Macworld San Francisco 2003. Bored again?

YET ANOTHER MACWORLD is about to come, amidst growing fear of being bored to death one more time watching the choppy-sounding keynote webcast (nevermind the video, 1 frame every 15 seconds is enough for everybody) while nursing a dear old glass of scotch just to get through it.

Rumormongers are unusually silent this year, owing in part to the fact that Whitezilla has decided to use the iron fist against all those who might spill some beans--may they rot in Hell and Satan chew their living souls for the rest of Eternity.

Speculation, common sense and a few clues are the only weapons we have this year--unless WayBeyondTheRumorSites-zilla decides at the last minute to build up some non-existent momentum yet again.

The 'Books have been recently updated, and frankly they're not in such a bad shape. There is still a huge gap--price-wise and performance-wise--between the consumer iBook line and the pro PowerBook line, but an under-1,000 USD iBook looks damn attractive, and if you have enough bread we're sure the 1 GHz SuperDrive (meaning you can burn DVDs on the road) PowerBook will greatly satisfy you. The 14' iBook should of course be discontinued--but hey, who are we to say that something ugly is ugly?

The white half-melon flat-panel iMac hasn't been updated at all in this first year of existence--although a fattier 17-incher has been introduced last summer. This decrepit little thing badly needs an update--it's still running on a 100 MHz FSB and using a GeForce2 MX, fer Chrissake!--and that's what it'll get come January 7.

Despite its high price point, the 17' has been selling much better than the 15' and this leads many to believe that Apple will ditch the smaller display altogether. Some say this leaves the door open for a huge 19-incher--very unlikely if you ask us, considering the improper balance and outrageous price point.

If the whole iMac lineup moves to 17 inches displays this will inevitably shift its position toward a higher-end consumer space, so what about the low end? The eMac could use some upgrades too in the CPU/FSB/memory and GPU areas, exactly like the iMac. What is reasonable to expect in this regard? Relatively minor speed bumps, maybe a "bold" move toward a 133 MHz FSB and a slightly less obsolete graphics chip, like the GeForce4 MX. But hope dies hard, and nobody will keep us from dreaming of DDR and Radeon 9000 across the whole consumer space.

There is some talk of new Digital Lifestyle Devices, but unless a last-minute leak should occur, right now nobody has a clue. It looks like Apple trademarked the name "iPhone", but if it'll be a regular cell phone--albeit featured and styled the Apple way--we are pretty sure some high-ranking executives in Finland and Sweden/Japan won't be able to stop laughing for weeks.

The bleeding wound, the aching tooth, the now ridiculously-named Power Macintosh is not due for a major overhaul--not this time. IBM's PowerPC 970, the designated successor to the ill-conceived, ill-fated Motorola G4 processor will only come to the rescue later this year (2nd half, according to IBM), and until then there's little room for improvement in this area. Optimists are still hoping for a new burger from Motorola, at least able to keep Power Macs alive until the 970 comes, but high hopes are always in danger of high disappointments.

All in all, barring unpredictable surprises, we're in for a mostly boring keynote speech--the usual talk about Nothing Really, the usual overdue hardware and software updates, but sadly no Photoshop bakeoffs, no cheering crowds and no high spirits. Now, why does that remind me of something? µ