Is this the video iPod (or Mac tablet)?
By Ryan Block 
posted Feb 23rd 2006 12:33PM
posted Feb 23rd 2006 12:33PM
[Thanks, rosswf]
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Neither. It doesn't look refined enough to be an apple product.
This is NOT a iPod.....it's a sample LCD connected to what looks like a flat connector about the size of a DB25. If it's Photochop, it's a bad one.
By the size of it, I say its a new class of multimedia device, somwhere between the video ipod and the ibook.
if this is the real video ipod i need to get saving
Also, the product code on the sticker M8718Z/A is the apple product code for an academic license for OS X 10.2. Doubtful that a factory sample, if it had a product code on it, would have a code already used for another product.
well the apple number stickered to the display “M8719ZA” is for Mac OS X Server if that seems relevant
A search of M8719Z/A brings a match for Mac OSX Server Ver 10.2.
I call this a fake!
You'll know how real it is when Apple Legal asks you to take it down.
Over under : 1 hour if its real.
those are chinese characters rotated onto their side. they say: this side (literally).
my ipod's model number is ma002ll/A
considering the size of this device to the serial barcode, i'd say that this is indeed the video ipod.
Actually; zoom in REAL far, and you'll see that the product ID is MB719Z/A. Interesting...
I had the same thought about the part number, but I suppose it's possible that they recycle them.
The cable plugged into it looks more like a power cord than a stock iPod USB 2.0 cable.
Seems fake-ish, but I thought the same thing about the 5G leaked pics.
This might just my bad eyesight (no pun intended) but I think the connector is not properly centered on the device, which would make it harder to dock... I honestly dunno...
I'm gonna vote real, that cable connecting it looks exactly like the magnetic one from the MacBook Pro
I could tape a piece of paper to the top of my ipod.
Something's a little screwy with that picture. The serial number on the 'sticker' is a serial number for OS X 10.2 Server.
Can't speak for the source site, but it will stay up here, no one has ever successfully forced us to remove a single piece of content since we started.
Best, Ryan
that '8' you people keep seeing in that picture (M87..) looks more like a B, which fits the part number style on my iPod video packaging (MA147LL/A)
Well it really doesnt matter if it's fake or not. The real vPod cant possibly look much different.
Heh, looks like I was a little late in posting that!
If its anything it looks like an ipod judging by the metal along the outsid, i dont think apple would mix aluminum and plastic like that. And if you look at what the ipod is pluged into, it resebles the size of previous docking conectors.
Can anyone translate the writing on the brown parcel tape over the power/data lead? I'm sure it's lame and says something like "power" (and I'm pretty sure it's not going to be "this is a super secret shot of the new tablet mac") but it might be interesting.
What do the Chinese characters say? I can't read simplified...
*drools*
Please be real please be real.
ya i am seeing MB7192/A, and I looked at the leak photo of the 5G ipod, I think this may be it, but not sure, would be interesting to see a picture of the back of it
I agree with "8. Actually; zoom in REAL far, and you'll see that the product ID is MB719Z/A. Interesting..."
photoshop zooms in nicely
Whatever it is, I likey.
It is a B and the connector is an ipod connector. What's suspect is the covering of the connector - if that were a true ipod cable plugged into an ipod then there'd be no need for covering up the connection.
Has anyone noticed the Chinese charters on the connector? It said" this side". I don't know the authenticity of this pix, it could come from apple's Asian vendors.
While I don't think it is, I wish it were.
I don't think it's a cover for the connector, I think it's just a label.
My Chinese is teh suck, but that says "zhe4 bian4", or "this side". As in this side up perhaps?
ryan flynn, it says "this side"
The 2 cables coming out of the connector are interesting; I don't know of any connector on the market that looks like that. Could it be a dev. cable, or could we all just be falling for the joke? Who knows; but it sure makes for a fun lunch break :D
Commeonnn Mac Tablet... I like my Nokia 770 and everything, but if they intro'd a tablet next week, I'll be hitting F5 on the apple store till it comes back from the update and ordering that crap overnighted with all tha fixins.
The plug,the plug. Looks fake. Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeese DONT BE FAKE. It looks amazing. If this isnt real than I will not go on engadget for atleast an hour for dissapointing me.
yea, i'm thinking this could be a real apple pda (a reincarnated newton, but with osx mobile). if that was a video ipod that was docked theres no reason to cover it, so it has to be a power cord.
