WWDC Expectation

My expectation is that whatever is released/announced will not be fast enough, big enough (or small enough), cool enough or cheap enough for roughly 78.4% of the people here.

And there will be numerous threads created to air those sentiments.

Beyond that, I guess an iMac or display/G5 update.

With all this talk from apple corporate, and the buzz about how they finally got beyond their 5% sales marketcap, I expect them to see the light and hopefully go in a new direction. I think it would be cool if they showed Tiger running off an iPod on your TV, that the dock would be the connection to digital cameras, televisions, and the dock has an onboard RF or infared controlled remote with the ipod scroll wheel on it I personally think that would rock. Not necessarily OS X but a ipod interface that is for your tv.

But thats not happening anytime soon. I guess its just going to be OS updates, and new crap.

The best they could do is release OS X for PC's @ $200 a piece, and go in a software oriented position. I personally know 10 people who would go out and buy it just to play with. We all know the specifics (it'd run like shit) but still everyone asks about it, but likes the computer hardware they have.

So updated G5's, xSAN in action, and hopefully motion shipping for me.

Gosh I must be easy to please because your "basics" look pretty good to me. I think that you are expecting too much. Why not add in a stage demo where Steva Balmer does his monkey dance while Steve Jobs unloads some buckshot into him? I mean, we can always dream.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kraig911


"The best they could do is release OS X for PC's @ $200 a piece, and go in a software oriented position. I personally know 10 people who would go out and buy it just to play with. We all know the specifics (it'd run like shit) but still everyone asks about it, but likes the computer hardware they have."



NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN.

Why does everyone think that apple needs to launch hardware at WWDC? Sure there's the media focus... but really its a DEVELOPERS CONFERENCE for OSX. Hoping for santa doesn't make him come any earlier...or make him real Oh well I just want a new display Al please

As for OS X on x86, back before OS X was released, Apple was said to have it running on x86 computers.

My source on that was a gentleman by the name of Don Crabb, he passed away in Febuary of 2000, it would have been in 1999 that he made the comment that he had seen a running version of OS X on a x86 based PC while visiting the company.

If memory serves me correctly, he was a part of the developer network also.

So why did they stop development on that version?
Have they stopped?
Is this Apple's leverage against M$ in some way?

We may never know. Saying "NEVER GOING TO HAPPEN." is silly at best.

while I love the hardware, apple really is most talented in their software offerings. If they released Mac OS for x86, and some driver support for common stuff (but not all mind you) they would be well received, because I know many of administrators that just don't like that they offer the whole thing and can't look elsewhere hardware wise if somethen were to happen.

On one hand it'd be good for developers only if they designed so that no matter what platform the same code would work on both. If it didn't it'd kill PowerPC granted, but I'm only guessing.

That and I just get asked a whole bunch by people if they can install OS X on their machine (because they hear a lot about it lately) who just don't know mac is hardware not software. If they split and still sold hardware i'd still buy their stuff, along with their other things.

It's an open question whether they have stopped.

Given that they got an x86 codebase for free from OpenStep, Cocoa for x86 from Yellow Box, and Toolbox for x86 for QuickTime (which could be pared down to Carbon for x86), it wouldn't cost them that much. And it's an option to keep open, which is something you have to think about when you're bringing a company back from near death.

An IBM sales memo made the rounds a while ago congratulating IBM Micro's 970 for driving Intel away from Xbox and Apple. Unsurprisingly, during the G4 debacle, Apple would have been interested in being able to move to any high performance architecture. PPC was preferred, for obvious reasons, but if none of those options came through, then Apple would have to do the next best thing - x86.

OS X on x86 is laughable as a "threat" to Microsoft. If Apple went to x86 hardware, MS would have Apple by the short hairs: MS has much more influence with Intel than a comparatively small vendor like Apple would, and so not only would Apple lose its ability to have a real say in CPU design (and thus, the direction of their own platform in real terms), but they'd end up using whatever MS decided it wanted for itself - Apple would be even less capable of differentiating itself hardware-wise. The OS X on x86 crowd always forgets that Windows succeeded because it piggybacked on IBM's monopoly in business (both in terms of branding and in terms of OS - CP/M was standard, and MS-DOS was a CP/M clone), not because of the x86 platform itself. The commoditization of PC hardware reverse engineered by Phoenix Technologies simply made an already attractive IBM platform more attractive by lowering the cost of entry - the key here is that lowering prices only helps if people already want to buy the product, and a cheap IBM-compatible was a double win - an IBM machine for all intents and purposes, but not at an IBM price. MS is keenly interested in guarding that advantage, so every platform that tries to piggyback on MS' hardware platform gets marginalized (OS/2, OpenStep) or crushed (BeOS).

