Apple’s October 12th Announcement

ThinkSecret, AppleInsider, and AppleInsider again, and finally macosXrumors , are all reporting that Apple has something really big coming up next week.

All are claiming that Apple will make a big product announcement at an invitation-only event on October 12th, 2005 in San Jose. Apple has sent out invitations with a red curtain motif with the words “One more thing…” When that phrase is uttered by Steve Jobs, he usually brings out something very unique and either very evolutionary or revolutionary. Apple does not hold these events to announce improvements in CPU speed or a few new features.

Some of the above-mentioned sites claim this is for PowerMac and PowerBook announcements. Others are claiming the fabled Video iPod will finally be revealed to the world.

Updated: 12 Oct, 9am EST – signs are pointing to a video iPod.

My wild guess that is/was 100% wrong, but hey we can dream: a combination tablet/notebook with a screen in the 9-inch or 10-inch range, based on the Ultra Low Voltage (ULV) Pentium Ms from Intel.

I dont’ see a 12-inch widescreen iBook or PowerBook – the time for that upgrade was in January, when the 12″ PowerBooks were last updated, and long after widescreens in the 12-inch range had started appearing on Intel-based laptops. I believe they are saving it for the launch of the Intel-based Macs. As in the past, with very few exceptions (iBook G3 -> G4 notwithstanding), anytime they made major changes in processors, these were accompanied by a new design. Coming out with a new design now, even if it’s just a widescreen, this late in the march towards Intel, would be a waste of resources.

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Intel Roadmap – Yonah and Merom – 2006 (Anandtech)

Anandtech has a good article out about the Pentium M’s coming out in a few months. It’s hard to say whether dual-core Pentium M’s (Yonah) will make it into the ultraportable arena, but there will be single-core and ULV versions of these CPUs available.