NAB 2005 Conference April 16-21

[MikeBike]

I believe that the PowerBook is ready for a dual-core G4 from freescale right now, but Apple won't release them for at least 3 or 4 months because they would likely perform as well as the current PowerMacs.

I, on the other hand, from the comments made at the financials meeting, now don't see the Powerbook going dual core. It looks like the g5 camp has won. We may see one more 7448 from Motorola, but then it looks like a low power G5.

I can only hope that by then Apple will be big enough to offer BOTH,
A Dual Core G4 and a G5 powerbook. Two Top of the Line models.

Apple usually doesn't mis-lead the financial analysts.
I've got my finger's crossed.

 

[animefan_1]

...Apple usually doesn't mis-lead the financial analysts.
I've got my finger's crossed.

At the October call, Apple did say they weren't going to enter the sub-$500 computer market.

We all know how that turned out.

 

[MikeBike]

At the October call, Apple did say they weren't going to enter the sub-$500 computer market.

We all know how that turned out.

Yes, That's my only hope.
If you take them at their word, then we will probably see 1 more G4( 1.8 )
and then finally a move to a 2.0 G5. Of course, a dual core G4 at 1.8 would kick it's butt. But, there may be some financial understanding between IBM and APPLE.

 

[SPUY767]

This weekend

meaning yesterday, I had a huge production to run for the birthday party of a very wealthy gentleman. I had been comissioned to make a photo montage of his life, (motion/FCP) and at the last minute there was a list that needed to be presented, (Keynote). The whole show was run from my G5, about 40 minutes total of FMV, and the keynote presentation has to be advanced by had b/c it was being cued by a lame DJ. Ironically enough, there was a videographer there, but he was using AVID on a Dell Workstation. All I heard all night was, "how the hell are you doing that," What app are you using? Etc. It was very rewarding to see a man, who has paid probablt thrice the amount that I did on my rig being so blatantly jealous of it. Apple needs to continue to innovate in this market, and bring mid range solutions that trump the high end solutions from the other guys.
The thing that really made this guy's jaw hit the floor, was when, with the presentation running Full Screen on a second monitor, I was able to capture, edit, and export a clip from a beta deck, thru a DV interface, to a Mpeg 2 file and burn the DVD in DVD SP. All that without so much as a hiccup on the video. People can complain all they want about apple's software, but I'd like to see just one guy do that on an PC Video rig.
Throughout that 3 hour show, the G5 Came thru again and again. I used the dual video output to quite an extent, saved probably two grand on extraneous equipment, and was still able to wow the crowd. NAB is steadily becoming the most important trade show for Apple. If there is one are that is ready for Apple quality solutions, it's in the NLE department. Sail this ship straight Steve.

 

[StarbucksSam]

It would be all too easy to pull down that drape.

Mmmkay people, we're REALLY in the dark on the PowerBooks NOW... imagine if they come out with a 17" HD just 2 and a half MONTHS after releasing the barely speedbumped line... (did it even count as a Rev.?)

If they DO come out with the PB17HD then we're going to have one hell of a time predicting what's next.

 

[samwise]

I, on the other hand, from the comments made at the financials meeting, now don't see the Powerbook going dual core. It looks like the g5 camp has won. We may see one more 7448 from Motorola, but then it looks like a low power G5.

I can only hope that by then Apple will be big enough to offer BOTH,
A Dual Core G4 and a G5 powerbook. Two Top of the Line models.

Apple usually doesn't mis-lead the financial analysts.
I've got my finger's crossed.

I was at the Apple re-seller over here yesterday morning to have a play with an iBook and a PB as I'm thinking about switching, and she said don't buy for a few weeks, as she's had wind of changes coming - that the G5 cooling issues have been fixed for PBs was the main one she mentioned.

 

[jaw04005]

I would like to see Apple and preferablly IBM design a mobile chip similar to the Pentium M, and stop worrying about shrinking the G5. The G5 is enormous, you can see that by looking at any picture of the inside of a PowerMac. There is no telling how many years it's going to take IBM to produce a G5 that will fit in a Powerbook enclosure. They've had almost two years already.

