More to Come from Apple... Soon?

[VidGuy]

Oh, gimme a break, please. You wanna compare now a 1.8 Duo running OS X with a 2 Duo running Winblows and its truckload of overhead behind (malware, virus, blabla)?

Most software IS native on the Macs, and ALL Apple Proapps will be ready before March. Adobe and MS are the only exceptions for now.

Even PBs G4 were faster than most PCs in daily tasks (except gaming and 3D); I sometimes have to work with a new Dell desktop and it's slow-going as molasses, especially for opening PDF and doing more than one thing at the same time...its multitasking SUCKS. And you wanna still compare Acer to Apple? No, thanks.

Well, maybe you should have tried a computer running with an AMD chip (not a Dell)....

Seriously, though, my only point is that the speed questions have become much more transparent. Hardware and chipsets will be standard across the industry. One can no longer assert "we have the best, fastest coumputer, period" when every other PC maker is selling the same thing. We will be able to test if multi-tasking on Windows "sucks" or not, rather than resorting to bravado. OSX's ability to multi task will be scrutinized also.

BTW, Adobe and Office are the only things I really need my computer for, so I, personally, would wait to upgrade until those are avaliable (an exception being if my current system dies or becomes unusable). Faster systems (or even a totally a redesigned laptop) may be out by the time those products go native x86. At the very least I'd wait for Rosetta benchmarks to see how those applications do under emulation, so we replace the "4x faster" claim with real-world usage.

Vid

P.S. The Dell computer I mentioned earlier isn't shipping until Feb either, but it will have a faster chip (hey, I'm not looking to buy one, so I didn't study it that closely)

 

[aegisdesign]

on the limited duos

why is it that Apple has chips that are below 2.0 and other compnaines like acer have the 2.1 chips? could someone comment on this

Careful. I posed that question in another thread and got shouted down by the RDF squad.

I suspect however that they're saving it for the 17". And they better have FW800 on that or the Pros won't be happy.

The faster chips ARE in short supply. And Intel haven't released any slower or lower voltage chips yet to anyone. If Apple were doing something cool with the lower voltage chips, they couldn't just yet. Maybe they were betting on Intel delivering sufficient low voltage chips but they've not done so.

 

[mtrctyjoe]

Media Center

Look... Apple is going to do everything possible to get music and video into peoples homes.. I can assure you the profit margin on an iTunes song and an episode of Lost is much greater then a laptop or an iMac. Since Apple loves to control Harware... the media center it is - in some format. Viiv/Intel, Mini rumors... it all makes sence.

 

[Yebot]

Anyone seen this: http://global.acer.com/products/notebook/tm8200.htm

There's a comparison of the new Acer Travelmate 8200 and the new MacBook Pro on this site (scroll down):
http://www.tnl.net/blog/entry/MacBook_Pro_Comparison_Charts

Now, whatever Apple still has in it's sleeves, it better beat the 8200. Because most probably, the 8200 is the fastest notebook ever, not the MacBook Pro. And it has much more connections (4x USB2...). And it's even much cheaper than the 1.87GHz MacBook Pro.
Come on Apple, give us the fastest possible for a reasonable price !!!! The times are over when we were able to say "But a G5 at 2GHz beats a P4 at 3.2GHz...". Now PCs and Macs can be compared directly. No more excuses...

That chart is lacking one critical feature comparison:

OS

 

[AtHomeBoy_2000]

One More Thing... welll, not really

One thing I found interesting was that his "One More Thing" was a MacBook Pro. They had already released an iMac with an Intel chip so it wasnt had to believe that another computer would get it soon if not that day. So, his "One More Thing" reall wasnt a big supprise like usual. My guess is their Big Supprise had to be delayed so they moved the MacBook Pro intot hat slot to keep up the tradition.

 

[nomad01]

Nicest? I think the 3.5 lb Core Duo Thinkpad X60 is pretty sweet - the MBP is kind of a behemoth compared to that.

<snip>
Mr. Lawyer, you are very long on opinion but short on facts.

But the "nicest" argument is a matter of opinion rather than fact.

I've yet to see a ThinkPad that I'd describe as stylish. Then that depends on your idea of style I suppose.

 

[PretendPCuser]

50" Plasma iMac!

If you don't believe me, i've got two words for ya....


