[Zoom]

Originally posted by Matsu:
<STRONG>Kormac was is and will forever be completely full of shiit. Even the Good, better, best iMac that he predicted way back when, were in his prediction supposed to have LCD panels. HAHHAHHAHA, he's just a hack rumor monger who got lucky once and was promoted to demi-god by a rumor starved audience. Dorsal on the other hand was extremely accurate about the quick silver G4s.</STRONG>

Yeah, Kormac's record wasn't too good. And he was deified, that's for sure - and demonized at the same time. Funny how that works. Still, the guy had some interesting ideas. For me, that was enough. And again, just because his predictions never appeared doesn't mean he was lying. I'm sure that 80-90% of the prototypes never see the light of day, and maybe he was seeing one-offs and jumping the gun. Or the guy lied through his teeth for fun.

So, did he ever show up here? Or did Dorsal? Dorsal definitely had some interesting posts, and I'd love to see him come over to MacNN now that AI is in limbo ("Resuming publication, soon... Stay Tuned").

[SMacSteve]

The interesting thing here is that the info isn't exactly new stuff as almost everyone including this web sight has repored the same info on the release date and the upgrades. Almost to the letter. And every one also reports that on 16th the upgrade will be quietly released by Apple. So what's the big deal? So Mac Mall released the latest issue a little early. You guy's are acting as if they've let the cat out of the bag on the next Mac World. This isn't stealing any body's thunder folks! It's just a measley update! The real revison, as we've been hearing, will be after Jan. 1. so let's give Fisher King a break and give him the benefit of the doubt. I am!

[fisherKing]

here's my proposal:
if it is found out i have faked this, i willnever post at macnn again.
but if the catalog is real, everyone who doubted or attacked me here apologizes at this thread!

either way, the truth will show itself.

and if anyone's screwed up, it will be macmall.

peace!

Haven't you guys ever heard of publication lead times?

Cnet reports an announcement tomorrow, and people get MacMall catalogs today. Considering MacMall surely sent their catalog to press days ago, what Fisher is showing/saying is not only feasible, it's probable. How? MacMall told Apple MOST customers would not get their catalogs until tomorrow, or even later, after any official announcement as per rumored by Cnet. Dig?

On top of all that, the prices/specs given on that scan are completely in line with common sense. No huge speed bumps, no SuperDrive stupidity some people have gone on about.

You guys are nuts, and have too much time on your hands.

Originally posted by fisherKing:
<STRONG>jeez!
i scanned the cover, took a desktop pic of the key area, saved that as a jpeg in photoshop.
i DO NOT have the skills to fake a cover like that.
call macmall! (that's what the cover says to do)

i HAVE NO REASON to make this up.
i post here regularly & am not into scams.

WILL SOMEONE ELSE BACK ME UP ON THIS???

anyway, i am saving for a new iBook!</STRONG>

Im a graphics professional and i believe you didnt manipulate the cover. At least i can't see anything weird on it. And after all, Hey people stop picking on this guy, he just wanted to do favour !!

cool info fisher.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by SMacSteve:
<STRONG>The interesting thing here is that the info isn't exactly new stuff as almost everyone including this web sight has repored the same info on the release date and the upgrades. Almost to the letter. And every one also reports that on 16th the upgrade will be quietly released by Apple. So what's the big deal? </STRONG>

The big deal is that rumor sites are rumor sites, but for MacMall to do this means that they know - or at least think they do. And Steve is notorious for being pissed off when someone announces anything before he/Apple does. I'm sure he hates rumor sites, too, but they're too often wrong - or off a bit. I would find it very easy to believe that Steve actually leaks wrong info on purpose just to keep the rumor mill shaky.

Anyway, look at what happened when ATI leaked info on the new iMacs. Yeah, this was an Expo, but this is a perfect example of what I'm talking about.

Want another example? Check out the
"worker bee" incident.

Steve hates this stuff, and MacMall is going to pay a price for this.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by &lt;MacNiac&gt;:
<STRONG>Hey people stop picking on this guy, he just wanted to do favour !!
</STRONG>

Right on.

OMG!!!! I JUST LOOKED IN THE MAIL!!! IT'S TRUE!!! OMG!!! This is awesome! I will be calling them first thing in the morning....this is fantastic! WOW!

[Bodhi]

hmmmm....let's have some fun here.

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts that support FisherKing are by "unregistered users"? Further, most of these posts are immediately after FisherKing posts?!?

