2002: Rumor Rejects and Unconfirmed

[MacRumors]

MacRumors receives many rumor submissions every month -- many of which, unfortunately, can't be verified. Independent rumors which are published are usually based on previous reliability or other corroboration.

Here's a list of items that never made it to the front page:

- Apple branded Presentation Software (iView?)
- Apple vs. RIAA... Apple/iPod/Music purchasing. Slashdot Anonymous Post
- Apple to upgrade Firewire in 2003, and with the assistance of Panasonic, the Mac will be able to hook up to HDTV and burn HDTV to disk
- Apple 30" Display
- iPod II with Radio at MWSF
- Apple Tablet at MWSF
- New iBooks at MWSF (MacNN thread)

This list is published for interest's sake and should not be seen as claims or rumors from MacRumors.com.

[nickmcghie]

yeah.. all those things plus brand new 3Ghz 970 PowerMacs, a new Apple sub-notebook, new xserves, a new line-up of Apple-branded clothes, and a completely new Apple-branded transportation device intended to compete with the Segway will be introduced next week.. hehe

[DOUBLEADESIGN]

I'd be more interested int the radio feature than mpg4 technology added. I don't feel compeled to stare at it while I'm working out or in the car driving.

[MrMacMan]

My bet is only 1 of those comes true.
Some of those are TOTALL outragous. 30 " Screen, DAMN.
That would be insane, really INSANE.
Well I hope a tablet or a new iPod is in the works.

[rjrufo]

If a 30" display comes out, there would have to be a hefty price drop on the rest of the displays. $3500 is a lot of money for the 23", I couldn't see much more for a 30".
I guess we'll have to wait and see.
Have a happy New Year!

[Durandal7]

The claims made over at Slashdot seem fairly realistic to me. The same can't be said for some of the other items (iBooks at MWSF)

[Crowbar]

- Apple branded Presentation Software (iView?)

not iView, this is 'Keynote'

- Apple vs. RIAA... Apple/iPod/Music purchasing.

now this is exciting


- Apple to upgrade Firewire in 2003, and with the assistance of Panasonic, the Mac will be able to hook up to HDTV and burn HDTV to disk

We don't need panasonics help for this

- Apple 30" Display

plasma


- iPod II with Radio at MWSF

better than radio is recording!

- Apple Tablet at MWSF

get over it, tablets suck

[michaelyoung]

- Apple to upgrade Firewire in 2003, and with the assistance of Panasonic, the Mac will be able to hook up to HDTV and burn HDTV to disk


all i have to say to that is.....


anyone who works with HD on the MAC (we have a cinewave card and HD bob)
knows that the DATA RATE needed for HD is out of range of any "off the shelf" computer..

HiDef=120MB/sec

for reference: DV is less than 4MB/sec

while i can see firewire 2 handling this data rate where would it all end up? also HD is a space hog....a two hour movie needs a Terabite of ultra wide scsi...

would love to be wrong though..

M.Y.

[vniow]

Originally posted by michaelyoung
120MB/S

That's uncompressed.

The HDTV cards avalible for the PC transfer data at about 19.2MB/S (compressed) so it would fit nicely in the bandwith of Firewire.http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/veronica/smiley.gif

[michaelyoung]

Originally posted by edvniow


That's uncompressed.

The HDTV cards avalible for the PC transfer data at about 19.2MB/S (compressed) so it would fit nicely in the bandwith of Firewire.http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/veronica/smiley.gif

is there a "compression" standard for HD?

I have the ability to work in lo-rez HD but it kind of defeats the purpose..it just becomes "big-video"

I wonder how HD sits on the new D-VHS..there must be some codec..

[vniow]

I don't know about a standard, but all the consumer HDTV cards that you can buy for a PC hardware compress at 19.2MB/S and record it on ordinary IDE drives.

If a little HDTV box came out for the Mac, it would surely use hardware compression or everybody's going to have to have at least dual 1Ghz G4s and a terabyte of SCSI storage.

[michaelyoung]

Originally posted by edvniow
all the consumer HDTV cards that you can buy for a PC hardware compress at 19.2MB/S and record it on ordinary IDE drives.
.

