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WWDC 2003 Rumor Roundup (970s, PowerBooks, Panther, etc...)

Ah roundups are always good before a significant meeting.

And thanks you for the slap in the face everyone needs.

Seriously they might not even say anything significant.

I am still saying fall, not summer.
 
Originally posted by cubist
I doubt that Apple would use the IBM name and logo in advertising. It is well known that Apple has been using IBM chips for years, however. Today's iBooks use a very fast and energy-efficient chip from IBM, the G3 Sahara. Add some RAM, and you have a machine which not only performs well, but has unbeatable battery life. On top of that, it's among Apple's most affordable machines!
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As the old saying goes, "Nobody ever got fired for buying from IBM."

I agree with the original post, an IBM/Apple marketting initiative, much like one the Intel has with all the WinTel shops might be a very good idea.

FWIW, they do it today with Nintendo. My GameCube box has an IBM technology inside type logo on it. (Heck it even has an ATI graphics logo on the machine itself - talk about marketting deals!)
 
No word about the 19" eMac? Macbidouille wrote in their forums, that the boxes recently shipped to one of the biggest Mac reseller in France contain 15" PowerBooks and 19" eMacs.
 
Let's hope and pray for all our wishes to come true, but ... let's be realistic (or pesimistic). We know (from Apple) that Panther will be released. We know nothing else for certain. 15" PowerBook updates should be expected, but not necessarily 970-based. PowerMac updates can be anticipated, but that is uncertain.

Private to Steve Jobs: Please surprise us all. Blow the socks off of everyone and give Michael Dell and Bill Gates a run for their money. Making the "Pro" product line all 970 will give them heart attacks. They have people who care enough to call 911, so don't worry about that. Just surprise us in a positive way, don't disappoint.
 
Originally posted by mathiasr
No word about the 19" eMac? Macbidouille wrote in their forums, that the boxes recently shipped to one of the biggest Mac reseller in France contain 15" PowerBooks and 19" eMacs.
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There is no 19 inch eMac. It's completely unrealistic.

Either that, or there is one and it has a 2.5 GHz Motorola PowerPC G5 in it. 🙄
 
I'm not sure why Arn puts so much faith in the eWeek article. It says it'll be a month or two before 10.2.7, with 970 support, is released. But by then (Aug/Sep), Panther will be released.

Does anyone think Apple would spend time & energy on 10.2.7 for a 3-week effective lifespan?

It just doesn't seem believable. 970's have to be available by the first week of July or even WWDC itself.
 
Re: One thing is for sure...

Originally posted by BaghdadBob
Apple is really hyping this expo.
<...edit...>
Something's definitely up their sleeve. Their reputation is somewhat hanging on it at this point.
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Of course the "hyping" could simply mean that Panther will be one of the truly big events this year for Apple (which is pretty much a given). On the pessimistic side one could even say that Panther might turn out to be the one and only big thing for the remainder of the year. That and some speed bumps for the existing G3/G4 machines may be all that will happen for the next three to six months (i.e. no PPC970s until very late this year, or maybe not until early 2004).

Apple will also be pushing (duh) QuarkXPress 6, Final Cut Pro 4, DVD Studio Pro 2, the new iPods and the iTunes Music Store.

As for other rumors, I think an upgrade to iChat is fairly certain, and it's possible that this will include video conferencing. They'll probably demo this at WWDC and ship within the next few months (or sooner).

I think people are over estimating the impact that these WWDC rumors have had on Apple. I'd guess that only a few percent of Mac users have even heard these latest rumors. It's true that many who attend WWDC will be disappointed if there isn't a PPC970 introduction, but the entire Macintosh user base is __not__ going to revolt if the PPC970 doesn't appear before the end of summer (actually, I expect that the vast majority could remain ignorant about the PPC970 for at least several more months -- if need be).

I'm really hoping that we'll have PPC970 hardware before the end of June (as long as it's not a complete "hack" job). But I continue to believe that the earliest we'll see these rumored machines is September.

P.S. I forgot, there will also be a new 15.4 inch PowerBook introduced fairly soon, that may turn out to be the major hardware announcement that happens either before or at WWDC (but, it will be G4 based).
 
if anybody cares...

Here's a rundown of MacBidouille's track record just to give people an idea of their reliabilty record, I made it around the time when they were spewing out 970 rumors out of nowhere.
 
Originally posted by bikertwin
I'm not sure why Arn puts so much faith in the eWeek article. It says it'll be a month or two before 10.2.7, with 970 support, is released. But by then (Aug/Sep), Panther will be released.

Does anyone think Apple would spend time & energy on 10.2.7 for a 3-week effective lifespan?
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It is very likely that the code that is used to enable the 970 and, more importantly, supports the new motherboard design is the same in Smeagol (10.2.7) and Panther (10.3). All of that enabling code would be incorporated into the two development paths. So, for Apple, it doesn't take much more effort to develop but they get about a month of extra hardware sales. It would be a travesty if Apple would throw away a month of hardware sales because they didn't want to invest the trivial effort needed to incorporate the 970/motherboard enabling code into an interim release.
 
I don't if 970's ship at WWDC

I don't care if the 970's ship at the WWDC, I just hope that they are announced and talked about. Even if they don't ship for a few months, i.e. like the iMac and 17" powerbooks.

And it would make sense, they would mention it at the developer conference, so those who will make the new 64 bit processors part of our lives, can begin to learn how to develop and take advantage of them.

