Welcome to iPhone Analysts vs. the Magic 8-Ball, where we take the often outlandish, sometime surreal predictions of iPhone analysts and pundits, blogeratti and the ‘net elite, and compare them to the potentially equally precise prognostications of a… magic 8-ball (running on an iPhone, of course!)

This edition checks back post-Let’s Rock to see was right, and what’s still left!

• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event disappoint? Yes TIE!
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple release new MacBooks (Pro/Air)? Very doubtful TIE!
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple unveil a new Apple TV DVR? Ask again later WASH!
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple unveil an iTablet/MacBook Touch? Very Doubtful 8-BALL WINS!
• iLounge: Is the thicker, more tapered iPod Touch for realz? Yes TIE!
• Ars Technica: Will iPhone 2.1 contain “secret” features? Don’t count on it 8-BALL WINS!
• MacRumors/Kevin Rose: Is Magnetosphere the new, trippy iTunes Visualizer? It is certain TIE!
• Microsoft/Seinfeld: Will the new TV commercial help Vista? Very Doubtful 8-BALL WINS! (yeah, it’s like that!)
• Kevin Rose: Apple Event on September 9th? “Very doubtful” KEVIN WINS!
• Kevin Rose: Firmware 2.1 debuting on sleeker iPod Touch? “Most likely” TIE!
• Kevin Rose: iTunes 8 with music recommendations? “Cannot predict now” (asked again…) Most likely TIE!
• Kevin Rose: New, candy-bar Nano with rounded widescreen? “It is certain” TIE!
• Kevin Rose: Massive iPod price drops across the line? “Don’t count on it” TIE!-ish (price cuts, but nothing great)
• Kevin Rose: Mac OS X with Blu-Ray? “Ask again later” (asked again…) “Ask again later”
• iDealsChina: GPS for the iPod Touch? “Cannot predict now” (asked again…) “Reply hazy” WASH!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Analysts vs. Magic 8-Ball: Post Let’s Rock Round-Up!

Jim Goldman over at CNBC.com scored a one-on-one, on camera interview with Steve Jobs, fresh off the stage from Apple’s “Let’s Rock” event.

Jobs chats iPods, ‘natch, and after (and off-camera) joked that rumors of his ill-health were being spread by “hedge funds with a big short position in Apple.” Other than that? He could stand to gain a few pounds. Maybe the stress on uber-thin products is just creating a little negative peer pressure?

Love him or hate him, Jobs is the soul of Apple, and its great to see him in action again.

Head on over to CNBC.com for the video…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Jobs Speaks! One on One with CNBC.com

Missed all the news this morning? Well now is your chance to watch today’s Keynote given by none other than Mr. Steve Jobs. And I am glad to report he is alive and well!

Head on over to Apple’s web site and check it out!

After watching it let us know what you think in the comments or head over to the forums and discuss firmware 2.1 available this Friday!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

“Let’s Rock” Keynote Now Streaming via Apple.com

It wasn’t MacWorld 2007, was it? Too much hype, too little delivery? Rumors of secret features and analysts wetting themselves over lower-margin product revelations set the bar too high? Or did Apple just decide to slip under it this time?

Either way, for iPhone lovers like we here at TiPb, Apple spared only about 10 seconds worth of attention. Highlights were limited to Firmware 2.1, which will be available Friday and include better battery life, less crashy apps, and… working 3G?!

Apple’s already made their money for the year on the iPhone, however, so it was time to pump the holiday purses: iPod Nano and iPod Touch. Read on for pics and the full roundup!

Kevin Rose must be smirking, see how several of his predictions came true, at least to some degree.

The Nano has the new/old Tall-Boy widescreen form factor, and comes complete with iTunes 8 compatible Genius music recommendations and playlists, and accelerometer, shake to shuffle, and more colors than a bag of skittles (no, I’ll never tire of that visual).

The Touch looks to be positioned directly against the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, with Spore and Need for Speed featured, along with built-in Nike+ integration, and the same Genius features as the Nano (and the iPhone, right Steve?!)

The Classic gets a one-size-fits all reduction to 120GB only, and the Genius features.

Updated: And iTunes 8, which will be available today, wraps it all together along with skim-able grid view, accessibility improvements, HD TV, the return of NBC (on bended knee?), trippy new Visualizations, and full on Pandora/Last.fm-style recommendations, as rumored.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPod Takes Center Stage At Lame-ish “Let’s Rock” Event

Welcome one and all to the iPhone Blog’s Live Meta-Blog for Tuesday, September 9th Apple pre-Holiday Event: Let’s Rock.

