WWDC, Apple's new Tiger OS

[Dante]

So today's the day. Let's see what they've got in store.

Personally I don't think Tiger will be as big as Panther is. Hopefully Steve's got some goodies lined up for us.

[Dante]

Well so far there's a completely new version of the 23" display. It's got an aluminum enclosure, one piece alumnium stand. Small bevel. One cable from the monitor which then splits.

Also a 30" Display. 4.1million pixels, the same one piece alumn enclosure. It's got firewire/usb but it only works with PowerMac since it needs a new graphics card.Existing cards could not drive it. It also needs two dvi connections running in parallel. The new graphics card costs $599, they all share the one cable out which provides DVI, Firewire, USB. :eek:

[Dante]

Some features of Tiger:

- Unix. 64-bit.
- Better SMB support.
- Most revolutionary feature: searching. too many folders now on our hard disk.
How to solve it? We already have solved it. in iTunes, you can find a song by
title artist, album etc... in a second, just by typing into the search field.
Apply to the entire system. "Spotlight" search tech. You can ask it stuff like
find my keynote presentation by phil which I opened last week.

[stopper4]

That's nice.

Can I play games on it yet? I mean current ones, not 18 months after they're released.

[JeffS]

Some features of Tiger:

- Unix. 64-bit.
- Better SMB support.
- Most revolutionary feature: searching. too many folders now on our hard disk.
How to solve it? We already have solved it. in iTunes, you can find a song by
title artist, album etc... in a second, just by typing into the search field.
Apply to the entire system. "Spotlight" search tech. You can ask it stuff like
find my keynote presentation by phil which I opened last week.

With this feature, Apple is two years ahead of MS, with Longhorn's WinFS.

I would consider getting a Mac, if they weren't so expensive. It's got the rock-solid BSD kernel, and the top of the line Apple Aqua GUI. Plus, everything, I mean everything "just works" - much more so than Windows, and even more so than Linux.

[dark knight]

For those of us new to Macs, will this download as part of the usual updates? Is it a huge file to download?

[dark knight]

With this feature, Apple is two years ahead of MS, with Longhorn's WinFS.

I would consider getting a Mac, if they weren't so expensive.

I don't know much about desktop prices, but although I spent a fair amount of money on my Powerbook, I wouldn't have spent much less on a PC version. The i-book is fairly affordable.

[JeffS]

I don't know much about desktop prices, but although I spent a fair amount of money on my Powerbook, I wouldn't have spent much less on a PC version. The i-book is fairly affordable.

The Cheapest Mac that I've found is the E Mac, which starts at around $800.

You can get a Windows PC for $350, adding about $100 for a decent monitor = $450.

You can get a Linux PC for $200, adding $100 for a monitor = $300.

Macs work very very well, and everything is completely integrated. Apple controls both the hardware and the software, so there are no compatibility problems, and everything is tweaked to the maximum for optimal integration, performance, and usability. Whether that level of excellence is worth paying double or tripple what it would be for the alternatives, is up to the individual users.

[Dante]

That's nice.

Can I play games on it yet? I mean current ones, not 18 months after they're released.
Yeah, although you normally have to wait about 3 months now.

Although there are an increasing amount of games that are released concurrent with the PC release.

[Dante]

For those of us new to Macs, will this download as part of the usual updates? Is it a huge file to download?
No, it's a new OS. We're currently on 10.3, this will be 10.4

[Dante]

There's even more than what I listed. Stuff like Automator (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/automator.html) and the new widget feature called Dashboard (http://www.apple.com/macosx/tiger/dashboard.html). Some cool new features, but nothing as revolutionary as I found in Panther.

Here are a bunch of screenshots with desriptions

http://www.macshrine.com/

I managed to get a copy of it and will play around with it for a couple days, then I'll post up my thoughts on it.

[caddisfly]

Watch the keynote here- http://www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc04/

[kerpow]

Obviously Tiger looks very nice and I'm sure it will be easy to use. I've heard some people criticise the concept of Widgets being copied from a third party add-on. Konfabulator is it? I've never heard of it so I don't know how much truth there is.

That aside, I like the idea that Tiger has been released for developers well in advance of the general public. As the G5 Power Mac isn't everyones cup of tea this makes sense aswell to allow the hardware to catch up with the software. Looks like the iMac's successor and the PowerBook G5 will coincide with Tiger's release. I may well buy one of the latter myself.

[skipshady]

The Cheapest Mac that I've found is the E Mac, which starts at around $800.

You can get a Windows PC for $350, adding about $100 for a decent monitor = $450.

You can get a Linux PC for $200, adding $100 for a monitor = $300.

Macs work very very well, and everything is completely integrated. Apple controls both the hardware and the software, so there are no compatibility problems, and everything is tweaked to the maximum for optimal integration, performance, and usability. Whether that level of excellence is worth paying double or tripple what it would be for the alternatives, is up to the individual users.
My understanding is that it's always cheaper to build your system. But there have been studies done on cost of ownership and the general consensus is that while Macs cost more to get off the shelves than other consumer/professional computers, Macs tend to be just as affordable, if not cheaper, 2 to 3 years down the road.

I'm too lazy to post a link, but when you get a chance, do a google search for: "cost of ownership", apple, PC.

[TheWakeUpBomb]

That aside, I like the idea that Tiger has been released for developers well in advance of the general public. As the G5 Power Mac isn't everyones cup of tea this makes sense aswell to allow the hardware to catch up with the software. Looks like the iMac's successor and the PowerBook G5 will coincide with Tiger's release. I may well buy one of the latter myself.There will be a G5 iMac release in September.

[furie]

considering i'm still on jaguar, i'll probably get it.

[patrickdavila]

I going to get a new machine in about 4-5 months and have been mulling over the choices:
- Apple G5
- build my own dual processor AMD Opteron system

I'm heavy into linux and programming. I keep windoze around because I've gotten into video editing, DVD ripping & burning. Linux isn't quite mature in these areas yet. My questions for the Apple people:
- i-movies encodes to QT, correct?
- if I want to encode my movies into mpeg2 (broadcast quality, current dvd standard) do I have to purchase DVD Studio Pro ($499)? Please don't argue that quicktime is just as good as mpeg2, it's not.
- does i-tunes let you rip to mp3? If not, is there a 3rd party plug-in available? I know AAC is supposedly better than mp3 but it contains DRM

Thanks

[Squash]

- i-movies encodes to QT, correct?
- if I want to encode my movies into mpeg2 (broadcast quality, current dvd standard) do I have to purchase DVD Studio Pro ($499)? Please don't argue that quicktime is just as good as mpeg2, it's not.
- does i-tunes let you rip to mp3? If not, is there a 3rd party plug-in available? I know AAC is supposedly better than mp3 but it contains DRM

Thanks

I'm not 100% on imovie question, but itunes has choices under preferences for the quality and type of file you'd like to import at. I know mp3 is still a choice, or at least last time i checked it was. I'm guessing imovie can save or encode in a few different file types but am not positive.

[skipshady]

iTunes lets you rip to AAC, mp3, wav or aiff at various bit rates and sample rates.
You can do AAC with or without DRM - if you buy from the iTunes store, you get a file with the suffix .m4p and if you rip from your own CD, you get .m4a.

I'm pretty certain iDVD (part of the iLife suite, which is worth getting just for Garage Band, imho) encodes to mpeg2, but I don't know much about video so I can't vouch for the quality.