Keep your hands and arms inside the vehicle , everyone . After six months of easy tick to the top of the peak , Apple ’s Intel roller - coaster ride has finally started .
In an oddly - paced Macworld Expo keynote address , Steve Jobs did what he usually does — namely , save the best for last . And so after an hour of second - tier stuff — newfangled Dashboard widgets , an iPod remote ( huzzah ! ) , a meticulously detailed roll - out of iLife ’ 06 — we finally incur to the A - list stuff . And oh , what an A List .
The Intel Macs have get in , and we ’ve all begun what is potential to be a year of new product scroll - outs the likes of which Mac fans have n’t seen since … well , maybe sinceever .
countenance ’s start with the new iMac , which is powered by Intel ’s Core Duo processor . Yes , this means that for the first clock time , iMacs are being powered bytwoprocessors . break away at 1.83GHz and 2GHz , these systems perform at two to three times the speed of the current iMac G5 , according to Apple . ( Apple used manufacture - stock central processor tests in making these title ; we plan on give the new iMac a thorough employment - out with real - world applications as soon as possible . )
Of of course , the speed of a new Intel - based Mac will be determined , at least in part , by the software you run on it . With today ’s annunciation , Apple ’s operating organisation , all its bundled app , and its iLife and iWork software suite are already “ Universal , ” Apple ’s code - word for programs that can run for natively on both PowerPC- and Intel - based Macs . If you ’re run software that ’s not compiled for Intel — Microsoft Office comes to mind — the curriculum will have its codification translate for Intel processors by Apple ’s Rosetta applied science . How much of a lag Rosetta will cause — and how much it can be countervail by the fundamentally faster Intel processors — will be another thing we ’ll need to test for ourselves .
Of of course , most iMac user rely primarily on the programs bundled with their systems , all of which are now general . For more sophisticated users , Rosetta speeds might be a big government issue . That ’s why most experts suggested that a consumer system like the iMac or iBook would be the first to make the switch to Intel .
Okay , so we “ experts ” got it half veracious and one-half wrong . In addition to the iMac , Apple has finally brought the PowerBook out of the G4 dark age . Or , wait , has it ? I approximate Apple has at long last put the PowerBook — G4 and all — out of its misery . In its property stand a novel laptop computer with a moniker that could choke a sawhorse , the MacBook Pro . ( I hazard we ’ll all get used to it eventually . I understand the need to get the word Mac into the name of every Mac raise , but … PowerBook was a good name . I ’ll lack it . )
As a laptop user , I ’m definitely excited about the MacBook Pro , but I ’ve also got a thousand question . As with the iMac , we wo n’t know the accuracy about how fast it is until we can get one in our research lab and put it through real - world tests — but Apple ’s title that it ’s four clip faster than the old laptop computer melodic line sure provides pot of Bob Hope . Again , users of professional software will have to run that stuff via Rosetta until Universal versions arrive , but Apple ’s announcement that Final Cut Pro , Aperture , and Logic Pro will be uncommitted in world-wide form in March suggest that many pro software will be arriving soon .
The inclusion of Front wrangle and iSight in the MacBook Pro are both welcome . The MagSafe power adapter certainly sounds like a good idea ( my kid have yanked on that corduroy so many times that it ’s awe-inspiring I have n’t lose a dozen PowerBooks ) , but I have to admit that I ’m moan at the obsolescence of yet another generation of Apple power adapters .
Meanwhile , fan of Apple ’s 12- and 17 - inch PowerBooks have to be enquire if they ’ll be invited to the political party . As has materialize in the past , it ’s fairly likely that once the 15 - column inch MacBook Pro has gotten its ocean legs , a larger and smaller version will follow . permit ’s desire so .
In term of raw Macs , where do we go from here ? The iBook ’s days are no doubt numbered , and start the announcement of the MacBook Pro , can the plain honest-to-god MacBook be far behind ? The Mac mini , likewise , is passing long in the tooth . I would n’t be surprised if we see those two mannequin get replaced very shortly . Only the Power Mac might fall on for a while , make its users ’ trust on high - performance professional software that simplymustbe Universal before they can exchange .
At the beginning of this entry I complained that the keynote destination was oddly pace . Which play me to iLife ’ 06 , which shoot up an inordinate amount of fourth dimension today . I ’m honestly not certain what to make of iLife ’ 06 . For all the sentence that Jobs spent demoing it , it does n’t seem like there ’s a huge amount of new stuff there . ( I look forward to sitting down with Apple and get them prove me incorrect . ) add iWeb to the collection gives it a big boost , and everyone knows that iPhotoalwaysneeds to be quick . But some of the feature of speech additions that seemed obvious to me — better iPhoto book layout tools ( include the ability to more readily insert text and captions ) and multiple soundtrack in iDVD , just to name two — do n’t appear to be part of the package . Whoever decided that GarageBand should find a second life as a podcasting tool deserves a medal , though . ripe call .
Finally , let me take a moment to deplore the state of iWork . Last class ’s announcement of the iWork suite exit the Mac community buzzing . It seemed like a product that was only going to nibble up impulse , leading to its position as the “ eventual alternate for AppleWorks , ” as Jobs put it . But iWork ’ 06 did n’t even get demo at the tonic ( other than Keynote 3 , which in reality force back Steve ’s coast ) . iWork , we have a bun in the oven more from you . Guess we ’ll have to , as Cubs fans like to say , wait till next yr .
