With 3 days left before we get to see what Apple has been keeping so close to its chest, the slogan on Appleis main Web page continues to stoke the enthusiastic anticipation of industry watchers and Mac owners alike. The new slogan seems to takes square aim at Appleis competition in the desktop market:
"To go where no PC has gone before."
Todayis Apple home page,
Capin! She cannai take no more hype!
(Click the thumbnail for the real screen shot)
It can be interpreted in many different ways, but one thing is certainly clear, this slogan, along with the previous 4, will keep the speculations running right up until keynote time.
Meanwhile, more mainstream technology watchers have weighed in with opinions of Appleis media moves and with guesses of what Steve Jobs will present to the world come Jan. 7. Matthew Rothenberg of eWeek believes weill see new iMacs:
"Probably the biggest crowd pleaser in this category would be a flat-panel redesign of Appleis venerable iMac, the all-in-one consumer system that launched the companyis renaissance under Jobs. Assorted leaks and buzzes strongly suggest that Taiwanese manufacturers are ready to start rolling out the eagerly awaited 15-inch systems, and common sense would dictate that Appleis three-and-a-half-year-old flagship is overdue for a major overhaul."
And new Power Macs:
"Even more significant technologically, Appleis professional-strength Power Mac line may finally leapfrog the 1GHz mark with new towers that pack a radically faster system bus (in the neighborhood of 400MHz) as well as PowerPC G4 processors topping off somewhere between 1.2GHz and 1.6GHz. (The rumor mill is also grinding on reports of a dual-processor system that includes a pair of 1GHz chips.) Even as Intel and AMD have pushed the clock speeds of their chips into the 2GHz range, the Mac has managed to maintain much of its multimedia cachet by dint of the G4is vector-crunching power. Now Apple and Motorola seem poised to face the "megahertz myth" on its own terms with Mac systems that (jaded eyewitnesses insist) will wow speed freaks on both sides of the platform divide."
ZDNet and C|Net are now carrying a video feature which talks about what to expect at MACWORLD. (Note: The video requires either Real Networks or Windows Media player plugin.)
It appears that Apple is succeeding in getting the spotlight focused on them, it remains to be seen if they can deliver.