No Keynote at Apple Expo Paris

[jimN]

Bring on MWSF because its pretty apparent there won't be anything "big" at Apple Expo.

But there could be some really small iPods (if you like that sort of thing). To be honest i'm not currently in the market for eitehr an iPod or a new computer but now i've adopted apple as my brand i want them to do well and flogging dead horses and tired product lines means i haven't got much to brag about.

 

[iDave]

Bring on MWSF because its pretty apparent there won't be anything "big" at Apple Expo.

There probably won't be anything "big" until we start to see Intel Macs in spring of 2006 and beyond. Meantime, low-key updates is all I expect.

 

[jimN]

Hey, that's me! Where do I sign in?

The deciding questions:
How many buttons SHOULD a mouse have?
Name the next cat after Leopard?

and complete the following:
After IBM publically humiliated me and failed to produce a 3 gig CPU I'd like to ...

 

[SiliconAddict]

And, they released it in the middle of the night too?

It isn't a holiday in Paris.

Stop with the conspiracy theories.

And most big name tech news sites aren't based in Paris either.

 

[SiliconAddict]

Yah know. I really hate to even suggest such a thing. I really do. But what if Jobs has had a relapse?

 

[nagromme]

Wow, people are reading an awful LOT of specific product information from the fact that Apple has now announced only one traditional "announcement event" in September instead of two

Apple could schedule a press event any time in any month. How is Apple Expo the only date they could use? Sure they'd like to use that date, but for some reason they are not. I can't find the product roadmap details in that fact that some people seem to see

There is NOT gonna be any Mac-related announcement, period...I fear that Stevo is losing his grip and turning Apple Comp. into Apple Media...sad.

Although the iPod's success is great for the Mac platform, I also hear rumors that the Mac OS X team and the Apple hardware teams HAVE been working on projects, not just staying home.

I can't remember what project might be in store for the Macs's future, but I'm sure SOMETHING was mentioned

 

[AnAppleADay]

a shame...

that is best part of these expos...really too bad.

 

[LimeiBook86]

Oh boy...this can't be good

 

[LaMerVipere]

maybe they could do one of those Apprentice style tv shows to find a replacement.
Criteria 1: must like black clothes
Criteria 2: must like black clothes
criteria 3: must like cats
criteria 4: preferably not prone to sudden changes of mind (to steady the nerves of the shareholders as they watch steve frantically spinning the wheel at the helm)

Hey! That sounds just like me.

 

[Porchland]

Pedant! There's been nothing 'great' since the intel announcement IMHO. Maybe this is how Steve punishes think secret for publishing the specs of the new powerbooks over a month and a half early. Damn him.

Yes, because CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations act primarily to piss off rumor bloggers and then secondarily to maximize value for shareholders.

 

[EricNau]

Maybe, they will announce something so BIG that they decided to do something different for a change and surprise everyone, and look, it worked, we all believed them!

Oh well, who knows, it could happen...maybe (or probably not), but I can dream can't I?

 

[Porchland]

I'm willing to bet that this is the case - something very big ... didn't get done yet. I'll guess that contracts for content for videos via iTMS aren't completely in place. I'll still make a (small) wager on new PowerMacs for Paris.

If an iPod video was supposed to be announced in Paris, I don't think content would have slowed it down. The 5G iPod is due, the possibility of a video device is probably 50/50, and the Christmas window is upon us, and the Street is going to expect something from Apple for the fourth quarter.

A 5G iPod with BT wireless headphones?

 

[digitalbiker]

Maybe the transition isn't going well at all

I seriously don't get this.

You would think after such a major announcement at WWDC that Apple would want to show off how things are going. Make everyone feel okay with the transition, and even release some new hardware to keep people happy. Now we are looking at 2 keynotes in a row without a new product announcement from Apple. Not to mention some insight into what is in store for the Intel transition.

One more thing, at what point did updates for the Powermac line start happening only once a year? It has been so incredibly long since I have seen any "real" improvements to the G5. In fact, almost the entire system besides some minor processor improvements and some minor video improvements is basically the same system as when Apple released it over two years ago.

I can only hope that the new Intel switch eliminates these kind of problems.

