9to5 Staff

That $899 price point that keeps getting thrown about?  Yeah, it looks like it is a monitor for the new DisplayPort, erm port that the new MacBooks are going to have…AI and MR both think so at this point.

Looks like a lot of predictions are going bad all around with Apple’s launch only a few hours away.  No one expected Cinema displays until Macworld.

Also, the 17 Pro and MacBook varieties are expected to be no shows.

At this point, it looks like two 13 inch and 2 15 inch Macbook Pros.  And a Cinema display that takes display port.

Remember his iPod Nanos?  We don’t think this is a fake…but…just saying…

This guy got some serious photoshop skills in the last few weeks if it is fake.

Engadget/Gizmodo’s tipster is saying that the new MacBook Pros will have 2 NVIDIA GPUs.  A lot of people are wondering why 2?  Perhaps it has a lot to do with Snow Leopard and Open CL:

OpenCL

Another powerful Snow Leopard technology, OpenCL (Open Computing Language), makes it possible for developers to efficiently tap the vast gigaflops of computing power currently locked up in the graphics processing unit (GPU). With GPUs approaching processing speeds of a trillion operations per second, they’re capable of considerably more than just drawing pictures. OpenCL takes that power and redirects it for general-purpose computing.

More on OpenCL…

here.

Engadget got it, this one looks to be real.

Notice..no mouse buttons?!  Another image after the break

 "there’s not one, but two NVIDIA GPUs inside"

The last minute pricing claims seem to be heading towards an $899 entry level MacNetBook (double the price of a Dell dude).  It also echoes Piper Jaffray’s call a few weeks back.  We reported Best Buy tipsters earlier said prices would stay static while Inquisitr said they’d drop to $800.  Now BGR says:

One of our trusted Apple ninjas just let us know that he/she has found the following pricing in the Apple Store system. They “guarantee” the follow price-points:
$899
$1,299
$1,599
$1,799
$1,999
And two at $2,499

We we told there may be more models (more expensive 17″ inch MacBook Pros) but that’s all that is in the system now. 

Finally, MacRumors found an anonymous blog post with the following….

They speculate that since it has a totally different sku, the $899 computer might be of the netbook variety. 

We’ll know for sure in 12 hours…

PCPerspectives just came out with a update to their report that the MacBook Air would get a mention tomorrow…but not an update until 2009:

UPDATE (10/13/08): I just got an update from a source that gave us new information about the updated MacBook Air.  Apparently, a new MacBook Air will be announced and shown at the event but it won’t be available until January 2009.  The MacBook and MacBook Pro will be available almost immediately.

This is pretty unsettling news, if true.  Keep in mind, they were the first to report that NVIDIA would be getting in the late 2008 MacBook/Pros.   Announced in October but released after Christmas?  We don’t buy it.

Either way, will the new MacBook Airs get 3G?  Remember back in January, when the technology community was listing the faults with the MacBook Air, the one thing that made everybody’s list: Lack of 3G support.  Ed Baig, USA Today (in January) asked Steve Jobs why they left it out…

Air does not come with the built-in ability to connect to a speedy wireless data network run by various cellular carriers. Jobs told me last week that Apple considered it but that adding the capability would take up room and restrict consumers to a particular carrier. Through a USB modem, he says, you can still subscribe to wireless broadband with your favorite carrier.

To us, that sounds like something that can be overcome in a year, Jobs obviously isn’t opposed to it.

TUAW points us to the news that Open Office 3.0 native for Intel Macs is live.  If you are tired of (paying for) Microsoft Office and not ready to make the move to Google Docs, Open Office is a nice, free altrnative.  It is also much faster than the Java-based (but loved) Neo-Office (based on the same codebase).

Download

(note: the site is up and down due to unprecedented demand – their words, not ours)

Gizmodo takes us back to the past with its retrospective on the powerbook. 

Money quote:

Watching this ad for the very first PowerBooks, it’s funny to see Apple going hard after business users, the very same type mocked in today’s Apple ads by John Hodgman. Sales reports! How very unhip. Before the MacBook became the laptop of choice of coffeshop-located freelance graphic designers, Apple wanted its laptops to be the choice of the suit set.

The Powerbook was the cheapest of the three PowerBooks first introduced by Apple in 1991. Its price was $2,300, which is surprisingly close to how much MacBook Pros are today. Sure, the form factor has changed a lot, as has the hardware inside and the software loaded on it. But isn’t it comforting to think that, nearly 20 years later, you’re still gonna drop around $2,000 on a new Apple laptop? In an unstable time, it’s nice to see some things stay the same.

From Edible Apple, whose site appears to be dugg down…we know it is 1:00pm eastern time on a work day but…

(best comment ever: This is not a drinking game. This is a suicide note.)

Anyone care to add any other fun/deadly rules?

So you know that mystery port we found over the weekend? Well, our tipster just phoned in a lifeline for us. Hate to let you all down but….

