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In part one Dan raves about Apple's Macworld Expo announcements in San Francisco
While the results almost never live up to extremely high expectations, the recent Macworld Expo at The Moscone Center in San Francisco, California offered what may be enough for some, while leaving others feeling less than satisfied. For my money, and I assure you that it was, I was very pleased by Apple's foresightedness and emphasis on fun for consumers. The potential of the announcements made by Steve Jobs may not be realized by Apple's current devotees; however, the new products show that the company knows its audience, both today's and tomorrow's.
There really was something for both ends of the Mac-user spectrum.
Apple released the long-awaited G5 Xserve and Xserve RAID configurations with a number of key updates and provisions. I hope that these great boxes will make their way to not only businesses and homes that need a great server (with a lot of bang for the buck), but also ISPs, web and e-mail hosting companies and FTP applications.
The design is nothing shy of brilliant. Front positioned cooling ports are reminiscent of the "free flow" exhaust systems from a classic car which easily marry sleek, hi-tech designs that are slim enough for a 1U rack space. What's under the hood is no less impressive offering up to 2Ghz of dual G5 power and up to eight gigabytes (that's 8 Gb) of RAM. It doesn't stop there either, so check this one out. Even if you don't know anything about servers.
I believe Apple's releases were appropriate and timely. As the market share held by Apple Computer slowly creeps up on the other guys, my feeling is that it is important to look to the future. Many current Mac loyalists are just that -- loyal -- and their numbers are growing. With that growth comes change and my hope is that current Mac users will be open to these changes (and system requirements, really) as the company continues to set the standards for the industry instead of meeting them.
I remember hearing Steve Jobs say something a few years ago at one of his keynote addresses to this effect:
Apple is not trying to make the most competitive products, Apple is, first, trying to make the best products possible. With these new products, they may just have accomplished both.
With the next version of the now status-symbol status iPod, Apple has found a way to bring the big numbers of end users (relatively) to the platform. Is this a roundabout way into the Mac- neighborhood? You bet, but it works and people are finally finding their way to Apple and the Mac OS.
Anyone who's ever had a melody on their minds and a song in their hearts will just LOVE GarageBand. This fun and easy little gem may seem like Soundtrack Junior or Logic Lite -- and it is. Apple doesn't just buy up technology to let it sit on a shelf (if you look at the history). It is really put to good use here and singer/songwriter John Mayer was on hand to show off one of Apple's many new musical faces. This newest of their applications will only further the iLife addiction that keeps everything Macintosh fun for nearly any level of experience while tapping into the "dream factor" for those of nearly any age.
While all of the iLife updates are wonderful and respond to Apple's marketing, feedback and development, these apps are no longer free unless you get them with the purchase of a new Mac. Should you wish to purchase these updates, you'll really want a minimum 600 Mhz G4 and lots of RAM for GarageBand -- and 733Mhz G4 for iDVD 4. The price is $49.00 - a small price to pay and just enough incentive, they hope, to get those stragglers in line for some new iMacs, PowerMac G5s, iBooks, PowerBooks.
These products even spur the third party developers and manufacturers market. Be sure to check out all of the updates to the iLife apps, including some really hot new iDVD themes, iPhoto speed and ease and integration that makes them all you may ever need (or have time for) on your families' Mac(s). It is very important to bear in mind the minimum system requirements for these goodies. http://www.apple.com/ilife/
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