[Zoom]

Whoa. Well, spymac seems pretty cocky about this, doesn't it? Too cocky. I'm not buying it.

At first I checked to see if the domain name was nabbed (iwalk.com), and it was - by someone else. But then I noticed that www.ibook.com was also taken by someone else, so maybe that means nothing.

But I can't believe that Apple would jump back into the PDA arena once again. It's way too crowded and the money-making opportunities just aren't there. Plus, look at this thing - unless the pictures are fake but the story isn't, it's huge! Not exactly portable-looking.

Nah, this has to be a fake.

[Zoom]

The weird thing about all this to me is that the rumor sites have almost NO info on this thing. Usually, in the 1-2 days prior to the announcement, someone gets hold of real info. I'm not seeing anything.

MacNN or someone talked about a webcast of this announcment - has anyone else seen anything about that? I seem to recall that it will be at 10am Cupertino time (1pm EST).

God, I hope it's not a PDA. I mean, in its day, the Newton was way cool. But I can't see Apple getting anywhere today with a PDA.

I'm still hoping for some sort of set-top box thingie, possibly with a portable part, that merges some or all of the following: TV tuner, CD player, DVD player, MP3 jukebox, PVR (hard disk VCR), iTools/iDisk.

But maybe we're all setting out sights too high. Maybe instead on one big device Apple will come out with a suite of devices, and this is just the first. I'm hoping that it will make this whole "Digital Hub" thing clearer. And more than anything I hope the device isn't an obvious flop. This could easily be a classic case where the hype was so big that it torpedoed the actual product.

That's the worst fake I have ever seen in my entire life!

[Zoom]

I didn't see anyone mention this article yet in Wired magazine, but maybe that's because it doesn't say much that's new.

But from what I've seen, the common threads seem to be the following:
- "iPod"
- AirPort
- MP3
- portable

And I've have to agree with Wired that, given this, there's nothing really revolutionary here. Portable MP3 players are all over the place today, and hard disk jukeboxes are coming out, too. The ability to sync up wirelessly isn't that big of a deal, really. If I have to bring it home to sync, then why do I care if I have to plug it in?

[Nebagakid]

I am hoping for something PDA sized, it is possible right? IBM makes those matchbook sized hard drives anyway.
yeah, we are setting our sites too high.

But, it may very well be this kick-ass mother****ing tight peice of shi-at.

Perhaps... a 2 button Apple branded mouse? Now that would be Earth shattering =).

[Zoom]

Okay, MOSR has a post by some guy... I have no idea why he's singled out as a rumor source 'coz the guy is merely speculating. But here's the link.

I post it mainly because the guy had LOTS of the same exact thoughts that I did.

[Zoom]

Where is everyone? I figured the night before the "revolutionary announcement" these boards would be lit up.

[Mac The Fork]

Their parents must have put them to bed.

lol all this crap about some media thing, apple wouldnt hold a special pr meeting just for that, its gonna be something GOOD. If its a internet radio im gonna go buy myself a dell and use it to beat the R+D ppl at apple over the head. - the dog

[no use for a nick]

All of the talk about "Gigawire" seems to have some sort of truth to it. This from the US Patent Office
http://tess.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?...te=tudna5.3.11

Apple has a trademark on the term. Interesting.

nick

I hear the internal codename for this project was coined by the turtleneck clad one Himself...

Like a whisper out of Citizen Kane, it came forth... 'kormac'...!

;^p

Cheers!

P.S. - Maya for MacOSX rocks!

[kelix]

ARE YOU ALL ASLEEP!!! ITS THE G5 COMMING!!!!

[Zoom]

Well, this has to be a first. The morning of the event, and NO ONE has the scoop. Know what that tells me? This one really is going to be huge. Or at least, Steve thinks it will be. This project has managed what no other previous one has done - not the Cube, not the original iMac, not the new iBook.

Let's all hope that this thing really rocks. We'll all know in about 6 hours.

