Filed under: Desktops, Displays

With Apple’s “Showtime” event just around the corner and new minis and iMacs already on the market, there has been a surprising dearth of rumors surrounding the world-changing products that will inevitably be announced on Tuesday, so we’re here to fill that void with a juicy and plausible — but entirely unlikely — bit of dirt. The story goes like this: a gentleman calling himself “Jeff Foster” just happened to be working on his brand new blog (red flag #1) when a friend of his who supposedly just got a job as an Apple rep decided to endanger his newly-acquired position by sending Jeff some blurry cameraphone shots from inside the storied halls of Cupertino headquarters (red flag #2). All three images that Jeff “received” depict a previously unmentioned desktop called the “MacTower” (positioned the exact same way in each photo — red flag #3), with one of the snaps (pictured above) blowing the lid off an all-new 24-inch Cinema Display complete with built-in iSight camera. This MacTower — which looks almost exactly like the PowerMac G5 of old (red flag #4) — is presented as a little brother to the recently-released Mac Pro, and reportedly sports a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 4GB of 667MHz DDR2 RAM, hard drive capacity maxing out at 1.5TB, a 16x SuperDrive, and of course, Bluetooth 2.0 and AirPort Extreme radios standard. Despite the many inconsistencies that make Jeff’s story sound dubious at best, we decided to pass the info along so you all can have a nice Sunday picking it apart and screaming “Photoshop!” in the comments; oh, and Jeff, you’re welcome in advance for sending a little traffic over to your blog’s “very first post” (red flag #5).

Update: Red flag #6 (perhaps the biggest of them all): Several astute readers have pointed out that a commenter calling himself Jeff Foster made the following remarks in another rumor post we ran on the first of this month: “I really just want them to release a smaller tower… you know, so they’ll have a mac mini, imac, something like a Mac Tower, and mac pro…” Coincidence? We think not. For shame, Jeff, for shame.

Update #2: Red flag #…oh what the heck, when the faker comes right out and openly admits to his scam, all flags get tossed to the wind. From “Jeff Foster,” in the comments section of this very post: “It’s something i threw together last night a little out of boredom and a little out of, well, no, i guess totally out of boredom. just having a little fun.” Upon much deliberation, we’ve decided not to unlink Jeff’s site; however, if you’re sick and tired of these frauds gumming up the rumor mill with this purposely deceptive crap, we encourage you to follow the Read link and let Jeff know exactly what you think of his little “boredom project.”

[Thanks, Mike C.]

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Filed under: Gaming

As you’ve probably already discerned from the headline and the pictures themselves, the images above supposedly depict the demo kiosks that Sony and Nintendo will be setting up in retail locations to lure people into buying the PlayStation 3 and Wii, respectively. Since the photos are low-res, a little blurry, and of unknown origin, they have all the makings of a jolly good Internet hoax, but we’ll play along for now and assume that they’re the real deal. So, what new information can we glean about the upcoming consoles based on their respective kiosks? Well, by mounting the LCD so high, Sony is obviously targeting taller individuals with its marketing strategy, while Nintendo is going after the brainier crowd as evidenced by the lack of any informational pamphlets adorning its display. With all of this speculation swirling around, one thing is certain, though: tucked behind the Wii kiosk’s center column are a bevy of first aid kits, for the inevitable injuries that will occur when arm-swinging gamers collide with innocent passers-by in the impending blood baths sure to plague our favorite big box retailers.

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Transportation

Wouldn’t you know it, just when we’ve finally perfected riding our Segway HT180i without falling off every five seconds and skinning our knees, multiple reports are claiming that the company is poised to release a brand new version of the self-stabilizing human transporter as soon as tomorrow. A generous tipster sent us the exclusive photo you see here which supposedly depicts a model known as the i2 (Does the “i” indicate some sort of iPod integration? We couldn’t say, but everyone else is doing it these days.); the same tipster claims a so-called x2 Segway is also on the way. Since the only info we have on the supposed i2 is what we we can glean from the pics, well, we really don’t know very much at all — but another tipster is reporting that Segway reps told him tomorrow’s release will be “70% new and very different from the old models.” Don’t worry, we’re a bit confused too, but if our sources are on the money, we’ll be able to deliver you all the solid deets in less than a day’s time.

[Thanks Dignan17 and other]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

So word going around late this week was that the Zune, better known as Microsoft’s supposed iPod killer, is slated to ship without support for video. Yeah, you heard that right. According to a report on from the New York Post, “Microsoft called up some content providers and said the video portion of its Zune device… was being delayed.” (The other juicy tidbit was that they’d have ad-supported downloads, but that’s still unsubstantiated as far as we know.) Microsoft’s Zune PR, of course, provided us with the following statement with regards to the story: “We do not have product details to share at this time and as such cannot comment on rumors or speculation.” Then, on top of that TechWeb reported that Microsoft actually referred to the rumor as “speculative.” It’s all the standard fare non-denial denial, we know, but we still don’t have any strong reason to believe the Post’s report has any weight. Besides the fact that sources told us nothing of the like, Microsoft would effectively be committing Zune to launch failure this buying season if they trot it out into the market place not even as well equipped as your standard iPod. That is, after all, the point of Zune, right? To best the iPod in all the ways Apple’s been dragging its feet, and provide a viable alternative? It’s 2006, look at that device right up there. If you think that’s not going to have video, well, may god rest Zune’s soul.

