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G4 Powerbooks Predicted For January 2001
Spittoon pointed out this ZDNet article claiming that development proceeds apace on G4 portables for Apple's PowerBook line, and that if all goes well, they'll be shown off at Macworld Expo in January. I could live with ads claiming that "The new PowerBook is a supercomputer" in exchange for knocking a couple notes off the price of a G3 PowerBook ;) Slot-loaded CD / DVD drives are long overdue in notebooks, anyhow, so I hope at least that part of the story pans out.
We often ask ourselves the same thing: why would anyone other than a student develop for Unix? Why would anyone develop for Windows when they could work on the real thing? 'To each his own' is why.
Odd question.
With an estimated installed base of between 15 and 20 million users (larger than the installed user base for Linux and *BSD combined), Mac developers have a substantial potential market. And unlike most Linux/*BSD users, Mac users are actually willing to pay money for quality software.
One could just as well ask "why develop for the Mac rather than the much larger Windows marketplace?" The answer to that is also easy. Cleaner API, much less competition, and MUCH lower support costs (mainly due to the overly-maligned proprietary nature of Apple's hardware, resulting in exponentially fewer hardware variations to deal with).
The slot-loaded DVD drive is a nice idea, but I wonder if it's sound engineering-wise. There's already a great number of users who have "mistaken" slot-loaded drives for other devices (a friend of mine, freshman year of college, stuck her floppy disk in the slot drive of a CD-ROM).
Did you ever stick your floppy in her slot drive?
Mac, dammit! Mac, Mac, Mac. MACs are for ethernet.
Whenever I see a CV with someone claiming MAC experience, in the bin it goes...
...was Star Trek 4. The story goes that the makers of the movie went to Commodore to get an Amiga 1000 to be the computer that Scotty used. Commodore demonstrated their usual savvy by telling Paramount they could buy one, just like anyone else.
Enter Apple, who had the smarts to work the product placement.
I believe what he's trying to say is, the built-in trackpad only has one button, and to get multiple buttons you have to plug in an external mouse - not very convenient when the laptop is actually sitting in your lap.
But I digress. My real problem with this post is that you say you would "definately" get a slightly out-of-date Powerbook, if it wasn't for the mouse issue. Can the mouse issue really be that important as to change your view of using a certain OS?
Mac OS works just fine with one button (although much better with two), but other operating systems (Linux especially) are somewhat crippled.
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$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Umm, I think perhaps "relies on" is a bit too strong a term. It's optimised for the G4, but will run fine on a G3 as well, from what I've heard. Remember, a G3 is still VERY fast, and if Mac OS X had enough overhead to suck all the power out of a G3, we'd be in serious trouble. It's based on BSD; it's supposed to be efficient. The graphics take a bit of processing, yes, but not THAT much.
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$x='S24;r)>63/* h@<5+oZ)32"5cz';$me='phroggy'x$];
$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
I'll take a super-thin Toshiba any day of the week over a toilet-seat-lookin' thing like the iBook. :)
_____
Sam: "That was needlessly cryptic."
Max: "I'd be peeing my pants if I wore any!"
The thing is, Intel and AMD, and everyone else making CPUs know that 1000MHz *is* technically possible. The more tech savvy people know that there's really no reason why PPC chips should not be able to achieve these speeds, if Moto is "on the ball" and responding to competitive pressures. Instead the PR folks respond to competitive pressures by resting on their laurels; the whole "twice as fast" "RISC vs. CISC" argument.
The implication is that they're not trying their best. Moto switching over to all wintel systems for internal use implies the same.
Now, at home I have a 233 Beige, OC-ed to 300. It's run like a champ for two years OC-ed. At work, I've been using a P 233. I recently got upgraded to a PIII 600, and I tell ya, it's nice to have a machine at work that's almost as fast as the one I use at home - and that's the truth.
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I think you'll be disappointed.
OS X relies very heavily on the G4's AltiVec unit. A G3 will run OS X. But many of the functions are radically slower.
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
I think Apple's been waiting on the G4e chip out of Motorola, who are being slow, again, as usual, thanks to the satanic influence of Bill Walker, Intel's evil double-agent at Motorola.
if it ain't broke, then fix it 'till it is!
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
The mac port of Diablo II has already shipped.
It should -- one of the ways Apple has cut costs is by using identical components (e.g. slot load DVD drives) across as many machines as possible.
The link referenced above. (view the source)
They advertise alot also...
For years, Apple advertising was nonexistent. Users screamed at them for years to spend some of their huge pile of cash on ads. They finally came to their senses.
Can you think of any movie that had a laptop in it that wasn't a mac?
Apple is extremely good about getting placement in movies and TV shows. There are also a ton of Mac fanatics in the entertainment industry and they'd be happy to use them regardless. Same for the advertising industry -- most ads depicting a generic computer screen are showing MacOS or use Mac elements. You'll frequently see CompUSA ads where the Windows systems appear to have MacOS running in the monitor.
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
Now, those laptop keyboards on the other hand. Arrrgh! It would take me a long time to get used to one of those. Does anyone know if the Fn key on, say, a PowerBook, is xmodmappable or somehow "special"?
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Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
Take the decor and appearance of the G4 cube, squash it down flat and now say it with me: VAIO Killer.
Start Running Better Polls
I was looking through the article, but mabye I missed it. Will these be G4e or the current line up but speed bumped G4 processors?
Either way they need to get those processors running faster. They can add multiple chips in desktops to get things up to competition when MacOS X is viable, but they're not likely gonna have that option (multiple CPUs) in laptops. Too much power used.
This might do pretty well:
http://www.sgi.com/flatpanel/
1600x1024 resolution, exceptional quality by all accounts.
D
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The other posters answered this pretty well: the Mac has a lot more users that Linux/*BSD and they're more willing to pay money. But there's another reason as well: *nix is not a consumer platform.
I'm a CS major, and it still took me a weekend to get Linux working on my Mac, and another to get it to use the network properly. Granted, I'm a relative newby at this sort of thing, but if takes me two weekends, then 90% of computer users aren't going to be willing to use it at all.
Perhaps PC distros are better, but you still have to drop into a shell once in a while. When Red Hat comes out with a distro that allows a one-click install, and which has simple graphical configuration tools for all elements of the system, then it'll have some chance of capturing the broader consumer market. Even then, someone will have to unify the numerous window managers, graphical toolkits, and other libraries so users don't have to compile them themselves. And someone will have to write and enforce a set of consistent UI guidelines so that different apps work the same and don't confuse users.
In short, someone would have to do for Linux what Apple is now doing for BSD.
