As he often does, this week tech columnist Robert X. Cringely looks at various developments and puts them together to form a hypothesis that sounds close to what could happen in the future. Mr. Cingely takes a look at the Apple/Intel deal in light of IBMis new dual-core processors and notes that with more than two years to go until Apple switches to Intel completely, the company "will use the highest-power IBM chips it can get for its top-end Macs right up to the point where it makes the jump to Intel."
With that theory in place, Mr. Cringely then moves to Intelis recent announcement that it is investing in Morgan Freemanis company ClickStar, an online movie distribution startup. Focusing on language in the press release that says the service will work with "Intelis digital home entertainment devices," despite the lack of said products, he thinks that ClickStar is really Appleis movie download service, which he dubs "the iTunes Movie Store."
And with Apple cutting prices on the iPod photo, Mr. Cringely thinks the company is paving the way for the video-capable iPod, which could very well use a separate retinal-scan display. He notes that a Bothell, Wash. company called MicroVision is developing such technology for the American market, and perhaps Apple will work with them to produce a video iPod with separate retinal-scan display.
"The retinal scan display wonit be cheap," he writes, "but it will be cool, and it will be some permutation of HD, too."