Happy New Year! MacWorld next week...

My first post of many in 2005. Only a week to go until the most important date in the Apple calendar. Steve Jobs gives his keynote speech (or "SteveNote" as it is affectionately known) at the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco next Tuesday 11th Jan at 9am Pacific time (that's 5pm UK time). If previous years are anything to go by, Apple will provide a live QuickTime feed of the keynote here (at the moment it points to October's U2 event).

Here are my SteveNote predictions:

• New entry-level Mac £299? Will it have TV-out enabling use as a sort-of "media centre"?
• New entry-level iPod mini £99? 1Gb? Use of AACplus to squeeze even more songs on it?
• Current 4Gb iPod mini increased to 5Gb for the same price?
• Motorola/Apple phone announced?
• iPod games available to download?
• Apple own-brand iPod speakers?
• Airport Express 2 with proper remote/display?
• iWork '05 productivity suite (including Keynote 2) to replace the aged AppleWorks on all new Macs?
• iLife '05 announced with 16:9 support in iMovie/iDVD?
• Tiger release date announced? Will it include iWork and iLife?
• Doom III for the Mac demoed by Aspyr?
• iTunes Music Store extended to Ireland and Australia?
• New Apple Stores announced in the UK? Manchester? Birmingham date?

After the event, I'll repost this list to see which (if any!) came true.
By the way, I popped into the Apple Store Regent Street on New Year's Day and got my first glimpse at iPod Socks! So they really do exist!! Looks like you get all 6 colours in each box, but only the first one has an Apple iPod tag. Weird.