Apple Reveals Mac OS X 10.2, 17" iMac, Windows iPod 1073
The Address Book is now system-wide, accessible from many applications, and even has Bluetooth integration. Jobs dialed his cell phone via Address Book, and then when someone called him back on that phone, the computer popped up with the caller's name in Address Book. He had the option to pick up the phone or reply with a short text message.
iSync is a new system for synching your contacts and calendars with GPRS cell phones, Palms, and iPods; so Palms and cell phones are now a part of the digital hub. The iSync program shows you connected devices, and allows configuration of what to sync, and when. The demo showed a complete sync of an address book on the computer to the cell phone, again over Bluetooth. iSync will also allow integration with .mac to update your contacts and calendars between multiple computers, and will be available as a free download in September.
The Mail app now has much better searching and spam filtering, and inline QuickTime (no, that won't be abused ...).
Rendezvous will allow such things as automatic accessing of other's playlists in iTunes, accessing USB printers on the network, and more, with "zero configuration" (I hope there is some configuration, so I can opt in or out of such things). Epson, HP, and Lexmark will have Rendezvous-compatible printers. Jobs didn't mention any way to share USB printers between Mac OS and Mac OS X.
iChat, the new instant messaging program, and iCal, the new shared calendar program, can work with the $100-per-year .mac subscription, or with the free AOL IM account and any web server. iChat will use Rendezvous for finding local users, and shared calendars can be sent via iChat or mail. iCal will ship in September, as a free download.
Sherlock 3 has been completely rewritten, using Internet services (SOAP? XML-RPC?) instead of trying to parse HTML. The demo showed movie listings with embedded trailers, eBay searches with intelligently organized information and pictures, Google image searching, and a Yellow Pages search that knows your ZIP code and sorts by distance, and shows directions and maps.
iTunes 3 is out today, with new features such as rating songs, keeping track of how often songs are played, playing back all songs at the same volume, integration with audible.com, and "Smart Playlists" with rulesets so they are automatically populated (e.g., "25 most played songs", or "500 MB of songs where playcount is 0", to play songs you've never listened to). It is only available for Mac OS X, and requires registration with an email address.
For the iPod, Apple lowered prices on the 5GB and 10GB models ($299, $399), and introduced a 20GB model ($499). The 10GB and 20GB have a solid state scroll wheel, a door to protect the FireWire port, a remote control, and a case. The playlist counts, Smart Playlists, and audible.com integration sync between the iPod and iTunes. Sound volume check has also been added to the iPod. The new 10GB model is 7.692 percent thinner than the previous version.
Also added to the iPod, in addition to the contacts, is calendars, synched with iCal, so it can really act as a PDA for most people. Jobs also announced Windows versions of iPod, synching with musicmatch and including a FireWire 6-to-4 pin cable.
The new iMac has a 17" widescreen display at 1440x900, with an NVIDIA GeForce4 MX, G4/800, and 80GB hard drive.
Jobs also noted that there are 2.5 million Mac OS X users, that 77 percent of owners of new Macs keep Mac OS X as the primary OS, and that they estimate there will be 5 million Mac OS X users by the end of the year, representing 20% of all Mac users using the new OS in the first 24 months.
Apple showed some new ads in the "Switch" campaign, including a student who lost her paper on Windows, a student whose CDs get messed up in his bag (although they didn't point out that he can use iPod under Windows now), and a comedian who ended his commercial with, "My name is Will Ferrell ... and I'm a porn actor."
so I have to pay? (Score:2, Troll)
Now I have to pay to get an updated version?
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:2, Informative)
If you walk into an Apple store you'll get it for free, or if you really want to download it (through Software Update or otherwise) that will probably work as well.
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:3, Informative)
My apologies for shooting off my mouth and "assuming facts not in evidence".
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:2, Informative)
-dair
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:3, Flamebait)
The main reason they still included Mac OS 9 was simply that a lot of people buying macs also had a Mac in the past and those people want to be able to still run older programs, which haven't (yet) been ported to Mac OS X, on their new computer. Backward compatibility, you know.
Finally, yes, the current/previous versions of Mac OS X are/were quite a bit slower than Mac OS 9 (although not in all regards, e.g. disk performance is already a lot better than in 9; it's mainly the GUI responsiveness imho), but otoh Mac OS X keeps getting faster and faster (and I hope 10.2 will solve this, for me, final issue). I for one am glad they first worked on stability and only then on optimizations. The way they're doing it now, you can really use the computer under OS X (I've barely booted in Mac OS 9 anymore since even Mac OS X Public Beta); if they'd done it the other way round, you'd be bitching even more I think.
Jonas
Re:so I have to pay? (Score:5, Funny)
you make some very good points.
Don't start thinking that way... (Score:2, Troll)
Re:No. (Score:2)
For instance, I have that f&cking beach-ball cursor pop up sometimes for 15 seconds for no apparent reason. I have 384 Megs of RAM, which should be sufficient to run 2 apps at the same time.
