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Mac Pro, Mac OS X Virtual Desktops Announced at WWDC 647

Posted by timothy from the and-many-more dept.
haym37 writes "Of the many announcements yet to come at WWDC, the first is the announcement of the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro contains two Intel Xeons, up to 3 GHz, and is supposed to be 1.6x to 2.1x the speed of the PowerMac G5 quad. It can hold up to 2 TB of internal storage and up to 16 GB of memory. The graphics card can be up to a Radeon x1900 or an FX4500. The case will be the same as the PowerMac." MacRumors.com is providing running coverage from the floor (Note: "[U]pdates will be automatically inserted at the top of the updates section. Do not reload manually."), including another announcement that OS X will include virtual desktops. What a great idea!
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Mac Pro, Mac OS X Virtual Desktops Announced at WWDC More

Mac Pro, Mac OS X Virtual Desktops Announced at WWDC

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  • FP? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by dosius ( 230542 )
    I'd just like to see more OSX capability in GNUSTEP, so that we can have a free and open OSX as we're getting a free and open Windoze in ReactOS.

    -uso.

    • Re:FP? (Score:4, Informative)

      by INeededALogin ( 771371 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:52PM (#15860520) Journal
      Slashdot moderators obviously don't know what on-topic is. Please read [wikipedia.org]

      Let me write a paper to explain why this is on-topic(*sigh*).

      While the summary of the Article states what Apple is adding, it specifically points fun at Virtual Desktops. The link for Virtual Desktops goes off to the Wikipedia page which shows us tons of applications and even information that Apple just announced this(go Wikipedia). So, the parent is saying... why the heck are we giving Apple a hardtime for implementing Virtual Desktops when "our" open-sourced version of OSX(GNUStep) have not been updated nearly as aggresively with the new functionality.

      This is a very relevant post because this is insightful in regards to the Article Summary. How can we say, "thats a great idea... point to existing example", without saying... "man... i wish the community would implement some of these other things in OSX such as Spotlight, Dashboard, Expose, etc etc etc". I wish that GNUStep could at least compile my Cocoa applications.

      • Re:FP? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @04:21PM (#15861159)
        I think that that a more ambitious and useful plan would be if GNUStep project were rebooted to implement Cocoa / OS X rather than a dead operating system (NextStep 3.3). That might actually invigorate the project to the point that it becomes more mainstream and useful. It wouldn't hurt either if it adopted the GTK theme engine and other modern UI guidelines so at least it looked and felt like just another application rather than some weirdo UI with its own window manager.

  • My keynote thoughts so far... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by MBCook ( 132727 ) <foobarsoft@foobarsoft.com> on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:25PM (#15860319) Homepage

    I'll go through my impressions mostly in order (I'm writing this in TextEdit as I follow the keynote). Not much surprise in the Mac Pro department (although it's nice to hear that they are actually cheaper). The pure 64-bit OS was predicted and is unsurprising. I like the little jabs at Microsoft. It's one thing to say "MS steals from us" but to put up comparison shots is just great, after all the features are just implemented so closely. The price comparisons were neat, but I wonder how long they will hold (I don't think Dell will take it in stride, their prices will get adjusted I'm betting).

    I've gotta say I love the idea of Time Machine. I'm glad they put that in there. Considering how little hard drive space the average person uses compared to how much space is in new computers, this is an excellent feature. Now I don't have to use some stupid 3rd party program any more. I question the interface a little though.

    They are building Front Row into Leopard. That's kind of neat, although I don't see myself using it right now. Still, if I was in a dorm and had my iMac or something I bet it would be great.

    Spaces! Seems like the true virtual desktops that everyone has been asking for. I like the idea that you can pre-create a space and then launch it and it will bring those apps up (if I'm reading about it right). That would be fantastic.

    I'm glad they improved Spotlight. It is a tiny bit pokey on my 1.67 GHz G4. To use it as an application launcher is great. I used it that way for a while but it was just too slow, so I started using Quicksilver (although I don't use any of QS's advanced features). The ability to search across your home network is KILLER and would save my parents SO MUCH TIME from how they do things on Windows.

    CoreAnimation looks interesting and I bet a few people will do some incredible stuff with it, although it's also one of those features I can see being abused. I found it very interesting they promoted Universal Access. You never hear about that in the Windows world (I know it's there, it just doesn't ever seem to be talked about on mainstream sites).

