As the Apple Turns: Scene 4776: Dressing On The Side, Please (6/23/04)

Dressing On The Side, Please (6/23/04)

Wait, the Worldwide Developers Conference is next week? How the heck did that sneak up on us? We knew that it's slated to kick off on the 28th, and we knew that today's the 23rd, but somehow we just never did the subtraction; we suppose that we've been anxiously awaiting the Tigeriffic Stevenote for so long, WWDC had just nestled so cozily into a spot in our brains labeled "Far Off Happy Things To Look Forward To" that we just never really figured it'd actually arrive. Jeez, now we're way behind-- how are we supposed to cram all of our pre-Stevenote speculation into a mere five days? Someone put some coffee on...

Oh, wait, never mind-- no need to panic. We forgot all about MacRumors's traditional avant-Steve rumor roundup, which harvests all of the more prominent bits of product speculation sprouting up hither and thither and conveniently tosses them together into a nice, big Rumor Salad (now with crunchy Speculation croutons!). And that's good, because we need a reference point from which to start, now that the whole "3 GHz G5" thing crashed and burned right into the possibility of a further Power Mac announcement come Monday and took the prospect of an imminent PowerBook G5 right along with it. (It's become a nightly ritual around here to kneel on the lawn, raise our hands pleadingly to the heavens, and shout "Boger! BOGERRRRRRR!!!" in our best William Shatner voice.)

So with Power Macs and PowerBooks out of the picture, what is on the horizon? Well, for one thing, there are those new aluminum displays that may finally end ten months of clashing pinstripes and polka dots; the latest rumors indicate that Apple will also be dropping the 17-inch screen and moving to a 20-/23-/30-inch lineup, with the "low-end" (!) 20-incher going for $999. As far as new Macs go, the buzz continues about a possible iMac G5, which is odd, since that's another long-awaited product that had its likelihood slashed to ribbons by Boger's comments when he said that sticking a G5 into an iMac "would be a heck of a challenge" and that it was "the same story" as with the PowerBook G5 that we shouldn't expect "before the end of the year." But apparently hope springs eternal; gee, maybe we'll get other Bogernated products as well, like the PowerBook G5 and a dual-3.0 GHz Power Mac!

Rounding out the rumors are whispers of "hangable and interactive displays," a further "partnership with TiVo," and "AirTunes-enabled iPod technology," which is all spiffy stuff. There's just one problem: as of yet, there's been no mention of a webcast of the event, or even a satellite broadcast that'll be picked up at theater-equipped Apple retail stores. Back when WWDC was "just" WWDC, that never surprised anyone, since a keynote at a developers' conference wasn't likely to stir the imaginations of the general public. But since Steve's taken pains in recent years to turn his annual WWDC keynote address into a permanent replacement for his now-defunct summer Macworld Expo speech, topics of a decidedly general interest (such as last year's Power Mac G5 launch) have become routine. Without a broadcast, though, we have to consider the possibility that the only new product we'll see next Monday will be Tiger itself.

Oh, and just a reminder, folks; this particular Rumor Salad deals exclusively with speculation about new products, not Stevenote rumors in general. As such, you shouldn't read anything into the absence of the widespread rumor that Steve has chosen this event as his occasion to unmask and reveal his true identity as Xlurrgh'lx, Overlord and High Commander of the Mighty Viscous Slug Beings of Zosma 3, before inviting all Mac users to join him aboard his battle cruiser before he liquefies the remaining Earth population to feed to his planet's cattle. Because that one's practically a lock.

SceneLink (4776)

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From the writer/creator of AtAT, a Pandemic Dad Joke taken WAYYYYYY too far

The above scene was taken from the 6/23/04 episode:

June 23, 2004: Apple sells 800,000 songs in Europe in the iTMS's first week over there. Meanwhile, with just five days left before WWDC, rumors start to crystallize-- including one about an imminent iMac G5 in a whole new enclosure...

Other scenes from that episode:

4775: Oh, As If You Hadn't Guessed (6/23/04) Talk about getting out while the getting's good. Remember when we told you yesterday that European downloadable music bigwig OD2 had all but fled the market by selling itself to Loudeye? Instead of sticking around to duke it out with the recent flood of song-selling newcomers on OD2's European turf, the company opted to become Loudeye's European division that builds music download sites for other companies-- which was, given the circumstances, a stroke of sheer mercenary brilliance...
4777: It's Called "Organic Design" (6/23/04) Speaking of those rampant iMac G5 rumors, we should probably clarify that while Apple's Tom Boger did, in fact, tell MacCentral that wedging a G5 into an iMac form factor would be "a heck of a challenge" on par with the creation of the PowerBook G5, and he did tell us not to expect a PowerBook G5 before 2005, he never explicitly stated that the iMac was a next-year product as well...

Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast...


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