Since Linux is a hobbyist platform dedicated to development by volunteers and insistent on open source for everything, I can't see this happening. The tedious gruntwork of creating a complete, consistent, elegant desktop as Apple is doing with OS X isn't something that very many volunteers are going to want to do. And even if Red Hat or someone pays someone to do that, there is still the issue of interface consistency. Many existing Liinux apps are interface nightmares by Mac/Windoze standards. In order to make a viable consumer release many of these will have to be majorly re-written to conform to a common standard. Again, I can't see this happening.
So Linux makes a great low-end server and a decent hobbyist OS. It's not about to eclipse either Mac OS or Windows as a consumer desktop OS, though. I honestly don't think the hackers who write Linux understand what consumers want in their computers, and until they do, they aren't going to attract many non-geek users.
Do the math: 20% of a huge market is a large market. Get it? There is more installed base on MacOS than on Linux, so you could just as well ask how Linux keeps developers. Why do you think there are few Macs in total just because the environments you know of have few?
Actually, the current generation of powerbooks is pretty angular, having yet to fall prey to the new Apple stylings. Probably this case will, and that'll be the first one for the PowerBook line.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Yes, I believe we all understand that. "We" being people who post to slashdot.
The trouble is that the public doesn't understand it, and so there's a war going on for MHz regardless of whether it actually matters or not.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
If anything, it's a lesson to other developers that you have to keep your system alive and kicking in the minds of consumers if you're going to attract the kind of support you're going to need to maintain momentum. Apple's super-cool surprise announcements don't hurt either. It's an example I wish the oft-beleagured, probably cursed Amiga Inc. will be able to follow -- though they have significantly more catching up to do. :^)
When it come to marketing, corporate development would seem to have the edge over open development models like that from which Linux springs. Will the big players (RedHat, Corel, etc...) prove this assumption wrong?
-DrPsycho - Coping with reality since 1975
If Apple was truly interested in the enterprise market they would take their big tough market capitalization and buy SGI. Seriously -- Apple is enough about graphics that its a logical business combination, and it would give Apple much more leverage into the the traditionally UNIX oriented high-end visualization markets. With a little work, they could get OS X running on SGI workstations (if its as cool and modular as they claim).
The other thing they could do to be big tough enterprise guys is port OS X to the RS/6000 line. It should be much easier to port to the Power3 CPU than porting it to MIPS, albeit its really only a server solution and not a personal workstation for your art directors.
I think the lack of an enterprise server solution is a hindrance to Apple. There really isn't an Apple-specific (or even an *Apple-designed*) enterprise server solution. On Apple HW, its desktop CPUs with maybe some tack-on RAID. On other hardware, its just an afterthought.
The Matrix. Opening scene with Trinity typing away at a laptop. Definetly not a mac, resembled an IBM thinkpad or similiar if my memory serves me correctly.
What?
And change from a sturdy laptop to a piece of shit made in Japan?
Sorry, but the VAIO is the only laptop which doesn't survive normal use for longer than 4 month's.
My Apple powerbook still works after 2 years.
When there was a discussion about slot loading small CDs & DVDs before, (when the Sony Mavica camera with the 3" CD was brought up), the site that was linked to had a picture of "special expander donuts". If you had one handy, you'd be set.
To answer your question of what happens if you stack 3 inches of paper on top of the PowerMacCube -- It automatically shuts off if it gets too hot in the cube.
C'mon guys. This is like predicting that people will be older in 6 months
Yup. Has been for quite some time.
Check out LinuxPPC for one distro.
spreer
IIRC, the ONLY difference (besides clock speed) between a G3 and a G4 is the AltiVec unit. So, if you remove that, then there is no point, as you said.
Yes. I am posting right from a G4 running Linux. www.linuxppc.com
While a nice idea, it's causing problems for those credit card sized-CDs and I don't really want to see them implemented on the PowerBook. My other concern is the extra power (albeit slight) that it takes to load and eject a CD from a slot-loading rig.
I'm pretty sure that a G4 is going to use a bit more power, so Apple's got its work cut out to make the batteries as long lasting as my 500MHz G3 PowerBook.
Only time will tell. I really hope something comes out soon. Apple's getting their ass handed to them in the MHz wars.
--Bernie
I would have to say vis a vis the Photoshop question: the Mac is great for it. Colour correction is a big bonus, and MacOS is set up to implement it as cleanly as possible. It is built from the OS up. Add the fact that Adobe started on the Mac and only the Mac for its first few years and the answer becomes obvious: Adobe is dedicated to the Mac platform, The users are dedicated to Photoshop, so it is reasonable to assume the users have become dedicated to MacOs through the use of Photoshop. Rinse and Repeat. This is a good reason to always have a market for Apple so long as Adobe is around. I don't see Adobe having any problems in the near future in keeping afloat.
Lowmag.net
Yeah, and Apple only makes iMacs. Re-read the article.
Lowmag.net
I'm not sure how likely 600MHz and 700MHz chips are by early 2001. This article at The Register suggests that Motorola are struggling to deliver speed increments, forcing Apple to pull the dual-G4 move.
The G5 they mention sounds interesting...
"The schedule may also affect Motorola's G5 chip, its first multi-core CPU, which is believed to contain four G4s operating in close harmony to generate four times the performance of a single chip at a given clock speed. With the cores so tightly coupled, users should get all the benefit of four-way multiprocessing without the usual CPU management overhead"
'Thats they exact same thing a banana wrench monkey.'
While Apple has a smaller market share than Windows there are still 26 - 30 million Mac users worldwide maybe even more by now. There are a lot of niche developers that appear to make a nice living off of the Mac (Mac related) market. Cassady & Greene and The Omni Group are a couple of examples. C&G writes darned good software to boot. Look at Adobe. Mac users are a significant % of their customer base. I want to say I have heard the number as high as 40%, but may be wrong. It may all come down to a similar question "Why do people write software that is given away free?" Maybe some developers write for the Mac cause they simply love the platform.
"I don't think it's selfish, to eat defenseless shellfish." -NOFX
Actually, any Mac with Open Firmware can boot Linux without Mac OS. That's every single PCI Power Mac, as far as I know.
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On a purely technical side, Apple has written an introduction for Windows programmers.
-- Colin
Why don't you find another PC oriented 22" LCD? Whats the big deal about the Apple one? Besides how cool it looks...
There weren't any other 22" LCD screens as of last year. That's why the Cinema Display was such a big deal. Has that changed?
- Scott
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Scott Stevenson
Scott Stevenson
Tree House Ideas
maybe that 6th spot is a pda. i might be wrong but they still own all the newton tech. and people seem to like those palm pilot thingees.
maybe it's a personal internet appliance????
i know i'd buy one.
Apple has new colors I wouldn't mind seeing in a consumer OS now.