OS X feels slow and unresponsive sometimes. I have no data to support this, but OS X users know what I mean when comparing it to OS 9.
It just feels like a beta product to me. I am upset that I have to pay to get the next upgrade version. This is NOT a new OS, this is a
Re:No. (Score:2)
I think you might look into what's wrong with your system before you jump to the conclusion that the OS must be faulty.
Re:No. (Score:5, Funny)
PowerBook G4
Everything Configured correctly.
Still have the beachball.
Quietly, I weep.
Re:YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:YOU DO NOT HAVE TO PAY FULL PRICE (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorry, but this simply isn't true (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah I thought so (Score:2, Interesting)
Umm (Score:2)
Re:Umm (Score:2)
http://www.apple.com/imac/
the apple site art is now 10.2 widgets. (Score:2, Redundant)
Slashdot look/feel (Score:2, Funny)
M@
New iMac Designed With Ancient Mathematical Secret (Score:5, Interesting)
resolution of the 17" iMac as 1440x900. This is a 16:10 display ratio, which is about as
close as any monitor I know of gets to the
Golden Ratio [surrey.ac.uk], (1 + sqrt(5)/2), or approximately 1.618.
Clearly Apple is trying to channel Pyramid Power [geocities.com]
to sell more computers.
Re:New iMac Designed With Ancient Mathematical Sec (Score:5, Funny)
HDTV Tip: (Score:4, Funny)
Re:HDTV Tip: (Score:5, Interesting)
Gives them 90 pixels for a title bar, without it interfering with the display area of the HDTV image.
those mac commercials almost have me hypnotized... (Score:2)
Re:those mac commercials almost have me hypnotized (Score:3, Informative)
Do not buy a PowerMac until the new models come out -- either in mid August [thinksecret.com] or early September [seyboldseminars.com].
Pictures... (Score:2)
All of a sudden this [danamania.com] picture I did months ago seems all the more relevant...
a grrl & her server [danamania.com]
So what? (Score:3, Funny)
Bah, I can get Windows XP for only $99 and get thousands of bugs^H^H^H^Hfeatures for my money!
Cheaper to Upgrade (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Cheaper to Upgrade (Score:2, Informative)
Current 10.1 users on old machines are stuck with the $129 price.
Seems rather odd they're actually making you pay for upgrading something new you've just bought. Usually Apple floats a 3 month grace period. Figure if you're buying a new machine, the OS should be new as well. Guess not.
isync = syncML (Score:2)
regards
john jones
Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:3, Insightful)
This is all stuff that should exist under Windows, but doesn't. Apple has, after so many years, arrived at the point of equality (and now usurption) to everything else in the market - they can only produce better and better products.
Yay.
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:5, Interesting)
What the hell are you talking about? My PC is quite happy to talk to my IPaq over Bluetooth today.
This is all stuff that should exist under Windows, but doesn't. Apple has, after so many years, arrived at the point of equality (and now usurption) to everything else in the market - they can only produce better and better products.
Yeah, but if any of this stuff was built into Windows wouldn't the same people on this thread be whining about how Microsoft is abusing its monopoly power to shove software no one wants down peoples throats and to drive competitors out of business ? Need I remind you that Microsoft is currently being sued for including a web browser and media player in the OS - nevermind any of the more advanced features.
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:5, Insightful)
Bluetooth has been around for about 3 years now and nobody uses it. Why you may ask? Because it has no practical use. I recall a demo Bill Gates did many years ago just before Win2K was coming out where he selected a bunch of songs from Windows Media Player and it sent them to his car via 802.11 and then somebody got in the car, turned it on, and be damned if they weren't playing those songs. Wasn't that neat! Funny though, 2+ years latter and me using Windows XP, yet I still can't do that. Why? Because it's easier to just burn my mp3's onto a music cd, or (if i want lots of tunes) get a car mp3 player. You can buy these now, I know of no products that I can beam songs too and play (other than installing a PC in my car... no thanks).
Scott McNealy (or however you spell his name) from Sun does this kind of stuff all the time too, a mythical refrigerator with a computer in it and a barcode scanner (which I can't buy) will scan all the stuff in my fridge and put what I need on the shopping list of my Palm. WOW! That is so freakin' cool! But a year and a half later, I can do no such thing. Again, why? Because it's butt-loads cheaper and easier to... wait for it... open the damn door and look! How many bar code readers is it going to take to read ALL the UPC's in my fridge, or worse yet, am I going to have to point all the UPCs at one or five readers... thanks anyway, I'll just open the door.
The point of this now rantish response is to say that 0.1% of these gee whiz tech demos are going to turn into products. Just because Steve Jobs is on stage doesn't mean it isn't vapor ware. The point is to make you think "just how many streets ahead Apple are" and make you also think "This is all stuff that should exist under Windows, but doesn't." Guess what, it doesn't exist on a Mac either. Senior Jobs just got one of his engineers to make a BlueTooth cellphone that could talk with his address book thingy. I doubt Nokia is going to.
