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Apple Launches New Magical Trackpad, 12 Core Macs
theappwhisperer writes "The Magic Trackpad is basically a larger version of the MacBook Pro touchpad, with 80% more surface area for all your swiping and pinching. The entire surface acts as a button, so it's also a possible mouse replacement. And all of the expected gestures are here: two-finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, fingertip rotation, and three- and four-finger swipes. You can enable and disable gestures at your discretion from System Preferences." They also launched 12-core Mac Pros coming in August.
works out great for me, I get a new computer and get one of those damn kids out of my hair.
Any takers? SHould I put them on craigslist or ebay?
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Honestly, I find this "magic" marketing strategy to be a complete turnoff.
Palm trees and 8
What exactly is the benefit of this over a conventional mouse?
As others have noted here in the past, the number of processing cores do not a powerful computer make. A lot of the time with both laptops and PCs the cores are entirely unused. You could get a finely made quad-core which is standard fare nowadays, and have it work much faster than a six or dozen core system like these Mac pros.
Since processing is largely a duopoly of AMD and Intel, both have been guilty of marketing their hardware by highlighting the core numbers. Yet it's the architecture, pressure under strain, among other things that actually equate to performance.
And all of the expected gestures are here: two-finger scrolling, pinch to zoom, fingertip rotation, and three- and four-finger swipes.
Ah, nope. You missed one.
Put two in craigslist's personals and the rest on eBay. That ought to do it!
"If you see a man on a horse, he is likely an enemy. Kill the man and eat the horse."
Honestly, I find this "magic" marketing strategy to be a complete turnoff.
The fact that you're on Slashdot makes you Not The Target Market.
To most people, virtually any computer thingie is sufficiently advanced.
The TFA suggests that this trackpad would be good for editing images. Not having seen the device I can't say for sure, but isn't a finger a little too big and inaccurate to use as a precision targeting tool? If it wasn't then all the high end track pads currently used for editing would be using fingers rather than a stylus.
I am Slashdot. Are you Slashdot as well?
So .. since all their touch technology derives from FingerWorks [ http://fingerworks.com/ ]. They revived the iGesturePad from 1999 and added a raiser.
Question 1) Do we get to see any of the 60 or so gestures they used to use a decade ago that Apple declined to reuse?
Question 2) Is there a chance that it means the TouchStream LP is coming back in a form I could potentially get for my windows9x+/*nix9x computer again ... without having to pay several hundred on eBay + driver hunts... just several hundred to Apple?
-------------
My hope is that they are answered as followed:
1) Yes
2) Yes, more than a chance, and soon.
Code softly but carry a big magnet.
Hey, I'm a Apple Fanboy but this is just a screw job. No SATA III, No USB 3.0 ????
I need a good platform for my 3D work and was hoping that there might be something making the new MacPro's worth waiting for but not this.
Just priced a nice Win 7 system from Newegg and me thinks for work I'm switching back. This is just absurd.
"TV, a medium as it is neither rare nor well done." Ernie Kovacs
These have an actual physical click, and tap to click is always off by default on a Mac.
I won't be impressed until I can make a flaming pigeon come out of it.
$2500 for quad, 3GB ram and only 5770?
You can get quad cores for $800-$1500 with 4gb and 5830 or better.
at least the 5770 is much better then the past for base cards. But will apple make you pay for the 5870 $300 making it cost $150-$200 (5770 cost apple price likey higher) + $300
The Mac Pro is so nice buy the price is way to high the track pad is a nice touch.
http://www.thetechnologygeek.org
Maybe not useful for many, but finally I can have handwritten input via the Magic Trackpad. I was reluctant to buy a Macbook just to make use of this feature.
I didn't know Apple did Trade-ins for non Apple products.
Or, you know, you could just laugh at it because it was so overused in other iProduct discussions.
It's not a troll. It's a pun.
It must be miserable life you live where some marketing guys in california that you've never met have so much power to make you angry. Or you're actually indifferent but have decided to complain because it's easy to do so and it makes you feel better about yourself.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
From the touchpad article, "I can’t wait to get hold of one", and later, "It’s made with smooth, wear-resistant glass that feels great to the touch."
and it ships in 24hours... so it's not like a real review should be very difficult!
Would be better of just to post the apple store page directly. Horrible.
It's brilliant, really. We're just complaining about "unified branding". People are forgetting that the prior marketing disaster was "My". My documents, Myspace, yecch.