<petergriffon>C'mon! heah? C'MON!!</petergriffon>

 

[Tomaz]

That chart is lacking one critical feature comparison:

OS

Sure, that's why any "reasonable" person would buy the Mac and not the Acer. But still, if I pay that much money, I would like also the hardware to be better than a PC, not just the software. Come on, just 2x USB2, not s-video out, no PC-card slot, just the small ExpressCard/34 slot, not cardreader, no biosensor like the Thinkpads...
There's nothing to go "WOW!" except the OS. That's not enough for that price, imho.

 

[VidGuy]

That chart is lacking one critical feature comparison:

OS

This, too, will be tested. OSX versus Windows on the same hardware. Native Windows Photoshop versus Rosetta Photoshop on OSX (and native Photoshop when avaliable). There will be lots of comparisions. Will be interesting to get past ungrounded claims! Soon we will know which is "faster". The only subjective questions will be the user experience and software. After controlling for everything else, we'll be able to put a dollar value on exactly what the "Apple experience" we all love is costing. That is the central problem with OSX on x86. Everything becomes a commodity like in the PC world.

Vid

P.S. As has been discussed here before, Linux seems to be more efficient than OS X in server applications which require lots of threads. These comparisons will be telling. See this test for the Linux study: http://www.anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2520

 

[jouster]

Look... Apple is going to do everything possible to get music and video into peoples homes.. I can assure you the profit margin on an iTunes song and an episode of Lost is much greater then a laptop or an iMac.

Not according to Apple. They decribe ITMS sales as only just paying for themselves whereas it is generally accepted that Apple has the highest hardware margins in the industry - something north of 30%.

 

[ruud]

Watching the keynote, I couldn't help but notice that a disproportionate amount of time was spent on iLife and all its features and details. Now, maybe this is because I'm not really that interested in it, but I got the impression that at least part of this may have been filler material to compensate for something a little more substantial that was left out. I mean, it appeared to me that Jobs spent more time talking about iLife than about both intel Macs combined.

 

[TheMasin9]

i sure hope so

The plasma tvs maybe?

I sure hope this is true. I was hoping the rumor was true before macworld, but i got let down. But if its the tuesday after macworld, i can handle that! woo hoo,

 

[50548]

Fastest? Faster than the 2GHz Dell Inspiron 9400? How does Apple do that?

Nicest? I think the 3.5 lb Core Duo Thinkpad X60 is pretty sweet - the MBP is kind of a behemoth compared to that.

Most stable? It isn't even available yet! How can you have statistics on failure and crash rates. It could be a hopeless piece of crap, for all you know. (Rev A, that kind of stuff...)



Mr. Lawyer, you are very long on opinion but short on facts.

Well AidenShaw, you may as well be considered the biggest Windows fanboy in this forum, so that's my duty to insist against this "whining" trend at MacRumors:

1 - I already answered that a Mac running on 1.8 and OS X is gonna be way faster than any POS PC on 2.0 running WinXP or Vista and its truckload of overhead mandatory software; and no, you're not gonna prove me wrong, because PB G4s are ALREADY faster than most PCs because of that. My new Dell at work, dude, tells me all. And the Dell you've just shown is not even shipping yet, having a $200 surcharge for your beloved 2GHz chip and a "preliminary" shipping date of 20/02 (or 02/20 for your twisted Americans);

2 - It's a peaceful conclusion that Apple notebooks are the nicest and most elegantly designed notes in the market; I am just repeating what most people say, not just me. Besides, my old iBook was the only one turning heads at the Uni...no Vaios, no Toshibas, no (stink)pads. Unless you prefer to support your favorite sports car brand, of course.

The ThinkPad you show above has much fewer features and is a joke, gimme a break; am I right, no optical drive? Docking bay??? You could've tried with a Vaio at least...

3 - Stability is mostly based on the OS, and you know OS X is light-years ahead of anything else, unless you drink Gates's kool-aid on vaporware Vista. Concerning building quality, Apple has steadily been the BEST in the market, and every consumer report of the last 3 years says that, in both desktops and laptops...

The lawyer here shows you facts, no fanboy babblings, sorry.

 

[Yvan256]

With Core Duo chips though?... Perhaps...

This rumour makes sense. It's slightly ironic (only slightly) that Steve is once again waiting for the CPU maker.

Even if that's the case, there's one major difference: everyone is waiting for that CPU maker, not only Apple.

