Nolobe Introduces Iris
Some unusual news this week: a that doesn't run Mac OS X, a that appears to be PPC based (it uses a Freescale CPU) and has 'no moving parts', and a that promises to allow installation of Mac OS X 10.5 on any PC. PowerBook, iBook, MacBook, and other portable computing is covered in. IPod, iPhone, and Apple TV news is covered in. All prices are in US dollars unless otherwise noted. News & Opinion.
Tech Trends. Products. Software.
News & Opinion Mac Unit Sales Up 50% in May Barrons' Eric Savitz reports: 'Apple (AAPL) had a solid May for both Mac and iPod sales. 'As Lehman analyst Tim Luke points out in a note today, new data from market research firm NPD shows Mac unit sales grew 50% on a year-over-year basis in May, ahead of the 37% Q2 growth Lehman had expected. Sales of iPods in the month were up 11.6% for the month in units, slower growth than the 14.6% gain in April, but well ahead of the 2% year-over-year decline Lehman has been modeling for the quarter. Average iPods pricing in the quarter was down 4%.' Link: What the Snow Leopard Announcement Tells Us About Apple's Plans for Nehalem DigiTimes Ricky Morris says: 'Although Steve Jobs allowed only a little time to during his keynote speech on June 9 to publicly discuss Apple's next iteration of Mac OS X (Snow Leopard), the company has published a web page detailing some of the features it plans to introduce in the update. Apple describes Snow Leopard as a change of focus that will streamline the OS, enhance its performance and set new standards for quality.
But comparing the key features planned for the new OS, it also looks like Snow Leopard is being designed specifically to make the most of Intel's next-generation microarchitecture. 'If Apple plans to continue with its current product mix, Intel's roadmap gives Apple the opportunity to hit the ground running with a June 2009 (or thereabouts) launch of Snow Leopard accompanied by a completely revamped Nehalem-based - Clarksfield-based MacBook Pro and iMac, Auburndale or Clarksfield-based MacBook, MacBook Air and Mac mini, and Gainestown-based Mac Pro and Xserve - product lineup.' Link: (subscription required) PowerPC Users Deserve 'Perfected Leopard' ITWire's Stephen Withers reports: 'It seems I was right when I suggested owners of PowerPC-based Macs would be unhappy with the news that Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard looks like being an Intel-only release. A new poll reveals that PPC users want Snow Leopard badly.' 'The question really boils down to this: is Leopard good enough to be Apple's final PowerPC operating system?' Editor's note: The thing is, the marquee new features of Snow Leopard such as Grand Central and Open CL are going to be closely integrated with new Intel chip technologies, so they wouldn't work on PPC machines even if OS X 10.6 'supported' them.
Presuming that ongoing updates of OS X 10.5 will eventually wring out at least most of the bugginess of the early versions, Snow Leopard 'support' of PowerPC would essentially amount to debugged Leopard functionality anyway. For more on that topic, see. Cm Editor's note: The new technology coming to Snow Leopard requires an Intel CPU, so it would make no sense for Apple to release Mac OS X 10.6 for PowerPC. It's possible we'll see continued 10.5 development after the release of 10.6, ones that would incorporate technologies PowerPC Macs can use. Dk Link: Will It Affect You if Apple Abandons PowerPC in Snow Leopard? Macsimum News's Dennis Sellers says: 'There are reports that Mac OS X 10.6 ('Snow Leopard'), due in about a year, will be for Intel Macs only - in other words, no PowerPC support So in this week's poll we're asking 'Will it affect you if Apple abandons the PowerPC in Snow Leopard?'
You can find the poll at the right hand side of the page, below the 'Macsimum Opinion' section.' Editor's note: Does it bother anyone else that Macsimum News never puts its polls in the articles that announce them and doesn't tell you that you have to go to the site's home page to participate? Dk Link: Install OS X on Any PC with EFiX USB Device? Blorge's Danny Mendez reports: 'EFiX is a device that should pull a fast one on Apple - if it really does what it says it can do. Looking to capitalize on the demand for cheap and easy OS X PCs, EFiX connects into any PC through USB, and it allows OS X to effortlessly install through any retail Mac OS X disk. 'EFiX works by automatically finding the necessary drivers and replacing the necessary files in the system to get OS X to work on most PCs. We're sure there'll be some requirements for EFiX to work, but the program's site is currently scarce on details.'
Link: Transform Any PC into a Mac with EFiX's USB Dongle? TechSpot's Jose Vilches reports: 'Ever since Apple moved to Intel processors three years ago, we've seen numerous attempts to run OS X on generic PC hardware. 'Luckily for those looking to transform their computers into full blown Apple machines, a company called EFiX plans to release a USB dongle that will supposedly let any PC boot and install OS X from a retail DVD, by automatically handling all the necessary patching and tweaks.' Link: June 2008 Mac Performance Benchmarks Posted Primate Labs says: 'Back in April Apple released new iMacs which means the previous Mac Performance chart is out of date. Time for an update! 'Results were collected from the Geekbench Result Browser for Macs with standard processors (i.e., no processor upgrades, overclocked processors, or Hackintoshes) with at least 512 MB of RAM. 'As always, I've reported the average overall score for each model and processor combination.
