We’ve seen all the rumours, and now it’s time to piece the puzzle together. Milind, Andy and Phil are here to voice out their expectations at the Macworld 09 keynote.

The possible candidates that might make the keynote include: iPhone Touch, Mac mini, iMac, 30” Cinema display, 17” MacBook Pro, Apple TV 3.0, iPhone OS update, Snow Leopard demo, Snow Leopard release, iPhone nano, iPod Touch 64GB, Mac media server, iWork and iLife, Mac Pro, iPhone teethering, and a whole bunch of other rumours we’ve seen in the past phew weeks (try saying that in one breath!). 

Phil Olin
MacWorld 2009, a whole 33 years since Apple was first started. We’ve seen many great products from Apple Inc., but what will we see Tuesday? My predictions? I know we’ll see a new Mac Mini. Its the only computer that hasn’t see a refresh since it was originally designed four years ago, and it’s due for an upgrade. iLife and iWork ‘09 should be there too. Cinema Displays, 17 MacBook Pro and maybe even a demo of Snow Leopard might make the cut. We definitely won’t see a iPhone nano, Verizon iPhone, or Steve Jobs on stage. 

Andy Bewernick
Well I’m not really all the experienced as to what Apple thinks and stuff. I may have been a Mac user all of my life but it’s only been in the recent  couple of years I’ve followed Apple the business. And realistically speaking, I don’t expect anything spectacular. I think we might possibly see an updated Mac mini and maybe some featured iPhone apps. For the finale I expect to see some sort of small update on Snow Leopard but nothing big, that should be saved for WWDC. All in all, it’s not going to be amazing, I’m sure Phil will do a good job but he won’t have the same effect that Jobs has on Macworld attenders. [Ed: This guy seems to have set his expectations to an all time low!]

Milind Alvares
Personally I’d like all the rumours to come true, but that’s not going to happen any time soon. iTablet and iPhone nano can both go straight out the window, not going to happen. The obvious Mac mini, iMac (at least spec bump), Cinema Displays and the iLife/iWork combo will definitely make the cut. I don’t think we’ll ‘see’ Snow Leopard as much as hearing about its progress. 

Other Sources

John Gruber at Daring Fireball has done an amazing job with the Macworld 09 predictions. I particularly like this idea about the next iPhone update being a 3.0 instead of 2.3. Recommended read. 

Gizmodo also has a fairly decent rumours roundup. They seem to have some details about a 28” super sized iMac. 

What’s your prediction for this Macworld 09? Join us in our live chat during the event as we all discover who made the worst predictions.

Well it’s been a fun year, Smoking Apples has been a blast to work with and I’ve had quite a year myself too. Preshit and Milind have given their top choices, I too have my own apps. Some have been here for a while and some are brand new. Either way I still love em’!

Mac

Skitch »
I love this app to death. When I had to reinstall my OS, Skitch was one of the first apps I reinstalled. I’m a heavy forum user and this is awesome for taking quick snapshots of something, adding a few drawings/text, and then uploading it to a site with the click of a button.

Cyberduck »
I’ve used this app off and on a few times but never hardcore. Now that I have my own website I’ve been finding it to be insanely useful, and it’s great because it’s also free. The interface is great along with the capability to edit my files with TextWrangler is just great.

Quicksilver »
This is probably the second app that I would have right away after I reinstall my OS. It’s made my “work” efficiency increase exponentially, and I’m not even using all the features! With the quick tap of Ctrl+Space I can quickly type in a few letters and start whatever app I want. Not only that but you can do some of the functions within each app with those triggers. It’s a free download and oh so worth it to check out.

Littlesnapper »
It’s like my backup to Skitch. I’ve used it mostly just to take quick snaps of websites, videos on YouTube and then sharing them through email and the forums. I just love the interface as well and it just screams Mac for me.

1Password »
I’m not very good with passwords and have resorted using the same one for years now (unsafe!!!). With 1Password I can have a randomly generated 12-16 character password for any site I go to without worrying about getting cracked or anything. My only worry now is what will happen if I lose all those passwords (of course I back them up to a physical medium just to be safe). Oh and it’s also got a free iPhone counterpart which is a plus.

iPhone

Fieldrunners »
Yes, I’m addicted. Tower Defense was the perfect time waster and now it’s been brought to the iPhone/iPod. The first version of the app was a little bare, no sound and only one map. It was still fun but later on the developers finally brought sound to the game along with a few other expansions. It’s graphically pretty, polished, challenging, and extremely addicting.