After Adobe's announcement that a native version of Creative Suite with Photoshop probably wouldn't be available for a Mac-Intel until mid 2007 and the fact that the Adobe President stated that " Steve makes it sound like the transition will be easy but in reality it isn't easy at all, in fact it is going to be very difficult." It kind of sounds like it may be a long while before pro apps are available and who wants to pay thousands for new hardware only to run key software through an emulator.
All the while, there will be Window versions of the same vendor's latest pro apps running natively on the same Intel x86 hardware.

 

[iDave]

After Adobe's announcement that a native version of Creative Suite with Photoshop probably wouldn't be available for a Mac-Intel until mid 2007 and the fact that the Adobe President stated that " Steve makes it sound like the transition will be easy but in reality it isn't easy at all, in fact it is going to be very difficult." It kind of sounds like it may be a long while before pro apps are available and who wants to pay thousands for new hardware only to run key software through an emulator.

Exactly why I'm not looking forward to Intel Inside. I'd much rather Apple would show me a new PPC Mac that impresses me so that I'll buy it and be set for the next several years. By then, the Intel transition wrinkles will be ironed out and I can think about getting an Intel Mac.

 

[AidenShaw]

get real, they're overclocked

They are not overclocked. They are sold by IBM to Apple as 2.5GHz/2.7GHz G5s which require watercooling.

When IBM was selling the PPC970 at 1.6GHz in the JS20 there were comments by IBM that IBM didn't consider the chip stable enough to run at 2.0 GHz (which is what Apple was clocking the same chip at).

By any normal definition of "overclock", Apple is pushing the envelope with these systems. If "requiring watercooling" doesn't hint of "overclock", you should back away from the RDF for a while.

IBM could say that they're "3.6 GHz chips that require immersion in liquid nitrogen" - and it would still be "overclocking".

There are companies selling Intel chips overclocked to 4GHz and more - you just need to screen the chips and give them very good cooling systems.

It's not like overclocking is illegal or anything. Apple sells and warranties a PPC970 system at 2.7 GHz, and presumably has a cooling system (and thermal control system) to make it stable and long-lived. Nothing illegal here, although if the G5's would crash and burn up the class action lawyers might ask some questions about the "2.2 GHz" stamped on the chips in Apple's 2.7 GHz machines....

 

[Val-kyrie]

What this does not mean

So ... no Quad PowerMac, faster PowerBooks or G5 Mac mini

This does not mean that there will not be faster PowerBooks! While all of us are drooling at the thought of PBs with a PPC 7448 with a whopping 200 MHz FSB and longer battery life, really, the average person isn't going to know the difference. The additional clock frequency wrought by the 7448 doesn't even warrant an announcement--I mean, an announcement for 30 MHz, puhhlease! Most people don't even know what a FSB is, much less care about a 33MHz increase. I surmise that the iBook updates were weak on the processor front because there were no substantial updates to offer the PBs, aside from little tweaks here and there. In fact, the 7448 tops out at 1.7 GHz, so the lack of a keynote only confirms that this is the end of the road for the 32 bit PPC. However, more troubling is the implication that there will likely be no updates to the PowerMacs either. Surely, the introduction of a dual-core architecture to the Mac platform would be something to announce. With no substantial updates immanent, I wonder if we will even see an Intel notebook in January. To be honest, while I wouldn't mind seeing the transition in January, the lack of a PM update in September makes me think that a dual-core PM will be introduced in January, and that possibly there will be no Intel transition even for the low-end (MacMini, iB, PB) until the debut of Merom in 2H 2006 which would be mentioned at the Apple keynote at the end of June/early July, 2006. IF this is the case, I would even conjecture that Leopard might be 64 bit only, but this is probably unrealistic because of all of the "legacy" 32 bit PPC systems that still exist.

As an aside, while there is a lot of WOW-ing going on here about the new Merom chips only consuming an average of 5 Watts of power, please remember to add the power consumed by the memory controller to this figure before getting too excited. This is not listed by Intel but is measured on many PC sites. Thus you cannot directly compare power consumption of Intel chips to AMD chips which use SOC. Too bad Freescale will never develop the 8641(D); it might have been comparable.