[Via Macsimum News, thanks CoreyTheGent, Jon, and Conor]

Read – NY Post
Read – TechWeb

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Filed under: Desktops

We’re all getting a mite bit ill of the recurring Dell + AMD sitting in a tree, c-o-m-p-u-t-i-n-g rumor, but a bit more fuel’s been added to the fire by way of a supposed report out of China. According to Chinese paper the Commercial Times, it would appear Mitac and Quanta — two well known and respected manufacturers — have received orders for AMD equipped Dell machines to be prepped for the back to school buying season this September. Seems a bit late to tag this one as an impossibility; keep feeding fuel to the rumor blast furnace and eventually people will begin expecting these AMD-powered machines from Dell.

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Filed under: Home Entertainment

Nature abhors a vacuum, so now that the AMD/ATI deal has gone from rumor to reality, we're in dire need of another potential mega-merger to fill the void. Luckily for us, News Corp. owner and the real "king of all media" Rupert Murdoch recently made some tantalizing comments on the Charlie Rose Show that may indicate DirecTV's renewed interest in merging with Dish Network parent EchoStar. Although he obviously didn't come right out and say that the two companies were involved in talks of any sort, Murdoch did suggest that the television landscape has shifted enough since the last merger attempt in 2002 that "it would be much harder for the government to turn it down" this time around. However, he also cautioned that a deal would be difficult if EchoStar CEO Charlie Ergen -- whose clashes with News Corp. execs reportedly put the kibosh on merger talks all the way back in 1997 -- insisted on running the new entity as one of EchoStar's conditions. Ars Technica sums up the situation nicely by suggesting that although a merger would help both companies in their quest to offer broadband service should they succeed in picking up some spectrum at next month's FCC auction, government regulators would be unlikely to approve such a deal for the same reason as last time: there are still too many consumers out there whose only option is satellite TV, giving a combined DirecTV-Dish entity monopoly status in certain areas of the country. Long story short: there's an excellent chance that Murdoch would love a deal to go down, but chances are it ain't gonna happen.

[Via Ars Technica]

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Filed under: HDTV, Portable Audio, Tablet PCs, Wearables

Straight from the rumor mill to your brain: Korean forums are buzzing about a pair of upcoming devices from iRiver, one of which is being touted as the world’s smallest DAP with a screen, while the other sounds like a W10-esque palmtop that will supposedly be running some flavor of Windows. Obviously deets are very thin at this point — and the pictured mock-ups that look like cocktail napkin sketches don’t help much — but apparently the MP3 player will be a followup to the pendant-style N10 and N11 / N12 models that are already available, and is said to “focus on size, not features,” meaning that MobiBlu and Klegg need not fear an equally-diminutive competitor with video playback (or even a color screen, for that matter). Even more interesting than the so-called N20 is a product being referred to as the J10, which could be anything from a Windows Mobile-powered PDA to a UMPC running the full version of XP Tablet Edition, and which is rumored to sport both a DMB tuner and of course the WiBro functionality that iRiver has so much love for. We wish that we had some more info for you — and, like, some real pics — but we’re committed to bringing you only the freshest of gossip, even if there’s very little evidence to support it. Keep reading to check out seven of the supposed sixteen designs that are being considered for the “J10,” and stay tuned for more details as they become available…

Read- N20 [Via DAPreview]
Read- J10 [Via DAPreview]

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Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Apple rumor site Think Secret has been busy chatting it up with all those company insiders whom Misters Jobs and Gates would love to get their rich and powerful hands on, and turned those leaks into an article which dispels some of the recently-circulating iPod rumors, along with providing a few more tantalizing deets about Microsoft’s upcoming “iPod killer.” For starters, it looks like we shouldn’t be expecting the “true” video iPod until at least the annual MacWorld Expo in January — though larger capacity 5G ‘Pods may arrive in the interim — and apparently the long-rumored iPhone also won’t be coming anytime soon, as that project has reportedly been put on hold for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, when the 6G iPod is finally released, it will likely lack both the wireless capabilities and talking interface that some people have been anticipating; Apple is said to believe that the former feature would have too much of an impact on battery life, while the latter would only feed what’s seen as a marginal consumer demand. Finally, Microsoft’s so-called Zune — which is rumored to sport WiFi for communicating with MTV’s Urge service — may also come equipped with a powerful 400MHz processor suitable for gaming, as well as a built in tuner for receiving satellite radio broadcasts. Obviously all this info is just speculation from unnamed sources for now, but if the Zune does end up duping your iTunes tracks, playing high-quality games, and giving you access to Sirius or XM on the go, then Apple may be facing its first real marketplace battle in the iPod’s brief but influential existence.

