Fake PowerBook G5 Press Release

[SiliconAddict]

You know, I find it interesting that there seems to be somewhat of an echo in here. I remember just before the G4 PBs were released that there were a lot of people who were saying that the G4 would never be cool enough to put in a laptop, and that we'd have to wait for some derivative of the G3 for the next generation of the PowerBooks. Then, a couple years after the release of the G4 towers, the G4 PBs were released.

Welcome to the growing trend of Apple user know-it-alls. It appears that everyone who visits Macrumors has the inside scoop as to what is happening at Apple. We see this time and again. We saw it when the iPod Photo came out. How many said it would NEVER happen. We saw this when the shuffle came out. How many more said that would never happen. Now for the last two years we've been hearing the same crap from people about the G5. Its too hot! Its two hot. Maybe two years ago it was. Anyone want to bet if it still is? Every year its "There is no way we are going to see it this year. Wait until WWDC next year." We its been two years and here we are again. Same people. It won't happen until 2006. You are right. Something has to give. Apple knows they are pretty much screwed when it comes to sales. Esp now that dual core Pentium M's are prob just short of a year away. Apple can't have been spending all this time on their indoor putt-putt golf course dicking around. They must be doing something in their R&D other then whipping up Mac Mini's and iPod Shuffles because lets get real here for a second. That is pretty much ALL that's been introed in the last 2 years. Unless you call a water cooled G5 some massive leap in forward momentum which I sure as heck don't. Apple's got something out there. Wait.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

Welcome to the growing trend of Apple user know-it-alls. It appears that everyone who visits Macrumors has the inside scoop as to what is happening at Apple. We see this time and again. We saw it when the iPod Photo came out. How many said it would NEVER happen. We saw this when the shuffle came out. How many more said that would never happen. Now for the last two years we've been hearing the same crap from people about the G5. Its too hot! Its two hot. Maybe two years ago it was. Anyone want to bet if it still is? Every year its "There is no way we are going to see it this year. Wait until WWDC next year." We its been two years and here we are again. Same people. It won't happen until 2006. You are right. Something has to give. Apple knows they are pretty much screwed when it comes to sales. Esp now that dual core Pentium M's are prob just short of a year away. Apple can't have been spending all this time on their indoor putt-putt golf course dicking around. They must be doing something in their R&D other then whipping up Mac Mini's and iPod Shuffles because lets get real here for a second. That is pretty much ALL that's been introed in the last 2 years. Unless you call a water cooled G5 some massive leap in forward momentium which I sure as heck don't. Apple's got something out there. Wait.

I couldn't have said it better myself. Great post, SiliconAddict!

 

[sacear]

Now if only somebody would release some pics of a "G5 PB" in an elevator, that would complete it

In an elevator? Why? What am I not getting here?

 

[afields]

Sad. Now macrumors is posting things they already know are fake. Slow news week, eh? Sheesh.

 

[nagromme]

We see this time and again.

Good points. I've doubted Apple and been wrong myself (I never expected the Mac Mini to come in under $500).

I prefer not to get my hopes up, in part. But remember when we were all awaiting the G4? Rumors all said delay, delay, delay... Motorola won't have it until next year. And in THAT rumor climate, Apple dropped the PowerMac G4 out of the blue, shipping immediately. Apple's gotten even better about keeping secrets since then.

I do think it's too soon for a new PowerBook to be likely this week, and I do think the issues with G5 portability may well not be solved yet. It's not in Apple's control as much as IBM's. Rumor discussion is all about such speculation--I don't claim to know, but I can make educated guesses.

I also agree that Apple hasn't just been sitting and doing nothing. Despite the constraints from IBM, they've certainly been doing SOMETHING. Freescale? Biting the bullet and adding a thicker G5 laptop while retaining the slim G4s too? Something else entirely? Some backup plan that might take months to finish... or might be ready in early summer?

So even if the G5 isn't ready for PowerBooks as we know them--and that's no more than a guess anyway--I don't think PowerBooks are stuck in their tracks.

But even with the CURRENT PowerBooks, I don't think you're right to say that Apple's sales are poor. Poorer than they could be with a G5, yes, but I've read a couple places recently that at a time Apple sales are doing well in general, PowerBooks in particular are selling very well now (along with iMacs... and maybe Mac Minis).

