Slashdot Mirror

Not only shadows, but the reflections. Notice that the keyboard and cigarettes both reflect the ambient lighting but the (presumably somewhat) metallic "iWalk" reflects nothing. It also doesn't even seem to have the same light source (lower right) as the others (lower left).

A better rumor is here: Apple's iCrate.

I know this is a little offtopic, but other big news are: Today, Apple will bring out a new device that is not a Mac and that it calls "ground-braking". Every Mac Newssite is talking about it: MacOSRumors, Go2Mac, MacEdition, MacNN.

I would be very interested what Slashdot readers' guesses would be what it is.

The G5 will have a 10 stage pipeline. It will have the full book E spec, allowing for n-way crossbar capability.

Yeah, such as from Mac OS Rumors, Mac rumors, Apple Insider, or others (macsurfer, and macslash had links).

Mac OS Rumors - For any Apple fanatics out there, here's a good site, although they are a little starry-eyed. I've been reading them for a year or two, and they knew all about Sawtooth (and a host of other code-names). Do you know what had the code name "V'Ger"?

Kurdt

The link is here.

Basically, once they can realistically sell them for what the 22" is going for now (currently it costs $5,000 just to manufacture one) it will replace the 22". Drop the price of the 15" to about $500 or, heaven forbid, even lower, and fill in the gap with a 17.4" and a 20" for $1200 and $2000, respectively.

However, I have a feeling LEPs will be out before Apple accomplishes all this... it sure would be nice to cut all those prices in half. :)

--

Of course Slashdot should follow the same rules of pressethics as normal newspapers, but I must say that I've yet to see a case where this has not been the case. The transgressions into murky waters are all made in the open fora by persons not being members of the paper-staff.

One could of course argue that normal newspapers are held responsible for what they publish, be it open letters from the readers or not, but I believe this is pretty much impossible to enforce for an online medium, eventhough there are strong movements to censor webcontent.

The number one reference in all these issues should be the Electronic Frontier Foundation which handle exactly these kind of issues.

Don't let people censor you; this a question of freedom of speech. Any freedom comes with an obligation however, and that is not to abuse it to hurt someone else. People not taking their responsibility risk undermining their own rights.

Now there are sites that really need to reconsider their contents, however, for instance MacOS Rumors, where a lot of the rumors seem more or less invented because of lack of real news. Oh, and how about Microsoft's allegations about Linux that now and then pop up... But I guess that's just mistakes, nothing made on purpose :^)

That's MacOS Rumors and macrumors.com. Two rumor sites that are Mac-oriented.

Can't you guys do a little background research?

See the full story: www.ridiculopathy.com

Wasn't Pismo the PBook they released that has firewire? I'm pretty sure the Pismo codename had to do with the newer black Pbooks.

That's the majority of conventional wisdom, as alluded to above ... and Apple subtly encourages, to the extent of doctoring technotes on the PB 1999 Series, to keep attention deflected from the REAL Pismo. Some people have posted the truth, including the oft-maligned Ryan Meader, but they are generally not believed.

Here's a not-so-subtle hint: If you want to know what Pismo styling is like, check out the power adapter on the PB 1999s. Funky, eh? Now imagine a 3/4" 3.5 lb. PB like that. Mmmmmm. Sluuuuurp ;)

According to Mac OS Rumors, they will be "600MHz+ G4e processors". But no one really knows...

• A subnotebook with a G3 at up to 700 MHz and a 14.1" 1024x768 LCD, available March/April 2001
• A PowerBook G4 with a 600 MHz+ G4e, 15.3" 1280x1024 LCD, available January 2001

• A subnotebook with a G3 at up to 700 MHz and a 14.1" 1024x768 LCD, available March/April 2001
• A PowerBook G4 with a 600 MHz+ G4e, 15.3" 1280x1024 LCD, available January 2001

That said, there's nothing wrong woth MOSR... I read their site regularly just for fun; I wouldn't base important decisions on their news, though.

Following up on Apple's threats to get the rumors sites to remove news on their new products: the same thing has happened to the much more reliable Mac news site MacInTouch. They've posted Apple's letter and their response which is quite well written. MacInTouch was also reporting about a Cube system, which actually increases the chance that it's not a hoax since MacInTouch is much more accurate than other sites like MacOSRumors.

These sites (AppleInsider, MacOSRumors, MacInTouch etc.) have a really lousey track record of posting half-truths and downright lies. Their quality control is really poor.