[fisherKing]

for what it's worth,
if i knew i was gonna get so much stress, i STILL would have posted this info because i was excited 7 wanted to share it with the macnn community.
i come here regularly, to learn, to help where i can (i do occasional mac troubleshooting), and to just vibe with other macusers.

the most fun is knowing that within a day or two everyone will know all this stuff.

powerbooks rule!!

[JayTi]

There, ya happy?

[Paul Huang]

Perhaps the new processor is using 133 MHz (667) and the 550 is using 100 MHz bus.

[Mr_Solar_Wind]

Originally posted by &lt;Dr. Triffid&gt;:
<STRONG>Came in here on a link, so please pardon the intrusion.

I'm gonna have to call "BULL!" on this one.

If they were the brand new PowerBooks, I doubt Apple would let them sell them at the reduction prices. They should be $2,495 and $3,495 -- the standard prices for new PowerBooks before channel-clearing.</STRONG>

Who's to say the reduced price wasn't for the OLDER model TiBook they're trying to get rid of? I mean, the iBooks are advertised at 500 and 600 MHz which contradicts all the info I've seen online, pointing to 600 MHz only. My guess: they're selling off the remaining stock of last year's portables...

[IUJHJSDHE]

Originally posted by Bodhi:
<STRONG>hmmmm....let's have some fun here.

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts that support FisherKing are by "unregistered users"? Further, most of these posts are immediately after FisherKing posts?!?</STRONG>

Yes I had noticed that!

Funny huh!

[fisherKing]

?lriginally posted by Bodhi:
<STRONG>hmmmm....let's have some fun here.

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts that support FisherKing are by "unregistered users"? Further, most of these posts are immediately after FisherKing posts?!?</STRONG>[/QUOTE]

[Mr_Solar_Wind]

Originally posted by Paul Huang:
<STRONG>Perhaps the new processor is using 133 MHz (667) and the 550 is using 100 MHz bus.</STRONG>

Shades of Yikes! and Sawtooth...

[IUJHJSDHE]

Originally posted by fisherKing:
<STRONG>?lriginally posted by Bodhi:
[qb]hmmmm....let's have some fun here.

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts that support FisherKing are by "unregistered users"? Further, most of these posts are immediately after FisherKing posts?!?</STRONG>

[/QB][/QUOTE]

Hey I am not pointing fingers.
I do not think it is you.

[OldManMac]

Wow: this is a tough one to call. If this were true, then MacMall would have known about the new models several weeks ago. If I remember right, it takes about four to six weeks to get a magazine out on the street after original is designed! I guess we'll all find out soon enough. I know that the largest distributor of Apple machines, other than Apple itself, has no current model PowerBooks, and almost no iBooks in stock. We'll be glued to the web tomorrow, won't we?

[OldManMac]

Wow: this is a tough one! If this were true, then MacMall would have known about these machines weeks ago. I believe it takes about 4-6 weeks to get a magazine out, from design to production! I may be off a little, but not much. I do know that the largest distributor of Mac products has no PowerBooks in stock, and only a few hundred of the combo iBooks in stock, which can be a sign that something's up! We'll find out soon enough, won't we!

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: KarlG ]

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: KarlG ]

[neutrino23]

Originally posted by KarlG:
<STRONG>Wow: this is a tough one! If this were true, then MacMall would have known about these machines weeks ago. I believe it takes about 4-6 weeks to get a magazine out, from design to production! I may be off a little, but not much. I do know that the largest distributor of Mac products has no PowerBooks in stock, and only a few hundred of the combo iBooks in stock, which can be a sign that something's up! We'll find out soon enough, won't we!

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: KarlG ]

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: KarlG ]</STRONG>

Perhaps that explains why there is nothing inside about this. It was last minute information so they just ran off a new cover.That doesn't take too long to do.

[SMacSteve]

:
<STRONG>hmmmm....let's have some fun here.

Has anyone noticed that all of the posts that support FisherKing are by "unregistered users"? Further, most of these posts are immediately after FisherKing posts?!?</STRONG>[/QUOTE]

I posted a supportive post and I'm a registered user. Hmmmmm.

[C.J. Moof]

I'm sure they can redesign a cover and get it off to the printers in not much time at all. Our clients expect that all the time!

I just wish I'd checked my snail-mail today... maybe I had one of these waiting for me too. But probably not.

[Zoom]

Originally posted by neutrino23:
<STRONG>

Perhaps that explains why there is nothing inside about this. It was last minute information so they just ran off a new cover.That doesn't take too long to do.</STRONG>

Exactly. fisherking said that nothing inside was correct, just the cover.

