Anyone prone to prognostication should reflect on the fall’s warnings about the winter of 11-12. Because it is a La Ninny (oops, La Niña) year, we were urged to prepare for bone-chilling temps and snow-shovelling-induced back pain. (See AccuWeather.com Winter 2011-2012 Forecast: Another Brutal One, October 13). Somewhere, no doubt, the winter was worse than normal, but I don’t remember (maybe that’s the problem right there) seeing many reports of said suffering—in BC or elsewhere in North America. Europe endured a bad dose for a while, but overall, did those dire warnings come true?
We often report predictions and trends in the world of computers / high tech. Our guesses are about as accurate as the long-range weather estimates. Like feckless meteorologists, we don’t let past performance daunt our delving into divination, especially when we’re trying to predict what Apple Inc. is up to. Will we see the iPad 3 this month? Will the iPad 2 still be available as a cheaper alternative? Will there be a mini-iPad in 2012? And will the long awaited iPhone 5 be born at last? Despite loads of rumours, there were no official announcements to mull as this epistle went to press.
Like many of you, we purchased an iPad 2 at the end of the year, and we’re delighted with it. How much better can the iPad 3 be? For starters, we can anticipate a faster, more capable “brand spanking new” quad-core ARM processor, the Apple A6. There’s also evidence that iP3 will come equipped with Retina Display providing double the clarity and brightness of what’s already very good on the iP2. Some pundits predict a camera as good as the one on the iPhone 4S. Don’t figure the iP3 to be thinner and lighter than its predecessor, however. Expect a larger battery to power the extra features. And, always, get ready for the unexpected!
We do know, however, that Apple has released the developers’ version of its next OS for the Mac—OS 10.8. Note, ‘Mac’ has been dropped from the package name. Now it’s just OS X, version 10.8. Those wondering what the Mothership was going to do as it runs out of names of big cats associated with the first seven iterations of Mac OS X (Cheetah, Puma, Jaguar, Panther, Tiger, Leopard, Snow Leopard, Lion) will be amused (bemused, perhaps) to see that 10.8 is codenamed “Mountain Lion.” Hmmm, we thought a ‘puma’ was a ‘mountain lion,’ aka ‘cougar,’ and sometimes even a ‘panther.’ Apple code namers should get out in the wilderness more and talk to us old-timers! What happened to Canadian Lynx or Bobcat or Ocelot? All too small for such a grandiose vision, we suppose.
Insiders suggest that Mountain Lion will be released to the masses this summer. Initial probing of the developers’ release shows that it continues Lion’s trend towards further integration with iOS5, Apple’s operating system for iPhones, iPods, and iPads. Whether there will also be a radically new iMac released along with it is sheer speculation at the moment. If you want to monitor this development, we recommend MacWorld’s website.
Last December, in TechRepublic (online), Jack Wallen describes “10 technologies that are just plain broken.” He includes QuickBooks, Flash, Web browsers, Outlook, Predictive typing, Consumer-grade antivirus, and multi-touch desktop computers (like HP’s, where a vertical monitor can be touched like a tablet). “What we need,” Warren gripes, is a desktop “with a built-in multi-touch display on a horizontal surface. This position would be far more natural and ergonomic than any other and would really help make multi-touch feasible and desirable. But for now, multi-touch on the desktop is nothing more than a gimmick.”
So, lets poke through the bones and entrails scattered in the mud: is that a new “desktop Mac” whose multi-touch display can slide from vertical into a horizontal or slightly angled position— a built-in, not 7- inch, but 27-inch, fancier, more capable iPad-like device running Mountain Lion? Oh, and will it employ HTML 5 instead of Flash, need no anti-virus software (unless you’re running Windows), and provide a newer, better version of Safari than we’ve ever seen?
If we’re right, how well will that sell?