2001 iMac Family
The keynote was broadcast as a QuickTime stream and was available to be viewed at;
Apple Stores
The first section of the keynote covered the new Apple Retail Stores, with the announcement of stores located in Dallas, Minneapolis, Chicago and Boston opening in August and by the end of this year there will be a total of 25 stores. A couple of QuickTime movies were shown giving a tour of the Glendale store.
10 on X
Apple released Mac OS X 116 days ago and in that time they have released four updates to Mac OS X and the latest, 10.0.4, has been downloaded over 300,000 time.
Over 1,000 native applications have shipped, with 29% of developers at WWDC saying they planned on releasing a Mac OS X product with in 3 months and another 55% saying they’ll do so within 6 months.
Representative’s of ten major vendors appeared on stage for a few minutes each to demonstrate their company’s Mac OS X offerings.
Microsoft demonstrated Office 10, which is due for release “this fall” (September – November). Office 10 takes full advantage of Aqua, with over 700 new icons, as well as been fully Carbonized and utilises the Quartz graphics layer built in to Mac OS X.
Adobe demonstrated Illustrator, GoLive and InDesign to show how to utilise “Publish and Subscribe” which allows to create an object in one application (Illustrator in this case), use it in another application (GoLive here) then modify back in the original application and it will be automatically updated in the other application.
Quark demonstrated XPress 5.x, which introduces the ability to create web pages directly from Xpress, providing print users with an easy way to get their content on to the web. Xpress is preparing to enter the “beta” stage of its’ development cycle, so don’t expect to see this actually ship for a little while yet.
FileMaker demonstrated File
Maker 5.5. FileMaker Server 5.5 is a Cocoa based application and will ship on June 30th. By November they will have 100% of their entire product range on Mac OS X.
Connectix announced that a Test Drive version of Virtual PC is available for immediate download free of charge to all registered users. It is a “technology preview designed to provide Virtual PC 4 users with a preview of Virtual PC in OS X” and expires on January 31, 2002.
The preview showed the use of a CAD package and it was fast! You can have as many different versions of “PC based Operating Systems” (including Windows 95/98/ME/NT/XP, or Linux) as you like, only limited by available disk space and as many simultaneous sessions running at once, dependant only on available RAM.
IBM had a perfect performance with ViaVoice for X, with a demonstration of dictating an email message in Mac OS X Mail. ViaVoice will be available later this year.
World Book had the only “Shipping now!” product, with World Book Encyclopedia 2002 for X. It is available immediately for US$59.95.
Blizzard showed off the next Warcraft game, Warcraft III, which will have a simultaneous Windows and Mac OS release worldwide later this year.
Aspyr played with their forth coming game, Pro Skater 2, which will ship later this year with both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X versions of the game in the same box. Apparently the Network Play option will be a Mac Only feature.
Alias|Wavefront showcased their 3-D rendering application, Maya, with an impressive series of QuickTime movie of an aminated robot coming of an assembly line. As Maya is also available on other platforms (including Windows and CGI) it may even become the “benchmarking application”, replacing Photoshop, in future keynotes to compare speed. Even if you have no need to render your own animations, Maya is a must see application under Mac OS X.
Mac OS X 10.1
A preview of Mac OS X 10.1 was shown and will ship in September through Apple’s Mac OS Up-to-Date program for US$19.95. Mac OS X 10.1 includes many bug fixes and major improvements, particularly in speed and features.
The dock can be placed on the right, bottom or left of the screen, it has more System Control like Battery, AirPort and Monitors, and has more personalisation options including a new “Scale” effect when minimising windows.
DVD Play back is now supported, as is burning CD’s from the Finder. Keyboard controls for Monitor brightness and volume is now working, and a new set of “System Status” icons appear in the menu bar.
The ability to configure Airport Base stations in built-in and improved access to older AppleShare servers and even Windows servers have been incorporated. On a Windows network, Mac OS X machines will be part of the Network Neighbourhood and they will see older AppleShare servers easier, without requiring an IP address.
There have been major speed improvements as well, with applications taken a faction of the time to launch and resizing of windows is far quicker.