Until Jobs, Gates, or Nealy can get on stage and say "This is the Nokia 3425, Ford Tunester, and Kenmore Neat-n-Shit and you can go to the store and buy them right now." These demo's are just Marketing/PR to make all the geeks love them.
It works too...
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:5, Informative)
I have a Bluetooth cell phone. It's an Ericsson something-or-other; don't recall the specific model number. It has a phone book in it, like all cell phones. If I want to store a number in it, I have to key it in, and then key in the name, and then save it. Mildly annoying.
Instead of doing that, I just Bluetooth contacts from my PDA over to the phone. It's wireless, so there's nothing to carry around. And it works between the PDA (an iPaq) and the phone (an Ericsson) with no special setup or anything. If I have a contact in my PDA, I can put it in my cell phone in about three seconds.
But there's more. I also have a Bluetooth headset. It sits in my ear and I can talk on my cell phone, without dangly wires. It's a pain in the ass to get in your car while you're on a cell phone, because you have to thread the wired headset through the seat belt just right, or risk getting all tangled up. Me, I just carry my phone in my pocket, no muss, no fuss.
I also use Bluetooth to sync my PDA to my laptop. No more serial cables or cradles to mess with.
My friend has a Bluetooth inkjet printer for his PC. He lives in Sydney, so I don't know if that stuff is available here in the US or not. But I was there when I bought it. Pull it out of the box, plug it into the wall socket for power. About three clicks and the PC found it, and two clicks later he was printing. It was amazingly cool, and useful too!
As a short-range peripheral interconnect, Bluetooth has a lot going for it. Bluetooth support under Windows is great when it works, but it requires third-party software and isn't as transparent as it could be. I'm really looking forward to iSync, because it'll let me extend my little Bluetooth LAN to include my iBook (my laptop of choice; the ThinkPad belongs to my employer) and my iMac at home.
Don't poo-poo Bluetooth, or any other new technology, out of hand just because you don't know anybody personally who uses it. Just as you're saying that it isn't automatically cool, I'm saying that it isn't automatically useless, either.
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:3, Informative)
Is this good enough for you? Look at www.apple.com/isync . It lists several cell phones that work with isync.
The idea is a great one. Enter the addresses/phone numbers/schedule on your Mac, then automatically sync with you iPod (yes, iPod)/Palm/Cell phone. This is very, very cool stuff. Made me think about getting a new cell phone for a half-second.
-jon
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Good For Apple, Good For Us (Score:5, Informative)
So I really don't know what the hell you think you're talking about.
MPEG-4 Stream (Score:5, Interesting)
I was sitting at home using the MPEG-4 stream on my iBook 500 over 802.11b through my Linksys base station. The video didn't hiccup once, even as I walked around. I'm impressed. The picture wasn't huge, but it was pretty good quality, even viewed at 2x size. There may be hope for streaming video yet.
iSync looks pretty cool, too. Next time I upgrade my phone, I want to get one with Bluetooth so I can use it. I've tried using a Palm, but I don't need something that big. One of those Sony Ericsson phones would do me just fine for what I want a palm for. Contacts, calander, to do... I'm glad that there is an open standard (SyncML) to do it.
Oh, one more thing...
The 20GB iPod is not the same size as the 10GB model, it is a little thicker than the 5GB model.
Re:MPEG-4 Stream (Score:2)
Cost of 17" Imac (Score:2, Informative)
Question (Score:2)
Neat. Ummm, at the risk of sounding stupid, what is a 6-to-4 pin cable?
It's just a pity that my major source of bandwidth is at work and they'd never ever let me open up my machine to stick in a firewire card :(
Re:Question (Score:5, Informative)
Some firewire interfaces, notably Sony's iLink and most laptops, don't provide power to the ports. These normally take a four-pin cable rather than a six-pin cable. Six-pins carry the full power.
Basically, he's saying that it's easier to plug in your Sony DV gear now.
Cheers,
Ian
Re:Question (Score:4, Informative)
So an adapter's needed for the Windows version else they may not be able to connect.
4-6 pin cables explaned (Score:2, Informative)
Is there a plan for these version numbers? (Score:2, Funny)
8^P
Re:Is there a plan for these version numbers? (Score:5, Informative)
the problem was, it worked so well they couldn't increment N any more, because "System V" was the standard (and thus whatever came next wouldn't be).
so the went to "System V Release 2" and got through about SVR4 before that got "stuck" as a "standard" with the various splits and unification efforts in the unix community. so they did "SVR4.1" and so on. then they started adding letters when that got stuck.
many commercial unixes will still tell you they run a "SVR4.3x" (i think) kernel. it wasn't until SCO (the then-owners of the original Unix strain) did UnixWare 7 (i think) that they incremented to SVR5.
just a bit of Unix history.
