More Mac Pro, WWDC Details and Photos

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif

Apple introduced the Mac Pro at WWDC today. A few photos and videos of the new machine have been circulating:

* Photos inside the Mac Pro - PowerMax
* Hands on (video) - CNet
* Hands on (photo) - Engadget
* More Photos - MacObserver

Apple also gives its developers some Apple-branded items for attending:

* Apple gear given out at WWDC (photos) - TheAppleBlog

Readers are reminded that despite detailing many features of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Steve Jobs opened his presentation by stating "There's some top secret features we're going to keep a little close to the vest."

Other tidbits from WWDC:

* XCode 2.4 was released today.
* An unconfirmed forum post claims that the Mac Pro CPUs are swappable.
* Leopard Server Sneak Peak with iCal Server, Wiki Server, Spotlight Server and Podcast Producer.

Finally, higher quality versions of the promotional screenshots from Leopard have been posted to our guides page.

[spicyapple]

This was a good WWDC. Quad Xeons... what I was hoping for since 2004!

[noservice2001]

hmmm...swapping out mac pro chips you say?

[swingerofbirch]

I'm not holding my breath on the Top secret features...it could have been a joke.

ALTHOUGH, Tiger included some features that were so top secret--like the exclusive dotMac widgets--that Apple couldn't even include them in the final release, so you never know!

[nagromme]

Very similar external case, but the insides are totally new and different--so I think we'll see this case design for quite a while to come. That answers that, you can stop waiting for a new design

Lots of great attention to detail--like the way the drive-holders are numbered in case you take more than one out and forget where they came from.

I still wonder where the Airport and Bluetooth antennas are.

[mdntcallr]

Neat stuff.

thanks for putting all of this in a convienent form!! with easy links

[leistnerm]

Originally Posted by swingerofbirch

I'm not holding my breath on the Top secret features...it could have been a joke.

ALTHOUGH, Tiger included some features that were so top secret--like the exclusive dotMac widgets--that Apple couldn't even include them in the final release, so you never know!

I think ZFS may be one of the top secret features. Now, maybe that's because I would love to have ZFS running on my Power Mac. However I did see mention of the kernel now implementing DTrace, an open source project that also comes from Solaris... if they took one, maybe they took ZFS as well..

Wishful thinking?

http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/xcode.html

[JoshRtek]

FYI...anyone that is considering getting the in-store BT/AP module...

The tech on the phone told me that the G5 Powermac module will NOT work in the Mac Pro case...as the internals have been redesigned (power supply at the top, not bottom, new motherboard, etc.)

Also, seems the SATA interface is the newer "II" standard with twice the throughput, but it IS backwards compatible with SATA-I drives

[szark]

Originally Posted by nagromme

I still wonder where the Airport and Bluetooth antennas are.

They stick out from underneath the case. I'm pretty sure you can see that at some point during the Keynote speech (look for the blue "transmission circles" next to the Mac Pro -- the antenna is at the center of the circles).

[swedeykx]

Something tells me that core animation is going to be iPhoto for multi-touch. It reminds me a lot of the NYU video demo of multi touch interaction experiment photo editing tool. It would not surprise me at all if some feature use this soon.

my 2 cents.

his is pure speculation so dont read anything into it. I am just making a correlation between the look of the two softwares.

[Flowbee]

I've never really paid much attention to Apple's server software, but the Leopard Server sneak peek was pretty interesting.

[swingerofbirch]

I'm curious to know whether these Top Secret features have been excluded from the developer preview as well........

Would they purposefully give developers a beta with striped down features?

And if the point of not publicly releasing them is that they dont want Microsoft to copy the features but they DO include those features in the developer preview, I have to imagine that Microsoft will see those features as I assume it is an official Apple developer and would receive these materials!

[Object-X]

Top Secret stuff? You mean like a movie download service? Or a Front Row PVR? iPhone software?

I find it interesting that he didn't say anything about Front Row and how it would be improved. He didn't say anything about iChat and how it might evolve into a phone service with an integrated iPod/iPhone. In fact, everything they did show are pretty much improvements to existing technologies, except Time Machine (way cool). They didn't add HD-DVD/Blueray to the Mac Pros. I guess what I'm getting at are things that didn't show up are most likely software technologies that have an accompaning hardware device to go with it, and since those products aren't ready they can't spill the beans just yet.

Mac World in January is going to be amazing!

[Eidorian]

Originally Posted by JoshRtek

FYI...anyone that is considering getting the in-store BT/AP module...

The tech on the phone told me that the G5 Powermac module will NOT work in the Mac Pro case...as the internals have been redesigned (power supply at the top, not bottom, new motherboard, etc.)

Also, seems the SATA interface is the newer "II" standard with twice the throughput, but it IS backwards compatible with SATA-I drives

Check the developer's notes. The Airport module runs on a x1 PCi Express slot and Bluetooth via internal USB 2.0.

[motulist]

I find it weird that you get a remote control and front row on a lower end machine but you can't even get it as a custom configuration option on the higher end machines. I understand that these are supposed to be the "professional" machines and iMacs are for "consumers," but in the real world that delineation doesn't mean much. Many people buying Mac Pros are getting them as their home computer, and it's pretty lame that you drop extra money on the high end and can't do some of the really cool things that can be done on a lower end model.

That said, I'd gladly accept a Mac Pro if someone wanted to buy me one so they can prove that it doesn't matter.

[p0intblank]

Originally Posted by Object-X

Top Secret stuff? You mean like a movie download service? Or a Front Row PVR? iPhone software?

