Category Archives: Apple Hardware

By Staff | Published: January 17, 2008

No rentals for 5G video iPods?

In the Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs did say that “current generation iPods” would be able to utilize rented movies, but notice he did not say ALL video capable iPods, so there may be some truth to the idea that this is intentional. Perhaps Apple simply hasn’t updated the firmware on these iPods to support the rental functionality, they could be readying an update right now to allow 5G video iPods to playback rented movies.

However, it would seem unlikely that Apple would let this sort of incompatibility slip through the cracks. It may also be possible that these rented movies are protected to a further degree than other iTunes content, which may have caused compatibility problems if the older video iPods are incapable of supporting the tougher protection. Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 17, 2008

Sign the iPod Touch petition!

The folks over at onlinepetition.com have put up a simple page calling on Apple to free the new iPod Touch apps from their $20 shackles. We aren’t quite sure what effect this will have, even if a large number of people sign the petition it is unlikely that Apple will change their plans at this point. Apple does have a long history of expecting users to pay for significant upgrades to previously released products, so this may be just one more in a long line of for-pay product upgrades.

So what do you think? Is this petition going to change anything? Is Apple going to release these applications to previous iPod Touch owners for free?

To see the petition and sign it, click here Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 15, 2008

Steve Jobs announces “Time Capsule” wireless backup device

Time Capsule is part of Apple’s new “cable-free 2008” strategy, now referred to in some circles on the grapevine as “Air Steve/Air Jobs 2008” (a reference to Nike’s overpriced “Air Jordan” shoes) strategy, or just the “Air strategy/”Air initiative”…..regardless of how it will end up being most popularly referred to, it’s straightforward enough on the surface; eliminate cables, consolidate them or replace them with wireless alternatives.

But the implications for the entire iDevice and Macintosh families go way beyond that. And the Time Capsule is just the first of many new wireless devices Apple has planned for 2008. Many will be intended to provide solutions for things like the Macbook Air’s “missing” optical drive and other ports/features, as well as similar issues arising from future “Air strategy” elements such as a low-cost “Mac Air” with similarly minimalist enclosure & ports. Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 15, 2008

Apple introduces MacBook Air

The all-new Macbook Air, which as Rumors has long predicted is a mid-range model between the entry-level Macbook and the Macbook Pro, sports Core 2 Duo (Merom) processors at 1.6 and 1.8GHz, respectively, with the standard 4MB of shared on-chip L2 cache on both.

Many of the other specs are fairly standard for a Core 2 Duo based laptop and are parallel with the other Macbooks: 800MHz front side bus, dual-channel DDR2-667 memory (2GB standard), 13.3-inch 16:10 widescreen display from the entry level Macbook with the same 1280×800 resolution, et cetera.

One of the main differences is of course the ultra-light, ultra-thin enclosure: the frame tapers from 0.16-0.76 inches thick (averaging less than 0.6 inches over the bulk of its horizontal depth/width) and weighs in at only 3 pounds(!). Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 8, 2008

New Mac Pro, Xserve

Today Apple announced a dramatic update to both of its professional Macs based on Intel’s high-end Xeon processors; bringing the Mac Pro and Xserve into the 45-nanometer era (all previous Intel Macs are based on 65nm technology; the PowerPC 970 “G5 was 90nm)” and offering up to twice the performance of previous models.

A lot has changed in the new Mac Pro…..but not everything the grapevine had been hoping for has arrived just yet.

Today’s update to the Mac Pro and Xserve is without a doubt one of the most anticipated of the past several months, and the numbers bear it out: 20% faster CPU-to-northbridge (Front Side Bus) bandwidth thanks to dual 1.6GHz FSBs, and memory bandwidth is now up to 1.6X faster as dual-channel DDR2-800 ECC FB-SDRAM (up from 667MHz) and an improved memory controller flex their muscles. Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 1, 2008

December 2007 highlights

It turns out your iPhone could be running almost twice as fast! One of our Xerces sister sites, The Black Hole general-interest discussion forum, recently tackled a topic that has come up numerous times on Mac OS Rumors: Is the latest mainstrean media news about “Mac Malware” for real, or just greedy security companies looking to make a buck?!

Rumors has confirmed that a new, larger AppleTV flagship model will be added to the lineup along with two enhanced versions of the existing AppleTV devices — all sporting larger hard drives. The new “AppleTV Unity” as it is sometimes referred to at Infinite Loop, will include a faster Intel CPU, enhanced media decoding DSP chipset, more RAM, an optical drive and numerous other improvements over the “standard” models. Read more

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By Staff | Published: October 7, 2007

October Highlights

Apple has reported its best second-best quarterly financial results in the company’s history on very strong sales of Macs, iPhones and other iDevices.

