I know you're probably sick of the Apple on Intel speculation and you don't care anymore or maybe you never did.  Please skip the remainder of this post.  Thank you.

Meanwhile the rumors are swirling, and I blow hot and cold.  I read Cult of Mac's post in which some new technology from a company called Transitive supposedly will enable realtime emulation of PPC code on x86 processors (yeah, right) and Wired's article in which Apple is "wedding" Intel to woo Hollywood (yeah, right).  I listened to Engadget's podcast (which was accompanied by the great picture at right).   I read the NYTimes article which states definitely Apple is switching OS X to run on x86.  I read John Gruber's update which states definitely Intel will be making PPC processors.  I've exchanged about 30 emails with John Stanforth in which we have debated the nature of the infinite and reached no definite conclusion.

Here's the bottom line: I have to believe the next big play at Apple is online video.

Okay, here’s my final guess.  Apple is going to announce a home entertainment hub.  It will look somewhat like the Mac Mini.  It will be based on an Intel x86 processor.  It will not be a general purpose computer, it will be dedicated to downloading video streams from the ‘net and from other computers, and serving them to your home entertainment system.  It will have a TV-based GUI somewhat like Tivo and it will not be running OS X.  And - wait for it - it will interface with the spiffy new Apple video store.  Ta da.  Apple is going to make a toolkit available to developers to enable them to build on top of this device like a platform.

Whatever happens tomorrow it will have been a great weekend for speculation.  BTW “Marklar” is the name of a weirdplanet from a South Park episode.  Now that fits.

[ Later: wrapping up Apple on Intel... ]