Cultists aquiver as Applestore goes into hibernation

The Applestore went dead this morning, sending Mac cultists into a frenzy of speculation over what goodies Saint Steve might shower upon them later today.

The store's petit mort came as just ahead of the opening of Macworld 2010 in San Francisco - not that Steve or anyone else from Apple plans to make an appearance there this year.

One hot rumour is that updated Macbook Pros will be hitting the site. Macrumours reported yesterday that current models had been deleted from the order system of US electronics giant BestBuy. Cultists have been predicting the top end of the range will gain a Intel Core i7 running at 2.66GHz, with the entry level products also getting a makeover.

Some hopefuls may be praying for some more UK info on the iPad. While US pricing has already been set in detail, UK-based cultists have yet to find out exactly what they're going to be hit for when the big iPhone hits these shores.

In the meantime, they're contenting themselves with another Macrumours story that the iPad will at some point get still and video camera ability, on the strength of a Cupertino job ad.

Another Macrumours story suggests that a fourth generation iPhone will hit later this year, and this will be a quarter of an inch "taller" than the current model.

This would be a major help for the iPad of course, as it would create the optical illusion of the iPad being smaller. That way, Apple can spike those nay-sayers who say it's just a big iPhone. Instead, we'd have to call it a "bigger" iPhone. ®