MacRumors

One thing not mentioned in today's media event was the mysterious disappearance of the eMac from Apple's online stores.

While http://www.apple.com/emac/ still loads, clicking the "buy now" button only leads to the online store's main page, where the eMac is noticeably absent.
Scroll down for further announcements today.

Apple finally did release a new iPod capable of playing videos. (press release). The new iPod supports MPEG4 and h.264 video formats and features a slightly wider screen design to accommodate the video playback.

30GB. $299
60GB. $399

2.5 inch screen
320x240
260,000 colors
MPEG4, h.264 Video Support
Video Out to TV
Holds over 150 hrs of video

Alongside the new iPod is iTunes 6 - which updates many features in the iTunes Music Store and also adds video sales. Apple is offering over 2000 music videos for sale ($1.99 each) and has partnered with television studios to be able to offer online TV Episode sales.

The press release also details over 2000 Music Videos, Pixar Short Films and hit TV shows available through iTunes. Videos are $1.99 a piece. Past and current episodes are available of popular shows including Lost and Desperate Housewives.

Pixar shorts: Boundin', Geri's Game, Luxo Jr. and more are available as well.

Download: iTunes 6 - Available now.

Apple released a new iMac today.

The new iMac provides the following new features:

- Built in iSight
- FrontRow and PhotoBooth Apps
- $1299 for 17" model with 1.9GHz processor
- $1699 for 20" model with 2.1GHz processor
- includes Mighty Mouse

FrontRow - Dazzle your friends with an elegant full-screen media display. Front Row transforms an evening of home movies or TV shows into a blockbuster Hollywood premiere. Or preview actual Hollywood blockbusters from the Apple.com trailer website. Press 'menu' on the new Apple Remote to let Front Row take center stage with large text, intuitive menus and brilliant graphics. No setup required.

PhotoBooth - turns your iMac into a modern-day arcade photo booth (minus the coin slot). Just pick a special effect like sepia tint, x-ray, bulge or squeeze. And smile. Presto -- instant high-quality photo. Once you have the perfect pic, take advantage of Photo Booth's connections to share it via Mail, save it in iPhoto or use it as your Address Book or iChat buddy picture.

Apple appears to have successfully squashed any opportunity for most of the Mac media to rebroadcast their media event.

Here's what we've gotten so far however from various sources.

- iMac: faster, larger disk, built in iSight. Includes FrontRow (app)
- iPod: 30GB/60GB with Video - realtime decoding of MPEG4 and H.264. 260,000 colors. Video out.
- FrontRow and PhotoBooth Apps.
- 30GB iPod: $299 - 31% thinner than current 20GB; - 60GB iPod: $399.
- New iPods avail next week. Comes with case
- iMac: $1299 for 17" model with 1.5GHz, $1799 for 20" model with 2.1GHz
- iTunes 6 to be released
- Front Row - comes with new iMacs. Lets you enjoy video/music/pictures from sofa. Everything still displayed on iMac screen. iPod-like remote. 6 button remote.
- Photobooth - appears to be slide show application.
- Music Videos. 2000 available to buy. $1.99 each.
- Can "gift" music to other people. Peer reviews and recommendation service.
- Videos have Digital Rights Management built in. Can play on up to 5 computers.
- You will be able to buy TV shows from iTunes Music Store. $1.99 per episode. ABC on board (Desperate Housewives, Lost)

Still over 30 minutes from Apple's media event, ApplexNet.com has posted what appear to be actual photos of the new iPod to be released today.

The new iPod was somewhat revealed in poster ads published just an hour ago. The new iPod appears to have a wider screen and form factor than previous iPods.

The new iPod in the photo matches the artists renditions from the ads. It has a wider screen and the one in the pictures appears to be have a 30GB capacity.

Photo of new iPod is mirrored: New iPod (widerscreen).
(Compare it to iPod Ad)

iLounge posted a photo of one of the advertisements for the new iPod which will supposedly be introduced today at Apple's "One more thing" event.

The new posters show a new iPod model with a "larger display, approximately 2.5 to 2.6 inches diagonal". The headphone jack is also now off center.

