Mac Faithful Anticipate Annual Apple Announcement

With Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference about to kick off in San Francisco, the usual rumors, innuendo and sheer guessing of what CEO Steven Jobs is about the reveal is well underway.

It is no surprise to anyone that, as in years past, Apple continues to keep its true motives well hidden, but some possibilities for the Aug. 7 WDC have managed to reach the Web.

It’s all part of Apple’s plan to build up anticipation and create buzz for products, said Roger L. Kay, president of Endpoint Technologies Association, who has written about Cupertino, Calif., company.

“Very rarely do you get a definite picture of what is going to happen in advance,” Kay said. “What you can expect is an extension of the company’s products. Then you have the complete surprises and Apple is very good at keeping that under wraps.”

On the sure side of the ledger, Apple itself announced that it will discuss developments in Mac OS X technologies, including what it bills as a preview of the Mac OS X Leopard.

According to Apple Insider, Apple will finally offer some specifics about the new operating system. Some of the top features include a new geographic mapping solution, a possible VOIP (voice over IP) feature for its iChat and an expansion of Spotlight, its search feature, according to Apple Insider.

Click here to read more about how the bet between Apple and Intel appears to have paid off.

It has been a year since Apple began offering Intel processors in its Macintosh line of notebooks, and Kay suspects that the company will continue to expand that relationship and offer Intel-based desktops for its commercial market.

There are also expectations that Apple will announce plans to move to Intel Core 2 Duo for notebooks, otherwise codenamed “Merom.”

That announcement might not count as a major surprise since the new chip is a drop-in to existing platforms. There is also speculation that the Power Mac professional desktops will use Intel Xeon 5100, which shares circuitry with the Core 2 Duo.

Read the full story on eWEEK.com: Apple Keeps ‘Em Guessing