Ruby - Blood Red
Indigo - Dark Blueish Purple
Sage - Dark Forest Green
Snow - Frosty White
Graphite - Charcoal Grey
And the Towers and Cubes are Silver.
Good riddence to fruity colors.
--
Don't lead me into temptation... I can find it myself.
Best Buy did the same thing here in Portland, Oregon in this past week's Sunday ad.
A few years ago, Apple had some dismal share of new PC sales, like 6% vs 90% for Wintel machines and 4% for *nix-on-Intel machines.
Their new products are pretty sexy, and the G4's seem pretty nice for alot of high-end desk applications.
Does anyone know what Apple's share of the market is now?
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
Of course there is, as many others in this thread have noticed, but, be warned:
You'll have to partition. Which is fine, however, if you use MacOS there are no programs that I am aware of that can partition without destroying all the data you have on said disk, and which would involve reinstalling MacOS as well.
If I'm wrong, someone please correct me. I bought a copy of LinuxPPC, but I didn't, uhm, realize what I was getting into. (I'm new with MacOS, somewhat new with Linux.)
Something about my iBook NOT being able to run MacOS is just wrong . . . I WANT to learn how they all work.
later
dan
Dan
No really... I want a Palmtop running one of these.. WHOO HOO. Supercomputer(?) in the palm of your hand.
--Ask a silly person, get a silly answer.
Unfortunately, the FN key is hardware controlled. Sucky :(
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Donald Roeber
Donald Roeber
Generating 2048 Bits of Randomness...
Don't know about the "Roseta Stone" Project, but Roseta was the codename for the version of Handwriting Recognition that was featured in the Newton 2.0 OS (the version that accompanied the Newton 2100). That handwritting recognition was/is truely exelent. I have just about caved in and bought a used 2K for that reason on more than one ocassion.
If "Roseta Stone" is the codename of a handwriting recognizing tablet from Palm, then it could either be a singn that they are working with Apple on this, or that they just took their inspiration for a name from the same source; THE "roseta stone" is an ancient egyption stone enscribed with the same mesage in three aincent languages that was the key piece of arceological evidence that has allowed us to begin to crack those languages. It has also become a literart refernce to informaiton that allows translations of archaric languge posible. Some might argue that my handwriting would fall into this category.
This rumor started when an IBM engineer said that they could produce this if Motorolla would let them. he did not say that they had done so, but simply was riping on Motorolla engineers for not solving the problems quickly enough.
To repeat, the IBM engineer was saying that they could solve the problmes that have been holding Motorolla back quickly, not that they had actually done the work. It was a rip that was taken out of context and became a rumor.
Apple is not silly enough to use G4's on apple.com. They use Sun hardware, because that is Sun's domain. Apple has never tried to be in the true enterprise market ($10,000+ a box), nor should they.
Yes, all the function keys are map-able through a control panel.
While running on batterys the Powerbooks are faster (even before adjusting for differnces in the amount of work/Mhz). The PIII's have to "PowerStep" in order to run, while the PowerBook can continue on without using their PowerSaving features untill power becomes an issue. I do want to see faster processors in the PowerBook line (700 would be nice), but I would wait untill the G4e (or is that G4+) gets the power consumption down on the chip so that I can keep the battery lief I am using. Remember, portablility ad batery life are more important than processor horesepower in laptops.
You're looking at it all wrong.
Why is there a sixth square? Because you can't make a grid with five! I would hardly call some PowerPoint slide stuck in a presentation, or an image map on Apple's web site for that matter, the definitive word on the future of Apple's multimillion dollar marketing strategy. It's just cleaner design, which is what Apple's all about in the first place. Maybe we should all write apple and suggest they change it to a pentagram?
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-Xel
"Eagles may soar, but weasels dont get sucked into jet engines."
okay so it's not terribly earth-shattering but i think this falls into the same category as the cinema display announcement.
it's all about tech lust.
which is very slashdot.
cause c'mon, the powerbooks are pretty much the ultimate in portables.
The boys at LinuxPPC have those G4's all figured out.
I've got LinuxPPC on my iMac..it's good stuff.
TGL
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Sure, the system comes with a one-button mouse. However, there are third-party USB three-button mouses available. Try MacWarehouse.
TGL
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I'll give up my G4 when you pry it from my cold dead fingers, and although I hope Apple can pull this latest rumor off, I no longer put any stock into rumors until 1-2 weeks before a given Apple Event. So in other words, don't hold your breath, but here's dreaming.
I don't know about Super Computers, but that sure was a Super Comment.
Enuf said
All systems now ship with the traditional sized translucent buttonless mouse. The hockey puck is dead. Let us never speak of it again.
Sorry to say, you are, Matsushita=Panasonic+Technics, Pioneer is their own company.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
Several months ago, there were some rumors floating around about Apple incorporating some sort of Handwriting input device into their portabale machines. The rumors got started after someone dug up a patent that Apple has on such an entry system... it was discussed here on SlashDot but I have not taken the time to look up the URL. If I remember correctly, it was sometime before the last MacWorld Expo in San Francisco.
You are correct in your statement about the handwriting recognition engine in the NewtonOS being code named "Rosetta".
I'm running DP4 on it right now. It's quite useable. ;-)
If a good game is ported to a Mac, it'll be talked about in every Mac publication and Mac website out there. With new PC games, it's "Here's yet another PC game..." And it has to be REALLY REALLY good to get the same publicity in the PC world as that Mac port did...
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
In regards to Mac games, I often think of the PC market as a filtering ground for good Mac games. There has to be some formula that PC/Mac game developers use to decide whether it's worth it to port to the Mac. Let's say your Mac sales will be 10% of what you sell on the PC. (please don't bash me on this "statistic", I just MADE IT UP!) So, if you sell 10 million PC titles you think you'll sell 1 million Mac titles. And that's worth it, so you do it. But if you game sucks and you sell 500 copies, selling 50 copies for Mac won't be worth the port. I don't care if there's 10 word processing programs for PC because I'm not going to use 10 word processors. I'll use one. (maybe two) Nor am I going to own every PC games. Just the best. (which, if they're that good, they'll be ported to Mac)
Macintosh humor! MacComedy.com
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NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
ZDNet is not one to post these things on a whim, so if they were confident enough to publish the story, I feel pretty good about their "sources." They're so rumor-shy that their "Quick Picks" rumor section disappeared after a few weeks, doubtless because somebody important pulled a "cease-and-desist" on them. Normally, these rumors languish on MOSR or AppleInsider for months before they appear on ZDNet - I was kind of surprised they posted the story so far in advance.
Was that out loud?
Lets start from the beginging and work out from there. First why don't you want to use a Mac? Seconde If you don't want to use a mac why not just use a standard sony monitor?
