Club Mac’s Deal of the Day: Magic Mouse
Apple Magic Mouse Now Only $66.94

Great mouse. Check out these reviews from Gizmondo, CNET with video, and MacWorld’s review.



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AppleInsider reports on Apple Town Hall.
Apple held a Town Hall meeting after the iPad announcement. Steve Jobs answered questions from the audience, made up of Apple employees.

Two competitors were mentioned, Google and Adobe, and Jobs let it be known that he’s not a fan of either. It’s definitely worth a read.

As to our opinion, actions speak louder than words. The fact that the iPhone OS doesn’t support Flash is, itself, condemnation enough of Adobe. Jobs didn’t necessarily need to hammer that home with an overt statement against the company and one of its products (Disclosure: we are _not_ fans of Flash).

But, Jobs is human, and as such he’s got opinions about his competitors and partners alike. With that in mind, reports coming from the Town Hall are taken by us with a grain of salt.



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Multitouch Gestures.
This probably sounds obvious, but the more we think about the iPad, the more we’re obsessed about its Multitouch interface.

The more we see the way the user can interact with iWork in the iPad video (here), the more we wonder (1) how will this ever work on a traditional Apple clamshell-designed portable, and (2) after we use Multitouch on the iPad what will we think about using our Apple portables?

We don’t imagine Multitouch working very well on a MacBook Pro, for example, because of the angle of the display. The iPad can be placed at an angle that’s convenient for the user’s hand and fingers to interact with the display. But on a MacBook, the display is generally in a near vertical position. Sound uncomfortable.

Perhaps this won’t be a problem in practice, that we’ll adjust very well to the different display positions (the iPad and the MacBook), but it’s hard to say now because our MacBooks don’t have Multitouch.

That raises a great question: when, if ever, will our MacBooks/Pros ship with a Multitouch display? Given Steve Jobs’ pre-iPad announcement comments, that the iPad was the most important thing he’s ever worked on, it’s very hard to argue that the iPad isn’t pointing out the direction Apple is headed in the future.

However, don’t hold your breath: while Apple, as we’ve pointed out many times, does ship revolutionary new products, they evolve on a very deliberate-if not slow-timeline. We don’t expect to see a Multitouch MacBook until the iPad matures. That’s at least two iterations from now, in our estimation.

But, then, since we know no one at Apple, and have no inside line, we could be way off the mark. Regardless, we are anxious to try out gestures on the iPad, and even more interested in experiencing it on a MacBook Pro.

Have a great weekend!



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Lower Price.
As the analysts’ predictions, or estimates (read guesses) roll out in the press, we’re a bit surprised by the very low sales numbers for the iPad.

Some estimates are as low as 1 million units shipping in the first year. Two thoughts on this.

First, we think once potential buyers get their hands on an iPad, see their favorite iPhone/iTouch apps running on the new device they will buy one.

Secondly, we predict that Apple will drop the price of the device prior to accepting orders by $100 across the iPad product line.

The Sleeper from the Special Event.
The iPad was talked about before the announcement perhaps more than any other Apple product. But in the wake of the iPad’s launch, we think there’s one iPad feature, above all, that will turn out to be more important than any other.

We’re referring to the Apple A4 processor. Apple built processors will eventually find themselves in more and more Apple products, and this is a huge development that could change the PC landscape for companies like Intel.

Steve Jobs often reminds the press that Apple is the last computer maker who builds the “entire widget”, from hardware to the software used to run the machine. They just took a dramatic step deeper into this process with the A4.



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Watch Steve Jobs Introduce the iPad.
So,if you’re interested in watching Steve Jobs unveil the iPad here’s the link to the Apple Special Event.

Our reaction? We’re not surprised by anything we saw today. It’s our opinion that while the sizzle might not be there for everyone, we suspect that once iPhone/iTouch users see their favorite apps running on the iPad they’ll want one. Perhaps badly.

However, there are a few features left out of the iPad - but found on the iPhone - that we think will hurt Apple’s iPad sales to some degree.

The first “missing” feature is a built in camera. Video chat was too much to hope for, but a camera? Every single, even junky, mobile phone available on the market has a camera. What else can we say?

Not enough memory. We need to stop worrying about what we put, or more importantly what we don’t put on our iPods, iPhones and, now, our iPads. 128GB of memory would have been wonderfully liberating.

Another feature we were hoping for was a non-aluminum enclosure. Grab one of the new MacBooks. its soft-touch rubber back is lovely, and durable. We suspect we’re in the minority here, but that’s our opinion.

Finally, the price is a problem. This isn’t an Apple portable. It’s an Almost-a-Mac that does very little beyond allow the user to view content. That said, $499 to start is much less than the single price we saw in the rumor mill.

At $199 to start, we think the adoption rate would be incredible. But, then, it wouldn’t look like it does and it wouldn’t have OLED, for example. So, $500 will have to do for now.

Of course, we’ll have more as we let some of this stuff sink in.



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It’s about Content. Content. Content.
We’re summarizing our predictions for today with three words. Content, content content.

We’ll see how we do in a few hours. Enjoy the fireworks.



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Where Are You, $0.99 Rentals?
It appears that on the eve of the new device announcement from Apple, which happens in just a few hours, Apple has updated aspects of the iTunes Store. While we were checking out the slightly different look-feel, we noticed that the link (formerly a banner) to the $0.99 movie rentals has gone missing.

Perhaps we just missed it, but we looked, clicked in and out of the Movie section a few times just to be sure. Nothing. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for this rather fun weekly feature of the iTunes Store.



