sethbc’s (infrequent) blog…

It looks like Apple did a bunch of things yesterday. They’ve certainly had a busy couple of months!

First, they bumped the PowerMac line to dual-core chips. This is certainly cool, as it definitely gives the PowerMac a major performance boost, but I wonder what the point is? Apple said they’d be releasing the Intel stuff by next year, and I’m more interested in waiting on those. I don’t feel like buying some piece of hardware that has already been deprecated. That being said, this is a major revision of the PowerMac hardware, and I’m sure that the facilities in OS X for multi-core chips will support the x86 chips as well. All this has left me wondering about the performance of the new Intel chips. When they release the new Intel PowerMacs, is it going to be a step backwards? I’m certain that they don’t to do this.

Second, Apple bumped the PowerBook G4 line. The bump doesn’t really affect performance that much, but it brings the PowerBook more in line with the notebook offerings by other companies. My biggest complaint with the PowerBooks has always been with the screen. You’ve got a 29 inch laptop screen that is at 640×480. Okay, so I’m exaggerating, but there was certainly a problem. The other thing Apple did was keep their battery life at about double that of the competition. I’m not sure that its double, but I’ve got to say that by using the new G4’s, the power requirement is definitely lower, and the battery life is supposed to be 5.5 hours now!

Finally, the big announcement that Apple made yesterday was the release of Aperture. This is yet another move by Apple that keeps them at the forefront of the professional media market. Now I’m hardly a professional photographer, and my camera doesn’t even support RAW, so this isn’t all that useful for me right now, but it is definitely promising. I’ve often thought of getting a Digital SLR, simply because I love the ability to control every aspect of the shot. A Digital SLR is certainly not the kind of camera I need over here in Europe (I want something that’s small and easy to carry), but I’d be interested in getting one in a couple of years.

I think Apple has made some really smart moves in the last several months, but I would shy away from buying their computing hardware for the time being. Of course, I already have a PowerBook and I don’t need a desktop over here, so I’m not necessarily talking about myself. I’ll just say that it is definitely a good thing Apple had some not-insignificant hardware bumps in the pipeline and very strong revenue support from the iPod before announcing their shift to Intel. I don’t have any hard numbers right now, but I assume that hardware sales have lagged a little bit as the hardcore Apple fans wait for Intel hardware to emerge. Regardless, it looks like Apple has pulled a complete 180 from their position in the late 90’s, and it looks like things are only getting better.

Technorati Tags: Apple