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journal: mac
Rumors. Need I say more?
"Well, this is your lucky day! Deep Thought has a number of exclusive rumors to report"
It’s a soap opera that grips us for most of the year, but absolutely strangles (or smothers) us about this time every year. I speak of, of course, the Mac rumor mill. What would the lead-up to Macworld Expo be like without sites like Think Secret or AppleInsider churning out rumors of anything from Intel ‘Books to the possibility that ”Apple is up to something”? Probably about as exciting as shopping for motor oil.
Well, this is your lucky day! Deep Thought has a number of exclusive rumors to report!*
Apple to release ultra-compact all-in-one?
Perhaps following the vein of Apple’s newest product, The iPod Invisa (which was, oddly enough, unveiled on Saturday Night Live), an insider has sent Deep Thought conclusive evidence that Apple is preparing to launch a small all-in-one desktop Mac. Insiders sent a quick rough sketch of what the computer looks like:
Apparently Apple is continuing their habit of killing off obsolete technologies earlier than the rest of the industry with this new product, since it does not appear to have a hard drive, according to insider reports. Little else is known about this product.
Apple to unveil Fleetwood Mac special edition iPod?
In an attempt to cross-market Fleetwood Mac, the Mac, and the iPod, Apple is planning the release of a special Fleetwood Mac iPod, sources familiar with Apple’s plans inform us. The iPod comes complete with a certificate to download a copy of Rumors, which includes such hits as “Apple switching to x86?,” “New PowerBooks next Tuesday?,” as well as everyone’s sing-along favorite, “Apple to make cell phone?” and is accessible through any web browser. There is no word if Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album will be included, however.
Next Apple ads to feature boy raised by squirrels?
Deep Thought has received insider information that provides insight into Apple’s upcoming marketing plans. The an anonymous source sent us a QuickTime movie of what appears to be a rough cut of an upcoming live-action iPod ad. The ad features a teenage boy who was supposedly raised by a pack of wild squirrels. The boy looks ordinary enough--he appears to be around 16 years old--but exhibits the oddest behavior in the ad. The boy walks around the streets of San Francisco rocking out to some funky tunes and behaves normally until he comes to an intersection. Despite the signal being red, the boy runs out into Montgomery Street, stops abruptly and freezes in place with a startled look, darts back, stops, turns the other way, stops, sits in the middle of the street, eats some nuts, and causes a pileup as cars swerve around him. Apple made chattering sounds in lieu of comment. (Video removed at the request of Pilky, who ruptured his spleen due to laughing too hard--ow.)
Phil Schiller wears thongs?
In what may be a budding scandal in Apple’s management, Deep Thought has received exclusive photos from an anonymous tipster of Apple’s Phil Schiller dressed in a bright green thong:
(Photos removed at the request of Arden, who found them highly disturbing. *shudder*)
Boy, what fun! Who in their right mind would rather read about something as meaningful as patents when they can read the juciest rumors about Everybody’s Juciest Computer Company?
Last thing: being the English major I am, I wrote a short poem dedicated to that sweet nectar of the gods, that divine ambrosia that satisfies us fully: the Mac rumor.
Rumors doth abound,
Reality Distorted,
PowerBooks Tuesday!
*Yes, in case you haven’t quite caught on, this is satire and should only be taken as such.
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39 | 3578 |
| Nick | comments | views |
thinkback
Has this place completely turned into a Mac site now? Where’s the CES coverage? I notice all the “Site We Like” are all Mac sites as well. No Anadtech, Extremetech, Tom’s Hardware, Channel9, OSNews, or even Slashdot.
| Jan. 04, 2006 | ||
| 10:28 pm |
One of us lives in the Bay Area. None of us lives in Las Vegas. And we are all students.
| Jan. 04, 2006 | |
| 10:35 pm |
Well, Kuaidang, we’re always looking for writers. Hint hint… 
Rafe’s explains it best. If we could afford to fly people to Vegas and if we had a larger staff, I’m sure we would have some CES coverage.
Anyway, this isn’t really the best place to air such criticisms. Site criticisms and comments belong here: http://www.dtgeeks.com/index.php/forums/vie wforum/4/
| Nick | Jan. 04, 2006 | |
| 11:11 pm |
I’ve actually be thinking of writing a Vista 5270 review (since ti’s the last build we’ll see before feb.) that covers many of the things other reviews have missed.