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Filed under: Portable Audio

So it’s starting to look like those leaked pictures we saw last month supposedly depicting an unannounced 8GB flash player from SanDisk are the real deal. You’ll recall that an Anything But iPod forum member claiming to be a SanDisk tester posted a shot of what’s generally referred to as the Sansa e280, and now the eagle-eyed editors over at ABi have discovered even more tantalizing clues on the company’s website. The most telling bit of evidence comes when you launch the 360-degree demos for either the 4GB e260 or 2GB e250, which instead of featuring the players’ respective capacities on the backside, show a model clearly adorned with an “8GB”  label — see the screenshot, right. Furthermore, the entire Sansa lineup is being hit with price cuts, which could be an indication that a product launch is imminent. If SanDisk is in fact able to get this model to market before Apple breaks us off with an 8GB nano — aluminum enclosure and all — it would seem to do more for the company’s market share than a negative advertising campaign ever could.

[Via Anything But iPod]

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Filed under: Gaming

You may remember us passing along a rumor last month from Cubed3 which claimed that Nintendo would be launching the Wii on November 6th; as usual, we took the info with no small amount of skepticism, but now that date actually seems to have been confirmed, and in the most unlikely of places: this month's issue of Sports Illustrated for Kids (Disclaimer: Engadget and SI for Kids are part of the same loving corporate family). Generally not known for getting the inside scoop on the video game industry, the magazine nonetheless seems confident enough in its sources to have published the supposed release date as fact without even the hint of a disclaimer, which combined with the Cubed3 info, makes us think that they might be onto something here. Obviously any deets related to the launch and pricing of this console are up in the air until the official word comes down from Japan, but with Xbox 360 already firmly entrenched and the PS3 scheduled to roll out a little later in the month, it certainly makes sense that Nintendo would be looking to leverage even the tiniest advantage.

[Via Joystiq]

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Some of our older readers may remember using Packard Bell gear all the way back when the consumer electronics industry consisted of just radios and TV sets, and even the younger crowd probably played on a PB or two after the name was sold to a budget computer manufacturer in the mid-80's. Well even though the company withdrew from the US market back in 2000 after being plagued with quality and compatibility issues, it has actually been quite successful overseas under the guidance of NEC as Packard Bell Europe, where it's consistently been one of the top-selling PC manufacturers and even begun branching out to other product lines. Still, NEC seems to think that the tide has turned on old Packard Bell once again, as sources in Asia indicate that the Japanese corporation is looking to sell the Dutch Packard Bell BV PC subsidiary, and that eMachines founder Lap Shun Hui is looking to buy. Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun is claiming that Hui offered around $87 million for the division, probably hoping that he can use his skills to transform the 'Bell into the same type of property that convinced Gateway to shell out over $200 million worth of cash and stock for eMachines a few years back.

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops

Taking yet another step towards integrating the once-anathema AMD processors in its family of products, Dell has begun to sell Athlon 64 and Athlon 64 X2 chips alongside it's own CPUs for Precision Workstations through its online store. You'll probably recall (especially since we just reminded you yesterday) that Dell, once firmly opposed to AMD in favor of keeping Intel inside its machines, has recently been showing the Sunnyvale chip maker decidedly more love, choosing to include the company's Opteron chip in at least one of its high-end servers. Plus, we've heard that Dell is expected to throw even more business AMD's way in September, if rumors predicting an AMD-based consumer desktop turn out to be true. What with its purchase of Alienware and now the availability of those Athlon chips that gamers love to sport, not to mention the growing popularity of its XPS line, Dell really seems to be positioning itself as the safe alternative to many of these upstart distributors hawking cobbled-together gaming rigs.

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Filed under: Laptops

It’s not uncommon for electronics — and especially laptops — to begin showing some discoloration after a few months or years of wear and tear, but reports coming out of Mac forums and websites of three- and four-week old white MacBooks sporting heavy staining on the trackpads and wrist rests are causing no small amount of alarm among the Apple faithful. Having ruled out heat, smokers, and people not washing their hands enough, commenters are now starting to use ugly terms like “manufacturing defect” to explain why disparate white MacBooks are all showing signs of heavy use barely weeks out of the box, with afflicted users reportedly unable to remove the stains even armed with the harshest of cleaning agents. While it’s too soon to really gauge the scope of this supposed problem, if we owned a MacBook we might start using external input devices just to be safe, and if we were in the market for a new one, well, we might even drop the extra loot for that fancy — and seemingly stain-resistant — black edition.

[Thanks, Calamier]

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Filed under: Gaming, Peripherals

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Filed under: Desktops

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Filed under: Gaming

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Vodafone

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Filed under: Handhelds, Wireless

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Filed under: Laptops

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Filed under: Cellphones, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Handsets, Multimedia, Vodafone

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Filed under: Desktops, Laptops, Portable Audio

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Filed under: Gaming, Handhelds

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Filed under: Laptops

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