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Thursday, May 14, 1998
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News Index 1)Apple's Hardware Direction - Not
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| MacOS X Core OS Broken Down |
John Signa, Apple's Core OS Technical Solutions Manager, led off the Core OS Architecture for Rhapsody and MacOS X keynote with an analogy to MacOS X. He took out a length of rope, and stated that a rope is basically 'two ends, supported by a middle', just as Rhapsody is the Blue Box and Yellow Box supported by the Core OS.
John introduce Brett Halle, Manager of the Core OS group, to explain how this all fits in with MacOS X. Halle talked about providing a strong, robust foundation, via the Core OS, for Rhapsody and the Client and Server end. All of this which eventually move forward into MacOS X. The Core OS is responsible for providing all the protection, preemption, and multitasking facilities so all the components of MacOS X (Carbon, POSIX, and Yellow Box) can take advantage of them. Brett talked about support for Rhapsody in the future on multiple architectures, but again, he too was very vague on this subject and did not specifically mention Intel. We believe Steve briefed these keynote speakers ahead of time, and warned them to stay clear of the Intel situation since they aren't quite secure in this area.
Core OS Evolution
- NextStep 4.2
- Mach 2.x, BSD 4.x, OpenStep.
- Rhapsody DR1, DR2...
- Mach 2.x BSD 4.4, Blue Box, Yellow Box (evolution of OpenStep).
- Mac OS X
- Mach 3.0, POSIX, Carbon, Blue Box, YellowBox.
Mach 3.0
Mach 3.0's job is to provide a processor abstraction to the rest of the computer; to be able to hide the CPU and Memory services from the rest of the system. Mach will deal with memory protection, and processor scheduling, scheduling multiple tasks and threads and to provide fundamental access to the processor environment. Mach is responsible for the preemptive scheduling, allocating parts of the I/O infrastructure and so forth. Mach is based highly on messaging; it's a messaging kernel. Basically everything it does is through messaging.
I/O Kit
- Plug and Play.
- The detection of devices and protection issues.
- Dynamic attachment and removal of devices.
- Making the I/O system as flexible as possible.
POSIX / BSD
- Transition of BSD 4.3 to 4.4.
- Provides OS Personality for the APIs of the system.
- File System APIs.
- Networking APIs.
- Security Policies.
File System
- Enhanced VFS Design.
- Stack-able File System.
- Support for multiple File Formats (HFS, USF, HFS Plus and so on).
Networking
- Based on BSD 4.4 and TCP/IP Stack.
- Support for AppleTalk.
- Unified network services for MacOS X and Rhapsody.
- Set of abstracted APIs for the Yellow Box.
- Multi-homing.
- IP Routing.
Core OS and Mac OS X
- Updated to Mach 3.0 (a true kernel).
- OS up in user space.
- Separate OS and kernel by heavy duty boundary space.
- More Modular infrastructure.
- I/O Kit DDK.
- HFS and HFS Plus support.
- BSD "UNIX" Visibility reduced.
- AppleTalk API.
- Performance is priority.
Symmetric Multi-Processing
Mach 3.0 will enable Symmetric Multi-Processing. We'll see additional MP hardware in the next year, and they plan to implement Symmetric Mult-Processing into MacOS X over a period of time. Initially MacOS X will not ship with SMP.
Programming the Core OS
- Mach
- POSIX/BSD
- IO Kit
- File System
- Networking
- Application Environments
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Yellow Box & Rhapsody - Cross-Platform Lives! |
The guys at Apple gave a very Powerful rundown of the Rhapsody and Yellow Box technologies. Apparently, Rhapsody will continue on as a separate server product line. Cross-Platform Yellow Box is NOT DEAD. Apple is aggressively pushing for Yellow Box runtime on Windows. This is where they are focusing the core of their cross-platform strategy. MacOS X will use the Mach 3.0 kernel. All the details from the keynote are below.
New in DR2 - Summary
Performance : DR1 was extremely slow, basically because Apple had just begun to piece things together. DR2 has been re-optimized and performance has improved.
The user experience has been updated; less mixture of Open Step and MacOS appearance themes. Work on the Blue Box has resulted in a very robust Blue Box for DR2. The Yellow Box and Java have also been improved under DR2.
The User Experience
Apple has enhanced the installation of DR2. It now installs like any other system. Most of the command line interface has been removed, or covered up. "This is not Apple's value".