    Moving ToDos into Mail is interesting. The idea that ToDos can be moved into multiple applications and they all talk with the same database is quite nice. I'm sure quite a few people will like the stationary idea, but to me e-mail is best as plain text. I can only see that ending up like looking at my little sister's AIM conversations. You want to talk about eye-bleeding-color-schemes (and they say men have no sense of color). Notes is great too. I've been using the scheme that I've used since I was on Windows (type them out in TextEdit or NotePad and just save 'em). Still, having the pictures in there well and making it look like the iWeb templates is nice. I haven't seen any other e-mail software really try something like that (not that I've looked).

    Note: iWeb needs a SERIOUS update. It really proves the "Apple 1.0" theory.

    I've got to say, these improvements to iCal and iMail just make me want a new Newton all the more. My Windows Mobile 2k3 device is just so clunky compared to iCal or the Newtons of olde.

    Web Clip looks killer. That is just a great feature. I have quite a few sites where I only look at one little portion and to be able to bring up Dashboard and see that portion would be great. Only Apple seems to make it that easy for an end user. Why go search to see if someone has made the widget you need when you can do it yourself so easily? "See Grandma, computers aren't so scary."

    Being able to show photos to people over an iChat chat is great.

    My only real complaints with OS X as it is now are kind of minor. Dashboard sucks up WAY too much CPU (especially when starting). I'd like to see finder be multi-threaded, you can occasionally see it need it. I'd like to see a special button put on the MacBooks to activate Expose. Using F9-F12 is clumsy when F9 and F10 are already bound to something else and you have to hit "function". Using the screen corners just c

    • "Web Clip looks killer. "

      Well, if you have 62 online comics you want to keep track with like me, dashboard really isn't up to the task. I keep a bookmark auto-open folder with all my online comics; at the press of a button, all 62 of them load in tabs in the Safari window.

      B.

    • Re:My keynote thoughts so far... (Score:5, Informative)

      by also-rr ( 980579 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:46PM (#15860473) Homepage
      Dashboard sucks up WAY too much CPU (especially when starting)

      Are you sure it's Dashboard and not the widgets? I installed SuperKaramba and a few changes [revis.co.uk] to the widget files dropped CPU usage from 30%+ to under 1%.

      If the widgets for Dashboard are also written by non-programmers they may be suffering from the same problems of polling too frequently. Why on earth do you need to update a display of how much hard disk space there is available every 100ms anyway!
      • I find the main problem with Dashboard (apart from the UI disaster caused by adding a new desktop modality) is the VM subsystem in OS X. Widgets are usually not used for a while, and so their RAM gets swapped out. This includes fairly large things like their display buffer (remember; all windows on OS X are double-buffered). When you invoke dashboard, they all get swapped back in. This takes a long time; in many cases it would be quicker to just discard the out-of-core copy and start a new one, especial

        • Re:My keynote thoughts so far... (Score:4, Informative)

          by netwiz ( 33291 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @05:33PM (#15861707) Homepage
          yah, but it's not going to swap to disk unless there's memory pressure causing it. Add more RAM. Relaunching the widgets would take just as long, as the APIs have to get either swapped back in, or reloaded from libraries on disk. Either way is slow; if what you're doing makes you bump up against the edge of RAM, then you probably need more.

  • Photocopied! (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bandrzej ( 688764 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:26PM (#15860326) Homepage
    About time with the virtual windows! Took them long enough...all other major *nix based window managers have them. Makes their "photocopying" comment at WWDC seem double edged, eh?

    Too bad about natural virtualization in OS X though. At least VM Ware is now coming to the party.

    • Re:Photocopied! (Score:5, Informative)

      by mblase ( 200735 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @03:07PM (#15860640)
      About time with the virtual windows! Took them long enough...all other major *nix based window managers have them. Makes their "photocopying" comment at WWDC seem double edged, eh?

      In all fairness, Leopard's Spaces implementation [apple.com] looks like a quantum improvement on other virtual desktop managers I've used. (Granted, it's been awhile since I tried any since I was never very satisfied.) None of the other VDMs I recall were quite "Mac-like" enough--by that I don't mean flashy and animated, but easy to use and understand.

