2012 tech trends: Mobile commerce, web TV, tablets

The original iPad hit U.S. stores in April 2010 and the iPad 2 was released in March of this year, which has everyone guessing that we'll see the third version this spring.

Without having insider information it's pretty much impossible to accurately predict the future direction of technology and the ideas that will become the next big things.

But here are few guesses at tech trends we may see in 2012:

Near field communication and mobile commerce take off

It won't be long before just about every new smartphone comes equipped with the ability to handle something called near field communication, allowing users to wirelessly exchange information or make financial transactions at stores and banks.

Canadian businesses are generally considered to be laggards when it comes to e-commerce, but the big tech companies are putting a very strong push on mobile commerce and will do their best to turn smartphones into digital wallets this year.

In Canada, we've already seen a hint of what's to come with the Starbucks iPhone app, which can be used to buy coffees and lattes once a user's account is preloaded with store credit.

Groupon and the scores of copycat deal-of-the-day websites are also introducing mobile apps so customers can redeem their offers without the need to carry around a print out. And app makers are increasingly using the GPS function on smartphones to alert consumers to nearby promotions or sales they can take advantage of.

The Google Wallet app -- which is not yet available in Canada -- takes the idea a step further by allowing consumers to use their smartphone as a credit card at participating stores. The app can also handle data for loyalty programs, so there's no longer a need to carry around a dozen or more cards in a George Costanza-sized wallet.

Viewing TV content via the web grows

Buried within the voluminous biography "Steve Jobs" by Walter Isaacson is a passage alluding to Apple's work to reinvent the television viewing experience, perhaps by making its own iTV.

"He very much wanted to do for television sets what he had done for computers, music players, and phones: make them simple and elegant," Isaacson writes in "Steve Jobs."

"I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Isaacson quotes Jobs as saying. "It would be seamlessly synced with all of your devices and with iCloud.

"I finally cracked it."

Whether we see Apple's take on TV this coming year or not -- which would probably involve renting or buying digital content through the iTunes store -- it will likely get easier and easier to view television content streamed through the Internet.

Rogers recently released an iPad app for its customers opening up live TV streaming on the tablet from anywhere inside the house -- or perhaps even on the front patio or back deck if a WiFi signal is strong enough.

New devices to get web content onto TV screens are coming next year including the Roku, which will compete with Apple TV and the Boxee Box. Google is also expected to release a new version of its set-top box, although the first version was a bust and never made it to Canada.

Apple releases an iPad 3, iPhone 5?

Apple has followed a familiar pattern in releasing its iPhones and iPads, so new iterations of the best-selling tablet and phone are expected to be mere months away. The original tablet hit U.S. stores in April 2010 and the iPad 2 was released in March of this year, which has everyone guessing that we'll see the third version this spring.

And we may finally see the iPhone 5 in the second half of the year -- again, if Apple's release pattern holds true. Going back to the release of the first iPhone in June 2007, Apple has launched a new phone every year, usually in June (the iPhone 4S was an exception, hitting the market in October instead).

Tech missteps in 2011

Nothing comes close to the iPad

Competitors have had since the spring of 2010 to dream up their answers to the iPad and most have failed miserably. Research in Motion's PlayBook and HP's TouchPad were complete flops until their prices were slashed down, suggesting that while consumers will overwhelmingly choose the iPad at the $500 price point, they'll settle on another tablet for $200 or less.

3D in the home

Hollywood's big bet on 3D has paid dividends in theatres but in homes, few are eager to pay for the experience. According to a survey commissioned by Sharp Canada, 44 per cent of Canadian shoppers said they considered 3D technology to be the least important feature when buying a new TV.

QR codes

The funny looking black-and-white images became ubiquitous in advertising in 2011 but relatively few seem interested in QR codes. The modern barcodes provide consumers with more information when they're snapped with a phone's camera, but not many are using them. According to a report by the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, about 45 per cent of mobile phone users recognize QR codes but only one in 10 have actually used them.

Four Reasons Google+ Keeps Growing Despite Critics

Despite a drumbeat of criticism that Google‘s social network, Google+, isn’t going anywhere, it appears that users aren’t paying attention. According to Paul Allen, a researcher who creates Facebook apps, Google+ growth isactually accelerating. That’s despite a series of small missteps (most recentlybanning a photo bearing a middle finger, for pete’s sake), the service continues to gain traction. Allen predicts that Google+ will have 400 million users–half of Facebook’s current total–by the end of 2012.

