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!

Perhaps the most interesting and mysterious two words heard yesterday during Apple's big conference call were "product transition." The biggest surprise of the call was that Apple was setting its profit guidance much lower than expected, and the two big causes they gave for doing that were "higher commodity costs" (because they believe they got a good deal on iPhone components this quarter) and these mysterious "product transitions." So what's the deal there?

Almost unanimously, the analysts are predicting a product shakeup, specifically in the iPod family. Ars says multitouch is coming, Forbes suggests that Apple tipped its hand to upcoming product changes, and Apple Insider has Ben Reitzes, who was the first analyst to question the low guidance, suggesting that an iMac redesign or "ultra-portable" may be in the works.

But the majority of analysts say it's the iPod that Apple will focus on. The iPod has been waiting in the wings, watching the iPhone and OS X get all kinds of pretty updates, and call it what you want-- the halo effect or trickle down-- the iPod is ready for a refresh. ThinkSecret comes right out and says it: we'll see a 6G iPod as early as the first half of August.

Whatever this "product transition" might be, odds are we'll hear about it sooner than later. Apple's execs made it clear that by the time they did another call in October, everything would be made much clearer.

It's no real secret that an iMac update is most likely in the works, but ThinkSecret says they've narrowed down an actual date for the announcement: August 7th. As soon as two and a half weeks from now, we could be seeing a brand new iMac on the Apple Store.

The rumors, as you may have heard, say the new iMac will sport a brushed metal enclosure, to match up to the MacBook Pros and Mac Pros out there, and other sources say the new iMac will include a matching keyboard. ThinkSecret also speculates that iLife may be released earlier than its expected October date (originally, the suite was tracking a release right alongside Leopard). But apparently those rumors are less solid than the iMac release-- iLife and iWork are both supposed to take advantage of new techs in Leopard, so it would be a bad idea to release them early just for the sake of releasing.

As always, don't forget to take that standard grain of salt with all of these rumors. But if you are thinking about picking up an iMac, looks like it might behoove you to wait a week or two just in case.

Thanks, Corinne!

It seems that due to the release of the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED last week, September's rumors of other Apple products going the RED route are circulating again. Think Secret has a few 'sources' reporting that Apple and Bono have been kicking around the idea of RED iMacs and MacBooks, though their fate is probably very dependent on the success of the iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED (man, I really wish I didn't have to type all that). Unfortunately, Think Secret doesn't have even speculation as to how soon we could see other RED Apple products, or even if they could land before the holiday season. Guess you'll just have to play your cards right until we hear more.

I'll admit to being just as interested in what Apple has up their sleeve as the next guy, but I've always harbored a chip on my shoulder towards the rumor sites. The constant 'anonymous' sources who wind up all too often being as clueless as they are nameless have always irked me, and James R. Stoup at Apple Matters decided to take Think Secret, one of the largest rumor mongers out there, to task to see just how accurate they've actually been.

Mr. Stoup did the math that was a long time coming and surveyed Think Secret's reports on Apple products between January 05 - September 06. You should really check out the results, as he did a bang-up job detailing everything he found, but to summarize: James found that Think Secret's accuracy can get pretty black and white; either they nail it or they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn with a wrecking ball. He also discovered some patterns in terms of which kinds of products Think Secret typically nabs correctly, concluding that they have a fairly good batting average with Mac hardware and iPods, but their 'inside scoops' on software tend to represent that aforementioned wayward wrecking ball.

Take a look at James' post for the real (and thorough) details of his findings, but don't think he's trying to bash the rumor gurus, Think Secret or otherwise. After all, what Apple fan doesn't hold at least some place in their heart for rumors of what shiny new thing Apple might have coming up? I think James' investigation should serve at least as a reminder that rumors are exactly that: rumors, and not much more. One is merely rolling the dice when reading these sites and building up hopes of a fancy new [insert name here] or a product revision.

With that said, we'll be sure to stay on top of the latest gossip to make sure y'all can decide whether the latest iPhone or media center rumors could be worth that extra wait.

I know, the Cingular-only bit is quite the shocker, but Think Secret has restated some previously rumored details on the iPhone, including a 3 megapixel camera, 2.2-inch display and, obviously, iSync support. The phone is also said not to be handicapped with the same 100-song glass ceiling like the ROKR and SLVR, though Think Secret's reliably anonymous sources don't have any word on what the iPhone's storage capacity will actually be.

