Photo: Apple

Apple has just sent out a press invite to a conference themed ‘Back to the Mac’. It’s a clever quip on how the company’s focus has shifted towards iOS devices, most prominently the iPad and the iPhone, but it suggests that Apple hasn’t forgotten what was for many years its bread and butter. What does the special Apple event or more specifically, Mac event, have in store for us?

New Mac OS X called Lion?

The invitation shows a graphic of a silver Apple logo with a lion being revealed in the background. That’s probably the first clue we’ve gotten as to what the next Mac OS X will be called, which will undoubtedly be unveiled at this Mac event. Granted this is just pure guesswork, but in keeping with its feline theme, I doubt we’re too far off in guessing this is what will be announced to replace Snow Leopard.

New MacBook Air

In addition to a new Mac OS X being unveiled, it’s been long-rumoured that Apple was planning a refresh of the Macbook Air. Admittedly, in a post iPad world, I do not see where the Air fits into any Apple fan’s lineup. Apple does have the ability to give their old hardware enough of a refresh that they remain interesting, so I would not bet against the company doing something slick with it, though. Apple event or not, do you care for a new Macbook Air?

New Macbooks and desktops?

What would be fantastic to see is an update to the Macbook, Macbook Pro, and even the iMac. To be fair, though, since each of these sets of hardware received an update this year, we’re not holding our breath for a ‘one more thing’ moment, where Jobs hops on stage and unveils a new design or anything of the sort. Nope. We just think this is more a mental refresh, and a Macbook Air refresh, than a general line refresh.

The special Mac event takes place on Wednesday, 20 October at 6PM UK time, and you can rest assured that, like any Apple event, the whole tech world will be there covering it.

Photo: Apple

The Apple press event finally happened and, needless to say, nobody was particularly surprised by what the company announced. Almost all the rumours in the build up to the event proved true, with the company updating its whole iPod range, iTunes and finally introducing the new Apple TV.

iPad gets Airplay

Apple showed a sneak peak at iOS 4.2, mainly aimed at the iPad, which will see release in November. The updated OS for their tablet device brings with it Airplay, the ability to print files via wi-fi, stream music to audio devices and even push video to the Apple TV, but more on that later. While not overwhelmingly spectacular, it made for a neat demonstration of the things Apple are thinking about and tweaking.

iTunes 10

The Apple press event also had some digital content goodies with it, with the company unveiling iTunes 10 and iTunes Ping, its new social service built around iTunes. Long and short of it is that Ping is Facebook for iTunes users. It even looks and feels like Facebook, too, so there you have it.

The Apple TV gets serious

Apple also revealed its new Apple TV. In black and at one quarter the size of the previous Apple TV, its design is reminiscent of a hockey puck. While our full stand-alone preview goes into deeper detail about the device, it’s essentially a media centre built around Apple’s walled garden, and US citizens will be glad to know the popular Netflix service is built into it, too.

The iPods

The showstopper was undoubtedly the updated iPod range. Clearly the iPod Classic has now gone the way of the dodo, so we can start waving goodbye to that. The iPod shuffle now has its buttons back, but retains the voice-functions introduced in the previous model. You pay $49 for the 2GB model. The iPod Nano now loses its buttons, and gets a full on touchscreen interface, as rumoured. And the iPod Touch gets the royal treatment with FaceTime, dual cameras, a gyroscope and retina display introduced, too. Apple went big on the ‘iPhone minus the phone’.

Overall

Watching Apple do its thing must be a painful experience for technology companies worldwide. Not only does the company have what is widely considered the best product range in the markets it competes in, but it has a super captivated audience, who hang on to every word and, occasionally, cheer on the most mundane things, too. Let’s be clear here, the Apple press conference was greeted with more excitement than the IFA 2010 conference – an industry-wide event.

But it isn’t just the popularity contest Apple is winning. The company may very well be in its product prime. Oh, and remember, for the thrifty, you can now begin picking up the iPod Touch 3rd generation, the Apple TV and the other products soon to be updated at giveaway prices

Photo: Apple

Apple has a big, big event happening tonight, as you know. What you may not have known was that Steve Jobs and friends plan a special Apple live stream for the event. This is actually quite remarkable, because it is Apple’s first live stream in a long, long while. But you’re not invited to the party if you’re not an Apple customer.

PC racist (uhm, ‘devicist’?)

You’re out of luck if you want to watch the Apple live stream on any device that is not made by Apple. Apple’s statement regarding the live stream reads: ‘Viewing requires either a Mac running Safari on Mac OS X version 10.6 Snow Leopard, an iPhone or iPod touch running iOS 3.0 or higher, or an iPad.’ Man, where’s the love? What’s worse is Apple is even punishing those Mac users who are still on Mac OS X version 10.5. Not cool.

New iPod Nano, FaceTime Touch, iTV

Apple’s autumn show has been greeted with tons of speculation, with the obvious being the iPod lineup will see some form of an update. Reports indicate that the iPod Nano will get a brand new interface, minus a click wheel.

In addition, the iPod Touch will reportedly get a rear-facing and front-facing camera, with Apple’s proprietary FaceTime software baked into the OS. FaceTime seems to be Apple’s big thing now – what, with all the iPhone 4 commercials showing it – and it would make sense for the company to spread its tentacles even further out.

Photo: Apple

The big, big deal may be the long-rumoured Apple TV refresh (expected to be renamed iTV). Various agreements with film studios have been discussed in finance publications, with all being curious on whether Apple can change the media centre game the way it did the personal music player, smartphone and tablet computer game.

Alternatives

For those of us who aren’t burning to watch the Apple live stream, you can catch the full video on Apple’s website a few hours after the event, or you can read the many live blogs across the web during the conference.

Surprisingly, I’m not as excited for this event as previous Apple events. How do you feel about it?

Photo: Apple

As is customary for the folks in Cupertino to do, Apple has sent out an invitation to the world’s technology press for a special even the company is hosting on 1 September. Oh, what could it be? Stop agonizing, it’s the 4^th generation iPod Touch.

How do we know?

How are we so confident on what the product is? Apple introduced the first iPod Touch in September 2007. In September 2008, the second generation of their media player launched. In September 2009, the third generation of their media player launched to a suspecting world. So we think it’s pretty safe to say the iPod Touch 4 will be what’s profiled at the event. Oh, and the invitation has an image of a guitar with an Apple logo cut out of it, too, so you make what you will of that.

What to expect

The absolute certainty is that the iPod Touch 4^th generation will have a speed boost through a processor update, ram update or a combination of the two. From thereon, all we can do is postulate.

Some believe Apple is dead serious about making the iPhone 4 feature FaceTime a big, big deal, and will, as a result, put it on the iPod Touch 4. If this is the case, you can add two cameras on the media player – one front facing and one rear facing. And this would also imply Apple would need to build a microphone into this model, too.

Additions that are slim to unlikely but would be nice to see nonetheless are the retina display, a gyroscope, a design aesthetic similar to the iPhone 4 and even more storage. It’s nice to want things, they say, but who knows?

It’s bargain bin time!

Photo: Apple

As is customary when Apple releases new product, retailers begin drying up of stock of the previous product. Occasionally, however, there is a stock surplus resulting in retailers selling the product at bargain bin prices, or Apple itself keeping a model from the previous generation with reduced capacity for a cheap price. In short, it’s likely you can start buying iPod Touch 3^rd gen devices on a budget soon, if not already.

All in all you shouldn’t hold your breathe to be absolutely blown away. Apple makes the big money on the iPhone 4 and would not risk matching the features of the iPod Touch 4 with its money-spinner too closely.

What are you expecting the company to announce?