The only thing that can unbalance things again would be a giant leap forward in the "power-per-watt" domain from AMD (and even then, some PC makers only put Intel CPUs in their machines, so Apple won't be left behind alone).

Besides, it's now funny to see MDG and Dell ads for "Intel Celeron" and "Intel Pentium 4" computers... They're so outdated. ;-)

 

[danielwsmithee]

Watching the keynote, I couldn't help but notice that a disproportionate amount of time was spent on iLife and all its features and details. Now, maybe this is because I'm not really that interested in it, but I got the impression that at least part of this may have been filler material to compensate for something a little more substantial that was left out. I mean, it appeared to me that Jobs spent more time talking about iLife than about both intel Macs combined.

I got that impression as well. Then I remembered last years was the same way when they were talking up all the new features in iLife'05. I think the difference was the expectations. We didn't expect very much out of last years keynote. This year we expected the world. Personally I was dieing in anticipation for the hardware announcements.

 

[Yvan256]

So i think there is no way this is true. It's always some supplier that's at fault for something like this. If apple had some "cool" product, they would have announced it. Intel has never had supply issues like what's implied in this article.

Maybe Intel doesn't have any problem with its Core Duo chips. However, Apple has asked for such a large number of units that they're still stockpiling it as we speak and couldn't launch a product because they don't have enough chips yet.

Or maybe Steve wants to unveil this "new very very cool product" on the birthday of Apple (April 1st)?

In any case, I want a "Mac mini Pro" (Core Duo and X1600/128MB). Maybe even make it higher and put a real 3.5" drive in there (I won't mind if it's twice as high... as long as it's not twice the price!). The price difference between a 100GB 2.5" drive and a 160GB 3.5" drive should offset a bit of the cost for the Core Duo and the X1600/128MB.

 

[Seasought]

It would make sense if Apple decides to release something "even better" at the 30th anniversary. Apple wanted to get word out that yes, they are now selling Macs with Intel chips (to sustain hype and confidence).

I think a 30th year anniversary warrants something amazing and something out of left field most won't see coming.

Perhaps it's just a way of extending the excitement of their new products. I watched the 2005 expo a few nights ago and I too agree that feels much more polished much more "proud" than the one that took place now (2006).

Onward with the Apple soap opera.

 

[QCassidy352]

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/inspn_9400?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

the base processor here is 1.87 Ghz. And the screen is 17" but the same resolution as apple's 15".

You can customize the processor to 2 Ghz and the screen to a higher resolution, but that gets the price over $3000 before tax, and pushes the ship date to 2/20.

So it's not accurate to say that there's a Dell with a 2 Ghz duo core shipping now.

 

[andiwm2003]

the source said "new cool products", and "i wouldn't buy a MacBook pro now" and there was an old rumor about ultra slim notebooks.

that means to me a better (depending on what you thing is better) notebook will be released.

it could be the ultra slim notebooks with the Intel® Core™ Duo processor Low Voltage Mobile (FCBGA6) http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/

if somebody wants a ultra slim notebook with long battery life then one should wait.
it would be not a mac book pro as the rumor stated.
it would be ultra cool. apples designers would see to that.
the processors are available.

my guess is a macbook lite

 

[Tomaz]

1 - I already answered that a Mac running on 1.8 and OS X is gonna be way faster than any POS PC on 2.0 running WinXP or Vista and its truckload of overhead mandatory software; and no, you're not gonna prove me wrong, because PB G4s are ALREADY faster than most PCs because of that. My new Dell at work, dude, tells me all. And the Dell you've just shown is not even shipping yet, having a $200 surcharge for your beloved 2GHz chip and a "preliminary" shipping date of 20/02 (or 02/20 for your twisted Americans);

The lawyer here shows you facts, no fanboy babblings, sorry.

Your first point still has to be proven to be a fact. I'm quite sure you're right. But until its been tested using the intel Macs, it's not a fact.

And even if the tests will show that 1.86Ghz Osx is faster than 2Ghz Windows, I would still expect Apple to produce the fastest and best possible hardware, and a 1.86GHz notebook simply is not the fastest possible hardware. That's a fact too.

 

[strange days]

Interesting article... Bring on the plasma displays, VIIV, Media Center Mac Minis and iPhone!

exactly; plus the 12" and 17" MacBook Pro !

