Apple NAB Announcements?

[adamfilip]

April 1st - Tiger Announced shipping in two weeks

April 16 - NAB - New Pro apps and Powermacs to Run them - Dual Core preloaded with tiger

June WWDC - Powerbook G5

Place your BETS!

 

[Bear]

3.0 ghz G5? It's not like they haven't had enough time for that one. Though what would really be cool is if they create a dual core 3.0 ghz, dual processor, for a total of 12 ghz of processing power! It'll happen someday I guess.

It sounds like you haven't seen the articles on the 970MP then. According to the news articles and such, 3GHz dual core with a 1GHz front side bus. I don't expect the bus being at 1/3rd core speed instead of 1/2 to be a real performance inhibitor - after all, how fast can you get memory to go right now? And still have the mahcine be affordable to mere mortals?

 

[patseguin]

April 1st - Tiger Announced shipping in two weeks

April 16 - NAB - New Pro apps and Powermacs to Run them - Dual Core preloaded with tiger

June WWDC - Powerbook G5

Place your BETS!

I agree with everything except for the Powerbook G5.

 

[Bear]

April 1st - Tiger Announced shipping in two weeks

April 16 - NAB - New Pro apps and Powermacs to Run them - Dual Core preloaded with tiger

June WWDC - Powerbook G5

Place your BETS!

This sounds quite possible - the real questionable one is the Powerbook G5 - but we might see a dual core G4 for the powerbook.

I expect something rather unexpected to be one more thing this year at WWDC.

 

[nuckinfutz]

It sounds like you haven't seen the articles on the 970MP then. According to the news articles and such, 3GHz dual core with a 1GHz front side bus. I don't expect the bus being at 1/3rd core speed instead of 1/2 to be a real performance inhibitor - after all, how fast can you get memory to go right now? And still have the mahcine be affordable to mere mortals?

Not to mention that chip-to-chip communication will be done off the FSB most likely. That's likely a huge bandwidth saver as well as being faster.

 

[Porchland]

April 1st - Tiger Announced shipping in two weeks

April 16 - NAB - New Pro apps and Powermacs to Run them - Dual Core preloaded with tiger

June WWDC - Powerbook G5

Place your BETS!

Does anyone recall any major Apple announcements on a Friday? (April 1 and April 15 are both Fridays.) I'm not saying this WON'T happen on these dates, but Apple typically makes product announcements on Mondays and Tuesdays.

 

[Bear]

Does anyone recall any major Apple announcements on a Friday? (April 1 and April 15 are both Fridays.) I'm not saying this WON'T happen on these dates, but Apple typically makes product announcements on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Most Apple announcements seem to be on Tuesday with some on Monday or Wednesday.

Apple has had announcements on other days of the week as well. This includes a Sunday announcement at a show. Also, the iTunes music store announcements have been on various days of the week,

The OS always has had a release party on a Friday evening for the past couple of releases, so April 15th as the release date for it seems reasonable. As for the NAB releated announcements, I would say either April 16th (the first day of NAB) or APrit 18th (the first day the exhibition hall is open at NAB). The 15th is a slight possibility if Apple is hosting a reception of some sort pre NAB in the evening.

 

[longofest]

Apple will definitely announce PowerMacs after Tiger is announced

Apple will definitely wait to release the updated Powermacs until after Tiger is announced so they can can pre-install Tiger on the new machines. Imagine how many pissed off customers there would be if they got a brand new Powermac that was just released with Panther on it, and 2 weeks later Tiger was announced. Even if the upgrade just cost $19.95, they would be insulted.

Anyone think PCI-Express will appear? Personally, I think we will see one more round of AGP-8X before PCI-Express appears because the X-800 from ATI JUST came out in AGP-8X form, but I can always be proven wrong, and it would be wondeful if I am proven wrong.

Also, lets hear it for a slightly re-designed enclosure so that the GPU socket is distanced a little from the other slots so a massive video card doesn't block up one of your few PCI-X or PCI slots. But then again, that would be too logical...

 

[patseguin]

Apple will definitely wait to release the updated Powermacs until after Tiger is announced so they can can pre-install Tiger on the new machines. Imagine how many pissed off customers there would be if they got a brand new Powermac that was just released with Panther on it, and 2 weeks later Tiger was announced. Even if the upgrade just cost $19.95, they would be insulted.

