Updates from New York Media Event

[Willy K.]

What a lack of information on "Aperture"... this program is going to have to be really dern good to compete with Photoshop. I really don't understand why Apple just jumped into the photo/imaging market like this; there's just no hole for them to fill at the moment.

Aperture isn't targeted at anything near the Photoshop space. Check out http://www.apple.com/aperture/ for information.

This is targeted much more at RAW Workflow software like CaptureOne PRO. And from what I've seen so far, if the RAW rendering quality is as good, it'll blow it out of the water for the price.

As a serious hobbyist, I'm excited, although a price-point of $349 might be a little easier for me to swallow, this will be a no-brainer for wedding-photographers, magazine photo shops, etc.

 

[ZorPrime]

These updates are targeted toward the Pro user ... photo retouchers, etc. (in conjunction with PhotoExpo), and most Pro users in this area, such as myself, would rarely consider a 12 PB for such things. They are nice for mobility, but not as practical as the 15" and 17". JMO

I think you have a good point. I for one have simply been waiting for a better display for the PB. I was considering the 17" and it would have been nice to see a better GPU and at least a 7448 but it looks like this'll have to do. I'm still getting the 17". I do like the 120GB hard drive.

Edit: Apple's dropped the price they charge for RAM, now it's cheaper to upgrade and the 7200rpm option is nice too (it should speed some things up some).

 

[LagunaSol]

Maybe that's because the iMac is for the price range you're looking at? The Power Macs are the "luxury" item, and are priced higher because they offer more power and more features. The iMac is for the $1200-$1600 range. It's just logical. Do you also complain that Rolls Royce doesn't offer a sub-$10K car?

And you drop 2 grand for a machine that does a whole lot more that just hold 512megs of ram and a 160GB hard drive. Or are we all back to just comparing numbers again? Honestly, now...

Um, yeah, give me an iMac with video-in so I can drive my unfortunately-sometimes-needed Windows box and I'd be happy to take one.

Rolls Royce under $10k? Ok, that's a ridiculous analogy. I'd equate this more to VW trying to sell $25k Jettas (which, BTW, is exactly what VW is trying to do these days, much to the angst of the fan base.)

Apple has always (or almost always) had an entry-level-priced PowerMac. Apparently they no longer feel this is necessary?

I'm happy to pay a premium for Apple gear. It would be nice if Apple would keep the amount of that premium in check though. There's a magical line where you cross over from "paying extra for quality and design" to "bending over for the sake of a brand name." I think the bottom-line PowerMac crosses that line.

 

[Whistleway]

btw, is the superdrive worth an extra 60 bones, or will I bother?

superdrive is nice to store a lot of stuff into archives etc. I thought of the same and got it. It is useful to me.

 

[paulypants]

I would agree and it is even slower then their last Dual which was 2.7Ghz. Looks like Intel was the way to go, even a current Pentium 4 at 3.6 Ghz would be faster then this and it is just a single processor.

OMFG, wrong...

 

[MajorTom]

from the G5 page on apples site:

"Eight 20-inch or 23-inch Apple Cinema Displays can be connected to the Power Mac G5 using four NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics cards."

 

[Project]

lol @ a fully tricked out PowerMac costing you $18,000 on the Apple store, SANS monitor.

Im in love with this black theme though that Apple is integrating into its product lines. The site page for aperture is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful.

 

[PBGPowerbook]

your under the wrong assumption. its not competing with photoshop

right. It looks much much better for ACTUAL PHOTOGRAPHERS than photoshop has become. Real image editing and workflow instead of a mishmash of bloated illustration tools. I just hope Aperture has copies of all the PShop image adjust tools i.e. curves AND channel mix AND color balance etc. If so, PShop is dead on the Mac for me.

 

[Anawrahta]

Aperture Reqs

Anyone know or have an idea if Aperture will lock people out if they have below the minimum specs? I have a new iBook with 1.5gb of RAM and a pretty fast hd, and it would really suck if there would be no way to run it on there. I don't mind if it runs slow, I just would like to have the ability to use it.

 

[Melkor]

superdrive is nice to store a lot of stuff into archives etc. I thought of the same and got it. It is useful to me.

cheers.


(this thread is on fire)

 

[jkhanson]

No, i'll blame it on apple. thank you very much. Apple is the one who decided to keep us in the land of the PowerPC not FreeScale. Apple had the lack of business sense to go with IBM when IBM failed to deliver their promise within the FIRST YEAR. Why would Apple cut it so close? Depending on IBM to deliver just on promises alone? Apple could of chosen Intel instead of IBM and we wouldnt be in this situation today. i just find it hard to believe that Apple couldnt see this coming when they switched from Motorola to IBM. Its embarrassing for Steve.

Pull your head out Steve.

You have to keep in mind that at that time Apple was also making the transition to OS X. This transition required pushing developers very hard to update code, a task that would have been very difficult if there had been a switch in Intel at the same time. Besides, the G5 looked very promising at the time. IBM gave Apple a few years breathing room to get OS X on Intel going, with Rosetta technology and the ability to compile for Intel from Xcode. It seems that Steve did foresee the possibility that IBM couldn't deliver and hedged his bets. Smart business sense, I think.