      They borrowed some design ideas from Exposé, it looks like; you can view all four of your desktops at once; you can drag-and-drop windows from one to the other; and they all use the same Dock instead of using different Docks for each desktop, which is the one thing I always wanted.

      See also Leopard's Time Machine [apple.com]. There's a dozen ways you could make this kind of backup-restore tool just as functional; you could probably make it flashy and animated a dozen different ways as well. Leopard's approach uses just enough flashiness to make it easy-to-use.

      • Re:Photocopied! (Score:3, Informative)

        by weg ( 196564 )
        Leopard's Spaces implementation looks like a quantum improvement on other virtual desktop managers I've used

        Try Desktop Manager [berlios.de], it is perfectly integrated into Mac OS X.

  • I'll take a better kbd driver for Windows XP (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Rude Turnip ( 49495 ) <valuation.gmail@com> on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:28PM (#15860337)
    I'm loving Boot Camp and the ability to use my Macbook Pro at home (OS X) and work (Windows XP). I had to use Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit to remap the right-hand Command key into a "delete" button so I could log into our domain...and I don't have the ability to use home/end/pgup/pgdown by depressing the fn key...which is OK since I use a bluetooth keyboard at work anyway. However, if I get some indication from Apple that they're going to provide full keyboard support for their notebooks under Windows XP, I'm definitely going to upgrade to Leopard.

  • I'm a mac fanboy but (Score:5, Insightful)

    by antifoidulus ( 807088 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:28PM (#15860342) Homepage Journal
    I consider it a bit of a double standard to be criticizing Microsoft for "photocopying" on one hand and then unveiling a bunch of features that have been done before. Virtual desktop yes, but also the whole "time machine" which is really just a versioning system from the looks of it. VMS had that years and years ago, it's nothing new.
    It just seems like they are stretching with Leopard. They promoted the hell out of tiger before the WWDC where it was first shown off, and for good reason. I personally will be sticking with Tiger till my next mac, which won't be till 2008 provided my powerbook doesn't get stolen.

    • Sounds like a nice GUI for versioning though (Score:5, Insightful)

      by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:45PM (#15860468)
      I agree, Time Machine sounds like just VMS file versioning - but I wouldn't discount Apple bringing a lot of good UI on top of that. There's a lot of value into bringing versioning to people who otherwise would not be able to use it.

      I was actually pretty glad to see Time Machine as the file versioning coming in Vista was the one thing I was wishing I could get in Leopord, and did not expect to see.

      • Re:Sounds like a nice GUI for versioning though (Score:5, Informative)

        by sp67 ( 159134 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:55PM (#15860550)
        VMS? Try RSX-11M - that's mid '70s for you young boys and gals.
        Yup, everytime you saved a file you'd get a new version; if I saved file.ext, I actually got something like file.ext;17, and accessing file.ext would get the latest version, in this case 17. You had commands to purge files or entire directories - that is, delete everything but the latest version.
        And this at a time where a 40MB hard-disk was a beast the size of a washing machine. I can't believe I had to wait about 30 years to get this nice little feature back... oh wait, we just got a preview, I'll have to wait a little longer to get my hands on it.
      • That's great that it was in VMS. But the last time I saw a system capable of running VMS it wasn't under my desk and didn't cost under US$3000.

        now if file versioning was in Linux natively, or Windows, or OS/2, or the Amiga, or some other desktop operating system like BeOS I'd think you'd have a point. But that's like saying the Honda Civic is cool but the GPS in it is late to the party because the Audi A8L has had it for 5 years. That's comparing two cars that aren't in the same class just like compari

    • Re: Copying Scorecard (Score:5, Funny)

      by dch24 ( 904899 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @03:09PM (#15860653) Journal
      Look, I know I haven't taken the time to research this properly, but I thought you'd like to read this:

