[Eriamjh]

I am NOT expecting a big new product for the 20th anniversary. I am expecting a silent speed bump.

Tuesday is tomorrow. We have a few hours left.

[driven]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
I am NOT expecting a big new product for the 20th anniversary. I am expecting a silent speed bump.

Tuesday is tomorrow. We have a few hours left.

What makes tomorrow special?

I doubt we will see anything until the summer. (The "promised" 3Ghz upgrade.) I doubt anything will happen until then.

[OsakaBill]

What if Apple made a 20th Anniversay Mac that has the same form factor as the original Mac, but used modern parts?

�Apple could take the 12.1 in LCD from the iBook/PowerBook line and use that the reference point for size (so yes, this would be much bigger than the original Mac).

�The guts of this "Anniversary Mac" would also come from the iBook/PowerBook line (with the possible exception of a desktop size hard drive). If Apple really wanted to go high-end, they could put 1.6 GHz G5 chips inside.

�The case would be clear and white like the original iPod.

Depending on what CPU was used, these would be priced along the lines of LCD iMacs with a G4 based version around the 15in iMac's price point and a G5 based version around the 17in price point.

[The Ancient One]

Originally posted by driven:
What makes tomorrow special?

Apple announced speedbumps in late January the last two years. Last year's announcement was on Tuesday the 28th.

[ae86_16v]

Originally posted by The Ancient One:
Apple announced speedbumps in late January the last two years. Last year's announcement was on Tuesday the 28th.

But I remember Apple releasing updates that weren't on Tuesday that was outside of Expos.

If I remember correctly (don't quote me on this) the XServes were updated on a Monday.

[djohnson]

From what I can find out, most distributors have pretty low stock on the G5's and PowerBook's. I will be optimistic and say that we should see an update soon. Tomorrow will work because it is far enough from MacWorld and yet the press still remembers the xServer G5's. I hope we see something good tomorrow.

[The Ancient One]

Originally posted by ae86_16v:
But I remember Apple releasing updates that weren't on Tuesday that was outside of Expos.

If I remember correctly (don't quote me on this) the XServes were updated on a Monday.

I was just explaining why some people think tomorrow is special. I'm not convinced, but I do expect something within the next few weeks (not 3GHz), because Apple seems to try to space out its upgrades evenly, both as to time and to processor speed and the 3GHz announcement WILL come by WWDC. After last year's promise, Steve would lose too much face if he doesn't deliver (the announcement, that is, not the machines - I'm not even going to try to guess when they will actually ship).

[donaldrj]

I just can't believe that there is nothing on apple's site to acknowledge the Macintosh's 20th anniversary. If they waited until march to announce new upgraded G5 line I could understand, but to not even have a happy birthday mac image on their main page is disconcerting.

[Paul UK]

Silence is golden !!!

[ekbart]

I find the forum postings about the new G5 models amusing. Please understand that once a chip is working in the lab, and test versions come out and pass validation, the fabricator calls it "done", and then they go out an get orders, and schedule production. There are months of delay from that time until the chips are available in volume. Certainly Apple doesn't want to announce a product and be caught short on CPU chips. So they won't be releasing a new model for months. Also, if they have an unsold backlog of older machines they will wait for them to go through the channel.

And the idea that IBM can just match Intel's speed because they want to is wishful thinking. Intel is way ahead of everybody, and you can't beat their Celeron chip - only about $70 for a 2.4 Ghz part. Thank goodness IBM was there to pick up the slack when Motorola pooped out - we mac users are lucky about that. Motorola couldn't get their chips past 50 Mhz. Remember when that was fast?

[Eug]

Originally posted by ekbart:
I find the forum postings about the new G5 models amusing. Please understand that once a chip is working in the lab, and test versions come out and pass validation, the fabricator calls it "done", and then they go out an get orders, and schedule production. There are months of delay from that time until the chips are available in volume. Certainly Apple doesn't want to announce a product and be caught short on CPU chips. So they won't be releasing a new model for months. Also, if they have an unsold backlog of older machines they will wait for them to go through the channel.

And the idea that IBM can just match Intel's speed because they want to is wishful thinking. Intel is way ahead of everybody, and you can't beat their Celeron chip - only about $70 for a 2.4 Ghz part. Thank goodness IBM was there to pick up the slack when Motorola pooped out - we mac users are lucky about that. Motorola couldn't get their chips past 50 Mhz. Remember when that was fast?

Welcome to MacNN.

