WWDC: The aftermath

A day after the event it's time to look at the announcements in the cold light of day. There has been a lot written about it, some of which I think is strange, some of it great.

First of all, let's just recap what this conference is called - Worldwide Developers Conference. Note the word 'developers'.

A few people have said to me and I've read all over the place that they were a bit disappointed blah blah. Why? We pretty much knew what was coming, it was always going to be a preview of Leopard and almost a guaranteed announcement that the Intel transition was over, with the introduction of the new Mac Pro and Xserves - and that's exactly what happened.

It's not a consumer show, that's Paris expo next month. So, yes it would have been lovely to have had a new iPod nano, an iPhone, a media centre Mac etc. etc. but the fact that they weren't announced isn't disappointing, it's realistic. If Apple released these amazing products at every show, they'd run out of them pretty quickly.

We still did get some amazing products though. The Mac Pros are awesome machines, really. Incredibly powerful, the likes of which haven't really been available to the everyday consumer before (OK maybe not everyday consumer, you will need the deficit of a small country to be able to get a highly specced one - I got it up to £11,ooo maxing everything out with dual 30" displays!!).

And Leopard. I was genuinely impressed by Time Machine particularly and also Spaces and the other features mentioned. Steve did say that these were just the things they were showing now, it's not the complete new feature list, it's just a sample. There's more to come people!

So when I read articles like this one over at Stuff magazine, it makes me wonder why they bother. Time Machine and Spaces are impressive and innovative. I mean, what more do they want? The hanging gardens of Babylon? Heards of wildebeest sweeping majestically across the desktop perhaps?

People expect too much. Of course, Apple are partly to blame for this with the hype that's generated with their 'special' events but people also blow it out of proportion.

I'm pleased with what we saw and excited about what we didn't see. At least some people agree with me. There's much more to come from Leopard over the next 6 months and for the consumer gadget freaks, I'm sure that Paris expo in September will usher in the new iPods and whatever else they have up their sleeves. Personally, I can't wait for an 8GB nano.

Far more worryingly, people are talking about the possibility that Steve Jobs is ill or maybe losing his touch. I'd say that's way more reason for investors to get jittery. I'm reserving judgement on this one but watch this space...

Updated: typos.

Tags: apple, wwdc, leopard, mac, osx, steve jobs, mac pro, xserve, ipod, opinion, analysis, review, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

Apple intros quad 64-bit Mac Pro, Xserve

Apple has announed the Mac Pro (pictured left) with two dual-core Intel Xeon "Woodcrest" processors at up to 3GHz. That's a total of four cores for a supremely powerful 64-bit workstation, supposedly twice as fast as it's G5 predecessor.

The system accommodates up to 2TB of storage, 16GB of RAM, two SuperDrives (that can be used simultaneously) and up to four GeForce 7300 GT graphics cards or optionally ATI Radeon X1900 XT and NVIDIA Quadro FX 4500 cards are available.

Wow. You're going to have to be doing some serious stuff with one of these to even touch the sides.

The new Xserves come similarly equipped with two dual-core Xeon processors at up 3GHz, for that happy quad-core feeling. With up to 2.25TB storage, two eight-lane PCI Express slots, dual onboard Gigabit Ethernet, a combo drive and a claimed 5x performance boost over the Xserve G5 that all fits in a 1U rackmount, this is a killer server.

What more can you say, I think the specs speak for themselves, these are some seriously powerful, industry-leading computers. We'll see in due course when people start doing some benchmarks.

Check out the Apple site for the full details:

Mac Pro
Xserve

Tags: apple, wwdc, mac, mac pro, xserve, xeon, woodcrest, 64-bit, quad, intel, tech, technology, gadget, schmadget, scb

Apple WWDC rumour roundup

OK, so it's that time of year again. Apple rumours abound with the prospect of the Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) and a Steve Jobs keynote speech on the 7th August only a few days away.

The rumour mill has been pumping them out as you would expect, so below is a summary of the main threads.

1. Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard
   
   OK so this isn't really a rumour, we know there's going to be a showing of the next version of the Apple operating system but what we don't know is what the update will include. Virtualisation? Enhanced finder, spotlight, iChat and safari? New iCal? More on the details over at AppleInsider.
   
   
2. Mac Pro and Xserve?
   
   The last remaining PowerPC offerings from Apple are due to be launched with new Intel processors. But which ones? Xenon for the Xserves and Core 2 Duo for the Mac Pros?
   
   
3. Macbook Pro and iMac updated with Core 2 Duo?
   
   With the launch of the new Intel Core 2 Duo chips only a week ago, it seems likely that Apple will go for an update to the higher end computers currently running the Intel Core Duo chips. But will they announce it at WWDC or later, maybe at Paris expo?
   
   
4. New cinema displays?
   
   We're into the less likely bracket here as far as I'm concerned but it is possible that with new Mac Pros, we'd also get new cinema displays. Built in iSight and IR ports for Apple remotes?
   
   
5. iPhone? iChat mobile?
   
   OK, now we're talking. The long-rumoured, highly anticipated, so-called "iPhone" has seen a lot of attention lately on the rumour mill. Apple have even eluded to the fact that they're making one. We just don't know when they'll announce it. With WWDC traditionally focussing more on Macs, maybe this is a little too soon but you never know!
   
   
6. iPod updates?
   
   Neither the nanos or full-sized iPods have been updated since they were introduced last year. It's surely only a matter of time before the nano at least gets bumped up to 8GB. I must admit, I've been holding off buying a nano and sticking with my 4g iPod until they release one with higher capacity. As for the 30 and 60GB iPods, we may see a slight capacity bump but the rumours go that the highly anticipated "real" video iPod, possibly with touch screen, has been delayed until later in the year or maybe even early next year.
   
   I think iPods may come at the more consumer orientated Paris expo in September rather than here but frankly, a baboon's guess is as good as mine.

No doubt Apple will surprise us all and announce something no-one expected. That's the beauty of it, you never know what they've got up their sleeve (can anyone say iTablet?). I can't wait!

Add your comments below and let us know what you think Apple is going to say and do next week!

Tags: apple, rumours, wwdc, mac, osx, leopard, iphone, ipod, macbook, macbook pro, imac