      Xerox Parc: The GUI, +1 Brilliant
      Apple II: The Usable GUI on a home computer, +1 Informative
      Apple II: Hierarchical File System, +1 Interesting
      Apple II: 3.5" Floppy, +1 My Favorite
      MS-DOS: Directories, -1 Redundant
      Macintosh: QuickTime, +1 Interesting
      Macintosh: 44khz 16-bit sound, +1 Funny
      Microsoft: Windows, -1 Offtopic
      Microsoft: MPC standard (attempt at multimedia), -1 Overrated
      Macintosh: SCSI, +1 Fast
      Macintosh: 68030 multitasking, +1 Useful
      Microsoft: Windows 3.1, -1 Redundant
      Macintosh: Apple Menu, +1 Informative
      Microsoft: Windows 95 Start Menu, -1 Redundant
      Microsoft: Windows 95 Recycle Bin, -1 Offtopic
      Macintosh: PowerPC, changing processor architectures, +1 Gutsy
      Microsoft: Windows NT Alpha, -1 Unsupported
      ... (skip ahead, I'm in a hurry) ...
      Macintosh: OS X, +1 Drool
      Microsoft: Windows 2000, -1 Bugfix
      Macintosh: BSD utilities included, and the OpenDarwin project, +1 Insightful
      Microsoft: TCP/IP stack, -1 Stolen
      Macintosh: Spotlight, +1 Useful
      Microsoft: Windows Vista, -1 Nothing To See Here, Move Along

      Okay, and the preliminary scores are:
      Xerox Parc: +1
      Apple: +12
      Microsoft: -10

      And for the record, I don't own a Mac. (*shakes wallet, hears two nickels rub together*)

      Does somebody want to reply to this with a more comprehensive and accurate list? I've gotta go watch "The Pirates of Silicon Valley."
      • So when Apple includes the BSD utilities, it's "insightful", but when Microsoft includes a BSD networking stack, it's "stolen"?

    • the whole "time machine" which is really just a versioning system from the looks of it. VMS had that years and years ago, it's nothing new.

      VMS versioning was a "never overwrite" system, not a real versioning system as we understand the term today. Time Machine fuses the concept of a modern versioning system with automated backup and recovery. I've been doing something similar to Time Machine on my Mac Powerbook, using CVS to make remote backups of certain working directories to a server, which lets me

  • While I'm impressed with what Apple is offering... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by demondawn ( 840015 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:29PM (#15860347) Journal
    ...I am a bit surprised at the stagnancy that seems to be pervading Apple's style choices. Now that we've entered the Kubrick-esque world of white (or black!) plastic and brushed aluminum, it doesn't seem like the Apple line has anywhere to "evolve" to. The MacPro's case, for example, is simply the G5 tower case with another whole in it. The user experience seems to be a bit stagnant too; while I do believe that Tiger outshines Vista, and Leopard will as well, I've yet to see anything that says that Leopard will be a major leap for the end-user. Of course, I'd love to be proven wrong...
    • As for the case design, I think Apple is sticking with a good thing until people get comfortable with Intel being in a Mac. To many crazy changes all at once can really scare users, and stock holders. Having the new Intel Macs look a lot like the old ones will make sure the person feels like they are using a Mac, not a fancy PC running OS X. Bright White, Shiny Black and brushed metal, (Black, Gray, White) are newtral colors that go well with most colors and look good in most homes, offices, and dorms, to
      • For me since I graduated 2001 it makes most sience) In college you wore very libral clothings and in the Corprate enviroment you are more town down

        I think you should consider returning to school (and perhaps slapping the teacher who was supposed to have taught you to spell.)
    • What, automatic, free, version controlled backup isn't a leap forward? Data loss is probably the next biggest thing a user can encounter outside of spyware and viruses, and so far the Mac has proven itself relatively immune.

      Then there is the free built in video conferencing, desktop sharing, and remote access made possible with iChat.

      And on top of that is the network capable Spotlight, allowing a private network to access public files from any machine... a great reason to have a second machine :)

      Data is:
      1) No longer trapped on a single machine (think end users who require floppies and CD-Rs to transfer files)
      2) Data loss is less of an issue (think end users to delete whole directories by accident)
      3) Remote access is easy (think end users who don't know how to use the Control Panel to update their settings)

  • Why criticise? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by also-rr ( 980579 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:29PM (#15860348) Homepage
    Good features *should* be copied from operating system to operating system - that way everyone gets the best of what is available! Who cares who invented it first, as long as people are implimenting the slickest ideas and improving on them where possible.

    I just hope they get around to copying window shading, window tabbing and focus on mouse as fast as possible.

    • Re:Why criticise? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by porcupine8 ( 816071 )
      Window shading... Like in OS 9 (and below)? :) Personally, I shelled out the $10 for Window Shade X [unsanity.com]. I hate using a mac without it.

