Okay – you’ve probably heard all of this by now, but here goes. iLife, iWork, iShuffle and the Mac Mini are all here!

Completely new app suite called iWork – featuring souped up Keynote, revved to v.2 AND ‘Pages’, Apple’s first word processor since AppleWorks. Includes MSFT Word compatibility. $79, available 1/22/05.

New iLife – every application with major revisions except for iTunes. iPhoto gets RAW support, iMovie is now HD, iDVD now has instant import from tape to DVD. $79, available 1/22/05.

New iPod Shuffle – flash-based iPod is a reality. Those ThinkSecret guys DO have street cred. Basically, an elegant flash drive. Good stuff. 512MB/1GB versions at $99/$149. Available now, if the Apple Store can get back up and running – it’s swamped by traffic right now.

And best of all – the new Mac mini! Like a slice of the old cube (about the height of an iPod mini), this baby is sweet. Measuring 6 x 6 x 2.5-inches, it features the following specs: 1.25/1.42GHz G4, 256MB RAM (upgradable to 1GB), ATI Radeon 9200 32MB, 40GB/80GB Ultra ATA, Combo Drive (DVD-ROM, CD burner), Firewire 400, two USB 2.0, Audio out (but no audio in, unfortunately) DVI and VGA output, 10/100BASE-T Ethernet and a 56k modem. Built-to-order options include Bluetooth and Airport. Ships with OSX Panther and iLife ’05. Looks like I know what my Mom’s getting to video conference and see the baby.

Who knew that a member of the red states might be an iPod user. Well, Christopher Morris’ excellent black and white photo essay of the private life of our fearless leader (cough) shows that, in fact, said President likes to exercise with his iPod. Obviously, this specific photo could be of anyone holding the iPod, but take a look at the entire picture story, and you’ll see. I wish we could make out what he was listening to in this photo, however. George has taken advantage of what has to be a very large gadget budget. MacDailyNews reports that he’s sporting a pair of those high-end Etymotic Research ER-6i Isolator earphones and that he’s listening to Van Morrison’s Brown Eyed Girl (from Moondance). Too bad I don’t care for any of his other choices, but that’s a killer album. Sigh.

That makes both top members of the executive brance iPod users. The Washington Post reported that Dick Cheney’s kids bought him an iPod for Christmas in 2003. This news sparked an ugly squabble on MacDailyNews boards. Can’t we all just get along?

This set of very suspect snaps showed up on someone’s iDisk yesterday – could this be a very crafty mockup, or is it in fact the headless Mac we’ve been hearing so much about? This seems like it might be one of those typical pre-MacWorld hoaxes. But hey, who cares. It’s kinda fun to look at. I’m suspicious in that we don’t see a video port on these photos of the ‘iHome Media Centre’. And why has Apple gone all ‘UK-style’ on us?. Or perhaps there is no VGA/DVI port for this baby – it’s gonna be an s-video out or some kind of wacky outboard composite connector or something. Or maybe it’s truly meant as a media server, no head, only connected to via a remote PC or Mac. I dunno, but it’s fun to speculate wildly, isn’t it?