Tantalizing info: I'll bite.
<a href="http://www.envestco2.com/macwhispers/archives/000029.php"; target="_blank">MacWhispers Story</a>
[quote] MacWhispers is asking for your help in making sense out of dozens of disconnected pieces of information we have received over the past two months, and in developing coherent rumors from this raw data. As previously published. our method for drafting rumors is simply to collect information from daily business conversations and emails, much of which is with the same Eastern and U.S. OEM contractors used by Apple, and then to synthesize plausible future hardware projections from these fragmented bit and pieces of information. Now, we have a rowing pile of these pieces, and we're asking for your helping into converting them into sensible rumors.
The Puzzle Pieces
Here, in no particular order, are many of the bits of data we have laying about the MacWhispers underground lair. Each factoid has a high probability of general accuracy, having come our way directly from a knowledgeable Apple OEM source. How, if at all, any of them actually fit together has been challenging us for some time. Perhaps you can help us make sense from this clutter.
- Texas Instruments has been shipping a new low power FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) bridge chipset to Apple since the last week of January. This is not a PHY/transceiver (for use in a computer), but is an ATA/FireWire 800 bridge, one that "draws remarkably little power..."
- Apple has already begun assembly and stockpiling of the new 10, 20, and 40GB iPods... without FireWire 800. Editorial addition: [ ! ! !
! ! ! ]
- Chi Mei Optoelectronics cut an exclusive supply deal with Apple in October guaranteeing reduced prices on custom and stock LCD panels. The new 20-inch Cinema Display uses an exclusive-to-Apple 20.1-inch Chi Mei panel. (following MacWhispers breaking this story, Chi Mei removed the panel from its online product list).
- Chi Mei has been shipping its new 15.4-inch 1280x800 pixel notebook panel to Foxconn's primary notebook computer assembly facility since the third week of January. Foxconn (formerly Hon Hai) is Apple's primary contractor for PowerBook assembly.
- We have no information verifying that the 15.4-inch Chi Mei panel is being put into PowerBooks. We do have a statement from a high-placed LG-Philips source that "Apple will continue to use an LG panel" in the new mid-range PowerBook.
- LG-Philips has both a 15.4-inch 1280x800 notebook LCD and the existing 15.2-inch 1280x854 pixel panel available for Apple's use.
- The new midrange PowerBook has been being produced and stockpiled for at least 2-weeks.
- A major Foxconn plastic moulding supplier has begun shipping a "new white plastic housing" to Foxconn that includes "a row of multiple ports that are hidden behind a door." The same supplier moulds the hemispherical bases for the LCD iMac.
- Apple is funding a major R&D project within Chi Mei to develop that company's (formerly, IBM's) high pixel density LCD fab technology into a future Apple LCD product.
- Two unrelated (competitive) supplier of small TFT-LCD's have received requests from Elitegroup (another key Taiwanese Apple assembly partner) for "small widescreen panels" that are said to be "among the smallest full resolution panels ever produced." Both suppliers specialize in 4 to 7-inch multimedia panels for auto and portable use.
- In January, Apple "finalized a design" for a FireWire 800 PCI card that included optical fiber connections supporting S3200 (3.2Gb/s) interconnects.
Now It's Your Turn
Buried within these facts are many truths about upcoming Apple products. However, there are also the seeds for error, as well. Witness our two recent blunders, caused by misinterpreting some of these same facts. Both our "FireWire 800 iPods" and our "FireWire 800 RAID" conclusions have turned out to be embarrassingly wrong. So, while we move along to work on more immediate data, we'll leave some of this frustratingly perplexing information for our able readers to chew on.<hr></blockquote>
hmmm. Hope definitely springs eternal.
Mandricard
AppleOutsider
[quote] MacWhispers is asking for your help in making sense out of dozens of disconnected pieces of information we have received over the past two months, and in developing coherent rumors from this raw data. As previously published. our method for drafting rumors is simply to collect information from daily business conversations and emails, much of which is with the same Eastern and U.S. OEM contractors used by Apple, and then to synthesize plausible future hardware projections from these fragmented bit and pieces of information. Now, we have a rowing pile of these pieces, and we're asking for your helping into converting them into sensible rumors.
The Puzzle Pieces
Here, in no particular order, are many of the bits of data we have laying about the MacWhispers underground lair. Each factoid has a high probability of general accuracy, having come our way directly from a knowledgeable Apple OEM source. How, if at all, any of them actually fit together has been challenging us for some time. Perhaps you can help us make sense from this clutter.
- Texas Instruments has been shipping a new low power FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) bridge chipset to Apple since the last week of January. This is not a PHY/transceiver (for use in a computer), but is an ATA/FireWire 800 bridge, one that "draws remarkably little power..."
- Apple has already begun assembly and stockpiling of the new 10, 20, and 40GB iPods... without FireWire 800. Editorial addition: [ ! ! !
! ! ! ] - Chi Mei Optoelectronics cut an exclusive supply deal with Apple in October guaranteeing reduced prices on custom and stock LCD panels. The new 20-inch Cinema Display uses an exclusive-to-Apple 20.1-inch Chi Mei panel. (following MacWhispers breaking this story, Chi Mei removed the panel from its online product list).
- Chi Mei has been shipping its new 15.4-inch 1280x800 pixel notebook panel to Foxconn's primary notebook computer assembly facility since the third week of January. Foxconn (formerly Hon Hai) is Apple's primary contractor for PowerBook assembly.
- We have no information verifying that the 15.4-inch Chi Mei panel is being put into PowerBooks. We do have a statement from a high-placed LG-Philips source that "Apple will continue to use an LG panel" in the new mid-range PowerBook.
- LG-Philips has both a 15.4-inch 1280x800 notebook LCD and the existing 15.2-inch 1280x854 pixel panel available for Apple's use.