"e" was taken and done to death. e-mail, e-zines, etc.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
While the new "magical" trackpad gives you more space for gesturing, I do always wonder what gestures iPhone users will be giving Apple?
The gestures would be a serious plus. Being able to scroll with the two fingers, zoom in, out, trigger expose, etc would all be quite nice. Also, if you had wrist problems, not having to move the mouse around would probably help.
The gestures become second nature on a MacBook(Pro).
I could see it. I'm not sure for me. For my work desktop it might be nice. But at home, if I still had a desktop, a big part of it's reason for being would be gaming, and you need a real mouse for shooters and many other games.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
There are probably a few *nix admins that wonder why you would use a mouse when you have a perfectly good keyboard. I think that this device might have a place, but I don't think it's something that will be hugely successful.
I haven't used the device so I can't comment how well it works, but Apple's notebook trackpads are usually regarded as pretty good. Personally I always prefer to use a mouse, but I can see how a person might be able to be more productive if the device were really precise, the person was very familiar with it, and the software could take advantage of all of the gestures. Would probably be great for something like Photoshop or video editing.
Some of us are just too used to a mouse to change our ways. After watching new computer users struggle with using a mouse, it makes me think that if I spend enough time learning to become proficient with one of these devices, I might be able to improve my productivity in some cases. It would be interesting to find someone who's really good and compare their ability to use it precise with someone who has exceptional mouse control.
Sure, you have +50% cores (12 instead of 8). Now in terms of productivity, how much are you likely to gain?
I recently tried to spec out a render node for a graphics artist friend of mine. I was trying to convince him that a single CPU mid-range Nehalem based Xeon system might be more cost effective in the long run. His plan was to build a single CPU Extreme Edition Core-i7 system. This was based on Netrender's benchmark utility placing this single CPU system ahead of the dual C2Q systems by a large margin, and even way ahead of dual Nehalem systems.
My logic failed to win the argument. I simply can't spec a dual quad-core Nehalem that can beat a single i7-EE. Even cost over time, it looks more cost effective to build two i7-EE systems instead of a single dual CPU system.
So, to answer the question directly, I would guess my friend is looking at gaining perhaps ~1hr a day in rendering time. That might be huge.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
If I hear them describe their tech a magical one more time I'm gonna...
... roast their ass with a level 5 firebolt.
sorry, but that original comment did not even begin to approach humorous. I trust you can see why I was confused.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
Sure.
Maybe I should have used another title for my post.
Regular mouses can't do such intuitive gestures such as pinch and zoom.
I am sure there are people who will love this new touchpad.
But others might want to just get a tablet for extended functionality such as handwritten input, design, etc...
And I have not tried it out, but if its anything like the macbook's touchpad, moving around with the mouse and clicking with it is IMHO a much comfortable experience with a regular mouse.
I can see how others might benefit from the gestures though.
Its a system with dual six-core cpus. Its like saying a computer with two one-core cpus is a "dual core" system. It may be literally true but very misleading and not what a customer expects.
Including extended middle finger?
so he can do a unit test
perl -e "eval pack(q{H*},join q{},qw{70 72696e74207061636b28717b482a7d2c717b343 637323635363534323533343430617d293b})"
Also, why use a touchpad when you got a mouse? The magic mouse sure is very uncomfortable but regular mouses are much more pleasant to use than touchpads or trackpoints or whatever. And its not like they can't do gestures.
I used to be similarly convinced of the superiority of the mouse over the trackpad. When I bought my first laptop years ago, the first thing I did was hook up a mouse, even before I had booted it up. But over time, I became used to the trackpad, and I learned to control a trackpad just as well as a mouse. One fateful day, I noticed that my mouse had collected a layer of dust on it (because I had inadvertently become an exclusive trackpad user), so I unhooked it.
I don't know if it's the whole not-having-to-move-your-hand thing, or if it's the not-having-to-use-your-elbow, or what. I just know that when I'm on a system that has a good trackpad and a good mouse, I always end up using the former. I'm not saying mice (or trackpoints, or touchscreens, or whatever) don't have their utility, because they definitely do. But I can definitely see why people would be interested in getting a trackpad for their desktop.
If they make a keyboard with this builtin (instead of the numeric keypad), I'm getting one.
My other account has a 3-digit UID.
Why do cheaper Imacs have more base ram? But only have ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB in the $2000 system 27" screen and apple wants to push games on mac os x?
