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TUAW Liveblog of the Apple 'Back to the Mac' event
By now you've probably read our predictions for today's Apple event, and we're sure that you've dusted off your crystal ball as well and come up with your own good ideas about what we'll see and hear today. Now it's time for the TUAW gang to provide you with a play-by-play and commentary of what's going on at the event through our liveblog. For those of you who are working in offices where you're not allowed to watch streaming video, we'll give you a detailed report on what's happening, even if Apple is streaming the event (so far, they haven't announced that they are). We'll also be entertaining your questions and tweeting highlights on Twitter. Follow us on @tuaw and @tuawlive, or send your questions to us via @ask_tuaw. Will there be news of a revised MacBook Air? How about Mac OS X 10.7 "Lion?" Perhaps the focus might be on iWork '11 and iLife '11, or cloud-based storage and apps as part of a more cloud-based MobileMe. Maybe we'll see a fusion of iOS design elements into Mac OS X, or an App Store for Macs. Regardless of the news that we hear in the next hour or two, it's sure to be interesting, controversial, and even (in some cases) frustrating. There may be devices that ship today, but some things we hear about might not make it from Cupertino for another year. We have a guest blogger providing TUAW with content from the event today: Sam Levin from AppMinute, who joined me a few weeks ago on TUAW TV Live. Sam is there with his iPad in hand, and he'll be updating us live from the floor. And now? Enjoy the show. The actual Apple event is scheduled to begin at 10 AM PDT.
The Apple Store is down
Oh man, the Apple Store is down, guys. Do you think that means Apple might be about to announce or release new products that we can buy with human money? We're going to camp outside of the Apple HQ and liveblog our experience, just in case something goes down. Our guess is 1PM, were anything to happen. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Rumor: MacBook Air downsized details previewed
As the clock ticks down toward today's Back to the Mac event, Engadget relays some insider info from a trusted source regarding the capabilities and specs of the all-but-certain MacBook Air 11.6" form factor subnotebook. The details: 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU (with a 2.33GHz BTO option). No surprise that the Core i3/i5 was too much oomph for this configuration. 2GB of memory Mini DisplayPort, USB, and SD card reader along the left-hand side and USB and power on the right. The addition of the 2nd USB port is sure to cheer the hearts of would-be buyers. Buttonless trackpad like the rest of the line. About the same thickness as the current MacBook Air. A black power key now sits immediately to the right of a smaller eject key on the MBA's keyboard -- the round aluminum power button is gone. Engadget also says their source could not lock down the rumored SSD-on-a-stick storage changes, so that remains mysterious. Apple Insider and Cult of Mac originally reported the likelihood of the smaller MBA. We'll be live in just about 2 hours with our coverage of the announcements. See you then!
Italian Apple PR: Apple to live stream today's event [Updated]
With only hours to spare, it seems that Apple has announced its intentions to live stream today's press event -- at least it's been announced to Italian customers. According to Italian site setteB.IT, Apple has issued a media alert stating their intention to live stream today's big announcements. Macstories has posted the full text of the press release, which states (Italian-to-English translation from Babelfsh): "Apple® will transmit to online own event of 20 October using the Live Streaming HTTP of Apple to the vanguard in the field. The vision demands or a Mac® with Safari® on Mac OS® X version 10,6 Snow Leopard®, or iPhone® or a iPod touch® with iOS 3,0 or successive version, or a iPad™. The broadcast live it will begin to the 10:00 a.m. 20 PDT of October, 2010 on www.apple.com." As of this writing, there is no official announcement on Apple.com*or its Italian PR page, so keep that in mind while reading this post. It's exciting, but we'd prefer to hear it from the domestic horse's mouth. If it does indeed happen, it will be only the 2nd live stream from Apple to require QuickTime X (the Apple TV announcement was the first). *Update: Apple has posted an announcement.
Apple.com reveals iLife upgrade, reaffirms MacBook Air refresh
Ah, it's good to see Apple can leak its announcements ahead of time just like the rest of the world. Overzealous forum mods on Apple's own site have been setting up Discussions sections for products to be announced at today's Back to the Mac event a little early, which has inevitably been picked up by some sleuthing souls over in Poland. A little bit of URL manipulation has revealed separate forums for a new iMovie '11, iPhoto '11, and GarageBand '11, all three of which are core components of the iLife suite, leading us to go ahead and presume that Steve Jobs will be discussing an iLife '11 later today. There's also confirmation of the new MacBook Air with an "MBA (Need official name)" forum emerging, alongside a mysterious "Reserved 20 10" destination. [Thanks, MM]
11.6-inch MacBook Air detailed
So, we've just been discussing the rumored, and long overdue, MacBook Air refresh with a trusted source. This person recently had a working model in their possession for a few minutes and managed to glean quite a bit of detail that would seemingly confirm Apple's plan to announce an 11-inch MacBook Air at the "Back to the Mac" event later today. Here's what we've been told to expect: Smaller 11.6-inch display. 2.13GHz Intel Core 2 Duo (with a 2.33GHz option possible). 2GB of memory in the base configuration. No optical drive, naturally. Mini DisplayPort, USB, and SD card reader along the left-hand side and USB and power on the right (that's 2x USB). The trackpad has been updated to match that of the new MacBook Pros. Although smaller due to the 11.6-inch display, it's still about the same thickness as the current MacBook Air. A black power key now sits immediately to the right of a smaller eject key on the MBA's keyboard -- the round aluminum power button is gone. A design decision that might support the MBA's rumored instant-on capabilities though our source didn't see this functionality exhibited (possibly because it was running OS X 10.6.4). Unfortunately, our source couldn't identify the graphics or the storage related to the rumored "SSD Card." So where does that leave us? Well, it looks like a smaller (and presumably, cheaper) MacBook Air originally rumored by AppleInsider is in the bag for a Steve Jobs announcement later today as is a refresh to the 13.3-inch model we broke last week (pictured nekkid above). So check back in a few hours and watch the reveal live, won't you? Update: Reader Lucas F. submitted a mockup of the new power and eject keys which you can see after the break. [Thanks, Anonymous]
Apple's 'Back to the Mac' event is tomorrow at 1PM ET / 10AM PT -- we'll be there live!
