MacRumors

This Sun-Times article discusses what technologies to expect to hit it big in 2004.

The author speculates that Wide screen/HD TV, Portable Media centers, Home Media Centers, and PVRs will capture the limelight this year.

In discussing the prospect of Portable Media Centers ("iPod on Steroids"), the article states that another Microsoft-Apple battle may be coming, claiming that "Apple is testing a device in Silicon Valley".

Steve Jobs had discussed reasons why he doubted portable video players would approach the success of portable audio players. Of course, Jobs teases "Now, I'm not saying we're not working on something like that, Who knows what we've got in our labs?".

Apple seeded Mac OS X 10.3.3 7F38 on Thursday to developers. Key enhancements are said to include:

- network volumes are now available in the Finder sidebar and Desktop for convenient access
- improved file sharing and directory services for Mac (AFP), UNIX (NFS) and PC (SMB/CIFS) networks
- improved PostScript and USB printing
- improved font management
- updated Disk Utility, DVD Player, Image Capture, Mail and Safari applications
- iPods connected via USB 2.0 are now recognized by iTunes and iSync
- additional support for FireWire and USB devices
- new ATI and NVIDIA graphics drivers
- improved compatibility for third party applications
- FileVault, FireWire 800 and WebDAV improvements from Update 10.3.1
- previous standalone security updates and Bluetooth Update 1.5

USA Today reports that the Pepsi-iTunes promotion hasn't delivered on a large spike of digital sales -- yet.

The reason is that the bottles have taken longer than expected to get into general circulation.

According to USA Today, they only arrived in New York last week and have yet to show up in Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Pepsi expects a 10-20% redemption rate for the promotion, which could bring Apple's total sales to date up to 75 million from the current estimate of 52 million songs.

MacWorld.co.uk reports on Apple's Fred Anderson and Peter Oppenheimer's talk at Morgan Stanley's Semiconductor and Systems conference (web stream).

Unlike last year ("year of the laptop"), Anderson claims no specific theme this year but a focus on growth with three key drivers -- "portable mobility and wireless communications; the digital lifestyle and music, iPod, iPod mini and iTunes Music Store".

Anderson also hints that there are more alliances in the works (beyond Pepsi, HP and AOL), but that there is nothing to announce yet.

According to one unconfirmed source, Federal Express may be looking to make a significant purchase of Macs to replace their current PCs.

Reportedly, the move is under consideration due to the recent wave of viruses that have swept the PC world.

While Macs are not inherently immune to virus attacks, most viruses have been written on the Windows/PC platform.

At least one New Zealand reseller is advertising a $99 NZ Dollar (~$66 USD) 20GB iPod with purchase of a PowerBook.

While the site is not an official division of Apple, we've received word that the offer is an official Apple promotion.

It's unclear, however, whether or not this promotion will be offered to other countries in the future.

Update: Apple Australia (MacMall.com.au) is also offering a $99 AUS 20GB iPod Deal (with Powerbook Purchase).

Apple also updated iDVD to 4.0.1 today:

This software update will upgrade your version of iDVD 4 to iDVD 4.0.1. This update is highly recommended for all users of iDVD 4 and will provide for improved reliability when authoring and burning DVDs.

This is the first iDVD update since the release of iLife in January.

In your Software Update:

The AirPort 3.3.1 Update improves the reliability of AirPort connections when changing network locations. The update is recommended for all users with an AirPort Extreme and AirPort enabled computer or an AirPort Extreme base station.

Apple last updated Airport Software in January.

Appleinsider provides some vague notes about the upcoming PowerMac and PowerBook updates.

According to the rumor site, PowerMac and PowerBook updates are reportedly delayed until late March and late April, respectively. Specs for the upcoming revisions are unclear, but Appleinsider points to ATI video card supplies as a possible reason for the delay.

Meanwhile, according to an unverified MacRumors source, the PowerMac G5 delays are reportedly related to difficulties with cooling in the faster machines.

While no specifics are available, one would assume that Apple will be using the new PowerPC 970FX in upcoming PowerMac revisions. The 90nm chip should run cooler than its 130nm counterpart.

ThinkSecret provides some hints that Apple will be expanding its retail presence with the launch of "mini" Apple Retail stores.

Some of the new stores will apparently be located near college campuses to help boost educational sales.

Further details and locations are unavailable.

Following Motorola's announcement of the 1.5GHz PowerPC G4 processor, eWeek spoke with Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of hardware product marketing.

While unable to speak of future products, Joswiak was positive about Apple's relationship with Motorola indicated that he felt Apple use of Motorola processors would continue into the future.

The most appealing feature cited of the new Motorola Processor was its ability to provide reasonable performance while requiring relatively low power.

The Inquirer reported over the weekend that the Software Development Kit for the upcoming Xbox 2 is being seeded to developers "on dual Apple Power Mac G5 systems running a custom Windows NT Kernel."

It was previously announced that Microsoft had chosen the PowerPC as the processor for their upcoming gaming system.

Meanwhile, Windows NT for PowerPC is something that existed in the past, but was dropped.

Apple's San Francisco Apple Store opened this weekend.

Unique to this opening was the sale of Lucky Bags containing Apple products. The $250 bags were said to contain between $600-$1000 of products, but the contents were secret.

One reader posted about his Lucky Bags.

According to natekendrick, there were at least 3 variations of the Lucky Bags. All bags contained iLife, Keynote, .Mac subscription, 10% Discount card, Bluetooth USB adapter, Wireless Mouse, and a Wireless Keyboard. Beyond this, some bags contained an Airport Extreme, an iPod Mini or a 20GB iPod.

Photos of the Bag Contents.

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This blog reports on an unconfirmed rumor that Apple may be stepping up to negotiate with at least one college to provide iTunes Music service to their students.

According to the blog, Northeastern University "is negotiating to buy a predetermined number of downloads at the reduced rate from iTMS so that its students will be encouraged not to download songs off P2P networks."

So far Napster has found success in negotiating deals with universities to provide their unlimited streaming service for college students. Apple's iTunes does not share a similar flat-fee/unlimited access model, however, so its unclear how such a deal would be implemented.