Applelinks Tech Web Reader - Thursday, August 28, 2008
After the Core 2 Duo chip, what's next for Apple laptops?
What CPU will Apple laptops use after the Core 2 Duo?
MacDrought: 4 Months with No New Macs
iPods, MacBooks, iMacs up next on Apple's 2008 roadmap
The Mac at 25: Andy Hertzfeld Looks Back
Psystar Countersues Apple
Google May Let Users Comment On, Rearrange Search Results
CrossOver Strikes Out
Samsung samples SSDs for SCCs [Small, Cheap Computers]
PC Mag: Mozilla's 'Ubiquity' Ties Content Together
The Mac Night Owl: Wow This Computer is Really Running Slow Today!
After the Core 2 Duo chip, what's next for Apple laptops?
Computerworld's Dan Turner says:
It's always a bit of a delicate dance, running the laptop division at a computer company - certainly at one that's as vertically integrated as Apple, and certainly when the next generation of the company's popular MacBook and MacBook Pro lines are being prepped for release.
You want to make a powerful, full-featured laptop, but not one that obviates your company's desktops. In the past, when competent CPUs ran large and hot, and solid graphics required large and dedicated boards, this wasn't much of an issue. But based on rumblings about Intel's new laptop CPUs and various low-power graphics solutions, we may be seeing the last signs of a tipping point - to use a marketing term - after which time laptops may be all most people need.......
Core i7 [Inrel's next laptop chip that was code-named "Nehalem"] and Calpella [the next Intel portable chipset after the current Centrino 2/Montevina and the older Santa Rosa that is still holding the fort in current MacBooks and MacBook Pros].... promises huge advances over past models, with Intel's QuickPath replacing the front-side bus (FSB) and hooking the CPU straight to the system RAM; eight virtual cores via Hyper-Threading...... Calpella is supposed to unleash the Core i7 goodness described above, plus support newer technologies such as Blu-Ray, WiMax and solid-state hard drives.
Whether Apple will use the full Calpella platform, though, is not certain....
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5799vh
What CPU will Apple laptops use after the Core 2 Duo?
Product Reviews' Peter says:
Apple's range of laptops has been using the Core 2 Duo chip and it has certainly been doing the job very well. However Computer World (sic) has asked what Apple will choose to use next once they feel that the Core 2 Duo CPU has outlived itself.
Apple seem to launch new products very quickly, so it will not be that far away until we see a new MacBook and MacBook Pro on the market. Will Apple decide to stick with the trusted Intel Core 2 Duo or will the new laptops demand something different.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5gxecv
MacDrought: 4 Months with No New Macs
Low End Mac's Dan Knight says:
I can't remember the last time Apple went this long without introducing a new model. Here are introduction dates for the current line:
Mac mini, August 7, 2007
Mac Pro, Jan. 8, 2008
MacBook Air, Jan. 15, 2008
MacBook, Feb. 28, 2008
MacBook Pro, Feb. 28, 2008
iMac, April 28, 2008
It used to be that you could count on Apple updating its least expensive consumer desktop once a year as a minimum. The eMac, introduced in April 2002, was updated like clockwork every 12 months until it was discontinued. But the Mac mini went 11 months between revisions, and it's now been over 12 months since the current version was introduced.
Apple's notebook lineup is overdue for an upgrade. The MacBook Air has had prices slashed for the 1.8 GHz and Solid State Drive upgrades, but to date there's no sign of faster CPUs or higher storage capacity. At the very least, expect 1.8 GHz as the base speed and a 120 GB or 160 GB hard drive as standard, along with a 128 GB SSD.
But when?....
Apple needs a refresh to appear competitive....
Just what can we expect from Apple from September through November?
Mac mini, Sept. 2008. Finally moves to Santa Rosa chipset, X3100 graphics, and 800 MHz system bus with 2.0 and 2.4 GHz CPUs......
MacBook Pro, Sept. 2008. Possible addition of smaller (12" to 13.3") model......
MacBook, Sept. 2008. Speed bump....
MacBook Air, Sept./Oct. 2008. Speed bump to 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz......
iMac, Nov. 2008. Speed bump. Possible quad-core build-to-order option.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/musings/08mm/mac-drought.html
iPods, MacBooks, iMacs up next on Apple's 2008 roadmap
Appleinsider's Kasper Jade says:
With a multinational iPhone 3G launch now successfully under its belt, electronics maker Apple Inc. is preparing to close out the year with a final phase of product introductions that will stretch over the course of the next two months.
Included on the company's roadmap are new iPods, overhauled notebooks, and refreshed iMacs, according to people familiar with the situation. They say availability of those products should follow that particular progression, with a handful of ancillary announcements staggered in between....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5zoq5w
The Mac at 25: Andy Hertzfeld Looks Back
O'Reilly.com's James Turner has posted a long and wide-ranging interview with pioneer Mac developer Andy Hertzfeld. The interview can also be downloaded as a video file - runtime 25 minutes and change.
