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madmaxmedia said:
I think Apple is really shooting to intro Mactel stuff at MW 06. It really makes too much sense to not go for that.

I think timewise they should be okay, if they have devoted enough resources and not underestimated the project.
What makes even more sense is that they'll announce and introduce the first Intel-based Mac when it's ready. Clearly they are shooting for "by this time (MWSF) next year" but I doubt they know when that will be. Why should we presume for them?
 
gekko513 said:
Low power G5s ... probably between 1.4 and 1.6 GHz. Too little power for the PowerBooks, but would be perfect for the Mac mini.

Why too little power? With the G5, the FSB would increase as well as the addressable RAM and be 64 bit. This might be a nice bump for the powerbook line.
 
who needs 64-bit in a PowerBook?

mojohanna said:
Why too little power? With the G5, the FSB would increase as well as the addressable RAM and be 64 bit. This might be a nice bump for the powerbook line.
The main reason for "too little power" is that many tests show that the G4 is about the same or a little better than the G5 at instructions per cycle. In other words, if you slow a G5 down to the MHz of a G4 - the G5 isn't any faster than the G4.

Also, 64-bit would have very little advantage on a portable. You won't more than 4 GiB of RAM into this generation of laptops, so the main 64-bit benefit won't be there.

Very few programs need high performance 64-bit integer arithmetic - and probably few of those are needed in a laptop. Other than that 64-bit integer advantage, the G5 is the same speed in 32-bit and 64-bit mode.

Unlike PowerPC, the Intel x64 64-bit is faster in 64-bit mode than in 32-bit mode. Therefore there is a good reason to have a 64-bit x64 laptop - even one with 512 MiB of RAM.
 
HD rated powerbook screens

I keep wanting to see what steve meant when he said that this is the year of HD. I mean, iLife '05 has some cool hd stuff, as does quicktime. But that's it. If all the powerbooks got an upgraded screen to be HD compatible, that would be sweet. And what if the iMac went up to 23"? Man, I would get that sucker the same day. Blu-ray and hdvd are scheduled to come out next year, but he might announce it in Paris and put blu-ray drives in the power computers. Now, that would be something.
 
BruinJohn said:
I keep wanting to see what steve meant when he said that this is the year of HD. I mean, iLife '05 has some cool hd stuff, as does quicktime. But that's it. If all the powerbooks got an upgraded screen to be HD compatible, that would be sweet. And what if the iMac went up to 23"? Man, I would get that sucker the same day. Blu-ray and hdvd are scheduled to come out next year, but he might announce it in Paris and put blu-ray drives in the power computers. Now, that would be something.


I wouldn't be surprised if Apple was the last company to fully support the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (Video) specs because of the WMV component. AFAIK, Apple's H.264 encoders and players don't do interlaced video so WMV and MPEG-2 are the only choices for 1080i so they're going to have to support WMV (VC-1/VC-9) in someway to cover the whole spec. They've shown zero support for Windows Media formats and I don't see that changing anytime soon.
 
AidenShaw said:
The main reason for "too little power" is that many tests show that the G4 is about the same or a little better than the G5 at instructions per cycle. In other words, if you slow a G5 down to the MHz of a G4 - the G5 isn't any faster than the G4.

Also, 64-bit would have very little advantage on a portable. You won't more than 4 GiB of RAM into this generation of laptops, so the main 64-bit benefit won't be there.

Very few programs need high performance 64-bit integer arithmetic - and probably few of those are needed in a laptop. Other than that 64-bit integer advantage, the G5 is the same speed in 32-bit and 64-bit mode.

Unlike PowerPC, the Intel x64 64-bit is faster in 64-bit mode than in 32-bit mode. Therefore there is a good reason to have a 64-bit x64 laptop - even one with 512 MiB of RAM.

Quoted for truth :)

Seriously read the above it is dead on and clearly stated.
 
generik said:
You can say that if you are one who takes everything Apples says as gospel truth, but hello? Smell the coffee, Apple owns the trademark Mactel now, what do you think it stands for? Do you think Apple is going to be selling imitation Martel barbie dolls?

No I didn't say that. Only said Apple hadn't made that name official.

beatle888 said:
((O)) <––– chill pill
and you take apple simply trademarking a name as gospel?

