Awesome new Apple products...wireless goodies inside! :D

[Praxis]

Well, rumors (from a very reliable source) are that PowerMac G5's running at dual 2.6 GHz will be released tomorrow.

Apple generally releases stuff on Tuesdays, but with WWDC at the end of the month I expected G5 updates then. Last WWDC Stevie promised 3 ghz G5's in a year (though if he meant a year from WWDC or a year from the actual ship date, we don't know).

Rumor and info found here: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread. ... adid=74583


Another rumor is that Apple is preparing touch sensitive LCD's like the ones in Tablet PC's...


But now, for the fact. Earlier today Apple released something very, very cool

It's called Airport Express, and it's a Wireless Base Station (802.11g, 54 mbps) that fits in your palm.
It's the size of an AC/DC power adapter. You can stick it right into the wall.

It has three ports- ethernet (plug it into the internet and bam, instant wireless), USB (plug in a printer and you have a network printer), and audio-out (plug speakers into it and use iTunes to stream music across the network- the station will play the music through the speakers or stereo).

So it's a minature wireless router and network print station that you can toss in your pocket, combined with a music streaming device.

For $129, the price of the cheaper 802.11g base stations these days.

Coolest thing I've seen all week

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

There's also rumors of iMac G5's.

This is gonna be an awesome month for us Mac users!





I don't know how many of you are Mac OS X users, but I've seen enough Linux users to know that you won't be a bunch of Windows fanatics j/k hehe

I thought I saw a post a while back about someone buying or wanting to buy a G5, then it disappeared...who posted it, was it YT3000?

[darthdavid]

When i eventually get a laptop it'll be a mac.

[The Kernel]

Steve Jobs' promise of 3Ghz within a year for the PPC 970FX was a pipe dream. IBM is hitting a wall with the clockspead of its chips on the 90nm, SOI process so don't expect to see Apple getting up to such high clockspeeds anytime soon.

[phongn]

Steve Jobs' promise of 3Ghz within a year for the PPC 970FX was a pipe dream. IBM is hitting a wall with the clockspead of its chips on the 90nm, SOI process so don't expect to see Apple getting up to such high clockspeeds anytime soon.

To be fair, back then no-one expected that 90nm would be such a problem. 3GHz in a year seemed a reasonable proposition at the time.

[The Kernel]

To be fair, back then no-one expected that 90nm would be such a problem. 3GHz in a year seemed a reasonable proposition at the time.

Yeah, back then even Intel thought they could hit 5Ghz by now...

Have you clicked on that link though? Those Apple fanatics still think that a 3Ghz G5 by the end of fall is a certainty.

[phongn]

Nevermind the rumor-mill sites, you know how they are.

[Praxis]

Actually, they're fighting over it, about half the board members are sure it'll be under 3 ghz and the other half are sure it'll be 3 ghz, lol.

Still, a dual 2.6 GHz PowerMac will be nothing to sneeze at. It's a 30% increase, after all. Far better than Intel has done in the last year, what with their 10% clock speed increase, and the fact that the 3.4 GHz Pentium 4 EE costs more than an eMac and yet still gets outperformed by Athlon 64's in everything but games...

BTW DarthDavid, what kind of laptop are you getting? I've only recently (last 1.5 years...it feels like yesterday I was an idiotic mac bashing Windoze lover, poor me, then I got an iBook G3 ) begun slowly switching to Macs...at the moment, my desktops are PC's and laptops are Macs (I've got a 12" 1 GHz PowerBook G4).

[darthdavid]

BTW DarthDavid, what kind of laptop are you getting? G4).

Whatever the best one i can afford when i head of to college in 3 years or so is.

[Durandal]

Steve Jobs' promise of 3Ghz within a year for the PPC 970FX was a pipe dream. IBM is hitting a wall with the clockspead of its chips on the 90nm, SOI process so don't expect to see Apple getting up to such high clockspeeds anytime soon.

Well, I think that just about everyone thought it was within reason at the time. IBM must've made one Hell of a case to Jobs about it for him to actually go up on stage and lay out something of a roadmap, as in, "We're fucking sure we can do this." Then they hit the wall at 90 nm.

The Messiah is supposedly the 975, which will have SMT and a host of other drool-worthy acronyms.

I thought I saw a post a while back about someone buying or wanting to buy a G5, then it disappeared...who posted it, was it YT3000?

YT3-whatever hates Macs, so I doubt it. If the G5s would've hit 3 GHz this Summer, I'd have bought one with my loan money, but I'm fairly sure that that won't happen at this point. If Apple releases a dual 2.6 GHz with PCIe at the top-end, I might consider that, just because my old G4 is getting long in the tooth.

[Vohu Manah]

I'll be happy just to get my G5 Powerbook this year, I could care less about a 3 ghz G5 PowerMac at this point (since I have read enough about the problems IBM has been having to know this is unlikely at this stage).

[InnocentBystander]

It's called Airport Express, and it's a Wireless Base Station (802.11g, 54 mbps) that fits in your palm.
It's the size of an AC/DC power adapter. You can stick it right into the wall.

It has three ports- ethernet (plug it into the internet and bam, instant wireless), USB (plug in a printer and you have a network printer), and audio-out (plug speakers into it and use iTunes to stream music across the network- the station will play the music through the speakers or stereo).

So it's a minature wireless router and network print station that you can toss in your pocket, combined with a music streaming device.

For $129, the price of the cheaper 802.11g base stations these days.