Well, are you ready to rock, TiPb style? The event is now over, but if you want the full play-by-play coverage of the coverage, along with the unique analysis, color, and insight only the TiPb writing team can provide, check it out in reverse chronological order, after the break:

11:05: Steve: “Thanks, and don’t let the lack of really big iPhone news hit you on the Apps on the way out!”

Thanks everyone!

JEREMY: No mention of any hidden features. That is sort of a let down. Dang rumors…

JEREMY: I’d say forget the Touch and go straight to a iPhone. Sure you have a monthly fee but come on… internet, phone, iPod all wrapped into one device? Does it get better? Not really.

CHAD: OMGZ, JJ is singing another song… zzz

Another song! If the event isn’t over, that’ll kill it right there!

CHAD: There may not be one more thing afterall..

No Boom?

11:00: Steve, a little help? One more thing? Heard of it?

Would anyone buy a Touch now instead of, or in addition to, and iPhone at $199?

What, no John Mayer??

JEREMY: I’m actually very pleased with the sound of this firmware. And Friday? I’ll take it.

CHAD: I can’t believe Steve spent all of 30 seconds talking about the iPhone. Waiting for “One more thing”….

JEREMY: Again… poor poor Dieter. [For missing this!]

CHAD: Well, that was a disappointing 10 seconds spent on the iPhone, now Steve is talking about the iPod again.

JEREMY: Finally the good stuff! iPhone update this Friday!

Less app crashes, less lost calls, big bug fixes, longer battery life. Available FRIDAY!

10:48:FIRMWARE 2.1!!!

CHAD: Who needs a PSP now, LOL!

8GB: $229. 16GB $299. 32GB: $399. Why still have an 8GB? To get more people on the platform for $40 less?

iPod Touch: 36hrs music, 6hrs. video. Greenpeace please don’t hurt us!

JEREMY: Need for Speed… November. Graphics look amazing.

CHAD: Enough game demos Phil… The soccer game does look good though… move along Whoa! Need for Speed Undercover looks hot!

JEREMY: Still on games… Why do they torture us so?

JEREMY: Ok we have all seen Spore, lets move onto the good stuff. iPhone firmware anyone?

Phil’s still playing Spore…

Chad’s investigating. Pending feature?

JEREMY: Maybe I’m wrong but with the iPod Touch version you can go online? Not a option for iPhone. Makes no sense.

JEREMY: Demo of Spore. Really is a cool game. I have to admit.

Phil Schiller’s on stage. Unreleased games. Where’s Carmack??!!

Spore Origins. Will it look like Ballmer??

Demo time!

CHAD: NIke+ receiver is built into the Touch. Awesome.

JEREMY: You think the iPhone 3g scratches easily… This iPod looks like it’s going to be a lot worse.

700 games on App Store. 100 Million Apps. (How many CrApps? Insert joke here!)

No wireless N yet. Scratch that differentiator…

CHAD: Better release this for the iPhone or Chad smash!

Stronger, better, faster, artwork for albums. Nicer UI

Built in Nike+…

CHAD: Volume control and speaker for the iPod Touch. Good idea! Whoda thunk?

I guess the leaks on the Touch were spot on to. Someone in the iPod division is so going to get Steved!

CHAD: iPod Touch now looks like a silver iPhone. Cool.

Same display, thinner iPod Touch, aluminum…

10:30: iPod Touch!

NEW AD!

The button ear-phone, a la iPhone had to happen…

CHAD: Apple in ear headphones for $79? Hmm, k

$149 for 8GB, $199 for 16GB. No $99 for Chad…

CHAD: I was hoping the process would be less… where is my $99 Nano? However, 16GB for $200 isn’t too bad

JEREMY: 8 gig Nano’s in stock today.

CHAD: holy rainbow of Nano colors batman. What took so long for this?

CHAD: I like the orange

Nano chromatic: More colors than a bag’o’skittles!

BRIAN: D’oh! Stuck in meetings!

Environmentally friendly, but Greenpeace will make them a strawman full of forks anyway…

CHAD: So, 1 model of classic (120GB)…

24hrs music, 4hrs video. Nice.

Nice metaphor. New photo viewing to.

CHAD: Shake to shuffle, cute.

