HMC Mathematics Computing Weblog

Apple's CEO, Steve Jobs, gave the keynote at MacWorld 2006 this morning. The highlights of his presentation were

• The iMac being updated with the new Intel Core Duo processor; it's the same machine in every respect except for the processor. According to Jobs, the top of the line iMac, with a 2 GHz Intel processor, is twice as fast as the 2 GHz PowerPC G5 version. Now sells for $1499 educational (base price).
• New versions of iLife and iWork. It seems like the iWork apps (Pages and Keynote) were updated a bit, but there are no new apps. The iLife bundle has updates to iMovie, iDVD, and GarageBand (including a new Podcast Studio for making your own podcasts). It also has a brand new app, iWeb, which allows you to create and maintain websites. As this app is brand new, there's no feedback on what sorts of HTML it produces, but we can hope that Apple has done the right thing and is creating clean, valid XHTML or XML and valid CSS. Both of these packages are $79.
• Of most interest, as usual, was Jobs's ``one more thing'' -- a new laptop computer using the Intel Core Duo processor, the MacBook Pro. This computer is essentially a drop-in replacement of the existing 15" G4 PowerBook -- it has the same size and weight as the PowerPC version. But it runs four times faster than the top of the line PowerPC version, and presumably also picks up some advantages in terms of battery life and heat production by using Intel's mobile CPUs, which are optimized to reduce power use and heat production. The MacBook Pro also features a built-in iSight camera and microphone (like the iMacs) and has a clever new power connector that makes it slightly less likely that someone will trip over your power cord and yank your machine off a table or desk. The MacBook Pro has two models, both with the new 15.4" screens with the same resolution as the older 17" PowerBook. The 1.67 GHz Core Duo model starts at $1799 educational; the 1.83 GHz machine starts at $2299 educational.
• Finally, Mac OS X 10.4.4 was announced for release via Software Update. The new OS version includes all the support necessary for the new Intel machines, and throws in some bug fixes and new widgets for those of with older machines.

For anyone disappointed that they missed out on getting a new Intel-based machine in the most recent round of purchases, let me point out that as the processor has changed, older PowerPC software has to run through an emulator that Apple calls Rosetta. Rosetta is meant to be reasonably fast (especially with the newer, faster processors), but you would still see a significant performance hit when running older software.

Apple's own software is now shipping as ``universal binaries'', as is software produced by various smaller companies. Many of the larger players, however, such as Microsoft and Adobe, have yet to ship universal versions of their products. Even if they started shipping these today, they would probably update the very newest versions of their software -- older versions that work just fine would not be updated. The same issues apply for much of the software provided by CIS, most of which is not the very latest-and-greatest version.

My personal comments on the MacBook Pro: It looks very, very cool. I was very interested in the improved screens on the last refresh, in which the 15" and 17" PowerBooks had dramatic increases in the number of pixels that they could display (the 15" model ended up with the same number of pixels the old 17" PowerBook had; the new 17" PowerBook had the same number of pixels as Apple's 20" desktop display).

But the 15" PowerBook and MacBook Pro are still pretty big machines. Both weigh 5.6 pounds, a full pound more than the 12" model. If you're a big guy, 5.6 pounds isn't that much, but if you're me, 5.6 pounds is a lot, especially combined with the rest of the stuff I end up carrying around. I think I'll have to see it before I'm completely sold on it, and I'm hoping that Apple will figure out that there are a lot of people who need or want performance but who don't need a huge screen and the extra weight that brings you. (Hey, I plug my 12" laptop into a 20" monitor when I need a bigger screen -- it works great.)

Also, beware the lure of the first generation of Apple products. Traditionally, Apple has been on the cutting edge with the coolest new gadgets. Unfortunately, also traditionally, these first-generation models have almost always had various issues that affect their performance in some way. The sound advice is to let other people be the first adopters, and pick up new stuff after Apple's had a chance to work out some of the bugs.

That said, four times faster sounds awfully good.... ;-)

Well, it's official. Apple has announced that they will start shipping Intel-based Macintoshes starting next year.

Those of you using the Fugu SCP/SFTP client for Mac OS X should update to the latest version of the program.

It's available from the upstream site or from yum.math.

Lots of new toys from Apple today, including the Mac mini, a 3 lb. baby Macintosh for around $500. We already have a full size Mac at home, two Powerbooks, and one iBook, and I'm still tempted by the idea of having one of these for the living room. It looks really cute.

For those of you who've been tempted by a Mac but thought it was too expensive, here's your chance to get your feet wet. It's much nicer than a Windows machine. Once you get TeXShop running, you'll never want to go back. And once you get some of the cool Omni software, you'll wonder why you waited.

Don't be surprised if some of these start showing up on campus soon.

Added some information on using our systems with Mac OS X. There's a similar Windows page, as well.