Um… Still Waiting…

Well, May 9th came, and May 9th went, and nothing remarkable happened. Nothing. At. All. So what happened, or didn’t happen in the Mac Rumor Network?

Well, what Think Secret giveth, Think Secret taketh away. The retraction post happened to be on the morning of the 9th, when hopes were looking grim for an announcement, as if to cover their own a**es.

The other rumor sites took the hard news a little more gracefully, but they were still wrong. What does this mean for the Mac Rumor Network? Well, it doesn’t do much for their approaching-zero credibility, but I have a sneaking suspicion that many, if not most people will go on believing what they say anyway.

However on the Apple side of things, things may be different. It must be a real pain in the a** for Steve Jobs when the Rumor Network gets everyone’s hopes up and Steve’s got nothing to release. It almost makes Apple look like the bad guy. “Here you got all of our hopes up only to crush them with no announcement?!” Um… no. Apple stayed silent (as always), and let the Rumor Network run circles around itself.

So what now? Well, people may be checking the apple.com constantly every Tuesday for the next 6 weeks. Or, the Mac Faithful could take a dose of reality and a side of maturity and realize that it’s only true when it comes out, not any time before.

The MacBook Cometh?

Well, the verdict is in: there is going to be a new MacBook. Almost every Mac rumor site has reported that 1) Apple stores are receiving shipments of MacBook-sized packages marked “Do not open until May 9th; 2) Several rumor sites have individually “confirmed” (as it were) that Apple intends to release a new MacBook on May 9th; 3) Apple “accidently” (as it were) put up a page listing “Apple » Hardware » MacBook” in place of its hardware page; and 4) Some rumor sites are even going so far as to proclaim that there will be a black and a white MacBook, following the lines of the iPod.

If, May 10th rolls along, and Apple hasn’t released anything, or they release a $100 leather case to hold your headphones, it will be a big let down. If they release a MacBook or more, there will be major celebrations the world over.

Because of the giant rumor network surrounding their company, Apple gets free drama and publicity before they even announce a product, even if it is just a $100 leather case to hold you headphones. It works so well for Apple, they should really be paying these rumor sites instead of suing them…

Apple Ads Represent Jobs and Gates?

If you’ve seen the new Mac vs. PC ads Apple released yesterday, you might notice the facial similarites the “PC” has to Bill Gates, as pointed out in this picture by Israel Melendez:

Pretty interesting; here’s his website if you want a more in-depth explanation. Enjoy!

365 Days Later…

One year ago today, Apple released to the general public the first release of Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger”. It was a great example how devoted the Mac Faithful can be: hoards of them lined up at the doors to get their hands on the new OS like a new movie had just come out.

Not many people really worried about the whole “early adoption” issue. Everyone assumed that Mac OS X was now mature enough for that not to be an issue. And for the most part, they were right. There were a few minor bug issues, but looking back on the release, there weren’t many initial issues.

This highlights a uniqueness of the Mac Culture. Apple has created, almost singlehandedly, an entire culture or cult of people rallying around, of all things, a company. Not just through the release of Tiger, but through all most of their products over the past, well, 20 years.

Will this happen again? Absolutely. We’ll almost definitely see people lining up at Apple Stores the world over waiting to get their hand on Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5).

6th Generation iPod Mockup

Photoshopper Albert Tan has created an extremely impressive mockup of a sixth generation iPod, complete with keypad, microphone and even a tiny camera. It’s a lot better than most mockups I’ve seen and has a great Apple style to it.

(click the image for full size)

I personally don’t think there will ever be an iPod this exquisite, but if there ever was, this comes pretty close to what it would look like.

Money, Money, Money

Over at Wired’s Cult of Mac blog, they’ve also been talking about our friend Stefan, who’s begging the Internet to buy him a new iMac. However, Cult of Mac is begging the Internet not to donate to this guy:

I blew him off completely when he first contacted me, because, well, he’s a guy who’s trying to get a new 20″ iMac for free off of a bunch of strangers. … Please don’t help this guy, whom I really can’t blame for his optimistic effort.

So what does Cult of Mac recommend that those of you with burning holes in your pockets do with your money? How about donate it to some third graders? The idea was to collect donations to buy a third grade classroom an iMac. However, they’ve since got all the donations they need:

We reached full funding on the iMac before 1 p.m. Pacific — way less than 30 hours after the drive started. … And if you still want to give, or if you’re PC user, explore Donors Choose.