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MacWhispers did a review of four different iPod FM transmitters. They liked a product called "AudiaX".

Their conclusion, however, was that FM transmitters kinda suck in general. Much better to simply get a line-in.

Wait, don't buy that iTrip just yet... MacWhispers recently conducted a review of four different FM transmitters, and the iTrip was rated poorly. The other transmitters they tested don't look as cool, and they don't use the iPod as a power source, but they tend to have much greater range and easier configurability.

Since we're talking about rumours, this one here suggests that PPC 970s are cheaper for Apple to acquire than G4s by 25-35 per cent. While that in itself may have no bearing on the final price point of these new machines -- other technologies on the mobo might also have something to do with that -- it suggests, contrary to what some are expecting, that Apple might be able to at least hold prices at or near to current price points. Couple that with the fact that Apple really does want to boost sales of its Power Macs and has been somewhat more aggressive on price lately than they used to be.

MacWhispers tends to be the most unreliable source of rumors of new Apple products, and they seem to have found out for themselves here (MacWhisper.com)

More comments on the ongoing rumors of new G5 15" Powerbooks can be found at Macrumors:
PowerBook 970s at WWDC? and PowerMacs NOT at WWDC?.

Both indicate that it is too early to expect new G5 Powerbooks (or G5 based desktops) by WWDC this summer.

Some rumor sites claim the PPC prices will be lower than Motorola's G4. Who knows for sure? I would think IBM would offer the lowest prices possible to speed adoption of the chip. I have also read on the web that IBM's costs for G3s were lower than Motorola's because their production facilities were better. *shrug* If PPC970 truly is 25-35% lower than G4s its a no-brainer for Apple to use them.

If the prices are that low I wouldn't expect Apple to lower prices though. The pro models have been fairly consistent at their current price point for some time. I'm sure other costs have gone up with new features like Hypertransport, Firewire 800 and USB 2.0 (how much does Intel charge for that?). All o fthis si specualtion until the hardware actually comes out of course.

As for the stock comment, prices go up and down. I seem to recall a stock split a few years back. The stock has gone up recently with the iTunes sales announcements. However I think stock price is one of the least indicators about how well a company is doing - and certainly has nothing to do with the price of mac hardware.

those rumors have been floating around for a few weeks, if not months on other sites. For the wannabe-mac fanatics among yuo : here are other rumor adresses :

macrumors (reliable, good forums)
macosrumors (unreliable, bloated, no forums)
looprumors(reliable, low traffic forums)
thinksecret(reliable, low traffic content, low traffic forums)
macwhispers (reliable, mostly hardware info, no forums)
macslash(slashdot for mac, mostly blahblah)
macbidouille(french, rather new, so reliability unconfirmed)
appleturns(100% reliable news by Steve Jobs's alter ego)

If you are informed enough to ask a question like that, you shouldn't have to ask a question like that. Anyway, the rumor mill has been going full steam after months of, well, nothing. Here is the latest...

RIP G4???

G4 iBook???

Yes, conflicting reports... But it's always safe to assume that when Apple lowers prices, their main goal is to clear out inventory for a new or updated model.

http://www.envestco2.com/macwhispers/archives/0000 57.php

This is supposedly from a 'reliable source' in the engineering dept of an equipment supplier.

As I stated in another thread, it doesn't make sense for Apple to switch architectures, unless IBM was refusing to give them the 970. And another rumor site's reports make that seem somewhat unlikely.

I'm sure Apple has a version of Mac OS X plus some smaller apps going on i386, but forcing third-party vendors, many of which still are based on Carbon, to switch architectures, would massivly hurt the market, and that basically directly after the push to Mac OS X.

Switching to a generic PC architecture is not going to happen either: if Apple gets out of the hardware business, they put themselves up against Microsoft as a OS vendor, on the same platform. I don't think so.

If they try to dongle their own PC-based in some way, so that Mac OS X only runs on their own hardware, people will figure out how to get around this pretty quickly, so this is a non-starter as well.

http://www.macwhispers.com - is never wrong, check them out.

Never wrong, huh? I beg to differ. The guy that runs MacWhispers already ruined his own credibility back in February. Clearly embarrassed, he acknowledged the site's failure and announced that MacWhispers was exiting the rumor business . Quitting the rumor game, eh? For how long? 10 minutes? A quick visit to the site clearly shows that the rumor mongering continues unabated.

That rumor site exists primarily to generate traffic for this guy's other business interests (DVForge, MacMice, etc.), which can be seen advertised all over the MacWhispers page. While I do not presume to know much about this person's character, from the detailed descriptions I have read about his business practices, I plan on staying far away from MacWhispers and all his related ventures. Caveat emptor.

http://www.macwhispers.com - is never wrong, check them out.

Never wrong, huh? I beg to differ. The guy that runs MacWhispers already ruined his own credibility back in February. Clearly embarrassed, he acknowledged the site's failure and announced that MacWhispers was exiting the rumor business . Quitting the rumor game, eh? For how long? 10 minutes? A quick visit to the site clearly shows that the rumor mongering continues unabated.

That rumor site exists primarily to generate traffic for this guy's other business interests (DVForge, MacMice, etc.), which can be seen advertised all over the MacWhispers page. While I do not presume to know much about this person's character, from the detailed descriptions I have read about his business practices, I plan on staying far away from MacWhispers and all his related ventures. Caveat emptor.

Have you ever heard of these machines called...ahh...what was it...ummm...APPLE!?

Seriously though, OSX is already a *nix, and from what I understand you can run a number of flavours of Linux ( Yellow Dog is one...) in/under/over/though OSX which means you can still do things like use the dvd reader/burner and use the firewire port etc, etc. If you're not with in Apple's price market, you could always buy an old cheapy one and run Linux on it without the OSX overhead. Or even build your own.

Also it looks like you would have the option of 64bit architecture within 6 months or so (courtesy of IBM's PPC 970). And although there wouldn't be any 64bit apps to start with, how long would it take the Linux masses to fix that?

ps - please don't give me any grief like "we don't need 64bit - it's only for GODS - not meer mortals like us" because you people can just go a use your AI/particle renderer/speech recognition/hand writing recognition/bloody mp3-4 player on that AT286 over there - ok?

Apple has said that they are moving WWDC (the Apple Developer conference) to coincide with Macworld in June. here

They are doing this because they want the developers to have access to "new features" that won't be ready until then. There are also reports like this that indicate that Apple is about to release a new architecture based on the PowerPC 64 bit G5 processor.

It takes an important reason to reschedule a convention the size of WWDC. I believe that the move is an effort to keep details of the new G5 machines secret from everyone INCLUDING developers until the product announcement.

If the bids for the motherboards are due any day, then the release of the G5 boards could easily be made in June with production release soon after.

If you think Apple is REALLY switching to iX86 technology, I've got a small country to sell you.

Has no read MacWhispers post title New PowerMac Motherboards To Use PPC 970???

Apple has bids out for PPC 970 mobos. Doesn't sound like they're switching to x86.

I'm not even going to bother reading the comments below. Apple's system is based on the PPC. Switching to x86 chips would be stupid. They're still trying to get developers and consumers switched to OS X, and to ask people to move to a completely different architecture so soon after a major OS change would be suicide.

Please, once and for all, Apple is not moving to the x86. It's a stupid rumor and only flames those idiots who say "I'd use OS X when it comes out for x86" and "I'll buy a Mac as soon as they use the faster x86 chip."

How about a post saying BSD's dead? Vi's better then emacs? RMS say something great/stupid?