IBM rs 6000's actualy. Just heard it from a frend of mine that just got a job @ apple.com. and yes the rs runs on what is pritty much a G4.
TransMeta for a already RISC compiled OS would be silly.
What are you, dim? I thought that bye now most people had figured out that the clock speed has exactly 0 to do with the actualy speed of a processer. But I guess I am wrong.
Well, currently they are way better at both than a pIII and idiots are putting those into laptops. Last time I used one I burnt my,,.. er,,, lap.
The current G3 "Pismo" PowerBook is awesome; I've bought two and could not be more pleased with them. Granted, I don't use a lot of PC laptops, but the G3 PB certainly blows away all of the PC laptops I've encountered in terms of speed, style, and simplicity. And it runs VirtualPC at an acceptable speed for Office-type applications (I haven't tested it with games).
Dell is trying to capitalize on the style craze by offering boxy PC laptops in colored plastics...ugh! Compaq is trying to add a few more curves to theirs, but the end result looks like a couple of growths that might be mistaken for speakers. Pismo is the only laptop on the market that could truly be called "elegant'.
The good news is that Apple just slashed the price on the Pismo line to make room for the upcoming Mercury models, according to ZDNet.
I'm sitting with one right here (using a friends'), and I've got it wedged between my legs instead of on my lap, cause the bottom is so hot! Some laptops, like Toshibas, have their heatsink underneath the keyboard, but apparently they thought at Apple that people'd be putting them on tables anyway. Besides that, it is the slowest piece of crap I've ever come accross. It's probably due to it being configured badly, but even so, it cant play MP3's and start up a browser without completely mangling the music. The screen is fuzzy and areas are different brightness. It is crashprone (if you mess with the hardware buttons too much). Swapping between programs takes ages. I'd never buy this thing. Anyways, enough rambling..
Cheers,
Costyn.
The Official Steve Ballmer Webpage
AHAHAHAHA. That's funny enough to make me wish I had some moderator points
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All generalizations are false.
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I like to watch.
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All generalizations are false.
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I like to watch.
www.microsoft.com is running Microsoft-IIS/5.0 on MS-DOS 3.3
That's the power of Open-Source. :)
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I like to watch.
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I like to watch.
Ya know, i'd definatly pick up a G3 Powerbook when the price comes down, except for the fact that you're completly stuck with a 1 button mouse, unlike a desktop where you can at least replace the hockeypuck.
Give me 3 buttons or give me death.
Many of the slower x86 notebooks are passively cooled, and are certainly smaller than a file cabinet.
The ones using the P3 only hit the fan when the load gets somewhat high.
Well put. This is the best advice for buying a computer, monitor, printer, scanner, digital camera, etc.. There will always be something better in the future. Use what you've got until you are frustrated with the lack of speed or capabilities, then buy something new (unless it less than a month before the Macworld Expo and your type of computer hasn't been graced by Steve's matrix update recently).
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dman123 forever!
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dman123 forever!
Filtering out the -1s and 0s since 1999.
Also it seems that it might be a bit difficult since most laptops are designed to be on LAPS (etc.) which tend not to be the steadies surfaces. CD's skip if you remember
So close and yet so far from the world's perfect ID number
Heh.. thanks for making me smile.
If you think education is expensive, try ignornace
Under my weak arm
I clutch at a new machine.
Far too many MIPS.
I am one of these Linux to Mac converts. I used Linux as my primary OS since 1995, then finding NeXTSTEP, OpenStep and Rhapsody a few years later. I began to use OpenStep for a lot of general computing, but sadly, a lot of what I wanted to do had to be done under Linux (POSIX support was flaky in NeXTSTEP and dropped in OpenStep). I much preferred the clean OpenStep environment and API to the schizofrenic nature of Linux.
:)
This went on until early 2000. I sold my Linux/x86 box and bought myself a G4, expecting to use Mac OS X Server in the interim. I started off using Mac OS X Server most of the time, but for somethings (games) I had to go into Mac OS 9. As one who hates rebooting, even for the sake of switching to another OS, I began using Mac OS 9 more and more, and was honestly surprised how decent it was, not from a UI standpoint, but that it actually did crash a lot less than Windows.
I too expect some Linux users (and Windows users, for that matter) to switch to the Mac when Mac OS X comes out. For me, OS X allows me to do all the things I did/do on Linux (program in Python and Squeak, among other things) but allowing me to shut out all the Unixisms and just get work done if needed. At the same time, I can always just drop to a shell if I want. It is this which I think will attract more like me to the Mac. I know they'll enjoy it just as much as me.
Working toward a usable PDA environment in the spirit of Newton OS: Dynapad
i gave that shit up 6 years ago, and until they release w/ protected memory space I really couldn't give a shit less what they do and what package it comes in.
all of you that are creaming for a powerbook SHOULD be creaming for a VAIO w/ Be....
and thats the way it is
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...vividly encapsulates that post-Watergate/pre-punk/coked-up moment when you could trust no one, least of all yourself.
Heres a question: What would you say the easiest way for a windows developer get into MAC development?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I get this similiar misconception alot, That MAC only has a few users, and is almost dead. People are genuinly suprised when I tell them there are millions of Apples users.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Mac Discussions sites have been full of speculation that the missing square is the fabled Rosetta Stone project:
An ultra-thin sub notebook with the Newton handwriting recognition software -- and maybe no keyboard.
"one treats others with courtesy not because they are gentlemen or gentlewomen, but because you are" --G. Henrichs
My understanding was that the apparent gap in clock speeds was due to Apple using a different clocking scheme than Intel.
I don't know about that, but a big part of the reason for the gap is fab problems at Motorola. Persistent rumour has it that IBM is making G3s and G4s just fine (can you say 750 mHz?), but Motorola (who owns the license) doesn't want to be embarassed and won't let IBM ship.
"one treats others with courtesy not because they are gentlemen or gentlewomen, but because you are" --G. Henrichs
did you ever use a g3 powerbook? Everyone i've ever seen did a damned good job of warming me up... wearing shorts while using one is (at least with mine) a good way to get burnt... the energy usage was quite good though... got amazing battery life..
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I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age, nerds are in.
They're still in, aren't they?
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I'm not ashamed. It's the computer age, nerds are in.
They're still in, aren't they?
Les mini-cd fonctionnent dans le imac parce qu'ils suivent un standard. Les cd en forme de carte de visite ne fonctionnent pas mais un adapteur en plastique devrait pas etre trop difficile a fabriquer.
Well,
I am a huge Mac advocate, but I am starting to get scared of buying a portable. It was hard enough to buy a Blue and White G3, just for a couple of months later the G4 towers, new iMacs that were the same speed as my tower, and now the G4 Cube and MP G4's.