Frenzic »
I learned about this game from the review here on Smoking Apples. After a while of Milind constantly talking up this game I decided to check it out. Man is this game ever fun! I’ve played quite a few games and even had my Mother try (which she did terrible at it). It’s a great thing to do if you have a small amount of time and it’s extremely fast paced.

Things »
There have been few “to do list” apps on the iPhone. I’ve only tried a few of them (and the free ones at that), none have compared to that of Things. It’s got everything you could want from a to do list app. Great organization, easy to use, great at managing deadlines, and it’s got quite a few more things as well. Ten bucks might be a little steep but I think it’s still worth the buck.

Tweetie »
I’ve been using Twinkle for the longest time and I’ve recently tried Tweetie. It might not quite look as good as Twinkle but it’s got more features and I don’t feel quite so limited. Great for iPhone Twitter users.

BibleXpress »
This is the app that I had to do quite a bit of thinking on how to justify the $29.99 price tag. I’ve looked around at getting other Bibles on my iPod but they all are limited to using Wi-Fi. I want a Bible that is stored on my device and that’s exactly what BibleXpress is. It’s got quite a few translations included and the developer has been working hard on getting more. BibleXpress has a full feature set including bookmarks, notes for individual verses, and it’s all easy to navigate. Why does it cost so much though, well it’s gotta pay for the rights to have the different translations. This app is really only for the person who is going to use it consistently though, so it (obviously) isn’t for everyone.

As the year 2008 nears its end, the Smoking Apples team decided to go back and take a quick look at the apps that made a difference. While Milind has already listed out his choice of five apps that he discovered in 2008, here’s a list of the five apps that are definitely worth a mention. In this profession, you come across a ton of applications that you probably didn’t even know they existed. It’s only when you try them out, you realize what you’ve been missing all this while.

Mac

Mailplane »
As a freelance writer who also has his own business, I need to manage multiple email accounts. Mailplane gives the power to manage those with ease. Gmail + Mailplane combo is the best thing that happenned to me in 2008.

Coda »
Coda is the gem that every developer should possess. Editing files for multiple sites that you manage is pleasantly simple with Coda.

NetNewsWire »
As a freelance writer, you need to keep up with the news. This job had me subscribe to over a 100 feeds and I’m thamkful to NNW for making it so easy. Its syncing capability with newsgator online is a boon and the iPhone app is amazing.

CoverSutra / Boxee »
Coversutra, is without a doubt, the best iTunes extender out there. In fact, it was Milind who enlightened me about it and I’ve been using it ever since. Boxee, even though it is still in alpha, is a remarkable piece of software and I hope the year 2009 proves great to the ream behind Boxee. There are no better music / multimedia managers like these.

Littlesnapper »
Littlesnapper is to screenshots as Aperture is to a photographer. If you take enough of those, you need this brilliant app to manage them. And my job requires me to take multiple shots of every app I review.

iPhone

Mail »
The Mail app, that comes default on the iPhone, is one of my most important and frequently used apps on the phone. I’m really hoping we get email search soon.

Tweetie »
There is a reason I crowned it the Supreme Champion among the twitter clients for the iPhone. It gets better in version 1.2 which is still in beta.

Things »
Task Management couldn’t be any better. Even though it has a desktop counterpart, the iPhone version can well be used to get your things done.

iPhoneModem »
Not available on the App store, but certainly something you’d need if you’re a frequent traveller. (Jailbreak)

Qik »
Who says you cannot record video through your iPhone? (Jailbreak)

A friend recently asked me to recommend an article for app management. “There’s so many apps on my iPhone!” he said. Well since I didn’t find one, I thought I’d make one myself!

My friend has four home screens filled with apps. This is not something out of the ordinary, as most App Store addicts have no less than 5 home screens on their iPhones. A few even find the 9 screens to be restrictive. With over 10,000 apps in the App Store, it’s not hard to find yourself looking at such a large number of apps on your iPhone. Having all these apps not only makes your phone slow, it also makes it difficult to locate that any particular app.