Let's not forget the eMac.... we've come full circle!
Also, why use a touchpad when you got a mouse?
Perhaps because apple's trackpads are so good that they're better than mice – I'd certainly prefer to use an apple trackpad to a mouse.
For those that aren't that way inclined, perhaps for using your computer at slight range –if you're sat in your comfy chair, it's much easier to put a track pad on the arm and use it than it is to try to mouse on your leg/chair arm etc.
If you end up buying it, don't get disappointed by the unsuitable input precision for this task. Just cherish new ways of doing it - you know, all Apple products and users are creatively... special. In the way special Olympics are special...
English isn't the only language that people use...
Handwriting with a finger point? Why not spend the extra $30 and go with a wacom multiouch + pen digitizer, and be able to actually write and draw. Or if using fingers is all you really want, you can save $20 and just go with a Wacom multitouch board.
I've noticed i can only use an ipad for about 20 minutes before my fingers feel bad. There's no way i want to replace my mouse with something i have to constantly drag my fingertips over. If everyone used these all day at work, we'd all have gnarly calloused finger tips.
Except I think the 'e' in "eMac" stood for "education" rather than "electronic." It would be odd if Apple had sold the "internet" Mac for years before building an electronic Mac.
No mention of the new iMac? New 27" display? And the completely out of nowhere $29 battery charger?
Culture is more than commerce
That's the great downfall of Apple desktops. They ship MacPro's (which are their big powerful towers) and iMac's (which are All-in-One Monitors built with laptop parts), without anything inbetween. Slotting a bigger graphics card into an iMac is just not possible, and yet there isn't a more affordable tower available than the Pro. If you are a serious gamer, then a Mac Pro ain't much different than a tricked-out Alienware/etc machine price-wise. But if you are a semi-serious gamer with a light wallet, Apple ain't your friend.
Judging from Apple's page, all the gestures are the same as the ones used by the current MacBook Pro trackpad. Apple didn't even bother to change the preferences panel (screenshot). Apple's claim to fame is keeping things simple as possible for consumers, and adding gestures that aren't supported by any other Apple device would tend to run against that.
Seeing as Apple has never bothered to provide official Windows driver support for their peripherals, I wouldn't hold my breath on that, either. Somebody will probably rip the appropriate bits out of Boot Camp if and when they update it to support the pad, however (this has been done before for other Apple devices).
NO MATE Display and room for 1 HDD with no E-sata NO slots NO USB 3.0 NO Firewire 1600,3200 as well.
also what if I have a display I want to reuse?
I hear Chatroulette is paying good money for minors who willing to help them clean their site up. The job requirements are that the kids are easily offended and willing to press charges.
Some thread hit on rendering use. However, there is also vast amounts of simulation use. For example, COMSOL Multiphysics (http://www.comsol.com/products/multiphysics/). Also, in the academic world is it easier to buy new computers on grants than upgrade old ones. The "old" computers typically get moved to computer controlled tools (when the tool computer dies).
fine want $1200-$1500 head less system not $2500 come on people do not like screen lock in. and want a little more room then 1 hdd and not slots even haveing 2 pci-e slots + video card will be ok.
Of course they accept trade ins. Their products generally cost you an arm and a leg, or your first born child. This new 12 core mac will cost both.
Just a disclaimer to make sure yall don't think I'm heartless. I have 2 kids of my own I'd never trade in. It's just those damn boys across the street that drive me nuts!
Get off my grass!!
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I always thought it stood for economy!
Adobe has assured its customers that Flash 10.1 will be able to "...make full use of the new machines. Flash will be able to utilize 100% of the 12 core hardware without fail. That's the reliability customers have come to expect from Adobe."
Boot Camp users running Windows will have to deal with "compatibility issues" that might limit utilization to a mere 15-25%
What if you already have a computer? Then it's a WHOLLY unjustified expense!
Is there a particular reason to WANT a case-sensitive system? Genuinely interested.
If you've just spent $6k on a new Mac Pro, and you *really* need USB-3, just spend another $40 and plug the card in. It's a Mac Pro. It has expansion ports. Use them and feel happy.
... and if you want e-sata, just buy an extender cable for the two extra on-board sata channels in the Mac Pro. That'll cost you the princely sum of $19.
Sure, you can argue it ought to have come with them (and I'd agree, for what it's worth) but the cost of implementing it yourself is hardly the end of the world.
Simon
Physicists get Hadrons!
