New Macs running 10.4.2, 10.4.3 due soon, more...
Apple's two new professional Macintosh offerings are shipping with special build trains of the Mac OS X 10.4.2 operating system. Meanwhile the release of Mac OS X 10.4.3 remains just around the corner.
New Power Mac G5 notes
The recently introduced Power Mac G5 Dual and Power Mac G5 Quad systems are reportedly shipping with Mac OS X 10.4.2 Build 8E90. The systems feature IBM's new dual-core PowerPC 970MP microprocessors, which sport 183 million transistors per chip.
While the Power Mac G5 Dual systems no longer include liquid-cooling systems, sources report that the Power Mac G5 Quad configuration will continue to rely on liquid cooling technology to manage the temperature in the computers.
The new Power Macs also include three USB 2.0 ports on the back as opposed to two and feature a new Airport + Bluetooth antennae that is built into the system's rear panel.
New PowerBook notes
Like the Power Macs, Apple's new PowerBook G4 systems are also running a special built train of Mac OS X 10.4.2, said to be build 8E45.
Additionally, the 15-inch and 17-inch models show some signs of a slight internal component reorganization. The laptops' sleep sensor is now located inside the display bezel rather than on the body of the unit.
Previous PowerBook systems included three internal speakers -- one under the keyboard and one each on the right- and left-hand sides -- while the new models rely on just left and right speakers.
Tipsters also report that inside the new PowerBooks both the hard drive and SuperDrive reside on the same ATA bus (where previously they were both 'masters' on separate ATA busses).
Mac OS X 10.4.3 near release
With nearly all of its hardware introductions now out of the way, Apple for the rest of the year will focus on completing a few select software updates destine for all of its Macintosh customers. The first of these updates will be Mac OS X 10.4.3, which represents the third maintenance release to the company's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.
According to sources and reports already present on the Internet, Apple over the weekend seeded Mac OS X 10.4.3 build 8F45, which weighs in just shy of 100MB in Combo Update form. The pre-release software appears free of issues and could be released in a matter of days.
Previous reports indicate that Mac OS X 10.4.3 will deliver over 500 minor enhancements and bug fixes to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
New Power Mac G5 notes
The recently introduced Power Mac G5 Dual and Power Mac G5 Quad systems are reportedly shipping with Mac OS X 10.4.2 Build 8E90. The systems feature IBM's new dual-core PowerPC 970MP microprocessors, which sport 183 million transistors per chip.
While the Power Mac G5 Dual systems no longer include liquid-cooling systems, sources report that the Power Mac G5 Quad configuration will continue to rely on liquid cooling technology to manage the temperature in the computers.
The new Power Macs also include three USB 2.0 ports on the back as opposed to two and feature a new Airport + Bluetooth antennae that is built into the system's rear panel.
New PowerBook notes
Like the Power Macs, Apple's new PowerBook G4 systems are also running a special built train of Mac OS X 10.4.2, said to be build 8E45.
Additionally, the 15-inch and 17-inch models show some signs of a slight internal component reorganization. The laptops' sleep sensor is now located inside the display bezel rather than on the body of the unit.
Previous PowerBook systems included three internal speakers -- one under the keyboard and one each on the right- and left-hand sides -- while the new models rely on just left and right speakers.
Tipsters also report that inside the new PowerBooks both the hard drive and SuperDrive reside on the same ATA bus (where previously they were both 'masters' on separate ATA busses).
Mac OS X 10.4.3 near release
With nearly all of its hardware introductions now out of the way, Apple for the rest of the year will focus on completing a few select software updates destine for all of its Macintosh customers. The first of these updates will be Mac OS X 10.4.3, which represents the third maintenance release to the company's Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger operating system.
According to sources and reports already present on the Internet, Apple over the weekend seeded Mac OS X 10.4.3 build 8F45, which weighs in just shy of 100MB in Combo Update form. The pre-release software appears free of issues and could be released in a matter of days.
Previous reports indicate that Mac OS X 10.4.3 will deliver over 500 minor enhancements and bug fixes to Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.
Comments
Originally posted by AppleInsider
Previous PowerBook systems included two internal speakers -- one under the keyboard and another on the right-hand side -- while the new models rely on a single speaker.
Tipsters also report that inside the new PowerBooks both the hard drive and SuperDrive reside on the same ATA bus (where previously they were both 'masters' on separate ATA busses).
Hmm.
I thought the older PowerBooks had 3 speakers. Left/Right/Centre.
Not sure I like the fact that both drives now reside on the same bus, although the likelihood of saturating the bus is close to nil.
<I've edited Kaspers first post. They are Powerbook G4, not G5.
Internal Speakers
The computer has two internal speakers, one on either side of the keyboard. The computer turns off the audio signals to the speakers when an external device is actively connected to the optical digital audio /headphone out and during power management.
The first post is incorrect.
I cannot find the dev. notes for the previous revision of the PB, so I can't be sure that it did include a 3rd speaker.
The 12" PB still includes the 3rd speaker. I suppose it's the only advantage it holds over its larger siblings.
I'm now thinking that Apple didn't release a 2.5 dual core single chip machine to be able to avoid the water cooling.
Otherwise why would the dual chip 2.5 still have that?
Of course, that's assuming that the report is correct.
The question still remains about pricing. Both Intel and AMD are charging about the same for dual core chips as for single core chips. What is Apple's cost here?. The water cooling units are much more expensive than simple fan and heatsink coolers. Are they using anything else? There are several other cooling technologies that are available for this purpose. All cost more than simple fan and heatsink models, but less than water cooling models.
