'Back To the Mac' Media Event On October 20th 349
Kildjean writes "Engadget reports that Apple has issued invitations for a special media event to be held next Wednesday, October 20th at 10:00 AM Pacific Time. The invitation for the event, which is to be held at the company's campus in Cupertino, California, carries the tagline 'Back to the Mac.' The invitation also contains an image of what appears to be a lion peeking out from behind the Apple logo, hinting at discussion of Mac OS X 10.7. 'Lion' has been one of the most commonly-suggested 'big cat' names for the next-generation operating system. Much of Apple's notebook line with the exception of the entry-level MacBook is due for a refresh, and Apple has refreshed at least a portion of its notebook line each October or November for the last several years. Apple's desktop offerings have all been updated relatively recently, suggesting that the company's media event may focus on notebooks if new hardware is included on the agenda."
Re:I welcome our OS IX overlords (Score:4, Interesting)
Could include some now-extinct cats like sabre-toothed ones. But you're probably right... MacOS X is now about 10 years old and is probably due for a major rejiggering soon.
Re:And??? (Score:2, Interesting)
I would bet money there are more OSX users on Slashdot than linux users.
Re:MBP (Score:3, Interesting)
I hope so too. I have a 2006 model MBP. I was planning on upgrading it after three years, but the available replacements at the time were only slightly faster. The current ones are a bit better. The i5 / i7 are a step up from the Core 2, and the increase in battery life looks okay. I'd also like an SSD, but getting the 256GB SSD and the decent screen pushes the price up to well over double what I paid for this machine, so I'll probably hang on to it for a bit longer, until flash prices drop.
Hopefully a refresh will push the machine I want from being near the top of the line to being a bit closer to the entry-level model. That said, the cheapest 15" MBP is currently more than I paid for this one when it was new...
Re:Interested to see any changes in OSX (Score:3, Interesting)
Make it easier to install binaries used on other *nix systems. Because the pain of using Fink or DarwinPorts is too much. Both install absolutely ridiculous sized frameworks and trying to compile something when you don't have a binary is a mixture of voodoo and tears, roughly where Linux was 15 years ago. Recently I wanted to install a2ps to use some documentation scripts I created which run on Fedora / RHEL. I gave up, it was too much bother.
I always wanted a very nice package management system for OSX. Kind of like Synaptic on top of apt. I agree that Fink and DarwinPorts are woefully lacking and I'd like to see an all-encompasing package management system for OSX. I'm just afraid if Apple has anything to do with it then it will turn out like their iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app store.
Re:Allow me... (Score:3, Interesting)
I own a few Macs, but non with Intel CPUs in them. Mine all have 68xxx, G3, or G4 chips. I also own one iPod, but that was a gift from an employer. What I care about is the abilities of the system and the quality of the hardware and software. My older Macs serve the same purpose as my really old PCs: nostalgia.
All that said, it'd be stupid once you've built a hype-following fan base as a core part of your customer base not to keep them coming back for more hype. The company (while under good leadership) knows this, and won't lose its hype-loving fan base to Mac clones, BeOS, Haiku, Ubuntu, and other hype-happy developments if it can help it. Without Steve Jobs, they nearly lost their shirts without the hype. They'll give their market what it wants since he's back, and probably after he leaves again now that they've had a chance to learn the lesson the hard way.
Re:Waiting on a Macbook Air refresh (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm on my third Mac mini (first one was a G4/1.42GHz, second one was a Core 2 Duo/1.83GHz with intel GMA950, third one is the new mid-2010 model, still Core 2 Duo but running at 2.4GHz and with the much better nVidia 320M).
I'm still using ViewSonic VP171s that I bought when I was still using a PC, my wired, non-optical Logitech mouse that I bought nearly a decade ago and the same Apple aluminium flat keyboard that I bought at the same time as my second Mac mini.
Why would Apple need to package a keyboard and a mouse with their Mac mini? That would defeat the whole goal of the machine, which is "BYODKM" (bring your own display, keyboard and mouse).
Re:And??? (Score:3, Interesting)
More likely it made news because it doesn't have to be some certified or confirmed event to be newsworthy. Don't' forget we use a mod system for a story to even get this far to begin with. Obviously it is of interest to a large number of folks. As news sites go, I prefer this method as we essentially choose our own headlines. If only 'certified' events, known facts, and 'proven' theories (is there such a thing?) made news, we wouldn't have much left to talk about and we would hear about them after the fact more likely as not. I come here for such news, be it from Linux, OS X, Windows, potential future gadgets, random tech talk, or whatever. The day that Apple news is no longer news for nerds is the day /. has lost it's way. It is as much a part of nerd history as Linux, Unix, Windows and everything else PC.
I find it interesting that the Apple haters are whining (aren't they always?) about an Apple story being posted, yet they are silent when a story about 'potential' Android developers 2-3 years from now isn't even blinked at. A bit of a double standard there don't you think? I personally consider such conjecture news as well, even about an android story even though I don't own any of those devices. Surprise, not everyone is a fanatic to the point where we can't stomach hearing about news from either 'camp'. If someone's dislike of a company is getting so extreme that they can't stomach even hearing said company's name, perhaps it's time to take a break away from the PC and a few internet blogs.
