The unusually frenzied hype and rumour surrounding the Macworld conference in San Francisco has risen a further notch with the discovery of an online article apparently revealing an all-in-one computer and flat-panel display.
The article was discovered by Apple enthusiasts on the web site TimeCanada.com and suggests Apple is going to reinvent its colourful range of personal computers.
The article describes the new computer as coming with a 15-inch flat panel screen and a DVD-rewriter, and costing between $1300 and $1800. Photographs published on the site show the flat screen extending from a curved, white base. The article has been removed, but the images are still available, including a cover for Time magazine with the computer and the title 鈥渇lat out cool鈥�.
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Apple has promised that Steve Jobs will launch 鈥渞evolutionary鈥� new products at 0900 Pacific time on 7 January. Rumour web sites have been speculating wildly about potential future gadgetry.
Video claim
One Apple rumour web site, Spymac.com, even published a video of what appears to be an Apple handheld computer, called the iWalk, that it claims Apple may launch at the show.
But other Apple enthusiast sites are sceptical about the video鈥檚 authenticity and have made other predictions concerning possible announcements
Apple remains tight-lipped about the show, despite contributing to the hype itself with extravagant promises posted to its web site, such as 鈥淐ount the days. Count the minutes. Count on being blown away鈥�. Raising expectations so high could backfire, as happened recently with the 鈥淕inger鈥� transport device.
鈥淭here鈥檚 definitely something big happening,鈥� says David Fanning, deputy editor of Macworld UK. 鈥淏ut there鈥檚 been some hilarious hype.鈥�
Digital hub
Fanning is wary of buying into the build-up hype and is not going to make predictions. But he notes that Apple鈥檚 CEO Steve Jobs sees the personal computer as a 鈥渄igital hub鈥� for multimedia devices such as digital cameras, video recorders, laptop computers and MP3 players.
Apple has been pushing this vision recently by releasing its own MP3 device, the iPod, and ensuring that all products have the technology needed for transferring data quickly and easily.
This includes FireWire, which allows data to be transferred through a cable at 400 Mbps and Airport, Apple鈥檚 wireless system based on the standard 802.11b, which provides a wireless connection of 11 Mbps between desktop computers and laptops and other devices.
Rael Dornfest, a researcher specialising in new technology at the computer publisher O鈥橰eilly, agrees that Apple is pursuing an interconnected vision. He adds: 鈥淟ast year was all about prices and it seems that the next couple of years may be all about technology again.鈥