      I'm very very pleased with finally getting virtual desktops. I've been using Desktop Manager [berlios.de] and will continue to until I get a computer with Leopard on it (probably a few more years), but it annoys me that I *need* a third-party app for that. (And window shading, for that matter.)

      • Re: Why criticise? (Score:3, Interesting)

        by gidds ( 56397 )
        IKWYM. I don't mind too much, though, coz Desktop Manager is so good. Fast, simple, can work in several ways (pager shown on desktop, pager shown in menu bar, switch desktops with hotkeys and/or by moving to the edge), has some useful transitions. My only complaint is that it's hard to move windows between desktops.

        • Re: Why criticise? (Score:3, Interesting)

          by porcupine8 ( 816071 )
          I don't often memorize complex hotkey combinations, but I did memorize command-control-arrow key to move windows between desktops. Because, yeah, it was annoying before I did that.

          The one thing that worries me about Spaces is that the website implies that you might only be able to have an app running in one window. (Implied by the fact that you can click on something in the doc and go right to that app's "space" - I'll admit, I've wanted to do this.) What if I have one Word doc that goes with this stuff,

    • No one (no one who matters) is criticising good features. They're criticising the "photocopier" joke followed in rapid succession with features that are obviously lifted directly, or 'photocopied' if you will, from elsewhere.

  • Damn... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:29PM (#15860354)
    looks like Vista is gonna be delayed another 4 months now.

  • Best Quote (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ericdano ( 113424 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:30PM (#15860357) Homepage
    "Don't want Redmond's photocopiers started too early"

    Seriously. Steve is smart NOT to show off every little detail of 10.5. Look at Microsoft, they promised so much in Longhorn/Vista, then take things out.

  • Did I read correctly? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by gbulmash ( 688770 ) * <semi_famous@yah o o . c om> on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:30PM (#15860360) Homepage Journal
    The $2499 mid-range will sport TWO Xeon 5150s, and the high end will sport dual 5160s?

    I was hoping he's say the high-end will not be available until October (since I'm planning my Mac as a late-Oct birthday present to myself) and will sport a double-dose of the quad-core chips Intel is releasing in Q4.

    But hey, dual 5150s for $2500? I think I might just buy that baby and an extra flat panel instead.

  • Minor Quibble... (Score:5, Informative)

    by e4g4 ( 533831 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:31PM (#15860372)
    The case will be the same as the PowerMac

    The outside of the case is almost the same as the G5 case...the inside is completely different, and has a pretty sweet setup for the drive bays, not to mention the 8 ram slots and room for a full length graphics card.
  • I was expecting more. Don't know how else to say it.

    And I agree that if you're adding a feature that X windows has had for over a decade you shouldn't be throwing the "start your photocopier" stone at MS.

  • Apple pages (Score:5, Informative)

    by godawful ( 84526 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:35PM (#15860398)
    apples page on leopard is up here [apple.com]

    and the mac pros are here [apple.com]

    i noticed nothing was said about the finder.. shame.

    • Re:Apple pages (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Phroggy ( 441 ) * <slashdot3@ p h roggy.com> on Monday August 07, 2006 @06:19PM (#15862096) Homepage
      i noticed nothing was said about the finder.. shame.

      Yes, that omission seems rather conspicuous. It's almost as if Apple has something to hide.

      Oh wait, Jobs said they do!

      My money's on significant improvements to the Finder, and they didn't want to show it off because they don't want Microsoft stealing it yet. I'm hoping they fix network integration; I have all kinds of weird problems accessing SMB volumes, and FTP has never really worked at all. But I'm sure there are all kinds of UI improvements they've been working on, that they want to keep under wraps. I certainly hope so - Lord knows there's room for improvement in that area!
  • First of all I have to say that the specs on the new Mac Pros are great, but as I've been looking at replacing my gaming machine with a Mac Pro, I'm a little disappointed by the lack of SLI graphics support... How come Apple doesn't have an SLI or Crossfire option? This is 2006 and users want the capability of running two graphics cards, if for no other reason than the ability to dual-boot into Windows and play some games every now and then.

    Too bad; I was hoping to replace my gaming machine and my Mac wit

  • Who fired Apple's industrial design team? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by THotze ( 5028 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:38PM (#15860426) Homepage
    so it looks like Apple's Mac Pro and the new XServe are relatively powerful, etc., etc., but....

    who fired their design team? I mean, Apple hasn't released a new form factor since the Mac mini... two years ago now, nearly? And I understand that there are technical challenges with making the transition to Intel, and that the Mac Pro is all new on the inside even if its little different on the outside.... but... Apple's products used to be items to be lusted over because of their looks alone.

