June, 2012

Hi fellow Apple fans-

From September 1999 through January 2001, Apple Computer was using PowerPC chips that did not exceed 500 MHz. It was a long stretch of time over which the PowerPC platform fell behind the chips from Intel. It was a hard time to be a Mac user; we still had the best computing experience, but our beloved machines were falling further and further behind in raw performance, AltiVec notwithstanding. And when Motorola finally started increasing clock speeds slowly but surely, it still wasn’t enough to catch up to Intel’s chips. If you used a notebook, it was even worse.

During the time that Apple used G4 chips, you could always count on a refresh of some sort in laptops and towers about every 6-8 months, even if the CPUs were barely any different.

When Apple switched to IBM and the G5 chips, I think all us power users once again felt the Mac was the undisputed king of the hill, and there was an expectation initially that IBM would keep us there going forward. But no, IBM wasn’t interested in putting the resources into developing the G5 chip. Clock speed increases came at a glacial pace, and power consumption never dropped enough to put the G5 into a laptop – Apple laptops remained with G4 chips until the end of the PowerPC era.

As soon as Apple switched to Intel, from a hardware standpoint we were on par with Windows machines. As a matter of fact, Apple has generally managed to be first to have machines with the newest Intel chips.

That being said, the most recent Macintosh updates have been 10 or more months ago. And the Mac Pro? No update for that model since July of 2010! My home machine is this very model, and while it’s nice that I’ve had the very newest model for a long time, I’m wondering if we’ll see a new Mac Pro or if Apple is going to let it die. I hope not; although I’ve rarely needed the horsepower or expandability the Mac Pro offers, I prefer that form factor.

Heck, the latest model to get an update was the 21.5 inch iMac, in August of last year.

I know iPads and iPhones are very important parts of Apple’s business, but I want to see them putting a little more of their attention into Macs.

WWDC is coming up next week, and I expect to see more info on OS X 10.8, and likely info on iOS 6. Maybe we’ll see something on the new iPhone.. And the rumor mill is still churning over the possibility of a TV, although I doubt it. I sure would like to see some new Macs announced.

It’s been a slow month.. Can you tell? Hope to see you all on Tuesday, for Q and A. Joel Kincaid has volunteered to do a program on June 18th, we’ll have to see what he has in store for us.

For now, adieu-

Andrew