It’s that time of year again, 2006 has come and gone and 2007 is upon us. In less than one week Macworld Expo San Francisco kicks off with Steve Jobs’ Keynote presentation on January 9th.

This year the rumour mill has been particularly busy with in excess of ten products rumoured to be up for release, World of Apple has whittled it down to the most likely and we give out lowdown on what we believe the probability of release is.

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iPhone, MobileMe, iPod Phone, Apple Phone, iChat Mobile - WoA Rumour Rating - 8/10

Rumours surrounding the iPhone have been prevailing the Mac web for years but in the recent months they have been rampant with almost every analyst and reporter weighing in on the rumoured product.

It is currently unknown what exactly Apple will name the device, if indeed it does exist. Apple currently holds a trademark for the term iPhone at the Far Eastern Trademark Office but recently Cisco released a product called the iPhone in the US market. Apple also holds numerous worldwide trademarks for the term “MobileMe” which contains “telephones, mobile phones, videophones” in the description.

Other names such as iPod Phone, iChat Mobile and Apple Phone have been thrown around yet no solid evidence supports them.

The iPhone as we’ll continue to call it was given its most reliable feature set by Kevin Rose in early December. The Diggnation host and founder of Digg.com has recently been very accurate in product predictions. Rose said:-

  • Release in January
  • 4GB version ($249) and 8GB version ($449)
  • Very small
  • OS is “cool”
  • Has unique features
  • Two batteries, one charger. One battery for MP3 player, other for phone
  • Flash based memory
  • Possibly touch-screen
  • Slide out keyboard

Later on in December Morgan Stanley analyst claimed to have received information from sources noting that “two versions of the iPhone will be available, a 4GB model priced at $599 and a 8GB model priced at $649.”

“According to the Morgan Stanley analyst the phone will sport a “full screen LCD; 3.5 inch (28×21)”, with a virtual click-wheel/soft touch design, the phone will be a bit wider than an iPod nano but thinner than an iPod video.”

World of Apple believes that with all the hype and multiple references to the phone being in manufacturing it is highly likely that the iPhone will be released at Macworld San Francisco.

View more iPhone news and rumours in the iPhone category..

iTV - WoA Rumour Rating - Feature Talk - 9/10 - Release - 4/10

In September Apple shocked most by pre-announcing a product that had no official name and was not due to ship for a significant amount of time. Apple didn’t release many details about the product but did say some things about iTV; first of all it won’t be called iTV that was just a codename. Secondly it will be priced at $299; thirdly Apple clarified the aim of the product, to be the centre of your home entertainment system, streaming music, movies and photos from your Mac to your television.

World of Apple strongly believes that the Keynote will finalise the details of iTV including it’s name and some of the technologies that were kept under wraps. For example during the keynote in September Apple failed to state what wireless technologies the unit would pack, many sources point towards the iTV using 802.11n, all be it not finalised.

Very recently it was reported that the iTV is unlikely to ship at Macworld due to some quality assurance issues related to the onboard Operating System. But is expected to ship close to Macworld.

Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” - WoA Rumour Rating - Feature Talk - 10/10 - Release - 3/10

Back in August Apple announced ten features of its upcoming OS Leopard, at the time Steve Jobs noted that many features were “top secret” to prevent plagiarism.

Now many months have passed and Windows Vista is due to ship to consumers this month, it looks like that Apple will finally reveal the top-secret features in Mac OS X Leopard.

A few features appear to have leaked via Developer builds of Leopard including, Resolution Independance, File Recovery, iChat video greetings, Zettabyte File System and most recently the presence of the XAR package format.

Although absolutely no top-secret features are known outside of Apple it is rumoured that a new Finder could make it into Leopard.

At Macworld Apple will certainly be showing off Leopard and we’ll have a good idea of the final feature set but it won’t ship until way into Spring.

View more news and rumours related to Mac OS X Leopard.

iLife, iWork ‘07 - WoA Rumour Rating - Release - 10/10 - Presence of Spreadsheet App in iWork ‘07 - 4/10

As with last years Macworld it is highly likely that Apple release new versions of both iLife and iWork. No new features have been rumoured but Pages and Keynote are said to include significant updates.

Back in 2005 it was rumoured that a spreadsheet application know as “Numbers” would make an appearance in iWork ‘06, this obviously never happened and now it appears that Apple has dropped the name “Numbers”.

The spreadsheet application is known to be in development under the name “Lasso” and could possibly be released under the name “Charts”.

New Cinema Displays - WoA Rumour Rating - 7/10

Multiple reports point towards a potential refresh of the current Cinema Display product line as well as the introduction of a smaller 17-inch display and the replacement of the 23-inch Display with a 24-inch version.

The new displays are said to include iSight cameras as well as HDMI connectivity featuring support for HDCP.

iPods - WoA Rumour Rating - Video iPod - 4/10 - iPod Release of some kind - 6/10

Steve Jobs will undoubtedly give everyone an update on the current situation with iPod and iTunes market share but it looks possible that the true video iPod may possibly make an appearance.

Apple was rumoured to be releasing three new iPod models during 2007, this doesn’t necessarily mean all at Macworld but it points strongly towards at least one possible iPod release.

Of note there is much coinciding information regarding the true video iPod and whether the product actually exists at all.

8-Core Mac Pro - WoA Rumour Rating - 6/10

Although Macworld is a notoriously consumer event it has been known for Apple to release enterprise products at Macworld. In 2004 Apple released the Xserve G5 at a Macworld expo.

Intel revealed in September that it was intending to ship a Quad core version of the Xeon processor currently used in the Mac Pro. AnandTech replaced the current Woodcrest processors in the Mac Pro with the new Quad-Core Clovertown processors, creating an 8-Core machine and reported that “they worked just fine”.

It was originally reported that the 8-Core Mac Pro would be released before the end of 2006, the release is now slated for Macworld.

Notable Extras

  • Airport Update, include 802.11n and possible the introduction of a video Airport Express - WoA Rumour Rating - 4/10
  • HD iTunes content - WoA Rumour Rating - 2/10

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