Nano is the most popular iPod, and Apple’s bread and butter over the holidays. Makes sense to emphasize it first.

CHAD: Steve Jobs has an 80yo man’s hands.

JEREMY: Nano also has voice recorder when it detects a microphone attached.

Calendar, stopwatch, voice rec., Demo time!

CHAD: sideways accelerometer cover flow. cool.

Same footprint as the 1st and 2nd gen Nano.

CHAD: iPod Nano= accelerometer and curved glass, Genius playlists? say it ain’t so Steve!

JEREMY: Plus it has a accelerometer.

Nano can has accelerometer… It’ll need it!

JEREMY: Kevin Rose finally was right about some stuff. iPod Nano is just like the leaked pics.

Same display, thinnest iPod ever made. Oval shape. Steve’s got one in his pocket!

And the worst kept secret at Apple is made all official! Long-boy Nano!

JEREMY: Moving on to iPod talk now…

CHAD: Steve says that iTunes 8 will be free. Really? I mean, since when do we pay for iTunes?

Take that, Ballmer!

CHAD: Microsoft has 2.6% of the portable music player market, ROFL!

JEREMY: iTunes available today!

So iTunes 8 wraps up Pandora/Last.fm functionality just as the labels get ready to kill Pandora!

Crackberry Kevin must be laughing…

JEREMY: He’s playing John Mayer… he carries around a Bold…

Grid view. Browse by genre. The Office is back, baby!

Sends your music to the cloud, but completely anonymously. Social network aspect to mine/leverage user tastes to make GENIUS more… GENIUS-like?

Addresses big complaint of it being hard to “discover” music in iTunes…?

CHAD: “Genius” icons look different then smart playlists… they look like the Apple Genius logo

“Let’s say you’re listening to Bob Dylan, push GENIUS button, 25-100 songs recommended to you in sidebar…”

Accessibility, voice over, GENIUS! New way to browse…

JEREMY: No mention of HD content on the iPhone…

iTunes 8! iTunes 8! Kevin Rose drinking game is on!

CHAD: What is wrong with $1.99?

CHAD: NBC… OMGZ is finally back!

NBC is back on iTunes!

CHAD: HD TV Shows. $2.99… but why? I hate that.

HD TV on iTunes!

CHAD: iTunes is #1 Music distributor! Whoot!

CHAD: 3000 apps for iPhone/iPod Touch. Not bad, eh?

10:00: “We’ve got some exciting stuff!” Steve looks good!

CHAD: Steve is on stage!!!!

CHAD: Two iMacs are on stage? Hmm, what could Steve be showing?

9:55: They’re in! Big honking white Apple logo.

9:45: Warming up the meta-blog, and Chad is getting ready to join us! (Crackberry Kevin has also chimed in, comment-style, to help keep us grounded — thanks Kevin!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Let’s Rock Event Live Meta-Blog

We repeat, this is not a drill! The Apple Store is Down! Reports are flooding in from all over the intertubes… Details are sketchy but authorities urge everyone to stay calm and proceed to TiPb where Live Meta-Blog coverage of Apple’s Let’s Rock Event will begin soon!

Now find your loved ones. Cling to them. And hold to hope. The Apple Store WILL be back. And it will once again restore your childlike sense of wonder.

We’re beyond the looking glass. Boom-time approaches people…

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Apple Store Down! Apple Store Down!

Today brings Let’s Rock. You know, Apple’s yearly pre-holiday event. The one that the entire tech-verse has been chomping at the bit for since roughly 0.001 seconds after Steve Jobs left the stage at WWDC 08. The one that will answer: “What’s next?”

But that’s all we know: Let’s Rock, September 9. We don’t know what, exactly, Apple will announce, or even if Steve Jobs himself will be announcing it (though we certainly think so!) — or more importantly for the end user: whether or not “OMG new firmware can has stability!!11″

However, that won’t for one Jobs-forsaken minute prevent us from guessing!

Will There Be New iPhone Hardware?

This one has been almost completely off the radar. No leaks of a 32GB iPhone, or of the chips Apple would have to switch to so that 32GB would even be possible given it’s current NAND configuration (which, due to more space being taken by radios, is half what an iPod Touch can hold).

Our prediction? The reason we haven’t heard anything is that there’s nothing to hear, here. It would be too expensive to switch to the 16GB NAND Flash chips needed for 32GB, and no other hardware tweaks really make sense yet.

