Although any law could ultimately be used for good or ill, I think it is best not to support the DMCA in any way so as not to give its proponents more ammo.
*New iPods (likely will have 10, 20, and 30 GB capacity)
*New Music Download service integrated with iTunes
*iTunes 4, with music service and AAC encoding (possibly Rendezvous streaming as well)
*I would guess nothing related to Universal at this point.
Re:Direct High Quality QuickTime link:
on
Underworld Trailer
·
· Score: 1
I think it should be a requirement that all movie trailers be on the Apple Quicktime site. The quality on everything else pales in comparison.
The 4200 does not "trounce" the 440. It does offer respectably better performance, and I admit I should have indicated that. However, an actual comparison of frame rates and such would be very similar since as you point out the 4200 has to drive a higher res display.
Also, in many CPU intensive tasks (again, isoltated cases such as photoshop notwithstanding), even P3's could beat out the G4's with a minimal clock advantage.
I would characterize it more like, the G4 beats the P3 even with a small clock disadvantage (isolated cases notwithstanding).
While I generally agree with you that the P4 would be faster, (I was not meaning to suggest it wouldn't be, just that some would argue that) I disagree with your assessment of SSE2. SSE2 in no way comes close to matching the performance gains of AltiVec. SSE2 is simply a set of optimizations that reduce the number of computations necessary to do something. AltiVec is a parallel processing technology that operates on multiple streams of data simultaneously. In operations that take advantage of AltiVec, the G4 will beat a 2.0 Ghz Pentium 9 times out of 10. Take a look at benchmarks if you don't believe me. This wasn't always the case, but the new 7455 G4s have 4 AltiVec registers (the original G4 only had one.) The new 3.0 Ghz desktop P4s are the first Intel chips that consistently beat the G4 even with AltiVec.
"When people complain about Apple's prices they generally are refering to desktop units."
I agree with that, but most of the complaints in this thread were relating to laptops so that's what I decided to focus on.
"Bzzzzt! You're joking right? Debatable? No, it is not in any way debatable. A 2Ghz P4 smokes a 1Ghz G4. You are two years behind the times if you still buy into the myth propagated by Apple that Mhz don't matter."
It most certainly is debateable. I agree that in most cases that the P4 is faster. However, with apps optimized for Altivec the performance is about the same if not better with the G4. And as others have said, when on battery power the P4 is unable to run at full speed.
Anyone naive enough to flame Apple because they think their hardware is too expensive should stop for a minute and take an honest look at what they actually offer. I decided to perform a quick comparison between a Powerbook and a Dell laptop to see which was the better buy. Note: this is a comparison between the 17" Powerbook and the best Dell laptop I saw configured up to the Powerbooks specs the best I could.
Processor: Apple - 1 Ghz G4 Dell - 2 Ghz P4 Winner = debatable but I'll give it to Dell
RAM: Apple and Dell both 512 MB, tie
Hard Drive: 60 GB for both, tie
CD/DVD Drive: Apple - CD-R/DVD-R Dell - CD-R/DVD
Winner: Apple
Wired Networking: Apple - 10/100/1000 Dell - 10/100
Winner: Apple
Wireless Networking: Apple - builtin card and antennas Dell - PC card can be added for extra
Winner: Apple
Graphics Card: Apple - 64 MB Nvidia GeForce 4 440 Go Dell - 64 MB Nvidia Geforce 4 4200
About the same performance = tie
Screen: Apple - 17 in. widescreen Dell - 15.4 in widescreen
Winner: Apple
Battery: Apple claims 4 hours, Dell claims 3
Winner: Performance is probably close but Apple might have a marginal lead
Warranty: both one year = tie
Software: Apple - Mac OS X, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, Image Capture, iCal, iChat, Mail, IE 5,
Dell - Windows XP Pro, Dell Jukebox Premium, Dell Picture Studio, Dell Movie Studio Essentials, Outlook Express, IE 6
Winner: most definitely Apple
Thickness and weight: Apple - 1 in. 6.8 lbs. Dell: 1.52 in. 6.9 lbs
Winner: Apple
Looks: Apple again, obviously
Price: Apple - $3299 Dell - $2640
Winner: Dell
In summary, while the PC is a little bit cheaper and the processor a little faster, in virtually every other area the Mac comes out ahead. With a Mac, you get what you pay for. Sure the processor may be a little bit slower, but it isn't a dramatic difference and the overall value of the product is just as good as a PC.
