I'm not normally one to make predications, and I very rarely visit Mac rumor sites. But this year, I will start a new trend for me. I will look ahead to what I think will be coming in the year 2001, and look back upon what I predicted at the end of the year. Hey, this could be fun!

I'll start with a sure hit, Mac OS X. Sometime by summer, Apple should finally ship its long awaited modern operating system. This new OS has been given its share of good and bad press. Some people hate it, some people love it; the mark of a great product. I would be very surprised if this wasn't in the hands of Macs users in 2001.

Next, a G4 Powerbook. I feel that Motorola finally has engineered the G4 chips to run with less heat. They put one in the Cube without a fan, so they should be ready to put one in a Powerbook. In fact, Apple's design engineers could have come up with a scheme to move air through the Powerbook with convectional air flow. A portable super computer is one its way.

On the same note, I think Motorola will finally give in to IBM, and come out with faster G4's. Probably debuting at 750 MHz, by the end of 2001, it should reach 1 GHz. While Apple will still be behind the MHz curve, they will finally start catching up, and once again be taken seriously about their "faster chip"claims.

More PCI slots would be my next guess. Ever since the introduction of the G3, Macs have shipped with a lousy 3 PCI slots. Power users have been clamoring for more slots, and I think Apple will finally deliver. This most likely will not happen at the MacWorld Expo in January, but look for 6 slot PCI Macs is July.

Also, I see Apple dropping ATI, and picking up nVidia as its graphic chip provider. The one and only reason Apple has kept ATI was for their DVD capabilities. But now that nVidia has mobile and desktop chips that are compatible with Macs, play DVDs, and actually have great 3D support, Apple will drop ATI like last week's fad.

Due to all of the above, Apple's stock will once again be trading above the $50 mark. Investors will see that Apple is the innovator it used to be, and once again jump on the Apple bandwagon. While it may take most of the year, it will make it. All the while, Microsoft's and Intel's stock will tank.

Now, for the craziest thing to come out of crystal ball, a new startup chime. That's right, Apple is going to dump it's "bonnnnggg" sound, and go for a new mind controlling sound. Figuring it can't win the platform wars on level grounds, it will stoop to a whole new level of subliminal messages within the startup sound. Then, by next Christmas, Apple will be the one with 90% of the market share.

Well, there go my crystal ball, going dark. I guess I have juiced it clean for this year. Now all we have to sit back and watch my crazy predictions come to life. Abra-cadabra-boom!