So i guess its a new plug meaning since they need to know which side is up and which is down. I think this is pretty real.
I don't see much in the way of Photoshop here. But what I do see is more than a passing resemblance to the last accurate leak we had in terms of background and setting -
http://stationa.net/?p=162
It may be a fake, but something about this photo screams genuine article. Who knows? We will find out next Tuesday.
have you noticed that the connection cable has two input wires? this looks like something else then an ipod, my uncle has one that looks like this but its a different style, i think they took out the case of it and placed it in an ipod case...
if you look closely, only the cardboard is off center. the actual plug is perfectly in the middle.
One more thing: that's not aluminum around the edge, it's light refraction through a layer of acrylic. Just like the current ipods.
I have a third party and an apple USB + Firewire cable that both look just like the cable shown here. It's probably being used to do screen testing.
"The 2 cables coming out of the connector are interesting; I don't know of any connector on the market that looks like that. Could it be a dev. cable, or could we all just be falling for the joke? Who knows; but it sure makes for a fun lunch break :D"
No, I've seen that type of connector before, there is one on the iPod adaptor for my Pioneer stereo.
http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/6194/cdib1002qk.jpg
I'm voting real, against better judgement...
If this indeed the Video IPod, it looks to be supporting 4:3 aspect ratio instead 16:9. I guess Apple's catering to TV shows instead of movies (which is usually in 16:9).
BK
Does anyone have a link to the Video iPod (5G) leak?
Actually if you roughly measure it, it's 16:9.
http://stationa.net/?p=162
ya its in 16:9 and it fits with the patents found, im pretty darn sure this is it
I bet someone at Apples PR department is laughing his ass off at the moment. There is no way a worker at the Apple plant in China could smuggle a camera into the plant, so my money is on an Apple employee trying to warm us up for next weeks press event.
You are all wrong. Apple is coming out with a PMP not a new ipod. This product will be seperate from the ipod. It will be the "video Ipod" we have all been waiting for. mark my words.
It could be one of the cables that have a usb and firewire cable coming out. Apple uses them.
#42:
You have a point, doesn't seem like an actual 16:9 scaling there. Though i guess by the size it looks more widescreen then the 5g ipod. Also considering the source of the picture and the past reliable proof they provided on the 5g ipod imma say it's real. Though if it isn't no biggie, I'll just stay logged on engagdet since last time they kept posting upto date info lol. Got my card ready on hand that day if it is real :-D
Ok, so here is my math, a dock connector is exactly 1 inch wide, so give or take a little, if that is a dock connector that would make this device 4 inches long and 2.66 inches wide, the current ipod is 4.1 inches by 2.4 inches, so give or take a little this device is almost exactly the same size as a 5G iPod. In my opinion I think its real. Not to mention that cable looks exactly like the cable for my car iPod dock. w/ the two cables coming out of it.
AH, thanks for the link. After checking the previous leaked photos , I come to realize this may be real. The photos showed a Chinese cigarette brand “double happiness". This will collaborate the simplify Chinese characters " this side". The photos were from mainland China.
Ender
If this is real I'm disapointed, it looks like apple is using the same old screen which loves to get dirty and scratch... It's going to be great for a touchscreen....
"if you look closely, only the cardboard is off center. the actual plug is perfectly in the middle."
Actually, even though the brown tape does go over a bit, I still think the plug looks off-center. I mean, compare the distance between the bottom of the plug to the bottom of the device and the top of the plug to the top of the device.
Or look at the colour stripes. It goes right down the middle of the device. To my eye, the plug has more distance on the top.
Also, I agree with others posted that the dock cable could be one of those cables with both USB and FireWire. I thought briefly that it could've been a Dock-to-RCA cable, with maybe just video and mono, but that kinda seems like downgrading. Who knows, it could just be a third-party cable.
Looks pretty real to me, btw.
I'm not a graphics genious (and I'm not being sarcastic)....but could it be a piece of paper taped to the top of an ipod. It looks a bit crooked. The bottom and top edges have black exposed and don't fill the "screen" correctly. Furthermore, the little barcode sticker could be holding it on. Huge grains of salt all around...the to believers, and the non-believers.
it is not m8 but mb
Dear Apple,
If that is a tablet, please design a car mount for it too.
kthxbye.
it looks pretty damn real, all right. The question is, what is it? Look at the patents. It's a mac tablet. Phew. I thought my 5G was about to become obsolete.