Thanks. Just because Apple trademarks or patents a design doesn't mean they will actually use it. Remember the pyramid iMac G5? Maybe they only trademarked MacTel to avoid Mac clones with that name in the future.
 
BruinJohn said:
I keep wanting to see what steve meant when he said that this is the year of HD. I mean, iLife '05 has some cool hd stuff, as does quicktime. But that's it. If all the powerbooks got an upgraded screen to be HD compatible, that would be sweet. And what if the iMac went up to 23"? Man, I would get that sucker the same day. Blu-ray and hdvd are scheduled to come out next year, but he might announce it in Paris and put blu-ray drives in the power computers. Now, that would be something.

I would think he was simply talking about the year of HD for Apple or what they thought would be a year focused on HD. Even with the cheapest Mac mini you can edit in HDV with iMovie with content from a camera like Sony's. I think the appearance of Sony's CEO meant something more important and at that time, but maybe Apple hadn't made the decision to change to Intel processors, which might of changed Apple perspective on it's relationship with Sony a few months later. The focus on the year of HD was lost, probably from the fact that Apple's G4's weren't powerful enough to be a recommended HD-video-playback requirement and they realized they couldn't do anything about it if they waited any longer for a cooler G5. But in June they decided to do something about it, and here we are waiting to see what will become of that decision.
 
Platform said:
Just to say......heard of the Mhz myth :rolleyes: 2.7Ghz PPC does NOT = 2.7Ghz P4

And the P4 is now at 3.8 ;)

I don't know if I believe the Mhz myth anymore. Our Technology Coordinator at the school just got the staff new computers. I don't like having to use a PC, but this one is pretty good. It is a little Aluminum Shuttle xPC (think G4 Cube size) with a 17" LCD with a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 (Hyperthreading) and 1GB of RAM. He is slowly filling our whole school with these since they save a lot of space. Too bad Apple doesn't build a little PC like this that can be upgraded easily.

I have to confess it would have my iMac G5 for lunch and it's actually very attractive. I still prefer my Mac, but it is pretty nice for a school computer. We had 550 Mhz Celerons before so you can imagine the difference.
 

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I don't find that all that attractive. Maybe it's because it's late and I'm tired. Perhaps I should reserve judgement for the morning. Ahhh what the hell I am talking about...it's not like it's a new Mac or something. Time for bed.
 
mac_zealot88 said:
:) Geez it's about time! We need something for the Powerbook desperatly! Given it's high price tag and slow performance compared to those other desktop replacement PC notebooks! The mini needs to be bundled with a LCD display, maybe a 17 inch one. By the time you configure a mini and get an Apple display it's not woth it, you might as well get an iMac. :cool:
I knwo its 200 comments late, and someone has responded by now, but what are you on? The eMac is $200 more than the 1.42 GHZ Mini and includes what you want, a 17-inch display, key and mouse. Whats the point of adding an exact eMac clone?
 
Abercrombieboy said:
I don't know if I believe the Mhz myth anymore. Our Technology Coordinator at the school just got the staff new computers. I don't like having to use a PC, but this one is pretty good. It is a little Aluminum Shuttle xPC (think G4 Cube size) with a 17" LCD with a 2.8Ghz Pentium 4 (Hyperthreading) and 1GB of RAM. He is slowly filling our whole school with these since they save a lot of space. Too bad Apple doesn't build a little PC like this that can be upgraded easily.

I have to confess it would have my iMac G5 for lunch and it's actually very attractive. I still prefer my Mac, but it is pretty nice for a school computer. We had 550 Mhz Celerons before so you can imagine the difference.

Why not.......it still exists........AMD's at 2.8Ghz "FX 57" beats a 3.8Ghz P4.

A G5 at 2Ghz beats a P4 at 2Ghz ;)
 
BGil said:
I wouldn't be surprised if Apple was the last company to fully support the HD-DVD and Blu-Ray (Video) specs because of the WMV component. AFAIK, Apple's H.264 encoders and players don't do interlaced video so WMV and MPEG-2 are the only choices for 1080i so they're going to have to support WMV (VC-1/VC-9) in someway to cover the whole spec. They've shown zero support for Windows Media formats and I don't see that changing anytime soon.