Doing what I do, I install end up with a whole lot of apps on my iPhone, and the important thing I’ve realized is to have a plan. Without a plan, your iPhone experience will become very hectic.

My first bit of advice is to arrange your most used apps on your first screen. While most people will prefer to leave Apple’s default apps on the first screen, I say move them out. Apps like weather and Stocks make little sense in my world, so I move them away from the first screen. Instead I keep my twitter client Tweetie ($2.99), NetNewsWire, Airsharing ($6.99) among others, as the screenshot to the right explains.

Remember, the bottom four are also movable. And they are the four apps that stay the same across all the home screens. And since I hardly ever need to access all of my phone contacts, I’ve tucked in my speed dialing app Favorites ($1.99). If you have more than 9 contacts that you frequently dial, I’d suggest you try out Smart Dial ($0.99), recommended by our very own Aayush.

Another tip I’d like to mention is never to fill up your home screens. Always leave at least one empty space or better still two. This will make sure that your apps never change their place when you want install new apps or move them between home screens. I for one get lost when any app moves even a single block on any of my home screens.

I have three key home screens. The first one is the one for those that I need at an instant. The second screen is for those apps that I need every so often, but not necessarily at the touch. The App Store, Maps, Facebook, and Record feature on this screen. I try to keep my third screen for games. And the fourth one is for those that I cannot delete – why do we have that useless Contacts app? – and for those that I’m not sure about. If I don’t access them often enough, off they go!

That’s it for my iPhone app management techniques, and I hope at least some of it makes sense. That said, I’d really like to know what methods you guys use to manage the 100s of apps that we come across.

If your closest Apple store is several hours away, I feel for you, but you have a few other places you can get one. If you have a local Best Buy, you can pick one up there, for the same price as at an Apple store.

I was looking through the Sunday ads today, and noticed a Mac Optimization package on the Mac page. For $40, you can get your new Mac optimized by Best Buy’s Geek Squad. Now I’ve been using Macs all my life, and unlike PCs, I’ve never had to “optimize” it right out of the box. I’ve done other things, like remove printer drivers and unneeded languages, but that’s about it. 

Besides, when you first get your Mac, you’ll want to enjoy the great opening Welcome movie. If you let Best Buy “optimize” it, you won’t get to enjoy that. But to top it off, unless something has significantly changed, the Geek Squad knows nothing about Macs [Ed: A little research shows that they don’t know much about PCs as well]. I had a roommate in college that worked at a Geek Squad, and still does, and he couldn’t do anything with my iMac, much less optimize it.

If you are about to purchase your first Mac, and happen to do it at Best Buy, please do not purchase their optimization. If you are having any problems or need any help setting up your new Mac, I can point to you many places to help, Smoking Apples being one of them. Oh, and if you need anything, our number is genius@ourdomain.com.

I love receiving email. I created my first email account on Rediffmail about eight years ago. For about five years after that, email remained a novelty for me. I made ridiculous accounts with childish IDs and changed them as frequently as I did clothes. Instant messaging was the big deal at that time and, since I had been a student of an all boys schools all my life, getting to waste half an hour with a girl on IM used to be the high point of my day (yeah, lame, I know). Right from that time, all those years ago, I’ve had a deep seated love for those notifications that I had received a new email message.

It’s no surprise, therefore, that when I first read Joe Kissell’s suggestion over at Macworld that you should “empty your inbox”, I wasn’t exactly enthused by the idea of reading the entire article, which itself would only be the first one in a multi-part series. Despite my preconceived misgivings, however, I ploughed on and read the first article, and then the next one, and eventually the entire series. At the end of the day, Mr. Kissell had me convinced. Continue Reading »

Mac users swear by iTunes. While Windows users swear at it.

When the Windows version of iTunes was introduced back in 2003, Steve said, ‘iTunes for Windows is probably the best Windows app ever written”. I respectfully disagree.

iTunes on Windows is something that I dread using. Considering iPod users are forced to use iTunes, it makes me wonder how the iPod became the most popular music player in the world. Similarly, mention Quicktime to any Windows user and prepare to be amused with the amount of hate this little application has. Just to be clear, on the Mac one cannot live without Quicktime. 

