What are the next big steps for Apple's hardware line-up?

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  • Reply 41 of 102
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Lemon Bon Bon

    . iPod wise? Flashbased player and we're going to see Apple do something it's never done before. Go critical mass.



    Lemon Bon Bon




    Bon Bon my Friend. Did you not hear Steve Jobs just bash the flash player idea not even two weeks ago during the iPod revamp? He keeps telling us over, and over the flash player is worthless. Why would he then turn around, and try and sell us a worthless player?

    It has not even been 2 weeks since the last time he bashed the flash player.

    If there was one in the works, I don't think he would continue to bash their worth. It would make him a total hypocrite car salesman, or something. Not a respectable CEO that you can trust.



    I really don't think your going to see this flash player.
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  • Reply 42 of 102
    pbg4 dudepbg4 dude Posts: 1,611member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    Bon Bon my Friend. Did you not hear Steve Jobs just bash the flash player idea not even two weeks ago during the iPod revamp? He keeps telling us over, and over the flash player is worthless. Why would he then turn around, and try and sell us a worthless player?

    It has not even been 2 weeks since the last time he bashed the flash player.

    If there was one in the works, I don't think he would continue to bash their worth. It would make him a total hypocrite car salesman, or something. Not a respectable CEO that you can trust.



    I really don't think your going to see this flash player.




    Tell that to the new iMac G5. When Jobs released the sunflower Mac, he gave some long spiel about "each part being true to itself" and "a vertically mounted optical drive wasn't as fast or reliable as horizontal mount" etc., etc.



    Guess that makes him a flip-flopper. (just in fun, don't crucify me, mmmkay?)
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  • Reply 43 of 102
    thttht Posts: 6,016member
    Here's my guess:



    January 05



    eMac G5

    1.6 GHz 970fx

    400 MHz FSB

    256 MB PC3200

    32 MB GeForce 5200



    Powerbook G4

    1.5 GHz 7447A

    12.1" LCD display

    167 MHz FSB

    256 MB PC2700

    64 MB ATI 9700 mobility



    Powerbook G5

    1.6 and 1.8 GHz 970fx

    533 and 600 MHz FSB

    512 MB PC3200

    128 MB ATI 9700 mobility or better



    February 05



    Xserve G5

    2.3 GHz 970fx

    ...



    March 05



    PowerMac G5

    dual 2.0, 2.4 and 2.8 GHz 970fx

    1 to 1.4 GHz FSB

    512 MB DDR2 memory

    128 MB PCIe Nvidia 6600



    April 05



    iMac G5

    1.8 to 2.1 GHz 970fx

    600 and 700 MHz FSB

    256 MB PC3200 memory

    128 MB AGP Nvidia 6600
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  • Reply 44 of 102
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by THT

    Here's my guess:





    March 05



    PowerMac G5

    dual 2.0, 2.4 and 2.8 GHz 970fx

    1 to 1.4 GHz FSB

    512 MB DDR2 memory

    128 MB PCIe Nvidia 6600







    That is going to be a pretty sad graphics card. It should have 256 MB DDR3 at least, or optional from day 1, and I think there will already be new cards from Nvidia, and ATI by then. Imagine how long it will be before they start using SLI if 1x PCI-E is going to be the motherboard revision for the next year after that at least.



    I hope your wrong THT.
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  • Reply 45 of 102
    bigcbigc Posts: 1,224member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    Bon Bon my Friend. Did you not hear Steve Jobs just bash the flash player idea not even two weeks ago during the iPod revamp? He keeps telling us over, and over the flash player is worthless. Why would he then turn around, and try and sell us a worthless player?

    It has not even been 2 weeks since the last time he bashed the flash player.

    If there was one in the works, I don't think he would continue to bash their worth. It would make him a total hypocrite car salesman, or something. Not a respectable CEO that you can trust.



    I really don't think your going to see this flash player.



    ...good one, like to see one of those.
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  • Reply 46 of 102
    thttht Posts: 6,016member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    That is going to be a pretty sad graphics card. It should have 256 MB DDR3 at least, or optional from day 1, and I think there will already be new cards from Nvidia, and ATI by then. Imagine how long it will be before they start using SLI if 1x PCI-E is going to be the motherboard revision for the next year after that at least.