What's more, they can do real damage. I was involved in a product that Apple Insider leaked images of, two days before it was publically launched. As a result, we lost most trademark and patent rights outside the US. In most other countries, you cannot trademark and/or patent something that has already been released into the public domain.

So when you wonder why companies like Apple don't like these kind of sites and often seem heavy-handed in dealing with them, remeber that leaks like this can cost a company substantial amounts of money.

As soon as our Apple's 'Cube' Desktop Mac Confirmed article (see below) was published yesterday, the floodgates opened. Numerous Apple employees, many of whom had never before spoken with us directly, wrote in with a variety of things to say; surprisingly, not one denied the rumor although a few hoped to see it silenced. Dozens of readers wrote in with dirt on the machine, and hundreds sent in feedback that ranges from speculative to skeptical to incredulous. To put it mildly, the response has been overwhelming.

Without further ado, the latest details culled from the past day's reports:

• Several sources with long and distinguished track records now concur that this design is indeed the planned enclosure for Mystic, the multiprocessor PowerMac G4 based on the UMA-2 motherboard chipset. The unconfirmed codename for the Cube enclosure is Rubicon.
• Accurate measurements of the exact size of the Cube are still not available. However, thanks to a much clearer side-by-side comparison of the Cube and an iMac, a reasonable estimate would be 12 inches to a side -- slightly smaller than the front face of an iMac with its Elevator down.
• Although easy to overlook on first glance, the front side does contain a standard DVD-ROM drive. The outer door is a tremendous improvement over the hackish solution used in the last two generations of translucent Minitower PowerMacs; instead of swinging down and out of the way on a hinge, it moves directly in and out as part of a one-piece media tray.
• The bottom of the Cube is rubberized, removing the need for feet while keeping the machine firmly in place.
• When opened via a small latch on the side, the Cube is lit from within to allow easy viewing of the internals in low light.
• To allow for easy portage without disturbing the Cube's serene lines, handles are stowed in unobtrusive slots on the same side as the Ports pane.
• Beyond the internal DVD drive, there are no provisions for additional internal removable drives; Apple apparently plans to rely on the external USB and Firewire busses for these.

Unfortunately, Apple has requested that the original Cube article (see below) be pulled by Monday -- likely to be followed shortly by a similar request for this article. Not at all coincidentally, this marks the first time ever in Rumors' five-year history that Apple has made such a request based not on any evidence of broken NDAs or infringed copyrights, but merely on the fact that these are Apple's trade secrets and because of the intense veil of secrecy, that NDAs were probably broken. Despite the fact that the two direct sources of the original article were not in any way under relevant NDAs -- and it has always been our practice to discourage those under NDA or at risk of personal harm from disclosing information -- Rumors' policy has always been amiable compliance with these requests. This case is no different.

Although Apple Legal's letter contains a non-reproduction statement and can't be printed here, it states that the issue at hand is disclosure of trade secrets and suspected violation of NDAs. Does this not directly confirm that there is at least some truth behind the rumor? Given that, what is it that makes it worth Apple's while to go ahead regardless, when the silent treatment has been so successful in obscuring similar rumors in the past?

Although it may be difficult to deliver proper updates to this story with legal threats flying, we will endeavour to bring them to you wherever and whenever possible.

What's your opinion? Where does the middle ground between the interests of the community and the interests of Apple lie? Is there a middle ground? Let us know what you think!

Even MacOS Rumors denounced the rumor on their page.

-Superb0wl

Sorry for replying to my own post, but I wanted to add that MacOS Rumors is decrying this as absolute nonsense ... which, from my past experience reading MacOS Rumors speculation and from their past track record, absolutely convinces me that the Drudge report is right at least in the fact that the companies in question are talking about it.

I don't think there is any other rumors site that has a worse track record than MOSR has which is why I stopped reading them (something like 90-95% of their predictions over the past 2 years have been utterly wrong) -- the whole site seems like a work of fiction.

My cynicism has been overruled both because of ongoing reports about this from Mac OS Rumors and because Heise would be pretty stupid to put its reputation on the line for something like this if it wasn't verifiably true.

check out Macosrumors to see that Apple is being hit just as bad since their main source for DDR is Hitachi


---CONFLICT!!---

--

I take personal exception to this comment.