...i'm only wondering if the STeeVo will call for a secret press conference again, or if they will just release them little by little every tuesday...

 

[thirdwaver]

Having just returned from CES where I saw everyone doing media centers, I have to think that Apple MUST be doing this too and sometime soon. But methinks they're smart to wait and devote the available Duo chips to the new iMacs and Macbooks. The latter is the eventual incarnation of the "Powerbook G5" that everyone was waiting for. The demand will be huge. I've already ordered mine and I currently own a perfectly good 15" Powerbook 1.67GHz.

I'm not comfortable enough to speculate about what it could be. I will say that I was VERY disappointed that Apple didn't announce a TiVo killer. I'm anxious to get rid of my TiVo because of their lackluster support for the Mac platform after bait and switching me into buying the Home Media option.

I don't want to fan the flames of speculation but when I went to the Apple store to buy iLife the employee there asked me if I've been to MacWorld and I told him I just came back and was disappointed about the TiVo killer absence and he quickly smiled and said, "HAHA! Keep your fingers crossed. You never know!"

FLAMEPROOF SUIT: I'm well aware that it's highly unlikely that the Apple store employees would be aware of what we didn't see. Just think it's weird when added to this rumor.

Sean

 

[mrgreen4242]

My first thought was "oh, they're waiting on some single core yonah chips for iBooks and minis, duh" (which are not expected for a few months yet). But the more I got to thinking about it the more I thought that was wrong... here's the logic for me...

The Single Core 1.66ghz chip is $209 (in trays of 1000, probably less for Apple, with higher orders and special discounts). The dual 1.66 is $241 (same this applies, but figure the proportions stay about the same). $32 difference for (theoretically) double the power (realistically something like 50% more speed).

Why would Apple even bother? I'm sure they will, just to differenciate lines artificially, which brings us back to the sad old G4 days which I hoped intel would move us away from...

Personally, though, when you compare the prices for the various CPUs listed here: http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/ I am amazed how cheap these dual core Yonahs are. Last year I swear I remember the 7447a (G4 chip in the mini) being about $200-220. Am I mistaken?

Seems like they should be able to keep about the same margins on the mini even with the 1.66 duo in it. Which also makes me wonder what kind of fabulous markup PC vendors (Apple included) are making on this first round of Duo equped laptops? Is the BIOS/Centrino platform making chips that expensive?

Also, something I was considering... is it possible that Apple has a deal with Intel to buy thier "cast-off" chips? When they make a chip that fails to meet the lowest spec the offer (1.66ghz in this case) they toss them into the recyvle bin, so I understand. Is it possible they are saving those that fail at 1.66 but pass at say ~1.4 for Apple to be used in some low priced machine (the mini)? The delay (a hold up in chips) could be while they get a 100,000 or so of these reject chips stored up for Apple... That could be pur fantasy, but this is a rumors site after all.

Eitherway, I'm holding out for a RevB sub-$1000 laptop with dual cores. I can wait.

 

[Seasought]

that means to me a better (depending on what you thing is better) notebook will be released.

it could be the ultra slim notebooks with the Intel® Core™ Duo processor Low Voltage Mobile (FCBGA6) http://www.intel.com/intel/finance/pricelist/

my guess is a macbook lite

I hope not for the sake of those who are ordering / have already ordered. I'd be rather upset if I heard of an even "better" (in whatever area is improved) notebook.

Sort of a "Crap, I was hoping for a thinner / cheaper notebook but I already ordered a MacBook!"

And the peasants revolt.

 

[eVolcre]

If it's NOT a new MacBook why did the source say that he probably wouldn't buy a Macbook at the moment? That's the portion that isn't adding up ...

Im doubting that its more macbook stuff just because the source said "much much cooler". If its macbook related, anything to do with macbooks would really just be a lateral move. Smaller? bigger? single core? nothing so different to make it that much cooler.

I am still totally hoping for at least one of the following:

1. Mac mini with DVR (most likely)
2. Flat Screen 42' and 50' HDTV with mac built in (most unlikely, but I want!!!)
3. iPhone!!!! (both possible and plausible! please..pretty please with sugar on top???)



And yes, that keynote did seem like it was a lot of filler. I think everyone was expecting both a laptop and a desktop intel that day so the "one more thing" was (as rockin as those macbook pro's are) somewhat of a let down. I was expecting a totally new product.