While some people seem surprised, or remain doubtful, they shouldn’t be. Here’s why Google+ is doing better than expected:

It’s Google, stupid: The company can promote the service not only on its search engine, but also on Gmail and all its other services, where you can see the Google+ tab at the top left of every page. If that sounds rather Microsoftian, it is, but it works.

Google+ looks pretty darn good: I haven’t yet opted into Facebook’s new Timeline (and neither have a lot of other people, near as I can tell), but for now, Google+ has a cleaner look and feel: more white space, larger type, bigger photos. Somehow when I post an article or photo there, it seems more substantial, even if it’s not.

You can engage in immediate, live conversation with people on a particular post: I admit I don’t use Hangouts much at all, but it’s amazingly easy to create or join a real-time conversation in a way you can’t do so seamlessly on Facebook.

It’s easier to connect with someone than on Facebook: Of course, I realize it’s just as easy to accept a friendship proposal on Facebook as it is to add someone on Google+. But what I mean is that Google+, like Twitter, allows you to follow someone without having to think too much about the privacy implications that by now are inescapable on Facebook. That removes a lot of friction to Google+’s growth.

Of course, all this means that Google+ isn’t the same as Facebook. But that’s the point. Facebook is Facebook, and most people don’t really need another with a different, more colorful logo. What Google+ ultimately offers in the way of a fully differentiated service remains to be seen, but as a content sharing medium, it works well. And that’s more than good enough to get a lot of people interested in trying it out.

None of this indicates whether people are actually using Google+ regularly, and it’s a pretty sure bet that most of those 60 million-plus aren’t going there every day as many people do on Facebook. In fact, even MySpace–remember them?–still gets more regular traffic than Google+.

That may not matter. Google doesn’t necessarily need to grow its social network to Facebook size to get enormous value from the data millions of users produce on their interests and even their purchasing intent. But to create a long-term sustainable service, it will have to find more ways to get people to come back every day.

Apple's iPad 3 Coming in Two Models in 2012: Rumor - Mobile and Wireless

Apple's next iPad will arrive in two models, while the iPad 2 will be repositioned to battle Amazon’s Kindle Fire, according to a DigiTimes report.

Apple will unveil two iPad models at a conference in January, according to Taiwanese publication DigiTimes.

“Apple is set to unveil its next-generation iPad—which will come in two versions—at the [MacWorld/iWorld expo] scheduled for January 26, 2012,” read the Dec. 29 report, citing unnamed supply-chain sources. “The new models will join the existing iPad 2 to demonstrate Apple’s complete iPad series targeting the entry-level, mid-range and high-end market segments.”

A lower-cost iPad 2 will apparently compete head to head against Amazon’s Kindle Fire, a 7-inch tablet that acts as a portable vending machine for the online retailer’s e-books and streaming content. Meanwhile, according to the report, the new iPads will feature higher-resolution screens and “dual-LED light bars” to “strengthen the brightness of the panels.”

Earlier in December, DigiTimes quoted still other unnamed sources in the supply chain as claiming the first next-generation iPads would arrive within three or four months. Certainly if Apple follows the same release cadence of the previous two iPad versions, the next will make its debut early in 2012; however, given the wild and unfounded rumors that usually accompany each new iPad on its way to eventual unveiling and release, it pays to take many of the reports with the proverbial grain of salt.

Apple brings 2011 to a close with its dominating share of the tablet market still firmly intact. The late Steve Jobs introduced the iPad 2 March 2. “Is 2011 going to be the year of the copycats? I think if we did nothing, maybe a little bit,” he told the audience. “But we haven’t been resting on our laurels.” Over the next few quarters, a variety of competitors—including the Motorola Xoom and Hewlett-Packard’s TouchPad—suffered from anemic sales, seemingly solidifying Apple’s lead in the short term.

However, the competition is unlikely to abate in 2012. Microsoft and its manufacturing partners are prepping a series of tablets running the upcoming Windows 8, which will make a hard play for PC power users and businesses. In addition, competitors like Samsung are still very much in the tablet fight. Whatever Apple decides to release next year, it will continue to face a crowded marketplace.