A setup assistant has been added. The assistant asks a series of questions on networking and such, like the MacOS assistant. The assistant looks almost exactly the same as the MacOS Setup Assistant. They have optimized the assistant for two different scenarios. The Network, and disconnected/Multiple User scenario. Password protection can be setup for the desktop environment. Users can now change the desktop resolution in DR2 as well.
Charcoal has become the system font of DR2. DR2's UI (User Interface) is more consistent with that of the MacOS appearance, rather than the Open Step environment. DR2 contains tear off menu's that fully tear off as you would expect them to. Power Windows functionality has been added; you can now drag the whole window, not just the outline. DR2 also contains an HTML help browser. Undo and Redo in Rhapsody have also been redone at the request of developers.
Interface builder will ship with DR2. Interface builder is a visual development environment for the Yellow Box.This application will allow developers to quickly develop Yellow Box applications with less efforts. Support for multiple languages in interface builder has also been implemented.
The Blue Box in DR2
The Blue Box is built in on DR2. There is no need for a separate install. The new Blue Box will provide high compatibility, and networking. Launching the Blue Box application from Rhapsody quickly boots the MacOS enabler. Everything will run as expected. Performance was extremely fast. Microsoft office applications, and Cyber Studio 3.0 launched and ran blazingly fast. Screenshots in the Blue Box now work perfectly. Users can switch back to the Rhapsody Desktop using the Finder process menu in the Blue Box. Copy and Paste between the Blue Box and Yellow Box works seamlessly. The two environments have been closely integrated.
Rhapsody DR2 will support multiple users. Each user can set custom icons, desktop settings, and even customize their Blue Box image. Each users Blue Box contains their own Blue Box system folder, with their separate extentions.
OS Improvements in DR2
The Rhapsody Core OS: Mach 2.5 microkernel is the current microkernel, with small bits and pieces of Mach 3.0 mixed in, though Apple promises to move up to 3.0 in the near future. The core OS also contains a great framework to write drives, especially in the Intel space. And of course, the unix portion is the third piece of the Rhapsody Core OS.
Rhapsody DR2 supports all of the latest hardware including the G3 Desktop line.
System performance: the I/O performance has been improved, along with the Virtual Memory system, which has now become more responsive.
The Yellow Box- Fourth Generation Object Oriented Toolbox
- Better Undo Support.
- Better Multithreading.
- URL Implementation.
- New Widgets within the Toolbox.
- Great localizability of Yellow Box applications.
Java in DR2
- Java VM, JDK 1.1.5.
- Java Toolkit fully integrated within the system.
- Support for 100% pure Java.
- Java is viewed as a language, like Objective C. (Yellow Box applications can be written fully in Java, though the toolbox is still in Objective C).
- The Rhapsody Setup assistant is written fully in Java with the Yellow Box API's. This just proves how Apple is supporting and betting a lot on Java.
- Java Applets can run inside Mail Viewer.
User Advantages of Rhapsody DR2
- The Enhanced User Experience.
- The Blue Box.
- A great OS underneath (which will be used in MacOS X).
Developer Advantages of Rhapsody DR2
- Continuing to enrich the Yellow Box (Dream Land for Developers).
- A number of real Yellow Box applications written in Java.
What's Next?
- DR2 for Intel and DR2 Yellow Box for Windows.
- The GM will be ready next week.
- This Fall, Rhapsody 1.0 (CR1)
- Polish DR2 for CR1.
- Support More Hardware.
- Web Objects Support.
Some Yellow Box Features For Rhapsody 1.0
- Color Sync, will be ready for Rhapsody.
- Apple Scripting (May not make it into 1.0, but there will be a form of scripting).
- Active X.
- And more features, time permitting.
Beyond Rhapsody 1.0
- Rhapsody will continue on as its own product line; as a server line!
- A number of Rhapsody technologies will be injected into MacOS X, including the Mach kernel.
- MacOS X's Blue Box will be 'Box-less'; transparent. All applications will co-exist freely.
- Yellow Box will move to MacOS X, the whole toolbox will move over.
From the Q&A
- The Yellow Box still remains a strong environment for Cross-Platform. (It looks as if Apple will not fully rule out cross platform, and it may still be quite strong with Rhapsody still being developed as a server platform after MacOS X).
- BSDUnix will not bea visual part of MacOS X
- Apple is committed to producing the Yellow Box runtime for Windows, cross-platform. There will definitely be Yellow Box runtime for Windows. This gives developers an incentive to learn the Yellow Box over Win32 API's. (No word if Rhapsody Intel will be pushed as much)
- So Cross-Platform Yellow Box is NOT Dead!