If you take a good look at both the applications, you will notice that both are very similar to their Mac counterparts. What makes them suck so much on Windows and work so amazingly on the Mac? And more importantly, what opinion does this leave Windows users of Apple’s applications?

No matter how much Steve Jobs complains about how difficult the Windows coding environment, the end user finds a buggy, slow application which doesn’t work half as good as the other offerings on Windows. Quicktime is only installed as a necessary evil for when the average user wants to pay a quicktime trailer. iTunes on the other hand gets installed because of its iPod fame. But even a Core 2 Duo cannot render the Cover flow interface of iTunes like a 1.33Ghz iBook G4 does.

Quicktime on Windows of course is nearly non functional. First of all are the ‘Buy Me!’ nags that show on launch (which Mac users never see). Second, hardly any formats work in Quicktime! On the Mac we have Perian and a bunch of other codecs that make playing video very easy. On Windows Quicktime cannot be customised beyond its preferences.

One thing Apple is doing right, is Safari. The browser has proven to be quite a competitor on Windows. Although it lacks support from third party plugin makers, it still is very speedy and feature rich to compete with the rest of the browsers. Most of the non-geeks I have recommended Safari to have spoken only good words for this browser. I was hoping that iTunes 8 would tell a similar tale, but alas, it just gets slower.

However, there’s still hope. Apple is putting Leopard on a diet, and will soon release Snow Leopard (that’s not how it works in nature though). With Snow Leopard, Apple is removing all the junk code, and putting in some new technologies, and rewriting some of the existing code of applications. Basically making it built for speed and the future.

I do hope that in this grand scheme of things, Apple cleans out the code of Quicktime and iTunes on Windows so that Windows users realise what they are missing (and make it more bearable when we are forced to use a PC). Make them feel like the only two Windows applications that are worth looking at, are made by Apple. Make them want to use Quicktime and iTunes, by choice, not by force. Make them want to switch to a Mac and be done with all that mess.

Over at livemint.com, Priyanka Mehra and Shauvik Ghosh have a story on how and why the iPhone failed to take off in India, and boy, a truer article I’ve never read! Apple either doesn’t understand the Indian market at all or just doesn’t care about it. They’ve never really paid any attention to their flailing Mac business out here or tried to make the iPod as much of a household name as it is in the USA. Now that it’s a mobile phone we’re talking about, they’re finding it difficult to gain a foothold in the country with the fastest growing cellphone industry in the world. And it serves them right.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love Apple’s products—everything from the hardware design to the tiniest level of software minutia to the integration between their various products is incredibly well thought out and implemented. However, when it comes to aggressively pricing and marketing their products, the only country they seem to give a damn about is the United States.

How else can one explain the lack of the Apple Online Store, the iTunes Store (one that actually sells music and movies like it’s supposed to), or even a single Apple Retail Store? How can one explain the huge disparity in the prices of all Apple products out here when compared to their USA counterparts? How can one explain the complete lack of any advertisement directly from Apple in any form in the second most populous country in the world?

Apple doesn’t care about the Indian market and it has now come to bite them in the, er, posterior end. At least this one time, I’m glad to see Apple not being a success and people not taking a liking to an Apple product. And the fact that it makes my iPhone unique is only a small part of that. What makes me glad, primarily, is the hope that they will perhaps start taking India a little more seriously now.

What Apple needs to do now is get off the proverbial high horse and face the music. They need to realise that when their CEO climbs up onstage at one of the most high profile technology events of the year and declares that the iPhone will be priced at $199 or less all over the world, their world map had better include India as well.

Furthermore, it’s high time Apple came to terms with the fact that you aren’t really in the cellphone business until you’ve managed to infiltrate the school and college campuses of India. And for that to happen, they need to add the capability to forward text messages pronto. We also need video recording, Bluetooth (that actually works), and copy-paste, but these can be dealt with later. But if you want your product to be in the hands of the millions of teenage prepaid SIM card users out here, it better be able to pass on that not-quite-so-funny joke they just received to everyone on their contact list.

Of course, it is entirely possible that Apple still plans to keep things the way they are currently and is happy with their slice of the Indian market pie, no matter how small it may be. If that is the case, well, it’s just more bad news for us Indians. But something tells me that’s not the case anymore. I do not think that a man like Steve Jobs and a company like Apple would be foolish enough to willingly allow Nokia easy access to the pockets of the millions of smartphone users out here. Sooner or later, Apple will get serious about India. It’s just a matter of time.

