Okay, now this is getting way too fun. Far be it for me to resist from the rampant rumor mongering, but here is what I think is coming later this month:
I think Apple is going to surprise everyone. While most people think this will be a big iPhone and run apps from the App Store (it will) I think its true intent is to remake the print, tv, and publishing business the same way that iTunes remade the music industry.
- I forsee a beautiful, HD video screen that will let you view all your music, television, movies, magazines, books and DVDs wherever you go.
- You'll be able to subscribe to beautiful full color magazines via iTunes at 1/4 the price of buying them off the newstands and get exclusive content and video (ads too!) to enhance the reading experience. (You'll see entire websites rewritten for the device as well.)
- I think Apple will strike a deal with Amazon to enable digital books to be streamed to the device via a built-in color Kindle app.
- I think we'll see Apple work with Netflix (or go directly to the studios themselves) to stream movies to the device and of course they already have iTunes to handle your music and television subscriptions.
Your documents and iPhone/iPod Touch apps will travel with you too – making the device a multipurpose workhorse that will seem to many like something from the future. And you'll want to own one. Because it will cost $699. And you'll subscribe to a lot more stuff every month – buying apps and content wirelessly. And all of it will be available to view on your AppleTV when you get home since it will now live in Apple's new $1B cloud service.
Finally, the name.
I won't cover the obvious choices spoken elsewhere like iGuide, iScreen, iPad or iSlate (although iSlate would match the iPod branding in that it can be generic). I think Apple could have cut some deal with the Etch-a-Sketch folks (Ohio Arts) to call it "MagicScreen" (Magic Mouse is already in the house) and they also have the Touch and Air franchises to combine "AirTouch" Also a possibility relating their own name and their app store to create something like "iTapp" And let's not forget, Tapplet or Applescreen isn't that far fetched…
Time will tell. Oh yeah, Time will publish their magazines for it too.