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Reality News Is Updated Every Monday And Thursday
While we ask that you take the following with a grain of salt,
we are by no means attempting to pass this rumor over lightly.
Apple's current product strategy, as impressive as it is, still
lacks a hard-core business model. It's been nearly two decades
since Jobs and Sculley first laid down the plans for Macintosh
Office, the combination of a set of Macintosh Computers linked
together over a telephone line via a technology called AppleTalk,
a central File Server, and a LaserWriter. Macintosh Office never
saw the light of day due to the fact that the File Server would
take 3 years to ready, and never again did Apple attempted to
produce a compelling office product.
Other sources claim that once Apple rolls out the consumer portable, Apple will shift focus to revive its business offerings. While
Apple's high-end Pro models may seem suitable for office work,
90 percent of them include too many standard features for the
average office terminal. Enter a sub $2000 high performance all-in-one
business client, quite similar to the iMac. Basically, we're phase
two of the Apple NC with phase one of course being the iMac. If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us. |
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1)Apple Secretly Developing a Business Mac? |
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| PowerBooks in 1999: Update |
After our report on Monday, Jason Ogrady had some interesting details on the future casing design of the
new set of PowerBooks due out in Q1 - Q2 of 1999. Apparently code
named "Lombard", after the curviest street in the world, Ogrady.com is reporting that that the casings for these new machines
will feature translucent dark blue plastics (obviously with tons
of sleek curves). We can immediately step right up with some confirmation
to this rumor, as we've mentioned numerous times in the past by
the summer of 1999 all of Apple's product lines will be shipping
in translucent plastics. This includes the already transparent
iMac, the midnight blue translucent El Capitan casings, the Consumer
Portable, the Studio Display line, and then of course, the PowerBook
line.
Improved Interface and Design
While we have established the majority of the hardware improvements
in our previous report, sources have been kind enough to share shed some light on more
specific features and improvements that Apple will introduce with
the Lombard line of PowerBooks. Apparently Apple has been listening
to their customers, both their complaints and their commendments.
The Lombard line of PowerBooks will integrate Apple's common hardware
architecture, extreme performance, and most importantly, they'll
patch the holes found in the Wallstreet line of PowerBooks (if
one could even say that there were holes).
Cooling Off
As we first reported on Monday, the Lombard PowerBooks should
feature multiple resolutions via Manta hardware (though others
claim that they'll used an advanced scaling architecture). In
addition, one of the other major gripes with the Wallstreets is
that they run too hot (you can literally burn your hand depending
upon how long the unit has been running). While the new chipsets
do indeed run cooler than the chips inside the Wallstreet PowerBooks,
Apple will not rely on them alone. According to sources, and briefly
mentioned on Ogrady.com, the new PowerBooks should feature improved ventilation, and
a fan that actually helps cool the unit. For those who own Wallstreet
PowerBooks, there is an internal fan, but it rarely comes on and
when it does come on, it does very little to actually cool the
unit. The Lombard PowerBooks should address this problem.
Jr., Not Jumbo
Another problem with the Wallstreets is that they are just "too
damn big" for the average person to lug around everyday. While
source report that the casing design is not yet finalized, the
candidates for the final casings are noticeably more compact than
the Wallstreet. The smaller designs (both in width and height)
will accommodate the larger screens, but according to sources
will be somewhat "optimized" with less plastic framing the display
and hence the workspace area surrounding the keyboard. The next
generation batteries should help to lighten the unit as well,
and will prove to be a factor in making the new units less cumbersome
than the current PowerBooks.
Eye Candy
Some readers have shed disapproval about the idea of a translucent
PowerBook, however sources who claim to have seen the designs
state that while still translucent, the darker plastics are of
a deep enough shade to allow very little internal visibility in
comparison to the iMac's lighter shade of Bondi blue.
FireWire will not be standard on all versions of the Lombard PowerBooks,
and they will not run at speeds in range 600MHz, just to clear
up the misconception. The G3 processor will eventually give way
to the G4 before it even nears the 600 mark.
