a few days before. With the opening of iTunes' movie section and the unveiling of the newest video-capable iPod, it should pretty much be game, set and match for Apple this coming 2007, wouldn't it?

Every hero still has its critics, every whiz kid his detractors. A member of Read/Write Web expressed his doubts about the potential success of iTV, especially in relation to the core business model it is trying to emulate, the iPod-iTunes dominance of the downloaded music market. He received a boatload of his own critics in return (as well as a few who agreed with him), both in Read/Write and in Digg - everyone really is a critic.

We're not going to count iTV out yet, whether the analysis comes from an amateur pundit or a professional critic - and that's only because we just want to see the device launched before making any judgements. Regardless of how amateur his views on iTV were, however, the Read/Write doubter, as well as vocal commenters, raised significant points that may decide whether iTV can become the unqualified success that the iPod is in its niche, or if Apple will face an uphill battle in selling the living room Mac box.

It may go back to two things: home entertainment integration and Fortress iTunes (now with feature-length movies). The advantage to iTV is that it will hook up the TV to whatever Mac PC is in the household, and to the Internet as well, as a sort of home entertainment AirPort. It does face competition in this niche, as pointed out before by a New York Times writer. Microsoft is trying to pull off the same thing with its next Media Player, as are other third parties.

That's where iTunes comes in. The Living Room Mac could be the gateway to online-based video on demand. Looking past the analysis of the source article for this, and its reply comments, how well iTunes movies does will have an impact on the sales of iTV. Of course, given that Hollywood is wary of conceding its product to Apple and no one but, they may have an incentive to back the competition. Or start their own business. Of course, that's taking a big risk, ignoring the market of video iPod users, ignoring the more-or-less established existence of TV episodes on iTunes, and ignoring just how big a brand Apple is in that market. Three strikes, and they're out?

This is why we tend to adopt a wait-and-see attitude to the iTV. Our one sure analysis is that Apple will be looking at the growth of iTunes movies, not only in terms of downloads, but also in terms of content, and how it can convince Hollywood that movie downloads "the Apple way" works. We're betting they will be taking its cue to launch iTV from there. Steve Jobs may have been smart to announce both iTunes movies and the iTV (plus the new iPods, of course) at the same time, at least to generate all this talk. A lot of eyes will be set on the other TV now - the one prefixed with Apple's "i."

Apple has just announced iTunes 7, a new enhancement for the iTunes store that now allows users to download movies, among other things. iTunes 7 now comes with several nice features in the package which now makes things even more convenient for all Apple-lovers everywhere. These features include new album and Cover Flow views of music, TV shows and movies, expanded parental controls, and an iTunes video playback window with on-screen controls. The iTunes store also currently has 75 movie downloads from Walt Disney Pictures, Pixar, Touchstone Pictures and Miramax Films, as well as mini-video games from various manufacturers, all of which are playable on fifth generation iPods.

Mac and Windows users can download iTunes 7 for free on the iTunes online store. However, as far as the availability of TV shows and the like, feature films are available only in the US while while video availability varies from country to country. At the moment, games can only be downloaded in 21 countries and can only be played on fifth generation iPods.

By the way, Steve Jobs has already showcased an upcoming product which has been informally dubbed as the iTV player. Expect more info about this in the future here at QJ.

So you thought our Apple coverage was over? Far from it. We got pics from Engadget with their blow-by-blow coverage of Apple's big Showtime conference. And for now, we'll focus on something everyone's been at the edge of their seat for. And so, hold on to your precious Pods and Macs. 'Cuz Steve Jobs gives us:

 

You can probably just skip reading all the text in this article; maybe go on to the pictures and let them do the talking. Are you sure about that? Steve Job's keynote address states that the iTV (still a codeword) will be announced on the first quarter of 2007. As of now, we're just being given a sneak peek. Their point is that they've got all these media content up in their iTunes store. And their next gen of iPods can probably play much anything already. So. Where does the iTV come in?

Click the Full Article link below to find out...