Apple Software Updates (this and next) Tuesday

[theahnman]

PB Availabilty?

I was just on the Apple Store site...just wondering, how long has the 12" w/Superdrive been 7-10 business days?

 

[excalibur313]

So if powerbooks won't be released this week then when will they? Is it still rumored to be released at his speech next week or what is the latest news regarding this?
Thanks,
Steve

 

[gujamin]

Originally posted by GrannySmith_G5
10:00 AM eastern time. Tuesday. no software updates yet.

5:00 PM Eastern Time. Tuesday. Still no software announcements (Java doesn't count because it wasn't even "announced" -> see Hot News page on Apple Website).

 

[Lancetx]

Originally posted by gujamin
5:00 PM Eastern Time. Tuesday. Still no software announcements (Java doesn't count because it wasn't even "announced" -> see Hot News page on Apple Website).

These rumor predictions are about as reliable as the TV weather people eh? It'll rain at some point soon I'm sure... 😛

 

[arn]

yep...

Seems to be nothing today. Apologies for the false alarm. I guess we'll have to see how this turns out next week.

arn

 

[Mudbug]

well, if they were all right, then they wouldn't be rumors, would they? They'd be future insights.

I'll keep looking for stuff next week. Oh well... no skin off my back.

 

[lewdvig]

Re: Four predictions

x86 emulation will be offered by Apple in order to fill the gap left by Virtual PC on the G5 PowerMacs. Nothing would drive the point home that the G5 Macs are trully next-gen like an emulated Windows that runs circles around a Dell PC. Apple could make this emulator exclusive to the G5 processors so that the maximum performance could be squeezed out of it. Microsoft could then have the x86 emulation on G3s and G4s all to themselves, which they do allready since Real-PC turned out to be vapourware.

You must be stuck the Jobs distortion field. If a G5 running OS X is slower than a fast Dell - and it is - how could it possiblly run Windows faster?

VPC was bought to facilitate selling Office to big corps and governments that are buying Linux. It will aslo allow them to close the Mac biz unit and cram Office for Windows down our throats.

 

[lewdvig]

Originally posted by Bluefusion
Was just about to say that... thank you, hayesk.

800 MHz iBook with Bluetooth and Airport comes to $1100 or so. 900 MHz 'Book with BT and Airport comes to approximately $1400. Battery life is on par with the Centrino, and the CPU is at least as powerful (especially with Panther). Centrinos really aren't good processors, though they do make Wintel battery life LESS laughably short.

If that Centrino deal was a "shamelessly" low price, I feel bad for you... this is the standard Apple price I'm quoting, and you get Mac OS instead of Windows...

Like hayesk said, hope you're not a math major... and hope you've learned to research products better 😉

This is as bad as something a wintel fanboy would say about a Mac. Centrino DESTROYS ANY IBOOK OR POWERBOOK. Clock for clock it is faster than the Athlon.

Please get your facts straight.

I am going to pit my dual G4 against my 1.6GHz notebook tonight in some benchmarks - games I think. Surely the G4 will beat the crap out of a single CPU system with an inferior video card and half as much RAM. Right?

We'll see.

 

[Mineral]

Did I miss the memo and they changed the day that Tuesday falls on?!?

 

[theahnman]

Could it possibly be that perhaps an announcement for today was accurate until Apple seemingly suffered some sort of setback regarding iTMS for Windows.

I'm sure the surprise announcement has got to be more than iCal or Safari updates. Those two don't seem to merit such a surprise.

My opinion only, of course...

 

[coachingguy]

10.2.8 PLEASE

iCal, iSync...new powerbooks etc...that would all be nice, and I would be happy for everyone who has been waiting...Eons for pb update, but please Steve er...Mr. Jobs, just release 10.2.8 so I can replace this dog of 10.2.6! Then I can wait happily for Panther.

 

[TMJ1974]

Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by hayesk
A comparable Apple laptop would be an iBook with an Airport card and Bluetooth module. The price is would be around $1150. I hope you aren't a math major at your university.