But I am a college Web Design student-- and I need some sort of portable solution. My school has'nt bought anything, simply because the current Powerbooks are too expensive, and "on the way out" for how much technology I would be getting-- iBooks are cool looking enough, but the lack of expandability is what is percluding me from getting one.
So now I get this news of G4 PB's and I am wondering-- is this when I get in? Or will there be a revamped iBook line soon to follow?
As you can see I am very confused, and I'd like some advice towards this issue.
Thanks.
djsw
Yes
there is Yellow Dog Linux here. and my fave, Linux PPC, which can be downloaded here.
personally, I have Mandrake 6.1 installed on Virtual PC-- I find that easier to manage-- but whatever works.
dj sw
See above posts. 450 MHz for a G4 is WAY different that 45 MHz pentuim/athlon chips
I am Slad.
On the contrary. On a powerbook -- with USB and FireWire to go -- anything is hot-pluggable, and the buses are (unlike on partial implementations of these interfaces) powered.
Why make the box larger and heavier if all you need is available when you need it, without you being forced to tug it along all the time you don't? Why build in swiftly outdating peripherals, if it's so easy and painless to just hook up the thing you need, and replace it with something newer when you feel compelled to do so, being a computer fashion slave?
Give me a PowerBook G3 (or G4; either is overkill for >99% of the work), with a FireWire DVD drive. Slotloading will do. All that needs to be built in is AirPort, that spiffy 100Mbit ethernet interface, USB and FireWire. Modems are evill retro-technology. Less is more. Dead weight is waste. Unused space is waste. Begone, builtin peripherals!
Well, I certainly hope that these new rumored powerbooks look like this
The spec for a supercomputer was updated and 1 Gflop (or 7 Gflop) is no longer a supercomputer. So all these "Honey, I shrunk the supercomputer" ads are pure bullshit. Damn you apple, damn you
Wow, there's an official spec for what consitutes a supercomputer? Cool. Would this be the International Council for Supercomputer Specifications? Could you post their URL? /END SARC
Sailing over the event horizon
Wasn't Pismo the PBook they released that has firewire? I'm pretty sure the Pismo codename had to do with the newer black Pbooks. But, then again, I could be wrong.
So there I was. Naked. In a refrigerator. With a potroast on my knees. Smokin a cigar. That's when it got REALLY weird.
Minor correction: it won't be running X. There is no need for silly things like remote display to be built into the window system, there are plenty of programs that do that.
An eMachine costs around $ 450, plus a $ 120 monitor is $570. $799 is still a far cry from that, especially with the dearth of dealer discounts I've noticed in Mac-land.Yes, an eMachines is cheaper than an iMac, but when was the last time you heard about an iMac breaking itself or outright failing? Also, I am writing this on an eMachines monitor, and if the damn 15-incher was any more curved, I think it would puncture one of my eyes.
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
I can understand being moderated "overrated", considering that what I said was dumb.
But "offtopic"? This article was about both the G4 cube and its companion laptop, and my post concerns the cube re: my rack-mount concerns etc.
You guys suck.
"Beware he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he deems himself your master."
A friend recently quoted somthing (forget what) which said that Apple, to compensate for low CPU MHz, was planning on offering multiple processor machines for lower prices, to compete with the GHz+ Intel stuff. Now that Intel chips are pushing 700Mhz in notebooks, will we soon see a multi-G4 notebook?
Now that would be something.
I think one of the benefits to the tray design is, unless you're really stupid, you'll pick up on the fact that you're opening up the drive. With slot-loading, you're just kinda searching for an opening in the computer. It's understandable when you insert the wrong media.
With notebooks, isn't this situation going to be even worse? We've already heard the horror stories of clever designs going bad in the rough-and-tumble world of travel (another friend of mine owned one of the "butterfly keyboard" IBM Thinkpads. Threw his suitcase on a hotel bed hard enough to press the button to pop it open, crashed into the bed and brought the keyboard down with it.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
And what's up with there cooperation with Palm? Does anybody know if they're getting finanical renumeration? Or is the cooperation leading to some sort of Apple webpad/palm computer/wearable?
actually, the first iteration of the "armani" g3's, the wallstreet/mainstreet models, got _very_ hot on the bottom--enough so that several companies marketed lap desks specifically to dissipate the heat build-up. the later models--both of which share the revised thinner case design--had the cooling systems redesigned and no longer suffer from the hot-bottom problem.
by the way, all powerbooks since the 3400 (with the exception of the 2400 and 1400) contain cooling fans. they're keyed to a certain temperature--you can hear them come on if you use a g3 for a while in a quiet area. so fanless heat dissipation worries about a g4 powerbook are probably a non-issue. the cooling method currently in place is effective and unobtrusive, which is all that matters to stevie.
london is drowning and i live by river
>>By deliberately lying to customers, apple is begging for destruction.
uh... I see. And what exactly are they lying about?
>>I wouldn't be suprised to see them drop off of the net for a few hours sometime this week.
Your powerful threats make me wish I were so masculine. But seriously, if you had a clue you would realize that Apple's partnership with Akamai make your threats quite a challenge to step up to. Are you up to it? Their servers (G4s) stood up to more abuse during Macworld Expo than Yahoo saw during the DOS attack a few months ago. If you succeed in your endevour please tell us all about it.
I know that this used to be true. But I remember hearing at one point (please pardon my vague citation, I wish I could be more accurate) that once Mac OS X Server shipped, that the Apple Store and the Apple website were moved from WebObjects on Solaris to WebObjects on Mac OS X Server.
(disclaimer: I might be out of my tree on this point, please forgive me if I am)
One note that I am quite sure about though is that Sun Uni-Processor Servers (Enterprise 10 & 250 etc) if similarly configured to G4's give very similar performance. Its actually pretty interesting to look at this similarity between Mac OS X and Solaris.
These sorts of questions relate to all platforms. Usually when we don't understand the rationale behind an activity, its usually because we don't have a good grasp of the activity. Which isn't really a bad thing at all, if we all understood everything, life would be boring and suck.
An Example:
I am a Solaris/Oracle developer. I write J2EE programs in this environment. The reason is that I, and my company, feel that these are good technologies to use for dealing with the Terabytes of phone, network configuration, and network performance data that we have to supply to people to do their jobs. I don't care what they're doing with the data, its not interesting to me, I'm interested the computer science aspects of OOP, keeping very large sun machines running efficiently and optimizing all available bandwidth and processors on VERY large data sets.
