Well yesterday’s media event came and went, so how did my predictions turn out?

It was a goddamn blood bath. Nothing mentioned about AppleTV. Mac Minis were updated, but that wasn’t even one of my real predictions, just a hoped-for thing I tacked on.

Oh well, there’s always next year.

Today is an Apple media event. As I did a month ago, I’d like to offer a few predictions. Consensus is that we should expect to discussion of Yosemite, and new iPads, which I agree with.

My prediction (and long held hope) is for a big AppleTV announcement. Here’s what I expect to be shown and talked about:

• New AppleTV hardware with at least two price points
• Significant new/expanded partnerships with content creators and/or cable providers
• AppleTV/Homekit integration
• Continuity comes to AppleTV

Beyond all that I hope to see new Mac Minis, but I’m not ready to register a formal prediction about that.

We’ll see in a couple hours. I’ll have a follow-up post to see how far off from the target I land.

Well, Apple’s media event has come and gone, including a performance by U2 (yawn) and while there was a lot to like about it, my predictions were pretty far off. Here’s the follow-up to my wacky ideas:

1. There will be a watch, but it won’t be called iWatch. There will be multiple sizes and prices. The entry level price point will be $299.
   Mostly true. The watch is called AppleWatch (Watch), and there are two sizes, and multiple price points. I was too aggressive in my call for a sub $300 price point, but $349 isn’t too far off. 
2. There will be another, more affordable wearable of some kind, maybe like a FitBit, or Care Predict Tempo. This would not have all the features of the watch, but would be more of a health and/or fitness device.
   Nope. 
3. The wearable(s) will be branded Beats instead of, or in addition to, Apple.
   Nope. 
4. There will be at least one woman on stage during the event, which is notable because these things are usually sausage-fests. Maybe Angela Ahrendts?
   Nope. 
5. Siri will be featured and a major highlight of the new watch/wearable(s). I think the “Wish We Could Say More” text on the media invitation alludes to this, though I haven’t seen anyone else pick up on it.
   Not really. You can use Siri with the watch, but it wasn’t a highlighted part of the keynote the way I expected. 
6. Apple will announce a mobile payments system and it will allow payments from the watch without carrying your phone.
   Partial credit. Yes they announced a mobile payments system, but that was widely expected. And yes you can use it with your watch, but all signs point to requiring communication with your phone to complete a transaction. 
7. In the wake of the celebrity picture hacking scandal, Tim Cook will discuss upcoming iCloud security measures.
   Nope. 
8. CarPlay will not be discussed
   A qualified “true”. Tim did mention CarPlay in the context of all the cool stuff coming soon from Apple, but nothing more than that.

So, that was fun but ultimately I won’t quit my day job to become a professional Apple-prognosticator. Maybe I’ll try something similar for the expected-though-not-yet-confirmed iPad/Mac/Yosemite event in October. In the meantime I’m gong to spend some intimate time with this gif of a certain special wrist-based-phone-interface.