Home
Archives
Shop
Contact
January the 24th 2004
Follow-up on the G5 production : The year of the G5?
At the end of August I had posted a rumour that IBM was going use 0.06 process for its PowerPC 970 production by late 2003. My (known to be sure) source admited that he was a bit too optimistic about this information which was based on "very excited" sales IBM sources. IBM, indeed, started testing 0.06 process before the end of 2003 but had actually never intended to start mass production of such processors before late 2004!

However, there is another bit of interesting information in my later reports: according to reliable sources, Apple has ordered more than 500,000 0.09 G5 processors from IBM this quarter and it plans to order even more units per quarter throughout the year.

An Apple source confirming this report, added that we can expect Apple to get rid of the G4 processor sooner than expected. Another part of Apple's line of computers will switch to the G5 by next quarter and the whole line could be G5 based by early to mid 2005.

I think we can suppose that new PowerMacs and a new iMac will be released soon and will both be based upon the new PowerPC 970FX. Some rumour sites have reported imminent releases of either of these products and my sources tend to confirm this.

Another source pointed out that this move is supposed to reduce production costs of G5-based Macs and will even allow Apple to lower the pricing of it's products without having to reduce it's margins.

Several sites reported something big is coming as soon as on Monday. if it's true what's coming will probably be G5 based. Frankly I could not have any very sure information about that, but some reports have indicated Apple would release a 20th anniversary Mac or a new G5-based iMac with a special design soon. Anyway, I'm sure Apple will improve a lot the performance of its products during the year and I can't wait to see what my sources have missed.

January the 6th 2004
MacWorld SF Keynote coverage.
I finally didn't have the time to update the site before MacWorld as I had promissed. So today I'll try to make some coverage of the event for you.

Expected : iAppz revamp, new FC E/Pro, new Keynote version, new pro audio app, new cheaper iPods, an anniversary Mac and maybe an iTMS Canada store opening date.

Keynote has ended. PHOTO OF THE IPOD MINI HERE! Apple updated their site with pages dedicated to the iPod-mini here.

- Jobs talks about the anniversary of the Mac. Recaps the product line of Apple.

- iPod mini : 4Gb of storage, 1000 songs, 0.5 inch, $249, size of a business card, the same user interface as the classic iPod, supports FireWire & USB 2 (you can charge with both), Mac/PC compatible. Next month in the US, in april worldwide, in your favourite flavor.

- iPod : 15Gb iPod for the same price as 10Gb iPod announced. More tha 700 000 ipods sold last quuarter. Jobs talks about the iPod, numbers are given, 31% of te market share, new TV ad showed. Jobs talks about flash players.

- The 5 Appz are selling for $49 in iLife and are free with every new Mac.

- John Mayer is playing guitar. Steve Jobs is recording with GarageBand. Companion products, for GarageBand. More instruments for $99 and an USB Keyboard for $129. A video about iLife is showed.

- GarageBand : mix 64 tracks, 50 instruments, pre-recorded loops with automatic pitch, live recording, midi/usb keyboard support... John Mayer makes the demo.

- I can see a guitar icon on the dock... I don't know what it is! A new app? That's it! A new pro music app.

- iDVD : new themes, enhanced menus, enhanced slideshow, new transitions, pro encoding, navigation maps, up to 2 hours projects.

- iMovie : trim clips directly in the time line, alignement guides, enhanced, import video from iSight, sharing movies (through .Mac).

- iPhoto : now supports up to 25 000 thousand photos, adds time based organisation, smart album, speed improvements, ratings, rendezvous photo sharing, new transitions (like Keynote).

- iLife: Next generation version "iLife '04". Steve Jobs is going to demo it.

- iTunes: 30 million songs sold, Steve Jobs gives some numbers for the Music Store, 70% market share in Internet music sales, 50000 audio books, 100 000 gift certificates. Billboard charts feature added on the Music store. 12 000 classical tracks added, 500 000 songs available at all. Pepsi giveaway partnership is mentionned.

- xServe is going G5: single & dual 2Ghz G5 proessor, dual firewire ports, dual USB 2.0. New RAID as well with new features, until 3.5TB ($10 999).

- Jobs talks about the G5, mentions Virginia Tech super-cluster and compares it with the others. A video about the Virginia Tech super-computer project is showed.

- Microsoft rep is performing a demo of Microsoft Office 2004, just announced. New features: uses Quartz, audionotes, new layout options, project manager. Free upgrade to Office 2004 for buyers of current Office version, from today.

- Presentation of, just announced Final Cut Express 2: new effects, speed improvements.

- Jobs is giving some figures of Mac OS X migration, talks about application support and new applications available

- The keynote starts with Apples TV commercial 1984.

January the 1st 2004
Happy New Year!
MacosXrumors wishes you a happy new year. I believe this is going to be a strong year for Apple. It's definitely time for Apple to focus on getting back some market share and I'm sure they have lots of plans to achieve this. Updates are coming before MWSF so stay tuned!


Tools