It's not as if IBM has been twiddling its collective thumbs on the G5 until December 2003. These things sampled months ago. Indeed, the announcement of the 90 nm G5 Xserve is testament to that. 90 nm chips, the basis for Power Mac updates and the substrate for new G5 products, are already here and likely at least in moderate volume. I'll just say that I'm confident something will come sooner rather than later, and you'll be surprised.

Originally posted by donaldrj:
I just can't believe that there is nothing on apple's site to acknowledge the Macintosh's 20th anniversary. If they waited until march to announce new upgraded G5 line I could understand, but to not even have a happy birthday mac image on their main page is disconcerting.

This is more speculation of course, but I think silence IS golden, as Pauk UK says. If the updates were to come several months from now then I'd expect Apple to put up a birthday page now. But if something were to come say, tomorrow, then I'd expect Apple to keep mum on the birthday.

[3.1416]

I'll just say that I'm confident something will come sooner rather than later, and you'll be surprised.

It would be interesting to have something like the Iowa electronic markets for Mac rumors. Right now I'd pay about 60 cents for a $1 "G5 speed bump tomorrow" option.

[Truepop]

what the? small dog went from having a lot of the G5s say Jan 26 and 22 left of the single 1.8 to most all saying 7-10days and only 6 left of the single 1.8

http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x...+Macintosh/g5/

[Commodus]

Truepop:

A lot of the models are "available" normally anyways, since they're BTO models that would need to be shipped in. However, in such a short space of time they appear to have cleared out a significant amount of their stock.

[Evan_11]

The Powermac line is due for a revision. Probably single 2.0, and two other dual offerings probably no higher than 2.4
I'd like to see an updated enclosure that would allow for another optical drive and two more HDs. Wishful thinking.

The 20th Anniveray Mac could be as simple as putting a G5 in the 20" iMac.

2.0 G5
20" screen

Change the all white shell to a Titanium one.

That would be tantalizing.

[slider]

Originally posted by Evan_11:
The Powermac line is due for a revision. Probably single 2.0, and two other dual offerings probably no higher than 2.4
I'd like to see an updated enclosure that would allow for another optical drive and two more HDs. Wishful thinking.

The 20th Anniveray Mac could be as simple as putting a G5 in the 20" iMac.

2.0 G5
20" screen

Change the all white shell to a Titanium one.

That would be tantalizing.

A lot of people are predicting that the 20 anniversary Mac will be an iMac with a G5. Doesn't this really need to be the next iMac anyways? How is a iMac that is going to be release, if not soon then, within 6 months anyways any thing "special". Unless it's something completely off the wallI think it's just going to be some limited run designs of current machines, line color schemes or a giant fin sticking out the back. Of course that seems a little cheese and unApple like. I would love to be surprised, but I am not expecting it. I just want updated hardware.

[starman]

Well, it's Tuesday.

*chirp*

Mike

[TC]

Originally posted by slider:
A lot of people are predicting that the 20 anniversary Mac will be an iMac with a G5. Doesn't this really need to be the next iMac anyways?

Problem for Apple is that they can't put the G5 into a consumer mac like the iMac and continue to use the G4 in their business portable, the powerbook.
They could get around this by releasing an anniversary mac which would be a high end consumer product.
They could either go for a completely new enclosure or a play on an old one such as an aluminium iMac or something based on the cube enclosure.

[Ambassadeur]

Originally posted by starman:
Well, it's Tuesday.

*chirp*

Mike

The clock is ticking and we are waiting...

[Fozz_uk]

Every other site I've seen suggests that Apple release new stuff between 7am-9am PST, which is...........still waiting.......now!

[jafo9]

what the name of the site that keeps a running track of the date of introduction and guestimates the arrival of new products and make buying recommendations. anyone?

[Simon]

Originally posted by jafo9:
what the name of the site that keeps a running track of the date of introduction and guestimates the arrival of new products and make buying recommendations. anyone?

Maybe this one?
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

[jafo9]

Originally posted by Simon:
Maybe this one?
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

thanks, thats it.

[driven]

Originally posted by Simon:
Maybe this one?
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

Cool site. Thanks for sharing.

That said: I still go back to my stance that we won't see new G5s until the summer. (Even though this speculation is fun in it's own "I'm waiting for Santa" type way.)

Fortunately I don't *NEED* one right now so I'll wait regardless. :-)

[ae86_16v]

Well nothing happened. . . .

[djohnson]

The updates will happen when Steve wants them happen Maybe they are waiting for a good supply of 3Ghz chips? That would make for a killer update!

[Hinson]

Okay, here's my fear...

I'm REALLY hoping to see an update real-soon-now, at which point I'll be buying top of the line, lots of extras, etc. to finally upgrade my frail ol' beige G3.