96 gigs for two hours of HD...that would be cool....now if they could just apply that technology to the existing DV solutions (ie final cut pro)

we have dual gigs with outside scsi storage and we still manage to drop frames at 3.6MB/sec (with built timelines - not single files)

if there is a way to pump 20MB/sec through IDE I would sure love to set up Final Cut with that!

[Rocketman]

Some interesting technologies which Apple could exploit are:

CMOS video cameras for ipod/vredit card size high res v ideo cameras. One vendor is already making XGA res devices. It would facilitate an iPod form factor DV camera with none of the typival exposure limitations of RGB pickups.

Tivo like device. Related to that "media server" functionality for all forms of home/office media including photos, videos, music, data discs, and external servers.

These are all today technologies which the services technically already exist in MacOS 9 and 10 but would involve a bundling and integration and interface effort.

Rocketman

[Booga]

Most of what I know about recording or time-shifting HDTV using a computer comes from HDTV-in-SFBay Yahoo group (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HDTV-in-SFbay).

Basically, a 2 hour movie records to about 17 gigabytes of data. (19.3Mb/s->2.4125MB/s*3600=8,685GB/hr for the raw stream.) In any case, this is easily within range of Firewire or any other modern I/O standard, and you don't need a particularly high end computer to do it.

I think most cards will record the original compressed data stream so there is no additional loss of quality. The two biggest cards I see talked about are the HiPix vs. the MyHD, although there are at least 2 or 3 others (all Windows-only that I've seen.)

If you're curious about all the technical standards, google any of ATSC, 8VSB, COFDM, 8PSK, QPSK, 16QAM, MPEG2, and/or 480p/720p/1080i. You'll probably find far more than you wanted to know.

[psxndc]

Where is the recording feature on the iPod? Apple, if you're listening: Not having an audio-in is the only thing that keeps me from buying the iPod and makes me consider the JukeBox3/Zen. Radio is cool, but I want to be able to record my band or class lectures. Please Apple. Mic/Audio in.

-p

[michaelyoung]

Originally posted by Booga

Basically, a 2 hour movie records to about 17 gigabytes of data. (19.3Mb/s->2.4125MB/s*3600=8,685GB/hr for the raw stream.) In any case, this is easily within range of Firewire or any other modern I/O standard, and you don't need a particularly high end computer to do it.

hhmm..i guess i should look into this..it is making me feel like I am in the "Flat-Earth" society of disbelievers....i just cant imagine how HD can be 17gigs for two hours when DV is 24gigs for two hours....It seems that if there were a way to compress and store hi-def media at such ridicuously small storage rates (ie. _more_ efficient than DV) it would revolutionize (again) the non linear editing world...not to mention DVD distribution. Maybe we are talking about different types of HD.?
Again, I am open to idea that I dont know this stuff...but i DO edit with DV _and_ Hi-Def so I am very familiar with video....Maybe I am just missing something...Ill read up...

For the record, I said in my original post that I _do_ believe firewire could handle this (and much more). It was the drives that I doubted (and still do).
I am interested in the result of this discussion although I would bet $4 (Canadian) that Apple does not release and HD technology at MWSF.
There is absolutely no "back end" to this right now. How many people do any of us know who even have access to any HD media _at all_? let alone the need to do anything with it.

Im just hoping for Final Cut 4.0...and some cool ipod-like new toy that I can lust after..

[dsamsa]

Originally posted by psxndc
Where is the recording feature on the iPod? Apple, if you're listening: Not having an audio-in is the only thing that keeps me from buying the iPod and makes me consider the JukeBox3/Zen. Radio is cool, but I want to be able to record my band or class lectures. Please Apple. Mic/Audio in.

-p

YES YES YES! Me too! Audio in, or include a mic in the thing!

[MisterMe]

Originally posted by edvniow


That's uncompressed.