Former Microsoft Exec Scopes Windows Phone's Failure

Microsoft's Windows Phone OS hasn't made much of a splash in 2011. Although it's gotten relentlessly positive reviews and has phones available on all four major carriers, it managed to achieve just 1.5 percent market share in the third quarter of 2011, according to Gartner.

That's led to considerable hand-wringing among tech analysts, who are trying to figure out why a product that is pretty good, backed by a very powerful company, simply won't sell. In steps Charlie Kindel, a 21-year veteran of Microsoft who was Windows Phone's chief developer evangelist for the first year of its life.

In a blog post, Kindel said Windows Phone has failedbecause Microsoft has alienated both phone makers and wireless carriers, two groups that Google has done a good job courting with its Android OS. With its tight hardware spec and rigid upgrade policy, Microsoft is limiting carriers' and manufacturers' freedom.

"Thus both of those sides of the market are reluctant. Especially the carriers, but also the device manufacturers. Remember that end users just do what they are told (by advertising and RSPs [salespeople]). Carriers own the marketing money and spend billions a year," he wrote.

The carriers and manufacturers will make and sell Windows phones, possibly because they're afraid of becoming too beholden to Google and Apple, but it seems they don't relish the devices or the platform much.

This jibes somewhat with our secret-shopper experiences last summer, where we found wireless carrier salespeople unenthusiastic about Windows Phone, and Windows Phones often turned off or relegated to the back of the store.

Apple also locks out manufacturers and alienates carriers, but it's taken over most of the roles they play, Kindel says. Apple has its own stores, its own ad campaigns, and its own tech support, reducing the carriers to dumb pipes that collect money. Microsoft hasn't gone nearly that far.

Kindel's blog post has attracted top-tier tech talent on its comment thread, and the major criticism (other than random anti-Microsoft blathering) seems to be that he's underplaying the role of software developers and apps.

"Android and iOS are 'safe' because that's where the apps are. Anything else? Not safe. Every conversation, every ad, and every Techcrunch post, er, Verge post, will remind them of where the apps are," blogger Robert Scoble said in response.

"I agree with you that the relatively weak app ecosystem in WP7 also plays an important part. I do not believe it is the most important reason," Kindel responded.

On Microsoft's part, the company has said it's making a major new push with Nokia; at the launch of the Nokia 710 with T-Mobile, T-Mobile senior vice president Andrew Sherrard said the carrier would make that phone a "hero device." But we've been hearing mixed things about the success of the Nokia 800 Windows phone in the first six countries it's appeared in, with Reuters most recently sayingit's a bomb.

"Analysts said there was nothing particularly wrong with the sleek-looking handsets, other than a software glitch on some models affecting battery life, but consumers were just not biting," the Reuters report said.

We'll have to see if the tight arrangement with Nokia will lead to greater success in 2012.

LG announces 84-Inch 3DTV to be unveiled at CES 2012

While many American consumers are still in the process of upgrading their televisions to high definition, LG is launching a new panel at CES that displays 4K resolution which the company calls ultra definition.

Set to be displayed to the public at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next month, television manufacturer LG is going to show off an 84-inch 3D Ultra Definition (UD) television that’s capable of 4K resolution. Designed to display a pixel density that’s four times any 1080p television, the 84-inch behemoth offers a resolution of 3840 by 2160 or eight million pixels. The flat panel utilizes a embedded 2D-to-3D conversion engine that allows viewers to watch 2D content in a simulated 3D format. In addition, consumers can play with the 3D Depth Control to modify the 3D effect that’s being created during the 2D-to-3D conversion process.

LG also offers the ability to control sound processing with the 3D Sound Zooming function which allows users to digitally place themselves within the 3D sound field using only the front two speakers. The panel also connects to the Smart TV application storefront and allows the user to peruse and install up to 1,200 different applications on the television. LG has dubbed the control for the television as the ”Magic Remote” and it will include voice recognition technology for controlling television functions as well as gesture control similar to a Nintendo Wii control.

