This post is coming a little late But I wanted to get everyone's input as to what they think on all of this.

A few months back I was at a party and started talking to a guy who works for a supplier of Apple (I won't disclose the company so don't ask).

Any way I asked him if he knows what Apple has put on the table. He wouldn't say much (probably for fear of leaks and his job) but here's what he did tell me:

He was right on about FireWire 800.

200 GB HD's in PowerMac's.

And also he hinted that Apple's working on some type of Multi-Media device like the iPod.

That's all I can report. Any thoughts on this?

If you read MacWhispers.com's article on where rumours come from, the person you are talking about is part of the category of rumour sources that is most reliable. Some suppliers spend the effort it takes to keep their employees quiet about sensitive information like that. Some don't, which I believe is unfortunate for Apple and their suppliers, although others might disagree. A little info leaks out here and there, and all those pieces add up to a clear picture sometimes. It's amazing how much of a surprise the mini and giant powerbooks were. I always think it's fun to speculate, but I do not do so except in my own mind, given the fact that I work for Motorola Semiconductor. Nothing is worth betraying the confidence of the people you work with or your customers.

The biggest issue here is the way Steve Jobs runs Apple.

Steve has ALWAYS been secretive about new products. In some ways rightly so. Since Apple is small-potatoes in the computer industry Steve relies on big press releases to get the attention of the media. He knows this and works it to his advantage.

The "old" Apple used to leak like a seive and this was because msot the R&D inside Apple never made it out of the labs. The employees would leak info because that was the only way to get their work known.

These days Steve rules with an iron fist. Apple purposely uses different code-names for projects inside Apple to track leaks as well as use disinformation. If you want an example I'll give you in a followup post.
Even Apple's suppliers are told to keep a lid on things (ATI seems to have some problems with this). If they don't then Steve will pull the contract. He's done it tons of times. ATI is just the latest to feel the rath of Jobs.

Rumors these days only serve to create an unrealistic anticipation that Apple most likely cannot acheive. This is why Steve put the kybosh on MacWorld passes for publications that ran rumors of Apple products last July. The are trying to keep expectations low so they look better.

Myself and others would love nothing more than for Apple to regain the CPU speed performance crown but realistically it won't happen. That race has been lost and we're hopelessly behind. 64-bit CPUs will only help us if we can get software that will take advanatage of it. Never underestimate Intel. Even if they don't have anything soon for 64-bit chips for the desktop yet, they will quickly scale Itaniuim and others down to compete. We just have a bit of a lead aling with AMD.

Apple knows this and while they do improve on thier machines, they know the best way to sell Macs is to have "kick-ass" software that highlights its advantages.

MacGenius, as the "soon to be newest owner of a Mac" in ehMacLand (someday soon, as the song goes), you are quite accurate in your comment that "...the best way to sell Macs is to have "kick-ass" software that highlights its advantages". I tell people that have tried to talk me out of a Mac and back in to a Wintel computer "Show me the software that is as easy to utilize as iPhoto, iMovie and iDVD?" I am not so much of a "switcher" as one who is returning home to the flock.

I have a rumor for you all as well.

A friend of mine who is in the senior ranks of Intel Canada, came back from an Intel conference a couple of weeks ago. I asked him how it was, in the past he gone to some very interesting spots, and he said that Steve Jobs was the keynote speaker. Of course this peaked my interest. But he wouldn’t answer any question with regard to any relationship between Intel and Apple coming up in the future. He just smiled gave me a wink and said he’s not allowed to talk about it.

I think it’s odd because in the past he’s been forthcoming with information, but this time he’s quiet except for saying Steve Jobs was the keynote speaker.

I don’t know but maybe?

Hmmm.... why would Jobs keynote at an Intel conference? There is simply no way to keep that quiet. If Apple was switching to Intel chips, it would take years of careful planning and leaks would surely put a damper on current product sales. Pulling Mac on Intel out of the hat would be a huge story though and has lots of potential advantages (since Apple would have to provide on-going support for PowerPC), not only in terms of perception of the MHz gap.

Interesting. With relations between Intel and Microsoft being rather strained and OS X being the way to bring Unix to the desktop (and also letting companies make money), the next year should be fun.

Most intriguing news indeed... [img]smile.gif[/img]

Well, we all know Steve jobs is up to something... [img]smile.gif[/img]

SomeNSome, I got this from MacDailyNews. Maybe this is what your friend is talking about:

Pixar switches from Sun to Intel

Saturday, February 08, 2003 - 01:17 AM EST

ar Animation Studios, which brought the world Monsters Inc. and Toy Story, is switching from Sun Microsystems to Intel, as the melodrama in the server market heats up. The Emeryville, Calif.-based film studio is replacing servers from Sun in its render farm--a bank of servers that fuses artists' images into finished film frames--with eight new blade servers from Rackspace. In all, the blade system contains 1,024 Intel 2.8GHz Xeon processors, and it runs the open-source Linux operating system. Pixar installed the Rackspace system over the previous six months and will use it to develop its next film, The Incredibles, which will likely hit theaters in 2004.

The Pixar deal comes amid a spate of shuttle diplomacy taking place between Intel and Apple Computer. Both Pixar and Apple share the same CEO, Steve Jobs. At Macworld in January, Intel President Paul Otellini sat in the front row for Steve Jobs' keynote as a VIP guest of Apple. Jobs also gave Otellini a tour of the show floor. Later in January, Jobs delivered the morning keynote address at Intel's annual sales conference in Las Vegas. 'Andy (Grove) always tries to bring someone in from the outside,' said an Intel representative. 'Andy has always thought of Steve as being a quite a creative force in the industry.' The Intel chairman and Apple's CEO are, in fact, old friends. Still, "I'm sure one of the reasons he did it was for the shock value," the representative said," reports Michael Kanellos for CNET.

Here's the link related to the full article mentioned above Pixar switches from Sun to Intel.

Very interesting. Perhaps foreshadowing of things to come down the line?

Doubt it. It looks like its just related to the Pixar rendering farm. Doubt it foreshadows anything for Apple but its revealing that X-serves aren't competitive for this sort of application (nor is Windows for that matter).