Anyone think PCI-Express will appear? Personally, I think we will see one more round of AGP-8X before PCI-Express appears because the X-800 from ATI JUST came out in AGP-8X form, but I can always be proven wrong, and it would be wondeful if I am proven wrong.

Also, lets hear it for a slightly re-designed enclosure so that the GPU socket is distanced a little from the other slots so a massive video card doesn't block up one of your few PCI-X or PCI slots. But then again, that would be too logical...

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't the Pomwermac G5's already have PCI-Express?

 

[Yvan256]

So basiclly Apple will be updating SOMETHING in April. We just don't know what.

The PowerBooks and iPod were just updated. So, anything but those two things.

Come on, iBook mini! (widescreen 7" 800x480, Radeon 9200/32MB, no optical drive, 1GHz G4, 512MB built-in, no RAM slot, 1.8" 30GB HD, 1 USB 2.0, 1 FireWire 400, S-Video out, 802.11g and Bluetooth built-in).

 

[nuckinfutz]

Anyone think PCI-Express will appear? Personally, I think we will see one more round of AGP-8X before PCI-Express appears because the X-800 from ATI JUST came out in AGP-8X form, but I can always be proven wrong, and it would be wondeful if I am proven wrong.

PCI-Express is a given. In fact I expect Apple to have a hybrid system where they have 2 PCI-E slots and 2 PCI-X to help with backward compatibility.

I think Apple will announce a bunch of product updates in April and prepare for a huge Q2.

I'm not sure we see iMac/iBook updates quite so early. I think we see Dual Core chips at the high end and single chips at the low and midrange.

Apple will announce a new DAW that is like Pro Tools but slicker and it's integration with Final Cut Pro, Shake and Motion will be unparalleled.

Tiger will be announced April 1st. Powermacs and NAB apps April 12th

IMO of course

 

[zimtheinvader]

PCIe=why?

meh, PCIe not something Apple wants or needs at this point (imho) as apparently it significantly degrades performance in regard to professional applications like DAW, possibly due to poor implementation in regards to bandwidth-sucking gfx cards. Its not like that many people buy macs for gaming anyway., which the PCIe market seems leveled at PC-side. Apple should improve their drivers regarding current cards first...

Also, why would Apple roll out an entirely new Pro audio app? They just acquired Logic, one of the most widely used and respected professional audio applications of all time. Maybe a pro version of Acid-type composition software, (more serious/updated version of Soundtrack?) maybe a new type of plug-in?

 

[nuckinfutz]

meh, PCIe not something Apple wants or needs at this point (imho) as apparently it significantly degrades performance in regard to professional applications like DAW, possibly due to poor implementation in regards to bandwidth-sucking gfx cards. Its not like that many people buy macs for gaming anyway., which the PCIe market seems leveled at PC-side. Apple should improve their drivers regarding current cards first...

Also, why would Apple roll out an entirely new Pro audio app? They just acquired Logic, one of the most widely used and respected professional audio applications of all time. Maybe a pro version of Acid-type composition software, (more serious/updated version of Soundtrack?) maybe a new type of plug-in?

Gotta any links talking about the problems with PCI Express handy?

Apple needs to roll out a new Pro Audio app because

Logic is nice but it's a midi sequencer with audio recording bolted on. What people using Final Cut Pro in Post Production environments need a Pro Tools app, ie and app thats forte is audio editing with good enough midi support. It's obvious that Logic isn't going to be that app in Apple's eyes. With LP7 Apple added some new plugins and tweaked the code a bit to support Apple Loops but they didn't really make any steps to make Lp7 a peer in a FCP workflow.

My guess is because they are working on a new DAW that has Core Audio and the new Quicktime 7 as the very core. This app will a peer app to Final Cut Pro, Motion and Shake. Meaning that you will be able to click or choose a menu button from within FCP and the DAW will launch with your audio from your timeline loaded in the DAW. Edit the audio and save and the changes are automatically updated.

I can see it happening in April. Shake and FCP both have Qmaster (Xgrid) support and this DAW may have it as well.

