Marco.org

The (last) annual Macworld keynote is tomorrow, and the fan sites are rushing to post their predictions and rumors in anticipation. But for the first time since I became a Mac convert, I’m not incredibly excited, and I don’t think I can make any relevant predictions.

For the most part, I’m quite satisfied with the parts of Apple’s lineup that are relevant to my life. I’m not longing for any Apple product at the moment.

• I love my Mac Pro, and while new models will probably be released soon, I’m so happy with my current one that I really won’t have any desire for the new ones.
• I love my iPhone 3G.
• Tiff’s 24” aluminum iMac is great.
• Leopard is excellent.
• MobileMe’s contact/calendar sync works great between my home and work computers and iPhone.
• I don’t believe Apple needs to release a tablet, iPhone-jumbo, netbook, or any other device between the iPhone and the MacBook Air in size and feature scope.
• I don’t believe that the Mac mini will see a substantial redesign: just a minor update to a newer chipset and mini-DisplayPort. It doesn’t need much more than that, and I don’t believe that the major capabilities or limitations will change.
• I strongly doubt that I will have any desire to play or record Blu-Ray discs in 2009.

There are a few exceptions to my Apple bliss, but I don’t believe Apple can or will change them anytime soon:

• I hate both the glass screens and the no-button touchpads in the new laptops. The only remaining laptop without these flaws is the Air, but it has so many performance problems and limitations that I probably wouldn’t buy another one until SSDs are cheaper and better.
• I’m not satisfied with iCal. Leopard’s update didn’t address many of my qualms with it, and some parts of the interface changed for the worse.
• iMovie ‘08 is very limited and does not handle AVCHD or 1080p footage well.
• The Apple TV could use a much faster CPU, and Netflix-on-demand integration would be amazingly useful.

I think it’s likely that Apple will update iLife and iWork tomorrow, so iMovie might get relevant updates. The Apple TV might get minor updates. But if neither happened, I wouldn’t be crushed.

Here’s hoping that tomorrow will be good. If it isn’t, it’s no big deal.