If you haven’t noticed over the past few days, there has been a lack of new Daily iLife videos. We apologize for the inconvenience, however we at theiLife.com are very busy preparing for Macworld 2008 and writing other daily content. Sorry for the delay, hang in tight: The Daily iLife will be back during Macworld with whatever new videos Sir Steve gives us- we promise!

After the catastrophic realization that Apple would be switching its processor architecture over to x86, Macintosh fans everywhere have to get used to a new approach to product releases. While the PowerPC architecture was limited to a few models, and was updated annually at best, the Intel roadmap looks like something out of a horror movie to the dedicated Mac head. Apple has responded to Intel’s somewhat convoluted release schedule by shying away from timing product launches with hardware changes. The update from Core to Core 2 for example, was non event, the Apple store was updated and that was that. This policy sets a new tone for product releases, and as such, has the added benefit for Apple in making their product releases harder to pinpoint.

It may be hard to say when a product will be updated, but the architecture that will go into the upcoming notebooks is no secret. At CES in January, Intel will show off its brand new 45nm mobile family, codenamed Penryn. This family of processors is the successor to the Merom and Conroe mobile chipsets that were the foundation for the first mobile Core 2 chips. Penryn will have a host of new features, but its role is more evolutionary than revolutionary when compared with the previous jump from the Pentium M/Yonah family of processors to Conroe. The next major revision to the Intel architecture is Nehalem, tentatively scheduled for a late 2008 release.

For now, the Penryn family of processors will see a tremendous improvement in power consumption (a benefit of is 45nm architecture and smaller memory die), cache size (with the high end models having as much as 12mb) and SSE4 processing instructions (which will greatly increase the speed of activities such as video encoding with the proper software optimization). The desktop version of Penyrn, called Wolfsdale will be released shortly after the mobile one, sometime in February. A third variant, Yorksfield is a quad-core variant that may see service in Apple’s Mac Pro line, though so far, that product has been exclusively tied to Intel’s Xeon server chipsets in an attempt to boost power and distinguish it from consumer products.

Performance increase in this series will probably be slight at best and negligible at worst. Unless a program has been optimized for the new SSE4 instructions (DivX is one such program), Penryn has anywhere from a 1% to 10% gain over its Merom/Conroe predecessor at similar clock speeds. For mobile products however, the lower power consumption will result in improved battery times and improved heat management. It is entirely possible that a MacBook Pro update could be announced at Macworld, but with the sheer volume of other possible, and the ambiguous launch date of Penyrn based products, it is far from guaranteed.

For the coming days leading up to Macworld, I will be releasing a series of articles focused on specific rumors slated for Macworld 2008.

Todays article is about the rumored ‘ultra-portable’ laptop.

Probably the biggest rumor going for Macworld this year has to be the ‘ultra-portable’ MacBook. The rumor has been floating around for years, resurfacing many times over the years! In 2003, ‘The Year of the Notebook’, Apple introduced a 12″ and 17″ PowerBook to diversify the lineup. Going way back, the PowerBook 2400 was considered a true ‘ultra-portable’ and included an external Floppy drive. Now more than ever, the rumor seems realistic except- Steve Jobs doesn’t like having of external optical drives.

I came this realization recently, which added to the skepticism I have surrounding the ‘ultra-portable’ without an optical drive. Jobs can be heard while introducing the iBook G3 comparing the new laptop to other competitors at the time. At minute 9:41, Steve says:

“Some people leave optical drives out of notebooks. We think people need optical drives in their notebooks, so we build them in.”

But, this doesn’t mean that the rumor is out- just because Jobs doesn’t like something does not mean that it won’t happen! Also, this was a couple of years ago now!

I think that in Macworld we will definitely see new laptops of some kind. Whether they are ‘ultra-portable’, I can’t say for sure. It is true, that if you look at (or open up) a MacBook Pro, you can see that almost a quarter of the surface area is taken up with the optical drive- and lets face it: physical media is on its way out! Just like Jobs cut ADB for USB or Floppy disks, we can be certain that in the future (maybe the near one) we will no longer have optical drives. However, at this point in time, I think an optional external optical drive isn’t ideal- and I think Apple agrees at this point in time, unless this new laptop is dirt cheap. ($599? $699? $799)?

