A little bird told me - Page 8

hahaha Vista Home Basic to Home Premium ;0)

no. Gas.

After Philbot's thought on iPod to iMac comparisons I'm seeing his current train of thought.
A wireless screen with the multitouch capability would interesting, if not a little too far removed from current interaction with computers!
I'm seeing something more connected to the recent introduction of the N 'standard' in Wifi and the new time machine software.
I also recall patents for a cube shaped mac and also ambient lighting?
Apple Cube Patent

Like it has been said before by a number of members on the board, I too am sure there will be some sort of Apple external hard drive released before Panther for Time Machine.

How about some sort of all in one cube system that sits in your home/workplace? A storage bay for all your music, pictures, movies etc ready to shared over a seamless mac network?
That would surely work well on the most part for the average home user.
Any content that was likely to be used could be preuploaded to devices internal hard drives such as in the AppleTV (Maybe even the iPhone?!)

This would allow the iMac to be slimmed down and for the most part become more akin to the ACD's in design? I'm not thinking the iMac is about to go portable though. It's still a desktop computer! BUT we haven't seen the 6G iPod yet. I'm hoping that the design will mirror the iPhone but be approached as more of a domestic remote control while in the house and awesome music player whilst on the go!
You could browse your media libraries on your MacCube from anywhere within Wi-fi signal. A sort of Apple home media automation system!

Flame away!

Apple have also just filed a patent to use inductance and a combination of inductance and wireless technologies to transfer both power and data to a charging display. This would be of practical use with the iPone, but also of great significance for a Mac Tablet / iMac with removable display.

Click here for more info.

Apple employ some of the most creative minds in the industry. If we can think of it, chances are, they have already prototyped it! It's just a matter of economics as to whether they bring it to market. In many cases the technology we have on the shop shelves is several years old and that really frustrates me! I'm just not wealthy enough to commission production and have instant access to this technology!

Apple Inside have now just posted even more info:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2496

Interesting. A very inefficient, and therefore wasteful, way to charge batteries however. I heard about a guy who lived near a high-voltage power line, and he picked up enough power to charge a battery farm, from which he powered his home. They finally caught him.

Don't know if that is true or not, but my father, who is an electrical engineer, used to work with power companies and he tells a story about "leakage." To demonstrate his point about insulation he took some execs out to their high-power lines and used a light bulb to make it clear how much power was escaping. Needless to say, the bulb lit up, albeit dimly.

When I asked him how he felt about the idea of building dwellings near high-power lines, he replied that he couldn't prove it would be a bad idea, but that he wouldn't live anywhere near them himself.

can't see it myself, apple's got bigger egg's to fry than the external HD market. An apple EHD adds little value that i can see to time machine.


A communal storage device (wireless or not) for media storage makes a lot of sense. Combine it with Leopard server Lite and you may have a reason for an apple EHD (or maybe an iRAID?)



Flaming's for losers 8)

Friendly disagreement and discussion can help us enlighten each other

feel free to flame, though, if you must...

So is anything coming tomorrow?

Yeah good point. What was all that stuff after the Macworld Expo about some special event on the 20th Feb. I'm sure Apple would have said something by now if that was the case.

Just watch. Either they do somthing like update their website, or they do nothing.

Actually, I don't really care what they do, unless they do somthing to the poor MacBook Pros...I don't want them to change too much untill I get one. I can't imagine a MacBook Pro with "Apple plastic".

and if you felt like telling us HOW soon, would the answers be in hours, days, or weeks

Monday is a holiday, Wednesday could be Apple's Tuesday!

without any Special Event?

its starting to sound like Apple is going to announce a chain of grill restaurants involving flea market stuff nailed to the wall

Actually, the last update to the iMac was released on a Wednesday, so we still have hope!

That would actually be pretty sweet - Steve's Bar & Grill...except we'd probably all have to eat veggie burgers...

As long as they have free internet access I don't mind!

If you talk about Wednesday 21 then yes (for just a routine update). But not for a completely redesigned iMac. This deserves a special Apple event.

How about the 27th Feb

You heard it here first!!!

Just can't wait for those ads....

