Macworld San Francisco 2009 Registration, New Macs, 32GB iPhones?

Macworld announced on Monday that the "early bird" registration for Macworld San Francisco 2009 will be extended until December 8th. The early registration provides a discount on the price of admission. Basic expo floor passes can be had for $25, while the possibility of Keynote access is restricted to those with tickets of $250 or more. Macworld Expo takes place from January 5th to 9th, 2009 and represents the likely venue for Apple's next product announcements.

A number of products are expected to be unveiled at or around Macworld. Long running rumors have suggested that Apple's iMac and Mac mini are due for imminent updates. Mac Pro suitable Nehalem processors are due in the first quarter and we've long heard that the remainder of the Cinema Displays will be updated at MWSF.

Meanwhile, an unconfirmed tip at MacBlogz even claims that Apple might introduce a 32GB iPhone at Macworld 2009. While these "storage bump" predictions are easy to make, the technology may be poised to become available at the right timeframe.

The reason the largest iPhone (16GB) currently has 1/2 the memory of the largest iPod touch (32GB) is that the iPhone can only house a single NAND Flash chip while the iPod touch can accommodate two. The additional space in the iPhone is taken up by its communication hardware. In August, Toshiba announced that they would begin mass production of higher density 32GB chips in the 4th quarter of 2008. These chips could presumably be used in future iPhone and iPod touch models. Another intriguing announcement came from Intel who has developed Flash chips that could increase this maximum to 64GB by early 2009.