Apple PodWatch is a Fake

3 hours ago, Mobility Today published an article that claims Apple may have a new wristwatch :




This image is a fake by Pentagram Design. Full story here.

New iBooks Coming

I believe the new iBooks are appearing May 14 or 15 from chatter I'm hearing. I suspect the new video iPod will be released either end of summer, or end of fall. :( It seems that PortalPlayer (who makes parts for iPods) got their contract yanked and given to Samsung this week. There are rumors that the reasoning is that PortalPlayer leaked information (images??) of the new iPod, and in so doing, broke their confidentiality agreement so Apple is punishing them. PortalPlayer's stock dropped almost 50% on the news, which their executives called "a nightmare scenario". I think Apple is up to something.

Otherwise, I have't been seeing any images lately of allegedely new Apple products, but I will debunk them or prove them as soon as I do.

May 15th

All will be revealed May 15th.

Or so the rumors go...

Steve Jobs is No Fool

There wasn't any "30th Anniversary Event" on April 1, so there haven't been any fake products to debunk.. for now. Sources say that Steve Jobs is still negotiating with movie studios for a concurrent launch of the iTunes movie store with the 6G iPod. There are also rumors that the Beatles lawsuit is delaying a release of a new iTunes, because of the logo infringement. (Although Apple is way more likely to cash settle with Apple Corps).

More Crappy Fake Photos

More photos surfaced of the alleged upcoming 6G video iPod. I said before that this is the probably the concept of such an iPod, but unfortunately, this is still not it.







If people can't even photoshop a fake LCD screen, how are they supposed to fake all the cool new products Apple is coming with for this year? Give me a break, people.

The biggest giveaway is the sloppy lasso job around the thumb. If you crank the gamma and apply sharpening, you can see what the edge of the thumb looks like over the dark iPod. (A)

Look at areas in (B), you can see the gray of the ipod beneath the thumb leaking through. Especially note the lifted black density that the arrow on the bottom left is pointing to. If the area of the thumb in (A) shows no transition to black, then why should the areas in (B) show such a clear halo.

This shows the photoshop lasso area. It may seem like a small detail, but this is all it takes. This halo is not exhibited anywhere else in the same photos of foreground objects of similar densities over other objects.

Lets consider some basic points :

1. This kind of fake is the easiest to photoshop. Just double the screen.

2. I doubt Apple would ever allow these kinds of photos leaked.

3. The GUI in the Ice Age 2 photo is very non-Apple, and different than the other fake photos.

There are several other techincal factors, like inconsistant chromatic abberation, a lack of grain, and strange sharpness in some areas.

I will continue to look at the images, but I can say with 90% certainty that these are fake. I've helped win multiple Acadamy Awards for making computer-generated images of things that don't exist. You will have to do a lot better than this to impress me.

Project Origami

A leaked video from Microsoft has been circulating that shows an iPod-like PDA.



The device is codenamed Project Origami, and rumors are flying about its legitimacy. Microsoft canceled a press conference about it this week, and is instead taking a cue from Steve Jobs and letting rumors build.

That approach would work, except I know the truth. My close friend worked on Origami for one year, and even helped make that video. The video is in fact from an internal pitch to get R&D budget approval. It is a concept video for the executives that is over a year old.

He no longer works on it, but says that its "unlikely that the features shown in the concept video will make it into the first version of the device."

Confirmation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ4wzEEpk1A

And FYI, I spent about 20 minutes creating the first fakepod post. Totally worth it to prove everyone wrong. ;)