(And before someone quotes Linux sales, a Dell spokesman recently admitted that almost all their sales of machines with Linux installs went to people who were just looking to avoid the MS tax and install a version of Windows they already had lying around. He estimated that maybe 5% of the machines actually ran Linux.)

[recently there's been talk of a need for a set-top device to replace bulky and awkward HTPCs]

As someone who's planning on spending entirely too much money on home theater gear (DLP TV, Axiom Speakers, Denon 3805 Receiver, Canare cable) on a pretty whimpy salary, I think it's safe to assume that there's a definite market for a set-top home theater device that is as elegant as the Mac. Currently, the only semi-"elegant" solution is from Roku, www.rokulabs.com. From my understanding, it streams over samba via linux... So one could have a hearty G5 filled with movies and stream it to your HDTV via ethernet and output to 1080i using component video. The unit has a 300MHz MIPS chip and can only decode MPEG-2. Now, I'm sure that there are people that would use such a device for homemade movies of Jack and Jane and fluffy the cat, but let's be honest: these devices make hollywood nervous for a few reasons:

1) Why would I "rip" a DVD to DivX, 3ivX, or recompressed MPEG when I will a) loose quality and b) most likely have a fit getting 5.1 DD working. For example, if I own Gladiator, I'm going to want to use DTS-ES and all of her 800MB glory. Do I really want to consolodate my DVD collection to a computer at the expense of loss? Maybe if I was "backing up" some DVDs for my friend, NetFlix.

2) Hollywood doesn't like component video - there's no copy protection. And I don't think they're nuts about FireWire. Could you imagine how great it would be to record a movie on HBOHD to your Mac's drive via a 19.1Mbps digital satellite feed? No need to wait on the silly DVD-Forum to ratify a spec for HD-DVDs.. just wait for HBO to transmit the film over the air at 720p or 1080i. The industry is freaking over the thought of people recording *perfect* copies of broadcasts.

Siderant: I don't understand how the DVD-Forum is leaning towads WM9 as the standard for HD-DVD... The format brings a 1.8GHz G5 to a crawl on a 108MB file.. and little 57MHz DVD players are supposed to decompress this stuff? Can you imagine trying to scrub through WM9 on a DVD-player?

3) Many TVs lack HDMI nputs needed for copy protection (HDCP).

With all this in mind, what would Apple's marketing strategy be for such a device? Watch your iMovies on your HDTV that were recorded with a 320x240 digital camcorder? "iFlicks Movie Store?" Compressing two channel audio and distributing is one game; the star wars trilogy is another.

I guess what I'm getting at is that while I would be first in line to buy one of these Apple living room boxes, Apple would have to market it as "show your iMovies, iPhotos, and iTunes in your living room." - a problem already partially solved by Roku.

You know, maybe that's perfecty fine... iRoom for all of the iApps. It'd be fun, but not the next killer app for insane home theater idiots like myself. If Apple could be the first to bring true HD content via MPEG-4, now we're talking - but it couldn't have analog outputs, which means Apple would have to make another bold legacy (floppy, ADB) decision.

While I wouldn't mind seeing a new update or DLD device at WWDC I'm more interested in keeping with the spirit of the conference. It's all about the Developers. Although for the consumer WWDC is a letdown because everyone learning about the next OS is under NDA nothing really appreciable leaks knowledgewise. So having at least one hardware announcement keeps the consumers happy.

OSX on Intel is a bad idea. Most proponents of it really aren't taking a holistic view of the logistics it would require to support X86. From the myriad of chipsets and drivers to providing tech support this would be an expensive proposition. Yes there are huge numbers of potential customers but they don't buy on OS to run solely..the need applications. Funny how people think that OSX on windows would fly. Apple is afraid to compete with Microsoft by coming out with a Office Suite what makes us think that they would seriously entertain the idea of going after MS's bread n butter??