If the AppleTV’s lack of an optical drive has been an issue for you, look no further than a soon to be announced update to the popular iDevice for that very issue to be addressed. Also, the entry-level model will be dropped to $249 with a 60GB or maybe even 80GB HDD (depending on market conditions about six or seven weeks from now), and two other models at $299 and $399 sporting 120-160 and 200-250GB drives respectively. The optical drive may not be available on all models, another vagary of our most recent source reports on the subject. Read more

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By Staff | Published: September 7, 2007

September Highlights

Apple is reportedly having a growing number of iPhones that experience partial failures of the touch-input system — often starting from the top and sometimes moving down the screen vertically in “rows” roughly equal to the height of the application icons on the “Home screen.” Many users contact Apple and get replacements before the problem worsens beyond the uppermost ‘row,’ but the problem does appear to be progressive in most cases if left uncorrected. More on this as reports come in.

As our contributors and writing staff have had the chance to use Apple’s new Keyboards in both Wired and Wireless forms, it’s remarkable how much they match the prototypes we’ve been talking about for months….but also striking how different they are from anything that has come from Apple or anyone else in the past. Read more

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By Staff | Published: August 7, 2007

August Highlights

As predicted by Rumors, the new iMacs sport Core 2 desktop CPUs that are substantially faster at a given clock rate than the mobile Santa Rosa chips used in the latest Macbook Pros.

An entry-level model clocks in at 2GHz, while the other standard models offer 2.4GHz — with an optional upgrade to a 2.8GHz Core 2 Extreme CPU for a massive boost of muscle.

Early reports from trusted industry analysts suggest that in the configuration Apple is using, with a FW800-enabled chipset that delivers substantially improved memory, FSB and interconnect/northbridge bandwidth over previous generation iMacs…..the 2.4GHz Duo model could outperform the 2.4GHz Macbook Pro and previous 2.33GHz iMacs by upwards of 50% in average real-world tasks, up to 120% in certain CPU/bandwidth-intensive operations, and the ATi Radeon X2400 (128MB XT on the entry-level model, 256MB Pro on the 24-in) simply crushes previous generation GPUs with benchmark numbers that are two full generations ahead of the X1600 and GeForce 7600 GT used in Core 2 Mobile iMacs. Read more

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By Staff | Published: June 5, 2007

Updated Macbook Pro!

The new Pro laptops sport Core 2 Duo Mobile processors at 2.2 and 2.4GHz, faster Front Side Bus (800MHz), 802.11n wireless networking, power-efficient LED display backlighting, and the new nVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT mobile graphics system.

All in all, an excellent and long-awaited upgrade but not quite dramatic enough to make owners of previous Macbooks feel behind — even the latest 2.4GHz MBP is only modestly faster than the original Macbook/Pro models in most operations with the exception of FSB bandwidth (~10-12%), wireless networking (50-125%) and graphics performance (35-60%).

Display sizes remain 15 and 17 inches with 1440×900 and 1680×1050 pixels respectively.

The actual panels are not significantly different from previous models, according to internal technical documents provided to Rumors in the days leading up to this revision — but have merely had their backlights switched out for LED models which are “Greener” and offer substantially better energy performance. Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 1, 2007

Macworld 2007 preview

With Steve Jobs’ MWSF keynote address fast approaching the grapevine has reached a fever pitch and is bursting at the seams with a whole spectrum of speculation and rumors about what will be announced at this year’s event.

Here is, in short order, a list of the most credible rumors about tomorrow’s announcements and a short analysis of the more controversial items:

  • “iPhone”….this one needs little explanation, and has been detailed in many articles on Rumors over the past three years or so. The real questions are what its real name will be, whether or not it will really be introduced at MWSF (there is more doubt & debate about this than the grapevine may seem to indicate lately!), and whether the device will be a true Mac OS Embedded type device, or simply a cellular phone with a suite of Apple-style applications and an iPod-like interface.
Read more
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By Staff | Published: October 4, 2006

What an incredible time for Apple….

Despite a very strong product portfolio, incredibly powerful new Macs in the pipeline and some full-out Insanely Great stuff in store for the period between now, through the Holidays & into early 2007….today’s resignation of long-time Apple CFO Fred Anderson and a set of hard admissions by CEO Steve Jobs has really taken a bite out of Wall Street’s optimism about Cupertino’s near-term future.

And this, even as the markets hit an all-time high for the second time in two days.

The Rumors staff has been preoccupied by this breaking news in the leadup to today’s announcements; the very same sources who tipped us off 36 hours in advance of the sudden exit of former Apple CEO Gil Amelio & the beginning of the “Second Steve Jobs Era”, then the introduction of the iMac, iPod, G3-G4-G5, Intel transition, et cetera….have been telling us quite a bit of interesting news. Read more

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