Photo can be seen at iLounge. Mirrored here: New iPod Ad.
Update: More pictures posted. Photos from this flicker account from iLounge's publisher. Photos are of ads surrounding the Apple media event which takes place today.

Apple mailed out media invitations last week featuring red curtains and the phrase "One more thing..."

The rumor mill has been buzzing about the possibilities of this upcoming announcement from Apple.

Claims have spanned across product lines. Reports have included Video iPods, Powerbooks, PowerMacs, non-Video iPods.

The event takes places at 10 a.m. Pacific, 1 p.m. Eastern. It is a media event only. No live video webcast is available. We will provide updates and/or links to coverage as they become available.

If you have live coverage of the event or will be there personally, please contact us.

ThinkSecret backsteps with an article reporting that a Video iPod may indeed be debuting tomorrow at Apple's October 12th Media Event.

ThinkSecret previously reported that tomorrow's event would bring 40GB/80GB iPods as well as Powerbook and PowerMac updates... but no Video iPod.

The rumor site amends its previous report with notes that the iPod updates may instead be 30GB/60GB iPods with video playback ability. They are quick to point out that video playback may only focus on music videos, podcasts and possibly TV, but unlikely to feature full length films. (at first).

Meanwhile, one unconfirmed blog post reports that "a popular video blog" has been asked by Apple to be used during Apple's presentation tomorrow... suggesting that Video playback will featured at the event.

The highly anticipated event will take place at 10:00 a.m. PT, Oct 12th, at the California Theatre in San Jose, CA.

Apple's own Executive Vice President Tim Cook told us that there would be new iPods to be released before the end of the year at today's Financial conference call:

"Over a year ago, we set out to create revolutionary updates to our core iPod lineup," Cook said. "Last quarter was the final quarter for the older products. We think we did rather well with the prior lineup and believe that we will do even better with the new lineup that we have for the holiday season, including the new iPod Nano and some very innovative new products that we have yet to introduce."

Apple conducted their Q4 2005 Financial Results Conference call at today. Apple had already announced earnings as well as Mac and iPod shipments this quarter.

MacCentral provides a running update of the conference call.

Hilights include:

- 1,236,000 Macs sold
- 6,451,000 iPods sold
- 602,000 of the Macs were Desktops (PowerMac, iMac, eMac, Mac mini, Xserve)
- 634,000 of the Macs were Portables (PowerBooks, iBooks)
- More than a Million iPod nanos were sold within 17 days of its release.
- Mac OS X 10.4 revenue is approximately $35 million per quarter
- Hints at upcoming iPod-related announcements.
- Intel Based Macs still expected by June 2006. Some "very cool" PowerPCs in the pipeline.
- iTunes Music Store Market share > 80%

Apple announced their 2005 4th Quarter earnings today.

Apple posted revenue of $3.68 billion and net quarterly profit of $430 million, or $.50 per diluted share. In the same quarter last year, Apple posted $2.35 billion in revenue and a net profit of $105 million or $.13 per diluted share. Gross margins were 28.1% (up from 27%).

1,236,000 Macintosh units and 6,451,00 iPods were shipped this quarter. This represents a 48% growth in Mac shipments and a 220% growth in iPod shipments over last year's corresponding quarter.

We're thrilled to have concluded the best year in Apple's history, with 68 percent year-over-year revenue growth and 384 percent net profit growth," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "This is the direct result of our focus on innovation and the immense talent and creativity at Apple. We could not be more excited about the new products we're working on for 2006."

"We're very pleased to report 48 percent year-over-year growth in Mac shipments in Q4, as well as our 10th consecutive quarter of record iPod sales," said Peter Oppenheimer, Apple's CFO."

TheStreet provides an analysis of Apple's current market position with respect to its recent popularity. TheStreet also weighs in on potential product releases at tomorrow's Media event. Despite most recent rumors that the event will simply introduce upgraded regular iPods and new PowerBook/PowerMac (dual Core PPC) configs, the article still speculates on the possibility of a video iPod.

That said, the article provides an interesting statistic from the NPD Group:

Through August, Apple's share of the U.S. retail market for computers, excluding online sales, grew to 6.6% from 4.3% in the same period last year, according to market researcher NPD Group.

While the absolute numbers may be up for debate, the relative increase year-over-year is certainly encouraging. Many analysts describe a "halo effect" surrounding the iPod which is said to drive iPod owners to also (or later) purchase Mac computers.

Readers are reminded that Apple will be broadcasting their 4th Quarter Financial Results today at 2pm PT/5pm ET. More details could become available at that time.

MacBidouille posts some screenshots which claim to demonstrate an unreleased Quad Processor Intel-based PowerMac with Hyperthreading support.

Without giving much details, those captures shows MacOSX x86 running on a 4 physical CPU-based MacIntel with Hyperthreading enable. One can clearly see 4 physical processors recognized while 8 logical processors are recorded by the CPU monitor. So MacOSX can really manage without problem any MacIntel based on either physical or logical processors.

Apple announced the transition to Intel-based processors in June of this year. Apple has offered Intel PowerMacs to developers for testing. These Developer machines house a single 3.6GHz Pentium 4.

Filling in more details of the October 12th announcement, ThinkSecret reports that two new iPods will be introduced on October 12th.

The new two iPod models will reportedly replace the current $299 and $399 models and be sold at the same price. The iPods are expected to be bumped to 40GB and 80GB capacities with slightly smaller form factors and offer two different colors (Black and White).

ThinkSecret also notes that "at least four new Mac configurations" will be released on Wednesday, but no further details are available.

With the media event coming up on October 12th, rumors continue to fly and resourceful users are searching for any evidence of upcoming products. Rumors range from Video iPods to PowerMac revisions.

One link that is floating around as "evidence" for a Video iPod is an old link left over on one of Apple's individualized country sites.

http://www.apple.com/za/itunes/video/ (now removed)

The page is entitled "iTunes + iPod Video" and appears to link to a video which is not available. On first glance it appears to be a new ad. However, this is an old "iTunes + iPod" promotional video that was shown at WWDC 2004 and not a new ad featuring a Video iPod. The video was shown during the WWDC 2004 keynote speech (7:55).

The wait is still on. More rumors/details as they become available.

Since Apple sent out media invitations for a special announcement on October 12th, the rumor mill has been buzzing. There have been reports of a video iPod, an Airport Express with Video, as well as PowerMac and Powerbook updates.

ThinkSecret amends their earlier PowerMac/Powerbook rumor report with some further details of the upcoming media event.

According to the rumor site, Apple will be delivering an iPod update alongside Pro Mac updates... but ThinkSecret reports that Apple will not be delivering a Video-capable iPod. This is contrary to a recent claim by Appleinsider.

The new iPod will boost storage capacity to 80GB as well as what appears to be minor cosmetic and interface changes. ThinkSecret maintains that there will be no Video iPod, which is in concordance with historic comments by Steve Jobs.

Meanwhile, PowerMac and Powerbook updates are still expected but details are still limited.

Contrary to information posted by AppleInsider yesterday, Think Secret now claims that Apple will use the October 12 media event to release newly updated versions of the Power Mac and Powerbook. Think Secret does not provide any speculations to what the upgrades might entail.

Their source claims that Apple is not likely to release a competitor to the new iPod nano this early, for fear of cannibalizing sales of the high-margined nano. The iPod nano was introduced September 7, 2005.
Of note, MacOSXRumors first reported that Apple would be releasing new products as soon as next week. One of these products is expected to be a new Dual Core PowerMac.

Along with reports of an upcoming video-capable iPod, AppleInsider claims that Apple is set to release a new wireless device like the Airport Express.

The new box is rumored to have video-out capability, offering wireless video feed to a television or other display.

As AI claims, it is unclear as to whether the release of this device will coincide with the release of the video iPod, or stand alone at its own unveiling.

According to AppleInsider, Apple is prepared to launch a video-capable version of the iPod in the coming weeks, possibly as soon as the scheduled October 12th media event.

The new iPod is expected to be a similar form factor as the present 60 GB iPod, although several millimeters thinner. It is expected to have a smaller click-wheel as found on the iPod nano, making way for a larger high-resolution color display than the current full-size iPod offering.

A major iTunes update is expected with the release as well, containing a significant number of downloadable music videos and other short movie content.