xwiredtva's Profile

Official docs say Intel Only. But keep in mind that Tiger preview for developers was INTEL only as well, followed later by a more stable Intel/PPC edition. Then going public with PPC only to an Intel version. I'd be willing to bet it's Intel/PPC and probably includes more of the OpenGL,CL,AL improvements to the core OS itself and a drive more in the direction of using SSE4 if equipped which means the high cost of the Mac Pro would be justified with pro-apps. Updating the Open Standards lately has required a complete re-work of the kernel and attachements. Speed increase, a personal estimate, would appear around the typical 20% 32->64bit move but when running intensive apps the new code standards taking advantage of the CPU's latest additions would appear in the 2-3x's FEEL. I worked with a linux distro on a Quad Core AMD lately with a rework and it seemed quicker (not the boot up, that was about the same) when working with large databases. Web servers launched and ran a lot faster but the real improvements came in 3D animation apps, it was HD Type smooth and quality. Again I could see Apple releasing this FREE to leopard owners, but stop selling Leopard entirely and sell this to Tiger Owners for $129.

Take a look at the OS in parts, then you'll see the significance of each. You'll also see vast differences and similaritys to others between systems. Mac OS: Has the ability to grow, and very fast while retaining stability as it can progress through controllers rather than directly interacting with other "drivers". Leopard, from what I've seen playing with it, isn't drastic (YET) but it brings improvements we need. It's stable enough for Windows users in Development versions, so final cuts should be solid. I've only crashed an app twice, OS never went down. I agree a database type FS would be nice, but active indexing with a data scheme backlay would do the trick and would only take a few hundred lines to implement... Or is it already in leopard... Can't say. Spotlight has taken care of indexing and from hand on use it doesn't hesitate anymore in leopard... Linux: See Mac OS. However these distributions need to standardize or they will fall FAST. Package management needs 1 system to make, find, install, optimize, configure on ALL distro's. Otherwise your stuck compiling from source and that's great for those that know but the other 99.9% just want Clink-N-Run. Windows: This system is way too far gone to be salvageable. They had it right in 01' when they started from the ground up, in 04' they were still looking at a 09'-10' release schedule, this is not good for earnings. So an updated XP with SOME longhorn code tossed in. They upped security by making a dialoged interface to put blame on the user rather than watching the proccess, Protected Memory with a monitor would have been the fix however no time left. The main problems with all OS's of late is hardware. As an OS developer they need to remember to leave some system for the applications we need to run. The OS handles the hardware and the software interactions, that's it's job. OS X handles the RAM like no other out there, but it's not perfect. Linux can use more Filesystems than most but some applications can't run on it then due to the lack of controllers to handle Software-Hardware interaction. So it's give and take. You give it some considerations, and take stability with ease of use in OS X. You give up some stability and get more flexibility with Linux. And you give up both and get popularity with Windows. Nice article.

The Intel/PPC switchover... WAY OFF... Intel chips could not compete in shear power of the PPC chips (why the hell do you think mainframes ran/run PPC?) UNTIL the new Core Duo's/65nm/2gb bus bandwidth running at 667+mhz. The models that gained were the mobiles/micro's. The models that lost out, the TowerMac/iMac. Even today the Power6 will not only run, but blaze past any intel chip on the market, hell any 12 quad core chips on the market... And that's before overclocking... PPC G5 chips were too hot for mobiles, and consumed alot of power. Intel cought up, plain and simple. And with the switch to the intel chips Apple put the Mac's on level playing fields with other development suites, OS's (not just windows), and got higher clock speeds without sacrificing buswidth and system capacity. I wish we had Power6 towers, would be nice to have bandwitdh and cpu throttling. But for most apps, most, the intel chips will work fine. CISC it is, RISC is out... If you ever noticed anything running intel/ppc macs side by side intel's will consume twice the ram, twice as fast... Complex Instruction Set's loaded into RAM. Leopard on Intel requires 512mb, PPC only 256... CISC Vs. RISC designs. Also low level applications such as games can now be ported to the Mac very fast, since they were written for the intel CPU's (instruction sets again here) than they could have for the PPC. So it's a give and take. Under POWER6 tech, we'd be rolling 5-20x's faster, but not mobile. IBM produced a spec G5 chip for mobile PC's and was able to throttle back the G5 to 2.0ghz, maintain a TDP of 44*C, and delvier a 1333 bus speed, that was 2 years ago... Under Intel we won't see that for 2 more years, 5 Years after IBM displayed it, imagine in 2 years we could have a Power6 rolling 8ghz (they come in 4.16-12+ models) with a 8+gb bandwidth on a 2.6ghz bus. A laptop fast enough to hit a teraflop? Imagine the desktops... Exportation would be monitored again. iPhone. I got one, held back for 2 weeks but I got one. I have a growing list of about 19 grips right now, and Apple gets feedback on all of them once a week, hopefully we'll be heard. But the fact is that it's the right phone/device for the right time. It's enough to make the public love it, not enough to make us hate it, but more than what we had before. It's upgradeable to a point and for the first time I've got a phone that can manage more than an address book without taking forever. It's nice, I wish it was more, integrated more, synced through BT even for to use the data plan on my laptop to send files. But all in all, I can run some aspects of my business through it and I don't need to have the PB open and on to collect email's from clients/servers/PC's being administrated. HOWEVER: I see car accidents on the rise from iPhone users... :>)