This is a very questionable endeavour. I have been asked many times by people who have a consumer or art oriented mindset what the point is and how do Unix companies stay in business? An interesting aside to this is that my Workstation is a Macintosh with TenonMachTen installed so I can open up X11 apps on our E10k and actually program the damn thing, so I have some understanding of the mac world. And I can honestly say that I just intrinsically like the platform. There are lots of reasons that I won't list, but bottom line is, I can use it to do my job, and I find it the most pleasing way of doing so. Doing ones job is what it really comes down to in the private sector. Which leads me to my next point.... Photoshop. There are a number of Professionals whos job is using Photoshop. Apparently they all feel that this is best done on a macintosh. It doesn't matter why they feel that, they are professionals and have the right to make this decision for any reason including irrational ones. However it should be noted that people who use Photoshop 40 hours a week are better suited to judge these things than those who use it occasionally. That said, it seems that if one company can sell a product and make enough money off of it to keep developing for the macintosh thats all thats needed. A consequence of this is that support apps are required and a software industry grows out of this as long as companies can produce products cost effectively.
In answer to your question, I suggest that to really get to the heart of this question if you are so inclined is to really use a mac for a while and push it as you would linux. I think you will begin to understand that all machines and OS's have their appeal even if we don't understand that appeal, all that matters is that someone does.
Do you know if they really are going to be making one? And if so, when?
http://www.truechristiansunite.com Home of the 1st TRUE Christian AI -- Hal!!!
I hate to say it, but mac does do pretty well with getting their laptops out there...They advertise alot also...Can you think of any movie that had a laptop in it that wasn't a mac?
I know they came to my school and was offering free training for anyone that wanted to learn how to develop on a Mac.
They must have just recently done that...They came to my campus last May.
OSX... Mmmmmm...
I just hope they don't come out with 5 flavors =p
"Stop saying 'Don't quote me' because if no one quotes you, you probably haven't said a thing worth saying" -KMFDM
I know, I know, I should be shot. I like FreeBSD better. It feels more like UNIX.
-Aria
*hint* *hint* the new M100 palm machine, due in august for $149, will feature true handwriting recognition.
That was all MOSR crack... supposedly apple-branded Palms were rolling off the assembly lines in September and we were supposed to be awash in them by December.
I would hope that there are plans (hopefully at Seybold) to re-vamp/re-introduce Mac OS X Server. It disappeared off the Apple Store after the keynote at Macworld. I called the Apple Store and had a perfectly meanless conversation with an Apple Store Sales Weenine.
Me: "Hi, I'd like to buy a G4 server with Mac OS X. I noticed that it isn't on your site anymore. What's up?"
Apple Store Weenie: "Let me check." Seconds pass while he loads the site. "Huh, you're right, it's not there anymore, would you be interested in an AppleShare IP Server?"
Me: "Um, no thanks, I'm looking for something with a great deal of uptime and reliabiity."
Apple Store Weenie: "Let me get a tech on the line."
Some amount of time passes. They have decent hold music.
Apple Weenie: "Are you sure you wouldn't be interested in AppleShare IP?"
Me: "Um, yeah, I'm sure, I need something that won't crash. That's whay I want an OS X Server, since it's based on UNIX. I currently have a UNIX box and it is up for months at a time. I like that in my servers."
AW: "Well, the tech guy doesn't really know what is going on either or why we aren't selling the OS X Server anymore, but he said that you should sit tight and wait just a bit and it will be back."
Me: "OK, well, I guess I just do that."
Basically, I think Apple is doing one of the following things. One, they need to patch OS X Server so it will run on the new MP G4s. (they had to do that when they first introduced the G4s.) Two, they are completely out to lunch and have truly decided to abandon all efforts to build an "enterprise" level server solution. (wouldn't surprise me a bit, frankly.) Three, they are trying to be secretive and sly so Steve can have more "surprises" at Seybold.
I have a feeling that OS X Server will be back.
well, the iBook was marketed as iMac-to-go, so is Apple going to make the new powerbooks G4-Cube-to-to? that'd be interesting ^_^
There's been rumors that the last squre is left for some stylish laptop that's more similar to Sony's Vaio: smaller and more stylish while maintaining performance to some degree. (Transmeta anyone?)
I'd rather be pepper-sprayed by a mountie,
My LC can't run Linux68k...
I'd rather be pepper-sprayed by a mountie,
I'd rather be pepper-sprayed by a mountie,
I'd rather be pepper-sprayed by a mountie,
I'd rather be pepper-sprayed by a mountie,
Because something I wrote for the Mac in 1985 (System 1.0g) still runs. Try that on windoz. Apple has tried to keep upward compatability since the inception.
- just another cosmic ray -
This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
While that may be true of the latest PBs, my '98 wallstreet G3 gets pretty warm on the bottom. And I only have the 233 version. I think the heat dissapated is greater when pluged into the AC adapter. Has anyone ever noticed that the AC adapter is rated at 45W !
- just another cosmic ray -
This msg is brought to you by the letter 'W'.. for Worthless Wuss
A "cOdEgUru" would know that it ain't the mHz, it's the FLOPS. I'm no Apple fan but 450mHz on a their chip is muuuuuuch different from Intel or AMD.
think that guy who said the G4 Cube was a hoax will do the same this time? Hope he has another hockey puck mouse to eat :-)
# debian/rules
Mercury prototypes pack a single G4 chip running at between 400 and 500MHz, according to sources, although the PowerBooks may ultimately ship in configurations as fast as 750MHz. That will depend on what speed of G4 chips are available in quantity from Motorola or fellow PowerPC manufacturer IBM Corp.
:) (Trying to imagine a MP 750MHz G4... wow!)
Does anyone think that this might be a hint at a speed bump soon? My observations on this lead me to believe that whenever another possible configuration is talked about, it often shows up soon. We can only hope...
On macnn.com they have a link to an interview with Microsoft. In that interview they state that Office for Mac is their third most profitable product at just over $200 million a year.
The Mac might be a smaller market segment but it's still large enough for people to make money.
One: You're really impressed by this computer.u =20322412&loc=105>buy.com</a>
c ts/product.asp?pf%5Fid=185286&mscssid=AF QGU693N9L39L9BWLLQBJSHGPAF5R50">ebworld.com</a>
Two: It plays Diablo2
<a href="http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sk
<a href="http://www.ebworld.com/ebx/categories/produ
Then there are the two/three button mice:
<a href="http://www.logitech.com">logitech</a>
Then you can play with the G4, the Firewire, maybe MacOS X, etc.
I think the real reason you don't buy this computer is the price. Everything else you've mentioned is a non-issue, really. And I really don't see this happening in the PC world anytime soon, because of the power requirements of the video cards and the CPUs!
Bye!