I have a rather large write-up on WinFS and several other technologies as well.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 12:05 am |
WinFS? Gross! That stuff gives you the runs. Not too much Vista junk food either. Watch your diet and remember “an Apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Kuaidang, we are now taking member submissions to the features sections as well as the news and community soapbox, so feel free to contribute whatever you’d like.
Once I get comments to actually work with the X of the week logs, I’ll look into member submission forms as well.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | |
| Arden | 2:21 am |
And also, one of the admins here lives in the Bay Area, and one lives near the Bay Area. So Macworld coverage is definitely easier than CES.
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| Jan. 05, 2006 | |
| Arden | 2:40 am |
And also, one of the admins here lives in the Bay Area, and one lives near the Bay Area. So Macworld coverage is definitely easier than CES.
Okay, but I still find it interesting that there’s not a single word on this site about CES outside of this thread. You could just use your RSS feeder to bring you all the pictures and articles that others are writing about CES products. That’s mostly what Engadget and other sites do so they don’t have to cover everything themseleves.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 6:37 am |
WinFS? Gross! That stuff gives you the runs. Not too much Vista junk food either. Watch your diet and remember “an Apple a day keeps the doctor away.�
Eww. I don’t think you should be telling people to eat tiger.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | |
| Liam | 9:21 am |
Where’s the CES coverage?
Google has followed Apple’s trend and announced they are going to sell TV shows (CBS and ESPN mentioned) to own via download.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 11:13 am |
Okay, but I still find it interesting that there’s not a single word on this site about CES outside of this thread. You could just use your RSS feeder to bring you all the pictures and articles that others are writing about CES products. That’s mostly what Engadget and other sites do so they don’t have to cover everything themseleves.
Please… feel free to use the news, blog and feature submission forms to write something up about them.
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| Jan. 05, 2006 | |
| Arden | 12:37 pm |
Google has followed Apple’s trend and announced they are going to sell TV shows (CBS and ESPN mentioned) to own via download.
Yeah, because no one else ever sold tv and video content before Apple… :rolleyes
*Cough*Akimbo*cough*On Demand (over 1.5 billion shows and movies downloaded in the past 2 years)*TiVo downloads*MLB.com*NBA.com League Pass*DirectTV downloads*MSNTV*MovieLink*Cinemanow*Battlestar gallactica (free downloads)*AOLvideo* Media Center Online Showcase*cough
Haven’t we gone through this before and didn’t I even post a link to a story about NBC, ABC/Disney etc. working on deals to deliever their shows online and via On Demand before Apple released it’s service? Oh yeah, I did. :rolleyes
Again, the only semi-unique thing Apple has done is to format their content specifically for the portable screen (and thereby sacraficing PQ on any other playback device). But even that isn’t really unique because several companies made tv, movie, and video content formatted for PDA and PMC screens… and Sony’s UMD’s are formatted for PSP screens (over 250 different movies now).
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 7:18 pm |
Oh yeah,
The article didn’t mention “ESPN” but “NBA”. NBA games are broadcast on NBA TV, NBA League Pass, FSN, WGN, numerous other local channels, telemundo, ABC, ESPN 1 and 2, TBS, TNT, and ESPN Classic, among others.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 7:23 pm |
Haven’t we gone through this before and didn’t I even post a link to a story about NBC, ABC/Disney etc. working on deals to deliever their shows online and via On Demand before Apple released it’s service?
Did you? I missed it. I also missed that service being available when Apple launched their service and via the Internet.
At the time Apple launched their service, no other company was allowing me to purchase shows to own via the Internet.
Since then, Google has announced they are going to offer TV shows to own via download. Microsoft has announced TV content, but via subscription, which I actually would prefer.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 7:27 pm |
Are you talking about the article about how they were considering doing video on demand?
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 7:34 pm |
The only announcement I found from Comcast about TV shows via OnDemand was after Apple’s service launched.