    The only new look from the Intel transition is the MacBook (not Pro) and... its almost uninspiring. Its like they took an iBook and flattened it a little... and while it is a pretty sexy form factor, its not like the days of yore when the PowerBooks were new and beautiful (and now you can get the SAME enclosure, almost unaltered, in a MacBook Pro, 3 years later), the iMac went from cute to beautiful, etc.

    And I don't buy that Apple's worried about scaring away people with new form factors with the Intel transition - I mean, would anybody REALLY be that surprised by a new physical enclosure? I mean, really?

    Sure, there are issues to be sorted out - MacBooks yellowing, MBPs burning at corona-like temperatures... but I feel like these are start up issues that would be the same whether Apple played it safe with new form factors or not.

    So it looks like OS X is less about the new shiny than before, and their hardware's less about the shiny than before. Before, OS X and Apple's hardware were both technically advanced AND beautiful - why is Apple just saying "job's done, lets move on" with the beauty aspect?

    Tim

    • Re:Who fired Apple's industrial design team? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by gEvil (beta) ( 945888 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:46PM (#15860474)
      So from your comment it sounds like the only good industrial design (as far as you're concerned) is new industrial design. I personally feel that the designs of almost all of their machines are quite nice and I don't care that they haven't changed in a while. When you find something that works, stick with it...
    • Probbaly they've been all busy refitting the insides of various computers - laptops and desktops alike. Now that the transition is over I iamgine we'll start to see more external alterations again.

      The ability to put four hard drives and two optical drives in the desktop is welcome news indeed.
    • Look at History, please.

      When Apple adopted the G3 in the PowerMac, they kept the Beige style case for a generation before releasing the B&W G3 case.
      When Apple adopted the G4 in the PowerMac, they kept the G3 style case but changed it's color to silver
      When Apple moved to the G5 PowerMac they moved to a new style case, but now that they have switched to Intel they kept the G5 style case (at least for now)

      When Apple released a new iBook, it was with a G3; it was upgraded to the G4 with no real changes, and then when they moved to the Intel CPU it remained essentially the same, with only the keyboard being brand new.

      The PowerBooks tell a similar story, moving to Titanium with the G4, then aluminum for several generations, the keeping the aluminum with the switch to Intel.

      There is a reason to not redesign something: Less bugs, less cost, higher reliability. Wait until they work out all the kinks with the new CPUs, motherboards, and electrics, then introduce a new case with new problems.
    • who fired their design team? I mean, Apple hasn't released a new form factor since the Mac mini... two years ago now, nearly?

      Good question. I'd have to guess that Apple's more concerned about getting the internal changes right than any new external stuff. And from a marketing perspective, it's easier for Apple to sell all-new Intel guts if we all see the same ol' iMac or Mac Mini on the outside.
    • What I don't get are all these style/design criticisms about machines announced at a DEVELOPER conference.

      While certainly a large part of Apple stuff is the design, I don't honestly see the developer audience saying "Okay, the specs are nice, but... It's not PRETTY enough to handle my development work."

      Release the heavy-duty stuff at developer conferences, and release the pretty stuff at consumer oriented shows - makes sense to me.
    • From what I understand, staying with the current industrial design was an intentional decision. They wanted to impart the feeling that the new Intel Macs are just like the old PPC Macs. They look the same and function the same - only faster. If they introduced a new architecture as well as new industrial design that may have felt to "jarring" for some that are wary of (or feel betrayed by) the Intel change.

      I'm not saying I'm in this "change is scary and bad" camp but there are a lot of folk living there.

  • 30" Cinema Display price reduction (Score:5, Informative)

    by cheezycrust ( 138235 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:38PM (#15860428)
    The 30 inch Cinema Display has it's price reduced from $2499 to $1999. I don't think this was said on the keynote, but you can see it on the website.
  • Well, all in all I think it is what I expected. New MacPros, preview of Leopard with it being released this Spring (same pattern as Tiger). Now on my short list of new purchases to be made soon is a new Mac Mini. I don't need the firebreather (but BOY do I want one!).

