The time before Macworld is always a fun time of the year. It’s also a time to be cautiously optimistic. After all, Apple has vacillated between downplaying Macworld as a venue for new product introductions and using it to make the biggest product introductions ever, including last year’s iPhone. Personally, I’m not hoping for an over the top Stevenote ever this time around. Last year’s, in my humble opinion, was one of the best ever and it would be really hard to top it. I wouldn’t be surprised, actually, if this year’s keynote is a relatively mild affair. Leopard has shipped. The iPhone is doing well and it’s not the right venue for unveiling an iPhone SDK. The 3G iPhone probably isn’t in the queue yet, given that the folks working on things have been occupied with getting the SDK ready. And, on the Pro Apps side, even if Aperture 2 is ready, it’s better suited to PMA coming up at the end of the month.

On the other hand, Apple released new MacPros and Xserves last week. So, evidently, they decided that those weren’t a big enough deal to talk about at MacWorld. Of course, big iron machines aren’t the focus at MacWorld, but if there wasn’t much to talk about, they’d at least hold those to fill in the agenda. That means that there’s gotta be something in the queue. Right? This year, however, the rumors are all over the place. Whatever is in the pipe, if indeed there is something big, is a well kept secret.

So, left to my own speculation, what would I like to see? First of all—something that I’ve been wanting to see for several Stevenotes in a row—I’d love to see brand new Cinema displays with at least LED backlighting and built in iSights. The industrial design doesn’t have to change at all as I think they’re still the best looking displays ever. I would be even happier if they came with a wide gamut option—say 95% or better of AdobeRGB—but I’m not going to hold my breath for that. In any case, I’m probably going to be buying a new 8-core machine soon and I’d love to package in a new display with my ADC hardware discount. If there’s not a wide gamut Cinema display in the mix, or at least an LED-based display with a broader gamut than sRGB, then I’ll probably be looking at an EIZO or something like that.

As far as the rumored MacBook Thin, I love the idea. Using a solid state hard drives would really make me happy. But I’m not sure I’d be in the market for this just yet. After all, I do need to process photos on the road and, right now, the MacBook Pro does a pretty good job of that. As well, any screen that they’re likely to put on the MacBook Thin will probably be not as good as on the MacBook Pro. Of course, you never know.

Some software updates will be very welcome. I’m hoping for Mac OS X10.5.2 and iPhone 1.1.3 to make a showing. Somehow, I’m thinking they may be tied at the hip. I have absolutely no reason for thinking this, but I kind of hope that notes and to-do items sync between Leopard and iPhone in this next iteration and I’m really waiting for the incessant crashing of random apps on Leopard on my MacBook Pro to stop. Now. Please.

Of course, none of these items are a big deal in the scheme of things, and certainly won’t be in the spotlight. So what will be in the spotlight? My guess that the big thing will be the next version of the AppleTV. Maybe it’ll be the AppleTV 2.0 or maybe it’ll be something quite a bit more ambitious. But definitely something in the media space. As far as content for the media devices go, the movie rentals being rumored about would be cool, though if they do show up, I’m really hoping that they’re going to come in at least 720p quality. I’m ready to bypass the flaming wreck that is HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray and online distribution will be the key to that. As far as the hardware itself, my big hope is that the next rev of the AppleTV doesn’t run so damn hot. I refuse to leave the thing running for any amount of time in its current state because of its heat generation—though this time of year, it might eliminate any need to run the heater in my condo.

Tablets, personal antigravity devices, and the like would be cool and all. And they might happen. But really, my money is on the media play this year. We’ll know soon enough. And maybe, just maybe, we’ll get something that’s so cool that we’ll all wet our collective pants. But really, after the year of the iPhone, I’m cutting Apple a bit of slack.

I’ll be at MacWorld all week. On Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ll be on the clock shooting photographs around the expo floor. I’ll mostly be focusing in on the developer pavilion over by the main Apple presence. Other than that, I’ll probably be bouncing all around Moscone. I won’t, however, be in the audience for the keynote. Go figure. It wasn’t in the cards this time around. I may just wander over to the Apple Store at keynote time and see what’s going on. Or maybe I’ll just take pictures outside of Moscone of the crews changing out the ad signs. I’ve always wondered how fast they did that.