As the media prepares for whatever Apple Inc. will reveal at next week’s WWDC, the speculation is mounting that this might be one of the most all-encompassing events in years when it comes to new product intros. Yes, we know about the Mac OS X, with expectations for a final or release candidate of Mountain Lion for developers to chew over for perhaps a month or two. In passing, I do not expect OS 10.8 to be ready for you to download during the WWDC.

The second issue is pricing. The media seems to be inclined to accept a $29.99 price for the download, same as Lion. I can’t ignore that feeling that Mountain Lion is destined to be free, in keeping with the tradition of the iOS. This would make sense if Apple plans to continue to offer annual upgrades, because they’d surely want the highest possible number of Mac users to upgrade as quickly as possible, no excuses, assuming the hardware and software is compatible. And you have to wonder whether such a decision will force Microsoft to make Windows 8 upgrades cheaper.

The other OS announcement will likely be the first demonstration of iOS 6, with a promise to deliver some time in the fall. That sometime will coincide with the next iPhone. Now I have been skeptical of the reports that the new smartphone, dubbed iPhone 5 by the media, will have a larger screen, perhaps with a 16:9 aspect ratio. It’ll keep the width, and be longer, but the impact on developers is still uncertain. Even if the pixel density is the same as the current model, older apps will supposedly have borders around them till they are updated. Now on the Mac OS, screen size doesn’t matter. Do I take it the iOS has no way to compensate for such differences without forcing developers to make some changes? I understand the situation with the iPad, but not the iPhone. This should not be a problem, and if it is, Apple should not have limited the iOS in a way that doesn’t account for different screen sizes and aspect ratios. I am not, I caution, a developer, so I may be totally confused about this.

Back to next week’s expectations: You are already reading wish lists for iOS 6, although including Face-book integration may be a given. That much was sort of hinted during Tim Cook’s interview at the D10 conference last week. I’m sure Apple will have no problem inventing another 100 new features, and even if they take a few hints from other mobile platforms, no doubt they will exhibit the sort of elegance Apple is famous for. You may even see a Siri 2.0, out of beta, with support for the new iPad, and maybe even the iPad 2, since the hardware, other than the graphics chip, is about the same.

Unlike recent WWDC keynotes, this one is expected to include extensive Mac upgrades. It won’t just be note-books, but desktops, including the Mac Pro workstation. There are already sets of unofficial part numbers that allegedly identify the new models. Some of the specs for the new Macs seem obvious, such as using Intel’s Ivy Bridge chips for every model except the Mac Pro, which will receive the most recent additions to the Xeon workstation/server family.

The form factors may surprise. It would be simple for Apple to continue the current overweight cheese grater design of the Mac Pro. But I don’t think it would take that much in development cash to build a slimmer form factor, taking advantage of greater parts miniaturization. The port complement will likely include two Thunderbolt ports, plus support for USB 3.0. It’s possible Apple will update the AirPort hardware to include the new 802.11ac standard, which can deliver throughput in the same range as gigabit Ethernet. The possible hint for this change is the fact that one of those alleged part numbers may indicate an updated AirPort Extreme, and another a revised Time Capsule backup device. But this possibility seems under the radar as far as Mac speculation by the media is concerned.

For the note-book lineup, other than adding USB 3.0, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and the upgraded Intel processor and integrated graphics, the next generation MacBook Air will probably look the same as the current model. Even though PC makers are trying to build similar note-books using Intel’s Ultrabook reference design, they are finding it awfully hard to deliver the goods at prices much lower than Apple’s. The MacBook Air is still the one to beat.

The real question is how the MacBook Pro might change, other than the updated parts. The guessing is that optical drives will vanish, the form factor will be slimmer and lighter, and there will be more solid state drives on the option list. But unless prices for SSD come down sharply, there will still be models with traditional hard drives.

And what about the rumored Retina Display? The 2011 iPad 2 was expected to have one, and it didn’t, probably because Apple couldn’t get the parts in sufficient quantities till this year. But each increase in screen size means a major increase in component costs. I do not expect Apple to want to increase prices. Maybe they’ll get flat panel prices to die for, or absorb some of the price increase when they ditch the optical drive.

When it comes to the iMac, a 27-inch Retina Display would just be too expensive to support in a standard configuration. Maybe as an option. The rest of the changes seem predictable, though I suppose it’s possible Apple will deliver a thinner form factor, and maybe an easy way to install a second drive, SSD or mechanical (the current process is best left to a service professional). I haven’t seen much mention of a Mac mini refresh, though I suppose it could be easily updated with the same hardware as the MacBook Pro.