Ummm...not quite. The 1.4 Centrino would be compared with the PowerBook. The Centrino has 400Mhz FSB, the PowerBook is 167Mhz, the iBook is still at 100Mhz. Pentium M's in Centrino notebooks support SSE2, and outperform their P4 brothers. The G3 doesn't support the Apple equivalent, AltiVec. The Pentium M has 1MB L2 cache on all models. I didn't buy the 12" PowerBook because Apple was cheap and cut the L3 cache.

So, in all fairness to the original post...up the Apple equivalent to $1600, with the education discount. 12" PB with BT and AE.

I had the money for a 15" PowerBook for this semester to compliment my Dual 867 PowerMac....but, I too now have a Centrino notebook (Compaq widescreen x1000). And while I still love my PowerMac and it would have to be taken from my dead hands.......I can't bash the Centrino.....it performs, as promised and better. I hate to mention it, but the next Centrino's will be at speeds in excess of 1.8GHz and have 2MB L2 cache standard and will be delivered, on time, next month.

I can only hope that a new PowerBook comes out before I buy my next laptop. Come on, the FSB should at least be double data rate...ie 266Mhz or higher.

I'm not bashing Apple....just want to point out to those who bash the other side, might want to look at the other side more objectively.

TIM

 

[Lancetx]

Originally posted by arn
yep...

Seems to be nothing today. Apologies for the false alarm. I guess we'll have to see how this turns out next week.

arn

Well, false alarm or not I will say this. I've had more fun in the past 4+ months I've been a Mac person than I did in the 11 years I used Windows on my home computer. There just isn't this kind of community atmosphere "over there." Just to see that people are passionate enough to get into all these rumors is really amazing. Very few people care enough on the Windows side, it's like being just one of millions of nameless and faceless drones. I don't see anyone getting excited and discussing at length what Dell, HP or even Microsoft is coming out with even months in advance. Sure, you see a little of it, but nothing like the passion is here surrounding Apple. It's honestly really addicting having this kind of a place to come to online where people care so passionately about their computer...err...I mean Mac. It really is true too, until you own one for yourself, you just don't really ever "get it" either. I know I didn't "get it" for 11 long years, but I understand now... 😀

 

[MacIke]

Re: PB Availabilty?

Originally posted by theahnman
I was just on the Apple Store site...just wondering, how long has the 12" w/Superdrive been 7-10 business days?

Well the 15" has been 3-5 for awhile. The 17" recently (about 2 weeks ago) went from same bus day to 3-5 days. What all this means I am not to sure.

 

[Bluefusion]

Re: Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by TMJ1974
Ummm...not quite. The 1.4 Centrino would be compared with the PowerBook. The Centrino has 400Mhz FSB, the PowerBook is 167Mhz, the iBook is still at 100Mhz. Pentium M's in Centrino notebooks support SSE2, and outperform their P4 brothers. The G3 doesn't support the Apple equivalent, AltiVec. The Pentium M has 1MB L2 cache on all models. I didn't buy the 12" PowerBook because Apple was cheap and cut the L3 cache.

and

This is as bad as something a wintel fanboy would say about a Mac. Centrino DESTROYS ANY IBOOK OR POWERBOOK. Clock for clock it is faster than the Athlon.

Please get your facts straight.

I am going to pit my dual G4 against my 1.6GHz notebook tonight in some benchmarks - games I think. Surely the G4 will beat the crap out of a single CPU system with an inferior video card and half as much RAM. Right?

OK. OK. Unlike some "fanboys" out there, I'll own up to the fact that I may have been wrong. Every store model Centrino I've seen has been QUITE slow, and their battery life specs are only now approaching what Apple's had for years... add to that the infamous Intel Hype Machine (which has stated that "the Pentium 4 is the only way to experience the internet", "the Pentium 4 processor is the only choice for video and 3D" and "Intel's mobile technology allows for new cutting-edge wireless internet access" (cutting edge? Um, 1999, anyone?)... based on these, I've held the Centrino in low favor for quite some time.

Perhaps I was wrong. I'm willing to admit that.

Thanks TMJ for a very informative post. I don't like to be in the dark about any technology--Mac or PC--and that helped put it in perspective. (I've never said the G3 was a speed machine either.. quite the opposite, but I assumed that was also true of Centrino)

Lewdvig, do you have anything to back up the fact that it's "faster than an Athlon"? I find that rather difficult to believe--why not use them in more desktops, then? Surely we could do better than 900-watt towers (the ones at my school)...

