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Apple, Inc. will introduce its first A-chip based MacOS product(s?) and an updated iPhone SE, both of which will sell well. The new model AirPods will be intro'd, will do okay, leading to a large, reasonably priced aftermarket for the original model.

The recent spin on the rumors is that Apple won't announce hardware during its show on the 29th, that consistent with frequent past practice, any such announcements will be simple press releases either just ahead (Monday through Thursday of that week) or just after (following week).

Some kind of new AirPods are in production, so that's coming, how soon no one can be sure. The CNBC rumor channel on YT (I think it was, it was early, I was just listening from under the comforter) indicates a bump in the W-chip spec, better connectivity, better range, about half of the current power consumption, and 15 minutes to full charge. This will be very important for the under-35 year old set who walk around in headphones all the time, and Koolaid-drinkers. I like tech, I like Apple, but I'm not either under 35 or a K-D.

The other version of the rumor is, the AirPod coming out now will just be a wireless charging update -- and the real hardware announcement pertaining to this will be the long-delayed AirPower introduction, with the actual upgraded AirPods 2 coming out this fall. That's a great way to piss off people who are getting sick of your price-gouging BS. Oh, I forgot, that doesn't apply to AirPods buyers. [Samsung vs Bose: wireless earbuds showdown]

The expectation that the iPod (remember those?) was going the way of powdered wigs is one of the developments that appears to be false. It appears that the iPod Touch is getting a nice upgrade to better fill the niche between the iPhone line and the iPad line, hit 'em where they ain't. The iPod gaming capability came on, what, ten years ago? There's been new reference to an unknown iPod model inside the code somewhere (saw that on Zone Of Tech I think) along with some unknown iPad models.

While in line at Staples once upon a time, another customer showed me his VoIP and hotspot setup that he used, along with a headset, to carry his iPod Touch as a phone with an app. His cryptic references to his "business" led me to believe that he was a drug dealer, but hey, it's not like spottin' a toupeé.

So far I've managed to appropriate the use of a couple of gags from a single classic TV show, we'll have to see who recognizes them first. Or at all. Or even reads my drivel.

The most likely change in desktop platform, a transitional form, an interim step, would be support for the Apple Pencil on a desktop machine, but that means touch screen interface. When Apple brought on OS X, the next few years meant hardware support for dual-boot on the PowerPC hardware (I've got, hmm, at least three of those machines around, eMac, tower, laptop; I've got to have a sale). Apple's switch to Intel a few years later led to a virtual machine option to run Windows on the Intel Macs. A move from Intel chips to Apple's A-chips is likely to have at least two steps, but as Apple's overall business has diversified, the part of the product line where the transition begins may be difficult to guess.

The Thunderbolt 3 is going to replace all ports across all Apple platforms. Hint: you don't need an "adapter" to hook up something to your Thunderbolt port, you just need a cable, just as everyone else does. And this idea seems nice and neat, but... USB C explained site:youtube.com. BTW, USB-C adapters and cables are available at Dollar Tree, have been for months.

Netflix will have a very good year, all patriotic Americans will not enjoy that.
YouTube's $40-a-month subscription service will end, not with a bang but a whimper.

Apple's big event announcements are going to be related to services, that is, subscriptions and another attempt to interest the world in Apple's original content. Apple's gettiing its AppleTV onto Roku and other smart TVs, which is, need I say it, smart. YouTube Premium ($12/mo, used to be $13/mo through the iOS App Store, $10 direct) might be more widely accepted if their way of plastering ads all over the free (and largely pirated) content weren't so [long string of profanity omitted] annoying and irritating. They've even screwed around with the responsiveness of the "skip ad" button on Roku's -- I sure don't blame Roku for that, but Roku is also culpable. Wait, I guess I do give them some of the blame. IOW, Apple's big event is going to be boring as hell -- should be subtitled, "Test Your Sales Resistance". Apple's making an earnest effort to displace NetFlix and probably at the expense of YouTube Premium.