Hertzfeld was one of the original designers of the Macintosh and author of the book, Revolution in the Valley, which chronicles the saga; he currently works at Google as a Software Engineer, and comments on the first quarter-century of the Mac.
A few snippets:
"the Macintosh OS of today is not the OS that I helped write, although certainly a lot of its DNA is in there"
"when the Mac came out and for two years thereafter it was at least four or five years ahead of Windows and possibly could have taken the place of Windows if it was openly licensed...."
"there are a few elements that were taken directly from the original Macintosh that weren't present in the next OS like the menu bar; the original - the NeXT OS didn't have the menu bar and when they created OS X they brought back some original Mac elements."
"the Mac wouldn't have happened without Steve [Jobs]; doing something as unique and revolutionary as the Macintosh is really hard as you can tell by so few things like that ever coming out to the market. So it takes a unique individual. The Mac team was full of unique individuals and Steve was one of us. Steve is - Steve has his greatness and his flaws like all of us, but certainly his values and personality and persistence and determination and powers of persuasion and all the rest of it were a really key ingredient. So without Steve it would be unimaginably different to me."
"Steve made zero technical contributions. He's not a technical person, so sort of his main contribution was setting the goal, setting a very high goal, and then being really passionate about exceeding the expectations"
For the full report visit here:
http://news.oreilly.com/2008/08/the-mac-at-25-andy-hertzfeld-l.html
Psystar Countersues Apple
Tech.Yahoo.com blogger Christopher Null reports:
Macintosh clone company Psystar is attempting to fight the idea that it's preparing to cut and run with a quick buck earned from selling cheap knockoffs of Apple's popular computers. To wit: Faced with a lawsuit from the Cupertino monster, Psystar says it is prepared to fight and will countersue the company under a pair of Antitrust Acts, saying that Apple's restrictions and the tying of its OS to its own hardware are anticompetitive.
Specifically Psystar wants Apple's EULA invalidated and asks for monetary compensation, too.
For the full report visit here:
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/103815
Google May Let Users Comment On, Rearrange Search Results
IDG News Service's Juan Carlos Perez reports:
Google is considering allowing users of its search engine to tinker with query results by re-ranking them and commenting on them....
The company has already run public tests on its search-results pages that contain up and down arrows next to listed links, as well as buttons that allow users to append comments to results.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.macworld.com/article/135235/2008/08/google_search.html
CrossOver Strikes Out
Low End Mac's Frank Fox says:
CrossOver is an awesome idea - it lets you run Windows software without having to buy Windows. That is an offer that beats Parallels, VMWare Fusion, and Boot Camp.
Or at least it would beat them if it worked well.....
For the full commentary visit here:
http://lowendmac.com/ed/fox/08ff/crossover-strikes-out.html
Samsung samples SSDs for SCCs [Small, Cheap Computers]
The Register's Tony Smith reports:
Samsung has begun punting a compact 32GB solid-state drive card at makers of Small, Cheap Computers.
The SSD - which is also sampling in 8GB and 16GB versions - incorporates Samsung's multi-level cell (MLC) Flash chips. MLCs are usually held to be less responsive than single-level cell chips, but they're key to getting as much capacity as possible in a small space - ideal for SCCs, then, said Samsung.
For the full report visit here:
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2008/08/27/samsung_scc_ssds/
Google Gooses Apple's Safari With Gears Beta
CNet's Stephen Shankland reports:
As promised in May, Google has brought the open-source Gears technology to Apple's Safari, augmenting some browser abilities such as using Gears-tailored Web sites while offline.
The company announced a beta version of Gears for Safari (DMG file download link) on the Gears users mailing list Monday.....
For the full report visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/5spgem
PC Mag: Mozilla's 'Ubiquity' Ties Content Together
Mozilla Labs on Tuesday introduced a language-based add-on for its Firefox browser that lets users insert data into e-mails or navigate the Web without switching back and forth between multiple windows.
Ubiquity 0.1 is an "experiment into connecting the Web with language," Mozilla Lab's Aza Raskin wrote in a blog post. "Most people do not have an easy way to manage the vast resources of the Web to simplify their task at hand. For the most part they are left trundling between web sites, performing common tasks resulting in frustration and wasted time."
The prototype application is available for download now on the blog post.
To read more, go to:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2329026,00.asp
The Mac Night Owl: Wow This Computer is Really Running Slow Today!
I was patiently waiting on the phone, trying to make a service appointment with a company, when the receptionist came back on the phone and apologized for the delay. She fretted how her PC was taking forever to load the pages of their scheduling software, but finally managed, with further delays, to get me booked.
[Editor's note: similar experience at the pharmacy yesterday. Took five or six minutes to look up a price. Clerk speculated that the system might have "too many windos open." I bit my tongue and restrained myself that the probem was probably Windows."
Here's the URL for today's commentary:
http://tinyurl.com/5e8j4s
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