On the color side, (Product?) red was rumored back when black and white were leaked pre-WWDC, and that’s a relatively easy differentiator for Apple to make in order to have a new holiday iPhone offering…

Will There Be a New iPhone Firmware?

2.1 is hawt, what with the rumor of secret special features and all. But we’re going to swim against the stream on this one. 2.1 will get shown, but it won’t be made available immediately. They’ll announce a date for it, perhaps, but to soothe us over in the meantime, 2.0.3 will drop on or soon after event day to squash yet more bugs.

People may think they want new features, but what we need is a stable platform. Fix the foundation first, then build the high rise.

Yeahbuwhat If 2.1 Gets a Demo? What Will It Show?

Apple’s push notification service, which it’s offering in lieu of background processes for applications like AIM, was pulled from the last beta, but that doesn’t mean we won’t still see it. Video recording might still be a battery problem on an already hungry device, and MMS is an old technology to a company that cut disc drives (iMac) and now optical drives (MacBook Air) way ahead of the curve.

So… we’re going with cut/copy/paste as an easy offering to calm 3G-dropout, App crash-burnout users, maybe with something from left field thrown in just so Apple can remind us what Apple does best (give Steve Jobs his “Boom!” moments). On the far outside chance, maybe a clipboard mechanism extended into a full shared file space to enable actual document editing on the iPhone?

Hey, we can dream!

Will There Be any New iPhone Initiatives?

Last year saw Starbucks come on board as an iPhone partner. Could Apple be keeping any initiatives in their back pocket for this year? Rose run rumors have it iTunes 8 will move from Smart Playlists to Genius Playlists, not only sorting our music but actively recommending new music based on what we already like (a la Pandora or Last.fm). Could Apple strap its own tag-and-buy service to it, like Microsoft is about to do with the Zune 3? No built in FM radio, and the Powers That Be seem intent on killing Internet Radio just to watch it die, so this doesn’t look likely.

But what about the rumors of the Starbucks model being pushed further? Buy not only music, but beverages, and why not other retailers, like movie tickets, cheeseburgers, Apple Store gear? It would require massive infrastructure investments from retailers before it could go live, of course (remember how long the Starbucks roll-out it taking?), but it’s not impossible we’ll see another collaborative announcement along these lines. And, hey, there’s always Nike…

More likely? A partnership announced with a GPS company to enable real turn-by-turn navigation while sidestepping the licensing issues Dieter brought up last month. That seems like a match made in liability-avoiding heaven!

iPods, MacBooks, and Tablets, Oh Why?

iPod Nano we pretty much know. Taller, widescreen, bigger capacity up to 16GB and more colors than you can shake a bag of skittles at. This is Apple’s bread and butter player, after all, and it’ll get the Jobs-bump big time.

iPod Touch has rumors of GPS and a new form factor that could fit the chip… or a bigger battery… or a mind-numbing 64GB set of NAND flash that would allow Apple to finally but the Classic/Micro HD line to pasture? Doubtful, for the same reasons outlined about for the iPhone, but Apple is expert at cramming a lot into a little, so I wouldn’t be surprised.

MacBook Touch/iTablet is rumored every time Steve Jobs sneezes. And it always will be. As a possible extension to the Mobile OS X family, we’d have to see a pre-announcement just to get developers revved up to working on a similar device with a quadruple (or whatever) resolution screen and possibly additional hardware (USB ports, etc.) Apple TV was pre-announced a couple years ago at an event just like this, however, and it would certainly allow for similar a follow up at MacWorld 2009. If it runs full Mac OS X, the same holds true for getting devs up to speed on multi-touch, but a much richer software ecosystem would already be primed and portable. Still, I think Apple has had this device ready and waiting for so long, they’d just as soon keep it waiting until they think they could sell 10 million of them, and that’s probably not now.

MacBook, Pro, Air are all in need of Intel proc bumps. Last year we saw the iPod Touch debut alongside the new aluminum iMacs, so it’s not like Apple minds mixing and matching. Case designs have already leaked for the Pro, looking a lot more like the Air, so I’m guessing these babies are ready to drop as well. A real Air, sans cobbled chipset, would be fantastic. New MacBooks likewise. For the Pros, we’ll probably not see them at a consumer show, but at a higher-end event, or increasingly as an “Apple Store Down!” Tuesday surprise along with new Cinema Displays and other pro gear.

One More Thing?