That could well be true: PowerBooks are THE best laptop solution on the planet for many, many people--myself included--right now. We'd all love PowerBooks to have G5s (or something), but as it stands, they're a great OS in a slim package with a great feature list. Raw GHz isn't always the top priority for mobile users, and Windows isn't always "good enough."

 

[sacear]

Unless you call a water cooled G5 some massive leap in forward momentium which I sure as heck don't.

Is the liquid they use water? Seems like water would not cool down, condense, and change states fast enough in that small of a system. Seems they would use some kind of coolant liquid that has a higher boiling point and cools down faster than water.

 

[BWhaler]

Apple has no choice but to update the power book line up because the ibook are in desperate need of updating as well. I see a g5 pb around the corner, i mean we have been complaining about this for over a year. No speculation about WWDC makes me think G5 PB, G5 mini-high end but keeping the G4 mini for the lower end etc... they will start doing these thing i hope

All the complaining in the world don't make the heat issues magically disappear.

You could have a G5 notebook today. Nobody would buy it. The heat. The size. The weight. The 1.5 hour battery life.

Engineering takes time, and Apple needs IBM to do most of it. Apple is not "holding-out" on us.

 

[Chaszmyr]

That's not even a remotely convincing fake.

 

[shidoshi]

In an elevator? Why? What am I not getting here?

There have been at least a few "sneak" sets of pics taken of new Mac hardware in an elevator, from what I remember. I think such pics existed for both the iHome and a new Apple tablet, though I might be thinking of the same set of pics.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Is the liquid they use water? Seems like water would not cool down, condense, and change states fast enough in that small of a system. Seems they would use some kind of coolant liquid that has a higher boiling point and cools down faster than water.

No its not water. I use that term very loosely. Sorry. Liquid cooled would be more accurate. The stuff, from what I understand, has more akin to a slushy antifreeze then water.

 

[SiliconAddict]

All the complaining in the world don't make the heat issues magically disappear.

You could have a G5 notebook today. Nobody would buy it. The heat. The size. The weight. The 1.5 hour battery life.

Ahhh and you've been running the G5 PowerBook prototype so you know this for certain. God people stop talking out of you rear orifices. NO one other then prob a hand full of engineers, designers, and execs knows the state of the next gen PowerBook. It could be a new G3 IBM chip with cell components bolted on, it could be a scaled down G5, it could be a Freescale, it could be a dual CPU G4. NO ON knows. So please stop the insanity.

Engineering takes time, and Apple needs IBM to do most of it. Apple is not "holding-out" on us.

So what? How much time? 2 years? 4 years? 6 years? For all we know the next PowerBook was done 6 months ago but Freescale or IBM was having problems delivering chips in quantity. That is why the whisper of a G5 PowerBook is so tempting. Its been probably close to 3 years since the G5 was finished being designed and 2 years since it entered the market. How much time does it take to design a CPU? There have been a number of designs on the board for IBM and Freescale any one of which could show up in the next PowerBook. Making wild assumptions at this point about it NOT happening til next year is about as valid as saying it will show up next Monday. The simple fact is everyone, including me, is blowing hot air at this point.

 

[aznsal612]

The simple fact is everyone, including me, is blowing hot air at this point.

Seriously. When it comes to rumours, everyone acts like they're a know-it-all.

But it's damn entertaining reading everyone's reiteration of the same ol' facts that we all already have access to.

 

[corywoolf]

Only 64 mb graphics card in the 12 in Powerbook and an tiny 80 meg drive. What was Apple thinking? At least they finally added backlight to the 12 inch Powerbook but I think I'll wait for revision b.

show me where it says they added a backlight to the 12" PB keyboard.

 

[sacear]

show me where it says they added a backlight to the 12" PB keyboard.

I think Passante was being sarcastic.

 

[cb911]

hoattt dammnnn!!!

i nearly fell off my chair when i read this on Gizmodo...

well makes sense that it was a fake article/press release. but these things don't necessarily mean that it's not true. i remember a while ago a story was published on numerous Mac Rumor sites about something... however it was literally a story of someone in a bar in the Silicon Valley about people talking about fututre Apple hardware/releases. people can't just go about blabbing facts due to the NDA's...

but i don't think anyone knows really what to expect... G5 or that hott new G4 that's been in the works? either would suit me just fine. but to be here anytime soon...

