Tag Archives: Apple Hardware

By Staff | Published: June 9, 2008

Live Keynote Updates STREAMING

Click through to the full page for streaming updates from WWDC 2008! Read more

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By Staff | Published: June 9, 2008

Mac Nano a reality with “Fusion”?


As TUAW notes, evidence has appeared suggesting Apple may be releasing a new Mac, dubbed Fusion, as an ultra light but powerful machine, possibly for developer use. If true this is quite obviously the Mac Nano everyone has been talking about for quite some time, but as with any rumor we will see what happens at WWDC tomorrow. The language of the pages is a bit unlike Apple, especially the focus on developers with a machine that will obviously replace the Mini and be desired by just about everyone, but they do stray from their straight consumer talk when targeting developers and power users, as this page appears to suggest they are doing with Fusion.

The screenshots appear to be unreleased Apple website pages, which state the following:

“Building your applications for the Mac has never been easier. Read more

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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged , , , | 1 Response
By Staff | Published: April 29, 2008

Apple introduces new iMacs clocked at up to 3.06GHz(!)

Although this announcement comes as no surprise to many on the grapevine who have been reporting on it regularly over the past several weeks while most of the Rumors staff was on leave or sabbatical….many in the community expressed great enthusiasm for the new machines which form the backbone of Apple’s family of Macs.


The new iMacs sport an enclosure and display panels (20in 1680×1050 and 24in 1920×1200) which look on the surface, as well as on paper, identical to the previous generation but according to some of our oldest and most reliable sources at the highest levels within Cupertino’s Mac Hardware engineering division.

There is a lot more going on here than meets the eye in this latest update, even if you dig deep into Apple’s published specs so far. Read more

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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged , , | 4 Responses
By Staff | Published: February 27, 2008

Apple announces new Macbooks, Macbook Pros

As recently predicted by Rumors, Apple has updated the remainder of its laptop line-up following last month’s introduction of the Macbook Air.

Sporting powerful “Penryn” 45-nanometer mobile Core 2 Duo processors from 2.1 to 2.6GHz, these new laptops are poised to crush the competition and expand Apple’s market share considerably. Read on for specs, analysis and more details!

Both the Macbooks and MBP’s have received significant enclosure/industrial design tweaks — notably, both sport the same “modern raised-button” keyboard design as the Macbook Air and Apple’s latest stand-alone ‘board.

Most of the new laptops are build around the “standard” Penryn chip, running at 2.1-2.4GHz with 3MB of enhanced on-chip cache memory; as Rumors reported previously in this article about Penryn & future Macbook Air specs, this new cache is faster and more intelligent than previous Merom/Santa Rosa based designs which included 4MB of cache. Read more

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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged , , , , | 4 Responses
By Staff | Published: February 5, 2008

Apple updates iDevices – 16GB iPhone, 32GB iPod Touch

Today Apple announced relatively straightforward storage capacity upgrades for both of the “multi-touch” iDevices, doubling the standard versions of each to 16GB and 32GB for the iPhone and iPod Touch, respectively.

Other than the storage space upgrades, according to reliable sources in Cupertino, the new iDevices use a somewhat different type of Flash storage that should offer substantial transfer performance improvements (especially for large files, since part of the difference is better buffering and sustained stream optimizations, as well as some improvements in the loading of large numbers of small {1024K or less} files — such as in a Web browser’s cache).

Overall, the iPod Touch should see between 50 and 300% depending on the size of the file, and an average of about 75-125% faster when syncing typical-sized MP3/AAC songs to the iPod. Read more

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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged , , , | 1 Response
By Staff | Published: January 30, 2008

Macbook Air begins to ship; hard drive units expected Feb. 1st

Many readers have been writing in to say that they have received shipment notifications on their Macbook Air pre-orders; many are now just leaving overseas (China) fulfillment centers near the manufacturing plants, and it appears that solid state models are going to reach customers first — in the next few days.

Those who pre-ordered models with hard disk based storage have received updated shipment date estimates, or in a few cases, shipment notifications with an expected arrival time around the 1st of the month.

We will be covering developments very closely, and many “streaming articles” with continuous live updates will be posted over the coming days as the first MBA’s reach the United States.

If you are a Macbook Air early adopter, or just want to weigh in on the latest developments, don’t hesitate to email us with your thoughts: rumors@macosrumors.com! Read more

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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged | 8 Responses
By Staff | Published: January 29, 2008

iDevice gaming “set to explode,” say game industry insiders

The sheer number of companies actively planning or already executing projects with target platforms like the modern day iPod Nano, iPhone/iPod Touch, and even AppleTV is much bigger than public perception seems to acknowledge. We’ve recently talked with a number of our friends in the gaming industry — from die hard Mac developers now focusing on “Cider” (DirectX –OpenGL abstraction layer, allowing “Windows games” to be developed once and deployed simultaneously on OS X) development, to console companies and newcomers to the gaming world, virtually everyone is very excited about the future of game-style entertainment on Apple devices.

Cute little arcade games like those we see on the Classic iPods are all well and good, but a modernized Breakout with 3D graphics can only keep you amused so long; even Bejeweled gets old after a while. Read more

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By Staff | Published: January 15, 2008

AppleTV software updated to “2.0;” hardware remains the same

In somewhat of a let-down — at least relative to rumors posted here and elsewhere about a major hardware revamp which we still strongly believe is coming…..we were simply to optimistic on the timing, it would seem — Steve Jobs has indeed announced “AppleTV 2.0” but it is not the Blu-ray equipped, totally overhauled device that we had predicted.

Instead of hardware changes, Apple has left the iDevice unchanged (right down to the 40 & 160GB HDD options) except for price and a substantially improved new operating system/onboard software suite. To take full advantage of the capabilities which have existed since it was first released a year ago but haven’t been properly utilized, Apple is overhauling the AppleTV components of the iTunes Store to offer High Definition (720P) movie rentals. Read more

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Posted in Apple Software | Also tagged | 5 Responses
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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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged , , , | 6 Responses
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: 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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Posted in Apple Hardware, Apple Software | Also tagged , | Comments closed
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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Posted in Apple Hardware, Apple Software | Also tagged , | Comments closed
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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Posted in Apple Hardware, Apple Software | Also tagged , | Comments closed
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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Posted in Apple Hardware | Also tagged | Comments closed
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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