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Massive WWDC Rumor Roundup 310

Posted by michael from the slobber-slobber-drool-drool dept.
An anonymous reader writes "MacRumors.com posted a massive rumor roundup of all the major rumors surrounding Apple's World Wide Developer's Conference which starts next week. There's been talk of 970 PowerMacs, PowerBooks and Panther... seems like the biggest uncertainty is whether or not 970 PowerMacs will ship or not."
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Massive WWDC Rumor Roundup More

Massive WWDC Rumor Roundup

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  • WWDC? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Azghoul ( 25786 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:52AM (#6210759) Homepage
    Man, tough morning, first I'm thinking something about WMDs, then I'm thinking some kind of zany religious shit (What Would... DC? Huh?).

    Then I realize it's Mac-related, and so it is kind of zany religious shit (as if us linux-ites are drinking any less kool-aid).

  • PowerMacs wont ship (Score:5, Insightful)

    by interdigitate ( 592865 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @06:59AM (#6210804) Homepage
    i think the biggest doubt is weather the 15inch powerbooks will ship and not the powermacs. The rumors on the 15inch powerbook are pointing in different directions with some people saying they are boxed and ready to be shipped while other people are saying they just went into production...

    • Re:PowerMacs wont ship (Score:2, Interesting)

      by iJed ( 594606 )
      Another question about the PowerBooks is what CPU will they have? It could either be a G4 or some version of the PPC 970 (as reported by some rumor sites). In my opinion the PowerBooks will use a G4 class CPU since the current 970 probably lacks energy saving features.

  • Current G4 Supplies Depleted (Score:5, Interesting)

    by blakespot ( 213991 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:01AM (#6210809) Homepage
    Another point to add to backup Arn's MacRumors post is that current suppliers are reporting deminished supplies of PowerMac G4's with resupply dates ranging from late June to early July. Inventories sitting empty. This would not happen unless _something_ were about to take place - even if it were to be just a simple G4 speedbump.

    But I believe "G4" is not the name of the processor that will be in the replacement machines...


    blakespot

    • But I believe "G4" is not the name of the processor that will be in the replacement machines...

      Whoa. this is big. I mean really big, if that happens...

      mad...

      the 68040 really IS making a comeback. can't wait!

      (scuse. been drinking espresso all day)
      • Hey...

        For just navigating thru menus and windows and general GUI stuff my 33MHz 68040-based NeXTStation Turbo Color slab [blakespot.com] feels about the same speed as my dual G4 800 Mac! [blakespot.com]

        Don't knock the '040!


        blakespot

        • Re:Current G4 Supplies Depleted - what's NeXT ? (Score:5, Interesting)

          by WillAdams ( 45638 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @10:50AM (#6213032) Homepage
          I know what you mean---my 25MHz '040 NeXT Cube is still my main machine for doing TeX and PostScript work.

          The really painful thing is the comments from Mac developers when they first tried out OpenStep 4.2 on decent white boxes in preparation for what was then called Rhapsody...

          ``windows vanish (instantly) (after clicking the close box)''

          ``feels rock solid''

          ``man I hope the real thing performs this snappily''

          There was recently a post to comp.sys.next.advocacy from a guy who got OpenStep running on a something.something GHz box w/ 1GB or DDR or somesuch RAM.... may have to think 'bout setting up something like that myself, thoough I'd really miss the cool old-style NeXT keyboard....

          William
          i

    • Re:Current G4 Supplies Depleted (Score:5, Interesting)

      by tbone1 ( 309237 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:21AM (#6210912) Homepage
      ... current suppliers are reporting deminished supplies of PowerMac G4's with resupply dates ranging from late June to early July.

      Ding! Veteran Mac watcher know that this is a sure-fire indication that tower replacements are on the way. Since Jobs returned and forced Apple to get tighter inventory controls, this sort of thing has always preceded a new model announcement.

      Of course, there are no guarantees that the new models have 970s in them, but I'd be dashed surprised if they didn't.

    • For all that its worth, I can confirm that there is at least one tier 1 distrubitor who has large backorders of PowerMacs which would help support the theory of a revision bump, or a model replacement. I guess we'll all know the truth in a week though, so I'm trying to avoid getting my PPC970-based hopes up.

  • I'm wondering (Score:3, Funny)

    by parkanoid ( 573952 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:03AM (#6210817)
    Whether or not slashdot editors will ever startproofreading their stories or not.