Also, PLEASE stop using games as a test of computer performance. It's just not fair! Windows games get every tweak, every optimization, and the most current drivers. Mac users get bad ports, crappy drivers, and no tweaks at all. It's ridiculous. The only game (sadly) that really is optimized on every machine out there, that I know of, is still Quake III, much as I hate to admit it. But even with Quake the video card drivers give it ridiculous framerates... so who knows.

You're welcome to benchmark, and I would think the dual with a better card and twice the RAM will probably be better than the PC (even as optimized as the game might be), but this isn't a very good test of anything except that games are written for Windows... 😛

 

[MacIke]

Re: Re: Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by Bluefusion
and


OK. OK. ....

Huummmm. The post almost makes me want to go out and buy and XP with Centrino. I do not know that I could get used to the crashes and all the viruii

 

[lewdvig]

Re: Re: Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by Bluefusion
and


You're welcome to benchmark, and I would think the dual with a better card and twice the RAM will probably be better than the PC (even as optimized as the game might be), but this isn't a very good test of anything except that games are written for Windows... 😛

OK - you are obviously a calm and rational person.

Games are easier to benchmark - its easy for me to buy copies of Quake for both platforms, but Photoshop? Yikes!

The Centrino is 'clock for clock' as fast as an Athlon, significant faster than a P4. People are trying to get them into desktops but Intel has alot invested in P4 and its kind of embarrassing to have a lower clocked mobile chip thumping your stallion. right? But I still like P4s because they are fun to muck around with.

In blade servers Centrino would dominate the 32bit server market.

I will run the tests and see what I come up with.

I also have a spare GF FX 5200 card. I could put it into the P4 and run some Quake 3 benchies to see how it compares to the 1.6/5200 G5 tower. Hmmm.

 

[arn]

Originally posted by Lancetx
Well, false alarm or not I will say this. I've had more fun in the past 4+ months I've been a Mac person than I did in the 11 years I used Windows on my home computer.

Heh... glad to see you're enjoying the ride. 😉 It is a strange and fun world.

So, as far as I know, I would still expect the remaining part of this rumor should hold up... we'll see next tuesday I suppose.

arn

 

[Squire]

Re: Re: Re: Photoshop & After Effects

Originally posted by bikertwin
Of what benefit are any of Adobe's apps to Apple? None of them have any Mac-specific features; they all run equally well on Windows (and to have Adobe tell it, they run better on Windows).

How is Adobe helping Apple? It's not.

I was thinking the same thing. I'm very happy with the way Apple software works. I wish they would make tons of iApps.

Squire

 

[lewdvig]

speaking of which...

osbetas had a reader who posted shops of PhotoShop 8. Probably fake. I linked to them in a post over in the new apps thread.

 

[lewdvig]

Here are some Quake 3 numbers:

Demo "four" with Normal Detail quality, and no sound.


100.9 - G4 800x2/100fsb
107.8 - G4 800x2/100fsb (G4 optimized Q3 executable)
155.3 - P4M 1.6GHz/100fsb (updated)
236.3 - P4 3.36GHz/250fsb (the GF FX 5200 is in the box right now, inferior to the 8500 and definitely the 9800P)

My P4 desktop score is incredibly low due to the 5200 I think. Its just a backup card so I will update this when the 9800P is back in.

The P4s have quad pumped fsbs so they rate 400fsb and 1000fsb if you factor in the 4x data rate.

scores I saw on the Net today:
284.7 - Pentium 4 2.53GHz/133fsb
285.5 - Athlon 2100+(1733MHz)/133fsb
289.7 - Athlon 2200+(1800MHz)/133fsb
303.8 - Athlon 2400+(2000MHz)/133fsb
311.6 - Athlon 2600+(2133MHz)/133fsb
347.5 - Athlon 2600+(2083MHz)/166fsb
355.5 - Athlon 2700+(2167MHz)/166fsb
360.1 - Athlon 2800+(2250MHz)/166fsb

The PC scores from the machines that do not belong to me were derived with this hardware:
Geforce3 Ti500 (240/500)
Nforce2 chipset for Athlon tests w/ 512mb DDR
i850 chipset for Pentium 4 tests w/ 512mb RDRAM

Cinebench coming straight up.