- It may be possible to Install DR2 on WallStreet PowerBooks.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| 400MHz PowerBook - Apple Hardware at WWDC |
400MHz G3 Desktop
John Rubinstein and Phil Schiller demonstrated a 400MHz PowerMac G3 at the Apple Hardware keynote yesterday, May 12th. They positioned the machine against a 400MHz Pentium II in a Adobe After Effects QuickTime Movie rendering duel. The G3 finished the render and played back the movie by the time the Pentium finished rendering the movie.
John then brought out a 233 WallStreet PowerBook and ran a bake off against the fastest Pentium II notebook, in a series of Photoshop tests. Should we bother to tell you who won?
400MHz G3 PowerBook!
Next, the Apple guys brought out a 400MHz G3 PowerBook! Basically, it was the new WallStreet PowerBook with a 400MHz G3 chip. This thing just flared. The fastest Pentium II notebook looked like a child's toy next to this baby. Cheers from the audience echoed throughout the conference hall.
The iMac was then positioned against a Compaq Presario 4540, a.k.a. 'The Tower Of Power'. The Compaq was so slow, that they quit the demo on the Compaq in order to 'put it out of its misery' 20 seconds after the iMac had already finished.
Industrial Design To Be A Major Part Of New Hardware
The focus promptly shifted to design once it became clear that the Pentium world is no match for the G3 chip. John Rubinstein introduced Jonathan Ive, who heads the industrial design studio at Apple. Ive touted Apple's commitment to bring great industrial design across the entire line of Macintosh products, not just the lower volume and specialty products.
Ive explained the ideas behind the design of the Apple Studio Display, the WallStreet PowerBooks and the iMac.
The WallStreet PowerBooks - The Central Panel of the PowerBook is covered with a soft-feel rubberized paint, making is one of the nicest products you can actually just touch. Ive mentioned that they've spent loads of time refining the form, and surfaces of the new PowerBook, 'To make sure that the back of the PowerBooks are unquestionably better than the front of the competitions.' This drew cheers and laughter from the audience.
Ive then stepped towards the iMac, mentioning that it was indeed their plan to redefine the desktop from the ground up. The connectors, cables, the labels, and even the mouse ball has been redesigned! Ive joked, 'Umm,... in fact yeah, I think I can boldly say our mouse-ball will be the best mouse-ball in the industry, bar none!'. Slides of wooden iMacs, water proof iMacs, Red, Purple, Brown, and Pink iMacs, iMacs with cartoon stickers, and iMacs with a baseball team logo on its side were shown just for laughs. Jonathan Ive then turned the floor back over to John Rubinstein.
G3's With AltiVec
Rubinstein stated that Apple has no plans to slow down, as far as processor speed goes. He then touched on Motorola's new AltiVec extension for the G3 chip, which Apple has been working on with Motorola, very closely. AltiVec is tuned to run MacOS style applications and will provide a 30X improvement on types of algorithms. There will be no need for special purpose hardware, it's all done in software. This is accomplished by adding an extra functioning unit which contains vector and parallel processing capabilities. This will be supported in MacOS software (QuickDraw Imaging, QuickTime media architecture).
Hardware That Will Be Phased Out
Next, Phil Schiller took the floor to talk about hardware we must wave good-bye to. A brief list of hardware items that are going to disappear are...
- The Floppy
- ADB
- LocalTalk
- MacSerial
- SCSI
- IrTalk
Phil mentioned that SCSI will continue to be supported, but there will be an option to move away from this. John Rubinstein touted the advantages of USB, and the forward migration to this industry standard that is taking place as we speak. USB can support 127 devices, plug and play without restarting. On the telecommunications front 33.6 and 56K modems will continue to be built into Apple products, and they are keeping a close eye on ADSL.
Why 100Mbit Ethernet is Standard In the iMac!
John and Phil also talked about the importance of 10BaseT and 100BaseT Fast Ethernet in consumer products. They stated that 5-10% of personal computers in the home in North America are networking more than one computer. New ISDN, ADSL modems and Cable Modem also plug into the Ethernet port. In Fact, they mentioned this was the most common, and standard way to set up a Cable modem. Way to go Apple! Not to mention that networking is common in educational venues. IrDA will also be built in to all the new products.
