AI gets in on the action

AI has a front page!

Wow, I think that's the first actual prediction for WWDC I've seen. Appleinsider doesn't have the best rep, but they were the first (I believe) to predict the iTunes Music Store.

I'm waiting to hear from ThinkSecret.

[edit]I don't get this part:

My understanding is that the OS will have to be revised to some extent to run on this machine. So what does it mean to have a new OS "optimized" to run 64-bit? Are we going to have 64-bit window resizing or something? What in the OS itself has to be 64-bit, or will see any benefit from 64-bitness?

the last AI frontpage report that was dead on was the apple music store rumor...it was written by kasper jade with help from neworder...

did neworder help with this story???


g

macrumors was the first, if you don't count an anonymous slashdot post from last year.

http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2003/...26195649.shtml

As expected, the G5 will storm out the gates pre:Panther. Sell loads.

Then Apple gets Panther out there and sells loads more. No reason why Apple should lose half a year's worth of sales and begin putting the 'Power'Mac sales BACK ON THE MAP! Workstation crowd will go ape-sh*t for this one!

Be nice if they could get a Quadro as BTO.

This IS the first 'parapit' G5 rumor this year in my eyes. I've been waiting four years for this baby. And I'm glad it's on Appleinsider. My board of choice.

I'm thrilled at the news. I will wait for the dual 1.8 of course...

Lemon Bon Bon 8)

dual 1.8 chips or dual core 1.8 chip??

the article mentions single core with dual coming...i assume that is a typo thingy going on...i expect dual single core chips to come...

is the 980 a dual or single core chip?

g

it seems to me that the specs of the new architecture are pretty cheap as a whole making me think the new macs will be very competitive in price with pcs..interesting year ahead

Okay, how would this be (and how it would change EVERYTHING as we currently know it):

- Apple announces/unveils 970-based PowerMacs on the 23rd. And 970-based PowerBooks. Oh yeah, the iMac and iBook too. And the eMac. Bug off, Motorola...you had your shot.

- Announces 10-20% price cuts on ALL models: iBooks now selling for $899, 17" PowerBook going for about $2799. NOTHING on Apple's roster is over $2799 (talking towers, laptops and iStuff here, not XServe) AND it's all sporting the new chips and architecture. Just BAM, BAM, BAM.

- Announces MASSIVE media-saturating 4-point marketing campaign unlike any of its past lame efforts: 1) the OS 2) the hardware 3) the iApps 4) A Switch campaign done right. Massive presence in major publications, celebrity spokespeople appearing in commercials, etc. All are interchangeable, groupable or standalone. They can overlap as needed: a PowerBook ad or commercial can highlight the snot out of the OS and iDVD. An ad for iPhoto or OS X can featuring awe-inspiring photography or footage of the towers, iBooks, iPod, etc. Just beat the world over the head with imagery, cool new Switch stories, debunk the myths, take no prisoners. Actually, Jobs' statement on stage is pretty much this, verbatim: "Okay, you know...that's IT! No more excuses and no more 'maybe next year'. We're tired of #@%#ing around, playing 'niche market', third-string runner-up and afterthought. That all ends TODAY. Microsoft, Dell, Gateway...we're coming for your ass. Get ready. Oh, there's just one more thing: Mr. Dvorak...you're a tired old hack who doesn't get it and never will. Suck it."



1. New KICK-ASS gear
2. New KICK-ASS pricing for said gear
3. New KICK-ASS, take-no-prisoners, "if you don't own a Mac, you're truly missing out AND you need your head examined for using a PC" marketing

It would change EVERYTHING.



Yes, the above is all said with TONGUE PLANTED FIRMLY IN CHEEK and fantasizing for fun a bit on this drizzly Saturday afternoon (in other words, don't bug me about "that won't work because...". Spare me, please. But, by George, doesn't some part of you - the hidden pirate in all of us - just absolutely CRAVE a scenario like the above? Just to see what would happen? It would absolutely rock in every way possible. I'd laugh myself silly, then I'd genuinely tear up because the monumental, far-reaching implications of the above would slowly dawn on me. LOL. The best hardware, the best OS, competitive pricing AND the knowledge that Apple is busting their butt making sure the entire world knows about it all. Truly a new era!