If they are charging 1 dollar per feature.... (Score:2)
1) Would Apple let users to substract one dollar per bug as they are discovered ?
2) Would Microsoft start paying their users to use Longhorn ?
3) Somebody please tell me why Linux is free ?
Flamebait/OffTopic/Troll..Is that all you got???
No iMac switch to DVD+RW (Score:2)
I think I've mentioned before - I'd love to get a new iMac, but lack of software is holding me back. Not the generalised moan you often hear about, but three specific areas:
Sadly, I have to conclude the iMac is still not a viable machine for me. Damned shame - I'd love to get one otherwise.
Cheers,
Ian
The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent (Score:5, Informative)
- iPod upgrades and price cuts.
- iPod for Windows
- Jaguar before Labor Day
- All the new software tools
- Wide-screen iMac!
- Price cut on the old Superdrive iMac (though that's the original price pre-hike)
- iSync - way cool
-
Bad:
- The new iMac is still PC100/800 MHz
- No "upgrade edition" of Jaguar. A $49 or around that version of Jaguar that would only install over an existing MacOS X install would be good. I should get some bonus for being an early user.
-
- No support for either USB 2.0 or Firewire 2 yet. Introducing the new iMac with that would have been nice.
Indifferent:
- The iPod accessory kits (pretty much all available in the 3rd party market already)
- The pricing of the new iMac
- The lack of changes to the other price points (I was expecting across-the-board iMac price cuts, but no biggie)
Re:The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent (Score:5, Interesting)
Yesterday, I was a proud and happy mac owner. I really enjoyed it, and I thought the value was excellent. I was excited about the new software, the new hardware, and just the whole new approach that apple takes to computing. (Before I bought the iBook, I was primarily FreeBSD + M$ for games). I bought a new digital camera, and I already have over a thousand great pictures in iPhoto. I have 4GB of music in iTunes. All my friends use my iTools email address, and read my iTools webpages. I was learning how to develop with Cocoa. I was exploring the Unix guts, and getting to know it quite well. Even after months of use, I still thought the iBook was fun and cool -- previous laptops and other toys quickly became routine, but this was still a thrill.
Today, I -still- use iPhoto, iTunes, and the development tools. However, my attitude has shifted. Before I was totally hooked by the software and the hardware, and I was very happy and excited about it. I read the apple rumours sites, and really enjoyed this new approach. Now, after today, I'm -still- hooked by all of the software, but now I feel bitter and slightly resentful about that fact. iTunes, iPhoto, and all the rest are still excellent programs that I really don't want to give up. Now, as I say, I resent that fact rather than relish it.
The first hit is free I guess. It's very evil, what they did to me. They got me hooked, and then used it against me. *sigh*. I'll probably buy the update AND pay for the iTools/.Mac/whatever, but grudgingly. Because I'm hooked. I suppose it's my own fault, since companies exist purely to make profit and I conveniently ignored that while I played with my shiny new toys. Ah well. It was fun for a while I guess.
Re:The Good, the Bad, and the Indifferent (Score:3, Funny)
Let me get this straight...you got a free email address, switched all your friends and family and mailing lists over to that address, and now you're upset that it's going away? Why did you switch them all over to that address in the first place? If you aren't willing to pay for and use an email account, then that's the risk you take. As Jobs said in the keynote, things are a lot different now than they were a year ago. The free email addresses now cost money, and no one can just afford to give them away. As I see it, you built your life on this house of cards, and now you're upset that you have to pay someone so it won't fall down. I'm sorry, but Apple can't be expected to just give things away indefinitely.
Then I started using it, and got fully hooked by the bundled apps. When I bought it, it was all "self-contained". I didn't need to go out and buy *anything*, which is the only reason I could justify spending CAN$2500 on the "budget" notebook.
Guess what? Your iBook is still self-contained! You don't need to buy anything to keep using it! The mac.com email address is something external to the iBook, not part of the iBook. And no one is forcing you to upgrade to 10.2 if you don't want to. But if you do, you will get a whole bunch of new features that will make your life easier. In fact, you know this already, because you talked about how great the features were when you bought your new iBook! So, in short, you're complaining because a company has proven to you that they are very good at making applications that you use and enjoy, and now they are making more applications that you will probably use and enjoy, and they would like to charge you a nominal fee for the work they put into those applications. Pardon me if I'm not welling up with tears of sympathy.
It is a great operating system, on very cool hardware, but to me it just isn't worth what they want me to pay for it. The reason I'm bitter is that they've made me discover that after I started paying for it.
When you bought the computer, you didn't realize that companies charge for substantial operating system updates? Maybe you should stick with simpler devices that don't force you into such dilemmas. For example, you could just buy a car...wait, just as a warning: You do realize that you will have to pay for gas and oil and service for the car, don't you? Don't want to you get caught unawares and get all upset.
