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So, as you may know, I’m planning to pick up a Mac mini for the movie library project, and I’m itching to get a Macbook too, since my iBook’s usefulness is rapidly waning, and my iPod is in drastic need of replacing.  But I haven’t bought any of these things yet because I put too much stock in rumors:

• An Apple Insider article in March claimed that Apple is preparing a new revision of the Mac mini with a more current generation of dual-core processors, better graphics, and the like.  This has not yet come to pass, and no further mini rumors have come down the pike, but considering the mini is not supposed to receive an updated design, it seems possible that the revision could be pulled off in six months.

• Reports a few weeks ago from both Apple Insider and Mac Rumors indicate that Apple’s planning a big product event in late September. The products most likely to be updated, they report, are be the iPod Touch (which will look more like an iPhone 3G, and will probably be cheaper), iPod Shuffle and iPod Nano (both of which could see increased storage capacity) and the Macbook (which will look more like the Macbook Air and, supposedly, have a new chipset and processor.  The latter change is supposed to be a dramatic upgrade). Mac Rumors suggested in May that Apple would release its rumored tablet PC this September, but subsequent reports suggest that probably won’t happen.

• Mac Rumors also reported last month that Apple might be looking to drop the prices of Macbooks and Macbook Pros when the new revisions are released.

• A week ago, Mac Rumors reported that Apple might be planning to start putting dedicated video encoding/decoding chips into new versions of its computers, taking a tremendous load off of processors and speeding up the process of video encoding.

So I’m holding my breath and hoping that all of these things are true, and that we’ll get a $199 iPod Touch and new Mac minis and Macbooks, both with dedicated video chips, by late September. I doubt that all of these rumors are true, or, if they are, that they’ll all come to fruition at once, but still, it seems like it might be a good idea to hold off on any Apple purchases until after the announcement comes (if it does) in late September.

Some back story: Gray is building a digital media library to eventually replace (though the dvds will be around for back-up) his massive dvd collection. It’s been an interesting discussion involving hours of email, the addition of a Slingbox, and no shortage of web surfing for reviews.

So reading this article I start to wonder, what’s enough? Storage is cheaper, yes, but media files are growing, right? (more…)