> -Voicemail on a computer? How early 1990’s can we get? Didn’t we all try > this back in 1995 for a day?

I admit, it’s nothing new. I had the free answering machine software that was bundled with my modem a long time ago, and I don’t think I even bothered to install it

But what is revolutionary these days? I have heard people say the iMac sparked Apple’s revival, and whilst I liked them, it still took me back to the late 80’s and my Mac 512k.

Does producing revolutionary products equate to sales, profitability and sustainability for a company? To me being “ahead of your time” is something usually reserved for bright ideas which ultimately end in tears. The newton was years ahead of the competition, yet it took palm to produce a pda which took off and brought hand held computing to the masses.

I think taking an existing technology and adding to it usability and consistency, with a touch of aesthetic charm seems to work well

So I was going back to 1990s technology; things have changed since then and maybe people would use it for more than a day this time round. Like iTunes; people have been playing with WAV files for a decade, but the product works. The same reason iPhoto would work, even though people have been playing with graphics programs for longer than that !

Regards,
Anthony Duff

1.Apple will undoubtedly be marshalling tremendous resources to fine tune OS X.Programmers have issues with
development tools which still rely on outdated API’s (someone correct me if I’m wrong).The future of the mac
platform is software,Apple needs developers by the truckload.Apple will release more of their own applications
and improve existing ones i.e iDVD

2.Will unveil an LCD iMac,am glad they didn’t rush this out the gate.The current line will hold us til dinner.
G4s will hit ghz barrier by spring ‘02.

3.Will forge an important and strategic alliance with a hardware or software company.

4.Will barely meet the street’s estimates for a couple of quarters.

There has been a lot of speculation as to what we will be seeing from Apple in the coming year. Here is what I think we will see:

- Color iBooks make a return
- Introduction of color PB’s
- more retail store openings. (a given)
- 800 Mbit FireWire (nearly a given)
- LCD-iMacs (hoping)
- consumer based iPhoto App. (Will not be competing with Photoshop. Geared toward consumers)
- OSX refinements/ speed increases (a given)

- Introduction of the multi-core G5 processor systems. But there will be one sign to watch for… I bet that as soon as Apple equips their consumer models with the G4 processor across the board we will see the G5 roll out in their pro-desktop systems. Expect a newly designed motherboard, bus and memory scheme as well. With an additional memory slot and larger hard drives a given.

- Next generation Altivec unit sporting much faster performance
-Apple breaks the 1 GHZ clock speed barrier.
- SuperDrives a BTO option in All models. Laptops as well as desktops.
- Slot-loading CD/DVD across the board
- Improved developer tools with supurbe OS documentation

Of course the speculation can go on and on… Lets just wait and see. On another more “outlandish” prediction, I expect Apple to integrate/introduce the following to the mass market:

For bringing the concept of the digital hub to the masses
- Some sort of integrated “optical” input and output port
- some sort of HDTV output jack.
- Maybe an integrated software/hardware satelite/TV/cable “HDTV-compliant” tuner that will allow TV broadcasts to be viewed and recorded right on the system while you work. Either full-screen or scaled windows. Possibly even multi-picture-in-picture support. 

- Built in stereo receiver with the same functions as the TV tuner idea (a hardware/software combo)

- Improved self-configuring Plug-and-play networking. A “no-brainer” with Macs and other platforms. Making it far easier for people to network their systems.

- Plug and play “clustering”. This would be neat for sceintific applications and uses along the lines of Project AppleSeed over at UCLA. Maybe even a direct result of the project’s research. Most useful for render-farms and other number-crunching rigs. Kind of like: “if you need additional computing power, just attach anothe system” kind-of -thing. Great for Graphics and 3D/CAD houses.

Now, on Aphelion’s speculation…
I think he might be onto something that is VERY likely. For instance:
[[[- The RacMac will be introduced with multiple G4’s and with OSX server.]]]

That is essentially a great idea. However, I feel that Apple will be evolving the 2 OS’s into one single package. In the end, there will be only “one” OSX. And on some of his other comments I feel that as soon as we see Apple bring their consumer models out with G4’s is when we will see the introduction of the G5 pro-desktops. This way Apple won’t be stealing/loosing sales to itself. A G4 iMac won’t be competing against a G4 desktop etc.

Anyway, those are some of the things I expect to see in the coming year. Heres hoping for a few!

Best,
—-
Ed M.
EdsLab2

Lets hope the 1 mhz barrier falls before the end on next year.  Come on, we have been dragging for over a year.