  • 970 PowerMacs? (Score:5, Funny)

    by jagilbertvt ( 447707 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:06AM (#6210837)
    I'd think that'd be a rather low estimate on the number of PowerMacs they'll be able to ship.

  • Mac OS X Panther still a mystery (Score:5, Insightful)

    by iJed ( 594606 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:19AM (#6210907) Homepage
    Its amazing how little information has got out on Mac OS X Panther (10.3). This is what Apple is claiming WWDC is about and next to no information on this new OS version has been leaked. Last year, with Jaguar (OS 10.2), there were screens on ThinkSecret [thinksecret.com] and a rundown on many of the new features but with Panther there is next to nothing. All there really is is speculation on piles and even this information is highly doubtful. It seems Apple has finally blocked the rumor channels. :-(

    • Re:Mac OS X Panther still a mystery (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Zoop ( 59907 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:45AM (#6211064)
      Damn, never have mod points when you need them.

      While I'm open to improvements in the OS, especially in the interface consistency and configuration tools area, the biggest thing I'm looking for is essentially a host of bugfixes in OS X's networking.

      The Samba support is buggy -- it can't browse as well as a Windows box, and when talking to a Unix box it doesn't understand the concept of group priviliges most of the time, requiring you to re-save documents 5 to 10 times before it will decide you have write permissions.

      Networking in general has big issues--PPCP VPN support improved with 10.2 but if you have a mounted drive over Samba over a VPN and the connection drops--you're pretty much in a race to see if you can shell into your machine to issue `reboot` before some runaway process hogs the entire machine and takes down every other service. I've heard from others that this is also true of regular (non-VPN) NFS mounts as well.

      So truly robust networking support for those of us in mixed environments would make my life So Much Easier You Wouldn't Believe It.

      • Re:Mac OS X Panther still a mystery (Score:5, Informative)

        by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:21AM (#6211312)
        "I've heard from others that this is also true of regular (non-VPN) NFS mounts as well."

        Happens to me all the time. This is what I normally do.

        On my powerbook.

        Mount a NFS drive at work.

        At the end of the day. I close the lid (Putting the laptop to sleep)

        When I get home I open the lid (auto detects I am on a new network gives me a new IP adress)

        Opps my NFS drive is still mounted but their is no routing to it.

        Now when any application tries to read it you get the spinny sprial ball. And it will never end. If you are lucky you may get to the terminal and do a reboot but never try to unmount the drive or even go to you /Volume/NFS directory if you do then your terminal will hang (Thus wishing you can run the same application twice). Now it is time to admit defeat so you reboot the system. But all the applications close except for the finder. Thus it will not reboot. Last step it to hold down the powerbutton until forced power off. Wait 30 seconds power it back on and run FSCK and wait. That is my only Major Issue with OS X

        • Re:Mac OS X Panther still a mystery (Score:5, Informative)

          by Equuleus42 ( 723 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:52AM (#6211604) Homepage
          I've had the same problem myself. One recommendation I can provide is to try mounting the NFS share using the "NFS Manager [bresink.de]" program... When using this program, you can tinker with lots of parameters that are normally more difficult to experiment with at the command line. For example, you can adjust some of the timeout parameters that should give you a little more leeway in the event of getting the spinny beach ball of near-death. It's not a complete solution by any means, but it does seem to help some. All of us with this problem should write Apple [apple.com] to have them fix it.

          About the only other advice I can provide is to remember that you have a mount active, and then unmount before leaving work (easier said than done, of course).
        • Yes. This happens with AFP-mounted drives too. I file a bug report with every point release of the operating system and I get the same response "We know about it". It must be a serious issue or they woulda fixed it by now. It's a real black eye on an otherwise exceedingly stable and usable (in my hands at least) operating system.

          I've managed to figure out that the system is trying to re-establish communication with the drive, but it just fails to ever throw in the towel. Interestingly, when this happens, a

        • If you are lucky you may get to the terminal and do a reboot but never try to unmount the drive or even go to you /Volume/NFS directory if you do then your terminal will hang (Thus wishing you can run the same application twice).

          You can, the easiest way is to make a second copy of the application in a different place or with a slightly different name. You then launch the second copy. It's generally safe to do this but I wouldn't save any shared documents while both are open, like preferences.

