Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Rumors, Software, Apple, Leopard
Thinksecret throws their guess in the Leopard hat: October 26th
If you listened live to our TUAW talkcast last night (and you should have, because we were on fire, if I may say so myself), you heard us doing the same thing all Apple fans are doing this week: speculating on the (hopefully impending) release date of Leopard. Most of us still hold out hope for October (and we did realize that coming out around Halloween would make for some excellent Apple-related Halloween costumes), but personally, I'm still betting on October 26th. As we said last night, not only would that make for a weekend full of Leopard-y goodness, but the full moon is on the 25th, so the stars will be aligned just right for Time Machine.And Thinksecret agrees with me (that's awfully nice of them). Their sources (although I can tell you that I wasn't asked) say that Leopard is still on track for an October 26th release. I said last night that I expected Apple to actually announce a release date this coming week, but apparently it's still too early for that-- a new (and final) Leopard build is expected this week, and once that gets final approval, Thinksecret says October 26th is the day.
However, time is definitely running out. Let's not forget that Apple announced Tiger a full 17 days before release, and that deadline passed last week. If they're not done debugging Leopard, there's a good chance we won't see it in October at all anyway. Not even the witches and goblins of Halloween will make Jobs do something he doesn't want to do.
Thanks, Dewey K!

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Michael Mendoza said 12:07AM on 10-16-2007
Supposedly, AppleInsider said that an announcement could come as early as tomorrow. I'm waiting to see if they put something on the front page. They had the iPod Nano ad up, then iPod Touch and now the iPod Nano ad again... wonder why they are messing with the front page....
I can't wait to buy Leopard the day it comes out!!!
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Cycomachead said 12:43AM on 10-16-2007
The front page currently cycles between those 2.
I'm betting on the 26th - it makes sense. I hope the announcement will be tomorrow: It'd make an awesome birthday to know more about Leopard (that's actual fact). But it could be a week from tomorrow. After the 23 i'll be expecting a delay. Oh of course I think Apple prolly has it's gold master build figure out. They can also pop out a nice 10.5.1/.01 update right away too.
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chiklit said 4:30AM on 10-16-2007
How does Apple have time to press all of the DVDs for the launch date if they don't even finalize the OS until a week before it's release? Vista's release date was announced a full 3 months before it came out and was finalized around the same time. Granted Microsoft has 7-some different versions of Vista to worry about, there's only one Leopard. But still, a week to get everything ready for release?
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Zac Leingang said 6:10AM on 10-16-2007
0600AM EST, Apple Store is Down hmm routine maintenance? or more promising events to unfold? let's see shall we?
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Joid said 6:57AM on 10-16-2007
THE STORE IS CLOSED!
(also in Europe!)
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Bash said 7:31AM on 10-16-2007
Instead of keeping an eye out for the apple frontpage.. why not keep an eye out for your favorite torrents site instead?
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scoov said 7:47AM on 10-16-2007
Apple store is down (6:45AM CDT) - didn't know how to get this info out except through comments.
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PistolPeet said 8:37AM on 10-16-2007
UK store back up, leopard in, ship date 26th Oct. Price £85 for a single user license.
http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjects/ukstore.woa/wa/RSLID?mco=40519F18&fnode=home&nplm=MB021
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Zac Leingang said 9:33AM on 10-16-2007
Just ordered my 24inch imac, and will be here friday, then i can submit my up-to-date voucher and get leopard for $9.95 USD, outstanding ;) i will have the original system and the leopard system to install once the kinks are worked out if any.
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brian said 11:02AM on 10-16-2007
All these stories from today and yesterday with everyone's predictions about the release date are really lame. There are only eleven weekdays left in October. Assuming they aren't delivering this week, that's only 8 days to choose from. Oooh, you guessed right? BFD. This is easier to get right than when I play guess-what-number-I'm-thinking-of-between-1-and-10 with my kid.
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fraggle said 12:13PM on 10-16-2007
Just hope it doesn't crawl it's way onto the bed sheets or car covers, they'll never find it again!
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