Apple moves strongly into 2001 When you listen to Steve Jobs you can’t help but believe in the Apple dream
January 10, 2001 by Eric Svetcov
I went to the keynote and frankly was impressed by the offerings and was also interested in what was being left out. Mac OS X looks even better as demoed then it does in its beta form. Kudos to the Apple team for listening to their customers!!! It would have been nice to get the release now, but March 24 is the promised date...and it will be keenly awaited by most Mac enthusiasts. The 733MHz G4 system was impressive when stacked against a P4 1.5GHz system. The photoshop test they used completed in 1/3 less time than the P4 1.5GHz. I would have liked to see other tests, but that was the only one demonstrated. The new Superdrive looks cool (yes, I want one), but only comes in the highest end system. It is a CD, DVD, CD-RW, DVD-R drive and I would recommend that Apple offer it as an option in all systems. I recommend that Windows PC manufacturers offer it in their systems as well. New audio for each Mac is welcome to folks who have complained in the past about the lack of excellent audio support. It is also nice to see that Creative Labs is offering the Live series of PCI sound cards for the Mac as well. There is a new 15" LCD panel from Apple at a new low price of $799 (I still would rather get a Radius 15" LCD for $650, but this lower price is much better). I still want to know where the 21" CRT is. It's missing in Apple's lineup of displays. The new software packages are also impressive. iTunes (free) does everything audio much better and with less ads than any competing product on the Windows side and the whole DVD creation process with the DVD-R drive and iDVD software (also free) is nothing short of amazing (did I mention earlier that I wanted to get a superdrive???) And joining Final Cut Pro is DVD Studio Pro for Professionals DVD creation (for only $995). Lastly, what seems to have received the most press are the new laptops. The G4 Titaniums with 15.2" screens and weighing in at 5.3 lbs and 1" thick are truly amazing. If you haven't seen one yet, you should. Although they don't have the curved look of the older laptops, these new machines really are sexy. And lastly, as always, Steve Jobs was a showman. If you have never seen him speak in person, you are missing one of the most mesmerizing speakers of our time. I still think that if Steve ever decided to go into politics, he would win big at every step in the process. As far as what was left out, there was no mention of the iMac, iBook or Cube. I am still a big believer in an iMac with a 17” monitor; however it wasn’t to be at this MacWorld Expo. Also, there was a lot of speculation that OS X would be released at the show and it wasn’t. March 24 isn’t far away, but the expectation was that it would get released now. Apple still has a tough road ahead; however, Steve still seems to be moving Apple in a direction that continues to keep the installed Macintosh customer base happy and enthralled. |