LP7 will continue until probably version 8.5 or so before Apple migrates the users to the new DAW.

 

[jouster]

Thanks for information about iBook's-from a Apple rep, so that means new iBooks next month -interesting tidbit to me was about a Widescreen edition

Not to deny the possibility, but, as has been pointed out here so many times, Apple reps/salespeople know absolutely nothing about whatever is coming - other than what they can infer from the same sources rumor sites use. They might be able to guess that iBooks are coming based on the length of time it's been since an update, but, heck, so can we. You can bet that if there is a form-factor change, they will be finding out about it at exactly the same time as the rest of us - when Steve pulls off the velvet cloth.

 

[Eniregnat]

Shake has needed an upgrade for some time. It would be nice if it were completely extensible with FCP. Actually, the extensibility of all of Apple’s Pro products needs to be improved.

There were rumors some time ago, among my friends, that Apple was going to spin off a pro still editing program based off Shake. Also there was talk about academic pricing for a Shake Express was in the works. While a full version is available with a limited 60 day (30day plus a one time 30 day extension), it isn’t enough to learn Shake.

Along with improvements in extensibility, we might see Apple introduce a multi-button mouse. It thought that this would happen last year during NAB, but it didn’t happen. I only know that the trainers were complaining that they didn’t use a single button mouse during training sessions, Apple’s authorized training materials for Shake (and I think FCP) speak of a two-button +scroll mouse extensively. If I were going to introduce it, and I wanted to have the most positive spin on the release, I would do it at a professional media trade-show.

Now- a complete guess. Perhaps somebody will release a direct to iPod cable for miniDV cameras. Firewire is the protocol, and a number of cameras support this feature. Why not direct to iPod.

 

[nuckinfutz]

I read stuff stating that the Shake 4 upgrade is going to be huge. In fact the same person stated that Motion was just a trial run for the tech in Shake. I look for a few things to happen at NAB

1. Apple Pro apps will integrate better than ever.

2. Tiger only for most of them. Too many new core technologies to backport.

3. Apple will be pushing for everyone to upgrade to Tiger if they want to use the newest apps and thus will have specials.

 

[animefan_1]

Apple has been very consistent with iBook updates recently.

April 2003; Oct 2003; April 2004; Oct 2004... notice a pattern.

I think it's possible to expect a 1.42 GHz or 1.5 GHz iBook in April. Hopefully it'll also have 64 MB Video Ram (although I doubt it'll have a more powerful graphics controller ).

 

[jbh001]

Correct me if I am wrong, but don't the Pomwermac G5's already have PCI-Express?

No. They have PCI-eXtreme (aka PCI-X).
PCI Express (aka PCI-E, PCI-e, and PCIe) is the newer, next-generation version.

 

[vouder17]

I reckon they will update the imacs and then quickly update the powermacs...so that the imac doesnt undermine the current powermac.

DjVoTeZ

 

[kenaustus]

I have a feeling that April will be focused on NAB related products and also the education market. For me that means:

Tiger - This is probably the cornerstone for everything that is released in the next 12 months. That pushes a April announcement and release.

NAB - I look for industry related products. Since I'm not in that industry I don't have a clue what they might do, but they will want to excite the attendees.

Education - We're talking iBooks and eMacs and this group is important in April because educators are heading into their buying season.

PMs? I look for these at WWDC in order to give IBM and Apple time to work on them more and get the chip production into full swing. I'm also thinking dual cores for this line and Apple will want deliveries to be faster than the original shipments.

PBs after WWDC - at Paris with luck.

Asteroid is still on the back burner and will probably be announced when Apple wants "one more thing" for a keynote.

 

[persona1138]

Fingers Crossed...