 

[magi.sys]

Stick with Freescale fore mobile

I think Apple should just stick with Freescale for mobile chips. IBM makes great chips, but they are server/workstation chips. But Freescale needs to hurry with the 64bit chip they're working on. That's when I'll upgrade my Powerbook. Maybe they'll call the 64bit Freescale chip G5M (m for mobile) or something.

 

[dejo]

show me where it says they added a backlight to the 12" PB keyboard.

Check out the second-last bullet-point for the 12-inch PowerBook. It says "optional backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor". Now, was that so hard?

 

[Snowy_River]

Seriously. When it comes to rumours, everyone acts like they're a know-it-all.

But it's damn entertaining reading everyone's reiteration of the same ol' facts that we all already have access to.

Well, what's especially entertaining about it is that these were facts that were true 6 or 12 or 24 months ago. We don't know what the facts are today. That's one of the fundamental truths in a game like this one. We can guess about what the facts are today, and we can talk about the facts from yesterday. I just get bugged by people who spout their guesses (which are remarkably close to the facts as they were yesterday) as if they were the facts of today.

I, for one, am comfortable using my current computer until a new computer that will really inspire me comes along. Right now, the best I could do would be to about double the G4 clock speed that I'm running at (867 MHz). While that would be a substantial leap, it still feels like we're on the doorstep of an even more substantial leap, and I'd like to wait and catch that wave instead...

 

[MarkCollette]

All I can say, is that Apple better release a model like this soon. This would be a great system. I know that it is fake but this should be how the next PB should be (from the fakesite).

The 2.0 GHz, 15-inch PowerBook G5, for a suggested retail price of $1,999 (US), includes:

* a 1680x1050 HD widescreen LCD;
* a Combo (DVD-ROM/CD-RW) optical drive;
* 512MB of 400MHz DDR2 SDRAM;
* ATI Radeon Mobility x600 128MB video card;
* AirPort Extreme wireless networking and internal Bluetooth 2.0;
* DVI, VGA, S-video and composite video support;
* three USB 2.0 ports, two FireWire 400, FireWire 800
* backlit keyboard with ambient light sensor; and
* an 80GB Ultra ATA/100 hard drive.

If you look at the PC market, they already have laptops like these and more powerful except for the G5 chip. So if they update the Powerbook they had better be similar to the ones on that fake site or Apple will be in trouble.

Why a combo drive? In desktops the DVD burners sell for the same price that CD burners did when they became ubiquitous. Why don't all notebooks use DVD burners?

 

[nms]

I decided to switch to apple when the G5 Powerbook came out...now that was so long ago i can't even remember WHY i made that decision....i think it had something to do with the fact the best software i found for video editing was Windows Movie Maker or Premiere. I detested both...iMovie defecates all over the windows alternative....but i digress.

I'm still waiting for the G5 Powerbook and my dad has agreed to buy it for me (score!) but a couple of months ago i bought a mini to ease the transition time, and to get used to the lovely OS. I am now less desperate to get the G5 Powerbook, but will get one when it comes out. In my personal experience, and don't flame me for getting this wrong, but I think the majority of people that want a G5PB haven't upgraded their systems for a while...and therefore crave the new PB like *-thinks of rubbish 3 second analogy-* a pregnant woman craves gherkin ice cream.

God that WAS a load of crap wasn't it. Oh well. one more post closer to abolishing my newbie status....

 

[themacman]

i think the specs are off, but i think we will have some good pb news at wwdc

 

[x86isslow]

Why a combo drive? In desktops the DVD burners sell for the same price that CD burners did when they became ubiquitous. Why don't all notebooks use DVD burners?

notebook components tend to be smaller, which comes at a price.

 

[Bern]

I must say I fell for this fake It was actually posted in the official Apple Forum for about an hour the other night before the mods deleted it.

I innocently posted here that same night and was set upon by some underaged zealot.

 

[wrldwzrd89]

I actually missed this one completely. I didn't know it existed until I saw this thread. Therefore, I couldn't have possibly fallen for it.

 

[Mr Maui]

I must say I fell for this fake It was actually posted in the official Apple Forum for about an hour the other night before the mods deleted it.

I innocently posted here that same night and was set upon by some underaged zealot.

Don't take it personally Bern. It could have happened to anyone, and probably caught many others too. However, the typos throughout (especially in the head and subhead) should have been the big clues to its falsehood. I doubt Apple would ever let an announcement, especially a major one like that, go out in the condition of the one posted.