Well, that’s it for our peek into the Let’s Rock Crystal Ball. How about you? Any prognostications? What will we see? What won’t we? Let us know here, and remember to join us at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT for our Live Meta-Blog of Apple’s 2009 pre-Holiday “Let’s Rock” event!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

A Look Inside the “Let’s Rock” Crystal Ball

Personally, I believe Steve Jobs’ health is his business unless and until it materially affects his ability to act as Apple’s CEO, and I believe a great deal of the internet speculation has been in poor taste, to say the least. But more than anything, I believe in the rights and freedoms of other people and sites to cover things however they best believe. So, while I’ll spare you my rant on how the stock market has gone from something that encouraged investment to grow companies and wealth over generations and increasingly turned it into the speculative, impatient mess that is modern hysteritrading, I will say I love me some Steve Jobs Keynotes, and it looks like we may just be getting one more for the record books tomorrow.

Daring Fireball says:

Spoiler: Jobs will be on stage, in his usual role. But he remains just as thin as he was in June. This isn’t some sort of state secret, though. Jobs is a common presence on the Apple campus. He eats in the cafeteria, he walks around between buildings. He’s not and has never been a recluse.

Gene Munster via Apple Insider says:

“While some investors are concerned that Jobs will not deliver the keynote, we have reason to believe he will,” Munster said. “Therefore, we believe his health has improved since the June event, which would be a positive for the stock.”

Don’t rant. Control rant. Deep, rant-cleansing breath…

So, with Jobs on stage, any guesses as to the “One More thing”? The thing that will make Steve go “Boom!”

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Steve Jobs Keynoting at “Let’s Rock”?

Welcome to iPhone Analysts vs. the Magic 8-Ball, where we take the often outlandish, sometime surreal predictions of iPhone analysts and pundits, blogeratti and the ‘net elite, and compare them to the potentially equally precise prognostications of a… magic 8-ball (running on an iPhone, of course!)

This edition rounds up some of the mountain of rumors piling up in advance of Tuesday’s “Let’s Rock” event. Let’s get it on!

• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event disappoint? Yes
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple release new MacBooks (Pro/Air)? Very doubtful
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple unveil a new Apple TV DVR? Ask again later
• Apple Insider/Shaw Wu: Will Apple unveil an iTablet/MacBook Touch? Very Doubtful
• iLounge: Is the thicker, more tapered iPod Touch for realz? Yes
• Ars Technica: Will iPhone 2.1 contain “secret” features? Don’t count on it
• MacRumors/Kevin Rose: Is Magnetosphere the new, trippy iTunes Visualizer? It is certain
• Microsoft/Seinfeld: Will the new TV commercial help Vista? Very Doubtful

And for those still keeping score on the last round, the current standings are after the jump!

• Kevin Rose: Apple Event on September 9th? “Very doubtful” KEVIN WINS!
• Kevin Rose: Firmware 2.1 debuting on sleeker iPod Touch? “Most likely”
• Kevin Rose: iTunes 8 with music recommendations? “Cannot predict now” (asked again…) Most likely
• Kevin Rose: New, candy-bar Nano with rounded widescreen? “It is certain”
• Kevin Rose: Massive iPod price drops across the line? “Don’t count on it”
• Kevin Rose: Mac OS X with Blu-Ray? “Ask again later” (asked again…) “Ask again later”
• iDealsChina: GPS for the iPod Touch? “Cannot predict now” (asked again…) “Reply hazy”

Who’s right? What’s left?

We’ll come back on Wednesday and see how the analysts fared, and if the 8-ball held it’s own!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iPhone Analysts vs. Magic 8-Ball: Let’s Rock Edition!

Kevin Rose, bound by vengeance to clear his name of false rumors past, has been laying the veritable smack down on Apple’s “Let’s Rock” Event. It’s like he’s got Phil Schiller on the Bat-iPhone or something.

The latest? The above mock up of what iTunes 8.0’s interface will look like, along with a roundup of rumors thus far. Maybe he’ll digg his way out of this yet! (Har!)

Meanwhile, Apple Insider is reporting that some users might have sneaked a copy of an early, pre-release iTunes 8.0 download. Nothing much there to substantiate it yet, but we all remember people getting iPhone 2.0 early last time, so who knows?

(Us, come tomorrow’s Live Meta-Blog — see you there!)

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

iTunes 8.0 Leaked? And Kevin Rose Tweaked?