Yes Apple makes good software but that's not enough. I agree with Amorph if you try to compete with MS in OS on "their" hardware platform you will get snuffed out. Apples 4 Billion in the bank is paltry a sum for an assualt on X86.

I'm inclined to think that Apples current course is acceptable. I dont think they could even contemplate switching platforms successfuly until they get a legit 10% marketshare and have 10-15 Billion in the bank at least.

The only reason why people clamor for x86 is because of the low hardware costs. The G5 hardware is not that much more expensive it's just that it's being sold at damn near 30 pts margin.

X86 right now isn't that impressive. Intel is cancelling chips, AMD is doing fine but there's not a whole lot of whizbang stuff coming. PCI Express is a yawner, faster SATA another yawner 24bit audio? Another yawner. I'm looking for Apple to bring us the next thing. Not X86

I am not in the market right now for new hardware, so I would like to see some better accessories and software. Of course big speed bumps would be nice.

1. A blue tooth voice recorder that plugs into the iPod. It should have 44khz sampling rate and allow multiple mics to be connected. The current Belkins model is not that good when used in a meeting. Being able to put several mics around a large conference table would be perfect.

2. Along the same line I would like Apple to come out with their own software like Via Voice. Real time transscribing of a meeting would save me lots of time.

3.Lastly I would like better integrations with phones. Right now it is way too limited. It is okay if it is a bluetooth phone but there doesn't appear to be drivers for most usb connectors for phones.

reg

I mocked-it-up one year ago...

Great stuff. I have Axioms myself and for the money there ain't much that can beat'em. DLP would be my fav choice for Rear Proj.


Yes indeed and we will all get a nice healthy dose of copy prohibt flags in broadcast HDTV. I'm not sure of all the details but I know that consumers aren't going to like this new control over their recording.



Say no more. At NAB 2004 Apple previewed Macs running the new AVC codec aka h.264. While WM9 is tentatively being looked at for inclusion in the HD-DVD spec( I believe it'll make it) AVC will be the Gold Standard codec with MPEG2 for backwards support. I'm happy to see Apple onboard now with a working implementation of AVC.

Basically what this means is that you will be able to edit HD in Final Cut HD and then compress out to AVC in HD form keeping your HD resolution but only chewing up >20mpbs in the process.

I see HD video as being the first video that is going to be everywhere in 5 years. Consumers will be recording and playing it back and studios will be shipping HD-DVDs.

The studios will protect themselves and that's fine with me. But HD will be everywhere and that's exciting. Currently we don't have STB that are powerful enough yet. WM9 AVC etc require a lot of horsepower.

I can't wait. I think Tiger is going to have a much strong multimedia core (hopefully due to a revamped QT7).

nsousansousa

That's cool but here are my thoughts on what the next generation decks could have

I think display area is key. I loved your idea about having an area for the Cover Art and EQ. Both of these items though would have to be defeatable so as to maximize the DIN space for display of track title and album plus counter.

I would eschew the CD player/ripper for internal XM guts instead. Once you go to digital music Its unlikely that you'll be ripping in your car.

Love the idea of a small drive that could be removed from future iPod generations and plugged into the deck.

I'd also like to see WiFi access. So that you could literally beam your music to the deck ala the Omnifi from Rockford.

So in essence give me

Din sized Deck
Large color screen with Cover Art and EQ
XM radio tuner inside
Wifi access
either a local HD or card from iPod
Preamp only
No CD but changer controls for those still in the stone age.

People, there will be no consumer devices, iPod or otherwise at WWDC. It's a developer conference.

New Power Macs and displays are a lock, and if a "consumer" iMac G5 is announced it will only be in the context of broadening the user base for G5 chips to spur development of G5 optimized software.

[Gene Wilder] No, don't shoot him. That'll only make him mad. [/Gene Wilder]

I do believe that you got this right. With possibly one exception I'm thinking that Apple has something big up its sleeve with repsect the G5 Towers. In other words I do not think many will be disappointed with high end performance.

Atleast that is my hope, that is Apple will remian agressive in keeping the performance of the G5 Tower as near the top of the heap as they can. We aren't talking about 2.6GHz 970's here which performance wise would be like pissing in the wind.

