Rumor Roundup: New iMacs, Video Tablet iPod TiVo Device?

The Register in the UK says, “Apple has filed for a European design trademark which may provide a tantalising glimpse of the company’s long-awaited tablet computer.” Right. Marry an iBook to an iPod and you’ll get Apple’s new video pod, right? Close. Tony Smith writes, “The filing, made in May this year but only published this week, covers a ‘handheld computer’ and contains sketches of what look like an iBook screen minus the body of the computer.”

Wow. Cool. Apple’s Paris Expo is just a few weeks away.

Next on the list are the new iMacs. Of course, Apple let that one slip by running completely out of the old iMacs. IBM screwed up the whole timing issue by not having chips ready for the 20th Anniversary Mac. So, sometime in September we get a new iMac.

Details now suggest it’ll be G5 chips at 1.6 ghz for a base model slimmed down, 1.6 ghz for a faster consumer model with a 17” flat panel display, and a faster 1.8 ghz model with a 20” display.

Says who? The folks at Think Secret have all the details. The new iMac is expected to be (surprise!!) an all-in-one Mac design with an aluminum body.

Where do they get such outrageous ideas?

As if that’s not enough to get you to mortgage the house and take bids on the kids, the TiVo rumors are back. TiVo, both a noun and a verb (remember, David Letterman “tivo’s” TV programs) is on a stock slide and still bleeds money like Jennifer Lopez collects “fiance’s.”

John Battelle of Business 2.0 says, “Everyone who has TiVo loves TiVo; it is to television what Macintosh was to computing—a revelation.” Duh.

OK, Rumor Alert #247: “Which is exactly why Apple should buy TiVo and once again redefine the intersection of culture and technology,” Battelle says. This one continues to surface from time to time, however, comparing the iPod’s future to the Mac’s past is just as bad as figuring Apple can do with TiVo what TiVo can’t: make money.

The video entertainment industry is not the music industry is not the computer industry. Still, TiVo looks like a monetary bargain. Market cap for TIVO is just over $300-million and Apple has nearly $5-billion in the bank. That’s “b” as in billion dollars.

Let the Summer Speculation Games begin.

Let’s put a roundup to all the rumors. First, the iMac specs are a no brainer. It’ll be something close to what you’ve read. A replacement iMac for the low end eMac? That’s a stretch. Everything else looks reasonable.

Next, a wireless tablet device that does what the iPod does but also does Mac Stuff™, too? Wirelessly? Hmmm. Now we’re getting somewhere. It works with Apple’s newly acquired TiVo, too?

Well wipe my brow and pass me them viagara corn doritos. Finally, something I can get up on.

All these passing thoughts (what babies do when they “smile”) are plausible, if not imminent. Do you want a new iMac with a G5? Yep. How about a thinner iBook sized wireless tablet device that works like a Mac and works with a TV to stream music, video, etc., to your TV?

I want one. I want My TiVo!!