Read more…

With the New Year fresh upon us, it is time to reflect upon the past year. 2007 was a very lively year for Apple, from the introduction of the iPhone to strong Mac sales due to the failure of Vista. Leopard was delayed from Q2 to October, but still was meet with high praises. The iPod Hi-Fi was discontinued and AppleTV saw little success.

And the rumors! Even with ThinkSecrets death, Apple was hit with astonishing breaks in secrecy. From the iPhone itself (a rumor which, was floating around for years) to the new iMac redesign but, particularly the new Keyboard, which leaked to the internet weeks before the August 7th release. Same with the 6th Generation interface changes, which a video was first posted on MacRumors in July, months before it’s September 5th release. Images of the 3rd Generation iPod Nano before introduction or recently, the iPhone 1.1.3 firmware update videos and pictures that is currently running wild.

But, more importantly, Apple has grown significantly. However, with large growth comes new challenges, being a larger company with a bigger install base and stiffer competition. In the New Year, Apple has to keep up with its market and products- from the iPod to the Mac. For the past few years, Apple has done a great job of keeping it’s iPod line selling, but can they continue with the iPhone or the Mac?

Only time can tell, but 2008 has the potential to seriously expand in many markets. 2007 was a great year for the company- the question is: What does 2008 have in store for us?

2007 was a good year, from the iPhone to Leopard and the iPod but, it has come time to say goodbye. Everyone at theiLife.com would like to wish you a Happy New Year!! Say goodbye to 2007, prepare your resolutions and- don’t forget about Macworld! Always remember, drink and drive- responsibly!

Check out todays Daily iLife video, entitled Instead, which is apart of the original iPhone ad campaign. Watch it here and remember, if you would like a video everyday- subscribe in your favorite reader or iTunes.

“Instead of carrying an iPod and a phone, carry an iPod in your phone!”

Check out todays Daily iLife video, one of the original ad’s for the iPhone entitled “Never Been”. If you enjoy videos from the Daily iLife, remember to subscribe in iTunes, or your favorite reader.

“There has never been an iPod that can use cover flow. Or watch movies in true widescreen. Or scroll through your photos by touch. Or, for that matter, answer phone calls.”

Continually, year over year, Apple has been selling more Macs. This year has been no exception- the Mac market share continues to grow. This years surge might have seen more sales thanks to Vista or, release of Leopard. Either way, there is some kind of ‘iPod Halo’ effect going on.

Be it the iPod, Leopard or iPhone- Apple is getting their name out and, people are moving to the Mac. It is interesting to watch a new generation of switchers come to the platform after using a Mac for the entirety of my computing life. Many new switchers seem to be mesmerized by Photo Booth or iChat video conferencing- which my cousin and I laugh at, we were doing this almost 5 years ago! The new switchers seem to neglect some of the founding principles of the Mac platform because, face it- they’ve been using Windows.

While other PC users rejoice that they no longer have to run Anti-Virus or Spyware programs anymore on their Mac, which is something that I still do not do on my PC or Macs (yes, I own 4 PCs). The change of Mac users from the generally more computer literate to the less literate will be interesting. The iPod is simple, powerful and, successful. Although the Mac is built around the same concept, it is a computer.

I have found, working with other people who aren’t very computer literate that they prefer a static setup- be it Windows or Mac OS. They want everything to look the same, nothing to change- all they want to do is check their email (or whatever it is). So you can (or can’t) imagine how a switch to a Mac from a PC can become traumatic for those accustomed to Windows- they just want to go back.

The same can be said about the switch from VHS to DVD- other than video geeks, it takes a couple years for ‘the masses’ to make the switch. The switch usually comes with a hardware replacement. For example, our VHS player stopped working so we bought a DVD/VHS combo about 6 years ago. When that dies, we will probably just get another DVD player- especially considering the status of the new formats. So, Vista is what is brining PC users to the Mac OS- their XP machine needs replacement, and fearing Vista (or after experiencing it), they get a Mac.

Keep tuned for Part III.

We are sorry for the lack of content over the past few days. I for one have be en-route to New Jersey all day today and was celebrating Christmas with family over the past few days. However, I have been working on a video podcast as well as some articles which you should see coming very soon. We’ll be back in full swing tomorrow, we promise!

For all of you who are celebrating today, Merry Christmas! What have you received? Something good and shiny, lets hope (MacBook? iMac?)! Check out todays Daily iLife podcast video, and be grateful you didn’t get one of those gifts!