What's Apple Got Up Its Sleeve? A new iPhone? An Ultra-Light MacBook?What's Apple Got Up Its Sleeve? A new iPhone? An Ultra-Light MacBook?

This year's Macworld Expo starts next week, and the secretive Steve Jobs usually has some dramatic announcement ready for his keynote. Rumors are swirling about everything from a next-gen iPhone to a touchscreen MacBook.Added mobility is the theme of most of the rumored product announcements. One of the most intriging is an extra-light, lower-cost laptop using solid-state (flash) memory rather than a standard hard drive, which would be a boon to smaller businesses who might balk at the price of Apple's current offerings. Another persistent rumor is that of a Mac tablet PC, perhaps with a touch screen, which would be useful for mobile data entry and Internet connectivity. It's not clear what compelling features Apple could add to the existing limited tablet market, though, and Apple doesn't usually make hardware without a killer app to go with it. Such as the iPhone, which put music, phone, and Web browsing together in an irresistible package.

Which brings us to the speculation that Jobs will unveil an updated iPhone, perhaps with speedier 3G wireless capability. Most analysts, however, expect that to come later in the year. Whatever the product(s), though, Apple is likely to give SMBs greater flexibility in where and how their employees work.Reuters, Forbes, Gizmodo