Please excuse the extremely long list of notes; Steve had a lot to say today.
As expected, Steve announced the new line of professional PowerMac G3s based on the Yosemite motherboard, and enclosed by the El Capitan case. Appearing even more dramatic than in previous viewings, this machine will ship at an even lower price point than expected -- because of the much better components on the Yosemite motherboard, Apple has been able to price the entry-level model at $1,599 right off the bat, and will reach up to $2,999 for their most loaded standard configuration.
Yosemite will, oddly enough, not use the prototype USB keyboard and mouse seen on MOSR two months ago -- apparently in a cost-saving move, the new machine uses the same keyboard and mouse as the iMac. As predicted widely last night, Steve showed off Connectix's impressive new Virtual Game Station, playing the latest installation of Crash Bandicoot. In fact, it looked better than most Playstations, because it was using the new Apple Studio Display 21, which has infinitely better performance. John Carmack of id Software, one of the biggest figures in the computer gaming industry, came up to show his support for Apple's announcement that it had licensed OpenGL from SGI (as expected), and showed off an early version of Quake 3: Arena (which was EXTREMELY impressive, the image quality was three generations beyond anything currently available -- for any platform).
Also as expected, Steve unveiled five new colors of iMac: Tangerine, Grape, Lime, Blueberry, and Strawberry. (By all appearances, Blueberry is the same color as Bondi Blue). Speed is up to 266MHz, the hard drive is now 6GB (and reportedly slightly faster). Pricing is now down to $1,199.
Mac OS X Server was officially announced, and will ship in February. Finally, Steve acknowledged the iMac as a net-bootable computer and confirmed that Server 1.0 would net-boot iMacs. Showing off Streaming QuickTime (without specifically mentioning it as QT 4, interestingly enough), one 400MHz Yosemite streamed a Barenaked Ladies music video at 1Mbps to 50 iMacs. The Yose was running OS X Server -- reportedly a mid-stream build of "Hera."
To a remarkably unreceptive audience, Steve and Microsoft's Mac OS products manager publicly displayed a continued and strong relationship between MS and Apple. MSIE 4.5 was released, and, to near silence, Mactopia, Microsoft's "Mac friendly" Web site, was opened. Games were a major focus. Not only were numerous forthcoming game titles announced (Including Quake II, Heretic II, Sin, Tomb Raider III, and others), but OpenGL, Rage 128, and Connectix VGS made a potent and extremely impressive combination. The Mac can now be called a serious gaming platform.
All in all, a very impressive show. Not entirely shocking to many readers, but an entire order of magnitude better news for Mac users than Macworlds of the past, even those in which Apple announced its first profits in some time. The crowd was very lively and excited. The press was listening with rapt attention. And nobody could deny -- the Mac is more than back. It's not taking any prisoners.
Bob Nunn - President, Operator Headgap Systems E-mail: headgap@headgap.com
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