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Five things to expect from Apple’s keynote on Monday
Jobs delivering the presentation himself means we can expect big, significant things from Apple. Here’s what I predict we’ll hear:
1. Streaming music, finally — It looks as if the pieces have finally aligned to allow Apple to offer an iTunes cloud music service that, unlike the ones offered recently by Amazon and Google, would actually allow you to listen to tunes online without having to upload them yourself. Apple’s acquisition of Lala, which it later shut down, portends a service that would scan your hard drive for music you own then grant you the ability to access that music from any of your Apple devices. The question is whether this would work with all music you own or only music you purchased from Apple’s iTunes. My bet is on iTunes purchases only, at least at the start of the service.
2. Mobile Me? No, “iCloud” — The music streaming is going to be just one part of a completely revamped Mobile Me experience. Like a lot of Apple users, I never opted to pay $99 for the service; it just never seemed useful enough to justify the cost. Apple will probably introduce a Dropbox-like online storage service to go with the music streaming, revamp its photo and video sharing tools and make iCloud into something more clearly worth a monthly or yearly fee.
3. OS Lion is here — The next version of Mac OS X won’t just be previewed; it’ll be ready to go with a ship date (possibly even Monday) and a price. The new OS won’t be as significant an upgrade as Leopard was, but it will usher in a Mac interface that takes more cues from the iPhone/iPad iOS software. I think it will also eventually lead to a touch-screen Mac; I would not be completely surprised if Apple actually introduced such a device on Monday or at least teased to the release of something like it later this year.
4. iOS 5 takes on Android, aggressively — The new version of the software that powers iPhones and iPads will address some of the features that Google’s Android platform currently does better. Notifications will be revamped (they’re currently ugly and intrusive on iOS) and if it doesn’t include better navigation/Google Maps software, Apple will be offering some viable alternative. It will also have a better interface for contacts (and an updated Address Book app for Mac if not an entire new suite of apps like iCal). Wireless syncing is another possibility, but it’s a feature I’ve stopped holding my breath for. On the other hand, one of the biggest changes in iOS will be…
5. Apple and Twitter, sitting in a tree — Twitter has been making major changes to its service this week, rolling out a new photo service (its own), revamping search and making other changes in a short amount of time, which is very unlike Twitter. All this points to Twitter scrambling to get its ducks in a row for Monday’s WWDC, where Apple will show off Twitter integration with its Photos app and in Spotlight search. Apple is much more likely to do this than to try to launch its own messaging/social networking service (remember how half-baked Ping was… and still is?).
Got other predications? Post them in the comments.
(Photo by Jeff Chiu, Associated Press)
Permalink | Comments (3) | Post your comment Categories: Computers, Gadgets, Internet
Comments
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By Shane
June 3, 2011 7:48 AM | Link to this
I think with the release of the white I phone 4 that gives Apple some time to do all that they need to do to get ready for the I phone 5. I am hoping that it will be a total revamp from the I phone 4, including all updated software., giving that we have to wait longer this year.
By Omar Gallaga
June 2, 2011 1:32 PM | Link to this
A pre-announce of the iPhone 5 is another strong possibility. For some reason, though, the recent release of the white iPhone 4 makes me feel like that's not going to happen this month. Maybe they'll announce it for release later this summer. I'm thinking August-September.
By Bill
June 2, 2011 11:21 AM | Link to this
What if the pre-announce of iCloud was just a head fake to distract everyone? What about a surprise preview of iPhone 5? Even if it does not ship until the holidays, by announcing it, Apple freezes a segment of the market.