What will happen tomorrow? A new version of OS X? Tiny MacBook Airs? Verizon iPhone announcements? Tomorrow never knows... but Steve Jobs probably does. Even if we can't predict the future, we can at least follow along with the present, right? That's exactly what we'll be doing tomorrow at Engadget, as we bring you the best liveblog in the business! Tune in at the URL and times below for the full scoop on just what Apple is getting up to. You won't want to miss this! Here's the liveblog post you'll want to plant yourself at, and here are the start times around the globe: 07:00AM - Hawaii 10:00AM - Pacific 11:00AM - Mountain 12:00PM - Central 01:00PM - Eastern 06:00PM - London 07:00PM - Paris 09:00PM - Moscow 02:00AM - Tokyo (October 21st)
TUAW predictions for the "Back to the Mac" event
Apple's "Back to the Mac" event is almost upon us. While the world eagerly awaits Apple's unveiling, we at TUAW are sticking our necks out and predicting (with tongue slightly in cheek) what we think Steve's gonna announce when he takes the stage.
Oddsmakers lay bets on Wednesday's event
With less than 24 hours to go before Apple's "Back to the Mac" press event, oddsmakers have laid odds on what we're likely to see. Specifically, CEO Mickey Richardson and his team at Bookmaker have presented the following odds (note that the +/- denotes the return on any wager) and the likelihood of a response occurring: There will be an 11-inch version of Macbook Air YES -750 88.5% NO +150 40% Updated iWork & iLife YES -500 15% NO +100 50% There will be a Facetime for iChat in new OS YES -750 88.5% NO +150 40% The next version of OS X will be called Lion YES +150 40% NO -750 88.5% All of those things are likely to happen if you ask us. There are a slew of rumors about the MacBook Air, German Amazon.com has inadvertently dropped a hint about iLife '11 and a retooled iChat with FaceTime support seems like a no-brainer. Plus the invitation features a picture of a lion for goodness sake. We'll have full coverage tomorrow. See you then.
Talkcast tonight, 10pm ET: Back to the Mac
With quarterly earnings due tomorrow and Wednesday's 'Back to the Mac' event coming up right afterward, there's plenty to cover and speculate upon tonight on the TUAW Talkcast. We'd love it if you joined us. To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, the embedded Facebook app, or the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the Web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm on Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VoIP lines (take advantage of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *8. If you've got a headset or microphone handy on your Mac or your PC, you can connect via the free Gizmo or X-Lite SIP clients or by using the TalkShoe client's ShoePhone tool; basic instructions are here. We'll kick things off at 10pm ET/ 7pm PT. See you there!
New MacBook Air has many batteries, few hard drives
An anonymous tipster has sent an image to our friends across the hall at the Engadget HQ and what a treat it is. The image appears to be of the upcoming MacBook Air that is likely to be announced at Wednesdays "Back to the Mac" event. Features include a re-designed case, more internal room for battery packs, and a 0GB hard drive. Wait, what? In this particular example, there doesn't appear to be a hard drive. This leaves us to speculate that there must be multiple models of the Air and this particular SKU is probably making use of some sort of flash-based storage device. The MacBook Air hasn't received a substantial hardware upgrade in quite some time and the newer Unibody MacBooks have many features not found in the MacBook Air. Whether this is the new MacBook Air or not, this Wednesday cannot arrive quickly enough.
AppleInsider: New MacBook Air 'certain' to be 11.6-inches, may have flash-based instant-wake ability
Rumors of an 11.6-inch MacBook Air refresh are nothing new at this point, but AppleInsider says it's confirmed a smaller version of Apple's ultraportable is coming at next week's "Back to the Mac" event, and that units are rolling off factory lines right now in preparation for near-immediate delivery. AI also says it's been told that the revised machine will feature a novel new storage system called "SSD Card" that looks like a stick of RAM -- a smaller form factor that would obviously allow the new Air to be even smaller, and possibly sport instant-on wake times, something that's been rumored from other sources this week as well. We'll be at the event live next week so we'll see what happens -- keep it locked right here. Update: CNET's chiming in with rumors of a "significantly lower" price than the current model's $1,499 starting point, which is always fun to hear -- the catch is that it might still use an older Intel Core 2 Duo chip and NVIDIA chipset, which is far less fun. We'll see!
Apple to hold 'Back to the Mac' event on October 20th, we'll be there live!
Oh boy. New Air? Verizon iPhone? Jobs grows a huge beard? Probably not. Apple wants to talk about "what's new for the Mac," which could mean some hardware -- but the company definitely wants to talk software too. See that lion sneaking around behind the logo? Apple is bringing the media out to Cupertino to discuss (amongst other things) the next version of OS X. That's right -- a non-mobile product. If you think it's too early for 10.7, don't worry -- last time we did this dance, the company previewed Snow Leopard about a year before it hit your screens. The whole thing goes down at 10AM PT on October 20th, and we'll be covering the news live! Stay tuned.