As someone with a Mac that’s getting a mite long in the tooth, I will look at the expected hardware refreshes with interest. It’s a sure thing that the Mac upgrades, even if they are relatively modest in the scheme of things, will trump anything the Windows PC makers have announced. In fact, other than supporting Windows 8 (which is a given), they haven’t produced any new ideas. HP, for example, is still on a strategy hunt, and the recent statements from CEO Meg Whitman are not very encouraging.

Some industry analyst continue to suggest that Apple is going to build a TV set, and that it will be announced later this year with an on-sale date that may stretch into 2013 or 2014. That this sort of prediction was made even before a certain comment on the matter from Steve Jobs in Walter Isaacson’s authorized biography is especially important, since those predictions obviously never came to pass.

Certainly, CEO Tim Cook was predictably coy about the future of Apple’s TV initiative. Yes, sales of the revised 1080p Apple TV are roughly double over the predecessor. Yes, those sales are very much on par with the number of Macs Apple used to sell, but these days the figures are a mere pittance, particularly when we’re talking about a product that costs just $99. So, by testing the waters, Apple clearly has an end game, and customer reaction will surely dictate where they take the set top box concept. But it may be that Apple hasn’t decided which way to go.

Now today’s Apple TV is very much a limited function device, with loads of potential. Some point to AirPlay as a magic bullet, since you can use an Apple TV as a receiver with which beam content from your iPhone and iPad to your TV. Macs will join in that game with the release of Mountain Lion. But most of you watch a whole lot more on TV, and the question is how Apple will handle the content you traditionally get from a cable or satellite TV provider. Yes, you can use iTunes or Netflix to stream movies and recent TV shows, but that only partly replaces the aforementioned alternatives, though I grant that’s enough for some of you. But is that all there is?

Now the real question is whether it makes sense for Apple to build the entire widget, rather than just an accessory device that can hook up with any TV that has an HDMI interface (and that goes back more than five years). Can Apple offer anything special in TV hardware that requires building a complete set rather than just an Apple TV set top box? That’s a serious question. I suppose Apple could build a set with superior picture quality compared to current models. Maybe it would be nicer to look at, though I think most of you want the exterior aside from the screen to just stay out of the way. The era of fancy cabinetry ended long ago. Perhaps Apple could devise a tricked out sound system, but you’d hope it wouldn’t be near as expensive as Bose’s VideoVision, which lists for just shy of $5,000.

Besides, it’s not as if people are in a rush to upgrade their sets. I’m sure most of you keep them for five to ten years. I have a set that’s nearly 20 years old in my son’s now unused bedroom. It still works perfectly, so why replace it? If there’s anything wrong with TV, it’s the handling of user interfaces and integrating multiple devices, such as a DVR, gaming console, Blu-ray player and even an Apple TV.

But what argument can Apple make to convince you that you want to buy a new smart TV with their brand name on it? How would it be stocked? Would they be stacked up in the rear storage room at an Apple Store? Would you be restricted to checking out a demonstration model, and be forced to check a box on an order sheet to get one delivered to your home? Or would they be available for immediate delivery strictly from a dealer who can handle big box hardware, such as a Best Buy or a Walmart?

But taking orders for later delivery is against the philosophy of an Apple Store, where you expect immediate gratification, except, perhaps, for a special order Mac. Taking orders without stock is a throwback to the days of the catalog stores from Sears and Wards, though it was also used at the failed Gateway store chain years ago. That’s not a mistake Apple will repeat.

Besides, most of what Apple require with a TV interface can be contained in the tiny confines of an Apple TV. Why do they need to replace your TV set? Sure, perhaps for the initial setup process, where you make a set of screen quality adjustments that most of you overlook anyway. I wouldn’t think Apple would build a TV set just to replace that function; the rest can be handled just fine with a set top box.

One theory has it that Apple might try to strike deals with existing content delivery networks, such as the cable and satellite providers. They’d have to do is give Apple admission, and provide iOS apps to use instead of their own set top boxes, so you can take advantage of Apple’s superior interface. No, I’m not talking of something in the vein of CableCard, which is a failed one-way connection scheme that cable services offered for use with third-party gear such as a TiVO. The main problem with the CableCard scheme is that you can’t use two-day services, such as video-on-demand. The successor is a work in progress, so it would be up to the individual services to make deals with Apple that they haven’t, so far at least, made with anyone else.

As far as Apple replacing your TV content provider with their own service, it’s not going to happen so long as ISPs set bandwidth caps. Apple could, I suppose, sign deals to get unfettered access to an ISP’s pipes, but that would be skirting net neutrality in the U.S. in a very controversial fashion. But I’ve already covered that subject.

This is a common problem. A writer gets an assignment, but is limited to a specific word count. Too many words, and the editors will take a sharp knife to the manuscript and dispatch important paragraphs and sentences. The end result is that the article may become a shadow of the original version.