    I hope your wrong THT.




    This is Apple we are talking here. It's either going to be a Radeon 9700 or a Nvidia 6600 standard in at least the 2 lower end models. 9800 Pro and 6800 Ultras will still be options. I think the odds are pretty low that they will support SLI.
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  • Reply 47 of 102
    chagichagi Posts: 284member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    That is going to be a pretty sad graphics card. It should have 256 MB DDR3 at least, or optional from day 1, and I think there will already be new cards from Nvidia, and ATI by then. Imagine how long it will be before they start using SLI if 1x PCI-E is going to be the motherboard revision for the next year after that at least.



    I hope your wrong THT.




    The 6600 is actually a pretty darn good video card for the target price range, even better if they ship it with a 6600GT. They both represent excellent bang for the buck.
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  • Reply 48 of 102
    Any one think that maybe the next top-tier Powermac is a DUAL 970MP? Perhaps?
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  • Reply 49 of 102
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    I don't think the very next processor will be Dual core, and I'm not sold on how great dual core is anyway. I think THT recently mentioned some of the drawbacks to Dual core although I could not find his post. Maybe he would be kind enough to go over some of the drawbacks of Dual core processors again.
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  • Reply 50 of 102
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,464member
    Dual Core is teh sexy.



    But I doubt it'll be ready for before mid 2005.
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  • Reply 51 of 102
    I don't see why dual core will ot be "ready" in time for Jan. Although that does sound somewhat early, I do not think it far fetched. Especially with IBM already in the dual core business with ePower4 and 5. the G5 is a stripped down Power4 anyway.



    The only possible real hindrance MAY be price.



    A January '05 product would really cement IBMs tech lead over intel and amd (the 65nm manufacturing partnership with amd notwithstanding).
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  • Reply 52 of 102
    onlookeronlooker Posts: 5,252member
    IBM has been doing dual core since the before the G5. That didn't produce a Dual Core G4 for us though. I think it's going to happen, just not that fast, and I'm still interested in THT's answer to the drawbacks of dual cores. We may be better off without them.
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  • Reply 53 of 102
    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    IBM has been doing dual core since the before the G5. That didn't produce a Dual Core G4 for us though. I think it's going to happen, just not that fast, and I'm still interested in THT's answer to the drawbacks of dual cores. We may be better off without them.



    Drawbacks to dual core? Compared to what -- dual chips? There are none, the dual core chip will be better in all respects except (possibly) price. There might be some edge conditions where 2 FSBs is better than one, but since the FSB performance exceeds the memory subsystem performance by quite a bit that is a moot point... and dwarfed by the improvement in inter-core communication by putting them on the same chip. How much better a dual core chip is will also depend on the details of its design -- there are many possible configurations.
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  • Reply 54 of 102
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    Surely you must realize that ALL technologies have drawbacks. This should not surprise anyone here.



    Sure there will be applications upon which a dual core chip will bomb on. These are likely to be bandwidth hungery usages. But in generally the chips will be a win for the average user. Especially at the lower end where it would be possible to have a dual processor iMac.



    Of course knowing Apple that dual processor iMac will still be coupled to the slowest GPU out there. The point is this technology will offer considerable advantages. Apples OS already makes good use of multiprocessors with wide spread usage there will be even more incentive to craft software to use the technology.



    I don't see SMP as a solution to the frequency scaling issue, but I do see it as a direction in which computing has to move to.



    Dave





    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    I don't think the very next processor will be Dual core, and I'm not sold on how great dual core is anyway. I think THT recently mentioned some of the drawbacks to Dual core although I could not find his post. Maybe he would be kind enough to go over some of the drawbacks of Dual core processors again.



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  • Reply 55 of 102
    wizard69wizard69 Posts: 13,377member
    There will always be situations where somebody might be better off with a different technology. That is a fact of life, serving those situations is what gives life to less than mainstream hardware.



    If the dual cores are as some descriptions detail (all of which are rumors by the way) then the vast majority of Mac useres will benefit greatly. The big trick for Apple would be to get such hardware into the hands of as many useres as possible. It is the wide adoption of SMP and thus software developed for it, that will allow the hardware to shine. Apple though does have an advantage here as other systems and the associated software are not as heavly optimized for SMP.