I find it interesting that he didn't say anything about Front Row and how it would be improved. He didn't say anything about iChat and how it might evolve into a phone service with an integrated iPod/iPhone. In fact, everything they did show are pretty much improvements to existing technologies, except Time Machine (way cool). They didn't add HD-DVD/Blueray to the Mac Pros. I guess what I'm getting at are things that didn't show up are most likely software technologies that have an accompaning hardware device to go with it, and since those products aren't ready they can't spill the beans just yet.

Mac World in January is going to be amazing!

I'd say chances are very good we will see Steve give another keynote before the holidays roll around. This will be an event focusing on those "Top Secret" features. Afterall, they can't just release Leopard in early 2007 without showing off these features first. They just have to time it right so Microsoft doesn't "photocopy" it.

By the way, I love Apple's random stabs at Microsoft and Windows Vista. I love it!

[summit99]

I know we've overdosed on speculation recently, but the MacRumors live transcript from the keynote today contained the following line (from Steve I believe):

10:24 am lots more announcements during the next week

best to just wait and see......

[akac]

Originally Posted by summit99

I know we've overdosed on speculation recently, but the MacRumors live transcript from the keynote today contained the following line (from Steve I believe):

10:24 am lots more announcements during the next week

best to just wait and see......

I thought that was for the Universal Binary third party - not Apple's.

[shawnce]

Originally Posted by summit99

I know we've overdosed on speculation recently, but the MacRumors live transcript from the keynote today contained the following line (from Steve I believe):

10:24 am lots more announcements during the next week

best to just wait and see......

They may not be public announcements but announcements made to developers at the conference under NDA.

[dttyszka]

Originally Posted by Macrumors

* An unconfirmed forum post claims that the Mac Pro CPUs are swappable.

An Apple sales rep via the Apple Store chat applet answered this same question for me earlier. Keegan's response was:
"Great question! This would definitely not be supported, but it may certainly be possible."

I would interpret that as: This is normal PC hardware for the most part, so sure the procs are replaceable, but don't expect Apple to be in the market of selling you processor upgrades and your warranty is gone if you make any such modifications.

[ImAlwaysRight]

Originally Posted by motulist

I find it weird that you get a remote control and front row on a lower end machine but you can't even get it as a custom configuration option on the higher end machines. I understand that these are supposed to be the "professional" machines and iMacs are for "consumers," but in the real world that delineation doesn't mean much. Many people buying Mac Pros are getting them as their home computer, and it's pretty lame that you drop extra money on the high end and can't do some of the really cool things that can be done on a lower end model.

No remote? No Photo Booth? That's got to be a deal breaker for a lot of folks.

As for the real world, many professionals have funds to purchase these machines as they will use the speed. It seems to me that most "consumers" are not able or willing to plop down the cash to buy a Mac Pro when an iMac or MacBook or even Mac Mini will more than suit their needs.

[chiamon]

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/l...tproducer.html
Notice the phone besides the ipod and itunes? This page is about podcasts and what is a phone doing there alongside ipod and itunes? Does this spell something
about what we all wanted from apple: the iphone? Just my 2 cents. Leopard rox!

[kalisphoenix]

Originally Posted by Object-X

Top Secret stuff? You mean like a movie download service? Or a Front Row PVR? iPhone software?

I find it interesting that he didn't say anything about Front Row and how it would be improved.

I was thinking about that just now as I watched the Keynote. Many of the features demonstrated today seem to have been specifically mentioned because of their importance to developers. They're either new or improved resources for the devs to work with, or they are "quality of life" improvements. Notice that a lot of items on developer/advanced user wish lists were granted today -- multi-user iCal, multiple iChat enhancements for teleconferencing and so forth, multiple desktops, various organization-related advances in Mail, automated backups (what developer wouldn't want that?), and so forth. This is definitely "Developers! Developers! Developers!" type stuff. Some of the biggest complaints (valid or not) are centered around the lack of various programs for OS X. This is a big gambit, and we should be looking at it in terms of its potential, not of its explicit results to Apple's product line. This WWDC was very strategic in nature -- Apple's going for the throat.

The top secret features? I expect that the mention was made largely to allay Apple fanboy fears of a underwhelming OS update, to keep Microsoft nervous, and to keep developers on their toes as well. That being said, I think there's a large grain of truth in it. As previously-mentioned, a good number of the improvements mentioned today were at least debatably for power users (not the Mail stationery, but I wouldn't be surprised if there's a connection somewhere).

The features that sell us on Leopard (and convince stragglers and non Mac-users to buy new Macs) are going to be impressive in function and not have much bearing on developers (at least, not like the Intel switch ). I mean enhancements to Front Row, iTunes, Quicktime (Just give us the @#$%ing Pro features), and other media-centered technologies. Enhancements to Safari, Finder (I hope), iCal, Address Book. Enhancements to consumer hardware, like the Airport base stations and (possibly) a TV-capture device.

In other words, I think Apple's flanking their competitors in the media center world and are preparing to do with video what they've done with audio. They might even attempt to crush Microsoft right around the Vista launch, when consumer confidence is at a low, by making their OS's entire software library just another feature of OS X.

Now, this probably isn't so. Apple might be resting on their Tiger laurels. But I think, after careful consideration, that Apple is going for the throat.

[kalisphoenix]

Originally Posted by chiamon

http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/l...tproducer.html
Notice the phone besides the ipod and itunes? This page is about podcasts and what is a phone doing there alongside ipod and itunes? Does this spell something
about what we all wanted from apple: the iphone? Just my 2 cents. Leopard rox!

What kind of phone is that? Just a mockup?

[arn]

Originally Posted by kalisphoenix

What kind of phone is that? Just a mockup?

Looks like it might say "Sony Ericsson" on it.

arn