Any Idea what this could be? Quad G4? (video proof?)
<a href="http://homepage.ntlworld.com/phillip.briggs1/" target="_blank">http://homepage.ntlworld.com/phillip.briggs1/</a>
The computer in question looks to be using 4 CPU's. Could this be one of the sealed test boxes we have heard about?
Later Steve
[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: ssmurphy ]
[ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: ssmurphy ]</p>
The computer in question looks to be using 4 CPU's. Could this be one of the sealed test boxes we have heard about?
Later Steve
[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: ssmurphy ]
[ 02-04-2002: Message edited by: ssmurphy ]</p>
Comments
So I ask again could this be one of the test units that apple sent out for testing?
Later Steve
All I see is an ugly huge box that could be a PC and a screen that seems to have OS X on it, yet could be an edited picture too.
I don't consider that evidence.
G-news
Pasmac
Not using a standard G4 case is partly due to the fact that the mobo may not even fit in the old style case. And partly to distinguish the test machine from a shipping finalized prodct. Effectively hiding in plain sight.
Frankly its easier to cobble a test box together, disguising its internals and sending it to a tester to be beat up and eventually returned in a generic oversized case that you really don't care that anyone sees (UPS/FedEx guy, some peon temp).
Interestingly there is a small round metal tag under the door (assuming that top half of the face is a door like the old UMAX s900).
Is it an ID tag for the box? Is it hanging off a key inserted into a lock under the panel (most likely)? Whould a test box be "locked" shut yet have a key w/tag still in it?
It doesn't really look like the rumored test CPUs IMHO as desribed by alleged testers, but anything is possible <img src="confused.gif" border="0">
I think Apple would want these machines to blend in as much as possible, and sticking a PowerPC logo on a begie box doesn't make sense to me.
It could also be one of the clones from Daystar, these had 4x604e at up to 225MHz each. Hacking OS X to run on these is certainly feasible (same mobo as the 9500 actually), so that might explain it all.
Most likely it's a fake though.
Of course there's still the possibility that it is indeed a seeded machine. Seeing the back of the machine would tell a lot, namely whether it has USB, Firewire etc.
G-News
-Yes, I see the British flag on it.-
Would Apple have hardware testers in Europe?
Or could this person just be a tester testing the British version of OS X in the US?
-So Far, I can't see any Photoshop touching up on these photos.-
Can anyone else see any evidence of this?
-As mention in the previous post, the "PowerPC" label on the box on the bottom left corner.-
Has any other 3rd party vendor ever made a quad mac?
Or maybe this might be a test machine for a CPU upgrade manufacturer?
-The keyboard and mouse seem to be recent versions-
So these pictures cannot be that old?
-The CPU Monitor shows 4 bars, indicating that there are four chips in this thing!-
Can a graphic (desktop picture for instance) be made to just simulate that CPU monitor?
Or even further, can a program be made to mimic or falsely display four bars like that?
And I?m at work so I can?t compare that CPU monitor to the one we have on our systems, do the bars go that high? And does it look the same?
-Finally, what is the point of posting these pictures if they are not real! I?m mean, COME ON, I?m getting tired this stuff.
Are there any other questionable things about these pictures that I have missed?
Pasmac
On my G3, the process bar is made up of even bars though. Why are there two bars that are x2 normal size on the four G4/G5 bars? Is his normal on a G4, or a size of digital manipulation?
Now what this means in this case, I don't know, but I would guess whoever's machine it is is British.
[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: blue2kdave ]</p>
ssmurphy, where'd you get these pictures or this link to the pictures from?
<strong>The site this is hosted on is all in the UK (Hampshire to be exact). But that *still* doesn't mean that the actual computer is in the UK.
ssmurphy, where'd you get these pictures or this link to the pictures from?</strong><hr></blockquote>
At all places a message board thread on <a href="http://www.spymac.com" target="_blank">www.spymac.com</a> Was going to talk about it there but did not want to register there.
After the way every body took apart the iWalk videos on this board I thought this would be the perfect place to have people find things wrong with the image.
Later Steve
[ 01-31-2002: Message edited by: ssmurphy ]</p>
Well, if you were going to fake these, it would be a LOT easier than the iWalk, and also easier to get better results.
From a fake POV, there's no way to prove this stuff either way. There's no proof that this monitor is even connected to that mystery box so what we're looking at could very well be a normal OSX desktop with a weird CPU monitor pasted into the lower left hand corner (part of desktop image, maybe?)
The mystery box itself is another question. Only two things are cetain: It is a real object and it is HUGE. Anyone know what that bay at the top is?
<strong>No. It is an old beta product or PC hack job. There is no more reason to think this is a sealed new mac than to think any passing cloud is a UFO in disguise.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I'VE SEEN THOSE CLOUDS TOO!
Later Steve