...get one of those damn kids out of my hair. Any takers? SHould I put them on craigslist or ebay?
I don't think ebay allows that sort of thing -- so I guess craigslist.
I like track pads. There are new drivers out that provide multi-touch on most track pads for the PC. This Apple offering isn't that interesting, except for its' size. The device, as with most Apple mice and keyboards should work on PCs, albeit without the multi-touch. It's a bit pricey though.
The others have no interest to me. They are essentially the same products as the past but with a few more features. Certainly some are not worth the price. Crack open that display and you'll likely find a Samsung panel in it.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
*Cues Camera in recording mode*
My Mini-DVI to VGA cable is quite magical.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
I hate the stupid magic-mice, well maybe its me that's stupid, I could never figure it out. I use one of those super trackballs but it's on it's last legs. I ordered the new track pad from Apple with the stupid name. I mean I like auto-magic as much as the next tech-junkie but I know its just computer stuff.
6.8SPC TR of 550, l xwind at 6, drift rt at 26" drops 77". AT has 503 ft-lbs at 1403 fps. FT 0.86
I think i do see the reason - excess ego.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.
I've been waiting for them to release the Magic Trackpad - it's about damn time! Order placed. If you've used a recent Apple MacBook trackpad, you know why this is a great product. Or at least it should be. I hope it proves to be everything I expect.
--- What?
I didn't find the stated benchmark, but the i7ee is a Nehalem based core. For raw performance you should be able to find a Xeon which bests it in nearly every benchmark. Going multiple socket, provides both more cores and more memory bandwidth. For example the 980X is basically just W3680, a pair of X5680's should win on nearly every benchmark that is either CPU or memory band-with intensive. For some working sets the larger caches on the beckton cores could result in improvements significantly larger than the 3x cost for them. Those working sets may be rare (larger than 8M smaller than 24M).
Now cost/performance curves are more tricky. The extra cost for the dual socket motherboard must be made up with cheaper CPU's, but if your comparing it to a pair of i7EE's the extra system costs could easily make up for it. This is actually where AMD starts to be a real contender. If your system is scaling well, the large AMD systems are significantly less expensive for actual core counts. While the high end Intels are faster, you can get nearly the same performance for 1/4 the cost from AMD. For rendering, a dual socket 6134 will probably beat the intel i7ee with a wide margin for slightly more money.
For a large shop buying a few systems and running the actual datasets/code is the best way of determining this. Then you buy a bunch of the best system. If your large enough you can probably get the trial systems on loan. Doing a one off for your friend is much harder.
where is the $1000-$1500 mini tower the imac is to limited and comes with screen that you may not need or want (lack of screen choice is bad) and locking screen size to cpu power is bad as well.
The video card in the imac are a little week for the screen size but ok for non gaming but the screen is not for photo shop work. But let us have 2 HDD's or add E-sata or usb 3.0 / firewire 1600 / 3200.
Just FYI, Windows 7 has full multi-touch support. (Doesn't guarantee your applications will use it sensibly, but it's there.)
Comment of the year
Apple has NEVER cared about games. This is according to Valve... Apple always talks the talk but never follows through to make gaming on Macs important.
Of course, what they're not telling you is that they obtained 80% more surface area by reshaping the surface.
There's a HUGE difference between a surface with a linear cross section like this...
________________
vs. the same linear width with this cross section... /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\
My office has been taken over by iPod people.
Maxon's benchmark utility for NetRender is called Cinebench:
http://www.maxon.net/downloads/downloads/cinebench/cinebench-115.html
I worked really hard to best the single CPU i7-EE system's mark, but was not able to according to this benchmark utility.
My logic failed to win to the argument, and my friend ended up going with the i7-EE based system. In a year or so he will pick up another at a much lower price. I just couldn't get the numbers in the benchmark to agree with my theory that a dual CPU system with 1 cpu now, and 1 cpu later would be the better performance per dollar.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
So, to answer the question directly, I would guess my friend is looking at gaining perhaps ~1hr a day in rendering time. That might be huge./quo
I'd say that depends on what his work is. If he's doing sims, for example, I think he likely made the right choice. If he does a lot of texturing and test renders, for example, I think he could have done a little better with multiple cores.