Similar to the massive displays from Sharp and Panasonic that were displayed at previous trade shows, this panel is unlikely to be within the financial reach of the majority of consumers. It’s likely designed to pull in crowds of people at the show in order to promote other LG products like therecently announced OLED panel that’s the world’s largest at 55 inches as well as super-thin flat panels that are no ticker than a pencil. No pricing has been released at the time of the announcement and LG hasn’t released any information on the amount of 3D glasses that come with the 84-inch panel or the cost of those glasses.

Technolog - Google+ to hit 100 million by February: expert

As 2011 ends, Google+ is poised to cross the 100 million user threshold by February, a feat that took Facebook four years to do.

Avid Google+ watcher and Ancestry.com founder Paul Allen (not to be confused with the Microsoft co-founder) has become something of an unofficial tracking source for G+ since his prediction early on in July that the then-newborn social network would surpass 10 million within two weeks.

In a recent post (on G+, naturally), his forecast sees G+ with 400 million users by the end of 2012. His research shows 625,000 users signing up to G+ every day and already past 62 million. But he thinks that rate is going to go up, because if it stays the way it is now, there will be only about 293 million users at the end of next year. Only! But at this rate, 100 million will join by Feb. 25 and 200 million by Aug. 3.

To spur that optimism, he pulls out this stat, which is actually quite a jolt, if it's anywhere near accurate: Nearly a quarter of all G+ users joined in December. Maybe that's due to some recent improvements, such as editing streams, the debut of G+ Pages and enhancements to Hangouts. There was also a big spike in G+ traffic when it opened up to the public, beyond private invitations, in September.

But a 60 percent decrease in traffic right after that tempered at least some of that enthusiasm.

Now though, the outlook on G+ is bullish again.

Samsung Ships 1 Million Galaxy Note Phablets | TechCrunch

When we first heard about Samsung’s 5.3-inch Galaxy Note, we didn’t really know what to do with it. Is it a phone? Is it a tablet? Oh, look! A stylus!

It was weird.

But apparently people like weird, as Samsung is now reporting that it’sshipped over 1 million Galaxy Note phablets globally. The device launched back in September, and devices shipped is normally a higher number than the devices actually out in the real world, but it’s still a solid number nonetheless.

Samsung expects the numbers to grow once the Note makes its way to U.S. shores. Since we’ve been made to wait, it’s worth wondering if the U.S. version will be all that different. Rumors suggest AT&T LTE at the moment.

Time shall tell, dear friends, so if you’ve a nice pair of man hands andbelieve in the stylus, I’d suggest listening up during Samsung’s CES announcements. I wouldn’t be surprised if we hear more about the U.S.-bound Note come January.

Microsoft lines up 'superphones' for 2012 - Telegraph

Microsoft is preparing a new generation of Windows Phone “superphones” for 2012 to according to company plans leaked online.

The introduction of such handsets next year is expected to set the scene for the next major battle of the smartphone wars, with the iPhone 5 and more advanced Android devices also in the works.

Although there is no firm definition for a superphone, they are generally expected to include very high definition screens, more powerful multi-core processors based on ARM’s forthcoming A15 architecture and connectivity over next generation mobile broadband.

In a leaked “roadmap” for Windows Phone, Microsoft said it would introduce superphones in the fourth quarter of 2012. The new hardware will come alongside a new version of its mobile operating system, dubbed “Apollo”.

The current version of Windows Mobile, “Mango”, released in October, was generally well-received by reviewers. Microsoft was late to properly join the smartphone wars, however, and sales have been slow so far, despite the introduction of Nokia's first flagship Windows Phone handset, the Lumia 800.

Nokia committed to making only Windows Phone devices early in 2011, but has said it will only begin to fully exploit the partnership when Apollo is released.

“We made the decision to go to Windows Phone when Mango was pretty much done, so we were able to impact some elements of it but you'll really see the fruits of what we can do with Microsoft when the Apollo version of Windows Phone comes out,” spokesman Niklas Savander said in October.

Microsoft’s leaked roadmap reveals that with the release of Apollo it will also increase the overall volume of Windows Phone handsets being produced as it aims to increase its market share.

It also suggests there will be a focus on the business market late in 2012. It is seen as a good opportunity for Microsoft because of its dominance of desktop computing and the current weakness of RIM and its BlackBerry lineup, which have been popular among corporate buyers.

