Mark (a fellow nerd from high school) and I talk about Apple's transition to x86 and other WWDC announcements (and get off track, at the end, and start yacking about World Of Warcraft and Star Wars Ep3)

All recorded using the miracles of Skype - which really did Just Work - and Wiretap Pro. I used the unregistered version of Wiretap to record this, so every 20 seconds or so you'll hear "This was recorded using an unregistered version of Wiretap Pro.". This is annoying, I'll admit, I hope you'll find the content interesting enough to "hear around" that.

Needless to say I now have a registered copy of WireTap Pro, so future h4ck3rc4sts will free of the Helpful Lady's Voice. Hopefully "all" the equipment and software I've had to buy will keep me on the straight and narrow podcaster's path (and while $50 or so isn't really all that much money... I really wasn't planning on spending it all there )

Dispel any remaining doubts; we are now living in the evil mirror universe.

I'm in a state of denial now... even though I gave it a probability of happening earlier.

Without further ado, I'll try to predict the future (with in probability ratings):

• 50%: Intel is making PPC chips. Additional chip knowledge would help them create the next brand of Pentium chips, I bet. Maybe they'll make the G6s. John Grubber also mentions this theory (the Intel making PPC chips part.) This would probably require a new fab plant on Intel's part, and I'm betting those are non-trivial to set up. Meaning: a few years off.
• 25%: Apple switches to x86. I just don't see the benefit for Apple with such a switch. They switch to a platform that doesn't appear to have an obvious performance advantage, and all of the evidence (next gen consoles) seem to be pointing to the PowerPC as the chip o' the future. (Of course, did the PowerPC have an "obvious performance advantage" when that transition was made? I wasn't paying attention at the time.)

  Plus, applications would need some sort of emulation environment to run properly, meaning a performance hit for a large percentage of apps on the platform, for the next 2-4 years (the PowerPC transition probably took this long, or longer, including the time it took to get all of the Toolbox moved over to PowerPC native code. If the Toolbox Carbon and Cocoa aren't native x86, it doesn't matter if you're app is, it will still be under emulation (because it's still doing emulation at that lower level.)

  Plus, like other folks mentioned, it's not just an architecture switch, but an endian switch too.

• 20%: Oh boy do I hate coming back to this topic. I really do... but.. Maybe Apple has put together a tablet computer based on x86 hardware. Using some of the technologies from Cocoa, but not running OS X. This tablet would be custom designed to work well without keyboard or mouse, and may be an entire paradigm shift from how computer interfaces are work now (mouse, window, keyboard, mouse happy).

  Because of the complete paradigm shift, developers will have to rewrite/rework their applications anyway (if the app makes sense in that environment - I'm sure there will be kinds of applications that just won't work on such a tablet's interface), and that would be the perfect time to also make code changes associated with moving to x86. Extra points if Apple includes a port for your ipod on this tablet thing (think a holster, where you plug in your iPod into this device and the two devices "become one"). Bonus points if you use the same weird connection on the device as the ipod has on the bottom - and it comes with a battery rechargeable via the same method.

  A UI paradigm shift is overdue, in my mind: the interfaces too slow, the metaphors not really all that useful, and some of them really don't work well (my pet peeve: dragging. Great when your source and your destination are non-obscured, (and close together) but put a few windows in the way and you might as well stop, move the windows, and try again. This is fast how?! And good luck if your source and destination are far apart.)

  Oh, and let's also make it simple. When I tried out one of those Palm Lifedrives the other day, and I didn't find it intuitive at all - and I'm a college graduate of midgrade (or so I hope/think) intelligence, working in the industry. Any device (by any manufacturer) has to at least past that test.

  My bet: Apple's the only company that has the vertical market integration to pull something like this off, and - if the device/interface is good enough - they could dominate for several years with such a thing. Year of the laptop? No - year of the tablet.

• 5%: Apple releases OS X 10.4 Tiger for PCs. Tiger runs Windows apps via a WINE-like mechanism, meaning they run almost as fast as they would under Windows itself (Wine Is Not Emulation.) Apple cannibalizes their hardware division for their software one. (WINE is a thing that lets linux run some Windows software, in a non-native - probably Classic feeling - mode. Hmmm.) It won't run all any of the OS X apps currently available, but it won't be out for a year anyway, thus giving developers time to port code.

Of course, we'll all find out on Monday. What is it with me and long entries anymore?!

Other people's thoughts/comments on this thing:

• Mike Zornek
• Daring Fireball: Intel-Apple Odds and Ends
• Kottke