 

[JCT]

I was expecting a moderate jump up from iPhoto, not a black box Pro app for $500! From the very, very little I've read about it, Aperture looks pretty good for a v1.0 program. I can't wait to get to an Apple store to try it out. $500 is a bit stiff, but I at least can get a student discount to $250. That's not so bad if it is good at what it does. The system requirements are steep, so I might have to give in and get a new PowerBook. Hard drive and screen upgrades alone are tempting, plus i can get one for under $2000 with all I need (want). I should wait for Intel, but i can't help myself.

Wait, my faculty discount for Aperture brings it to $150. Be sure to double-check this. Ack! Did you see the recommended system? A Dual 2.0 !

I'll be curious to see how this does on my current 1.5 Ghz 17" , I don't blame you for wanting to get the new one, that option to go with a 7200 RPM drive is *great*.

And I have no clue why folks are hung up on this being a PS competitor, in this incarnation it is, at most, an Adobe Bridge competitor. It's clearly meant to be a *culling and management tool* with some capability to mildly tweak images that are good right out of the camera. There was a great lightbox program with a cool digital loupe feature for the PC (DigitalPro) , one of the apps I truly miss from the PC sides. Apps like this can be enormous time savers if done well.

JT

LOL, did you see all the photographers dive in at the same minute?

 

[Orlando Furioso]

Eight displays?

holy crap... from a footnote on the Powermac Feature page.

"Eight 20-inch or 23-inch Apple Cinema Displays can be connected to the Power Mac G5 using four NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics cards."

Excuse my ignorance, but could the previous Powermacs handle this?

edit: beat to the post by MajorTom. Shakes fist vigorously.

 

[g0gie]

wouldnt it be sweet if the 1.67 G4's on the powerbooks were actually the 7448 chips :X

 

[kenstee]

DDR2 RAM Costs?

Anybody know what 3rd party DDR2 RAM costs for the new 15"? Can't seem to find it. I assume Apple's price is ripped off. But, want to know for sure.

 

[QCassidy352]

Well I think that this means I'll be getting a 12" PowerBook over a 12" iBook, though it's awfully close

The 12" powerbook didn't change at all (except superdrive is now at the combo drive price) so today's announcements shouldn't effect your decision. I really can't see getting a 12" PB over a 12" ibook at this point. 50% higher cost... for what?

 

[DaftUnion]

Woah, I want that Quad PowerMac. It's nice for once when you tell your PC friends about it, and there's nothing even close to it in the intel/windows world...with the 16gb of memory capable, and the quad processing.

 

[jkhanson]

Yep! My words man!
Apple could've left the PB G4 scene with a bang, put in that 7448 which IS available now, give us those 200 MHz FSB and a decent x700 GPU and I would've bought it immediately. Now I'm thinking of buying the cheapest iBook (just to make Apple bleed) or even switch back to a modern! x86 Laptop with Linux on top.

If 7448 were available in sufficient supply and without other problems, I can't imagine Apple wouldn't use them. They are not engaged in a conspiracy to sell you slower computers than they otherwise could.

 

[Tomaz]

No, Powerbooks have supported close-lid mode ever since the TiBook

And how do you enable that?

 

[halfapie]

Oh and the powermacs are including the mighty mouse now. was that included before? Even with the student discount it's ridiculously expensive.. If only the powermacs were $1000 cheaper. Then i'd buy one. haha

And I quote:

In the box
* • Apple Mighty Mouse

 

[alien]

New dual core 2 or discontinued dual processor 2.3

I'm pretty much at the point that I need a new computer but I can't afford a top of the line powermac. What would be better... a new dual core 2.0ghz or the old 2.3 dual processor. I figure I can get a discount on the 2.3 now that the new machines are out. What do you guys think? I'll be using this new computer for quite a few years. Thanks

 

[halfapie]

And how do you enable that?

You just have to attach a keyboard, monitor and mouse.

But it never worked right on my old 12" powerbook 867Mhz (rev. A)

Technically you can attempt this on a ibook too. If you download that hack to enable dual monitor on the ibooks.

 

[mddharma]

Well, I was waiting for the update of the 12" and it is now here. However, it is time to move on. I think it may be a while before there is a better 12" model that is PPC, if there ever will be. I do not want to go to intel for a few years. So, I figured I would buy the 12" with superdrive refurbished on Apples site, and the price has stayed the same! It is still listed at $1449, which is ONLY $50 cheaper than a new 12" with superdrive. I thought for sure they would have reduced it. I can't seem to win on this purchase. Anyway, been holding out for months, so ... time to move on.

 

[ANIM8R]

Hi guys, my apologies if this has already been discussed but one thing is nagging at me.

I was inclined to purchase a dual single core 2.0 and now am looking into the dual core single 2.0 as an option, but can someone technically savvy tell me whether or not I'm going to notice substanital performance increases/hits with the new setup? Is it similar performance but less power consumption / heat?

The Quad system looks amazing but like everyone has been saying, that's a bit steep. I'd also hate to purchase a single processor PM just to have them release dual dual core 2.0s next summer as one final hurrah before they switch to Intel, but c'est la vie...

EDIT: Alien's above post applies to me, as well...

 

[mongoos150]

Anybody know what 3rd party DDR2 RAM costs for the new 15"? Can't seem to find it. I assume Apple's price is ripped off. But, want to know for sure.

Two questions - Since this is DDR2, we have to have two of the same chip (IE not a 512 chip and a 1GB chip) correct?
Also, is this ram PC2-2700 still 200 pin? Online it seems to be the big chips...