Now I won’t assume that’s what happened with a recent Macworld article, in which a reader asked how to transfer his email in Apple Mail from his old Mac to the new one. However, the instructions given were, I will say charitably out of respect to the author, very incomplete.

First and foremost, if you’re migrating from an old Mac to a new one, Apple’s Migration Assistant is the best possible tool. That way, your new Mac will have the same apps, email, and even system settings as the old one. It’s flexible enough to allow you to omit some of your stuff, which may be important if you’re migrating data from a desktop Mac to something from the MacBook family (such as a MacBook Air), where storage space may be limited.

Obviously, I can’t tell from the question whether the individual understood the choices. It’s the sort of question that invites a follow up to get additional information.

But if all you want to do is migrate email, the instructions in the Macworld piece represent only part of the solution, and not necessarily the best solution for some of you. Certainly not for me.

In the article, you are first shown how to migrate only your most recent messages, by having them all added to a Smart Mailbox with Apple Mail. You then archive the mailbox. This happens to be a useful solution if you’re mailboxes are inundated with loads of cruft that you’d be happy to dump at the earliest opportunity. But it’s the sort of solution that requires careful thought. After moving the recent messages, you may decide you need older ones to trace a financial transaction or business arrangement. I would recommend extreme caution before you delete a message. You can always transfer everything and make those decisions later, when you have the time to think them through. This is particularly true if your old Mac is going to be wiped clean and sold off. Unless a backup is available, you’re going to be out of luck if you delete the wrong messages.

Once you create your Smart Mailbox, the article suggests you use Mail’s Import feature to grab the contents. All well and good. But as I said, it’s only part of a solution, and maybe not the most flexible for many of you. Once again, Apple’s Migration Assistant is simplest way to grab the stuff from your old Mac. It even works if your old computer was a Windows PC with recent versions of OS X.

But if you plan to keep email in sync on a number of devices, say a Mac, a PC, an iPhone, an iPad, or even someone else’s smartphone or tablet, try to use an email system that supports IMAP. Short for “Internet message access protocol,” an IMAP email system stores your email on its own server or network of servers. By using IMAP in setting up your email on your computer, be it mobile or desktop, all your messages, incoming, outgoing, and even those placed in special folders, will be in sync. With IMAP, you won’t have to migrate anything when moving to a new Mac, for example. Just set up your email account, and map the four main folders to the ones used by your email service with the Use This Mailbox For feature. The four folders are Drafts, Sent, Trash and Junk.

In passing, the need to map those folders ensures that your email is always in sync with the server, that your Sent messages, for example, will be the same regardless of which device you use. Yes, it would be nice if the folder mapping nonsense was done automatically, and I don’t know why it’s not. But it only takes a few moments to accomplish after your email account is set up. You can even do it on an iOS device in your Account setup, under Advanced, which is located in the Mail, Contacts, Calendars settings. Depending on how many messages are stored on the server, it may take up to several hours to sync them all on your new computer. But you can let your new Mac do that and still get on with your business.

As to IMAP, unfortunately such free services as Hotmail and Yahoo! don’t support the system, and the same holds true for the email systems put in place by all ISPs I know about. Gmail and GMX do support IMAP, and I’d recommend that you consider these two alternatives if you require free. Pretty much all Web hosts have an IMAP option in their email offerings, or you can consider a dedicated business email provider, such as Polaris Mail.

If you must use POP email, where your messages are stored on your computer, you will have to consider the Macworld article or Migration Assistant alternative in moving your messages. But since you can get IMAP services free of charge, or at a very low cost, I’d recommend you switch your email to one of those systems. It’s a trivial process to send out changes of addresses, and messages can be moved in Mail from one account to another via a simple drag and drop routine.

I’m sure most of you have both a personal computer and smartphone (and possibly a tablet). If you care about having  your email stay current on all of these devices, IMAP is the best possible solution. You’ll get similar benefits with Microsoft Exchange and Open-XChange.

And in case you’re wondering, I keep messages on hand from as far back as 1999. Yes, I’m a bit of a pack rat I suppose, but every single one is readily available on both my desktop and mobile computers, thanks to IMAP.

During that widely published interview this week at the D10 conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook was coy when asked about future products. He also promised that Apple is going to double down on secrecy, so you were left with a few bread crumbs, and vague hints at what’s coming.

This is part of the Apple playbook, so I didn’t expect to hear anything about, say, iOS 6, although you just know it will get heavy play at the Worldwide Developers Conference when it convenes later this month. The real question is what 100 or so new features will Apple introduce? Will they make major changes in the user interface? These are serious questions, and the possibilities are rich.

If you use previous OS introductions as a guide, Apple will concentrate on a handful of “tent pole” features that they regard as being the most significant. Or the ones that are designed to get the most play in the media.

Continue Reading…