I am Ryan Meader, President of Black Light Media Inc. and I would like to point out that not only do we at Black Light Media Inc. get things right mots of the time, we also get them before anyone else.

Who was it that first reported that there would be Apple Country retaliers all over the country? Us - Black Light Media Inc. - that's who.

Who was it that told you about the cool new enclosures of Pismo... Piiiissssmooooo.. PPIIIIIISSSSSSSMOOOOOO AARRGGGHH!!!!!!!!! I'm CUMMMMMMMMMMINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

sorry. We at Black Light Media Inc. really like the Pismo and its cool new case design. In fact, we think its better than all of the prevoious Powerbook models.

In short, if you don't stop messing with me, I may be forced to send my girlfriend after you, and we both don't want that.

I take personal exception to this comment.

I am Ryan Meader, President of Black Light Media Inc. and I would like to point out that not only do we at Black Light Media Inc. get things right mots of the time, we also get them before anyone else.

Who was it that first reported that there would be Apple Country retaliers all over the country? Us - Black Light Media Inc. - that's who.

Who was it that told you about the cool new enclosures of Pismo... Piiiissssmooooo.. PPIIIIIISSSSSSSMOOOOOO AARRGGGHH!!!!!!!!! I'm CUMMMMMMMMMMINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

sorry. We at Black Light Media Inc. really like the Pismo and its cool new case design. In fact, we think its better than all of the prevoious Powerbook models.

In short, if you don't stop messing with me, I may be forced to send my girlfriend after you, and we both don't want that.

I take personal exception to this comment.

I am Ryan Meader, President of Black Light Media Inc. and I would like to point out that not only do we at Black Light Media Inc. get things right mots of the time, we also get them before anyone else.

Who was it that first reported that there would be Apple Country retaliers all over the country? Us - Black Light Media Inc. - that's who.

Who was it that told you about the cool new enclosures of Pismo... Piiiissssmooooo.. PPIIIIIISSSSSSSMOOOOOO AARRGGGHH!!!!!!!!! I'm CUMMMMMMMMMMINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

sorry. We at Black Light Media Inc. really like the Pismo and its cool new case design. In fact, we think its better than all of the prevoious Powerbook models.

In short, if you don't stop messing with me, I may be forced to send my girlfriend after you, and we both don't want that.

I take personal exception to this comment.

I am Ryan Meader, President of Black Light Media Inc. and I would like to point out that not only do we at Black Light Media Inc. get things right mots of the time, we also get them before anyone else.

Who was it that first reported that there would be Apple Country retaliers all over the country? Us - Black Light Media Inc. - that's who.

Who was it that told you about the cool new enclosures of Pismo... Piiiissssmooooo.. PPIIIIIISSSSSSSMOOOOOO AARRGGGHH!!!!!!!!! I'm CUMMMMMMMMMMINGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!

sorry. We at Black Light Media Inc. really like the Pismo and its cool new case design. In fact, we think its better than all of the prevoious Powerbook models.

In short, if you don't stop messing with me, I may be forced to send my girlfriend after you, and we both don't want that.

This looks awesome, but I'm worried about system overhead with multiprocessing. If the BSD kernel can offer true SMP support in MacOS X, then I'm all for it, but a multiprocessor G4 seems like a waste under OS 9.0.4.

The author explains why he thinks DDR SDRAM is better dan DRDRAM and shows once again that MHz isn't everything.

Matrox is dealing big time in Macintosh ware these days. Apple has gotten together with Matrox to build a very powerful Real-Time DV card for the G4. Today's press release detail some of the more salient points.

Matrox and Apple Announce Real-Time DV Editing for the Mac

NAB 2000 Convention

Matrox Video

NAB2000, LAS VEGAS--April 10, 2000--Matrox Video Products Group and Apple® today announced the first PCI video card for real-time digital video (DV) editing on the Macintosh®. The RTMac, architected by Matrox and Apple engineers, is tightly integrated with Apple's award-winning Final Cut Pro(TM) video creation software to provide real-time editing, effects and compositing. Fully configured systems are expected to start at under $5,000

There is also a rumor that Matrox may replace ATI as Apple's video card supplier.

Rumors have it that the portion of OS X that used to be, or still is based on NExT's OpenStep, was, is and may continue to be upgraded to be cross platform. This should mean that anyone coding in "Cocoa"/OpenStep should compile to any supported hardware, maybe even the Solaris.