I would also doubt Apple’s native support of HD-DVD. As Apple is on the directors’ board of Blu-Ray developers, along with Sony, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Panasonic, Pioneer, among many others, I would surmise they do indeed intend to natively support the Blu-Ray (BD) format in the near future. As to exactly when. I do not know but I doubt they would be the last to adopt, since Apple does have the tendency to be on the cutting edge of video.

As far as the availability of consumer class media data storage or movie viewing etc., it would depend on the type of BD drive. BD-ROMs will be first to market, followed by BD-R and then BD-RE. A BD Superdrive might be a ways off; the available BD recorder prices are in the following range (I got these numbers from the official site):

“The Sony BDZ-S77 is currently priced at 220,000 yen ($1,965), while the Panasonic DMR-E700BD is priced at 195,000 yen ($1,742).”

Also, if you take a gander at the official Blu-Ray developer site, you will see that support for “MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (previously called FRExt) and Microsoft's VC-1 video codec (the proposed SMPTE standard based on WMV9) will be mandatory.” Apple isn’t left out, since QuickTime does have native support of the MPEG-4 standard.

As far as the 1080i standard is concerned:

Blu-Ray + Mpeg-4 = BD
Apple + H.264 = Mpeg-4 Certified Compliant
Apple + Sony = Board of Developers
Playstation 3 + BD = compatible with 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDTVs
Playstation 3 + Mac OSX = ;)
I've managed to get MPEG-4 transcoded on my Mac to run on my PSP. The PSP only supports MPEG-4 and the "Video" contained on UMD(aka mini BDs) is also MPEG-4. Though the PSP isn't technically HD in terms of its display. :eek:

I doubt interlacing will l be a serious problem in the near future b/c Blu-Ray “supports direct recording of the MPEG-2 TS (Transport Stream) used by digital broadcasts.” Therefore, Blu-Ray will be compatible with HD broadcasts and the HDTVs that receive the signal(playback). Apple’s H.264 is certified MPEG-4 compliant. I’ll have to do some more research on H.264 and interlacing but I would assume all Apple would need to do is make an update when the BD drives and media are available.


Also, since the latest incarnation of DVD Studio Pro can author HD-DVD video media projects, Apple's DVD Studio Pro Site
I doubt Apple is concerned with limiting market access because of Microsoft’s involvement. I think Apple will use HD-DVD as a tide-me-over until BD finally becomes king.

For more information about Blu-Ray check this site out:
http://www.blu-ray.com/

Okay, I am way too hooked on this site… I woke up because the computer was left on(G4 PowerMac=loud fan) and here I am not making any sense :confused:
 
Platform said:
Why not.......it still exists........AMD's at 2.8Ghz "FX 57" beats a 3.8Ghz P4.

A G5 at 2Ghz beats a P4 at 2Ghz ;)

I would agree with that at the same clock speed AMD and PPC would be faster so you are right it does exist, but Intel is getting them so fast anymore that the gap is pretty much closed.

I think what is funny how everyone on here HATES the Pentium 4 and says it is complete garbage. THEN they say the next great thing from Intel which Apple will get is going to be out of this world. No one has seen this thing yet so are we just assuming at this time? I mean if a company has a track record of putting out crappy processors how can we assume overnight they will be the best?
 
what is "crappy" about the fastest, best selling CPU in the world?

Abercrombieboy said:
I mean if a company has a track record of putting out crappy processors how can we assume overnight they will be the best?
I'm amused by all the "P4 is dead" and "P4 is crap" comments in this forum.

P4-based chips are overwhelmingly the most popular in the world.

On a large number of benchmarks, they're also the fastest (although AMD wins some important ones - and POWER5 and other big-iron chips rule the highest end mainframe application space).

Has P4 hit a wall just short of 4 GHz, yes. What about the wall that the G4 and G5 hit?

Is the P4 a power-hungry chip? Yes, but doesn't Apple have to use water-cooling on the G5 to keep the fan noise within a bearable range?
_____________________

I can't wait for Apple to introduce a dual dual-core Xeon in the PowerMac - and then to see all the fanbois say what a wonderful chip the P4 is!