Maybe someone goofed at the print shop and used the wrong cover art? Or someone at MacMall sent them the wrong cover art?

I'm scanning the Mac web sites, and still no other word on this.

[John123]

Look, this is a really simple thing.

Fisher, if you REALLY got the catalog, then it would behoove you to stop WASTING TIME replying to everyone's posts of "you're a liar" and take the time to scan and upload a 300 dpi, full-size, full-color version of the cover. And a page on the inside to boot.

That's fairly easy -- should take you 15 minutes to scan and upload, even if you are on a 56 modem.

Everyone agree? If it's photoshop doctored, then it will be readily apparent at that resolution.

[JayTi]

He doesn't need to prove it, I and two of my other mac-head friends all got the catalogs, and there as real as magazine paper can be. I don't have a scanner, but my buddy ben does, so I'll ask him to scan his copy...but it's true, these things are real...and I called MacMall, and they didn't have anything in their database...Very nice

[monkeyspeak]

Originally posted by monkeyspeak:
<STRONG>

Like I said in my earlier &lt;I doubt it.&gt; post, I could be wrong, but I don't think so.</STRONG>

I said that I'd apologize if my assertion that fisherKing was faking was wrong, and it looks like I may need to do so.

I just went to the MacMall website and did a product search on the item numbers that are listed on fisherKing's scan. The item numbers match MacMall's item number patterns, but no result is returned with the item numbers on the scan. This seems consistent with the theory that the catalog is referring to item numbers that aren't active yet in MacMall's system.

So, here goes:

Please accept my apologies, fisherKing. With all the evidence that is available at this time, I no longer believe that you are faking this catalog cover.

Now the question is simplified. Is the information that MacMall printed on their cover correct? I have a hard time believing the specifications, but at the same time, I have a hard time believing that they would print their cover without being absolutely certain of the system specs.

Oh well. All should become clear tomorrow. Until then, a very apologetic Mojo the Monkey trundles off to bed.

[ 10-15-2001: Message edited by: monkeyspeak ]

[Zoom]

Originally posted by John123:
<STRONG>Look, this is a really simple thing.

Fisher, if you REALLY got the catalog, then it would behoove you to stop WASTING TIME replying to everyone's posts of "you're a liar" and take the time to scan and upload a 300 dpi, full-size, full-color version of the cover. And a page on the inside to boot.</STRONG>

Are you nuts?? An 8x10 300dpi RGB image is about 20M! I'm sure a JPEG is smaller, but even if it's 5M, that's a lot. Hell, I don't have that much extra web space. I've filled up both my ISP and iDisk accounts as it is.

How about this for a test - someone ELSE who got the same catalog, do a similar scan and post it. Then we can compare. If they look the same, I'd say we can all apologize to fisherking tonight!

[Zoom]

Originally posted by JayTi:
<STRONG>I don't have a scanner, but my buddy ben does, so I'll ask him to scan his copy...</STRONG>

Yes, please do. Not for me, but for fisherking. The sooner the better.

I'm betting that product ID search might hit something come midnight EST. Or maybe Apple will wait till morning to release the news and cut the leashes.

[SMacSteve]

OK, now this is interesting. There's a post at Mac World Forms that has the exact same scan, but a different topic starter. Does this validate Fisher King or refute him? I'm not taking any sides though, just wondering.

Damn this sucks in a way...

I really only wanted to get the $2100 Powerbook... But if they are pulling a 'sawtooth' (2 motherboards) esp. if the 'low' one is @ 100 mhz vs. 133 I'll *have* to go to the 2900+ one... I am using it for pro audio, so bus speed matters a lot to me with dsp intensive stuff..

Interesting though, as it says on the cover of the catalog, the MacMall price for the *667* is the 'fast' configuration, So I wonder what will sit at the $3,497.00 price point. Guess just a bigger HD...

I don't know, should I just wait for them to do what they eventually did with Sawtooth and wait till the base ($2100) version gets the 133 mobo... hmmmm. We'll see tomorrow...

[John123]

Originally posted by Zoom:
<STRONG>

Are you nuts?? An 8x10 300dpi RGB image is about 20M! I'm sure a JPEG is smaller, but even if it's 5M, that's a lot. Hell, I don't have that much extra web space. I've filled up both my ISP and iDisk accounts as it is.

How about this for a test - someone ELSE who got the same catalog, do a similar scan and post it. Then we can compare. If they look the same, I'd say we can all apologize to fisherking tonight!</STRONG>

Perhaps you don't know very much about how to manipulate and use images.
If you scan it in at 300 dpi (full size), open it in Photoshop, and save it as a JPEG at the lowest quality, it will come in at less than 300k. I just did it with an old MacConnection catalog cover myself, and it was just over 200k. And it's *more* than clear enough to settle this, even when saved at low quality jpeg.