For more information check out the Apple Hardware Information Archive.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
| Mac OS 8.5 Benchmarks And Tests |
Mac OS 8.5 is literally barreling through its beta stage, well
on target to go Golden Master by the third week of September,
just in time for an early October release. Beta 6 of Allegro was
officially seeded to developers a couple of days ago, and we promise
to have a full report on the latest beta come Monday. In the meantime,
a number of Reality sources have been kind enough to provide sets
of benchmark comparisons from recent builds of Allegro. It's important
to note that these results do not necessarily foreshadow the performance
of the final version of Mac OS 8.5. Mac OS 8.5 also features a
number of "real-world" improvements that cannot be benchmarked
properly with current benchmarking software because of the way
the tests are run.
Allegro Features Improved Virtual Memory and Native QuickDraw
Below are a set of MacBench scores comparing Mac OS 8.1 and Mac
OS 8.5. Tests were run both with and without Virtual Memory enabled.
All tests were performed on a Wallstreet PowerBook G3 running
at 250MHz with a 1MB backside cache running at 2:1, and 160 MB
of physical RAM. The tests clearly reveal the drastic improvements
in virtual memory that Apple has made with Mac OS 8.5. In addition,
you'll notice improvements in the Graphics department due to advancements
such as native QuickDraw.
Disk, and Publishing Disk Improvements
A set of similar tests were performed on a 604e based Power Macintosh
9600/300. Below are a set of MacBench scores comparing a bare
install of Mac OS 8.1 with that of Mac OS 8.5, and a standard
version of Mac OS 8.1 with a version of Mac OS 8.5 complete with
a set of ATI XCliam 3D drivers. In place of the graphics test,
this source performed the full set of publishing disk tests under
both Mac OS 8.1 and 8.5. The results also show improvements in
disk performance on 604e based towers. All tests on the Power
Macintosh 9600/300 were performed with Virtual Memory disabled,
the Disk Cache set to 4096k, and 128 MB of physical RAM.
Unbelievable Application Launching in Mac OS 8.5
A set of Application Launching tests were performed on the Wallstreet
PowerBook G3 used to produce the first set of benchmarks, featured
above. The results are unbelievable. Mac OS 8.5 features drastic
improvements in Application Launching due to a new caching method.
All tests below were performed on both Mac OS 8.1, and Mac OS
8.5. The applications launched under Mac OS 8.5 had been launched
one time prior, enabling them to take full advantage of Mac OS
8.5. All times are in seconds. Launch times were practically chopped
in half with Mac OS 8.5, and in some cases, even more some.
It's expected that Mac OS 8.5 will undergo final optimization
just prior to being deemed Golden Master. At this time, we'll
do our best to provide you with a final set of benchmark tests
from the final version prior to its release. Tune in Monday for
our report on Mac OS 8.5 beta 6.
For more information on Mac OS 8.5, and a full list of features,
check out our Mac OS 8.5 Information Archive.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
Our track record for the past two weeks turned out not half bad.
Apple's announcements followed our reports rather closely, with a minor discrepancy
regarding the Pro Model configurations which no one can quite
figure out. Apple also announced the FireWire kit, the availability of 256MB DIMMS, qualified 3rd party expansion chassis, and even the DVD video kit which includes the advanced personality card that will perform
the MPEG decoding for DVD Video Playback; all of which we told
you about last week.
In addition, yesterday Apple announced the plans for its iMac advertising campaign (their largest campaign ever), the same campaign we told you
about on Monday. The press release has all the details (which closely follow
those mentioned in our reports).
The G3 Servers and the 366MHz version of the Power Macintosh Pro models were
not announced, however a couple of resellers claim that they have
366MHz models in stock. Regardless of the pricing on the 333MHz
model stated in Apple's Press Release, resellers are offering
the 333MHz model (and all the other configurations) at the pricing we listed earlier.
(See Cyberian Outpost and MacWarehouse (who also have a listing of the 366MHz model at the pricing we
specified last week)). Apparently someone screwed up somewhere.
All of Apple's resellers received information identical ours.
Sources report that the 333MHz and 366MHz versions will remain in extremely limited quantities
until the iMac demand dwindles. The G3 Servers should become available
at this time as well. Apple also confirmed that these were indeed
the "Silk" line of Pro models (notice the file name of the press release "12silk.html").
Speaking of the iMac, MacMall has a waiting list of over 1000 customers as of 4pm yesterday
afternoon. When asked for an expected ship date they stated 2
weeks to 3 months! Holy Cows Milk! Other sources state that it
will take Apple several months to meet the demand with supply.