It is the battery release button…   :(

Actually to be perfectly clear, he said the battery ejector was on the side.  Technically it could be that little circle thingy (which is on the MacBook as well).  We don’t want to go making assumptions…Anyway, yeah we’re still hoping for something more exciting (dock connector!!!)…

So much for Piper Jaffray and Inquisitr’s hopes for reduced pricing on MacBooks according to Gizmodo Best Buy tipsters.  If we read them right, (and they’ve got the screenshots to somewhat prove it), Apple’s entire laptop line will remain at the same price points. 

Also, if this is all the truthy truth, there won’t be 12 price points as speculated earlier by the Inquisitr.  Bad news for those who were hoping to catch a break on the low end of the MacBook line.

As far as reliability, Best Buy inventories have been hit or miss so we’ll take this as speculation.  They are also  a bit hard to understand and all secret coded.  Interestingly, they are using color code names to denote the laptop differentiations…but don’t go starting rumors about green MacBooks mmmk?

Larger shot, you know where

GREEN = $1,999.99 – 15" MacBook Pro base model
PURPLE = $2,799.99 – 17" MacBook Pro base model
YELLOW = $1,499.99 – 13" MacBook top end model
BLUE = $2,499.99 – 15" MacBook Pro mid model
ORANGE = $1,299.99 – 13" MacBook mid Model
RED = $1,099.99 – 13" MacBook base model

Well, here’s a thing – one day before Apple primes its spotlight on the laptop, upstart firm OLO has introduced its very own netbook concept that uses your iPhone as the CPU..

That’s right, this firm wants to build a netbook around your iPhone – you actually insert the iPhone into the notebook and use the iPhone’s touchscreen as a trackpad for the computer!!

There’s no shipping product, no spec sheet, no other information, and it is possible this gadget just lets you operate your iPhone in a normal way with the advantage of a keyboard and a bigger screen…

Still, in a sense this underlines what could be so phenomenally important about Apple’s glass trackpad, conceivably.

We don’t really think this product will see the light of day, BTW, but as an iPhone accessory to offer features described above Apple may let this product through…who knows.

(Unless they launch their own netbook tomorrow…)

 Could this really be true? A Norwegian developer is claiming to have figured out how to run Windows Mobile in emulation (like Boot Camp) on the iPhone. Don’t believe him – we don’t – but here’s the video.

http://videos.video-loader.com/_player/gvideoplayer.swf

Now, we don’t really believe Erik Kristiansen’s claims, even though he promises to release it next January, and if it were to be true we’d still be puzzled why anyone would want to sully their iPhone with a Windows system.

Why did he develop this? "We have long winters [in Norway]… we have to do something," but even in Norway it’s not quite winter yet…ah well.

Cheers to Electric Pig for the tip-off.

Apple is putting together the pieces for a WiMax explosion, inking a deal with a Korean firm which promises inclusion of the technology within future Apple laptops and iPod products, a report explains.

Regular readers will know we’ve been expecting Apple to make some sort of move to embrace WiMax, and while critics of our prognostication have pointed out that deployment isn’t yet sufficiently widespread in the advanced markets, this is rapidly changing, with the standard seemingly set for prime time next year.

Korean carrier KT is offering Apple MacBooks bundled with WiBro (the Korean version of WiMax) in Korea. Apple Korea is bundling MacBooks with the KWD-U2000 WiBro modem and the KT WiBro service. 

"KT Corp., South Korea’s leading broadband service provider, said Wednesday it signed a tentative deal with Apple Corp. to cooperate in providing high-speed Internet services bundled with the U.S. company’s products," a report explains.

So why the excitement? You may recall a report in May in which we detailed the FCC disclosure of Intel’s upcoming 5350 WiFi/WiMAX combo Mini-PCI card, which fits into the MacBook Pro’s Mini-PCI card slot. So we know the technology is already there.

And InterDigital in March revealed it has signed-up Apple (and RIM) as a licensee for its 3G technologies. “We did add some very high-quality licensees including Apple, Giant, and RIM…,” the company explained.

Apple’s success in bringing new technologies to market was made most clear when it single-handedly popularised WiFi technology (AirPort) when it introduced the iBook in 1999. WiFi’s fairly popular nowadays. 

What’s the meaning of all of this? Right now, it’s not so clear – what has been agreed between Apple and KT is a memorandum of understanding between the two firms – whether this will ever emerge as a shipping technology is one thing, and the rationale for embracing WiMax in Korea may simply be an attempt to find a way to bring the iPhone to market there, as Korean law requires mobile phones support a standard the iPhone lacks in order to be sold there.

There is one more practical reason Apple management may be considering WiMax inclusion in their products: the threatened collapse of the US consumer market as global financial systems fall apart in the face of huge recession. WiMax may be seeing slow deployment in the developed European/US markets, but future opportunity may be found in the developing economies of Russia, China and India, where major WiMax investments are being made now. Whether the low hanging fruit of offering consumer electronics devices that are always connected and use the standard will be sufficient to shift Apple’s long-standing US-centric vision is open to question.

