ON Tuesday, I was alerted to a hush-hush product announcement that Apple will make today.
Finally, I thought, Apple is lifting the wraps on a slim netbook that had been rumoured for months.
A report in the Taiwanese newspaper called Commercial Times, gave me hope that Apple would do just that. The story said that Taiwanese company Wintek was supplying touch panels for Apple's ultra-thin netbook and that shipments will start in the third quarter.
Wow! An Apple super thin netbook priced below $1000 would surely storm the market.
But Apple Singapore PR cautioned me that none of the rumours in the market referred to the product that would be unveiled today.
Nevertheless, I did my due diligence, researching what was being said on the Web to prepare for the early morning call today with a marketing vice-president from Apple.
My hopes were dashed at the press release that came out on apple.com last night.
The company that invented the iPhone is unveiling a really tiny iPod Shuffle that can talk! Is that the big news?
It's half the size of the old Shuffle, carries twice as many songs at 4GB (1000 songs) and can tell me the title and singer of the music that is currently being played.
Plus, all the controls have been shifted to the headphone cord. So clicking once, twice or thrice on it and you can control volume, play, pause or move one song forward or backward.
Once I digested the information, I realised that the talk feature, called VoiceOver, is good.
Because the Shuffle would be so miniscule, it could disappear in my bag or briefcase.
So instead of fumbling for it, I could get it to tell me what I'm listening too.
But I better be careful not to drop it on the floor or one of my four dogs will mistake it for a chewie.
Okay, at $128, I may consider getting one. But will it be the black or silver?