If you're unfamiliar with Geekbench and how it measures performance, a score of 1000 is the score a Power Mac G5 @ 1.6 GHz would receive. Higher scores are better.' Editor's note: Results range from 206 for a 350 MHz Blue & White G3 to 8565 for the 8-core 3.2 GHz Mac Pro.
The highest PowerPC score is 3290 for the 2.5 GHz Power Mac G5 Quad. Dk Link: Intimidating People with a Mac? David Alison says: 'Perspective is a funny thing. Here I have happily become a heavy Mac user, thoroughly enjoying my transition from Windows and encouraging friends and family members to consider a Mac when the computer conversations come up, often saying that Macs are so easy to use. 'Earlier this week a good friend of mine - one that is highly technical - told me that his old Windows laptop was dying and that he needed to get a new machine soon.
His wife has an iMac and he's played around on it a bit but he never gave me the impression that he was really interested in trying out a Mac as his primary machine. I of course brought up the idea that maybe he should look at a MacBook or MacBook Pro. His response was quite amusing: 'Frankly Dave I'm a bit intimidated by the Mac. I read your blog and it seems like there is so much to learn.' 'This from one of the smarter people I know too!
But Macs are so easy, how could anyone be intimidated?' Link: Mac OS X 10.5.4 to Solve Old, Possibly New, Issues MacNN reports: 'Apple is allegedly preparing to unveil Mac OS X 10.5.4 to solve issues present in former versions of the operating system, including a problem where some users' machines would freeze upon shutdown. AppleInsider reveals that the patch solves a dozen issues that have been prevalent through several incarnations of the operating system, but it does not clearly state whether it addresses an incompatibility with Firefox, first reported by MacNN on Wednesday. 'MobileMe - Apple's replacement for.mac - will launch on July 11th, and requires the 10.5.4 update, placing the release date for the patch some time between now and then.'
Link: Tech Trends CherryPal Out Sweetens Apple with 2W, Ultra-cheap PC The Register's Ashlee Vance reports: 'Here's how you to get to CherryPal. Gather up all of the hot technology buzzwords - cloud computing, going green, communities - and mush them together into something about the size of sandwich. 'CherryPal has unveiled a device that's billed as a cloud computer. Don't be intimidated by the name. We're just talking about a PC that runs on instead of one of those hot jobbies from Intel or AMD. That energy-friendly chip helps CherryPal keep its computer small and cheap - an ideal combination, we're told, for attracting youngsters to something different.
'Fine details on CherryPal's approach remain tough to gather because the company doesn't plan to reveal the full breadth of its assault on the PC market until the third quarter. For now, it's only showing off the hardware.' Link: CherryPal's 2 Watt, Freescale-Based Cloud Computer Engadget's Donald Melanson reports: It looks like the current ranks of green PCs are soon going to have some pretty daunting competition for the low-power throne, with upstart CherryPal announcing that it's about to bust out a cloud computer that'll consume a mere two watts of power. To hit that mark, CherryPal opted for Freescale's new 400MHz MPC5121e mobileGT processor, and eliminated all the moving parts normally found in a PC, which means no optical drive and 4GB of NAND flash memory in place of a regular hard drive. Otherwise, you can expect to get 256MB of RAM, built-in 802.11b/g WiFi, two USB 2.0 ports, an Ethernet port, and a VGA port, with a 'tweaked version' of Debian apparently serving as the OS. No word on a price just yet, but the company is boldly proclaiming that it'll be the 'most affordable on the market.' Link: CherryPal Announces Two-Watt, Freescale-Based Cloud Computer TerraSoft YDL PowerStation with Quad-core 2.5 GHz G5 PR: The Return of the Power Workstation - with four cores of unleashed Power in a solid, affordable package, the YDL PowerStation is the ideal replacement for the now aging Apple product family Sometimes, you just have to wait a while for a good thing to come along.
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Nolobe Introduces Irish Pub
The Quad-core 970 PowerStation is a deskside tower Workstation and Server that adheres to the SSI EEB system packaging standards. PowerStation offers a four-way SMP system based on the PowerPC 970MP Processor and the CPC945 North Bridge Chip. PCI I/O is provided by integrated Ethernet, integrated SAS (support for external SAS expansion provided), PCI-E and PCI-X slots. Designed to perform, the YDL PowerStation is a well-rounded high-performance workhorse.
Nolobe Introduces Irishman
Quiet, fast, and robust, this is a box you'll hang on to for a long, long time.