Coolest thing I've seen all week

http://www.apple.com/airportexpress/

Sounds good and all, but what kind of range does it have? Also, $129 for a g router is very expensive. Linksys sells a great line of g routers for half that price! If that thing was $40, that'd be great, truth be told I've been looking for a cheap g relay station, but not for that kind of money.

[Praxis]

Don't know about the range...And I'm probably a bit behind on router prices. When I bought my G router, it was nearly a year ago, and $129 was a very good price at the time.

I'll be happy just to get my G5 Powerbook this year, I could care less about a 3 ghz G5 PowerMac at this point (since I have read enough about the problems IBM has been having to know this is unlikely at this stage).

Unlikely, the 90nm G5 is too hot to fit in a notebook. If we get lucky they'll release it at the end of the year (unlikely), but almost certainly not this summer. A 3 GHz 90nm G5 is more likely than a PowerBook G5, unless they make a fat powerbook with fans (in which case it loses it's appeal).

[phongn]

Sounds good and all, but what kind of range does it have? Also, $129 for a g router is very expensive. Linksys sells a great line of g routers for half that price! If that thing was $40, that'd be great, truth be told I've been looking for a cheap g relay station, but not for that kind of money.

It's a relay, router, print server and iTunes media client in one ... which actually makes it a good deal.

[InnocentBystander]

Firstly, I don't know about your setup, by I've never seen anyone who had their broadband modem in the same room as their stereo equipment, as such you need 1 of 2 things, another wireless hub, or long cables.

It's a nice idea, but really now, who has their modem, stereo AND printer all in the same room? I doubt anyone would use it for all three at once.
Furthermore, if you did have all three in the same room, why not just plug it into your computer directly?

No, no, I can't see how this would be worth the price. Your paying for unnecessary convience. Print servers go for like $50, which I'll admit, is pretty expensive, considering all you need to do is turn on printer sharing and leave your computer on to get the same thing. If you have a big house and want to network everything, you obviously have money to burn, buying a handfull of these isn't such a bad idea, but a little work could get you the same thing for a good deal less.

[Praxis]

Well, turns out the rumors were true. Apple released the dual 2.5 GHz G5 today, with liquid cooling and a 1.25 GHz bus speed, 8x DVD-RW, and the option for a Radeon 9800XT with 256 MB DDR VRAM instead of just a normal 128 MB Radeon 9800 Pro.

All dual lineup: The $1,999 G5 is now dual 1.8 instead of signle 1.6. Huge jump there.

Perhaps we can still get 3 GHz by around January...

[phongn]

Well, turns out the rumors were true. Apple released the dual 2.5 GHz G5 today, with liquid cooling.

LOL, I was wondering why Apple redesigned the heatsink in the repair manual pictures that were leaked.

That case they have for the PC vs Mac case comparison isn't bad, though. I've worked in them plenty of times and they're pretty easy to use.

Perhaps we can still get 3 GHz by around January...

Maybe. All is up to IBM.

[InnocentBystander]

Ya, I don't want to buy a personal machine that requires liquid cooling just to keep from burning down. Any machine that requires more than just a heatsink & good airflow is too hot in my opinion. Hell, I've never even heard of such a thing, the only peolpe that use liquid cooling are overclockers as far as I know.

[Praxis]

Firstly, I don't know about your setup, by I've never seen anyone who had their broadband modem in the same room as their stereo equipment, as such you need 1 of 2 things, another wireless hub, or long cables.

It's a nice idea, but really now, who has their modem, stereo AND printer all in the same room? I doubt anyone would use it for all three at once.
Furthermore, if you did have all three in the same room, why not just plug it into your computer directly?

No, no, I can't see how this would be worth the price. Your paying for unnecessary convience. Print servers go for like $50, which I'll admit, is pretty expensive, considering all you need to do is turn on printer sharing and leave your computer on to get the same thing. If you have a big house and want to network everything, you obviously have money to burn, buying a handfull of these isn't such a bad idea, but a little work could get you the same thing for a good deal less.

To make a quote from a good post on Macrumors:

You could say it is a lot for just a wireless music device, but it is also a base station that can share an internet connection in and of itself, a wireless extender for an existing network, AND a wireless music device.

That's what makes $129 a killer price point.

The idea is that you use your iBook/Powerbook in the room and play DJ with iTunes directly to your sound system.

It's a good point there. Read it.

Ya, I don't want to buy a personal machine that requires liquid cooling just to keep from burning down. Any machine that requires more than just a heatsink & good airflow is too hot in my opinion. Hell, I've never even heard of such a thing, the only peolpe that use liquid cooling are overclockers as far as I know.

If I remember correctly, the G5 would do just fine with an extra fan or two, but they sell G5's to a lot of recording studios and music artists, and when you're in a recording studio you want a virtually silent computer. They want to keep it as silent as possible, so they use liquid cooling instead of fans.

And BTW...last I checked, the 90nm G5 STILL generates less heat than a Pentium 4

[phongn]

Ya, I don't want to buy a personal machine that requires liquid cooling just to keep from burning down. Any machine that requires more than just a heatsink & good airflow is too hot in my opinion. Hell, I've never even heard of such a thing, the only peolpe that use liquid cooling are overclockers as far as I know.

It's actually a heatpipe rather than classical watercooling. However, they probably did it to keep the noise down (they could have used loud fans instead, but that would suck)

[phongn]

Oops, looks like I was wrong