in 1 year

More iApps probably.

In relation to the thread on the Danger hiptop softphone/PDA, Apple should license a version of that and add 3 key features - 1) AirPort (or 2.4GHz wireless) 2) FireWire and 3) SIP protocol support.

SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is really important. That and H.323 support are is the key for enabling voice applications on desktops and PDAs. As companies move to Voice-over-IP it enables a whole bunch of options because much of it can be done in software. For example, there is a SIP client for iPaq PDAs that turns it into a wireless phone over 802.11, that you can use in a company environment over a wireless LAN, it becomes an extension of your desktop phone.

We've tested this sort of thing, 2 of our engineers brought Cisco IP phones home and they called each other directly over IP, through broadband connections. It's an end-run around phone companies and long distance charges ;))

It would be great to have an iPhone (www.iphone.org) that could be an extension of your home phone at home, and logs in as your office phone at work ;)

Apple should look at incorporating a lot of VoIP technologies into OS X - there are a lot of telephony code stacks for Linux and System V Unix that could be ported. So far, only one company, Dialpad, has a VoIP client for OS X.

A software iPhone on every OS X desktop would be a big value add when selling to Fortune 500; they could beef up H.323 support so that OS X users could videoconference seamlessly with Windows and *nix users; they could license some technology and even replace that horrible FaxSTF application with a Personal Fax-over-IP solution.

For networks and LAN administrators, they could license and market their own VoIP softswitch and voicemail system (call it Phone Studio Pro :) - or at least make sure iPhone hardware/software is interoperable with industry-standard VoIP gear like Cisco, VocalData etc.

Other than that, I'd love to see Apple buy Ableton Live and sell it as iMusic (www.ableton.com) - the thing just looks like it was made for OS X (and it is!) ---

and there hasn't been a decent basic Web-design app since Claris Home Page. I suggest the WebObjects team could come out with iWeb, a graphical IDE with plenty of templates and drag-and-drop code objects to let even beginners do sophisticated design as simple as Lego - WYSIWYG layout, easy forms/buttons/scripting, rollovers, graphics optimization, imagemaps, tables, and full support for CSS/layers etc. There could be "Upload to iDisk..." and "Publish to /Public" commands for one-step internet/intranet publishing. In a similar way to Freeway it might allow the import of any graphic type as "layers" and then it would use the Quartz engine to flatten them and export an optimized image / CSS layers.
 
Um...either G5s or really revved-up next-gen G4s (2GHz+) with piles of AltiVec units in dual and quad configs, using Hypertransport and DDR RAM.

Rackmount or blade server Macs, and real fault-tolerant standalone servers (hot-swap, clustering, redundancy, etc.)

Seamless support for Joliet format CDs and NTFS in OS X.

Options to turn off antialiasing and drop shadows in Aqua (performance/speed slider?)

The return of alternate-line shading in the Finder (as seen in the iTunes window), and some way when you are browsing in columns mode for the leftmost column to not jump off the screen, preventing you from seeing where you were :mad:

GameCube emulator ;)
 
I think Apple will have G5s out by next March, but if not, they will definitely have very fast G4s (1.6 GHz+). Also, probably OS 10.5 or 11, or whatever the next big update after 10.2 will be. There will also be upgrades to all the iApps, and probably some new ones. Also, I would think there would definitely be G4s in the iBooks by then, and a big update to the iPod (10 gigs at least, new features) but I'm guessing that'll happen as early as MW Tokyo.

I definitely think we'll see some very cool and exciting things from Apple in the next year. :)

Adam
 
I think Apple is appropriately taking it's time with this build cycle of MacOS X. MacOS X 10.3.x will be out with rumors of OS X 10.5 for MWNY. We won't see 11 until mid-2004 at the earliest, with my money on the beginning of 2005.

The G5 will be out, although won't be running at 2GHz yet. Probably a top speed of 1.6GHz. Probably something like Dual 1.4GHz, 1.6GHz, and 1.33GHz models.

An iDevice digital camera will exist, and iPhoto will have been updated to version 2 to work with it. The iPod 3 will have been released as well or released very soon.

New PowerBooks, possibly made of magnesium (black) like the NeXT cube will be running G4 Apollos with G5s released in the summer of 2003. New material for the iBooks, although still white, which have been updated with G4s and all moved to a 14.1" screen except the lowest model.

Final Cut Pro 4 announced recently moves ahead leaps and bounds again, supplemented with technology from Shake and Tremor. Apple announces some graphics work for Star Wars Episode 3 is done with Final Cut Pro.

QuickTime 6, with MPEG-4 support. QuickTime catches up to Real and is expected to surpass it within a year.

Apple buys Discreet and Palm... rumors circulate about Apple buying Adobe. Rumors circulate about an Apple PDA, although are once again let down, although proven to have basis come 2004. Technology from BeOS incorporated into the MacOS 11 thread. MacOS X 10.5 catches up to FreeBSD, matching FreeBSD 5.x.

Apple Stores open in India and Europe.

Apple joins a lawsuit against Microsoft when Microsoft attempts to end development of Office for X. Includes the BeOS lawsuit into the same suit.

Classic put to rest. Carbon updated to be comparable to Cocoa.

iMac updated, same basic form kept although minor engineering improvements. Sorry, no 17". 17" comes out in 2004.

That's all I have time for now... I'll read some more of Steve's mind later.

Cheers,
Dak
 
Eh, I got all giddy and excited when I hit www.iphone.org and it redirected me to apple.com, but then again -- WHY in the world would Apple register a .org website? Why would their internet phone appliance, supposedly the iphone, be an organization? Apple has the money and the power to get iphone.com.

I think someone registered it and had it point to Apple's DNS servers. Simple as that. Looking on register.com, it looks like some dude named Kenneth registered it, and it looks like he works at Apple.

It IS weird, though. What's this dude Kenneth doing with that site?
 
Domain Name: IPHONE.COM
Registrar: GO DADDY SOFTWARE, INC.
Whois Server: whois.godaddy.com
Referral URL: http://registrar.godaddy.com
Name Server: NS1.NACIO.COM
Name Server: NS.NET10.NET
Updated Date: 08-nov-2001


Domain Name: IPHONE.ORG
Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, INC.
Whois Server: whois.networksolutions.com
Referral URL: http://www.networksolutions.com
Name Server: NSERVER2.APPLE.COM
Name Server: NSERVER.APPLE.COM
Updated Date: 21-dec-2001
 
this iPhone.org topic is mentioned again and again... getting a bit tired of it.

However,

I loved Dak RIT's post.... some good prognostication there.

I too long to see some cool VoIP tech in MacOSX... it would be time to ditch Sprint!
 
Apple's pet ISP could all of a sudden be Mac OS X's telephone service.

And if they follow my recommendations and...ahem...fund the porting of a certain fax-over-IP solution (which already works with Macs through Web browsers) from a company that shall remain nameless (see www button below :)...

then Mac OS X can get unified messaging, wireless telephony/data, and VoIP / FoIP in one swell foop.

*foop*!
 
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