Inside View on Apple WWDC Rumors

AppleLurker writes "In a recent interview with DVD newsroom an Apple employee talks WWDC rumors including the iPhone, Blu-ray, MacPro and the Apple Tablet. More realistic about what not to expect next week when Steve Jobs hits the stage." Apple's next move is always a hotbed of debate leading up to a product release and with all the rumors flying this year all bets are off until we see the checkered flag, so take with the requisite grain of salt.

Comments

Lots of new system software?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm an attendee and have noticed that the online schedule of sessions still has about 40% of the slots with "To Be Announced" as their descriptions. In the past Apple has done this when new technologies are to be announced; the session titles are filled in after the keynote is over.

So perhaps there's going to be quite a bit of new software this time.

Re:Lots of new system software?

[Anonymous Coward]

If you are an attendee, you should organize your schedule at http://www.apple.com/wwdc. After entering your ADC user and password you will see all the available sessions. The page you mention has probably not been updated since WWDC was announced earlier this year. Oh, and before you rush to the site, let me tell you that you wont find any clues as to what will be announced on Monday by taking a look at the name of the sessions :-)

Re:Lots of new system software?

[buckhead_buddy]

Gary W. Longsine wrote:

Leopoard has had the longest development cycle of any Mac OS X release since 1.0.

That's not quite true: Tiger was longer (so far). Here's a list of Mac OS X releases following 10.0 (released March 24, 2001):

1. Puma -- Sep 29, 2001 ~6.3 months gestation
2. Jaguar -- Aug 24, 2002 ~10.9 months gestation
3. Panther -- Oct 24, 2003 ~14.2 months gestation
4. Tiger -- Apr 29, 2005 ~ 18.4 months gestation

Leopard has been incubating for a bit over 15 months from Tiger's release. If it takes the same amount of time as Tiger to release we'll see it go live at the start of November. If it follows the other trend of "prior release + 4 months" we'll see it go live at the start of March 2007. Both of these would fit in with the prediction that Steve made at the last WWDC that we'll see it at the end of 2006 or the start of 2007 "about the time Longhorn is released".

No matter what technology is in the pipeline, the release date is more likely to be determined by when Apple wants to go head to head with the Microsoft PR machine. Apple hasn't made any public technology promises (other than a final version of Boot Camp) so it can delay any project that isn't quite ready until 10.6. If Apple wants to look like an "innovator" and come in "first" with what everyone will think of as the next generation successor to Windows 98, then it may aim for November. If it wants to ride the Microsoft PR wave (rather than appear overwhelmed by it) then it may wait until the same time or just after Windows Vista is declared by some as a steaming pile of poo.

Setting any release date is risky, but I think Leopard's will have less to do with technology and everything to do with what date Apple thinks is the best day to take on Goliath.

Worst rumor site ever

[The One and Only]

If you haven't bothered reading TFA, don't. It's sub-Mac-rumor-site rumors, complete with a (probably fictitious) phone conversation and cheesy backstory.

Already slow, here's the article...

[Anonymous Coward]

Posted anonymously so I don't look like a karma whore...

Breaking: Inside Apple on Blu-ray, MacPro and Apple's media center strategy. What to expect, and not to expect, at WWDC
Posted 8/4/06 at 6:06am by Senor Spielbergo

AppleAlexander here. We're not in the Apple rumor mill business here at DVD Newsroom. Frankly, I don't care about the next gen iPods. I'm quite happy with my G3 iPod, thank you very much. Do I wanna squint and watch Lord of the Rings on a tiny iPod screen - while I have a Sony 50" Grand Wega? I guess it's nice for those still taking mass transit.

But when it comes to all things Blu-ray, we're interested. From content delivery to a media center, we gotta keep an eye on Apple's approach. Look what they did to MP3 players, having joined late in the game. If they change the delivery system of entertainment, how does this affect DVD and the future of hi-def? I mean, in looking at quality, Apple's music store successfully offers a far inferior product compared to music CDs. The trade off is instant gratification - choosing to download right now or driving over to Best Buy to pick up a CD, if they even have it in stock. When rumors of the iChat Mobile surfaced, our spy contacted his Apple Confidante to talk about that and Blu-ray rumors. The transcript of our spy's phone call, including talk of Powermacs and WWDC news, is below...

Updated: the spy on this story is a known source and the Apple Confidante's employment has been verified.

Greetings and Salutations! The world is a funny place, muchahcos. It's about connections. "In the know." I knew my Apple Confidante before she obtained that Apple badge of honor. Even in college she was my sweet, sweet confidante. Her polite ear listened patiently to my girl problems. I was never brave enough to be romantic. A confidante is a confidante. With phrases like Blu-ray and iPhone buzzing in my brain, I couldn't resist calling my confidante's hotline

Q. Before we talk about Blu-ray. One word: iPhone?

A. No. Of course, Apple is exploring wireless options, integrating cell and iPod technology. Don't expect anything soon.

Q. Why would Apple enter this arena?

A. Competition, really. As Motorola and Sony Ericsson continue to marry phones with music, it could make the iPod obsolete. Also, the ringtone business is massive. That's why the carriers can't stand us and iTunes songs at 99 cents. Everyone is working on their own music store with higher costs or subscriptions.