Mainly what I've found is that the human-interaction-hours are far more valuable than the render times. I could save an hour in rendering, but the difference between being done at 3am and 4am is 0. (Usually...) What often happens is my computer will be busy with something intensive and while that's happening I could open up another app (maybe it's another instance of the 3d app, maybe it's Photoshop or something) and I can pick off a low-hanging fruit while it's going. In other words I often run multiple apps at the same time. Extra RAM and having a core or two available really helps there.
So I mentioned running sims earlier. If he spends his time not able to do anything at all because of that progress bar, then I think he made the right decision. That happens often if you're trying to get an app like Maya to make a window shatter or a building collapse. If he does texturing, modelling, and lighting, he might get faster response times, but he may spend more time twiddling his thumbs.
I hope I wrote that clearly. I've had trouble explaining this in the past.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Ugh. I love how I said "I hope I wrote that clearly..." and forgot to close the quote. Sorry gents.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Heh us humans are prone to make mistakes no worries!
I'm not entirely sure what his process is... If anyone has seen the TV show "Lost" he did the title roll for that :D If you know what it takes to render something like that, you know more than I do heheheheh
I know that the Cinebench score was very important to him in his decision making process...
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
Mice require a flat surface. With this, you can hook up to a doritos drip lie on the couch and surf on your big tv. Its magic.
Because Apple expects that most of their customers are going to buy the base RAM, throw it away, and pour in third-party RAM.
The problem with a trackpad is that you cannot rest your hands anywhere on it, which is not a good thing. Has anyone had any bad experiences with trackpads with respect to repetitive strain ailments? I have been using the Kensington Expert Mouse for the past 15 years and as "heavy" mouse user, I have never had a problem with my wrists or elbows (ie - carpal tunnel syndrome). I cannot imagine ever switching.
At least they didn't call it,
iMagic.
Yet.
It is prophesied! Or prophesized! Or prophephizizzle! Or whatever that word is!
Someday I'll link back to this post and say we warned you all!!!!
How's the KoolAid addiction coming along? Did you manage to 1/2 your consumption to just 5 crates a day as you said you might?
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
TFA links to two blogs posts. There is nothing on Apple's site.
Does nobody read past the headlines?
Yes, hate it too. I really like the big physical button on the older Mac trackpads. It's easy to hit with your thumb while you have one or two fingers on the trackpad itself. No accidental clicks, no accidental pointer motion while you click.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
They are bad apples, so it is more of a recall.
Great. Now, can they enable the same features on the magic mouse without needing a third party driver? (Magicprefs). The magic mouse can register as much as 12 points if my memory serves me right, but they only natively enable 2-3 finger scrolling and swipes, not pinching and the other cool stuff. no, instead they just link to the third party app.
http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/system_disk_utilities/magicprefs.html
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Ah, no, that goes part-way to answering. Though obviously the next question is "Why make a case-sensitive application in the first place?".
The screen itself is worth about $1k alone. Dell has been selling the exact same panel in a standalone display for $1050 for some time now. Also, you ask why. It's simple: Because people will buy it. In any case, this was a much bigger bump for the lower end iMacs. The 4670 on the low end may not be much, but it's a big step up from the damned 9400M they were using. Integrated graphics on a 1080p screen? The 5670 in the midrange is also a decent step up from the 4670. The 5750 is only going to be a tad faster than the 4850 they were using. The i3/i5 in the low-midrange systems will be a NICE improvement over the Core 2 Duos they were using, no doubt about that. An interesting thing to note is that Apple is using a 2.8ghz i5 quad. Did they special order that from Intel or something?
Disk images. Use them. You can make a case-sensitive disk image on a case-insensitive filesystem and vice versa. Presto, you can now use your UNIX software and OS X software. Not the most convenient way to do it, but it does work for most things.
And OS X is certified UNIX. There was no lie there whatsoever.
What's the point of decking it out OEM? Buy as close to a base system as you can and then upgrade it with third party components as necessary. Saves money. That $20-25k price tag is when you stuff every OEM option available into it, for crying out loud. If you have that kind of money to throw around, you'd probably just buy the OEM for the sake of streamlined support.
If you have to use your elbow, you have you mouse sensitivity set [i]way[/i] too low.
It's basically a bamboo tablet, except a bamboo tablet also works as a graphics tablet.
There is nothing innovative about this, and claiming it is "The largest Multi-Touch trackpad ever" is just false.
They announced a 27" Cinema display, bumped the iMacs, and appear to have given NVIDIA the boot.
Because coders are, as a general rule, morons. Who think they're very smart. And therefore conclude that case-sensitivity is somehow a feature, not a flaw, because Linus and RMS and the Unix way and lol noobs lol.
