There’s a massive event in about two weeks that I bet everyone knows about. Yes, it’s Macworld Conference & Expo 2008. Many rumors have surfaced regarding this Apple event. Apparently, most of them are concerned with the Steve Jobs keynote that begins the Expo. Some supposedly “fake” transcripts have said that Steve actually says that Apple doesn’t have anything as big as the iPhone. However, I predict that the RDF (Reality Distortion Field) will take care of that problem.

Anyway, rumor sites such as MacRumors report that an “ultra mobile Mac” is underway and will be announced at Macworld. It also is supposedly controlled by Multi-Touch and offers an external optical drive. When I first read this, I felt that such a device would not work. Why? Because the finger, in my opinion, is still not as fast enough as a full sized mouse. And the fact that you must double tap to zoom in and out means either Apple must think of a really creative way to right “click” or remove that feature entirely. So in my opinion, a device like this would need a lot of new ways of input, which are hard to just make up and add to a 5-inch sized product.

Overall, Macworld this year should still be quite exciting, though the lack of original innovations could let Apple lose the initiative gained by the iPhone and Leopard. As rumors are just rumors, we can’t do much except sit and wait for Steve to open the sluices and give us whatever he’s holding back at 1 Infinite Loop.