Rumors: Speculating about .mac and iLife

TUAW readers have been writing in and commenting on posts with their speculations about the missing-in-action .Mac and iLife/iWork announcements. Here's a quick summary of our favorite theories.

Loyal reader Andrew suggests that any iLife announcements may be due to Leopard-only compatibility. Why announce iLife/iWork if they won't work on the current system? During September's Showtime, Jobs suggested that Leopard would ship mid-year. We also know that the public Dashcode Developer Beta page says that the beta release will cease to function on July 15, 2007 and that the Amazon product page has a ship date of August 14. So you'd expect a formal ship date announcement sometime over the next couple of months, possibly with an announcement of iLife/iWork '07.

Another Andrew, also a loyal reader but a different person, points out that the current .Mac special ran between October 17, 2006, and January 22, 2007. "Last year, Apple announced a Special Event shortly after Macworld that took place in early February," he writes. "Maybe we'll see something like this again this year with .Mac?"

So what are your theories about the MIA products? Let us know in the comments.

Update: The Amazon page also states: "Scheduled to ship in spring 2007".