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MacRumors has now heard from several employees at a third-party firm offering technical support for Apple products that their company has imposed a vacation blackout from July 22 through 29, requiring "all hands on deck" in its desktop and portables division to support an unspecified event.

which only suggests that said company believes the release will be at that time, not that they actually have any real information
 
The article doesn't say that Apple is requiring all hands on deck.
"MacRumors has now heard from several employees at a third-party firm offering technical support for Apple products that their company has imposed a vacation blackout from July 22 through 29"

Wouldn't that make sense for a new OS release? People will need tech support installing ML and dealing with any problems that go along with it...
 
I'm not thinking a downloadable only OS is cause for all employees being on deck and not being able to take vacation in a very popular month for taking vacation.

This wasn't Apple but rather some 3rd party company that figures they will have customers with questions during that time. So they want to be prepared to a surge.
 
I'm not thinking a downloadable only OS is cause for all employees being on deck and not being able to take vacation in a very popular month for taking vacation.

Perhaps it's so they can all have a chance to tidy up the stores while all the customers are at home downloading ... ?
 
I can't see this being the iPhone because of the fall iOS six release... But what else would require an all hands on deck?? ML, iMac, and Mac mini would definitely not (ML is download only, and the other two are not big enough sellers or even close).

Your internet slow, come to the Apple Store and we will download and install it for you...
 
Apple Retail hasn't blocked off vacations for OS releases since AT LEAST 2007.

It wasn't Apple this time either but it isn't that insane to hear that they might have blocked off vacations the week after a release for Apple Care operators and the Genius Bar. but 'all hands' for an OS is highly unlikely to happen since it's a download.
 
Methinks new iMac and Mac Mini. Me also thinks its taking too long to update the non-mobile hardware and that I will probably axe my plans to buy a new iMac and opt for a PC and then a Mac Mini later on, because I am sick of waiting.
 
Yes, new desktop Macs. There needs to be time to get ML installed on those new Macs. And the 3rd week of the month is classic Apple to release a new hardware product.
 
Last year was the first year Apple went with the whole App Store OS release, they probably had an unexpected number of people come in for issues.

Hence the black out this time?
 
I'd put money on new iMacs and Mac Minis in July.

Agreed. A brand new iMac is overdue and as one of their flagship products, it will very likely receive attention before the end of the summer. The launch of Mountain Lion is an ideal launch date.

I wonder if Apple can get 27" retina displays...
 
I bought my Macbook Pro in Summer of 2010 and it had Snow Leopard on it. I then did the upgrade to Lion when it came out. I, of course, will upgrade to Mountain Lion when it comes out. Do you think continuously upgrading a version of Mac OS X would "degrade" or something similar?
I come from and continue to be in the world of Windows in my career. I do fresh installs of Windows when new versions come out because it just works better.

Personally speaking from experience I would do a fresh install. I upgraded to Lion from SL and I had absolutely nothing but performance problems. Tried everything there was to try. In the end i bit the bullet and fresh installed Lion and copied all my data over old school style (drag and drop) and Lion runs brilliantly. Gonna leave ML though. My Blackbook is pretty much at its limits for the evolving software and I have no such luxury as the advanced multi touch gestures so will just have to experience ML when I can afford a new piece of Mac hardware!
 
Apple's Retina/Siri TV or iPad mini

Something new is a brewing... something that security was beefed up for earlier in the year with a complete lock down on security. Nothing gets leaked that is not desired to be leaked. We either have the iPad mini (doubtful) or the Retina TV.
 
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