Hey, this could mean processors at dawn. John Siracusa, the man who writes possibly the most in-depth reviews of Apple operating systems seen on this earth, has posted ahead of next week's Apple event, where Steve Jobs is expected to unveil, oh, new Intel-based desktop pro Macs, an iPod or two (mebbe) and show off the next version of OSX.
And what's he posted? A Keynote bingo card.
Regular readers may recall that we've already done this - back before this year's Macworld keynote. And I myself thought that I kicked off the Steve Jobs keynote bingo meme wayyyy back in January 2005. A Google on "keynote bingo" brought up the link to the latter at the top, at least this morning.
While imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Ars Technica's one does have the snazzy design at the top, we're obviously wondering whether the idea exploded full-blown into his head, or whether he, you know, sort of heard about it. It would be nice to feel the Guardian's reach goes that far.
(Actually, "thief" is the wrong word. You can't steal a meme, can you.)
And what about the content? Well, apart from having the absolute certainties - stuff like "Boom!" and "One more thing" (he seems to have left out "Oh - that wasn't meant to happen"), it's stuff that you could pretty much expect - perhaps new video iPod, new iPod nano, demo of Leopard, movie rental service.. Precisely the stuff that Apple is going to have to do if it's going to stay ahead of Microsoft's Zune thing.
Update: John emails - and posts - to point out that he'd been doing this privately for years for WWDC keynotes. But he graciously acknowledges that the examples above seem to have been the first on public view, though of course "buzzword bingo" has been around for years (examples: an Al Gore commencement address; a Frasier episode where they had a drink while watching Antiques Roadshow every time someone said "veneer").
The more interesting question he raises is why Apple doesn't publish the sessions from the Worldwide Developers' Conference online or as a DVD or similar. That would help people who can't or won't go to the show but want to develop stuff - and surely Apple needs more of those people, not fewer. Those who can afford get the hands-on detail. Those who can't watch videos. Except - no videos if you're not there. Why? We'll ask..