And there is of course one more thing – we’re all pretty excited about that extra port on the MacBook shots we’ve been seeing…is Apple planning WiMax inclusion in future models?

We thought it may be worth a quick look at the data being generated by iPhone application analytics firm, Mobclix, which has been monitoring applications for just over a month.

Mobclix demands developers insert just 15 lines of code into their apps. Once that code is included within the application the software will track and analyse each app. The current statistics from the firm show that even since Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that 3,000 applications were available through the App Store on September 9 an additional 1.093 pieces of software have shipped (974 free, 3119 paid) – and the total is growing fast, with the analysis currently suggesting we’ll see around 10,000 such applications appear by the end of the year.

Breaking down the figures, we learn that the split favours games, with around 25 per cent of the applications available being games.

• Games: 1,027 (31.4%)
• Utilities: 476 (13.5%)
• Entertainment: 407 (12.4%)
• Productivity: 240 (7.3%)
• Education: 213 (6.5%)
• Books: 202 (6.2%)
• Reference: 191 (5.8%)
• Travel: 184 (5.6%)
• Healthcare + Fitness: 176 (5.4%)
• Lifestyle: 158 (4.8%)

With new applications emerging daily, the top five new applications include: Crossword Dictionary Online Edition; Lil’ Pinata; Lil’ SnowMan; ShakeWise and Zen of Ten.

The leading top five games include: iSlots, Tap Tap Revenge, Dactyl, Labryinth Lite, Blue Skies Lite.

Worried about gas prices? Looking to retire your gas-guzzling ugly Humvee? Pondering a Segway for your daily commute?

While you think things through, you may be interested in taking a look at GasBag – an iPhone application that’ll let you drive your current ride to the gas station offering the cheapest fuel near you.

Jamcode’s application displays the prices of fuel at nearby petrol stations on a map on the iPhone and shows the way to a station. Information comes from other users who (hopefully) input the petrol price for stations.

The new software’s set for launch in Australia next month and has already attracted 75,000 US users. And there’s a hook to the tale that’s also quite interesting – the application is ads-funded, with Toyota, Kia, insurer Esurance and classifieds site Cars Direct sponsoring banner ads that appear alongside petrol price information on the iPhone. 

The company in future hopes to  add location-based ads for nearby local shops and other services through its application. Anyway, there’s a video clip after the break

[blip.tv http://blip.tv/play/AcHCLI3aXw]

Microsoft has a secret weapon to take on Apple in the smartphone sector – buy someone who already does, and it appears BlackBerry manufacturer, Research In Motion (RIM), is in Ballmer’s sights.

Canaccord Adams analyst Peter Misek points out that RIM shares are in decline and warns that Microsoft appears to have a "standing offer to buy them at $50 a share," he told Reuters.

Like Apple, RIM offers hardware, software and services and already plans to launch its own App Store. Microsoft is in a similar business, yet its Windows Mobile software, while widely used isn’t particularly liked by handset owners.

With Apple and RIM clearly involved in a two face confrontation, the analyst’s speculation suggests Microsoft could buy its way into direct competition with Apple in the smartphone market, assuming such a deal goes ahead.

However, D:All Things Daily observes such a merger could fall foul of competition authorities. "Leaving aside for a moment the fact that Microsoft already has a mobile OS in Windows Mobile and the fact that RIM’s client architecture is, you know, based on Linux, wouldn’t a merger between two of the largest players in the smartphone market invite antitrust scrutiny?" writes John Paczkowski.

These rumours have been in circulation since August 2007, when CBC News indicated, “Microsoft has been mentioned as a possible buyer," Frederic Ruffy, an analyst at options education firm Optionetics said. "According to speculation, the software giant might be interested in RIM in response to Google’s recent announcement that it is interested in making its own mobile phone operating system, which would compete with Windows Mobile."

The G1 Google Android phone is claimed to have sold 1.5 million units so far.

So, today’s case spy shots would reveal a couple of interesting nuggets if they turn out to be the final designs of Tuesday’s MacBooks.  Firstly, the 13 inch-ish case is sans Firewire.  Systems Admins will have to move those Boot images over the network now for all but the Pro models.   More importantly, a new port has been introduced to the side of the Pro model.  You can see it below.  The circle next to it appears on the 13-inch model so it isn’t an eject button (probably IR – strangely on the side). 

Anyone got any idea what it might be?  If so, vote! 

Update: Uh oh, look at the picture at the bottom of this post

As you can see from the Chinese spy shots below, the new MacBooks will have all I/O ports on the left and optical drive on the right.  While this seems somewhat trivial, it does enable one of the more interesting patents of recent memory to become a reality. 

The ‘iMac dock’. 

It is also interesting to note that the ports generally line up between the smaller and large laptops.  Will we see a dock on Tuesday?   

Thanks to Gizmodo for for the mockup

Update: Check up this image from the comments: