MacRumors

Ars Technica posts a somewhat speculative article on why they feel that Leopard will not be ready by April. This is based on developer sources indicating that Mac OS X betas tend to ramp up over 6 weeks prior to launch, and that current builds are not currently stable enough.

Based on their best guesses, they point to "June" as a possible timeframe.

At MacRumors, we're not big fans of speculation, but historically, it is true that developer seeds become more frequent as the final release approaches.

What's also clear is that Apple has stated that there are "secret" features that have yet been revealed, and it seems unlikely that these "secret" features will be casually revealed in a developer seeding. Typically, Apple would showcase new features at some form of media event.

At this point, we only have two upcoming Apple media events on our calendars: NAB on April 15th, and WWDC 2007 in June. The NAB event will likely be centered around Final Cut Pro and WWDC 2007 will certainly be Mac OS X focused.

Apple has stated a number of times that Leopard's target release is "Spring 2007" which would place the release between now and June.

TechRestore.com dissected an Apple TV. Unfortunately, the site is under heavy load at the moment.

A mirror of the images has been posted to Photobucket. The photos show closeups of the Intel processor, NVidia GPU and wireless card.

A few more details are provided by Macworld after they received a debriefing of the product.

Apple has posted support documents for the Apple TV with troubleshooting guides and quick start guides.

Also provided is a PDF of the Apple TV user manual.

Gizmodo has posted a video of the Apple TV being first setup, and also shows the startup video previously reported.

Meanwhile, the first customers have started receiving their Apple TV orders today. Visit our Apple TV discussion forum for future discussion and questions about the Apple TV.

News.com's Apple blog reveals that Best Buy will be carrying the Apple TV starting on Tuesday. They will have a two week "exclusive" over other non-Apple retail stores in carrying the new device.

Initial supplies will be limited with only 3000 units shipping across 800 stores.

Apple has recently been testing sales at Best Buy with a pilot program for selling Macs at the popular retailer. The Apple TV's push into non-Apple retailers also reflects the "consumer electronics" nature of the device.

Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal a first review of the just-shipping Apple TV.

Apple TV is tiny, just about eight inches square and an inch high, far smaller than a typical DVD player or cable or satellite box, even though it packs in a 40-gigabyte hard disk, an Intel processor and a modified version of the Mac operating system.

Mossberg had 10 days with the Apple TV and notes that while it has some notable limitations, "it worked great, and we can easily recommend it for people who are yearning for a simple way to show on their big TVs all that stuff trapped on their computers."

His testing involved "standard" Wi-Fi connecting to three Windows machines and three Apple Macs. Even with "standard" (g) Wi-Fi, they experienced no buffering/stuttering on streaming content. The main limitation was felt to be the inability to stream much content from the internet. According to Mossberg, beyond streaming movie trailers, the Apple TV can also preview short clips of songs, TV shows and movies directly from the iTunes Store. Despite this "preview" capability, the Apple TV can not (yet?) purchase this content through Apple TV.

The Apple TV can be set to automatically synchronize with a designated computer, mirroring content onto the 40GB Apple TV hard drive. Meanwhile, up to five additional computers can be used as streaming sources for the Apple TV.

Other limitations include the inability to adjust volume from Apple's simple remote, and only support for televisions capable of taking Component or HDMI inputs. Mossberg also addresses one question on the minds of some customers: despite having a USB port, it can not be used to add additional external hard drives to expand storage.

In the end, he describes it as a "very well-designed product that easily brings the computer and the TV together".

Update: Full article now available.

Gizmodo has posted the first unboxing photos of the Apple TV.

It looks like they really got into it, with Unboxing Photos and then a series of 57 photos "From Backside to Unbox" and a few additional notes about it.

A couple of the more interesting notes:

- AppleTV will pick up where your iPod left off
- Your iTunes season passes are automatically pushed over to your AppleTV's hard drive, and the episodes you've already watched will be removed automatically.

Update: Video of Apple TV Setup

Apple has opened a section on their website dedicated to the new Apple TV and issued a press release today.

The tech specs page provide some additional details:

Video:
- .264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): Up to 5 Mbps. Maximum resolution: 1280 by 720 pixels at 24 fps, 960 by 540 pixels at 30 fps
- MPEG-4: Up to 3 Mbps. Maximum resolution: 720 by 432 pixels at 30 fps

Photos:
- JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG

Apple also posted a Quicktime VR for those who can't wait for unboxing photos. Meanwhile, Mossberg's review claims that the Apple TV uses a "modified version of the Mac operating system", which was not previously known.

Appleinsider claims that the next version of Apple's iMac will showcase "striking new industrial designs aimed at leaving both competitors and onlookers smitten."