"You have a point, doesn't seem like an actual 16:9 scaling there. Though i guess by the size it looks more widescreen then the 5g ipod."
How does this not look widescreen? Am I blind or something?
At first i was thinkin this was waaay fake because in the upper left hand corner it looks like there is a "true" screen under it... however now i am believing it is real... look at the serial # sticker, you can clearly see the "screen" and the red and blue and black colors through the sticker, and the sticker follows on to the "video ipod" where the see through light stops when it reaches the surface... THIS IS REAL GUYS!
Uh oh...looks like the original link is down...the plot thickens
Well, the macshrine.com link now redirects to an 'account suspended' page!
Bandwidth max-out or Apple's lawyers stepping in?
its the video ipod! not the itablet or whatever unless that cord is 3 or 4 inches wide
im not completely up on touchscreen tech but isnt the plastic or the material used for them general thin..like those used on palm devices..doesnt look like they have a thick piece of plastic ontop? because in that picture it looks like the screen thickness/material is the same as the case? it looks like current plastic casing on ipods, which to my knowlege is quite thick?
Fake.....Fake.......and REAL fake. The display is photoshopped and that is a standard DB25 plug. The display size that the rumors and portraying do not match with this. Common guys......i'll bet $167.43 that this is as fake as Aliens landing on earth. Oops, hope I did not piss off anyone reading this in their star wars underooo's waiting for the mother ship to pick them up.
I find it funny that people have to zoom in to read the barcode text.
Actually it looks kinda like a 16:10 ratio like the 17' powerbook.
"account suspended".
i know it got dugg, but i'll get my tinfoil hat, regardless.
"This Account Has Been Suspended," does anyone else get that when they click on the source site?
Try clicking on the real/fake picture. For those who dont want to bother..... "This Account Has Been Suspended". Suspended you say? =|
It seems compelling enough. Size seems right, materials seem right. Serial number and environment seem (kind of) right. Not to mention I was about to cruise through the linked site...but its "suspended". Hmmm, someone gets there hands on hot apple news that no one else has and then forgets to pay their hosting bill?
I think I'm calling it a legit Apple.
Apple is an American company..
But why is the writing on the cardboard japanese/chinese?
This is fake, albeit a good one.
Firstly why is the screen simply colours, if they are going to announce this on 28th then they would have atleast sorted the UI out. I suspect it's because the faker couldn't be bother to have to deal with designing one.
Secondly the connector don't look right.
The shape is weird. I would have thought that it would be the same size as the current iPod, maybe a little thicker. This one is pretty wide though. Doesn't appear to be 16:9 or 4:3
The real deal breaker is the screen though. It just looks wrong. Look at the bottom with the black line, it's not even straight! The right hand side of the screen appears to be jumping out of the iPod.
I suspect it's just an LCD laid on top of a regular iPod.
A Chinese fella at my work confirms it means "this side".
orginal link down, with an 'account suspended' notice. looks like the hosting company has been contacted first.
also agree, this cannot be a tablet.. the cord would be 'h'uge'... looks to me like the brown cardboard is just to cover up the apple logo on the cord. =)
the truth is out there.
Account suspended == real (?)
ok the dock port is on the side becuase you would still hold this device like you would an ipod today, its going to have frontrow on it maybe so you would just flip the device over and watch movies, the ipod knows that you are wtaching a movie so when you touch the screen the virtual clickwheel is faced in the direction for wacthing movies.
and to # 67, almost evrything apple is made in china
#68 because Apple manufacturers their American designed stuff in China (just like everyone else these days).
Duh.
Well, at least the timing is right. I mean, it has to be real since it cam out after the invitation and before the event, right?
Besides, those product numbers are for marketing--urm, inventory tracking. They wouldn't be assigned in the lab.
They might have run out of bandwidth.
"""You have a point, doesn't seem like an actual 16:9 scaling there. Though i guess by the size it looks more widescreen then the 5g ipod."
How does this not look widescreen? Am I blind or something?""
To some ppl it may not seem that way due to the size, compared to say a psp's screen, the psp looks more wider. Then again I'm probably just more confused by the size of the pic or actual unit. Looking at it more carefully it is widescreen, just needed more time to realize it lol. btw, i wish it was tuesday already lol
The perfect profile, larger than a Newton; smaller than a tablet... If it connects to a 30" monitor, tis it! OS X makes it actually useful as opposed to my Tablet PC.
One can only hope! Time to update SketchBook Pro!