What? How can you say that there are not enough features in this upgrade?
From the pr:
Packed with more than 300 new features, Final Cut Pro 4 introduces RT Extreme, for real-time compositing and effects, powerful new interface customization tools, new high-quality 8- and 10-bit uncompressed formats and for the first time in an editing system costing less than $100,000, full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing. Final Cut Pro 4 also includes three completely new integrated applications--LiveType for advanced titling, Soundtrack for music creation and Compressor for full featured batch transcoding.
The rest of it gives much more detail. There is a huge amount of new stuff in FCP 4.
Seriously, it is getting old. You don't have to be the number one player in every market. I know it's hard, but you might be able to at least survive in the number 2 position.
Slashdot Mirror
Although any law could ultimately be used for good or ill, I think it is best not to support the DMCA in any way so as not to give its proponents more ammo.
our customers have seen a lot more innovation from us than they have seen from that [open-source] community
That's certainly true. They have come up with far more innovative ways to introduce fatal security holes, integrate flawed and overly restrictive DRM into their products, and come out with countless patches and service packs that sometimes even break basic system functionality. On top of that, M$ continues to complain that the very existence of open source might actually force them to improve their products! Sorry about that Bill, we obviously miscalculated what a burden we were placing on you. Please let us know what we can do to help your business stay the way it is and keep pissing off your users.
Finally a progressive camcorder. I hope we see more. Long live PROGRESSIVE!
A 64kbps Ogg file will blow away a 128kbps MP3
From personal experience, that is not true. Although ogg will beat MP3 at about the same bitrate.
*New iPods (likely will have 10, 20, and 30 GB capacity)
*New Music Download service integrated with iTunes
*iTunes 4, with music service and AAC encoding (possibly Rendezvous streaming as well)
*I would guess nothing related to Universal at this point.
I think it should be a requirement that all movie trailers be on the Apple Quicktime site. The quality on everything else pales in comparison.
Yeah, M$ is definitely about socialism.
From each according to his ability. To Microsoft according to its desire.
FYI, it's Mac, not MAC.
With acquisitions, the acquirer is always down on the news.
On my campus, we have a 10mbit.
Plays fine on my 800. Of course, I have a G4.
Wow, I got over 500 KB/sec. That is the fastest I've ever had on any /. download link.
The 4200 does not "trounce" the 440. It does offer respectably better performance, and I admit I should have indicated that. However, an actual comparison of frame rates and such would be very similar since as you point out the 4200 has to drive a higher res display.
Oops, I think you meant to reply to the previous post. (The first part of mine was a quote from that, admittedly a very poor one.)
Also, in many CPU intensive tasks (again, isoltated cases such as photoshop notwithstanding), even P3's could beat out the G4's with a minimal clock advantage.
I would characterize it more like, the G4 beats the P3 even with a small clock disadvantage (isolated cases notwithstanding).
While I generally agree with you that the P4 would be faster, (I was not meaning to suggest it wouldn't be, just that some would argue that) I disagree with your assessment of SSE2. SSE2 in no way comes close to matching the performance gains of AltiVec. SSE2 is simply a set of optimizations that reduce the number of computations necessary to do something. AltiVec is a parallel processing technology that operates on multiple streams of data simultaneously. In operations that take advantage of AltiVec, the G4 will beat a 2.0 Ghz Pentium 9 times out of 10. Take a look at benchmarks if you don't believe me. This wasn't always the case, but the new 7455 G4s have 4 AltiVec registers (the original G4 only had one.) The new 3.0 Ghz desktop P4s are the first Intel chips that consistently beat the G4 even with AltiVec.