Anyway, a quick perusal at MacMall's website, which still has no mention of the laptops, and a little common sense (i.e., that there would be no free giveaways with a brand new product) suggests that Fisher's "cover" has been blown, so to speak. There very well may *be* PowerBooks by those specs tomorrow...but that catalog cover is most likely bogus.

I reiterate my challenge: a 300 dpi scan, please...

[monkeyspeak]

Those darn opposable toes again...

[ 10-16-2001: Message edited by: monkeyspeak ]

[Zoom]

Originally posted by John123:
<STRONG>

Perhaps you don't know very much about how to manipulate and use images.
If you scan it in at 300 dpi (full size), open it in Photoshop, and save it as a JPEG at the lowest quality, it will come in at less than 300k. I just did it with an old MacConnection catalog cover myself, and it was just over 200k. And it's *more* than clear enough to settle this, even when saved at low quality jpeg.
</STRONG>

I'll have to take your word for this, but PS tells me the uncompressed version is 20M. I find it hard to believe you can get a decent image by compressing that to 200k, but I'm too tired to check it myself.

Still, I don't think this will solve the problem. If he's as good as everyone seems to think he is, could we really tell at such low quality?

Whatever. I hope he's right and I'm sick of arguing about it.

[applenut1]

posted 10-15-2001 09:07 PM ��� �� ��
------------------------------------------------------------------------
I fear that fisherKing is mistaken, or playing a prank on us all. Either that, or MacMall has bad information.

1) Apple has rarely, if ever, released information to resellers ahead of new product releases. It's just out of character for Apple to have allowed this information to get out through a reseller. I remember when the Quicksilvers were released- most catalogs finessed the issue for a few weeks after MWNY by hyping "Call us for the newest Macs!"

believe it or not they do it very often. remember the 366 Mhz PowerMac G3 (beige). If you do then you read one of the ads froma mac reseller because everyone had advance notice of its release and then Apple killed it at the last minute.

If they were the brand new PowerBooks, I doubt Apple would let them sell them at the reduction prices. They should be $2,495 and $3,495 -- the standard prices for new PowerBooks before channel-clearing.

uh, the current prices on the Powerbooks are not "reduction prices". read the press release. they are new more competitve pricing for the line. Apple needs to increase sales. Charging more in an economic slump does not do that. Besides, a Powerbook with the specs that the new one is expected to have is not worth 3499.

You people are all assholes.

Originally posted by &lt;I Hope.&gt;:
<STRONG>If you have the catalog, does it tell you what Graphics Card is in there? I'm not buying a Tibook until it has ATI Radeon or GeForce 2 Go!</STRONG>

don't get your hopes up for the mobile radeon part. it's a Radeon, but w/o the T+L acceleration - read: "no good 3D performance". the GeForce 2 Go, on the other hand, is a little GeForce, just like the name promises.
... but we will not see it in TiBooks for a while

for now, i just give up 3D games on the mac (desktop machines i don't buy) - less frustration that way. i cannot bear my shiny new TiBook getting it's behind kicked by an old PII/266 with a GeForce card. that would be too much so i just pretend it never happened

nik

I just called macmall and the sales rep said that he had no details on that and that there were rumors circulating and that I should call back tommorow.

Stop picking on the guy!
Everyone who's lightly familiar with printing companies know test sheets or covers (ran to test the quality of the plates)can be misplaced sometimes. Due to the amount of mail MacMall produces, it is possible that one of the new catalogs might have leaked.
My company used to print Playmates for South American Playboy issues when they were overloaded with work. Weeks before the official magazine release, the company's employees had wallpapered the restroom with playmates.
You guys are just too tense. Get yourself a martini and wait 'til tomorrow.

[Mr_Solar_Wind]

Originally posted by &lt;phrenzy&gt;:
<STRONG>Damn this sucks in a way...

I really only wanted to get the $2100 Powerbook... But if they are pulling a 'sawtooth' (2 motherboards) esp. if the 'low' one is @ 100 mhz vs. 133 I'll *have* to go to the 2900+ one... I am using it for pro audio, so bus speed matters a lot to me with dsp intensive stuff..

Interesting though, as it says on the cover of the catalog, the MacMall price for the *667* is the 'fast' configuration, So I wonder what will sit at the $3,497.00 price point. Guess just a bigger HD...