          I believ

        • Uh, so unmount the NFS share before you close the lid. What's the problem?
      • I've heard from others that this is also true of regular (non-VPN) NFS mounts as well.

        Whatever.

        At work we always use NFS mounts except for builds (our NFS server is lousy, performance-wise - see it on other unixen, too). Have no problem.

        I NFS mount my home directory from my laptop through a VPN (not PPCP - VTUN (see vtun.sf.net)). I drop connection all the time and have no problem.

        Maybe you should try to avoid Samba...

  • Another rumor (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:23AM (#6210928)
    Jobs will do his imitation of Ballmer's monkeyboy dance.

    • A link (Score:5, Funny)

      by ProfessionalCookie ( 673314 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @10:54AM (#6213085) Journal
      Steve Balmers hot dance video [ntk.net] Everytime I see that I think "wow that guy is a real psycho"

      GIVE IT UP FOR MEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!! I Love This Compayeahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!

      When he prances (ok maybe that's too delicate a word) across the stage he looks like a (really fat) upset beaver...and who chose the music.

      At least if Jobs does it he'll have some better music (and won't make himslf look like a fat upset beaver).

  • Serial ATA (Score:5, Interesting)

    by xyote ( 598794 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:28AM (#6210954)
    It better have serial ATA. If not, then by the time people start upgrading their hard drives, not only will they find the parallel ATA drives selling at a premium since they're being phased out, but they will find the drives not being made in the larger sizes they need.

    Same goes for some other technologies being introduced now. Nothing worse than a system design that is obsolete before it hits the shelves.

    • Re:Serial ATA (Score:5, Insightful)

      by JonathanBoyd ( 644397 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:35AM (#6210999) Homepage
      There is a massive existing market for parallel ATA. All the computers with parallel aren't going to disappear overnight when someone starts shipping serial. It'l be a few years before the market for parallel decreases sufficiently for your worries to be relevant.
    • nah, not yet, but it should be made an option, soon.

      I've bought several PC motherboards in the last year, and only the high end one for my gaming box came with serial ATA (and that board supports Parallel, as well, as most do). Once low-end manufacturers jump on the bandwagon, parallel ATA will start trickling away, but not until then. Low end usually doesn't need the performance, anyhow.
    • Also, Apple probably won't make the jump straight to SATA like they did with USB. The current speedholes G4s ship with one ATA-100 channel (or is it 133 now?) and one ATA-66 channel.

    • Re:Serial ATA (Score:2, Informative)

      by IntlHarvester ( 11985 )
      (Check dell.com, see no SATA machines shipping, concludes that PATA is alive and well for now.)

      I don't think you understand Apple's hardware strategy -- if it doesn't sell machines, they'll use the most bog-standard generic commodity parts they can find. You'll never see a Mac with the sort of bleeding-edge features found on "enthusiast" x86 mobos.

      Apple will switch to SATA -- about 3 months after the rest of the industry. If new machines ship this month, they will be using PATA drives. If you're very very

  • Anything on Safari 1.0? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mccalli ( 323026 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:38AM (#6211011) Homepage
    It's Safari 1.0 I'm most interested in. Any news on whether they'll include a 'block image from server' function, allow your homepage to be a group of tabs and also add proper keyboard navigation of controls (eg. drop-downs)?

    I like Safari because it is quite pretty. Nevertheless, there's no ignoring the fact it currently does less than the Gecko-derived browsers so it hasn't quite done enough to become my default browser yet.

    Cheers,
    Ian

  • It's a Developer Conference (Score:5, Interesting)

    by buckhead_buddy ( 186384 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @07:54AM (#6211114)
    In a past slashdot thread, I predicted that people would be sorely disappointed because Apple would wait to demo new iApps, unveil new prices and cases for new hardware, and keep GUI changes under wraps until they can make a bigger splash to a more consumer audience. Things may be different this year because of their falling out with the MacWorld Expo organizers and so much consumer attention has been focused on WWDC by the Mac fan sites. I won't try to predict what consumer focused changes will appear at wwdc. In the past the biggest announcements were those designed to affect developers in the biggest way, if that holds true, this is what I'd like to hear about:

    I'd be happy if we saw official Apple support for Cocoa bridges other developers have created such as Camel Bones [sourceforge.net] (Cocoa/Perl) and PyObjC [sourceforge.net] (Cocoa/Python) as officially supported as the Java/Objective-C bridge.

