New announcements from Apple Computer

[Wheat Williams]

As I'm writing this, Apple just wrapped up a 1 hour 30 minute keynote presentation at their annual World Wide Developers Conference on the West Coast.

Apple is now shipping the Mac Pro, a replacement to the PowerMac G5 machines, and is close to shipping a replacement for the XServe.

These machines use Intel Xeon and Intel Core 2 Duo processors, and Apple reports that they are hundreds of dollars cheaper than comparably equipped high-end Dell workstations and blade servers.

The new Intel Core Duo 2 Mac Pro is double the speed of the previous Power Mac Quad G5, and it is considerably cheaper.

The new Intel Xeon XServe is 5 times the speed of the previous XServe G5.

You can order a Mac Pro with 16GB RAM, and it can accomodate 4 SATA hard drives internally for up to 2TB storage.

Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard will be released in Spring 2007, and it will be the first Apple operating system that can accommodate totally 64-bit applications.

[Wheat Williams]

Apple spent a lot of time previewing features for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard.

Nothing specifically music-related.

A new application programming interface called Core Animation provides operating-system-level-support for animation.

Leopard will have Boot Camp 1.0 which will enable users to install Windows XP on a Mac, and choose at bootup whether the computer loads Mac OS X or Windows XP.

Apple is working on dramatic improvements with the built-in applications that come with the OS with regard to personal information management (PIM), integrating calendars, to-do lists, email, and collaborative elements.

They are also vastly expanding on the iChat videoconferencing application and it looks like a "killer app" if you need live videoconferences in your business.

[Wheat Williams]

Apple has NOT announced any revision or upgrades to the Mac Book or MacBook Pro. Many people were expecting new Apple notebook computers with Intel Core 2 Duo processors (which are 64-bit). So we're still waiting on those.

Also, no news regarding iPods or iTunes.

[Wheat Williams]

Here are some Web sites to visit if you want to read more about the new Apple announcements.

http://www.macintouch.com
http://www.macrumors.com
http://www.maccentral.com
http://www.engadget.com

[C J Pro]

http://events.apple.com/edgesuite.net/aug_2006/event/index.html

Watch the entire keynote address from WWDC 2006 at the above link.

[fastlane]

I see they dropped the price of the Apple 30" HD Cinema display by $500 to $1999.

It won't be long before 30" monitors are affordable. :)

[C J Pro]

If by affordable, you mean costs less than filling a Hummer's gas tank with gasoline, then yes.

[Jerry W.]

hmm.

Well, I can at least now have an Intel-based Apple that I really want. :) I can start day-dreaming again. :) I am a little dissappointed though, in terms of speeds offered. I was under the impression that there were faster intel chips than 3 ghz. Or is that only for PCs? It is still faster than anything we Apple users are used to, but still. :)

I did a "build your own" and my total, with the 3 ghz model, including 4 gb of Ram, Two 20 inch monitors, and the AppleCare program was less than $6,200. You PC users won't appreciate that, but I have been daydreaming of getting my "ultimate" system for years now. I occasionally get onto Apple's Web store and "build" my dream system, and it usually is about $13-$15k. :eek: But that has always been with EVERY extra available.

And, for this new model, if you opt for all the 16 gb of ram, the 2 TB or hard drives, the two 30 inch displays, and all the other fixin's, that is about what it will cost. But a reasonable setup (but still way more than I have ever had, in terms of power, etc) as described above ($6,200) would be more than I need. But, knowing my luck, (and the trend of my computing life), By the time I can get this technology, it will be BELOW the minimum specs suggested for whatever New Garritan Library is being released. :D

I just need to donate a kidney now and I'll have the dough! ;)


:)
Jerry Wickham

[Jerry W.]

I guess my dissappointment in speeds offered is not entirely warranted.

Dual processor configurations are always lower in clock speed than single ones CAN be. And the fastest dual processor system offered currently IS 3 ghz. :)

OK, no more whining.

Jerry

[DPDAN]

hey everyone, I bought one of these new quad 3 ghz Mac Pro computers today with 16 gigis of ram and installed the new Universal Binary version of Digital Peformer and I opened a new project, and started to create Beethoven's 5th symphony. I started playing the four note theme for GPO's 1st violins, and the entire project was automaically finished in 2 seconds. Man those things are fast! So fast the new Macs do all the work for you before you even start. Ingenious, but if I sell my dual 2.0 ghz Mac G5 with 3.5 gigs of ram. I would only need a couple a grand for that hum dinger quad 3 ghz. dual overhead cam, 1450 horsepower with 16 cup holders and side air bags to boot... WOO HOO!

JUST KIDDING!!
holy cow!
dpDan :D

[ptram]

A new application programming interface called Core Animation provides operating-system-level-support for animation.

Just imagine: no longer having to enter "bow up" and "bow down" CC equivalents. Move the arm of the cello player in the right direction, and GPOA plays with the correct bowing...

Paolo

[Wheat Williams]

A simple post on a product announcement leads to trolling and flaming.

Can't we all just get along?

Some of us own Macs, some of us own Windows computers, and quite a few of us (me included) own both.

There is room for all of us here and we can all get along.

Peace,

Wheat:|:

[Styxx]

http://animations.fg-a.com/coputype37.gif
Just about do the work themselfs, eh? :D

[Styxx]

There is room for all of us here and we can all get along. You're right sir. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to but DPDAN got me going and, and, and, well ... I'm a PC user that will be purchasing a Mac for my new studio soon. I really do appreciate your thoughtfulness in posting this information. No hard feelings just hard drives. :)
Seriously, thank you for this information and please forgive DAN and all the rest of us because, well let's face it -

THE FORUM'S NUTS...GRAB 'EM! :D

[Garritan]

Frankly, I'm tired of your impolite, offensive messages. Isn't it time the moderator jumps in?
Yes it's time. Please be courteous and polite to one another and refrain from from rude and offense posts. Please read the forum rules which state in part: "Please respect others on this site no swearing or name calling of others this could get you banned."

