After a careful comparative inspection, we think we can confidently say that the eBay listing we were tipped on for an
Intel Power Mac dev kit box does, in fact, appear to have the same motherboard as shown in ThinkSecret's
Intel Mac dev kit boxes last
year, so yes, there's that. The auction goes on to state that the box is a 3.6GHz Pentium 4 with internal Intel
graphics, 1GB of RAM, a 150GB drive, dual layer DVD burner, gigabit Ethernet, and all the ins and outs you'd expect --
ok, gotcha. Here's where we get sketched: the people selling do claim they're developers getting rid of it, but they go
on to list their phone number and email (pinewoodpictures.com domain), which is registered to a company in Seattle,
despite the fact that they claim being based in San Juan. So, what, did Apple really forget to pick up one of their dev
kits? And are these guys really naive enough to risk a lawsuit over an eBay sale with a starting bid of $1,700 US? Is
there any way to know this isn't just a hoax, and that this is maybe just the same machine that was used to take those
ThinkSecret pics? Nope! But hey, if you want to buy it and find out, give us a ring and let us know.
[Thanks, Yomeni]
posted February 22nd 2006 9:18AM
Maybe they took an old G5 case and put their own parts inside and slapped the cracked OSX86 on there. Wouldn't be too difficult to do.
i can't imagine it is too useful to have. i would think it's not going to work as an intel mac for very long.
they would have been better off taking apple up on the very good deal in trading it in for an intel iMac and ebay that.
the phone number they provide is for Friday Harbor, WA, which is where the ebay account is registered to (see "item location" in the top part of the listing) and is a city on San Juan Island. Seatle isn't that far away so this person could be selling it from his house and using his small buisness email address.
seeing as this pinewoodpictures.com domain has no site despite being registered for 2 years it could be that this guy has been trying to start a software company and got in over his head, is about to go bankrupt, and so has no fear of Apple sueing his little LLC since it has no value left.
That looks like a old version xbox360 kit I've seen earlier in my company...
Looks like apple got to him. The listing has been removed
Seems as though eBay has cancelled this item. I wonder if it was because it was a scam or if it was Apple's doing?
engadget, you spoke too quickly, ebay auction has been taken down... BY THE MAN! hahaa
Anyone know if it was Ebay who removed it on thier own will or if apple had anything to do with it?
http://www.cranburypcrepair.com
Why anyone would want to buy the developer transition PowerMac is beyond me. After all, you can buy an iMac or MacBook Pro to do all your intel XCode'ing. Maybe owning a "piece of history" would be cool, but otherwise I don't think it'd be worth it.
Also, Mike it's really unprofessional to spam link to your website in the comments section. You already get a link from your name, so an extra link is a waste. If you really must link spam, can you at least redesign your website? The only thing worse than spam comments is spam comments pointing to really ugly websites.
Apple didnt get to him, eBay did. Looks like a fraudulent account on this side.
Why would they sell it off if they could get a free iMac with intel through the Apple Exchange program?
"I wonder if it was because it was a scam or if it was Apple's doing?"
Well, Apple would be well within their rights seeing as how the developer kits were rented, not sold.
Selling an Intel dev kit on EBay would be the same as selling a Ford Taurus you rented at Hertz.
THIS AUCTION IS A SCAM. APPLE GAVE ALL DEVELOPERS WHO RETURNED THEIR KIT A FREE DUAL CORE INTEL iMac. NOBODY WOULD HAVE ONE TO SELL ON EBAY.
Actually, Apple sent the replacement iMacs _before_ the dev kits had to be returned, so us devs could transfer our files and such over to the iMac easily.
Don't know if anyone clicked the READ on this, but Ebay has pulled the auction...interesting.
Anyone have info on this?
Auction Pulled.
Guess we will never know the truth :/
Here Mike have some spam.
cranburypcrepair@gmail.com.
Thanks for your email address
Appears these dudes are up to all manner of interesting activity on eBay.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ARRI-ZEISS-10-100mm-Super-16-Zoom_W0QQitemZ290007159882QQcmdZViewItem
Not to mention their totally non-arrogant postings on Craigslist. For example,
http://bangkok.craigslist.org/tfr/179204381.html
These do exist. They are Dev Kits for the Xbox 360. Apple did not take them back from any of the users becasue they where purchased. Anyone who received one though is under a NDA and is not allowed to sell or even transfer them.
Hope this helps.
i would have bought it
www.planet-downloads.com