Please note that all blog posts before 8 April 2007 were automatically imported from LiveJournal. To see the comments and any LiveJournal-specific extras such as polls and user icons, please find the source posting at http://brianenigma.livejournal.com/2003/04/It feels like kid-at-Christmas time again. Another quarter has passed and Steve Jobby-jobbs is supposed to have a few major announcements on Monday. The rumors are flying. It looks like a foregone conclusion that the online music service with all 5 major record labels is going to be announced, along with a new iTunes to support it (and a PC version of iTunes). It looks like the new iPods with bigger hard drives, firewire, and USB2 are a sure thing, too. It also looks like the new “User Centric” version of OS X (code named Panther) will be announced, which looks rather cool. It will allow you to graphically switch users without logging out, “Piles” (kind of like a file folder that looks like a pile of all the containing icons, but lets you flip through the contents really fast without opening the folder…we'll see how useful this really ends up being), new filesystem, 64-bit architecture, and suspended/remote desktops (like Windows Terminal Services, only included with the OS). This sounds kind of cool for the rest of the world, but I am just as happy with the “sudo” command, ssh, and the Gnu tools for remote work and multiple users. 🙂
The remaining rumors are just wacky and mysterious. There is that whole tablet casing that a particular company is manufacturing for Apple. It has the dimensions of an 8″ tablet PC, but nobody knows what is to go in it. Rumors and speculation say that it might be a “remote control” for your computer, piggybacking on the whole remote desktop thing, allowing you to browse the web and cue up iTunes and such. Others say it is a video iPod that lets you store music, photos, and movies. There are also rumors that it will hotsync with Safari to allow you to carry around websites and news.
The super-vague rumor, but coming from a reliable source, is just confusing. There will be a new Apple “communicating device,” but not a phone or PDA. It will be able to connect to PowerBooks or Apple Cinema Displays(?!), though not exclusively–indicating it could also be used standalone. This may be the innards of the casing mentioned above, or it may be something else. Rumors about this are all across the board, but my favorite is that it is a “robot monkey that can store photos and video.” Others say it is a video device (like a wireless connector between the computer and video). Others roll it in with the “remote control” rumor above (but it can be used standalone!). Others say a media jukebox that can be used standalone or hooked up to a TV or stereo. Yet others say camera (webcam or camcorder). Who knows?! But the tension and antici–…pation are killing me!
Oh, and I do not think Meta_Kate gets to use my car as an excuse for getting out of things at work any more. Every time she does, it seems like something ends up broken. Fortunately, I can just leave the top closed or bend the struts back into place by hand if I want to open the top and they get torqued. Rent, car payment, insurance payment, and recovering from paying for the new tires and all the shit that broke last week seem to be a bit more important right now.
I just got spam and misread the subject line as “there is a monkey for you to claim!”