Meanwhile, Samsung's spectacular $2000 phone will fail.
A large number of mobile phones manufactured in China will drop off the face of the US market (because they're undifferentiated and/or they are junk).
- Related to #22, 23, and 24 (particularly the last one) -- Xiaomi's Redmi line is going to eat a lot of its competitors' lunch.

Samsung's new Galaxy 10 has been enjoying a favorable reception across the wide wild world of YouTuber vloggers. Even the "EverythingApplePro" guy switched for a longterm review.

The folding phones are going to cost a lot, and the screen is going to wrinkle with use -- probably very little use. Folding phones may serve as a might-be-nice temporary replacement for pad users who just can't live without their pads (no period jokes please), but how many of those do you know?

Would a folding phone with one glaring flaw be enough to get you to dump your pad device and just rely on a folding phone and laptop?

Regarding fingerprint security on a phone (which is the most secure of the fast, convenient methods of locking/unlocking a smartphone), the Vivo Apex 2019 prototype uses a scanning method that takes advantage of the entire screen. I'd be surprised if Apple doesn't swing that way.

Twitter's board will finally rid itself of Twitter's founder, in an attempt to repair its reputation. Fail.

One large stumbling block keeping iPhone users from a switch to Android has been the iMessage app. Hint, hint.

The change that seems most plausible is in the short term is, desktop models are going to lose their bezels. This seems like a precursor to the future design of iPhones, iPads, and iPods.

Apple's other likely course of action, in hardware, imho, will be to update its iPad line by updating its iPad mini with a spec bump while formally dumping the iPad Air, and adding LTE support; probably another spec bump for the iPad Pro later in the year, with an option to install MacOS in some fashion, or perhaps just introducing MacOS features to iOS. The idea here would be that the iPad Mini would be a preemptive/proactive response to the folding phones that (imho of course) are going to wind up a developmental and commercial dead-end, and give everyone a reason to buy AirPods instead of a generic bluetooth headset. The rumors that Apple is going full-bore into wireless/proximity charging across its product line (using one device to charge another) would fit well into this, and vice versa. And the other related rumor is, Apple is taking the axe to more iOS devices than usual as a consequence of the iOS 13 update. That deprecation fits nicely with the iPod Touch spec bump rumor. Pairing AR glasses with an iPod Touch for gaming? Sounds an awful like a rumor.

The other hardware rumor is that Apple will be making a small-bezel laptop with a near-17 inch screen. Better have a pretty juicy GPU spec bump if they try that move, otherwise buh-bye.

Apple AR Glasses entering production? Tailosive Tech is sure that the augmented reality glasses are going to kill a new category, the first Apple product that defines a new market. I can't see this as a game-playing augmentation device -- I'd be surprised if others don't -- but if the processing power is in the phone, and the newest w-chip is the major component in the glasses (to make them capable without adding a lot of bulky batteries), the main usefulness would be to caption everything one sees as one walks down the street, or in Los Angeles, as your car drives you down the street (since no one walks in LA, and the autonomous vehicle hucksters also think people dream of being chaffeured by a robot). TT sees it coming in 2020 and costing $2K or more. Seems like improving reality would be a better idea than trying to turn the society into "The Matrix".

"The Matrix" is easy to understand, btw -- its a kung fu movie but without the plot.

Facebook will experience serious competition for the first time; in the EU, it will be investigated and tried for monopolistic practices and fake "fake news" charges.

"Slinging Bull" Warren has demagogued her way into single digit support among the single-party-ticket-lever-pulling morons who call themselves Democrats, but believe it or not, years ago, when the AT&T breakup was ordered by some court somewhere, after years of litigation, it wasn't a popular move among the leftists I know, they must have been worried that it would lead to entrepreneurial activity, innovation, and worst of all, change in any form. Gotta have a gov't committee to look into that, and regulate it. Regulation of free speech -- a.k.a. destruction of the First Amendment -- is what they're really always about.

Opinion | Facebook's Biblically Bad Week