9to5 Staff

Even with iPad-mania in full swing, we’re still interested in seeing Apple’s next generation MacBook Pros, which should be released on any given Tuesday.  But will these MacBooks simply be Core i5/i7 processor updates or will they have something more?  I’ve already talked about why a 3G card would make sense, but there are some other technologies lurking in the shadows that would be great additions to these machines.

I spoke to a Buffalo Technologies guy at Macworld who seemed pretty up on USB3 in the marketplace.  He correctly said most new mid to high end motherboards will have USB3 in 2010 and ASUS has recently purchased 5,000 Buffalo USB3 modules for testing their USB3 motherboards.  He said other companies have been purchasing their technology for testing as well (without going into detail but with that “knowing look”).  Also, he noted that Snow Leopard has native support baked in for USB3, so it seems like it is on Apple’s radar.  What better machine to put the new backwards compatible 10-pin connectors into than MacBook Pros?

Most unlikely, but ever so interesting: Intel released their new WiDi Wireless display technology at CES this year.  It requires Core i3/i5/i7 processors and Intel motherboards (so no NVIDIA).  The technology itself is supposed to be for Windows 7 64-bit only, but wouldn’t it be nice to see something like this on MacBooks?  It basically compresses HD video and sends the signal over 802.11N Wifi to a node on the network which then connects via HDMI to a display. 

We’d love to see this type of technology on our MacBooks.  Wouldn’t you?

What it means is all speculation at this point but Skype and Verizon are holding a joint press conference at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week.  It isn’t a huge stretch to say that they’ll likely be announcing Skype access over Verizon’s 3G.  

Nobody has really picked up on this but here’s an interesting point:  Apple/AT&T’s iPhone commercials have been jabbing Verizon because they can’t do calls and data at the same time over 3G.  With Skype VoIP running in the background, Verizon gets to tell Apple and AT&T to shut up about that particular shortcoming.  UK carrier 3, already has a deal set up with Skype that encourages their customers to use Skype on their networks, but this would be the first major network to endorse the VoIP product.

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Also, Microsoft is rumored to be announcing Windows Mobile 7 based on the Zune HD OS and perhaps some Pink (Pure and Turtle) phones.  While their smartphone marketshare is plunging, it is hard to ever count Microsoft and its monster war chest out of the game.

Needham analyst Charles Wolf this morning raised his price target on Apple to $280, from $235.

Wolf says he thinks Mac and iPhone sales are significantly (

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Flurry, an iPhone apps analytics company, released a report today showing that iPhone apps starts increased sharply.  They attribute that to the iPad, whose 1024×768 screen should motivate developers to rebuild their apps for the device.

Just like with the iPhone, developers who have their apps ready at launch should have a substantial advantage of getting attention drawn to their apps.  The iPad tablet, announced at the very end of the month along with the new SDK, should increase app production even further in February.

Some things to consider with this report however:

Apple only launched the iPad on January 27th…4 days before the end of the month and the SDK after.  Also Apple’s “approvers” took the end of December off and started fresh in January.

Developers integrating Flurry analytics into iPhone OS applications in January increased by nearly three times over December. This represents the single largest spike in Flurry history, with over 1,600 new iPhone OS application starts for January. As such, we hypothesize that excitement generated by Apple’s iPad event in January is driving this growth. For developers who get a jump on customizing their applications for the iPad, there may be an opportunity to stand out early on, and earn more downloads.

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Well, I know I spoke again and again about this happening two years ago, and now it has (and I wish I

Facebook users (and really who isn’t any more?) can now add their Facebook chat to any Jabber client, including iChat according to a Facebook blog post Wednesday morning.  Jabber (XMPP) is the open source instant messaging protocol that is also used by Google Talk and other chat servers including one built into Apple’s OSX Server.

Facebook posts instructions for adding your Facebook to and Jabber chat client (including iChat pasted below).

Clearly, many will view this as a mixed blessing, as Facebook is already a pretty monumental time waster, and this will only intensify that by bringing those high school acquaintances into your everyday life.  For Adium users, this won’t be entirely new either.  You’ve been able to add your Facebook friends to Adium for over a year now.

It also is another sign of the yourname@Facebook.com email Armageddon to come. 

Apple

Apple is not developing its own search engine – it makes a nice chunk of cash simply by offering built-in support for Google Search across most of its products, it seems.

Citing

One thing that

O RLY?  Microsoft told T3 today that they were considering building Microsoft Office for the iPad.

Microsoft has revealed to T3 that it is looking at the possibility of releasing Office for Mac for the Apple iPad, although any official word is far from confirmed.

That is a pretty big non-statement, especially considering we are a year into Microsoft Exec Stephen Elop’s hint that they’re building Office for the iPhone which is the same as the iPad with a smaller screen –as far as office apps are concerned.

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Apple today announced the contest to reach 10 Billion songs sold on iTunes, dubbed ‘One huge milesone for music’. They are around 100,000,000 short at the moment but by the looks of that odometer, they’ll get there pretty quick.  If you plan on buying some music around that magic time, you might want to check the rules here.

Apple today released Mac Pro Audio update 1.0 that addresses the CPU overheating issues we talked about last month caused by playing audio.  The update is also available via Software Update.

Google today updated its Mac and Linux Chrome web browsers to include Extensions and Bookmark Syncing.  Check out the demo below and download from Google here.  Those using Chrome already will be prompted to update within the next day.

With this new version, you’ll be able to install any of over 2,200 extensions (and counting!) currently available in Chrome’s extensions gallery. Extensions can add useful, informative,fun, or quirky functionality to the browser. You can manage your extensions by clicking on the Window menu and choosing “Extensions.”

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Google has introduced a new version of its Chrome browser for the Mac, adding support for the 2,200 available extensions for the product.

The beta version (for Mac) has been available since late last year, but hadn

Microsoft chose Macworld 2010 to pre-announce its next version of Office, Office 2011 – set to ship at the end of the year.

Office 2011 for Mac will bring ribbon support for applications.  The ribbon will be similar to Office 2010 for Windows, but with the Mac theme support.

You can even collapse the ribbon and the Toolbar for more screen space or for the more advanced users who rely on keyboard shortcuts. Together these tools make it easy to find and discover new and frequently used commands.

It will also offer sharing for documents, and web application support. (You

Bill Gates ain

Shazam has added Last.fm integration, geolocation and concert ticket purchasing features to the company

Just a short note to point out that Apple

In case you didn’t read the fine print on Apple’s site, Gruber points out that the iBooks app is not going to be bundled with the iPad

Kenneth Li from the Financial Times reports that Apple may have convinced some of the TV networks to lower their price on TV shows from $1.99 to $.99 per episode.

Obvious candidates include Disney’s ABC who has Steve Jobs on their board of directors and is listed as their biggest single stockholder.  Oh, and Disney Chief Bob Eiger had some kind words for the iPad just this week.

The test, expected to coincide with the April consumer debut of the iPad, will offer some shows at the lower price as a way to test whether reducing the cost of video programming will ignite sales, people familiar with the discussions said.  Some television networks agreed to the lower prices after months of negotiations, and having initially resisted Apple