For Apple's sake, we'll go with the saying "It's just like any
new product."
Our lavish display of arrogance will now come to close. You have
a good day too now, you hear?
| Apple's PowerBook Plans |
The Disaster
Rumors regarding the demise of the PowerBook G3 292MHz configuration
have been widespread in recent weeks. Sources from around the
globe have written in to confirm the situation, and then some.
According sources in Apple Retail, the PowerBook G3 292 has been
end-of-lifed due to an abundance of production problems which
include scarce quantities of both the 292MHz G3 Processor and
14.1 screen modules. The situation appears to stem further, however,
with representatives at major resale chains claiming that they
can no longer place orders for the 250MHz configuration as well.
Apparently Apple has discontinued both the 250MHz and 292MHz configurations,
preventing resellers from placing orders for additional stock.
Contacts at Apple state that Apple has backorders in the thousands
for both the 250MHz and 292MHz configurations. As mentioned in
previous reports, Apple's main priority at this point in time
is the iMac, with all three of their production plants producing
nothing but the iMac. This, in conjunction with the numerous production
problems, have led Reality sources to doubt that Apple will ever
fill the entirety of its backorders on the PowerBook G3 Series,
resulting in a cancellations across the board.
Hey, at least the ones that did make it to market didn't burst
into flames...
New PowerBooks by Fall
To compliment the rumors mentioned above, sources have been touting
a 333MHz configuration which will temporarily take the high-end
configuration seat in Apple's PowerBook product line. Expected
to be available as soon as possible, the 333MHz configurations
should sport identical hardware specifics to the 292MHz configuration
at a new low cost.
Following the 333MHz configuration, some time later, will be a
version of the PowerBook G3 Series running at 375MHz, according
to sources. (It is important to note that there will be no PowerBook
G3 Series running at 366MHz because the high-end configurations
are running at a bus speed of 83MHz. It would be quite unorthodox
for Apple to bump the bus speed down to 66MHz on their high-end
configuration to accommodate the 366MHz chip.) Though the 375MHz
version of PowerPC G3 chip has yet to be announced, both the 333MHz
and 375MHz configurations of the speed bumped PowerBook G3 will
feature Motorola's new low-voltage chips. The new low-power chips
will do much to boost PowerBook battery life, not to mention run
cooler than the current version of the PowerBook G3 Series running
at the 250 and 292MHz
Both models are expected to be introduced with cost significantly
less than their predecessors.
Manta Hardware for Future PowerBook G3 Systems?
Sources close to PowerBook engineering have run by us with a variety
of rumors as of late. The most interesting of the bunch deals
with multiple resolution support on future versions of the PowerBook
G3 Series. Anyone who owns a PowerBook G3 Series will notice that
the standard 1024 x 768 resolution is actually the only supported
resolution. We've been using a PowerBook G3 Series for quite sometime
and have found this to be one of our very few gripes. Though there
are ways (which we dare not venture into) to force a resolution
change, there is no direct hardware support for multiple resolutions.
Sources have been quoted stating that future versions of the PowerBook
G3 will support multiple resolutions via the addition of Manta
hardware. Manta, for those who don't know, was the code name for
the Apple Studio Display/Apple Studio Display HW. We are seeking
confirmation on this tidbit and hope to publish an update sooner
or later.
PowerBooks In 1999
The next major leap for the PowerBook G3 Series will take place
in January of 1999 (or quarter 1 to stay on the safe side) with
the introduction of the PowerBook G3 running at speeds of 415MHz
with a faster system bus, and dual onboard USB ports. Sources
state that these versions of the PowerBook G3 will ship with the
next-generation Lithium Ion battery expected to boosted PowerBook
battery life to the next level. These versions of the PowerBook
G3 will run cooler than current versions as well.
Among the other rumored features of the next-generation PowerBook
G3 are standard DVD and Zip drives in some of the high-end configurations,
UltraDMA drives, and "standard" RAM.
One rumor which we are quite skeptical of is that regarding a
single PCI slot onboard the new PowerBook G3s. Though this rumor
has been present on our Apple Hardware Information Archive for some times, it has not been openly discussed for obvious
reasons. Sources state the PCI slot (or PCI Compatible) will accept
the existing graphics cards (5"). Though we've received no confirmation
whatsoever on this rumor, the original source of the rumor claims
that it is a definite 'go' for the 99 PowerBook.
