Apple offers transition developers free iMac Core Duo
Mac OS X developers who rented a Developer Transition Kit (DTK) from Apple last year can now trade those systems in for a brand new Intel iMac, the company has announced.
In June, Apple began renting to developers a $999 Developer Transition Kit, allowing them to begin developing universal binaries of their applications for Mac OS X Intel. The kits included a 3.6GHz Intel Pentium 4-based system housed inside a Power Mac G5 enclosure.
The new DTK Exchange Program will reward those developers who began transitioning their code early with a free 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo 17-inch iMac. Unlike the 3.6GHz transition kit systems -- which developers agreed to return to Apple -- the iMacs will be theirs to keep.
"This program will put a new Intel-based Mac in your hands to help you finish and ship your Universal Binary," Apple said. "Each Developer Transition Kit you have may be exchanged for a new Intel-based iMac at no charge."
Apple also said it will provide developers with the iMac prior to them returning the DTK to allow them time to move resources from the DTK to the iMac.
Developers have until 5:00PM PST on March 31, 2006 to processes their DTK Exchange Requests.
Only developers who ordered a DTK system from Apple between June 6, 2005 and January 10, 2006 may participate in the DTK Exchange Program.
In June, Apple began renting to developers a $999 Developer Transition Kit, allowing them to begin developing universal binaries of their applications for Mac OS X Intel. The kits included a 3.6GHz Intel Pentium 4-based system housed inside a Power Mac G5 enclosure.
The new DTK Exchange Program will reward those developers who began transitioning their code early with a free 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo 17-inch iMac. Unlike the 3.6GHz transition kit systems -- which developers agreed to return to Apple -- the iMacs will be theirs to keep.
"This program will put a new Intel-based Mac in your hands to help you finish and ship your Universal Binary," Apple said. "Each Developer Transition Kit you have may be exchanged for a new Intel-based iMac at no charge."
Apple also said it will provide developers with the iMac prior to them returning the DTK to allow them time to move resources from the DTK to the iMac.
Developers have until 5:00PM PST on March 31, 2006 to processes their DTK Exchange Requests.
Only developers who ordered a DTK system from Apple between June 6, 2005 and January 10, 2006 may participate in the DTK Exchange Program.
Comments
I bet some people are wishing they ordered the devkits now
Now I'm sorry I didn't join the program. I was thinking about it.
go apple!!
Way to treat the dev's who make all the great stuff we like and need!!
I'm a developer in a small company and I originally decided not to order a DTK because of the $999 lease fee. That is, it was a capital purchase that depreciated over its short life.
If Apple had said they would swap it for an actual product that wouldn't have to be returned, I would have jumped at it.
As it is, I've now ordered an iMac Core Duo (for a higher cost) and my company's software may take longer than it otherwise might have with an Intel machine to test on. (That will depend on how it runs on real Intel hardware, not just with the Xcode checkbox flipped).
I guess they're rewarding early adopters, but the policy could also have caused a slow down in the emergence of universal binaries from small development houses.
Originally posted by michaelb
Dammit!
I'm a developer in a small company and I originally decided not to order a DTK because of the $999 lease fee. That is, it was a capital purchase that depreciated over its short life.
If Apple had said they would swap it for an actual product that wouldn't have to be returned, I would have jumped at it.
As it is, I've now ordered an iMac Core Duo (for a higher cost) and my company's software may take longer than it otherwise might have with an Intel machine to test on. (That will depend on how it runs on real Intel hardware, not just with the Xcode checkbox flipped).
I guess they're rewarding early adopters, but the policy could also have caused a slow down in the emergence of universal binaries from small development houses.
It couldn't have been a capital purchase, as you weren't purchasing capital equipment.
It looks to be a "True Lease". But without having seen the documents, I'm not sure if that would be exact.
Originally posted by michaelb
Dammit!
I'm a developer in a small company and I originally decided not to order a DTK because of the $999 lease fee. That is, it was a capital purchase that depreciated over its short life.