Are you adequate?
The previous Mac laptops had a separate button at the bottom of the trackpad. This is why the new ones' buttonless design is like you point out: it works with the same muscular habits as the older ones. I was used to the old one, then when I got a newer model I adjusted very quickly (after I made the same assumption you did, though).
I call it affordance fail, though: nothing about the design of the new pad makes it perceptible that the bottom edge is the clickable part.
Are you adequate?
Touch products are great for RSI. That is why Fingerworks trackpads and keyboards were so popular with people who were having wrist problems.
They discard 5-finger inputs so you can relax--I mean completely relax--your hand directly on the touchpad when you are not moving the mouse...even between movements. It is a very more natural relaxed position--all fingers curled naturally downward...just like resting your hand on a table.
Movements on a touchpad take no force since you are only moving your fingers. Even light mice require more effort (tension) in your fingers to pinch and move. "Clicks" take only the most subtle of finger movements. Drags take no tension to hold down the button, since "drag" is a persistent state you invoke with a discrete gesture.
There are also fewer reasons to move the mouse, since so much can be done with gestures. I'll have to see how many the "Magic Trackpad" support, but with my Fingerworks pad on my PC, I can open and close windows, open and close documents, print, find, drag, scroll, switch windows, etc via gestures.
I was having a lot of problems with my right wrist, which is bad since I like to kayak for fun. After doing some research online I figured I would give a Fingerworks trackpad a try, and it has been a huge improvement for me. The above descriptions are my own thoughts about why it has been such a big help.
I'm excited for the Magic Trackpad (despite its stupid name) because my Fingerworks pad cost $250 used on eBay, and it's hooked up to my PC. I was looking for one for my Mac, and $69 sounds a lot better.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
I switched mine to tap-to-click mode, in part because I was annoyed at the differing click pressures (as you note) and in part because the click is so loud. (and I am sometimes using my laptop next my sleeping wife)
It took a little getting used to, but I find that it works very well. I never could stand tap to click on my PC laptops, but I like it a lot on my MacBook Pro. I ended up getting a used Fingerworks trackpad for my PC, and now I'll probably pick up a "Magic" trackpad for my iMac at work. So I'm fully sold on tap to click. :-)
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
If you want to run linux that's fine. I run lots of linux machines myself, where OS X is not an appropriate choice for a variety of reasons. But if you want to be take seriously you can't complain that OS X isn't UNIX-y enough based on the default choice of a case-preserving file system.
A) It's trivial to add another, case-sensitive partition to your system. The standard Apple tools allow this without even the need to seek a command line or a secondary boot disk.
B) Even if you're too lazy to resize your partitions, you can use disk images to simulate partitions. They mount just like regular partitions and again can be easily created and auto-mounted at login with the stock toolset.
C) While there are some apps that have lazy case conventions for file names, none of the base system does. So you can move the OS to a case-sensitive filesystem and just keep a case-preserving one around for "bad" apps that can't handle it (I'm looking at you Adobe). This one requires a reboot, but can still be done without a second boot disk, and without running the OS installer -- just copy the files around and resize the partitions. Or with a third-party tool and a separate boot disk you can convert in-place without copying anything.
D) All of the bad apps can be fixed with a simple rename or symlink to allow the file to be accessed be the expected name. It's sometimes a hassle to figure out what the file name is, but it's easy to fix once you do.
E) All major desktop OSes have had either case-insensitive or case-persrving file systems for decades -- DOS, Windows, OS/2, Mac OS, Mac OS X -- case sensitivity is not going to become the default in any desktop OS because it would confuse *most* computer users. Heck, many of the major file-sharing protocols, including those in use on UNIX systems, don't even *support* case-sensitive file names.
Left the summary laughing (thinking it was a play on Jobs' "magical" comment), went to RTFA. OMG they're really calling the product "Magic?"
Seriously, this is taking the Arthur C. Clarke quote a bit too far. Are we now saying that any sufficiently devolved consumer can't distinguish technology from magic?
What the hell? Are they releasing a "Sorcerer's Apprentice" edition?
I know plenty of Apple customers. Most have a firm grip on reality. This just seems mad. I hope it's a "code name."
--
Toro
if not for the screen and lack of better Ext-ports / room for more then 1 HDD then the Imac will work good for Photoshop.
ECC is over kill and the lack of PRO video cards just does not fit.
