Welcome to the first post of the Ranting Geeks blog. I'm Bored SVU Nut and my friend Virtunate and I will be sharing our opinions on the world of technology. Be forewarned that we are very opinionated people so If we offend you with our very agressive opinions, please, don't be offended by it. Virtunate here is a little bit biased when it comes to all things Mac - but I think he can swallow it for this.
Bored, on the other hand, is a bit crazy about all things shiny. For example, if she finds some new gadget on Engadget, her eyes wil glaze over and a puddle of drool will form on the ground beneath where she is sitting. This also happens when she is viewing the Falcon Northwest, Alienware or Apple sites. Depending on our work scedules we will post on this blog two to three times on a week, on days that we can. If you don't see a post, it's because real life dragged us out of our respective basements. As for the format of the posts, we will cover two news items or editorials in each post.
Tonight's topic is: Speculation for WWDC. So without further addo, here is tonight's blog post.
Speculation for WWDC
Bored, on the other hand, is a bit crazy about all things shiny. For example, if she finds some new gadget on Engadget, her eyes wil glaze over and a puddle of drool will form on the ground beneath where she is sitting. This also happens when she is viewing the Falcon Northwest, Alienware or Apple sites. Depending on our work scedules we will post on this blog two to three times on a week, on days that we can. If you don't see a post, it's because real life dragged us out of our respective basements. As for the format of the posts, we will cover two news items or editorials in each post.
Tonight's topic is: Speculation for WWDC. So without further addo, here is tonight's blog post.
Speculation for WWDC
With Apple's World Wide Developers Conference only three days away, the rumor mill at sites like Macworld, ThinkSecret and Apple Insider have gone into overdrive, with rumors flying left, right and center about the new Mac Pro, the next version of OS X, and most recently, the "iChat Mobile". Leander Kahney of Wired News Reports that a fake video was posted on YouTube today. It shows the "iPhone" in operation. Although there are some similarities, the device in the video is not in operation and does not show the menu system or the user interface that you would expect to see in such a video.
The "iPhone" or "iChat Mobile" - I can imagine Apple creating a device like this at some point, considering they've put iTunes on various cell phones and it's probably time they do their own - but I can't imagine them releasing it at WWDC, which is a developer's conference. For developers. Not the general public. And considering the patents Apple has filed for touchscreens, et cetera, I like to believe that maybe it's an "iTablet" they've been working on?
I agree wholeheartedly. WWDC is meant to be a place where Apple can talk to the people who design the software that makes Macintosh an established brand. If they where going to release a new iPod or the "iChat Mobile" it would be released at Macworld next January, which is much more of a press event than WWDC.
Another confirmed rumor is the preview of OS X 10.5 "Leopard", the next version of the OS X operating system. Rumors about system features have been swirling for months. From a revamped Finder to a program combining iCal and Address Book to new features in the iChat client for VOIP. Over the past few months, there have been fake videos, screenshots and images of what Leopard will look like. It is unclear what features will be carried over from Tiger and what features will be added. Apple has confirmed that it will include an improved version of the Boot Camp virtualization software as well as some form of a BiTorrent Client that will seed updates for users using a customer's bandwidth. In return, the user will recieve some form of compensation. It is unclear at this time wheather the compensation will be discounts on the Apple or iTunes Music store, this is mere speculation. This is not a confirmed feature.
It's all speculation, I agree. We never know what Apple is going to do, because they're so secretive. The addition of Boot Camp is an excellent one. It could possibly give Apple a larger market share with customers who want to switch - but are tied to a Windows PC by the software they need to use. Boot Camp will give them option to dual-boot and even though Boot Camp has been available, including it with Leopard might make more people inclined to dual-boot? I'm interested to see they might do with Finder in Leopard, most of all.