Motorola has screwed us over and over in the past, I can't wait for the day that Apple says "bye" to Moto.

 

[themacman]

?

pbprenn, this is the apple garage band breakout box? I thought it was going to be apple branded?

 

[xsnightclub]

I expect we will see the upgraded PMs as on TS. But I am hoping that there is a Super PM upgrade with Dual Cores or Quads that TS doesn't know about. Also a HD PB would be awesome. All this speculation needs to be put in the context of NAB. It is a Pro-Show, and any releases will most certainly be geared towards the Pro Users at the show. So I would find iBook and eMac announcements not at this show but maybe Monday or Tuesday.

 

[MikeBike]

I would like to see Apple and preferablly IBM design a mobile chip similar to the Pentium M, and stop worrying about shrinking the G5.

The G4 IS our Pentium M.
Hasn't Freescale been on target with their milestones?

 

[themacman]

question

Are the announcements being made on monday or tuesday?

 

[fedora]

Are the announcements being made on monday or tuesday?

read the main page.

 

[Yvan256]

HERE, HERE!!!!!!! A mini iBook type computer seems like a terrible idea to me. It would be slow and annoying to type on, since the keyboard would have to be much smaller. Besides the ergonomics, Apple would be MURDERED by other smaller type portables, and it would be seen as yet another failed endeavor. Just because something becomes small, doesn't mean it will be good and will sell (cough CUBE cough).

How would a smaller iBook with the same specs as the current 12" iBook (minus optical drive) be a terrible idea? If you ask me, laptop keyboards are ALREADY a pain to use (crappy feedback compared to a real, GOOD keyboard such as IBM ones).

Just because something becomes smalls doesn't mean it can't be good and sell (cough Mac mini cough).

 

[fpnc]

Here are my predictions for this Sunday's special Apple event at NAB:

Version bumps for Apple's pro application suite (FCP, DVDSP, Motion, etc.).
Probably some introduction of a new application/utility to go along with the pro suite.

-- that's all folks -- NO NEW CPU HARDWARE will ship.

However, on Monday or Tuesday Apple will update the Power Mac with those rumored speed bumps (2GHz, 2.3GHz, 2.7GHz). They will also lower prices by about $300 per system (i.e. the 2.7GHz model will retail for near $2700). As Think Secret suggested, they may also use the ATI 9600 graphics card across the PM line (i.e. the GeForce 5200U will be replaced).

I think the rumored updates to the eMac and iMac will come in a few weeks from now. But, Apple could even announce those this week since there I'm only expecting a simple speed bump to the CPU -- probably no upgrades in the video and no price changes.

Oh, and one more thing. There won't be a dual-core PowerBook anytime soon. Those dual-core CPUs from Freescale aren't even rumored to be sampled until this fall, so the earliest a dual-core PowerBook could appear is the first half of 2006. However, the MPC7448 (faster G4 with the e600 core) is supposed to ship this quarter and that will most likely be used in the next iBook, Mac mini, and eMac. But, I don't expect to see that chip (MPC7448) in a shipping product until summer or early fall.

I don't think we should expect any big performance changes in the Mac product line until late summer or sometime this fall. Then we might (finally) see the dual-core 970MP in the Power Mac product line. I don't know if Apple will pre-announce the dual-core 970MP, they probably will not unless the existing Power Mac sales fall completely through the floor. Until that time, the dual-processor, single-core Power Mac at 2.7GHz will have to do against the new dual-core Intel and AMD competition. Performance-wise it should be okay (not great), but Apple's price points for their Power Macs will come under even more pressure as ever greater numbers of dual-core PCs ship.

Or, at least, that's the way I see it.

P.S. EDIT, I just backed up and read some of the posts over the last 8 hours. Zaty and I seem to agree on most points ( https://forums.macrumors.com/posts/1391004/ ). Zaty also mentioned the HD PowerBook display and I'd forgotten about that. So, I agree, the PowerBook HD may appear at NAB.

 

[Zaty]

Less than an hour to go!

Stores still up.

 

[fedora]

how many people (like me) are on the apple store clicking refresh?

