August 27th, 1999

[11:45 AM]
Seybold/G4 Announcements, From The Same Source As Our P1 Predictions!
Steve Jobs will be making another keynote address at Seybold San Francisco next week. This was announced by Apple long before the MACWORLD Expo NY keynote was made and this was part of our reason for saying there would be no G4 announcements at MACWORLD NY. Well, it looks as if we were correct in our estimates, because we have the scoop on exactly what will be announced at Seybold. This information comes from the same source that gave us specs for the then unannounced P1. As you may remember, our source nailed every single spec, including AirPort! With this in mind, check out what we will see at Seybold:

Displays:

There will be a 22" Cinema Display announced. It will have a Digital interface and new colors (looks like almost all ice white translucent).

Desktops:

All the new desktop models will include G4s with AltiVec.

All of the new desktop models will offer Airport as a built-in option!

Aesthetics - The new desktops will offer new, more conservative color casings. They will not have cool "G4" silk-screens like the "G3" silk screens on the Blue & White. They will have clear handles.

All are capable of supporting up to 1.5 GB of RAM.

All will come equipped with 10/100 ethernet. A 56k modem will be an option.

Apple will have 4 basic configurations for the new desktops:

Configuration #1
  • CD-ROM
  • 400MHz (I think)
Configuration #2
  • Zip Drive
  • DVD-ROM
  • 450MHz
  • can drive the 17" and 21" ColorSyncs
  • 10+ GB HD
  • Two 400 Mbps Firewire ports
  • Two USB ports on one 12 Mbps bus.
  • (I don't remember if the graphics card was AGP or not)
Configuration #3
  • Zip Drive
  • DVD-ROM
  • 450MHz,
Configuration #4
  • Zip Drive
  • DVD-RAM!
  • 500MHz
  • These can drive all 4 displays
  • 20+ GB HD
  • Three 400 Mbps Firewire ports
  • Two USB ports, each on their own 12 Mbps bus (maybe... total USB bandwidth is 24 Mbps)
  • 2x AGP Graphics card.

It looks like the two low-end versions are Yosemite boards, while the high-end systems are what we've been reading as Sawtooth, although the whole project is known as Sawtooth.

The highest end system will be offered in two server configurations. One with OS X Server, one with ASIP. All are due to ship with MacOS 8.6

No mention of multiprocessor systems or additional slots.

That seems to be it for Seybold. No C2 iMac, no Palm device, and no further mention of MacOS 9.

Thanks for the info!

The Mac Observer Spin: Judging by the accuracy of this source's previous information, we are pretty excited about the Seybold keynote. The new line of desktop seem to be just what the doctor ordered! We are especially excited about the new colors. The Blue & Whites are very cool, but something that is more conservative, but still cool and with the great form factor of the Blue & White, should play well in the business market, and maybe the server market. Lots of room for growth in both of those markets for Apple.

Of course, Apple's idiotic refusal to release a computer with more than 3 PCI slots still defies reason. High end users really do want more than 3 slots and PCI extension chassis just don't cut it.

The thing that surprises us most about these predictions is that there will not be a new iMac design. The iMac is due, overdue really, for an upgrade. There are certainly lots of rumors circulating about a new iMac, but aside from the rumors, it really makes sense that Apple release an upgrade at this time. Perhaps upgrading old products is simply not keynote worthy. Apple could be worried about diluting the message on the new desktop line and will pop out an announcement on new iMacs between keynotes. This was how the last revision to the Blue & White line was handled. We stand ready to be wrong on this issue more than any other.

Apple