As a professional film & video editor, and as a graduatin' college student, I'm prayin' that they get these updates sooner rather than later. An update to the G5 would be totally welcome (I've been eyeing a dual-2.5 GHz for ages), and I'm interested to see what they do with FCP and DVD Studio Pro; they're two fantastic programs (well, FCP at least) - I'll also be interested to see how Avid responds. The word I've been hearing is that Avid is going to pull out of supporting Apple because of FCP; just as a for-instance, Avid Xpress Pro HD for the Mac is months behind the PC version which is currently available for download online. Regardless, I have likes and dislikes with both systems, and we'll see what they do with it. A solid audio editor (apart from Logic Pro, which is more music-oriented, anyway) would be welcome; Pro Tools is a big help, but an Apple-created version would be even better. At any rate, whatever they release, I hope it gets out before early May so I can grab an education price; it's rough that they release these updates so close to college graduations - If they're not released in time, graduating college students can't grab these hardware and apps at reasonable prices - Alas, we can't afford the tools without the dough, and without the tools we can't get the work we need; a catch-22 to say the least. So please, Apple, release these updates as soon as possible to not only ease the pain of emptying this poor student's pocket book but also to push this industry and allow filmmaking to become even more accessible to the average Joe.

 

[Griffindor73]

I wonder if the PowerMac updates will be simple speed bumps

e.g:

Dual 2.0
Dual 2.3
Dual 2.5

Goodbye 1.8's.

Or at best:

Dual 2.3
Dual 2.5
Dual ???? -Maybe 3.0Ghz? (or 2.7/2.8?)

This would leave room for iMac to go to 2.0Ghz without tapping into the PM market.

There again I'm just guessing- haven't got a clue!

 

[ejbenjamin]

Education Discount Terms

As a professional film & video editor, and as a graduatin' college student, I'm prayin' that they get these updates sooner rather than later. ... At any rate, whatever they release, I hope it gets out before early May so I can grab an education price; it's rough that they release these updates so close to college graduations - If they're not released in time, graduating college students can't grab these hardware and apps at reasonable prices - Alas, we can't afford the tools without the dough, and without the tools we can't get the work we need; a catch-22 to say the least. So please, Apple, release these updates as soon as possible to not only ease the pain of emptying this poor student's pocket book but also to push this industry and allow filmmaking to become even more accessible to the average Joe.

I went to the trouble of registering an account to reply, so I hope this helps:

I was in your same situation a year ago, when I was graduating in May and hoping to use some gift money to buy a PowerMac. Wanting the education discount, I inquired and found that Apple doesn't consider the school year over until June (or maybe even July-- look into it).

So you don't lose the discount the moment you have your diploma in hand. But you don't want to wait around, either.

(Incidentally, if you're strapped for cash, I also recommend the Apple Certified stuff-- previously used, heavily discounted. I saved a grand and my machine works perfectly for everything I need.)

Congratulations, by the way, and good luck.

 

[Eniregnat]

an iBook mini would make sense. preferably with 10.6" widescreen.

1.2Ghz g4. no optical drive. that's sufficiently different to the PBooks

I doubt that a mini-iBook would mean much to thoes that go to NAB. The individuals that go to NAB could afford a cool little toy, but they are really looking for professional tools. A 12" PB is minimum needed for pro video edition. A mini-iBook would more likely be a good teleprompter. I would like to see a mini-iBook, but I don't think that it will be at NAB.

Note: Things usually go the opposite of how I see them. If I say it's doesn’t make sense for Apple to release a product at a particular time, the opposite happens. Last year, I had it on good authority that a 2 button mouse was in the works, as well as educational pricing for a “Shake Express”. Neither happened.

 

[crpchristian]

Logic removal would make NO sense

I can't say i really understand why people seem to think apple will/should get rid of Logic. Yes, Logic is geared more for the music industry...WHICH IS EXACTLY WHY THEY BOUGHT IT. Apple already makes garage band, soundtrack, logic express and logic pro.... if you can't get one of these programs to suite your music/audio editing needs i hate to tell you this but YOU are more likely the problem and just dont know the software well enough. Logic has a HUGE range. I've used logic for a lot of film audio editing, scoring, and straight music editing and it's more than capable of doing all that needs to be done. Apple 'making a pro tools app'???? when they already own Logic?? that'd be like apple making a version of Premiere when they already have FCP (and FCP express). Besides any user switched off a PC just for Logic just to have logic gotten rid of would be uber pissed.

I will admit Logic's learning curve can be pretty steep but it's tool set and level of control and quality is incredible for ANY audio editing need. (and i don't even use it for midi hardly, i use Reason for that most of the time).