And yes, I've had a beer or two...my better ideas usually come when I'm thinking a bit more freely.

Apple will have to release a minor update to 10.2 to support the new machines. It needs new drivers and such. However, 10.2 will run in 32-bit mode. That means that it won't support more than 4GB of ram and won't support 64-bit apps. That won't be a problem for most users, 10.3 won't be any faster because it can run in 64-bit mode (although it probably will be faster because it is optimized better in other ways) and most people don't need 64-bit software or a lot of ram.

The average consumer doesn't currently stand to benefit a lot from 64 bit anytime soon, but the high end graphics, video, music and science markets do. Once Panther is released, that capability can be unleashed. In the meantime, the developers can get started, and the average tower user can still benefit from the significant hardware technology improvements with the current apps.

A lot of folks seem to think that 64 bit won't mean much for some time to come for most folks. I tend to wonder though. For instance, could 64 bit with the new hardware, finally unleash a "decent" speech recognition technology?

Interesting summary article though. AI hasn't published anything this year that they haven't been pretty confident (and accurate) about.

Dual core, probably. The Power5 will be dual core and the 980 is to be derived from that. You can also expect SMT.

The 'G5' name is believable to me. Think how long Apple has kept the i... names.

<smeagol>

the g5 is my preecious...

</smeagol>

It's certainly more snappy and easier to say than "970". But I wonder if the whole "G" thing is/has been played out?

I don't know. I guess not. G5. That's what we've all said all along anyway, right?

Yes. They need to be. This is Apple's 'return of serve'. Because on 'spec' they haven't returned a serve in the last four years against the Wintel 'aces'.

This is their chance and they need to get these things competitively priced. You won't get the kind of growth Apple is after being twice the price of the competition...even if you're twice as fast. Need 'Wow, I'm getting the dosh out now...doyouseehowcheapthenewtowersare?' type prices from Apple.

Still. I'm confident 'New Apple' will surprise us with their pricing. They seem to be much better than in the past these days and I hope they day further steps to make their whole line cheaper.

PSCATES, your post, like many of my own (heh), may be 'tongue in cheek'...but I think they've got to do all that. Seriously, I think they DO intend to do all that over the next year. They will IF they're SERIOUS about that 10% figure. If Steve Jobs says he wants 10% and Apple 'there' then I'm pretty sure he's got a plan to sort things out.

Beer or no beer, Mr. Cates...I enjoyed that post.



G5? 'Whoo-hoo!'

Lemon Bon Bon

If you noticed that last two updates of the powermac have had prices drops relative to the previous model. I think this update won't be any different...At least i hope

I hope this trend is significant for the G5 debut.

Lemon Bon Bon

Yes, it's frustrating that our first AI article on the 970 is so poorly worded on such an important point.

There had better be a dual processor config available. It would be really dumb for Apple to offer only single 970 machines.

And yes, in my book this counts as the first actual prediction from a major rumors site. (No, Mac Scooby Doo does not count.)

I am an engineerless-foo newbie, but won't there be a chance that the operating system will take advantage of 64 bit for 32bit programs?

There's no way Apple would go from a high end of dual 1.4s to a single 1.8, even if the 970 is faster for most things. It just looks terrible from a marketing standpoint. I could see the single 970s being available a few weeks before the duals, just because of supply issues.

I'm sure someone has posted something like this somewhere, but I could see things like Quartz Extreme, and such being optimized for 64bit (ie. the fetching of 64 bits of window memory to do something with).

I haven't done much optimization in the programs I've worked on, but I could totally buy this..

Do you believe me now?

Don't get too excited...

Don't want to say told you so, but...

No.