    Apple other advantage is that they will be able to offer systems at very competitve prices if the wish with respect to intel systems. More likely in Apples case they will go for obscene profits, they never seem to learn here. Depending on exactly how IBM designs the dual core chip they could end up with a processor cheaper to produce than any of the single core i86 processors. Its a die area thing and the current 970 is very small. A bit of optimization and a few tweaks and I could see an extremely competitive offering.



    Dave





    Quote:

    Originally posted by onlooker

    IBM has been doing dual core since the before the G5. That didn't produce a Dual Core G4 for us though. I think it's going to happen, just not that fast, and I'm still interested in THT's answer to the drawbacks of dual cores. We may be better off without them.



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  • Reply 56 of 102
    ishawnishawn Posts: 364member
    It'd be cool to have an iMusic. The new stereo.

    Integration with Bose speakers for a small, but robust sound integration with the iPod, chargable, and an AM/FM radio player with XM radio support.



    Ohhh...so sexy.
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  • Reply 57 of 102
    randycat99randycat99 Posts: 1,919member
    Well obviously the next big step is going to be PPC Cell architecture going into a Mac! ...mark my words... Pretty soon (ok, maybe not "soon"), the thing to brag about will be how many CPU cores you are packin' (and I don't mean just 1 vs. 2), instead of how many Ghz or the number that follows a "G" family name.
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  • Reply 58 of 102
    thttht Posts: 6,016member
    I haven't mentioned anything about the drawbacks of dual-cores. They have been the future for a long time coming. I've only tried to correct the impression that Freescale has a dual-core G4 available now. It's still a year away. In fact, the odds are pretty good that IBM will have a dual-core 970 way before Freescale will.



    I think there is a small chance of the next Power Mac having a dual-core 970. Small chance. If not next rev, then the one after that.
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  • Reply 59 of 102
    After hearing far too much about polls of "likely voters"



    There could be a very positive benefit to both Apple and their

    loyal consumers by running a survey poll of "likely buyers"

    This should include both current Apple Computer purchasers

    as well as iPod purchasers.



    A wish list poll directed at those who have already purchased an Apple product might just shake the trees enough to bring about those improvements that we here are hoping for.



    It seems logical that the iPod purchasers are also going to want

    superior gaming features while the mom and pop home users

    just want something easy to use and the pros want it ALL!



    They could learn a lot from simple questions.



    WHEN ARE YOU EXPECTING TO PURCHASE A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM?

    WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

    DESKTOP OR POWERBOOK

    USER CATAGORY, HOME, STUDENT, HOBBYIST, PROFESSIONAL?

    MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUREMENTS YOU EXPECT IN YOUR SYSTEM?

    ARE YOU CONSIDERING A MEDIA CENTER?

    YOUR TOP 3 APPLICATIONS?

    YOUR TOP 3 GAMES?

    HOURS PER DAY IN USE?

    WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN?

    FREEFORM COMMENTS?
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  • Reply 60 of 102
    Quote:

    Originally posted by FallenFromTheTree

    After hearing far too much about polls of "likely voters"



    There could be a very positive benefit to both Apple and their

    loyal consumers by running a survey poll of "likely buyers"

    This should include both current Apple Computer purchasers

    as well as iPod purchasers.



    A wish list poll directed at those who have already purchased an Apple product might just shake the trees enough to bring about those improvements that we here are hoping for.



    It seems logical that the iPod purchasers are also going to want

    superior gaming features while the mom and pop home users

    just want something easy to use and the pros want it ALL!



    They could learn a lot from simple questions.



    WHEN ARE YOU EXPECTING TO PURCHASE A NEW COMPUTER SYSTEM?

    WHAT IS YOUR BUDGET?

    DESKTOP OR POWERBOOK

    USER CATAGORY, HOME, STUDENT, HOBBYIST, PROFESSIONAL?

    MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUREMENTS YOU EXPECT IN YOUR SYSTEM?

    ARE YOU CONSIDERING A MEDIA CENTER?

    YOUR TOP 3 APPLICATIONS?

    YOUR TOP 3 GAMES?

    HOURS PER DAY IN USE?

    WHAT SYSTEMS DO YOU CURRENTLY OWN?

    FREEFORM COMMENTS?




    I think thats a very good idea
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