WWDC Rumor Wrapup: Winners and Losers

After each major event, MacRumors provides a wrapup of rumors to reveal the sources of the most accurate and inaccurate information. Readers are encouraged to read our previous roundup and final thoughts to decide for themselves. (Note: Roundup information is filtered, influenced and presented in an attempt to accurately predict outcomes.)



The World Wide Developers Conference keynote was perhaps the most highly anticipated event in recent Mac history.

After months of rumors and speculation of PowerMac/970 updates -- Apple, themselves, accidentally leaked the specs for the PowerMac G5 four days early. This only raised excitement and expectations to unhealthy levels.

Apple Legal also played a more participatory role in the pre-game in this round with multiple interventions at many of the sites involved.

PowerMacs

MacBidouille deserves credit for being the first (by far) and -- for some time -- the only site to claim that Apple would announce PPC 970 based PowerMacs at the World Wide Developer's Conference.

Their first claim (in March) was that IBM would be presenting the 970 Chip and demoing a 970-based PowerMac at WWDC.

Subsequent rumors, however, were ambitious with claims that low-end (1.4 GHz) 970-based PowerMacs were rolling off assembly lines in May 2003, and implied immediate availability of the 970-based PowerMacs at WWDC. This information turned out to be incorrect. MacWhispers also claimed tha PowerMac's based on 970 chips were currently in production along with an inaccurate description of the case design.

Our own sources had indicated that PowerMacs would not be a a shipping state by WWDC with final notes confirming this information as well as accurate reports of increased price points for towers.

Motherboard claims from MacBidouille were mostly true -- with claims of DDR 400, USB 2.0, AGP 8x, and Hypertransport. Claims of FibreChannel built-in, however, were not.

Traditionally accurate CNet provided confirmation of the use of Hypertransport, with AppleInsider returning from the grave with a PowerMac G5 report that triggered Apple Legal. Most of the details of the AppleInsider report turned out to be correct (ports, hypertransport, motherboard, G5 name) with the exception of starting processor speeds which were claimed to be 1.4-1.8GHz.

Appleinsider also provided an accurate description of the new PowerMac case, as well as corroboration for ThinkSecret reports of an Apple Video Camera which turned out to be iSight. If their other information can be considered accurate, then we may also expect adjustable displays (first mentioned by Looprumors), and Filemaker returning in-house.

Panther

Surprisingly little information emerged regarding Panther was available prior to WWDC.

Accurate tidbits: Multiple User Login (MacOSRumors)

Inaccurate tidbits: New File System (MacBidouille), Piles (MacEdition), Music/Movie Purchase Integration (MacOSRumors).


Mixed tidbits:

    eWeek: Multiple Graphical (Yes), Piles (No), New File System (No)

    LoopRumors: Themes (No), User Switching (Yes), More Dock Features (No), iChat 2.0 (Yes), Speed (Yes), Mail 2.0 (No), More Metal (Yes), Flatter Aqua (Yes), Improved Dock (No), Quicktime 6.5 (No), iWorks (No), Safari 1.0 (Yes), Advanced Mouse Support (No), Advanced Software Update (No), 64-Bit Support (Yes).

The most accurate overview came from leaked screenshots (on 4OSX.com) in the 2 days prior to the event.

PowerBooks

MacWhispers cited manufacturing sources and reported that 970 Based PowerBooks had started production claiming "we can say that both the new PPC 970 Power Mac and Powerbook will have substantial inventory already produced by the time of the upcoming WWDC keynote."


With Apple's Vice President of Hardware Product Marketing stating that the G5 "is not going in a PowerBook anytime soon," it appears MacWhispers' reports were incorrect.

Summary

With more and more eyes on Apple and the Mac rumor scene, the number of rumor sites and rumor sources have exploded -- with an increasing noise-to-signal ratio. Despite this, real information is available to the community -- but the challenge that remains is to find the accurate information from the disinformation.

MacBidouille deserves credit for providing the lead info on such an important Apple event, however, based on the above record, they remain consistently inconsistent in their accuracy -- which has also been true of them in the past.

