Apple Archive

Apple Computer's announcement of new Macs based on processors from Intel raises an interesting question: Since both the Mac and Windows operating systems now run on Intel-based hardware, shouldn't it be easy to run both on the same computer? That simple question deserves a simple answer. But there isn't one - at least not right now. Reaching the nirvana of running the two most popular desktop operating systems on one machine is a lot harder than you might expect.

Two more articles on Apple's Intel iMac today. "Disassembling the first fruit of the Apple-Intel alliance raises some interesting questions about the model's profit margins." Secondly, PCMag reviews the new iMac: "The differences are all under the hood. The 20-inch new iMac combines a dual-core Intel Core Duo processor with the Mac OS X experience. Casual Mac users, switchers from Microsoft Windows, and iPod aficionados will love the new iMac; however, professionals and people who use graphics apps such as Adobe Photoshop and Final Cut Pro should hold off until the critical app is updated to work smoothly with the Intel processor. For these people, we recommend holding on to your current G5-powered Mac, at least for now."

"I figured out a way to get into the EFI menu on the new Intel iMac. I was attempting to install Vista, which did not work. As I discovered from poking around in the EFI there is no support for UDF or El Torito volumes. It seems only GPT and APM is supported. Writing a driver for EFI to support UDF should be easy enough for someone who knows how, one might even exist already. I'm going to give step-by-step instructions for getting in to the EFI so that some enterprising people will get to work on installing Windows."

"Since the first rumors of an Apple switch to Intel, everyone has been wondering about the potential speed of Intel-based Macs. Last week's announcement of the first shipping Intel-based Macs brought with it the promise of a major speed boost: Apple's Web pages suggest that the new iMac, powered by the Intel Core Duo processor, is twice as fast as its G5 predecessor. Macworld Lab's tests do show that the new Intel-based iMac is faster than the iMac G5 when running native applications. However, we found that those improvements are generally much less than what Apple claims is a 2x improvement in speed."

Intel has released betas of its software development tools for Mac OS X running on the Intel architecture. The tools consist of a Fortran and C++ compilers, a math kernel library and a performance primitives library. The tools are specifically designed to support Intel's Core Duo dual-core processor, as found in all the new Macs. The toolchain integrates into Apple's Xcode IDE, meaning the Intel compilers can be used in the production of Universal Binaries--applications packaged with code for both Power and Intel architecture machines.

Ars reviews the Intel iMac, and concludes: "For $1299, the iMac Core Duo is a good buy. You get a 160GB SATA hard drive, a dual-layer DVD burner, and a 1440x900 17" LCD monitor along with a dual-core CPU. I'm always reluctant to play the cross-platform price comparison game, but I will note that this machine stacks up quite favorably in terms of price and features with Pentium D desktops. All in all, the iMac Core Duo is an impressive machine. If the rest of Apple's product line moves to Intel this smoothly, the transition should prove to be a big success."

In this video two iMacs with equal 512 MB RAM are booted at the same time. One is a 2.1 Ghz G5, one is a 2.0Ghz Intel Core Duo. The Intel is on the left, the G5 is on the right. Some users said that the G5 iMac might have a problem for booting so slowly but others say that it's a normal "first time" boot.

Following this week's five-year commitment to the Mac platform, Microsoft said it is working with Apple to bring Virtual PC to the new Intel-architecture, although it didn't provide details about the release date. The company, however, said that it would not run under Rosetta, Apple's emulation environment that allows older PowerPC programs to run on Intel-based Macs. The company said that it would wait on receipt of the new shipping machines to better evaluate Virtual PC for Intel-Macs as well the final release date of Mac Office and Messenger for Intel-Macs; however, the company this week said it has dropped all development of Windows Media Player for the Mac.

The very first Apple computers, distributed nationwide in 1977, had a hood you could pry off to reveal the CPU, the memory, and the motherboard. But almost three decades later, the company that pioneered "open architecture" with the Apple II, even with thousands of admirers looking on, was reluctant to pry the back panel off its new Intel Core Duo-based iMacs and MacBook Pro portables.

Reports spreading across the web that Intel Macs can’t boot Windows XP might be inaccurate. Intel Australia, while being careful not to comment on Apple’s hardware specifically, says motherboards based on the Intel 945 chipset already support EFI and can boot Windows with no problems. The key appears to be whether Apple has included a "compatibility support module". Explored in more depth in this article at APC Magazine.

"Today Apple announced the MacBook Pro. It has quite a few changes compared to the previous PowerBook. For one, it uses an Intel Core Duo (formally known as Yonah) chip. This is a dual core processor and no, unlike what Steve Jobs stated, this does not have two processors. This will help a lot with responsiveness. I've been dreaming of a dual core laptop for quite a while. However, the realization of my dream coupled with the changes seen makes me cry", writes Unsanity. UPDATE: Windows XP won't run on the new Intel Macs because of EFI. Vista is supposed to work though.

Apple's Steve Jobs has announced several new products today during his keynote at MacWorld (photos). After the usual chit-chat about the success of the retail stores and iTunes, Jobs got to the meat of the matter. He announced an FM-tuner with remote-control for the Nano/Video iPod. Read more for the really interesting stuff!

I'll promise this will be the last set of rumours about His Steveness' MacWorld keynote tomorrow. "With Macworld Expo San Francisco 2006 set to kick off Tuesday, Think Secret presents a compilation of information we have received and reported over the last number of months concerning Apple's anticipated announcements."

Speculations are very strong just a few days before the Tuesday Steve Jobs keynote. Take the poll and choose from some of the most talked-about rumors around, or leave a comment if you have another opinion as to what Apple has in store for us.