The most exciting and anticipated piece of news from Apple is the Mac Pro high-end desktop. Back in 2004, CEO Steve Jobs promised both developers and consumers a 3.0 Ghz PowerMac Desktop. A year later, there is no 3 Ghz desktop. Jobs attributed it to the fact that the PowerPC chips that Apple was using had reached their limit of modification and that Apple would now use Intel Chips. A year later, 90% of the Macintosh hardware line is converted. All that remains is the Xserve, the Xserve RAID, and the Mac Pro (PowerMac) AppleInsider has created a modified PowerMac inclosure with a second optical drive slot and has speculated that this second slot would be used for a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive. And this machine will be smokin. Apple either will use the new Xeon "Woodcrest" chipset or the "Conroe" chipset. Either way it will be an 8-core machine. Each chip contains two cores. Times that by four chips and you've got an eight core machine. This is very exciting and we can't wait for WWDC to get here on Monday.
I'm Virtunate and this is Bored... and if anyone's reading this post, well, we hope you enjoyed it. Is there a reason our first post was about Macs, though?
We are the Ranting Geeks and we ranted!
The "iPhone" or "iChat Mobile" - I can imagine Apple creating a device like this at some point, considering they've put iTunes on various cell phones and it's probably time they do their own - but I can't imagine them releasing it at WWDC, which is a developer's conference. For developers. Not the general public. And considering the patents Apple has filed for touchscreens, et cetera, I like to believe that maybe it's an "iTablet" they've been working on?
I agree wholeheartedly. WWDC is meant to be a place where Apple can talk to the people who design the software that makes Macintosh an established brand. If they where going to release a new iPod or the "iChat Mobile" it would be released at Macworld next January, which is much more of a press event than WWDC.
Another confirmed rumor is the preview of OS X 10.5 "Leopard", the next version of the OS X operating system. Rumors about system features have been swirling for months. From a revamped Finder to a program combining iCal and Address Book to new features in the iChat client for VOIP. Over the past few months, there have been fake videos, screenshots and images of what Leopard will look like. It is unclear what features will be carried over from Tiger and what features will be added. Apple has confirmed that it will include an improved version of the Boot Camp virtualization software as well as some form of a BiTorrent Client that will seed updates for users using a customer's bandwidth. In return, the user will recieve some form of compensation. It is unclear at this time wheather the compensation will be discounts on the Apple or iTunes Music store, this is mere speculation. This is not a confirmed feature.
It's all speculation, I agree. We never know what Apple is going to do, because they're so secretive. The addition of Boot Camp is an excellent one. It could possibly give Apple a larger market share with customers who want to switch - but are tied to a Windows PC by the software they need to use. Boot Camp will give them option to dual-boot and even though Boot Camp has been available, including it with Leopard might make more people inclined to dual-boot? I'm interested to see they might do with Finder in Leopard, most of all.
The most exciting and anticipated piece of news from Apple is the Mac Pro high-end desktop. Back in 2004, CEO Steve Jobs promised both developers and consumers a 3.0 Ghz PowerMac Desktop. A year later, there is no 3 Ghz desktop. Jobs attributed it to the fact that the PowerPC chips that Apple was using had reached their limit of modification and that Apple would now use Intel Chips. A year later, 90% of the Macintosh hardware line is converted. All that remains is the Xserve, the Xserve RAID, and the Mac Pro (PowerMac) AppleInsider has created a modified PowerMac inclosure with a second optical drive slot and has speculated that this second slot would be used for a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive. And this machine will be smokin. Apple either will use the new Xeon "Woodcrest" chipset or the "Conroe" chipset. Either way it will be an 8-core machine. Each chip contains two cores. Times that by four chips and you've got an eight core machine. This is very exciting and we can't wait for WWDC to get here on Monday.
I'm Virtunate and this is Bored... and if anyone's reading this post, well, we hope you enjoyed it. Is there a reason our first post was about Macs, though?
We are the Ranting Geeks and we ranted!
posted by Virtunate @ 9:56 PM
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