But...

During the latter days... um scratch that� latter years of the G4--you remember, when it took FOREVER to see any kind of update, and then it was usually rather small--well back then we kind of got used to the idea of Macs sitting around at the same speed until the cows came home. I'm afraid Apple may be playing on that mentality. If we're gonna buy Macs anyway and we're used to not getting timely updates, then why give us timely updates?

Of course, that would really be an annoying thing for Apple to do, but <.Mac>its not like we've never seen anything like that before</.Mac>. After all, wouldn�t a jump from 2GHz to 3GHz some time around summer (a bit before promised by Steve) be really cool to announce and demo?

Seriously, I hope we all agree that if you have a chip that�s actually being updated regularly, you better be updating your boxes regularly too. Keep the customers happy rather than waiting impatiently. I�m really getting tired of holding my breath for the update, but I�m a true-blue Mac�er, and so I guess I�ll just keep waiting with credit card in hand�


-Jay

[Evan_11]

I think we'll see the updates early february. It makes sense to introduce models after the big iTunes/Pepsi kickoff. They'll hopefully clear out inventory with some 'new' mac buyers who will be ignorant to the upgrades around the corner.

[neilw]

Originally posted by TC:
Problem for Apple is that they can't put the G5 into a consumer mac like the iMac and continue to use the G4 in their business portable, the powerbook.

Why do so many people say this? A laptop is different from a desktop. If someone needs a laptop, they're not going to suddenly buy an iMac instead.

Furthermore, the design constraints of a laptop are different from those of a desktop. That's just a fact of life. The iMac needs to be kept as state-of-the-art as possible (within its cost targets, of course). It's not like they're cheap or anything.

I do, on the other hand, understand that they are careful about having the iMac compete with the PowerMac, and the iBook with the PowerBook. But how stupid would it be for them to sit on a G5 iMac design until the PowerBook G5 was ready? Very.

Back on topic, I'd hope to see the PowerMac speed bumps soon, and that should open the door for single-processor G5 iMacs slotted below the PowerMac speeds. My guess is that they're waiting until the new units are ready to ship immediately; the lead time on the new Xserves suggests that the supply of 970FXs might not be quite there yet.

[Espen Isaksen]

Originally posted by Hinson:
Okay, here's my fear...


Of course, that would really be an annoying thing for Apple to do, but <.Mac>its not like we've never seen anything like that before</.Mac>. After all, wouldn�t a jump from 2GHz to 3GHz some time around summer (a bit before promised by Steve) be really cool to announce and demo?

-Jay

Starting to think the same thing.

[TC]

Originally posted by neilw:
Why do so many people say this? A laptop is different from a desktop. If someone needs a laptop, they're not going to suddenly buy an iMac instead.

If someone is in the market for a business laptop and sees that apple's consumer desktop has a better processor they won't buy either of them. The iMac is no good to them as they need a laptop and they will feel the laptop is underpowered as it uses an older processor than the consumer desktop. Right now it uses the same processor as the consumer laptop as well.

[Sealobo]

Why this thread is still here while the new Powermac isn't?

[Truepop]

In the past few weeks small dog has gone from around 50 or so Power Macs to 20 and now 7.

I'm hoping this means something positive.

http://www.smalldog.com/category/x/x...+Macintosh/g5/

[dantley]

If Apple releases another "Extreme" product I will puke. The marketing people responsible for that name should be given pink slips.

[driven]

Originally posted by TC:
If someone is in the market for a business laptop and sees that apple's consumer desktop has a better processor they won't buy either of them. The iMac is no good to them as they need a laptop and they will feel the laptop is underpowered as it uses an older processor than the consumer desktop. Right now it uses the same processor as the consumer laptop as well.

I don't think the one product has anythingto do with the other.

[aehaas]

I just looked at the basic X server and it has a delivery date of 6 to 8 weeks. I doubt that the new desktops will come before then, maybe around April.

If they cannot get a dual 2 gig server out until then I would guess anything faster will take even longer.

I would guess there is some production issue with this 90nm chip.

aehaas

[djohnson]

Well... Why couldnt they just wait until WWDC? Then Steve could announce that they were releasing the dual 3Ghz G5, available in 6-8 weeks... That would bring them in before the end of summer.

[Commodus]

Originally posted by aehaas:
I just looked at the basic X server and it has a delivery date of 6 to 8 weeks. I doubt that the new desktops will come before then, maybe around April.

If they cannot get a dual 2 gig server out until then I would guess anything faster will take even longer.