The HDTV cards avalible for the PC transfer data at about 19.2MB/S (compressed) so it would fit nicely in the bandwith of Firewire.http://img.ranchoweb.com/images/veronica/smiley.gif

HDTV is compressed already. Just how do you think your local television station can broadcast a 1080i HD signal within the same 6 MHz bandwidth as a 480i NTSC signal?

Read and be wise!

[Booga]

Originally posted by michaelyoung

It seems that if there were a way to compress and store hi-def media at such ridicuously small storage rates (ie. _more_ efficient than DV) it would revolutionize (again) the non linear editing world...not to mention DVD distribution. Maybe we are talking about different types of HD.?

I am talking about 480p, 720p, and 1080i, compressed. If you're doing nonlinear editing, you are probably working on minimally compressed or raw data. That's a lot of data. If you edited the compressed stream, every single edit would increase the error rate until the pixelization was noticable and disturbing. However, for the final delivery of this media, these compression rates are not unusual (indeed, the newer codecs could do much better.) Not only does the broadcast bandwidth contain the video data, but it contains the Reed Solomon-like error correction codes so that a perfect picture is possible with only a fraction of the signal. Note that you'll still get a little pixelization in high-motion scenes, but still not even as bad as current 480i satellite television such as EchoStar or DirecTV.

Most of prime time television programs are now HD, and the picture is stunning. Even FOX, which broadcasts only 480p widescreen is still superior quality to a DVD. In many areas you just need a cheap indoor antenna, although a rooftop one is ideal. The fact that the Mac is being billed as a digital hub and yet cannot do the above task, while Windows can is unfortunate. I would hope 2003 to be the year that HD was somehow brought to the Mac.

--Sam

[Tom800]

Imagine this: Apple teams up with Amazon.com so that when you choose to buy an item at a lower cost (ie. a CD for £3) it automatically hooks up with iTunes and downloads the entire CD in your specified bitrate mp3/aac to your iTunes music library. Would that not be insanely great? Cheap music, immediately available. Think of the extra number of 'CDs' they would sell - people would buy more, get wider musical interest and so buy more, illegal downloads would be practically killed because of the appeal of the shear simplicity of this approach. Imagine you could fill up your 'shopping cart' with several 'CDs' and then when ready go to checkout, get charged a minimal ammount because no CD packaging was used, no delivery, etc, and then your Mac 'synchs' with the server to download all the music you ordered. Personally I only ever use the CD once - when I rip it, then it goes on the pile. This would be so great, consider it!

[mpest]

Originally posted by Tom800
Imagine this: Apple teams up with Amazon.com so that when you choose to buy an item at a lower cost (ie. a CD for £3) it automatically hooks up with iTunes and downloads the entire CD in your specified bitrate mp3/aac to your iTunes music library. Would that not be insanely great? This would be so great, consider it!

I agree it would be insanely great, as I only use cds the same way you do, but unfortunately it is unrealistic. For one, Amazon buys (and pays for upfront) cds from record cos, they don't buy raw wave files and make the cds themselves. The recording industry would never sell Amazon raw music (even if at the same price they sell it to cd manufacturers) if they knew it was going to be distrubted in non-copy protected format. It is the stated goal of the recording industry that we no longer own music, but that we lease it on a per listen basis. So the recording industry will never allow this to happen (they could simply boycott amazon).
That and the Billions of legal issues

[flashfil]

Sorry! just couldn't resist it.

[funkywhat2]

Originally posted by nickmcghie
, a new Apple sub-notebook, new xserves, a new line-up of Apple-branded clothes

Go to the Company Store @ 1 Infinite Loop. They sell clothes.

The Xserves are due for an update by now.

They could still use a sub-notebook.

[cgmpowers]

One of the first things I was thinking when seeing the 17" Powerbook was..

What if the screen could swivel, then flip to be closed and it had a touch screen...THAT would be the tablet that I'd want..still having EVERY SPEC that I need..

I still firmly believe and hopefully assume we're eventually heading there..

Someone at the apple store today said Steve Jobs hates PDAs and Tablets..but that doesn't mean he wont eventually make something that could be one...

Flip that 17" so it can close with the screen up and give it a touch screen...then I'd be in heaven. BTW...I did order one today...socool.