Well they lost my sale, not buying a single processor machine I don't care if it's 3 GHz.

A 64-bit OS can give every 32-bit program 4GB of real memory to work with. This is an advantage if you use multiple programs that use a lot of memory (they don't need to share 4GB). Of course, you can only take advantage of this by buying more than 4GB of ram.

so buy a dual.

its not like 97% of the pc world uses a single processor...

\

About effin time!


This part...

"Initial offerings of the Power Mac G5 are said to boast 1.4 to 1.8GHz, single core PPC 970 processors, with the possibility of a dual 1.8GHz chips shortly thereafter."

..sounds to me like no dual PPC 970 powermacs until later on. Hope I'm wrong. And, I wish Apple would let you choose single or dual on any powermac model.

Either way, this still is great news.

ddr 400 ram prices are not too shabby. good.

What if the whole new line of Power Macs is offered as single proc systems with customizable store configs for dual procs? Would that be okay?

So they offer a 1.4 GHz 970 and you want a dual 1.4 GHz 970 [add $300] or whatever...what if Apple did that?

If Apple is going to introduce the 970 in the Power Macs, what about the PowerBooks? The front page article discussed here alludes to other product introductions...


I sure hope -- NO I PRAY -- all of this comes to fruition in a couple of weeks. Can you imagine the disappointment and rumbling if they just show Panther -- AND NOTHING ELSE??? God, let the new Power Mac 970s be true!!!

Yes, but the low end also had specification drops. So what's the use of that?

Well I have waited a couple of years (and I'm sure a few others around here have also), a couple of months won't kill me.

I think we need to use this little word again.

CONFIRMED!

1.8GHz tops? Meh. A 3.2GHz P4 with Hyperthreading on an 800MHz FSB will be faster for most things.

Since this is getting more exciting by the day...I've begun to wonder how Apple will market this G5...I've started a thread in General Discussion to mull over how you think it will be advertised to the public.

Umm... "The computer maker, which will not be attending the Macworld "Creative Pro" conference in July, will use its annual developers conference to showcase this summer's product offerings, sources tell AppleInsider."

Excuse me, but is Apple not doing a feature presentation on July 16 at 9:30 a.m.? It won't be a Stevenote, more likely a Philnote, but it's not true that Apple isn't attending or exhibiting at the show. I question the credibility of a report that starts out with such an easily-verified error.

Am I wrong to think that the mother boards for duals are going to be reasonably different from singles so that you can't just plunk a second processor in? If not, I don't think it makes sense for them to put the stuff required for duals on single mother boards.

I think the issue of duals vs singles is going to come down to chip supply. If the chips are the limiting factor in how many machines they can produce they will not produce any duals. Hopefully chips are not the limiting factor.

and how much will a dual 3.2 p4 with hyperthreading cost? i guess that would be the xeon? because when the dual 970s ship, this will be the benchmark to compare.

for once, it is _possible_ apple _may_ go pound for pound, dollar for dollar with the intel world when it comes to horsepower.

oh, and at the very least, damn close and when you throw in OSX, ilife, unix, better looking machines, firewire 800, hypertransport and possible gpu things are looking much better then you make it out to be IMO.

According to those benchmarks on MacBidoulle, wasn't the 1.4 Ghz 970 on par with the 3.0Ghz Pentium. If so, and along with Altivec, I'm sure the 1.8 will spank the fastest P4's. I mean wouldn't that be so embarrasing if SJ gets up on the stage and can't do a bakeoff between the fastest intel chip out and his machine? Like when the G4 was announced. I'm sure he'd love to do that, and they'll make sure that whatever comes out will accomplish that goal. So if a single 1.8 is the fastest machine coming out right now, then I'm sure they see that as that much faster than a P4 that it'll turn the same amount of heads, and it cushions them for the future when they can release dual proc's and really get heads turning-or manange to keep ahead, whatever the circumstances might be.

TT

=

I mean it's fast. Looks good.