Mac OS X Launch Screen
The new feature set, as supplied in an Apple Press Release includes;
- dramatically enhanced system performance, especially application launch time and window resizing;
- fine tuning of the Aqua interface for a more customizable experience that includes the ability to position the Dock on the left, the right or at the bottom of the screen;
- data CD burning capabilities within the Finder and DVD video playback and authoring capabilities to support iDVD, making Mac OS X the ultimate engine for the digital hub;
- broadened support for hundreds of third-party peripherals such as printers, cameras, camcorders, MP3 players, rewriteable drives and storage devices;
- unprecedented network integration with Mac(r), Windows, Linux and UNIX environments through AFP/AppleTalk(r), SMB/CIFS, WebDAV and NFS file services running on Mac OS X Server, AppleShare(r), UNIX, Linux, Windows NT and Windows 2000 servers;
- greatly enhanced 3D graphics performance with updated OpenGL software and full support for NVIDIA GeForce3;
- a more powerful and efficient iDisk leveraging the Internet standard WebDAV protocol to allow users to stay connected to their iDisk, even behind corporate firewalls;
- substantial improvements to AppleScript(r) throughout the system and full support for Internet scripting using SOAP and XML; and
- the final version of Internet Explorer 5.1 with full support for Mac OS X’s Java 2 runtime.
Mac OS X Launch Display
Review of Laptops
An overview of the “Dual USB” iBook and the PowerBook G4 and the huge success both have been since their separate launches earlier this year, May and January respectively. A number of media testimonials were read out about each machine.
New iMacs
While there was no new form factor – Industry analysts and rumour sites expected LCD based models – the iMac was given an good speed bump and the colour scheme rationalised by dropping the psychedelic colours “Flower Power” and “Blue Dalmatian” and retaining Indigo, Snow and Graphite.
All models come standard with 10/100BASE-T Ethernet, 56K internal modem, 15-inch (13.8-inch VIS) display, Harman Kardon Odyssey audio system, two USB ports, two FireWire ports, VGA video mirroring, Apple Pro Keyboard and Mouse and all are AirPort ready.
Software preinstalled and/or bundled includes both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, iTunes, iMovie 2, AppleWorks 6, Palm Desktop, FAXstf, Bugdom, Nanosaur, Cro-Mag Rally, Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Outlook Express, and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
The 700MHz iMac will ship in August and the other models are available now.
2001 iMac Family
New PowerMac G4
Quicksilver G4
New model PowerMac G4’s with a new colour scheme called “Quicksilver” and a slightly re-designed case were introduced. In what I think is an Apple first, the previous “Top of the range Processor” was dropped straight to the bottom of the range; ie the 733Mhz G4 processor now exists in the bottom end machine and dual 800MHz G4’s live in the top of the range. The SuperDrive, which read and write CD’s and DVD-R’s is included in the both the 867Mhz mid-range and Dual 800MHz top of the range machines.
All models come with a 133MHZ system bus with up to 1GB throughput, Gigabit Ethernet, 56K internal modem, AGP 4X graphics slot, four 64-bit PCI slots, an AirPort Card slot, two FireWire ports and two USB ports. They support up to three internal hard disks and 1.5GB of RAM.
Software preinstalled and/or bundled includes both Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X, iTunes, iMovie 2, Palm Desktop, FAXstf, Netscape Communicator, Microsoft Outlook Express, Microsoft Internet Explorer and models with SuperDrives also include iDVD.
The Dual 800MHz model is expected to ship in August and the other two are available now.
Quicksilver G4 with Display
The Megahertz Myth
Jon Rubinstein, Senior Vice President of Hardware at Apple, explained and demonstrated why the performance of a machine should not be based on the “speed” of the processor alone. He explained about data pipes and how various different types of processors had longer, thus slower, data pipes and they take longer to execute commands.
Displays
Apple announced slight price drops on its’ LCD Display range. The Apple Studio Display 15.1″ is now $1,399, the Apple Studio Display 17″ is $2,299 while the Apple Cinema Display 22″ is $5,599.
