Freaky Friday Mac News: It’s Freakier Than Ever.

The latest Mac news and rumors headlines are enough to send you back to bed to finish reading that book on Linux. What’s going on?

The traditional effects of the run up to January’s Macworld Expo and new Apple products has clashed with Steve Jobs’ notorious RDF™ to create Freaky Friday News.

The first headline this morning blared out an “overweight” rating on Apple’s stock. Overweight? Or burned out? Despite a record price and a Price/Earnings ratio that would scare most already dead Chicago voters, AAPL remains at stratospheric levels.

So what does Morgan Stanley do? They call the stock “overweight” and promptly raised their target price on AAPL to $90. It was just two weeks ago that Piper Jaffray raised their AAPL target from $68 to $79.

Just a week later UBS raised their own target on AAPL to $86. Not to be outdone by the effects of Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field, CSFB raised their target to $82, and Lehman Brothers raised their target to $78.

Clearly, at about $71 today, AAPL must be a bargain. That’s freaky news when the Price to Earnings Ratio, at about $45 is nearly double that of Money Machine™ Microsoft.

What else is strange? Everyone, everywhere is expecting Apple to introduce or announce an Intel-based Mac in January. Except Apple.

According to writer Derek Picone, who has a friend of a friend’s cousin’s uncle who works at Apple, “… for anyone hoping for the new Intel computers your [sic] out of luck, no hardware will be announced except for maybe the normal speed boosts since those wouldn’t be any reason for them to attend. The only announcements will be coming from the other non computer hardware departments such as new iPods, iSight, Monitors, Programs, and other software and accessories.”

That’s good enough for me. But what about the Airport Express AV, or the Mac mini digital video recorder, and the wireless telephony enabled iPod?

As if Apple’s overpriced stock isn’t high enough, Morgan Stanley says it may surge another 25-percent in 2006 because-- da da, Apple will introduce a new iPod phone.

Whew. And I was beginning to worry. One of the Morgan Stanley surveys says more people plan to buy an iPod this holiday season than plan to buy a cell phone.

Why would Apple create and sell an iPod phone? Because a gazillion and twelve cell phone carriers are pushing music to their cell phone customers. It’s competition for iTMS

If I were going to Macworld in January I’d take two friends with me for the Steve Jobs’ RDF Keynote alone. Just to take notes.

Now, about those Intel-based Macs; Intel Inside or not? No, Intel will be inside, but will Apple tout the new Macs as “Intel Inside” and thereby stand alongside Dell, HP, Gateway, Lenovo, and Bob and Ted’s Custom Built PCs hawkiing Intel’s goodies instead of their own?

The reason for the “Intel Inside” chime is money. PC makers get a little cash back for every chip they sell; it’s counted as advertising by Intel. Will Apple advertise Intel on new Macs?

I don’t think so. What I do think is that too many are drinking the Kool-Aid. Not just Mac users. Hedge fund manager Cody Willard says Apple could become more valuable than Microsoft in the next two years.

Cody’s not just some Mac geek down the street. Cody Willard is the manager of a hedge fund and the author of the Telecom Connection, an investment newsletter. He is also a headliner on TheStreet.com, writes for Razor Magazine, VON Magazine and the Financial Times, is a frequent featured guest on CNBC and has been quoted in many publications, including the New York Post and the Hollywood Reporter.

There’s Kool-Aid on Wall Street, too.

How much attention is anyone paying to what’s going on out there these days? For example, who’s the Most Admired Chief Executive in the world?

Steve Jobs, if you’re an Apple guy, right? Well, yes and no. Bill Gates comes in Number One, while Jobs holds steady at the runner up position. Except that Gates is NOT a chief executive. He’s chairman of Microsoft and it’s been that way about five years.

How about the runner up slot behind Steve Jobs? According to this Link, it’s Michael Dell of Dell Computer. Except Michael isn’t CEO either. He’s a chairman, too. Does that make Jobs Number One?

What accounts for news these days? Sky News has a video about what’s on President George Bush’s iPod. You’ll need something from Microsoft to view it.

On a similar note of intrigue, Kevin Kostner’s PowerBook was stolen, including private wedding photos. I agree with MacDailyNews’ take on the whole sordid affair: ‘you just can’t make this stuff up.’

Why is Apple so profitable? It must be the iTunes Music Store because that’s where the money is. Nielsen Entertainment Research, which probably did some research to find out, says Apple gets about 31-cents for each song downloaded from iTMS. Double ditto for video, though the downloads are 10 to 20 times as long.

From my perspective, news should be about what ‘happened’ (as in past tense) as opposed to what might happen, should happen, will happen. A look at Mac and Apple and iPod and AAPL news headlines these days indicates little of the former, and much of the latter.

Bambi Hambi
You’re a hopeless romantic, Missy T. If anyone can make sense of all this, it’s, uh, um, Tom Brokaw. What channel’s he on?

Jack D. Miller
I now have no official idea what’ll take place at Macworld except-- SURPRISE. And that can be good or bad.

Alexis Kayhill
Tera, you worry too much about this kind of thing. Who can predict the future? After all, the tallest guy in the NBA is Chinese. The most popular rap artist is white. The best golfer is black. CBS is the most popular TV network. Former President George Herbert Walker Bush’s son is President, and former President William Jefferson Clinton’s wife might be the next one.

I don’t think all this is caused by Steve Jobs’ Reality Distortion Field.

Off Topic Note: Here’s a few questions for Mac users: (1) What’s the world’s fastest browser? (2) What’s the best notebook for Mac users? (3) What’s a good back up strategy for your Mac?