The Live Blog
Tune into PCWorld's live blog on Wednesday morning for blow-by-blow coverage Apple's event. The live blog, which uses the Cover It Live software, is complements of MacWorld's editors, which will be attending the event along with PCWorld's editors.
Of course, PCWorld will not be offering the only live blog of the event. You can also check out Harry McCracken's coverage over at Technologizer, and the team at Gizmodo is a good source as well.
Scorecard
With so much speculation and rumor out there, it's no wonder the Apple Tablet is already considered one of the most overhyped tech products of all time. Everybody's got their favorite predictions and pet theories about the Apple Tablet, and now you can keep track of all the top rumors with an Apple Tablet prediction scorecard created by software developer David Weiss.
To play along, just download the PDF and make your predictions. Give yourself one point for every prediction you get right, and zero for every prediction you get wrong. If you're competing against friends, and two or more of you end up in a tie, the person who lives furthest from Cupertino wins.
There are 38 questions, with all kinds of predictions, including whether we'll see Bing replace Google on the iPhone, New touchscreen Macs launched, or a new iTunes Web App. You also have to place your bets on the name of the new device choosing from: Apple tablet, Apple iTablet, iSlate, iGuide, iBook, iPad, or Canvas.
The iPhone Apps
Weiss' software company, Unweary, is selling an iPhone app for $2.99 called Prediction that is perfect for all you rumor junkies out there. Prediction aggregates the latest tech rumors for a wide variety of tech events including tomorrow's Apple event, Mobile World Congress 2010, E3 2010, and more. You can also use the app to share your own predictions with others. I haven't tested it out so I can't vouch for how comprehensive the app is, but if you're like to stay current on all the tech rumors, this might be the app for you.
Cover it Live doesn't have a downloadable iPhone app, but the popular live blogging service does have a mobile Web app to help keep you updated on the fly. Just point your mobile browser to coveritlive.com/
Video
Apple has clamped down on pirate video streams broadcasting from Apple events. Nevertheless, it's always worth a look over at UStream or Justin.TV to see if anyone was able to sneak a hat cam into the event.
After the product launch, Apple will post its presentation on the Quicktime Guide Website, and you can also download Apple events as a podcast on iTunes.
If you want to follow live tweets from the event as well as commentary from the twitosphere, one of the best things to do is create hashtag searches in your twitter client for things like #apple #appleevent, #appletablet, #tablet or #appleislate. Eventually, one or two hashtags will become the preferred choices and you can just follow those.
You can also follow a variety of Twitter accounts to stay current. There are far too many possibilities to list here, but here are a few suggestions:
After the event don't forget to check in with PC World for post-event coverage, and a complete breakdown, and analysis of every part of Apple's product announcements.
President Obama Changes Tone Ahead of State of the Union Address
But GOP Leader Mitch McConnell Calls for a Change of Course
On the eve of President Obama's State of the Union address and the end of his first year in office, Republican Scott Brown's astonishing win in the Massachusetts special Senate race not only reset politics in that state, but reset politics for the entire nation.
"The entire political community was caught a little bit unawares on that one," White House senior adviser David Axelrod said today on ABC's "This Week" of Brown's win.
After Brown's upset win ended the 60-seat majority in the Senate that Democrats needed in order to push through health care reform without a Republican vote, the White House is adjusting its political operation by bringing in Obama's 2008 presidential campaign manager David Plouffe. The move comes ahead of mid-term elections in the House and Senate this November, where Republicans hope to capitalize on the momentum of Brown's win and pick up more seats, which could further endanger the president's agenda.
White House advisers played down Plouffe's hire, denying an association with Brown's win.
"David Plouffe has been a regular adviser to the president throughout the year," White House senior adviser Valerie Jarrett said on NBC's "Meet the Press."
"We have a very strong political operation. What it's a reflection of is that David was working on his book for the last year. He's done with that now. He's enormously talented, as everyone knows, and he brings value added to our operation as we look forward, in terms of strategy and tactics, and he'll be consulting with us on that, and we'll be stronger for it," Axelrod said.
Also back were themes from Obama's presidential campaign.
"This president's never going to stop fighting to create jobs, to raise incomes, and to push back on the special interests' dominance in Washington and this withering partisanship that keeps us from solving problems," Axelrod said.
Axelrod said those same themes propelled Brown to victory.
"This is the Obama who ran for president," he said. "And the themes that he talked about in that campaign were very much echoed by Senator Brown in his campaign, which tells you that the hunger for that kind of leadership is still very strong."
In another throwback to campaign rhetoric, on Friday at a town hall meeting in Elyria, Ohio, Obama used the word "fight" more than 20 times.
White House advisers say the president will continue with his current health care reform push despite Brown's win.
"The underlying elements of it are popular and important. And people will never know what's in that bill until we pass it, the president signs it, and they have a whole range of new protections they never had before," Axelrod said.
Yet Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell argued Americans were against the Democrats' health care reform initiative, citing a recent Washington Post/Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation/Harvard University poll of Massachusetts voters that found that 48 percent opposed the health-care proposals advanced by Obama and congressional Democrats while 43 percent of them said they supported them.
"The people are telling us, 'Please don't pass this bill.' Now, if they get past this arrogant phase that they've been stuck in for about a year that, 'We know best. We don't want to listen to public opinion here, we want to 'make history,' if they can work their way past that and concentrate on the real problem, which is the cost, we're willing to look at it." McConnell said on NBC.
"We see it all over the country in tea parties and town halls. People are alarmed and angry about the spending, the debt, the government takeovers," said Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., on ABC.
Obama's advisers say they understand people are frustrated.
"I think people are angry in this country -- they were angry in Massachusetts -- that we haven't made more progress on the economy," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said on "FOX News Sunday."
Obama has an opportunity to address that frustration in his State of the Union address this Wednesday evening, when he can speak directly to the American people.
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