[DaveGee]

Originally posted by Zoom:
<STRONG>Well, this has to be a first. The morning of the event, and NO ONE has the scoop. Know what that tells me? This one really is going to be huge. Or at least, Steve thinks it will be. This project has managed what no other previous one has done - not the Cube, not the original iMac, not the new iBook.

Let's all hope that this thing really rocks. We'll all know in about 6 hours.</STRONG>

I agree 100%, I have some contacts at Apple and I even pinged em last night to see if that rumor about preping the Apple Emps the night before was true (I'm not even sure where I heard/read it but maybe cnet)... Well anyway the rumor wasn't true. Most everyone at Apple knows just about as little as we do....

Gonna be interesting that's for sure.

Dave

[Nebrie]

Originally posted by DaveGee:
<STRONG>

I agree 100%, I have some contacts at Apple and I even pinged em last night to see if that rumor about preping the Apple Emps the night before was true (I'm not even sure where I heard/read it but maybe cnet)... Well anyway the rumor wasn't true. Most everyone at Apple knows just about as little as we do....

Gonna be interesting that's for sure.

Dave</STRONG>

It was MOSR. One funny thing I find is that they were the only ones to talk about Apple buying Moto's PPC assets (the reg just quoted them) yet it's now 'fact'. Anyways, Shawn of MacShow claims not to know in advance at all unlike sometimes in the past while Ben of Macslash claims there's little birdies around if you can find them.

[KeyLimePi]

Well I for one do not think this device will be huge...and rightfully so. To date Apple always swings for the stands, and maybe that was okay in the tech-driven market of a couple years ago. But things are much slower now and I'd rather see Apple go for more base hits.

Remember, this device is suppose to one of several devices Apple is bringing out in the next several months. There's no reason this device has to be jaw-dropping.

[PHoynak]

Does anyone know the URL for the Quicktime viewing of the "Event"???

[Nebrie]

Originally posted by PHoynak:
<STRONG>Does anyone know the URL for the Quicktime viewing of the "Event"??? </STRONG>

No Quicktime, just keep tabs on the news sites for updates.

[Walter J. Ferstl]

Hello,

a "breakthrough" -

to me, that does not mean any portable gadget that merely does playback of any media, even with wireless ethernet, Bluetooth or FireWire connectors.

Of course, that does not preclude the possibility of Apple considering exactly such a device to be a "breakthrough".

A portable "something" player would have to be present in all the consumer electronics shops of the world (i.e., wherever you can buy a Sony Walkman, things like this) to be a real business success - Apple has missed much more moderate targets many times before in terms of distribution channels.

Does anybody know the scheduled time of today's event?

Walter.

It's actually a payloading of explosive Powerbooks and iMacs that an Apple-logo'd B52 bomber will drop over Afghanistan.

Codename: iBomb.

It's actually a payloading of explosive Powerbooks and iMacs that an Apple-logo'd B52 bomber will drop over Afghanistan.

Codename: iBomb.

[Walter J. Ferstl]

A joke so great that you had to post it twice?

I don't think so.

"Death on a Very Small Planet"
*To The Innocent* http://www.emperors-clothes.com/1/rem.htm

Regards,

Walter.

[Zoom]

The time is 10am PST, or 1pm EST. There apparently will not be a webcast.

T-minus 2 hrs 15 mins and counting...

[Zoom]

SlashDot is reporting the spymac story now. We're grasping for straws here, folks.

15 minutes till the show starts, boys and girls! I wonder how long it will be till the story is posted and pictures get out.

Damn.
It's 10:01AM and not a single post with info.
No photos.
No stats.
No figures.
Nothing.


I'm a tad impatient today. Sorry!

[Zoom]

And here we are at 10:20 PST, and still nothing. Most of the Mac sites I try to get to time out on me. I'm sure the servers are getting flooded by everyone trying to get the scoop, and constantly reloading. What a drag. If Steve would have just streamed this damn announcement...

[Zoom]

For what it's worth, MacCentral supposedly have a live link with updates on this briefing. I can't get the page to do anything, though.

http://www.macminute.com has gone into live update mode. so far the report says Steve is talking about the Digital Hub strategy and products.

i saw too that the apple store is down, so even if it's not immediately available, looks like they'll be taking orders real soon!