I don't know, should I just wait for them to do what they eventually did with Sawtooth and wait till the base ($2100) version gets the 133 mobo... hmmmm. We'll see tomorrow...</STRONG>

Just guessing here, but the $2100 version might be an older 400/500 MHz TiBook-- I remember in the past when MacMall has gotten a new shipment of hardware and the quoted lowest price was actually the discounted and discontinued model-- after all, they're both "Powerbook G4"

Solar

This may very well be true. Rumor had it that these new PowerBooks were going to be minor revisions while more major revisions are due at either Macworld Expo SF or Macworld Tokyo. I'll bet you this is just to hold us over until then. The fact that Apple is keeping it very low key reinforces the fact that these will not be very significant and not worthy of much publicity. The lack of a combo drive is the key here. Very unimpressive.

[Zoom]

'Night, all. I'll see you tomorrow morning. Maybe we'll have answers by then. :o

Damn you guys are so lame... do some investigating
the scan shows the Catalog numbers, if you try the you get http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963911
and http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963908

these are the real thing

I can t believe I am the first one wh thought about this...Steve is going to be really pissed off because of that one

[flyhigher]

It is now Tuesday, Oct. 14th on the east coast.
http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963907

Hi everybody. This is kind of a feirce thread, but I'll just go outright and say that I believe fisher for two reasons. 1) I zoomed in on the scan of the cover and I couldn't find anything wrong with it. And 2) Go2mac.com reported that they had received the same catalogue. They even mentioned this thread. Go2mac isn't the best site for accurate rumors (but better than most), but the writers themselves probably wouldn't lie about recieving the catalogue.

[King Chung Huang]

Good job, Fox-one!

Here's all the links.

Titanium PowerBook G4/667
Titanium PowerBook G4/550
iBook 600 w/ Combo Drive
iBook 600 w/ DVD-ROM Drive
iBook 600 w/ CD-ROM Drive

[Brit Ben]

Originally posted by &lt;Fox-one&gt;:
<STRONG>Damn you guys are so lame... do some investigating
the scan shows the Catalog numbers, if you try the you get http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963911
and http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963908

these are the real thing

I can t believe I am the first one wh thought about this...Steve is going to be really pissed off because of that one</STRONG>

Whilst it appears to be true, Apple better be pulling an all nighter to update all their info, the description below the 667MHz G4 Laptop says :

"At the core of this new system is the PowerPC G4 processor with Velocity Engine. With speeds of up to 500MHz,.."

and

"The PowerBook G4 features built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet for quick access to a corporate network, DSL modem or cable modem. "

Interesting.

My guess would be the new 133MHz bus. So, the $64,000 question. Having just ordered the IBM Travelstar 48Gig drive, do I trade in my PBG4 500 and get the 667, or wait for the major revision next year ?!?!?

DOH !

Ben.

[flyhigher]

Originally posted by flyhigher:
<STRONG>It is now Tuesday, Oct. 14th on the east coast.
http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963907</STRONG>

oops I meant 16th.

[Nebrie]

Well, go2mac claims to have recieved their copy of the catalog and have confirmed the information in this thread.

[ewdavi0]

here is the url for the 667 http://www.cc-inc.com/macmall/shop/d...sp?dpno=963908

don't get your hopes up for the mobile radeon part. it's a Radeon, but w/o the T+L acceleration - read: "no good 3D performance". the GeForce 2 Go, on the other hand, is a little GeForce, just like the name promises.

The rumor mill has it that it is not the Radeon Mobility but the Radeon 7500 Mobility...which would make more sense. With Apple's close relationship with ATI, they surely had inside info in the production of the 7500 Mobility set. This chipset has the full T & L engine that the desktop 7500 has. This is the fastest mobility chipset out there. It would not make sense that Apple would use the 8+ month old Radeon Mobility set in their brand new PowerBook. Check out these articles for more 7500 info:
Mac Central 7500 Mobility Article
7500 Mobility at 3DRage

As for the disparity of the MacMall cover info, what has been circulating on the web and the bus speed to processor speed ratio here is my theory...

1. MacMall is trying to hedge thier bets and use some "insider info" combined with the rumor mill to be the "first on the block" to have the new Books...or at least the first with them in their catalog.

2. Apple gave them (and other "high profile" retailers) some lead time to get catalogs printed...and MacMall got it wrong and released it a day early.

3. They were just plain guessing.

Catalogs have never been a reliable source or release information...I seem to remember a catlog that was offering Half-life for the Mac. We all know what happened to that.