Macworld Bets Are In

I watched my recording of yesterday's Fiesta Bowl today and I was slightly saddened that Notre Dame lost. I was rooting for them, and they played a great game, but Ohio State was just too fast for them! At least it was only a two touchdown loss though, and tomorrow night we have the Rose Bowl to look forward to. Though the odds are against us, my money is still on UT. It's evenly matched (unlike last year's Orange Bowl) and we've beaten the odds several times before. If you don't watch this game, then something is wrong with you (7PM on ABC). There are also bets being made on the Macworld Expo, which is less than a week away and is known for some big Apple announcements. Last January it was the iPod Shuffle and the Mac Mini, but what will be the hot item this time? One ZDNet blogger put up his predictions, and they actually seem to be pretty characteristic of popular speculation, including a replacement to the iPod Shuffle, though he thinks it'll be another Nano, whereas I think it'll be a smaller, more colorful, and possibly cheaper Shuffle. I think with all the supposed leaks from insiders that everyone would be shocked if an Intel-powered iBook was not revealed, hence it making #1 on his list. I don't know about there being a new Mac Mini so soon because I think they'll want to focus their efforts on porting their older machines to x86, but I wouldn't be surprised by a Bluetooth remote control. I guess all will be revealed soon enough.

If you don't know how reliable the current iBooks and PowerBooks are, then you should take a look at this survey that reveals that they have become better and better with time. As I've said before, if Apple gives me an internship then I'll pick up a PowerBook. It looks like Starz is trying out a service to not only let you download movies online (legally) through a $10 per month subscription service, but also put them on portable devices. It's called Vongo and may be a nice extension to what iPod users can already get through iTunes, but the software still needs to be rewired a bit to work on non-Microsoft based devices. Lastly, in case your monitor ever receives magnet trauma, you'll want to tag this article that has instructions for alleviating the problem. Thankfully, I've only had to deal with burned out monitors before, which is a natural effect of aging.

The movie news slump continues, with the most exciting news today being that John Glover (Lionel on Smallville) may be Skeletor in the upcoming He-Man movie, which I think would be pretty neat. I think he's just someone made for villainous roles. Tom Hanks is rumored to be interested in the speculated Star Trek movie sequel, but I just don't get why. Am I the only person who thinks this is weird? Why would he want to do a geeky sci-fi flick? Anyway, there are also rumors that Eon is wooing Naomi Watts to be the Bond girl in Casino Royale, and I only mention this to remind you that they're still in the same situation as like two weeks ago: hottie-less. Lastly, there's a teaser up for Jet Li's "last" martial arts film, Fearless, and a poster:



I'm going to go with the Ten on Tuesday meme once again this week:

10 Predictions for 2006
10. I will chill a little on schoolwork and get a girlfriend.
9. I'll get a decent internship.
8. I will purchase a digital camera.
7. Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes will break up.
6. Superman Returns will cause Superman fever to erupt around the world.
5. UT will beat USC and show the country that the Trojans aren't inVinceable.
4. The Longhorns won't have another 12-0 season, but pretty damn close to it.
3. Despite claims that Google's bubble will burst, they'll diversify and continue to grow.
2. Microsoft will continue to delay Vista.
1. The new Intel-based Macs will cause an upsurge in Apple's revenues.