Signs are now pointing to a January 2007 release, most likely at a newly expanded Macworld 07. Think Secret's insiders claim Apple is shooting for the stars, expecting to ship 25 million iPhones in 2007 alone. If true, this is a bit of a surprise since Motorola's incredibly popular and more widely appealing RAZR has taken over two years to sell 50 million units. Perhaps most interesting of all this rumor rehashing is Think Secret's report that Apple's exclusive Cingular contract for the iPhone only lasts into the middle of 2007 - meaning that other carriers could pick it up and finally get in on the as-yet awkward iTunes phone action.

Again, you know the drill: this is all hearsay from 'anonymous insiders,' so do what you will with it.

PC Magazine today announced a new bi-weekly editorial column called OpenApple, penned by none other than the infamous ThinkSecret staff.

Wait...really? OK. Cool, I think.

According to PC Mag, OpenApple is "designed to help our readers bridge the shrinking gap between the Apple Macintosh and Windows PCs. The staff of ThinkSecret will be sharing news, insights, and analysis in a column running every other week." And in their first column, DePlume and Co. cover Apple's firing of Leopard-downloading employees, the predicted Mac mini update right around the corner, and the slow demise of Apple's keynote dependency.

Not much news in the way of the Mac mini update: ThinkSecret basically says that, um, yes, it will be updated soon in the form of a minor speedbump -- though with little to no fanfare.

Check out the full article for more Information You Already Know. I'm still reeling from their decision to hire the sketchy ThinkSecret staff (what, WIN bloggers not good enough for ya?) -- with ThinkSecret's declining track record and their shady reporting practices, PC Mag seems to be stepping onto thin ice. Hey, it's what Real journalists are supposed to do, right? But at least now they have someone to combat the blabber spewed by the mag's certain other columnists.

[via MacDailyNews]

I don't mean Apple rumors are conceptually boring -- I enjoy the Mac and iPod rumor mill as much as the next Apple geek -- they're just boring to read. Daring Fireball's John Gruber hit the nail on the head last month when he wrote about his dislike for Mac rumor site Think Secret. At the time he was talking about a rumor suggesting that Aperture was about to bite the dust. Of course, we all know it didn't, as we covered later on, but the inherent poor aim of rumor sites isn't the topic of this post.

What the Mac web really needs, ok, wants, is a rumor site that merges the style of Crazy Apple Rumors with that of Think Secret and AppleInsider. Like Gruber says, the "objective" style of TS and AI apes that of the Associated Press (read: dull) when it should be taking a page out of the much loved, but now-defunct, Mac the Knife column. That fundamental element of gossip, the "we know that you know that this isn't important, but we also know that you know that this is fun" tone is completely missing from sites like Think Secret, AppleInsider and even rumor aggregation site Mac Rumors.

We can understand why these sites pretend to be objective. It certainly *sounds* more legitimate if you write like the NYTimes (coincidentally this style makes it easier for us to pick apart the rumors, as you saw last week). However, this isn't the NYTimes. It's just a bit of gossip about our favorite computer company. Nothing more, nothing less.

[Image credit]

According to Think Secret, it just may be. It looks like the majority of engineers who had been working on Aperture have either left or been reassigned to different projects within the company. Think Secret goes on to claim that the applications development was "...a mess," according to a source, and that developers from Shake and Motion had to be brought in to do a little damage control.

I haven't used Aperture, so I can't speak for it's supposed buggieness. It did experience quite a price drop with the 1.1 update, so maybe Apple is eager to move existing copies.

It looks like all the fake invites were off by 6 days. iLounge and Thinksecret are both reporting that Apple has sent out invites to certain members of the media (Hey, Steve, no invite for your favorite bloggers?) to a special event on February 28th to be held on Apple's campus in Cupertino. The invite reads 'Come see some fun new products from Apple,' while featuring the iCal icon to the right.

So, what do you think Apple will be announcing? Perhaps a new iPod? Intel Mac minis? Let the speculation commence!

Thanks to everyone who sent this one in.

Adding more fuel to the rumor-fire that is the new video iPod ThinkSecret rumored yesterday, someone calling themselves "bud62" (probably not affiliated with Apple in any way) posted new mock-up images today.

All I have to say is that this is a very sexy looking prototype! Even if this doesn't end up being a new iPod, it definitely should in my book.

[via Engadget]