This site encompasses more than just a singular personal pronoun.
Last but not least, if they didn't want to hear such stories, why oh why do they always flock in droves to read and then comment on them?
Re:I welcome our OS XI overlords as well (Score:5, Interesting)
Mac OS 9 probably should have been called Mac OS 8.7, but for the fact that Jobs needed a quick way out of the contracts Apple had with the cloners, which were killing Apple.
The loophole that was found was that the cloners' licenses to distribute Mac OS were only valid for version 8.x. Thus they renamed Mac OS 8.7 to Mac OS 9 and refused to license the new major version to the cloners, putting them out of business.
~Philly
Re:Interested to see any changes in OSX (Score:4, Interesting)
most will be happy with a MATE Imac or a system wi (Score:2, Interesting)
most will be happy with a MATE Imac or a system with imac hardware without the screen.
Apple is pushing games on the mac now but the hardware does not say that as the.
MAC MINI $700 for a system with a old core 2 cpu only 2gb ram + 5400RPM HD + on board nvidia video is not that good of a system and it only has 2gb ram. Now make it a little bigger to have a full size HDD and 4gb base ram with 4 slots and I3 / I5 cpu or a AMD cpu then for $800 can have a better system maybe give a PCIX16 slot (2 wide) for a video card (system can also have on board video) + a X4 slot for 1 other card. But all of that is not needed some of the old g4 / g5 uses may just want a full size HDD + at least 4 ram slots with a up to date cpu and good on board video.
Imac have weak video cards for there screen size. starting at $1200 for a ATI Radeon HD 4670 with 256MB + 3.06GHz Intel Core i3 on a 21.5-inch screen and maxing out at $2000 for a ATI Radeon HD 5750 with 1GB + 2.8GHz Intel Core i5 (add $200 for a 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7) on a 27-inch screen. $2000 only 4gb ram?
Mac pro over kill hardware price Do you realy need a 1k PSU for a 1 cpu system with a ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5.
Mac pro at $2500 comes with a W3530 cpu about $300 (same price area as the i7-930) but apple only puts 3gb ram in and only a ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB of GDDR5 (add $200 for a ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB)
But when you can get good I7 systems with 6gb ram and a better or the same video card for $1000-$1500. Where is the that extra $1000+ going a full boxed copy of Windows 7 Ultimate is only $300 oem full is like $200 and big oem like dell pay less.
There are people who may not want to play games but for $2500 you should get a Nvidia Quadro or ATI fire pro ATI FireGL card.
Alot of people with old g4 / g5 towers may just want a good desktop at $1000-$1500 and for that a card like ATI Radeon HD 5770 is fine.
If apple wants to get in to games then $2000+ should get you SLI or crossfire video.
Re:Interested to see any changes in OSX (Score:3, Interesting)
Your other points ring true, but the first one fails. Fink is astoundingly easy to use - it has basically the same interface as most any other Unix package management system. You pick the thing you want to install, it asks you if it can install the dependencies, and it's off and away.
This is hardly hard work. Even if you don't have a binary in a repo, it simply takes a bit longer because of the compilation step.
Fink and the Ports system both work great, and they coexist without problems (now). Look at the situation with Linux, where you have several competing package management systems, which are completely incompatible with each other. A slight misconfiguration upstream somewhere doesn't just cause the package installation process to fail - it can totally cheese your whole system! I used to use Ubuntu with MythTV, but that was a hairy fucking mess when it came to installing upgrades. I need 2 separate versions of MySQL? What in the fuck is MythTV doing even storing program scheduling data in a database, when a flat text file would work just as well and even allow a person to edit it manually, say over an SSH session? This is just one example of the problems you are faced with even in an easy-to-use distro like Ubuntu.
Re:MBP (Score:3, Interesting)
Ummm few things (Score:3, Interesting)
1) (in my best morbo voice) WRITEOFFS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! You don't get stuff for free. It isn't like you just buy new hardware and then pay that much less in taxes. Yes, there are various kinds of tax writeoffs related to physical goods. No they don't come anywhere near what the goods cost (and you have to take them over time).
2) Managing expenses is extremely important to small business. You generally have a limited amount you can grow your market, particularly in the shit economy we currently have. Thus the difference between profit and loss is in expenses. My parents are fighting with that right now. Their business is nearly profitable, would have been had growth continued. However they cannot grow sales, they've tried, just doesn't work. The only thing they can do is keep expenses under control. That includes things like not spending shitloads on computers when you don't have to.
3) Who says you need to be a business to want pro software? Where do you think people learn this, magic? Someone who is in to videography, either just for fun or perhaps because they are trying to make a business out of it might well want a professional editing suite. In the case of Apple's software, Final Cut is it. Also there's the problem that they don't offer good lower end versions. Final Cut Express hasn't been updated in years. It isn't like Sony Vegas where a home user can buy software that is just like the pro stuff, only less capable.
Regardless, the cost of hardware matters and trying to pass it off as just a "business expense" is not at all realistic. He's right about systems too. I have a Core i7 860 here and with Vegas 10 I can edit 1080p 4:2:0 video no problem, generally realtime playback for simple edits and so on. A more powerful, dual processor, system isn't needed.