... and wait ... and wait ... and wait

Today is one of those when Macaddiction sets in to the tooth-grinding stage. From Casablanca to Canberra, we afflicted are calculating the time-difference to Cupertino.

At 10 a.m., his time, Steve Jobs will be announcing a "Mac-related product". And is going to take two hours — two hours — in doing so. The last Jobs Jamboree, to the pros at WWDC in the Moscone Centre, ran to less than 90 minutes.

Is that the new operating system (MacOs 10.5 "Leopard")? Hmm, not likely. That's coming later this year, in October on Apple's own say-so. A bit overdue, but — since 10.4.10 is so stable and reliable — we can live with that.

Since we know the .Mac service is going to be disrupted over the key period, improvements there will be welcome, but no great surprise. Gossip says some tie-up with Google. Wait and see, and control the ... err ... yawn ... excitement.

Heaven knows there must be enough variations on the iPod theme to satisfy all comers. Please, not another one!

Something like the long-overdue iWork07 and iLife 07? That would be nice. Something new to play with and no great outlay involved. Hmm ... is that important enough to involve the Great One? Only if it is a blockbuster, taking on MS Office. Too good to be true.

The death of the Mac Mini? Sad, but true: it never really cut the mustard. However, that line of thought makes sense more if it involves merging the Mini and the AppleTV lines.

A MacTablet? Well, OK, Malcolm could live with that; but has never been greatly enthused by these half-way-there things. A brief flirtation with an HP attempt was so dire it depresses him to this day. No, probably not. Apple has never really recovered from the last hand-held debâcle, and the iPhone is probably as near as they want to get for the moment.

That leaves the biggy. A new iMac. Rumours have abounded that it's going to be shiny aluminium. And just in time for the US "Back-to-College" season.

Only three hours to go ... Sphere: Related Content