"When people complain about Apple's prices they generally are refering to desktop units." I agree with that, but most of the complaints in this thread were relating to laptops so that's what I decided to focus on.
"Bzzzzt! You're joking right? Debatable? No, it is not in any way debatable. A 2Ghz P4 smokes a 1Ghz G4. You are two years behind the times if you still buy into the myth propagated by Apple that Mhz don't matter." It most certainly is debateable. I agree that in most cases that the P4 is faster. However, with apps optimized for Altivec the performance is about the same if not better with the G4. And as others have said, when on battery power the P4 is unable to run at full speed.
Anyone naive enough to flame Apple because they think their hardware is too expensive should stop for a minute and take an honest look at what they actually offer. I decided to perform a quick comparison between a Powerbook and a Dell laptop to see which was the better buy. Note: this is a comparison between the 17" Powerbook and the best Dell laptop I saw configured up to the Powerbooks specs the best I could.
Processor:
Apple - 1 Ghz G4
Dell - 2 Ghz P4
Winner = debatable but I'll give it to Dell
RAM: Apple and Dell both 512 MB, tie
Hard Drive: 60 GB for both, tie
CD/DVD Drive:
Apple - CD-R/DVD-R
Dell - CD-R/DVD
Winner: Apple
Wired Networking:
Apple - 10/100/1000
Dell - 10/100
Winner: Apple
Wireless Networking:
Apple - builtin card and antennas
Dell - PC card can be added for extra
Winner: Apple
Graphics Card:
Apple - 64 MB Nvidia GeForce 4 440 Go
Dell - 64 MB Nvidia Geforce 4 4200
About the same performance = tie
Screen:
Apple - 17 in. widescreen
Dell - 15.4 in widescreen
Winner: Apple
Battery: Apple claims 4 hours, Dell claims 3
Winner: Performance is probably close but Apple might have a marginal lead
Warranty: both one year = tie
Software:
Apple - Mac OS X, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, Image Capture, iCal, iChat, Mail, IE 5,
Dell - Windows XP Pro, Dell Jukebox Premium, Dell Picture Studio, Dell Movie Studio Essentials, Outlook Express, IE 6
Winner: most definitely Apple
Thickness and weight:
Apple - 1 in. 6.8 lbs.
Dell: 1.52 in. 6.9 lbs
Winner: Apple
Looks: Apple again, obviously
Price:
Apple - $3299
Dell - $2640
Winner: Dell
In summary, while the PC is a little bit cheaper and the processor a little faster, in virtually every other area the Mac comes out ahead. With a Mac, you get what you pay for. Sure the processor may be a little bit slower, but it isn't a dramatic difference and the overall value of the product is just as good as a PC.
What? How can you say that there are not enough features in this upgrade?
From the pr:
Packed with more than 300 new features, Final Cut Pro 4 introduces RT Extreme, for real-time compositing and effects, powerful new interface customization tools, new high-quality 8- and 10-bit uncompressed formats and for the first time in an editing system costing less than $100,000, full 32-bit floating point per channel video processing. Final Cut Pro 4 also includes three completely new integrated applications--LiveType for advanced titling, Soundtrack for music creation and Compressor for full featured batch transcoding.
The rest of it gives much more detail. There is a huge amount of new stuff in FCP 4.
Anyone who uses the case bastardization "MAC" just proves they are an idiot about anything relating to them.
Seriously, it is getting old. You don't have to be the number one player in every market. I know it's hard, but you might be able to at least survive in the number 2 position.
This guy might as well give it up right now. Apple will not accept or allow this.
Forget Fred, what about Zarvox?
Hmm, sounds pretty dull to me. I'm not sure the eds would consider it worthy of a /. story.