[Macworld]

Post your comments for 2008 Predictions: Macworld's annual forecast of the year ahead here

[beto]

Ha!, and I thought it will be a quiet year for Apple, I'm dead wrong!!!. I'll stick with Andy Ithnako ;-)

[leicaman]

Man, quite the conservative predictions from John Moltz! What about killer robots? What about Phill Schiller? Where's any mention of the coming cyber-apocalypse! Are MacWorld editors censoring his writing? :D

[BCcat]

"nerdgasm?"

WAY too funny. I'm bookmarking that sight immediately!

Thanks for the laugh.

[d9c9]

Apple should introduce a new hand held that will kill the current handhelds Apple Store employees use to make sales.

[rbennek]

Feel free to give 2008 an extra day "wonder what the next 365 days have in store" => 366 days ;-)

[flybynight]

Here, here! If you've caught Apple Store employees griping about their "EasyPay" hand-held registers, just take a close look at the OS they run. They are Symbol devices running Windows Lite/CE/Mobile/Whateverthehelltheycallit. Just strap a barcode reader and credit card swipey-thingy (that's an industry technical term, BTW) to an iPod touch and you'd have an awesome device that the employees would probably actually enjoy using. Just my $.02.

[Philip Michaels]

rbennek said:

Feel free to give 2008 an extra day "wonder what the next 365 days have in store" => 366 days ;-)

I'll be cold and in the ground before I recognize Leap Year.

[MacTel]

Ok, I'm going to go against the grain.
1) An Apple branded car navigation/entertainment system. Similar to Microsoft's SYNC (unbelievable that MS finally found a good use for their speech recognition tech).

2) Remember the eBook? An Apple branded T-Mobile Sidekick-like device made for today's texting youth but with a real browser and a video camera like on the Macbooks to power iChat. OSX running the device with the iWork and iLife mobile editions. Doubles as a push-to-talk phone. Built-in bluetooth and wi-fi.

3) iPhone Flip. A tripple screen flip phone from Apple. One screen on the outer shell and two inside. This phone will support voice dialing from the get-go and hands-free voice navigation to any menu level. It is a multimedia phone that will play movie that will span the 2 inner screen. Special glasses will be included to give the illusion that the 2 screens are actually one.

4) Apple branded Volkswagon

5) Apple branded Segway for the visually impaired using voice navigation and GPS to take the occupant to their desired destination safely.

6) Apple buys iRobot and the OS wars are abandoned for the new robot wars.

7) iSight resurrected but with a twist. People having iChat conversions between two iSight 3D cameras can have holographic, or with optional headset, virtual reality chats.

8) The Apple iWallet. Apple branded credit card financed by the newly formed Apple Bank. Initially, good for any entertainment related puchases (e.g. movie tickets, concert tickets, downloadable music from any music store, movie rentals from anywhere in any format, Disney theme parks, any restaurant, etc.). Your picture and thumbprint will be printed on the card and will not require any other form of identification. The Apple iWallet will even get you in and out of the U.S. without a passport. Of course, any purchase can made at the Apple store with the card.

Version 2.0 of the iWallet will have all of your credit and medical history imprinted on the magnetic strip and will be good for any type of purchase.

9) An Apple branded clothing line. Hey, when you're cool with Apple products you might as well be even cooler with Apple jeans and t-shirts.

10) Lastly, not to be out-done by Microsoft, Apple will release a home version of the Xserve and 19" mini-rack to hook-up to your entertainment system.

[wgood]

flybynight said:

Here, here! If you've caught Apple Store employees griping about their "EasyPay" hand-held registers, just take a close look at the OS they run. They are Symbol devices running Windows Lite/CE/Mobile/Whateverthehelltheycallit. Just strap a barcode reader and credit card swipey-thingy (that's an industry technical term, BTW) to an iPod touch and you'd have an awesome device that the employees would probably actually enjoy using. Just my $.02.

You, sir, are a genius.

[eboy32]

Yup, you heard it hear first, also expect:
Iweb pro...
The apple record label
the iphone dev kit
new monitors with cams built in
the mac mini brick
new touch screen laptop

[eboy32]

Nintendo games on the iphone!!!!

[cwest91]

Blue Ray support and an upgrade to aperture in addition to a new sub-notebook

[jtmacb]

iPhone 2.0 with voice directed true GPS capability like a Garmin 680, build in Exchange Server support so that business types can send and receive email just like they do on their Treos and BBs but faster, with more info and more security, and realtime video iChat and with the ability to use your iPhone or iPod Touch to act as a universal remote control. Say the magic words and the screens suddenly appears to be a universial remote. Say another magic word and it's a phone again, say another magic word and it becomes a GPS device. It can also be used as a barcode reader to read in what you have purchased at any store and then download it into your Mac to keep track of everything from groceries to books and clothing.

Updates to Aperture, Blu-Ray DVD writer as a replacement in current Macs and in all new Mac

A device for installation in all current and as standard equipment on all future Macs that puts all start-up related and application files on a solid state flash-memory device that can be user-upgraded to larger, faster flash cards. This will cause the Mac to start up in 10 seconds or less. The slowest part of the startup process will be the user typing in his/her password, if one is used.

An update to AppleTV and the introduction of Apple TV Portable that conects to multiple TVs to allow what's on one Apple TV device to play on multiple TVs simultaneously using Wireless Firewire or USB 3.0 technology.

Whatever Apple does it should be exciting. I just want to see the stock hit at least $250 in 2008.