GPL Deconstructed
Hell, Microsoft said that the Mac version of Office is their 3rd higest selling software! Kinda hard to ignore that many people. And yeah yeah, M$ is the devil... whoop-de-doo
You can automatically log in by clicking This Link and Bookmarking the resulting page. This is totally insecure, but ver
This is going to be great for Apple. The Powerbook has always been a cool line of computers (and the only Macintosh I would consider buying) but I almost wonder if this step is overdue. With the low heat production and (relatively) low energy consumption, I would have thought that we would have seen these long before, say, portable Pentium !!!'s (relative to their respective lifespans and product cycles, of course).
It would be even better, of course, if these could run without fans like in the G4 cube. I suspect not, since it won't have the benefiof the huge vent. Ah well, imagine.
yours,
john
"Some developers would rather kill themselves than contemplate working on a non-Mac system."
;)
We lose more developers that way......
Tom
The problem with slot load is that you can't use mini-CD or buisness card CD etc... as far as i can remember the will fly inside the drive and may break it! :-(
Did they change that?
---
I think Apple's G4 advertising campaign was pushing the fact that anything over 1 GFlop was considered a supercomputer (And hence, a non-exportable munition) by the US Government.
So that's the definition the guy is talking about - The government was saying that 1 GFlop was not exportable because it was a supercomputer, and now they've upped that number.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Yes, I know MHz can be meaningless.
But last I heard, PowerPCs weren't nearly as hot as Apple made them out to be. Remember long ago when Slashdot covered a set of benchmarks that discovered that the whole "G3 is twice as fast as a PII" was utter bullshit except for one or two special circumstances?
PIIIs were an incremental increase over the PII, and last I checked, the G4 was only an incremental increase over the G3 if you didn't take into account AltiVec. So the speed comparison of the two probably still remains similar. Hence a 1 GHz PIII is going to beat a 500 MHz G4 by a significant amount. It's not going to be the 2x performance increase that the clock speed says, but it will be quite significant. Throw the Athlon in there, which has a tendency to kill the PIII at a given clock rate in floating-point performance, and those G4s start looking anemic even to someone who thinks seriously about the situation.
And next is where the "Processor MHz isn't everything" idea works against Apple. Given that the PowerMacs and PCs have the same memory bus width (Both use SDRAM and neither have a requirement of memory being installed as matched pairs), when it comes to memory bandwidth, FSB MHz means everything. When most PCs moved from 100 to 133 MHz FSB is when Apple finally started moving to 100 MHz. And the Athlon has 100 MHz DDR for an effective FSB clock of 200 MHz... Although unfortunately, that's limited by the RAM running at only 133. (I haven't seen on-motherboard cache since L2 was moved from the mobo to the CPU.)
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
Uh Oh, did they say Reportedly? I expect ZDNet to be getting a Cease and Desist letter from the determined lawyers over at Apple any time now.
The word "Reportedly" appears 5 times. The word "Sources" ALSO appears 5 times. The article states that "Apple did not immediately answer phone calls requesting comment on the reports."
Notice all of these "sources" are unidentified?
This article sure looks like it's churning rumors. READY THE LEGAL STAFF, MEN!
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
Mac users are much more likely to pay for software than Linux users. The audience is more affluent, and it's used to paying for what it gets.
I predict success for MacOS X, mainly because they've rejiggered things like Carbon to make it easy to port applications to it. The "cool factor" of Aqua is hard to ignore, too.
I think the Mac has a good chance of attracting a sizable crop of new adherents with X and the spiffy new systems. The biggest problem at this point is continued high pricing. An eMachine costs around $ 450, plus a $ 120 monitor is $570. $799 is still a far cry from that, especially with the dearth of dealer discounts I've noticed in Mac-land.
D
----
Sources said the company has not determined whether the trackpad will support Apple's forthcoming handwriting-recognition software, code-named Rosetta Stone.
:)
It doesn't sound "forthcoming" so much as "rereleased". The handwriting recognition included with NewtonOS 2.0 was code-named "Rosetta", I would assume this is the same thing. But I hadn't heard Apple was planning on reusing Newton technology anytime soon! Does anyone have any info on this? Will I finally be able to replace my MP2K?
But the huge gap is gone, and I wonder why people spend so much time doing mac ports of software instead of *bsd and linux ports.
Funny comparison, really.
The Mac market is huge. It isn't as big as the PC market, yes, but that's like saying that ten million dollars is chump change because someone else has a billion dollars. There's a much different user make-up, too. Linux and bsd people tend to be fiddlers and tinkerers and idealists. Macs tend to get bought by people who don't obsess about operating systems and don't mind paying for software.
I believe the reason that CD-RW isn't commonplace in the laptop market is due to the power usage of a CD-RW's laser. Many CD-Rs in a desktop computer have fans in them to help cool the mechanisms inside the drive due to the high heat output from the laser. As far as desktops go Ricoch(sp!) makes a combo DVD/CD-R/RW drive, but its only IDE and will set you back ~$270. IIRC Dell offers a removable CD-RW drive in their Inspiron 5xxx line of computers for a few hundred bucks, but I'm sure that you can't just burn cds for hours on end with one battery.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
I discussed this mysterious 6th square in the previous /. thread. My personal suspicion is that the space should correspond to the ultra-compact but professional-powered G4 Cube -- e.g. subnotebook.
Something that the Excite News article completely failed to discuss is power consumption. The G4 is of course a miser compared to P3 or Athlon, but it puts out way more heat than a G3. Perhaps you could make a PowerBook G4 without the AltiVec unit, but in that case what would be the point?
I keep asking myself how the mac, with its limited install base, keeps developers? In its heydey, when its technology and UI was superior, that was one thing. But the huge gap is gone, and I wonder why people spend so much time doing mac ports of software instead of *bsd and linux ports. It's often been pointed out how things like C# can go down the tubes because they can't get developer critical mass. I wonder how the mac keeps it going? Anyone out there a Mac developer? Is it just an easy port? A roommate of mine used to develop simultaneously with codewarrior, but those were simple apps...
My pioneer car stereo works like a charm too, except it skips when I hit a bump while turning... probably the Tokikos' (performance struts) fault rather than the CD player ;)
Insanity is the last line of defence for the master diplomat. But you have to lay the groundwork early.
This is technically true, but newer kernels don't seem to support direct OF booting at all. They want you to use BootX or a OF bootloader like yaboot.
If you're running a "new world" (anything non-beige) Mac, you no longer need MacOS at all to boot Linux.
If I remember correctly, the PowerBook G3's weren't very hot on your lap because of their low power consumption. And, if I'm correct on this also, the G4 does use more power than the G3. My (late) AT&T laptop was HOT all the time. I hope not to see the samething in the G4, esp. when I think back the cube. Apparently, they get so hot that if you cover the holes on top, they'll shutdown in 15 minutes because of overheating. I wonder how they plan to fix that problem on the G4 laptops.
hlag
Wasn't Pismo the PBook they released that has firewire? I'm pretty sure the Pismo codename had to do with the newer black Pbooks.