It's gonna happen, I predict. Apple will use a Xeon in the PowerMac - they can't wait for the next generation to get the big tower machines running the same Intel architecture as the rest of the line. (They may sell both G5 and Xeon PowerMacs for some time, but they'll need to get a high-end Intel box into the lineup before the Pentium-M MP-capable dual cores arrive.)

Did you know that Apple could easily announce a quad processor PowerMacIntel at MWSF? Intel's dual-core MP-capable Xeons will be ready by the end of Q4.... Dual-socket Xeon motherboards are already here (and if the mobos need updating, you know that Intel will have the mobos ready when the CPUs are).
 
Abercrombieboy said:
I would agree with that at the same clock speed AMD and PPC would be faster so you are right it does exist, but Intel is getting them so fast anymore that the gap is pretty much closed.

I think what is funny how everyone on here HATES the Pentium 4 and says it is complete garbage. THEN they say the next great thing from Intel which Apple will get is going to be out of this world. No one has seen this thing yet so are we just assuming at this time? I mean if a company has a track record of putting out crappy processors how can we assume overnight they will be the best?

I don't hate the P4........I have one 2.8Ghz :p

But I do like current AMD and PPC CPU's better. But the future of Intel is lookin' good :D
 
ZorPrime said:
I would also doubt Apple’s native support of HD-DVD. As Apple is on the directors’ board of Blu-Ray developers, along with Sony, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Panasonic, Pioneer, among many others, I would surmise they do indeed intend to natively support the Blu-Ray (BD) format in the near future. As to exactly when. I do not know but I doubt they would be the last to adopt, since Apple does have the tendency to be on the cutting edge of video.

As far as the availability of consumer class media data storage or movie viewing etc., it would depend on the type of BD drive. BD-ROMs will be first to market, followed by BD-R and then BD-RE. A BD Superdrive might be a ways off; the available BD recorder prices are in the following range (I got these numbers from the official site):

“The Sony BDZ-S77 is currently priced at 220,000 yen ($1,965), while the Panasonic DMR-E700BD is priced at 195,000 yen ($1,742).”

Also, if you take a gander at the official Blu-Ray developer site, you will see that support for “MPEG-4 AVC High Profile (previously called FRExt) and Microsoft's VC-1 video codec (the proposed SMPTE standard based on WMV9) will be mandatory.” Apple isn’t left out, since QuickTime does have native support of the MPEG-4 standard.

As far as the 1080i standard is concerned:

Blu-Ray + Mpeg-4 = BD
Apple + H.264 = Mpeg-4 Certified Compliant
Apple + Sony = Board of Developers
Playstation 3 + BD = compatible with 720i, 720p, 1080i, 1080p HDTVs
Playstation 3 + Mac OSX = ;)
I've managed to get MPEG-4 transcoded on my Mac to run on my PSP. The PSP only supports MPEG-4 and the "Video" contained on UMD(aka mini BDs) is also MPEG-4. Though the PSP isn't technically HD in terms of its display. :eek:

I doubt interlacing will l be a serious problem in the near future b/c Blu-Ray “supports direct recording of the MPEG-2 TS (Transport Stream) used by digital broadcasts.” Therefore, Blu-Ray will be compatible with HD broadcasts and the HDTVs that receive the signal(playback). Apple’s H.264 is certified MPEG-4 compliant. I’ll have to do some more research on H.264 and interlacing but I would assume all Apple would need to do is make an update when the BD drives and media are available.


Also, since the latest incarnation of DVD Studio Pro can author HD-DVD video media projects, Apple's DVD Studio Pro Site
I doubt Apple is concerned with limiting market access because of Microsoft’s involvement. I think Apple will use HD-DVD as a tide-me-over until BD finally becomes king.

For more information about Blu-Ray check this site out:
http://www.blu-ray.com/

Okay, I am way too hooked on this site… I woke up because the computer was left on(G4 PowerMac=loud fan) and here I am not making any sense :confused:


Yeah, I know all that but I don't see Apple supporting the full spec. To be fully compliant you have to support all three codecs (on a playback device not an encoder) because a disc could come in any of those codecs. Additionally, QT7 on my Mac doesn't seem to like Interlaced H.264 at all and I still haven't found a way to encode interlaced H.264 from my Mac (although I haven't looked in a while). That effectively puts the 1080i spec out of reach. AFAIK, there is no 1080p spec and no 180p broadcasts or TV's so Apple's HD trailers and QT7 are mostly just limited to computers and their LCD's instead of being available to people in their living rooms.

