...more recent posts
Jobs did announce single processor 733 mhz desktop G4s, but they won't ship until February, and even then supplies will be limited. This is total vapor meant to calm Wall St. It is well known that Motorolla cannot presently make anything over 600 mhz in quantity, so this announcement basically means nothing. Or worse. I'm prepared to eat my computer if they are shipping quantities of 733 machines before March 1, and frankly, I'll be highly surprised if they are shipping before May 1. Anyway, the big news is the powerbook. Exactly as expected. 400 and 500 mhz g4 models. 15.2 inch screen! DVD, firewire, usb, irda. 1 inch thick! (This is .15" thinner than the thinnest Sony Viao!) 5 lbs. Titanium enclosure. Jobs calls it "unreasonably thin." :-) 5 hour battery life, DVD, and that wide screen are going to be turning a lot of heads on those cross country flights. Unfortunately I coudn't get the webcast (don't ask) so I am still searching for a picture of this beauty. Regardless, my pavlovian responses are in fine working order. Now if only they've made enough of these things. If so I think this could be the best selling Apple ever. And boy do they need it.
updated: here is a small, head on shot from Apple's site.
Speaking of cool notebooks, what's the deal with this Sony PCG-GT1? I don't think it's for sale in the U.S. yet (although you can maybe get one from the ever strange chuckmeister) but it looks pretty interesting.
The wide screen powerbook rumors that I thought had been debunked have surfaced again with some vigor. 15.2 inch screen, capable of 1152x768! That would be very cool. I'm still doubtful, but we'll know a little bit past noon. You can watch Steve crank up the hype machine yourself here.
Macworld San Francisco is tomorrow (well, all this week, but Job's keynote is tomorrow, so that's when the big announcements from Apple will come.) Hopefully debuting will be the powerbook g4 with its often rumored but never seen sleek new ultrathin design. Some people claim the whole machine is the thickness of the bottom half of the present powerbook. Nice. New desktops also, but I'll be highly surprised if they announce anything over 600 mhz (or if they do announce something higher, you won't be able to get one for months.) Small chance that OS X will be officially released, but I think Macworld Tokyo is a better bet (end of February.) Also possible is the long awaited 17 inch flat panel. I'll be watching.
I'm still trying to digest this article which is subtitled "how to make the free distribution of content profitable." I think he may have something here. Sort of radical, and I think the big content publishing industries are going to have to go through with (the failure of) the "trusted client" model first, but Mr. Copley has at least hit upon a scheme that could work. I wasn't sure this much was even possible. Very intriguing.
The Swiss are going to have a national referendum to decide the question of giving animals legal status as "beings" and not "assets." (from kuro5hin)
Macs in space. Using orbiting G4 Cubes to provide low cost wireless internet access anywhere on the globe.
Desktop Websites is the latest catch phrase from the userland camp. He's definitely got something here, but I wonder if it can be bootstrapped into existence. The problem, as usual, has to do with Metcalfe's law which states that "the usefulness, or utility, of a network equals the square of the number of users." Or, in other words, it won't be cool until a lot of people are using it, but how do you convince people to invest the time and/or money associated with adopting a new technology before it's cool? As always, we're watching. It's not out of the question that I would move to their platform.
Here are some really good photos of the monolith that "appeared" in Seattle after New Years.