Also, it’s not the same thing at all. One requires a subscription to Comcast cable, etc. The other lets me record commercial free shows via the Internet.
| Jan. 05, 2006 | ||
| 7:35 pm |
One thing you have to remember about Apple is that, more often than not, they don’t invent a new widget, application or service, but they do it right, and hence make it popular. Apple didn’t invent the GUI, but they made it popular; they didn’t invent the mouse, but they popularized it; they didn’t invent MP3 players, but they made it the must-have toy of the current millenium. The list is endless, and now we can add cheap, downloadable TV shows (that you own with only a couple strings) to the list of things that Apple didn’t invent but did make popular.
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| Jan. 06, 2006 | |
| Arden | 12:24 am |
Actually no.
One button mouse? Couldn’t get it right.
CRT/computer combo? Couldn’t get it right.
MP3 player? Still haven’t made a good one.
Future PDA? Nah.
But happy new year anyway.
He said they made them popular, not that they made the best one. I agree with him.
Saying something is garbage is all nice and good, but explaining your reasoning makes for a better discussion, really.
But again, there wasn’t anyone selling commercial free TV shows from any of the big 3 networks on the Internet before Apple, just like there wasn’t anyone selling songs to own from the big catalogs before iTMS. Correct me if I’m wrong.
| Jan. 06, 2006 | ||
| 9:53 am |
One thing you have to remember about Apple is that, more often than not, they don’t invent a new widget, application or service, but they do it right, and hence make it popular. Apple didn’t invent the GUI, but they made it popular; they didn’t invent the mouse, but they popularized it; they didn’t invent MP3 players, but they made it the must-have toy of the current millenium. The list is endless, and now we can add cheap, downloadable TV shows (that you own with only a couple strings) to the list of things that Apple didn’t invent but did make popular.
Actually, Bittorrent made downloadable TV shows popular.
At the time Apple launched their service, no other company was allowing me to purchase shows to own via the Internet.
AFAIK, no one outside of Apple is taking the download-to-own angle either now or in the forseeable future. NBC and CBS are planning to go through the On-Demand angle… Google TV, which was announced back in September, is limited time-only showings, Akimbo and Microsoft’s services are subscription based, Yahoo’s new service is On-demand based etc.
NBA League Pass and MLB.com are subscription and on deamnd as well.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/news/article.h tml?in_article_id=403998&in_page_id=2&ct =5
That was Google talking back in September about the service… they haven’t said anything at CES (AFAIK) about download to own TV shows and the word is that their service is not download to own (although you can sell your own videos on google video) but rental and subscription.
So again, you don’t know what you’re talking about because:
1. If you’re trying to say others are following Apple’s “download-to-own” trend for shows then you need to show someone else offering that business model. All the services we’ve mentioned don’t follow that model and the only ones that do have some kind of download-to-own (the BBC, Cinemanow, Movielink, Atomfilms etc.) were doing it long before Apple was doing it.
2. If you’re trying to say that Apple offering shows over the internet (irregradless of business model) is what people are following then I’ve already shown you the stuff about MSN Video/TV, BBC, Akimbo, NBA/MLB and probably 50 other different providers on MCE Online Showcase
that were doing so before Apple was.
So it comes down to this: No one wants to kill the mega profitable DVD or ad revenues so they are going to offer limited-time, On-Demand, and subscription services. Apple offers download-to own because they keep the resolutions low enough and the restrictions high enough (no DVD conversions or burning) that it shouldn’t affect DVD sales. Apple offers one model and everyone else is goign after the other models…
So what trend did Apple set? None. They took their own path.
that it
| Jan. 06, 2006 | ||
| 5:11 pm |
But again, there wasn’t anyone selling commercial free TV shows from any of the big 3 networks on the Internet before Apple
You are correct but you forgot to mention that the situation is still that no one is selling (download to own) commercial free TV shows from the big 3 networks nor has anyone else said that they want to do so.
| Jan. 06, 2006 | ||
| 5:15 pm |
Yet again, you are wrong.
http://www.tvweek.com/news.cms?newsId=9138
CBS is offering the most recent season of “Survivor” for $1.99 on a download-to-own basis, and will also offer classic TV shows such as “The Brady Bunch,” “I Love Lucy,” “Star Trek Voyager” and others for the same price.
$1.99? That sounds familiar.
| Jan. 06, 2006 | ||
| 6:33 pm |
1.
Yeah, the whole rumor frenzy is lame and old and just retarded. All of our speculation won’t change what’s going to happen, so we might as well just sit tight and wait (and save our brain cells).