Because I have surely exceeded my Apple budget for the year and because I hate the feeling of buyer's remorse brought on by obsolescence, here is a list of products I do not want Apple to announce today at the "Let's Rock" event:

• iPhone 3G with 32GB* memory (likelihood: low, too much work has gone into the complex operator subsidy pricing models for the 8GB and 16GB models which are still very, very new)
• iPod nano with 32GB* memory (medium, feasible in similar enclosure at same price)
• $199-249 iPod touch with 32GB* memory (medium, a direct move to phase out iPod classic)
• Apple TV with DVD or Blu-ray drive (low, would kill content sales if they included an optical drive)
• Mac mini with Blu-ray drive and Apple TV software parity (medium, would carry same price as existing models and be positioned as a PC not an Apple TV replacement)
• A faster and cheaper MacBook Air with 2 USB ports, an Ethernet jack and more than 100GB of SSD storage (very low, since today's event is reportedly all about iPod/music/entertainment)
• A significantly redesigned MacBook Pro enclosure at same or lower price/specs ratio (very low, see MBA comment)
• A significantly redesigned MacBook enclosure with discrete graphics card and same or lower price/specs ratio (very low, see MBA comment)
• A touch tablet with price/spec ratio similar to current MacBook (medium, the hottest Apple rumor since the iPhone became real but it's hard to see the value outside certain vertical business applications given how great iPhone and MacBook are)
• Some other breakthrough product that I am too mundane to imagine (medium, always a possibility with Apple)

That said, there certainly are some announcements I would welcome:

• Apple TV update that supports a useful subset of Dashboard/iPhone widgets and extended storage using Time Capsule and/or external hard drives (medium)
• A 500GB or 1TB external hard drive that's designed to fit under or on top of Apple TV (low)
• iPhone software update 2.1, where 3G connections are fast and reliable and battery life doesn't suck - and hopefully with copy/paste (medium, but probably only if needed to support the next two)
• iTunes 8 software with smarter playlists and store recommendations based on music characteristics (high, very straightforward evolution with too many rumors not to be true)
• iTunes music subscription via downloads a la Napster and Rhapsody and/or streaming channels a la Last.fm and Pandora (medium, the only chink in the Apple music strategy relative to competitors)
• Some other breakthrough product that I am too mundane to imagine (medium, always a possibility with Apple)

*32GB because that's how much space I need to carry around all my music and photos with enough space left for a good mix of applications, movies, TV shows and podcasts - and any new music that I will acquire before this time next year.

I think Microsoft just found Jerry Yang his next job...

July 23 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.'s Kevin Johnson, who oversaw the bid to buy Yahoo! Inc., is leaving, adding to the challenges facing the software maker's Internet unit.

The company will conduct a search for a new online-services leader.

Uh... I'm married and on Facebook, but at least I'm not old. I don't think.

"What's up with the 40-and-older crowd on Facebook? From my perspective--as a 17-year-old girl brought up to be hyperaware of my surroundings, especially online--I have to be a little skeptical of the people who are adding me as friends on Facebook."

My favorite iPhone review so far, if only for this: "The glass touchscreen keyboard is kinda freaky (though if there was ever a moment for an ad campaign to license Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Put 'Em on the Glass," this is it)." Do you not remember this classic from Seattle's x-large rap pioneer!?!

ESPN ranks the 60 NBA Finalists using a simple mathematical formula based on number of wins and margin of victory... the Jordan-led Bulls team from 1996 that won 87 of 100 games is #1, and three other Bulls teams from that era are in the top 7 (#4 - 1991, #5 - 1997, and #7 - 1992).

I've never done it, but I've come pretty close once or twice... 855,000 Phones Dropped in UK Toilets Yearly.

iPhone ad parody spoofs 2001: A Space Odyssey.

I just came across GrandCentral, a free service that gives you one number that rings all your phones. Includes several cool features like transfering ongoing calls from one phone to another, listening to voicemail messages while they're being recorded, setting custom ringback tones, and funnest of all... playing a "disconnected" message to thwart that geek you met at the bar last night.

This past Christmas I really wanted to get WiFi-enabled digital picture frames for both sets of grandparents so we could stream pictures of our family's new addition, but after lots of research was unable to find a frame that didn't require an expensive service subscription. I ended up scrapping the idea, although I did get this Philips frame without WiFi for my wife to take to work.

But things are looking up, as I just discovered this recently launched Kodak EasyShare frame with WiFi that lets you share photos over the Internet for free. And it's only $30 more than I paid for the smaller Philips frame. Shhh, don't tell my parents or in-laws.

I'm going to declare this the official first blog post announcing the gamma release of Yahoo! Go 2.0 for Windows Mobile. Yahoo!'s site claims 77 phones supported now - including a handful of Windows Mobile 6 phones and the Lobster (!) - although all the PPCs, landscape SPs, and 6 phones say "coming soon." Yeah!

UPDATE: They weren't kidding when they said "coming soon." I just tried to download and install this on a Samsung i320N (i.e. the EDGE Blackjack) and Yahoo!'s mobile site wouldn't let me. I agreed to let them send me a text when the phone was supported. Bummer. I guess while I'm waiting I'll download the installer to a portrait SP (I hope I have one with Windows Mobile 5.0), copy it to the i320N and see if I can get it to work that way.