Christmas isn't the only event hurtling toward us at deadly speed; two weeks later we'll we smack in the middle of yet another Macworld Expo again. That's only two months away, and you all know what that means-- it's time to commence the fall Keynote Speculation season. Actually, according to the "three months prior" purists, we should have started about a month back, but we like to wait until Mac OS Rumors posts its first big list of Expo predictions before we declare the season officially open. It's kinda like seeing the first robin of spring or something.

So without further ado, we encourage all Apple watchers to take a gander at MOSR's list of potential and probable announcements and start mentally filing them according to your personally ascribed level of believability. A lot of it is a virtual lock, especially on the software end-- a "firmer timetable for Mac OS X," for example. Since the next Expo Stevenote is on January 9th, you can bet that Fearless Leader will definitely be firming up that "early 2001" release date; our bet's on May 15th, as per the lockout date for the public beta. An Expo release of Mac OS 9.1 seems awfully likely, too, given how overdue it already seems to be. The "two new Apple multimedia applications" to which Steve first alluded in the last earnings statement are iffier, but not out of the question.

But what of the hardware? Most everyone agrees that if the PowerBook G4 doesn't finally show up, One Infinite Loop will be razed to the ground by rampaging hordes of impatient customers bearing torches and pitchforks, but we suspect the "Cube Portable" will keep most speculators guessing right up 'til showtime. Everybody noticed the conspicuously vacant sixth square in Apple's new product line grid when the Cube was added; will we really get to see the mysterious new portable a mere two months from now? And will it be Apple's return to the handheld market it pioneered, or is it the subnotebook we've been clamoring for since the PowerBook 2400 went the way of all silicon?

Perhaps most contentious of all will be the betting on Motorola's standing in the Megahertz Wars by then. Pessimists can't see the G4 budging past its current 500 MHz plateau in time for the Expo (personally, we're betting it'll drop back to 450 MHz just out of spite), but those with sunnier outlooks on life are expecting 550 and 600 MHz Power Mac G4s to join Steve on stage-- at least for an introductory test-drive, if not for a "shipping immediately" announcement. Polish up those crystal balls, because you've only got two months before all is revealed...