Let's keep this place professional, make well reasoned arguments and use words to uplift rather than tear down.

Gary Garritan

[C J Pro]

I use all three of the major systems equally.

On my left, I have a PowerMac G4 400 MHz. I bought it off a local university for a cheap amount and love this computer, even though it is slow. I noticed that it is more powerful than the 500 MHz AMD K6-2 computer that I had before. Yet, due to the lack of RAM in it (384 MB I think) and my laziness at getting some new RAM, I'm limited at what I can do on it. But as soon as I get the money, I'm gonna replace a couple of my systems with an Intel Mac.

Directly infront of me, I have an Ubuntu Dapper/Windows Vista computer. Ubuntu Dapper is for me my main development system. I use it to develop software and websites on. Windows Vista is rarely opened due to the lack of fully compatible software on it and lack of APIs that I am used to. Also, Vista I notice, as it is in Beta, is a power hungry OS.

To the right of that is my Likos Archi computer. This I don't think I need to say much about. It runs nicely, but the developer is lazy and doesn't do anymore work on it.

And on my very right is my Windows XP computer that I use for composition. I use this and found that, even though it has a 3.2 GHz Pentium 4 Processor with 2 GB of RAM, It only performs about twice as well as my PowerMac G4 and performs at about the same rate as my Ubuntu computer. Of course, it doesn't perform well as my Likos system! :)

Anyways, what I am trying to say is that I have used a number of different operating systems and found that Mac seems to suit me best. I just need a new Intel Mac (or I may get a PowerMac G5 from the university this fall). In all it is personal preference.

And let's stay on topic, after seeing the new Time Machine program in Mac, I am determined to switch my entire family to Macs. This way, I have less headaches to deal with because they are always managing to screw up file and I typically have to recover them.

And now..."Redmond, start your photocopiers."

[Hermitage59]

Got the message, and I'll remove my posts...

[ptram]

... I have used a number of different operating systems ...

While I use PCs only for particular tasks at work (and on my 2nd desk there is a PC notebook), I will have to use Windows for my main job sooner or later. After the demise of Classic, as soon as I move to an Intel Mac I'll have to use FrameMaker on Windows.

Say, Divine Justice...

Paolo

[KeithW]

In a household where we have 2 Apples (PowerPC,) 2 Wintel Desktops, and 3 Wintel laptops, I feel I can give you some "facts" to ponder. Note these are my opinions, so no flaming

Advantages of Apple-
Their operating system is clearly superior. It is based on UNIX and I could spend an hour writing why it's superior over Windows. It's been 64 bit for quite a while. One of my "Wintel" boxes (actually Athlon x64) is running Windows x64 Professional. It never really caught on. A lot of developers simply bypassed it in anticipation of Vista, which, as we know, is still delayed. Most of my software/hardware runs on this OS but some does not. The Garritan Studio does not, for example (not Gary's fault!)

The Mac Intel boxes have the added benefit of being able to run Windows and/or Mac OS.

Disadvantages of Apple-
Despite the foray into an Intel architecture, you are still limited on hardware options. For example, they are offering 3 different grahics card options on the Mac Pro. On a vanilla Wintel box, you have dozens of graphics card choices. You have also had to pay a premium price for hardware, and your third party choices have been somewhat limited. That said, with their conversion to Intel, their price premium (over white box Wintel) seems to be a little more reasonable.

IN Conclusion, Apple is the only legitimate alternative to Windows (Linux folks, please don't flame me!) for most creative professionals (I'm not talking programmers here!) Either platform will get the job done, but I simply like the Mac platform better.

Keith W

[C J Pro]

I honestly don't see why more people use Apple. I saw some people who knew nothing about computers go into a session at the nearby Apple Store and within an hour knew how to browse the internet. I have seen sessions for Windows and it usually takes a little bit more time, about another session or two. I realized while down in Ocean City that Mac has the perfect interface, even if we are too used to the Windows interface. When you think about it, Mac OS X has an interface that puts everything needed on the screen but keeps it simple.

Also, not to flame Windows, but I just had a BSOD while starting up Garritan Studio and now my FAT is corrupted...question is, who is to blame? Of course since I like Garritan Libraries, I guess Windows is to blame :D

[BlueMax]

First off, the new Core 2 Duo chips run slower (in MHz) but get more work done per clock, just like AMD did for so long. A 2GHz C2D is faster than a 3GHz "Prescott" by a fair margin (20-50%)

2 of those chips will be amazing as far as performance goes - provided the application will really use it.

[fastlane]

On a side note, the keynote was presented by Jobs and also much of it by Scott Forstall who is VP of Platform Experience. I have a hunch we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

Just a hunch. :)

[Houston Haynes]

On a side note, the keynote was presented by Jobs and also much of it by Scott Forstall who is VP of Platform Experience. I have a hunch we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

Just a hunch. :)

Depends on how many of those sweetheart stock options Forstall got when he came on board...

;)

[Haydn]

C J,

If your hard drive corrupted while opening up Garritan Studio then you may have a failing hard drive.

Jim

[C J Pro]

It's just the NTFS and the beginning of the drive. Happened after I checked a few things using my Likos Archi LiveCD. I still don't know what caused the problem though...