[ec8or]

The Apple Store is closed for updating! Something is definately happening!!!

[Zoom]

How funny - MacCentral screwed up their own link! It should be: http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/0110/23.event.php

Here's what they have so far. I assume the items are in reverse chronological order.


[quote]
Apple digital device event begins -- updated live
by Jim Dalrymple, [email protected]
October 23, 2001 1:00 pm ET

Refresh your browser for the most current news.

In an invitation only event today at Apple headquarters in Cupertino Steve Jobs will introduce Apple's new "digital device." MacCentral is there and will bring you live updates as they happen.

Jobs demos iMovie -- showed clips of baby videos

iDVD2 shipping early November

Jobs then showed a four-piece pie chart: video (iMovie 2), Music (iTunes), DVD (iDVD), and Photo

Let's start with the digital hub. This is a strategy we announced in January 2001. We believe Mac can become the center of your digital lifestyle. In other words, we're being surrounded by these amazing digital devices these days.

We have something really stunning for you today -- we have a lot of things going on.

Steve Jobs comes onstage:
[\quote]

[S_Lanaway]

say hello to iPod -- looks cool

Apple introduces iPod, a digital audio player (MP3, MP2, more) with a 5GB hard drive (1000 songs). 20 minute skip protection. FireWire-equipped, first such music player. 10 hour battery, lithium-polymar ("most advanced battery; more advanced than laptop batteries"), takes 1 hour to charge. Size of a deck of cards: 2.4" wide, 4" tall, 3/4" thick.

[Zoom]

Okay, check out the two sites above. iPod is the deal. Small hard disk MP3 player with FW. More details are coming. Go see the web sites listed above, come back for discussion.

[Mithras]

What I like about it is the size. It's a Walkman for the digerati.

The portable digital music market has always had twin problems:

* capacity: the flash-memory mp3 players can barely hold one album's worth of music, or else get unbelievably expensive to hold more.

* portability: the Nomad and arkhos solve the capacity problem, but at the expense of portability. They're more like "luggable" music than portable music. I came close to buying a Nomad, but playing with it for a long time in a store convinced me that I wouldn't want to tuck it in a pocket while walking around.

iPod seems to solve both problems. Plus, the Firewire interface makes it actually usable - the Nomad and arkhos took far too long to load files.


No, it's not "revolutionary", but they didn't promise that. It is groundbreaking, which they did promise. I think it will sell quite nicely, and yes, I want one.

(PS: it'd be nice to have a bigger capacity, of course, since many of us have much larger mp3 collections. So it's not your *whole* collection to go, but load it up, and the music will certainly last a weekend...)

If it's as small as it sounds, I'm SO there.
I've got an Intel Pocket Concert right now, which I like, but more
storage would be kinda nice...

[Zoom]

Hey, good job with the pic! Where did you grab that??

Anyway, that's what I was waiting for - the price. I was actually thinking it might be $499.

I wonder if they'll give a discount for buying this thing with a Mac? I would hope so, but we'll see.

Oops. Sounds like the AppleStore is back up. Time to go scope this thing out!

Zoom... store.apple.com is back up with all the info.

Jarid

[Zoom]

It says that it can double as a FW hard disk. Wonder how that works. Can you mount it from your desktop? If so, that would be pretty damn cool.

The iTunes sync thing is pretty cool.

I can't wait to actually see one of these things in person.

Not sure this was the huge breakthrough I thought it would be, but it's pretty cool. The big question now is: what else do they have up their sleeves? My guess is that this is NOT the only such project in development at Apple.

[Walter J. Ferstl]

Apple's iPod web page at
http://www.apple.com/ipod/specs.html

states:

Requirements
Apple computer with built-in FireWire port
Mac OS 9.2.1 (or later) or Mac OS v10.1 (or later)
iTunes 2 software (included)

Excuse me, Apple?

"Sorry, Madam, you will have to buy one of these nice new Macintoshes for your music-loving nephew, along with the iPod. Oh, he already has a Mac, three years old? I'm afraid....(mumble mumble)"