Any Idea what this could be? Quad G4? (video proof?)

ssmurphyssmurphy
Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
<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>
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 91
    comrade seraphcomrade seraph Posts: 3member
    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.
  • Reply 2 of 91
    ssmurphyssmurphy Posts: 40member
    If you look in the lower right hand side of the monitor you see the apple CPU monitor running. I have a dual 533 G4 and my CPU monitor shows two bars, This one shows four of them.



    So I ask again could this be one of the test units that apple sent out for testing?



    Later Steve
  • Reply 3 of 91
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    I see no evidence that taht box is using 4CPUs.

    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
  • Reply 4 of 91
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    there was a small british flag on the menubar
  • Reply 5 of 91
    pasmacpasmac Posts: 13member
    Also at the bottom left corner of the machine, on the floor, there is the word "PowerPC" on it. Maybe we have a test box here? <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" />



    Pasmac
  • Reply 6 of 91
    jeremiah richjeremiah rich Posts: 853member
    Hmm.. I would consider this a possibility, but not much more than that. He could easily be displaying an image in full screen that he edited himself....
  • Reply 7 of 91
    nitridenitride Posts: 100member
    Apple doesn't seed test hardware in standard shipping desktop cases. Thats pretty much a given. Testing prototypes of the case itself is how the "leaked" QuickSilver photos appeared. Someone was probably fired over that incident.



    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">
  • Reply 8 of 91
    discstickersdiscstickers Posts: 314member
    Eh, the pictures are a little blurry. I don't think Apple would put a PowerPC logo on it. When was the last time an Apple comp had one on the actual case? The PowerBook G3?



    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.
  • Reply 9 of 91
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    It actually looks similar to an old Apple WorkGroup server. these had PowerPCs too, where big and ugly and expensive.



    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
  • Reply 10 of 91
    pasmacpasmac Posts: 13member
    Some other observations and questions:



    -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. Is there any explanation that comes with these picts?



    Are there any other questionable things about these pictures that I have missed?



    Pasmac
  • Reply 11 of 91
    comrade seraphcomrade seraph Posts: 3member
    Apologies, I was premature.



    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?
  • Reply 12 of 91
    macrumorzzmacrumorzz Posts: 46member
    the screen images are not the same on the two different photos - the quicktime movies have progressed, and the cpu bars show different values. this means that, if it's a fake, the person who did those pics has at least made up two different screens for the photos (would have been stupid to use the same pic twice). does not mean it think they're fakes though...
  • Reply 13 of 91
    blue2kdaveblue2kdave Posts: 652member
    As far as the British flag, saw this at MacWorld SF this year. i was checking out a company called Draw Well <a href="http://www.drawwell.com"; target="_blank">(web site)</a>, and noticed the British flag. The guy demoing the software was British, and I teased him about the flag thinking it was something they had done. He said it was to change the keyboard layout. If you go under system prefs to international, then to keyboard menu, you will see a bunch of flags. If you select more than one, then the flag icon appears on your toolbar letting easily switch between the two.



    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>
  • Reply 14 of 91
    justaguyjustaguy Posts: 37member
    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?
  • Reply 15 of 91
    the swanthe swan Posts: 82member
    Pictures could easily be faked.
  • Reply 16 of 91
    ssmurphyssmurphy Posts: 40member
    [quote]Originally posted by JustAGuy:

    <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>
  • Reply 17 of 91
    vinney57vinney57 Posts: 1,162member
    Is somebody willing to be anal enough to check that all the movies have progressed equal amounts? (they're all Apple ad's from the website)
  • Reply 18 of 91
    justaguyjustaguy Posts: 37member
    Don't blame you for not registering over at spymac



    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?
  • Reply 19 of 91
    humorouspseudonymhumorouspseudonym Posts: 25member
    [quote]Originally posted by Comrade Seraph:

    <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!
  • Reply 20 of 91
    ssmurphyssmurphy Posts: 40member
    That looks to be a CD-Rom drive of some kind. If you look to the right of the drive door you see two spots for lights. There is also apple brand media for DVD on the desk above.



    Later Steve
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