Please define "spring" in news posts

[BillyShears]

A lot of time is wasted in the comments explaining what spring is (because this is the timeframe Apple gave for Mac OS X Leopard's release). It would probably be helpful if future news posts defined "spring" to avoid this repetition.

Something like

In the United States, spring begins around March 20, and ends June 21. While this is different in other areas of the world, Apple operates primarily in the United States, so it is assumed their deadline for Mac OS X Leopard is June 21, 2007.

 

[TheAnswer]

The word spring has so many definitions...and depending on the exact wording of during Steve's keynote and on the website, it could be taking a number of ways.

First off, Spring doesn't end until December in the Southern Hemisphere, Apple is an international company, in today's global economy, the Southern Hemisphere is just as valid as the Northern one.

Additionally, if Steve said something like "We'll release it in spring 2007. The packaging could be helical metal coils. Tah dah: spring + 2007.

Also...pauses can be interpreted differently. It Steve said "It's coming...spring 2007. That could be short for "Spring for it in 2007"

The only clear part of the "spring 2007" is the "2007" (unless he's using the Islamic calendar, then we've got 580 years ).

 

[jruc4871]

First off, Spring doesn't end until December in the Southern Hemisphere, Apple is an international company, in today's global economy, the Southern Hemisphere is just as valid as the Northern one.

Actually, it's not. As far as Apple is concerned, Spring means up to and including June 21 of 2007.

 

[devilot]

Actually, it's not. As far as Apple is concerned, Spring means up to and including June 21 of 2007.

Wow. I didn't realize we had Apple's PR and spokesperson here on MR. Thanks for clearing that up for us.

 

[jruc4871]

Wow. I didn't realize we had Apple's PR and spokesperson here on MR. Thanks for clearing that up for us.

lol, sorry - i guess that came out a little canned. What I was trying to say is that by mandate of the Sun, Apple follows the North American Spring schedule.

 

[JNB]

https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3511659#post3511659

 

[Max Payne]

The only clear part of the "spring 2007" is the "2007" (unless he's using the Islamic calendar, then we've got 580 years ).

Woohoo... We don't need December release discussion threads.


What about the islamic calendar? Where did you get the 580 years number from?

 

[TheAnswer]

What about the islamic calendar? Where did you get the 580 years number from?

System Preferences > International > Formats...the current Islamic year is 1427.

Now if Steve is using the Hebrew or Buddhist calendars, they are behind schedule by 3,760 years and 543 years respectively. Then again, maybe the new Time Machine features of Leopard will be able to compensate for that.

 

[Phil A.]

The word spring has so many definitions...and depending on the exact wording of during Steve's keynote and on the website, it could be taking a number of ways.

First off, Spring doesn't end until December in the Southern Hemisphere, Apple is an international company, in today's global economy, the Southern Hemisphere is just as valid as the Northern one.

Apple only use "Coming Spring 2007" on their northern hemisphere sites. If you look at Apple Australia (www.apple.com/au), they say Leopard is coming "Mid 2007"

 

[wordmunger]

You might as well say "please provide exact date in news posts." Apple is using "spring" to be completely arbitrary and flexible with their timing. If the date is not known, there's no way to be more precise than to use the terms Apple uses.

 

[TheAnswer]

Apple only use "Coming Spring 2007" on their northern hemisphere sites. If you look at Apple Australia (www.apple.com/au), they say Leopard is coming "Mid 2007"

The Spanish site only says "Disponible 2007." No mention of Spring whatsoever, will the Spanish have to wait later?

However the French site says "Disponible au printemps 2007"..."Printemps" in the Wikipedia Français will give you:

Dans l'usage courant, on assimile le printemps aux mois de mars, avril et mai dans l'hémisphère nord

Translation, "In everyday usage, one assimilates Spring with the months of Mars, April and May in the Northern Hemisphere."

Since the Apple France site says "Disponible au printemps 2007" every day, we must assume that they are using the everyday usage of spring (which also corresponds with first part of the first entry in the Dictionary.app).

 

[BillyShears]

You might as well say "please provide exact date in news posts." Apple is using "spring" to be completely arbitrary and flexible with their timing. If the date is not known, there's no way to be more precise than to use the terms Apple uses.

Apple aren't being completely arbitrary. They couldn't ship Leopard in, say, December and call it "spring". And I would say even July would be too late for "spring." In fact, June 21 isn't what most people would probably consider spring (in my neck of the woods, anyway) -- it's already summer then. So I think saying June 21 is pretty lenient.

Even if MacRumors said "approximately June 21" it would be better than the waste of comments in every thread debating the exact date.

 

[mad jew]

The key is in the Dock. The default URL that comes shipped on all new Tiger accounts links us to here. I think if we keep an eye on this spring, we'll know when Leopard is released. Alternatively, we could correlate the tensile strength of various homogenous and generic springs as a ratio of the days left in 2007, to properly determine the date of Leopard's release.