It's the pricing issue that I'm wondering about. One dual core chip should be much cheaper than two dual cores. the use of one cooling unit should bring the price down as well. If the cooling unit is not water driven, then it should be less expensive than one being water cooled.
Originally posted by troberts
I am hoping 10.4.3 will do something about the battery life in my iBook which gets just over an hour of run time where with Panther it had 5 hours of run time.
You aren't running your iBook without any of the power savings are you?
Preferences -> Energy Saver
Battery -> Better Battery Life
Power Adapter -> Better Performance
Originally posted by melgross
I find the most interesting note to be that the dual core single processor models will no longer include water cooling.
I'm now thinking that Apple didn't release a 2.5 dual core single chip machine to be able to avoid the water cooling.
Otherwise why would the dual chip 2.5 still have that?
Of course, that's assuming that the report is correct.
The question still remains about pricing. Both Intel and AMD are charging about the same for dual core chips as for single core chips. What is Apple's cost here?. The water cooling units are much more expensive than simple fan and heatsink coolers. Are they using anything else? There are several other cooling technologies that are available for this purpose. All cost more than simple fan and heatsink models, but less than water cooling models.
It's the pricing issue that I'm wondering about. One dual core chip should be much cheaper than two dual cores. the use of one cooling unit should bring the price down as well. If the cooling unit is not water driven, then it should be less expensive than one being water cooled.
Previously, only the high end configurations were water cooled - the dual 2.7 ghz and the dual 2.5 ghz before that. In this new line up, it is still only the top of the line model that is water cooled, so it stands to reason that the prices wouldn't change much - and they haven't. (pricing is available - the dual core 2ghz is $1999, the dual core 2.3ghz is $2499 and the quad is now $3299 - a $300 bump from the previous hight end).
As far as Apple's cost for the chips goes, that's going to be tough to calculate, because even if you could determine their cost of the chips, as you mentioned, there are different costs to cool the different configurations.
Originally posted by a Martin
Anyone knows if 10.4.3 will activate Quartz Extreme 2D?
Someone answer ir speculate on this....
QE2D was a big thing in Tiger's review pn Arz Tech, but has been absent for nearly 6 months....
I believe my Spring 2005 PowerBook has three speakers, with the mid speaker actually placed to the left of the keyboard (from the pictures I've seen), so the loss of the "center" or "mid" channel speaker is probably a good thing. When sound is centered on my laptop, there is a decided left bias.
Originally posted by salmonstk
Someone answer ir speculate on this....
QE2D was a big thing in Tiger's review pn Arz Tech, but has been absent for nearly 6 months....
I am guessing it will not. Running Q2DE on 10.4.2 (enabled via Quartz Debug), I have yet to see a performance gain for any app, but I have noticed some significant slowdowns (e.g., animation for opening/closing formatting panes in Excel gets all slow when you enable Q2DE). So unless it somehow works much better than in 10.4.2, I doubt they will enable it, because right now for most people there is only downside and no upside.
I even splurged on the 100 GB x 7200 rpm hard drive option and a 1GB RAM stick.
It'll be interesting to see how the new iron compares to the 3-year old 1GHz Titanium PowerBook it's replacing.
I don't think that the TiBooks had 3 speakers? It doesn't much matter because when listening to music or gaming I use good headphones (Grado and Etymotic).
Originally posted by nathan22t
i bet 10.4.3 is going to be really cool and worth the wait cause they took the time to get it right
You wish.
One thing that's cool that's been reported by MacBidouille is the new 'Safe Sleep' feature for the new PowerBooks (or every PowerBook in general?) which apparently saves the memory to disk in case the laptop's battery is completely drained.
Originally posted by sloanlo
Previously, only the high end configurations were water cooled - the dual 2.7 ghz and the dual 2.5 ghz before that. In this new line up, it is still only the top of the line model that is water cooled, so it stands to reason that the prices wouldn't change much - and they haven't. (pricing is available - the dual core 2ghz is $1999, the dual core 2.3ghz is $2499 and the quad is now $3299 - a $300 bump from the previous hight end).
As far as Apple's cost for the chips goes, that's going to be tough to calculate, because even if you could determine their cost of the chips, as you mentioned, there are different costs to cool the different configurations.
You are saying exactly what I said.
You might notice that I said dualcore 2.5. It's also been estimated that the dual core 2.3 chips will use and give off much more heat than a single core 2.3GHz chip. Consider that it has 1MB L2 cache per core instead of 512KB per core. So, not only does the cpu have twice the number of transistors (approx), but it has four times as many in the caches. One 2.3 could very possibly put out as much heat as one 2.5 when fully loaded.
We also don't know how the extra $300 was allocated. It could have gone several ways.
The chips
The cooling
The Express board
Increased capacity power supply. Notice that this machine, the Quad, uses a high power power socket and cord. A 16 amp cord.
Originally posted by troberts
I am hoping 10.4.3 will do something about the battery life in my iBook which gets just over an hour of run time where with Panther it had 5 hours of run time.
Also dependent on the age and use of your battery.
As you discharge and recharge your battery, over time it losses its ability to charge as much.
There is a battery app called CoconutBattery.
This app will let you know how old your battery is, how many recharge cycles it has gone through, your battery's original full charge and its current charge.