    It might be interesting to see the addition of an optional garbage collector added to Objective-C for newbies to use but engineered in such a way to make it optional for those Objective-C veterans who want to make their work execute more efficiently. Memory management headaches are the biggest difference between the simplicity of Cocoa and other more "popular" languages like Visual Basic (and heck, even Apple's old Hypercard).

    Apple went a long way in Jaguar toward re-engineering the bowels of the user interface architecture (HIToolbox) to unify Cocoa and Carbon. I'm sure Panther will see this effort finished, but it'd be great to see a global user interface macro recording feature added now that there's one robust, well-thought and well implemented API underneath.

    What would be bigger news to me than any sort of user interface bauble (like the fabled "piles") would be an announcement by Apple that it was completely updating the Mac OS X online help system. They've done a great job of trying to make it easy to get to, but it's very slow and very awkward to use. Any improvements in this area would be very welcome for users and developers.

    While new Macs, new iApps, and new user interface trinkets could debut here or at any other Apple event, this is the only time of year Apple really focuses on making geeky, developer relevant announcements. I hope this WWDC doesn't disappoint in that regard.

    • Re:It's a Developer Conference (Score:5, Insightful)

      by hype7 ( 239530 ) <u3295110@noSPam.anu.edu.au> on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:21AM (#6211310) Journal
      While new Macs, new iApps, and new user interface trinkets could debut here or at any other Apple event, this is the only time of year Apple really focuses on making geeky, developer relevant announcements. I hope this WWDC doesn't disappoint in that regard.

      Also relevant; it seems that the Apple VP in charge of hardware [macnn.com] is going to be headlining at the new MacWorld Expo in July.

      Now, that could mean one of three things:
      1. He's going to be doing an extended demo of hardware that was released at WWDC
      2. He's going to announce the hardware at MW; unlikely if this is the 970s everyone's been predicting (Job's would do that), or
      3. He's going to announce that the 970s demo'd at WWDC are to be released.

      I choose 1.

      -- james

    • Re:It's a Developer Conference (Score:2, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It might be interesting to see the addition of an optional garbage collector added to Objective-C for newbies to use but engineered in such a way to make it optional for those Objective-C veterans who want to make their work execute more efficiently.

      There is. It's called "autorelease."

      it'd be great to see a global user interface macro recording feature

      No, no. We had that in System 6. Nobody used it. There's zero reason to put this in.

      • it'd be great to see a global user interface macro recording feature

        No, no. We had that in System 6. Nobody used it. There's zero reason to put this in.

        Think of the Mac stragglers who are still running 6.0.4 and waiting for this feature in order to upgrade! Both of them. :-)

        In all seriousness, global recordability never worked in System 6 because it wasn't global. There were tons of holes and special cases that just weren't recordable or played back differently because of timing problems and so fort

    • Cocoa has automatic garbage collection in-built by default. It's just not perfect, so it's better (but not easier) to mark/release.

  • WWDC "to be announced" slots (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nozpamming ( 664873 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:05AM (#6211195)
    There seem to be quite a lot of slots "to be announced" at the WWDC, especially for tuesday...

    Is this normal? Could these be demonstrations of new products? Ideas, anyone?

  • what Apple WON'T ship (Score:5, Informative)

    by bbc22405 ( 576022 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:17AM (#6211277)
    There has been much made of the 15" powerbook, which is still Titanium, not Aluminum. Speculation has been that it will be updated dramatically, including outrageous predictions of the new 15" Aluminum powerbook getting a 970 processor. I guess people think it was held back from update so that it could get the 970 when it is finally updated.

    People, pay attention. The 15" powerbook was held back because Jobs promised to support MacOS 9 until ... this summer. With that constraint off, it can get the new technologies that are not supported in MacOS 9 (bluetooth, airport extreme). That doesn't mean it's getting the 970.

    • Re:what Apple WON'T ship (Score:4, Informative)

      by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:29AM (#6211381)
      Well although it doesn't mean it will be getting the 970 soon. But Normally with apples powerbook lines they normally add the same chip that is in the PowerMac. Their main selling point for the powerbooks is the fact that holds most of the functionallity of the PowerMac in Laptop size. Although the 970 PowerBooks probably wont be realeased with the first set of sales. But Late summer or even next January you will probable see the 970 PowerBooks and the iBooks will be upgraded to G4s I am not sure about the iMac though. I think Apple my keep it a G4 for a while like they kept of old iMacs G3s.