That makes absolutely no sense to me. (Score:3, Interesting)
Now, as I see it, what you're trying to do is avoid becoming an addicted zealot.
That is understandable. I loathe myself for lusting after a 20gb iPod and a 17" iMac or a 23" Cinema HD Display.
But... it almost seems that you're overcompensating in your actions.
"Hm, I don't want to be prey to AppleLust and AppleZealotry, so I'll get rid of my Mac altogether."
Is this like losing weight through purging? Or controlling sexual desire through abstinence?
The weakness is in you, not in Apple. Getting rid of the Apple hardware doesn't remove the fact that you still have that weakness in the first place.
The difference (for me) is that I recognize I have the weakness (AppleLust), but as much as I *want*, I don't let it compel me to instant spot purchases or decisions.
Pretty Happy (Score:2)
I watched the MPEG4 stream with QuickTime 6 on OSX... it was fantastic- no stuttering, no hiccups, the sound was good and the quality of the movie itself was great.
iAi, iai, iai (Score:4, Funny)
Gee, the 'i' is gnothing like kde or gnome or gnu (Score:4, Funny)
everything is drawn out in the pc world
if it isn't one thing it is another
mac.com email still free? (Score:2)
am i looking in the wrong place?
Re:mac.com email still free? (Score:3, Informative)
To me that is == no more email for us
Stupid 17"..... (Score:2)
A small side-note : GCC 3 (Score:5, Interesting)
I found this interesting, as i had heard that the bulk of the linux distributions had not yet managed to migrate to GCC 3. Neat to see Apple is staying on top of this whole UNIX-technology thing
Re:A small side-note : GCC 3 (Score:5, Informative)
On Mac OS X, things depend on one very large gcc extension - "Objective C" (an object-oriented extension to C, conceptually similar to C++, but, unlike C++, actually good.), rather than lots of small ones. Changes to ObjC seem to be integrated in large chunks, driven only by Apple and GNUStep, so a cutting-edge gcc tends to be required to get the latest, Apple/GNUStep critical changes. There is little dpendency on particular gcc optimisations in the darwin kernel - hence, while darwin performance may be lower than Linux, you don't get a week-long flamefest on LKML and gcc-list whenever gcc changes something like you do with Linux.
Re:So what other unix goodies do they have? (Score:3, Informative)
Also, the Mac OS development environment (which includes updates to NeXTStep's really-quite-impressive development environment, Interface Maker and Project Builder, full API docs etc) is a free download. I believe it's included on the harddrive (as an installable package) on new machines.
Your best bet is to check developer.apple.com [apple.com]. Signing up as a developer is free, although you have to pay $700+ to get stuff like advance betas of the OS, WWDC proceedings on DVD.
Re:So what other unix goodies do they have? (Score:3, Informative)
10.1
----
- Perl 5.6.0 is included in the base install, with a fairly minimal library set. Perl is at
- Niether Python nor Tcl/Tk are included with 10.1 although both are available from community sites in both source and installer formats.
- GCC is not included in the 10.1 base install, but instead in the "Developer Tools" installation. If you buy a new machine you won't get the Dev Tools in the box, but you can register with Apple as a developer (for free, the basic developer membership) and download an ISO of the CD for free. The dev tools also include ProjectBuilder and InterfaceBuilder (showing their NeXT inheritance).
- Their "clumsy" Terminal emulator is the old NeXT terminal, and is about as xterm compatible as I need (and far better than many terminals I've tried over the years). I conclude that you haven't tried it and are simply guessing that you won't like it (if I'm wrong I apologize and I'd love to know what you think is missing from Terminal). That said, if you want it you can get xterm prebuilt (along with a full X install from source or binary) from the Fink project (http://fink.sourceforge.net). apt-get to your heart's content.
Jaguar (10.2)
-------------
- Perl 5.6.1 is included. Python is included (not sure about version). Ruby is included. Not sure if Tcl/Tk is included, but again its almost sure to be available from community sites.
- Terminal is reported improved even more. See http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/unix.html
- All the free dev tools (including GCC3) will be available as a part of Jaguar, probably as a separate download again.
As for the rest of it... Well, the free dev tools are very good. I suspect coming from a Linux world they will meet your needs. Some folks prefer the CodeWarrior dev tools which still require separate purchase. Mostly these are folks from Mac backgrounds (including myself) who have used CW for years and like it.
To find out what's included in the Darwin (UNIX) layer of MacOS a poke around the Darwin site is likely in order http://developer.apple.com/darwin/. If you want you could even install on X86 and try it out (although obviously this won't be the same as the experience of MacOS X which includes both Darwin and the higher level items like ProjectBuilder).
More generally, the Apple developer site http://developer.apple.com/ is a good resource for developers. Third party developer sites such as http://www.stepwise.com/ are also invaluable.
Information on portability of common UNIX tools to OS X is usually dictated in part by the opensource community for that tool. So for example, you really should check the Perl porters list/site for details on Perl port.