 

[TMJ1974]

Re: Re: Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by Bluefusion
and


OK. OK. Unlike some "fanboys" out there, I'll own up to the fact that I may have been wrong. Every store model Centrino I've seen has been QUITE slow, and their battery life specs are only now approaching what Apple's had for years... add to that the infamous Intel Hype Machine (which has stated that "the Pentium 4 is the only way to experience the internet", "the Pentium 4 processor is the only choice for video and 3D" and "Intel's mobile technology allows for new cutting-edge wireless internet access" (cutting edge? Um, 1999, anyone?)... based on these, I've held the Centrino in low favor for quite some time.

Perhaps I was wrong. I'm willing to admit that.

Thanks TMJ for a very informative post. I don't like to be in the dark about any technology--Mac or PC--and that helped put it in perspective. (I've never said the G3 was a speed machine either.. quite the opposite, but I assumed that was also true of Centrino)

Lewdvig, do you have anything to back up the fact that it's "faster than an Athlon"? I find that rather difficult to believe--why not use them in more desktops, then? Surely we could do better than 900-watt towers (the ones at my school)...

Also, PLEASE stop using games as a test of computer performance. It's just not fair! Windows games get every tweak, every optimization, and the most current drivers. Mac users get bad ports, crappy drivers, and no tweaks at all. It's ridiculous. The only game (sadly) that really is optimized on every machine out there, that I know of, is still Quake III, much as I hate to admit it. But even with Quake the video card drivers give it ridiculous framerates... so who knows.

You're welcome to benchmark, and I would think the dual with a better card and twice the RAM will probably be better than the PC (even as optimized as the game might be), but this isn't a very good test of anything except that games are written for Windows... 😛

Bluefusion....I'm glad you saw my post as it was, just friends sharing info. Too many times on here people get into fights.

I absolutely agree, Intel has alot of hype. About the same as Apple though, if you think about it. Also, I'm with you on the battery life and WiFi, Apple was definately light years ahead there...although, neither my Centrino, nor my iBook ever get/got near the advertised battery life.

Agree once again...games are not the best comparison, for me.

Which Centrino's have you played with, and found slow....every play with the Compaq x1000.....I'm very happy with it....WinXP Pro and Linux....fast, no crashes, just performance.

Still, would I also like a PowerBook ;-) ABOSOLUTELY, but only when what's in the shell matches what I believe I should be getting for the price on the box.

BTW, I looked at your profile....happy birthday, coming soon anyway.

Tim

 

[NoPrideELF]

Still waiting for a 15" Albook, I was wondering if there was any confirmation to those recent rumors about them being pushed back to mid-october. Obviously nobody knows for sure, but I like everyone else, have been hoping for Paris. Everyone seems so sure of them coming at paris, yet I haven't heard anyone mention the mid-october delay in almost a week. have we just decided to ignore it because of our hopes, or was it proven wrong, or is there just more actual evidence for next week?

 

[lewdvig]

I just saw this on barefeets. Seemed topical:

6/28/03 -- I tested a 1.3GHz Centrino laptop (12" screen) recently. At first I was going to compare it to the 12" PowerBook. But it ran CineBench 2003 100% faster than the PowerBook G4/1GHz (17" screen). It ran Photoshop 20% faster. It ran Quake3 103% faster in 640x480 "Fastest" mode. The 17" PowerBook did, however, run Quake3 84% faster in 1024x768 "Max" mode. Probably has more video memory. Now why can't we have a 12" PowerBook that runs as fast as a Centrino? Hummm?

 

[TMJ1974]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: I've fallen to the temptation of the dark side

Originally posted by lewdvig
The Centrino is 'clock for clock' as fast as an Athlon, significant faster than a P4. People are trying to get them into desktops but Intel has alot invested in P4 and its kind of embarrassing to have a lower clocked mobile chip thumping your stallion. right? But I still like P4s because they are fun to muck around with.

Centrino is coming to the desktop...the boards are on their way ;-) Granted, the first ones are micro ATX

Tim