Apple announcements brewing for late October
Apple Inc. has begun preparatory measures for significant announcements to take place during the last full week of October, AppleInsider has been told.
While sources have requested that we not go into detail regarding the specific measures being put into place, they say the announcements are likely to arrive any time between the 22nd and 27th of the month.
Obviously, such a timeframe would coincide with Apple's self-imposed release schedule for Mac OS X Leopard, which the company -- after having delayed the software once -- has promised for "October."
As of Wednesday evening, the source code to Leopard had not yet been frozen and a Gold Master had not yet been declared. However, the operating system in recent weeks has inched closer to this status with the last full builds including only one known issue.
Historically, Apple has tapped the final Friday of the month to roll out its major operating system overhauls. For instance, it launched Mac OS X Tiger on the eve of Friday, April 29, 2005.
Sources have yet to rule out the possibility that Leopard would be accompanied by additional announcements from the Cupertino-based company.
Update: We are receiving additional tips from industry sources who indicate that October 26 is currently the estimated ship date for Mac OS X Leopard.
For those readers who don't plan to run out to an Apple store the day Leopard hits the streets, Amazon.com is currently taking pre-orders with a price guarantee of $129 for the single license edition and $199 for the 5-license family edition.
While sources have requested that we not go into detail regarding the specific measures being put into place, they say the announcements are likely to arrive any time between the 22nd and 27th of the month.
Obviously, such a timeframe would coincide with Apple's self-imposed release schedule for Mac OS X Leopard, which the company -- after having delayed the software once -- has promised for "October."
As of Wednesday evening, the source code to Leopard had not yet been frozen and a Gold Master had not yet been declared. However, the operating system in recent weeks has inched closer to this status with the last full builds including only one known issue.
Historically, Apple has tapped the final Friday of the month to roll out its major operating system overhauls. For instance, it launched Mac OS X Tiger on the eve of Friday, April 29, 2005.
Sources have yet to rule out the possibility that Leopard would be accompanied by additional announcements from the Cupertino-based company.
Update: We are receiving additional tips from industry sources who indicate that October 26 is currently the estimated ship date for Mac OS X Leopard.
For those readers who don't plan to run out to an Apple store the day Leopard hits the streets, Amazon.com is currently taking pre-orders with a price guarantee of $129 for the single license edition and $199 for the 5-license family edition.
Comments
Then again, it could just be the iPhone Extreme. 3G anyone?
she already exists:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2U4hyT0gIM
I hope it's the ultraportable, cause i already know i want one.
Please Please Please Santa Steve
an iPhone for Europe and a (external) keyboard for the iPhone that would be my perfect portable for taking notes at university...
Please Please Please Santa Steve
one more... 80GB touch-iPod would be great too
Please Please Please Santa Steve
Regards,
Cédric
But Apple does what Apple wants to nowadays. I guess they feel that any further negative press really can't hurt them.
I hate to burst everyone's bubble, but the latest build of Leopard most certainly does not have "one or two outstanding issues" like everyone has been reporting. Just because Apple decided to only list two on the release notes, does not make it true. I've given it a try on a few occasions (with the latest seed), and I've consistently had kernel panics when using AFP shares, and broken WebClip functionality (every time I make a clip in Safari, nothing appears on the Dashboard until I restart, and then they just appear as little boxes telling me that I needed to add the widget via Safari). If they just fix the two highly publicized issues and release it, it is going to be one unstable OS.
Have you reported these bugs?
There will be other known issues with the release, but they don't list them in the release notes because they divide bugs up based on time it takes to complete them. Many known bugs were pushed back for a 10.5.1 update because they were labeled as "not serious" enough to halt the release of Leopard. I expect we'll get 10.5.1 not too long after the discs for 10.5.0 arrive.
The current build isn't bad though. I haven't experienced any of the bugs you mentioned, so perhaps you need to contact Apple and report them.
• Leopard (with a slightly buggy 10.5.0 release) - Oct 26
• a handful of small iPhone integrated features for Leopard (e.g. ability to sync Notes with Mail to-dos)
• an announcement of widgets for the iPhone (with *some* offline capabilities), coming January.
At Yovo84: Yeah it could be. With a SSD and multi-touch screen? Expensive, but light. My 17-inch MBP is a beast to carry.
definately, life is hard when i have to lift my 7 pounds of heavy mbp off the couch to surf the net. wahh wahh wahhhhhh. [that's if i don't want to use my phone]
i want a 2 pound laptop w/ EXTERNAL optical drive options and SSD storage options - 64 GB would be perfect. [12.1" x 1366 x 768?] one usb, one fw400, one fw800, express34, wifi g/n, and bluetooth. iSight would be nice, too. Ohh, and make it .6" thin. Lastly, can you do all that including an external HD optical drive for $1500? fine fine, i'll pay 2K if it's got multitouch, HD-DVD/Blu-Ray and 1080p video out.
ohh, and come out with some new monitors this month - multitouch FTW!
I am ready to get a new Mac Pro, using a G4 tower 933 vintage 2001. Really thought about the new iMac but I just can't get past that shiny screen. My iSight crapped out on me yesterday so I would love a new 24" display with built in iSight camera. I'll wait to 10.5 figuring the $100+ saved having it pre-loaded can go to adding RAM. Of course I don't really expect this set up and imagine MacWorld for the announcement of new Mac Pro's.
I can beat that! My G4 is from 1999 and I am the laughing stock of all my macfriends. I am so ready for a new MacPro. I just hope they offer BluRay as a BTO option!
I can?t believe AI has not yet spilled the beans on the upcoming MacPro.
Well this does not bode well for actually seeing the physical release of Leopard in October. Announcing the release vs. the actual physical release are two completely different things.
But Apple does what Apple wants to nowadays. I guess they feel that any further negative press really can't hurt them.
What are you talking about? You don't fully expect the announcement to be something similar to iLife / iWork announcement, where the product was available 5 minutes after the announcement in most stores?
Apple needs 2 weeks to produce enough media required for first weekend purchases. Its not like they make all of the copies at once. Assuming it went GM this week they could have media ready by the 20th or at most the middle of the following week. They still have a few days to go GM to make the 10/26 announcement date.
As far as negative press, its only negative because people are complaining about ridiculous stuff.
1. I hacked my iPhone and now it doesn't work anymore because I applied an update that everyone told me not to!
2. I bought a $600 phone and now its cheaper and I want my money back!
I personally bought a $599 iPhone and love it to pieces. Sure it would have been nice to wait an get it for $399, but you know what. . . that's life. As far as hacking goes. . . I tend to never do anything that would void a warranty on a product that costs more than $150. This includes opening most computers up. I at least wait until its out of warranty or reached the end of its useful life.
EDIT: i'm not talking out my ass either, i'm posting from a leopard machine.
I'm sure that this October event will either be Leopard dominated or at least will open it. But really, what more is there to say? We already got a full demo and price breakdown a couple months ago. Other than, "Leopard. It's here, shipping on all new Mac's starting today and available for purchase today." what can he talk about?
And if Apple is looking to make a holiday sales push for AppleTV, the sub-Macbook, etc.- they're going to have to do it soon. End of October is only 6 weeks to Christmas...