Q. Where do you stand on Blu-ray?

A. We're exceptionally committed to Blu-ray. A battleground issue in 07.

Q. Why Blu-ray?

A. Superior storage. Costs less.

Q. When will a Mac ship with a Blu-ray drive installed?

A. Some are hopeful with Oct/Nov. Doubt it. 100% Blu-ray will be built-to-order in January 07.

Q. Why the delay?

A. Consumers are very nervous and confused about these formats. Why do they need it? What are the benefits? Originally, Blu-ray was a slam-dunk. But HD-DVD gained traction. After the launch of the PS3, the general consensus is Blu-ray will be named the winner. The brand name 'Blu-ray' will be stronger. Better awareness for consumers. Currently, HD-DVD has the edge by name alone.

Q. Who will win, Blu-ray or HD-DVD?

A. (laughs) Blu-ray, of course. Reasons? Apple, Sony, Dell, HP, Disney, Fox. Better content and the PS3. If your computer and PS3 support Blu-ray, you're obviously going to buy Blu-ray movies.

Q. Will new Powermacs, or Mac Pro's, ship with Blu-ray?

A. M

Re:Working from current news and events

[shawnce]

Conroe will be featured in the iMac and the new PowerMac; Quad capability may or may not be present...

Woodcrest could show up in the PowerMac replacement if Apple wants to make it a true workstation class system... and it would allow them to maintain a Quad core system. It comes down to price point and components costs. In the case of the iMac it would require no work for Apple to drop in a Merom, they may go with that in the short term (also Merom runs at nearly half the power consumption and heat output of Conroe).

Woodcrest MAY be present in the next revision of the XServe and XServe RAID

The Xserve RAID is a storage device, it has no need for a Woodcrest (Xeon 51xx) processor.

Point releases are traditionally announced at WWDC.

Apple already announced well over a month ago that at WWDC 2006 they would be talking about and showing off Mac OS X 10.5.

Re:Hoping for the iPod video update

[Reaperducer]

I'd like to transfer them to the video iPod

Try plugging your iPod into your USB port. It happens automagically.

watch it during a rail-commute

Place your iPod in your hand. Get on trin. Sit. Turn on iPod. Select show. Watch.

or plug it into a friends tv for playback.

Attach small end of video cable to headphone jack. Attach other end to friend's TV. Set iPod TV output option to "on." Select video. Press play.

Either you're the dumbest electronics customer in history, or you don't have an iPod and you're just trolling.

Thread farming?

[PapayaSF]

Back in April, the semi-reliable (rumor-wise and server-wise) Mac OS Rumors claimed that Leopard would have some pretty cool "thread farming" technology. I'll quote the whole page because their server is often down:

A critical component of not only Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," but also the Cocoa/Carbon for Windows package (more details in linked article above) will be new code co-developed with Intel that helps break up tasks into multiple threads -- therefore achieving considerably better efficiency on the next generation of multi-core Intel processors. The results we've seen on systems with up to 16 cores of Intel's next-generation "Conroe" desktop CPU architecture were amazing....with 10.4.6 as-is, the first core bears the vast majority of the workload particularly when only one or two resource-intensive apps are running.

Even when lots of different applications, many of them efficiently multi-threaded, are run on 10.4.5 or 10.4.6 only the first two CPUs are used efficiently while the third and fourth are getting plenty of work....but aren't quite living up to their full potential. Each added core after four seems to drop off in efficiency....not because OS X doesn't handle lots of processors properly, it does. In fact it's an industry leader in terms of being ready for the next generation of multicore, multiprocessor technology. It has been since day one and Apple has consistently kept it at the leading edge since then.

The problem is, simply, getting all of those core to have the maximum possible positive effect on the performance of each application. When simulating the realistic workloads of almost every kind of user, more than four cores rapidly lost any effect because there just weren't enough threads, efficiently enough balanced, to make good use of more CPU's.

Leopard changes this in every way that Apple and Intel have been able to devise. The techniques employed include tricks that both companies have been holding at ready for years, and some new things that have been developed in the past year or so to specifically address the way the "Core" (Yonah, Merom and Napa-Merom) and Codename 'Conroe' architectures work. Most of it goes beyond our technical competency; we're sure that the folks at Ars Technica will have a lot to say about this in the next few months as more details leak about the hardware and software involved in these enhancements.

Some, but certainly not all, of these techniques will eventually make their way into Intel's optimized in-house compilers. Some will even become part of the GCC compilers that are critical to building OS X and indeed most Xcode applications, eventually. But right now they are by and large highly experimental, being part of an operating system codebase that is not even quite "alpha" in terms of usability.

That said, it's a thing of beauty to see 16 cores used with bizarrely perfect symmetry even when performing relatively simple tasks that have nearly no application-level threading in their collective codebases. 32 cores work nearly as well, and somehow manage to make tasks that would normally only max out one or two cores and be unable to go beyond that point, spread out across nearly all the CPU's with a beautiful cascade effect created for just such a demonstration in the Leopard version of Activity Monitor (just wait until you see all the 3D OpenGL visualizations that have been whippped up....but that's another article entirely and bordering on embargoed territory to boot!).

Re:Working from current news and events

[FuturePastNow]

Sorry, but you're wrong about that. It's in a socket, and there's nothing to prevent user upgrades except the general difficulty level involved in taking the thing apart. Saving on manufacturing and development costs is exactly the reason why.

Re:Working from current news and events

[ACalcutt]

"PowerPC allows the kernel to remain 32-bit even with 64-bit applications, while x86 does not." correct me is I'm wrong...but doesn't conroe support EMT64T?... and can't it run 32bit and 64bit applications at the same time... And of course...as an AMD fan I know athlon 64s support running 32 bit and 64bit at the same time

Re:Webcast

[blzabub]

I believe Apple no longer has a live webcast of the WWDC. You can see a text-only live webcast here at MacRumors.