Apple Day – Apple, iPod, iPad, iPhone, iTouch, iMac, iBook

Interesting background on mobile PC’s and handhelds and their influence on Apple

Mac maker Apple Inc., which later this month will unveil its first sub-notebook design in over a decade, is likely to offer an external optical drive as an optional accessory, according to a new report.

Is this the first pre-Macworld Expo leaked image of Apple’s rumored ultra-thin subportable?

iPhone certainly caught Dean Takahashi’s (mercurynews.com) attention in 2007. “Apple tossed out the design parameters for cell phones and came up with a device based on what you wished cell phones would be,” he reports. iPhone “has a 3.5-inch display, a touch screen that makes it easier to use your fingers to browse Web pages, an instant link to YouTube’s top videos and an easy way to call contacts or create group calls.” Takahashi also thinks the “ new iMacs look great as wireless all-in-one units without a lot of ugly cables. They have great automatic backup systems, wonderful video editing tools, and cool methods for keeping your desktop organized.”

“The biggest tech story of 2007 occurred shortly after the new year when Apple announced the iPhone at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco,” writes Larry Magid (cbsnews.com) in his assessment of the tech innovations for 2007. And, Magid points out, Apple “also came out with a new operating system last year called Leopard.” In fact, “unlike the lukewarm response to Vista, Mac users seem to be generally impressed by Leopard.”

If you’re attending Macworld 2008 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco less than two weeks from today, you may also want to participate in the seventh annual Macworld Final Cut Pro User Group Supermeet. Scheduled for Wednesday, January 16, it features presentations by Apple, Adobe, SONY, Blackmagic Design, and a variety of Bay Area filmmakers.

Next time you receive an email with a slew of attached photos, you can enjoy them with an instant slideshow delivered by Quick Look. One of the leading features of Mac OS X Leopard, Quick Look interacts with a variety of Mac applications, including Mail, Leopard’s powerful and popular email client. How can you launch a Quick Look slideshow from Mail? Find out how in the latest Pro Tip of the Week.

Lexar Media plans to release 32GB and 64GB SSD mechanisms in the first quarter, as replacements for laptop hard disk drives.

The group’s latest album, “In Rainbows,” which was the subject of an experiment earlier this year…

Can you make money investing in Apple stock the day before a Macworld keynote and selling a day or two later? What if you did it every year before and after Macworld?

For December as a whole, Apple Inc.’s machines accounted for 7.3% of all systems that browsed the 40,000 sites monitored by Net Applications Inc., up significantly from 6.8% during November. At the beginning of 2007, Net Applications pegged Mac OS X’s share at 5.7%, putting the one-year growth rate at about 28%.

In this week’s troika of gadgetry for your viewing pleasure, we’ve got a new underwater camera, a handy (literally) measuring device, and a way to keep tabs on people… who probably don’t want you keeping tabs on them.

In 2008, look for Apple to make nice with its label partners by offering a bit more with each download…

Macrumors is reporting that the rumored ultraportable Macbook we’re hoping for at Macworld 08 is to have Multitouch trackpad and external optical. The optical makes sense, and is welcome.

The latest version of Microsoft’s e-mail, task, and calendar manager feels smoother and more elegant than previous editions, without sacrificing the power to which Entourage users have become accustomed. Tom Negrino shares his first impressions of Entourage 2008.