If Apple supports VC-1/9 then they basically are supporting WMV9 also. I just can't see WMV being a default option in FCP Studio or Compressor anytime soon. Hopefully Apple will prove me wrong.
 
BGil said:
Yeah, I know all that but I don't see Apple supporting the full spec. To be fully compliant you have to support all three codecs (on a playback device not an encoder) because a disc could come in any of those codecs.

I see your point. Time will tell.

I personally, am not a fan of interlacing in HD because of the motion artifacts and blur, like when I’m watching a Hockey Game or an Action movie on a 720i or 1080i HDTV or Monitor. Anyway, I wouldn’t think it matters in the end whether or not an HD signal is broadcasted in interlaced or progressive formats. Since, it will most likely be upconverted to your monitor’s native resolution anyway. And many of the newer HDTVs have integrated chips that upconvert the image using Mpeg-4 and its H.264 varient codecs.(I could be wrong)

BGil said:
AFAIK, there is no 1080p spec and no 180p broadcasts or TV's

I have a Mitsubishi 52-inch WD-52627 and its native resolution is 1080p. ;) The dual layer DVDs I've made with Apple's DVDSP HD on DVD not true HD-DVD(no HDDVD burners available yet) but it looks great when played through my progressive scan DVD player. It'll only be a matter of time before 1080p programs are broadcasted. I think H.264 and BD will make 1080p broadcasts happen in the coming years when/if they finally move off of the 6MHz transmitters we're still using in the US. On the other hand, I think Satellite and Digital cable will move to 1080p first long before the 6MHz government regulated transmitters are upgraded.
 
AidenShaw said:
Hmmm....

Do you have a significant investment in Windows software that you'll need to repurchase (same or equivalent) for the Mac? Do you plan to buy much software for the Mac?

If not, then a Mini now and a PowerMacIntel later wouldn't be too bad.

If you have a lot of Windows software, I'd definitely wait. Since the MacIntel can run Intel instructions, and since a compatibility layer like Wine lets people run many Windows binaries on x86 Linux - a port of Wine to OSX86 would mean that most of your Windows software would simply run on the MacIntel - no new purchases necessary.

If you plan to buy a lot of Mac software, then this could be a foolish time to switch unless you verify that all the software will get free upgrades to fat binaries that will support MacIntel. Why buy the same software twice?

I'm not really worried about the software costs, I steal all my stuff on the internet. :p

So, I'm mainly worried about which performs better. I'll be mainly doing photo editing, some video editing, and music storage/management.

On paper the mac Mini and iBook may be similiar, but if one blows the socks of the other, then I'll go with that, but since one is <$400 more, I'm thinking the mini is the way to go.

But like I said, I'm a switcher, so if there's anything I'm missing about the iBook, please do tell.

Thanks.
 
thehydra said:
I'm not really worried about the software costs, I steal all my stuff on the internet. :p

That's not cool. Some software is overpriced, but still the companies (even Microsoft) should get paid for their product. It is only fair. To steal software is no different then walking into a shopping mall and stealing a shirt, IMO.
 
thehydra said:
I'm not really worried about the software costs, I steal all my stuff on the internet. :p

If you're alright with theft, then perhaps I'll just go over to your home and steal your Mac instead of paying for one. You'd be fine with that, right? :p ;)
 
Platform said:
I don't hate the P4........I have one 2.8Ghz :p

But I do like current AMD and PPC CPU's better. But the future of Intel is lookin' good :D
Most of te computers I have had were all Intel products...but at work I have used some AMD based ones and feel that they are definitely better at performance...so I agree, I dont think intel is absolute crap....but I too like the AMD and PPCs better...I would however have been happier if Apple had gone AMD...my opinion only...I am sure there are pros and cons for everything...
 
Abercrombieboy said:
That's not cool. Some software is overpriced, but still the companies (even Microsoft) should get paid for their product. It is only fair. To steal software is no different then walking into a shopping mall and stealing a shirt, IMO.
There are many people out there that do the same. I'm guessing that probably 20% of the people who own Photoshop CS2 pirate it... this is just a guess though.
 
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