  • Since it's a developer's conference... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by chia_monkey ( 593501 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:18AM (#6211289) Journal
    I'd like to see a few issues addressed. Yet oddly enough, they all seem to involve Microsoft:

    1) The whole Virtual PC thing. Is Apple going to talk to developers to find ways to continue to run Windows on the Mac should MS decide to kill VPC?
    2) Safari/IE. MS is killing IE for the Mac. Many sites currently don't look so hot, or don't even work, on non-IE browsers. How will this be addressed? Safari "giving in" to IE-style rendering?

    I do also expect some yummy hardware announcement, I just have no idea what it is. It's beyond speculation, but whatever it is, I'll be happy.
    • Safari "giving in" to IE-style rendering?

      My first thought on this is ``please don't do this to us,'' but in all practicality it can't be done. If you try to make your browser compatible with IE rather than the standards, then you're just promoting the use of IE non-standards. As soon as they start making technological changes (i.e. the ones that require close integration with the underlying operating system), it becomes a bigger issue than ``IE-style rendering.''

    • Re:Since it's a developer's conference... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by mstockman ( 188945 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:43AM (#6213635)

      2) Safari/IE. MS is killing IE for the Mac. Many sites currently don't look so hot, or don't even work, on non-IE browsers. How will this be addressed? Safari "giving in" to IE-style rendering?

      That's really a non-issue, because IE for Mac was never compatible with the sites you're talking about... those sites are IE for Windows specific. IE for Mac was a surprisingly standards-compliant browser, one of the first to support really good CSS1 and a good chunk of CSS2, and it never supported most of the non-standard IE for Windows stuff.

      On the VirtualPC front, I do think it would be nice if Apple were to throw its open-source development weight into enhancing Bochs [sourceforge.net] to make it the best emulation out there, and then integrate it into OS X so you could have double-clickable Windows apps in an emulation layer such as Classic mode, but I haven't heard anything about that one way or another.

  • OpenOffice? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ek_adam ( 442283 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:36AM (#6211456) Homepage
    While there were a few rumors of an Apple browser before Safari came out, few people expected it to be based on open source Konqueror.

    I'm wondering how big a surprise a behind the scenes port of Open Office to the Mac would be.
    • I'm not sure that I understand what you mean. There already is an port of Open Office to the Mac. It runs on X11 in Mac OS X, and is available directly from the website. Do you mean a native Aqua port?

    • Re:OpenOffice? (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      I'm wondering how big a surprise a behind the scenes port of Open Office to the Mac would be.

      Well, considering there isn't one, I'd say it would be a great surprise.

      Apple does not play with GPL software. We will play with LGPL libraries, but we will not play with GPL software. Simply isn't going to happen.

      (Besides... hate to break it to you, but Open Office is crap by Mac standards. If you want to see the future of productivity software on the Mac, look at Keynote, not Open Office.)

    • Re:OpenOffice? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Morky ( 577776 )
      Just as they did not use Gecko as their rendering engine, they would not use OO the basis of an office suite. From what I understand, it's complete spaghetti.

    • Re:OpenOffice? (Score:4, Interesting)

      by bedouin ( 248624 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @12:58PM (#6214434)
      OpenOffice I doubt, but I think at least one of the old Gobe developers now works for Apple. Gobe Productive on Mac could be interesting. The more likely scenario seems to be more apps like Keynote though.

      Wow, when I was typing that I just realized "If Apple released their own Word Processor I'd probably go out and pay for it." Imagine that, liking a platform so much that I'm willing to support it with my own money. That never happened when I was running Windows :)

  • New Case Colors and OS X 10.3 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @08:40AM (#6211490)
    In the situation where someone just woke up and didn't have their coffee. It seems that they are saying the new PowerMacs cases will be a matalic color as well as 10.3 using more of the brush metal theam. I can only assume that they want to OS to look more like the case itself and vise versa. Which is basicly what they have been dooing OS up to 10.2 have been on Macs that were normally White in color but now the new ones are becoming more metalic as well as the powerbooks so the New OS will look like the case thus making the brush metal theam fit with the computer.