- The new midrange PowerBook has been being produced and stockpiled for at least 2-weeks.
- A major Foxconn plastic moulding supplier has begun shipping a "new white plastic housing" to Foxconn that includes "a row of multiple ports that are hidden behind a door." The same supplier moulds the hemispherical bases for the LCD iMac.
- Apple is funding a major R&D project within Chi Mei to develop that company's (formerly, IBM's) high pixel density LCD fab technology into a future Apple LCD product.
- Two unrelated (competitive) supplier of small TFT-LCD's have received requests from Elitegroup (another key Taiwanese Apple assembly partner) for "small widescreen panels" that are said to be "among the smallest full resolution panels ever produced." Both suppliers specialize in 4 to 7-inch multimedia panels for auto and portable use.
- In January, Apple "finalized a design" for a FireWire 800 PCI card that included optical fiber connections supporting S3200 (3.2Gb/s) interconnects.
Now It's Your Turn
Buried within these facts are many truths about upcoming Apple products. However, there are also the seeds for error, as well. Witness our two recent blunders, caused by misinterpreting some of these same facts. Both our "FireWire 800 iPods" and our "FireWire 800 RAID" conclusions have turned out to be embarrassingly wrong. So, while we move along to work on more immediate data, we'll leave some of this frustratingly perplexing information for our able readers to chew on.<hr></blockquote>
hmmm. Hope definitely springs eternal.
Mandricard
AppleOutsider
Comments
Anyways, where's the 970 beef? Where's the beef!?
<img src="graemlins/lol.gif" border="0" alt="[Laughing]" />
Anyway, my vote is for a portable TiVo like device, yeah, that would kill.
<strong>I'm liking that MacWhispers ... no big gradiose statements or anything, just "here's what we know" ... quite a change from the average rumor site constantly trying to dig up anything on the next 8 way 970 box from Apple (and quite often, being told what they want to hear ala "Tailor of Panama" style).
Anyway, my vote is for a portable TiVo like device, yeah, that would kill.</strong><hr></blockquote>
YA! That's what it is! Man, you sure said it! That really makes a lot of sense! It's all coming together!
<strong>I'm liking that MacWhispers ... no big gradiose statements or anything, just "here's what we know" ...</strong><hr></blockquote>
Agreed, I rather like MacWhispers, and their attitude appears to be very down to earth. I don't remember MOSR or even AI in its heyday admitting outright that they made wrong predictions.
Well, a 15.4" PB is a no-brainer. The lower power FW800 bridge and the info on "custom screens" may point to something akin to the much-debated "Video iPod".
Or perhaps another digital lifestyle device we haven't yet thought of.
I've heard a lot of people talking about Apple making a PVR. Maybe it's my ignorance, but...why would Apple do this?
<strong><a href="http://www.envestco2.com/macwhispers/archives/000029.php"; target="_blank">MacWhispers Story</a>
- Texas Instruments has been shipping a new low power FireWire 800 (IEEE1394b) bridge chipset to Apple since the last week of January. This is not a PHY/transceiver (for use in a computer), but is an ATA/FireWire 800 bridge, one that "draws remarkably little power..."</strong><hr></blockquote>
Video iPod
[quote]<strong>
- Apple has already begun assembly and stockpiling of the new 10, 20, and 40GB iPods... without FireWire 800. Editorial addition: [ ! ! !
Video iPod
[quote]<strong>
- A major Foxconn plastic moulding supplier has begun shipping a "new white plastic housing" to Foxconn that includes "a row of multiple ports that are hidden behind a door." The same supplier moulds the hemispherical bases for the LCD iMac.</strong><hr></blockquote>
um, iMac 2?
[quote]<strong>
- Two unrelated (competitive) supplier of small TFT-LCD's have received requests from Elitegroup (another key Taiwanese Apple assembly partner) for "small widescreen panels" that are said to be "among the smallest full resolution panels ever produced." Both suppliers specialize in 4 to 7-inch multimedia panels for auto and portable use.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Video iPod
[quote]<strong>
- In January, Apple "finalized a design" for a FireWire 800 PCI card that included optical fiber connections supporting S3200 (3.2Gb/s) interconnects.</strong><hr></blockquote>
er, Xraid extreme
Screed
[ 02-17-2003: Message edited by: sCreeD ]</p>
plus the 800 port is bigger.
G-News
The FW800 bridge thing might be something connected to DV cameras. record to disk instead of tape or something like that.
...and as for the widescreens...ibook updates?
iBook, vPod-esque/tablet and maybe a thin CD driveless Powerbook duo?
I'm expecting more laptops from Apple. And not just iBooks.
Lemon Bon Bon
Could an iPod accomodate both varieties of the firewire port to allow transition to the 800 variant by consumers? If possible it would be a good idea~
[quote] Host connectivity using 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI Card (sold separately) or compatible third-party PCI card <hr></blockquote>
[quote]- In January, Apple "finalized a design" for a FireWire 800 PCI card that included optical fiber connections supporting S3200 (3.2Gb/s) interconnects. <hr></blockquote>
Could these be related? Perhaps it'll be packaged with future, higher bandwidth Xserve RAIDs as a way to sell them to people with existing Xserves, G4 towers, or maybe even non-apple servers. Who knows?
Just a thought.
Hasn't Apple done away with port concealing doors? IIRC the only current Mac with such a door is the "old" (heh) TiBook, which is due for revision soon. More likely to be an iMac knock off?
<strong>
Hasn't Apple done away with port concealing doors? IIRC the only current Mac with such a door is the "old" (heh) TiBook, which is due for revision soon. More likely to be an iMac knock off?
Unless, of course, the door conceals front mounted ports, which are unsightly...