Reality states that the portion of OS X that is Mac OS 9 compatible and even the "Carbon" portion will not be cross platform compatible.

What does this mean? Look for newly written software to be able to run on next to any hardware, kinda like well coded Linux apps, but anything out there now won't crossover.

Just my understanding of what I've read on http://MacOsRumors.com

Now if Darwin is the core of OSX, is OSX cross-platform? I haven't heard anything about that... Anyone know anything?

It's already been reported that OS X for Intel has been circulating within Apple. However, I wouldn't count on a release anytime soon. But, in line with this, Apple is apparently in talks with Intel box manufacturers.

Major speculation available here.

Accourding to macosrumors, there has always been an intel version compatiable os OS X foating around apple. Most of MacOS X has is already platform independent. Even Apples build tool Project Builder have a check box for building for intel software. IMHO, I think Apple is just keeps there options open.

This is not some kind of 'grand enlightment' here people.

Fred on the developers page
Apple joining BSD

So as you can see, Apple has no problem 'getting' the concept of OpenSource.

Apple STILL sees themselves as a hardware company and not a software company. (they look at where the money comes from) And if the latest rumblings out of the Apple rumor mill are to be believed:
1) 2+ years ago Jobs went to Moto and said 'it will be great in 2 years when we aren't using you as a supplier' (fact)
2) Apple backed down...they never DID carry through with the Rhapsody on Intel project. (fact)
3) Rumor site claimes "t Steve Jobs himself has met with Motorola executives and hit them with both barrels recently" (rumor)
4) "Apple in talks with Wintel vendors regarding OS X for Intel?! " (rumor) Is that the 'both barrels'?

It is possible Apple might just see themselves as a software company that HAPPENS to sell hardware, and make alot of money there. Parts of Apple grok what they do, and the world they live in. The question to be answered yet is: Does Steve Jobs and his management understand and be able to execute?

Take a look at MacOSRumors (and if you have, assume I addressing /. as a whole ;-): Rumor has it that Apple's been talking to some PC manufacturers about porting OSX to their wares. They had an Intel version of OSX, and the current version is supposed to be sync'ed with FreeBSD, so this probably could be accomplished relatively easily. I never really understood why FreeBSD would be their compatability target, instead of, say, NetBSD, if they weren't planning an Intel port, or even abandoning the PowerPC, so making that move would seem to make sense. Of course, we are talking about Apple, so....

There's also a related rumor that Apple may Open Source (please, no flames about APSL) enough of the remaining closed portions of OSX and Carbon to enable third-parties (can't imagine who that would be ;-) to port it for them.

Either way, we win.

Actually, the only thing rumored to be hanging up faster G4 chips is production problems at Motorola. IBM supposedly already has 600 Mhz+ G4 processors ready to roll. Check out MacOsRumors for their March 6 speculation .

Actually, the only thing that is hanging up faster G4 chips is production problems at Motorola. IBM already has 600 Mhz+ G4 processors ready to roll. Check out MacOsRumors for their March 6 story.

From Mac OS Rumors:

The goal as it stands today is to release OS X on time, at almost any cost; this will most likely result in Consumer supporting all Apple-branded Macs that shipped with a G3/G4 processor (the jury appears to still be out on the 3400/G3) and a smattering of previous-generation machines (7500/7600/7300, 8500/8600, 9500/9600). Earlier machines than that, although Apple does hope to support them, are rumored to be first in line as casualties of approaching deadlines.

Shortly thereafter (near the end of the third or beginning of the fourth quarter), Apple engineers and Darwin developers will likely work together to bring Consumer to all PCI PowerMacs, including most clones -- probably in time for Apple's stated "this time next year" deadline to bundle Consumer with all new Macs.

Pre-PCI Macs have always been outside the scope of Mac OS X, and it is unlikely that Apple will take on the tremendous task of attempting to support NuBus and the very different motherboard chipsets that those generations of Macs used. There is always hope, of course, that the Darwin project may take on this task if there is sufficient demand.

So there you have it, if you trust Mac OS Rumors.