Moving down the line from probable to ridiculous, we land at the
rumored 15.1" screen. Yeah... Apparently this version of the PowerBook
G3 will feature two side view mirrors, handbrakes, and an ejectable
porta-poddy.
All future versions of the PowerBook G3 are said to set new records
in terms of price per performance ratio. The new machines will
put their Pentium counterparts to shame.
"Welcome, Intel. Seriously."
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
| Huge iMac Advertising Campaign Around the Corner |
Sources from within Chiat-Day headquarters leaked integral portions
of the iMac advertising campaign to us back in May, long before
Macworld, and long before we saw the first poster ad. We're slapping
ourselves now, as we possessed this information months ago, but
then again, who knew? Who knew Jobs would plastic NYC with iMac
posters in July?
Billboards & Poster Ads
The iMac still advertisement campaign will be similar to original
Think Different Campaign. Apple will be producing Billboards with
the side view of the iMac on the left, and in-your-face quotes
on the right. The bondi blue Apple logo will accompany every iMac
ad as well. Some of the quotes to be placed alongside the iMac,
which were jotted down during talks with our sources, include:
"Save a tree. Send an e-mail"
and
"Mental floss"
In addition, "Sorry, No Beige.", "Chic, not geek.", "I think,
therefore iMac." and "Sleek Preview." will be among the 20 somewhat
sayings Apple will use in its numerous billboard and poster ads.
Bus stop and poster ads have been seen sporting a view of the
back of the iMac, with the accompanying quote touting the fact
that the back of the iMac looks better than the front of its competitor.
Several iMac Posters will feature an image of either the side
view or back of the iMac, and the blue "Think Different" quote
alongside a bondi blue Apple Logo.
iMac Billboard Markup
Print Ads
According to sources at Chiat-Day, Apple's print ads will feature
everything from a birds eye view of the iMacs mouse, to an ad
which features a phone jack on the left and an iMac on the right
with a telephone overlying the iMac. (A similar ad features a
power outlet on the left with a coffee maker overlying the iMac
on the right.).
Other print and magazine ads will focus on the iMac's simplicity,
its feature set, and cost.
iMac Commercials
While sources would not go into detail about the iMac television
spots, they did mention that there would be a multitude of them.
The initial iMac television ad will feature the iMac in all its
glamour and glory. Just in your face, come and get it kind of
stuff. The variety of television spots will mention that the iMac
is faster than the most powerful PC you can buy, that it's simple
to set up, and that it only cost a modest $1299 dollars.
Apple is also working at turning its simplicity shoot-out video
into 60 second commercial.
I'm sure we could dig further and uncover a gold mine, but with
only 5 days left it's better to just sit back, relax, and let
Apple unfold its plan. Look for a press release about the iMac
advertising campaign on the eve of the iMac launch with television
spot on the 15th.
Apple declined to comment.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
| DVD Playback for "Silk" Power Macintosh G3s? |
What is "Silk" Exactly?
In talks with MacOSRumors we picked up the "Silk" code name, which was previously deemed
to be the code name of a set of Power Macintosh G3s with a 4 slot
motherboard. Over the weekend, sources within Cupertino helped
clear up this little misconception. Apparently the "Silk" code
name refers to none other than the set of speed bumped Power Macintosh
G3s due out on August 12th. The same machines we've been reporting
on for some time now.
On Thursday we totally revealed Apple's hardware plans for the month of August.
DVD Playback for Silk?
Recently, Reality received a tip that the Silk machines due on
August 12 would be able to play DVD Movies on the fly due to the
addition of MPEG decoding hardware on the personality card of
the new machines. Though this has yet to be fully confirmed, contacts
say that the feature had been planed some time ago.
Of course users who would like to take advantage of the new hardware
will have to purchase a 3rd party DVD drive, or custom configure
a system at the Apple Online Store.
We'll have to wait till Wednesday to find out if this rumor plays
out.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
Recent Reports
New Apple Hardware in August!
New Apple G3 Servers Revealed!
Mac OS 8.5b5 Update Seeded
Mac OS 8.5b4 Inside Report
Apple's Consumer Portable Will Morph?
Unreleased iMac Radio Spots
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