If Apple had said they would swap it for an actual product that wouldn't have to be returned, I would have jumped at it.
As it is, I've now ordered an iMac Core Duo (for a higher cost) and my company's software may take longer than it otherwise might have with an Intel machine to test on. (That will depend on how it runs on real Intel hardware, not just with the Xcode checkbox flipped).
I guess they're rewarding early adopters, but the policy could also have caused a slow down in the emergence of universal binaries from small development houses.
All hardware purchases are capital purchases that depreciate over time. You talk yourself out of a system with this sort of reasoning? Did your company already use all of its write offs a small business can do under the Bush administration's recent legislation?
$999 for a small business is holiday airfare across the country. Maybe they really need to check their priorities and spend less on lattes and catering? (end of sarcasm)
Originally posted by JeffDM
One thing to note though is that you have to be in a $499/yr developer program to qualify for the $999 developer kit. Still, a pretty good deal for developers. Maybe they intended to give a production system all along, but didn't say so because they didn't want too many non-developers buying into the DTK.
From what I recall, you could join up as a developer in the lowest category this machine was eligible for, and get both the subscription AND the machine for $999.
I signed up for the developer status so that I could possibly learn about programming, to ask questions, etc.
I got one of these emails in my inbox saying this.
I can't remember how much the DTK was but this is very interesting. I wonder if there's any verification or status you must be with being a developer in order to get this DTK trade in for the new iMac.
A great idea, and a great way to reward developers. Have they done such like this before?
Originally posted by melgross
From what I recall, you could join up as a developer in the lowest category this machine was eligible for, and get both the subscription AND the machine for $999.
If that was true, I didn't see that. The lowest DTK-allowed program appeared to be $499, and I didn't see anything that said that the $999 included membership. I am in the free category, and it didn't appear to be available to me without an upgrade. I don't remember whether or not I tried to order it just to see if they would let me have it.
I had considered it, but I am not currently a serious programmer, though I hope to get into it again. There was one utility that I needed/wanted but I eventually found that a decent one existed already.
Originally posted by melgross
From what I recall, you could join up as a developer in the lowest category this machine was eligible for, and get both the subscription AND the machine for $999.
yeah... i thought i saw that somewhere too... anyway i await with bated breath the news and reports of dual-booting the new imacs (core duo)
Originally posted by JeffDM
If that was true, I didn't see that. The lowest DTK-allowed program appeared to be $499, and I didn't see anything that said that the $999 included membership. I am in the free category, and it didn't appear to be available to me without an upgrade. I don't remember whether or not I tried to order it just to see if they would let me have it.
I had considered it, but I am not currently a serious programmer, though I hope to get into it again. There was one utility that I needed/wanted but I eventually found that a decent one existed already.
I'm pretty sure I saw it. It was got me to thinking"this is pretty cheap, maybe I should do this". But then I got busy, and forgot about it.
If Sunil thinks he remembers something like that, then it MUST be true!
Originally posted by sunilraman
yeah... i thought i saw that somewhere too... anyway i await with bated breath the news and reports of dual-booting the new imacs (core duo)
What's interesting about that, is the EFI that Apple is using after all.
Apparently the scoop is this:
Win XP 32 doesn't recognise it, so you can't boot it. Win XP 64 does recognise it, but as it's 64 bit, you can't install it.
Vista recognises it, but the 64 bit version, again, won't run.
The good news is that Vista 32 bit recognises it, and will run. But maybe not this early beta version.
So unless some soul can write something sophisticated enough to get around the EFI BIOS thingi, we'll have to wait a while.
It seems to say what I just said, but it's in "print", so has more authority.
http://www.betanews.com/article/XP_W...Mac/1137003330
Originally posted by OBJRA10
The email I got doesn't actually say that you get to keep the iMac. It just says that they will put one in your hands to "finish your universal binaries." Where is the part that says you get to keep it? just wondering...
Read the FAQ supplied by Apple from the Dev Transition Page about the Exchange Program. It says that you own it.
http://developer.apple.com/dtkexchange/faq.html
Now I wish I could code....