 

[hanumang]

Blu-Ray would be a good addition, and would keep Apple on top in terms of popularizing new technologies, as usual.

Sounds like Sony is also pushing for Blu-Ray soon, though.
Sony Vaios On The Road To Blu-Ray

I'd be SHOCKED if Apple included Blu-Ray on their new PowerMac systems. Sony incoming president has made overtures about wanting to meet the HD-DVD coalition half-way. (After all, nobody - not manufacturers, not retailers, not consumers - wants a format war)

Since Sony is the leader of the Blu-Ray coalition, I don't think Apple would dive in first. Also, aren't Blu-Ray recorders still outrageously expensive?

And to top it all off, producing burned Blu-Ray discs now would be a lot like distributing Dual-Layer DVD+Rs. Who's gonna be able to make use of them? (who has a Blu-Ray set-top or computer player?)

While I would LOVE to deliver HD content to my clients, it ain't gonna happen.

Though I wouldn't mind being wrong.

 

[aafuss1]

how many people (like me) are on the apple store clicking refresh?

I'm doing the same as you-refreshing the Apple store every minute or so.

 

[Xaimous]

Why refresh now, in't there one more hour until the event even starts?

 

[animefan_1]

how many people (like me) are on the apple store clicking refresh?

I did...again

 

[animefan_1]

Why refresh now, in't there one more hour until the event even starts?

Because once the store closes, everyone can get into an even BIGGER frenzy.

 

[hanumang]

Any idea how Apple is going to handle the whole issue of QTPro keys when people start installing Tiger, only to realize that their QTPro 6.5 will be gone, only to be replaced by a QT7 'regular'? Thats what I expect will happen to me when I install Tiger. Guess I will need a separate drive with a Panther image kickin around.

I also wondered about this and was set straight by someone from the discussion forums at Apple. FCP (and DVDSP) do not need QT Pro to function. Yes, I know QT Pro keys are bundled with both applications, but that only effects the QuickTime Player on your machine.

If you don't install the QT Pro key, you can still export to all QuickTime formats (NTSC DV, MPEG4, Sorenson Video 3, etc) from FCP, you just cannot access the advanced functions of QT Player (setting in and out points in the players, downloading movies from the web).

That being said, I'd gather that FCP 5 (or whatever it is called) will shipped with a QT 7 Pro Key.

 

[berkleeboy210]

All of the Pro Apps have shipping quotes of 1-2 days... so maybe that means something.

Also, even though the Standard Config. PowerMacs say "Same Business Day" The minute you upgrade the RAM Shipping time increases to 2-4 Days....

(And the US Order Status Page is Still Down, But the Rest of the Store is Up and running)

Waiting for the clock to strike 2

 

[hanumang]

All of the Pro Apps have shipping quotes of 1-2 days... so maybe that means something.

To use the past as an indicator, the last time FCP went thru a MAJOR upgrade (ver 3 to ver 4, back in 2003) it was announced at NAB (in mid April) but did not ship until early June.

I'd expect something similar this year (as the FCP upgrade is expected to be MAJOR)

Of course, if someone needs to buy FCP HD now, Apple will probably have an 'up-to-date' program in place - starting today - so you can upgrade for $19.95 (or whatever).

 

[fpnc]

If the G5 puts out 100 watts at 2.5 I doubt it would be more than 50 watts at 1.6 - and that doesn't factor powersaving (clock throttling tech). I am sure they can get it down to 25-30 watts. Strange.

Well, I'd be very interested to see how you came up with those numbers, but consider that the 15" PowerBook battery contains 45 watt-hours of energy. Your super low power consumption CPU, throttled back for even lower power consumption, would drain it in 1.5 to 1.8 hours. That's not including the display lamp, the hard drive, the blowers, the RAM refresh, the optical drive, ...

Not happening.

I pretty much agree with advocate, and note that Freescale's MPC7448 is supposed to dissipate only 10 watts when running at 1.5GHz. Thus, while someone might actually try to use a 40 watt CPU in a PowerBook there will soon be much better options (as far as power consumption).