Five Macworld 2009 Keynote Predictions

Macworld is almost 4 days away, and here are my predictions for the last Apple keynote at the show. Phil Schiller is scheduled to give his keynote on January 6th, 2009 at 9am Pacific time, and we’ll be covering it live here on ConnectReviews.

This post is older than six months. You may find a more recent article pertaining to your topic by visiting our homepage or using the search box in the upper right.

1. New iMacs & Mac minis
With the recent introduction of the new 24″ LED Cinema Display using the new DisplayPort standard, the iMacs are unable to connect to these new displays. Expect a new iMac, with a slimmer design and a Mini-DisplayPort replacing the older Mini-DVI port. The new systems should include the new NVIDIA MCP79 platform chipsets that are already inside the latest MacBook line. All systems will be upgraded to newer generation Core 2 Quads available in mid-January. The Mac mini has had it’s fair share of updates, but it hasn’t had one since August of 2007. This either means the Mac mini will be phased out and replaced with a new Mac mini-tower with more expandability, or upgraded to the latest standards that the new iMac will include.

2. New Cinema Displays
The older aluminum Cinema Displays have not been updated since WWDC2004, and still look dated compared to the black glass and aluminum style of the latest products from Jobs and Co. Along with new Cinema Displays using LED-based panels and Mini-DisplayPort, look for an adapter to connect these new displays to older Macs using DVI and Mini-DVI connections.

3. iLife & iWork ’09
I don’t know what Apple could add to their iLife suite, so it may not get an update, however, another revamped version of iMovie with more pro-style features would be nice. In iWork ’09, there will be small enhancements and tweaks to Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. There’s also a possibility that Apple will put the office suite up in the “cloud”, similar to MobileMe, which brings these applications to the PC. Steve has been showing off new Keynote transitions and builds in his latest keynote speeches, so these should be expected.

4. iPhone nano
A smaller, cheaper version of the iPhone 3G, with 4GB of storage, available in multiple colors like the new iPod nano and with features like “Shake to Shuffle” and Nike+iPod integration.

5. Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
Apple will totally put Microsoft behind with the latest incarnation of Mac OS X. Snow Leopard (10.6) will include a long-awaited Cocoa-based Finder, expanded use of Data Detectors used in Mail.app, and OpenCL technology that will optimize use of the Intel processors in every Mac. Phil will show off increased speed in iLife ’09 apps like iPhoto and iMovie.