Intel Macs
I don’t think anyone was particularly shocked to see Apple announce Intel-based Macs today. Still, it’s pretty exciting. I’ve now experienced two Mac processor transitions.
Apple released the MacBook Pro, which is essentially a slightly thinner, substantially faster, and significantly more feature-rich 15″ PowerBook. Building an iSight into a thinner case is a very cool thing, and the 4x (claimed) performance improvement sounds enticing, though it’s less impressive when you consider how much Apple needs to make up for lost time.
I was kind of hoping for a new case design, but then again I really like the current one, and Apple has made some solid updates to it over time. Also, keeping the basic case design intact means my 18-month old 17″ G4 PowerBook still seems fresh, which reduces the likelihood I’ll start looking to upgrade before the need really arises.
The Intel-based iMac looks cool too, of course, though the relative performance increase isn’t as great. Feature-wise it appears identical to the recent G5 refresh.
It will be interesting to see the benchmarks for both the universal binaries and the emulated apps.
Apple had a good day, and the year’s off to a good start, but I’m a bit underwhelmed given the inflated expectations set by the overactive rumor mill. I should know better. Still, it will undoubtely be an interesting couple years for the Mac platform. Once we’re past the basic transition the innovation should start to get really compelling.
Of course, there’s also finally a Windows upgrade coming later in the year. Yeah, this year will be fun.