Macenstein

Posted by Helper Monkey

We have received a flurry of reports regarding Apple’s presence at this year’s NAMM (the International Music Products Association) show and the possible debut of at least one of two new music-related hardware innovations from Apple. Apple has a decent-sized booth ( #6400 near the bottom) right at the main entrance to the show.

First up, the iPod boombox. Early reports pegged this being a Macworld announcement, but for whatever reason Apple decided to wait a bit to unveil this new piece of audio goodness. Some reports are suggesting we are only 3 days away from seeing what has been called a boombox “like no other�. We’ll see. We have yet to see an affordable set of iPod speakers worth listening to, so hopefully a decent listening experience and reasonable price will be what set this device apart from the rest. We are cautiously optimistic on this one.

The second piece of audio hardware may end up being (brace yourselves) the elusive audio breakout box meant for Garage Band. The only info we have on this is one unconfirmed mention that this was ready in time for Macworld, but the keynote was running long enough as it was (at an hour and half), and Steve thought there would not be time enough to bring up the requisite “special musical guest� to demo the unit. This box, formerly known as “asteroid� , currently known as “the little rumor that could� seems to pop up almost every time there is any type of Apple-related event, so take this for what its worth.

Recently, aside from Macworld, Apple has taken to announcing products at its own “special events� in lieu of the larger Expos. However, since neither of these items is quite cool enough to warrant a “new-iPod-like� media frenzy, and since this is an audio-related event, these reports seem a bit more plausible. This year marks the NAMMs 104th anniversary. The event is closed to the general public.