For projects which are not porting to OS X on their own the Fink project(http://fink.sourceforge.net) is likely your best bet.
Hope this helps,
Bas
Re:So what other unix goodies do they have? (Score:3, Informative)
Yes to all your tools questions. XFree86 runs on top of OS X, either in Rootless or Rooted mode (separate screen or local screen). If you've ever used Cygwin on Windows, you'll know what rootless X-Windows are like. Rooted is just like linux, with your window manager and everything. Speaking of Window Managers, Gnome, Enlightenment, fvwm, fvwm2, and quite a few more are available. I haven't seen a KDE port yet (probably because of QT), so that isn't available. If you're feeling extremely zealous, you can run a window manager on top of OS X and arrange your iconbars and stuff so it is usable.
It is also possible to run Gnome on top of OS X, with Gnome's title bar underneath the OS X menu bar. I had to move the mac icon bar to the right side, but I don't believe the latest versions of gnome require this.
Python comes as both a Fink module (essentially a debian package manager file, so probably a tarball as well) and a Framework, depending on how you aquire it. Jaguar is supposed to include Python. Perl is on all distrobutions. TCL/TK can be downloaded and installed.
The Street Hates It (Score:2)
I'm happy about the pricing (Score:5, Insightful)
This is something that Microsoft's hedgemony WON'T let other PC manufacturers do - at least not to the extent that Apple has shown here. If Gateway (Dell, whoever) wants to create a value-added portal like
Apple has no such conflict - they own the whole ball of wax, so the hardware and OS sides of the company can work together to produce a best-in-class (and don't pretend they aren't class-leading or at least very innovative and polished) set of services for Mac users - for free in many cases (iTunes, iPhoto) and for a modest yearly charge in other cases.
My ISP charges $20.00 a month for a 5MB mailox and 50MB of FTP space. Apple is providing more than that for $100.00 a year. That's half off for me - for more space.
Owning a mac has never looked better. Apple is again taking positive steps to increase revenue growth and reduce it's dependence on volatile hardware sales. Reasonable prices for services that generate recurring revenue...new product refreshes on a regular basis to win the fence sitters and an advertising program that _is_ winning over some converts (right here in my office) - rather unfunny Penny Arcade cartoons notwithstanding.
Good job, Apple.
Education 10.2 is $69 (Score:4, Informative)
With that said, giving a $20 upgrade only from people ordering today is not enough time for an OS that ships in a month. Any software vendor that ships an upgrade gives upgrade pricing to everyone that bought within the last 3-4 months. Apple should at least follow that model.
I actually think this was a positive keynote. (Score:3, Insightful)
And $100 a year isn't a bad price, considering the integration you get. One service to offer all those features, rather than five services and a mishmash of programs to do it.
And even though $129 seems a bit of a shock for 10.2, it really isn't a point upgrade so much as it is a rewrite level. Compare 10.2 to 7.5, if you're familiar with Mac history. 10.2 gives you a whole new rendering layer for new Mac machines, a hell of a speed boost from the reports I've heard, and several new features like iCal, iSync and Rendevouz. I'll probably pay for it. I -would- like a $49 upgrade for 10.1 owners, but I think Apple's probably feeling enough of a financial pinch not to do that.
I think the part of it all that would be most respected by Slashdot readers is the fact that open standards were touted quite loudly. SyncML and Rendevouz (zeroconf) primarily. They might not be opening up as much as we want in some areas, but at least when they're moving in a new direction they look like they're trying to make the best of it.
And I've decided people who push for open sourcing -everything- in OS X, or porting to x86 are just idiots with no business sense. That would kill Apple's income. 'nuff said.
And the rest of us? (Score:3, Informative)
I appreciate the response to what the market wanted. But half of the indication that the market wanted a Windows version iPod was that some people (read: me) bought it and worked around the mac-only restriction. Are there not going to be any updates?
Interesting enough, my wheel has deteriated a bit, and when I wrote CS for Apple telling them about it, they said that what I was describing was "not a common problem" and that it didn't "inhibit use of the iPod" so it really wasn't a problem. I wonder why they released a touch-sensitive, non-moving wheel if it wasn't such a common problem.
The reason working with Apple is a hassle is because of releases like this. While I would shit my pants to be able to switch my iPod with one with a touch sensitive wheel... fine, that's understandable. Such is the progression of technology. But a carrying case? It's not exactly an "industry first", as Apple likes to say about most things they do. Why not throw it out there when I had purchased my 10 gig beforehand? When I had purchased my Nomad II MG before this mp3 player, it came with a case. Not a good case, mind you, but it still came with it. That was appreciated.
Re:And the rest of us? (Score:3, Insightful)
Dont like it? (Score:5, Informative)
YOU CAN'T USE THE SAME IPOD ON WINDOWS AND MAC (Score:4, Interesting)
I am putting off my order of the iPod until I find out if there is a workaround for the "feature". That really bytes too cause it looks like the Apple Store is also offering a free car power adapter with the purchase of the iPod.