The new designs are said to be sleeker and slimmer than the current iMac designs, however, the new looks may only be deployed on the 20" and 24" models, leaving the 17" model's future uncertain.

The rumor site has no solid timeframe for the release of the new iMacs, but our Buyer's Guide suggests the iMac is overdue for an update, with the last update being delivered in September 2006.

This would represent the 4th major iMac design revision since its introduction. (Original, iMac G4, Current)

Macworld originally reported on a special event to be held at the National Association of Broadcasters on April 15th, 2007.

Appleinsider has published the invite which was sent out last week.

Meanwhile, on online version of the invite is available at Apple's website: http://www.apple.com/go/nab/register/

Please join us for a special presentation at NAB in The Venetian Hotel and Casino on Sunday, April 15, at 11:00 a.m. Seating is limited for this invitation-only event.

Though it says "invitation-only", it appears any interested party can register.

The first Apple TV orders are shipping from Apple. Many users received their shipping notifications overnight and the first batch of Apple TV's are on their way.

It appears Australian orders have been moved back to March 27th. Meanwhile, Apple stores have started getting inventory in, but are unable to post materials until at least Wednesday.

The Apple TV was originally scheduled to ship to customers in February. The Apple Store (UK Store) now reflects a 3-5 day shipping date for new orders for the Apple TV.

Apple has posted some details on the various conference sessions that will be available at the Worldwide Developer's Conference 2007.

The sessions are divided into 6 tracks:

- Leopard Innovations
- Mac OS X Essentials
- Information Technologies
- Developer Tools
- Graphics and Imaging
- Content and Media

The Leopard session descriptions are not particularly revealing, but does remind us of some upcoming features of Leopard that have previously been revealed:

- Core Animation is an incredible layer-based animation system that will revolutionize the user experience of your application.
- Mac OS X Leopard elevates video communication with iChat Theater, a new API that shares content from your application over video chat.
- The Calendar Store framework, provided in Mac OS X Leopard, is a simple interface to a user's iCal data. Using the Calendar Store, applications can read, create, and modify events and tasks with just a few lines of code.

An original overview of Leopard remains posted on Apple's site, but Steve Jobs hinted in August 2006 that several "top secret" features of Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) were being held back in Leopard and would not be revealed until a later date. Very few details about these secret features have been leaked to date, but many have speculated on significant visual changes to finder.

Leopard has been targeted for a "Spring 2007" release. WWDC 2007 takes place between June 11-15th in San Francisco.

This past week, there has been some buzz about the possibility of a Google mobile phone.

Google is developing its own mobile phone, according to industry insiders and analysts, while a Google official in Spain last week acknowledged the company is investigating such a project.

Google isn't commenting on the device but it has been described as a "low-cost, Internet-connected phone with a color, wide-screen design."

The rumored phone is said to be "aimed at bringing Google to users who don't have a PC." A Google entry into the mobile phone market could cause some conflicts with Apple. Google and Apple have recently partnered to bring Google technology to users through the upcoming Apple iPhone.

TimesOnline.co.uk points out that such a product launch would require massive production capacities, which Google lacks, and that previous rumors of Google entering the low-cost PC market have not come true.

Investor's Business Daily reports that the Apple TV will be shipping on Tuesday. This information is not particularly top-secret, as all early web-orders for the Apple TV reflect a March 20th ship date.

The Apple TV was originally set to be shipping in February, but was delayed until March.

Apple has already seeded users with software updates to support the upcoming product. iTunes 7.1 introduced a new "Apple TV" preference menu that shows all available Apple TV's.

Meanwhile, as reported by iLounge, the latest Quicktime update introduced a "Export to Apple TV" feature for Pro users.

Export to Apple TV creates not only full DVD-quality 720 by 404 videos, but also 1280 by 720 videos. These videos are viewable in iTunes, but cannot be transferred directly via iTunes to an fifth-generation iPod.

The 1280 by 720 pixel resolution, also known as 720P, is one of several high-definition video formats supported by current televisions.

Last week many customers reported pre-authorization charges for the Apple TV appearing on credit cards.

Appleinsider relays a report by China Economic News Service which claims that iPhone component suppliers are expected to begin delivery of their materials to manufacturing facilities by "early April."

If true, this could suggest that rumors that the iPhone may begin shipping early might have some truth to them.

That being said, Apple has maintained that the iPhone will be shipping in June. This expected date was again reinforced during their recent television ad.

Meanwhile, it is important to remember that these component reports tend to be unreliable. A previous China Times report in November had claimed the Foxconn would be shipping 500,000-600,000 iPhones starting in February 2007.