Between now and the release of Apollo, another update to Windows Phone called “Tango” is due out, Microsoft’s leaked roadmap shows. According to the plans, in the second quarter of 2012 Tango will focus on pushing Windows Phone downmarket, into “products with the best prices”.

News that major updates to Windows Phone at the cutting edge of the market are almost a year away has disappointed some devotees and prompted concerns that Microsoft could fall further behind Apple and Google in the meantime. Both are expected to push their handsets into the superphone era earlier in 2012.

Apple Continues To Plot Assault On TV |

Apple is moving forward with its assault on television, following up on the ambitions of its late co-founder, Steve Jobs.
In recent weeks, Apple executives have discussed their vision for the future of TV with media executives at several large companies, according to people familiar with the matter.
Apple is also working on its own television that relies on wireless streaming technology to access shows, movies and other content, according to people briefed on the project.
In the recent meetings with media companies, the Apple executives, including Senior Vice President Eddy Cue, have outlined new ways Apple's technology could recognize users across phones, tablets and TVs, people familiar with the talks said.
In at least one meeting, Apple described future television technology that would respond to users' voices and movements, one of the people said. Such technology, which Apple indicated may take longer than some of its other ideas, might allow users to use their voices to search for a show or change channels.
Apple is still saying little about what specific software and devices it is working on. The people familiar with the meetings said the Cupertino, Calif., company was "vague" and that Apple hasn't made proposals to license shows for any new product offering.
Still, the talks -- some of which were made at the request of media companies seeking an update on Apple's plans -- suggest that Apple's TV strategy is advancing. The technology company often keeps its products and ideas, close to the vest until as late as possible.
Apple executives have given some specifics in its talks with media companies. The company, for example, has discussed new ways they could stream media companies' content, allowing a user to watch a video on a TV set, then pick up another device, such as a smartphone, and keep watching the video on the move, one of the people familiar said.
Another person familiar with the talks said the types of new services Apple and the media companies are discussing could be done with Apple's existing technologies, which include its Apple TV set-top box.
Around three months after it started selling a new, $99 version of the set-top box last year, Apple said it had sold more than a million but hasn't provided sales figures since.
Apple's uptick in talks with its media partners is part of the company's strategy to change the way consumers watch TV, just as the company transformed the music and cell phone industries. Jobs envisioned building a TV that would be controlled by Apple's mobile devices in order to be easier to use and more personalized, according to people familiar with the matter.
The company has worked on prototypes for years. Before his death in October, Jobs told biographer Walter Isaacson that he had "finally cracked it," according to Isaacson's book.
The TV device Apple is working on would use a version of Apple's wireless-streaming technology AirPlay to allow users to control it from iPhones and iPads, according to people briefed on the matter. When the company plans to start selling such a device and whether it would receive traditional broadcast or cable signals remains unclear, said these people, who say Apple may change its plans.
The technology could allow users to stream video from mobile devices to their televisions, without a set-top box. That process is already possible through its Apple TV set-top box, but it is cumbersome and some media companies, such as Time Warner Inc.'s cable channel HBO, prevent their apps from using the technology because they want closer control of how and where their content appears. An HBO spokesman says it hopes to use AirPlay once it is comfortable with the anti-piracy protection.

Samsung hauls Apple into court over emoticon patent

Samsung has opened a new offensive in its ongoing patent dispute with smartphone arch-rival Apple.

Fresh claims, filed in Germany, charge Apple with violating a pair of patents relating to the implementation of the WCDMA 3G telecom standard and another two patents relating to smartphone utilities, one of which involves the display of emoticons.


"(Samsung) made four more claims; two are standard-related patents and the other two are utility patents. And a court said it would make these claims separate from the April lawsuit," a Samsung spokesman told Reuters.

A German regional court in Mannheim dealing with the separate but related lawsuit over 3G handset tech, filed in April, said on Friday that it expected to publish a judgment in this case on 2 March.

The scores are even so far in the bruising smartphone-tablet patent battle between Samsung and Apple. An Australian court lifted a ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab fondleslab in the country in late November. However Samsung suffered a setback days before this when a Paris court refused to block sales of Apple's iPhone 4S in France.

Earlier this month a US court rejected Apple's bid to get an early ban on the sale of Samsung products in the country.