Re:YOU CAN'T USE THE SAME IPOD ON WINDOWS AND MAC (Score:4, Informative)
The implementation is that one iPod is linked to one computer and you can't use it to trade music from computer to computer. Of course there are hacks to get around this, but iTunes won't let you synch up music to your Mac if the music on the iPod was downloaded from another Mac. I assume the same thing will be true with the Windows version.
Yes you can use the same iPod on two macs (Score:3, Informative)
17" is wide profile (Score:4, Informative)
Not only is the display 17", at 1440 x 900 with square pixels, it's wide aspect. This is far better for movie playback.
I'm seriously tempted to get one just for watching DVDs.
Apple reveals new font, ditches Apple Garamond (Score:5, Informative)
They started it with the eMac, but I assumed it was some education-only market differentiator. Apparently not. There's a little more at Mired [mired.com].
Personally, I think it's a terrible change. And a stupid one. They'd built a huge amount of brand identity with Apple Garamond, to the point where anything written in it reminded you of Apple. The new font has no personality at all. Is that what they were going for?
P.S. The Myriad Roman link is a Google cache of a page that 404's now.
ipod warranty improved 4x (Score:3, Informative)
Yesterday I read an article in a major newspaper (NYT, WSJ, or washington post - sorry, couldn't find link) describing how many high tech things (including the ipod) didn't come with suitable warranties -- for example, dell just changed from a 3 year to 1 year warranty.
just 'steal' it (Score:5, Insightful)
The people that have already bought and paid for OS X are Apple's staunchest supporters. If anyone deserves to finally have a fast OS, it's them. Yet they are being asked to pay full tilt ($129) for the speed that should have been there in the very first release.
OS X as it currently sits can be slow even on fast Mac hardware, and annoyingly laggy on slower Macs. This is simply not acceptable. Mac OS X users deserve these fixes for free, and I suspect that most people will take them without paying if they have the opportunity.
Online Petition Against .Mac Charges (Score:3, Informative)
My 2 cents: The email accounts should remain free. The rest can be value-add fee-based.
More UNIX from Apple? (Score:3, Interesting)
'...Apple is now the biggest supplier of Unix-based operating systems in the world -- "bigger than Sun, bigger than Linux" -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced during his Macworld keynote speech on Wednesday...'
Anybody buy this?
$129 upgrade, no coupons, but taking comments (Score:5, Informative)
I just called the Apple store at 1-800-my-apple, and the rep told me that the upgrade proof of purchase coupons you get when you buy a new machine will not apply to this upgrade, so it's $129 across the board, (unless you buy your machine starting today, and it doesn't already have Jaguar installed).
She told me Apple is taking comments from (potential) customers to gauge their reactions, and that it could possibly result in changes to the plan. (Remember that the upgrade isn't actually available until August 24...plenty of time for them to change the pricing policy).
In my case, I told them I was a "switcher" who has bought two new macs (an iMac and an iBook) in the last four months, and I was very unhappy that I'll need to pay $260 to upgrade them to 10.2. I suggested that they should at least honor the coupons and give a price break for them.
Call them and tell them what you think...maybe we can make a difference.
Re:$129 upgrade, no coupons, but taking comments (Score:3, Insightful)
iSpeak (Score:3, Funny)
Psychological effects of version numbers (Score:3, Informative)
I think it's interesting how people are calling Jaguar just a "bug fix release" or "service pack" even though there are a TON of new features and archetecural improvements running behind the scenes.
Apple is one of the few non-Unix companies that still cares about a semi-consistant versioning scheme:
v A.B.C
A=Major release number, new paradigms, etc...
B=Minor release number, incremental improvements
C=Bug fix release
In the past, Apple has bumped the minor release to x.5 when some sort of major incompatability occurred (ie, OS 8.5 was the first to require a PowerPC Mac). They didn't do that here, but I wonder people would be as bent out of shape about it if Apple *had* called this Mac OS X 10.5. Or maybe Mac OS X 2002? Compare the product on a feature-level, not a numeric level.
Apple usually isn't willing to inflate a version jump for marketing purposes:
- Mac OS 6 to 7 was a giant jump in terms of structure.
- Mac OS 7.1.1 to 7.5 wasn't quite as big, but did greatly expand the "experience" with new technologies (and doubled the distribution size).
- Mac OS 7.6.1 to 8.0 had a major UI overhaul, mutli-threaded Finder, and major architectural re-writes.
- Mac OS 8.5 began life as 8.2 until it hit beta and it was decided that it would be PowerPC only. (Even though it was 8.6 that deserved the monkier thanks to the new microkernel.)
- Mac OS 9 was Mac OS 8.7 until a beta as well, although that was probably to help maintain a clear separation between OS 9 (designed to work with X) and 8 (not).
- Even though OS X is in roman numerals, it's still numerically just OS 10.x.