My cheap Moto doen't work with voice dialing... But that's because the radio is on, TV is on, The wind noise in the car with the sunroof up, the rev of the Bugatti next to me... It's more of a "NEATO" feature that few actually use or are able to use. I don't live in a sound chamber. Dialing it is another bitch as I'm constantly hitting the back button. I don't own an iPhone yet (had better things to do then stand in line but I probably should have) but I've used one for a couple days. Marvelous. Easy, honestly my 2yr old son picked it up in less than a minute. He loves watching youtube video's of Roadrunner, Pingu and Discovery channels Top Ten's. While he can't spell yet I type it in for him and were off. He gets a kick out of the flip thing and for 5 mins that's all he did watching the RoadRunner toons. So a Phone that is a phone, an internet appliance and a way to pass the time with absolute enjoyment and ease AND it itegrates with my life. The iPhone is a hit hands down. While others complain it doesn't make coffee or tell them where there at (look around you got there didn't you) it can tell you where the nearest coffee shop is and how to get there as well. As with everything it's not for everyone. But it fits the ideal device for most and the plans are actually cheaper than Voice plans with data. Also I'm not sure how many of you that have them noticed but side by side with my LG CU500 the iPhone has better service (bar counting) and drops the calls alot less. Moto's are still good (best when compared to any other phone out there but the iPhone), but even the iPhone was better at signal strength. It works in my basement! Both the Moto and the LG have no signal there.

I think Adam said right and it's something EVERYONE IN THE WORLD is missing. The entire device is SOFTWARE BASED. So if there's an issue or customers feel things need to change, IT CAN BE DONE and you don't need to buy a new phone. Why are they missing this? Because the iPhone is the first EVER IN THE WORLD to do this and it's going to revolutionize the way the phone market is. Imagine you got a Moto Sliver L2. well the L6 has iTunes and you want that. Current way: Buy the new Phone. New Way: Update the software on the phone.

I think Adobe saw the Windows platform as a way to grow the company. Even today REAL Graphic Artists use Mac's. I remember trying to persuade a friend in College to get a Win95 machine when they came out, she had a Mac all in one at the time and was pursing a degree in Graphic Arts. She tried my system and couldn't beleive the issues with it. Growing up in a DOS world and only using the Mac from time to time I never noticed it. But she showed me a project on mine, then showed me the same project on the Mac. 2 Weeks later I bought my first NEW mac. Adobe did it for market share and profits. They are/were a publicly traded company and as any have to report back to the owners (shareholders). So to expand the business they created a Windows platform. It was still better on a Mac but now you didn't have to fork out big-time cash for a mac when a junkbox would work, although it was NO WHERE NEAR the same, just seemed like it.

Matt, Can we get a part II of this! I'm currently running a Mini with an 80gb drive for our home theater. Connected to a projector (VGA) running 4:3 aspect (16:9-auto). I'd love to put an AppleTV in there but I have two areas of concern, the 160gb drive hanging off the Mini houses our movies, like you we have little space and I wanted it CLEAN so I spent 4 weekends ripping all of our DVD's down into MP4's and storing them there, and the internal drive holds our music collection. All of which is shared throughout the house. With the POSSIBLE movie rental service coming to AppleTV in the fall I'd love to DITCH netflix for instant on-demand video rentals and will do so without question. Right now NetFlix doesn't work with Mac OS X, only Windows Media 10... Who actually uses Windows Media Center in a HomeTheater??? MythTV was 10x's better, easier on the same hardware and didn't require 2 remotes... Anyways... Let's see a PartII. How you move your video's from DVD down, where you put them and how you share them to the ATV unit. Also get some VIDEO of it in action in your room... Great article. Thanks!

I heard the 3 million units will be available day off. Not sure how many that is for online customers vs. retail. But several analysts are saying that's probably not enough for the weekend (no shipments on sunday - saturday deleiverys only).