Just my thoughts, but I think announcing it is more important then releasing, if they are announced. Especially since it's a big change, this way they can make sure that Developers understand, and can take advantage of the new units.
 
Re: however...

Originally posted by From Win to Mac
And I'm sure all the other iChat problems (like the interface...) will be taken care of.
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They better, because I am about this close to going back to AIM.
 
Originally posted by cubist
So the pulled articles refer to the videoconferencing aspect of iChat, eh? I recall hearing rumors about that many, many moons ago. Even so, I don't feel much interest in it, and apparently neither does anyone else.

Years ago, videoconferencing excited me. I persuaded my boss to buy a bunch of QuickCams and we installed NetMeeting. Then we connected over the office LAN! Wow! Uh... Oh. Now I know why the phone company never sold Picturephone. The excitement wears off fast. Really fast. That's enough, turn it off. The QuickCams went in a box and we never used them again.

Frankly, I wish Apple would finish the work on the existing features of iChat (and iCal, FTM) before they start layering more features on top.
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That has got to be the dumbest use of webcams I've ever heard of -- hope you got fired for such a ridiculous, useless idea.

Video-chatting with friends and family members who live long distances away (not down the hallway, Einstein) is the idea. Even, *gasp* business meetings with folks who are on the other side of the country, or planet -- not hallway.

As the sage guru Bugs Bunny said, Whadda maroon! 🙄
 
Devil's advocate

What if we're missing something. Say there happens to be the mother of all devices that simplifies everything, and we have yet to even get a whisper of it. There's plenty of good ideas rolling around in both the MR forums and #macrumors chatroom to fuel a development group for years with stuff that most folks have never thought of. I just think we may be missing that one more thing...
 
Re: I don't if 970's ship at WWDC

Originally posted by GregGomer
I don't care if the 970's ship at the WWDC, I just hope that they are announced and talked about. Even if they don't ship for a few months, i.e. like the iMac and 17" powerbooks.
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I don't think a long preannounce would make much sense, it would only "trash" the sales of the existing G4 PowerMacs.


And it would make sense, they would mention it at the developer conference, so those who will make the new 64 bit processors part of our lives, can begin to learn how to develop and take advantage of them.
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I don't think this is needed either. Very, very few applications will even need 64-bit processing and nearly all should run on the PPC970 without modification. In fact the first release of a "64"-bit OS X will just run each application in its own 32-bit memory space. Thus each application will be limited to 2GB but the total system will support more. They may even implement a 64-bit compatibility mode that will be required when applications want to make use of the larger memory space. Then there will be the PPC970 compiler switch or flag that will enable applications to take advantage of 64-bit math and other PPC970-specific instructions. In any case, the "big boys" (Microsoft, Adobe, Oracle, Quark, etc.) will get preferred PPC970 seeding before the rest of us. So, I think there is actually very little reason to preannounce the PPC970 at WWDC. Most of the developers will be plenty busy just catching up to Panther and/or Jaguar.
 
Nice round-up, Arn. You look after your readers well and take the science of rumors (rumorology?) to a new level.

Now the hard part: 7 days of waiting.
 
I feel like a kid on Christmas eve. Even if the 970 does not make an appearance, at least the suspence will be over. I've been itching to get a new machine. Hopefully WWDC will bring new toys to pick from.
 
Re: WWDC 2003 Rumor Roundup (970s, PowerBooks, Panther, etc...)

Originally posted by Macrumors
Panther

Surpisingly few details about Panther have been leaked over the past few months, despite being the only confirmed product demonstration at WWDC. eWeek provided some details on Panther, describing features putting the "User at the Center" of the OS. Features confirmed/described include a Fast User Switching feature (MacOSRumors), Piles (Patent), and more database structures to the filesystem (MacBidouille).

Other features described by Looprumors include increased use of Metal, Themes, iChat 2.0, Safari GM, and other minor improvements... along with doubts that Piles will make it into the complete Panther.[/B]
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Arn,

Thank you for saying this... (Surpisingly few details...) I thought I was the only person who felt that way.

I was getting the feeling that everyone forgot that WWDC isn't USUALLY a hardware centric event. (yea I know PowerBook G3 back in 99 or 98). The WWDC is mostly about the OS and each year something reliable usually leaks... In the past ThinkSecret usually has reports with 'alpha/beta' screenshots for goodness sakes..

This year what do we have?

Lots and lots of speculation on the 970 (with good reason I'm sure) but MUCH of the rumors have come from sites that have a less than perfect track record.

Next to ZERO speculation on Panther, the one thing we know for sure WILL be presented at WWDC.

Don't get me wrong, faster CPUs will be a welcome sight but WWDC is still 'All about the OS' - the CPU just lets you do more 'cool stuff' with it.

Dave
 
My predictions:

970's showed behind closed doors at WWDC (Did you know John Carmack had the G4's 6 months before they were released?, the same limited seeding will undoubtly happen with the 970).

Public announcment in late July (at very earliest)

Release in September at earliest.

I wonder what our french friends over at Macbidoule actually are smokin' when they seriously believe a release only one week from now.

EDIT: For those in doubt, Panther will run perfectly on older hardware like G3's and older Powerbooks.
 
Re: Re: WWDC 2003 Rumor Roundup (970s, PowerBooks, Panther, etc...)

Originally posted by DaveGee
Next to ZERO speculation on Panther, the one thing we know for sure WILL be presented at WWDC.

Dave
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What about the fact that it might be 64-bit optimized? Piles? Brushed-metal-themed? iChat v2.0? Pal?

What do you want to speculate about?
 
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