Dave

<RANT>
If I had five cents for every time I heard that, I could pay off my mortgage...

Listen, I know that this is going to be a Developer's Conference. That is known. However, since Apple has removed itself from MacWorld Boston, the only other time for major events in the United States is during the WWDC.

Also, let's not forget something. Even Developer's are consumers. Plus, developers are not all code geeks; they are people who create hardware, create the software, and the visionaries who drive both of those arenas.

What I am trying to say is let's not get so hung up about the fact that this is at the WWDC. It is Steve Jobs's Keynote, one of two major ones during the course of a year in the U.S.
</RANT>

Now, onto some more predictions:

Power Mac
I think that the G5 will be upped to the following configs:
Dual 2.2 GHz, Dual 2.6 GHz, and (released in Sept) Dual 3.0 GHz. Not much else will change, not even the pricepoint. They may make PCI-X across the board standard, but that I do not know.

iMac
Yes, even developers are concerned with this machine. I hope that they will become a G5, and that is what my gut instinct is telling me. G5's across the board:
15" / 17" G5 1.8 (or 1.6) GHz
17" / 20" G5 2.0 GHz
I think that they will all have SuperDrives in them now, as well as they will all have AirPort Extreme. They may even show a price reduction.
The iMac is due for a new look. I think that this may happen during this show. It is a good time to do it because Apple needs to really start rewarding all of its developer's out there; and a first-peek of the new iMac would be a nice bonus.

xCode
Again, this is a developer's conference, so they need to show something more than just Tiger. xCode is probably one of the biggest innovations when it comes to the overall workflow of the development process. I hope that they include other languages other that C/C++/Obj.C/Java. Other languages like Python, PHP, Perl, etc. could use with an awesome IDE like xCode (PHP and Perl may be a little difficult, being that they are scripting languages). I think they will improve upon the stability, improve upon the feature set, and improve upon the speed of the application. xCode is not something that should be over-looked, as it could very well revolutionize the whole developmental process.

Tiger
So far, I have heard some rumors, but none that have been really emphasised alot. I think that it is going to be a major release with a lot of new features. I also think that it is going to be G5 optimized (which I believe Panther is not). They may have some improvements like enhanced meta-data capabilities added to the Finder, better support for both Windows connectivity and Open Source protocols. Other than that, I am drawing a blank.

975?
Now I think that this is worth mentioning. The 975 (or whatever they hell they want to call it) is supposed to be based off from the Power5 chipset. This is a huge advance in quite a short period of time. As such, I think they may announce what it is, and where it will go. I honestly think we will not see a new machine with it at the WWDC, but I think we will see its immergance during MWSF 2005.


These are my guesses; both educated, and some not quite so educated.

hmm... well, you'll be one of the early praisers of display support, then bitchers about battery life. seriously, i'm tired of this.

IF battery life was NOT an issue, bluetooth would be nice to share your library with fellow walkers. That's it. When I'm walking to class I don't give a damn what pictures are stored on my iPod. I can wait til a projector or TV is around, as seems more realistic.

I can see your idea now:
"Hey check out this pic of--" *gets run over by bus*

You got some serious mofo chip on your shoulder pscates. We get your point already...

Have you seen this guy's invention http://homepage.mac.com/reelmagik1/PhotoAlbum3.html

Nice!

Actually- I totally agree with pscates.

Although, I'll be the first in line to complain about the 3GHz PowerMac if it's not there as was stated last year.

coming soon...

G5 non-PowerMac.

2.2, 2.4, 2.6 Ghz.

G5 PowerMac rev B.

2.8, 3.0, 3.2 Ghz

XServe G5 rev B.

2.5 Ghz

...to Fantasy Island.

"Look boss"

Save yourself some money and skip the Mystic Voodoo Cable. There's nothing so amazingly delicate or difficult about passing audio and video signals through wires to justify over-engineered, overpriced "solutions" to problems that don't exist.

Even developer's what are consumers?

I think we will see speed bumps at WWDC, I think that he will announce 3ghz G5's or is the 975 going to be called G6 since it is based on the Power 5?

I am also convinced that a new G5 based consumer machine will also be announced either at the WWCD or shortly afterwards.