Record Data Transfer Rate Exceeds 186 Gigabits per Second

During the SuperComputing 2011 (SC11) conference, which was held in Seattle, Washington this mid-November, experts were able to use a wide-area network circuit to transfer data from one location to another at a combined rate of 186 gigabits per second (Gbps).

The international team that developed the new capability says that the innovation could be used to develop a new generation of high-speed networks, which could support data transfer rates that are currently inaccessible.

This transfer rate is the equivalent of moving 100,000 BluRay disks through a network every single day – around 2 million gigabytes. The team behind the work included experts at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), the University of Victoria, and the University of Michigan, among others.

“Having these tools in our hands allows us to engage in realizable visions others do not have. We can see a clear path to a future others cannot yet imagine with any confidence,” Caltech physics professor and team leader Harvey Newman explains.

Next-Gen GPS Satellite Enters Testing In U.S.

A $5.5 billion upgrade to the Global Positioning System moved a step closer to launch this week when a prototype arrived at a Lockheed Martin complex in Colorado to begin months of tests.

It's the guinea pig for a new generation of GPS satellites, called Block III, that's expected to make military and civilian receivers more accurate, powerful and reliable.

They're also part of an international effort to allow civilian receivers to use signals from U.S., European, Russian and perhaps other satellite navigation systems.

GPS has become ubiquitous in American civilian and military life, with hundreds of thousands of receivers in cars, and weapons systems. Financial systems use GPS receivers to get precise time stamps for transactions, relying on the atomic clocks onboard the satellites.

The Air Force Space Command oversees the U.S. GPS satellites and ground control systems from its headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colorado.

The Block III satellites are expected to allow military and civilian users to determine their position within 3 feet (almost 1 meter), compared with 10 feet (3 meters) with current technology, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Higher-powered signals from Block III satellites are expected to be harder to jam and easier for receivers to tune in, especially in urban canyons or under thick tree canopies.

The U.S. and other countries have agreed to make a new, common frequency available to civilians. That means civilian receivers could calculate their position from a number of different satellite navigation systems.

The Block III prototype arrived at Lockheed Martin's Waterton Canyon complex south of Denver on Monday. Workers will do final assembly work on the prototype and then run it through a gantlet of tests, including extreme temperatures to mimic conditions in space and measurements to see whether the satellite's radio frequencies interfere with each other.
The prototype will not be launched into space.

The first flight model is expected to arrive at Waterton Canyon next summer and be launched in May 2014.

Lockheed Martin has a $1.5 billion Air Force contract to build and test the GPS III prototype and build the first two satellites for launch. The contract includes an option for two more.

The Pentagon expects to buy and launch a total of 32 Block III satellites. The Air Force says it will cost about $5.5 billion to design, build and launch all the satellites and upgrade the ground control systems

Apple: Five predictions for 2012

Expecting something from Apple can be a dangerous game, but that doesn't mean it's not fun to try and read the tea leaves every once in a while.

Below are five things I think we can expect from Apple next year. Some of these are based on a long ramp-up of rumors and telltale signs from this year, with others outright speculation from trends and the company's product release habits.

It's worth pointing out that Apple's usual lack of predictability is what makes it such an interesting company to watch. Nowhere was that more clear than what happened with the iPhone 4S. While most of the press and rumor blogs were anticipating a full overhaul of the iPhone's hardware, we got a souped up iPhone 4 instead. Sure, Siri turned out to be pretty cool, but many were expecting something else.

Now, without further ado...

1. No TV set, yet
The rumored product that's spent most of 2011 as an abstraction of data points is almost certainly on its way to being a real thing, but likely won't be seen next year.

In the recently released biography of late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs, author Walter Isaacson noted Jobs' efforts on making an easy-to-use TV set that is integrated with the company's various products and services. "I'd like to create an integrated television set that is completely easy to use," Jobs told Isaacson. "It would be seamlessly synched with all of your devices and with iCloud. It will have the simplest user interface you could imagine. I finally cracked it."

