At today’s keynote, Apple’s Steve Jobs introduced two new iMac computers featuring the new Intel “Core Duo” chip. Going on sale today, Apple will have a 17″ and 20″ iMac, looking exactly like the machines before them, but loosing the PowerPC chip in place of the new Intel chip.
Steve says these will be two to three times faster than the previous machines. As I write this, I went to the store link on Apple.com only to have, within minutes of getting there, the display change to a screen saying we will be back in an hour. I bet that means the new machines will be up there soon for your viewing pleasure.
I am a bit angry and confused by Steve’s claims here though. For years, Apple has told us how much better the PowerPC chip is than the Intel equivalent. Now they tell us that the Intel part is three times faster than the best PowerPC. Really, or is this just Apple’s hype on selling what they have now? And if it IS faster, how come Xbox, Sony, and Nintendo are all moving to PowerPC based parts in their new game machines that require the most power that one can get? They took PPC over Intel, yet here is Steve saying that the Intel part is now faster. So what exactly did change? Perhaps it is because it is a dual core processor? Well, Steve says both cores of the new part are faster than the G5 was according to benchmarks he displayed. Hmmm. I am confused! Hopefully, we will be able to run some tests of our own.
In other Keynote news:
iPod sales were amazing with 14 million sold last year. 850 million songs are sold through iTunes, with 3 million a day in sales worldwide. TV is doing well (which I personally do not like, because now TV will start costing $2 a show!) too. New coverage for ESPN, ABC and Scifi programs as well.
Steve talked about 10.4.4 release, which should be out sometime today, with incremental improvements to the OS, including Google and EPSN widgets. Steve says widgets are a success, with 1500 created to date. (Welcome back ‘desk accessory’)
Updated to iLife, with iLife 06 adds new features. Watch for announcements on that later. Big news here is coverage for DVD drives from third parties. About time Apple. Podcasting was also mentioned as a new feature, and a new product called iWeb to support single click publishing through .Mac accounts will me included. More on this later.
iWork updated for 06, no new apps, still $79, but newer features. Ok, fine’¦..
Lots of talk about third part support of ‘universal binaries’ and ‘Rosetta’ to make Intel and PPC play well together. Time will tell here, but if like Apple’s other transitions (68K to PPC, 32-bit to 64-bit, OS-9 to OS-x, etc) I suspect this transition will go well.
One more thing’¦
Steve’s signature ‘one more thing’ this year was to introduce MacBook Pro. Yes, here it is, a new portable computer based on Intel’s Duo Core chip that runs, so he claims, as much as 5 times faster than the G4 ones. ”¦the fastest notebook ever.’ With a just slightly larger than 15’ screen, and a claimed brightness that of the desktop Cinema Displays (67% brighter than previous models), this is the king of notebook for Apple. Not being called a PowerBook any more, this new notebook (is MacBook the real name?) is as thin as the 17’ PowerBook G4, and is 4 times as fast, and includes a built in camera and supports the same remote as the iMac, meaning that Front Row will play on this device for sure. That will make it a first up candidate for an Apple Media Center. Priced from $1999 (1.67 GHz) to $2499 (1.83 GHz), look for this product in February. Does that really mean March? You can order one now however. I wonder how long the batter will last?
Well, off the floor to see what this all really means’¦ stay tuned for more.
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