Display Family
Mac OS X and Digital cameras
Jobs then demonstrated how Mac OS X 10.1 will have the ability to connect your digital still camera to Mac OS X and it will automatically download all the pictures on the camera ready for use. You can also easily import them in to a screen saver slide show.
iDVD 2.0
With the introduction of the SuperDrive in both the mid and top range PowerMac G4 systems, Apple have also beefed up their free DVD authouring package, iDVD, by announcing that iDVD 2 will ship in September with Mac OS X 10.1.
New features include the ability to place motion on the background and on buttons, add soundtracks to slideshows, and there a number of new themes. You now have the ability to include up to 90 minutes of material (previously it only supported up to 60 minutes) and iDVD 2 takes advantage of dual processors to encode the data in near real time (ie it will take just over an hour to encode one hour worth of material)
New TV Ad
Three QuickTime movies of Apple Commercials were shown. The first two “Concert” and “Middle Seat” have previously been released to promote the launch of iTunes and the new iBook respectively. The final ad called “Eloped” promotes the ease of use in creating DVD’s that can be played in standard desktop DVD players by using iDVD.
The advertisements could be viewed as QuickTime movies at;
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads
Elope
A Year in Review
Jobs then finished the keynote off with a brief “Year in Review” explaining how Apple had introduced “a ton” of new innovations and technologies during the year, including the new iBook, the PowerBook G4, the Apple retail stores, new software packages like iTunes and iDVD and he highlighted that Apple was still a strong market player, while others were laying of staff and performing other major cut backs.
The keynote concluded with Jobs first thanking all the staff at Apple that were responsible for bringing us all these wonderful products and then thanked all the staff’s families for putting up with the long hours staff put in.
“Best of Show Awards”
At each Macworld Expo, Macworld news presents a series of “Best of Show” awards, which are a highly coveted honour within the Macintosh industry as the award winners are seen to be representing the most exciting new hardware and software products.
To be eligible for consideration in the awards, products either had to be making their public debut at the Expo or have been recently introduced and likely to generate excitement on the show floor, with a key factor of actually having the products seen in action.
“The Best of Show winners exemplify the tremendous commitment of developers to the Macintosh platform,” stated Jim Dalrymple, news director of MacCentral.com and Macworld news, while presenting the awards. “I was particularly impressed with the way most of them are taking advantage of Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X.”
The Macworld Best of Show award winners and the judges comments about them are listed here;
Apple OS 10.1: This update, due in September, will address many of the shortcomings found by Mac users since the initial release of the OS.
Apple 867MHz PowerMac G4: In addition to a significant increase in performance, the mid-range G4 now offers DVD-RW capabilities at a lower price point, making this technology available to a broader range of Macintosh users.
Asante FriendlyNet Wireless Ready Cable/DSL Router: This wireless router offers additional security for your network, including connectivity to the Internet, printers, files and other resources.
Canon D2400UF: This scanner goes far beyond typical text and graphics scanning capabilities to include a versatile, built-in, large format film adapter.
DiamondSoft Font Reserve Server for OS X: Font Reserve Server, designed for publishing work groups, provides effective font management across an entire organization.
IBM ViaVoice for OS X: The new update to IBM’s voice-activation software is faster and more efficient than the previous version.
MicroMat Drive 10: Sporting a sleek aqua interface, this advanced disc repair and recovery product has been designed exclusively for Mac OS X.
Microsoft Office 2001 for OS X: Due this fall, the updated suite of business applications boasts some exciting and useful innovations.
SmartDisk FireLite 5GB FireWire Hard Drive: This 5GB FireWire hard drive is one of the smallest and most portable external hard drives to enter the Macintosh market.
Toon Boom: Designed for animators in the Mac community, this powerful software increases productivity when creating digital animation.
Xerox Phaser 860: This color laser printer is compatible with OS X over a network and produces prints of amazing quality.
Credits
Photography provided courtesy of Apple Computer, Inc.
Apple, the Apple logo, Mac, Mac OS, Macintosh, AirPort, AppleScript, AppleShare, Apple Store, AppleTalk, AppleWorks, Aqua, iBook, iMac, iMovie, Power Macintosh, Power Mac and PowerBook are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Unless otherwise stated all prices listed in this article are in Australian dollars and include GST. While prices were believed to be correct at time of writing, they are provided as an indication only and we suggest you contact the relevant supplier(s) to confirm current pricing and conditions.
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