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Mac Pro, Mac OS X Virtual Desktops Announced at WWDC
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!
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
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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.
LainTheWired = isgod( int Lain, int denial, float truth)
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.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
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.
Monstar L
...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...
Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
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.
Think of the Children; Sleep with your Sister
looks like Vista is gonna be delayed another 4 months now.
"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.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
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.
Start a happiness pandemic
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.
The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources. - Albert Einstein
apples page on leopard is up here
and the mac pros are here
i noticed nothing was said about the finder.. shame.
Live EVERY week... Like it's Shark Week
Core Animation? Maybe nice, I'd have to see. It sounds like they're really going after Adobe with that one though; I hope it doesn't backfire...
Mail stationary? I hated that 'feature' in Outlook Express a decade ago, and I can't imagine not hating it today.
The most disappointing thing was the lack of Core 2 MacBooks. I was planning on ordering one this evening. The Mac Pros look nice, but I can't imagine buying a desktop in 2006.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
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
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.
Teenagers these days don't have as much sex as they want each other to think they do.
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.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
[re: spotlight] Imagine that... quick access to your applications, including recently used ones... Sounds an awful lot like a "Start Button" to me.
Obviously you have no idea what Spotlight does. It's a search feature, and they intend to make it more convenient to search for applications. It is NOTHING like the start menu, which basically just presents you with a list of files (and thus boils down to just another take on the Mac OS 7-9 Apple menu, speaking of photocopying OS features).
I'd guess the "recent items" feature they were referring to pushes more recently used items to the top of the list when you search.
I want-- oh, wait.
*checks wallet*
Uh, I want a Mac mini. With fries and a chocolate milkshake, please.
Circumcision is child abuse.
Slashdot moderators obviously don't know what on-topic is. Please read
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.
and nobody's talking about
...
"xcode 3.0 released today"
k2r
- 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $150]
- 3 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $300]
- ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $350]
- 4 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB [Add $450]
- NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 512MB, Stereo 3D (2 x dual-link DVI) [Add $1650]
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
Look, I know I haven't taken the time to research this properly, but I thought you'd like to read this:
... (skip ahead, I'm in a hurry) ...
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
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."
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)
GPL Deconstructed
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
The year of Linux on the Desktop? No. It's the decade of OS X taking over the desktop.
It doesn't appear to be a filesystem, just a backup app:t ml
http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/timemachine.h
"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.
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.