I would guess there is some production issue with this 90nm chip.

aehaas

It could be due to one of the Xserve G5's first customers: Virginia Tech. If they're ordering 1100 systems, that kind of cuts into the shipping times for an already low-volume product.

[blackwind]

One possible reason for no Power Mac update would possibly be a result of its architecture. It is not certain that the PowerPC 970 supports half-integer bus multipliers, and this would result in less frequent updates.

Apple could:

1) release a Dual 2.4-GHz Power Mac G5 on a dual 800-MHz FSB (slower than the current Dual 2-GHz G5's bus),

2) release a Dual 2.2-GHz Power Mac G5 on a dual 1.1-GHz FSB (which is apparently the fastest bus IBM has made as of now), or

3) wait until summer to release a Dual 3-GHz Power Mac G5 on the same dual 1-GHz FSB.

It is possible that Apple is just going to sit on what it has so far and build up for a Dual 3-GHz G5 (assuming that the 3-GHz G5 mentioned last year will be a dual-processor model). Demand on the Dual 2-GHz G5 was huge, and Apple probably does not want another shipping fiasco.

Dropping the FSB speed would be seen as a downgrade, and a 200-MHz speed bump may not be worth it.

[djohnson]

What if they were building up the demand AND building up their supplies? Think if they had a huge inventory of dual 3Ghz G5's just waiting so they could announce AND ship on the same day?

Another thing is IBM. What if they have made huge advances that noone is aware of? Not like IBM would annouce it or anything It would be awesome to have a machine that both beat Intel at the Mhz game and beat the living crap out of it at the same time! At least we know 3Ghz machines are coming eventually...

[Eug Wanker]

Well, it's now Tues., 2004/02/03...

[Demonhood]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Well, it's now Tues., 2004/02/03...

not in Cupertino it ain't

[slider]

Originally posted by Eug Wanker:
Well, it's now Tues., 2004/02/03...

So sad, I was thinking the samething. I think as a new company policy Apple will not longer be offering updates

[Eriamjh]

One theory was that 10.3.3 would come with new hardware, or actually vice-versa... of course, it was from the oh-so-reliable Macosrumors.com site.

A good theory at least. We'll see if it pans out.

[Link]

By now the store would have been down if there was an update. I might be wrong, but at the latest they go down at 6:45...

[Dr Reducto]

Originally posted by djohnson:
What if they were building up the demand AND building up their supplies? Think if they had a huge inventory of dual 3Ghz G5's just waiting so they could announce AND ship on the same day?

Another thing is IBM. What if they have made huge advances that noone is aware of? Not like IBM would annouce it or anything It would be awesome to have a machine that both beat Intel at the Mhz game and beat the living crap out of it at the same time! At least we know 3Ghz machines are coming eventually...

If Apple can get 3gHz Machines out right now, they would mop up. Intel seems to be stuck at 3.4 gHz, even with the recently announced Prescott, which currently tops out at 3.2, with the P4EE coming in at 3.4gHz. If Apple plays catchup right, they can recover from the damage Motorola did.

[djohnson]

Originally posted by Dr Reducto:
If Apple can get 3gHz Machines out right now, they would mop up. Intel seems to be stuck at 3.4 gHz, even with the recently announced Prescott, which currently tops out at 3.2, with the P4EE coming in at 3.4gHz. If Apple plays catchup right, they can recover from the damage Motorola did.

Yeah yeah I know... Here is what Steve does every Tuesday. He takes out a dollar coin and flips it. Heads he release new computers, tails he doesn't. So far we are getting all tails!!!

Seriously though, Apple will pass Intel shortly. Just wait and see. Remember when Macs were fast Mhz vs Mhz with Intel? Well, lets switch it around and gets Macs faster then Intel!!!

[Eug]

Originally posted by djohnson:
Seriously though, Apple will pass Intel shortly. Just wait and see. Remember when Macs were fast Mhz vs Mhz with Intel? Well, lets switch it around and gets Macs faster then Intel!!!

Originally posted by Dr Reducto:
If Apple can get 3gHz Machines out right now, they would mop up. Intel seems to be stuck at 3.4 gHz, even with the recently announced Prescott, which currently tops out at 3.2, with the P4EE coming in at 3.4gHz. If Apple plays catchup right, they can recover from the damage Motorola did.

Hmmm... It seems that everyone is taking a double dose of their Hyper-Optimism� pills today.

Nah. 2.4 GHz in the very near term or slightly higher if we're REALLY lucky.

[Link]

Yeah god forbid they actually release the 3ghz g5 in time for WWDC

[djohnson]

Originally posted by Link:
Yeah god forbid they actually release the 3ghz g5 in time for WWDC

LOL