OK, I've put together a theory on how this rumor ballooned so wildly out of proportion, so read below if you want my idea. ;-)

Slashdot posted an article that mixed up Connectix's plan to bundle Redhat with their emulator Virtual PC (VPC) with Connectix's Macintosh-only Virtual Game Station (VGS). Before an update could be posted to explain the confusion, MOSR's prestigious Ryan Meader saw the post. Using his common tactics for obtaining information for MOSR, he stole the incorrect information and embellished it with his own lies. (If anyone is feeling like I personally don't believe anything MOSR says, you're right. Please check the archives at http://www.mosr.net/ (the site is now defunct, but as I said, check the archives) if you want to see some very good rebuttals of pure crap/stolen news Ryan has posted.) Anyway, a Slashdot reader who read MOSR saw the story, which corroborated the incorrect story he saw earlier (perhaps he had not reloaded Slashdot to see the update yet) and so he submitted it. It was picked up as a story again at Slashdot because it appeared to lend credence to that same story that was (mistakenly) posted the day before.

Sadly people have submitted MOSR topics before to Slashdot. I would recommend that people don't submit MOSR topics, as well as advising Slashdot that they shouldn't pick up stories like that. ;) Hopefully this will be avoided in the future!

Oh yeah, remember that this is merely a theory, although from my point of view it does seem very likely. :)

<!--#include file=".signature" -->

I've played with Mozilla M10, M11, and M12 on the Mac.. They're all pretty nice, and appear to be equivilent to Netscape 4.x in render speed. However, the new rendering engine handles pages that Netscape mutilates...

As for bloatware, I'd strongly recommend that all the Mac users out there keep a copy of iCab on their machine, in additon to Netscape or IE. It doesn't handle Javascripts which is often frustrating, but the installer is only 700kb and the app is only 2Mb. It uses QuickTime to render images, off loads any email tasks to your default mail reader (e.g. Eudora), off loads source viewing to your preferred text editor (e.g. BBedit), and uses MRJ to handle java applets (4-10x speed bump over Netscape).

There are a couple other nice features of iCab that I haven't seen in any other browsers, for example the ability to filter images by size or link (e.g no more wasted time spent loading banners).. There's also the built-in option of downloading the entire contents of site or just selected contents, for example just the audio files, or just the files with the form *.png..

I didn't want this to turn into an advertisement, but I thought while we were discussing the topic of bloatware I'd mention that Mozilla and IE are not the only games in town, just the most recognized..

By the way, a little poll over at macosrumors shows that iCab is being used by roughly 25% of their readers. Despite the fact that Netscape and IE come bundled with the MacOS. It has to have something to do with the fact that most people can download a 700kB installer much easier than a 16MB Netscape update over their 56kb connections..

The Newton never used Graffiti, IIRC. Apple had a completely different technology that was called (I think) rosetta.

While Graffiti is similar in execution to unistroke, rosetta was very different. Graffiti forces the user to write a certain way, while Apple's tech would adapt to you. By the end, Apple was getting decent recognition of cursive writing.

Sadly, however, the Newton is dead. Long live the Newton!

I'd love to have MacOS X Consumer, especially if the BSD command line is available. ( MacOSRumors showed a screen shot of a cmd line window running top; wierd to see it on a Mac, but very cool.)

However, my older 604e/PCI box (upgraded to a G3) will probably NOT see a version of MacOS X ported to its architecture. This is a crying shame, since the box can handle Unix like a champ (it also runs LinuxPPC, and ran MkLinux for a while).

So, if you're an Apple engineer, please read this next paragraph carefully:

Yo! I want to give my money to your company someday! But I won't buy a new box just to run the latest and greatest OS, okay!! Tell your manager about this, 'cuz I sure as hell am not alone on this score!

Thank you. I feel better now..
-----

It's funny, Mac OS Rumors also has a live report from Macworld and they haven't mentioned a thing about OS X completely opening their source. How odd that a group so on top of the Darwin release would just overlook this major paradigm shift on behalf of Apple.

It seems like the reporter from mac-tips.com is a bit of a (not to mean this too pejoratively) Mac user. Here's what I think Steve Jobs probably said: "The Foundation of OS X will be Completely Open Source." And the mac-tips guy thought he was saying that the entire OS would be Open Source. I'd love to be able to compile up OS X on my PC tonight as much as the next guy, (hell, open Quicktime would be nice too) but somehow I don't think it's going to happen.

-Joe

Before anyone gets out of shape, take a visit to the usual Mac web sites:

it's not wise to base your judgements on something coming from ZDNet

As some people have noted, Apple Insider now has actual photos of the new graphite iMac.

Also, MacOS Rumors has several pictures of the new iMacs in all their fruity glory.