Clearly IBM have finally fixed their production problems and I expect them to jump the PM straight to 3ghz or beyond it really is too late to just bump to 2.2 or 2.4 he would get a very frosty reception even though it is an improvement. There is no doubt that the new machines with 90nm chips are going to be cooler, quieter and more reliable, and I am going to buy one.

Thank God it is only 4 weeks away as I am fed up with my old machine.

OT: a lot of non-native English speaking persons have a strange fondness of the saxon genitive. They write every plural form with it, even though it doesn't make the slightest sense.
That's when you see market stands with ads like "Pin's: 3 Pin's for the price of 2 Pin's" and horrible stuff like that.
I don't know why schools haven't picked up on the problem yet, I see tons of younger people make the same mistake still...

Really?

Cite?

I'd love to know where these figures have come from. I've heard nothing of this... Please enlighten me. m. :-)

Six weeks, at least according to my calendar.

It's not just non-native speakers. It's become an American epidemic. Just a few years ago you never saw this, even from people with horrendous grammar and spelling. Now I see it everywhere. Apostrophes in the middle of supposedly plural common nouns like "cat's" and "car's". It even shows up now in verbs. "Apple kick's ass", for example. Utterly embarrassing.

OK mods, relax. No more OT ranting. I know it's "just" an online forum, but I'm seriously trying to help people who may make this error in a costly real life situation like a job application. It has to be pointed out at the time and in the context of original usage. No one's going to pay attention to a separate grammar thread.

HERE IS SOMETHING TO REMEMBER: D.A.C.T.

Developers Are Consumers Too.

they all got isights last year and you can't get more consumer than a desktop webcam

NO Kids left behind, my A**...Or should I sayNO Kid's left behind

Where exactly is this so Clearly defined that IBM has fixed their production problems on anything, but 2.0GHz 90 nanometer G5 processors?

That's what I'd like to know. I have not been following this lately, but I read somewhere that 2GHz G5 Xserves were shipping,, and reaching the hands of their customers, but I have heard nothing else, and I am not even aware if that was true.
So if someone can point me towards this information I would greatly appreciate it.

G5 Xserves now shipping

I'm glad to see what I heard seems to be true, but that is no real indication of anything other than 2.0 GHz G5's.

kraig911 is referring to Apple's market shares outside of the Mac market - iTMS and iPod - and how Steve keeps talking about how good it is to get out from under that 5% Mac marketshare.

If you're looking for news that the Mac has broken through that ceiling... nope. Same old same old.

We should see G5 updates to 2.4 Ghz, perhaps as high as 2.6, but no 3.0 Ghz until at least December. Tiger will, of course, be in the spotlight for this conference. Even if it's just faster overall and improved networking I'll be happy. Although it would be nice if Expose allowed you to copy files between windows...

Hmmm... at this point it would be nice if they got out from under their less than 2% marketshare. \

C.

If the KDE developers can manage to slip all those languages (including ruby, perl, php, etc) into KDevelop 3.0... I'm sure apple can also. It can't be THAT hard to have language syntax / coloring / tabbing / compiling for a scripting language along with other languages. I've wrote a perl syntax checker (for a class, other wise I would have just used BBEdit) it it didn't take that long. I'm a novice Software Engineer... they professionals. KDevelop 3.0 / BBEdit allows you to execute the perl code straight in their compiler just like any other language. Apple could easily do it and I think they should. I think I would still use BBEdit for Perl_CGI coding because I would also be using html ... but if I were to write Perl Cocoa programs using hte PerlObjCBridge than I would definitely want to do it in XCode. I see it being vital, since they are pushing perl programmers to start writing cocoa programs using it. They are even offering a few classes at WWDC on porting perl to the Cocoa API using PerlObjCbridge.

As you just said, anyone can write a syntax coloring scheme for an application. However, xCode goes much deeper than that. It has Live Linking (I believe that is what they call it), Rapid Compiling, and many other features that scripting languages like PHP and Perl don't have any use for.

Pulver, thank you for correcting my one mistake of using an apostrophe where it should not have been. I agree that misuse of the English language has become an epidemic in America, but I would have hoped that my post would have sparked more talk than just about my apostrophe.

It's all good Mike.

You were right about the iSight last year. That was a consumer oriented launch at the DC. Who knows, maybe we'll get vPods along with our 3GHz Power Macs.