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Terry McGraw Spills the Beans
This is sort of crazy. Terry McGraw, CEO of McGraw Hill, has confirmed the Apple tablet.

The story about whether or not this was a calculated leak or a mistake, or something else, will be fun to read. We’ll be following this closely.
;


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The Pressure’s On
While it’s true that we’ve heard Jobs say that various Apple products were the best thing Apple has ever shipped, he recently said the subject of tomorrow’s announcement is the most important thing he’s ever worked on. Truth or spin, the pressure on Apple to present something amazing was ratcheted up a few levels with that statement.

We’re guessing that Steve Jobs isn’t going to get much sleep tonight. Remember the reports of how diligently he prepares for the keynotes?

Regardless of what Apple announces, we expect the detractors to be out in force. Just like they were in recent years in the wake of the iPod and the iPhone. Somehow, however, we think this is going to be a little different this time around.

The market for the tablet device remains wide open: no single company has really made that form factor work for the mass market. Leave it to Apple to come in with their own interpretation after several, if not dozens, of companies have failed to make their tablet appealing to something larger than a few thousand users, even fewer on a long-term basis perhaps.

Apple will take what others have done wrong very seriously. They did it with the MP3 player (remember the early Archos devices: we do), and they’ve done it with the smartphone. Some of us still believe they did it with the personal computer. The result of Apple’s understanding of where others fail has resulted in the iPod, the iPhone and the Macintosh respectively.

What, then will Apple have learned from previous attempts at designing a tablet for the mass market? We suspect quite a bit. If in fact Apple is to announce a tablet tomorrow, we suspect that right out of the gate Apple will have put together something highly refined.



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Watch Game Prices to Jump Significantly
While the marketplace has done a good job of helping gaming companies dial in their prices for iPhone/iTouch apps at around $0.99-5.99, with the occasional $9.99 app, Apple-Project believes that the pricing for Tablet games will jump as much as 100 percent. This will be justified by the Tablet’s significantly larger display, or gaming area.

We predict, in fact, that games for the Tablet might start at $4.99 and go up to as much as $30.00, with the sweet spot coming in around $9.99-14.99.

Not only will this represent a boon to programmers, but Apple will also benefit directly: remember, Apple charges thirty percent of the app’s unit price.



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WSJ Reports Tablet to be a Family Device
Interestingly, the Wall Street Journal is reporting some new (rumored) details about the forthcoming Apple Tablet device. According to the paper, the Tablet will be a device shared by all of the members in a household, and it will be able to recognize and identify each member as he or she picks up the device. More here.

While Apple-Project didn’t predict this sort of interactivity, we do think we were on the right track. We didn’t and don’t think this will be a device designed as a portable Tablet, or almost-a-Mac. That’s a job, as we outlined, better suited for the MacBook family and the iPhone and iTouch.

These new rumors about the Apple Tablet support our belief that it will be targeted at areas in our lives where Apple hasn’t already got their foot well in the door: around the home. That’s to be differentiated from in front of our Macs.

In addition to the “sharing” features, we continue to believe that this will be a device that will be designed to work hand in hand with the user’s AppleTV(s) and Macs already on the home network.

Furthermore, we agree with the rumors about iTunes streaming. This device will be enhanced by the ability to not only access the user’s iTunes library contents, but also from a LuLu-powered streaming service through iTunes. At a price, of course.

Streaming content will be accompanied by publishers of print media. We imagine using the Tablet to get our morning newspaper and monthly magazine subscriptions, in addition to accessing and manipulating iLife content and, of course, surfing the Web and sending and receiving email.

We also foresee a significant step forward for the MobileMe service being announced. We won’t be surprised to see storage expanding to the point where a user will have a truly viable option to store (a copy of) their entire hardrive online, that Apple will offer Time Machine backup online through MobileMe, and other productivity-related enhancements along the lines of iWork.com.

To summarize, we believe that Steve Jobs will sell the Tablet by distilling as few as three or four benefits unique to the Tablet:

• Total access to the user’s existing iTunes media content, to include new publisher relationships (eBooks, magazines, newspapers) via the iTunes Store.

• Total access and control over the user’s Macintosh hardrive, AppleTV, and MobileMe content.

• A totally new, and ergonomically correct (read portrait mode) magazine, eBook and newspaper reader.

We remain doubtful that this device will be designed to be used outside the home. We remain doubtful that the device will have (i)Phone functionality.

We’re also concerned about the price point, rumored to be in the $999 range. This concern is based largely on the fact that we believe the device will only offer one or two features not also shared by the MacBook line or the iPhone/iTouch.

As mentioned previously, the ability to hold the device in portrait mode, with it’s roughly 10-inch screen, will most closely approximate book, magazine and newspaper reading experience to date will, itself, not offer enough sizzle to justify spending a grand. Particularly given the price point of devices like the Kindle.

But, then, this is Apple we’re talking about. And, frankly, this might well be the first time we’ve ever published a concern over the price of an Apple product. We are more than happy to be wrong about this opinion, and expect to be wrong: Apple will pack enough sexy and enough features into this device to make it very appealing to a lot of buyers.

And the fact that the WSJ article suggests that Apple will not be asking customers to lug around a third device while on the go, that there will not be yet another data plan expense, that Apple has its sights on the home, rather than the home office, all makes us less skeptical of their “latest creation”.



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Finally, an iTunes blog
It appears as though Apple has recently released an iTunes Store blog. It’s called, iTunes News, and you’ll find it here.

After a quick scan of the topics published so far, we don’t find it terribly interesting. But that could change, particularly with the rumored Tablet/iWhatever being announced next week.



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