Compare this to Microsoft (and, by following MS's example, a majority of the Windows software out there) which gets away with murder by renaming a bug patch according to the current year and can charge an arm and a leg for it. Even MS realized that Windows 98 was just Windows 4.1 (and Office 98 contains Word 7.0).
Could someone please tell me where the hell Windows Media Player 8 went though?
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:5, Informative)
This is an update.
You did READ what was posted is going to be in 10.2, didn't you?
If you had watched the keynote like I did (via quicktime), you'd know this is FAR more than a bug fix.
.
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:3, Interesting)
Alas, you are correct. It looks like they still have not fixed all the printing bugs.
Seriously, my USB-connected printer was hugely more functional under Mac OS 9. Rendezvous sounds wonderful, but it apparently won't do much for my current HP inkjet.
Yes, there are hacks to get USB printing working under the current OS, and I'll have to go with one of those, since spending $258 to upgrade the OS this year is...not going to happen very quickly. My most likely course of action now is to defer upgrading or purchasing any Apple stuff until 2003, which I fear is the opposite of what they were looking for here.
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:5, Insightful)
The "paying for features I don't want" excuse is getting old. If what you have is working well for you, then you have no need to upgrade. I for one still have several Red Hat 6.2 boxes running here because Red Hat 7.2 has features I don't need. It's a free upgrade if I want it, but I don't.
Mac OS X is a great OS. Apple put a lot into those new features you don't want. $129 isn't bad for what you're getting. Hell, look at Windows. It doesn't include half the functionalty and it costs $200-$300 depending on your persuasion (Home/Pro).
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:3, Informative)
Why would you have used all three? And on what?
My G4 came with OS 9.0.4. I was able to get 9.1 with a coupon, but not OS X.
So I bought OS X 10.0, and used one of the three coupons in that to get 10.1.
You can not go from 10.1.x to 10.2 for $19.95 unless you just bought a new Mac that came with 10.1 and has the coupons. I heard the words come from Steve Jobs' mouth myself. So the left over coupons are useless anyway.
But then Windows 95 to Windows 98 was a paid update, and it's still Windows 4...
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:2, Redundant)
The undertone of this keynote was, "We need more of your money." Other shows have been all about bringing more users into the fold, but this show was clearly about getting more money from the existing user base.
The funniest part was the absolute dead silence after the dotMac introduction, when users were informed that they were going to have to shell out $100 a year for stuff they've always gotten for free.
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree. Between 10.2. and .Mac, I'm beginning to wonder why Apple doesn't just hack into our credit cards and take the money out directly. H2K2 was not far away, after all...
10.2 looks compelling, but most of the new features don't seem immediately useful to me. I may just skip this upgrade until I get some Bluetooth toys to play with.
I also noticed this, snipped from macnn.com:
One last thing: Apple lowered the price of the SuperDrive iMac by $100 to $1,799 and introduces new 17" flat-panel iMac. It supports 1440x900--66% bigger than the 15" iMac, adds a Nvidia GeForce4. The 80GB/256MB/17"/SuperDrive/GeForce4 model is due in August for $1999.
That 17" iMac looks sweet, but I thought consumer-level computers were supposed to be getting cheaper lately. Even if this is the high end of Apple's consumer line, does Apple think that people will be willing to spend $2000 on an iMac? Or do they know something about the economy that we don't?
Re:$129?!?!?! (Score:2, Informative)
$19-20 - Update (Already have Mac OS X 10.x), think MS-DOS 6.0 to MS-DOS 6.2
BTW - I really like the idea of the widescreen iMac, but I'd rather get the TiBook
Re:Uh.. (Score:2)
Believe me, I'm not too happy about it either.
Darwin on x86 (Score:2, Informative)
Re:"Switch" campaign is preaching to the choir (Score:2)
Re:Thank God for an update... (Score:2)
At home i also have an ancient G3 300 running OS X, and while on that machine I've seen kernel panics, its only during running of on certain shareware game.
Honestly, I doubt you're trolling, but you really have done something wrong with your machine. I wouldn't mind helping you out if you want.
Re:CallerID Info (Score:5, Interesting)
With a little extra elbow grease, you can already do some cool stuff like this. My home automation rig uses a USB modem that supports Caller ID, along with x2web [sentman.com], MacCallerID [mac.com], Apple's Personal Web Sharing, and a smattering of AppleScript so I can log in from anywhere and pull up a web page to see if anyone has called my home phone during the day while I am at work.
As an added bonus, if the server detects that I'm pulling that page from my internal LAN at home, it also puts a button next to each entry that, when clicked, will cause the modem to dial that entry.
~Philly
Re:I can't update my iPod? (Score:3, Informative)
I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I heard Steve say that the new features would be available to existing iPods. Since the new ones are not shipping yet anyway, I doubt that the new firmware is fully ready yet anyway.
They did this once already (iPod 1.1 added vCards, for instance)