 

[digitalbiker]

PowerBook G5's

Maybe, they will announce something so BIG that they decided to do something different for a change and surprise everyone, and look, it worked, we all believed them!

Oh well, who knows, it could happen...maybe (or probably not), but I can dream can't I?

Maybe they ARE going to release the PB G5. Something monumental like that which goes against the Intel future might require a big press conference to explain the perceived step back to PPC tech.

The Intel transition roadmap might need to be lengthened due to software vendor feedback about difficulty of the transition.

Thus a PB G5 is a very big positive, Intel roadmap delayed a big negative, press conference needed to control the spin to all positive

 

[joeboy_45101]

Steve's still going to Paris and will apparently, according to that Macworld article, take part in a Q&A with the press. It's the public keynote that has been cancelled; presumably because there's nothing new to show off. There's not even one thing, let alone one more thing.

I have to agree here. Apple is too busy working on the new Intel-based machines. And the iPod/iTunes stuff is probably ready to go now! This Q&A session will probably be used for letting the public know how the progress is coming with the switch and stuff. This will probably be no less influential since the press is going to have a time grilling Steve and his friends.

 

[mklos]

So ... no Quad PowerMac, faster PowerBooks or G5 Mac mini

Did you really believe that Apple was going to release Macs like this? You really gotta quit reading rumor sites dude. They're brainwashing you!

Its still quite annoying that Apple said when they announced the switch to Intel that they have some great PPC announcements later in the year and yet they have nothing to announce? WTF have they been doing all year?

Apple hasn't woo'd the Mac community in a very long time. Its time Apple stopped putting the frigging iPod ahead of its main profit maker which is its computers.

So all they have to announce is later this week they will announce a stupid phone with iTunes on it. WOW! Big freakin' deal! Who cares are about a phone that can download music on it. I thought thats what an iPod was for? If they really wanted to do something useful, make the ITMS run on your iPod. That would be more intuitive IMO.

 

[AidenShaw]

Microsoft knows how to do multi-architecture systems

I also agree, in part. The PPC chips made for the Xbox 360 (a PC based game consol), still opperate on RISC instruction, yet a form of the Windows OS runs on them. Also, Microsoft already has a supply of those chips for their Xbox 360 release, slatted for this Holiday Season 2005. Unless Billy Boy decides to cancel at the last minute... So, I’d assume the chips are already available or else they wouldn’t be able to establish an inventory for the Winter release.

(side tracked)
Wait... it totally didn't click before... Windows running on a PPC?!

The Xbox CPUs are triple core - not dual core.

Windows NT was officially sold and supported on PPC chips until Windows NT 4.0 Service Pack 3. Windows NT has been multi-architecture since the beginning.

NT-based systems have been sold and supported (or is sold and supported on):

• 32-bit x86 (P3, P4, P5, P6, "P7")
• 32-bit x86 with 36-bit memory addressing (64 GiB RAM) (P6, Xeon)
• Digital Alpha
• MIPS RISC chips
• PowerPC chips
• x64 (AMD64/EM64T)
• IA64 (Itanium)

In addition, the Windows Mobile branch of NT is or has been supported on x86, ARM, PPC and several other minor embedded chips.

 

[jpn]

no paris keynote = important sept 7 announcement.
-bigger than moto rebrand of old motoshite fon
clue: is this the year of hi-def or not?

 

[treblah]

They are not overclocked. They are sold by IBM to Apple as 2.5GHz/2.7GHz G5s which require watercooling.

Source?

 

[chatin]

An old football strategy.

MS seems to be self destructing so why not sit on the ball and run out the clock.

 

[digitalbiker]

What?

MS seems to be self destructing so why not sit on the ball and run out the clock.

MS maybe slow to release an update to XP bot they are hardly selfdistructing.

Also if Apple waits much longer their entire hadware line will be using 3 year old tech.

 

[chatin]

I just don't know of any opinion leaders and progressive thinkers that are recommending MS products. It's all about Apple, Google and open source.

Gates worst fear is coming true. MS has been marginalized.

When the Mactel products ship there will be some new news.