As convincing as this looks, I'm afraid I'm going to vote fake on this for two reasons.
First of all, the Chinese characters on the piece of cardboard do not look like they were written by Chinese at all. Handwritten Chinese and on-screen Chinese is somewhat different, and this is obviously an attempt to copy the on-screen version of Chinese characters straight off a computer screen. What's more, the letters are malformed, and look like they were written very painstakingly, sort of like those of a young child who is trying to copy the teacher's alphabet from the blackboard to his notebook.
Number 2, the characters "zhe" and "bian" separately mean "this" and "side". But together, "zhe bian" actually means "here", which does not make any sense here. "This side up", however, would look very logical on a label of this sort, however, "zhebian" does not usually mean that. So I went over to babelfish and tried to have it translate: "This side up". Quite predictably, it returned "zhe bian", which adds to my belief that this was created by someone who wants to give the impression that this photo was taken from a Chinese factory.
Anyway, I give a B for effort, but watch out for those upward flips for the last stroke of "bian". Practice makes perfect! :P
The site going down is probably because of the tremendous audience it has had in the last minutes. First the page was removed, then the site reached its quota, probably... Seems real, and would be as expected by most of us...
It is indeed 16:10 (which is the same as Apple's displays). A quick look in Photoshop gives a pixel ratio of almost exactly 16 to 10. I think the connector is also indeed centered as we have to account for image distortion from the angle of the picture.
I spent a few minutes trying to correct for the lens distortion and ended up with this:
http://dechter.shackspace.com/ipod6/apple_device_corrected.jpg
"The display size that the rumors and portraying do not match with this."
Hahahaha, that's the funniest thing I've heard in a LONG time. The rumors don't match, so it must be a fake? :-) Kuality.
And... the site has already been "suspended" :)
Makes you wonder...
Jay Liu - so what about the device? You're basing your assertion that it's a fake on the *label*?
Are you saying that it's a render or something?
the screen may look kind of weired because I think its covered in a layer of plastic wrapping, I think.
This thing looks HELLA fragile. Can't wait for the "broken Screens" lawsuit yo! Amma straight up cop this.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if this were the true "video iPod" that uses a touchscreen. However, my worry is that the screen will get scratched to bejezus, or if nothing else the screen will get lots of smudges. The PSP has the same problem. Either way, this would be the most obvious design for the video iPod.
Just realised something else.
If this is a video iPod then you are going to want to watch it in the profile that is shown in the picture. Surely then they would have placed the dock connector on the bottom side then rather than the right hand side?
#20 sez "judging by the metal along the outsid, i dont think apple would mix aluminum and plastic like that" -- I doubt that's metal. I'd assume that to be a raised edge for scratch-proofing. Which totally makes sense when you think about how much real estate on that thing is the primary function.
I vote real.
The dock connector is not an apple dock connector, but one made by griffin- a quick photoshop of the image at froogle http://froogle.google.com/froogle_cluster?q=ipod+connector&pid=2058786457371351913&oid=2171286994958290623&btnG=Search+Froogle&ei=7QT-Q5f8IqDsqwKb0ezXCw&sig2=mcCTAKKLw8LNOiOd8KOx9A&lmode=&addr=&scoring=mrd&hl=en
As well, photoshopping reveals that the blacks on the upper left corner are in fact crushed and make a steady gradient, which would insist that the test pattern was most likely not photoshopped into the image. The histogram does not insist there was any serious alterations in this image. My vote: Real, or someone had a lot of fun gutting a broken iPod and modding in an LCD display.
I would buy one in a heart beat. I think this is real and that we will get more information about it within two week.
I'm not sure about the pic, but i don't think apple will be coming out with another ipod since the 5G ipod just came out recently. It just wouldn't make sense to release another ipod so soon, UNLESS, this will come out later this year.
i say this is the real ting.
Here is a better look at what it should look like. This image has been on the site for about a year now
http://cimg.163.com/tech/2004/10/22/200410221629270f906.jpg
G5想象图
容量：260GB，可以存储120200首歌曲；128MB FLASH EPROM
处理器：摩托罗拉 龙珠 500MHz芯片
操作系统：MAC OS X for Handhelds 7.1
内建软件：Safari 1.1；Quicktime player Handheld Editon 7.1；iTunes 5；Address Book 1.3；iPhoto 4 Handheld Editon；Salling Cliker 2.1；Apple Media Manager 2.1
数据传输：WiFi，蓝牙；火线接口；