    Some Mac fan boi's are going to be disappointed they are going to say....What no iPhone? No new iPod's?? These are guys who SHOULDN'T pay attention to the WWDC. The D in WWDC means developers. IE, this isn't where consumer stuff will be

  • Time Machine == ZFS ? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by commonchaos ( 309500 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:44PM (#15860460) Homepage Journal
    Does anybody know if Apple made their own technology to do backups, or did they actually implement ZFS? (there were rumors that they were going to put ZFS in 10.5)

    • I suspect they may still be gnawing on ZFS for a future version, but for now it would appear the "Time Machine" is built on top of HFS+, since there is no talk of reformatting your drives to take advantage of the new feature.

      As well, the keynote mentioned that Time Machine could also be used to back up a file system to another hard drive, which is not exactly what ZFS is or does, and will be interesting to see how they implement it-- I've been looking for a Retrospect [emcinsignia.com] replacement for quite a while, and if

    • Re:Time Machine == ZFS ? (Score:4, Informative)

      by BDaniels ( 13031 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @04:19PM (#15861143) Homepage
      It doesn't appear to be a filesystem, just a backup app:
      http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.ht ml [apple.com]

      "Time Machine will back up every night at midnight, unless you select a different time from this menu."

      That's not a versioning file system, alas.

  • What does this mean for current machines? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by gabebear ( 251933 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:44PM (#15860461) Homepage Journal
    The presentation made it clear that 32bit apps would run on 64bit machines, although I hope they make it easy to support both 32bit and 64 bit machines easily. I just ordered a MacBook and I'm a little worried about how quickly the current line will become legacy machines since it is pretty certain that Apple won't be shipping 32bit Intel machines in a year and has only been shipping 32bit Intel machines for a little while.

    all well... no since in worrying too much about something that might not be an issue and that you have no control over.

  • Full Write-up (Score:2, Informative)

    by robizzle ( 975423 )
    There is a good full write-up of the WWDC here: http://www.engadget.com/2006/08/07/live-from-wwdc- 2006-steve-jobs-keynote/ [engadget.com]
  • I want-- oh, wait.

    *checks wallet*

    Uh, I want a Mac mini. With fries and a chocolate milkshake, please.
    • I want a mid range mac to replace my g4 dual tower. I don't want a huge tower and I want more than the mac mini. The trouble is.. there is nothing in the 1000$-1200 range without a screen.

      Come-on apple. There is a middle ground between "pro" and "home"

  • world wide DEVELOPER conference (Score:5, Insightful)

    by k2r ( 255754 ) on Monday August 07, 2006 @02:57PM (#15860568)
    and nobody's talking about

    "xcode 3.0 released today" ...

    k2r

    • Another Time Machine (Score:3, Informative)

      by CODiNE ( 27417 )
      XCode 3.0 let's you "rewind" programs while debugging. No more stepping through and accidentally stepping over a point. Just hit rewind and go back o the part of the program you missed. Huh! Guess it's dumping everything to disk while you run it. Also the Xray program seems kinda neat, shows your application performance sorta like it was running in GarageBand, you can hit different spots and see what was going on right there. The screen at the bottom is hard to see, but that's Xray stepping into a spo
    • Thought this was an interesting feature and funny comment from the new Xcode page [apple.com]:

      Project Snapshots
      Record the state of your project anytime, and restore it instantly. Experiment with new features without spending time or brain cells committing them to a source control system. Like saving a game in Civilization 4, Xcode 3.0 lets you go back in time without repercussions. If only reality worked this way at the Pentagon...

  • And... iCal (Score:5, Insightful)

    by EvilStein ( 414640 ) <spamNO@SPAMpbp.net> on Monday August 07, 2006 @03:18PM (#15860718)
    Let's face it, folks. The open source community has been a FAILURE when it comes to beating Exchange & Outlook at calendaring. Don't waste my time with Mozilla "Lightning" or Sunbird. They have managed to create exactly *dick* in the past few years. (See my previous posts about it.)

    Here comes iCal, doing everything that Sunbird should have done several years ago. Here is the first chance at an "Outlook killer." Mail 3 & iCal = notes, to do, free/busy scheduling, auto scheduling, resource scheduling..

    http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/ical.html [apple.com]

    The year of Linux on the Desktop? No. It's the decade of OS X taking over the desktop.

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