After watching both of Apple latest Keynotes, I still believe Steve Jobs has some sort of illness. He’s never been the same since I saw him at MacWorld ’08. Not only is he looking very fragile these days, but his voice is also rough and croaky. Another interesting point is the fact he had both Tim Cook and Jonny Ive on stage to take parts of the Notebook Keynote. Whether this was just because the aforementioned people were simply better at explaining the relevant information remains to be seen. The ‘State of the Mac’ section reported by Tim Cook is usually something Jobs would breeze through himself though. Is he slowly taking the focus off himself as the main Keynote presenter?

Steve Jobs looking gaunt at Notebook Keynote

Apple announced the latest MacBook at their October 14th media event. As predicted the new MacBook is housed in an Aluminum enclosure and uses the new all in one NVIDIA 9400m Chipset and Graphics. Apple tell us the new GPU offers on average 5x the performance of the current Intel GMA X3100.

As I predicted Apple have kept the current white MacBook as part of their product line and have lowered the price to £719. There are then two new higher end models priced at £949 and £1149. Both these models use the new Aluminum ‘Unibody’ and sport the NVIDIA 9400m. The £1149 model even has a Backlit Keyboard, a first for the MacBook (also another one of my predictions).

New MacBooks are very appealing

One thing many people have noticed since the major leak of images from Macx.cn is the lack of a FireWire port on the MacBook casing. This seems to have gone down badly in the Apple world with many posting complaints on forums questioning Apple’s logic in ditching the interface they begun. iPods have now all moved over to USB 2.0, and there has been an increasing trend for Digital Video Cameras to also use the serial bus interface. USB 2.0 (480Mbit/s) offer speeds equivalent to FireWire 400 (400Mbit/s) at it’s peak, but benchmarks often show FireWire can maintain a slightly higher average transfer rate.

MacBook casing lacks FireWire cut-out

If it’s true and Apple do introduce an all new Aluminum MacBook, it will consolidate their notebooks into one product range of all Aluminum models. These will only be split by product specs, but then what happens with their backlit keyboards? Does that mean the new MacBooks will now sport the highly desirable Apple feature? With the introduction of the MacBook Air, Apple brought the feature to a model other than their Pro line for the very first time. If the MacBook uses the same type of keyboard as the Air, will they bring the backlit keyboard over? I certainly hope so. I can see the MacBook also inheriting the Multi-Touch Trackpad introduced by the Air.

Backlit Keyboard coming to all MacBooks?

So what about the rumors of a cheaper, more affordable Apple notebook? That would certainly go down well in the current economic crisis. Will they lower the price of the existing MacBook design and sell it for $400? Or have they got an ASUS eeePc killer that nobody has seen yet? I’d love to see the latter myself, but there has been no evidence of it’s existence.

Do Apple have an eeePC killer?

Onto the MacBook Air and I think the main upgrade will be the 120GB slim hard drive that Apple are using in the new iPod Classic. We may also see a processor boost, with the 1.8GHz model becoming the base revision, minus the 64GB SSD. Will we see the rumored NVIDIA mGPU also appearing on the Air? Or will they stick to the Intel GMA due to heat restrictions? Only time will tell.

MacBook Air internals to receive a boost?

Then the MacBook Pro, there’s nothing drastic they can really do to the Pro, other than using the new Air styling and a speed bump. It already has the Air’s gesture based trackpad, and the spec isn’t too shabby. Maybe Apple have something up their sleeves though? Could we see the touch dock? I highly doubt it. One thing they need to add though is a magnetic latch.

MacBook Pro needs a makeover

Finally, is there a chance Apple will release a totally new product? What about the long rumored ‘Tablet’ Mac? Does it exist, and will we see it? There have been no signs of it’s existence, no manufacturing hints, no mockups, nothing. I think something this big would be the type of product introduced at MacWorld in January.

So to summarise my predictions..

• MacBook – All new Alumuminum case design, NVIDIA mGPU, Multi-Touch Trackpad, Backlit Keyboard.
• MacBook Air – 120GB slimline Hard drive (up from 80GB), mild Processor boost, NVIDIA mGPU (maybe clocked down compared to MacBook). Cheaper SSD model.
• MacBook Pro – Styling brought into line with range, black keyboard etc. Speed bump including better NVIDIA dedicated GPU’s. Much bigger Multi-Touch Trackpad and finally a Magnetic lid latch.

Well, they’ve left it till the last possible minute, but Apple today sent out invites to the media for an event only described as “the spotlight turns to notebooks”. Three guesses to what they’ll be showing then. If you’ve been following recent rumors they all heavily suggest the imminent release of an NVIDIA powered Aluminum MacBook. Hopefully both rumors will come true and we can say goodbye to the Intel GMA’s!

I smell an Aluminum MacBook

The event will take place in San Francisco at 10AM PST, that’s 6PM for us here in the United Kingdom. I expect a full Keynote stream will be posted a few hours after the event here. As ever I will keep you up to date with the latest developments right here on my blog.

With the rumor mill spreading that Apple will release the brand new Aluminum MacBooks on the 14th of October, I’m wondering whether it is too late for them to announce a Special Event in time? Apple have typically held an iPod themed event every year, in either September or October. Well we’ve had the iPod event for this year, so what next? I see the Aluminum MacBooks as far to big an announcement to be just quietly introduced on their website.

Could this be a sign that the 14th of October date circulating is false? Im sure they would love to have these laptops out in time for the holiday season. If indeed Apple does announce an event I suspect the MacBook Air will also receive an overhaul, and should sport the new slim 120GB hard drive found in the latest iPod Classic.