Real Kato Blog: Apple Watch: Macworld Roundup, Part I

New Intel-based Macs from Apple.

Another exciting Macworld for us Apple fans.

The new iMac is officially the first Mac to get Intel processors, though only by a few minutes. It's exactly the same as the previous iMac G5, except now it sports an Intel Core Duo processor... it's a dual-core processor running at 1.83 GHz (on the 17" model) or 2.00 GHz (on the 20" model). Apple estimates that this processor is two to three times faster than the single-core G5 that the iMac used to have. Of course, this is partly based on the SPEC benchmarks that Apple always used to disavow, when comparing PowerPCs against Intel processors. The fact is, SPEC is slanted towards the Intel design, so this comparison isn't entirely a surprise.

I would expect that in real-world performance, the new Intel iMac will be somewhat faster for most tasks, perhaps 50-75% faster. Graphics performance should improve more substantially than other areas, thanks to the inclusion of the PCI Express-based ATI Radeon X1600 graphics processor. But the Rosetta emulation environment for non-native code will slow things down a bit, in the short term, until developers complete their transition to making universal binaries.

The bigger story is probably the new MacBook Pro laptop. I don't fault Apple for changing the PowerBook name to include "Mac" in it, though I think "MacBook Pro" sounds a little bit clunky. But eh, people will get used to it.

The MacBook Pro is currently only available in the 15" form factor. It also supports a the Intel Core Duo, at 1.67 GHz or 1.83 GHz. It includes the "Mobility" version of the ATI Radeon X1600. And perhaps most importantly, there's a 4X improvement in front-side bus speed, up to 667 MHz from 167 MHz. Overall, this thing should be much faster than the PowerBook G4.

There are a few new features, like the built-in iSight, and the infrared remote control (for running FrontRow). An ExpressCard/34 slot replaces the old PowerBook's PC Card slot; the new card interface is significantly faster, but owners of existing PC cards will be out of luck. A new magnetic connector for the power cord is very cool; having tripped over my power cord several times, nearly breaking my laptop, I'd appreciate something like this.

Curiously, there are a few things that could be considered "downgrades". The SuperDrive is a 4X single-layer drive instead of an 8X dual-layer drive. The Firewire 800 port is gone, leaving only a Firewire 400 port. There's no built-in S-video output. Some of this is probably due to size and weight goals; some of it may be due to Intel's influence (I'm looking at the lack of Firewire 800 in particular).

There's no mention of what the battery life of this machine will be. Maybe Apple is still working on that. People who played around with the machines in Apple's Macworld booth say the built-in battery timer showed about 3 hours when AC power was disconnected, but that figure might be wildly misleading.

Looking at the specs overall, I'd guess that this machine is designed to appeal to the executive-traveler type, not so much to creative professionals looking for a portable media-processing platform.

At $1999, the MacBook Pro is clearly intended as the successor to the PowerBook; it's not an iBook replacement, as so many rumor sites suggested we'd see. Curiously, Apple continues to sell the PowerBook G4 at the previous price points. When are we going to see some close-out discounts? Surely sales of the PowerBook will plummet now.

What didn't we see? As I predicted (patting myself on the back here), there was no Intel-based iBook and no Intel-based Mini. We also didn't see a tablet, a handheld, or an "iPhone". And for crying out loud, did anyone believe that ridiculous plasma-TV rumor? Sheesh.

Permalink