  • Piles! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Draoi ( 99421 ) <<moc.cam> <ta> <thcoiard>> on Monday June 16, 2003 @09:22AM (#6211906)
    I certainly hope that Apple comes up with a better name for "Piles"! [theregister.co.uk]

    Has your OS got piles?

  • about the 970 (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Enrico Pulatzo ( 536675 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @10:53AM (#6213080)
    If for some reason Apple doesn't have a 970 machine ready or to be announced at WWDC, all hell is gonna break loose. The underground hype is ridiculous at this point. Every 4th day I see a new story posted somewhere about how Apple must be using the 970 chip. It's all vaporware until they show us a box. People are so paranoid to purchase new machines from Apple for fear of being left out in the cold. Not that Apple actively discourages this though, but at this stage in the game, what can they possibly do to stop the 970 expectation short of actually producing a box?

  • Rumors about rumors... (Score:3, Funny)

    by djupedal ( 584558 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @11:44AM (#6213644)
    massive...not.

    You must not be able to count beyond 3, and anything after that is a Carl Sagan number :)

    Rehased hash is still hash...where's the beef?

  • Most hardware stocks NOT depeleted at Apple Store (Score:5, Insightful)

    by King Babar ( 19862 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @01:41PM (#6214896) Homepage
    For what it's worth, I just checked online at the Apple Store, and pretty much *everything* was listed as shipping on the same day. It is possible that the Apple has emptied the distributors' channels and is holding the remaining inventory, but I would not be very sure about this.

    Interestingly, what *wasn't* shipping the same day were two versions of the XServe (not the low-end model or the cluster unit, but the other two). Those were listed as 3-5 days. I haven't done this drill recently, so I don't know how unusual this is for the XServe.

    In any case, it might be worthwhile "pinging" the Apple Store this week for the appearance of PowerMac shortages. right now, I don 't see any.

  • New XServe rumor at macbidouille.com (Score:3, Interesting)

    by King Babar ( 19862 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @03:21PM (#6215974) Homepage
    So just after I posted about (brief) shipping delays being shown for some XServe models at the online Apple Store, I checked and found that Mac Bidouille posted a new XServe rumor on their site. [macbidouille.com]

    In the interests of Slashdot's non francophile readers and despite the fact that I might screw up some of this translation, here is what that item says:

    Grek sends us evidence (lit. testimony) that not only confirms rumors of the release of PPC 970 machines, but but also this time for servers.

    A friend of mine in in contact with a salesman from Apple for the purchase of an XServe solution. After several exchanges, the salesman arranged a meeting with him immediately after June 23, a date of important announcements according to him, to talk about some new things in the server sphere. So there will not only be PowerMacs with the 970 that we are expecting (lit. waiting for), but also Xserve units!

    I would remind you that the WWDC last year was the the time when Steve announced the first generation of the XServe in addition to Jaguar. This year, Panther will be there, but it remains to be seen if there will aslo be a speedboat for the XServe at the WWDC. [sorry, I'm not sure how to translate "une vedette de la WWDC]

    Now, I do not find the logic here completely compelling; this could be just a price drop, or an announcement about software improvements or what have you, but WWDC wouldn't be a silly place to announce changes in the server line by any means.

  • The kinds of things that get shown off at WWDC (Score:3, Informative)

    by podperson ( 592944 ) on Monday June 16, 2003 @05:51PM (#6217854) Homepage
    Usually at WWDC the kinds of announcements that get made are software. If new hardware is announced it's from a software implications viewpoint. They may demo cool new boxes, but they aren't generally announcing ship dates or showing off new plastic cases.

    The exception is when they have nothing in the way of new software or architecture announcements. (The Powerbook G3-500 release is the only example I can remember of a major product announcement at WWDC; and the other announcements at that WWDC were highly underwhelming.)

    The big news is Panther. Apple hasn't told most of us what will be in Panther so the idea that they will muddy the waters by fuelling a bunch of consumer-related hysteria when what they really want is to get people excited about a new OS release seems to me to be far-fetched.

    I'd be looking for a demo of the PPC970 (or an unnamed chip) but not a product release.

    Then again, WWDC has become more and more like a pure marketing exercise as the years have gone by and the leaks have been plugged. The days when you could stand around with system engineers being told about the year after next's OS changes and the current OS's most egregious unfixable bugs seem gone (or maybe they just won't talk to me any more).

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