Try a $800-$1000 system for photo shop that is just as good as $2500 mac pro.
The iPad is large though; I can easily surf on my MacBook Pro for an hour or two without too much problem. Even then, it's usually from bending my wrist, not the finger movement. Since you'd just let you hand sit there and only move you fingers a little, I think it could work pretty well.
The higher your typing:mouse ratio, the better it would be. If you had to do a lot of mousing throughout the day, I'd image a real mouse would work better.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
These look finely edited to me.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
Yes would love a 4-8 core super mini with a gpu slot.
Enjoy a real gpu with all the cores needed, max ram.
We have to get a mac pro or nothing.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
For many workloads like VMHosting and rendering the AMD server 12-core chips do make great sense - especially if you're doing the free software too. These days the type of workload that requires both a lot of processing power and doesn't thread well is pretty rare. Except in the context of this discussion. Apple doesn't use AMD chips yet.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
From reviews it seems like the Bamboo pads don't work very well for touch input. They are glitchy and produce bad input data.
I don't understand the decision not to, at the very least, release a model with the keyboard & trackpad combined. In what situation will it be more practical to have them separate? For people with four arms, perhaps? Drummers with complete limb coordination independence?
There is the rationale that keyboard and trackpad can fail independently but I don't think that justifies the inconvenience of their separation in a wireless, mobile product.
Should we consider a modular design for cars? Hey, let's separate the steering wheel from the pedals and strap the customer into both halves to keep them together!
Why would you buy a $2,000 workstation to play games?
I've never had problems playing most games on $50-$75 video cards anyway. You just want a large, loud and underutilized penis occupying your PCIe slot so you can brag to your friends. For folks like you which are kinda like those tard kids that throw a fart cannon on a Honda and call it a racecar, I recommend sticking to cheap ass off the shelf PC gear and buying a $350 video card.
The money in that machine isn't in the video card, it's everything else some piss-ant gamer like yourself will never take advantage of. There's a lot of us with real work to do for which this machine would be a godsend worth every penny.
Because some tard kid who runs a pirated copy of Photoshop once in a while and plays games can't see the value, it doesn't mean it won't sell to a vast niche (people with jobs who require lots of computing power). This is a computer, not an entertainment device.
That's as bad as the morons that claim OSX has no value over Windows. Anyone that says that usually uses computers for menial tasks like Word Processing and watching Youtube and no concept of what goes on under the hood.
Besides, macs have PCIe slots too.....
The Wikipedia claims the 'e' was indeed for education.
Perhaps you're thinking of the Macintosh LC ("psst, 'low cost', but don't tell anyone"), which was the first modular Mac?
"Good news, everyone!"
Besides, macs have PCIe slots too.....
Sorry, at least MAC PROS do. I miss the flexible and reasonably expandable macs. That's why my primary desktop mac is a hackintosh, so I can add things like cheap M-Audio multichannel audio cards and such where going firewire would be prohibitively expensive (and not any better) on my budget and cause me to have to repurchase a lot of perfectly good working gear. I carry around a base-model 09 Macbook these days too though. I don't think their hardware is crap or even majorly overpriced cept the Macbook pros and a couple imacs, they just don't make a machine for me anymore on the desktop. Mac Pros are overkill for most of what I do and iMacs lack the expandability and durability I need. I actually miss the low-end and midrange G4 towers.
I really don't need even four cores, but I'd sure love to have the option to move lots of data much faster. I can't remember the last time I waited more than a second or two for something to process (ok, I guess converting RAW to jpg would go faster) but it seems several times a week I'm moving mass quantities of data - photos, movies, backup images - and waiting for 30-60 or more minutes for USB or FW800, and lusting after BANDWIDTH. I was hoping Apple would cook in some rockin' fast bit shuffling, rather than spending $3000 on a machine, then more to band-aid on a faster interface card.
I'd be all over a 'mini Pro' - let me keep my monitor between upgrades, and add a card or two to customize it to what I need, and update with the times without a forklift.
They are bad apples, so it is more of a recall.
Nonetheless, for the neighbors, they are the apples of their i.
Once agin Apple maks a design icon! Dan
Apple said 'Mac® Pro line with up to 12 processing cores and up to 50 percent greater performance than the previous generation'. It's amazing. It should be super fast for designers and video editors. And my mouse will give place to Magic Trackpad. **** iPod Transfer software for Mac http://www.ipodmactransfer.com/