Some might say the mo of silicon that power your Mac is just a micro chip . But if reactions to our August outcome ’s Mac Beat especial report are any indication , Apple ’s decision to exchange to Intel CPUs intend much more to many Mac loyalists . Beyond the technical merits of one fleck versus another , there ’s something deeper pass on here , something about the identity operator of the Mac itself . Will the Mac become just another computer , like all those anon. Wintel box ? peradventure — unless , of course , a chip really is just a chip .
The big switch
Matthew Fries — give thanks you for your return about Apple ’s switch to the Intel central processing unit ( Mac Beat , August 2005 ) . You did a keen job ( as always ) of explaining exactly what it all means . My big question as a Mac user and fan is this : Will we now have to hear that annoying Intel music theme at the end of every Apple TV advertising ?
Michael Richards — As someone who still possess his first 512 K Mac , complete with its “ insanely great ” designers ’ signatures imprinted inside its credit card hull , I imagine I speak for many when I say that I feel betrayed . If I had want an IBM PC , I would have track over years ago . Now , as I look at my 23 - inch Apple Cinema Display hook up to my Power Mac G5 , I feel that I ’ve been deal out . I ’ve stood by this ship’s company through the IIe , the IIc , and even the Lisa , but for what ? What will be exceptional now ? Why did I annoy ? Other computers were much less expensive .
Brad Marston — Your readers would have been better served if you ’d checked the response to the Intel declaration among developer on Apple ’s own Scitech mailing list . For deterrent example , you could have maintain that Apple — having previously promote the 64 - bit capabilities of the G5 processor — has said nothing about the future of 64 - chip computing with Intel . ( Xcode 2.1 supports only 32 - bit i386 educational activity . ) You might also have ask about floating - point performance . The G5 processor has two floating - point units ; how do Intel chips pile up ? Finally , you might have been able to tell your lector that the x86 didactics set is widely viewed as inelegant and dated in comparison to the PowerPC architecture . The passage to Intel may be the correct patronage choice for Apple , but it raises many technical questions , which Macworld ’s reportage so far has not answer .
Jim Lofton — As a Mac owner since 1989 , I ’m amazed that some people are so upset about the switch to Intel . Clearly , they have toast too long and too recondite from the Apple ( and IBM ) marketing well . For all the highly vaunt benefit of PowerPC chips , they only briefly eclipse the Pentium . And even that advantage was arguable , as the benchmarks Apple used were bias . Yes , the standard Pentium 4 is a dog . But the Pentium M is far higher-ranking to the G4 and may even equal well against the G5 ( if it were put into a dual - configuration background ) . The Pentium D is a dual - heart and soul chip usable in production quantities now . And succeeding Pentium releases such as Yonah will belike make the G6 ( if it ever appears ) look merely tolerable , as the G5s do now when compare with Intel ’s Xeons . Even if the complainers are right and the PowerPC is higher-ranking to the Pentium on technical merit , that was fairly much the argument for Betamax — with the upshot being that everyone now lives with VHS and could n’t care less .
Bill Herman — Your Intel storey leave out one very scarey take : trusted computing ( TC ) . Just before Jobs made the large annunciation , Intel quietly announced that it would begin producing chip that implement TC . If you do n’t know about TC yet , you need to memorise about it now . One honest direction to do so is to go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’sWeb siteand do a search for trusted computing . If , as part of the shift to Intel , Apple implement TC in such a way that users lose dominance of their computers , our corporate digital exemption will be in serious danger .
Walter Jeffries — I have register that when Apple swop to Intel CPU , it will no longer support Mac OS 9 Classic covering and that those apps wo n’t run under Rosetta . Like many companies , mine has gigabytes of data and tens of megabytes of legacy app that expect the Classic operating surroundings . Just because Apple has a unexampled bone and new computer hardware coming out does n’t mean that businesses or someone can empty ten ’ worth of data point and applications . These tool and data are full of life to our aliveness and our commercial enterprise . Many of these applications were written by developer who are no longer in line . give a pick between fancy new hardware and software upgrades and lose our data , we ’ll stick with the honest-to-god machines . If Apple abandons these applications , we wo n’t put back these older machines with new ones — which means that Apple will sell less hardware and few software updates to the operating system , and will recede money as a result . I strongly urge Apple to continue to patronage Classic applications .
Finish your photos
Paul Lomauro — Wow ! Your digital pic how - to maneuver is just what I ’ve been looking for ( “ The Big Picture , ” August 2005 ) . I ’m one of millions of young digital camera users and a relatively new owner of an iMac . For many of your reader , the 17 - pageboy guide will be too basic — but for me , it was perfect . Keep this up , and I ’ll never let my subscription lapse .
Rob Wilson — I read your excellent clause on photo- printing process divine service and note that you left out one military service that I think is the rank well deal of all : having your prints done at Costco . you could plainly e - mail the digital photos you want publish to the nearest Costco store and then pick up your prints an hour later . Costco does a capital line of accurately reproducing what you send , provide glossy and luster finish , and is very , very inexpensive .
Cross Current
Reid Conrad ( CEO , Near - Time)—In reply to your online limited review of Near - Time Current 1.5 (; October 2005 ) , I would like to clear up a twosome of point . For appetiser , your referee posit , “ I was unable to post entering to a blog created at Blogger.com … but I succeeded in posting the same web log easily at Typespot.com . ” These problems could relate to a issue of constituent , yet you attribute them exclusively to Current . Your reviewer further noted , “ It froze my PowerBook G4 several times , leaving even the Force Quit instruction unavailable . ” We have feel no record in our customer - service log of other customers quetch of such freezes . We pride ourselves on our client service . Your reviewer also states that Current ’s “ functionality and comfort of use falls far short of the applications I usually would use to do these thing : Ranchero Software ’s NetNewsWire Lite , Apple ’s Safari , Microsoft Word , and , for archiving pages , Mozilla ’s Firefox Scrapbook extension . ” commend the use of four separate applications rather of one speaks to Current ’s electric potential . I invite the Macworld residential area to try Current and reach me directly with feedback atreidconrad@near-time.com .
Before we bring out our recap of Current , we did , of course , contact Near - Time about the trouble we had with the applications programme . Our reviewer spent two hours in a face - to - face meeting with a Near - Time representative , endeavor to resolve these problems . We stand behind his review.—Ed .
Nearsighted Spotlight
Adam Kobrin — In Apple ’s ads for its Tiger OS , one reviewer says that limelight “ looks through utterly everything . ” This is clearly not true , concord to Apple ’s own corroboration . The only manner to do a comprehensive search is to repair to a tekki workaround ( Geek Factor , August 2005 ) . Besides deal with its misleading advertizement , does Apple plan to accost this serious limitation ? All I ’d care to do is happen every Indian file I ’m expect for — just as I could in OS 9 , organisation 7 , and System 6 .