... and Apple subtly encourages, to the extent of doctoring technotes on the PB 1999 Series, to keep attention deflected from the REAL Pismo. Some people have posted the truth, including the oft-maligned Ryan Meader, but they are generally not believed.
;)
That's the majority of conventional wisdom, as alluded to above
Here's a not-so-subtle hint: If you want to know what Pismo styling is like, check out the power adapter on the PB 1999s. Funky, eh? Now imagine a 3/4" 3.5 lb. PB like that. Mmmmmm. Sluuuuurp
The rumor that Apple will put a G4 into a laptop Real Soon Now is not news... it's almost inevitable, as the logical progression of the product line. I might as well put up a web news site and proclaim that Gnome is expected to adopt the drag-and-drop paradigm that Macs and Windows have been using for text manipulation.
Now, any hard news about a subnotebook... that would be interesting. However, given that the Cube was one of the first rumors that the MacGossip sites have gotten right in a long, long time (and that was not until the week before the announcement), I would not hold my breath waiting for them to come up with any real dish on what the Cupertino campus is up to.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
--
--
MacSlash: Your Daily Dose of Mac News and Discussion.
I'm amazed at how slowly laptops have adopted CDRW as a standardized device. Seems to make sense to me... no need for a zip and can drastically increase the desktop's current storage workspace. BTW, DVD/CDRW would be nice.
Is there a Linux kernel that's functional on G4's, or anyone working on it?
11*43+456^2
Apple System Profiler reports that the slot-loading CD-ROM drive on this iMac is from Matshita, product ID is CD-ROM CR-1750 revision 0A0C.
Lots of two-button mice are available that work great with a Mac.
In other words, I'm glad to see that you no longer have any reason not to buy a G4 laptop when it comes out. :-)
--
And the men who hold high places must be the ones who start
To mold a new reality... closer to the heart
Apple reportedly will clothe the system in a new chassis that is more streamlined than the current generation of G3 PowerBooks.
More streamlined? Jeez, I hope it doesn't hurt anybody. Pretty soon all Apple products will either be completely round or 2-dimensional.
Shine on, you crazy diamond.
The article was talking about laptops. Why would you rack-mount laptops and use them as servers?
Of course, there's not a bat's chance in hell I'll buy it, because (AFAIK) it won't play Diablo 2
Yes, it will. And does.
and I tried to use Cakewalk for Mac once, but that one-button thing kept causing me to delete my songs.
Then you sound like the perfect customer for the new no-button mouse. Even less chance of clicking on the wrong thing. ^_^
I think we can all rest safe in the knowledge that some random manufacturer will close this thing and stick in IBM-compatible components within the next two years.
Lets see...the iMac is now 2 years old. PC manufacturers tried to clone it. They all failed. Some for legal reasons, and some because the clone they came up with wasn't worth buying. Anyhow, it would be interesting to see a passively cooled IBM compatible that was smaller than a file cabinet. I doubt it could be done, though.
--
NetInfo connection failed for server 127.0.0.1/local
- A subnotebook with a G3 at up to 700 MHz and a 14.1" 1024x768 LCD, available March/April 2001
- A PowerBook G4 with a 600 MHz+ G4e, 15.3" 1280x1024 LCD, available January 2001
See their article for more specifics.What's coming, it's speculated, is some form of subnotebook or tablet.
:)
:)
That space is for Pismo, which is not the 1999 Powerbook G3 as everyone thinks. It's a superslim notebook enclosure, all curvy and sexy but pretty much what you'd imagine the Elle MacPherson version of the PBG3 would look like. About the only nifty innovation is that there's speakers in little forward-pointing 'ears' on either side of the screen that give this sucker really remarkable sound for a portable.
I'm eagerly anticipating this... watch Seybold very, very, carefully
Actually, it was supposed to be introduced in Japan this spring, the Japanese being the kind to have a collective orgasm at the sight of this thing. Heat problems have put Pismo on indefinite hold until a suitably cool processor can be found, since of COURSE they couldn't POSSIBLY compromise on the design. That would be like SO not Apple
That said, I think that the G4 powerbook will not be in the sixth square - the black units will simply move to the G4. What's coming, it's speculated, is some form of subnotebook or tablet. I'm eagerly anticipating this... watch Seybold very, very, carefully :) Jobs is on a roll.
Good god, I was impressed with the iBook size and weight, often weighing less than an iBible. I wonder what the official name will be, iSheet?
Err wait, I just said that out loud and it doesn't sound like an attractive name.
I wonder how the mac keeps it going? Anyone out there a Mac developer? Is it just an easy port?
I've done minor development under MacOS, Windows, and Linux.
In my experience, the MacOS development environment is just cleaner. APIs "feel" neater, simpler, and more cleanly packaged, and the developer help pages on Apple's site are extremely useful.
Under Windows, the API has a fair bit of bloat and isn't as neat, and digging through the help files is annoying as all heck, because they aren't sanely organized and often skimp on important details.
Under Linux, I'll spend a few days of research to write a few hours' worth of code. There isn't any unified API - there are several competing APIs for window managers, and a patchwork of micro-APIs for other aspects of the system. It's great fun to dig into, but it's not a cakewalk.
Just my personal experiences and opinions.
No, the clock speed of a chip is a quantative measure. A synchronous chip runs at its quoted speed (unless you overclock it :-)
"Clock speed" means different things on different architectures, as there are *different ways* of clocking a chip.
You can have a single square-wave clock (single-phase). This is a bugger to design logic for, because eliminating race conditions is difficult, but allows you to push your circuits a little harder because you don't have to worry about keeping non-overlapping multi-phase clocks non-overlapping.
You can have two non-overlapping square-wave clocks with a duty cycle lower than 50% each (two-phase clocking). This makes functional units *much* easier to design, but you have to add enough padding between pulses on alternate clocks that clock skew won't cause them to overlap anywhere.
You can have four non-overlapping square-wave clocks with a duty cycle lower than 25% each (four-phase clocking). This is very hairy to design logic for, but if you can pull it off, the resulting logic is a bit more forgiving on timing constraints and can be clocked a bit faster than might otherwise be possible.
Now, this is relevant because the shortest possible pulse _length_ under any clocking scheme is roughly constant, but the number of pulses per full clock cycle is the number of phases. If I can make clock pulses 0.5 nanoseconds long, a single-phase clocked system would be running at 1 GHz, while a two-phase clocking system would be running at 500 MHz, and a four-phase clocking system would be running at 250 MHz - while doing the same amount of work.
So, comparing the clock speeds on two architectures that use different clocking methods islike comparing apples and oranges. It just doesn't work. Compare performance instead.