Watch this space for updates.

Those of you following our twitter feed will be knowing by now, that Balmer made a comment about adopting Webkit for Internet Explorer.

Addressing a developer conference in Sydney Australia, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s ”Developers! Developers! Developers!” chant was met by a student question, ”Why is IE still relevant and why is it worth spending money on rendering engines when there are open source ones available that can respond to changes in Web standards faster?”

“That’s cheeky, but a good question, but cheeky,” Ballmer said. “Open source is interesting. Apple has embraced Webkit and we may look at that, but we will continue to build extensions for IE 8.”

So is Microsoft actually looking into adopting WebKit or was it a deflective answer? My guess is the latter. For one, Microsoft has already spent too much time with their Trident rendering engine set to feature in IE 8. The betas has been out for a long time now, and the final version should be out soon. Moving to a different engine would delay the whole process.

Secondly, what of those websites which are designed with IE in mind? Moving to a different rendering engine would again create compatibility issues that both customers and developers aren’t going to take well. And considering the reaction to Vista, Microsoft will always be scared that this will create even more switchers. Of course, when Apple does something like this, the users learn to deal with it, which is ideally the way it is supposed to be. 

Having said that however, the WebKit switch would be ideal for IE. For one, they don’t have to look too much into development of the engine, as Apple is actively developing the open source engine. They could instead spend more time on adding proprietary features to the browser. The engine is super fast, standards compliant, and passes the Acid3 test with flying colours. The benefits are endless!

What’s your take on this? Should we consider this bit of news as ‘news’, or do we just print it out, fold it and throw it in the trash?

With the release of the new MacBooks, Apple has done away with the matte screens on its 15-inch MacBook Pros and is only offering the glossy option. Currently, the only matte displays in Apple’s entire lineup are the old Cinema Displays and the one on the 17-inch MacBook Pro, both of which may soon be upgraded to glossy as well. 

This has obviously triggered a lot of whining in the very vocal Apple community. By the looks of it, everyone seems to want matte. So I decided to do a survey, asking only those who have actually purchased either of the new notebooks which display they preferred. I posed the question to our Twitter followers, scoured the Internet forums, and personally confirmed each of the statements. 

Surprisingly, most of the users I spoke to are not worried about the glossy screens. [Update: Look at the comments! People hate them!] Aside from comments on popular blogs (which I can’t confirm), I couldn’t find any MacBook user who was not satisfied with the display. Here are just some of the replies I got for the new glossy displays.

“I was worried about glossy screen due to the whining, but I dont have any problems except for few more fingerprints and some glare,” says one of the replies on Twitter.

“If you ‘look’ at the glare, then you can see it. But if you can get that out of your head, the glare is almost non visible. And if the reflection is too much, just tilting the screen a bit makes it go away. I was very disappointed at first when they said glossy only, but the display is so bright and vivid that I just can’t think of going back to a matte display,” answers another new MacBook owner. 

“It’s *beautiful* but the glass gets dirty easily and definitely has glare problems,” says another reply on Twitter. Fingerprints are a major complaint when it comes to the glass displays. However, note that cleaning the glass screen of the new MacBook is much easier since the glass extends right to the edges. 

“I’ve used the MacBook Pro in bright sunlight, and it still is awesome. They are all just whining.”

“It took me about 2 days to get used to the glass. Now when I go back to my old powerbook all the colors are dull. It’s an odd feeling.”

“It’s awful. Makes me giddy looking at two different things at the same time. I’m giving this back and getting a cheap MacBook Pro from Amazon.” Yeah, just about the only negative comment I could get (coupled with the one above). 

For those looking to cut the glare, a lot of people have suggested Photodon’s Anti-glare films for the MacBook and the MacBook Pro. [Ed note: For what it’s worth, no matter what anyone may say, I will never be in favour of a glossy display. I’ve kept my 17-inch MacBook Pro next to several MacBooks with glossy displays and I just cannot imagine myself having to use the latter for any length of time.]

What’s your ‘GlossBook’ story? Have you held off from buying the new notebooks because of the glossy displays or are you looking forward to the sharper, more vivid display?