Macworld is coming up in a couple of days, and although I will be on a plane during the breathlessly awaited keynote, I still have some thoughts on what may be coming up… about 95% of people writing online have thoughts on it, too.

After last year’s fantasy-fulfilling iPhone announcement, expectations are high for this Macworld. It seems very unlikely that Apple will top that, but here’s what I think you may see.

We’ll see hardware refreshes. Now that Apple is using Intel chips, we know a lot more about the release schedule of the processors they’re using, since Intel publishes a processor roadmap and is very vocal about new chips. Intel is in the process of pushing out new CPUs, the “Penryn” line, mobile, desktop and server, and I think we’ll see some new Apple machines using them - specifically new MacBook Pros and likely MacBooks as well, and an iMac speed bump.

The iMacs just had a significant refresh last summer and I can’t see Apple doing any major changes to them beyond giving them new CPUs. The MacBook and MacBook Pro lines, however, haven’t had any significant changes in a while. In fact, Apple followed a very clever strategy when they switched to Intel chips - they didn’t make major changes to the appearance of the machines. An end-generation PowerPC iMac or PowerBook doesn’t look much different from a first generation Intel iMac or MacBook Pro. This was a great way to subtly tell people that they were still the same machines.

The MacBook Pro/Power Book has looked the same for a long time now, and while it’s still a great looking machine, I expect that Apple will update it to bring it more in line with the appearance of the new iMac.

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Apple has a couple of ways you can save on a new Mac this summer. First, if you buy a qualifying printer with a Mac you’ll get a rebate of up to $100 on the printer. That’s enough to cover the cost of many of the printers available through the Apple Store. This works with any Mac, new, refurbished or on an educational or developer discount. Click through the banner to the left for more info.

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Today Apple launched “iTunes Plus” - iTunes Store music that’s not protected by DRM. About a month ago, Apple and EMI announced that they were going to do this, and today it’s finally arrived and we can now see what form it takes.

I think this is a particularly bold experiment by Apple and EMI. It may not seem that way to the average user, but this is EMI taking a chance on consumers not pirating the hell out of their music, and this is Apple taking a chance on selling music that will play on devices other than iPods. Both are risky. Of course there’s been a lot of unprotected music sold already, but this is the first time one of the major labels has been willing to try it. And they’re not just releasing a bunch of dusty old music that no one wants to listen to. Music by Coldplay, Gorillaz, Air, Goldfrapp, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Frank Sinatra is available - staples of EMI’s catalog - so I have to conclude that they’re sincere and they’re really putting themselves out there.

Here’s how it works:
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Speck ToughSkin for iPod Nano

Speck ToughSkin for iPod with Video

Amazon has a rebate on Speck’s ToughSkin case for the iPod Nano (2nd generation - the ones with the metal case) or iPod with Video. The rebate makes the case free before shipping. If you don’t have Amazon Prime, ordering a book or CD or something else to bring the total to $25 or more will get you free shipping. Click on one of the two above to check it out on Amazon

The ToughSkin is a ruggedized case for your iPod that doesn’t just protect it from casual scratches when you throw it in your pocket or bag that’s full of coins and keys and bottle caps; it also protects it from being dropped or knocked to the floor. The case allows access to all the functions of the iPod, and includes a screen protector.

I’ve never yet met a case that would work in my iPod dock, unfortunately. I’ve read about a company doing a “dock extender”, which would lift the iPod slightly up from the dock so that you can dock it in its case. I don’t believe they’re shipping yet. In the meantime, I find it’s worth more to me to protect my iPod by keeping it in its case than it is to have it sit pretty in its dock.
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DasBoot is a free Macintosh utility that turns your iPod or USB flash drive into a bootable drive for your Mac. It also helps copy diagnostic and repair utilities onto the iPod or flash drive.

I checked it out… you need a bootable CDROM and an iPod or a flash drive. I believe that you can only create bootable flash drives on Intel Macintoshes, but you should be able to make bootable iPods on Intel or PPC machines.

Why do you want a bootable iPod or flash drive? Disk repair utilities generally can’t repair the volume you boot from, so if your Mac gets into trouble you’ll need to boot from a different disk than you normally do in order to try to fix it. Even if it’s not a disk problem, have a second device you can boot from is security against installing that piece of software that vomits all over your boot disk and leaves you to pick out the corn from the beans.
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Apple has dropped the prices on some Macintoshes, iPods and accessories today only, Friday November 24th. You can get a brand new MacBook or iMac for $101 off, an iPod nano for $21 off or a regular iPod for $31 off. They also have deals on car chargers, earphones, speakers, Office 2004 Standard Edition, .Mac, Parallels, the Airport Express base station and more.

Shipping should be free on most orders.

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Apple is offering several deals which can help save some dollars when you buy a Mac. Note that you need to buy everything together on the same invoice from the same store; the deals vary on where you can buy stuff from and still qualify for the rebate. And they are rebates - you’ll need to be fussy and clip UPC codes, save invoices, fill out forms and mail it all back to Apple.

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The AirPlay is an FM Transmitter for iPods which have a remote control jack - that would be most iPods up to but not including the current generation of iPods with video and the iPod nano’s or the iPod shuffle (but does include the iPod photo, U2 iPod, iPod mini and most other iPods).

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