But that estimate seems awfully bullish, especially given where Apple's home entertainment landscape currently sits. For better or worse, the Apple TV box remains a hobby product for the company. No doubt it will become more capable in future iterations, but what many are expecting with a TV set would be something that leapfrogs that effort. Will Apple deliver that in 2012? My guess is no.Of course how far along Apple really was in that endeavor remains a significant question. In an interview with CNET, Isaacson saidApple wasn't "close at all," and that "it was very theoretical." In late October, Bloomberg claimed that the company had already turned to one of the founding team members of the iPod and iTunes Music Store to get a TV set out the door. More recently, Jefferies & Company analyst Peter Misek claimed that Apple was tapping Sharp for display panels in order to make a TV for a mid-2012 release.

2. Siri opened up to developers
The sassy voice assistant has been a breakout hit for Apple since its introduction with the iPhone 4S in October, but it's missing something big. Apple's current implementation is limited to Web queries from partners like Wolfram Alpha and Yelp, along with Apple's own apps. What's missing is a way to hook it into the half a million or so apps that are on the App Store.

Much as those very same apps helped expand what one could do with the iPhone itself, creating voice plug-ins for apps could very well be the next step in making Siri a more useful service.

It took Apple a little less than four months after the launch of the original iPhone to announce a software developer kit, a move that led to the App Store in 2008. In Siri's case, the apps are already there, as are the tools to make them. However Siri does most of its magic on Apple's servers, and is currently limited to the iPhone 4S.

Would developers take on extra work for just one device? They certainly did that with the iPhone 4 and its move to a Retina Display, as well as the iPad and its bigger resolution.

3. The end of the Mac Pro
Desktop sales just weren't what they used to be compared to when Apple introduced the original design of the Mac Pro (then the Power Mac G5) in mid-2003. While Mac hardware sales have grown considerably since then, notebooks have been the belle of the ball since they surpassed the company's sales of desktop computers in 2004. Those same notebook units now face cannibalization from Apple's iPad, which itself blew past Mac sales last year.

So why keep the Mac Pro around? It certainly links back to Apple's roots in providing designers and professionals with beefy workstations. But it's one of the only products in Apple's lineup that just doesn't fit in anymore. Apple's Macs are basically sealed up, and need to be taken to a repair professional for anything outside of swapping out the RAM. By comparison, the Mac Pro lets you open up the side and fiddle around with the inside bits. That's the standard for PC manufacturers, but Apple's made a hefty business out of doing things the other way around.

An anonymously sourced report from AppleInsider in October suggested that Apple's seen a sharp decline in sales of the workstations, which begin at $2,499 in the U.S., and that the drop has led executives to reconsider whether it's worth continuing to invest in the product. Lending further credence to that idea is the fact that Apple hasn't given the line a proper overhaul since before it made the move to Intel processors, instead putting its focus on updates to its Mac Mini, iMac and MacBook portable lines.

The real question is how the Mac Pro will take its bow. Will Apple announce its demise, or simply replace that spot in its product line with something else?

4. Apple ditches Google for Maps
Google's been closely tied to Apple's iOS since the first iPhone was unveiled, but that could change next year if the company ends up introducing its own mapping service. Why would Apple do that? Tensions between the Apple and Google have increased in recent years with the rise of Android, Google's mobile operating system.

Making matters more interesting was Apple's acknowledgement that it was collecting traffic data "to build a crowd-sourced traffic database with the goal of providing iPhone users an improved traffic service in the next couple of years." That sounds more like a layer on top of an existing mapping service than a standalone service of its own. Yet, Apple acquired C3 Technologies this year, the third such mapping company it's bought up, and one that specializes in eye-pooping 3D imagery.

Something that throws some cold water on this prediction is that Apple renewed its deal with Google to use its mapping service earlier this year, but we don't know how long that's good for.

5. A truly new iPhone
Apple's released a new iPhone every year since its introduction, making this one a bit of a no-brainer. So far that cycle's consisted of a steady stream of internal tweaks, with every other year including a full-scale overhaul. The iPhone 4 was the last such big change to Apple's iPhone design formula, with the 4S getting speedier guts.

Yet before the 4S launched, the rumors were hot and heavy with Apple pushing out a drastic design change. That device never materialized, putting all bets on it arriving next year.

So what features will it have? The big thing to expect is a larger screen. The traditional 3.5-inch displays have served Apple well, but other manufacturers have bumped up to the 4-inch range, with some going bigger. Other things to put on that list include a jump to 4G networking, near-field communications (NFC) for transferring information between devices, and of course the usual tweaks to the camera and processor.