" I'm a PC"

"and I'm a quantum Mac"

but back to the soon-to-be-present future, I really hope you're right, Euro. Because 1) my iMac G4 is getting long in the tooth (still works, mind, but its older than all my nephews and got less memory ) and 2) I think you're sincere and 3) the poems/riddles have been so much fun.

My own prediction is that we will have an Apple Special Event in March, showing Leopard (to be released late april/May) and new iMacs (probably same release date).

Mac Pros and ACDs will come soon after. Minis, MBs, MBPs will all come by Sept, sooner rather than later. I believe this because 1) i want to!! and 2) I think Leopard will have much that will require new hardware.

Finally, I think that there will be a 50% reduction in prices for all who live in a capital city begiining with L. (OK I don't really, but wouldn't it be good?)

I am making plastics now for the i****!!

it's made of plastic? and i thought apple were innovative!!!

like something to do with apple TV?

I mentioned this to someone who had this reply:

"Alright, I have to say this sounds familiar (not necessarily the Apple part though). I remember seeing or reading something a while back about batteries, and how the major limitation to small appliances has always been the power source.

They discussed a new type of battery that promised to revolutionize electronics. It is made from a type of plastic that can store an INCREDIBLE amount of energy in a very small lightweight form factor. I seem to recall they mentioned a laptop computer battery about the size of a laptop hard drive weighing only a few ounces. This size of battery would be able to run a laptop computer for something like 24 hours.

The gist is that ALL electronic devices would be able to be much smaller and weigh much less, and STILL have way more power than current batteries allow."

The teasing is heating up.

OK now, do we expect something for this Tuesday or Wednesday? If so, then from the look of things this should be nothing more than a minor bump. And it is almost March... I wonder if all this ill childbirth at the Apple campus is Leopard related or not.

I wouldn't count on the Mini, iMac or Books to be released until May when Santa Rosa is due out. Within the next few days we should see the Apple TV shipping and hopefully 720p content on iTMS. March might bring us a new Mac Pro, displays, and or 10.5. iPods in April and if 10.5 was has not been released then we will probably see it then.

woo hoo!

I really think a new Black iMac is coming soon!

Black, white or whatever, there is zero evidence that it is coming soon. Well, apart the jokes in this thread.

Nothing has been happening for several weeks

It seems like the quietest Jan-March period Apple has had since the G4 intoduction fiasco. Let's hope that the next quarter brings us a bit more to be excited about.

It feels that April will be the month to things start happening.
Adobe CS3 by end of March might propel pro announcements at NAB. So i would expect cool things there.
Leopard is the big question. When exactly during spring will it be unveil? That's the question.
I think a lot of products are tied to Leopard. Once the cat is out many things will follow.

The longer it takes to get the first/second quarter updates out the less likely we will see third/fourth quarter updates. The only thing I'm really looking to buy now is an Apple TV and Leopard, though I might decide to go with a Mini instead. I do want to get another iMac to replace one of my computers this year but I will probably wait untill the end of the summer to do that.

i've been trying to unbderstand what you mean by this ever since you posted it. Data structure with a new hardware field?? Maybe I'm too used to trying to decipher poetic riddles (and I was never any good at that ), but i can't make head nor tail of that!


Thicks should be plottened at every opportunity!

My tuppenyworth is that we will see a new cat with many "secret" features which will rely on new hardware. Of course it will work with older stuff, like my G4 iMac, but some of the new stuff just won't work, and some will just be not worth it. But if you get new hardware, I think socks will be knocked off.

Leopard's release will be accompanied by new iMacs (very new, not just upgrades). All Macs will see significant changes over the next 6-9 months (again not just upgrades, not just form factor). Perhaps the Mac Pro will see one before Leopard, but it's real strengths will only become apparent once Leopard is revealed.

Finally, and this is the one I really hope I'm wrong on, I don't think it's going to happen soon. WWDC is the earliest for a Leopard Release, though there may well be a special event 6 weeks or so before to pre-announce the "secret features" and work up the hype machine.

PS glad you enjoyed london! let me know next time you're here, we can meet up in Apple Store Regent Street!

PPS anyone else thought it would be fun to flash-mob some apple stores one day?