Long time rumor-site, AppleInsider, has re-emerged with accurate information, and appears to be poised to regain its previous status in the Mac Rumor community.

MacWhispers, however, has been consistently wrong with inaccurate claims including LCD Specs, iPod Release Date & Powerbook Release, No New iPod Case, and most recently the PowerBook 970s at WWDC. As a result, any future rumors should be met entirely with skepticism.

ThinkSecret was conspicuously absent from much of the 970 rumors, but retains its traditionally accurate record -- and the notable distinction of bringing down the wrath of Apple Legal a number of times over the past few months.

Next Apple event is MacWorld Creative Pro on July 16-18...

Addendum: Note, one eWeek.com report was inadvertantly omitted from this wrap up -- and they proved (again) to have accurate information with their Smeagol, 64-Bit article.

Popular Stories

reset password request iphone

Warning: Apple Users Targeted in Phishing Attack Involving Rapid Password Reset Requests

Tuesday March 26, 2024 4:34 pm PDT by
Phishing attacks taking advantage of Apple's password reset feature have become increasingly common, according to a report from KrebsOnSecurity. Multiple Apple users have been targeted in an attack that bombards them with an endless stream of notifications or multi-factor authentication (MFA) messages in an attempt to cause panic so they'll respond favorably to social engineering. An...
Generic iOS 18 Feature Purple

iOS 18: What to Expect From 'Biggest' Update in iPhone's History

Wednesday March 27, 2024 11:10 am PDT by
At least some Apple software engineers continue to believe that iOS 18 will be the "biggest" update in the iPhone's history, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Below, we recap rumored features and changes for the iPhone. "The iOS 18 update is expected to be the most ambitious overhaul of the iPhone's software in its history, according to people working on the upgrade," wrote Gurman, in a r...
maxresdefault

Apple Announces WWDC 2024 Event for June 10 to 14

Tuesday March 26, 2024 10:02 am PDT by
Apple today announced that its 35th annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 10 to Friday, June 14. As with WWDC events since 2020, WWDC 2024 will be an online event that is open to all developers at no cost. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. WWDC 2024 will include online sessions and labs so that developers can learn about new...
apple maps 3d feature

Apple Maps May Gain Custom Routes With iOS 18

Tuesday March 26, 2024 3:10 pm PDT by
Apple may be planning to add support for "custom routes" in Apple Maps in iOS 18, according to code reviewed by MacRumors. Apple Maps does not currently offer a way to input self-selected routes, with Maps users limited to Apple's pre-selected options, but that may change in iOS 18. Apple has pushed an iOS 18 file to its maps backend labeled "CustomRouteCreation." While not much is revealed...
General iOS 17 Feature Orange Purple

Apple Releases Revised Versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 With Updated Build Number

Wednesday March 27, 2024 5:59 am PDT by
Apple on late Tuesday released revised versions of iOS 17.4.1 and iPadOS 17.4.1 with an updated build number of 21E237, according to MacRumors contributor Aaron Perris. The updates previously had a build number of 21E236. The revised updates are available for all iPhone and iPad models that are compatible with iOS 17 and iPadOS 17, but they can only be installed via the Finder app on macOS...
maxresdefault

Apple to Launch New iPad Pro and iPad Air Models in May

Thursday March 28, 2024 11:07 am PDT by
Apple will introduce new iPad Pro and iPad Air models in early May, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Gurman previously suggested the new iPads would come out in March, and then April, but the timeline has been pushed back once again. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. Apple is working on updates to both the iPad Pro and iPad Air models. The iPad Pro models will...
applephilschiller

Apple's Phil Schiller Works 80 Hours a Week Overseeing App Store

Wednesday March 27, 2024 2:03 pm PDT by
With the App Store and app ecosystem undergoing major changes in the European Union, The Wall Street Journal today shared a profile on App Store chief Phil Schiller, who is responsible for the App Store. Though Schiller transitioned from marketing chief to "Apple Fellow" in 2020 to take a step back from Apple and spend more time on personal projects and friends, he is reportedly working...