Back in January during his MacWorld Keynote Address, Steve Jobs hinted that Apple was going to be really busy launching new products and innovations this year. True to his word, there's a lot coming out of Cupertino these days.

Here's a rundown of announcements and rumours for February:

• New iPod Touch and iPhones were released earlier this month with twice as much memory as previous models
• New MacBooks and MacBook Pros just shipped, with another refresh due in June
• O2 annouced the iPhone launch for Ireland, with Austria rumored to be close behind
• A media event scheduled for March 6 will discuss "Enterprise" and launch the official SDK for the iPhone (and iPod touch).
• More rumours are circulating about a 3G iPhone coming sometime mid-year

Since the beginning of the year, Apple's stock has dropped by 40%, from a high of $198 per share at the end of December '07 to a low of $119 earlier this week. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that now would be a good time to order a slice of AAPL pie "a la mode". :)

In case you've been in a coma for the past 24 hours, yesterday was the 2008 MacWorld Keynote Address by Apple CEO Steve Jobs. This is the big event when Apple unveils some of its new products to kick off the year, and the presentation for 2008 was a doozy. Here's a summary of the big announcements:

• Time Capsule: an Airport Extreme WiFi router + built-in 500GB or 1TB HD that syncs with Leopard's Time Machine for automatic wireless backups.
  
• iPhone: a bunch of new features including geo-locating Maps application, SMS to multiple contacts, WebClips (bookmark icons) and multiple customisable home screens.
• iPod Touch: new apps for the Touch include Mail, Maps, Weather, Stocks and Notes, in addition to WebClips and customisable home screens.
• iTunes Movie Rentals: rent DVD-quality movies for $2.99-$3.99 or HD movies for $1 more. Watch them on your Mac, iPod, iPhone or Widescreen TV using a revamped Apple TV that is no longer tied to a computer. Only in the US right away, and internationally by end of year.
• MacBook Air: "The world's thinnest notebook". Specs include: 3lbs, 13.3" widescreen, LED backlight display, built-in iSight, full-size backlit keyboard, multi-touch trackpad, 1.6 or 1.8GHz Core 2 Duo, 2GB of RAM, 80GB standard (iPod 1.8" HD) or 64GB SSD, and a battery life of 5hrs. There's no optical drive, but instead it has a new application called Remote Disk that allows the MacBook Air use another computer's optical drive over WiFi. All this and it's the most environmentally-friendly laptop ever built. I reeeally want one of these.

It's really hard not to be impressed. Seriously, this is hands-down the most slick and cleverly integrated family of hardware and software products on the market today. Nobody else is even close to touching Apple's offering of innovative computing solutions. Who cares about the enterprise market?!? From the home, to the studio, to the road, Apple has it figured out. I have a feeling they're going to make a LOT of money this year.

Turns out I'm not the only one who has some difficulty typing accurately on my iPod touch. A test was recently performed to assess the typing accuracy for novice and experienced users of Apple's iPhone and iPod touch, as compared to hard-key QWERTY and numeric-based keyboards. Error rates were higher across the board using Apple's innovative touch-sensitive keyboard. Remarkably, experienced users fared no better than complete novices. 

Happy New Year!! The new year is upon us and while 2006 was a heck of a ride, I have a feeling that '007 will be a barn-stormer. Here's a taste of things to come:

Apple's to oranges
Last week was the MacWorld Expo in San Francisco. This is the big conference where Steve Jobs comes out with his bag of treats for the new year. The rumour sites were buzzing for weeks in anticipation. Most were betting on official release announcements for the following two big innovations Apple has been keeping under wraps: (1) the AppleTV device (previously announced back in September '006 as "coming soon"); and (2) the iPhone (which has been the subject of more rumours than Lindsey Lohan). These two devices are set to change the future of personal communication and entertainment. Seriously.

Microsoft's AdEmpire
Althought currently running as a pilot in Canada, the Microsoft adCentre product is set to change the landscape, at least as far as running ads on the MSN network of products and services goes. Although for now it only covers Search ads on Live Search (similar to Google's AdWords) it will eventually integrate a suite of platforms for online advertising, including Windows Live, MSN (presumably to either replace or absorb AdExpert), XBox Live, Spaces and Messenger/Hotmail. No doubt other Microsoft media outlets (such as IPtv) will also plug into AdCenter in the future.

Surprises? We love surprises!
No doubt there will be more changes that can't be predicted yet. Last year it was User Generated Content (MySpace) and Video (YouTube) that rocked the landscape. This year, who knows what will capture the hearts and imaginations of the online universe. Whatever it is, you can bet that there will be a rush to monetize it.

So what are your predictions?