Fire Wire
John Rubinstein talked about the state of FireWire, and brought an assistant on-stage to demo the technology. They recorded digital video to the internal IDE hard disk in real-time via the $300 FireWire card. Plug-ins to Adobe Premiere will allow editors to send video directly to the hard disk for editing in Premiere and then allow it to be SENT BACK! to the camcorder! You don't have to worry about the conversion from analog to digital. Just plug your camcorder into your Mac via FireWire. This is all accomplished by the combination of the DV Format, FireWire connections, and QuickTime 3. A combination that works best on the Macintosh. Digital Video on the Mac, nothing beats it.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Allegro at the WWDC |
Though the Apple guys covered basically everything we've been telling you about Allegro (MacOS 8.5), they did however mention some things we haven't told you about MacOS 8.5; some very exciting things. We've posted information gathered from the Mac OS sessions, below.
Allegro
Stability
- Made it possible to rebuild the Desktop when the Finder isn't present (Fixes installer crashes).
- Taking System Preferences out of the system file (VM, Disk Cache, Printer). They'll be placed in a system folder where they belong.
- A fixed SIZE buffer has been implemented(stops forcing of low memory situations).
- Doubled the Event Queue (less loss of characters from the KB buffer when background processors are going on).
- Fixed Window Manager problems.
Performance
- Native Quick Draw. Redone text engine, and graphics. Faster drawing and scrolling.
- Graphics Accelerator extensions for the 7300, 7500, 7600, 8500, and 8600.
- Coping drastically improved.
- AppleScript Native. 3 to 5 times faster!
- Process manager improved.
- Apple Guide - HTML Based System. Launch URLs through Help menu. Index searches of your material.
- 100% utilization of 100MegaBit Ethernet. 5MBytes a second transfer over the network.
- Network Configuration -Apple Scriptable. New Find 2.0 is scriptable.
- Folder Actions- Attach an Apple Script to a folder.
- Find 2.0- Using V-Twin, search by content. Search the Internet. Search results indexing by relevancy. Summary to clipboard of search result items via Contextual Menu item (changes a 3 paragraph text file into a single summary paragraph). Users can save find queries into a Navigation Services dialog for later use!
- World Script built into MacOS 8.5! Properly displays foreign web pages.
Appearance & Misc.
- Themes.
- API for floating windows.
- Proxies in titlebars.
- API for hiding and showing the menubar.
- File System: Working at removing working directories. This is necessary for the Carbon specs. API's for Larger Files, and Larger File Names (not implemented yet).
- Anti-aliased Text.
- Working on large cursor support (but this will not make the allegro release).
- Resource manager, API to manipulate the resource chain.
- Text Services manager, adding unicode support, single byte input methods, contextual analysis.
- Internet Preferences Control Panel.
- Navigation Services - Next generation file picker API's. Select multiple documents at the same time. Support for translation of foreign documents. Support for previews. API for folder picker. (MacOS X will use Navigation Services ONLY, this is part of the conversion process to Carbon). Navigation Services are resizable. Navigate throughout your network via the Navigation Services dialog.
- Network File Servers Application will allow you to navigate through I.P. services, i.e. FTP servers, not just Apple Talk servers. (This is really, really cool).
- Changes in how developers work with OT preferences. An API to read and alter the prefs.
- V-Twin is part of Allegro. An API for custom find file indexes. API to access the disk index.
- Application switcher via floating dialog and keyboard shortcut.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| MacOS 10 - The Best of Both Worlds! |
Yesterday, May 11, Steve Jobs totally unveiled Apple's Software strategy. In a nutshell, Rhapsody and MacOS 8 (including Allegro and Sonata(MacOS 9.0)) will converge (get married) and form MacOS 10, which will be released in Quarter 3 of 1999! "It takes the MacOS into new territory, into the biggest leap its had since it was introduced in 1984, and yet, it's going to bring all of us, and our apps along with it"
However, he left us with a ton of questions, a ton. Here is what we know so far.
If you know very little, or no programming experience, please read our MacOS X Plain and Simple article, first. It explains the technologies and the technical terms quite nicely. It was authored by Andrew Welch of Ambrosia Software, Inc.What Is Carbon?
Apple has taken the 8000 existing MacOS API calls and thrown out 2000 of the bad ones. They have then added some new ones, and combined these into a set of API's they call "Carbon". "All forms will be based on it", Steve joked about Carbon. Carbon is sort of like the Yellow Box for the MacOS.
Tuning up current applications to the Carbon API's will allow the application to take full advantage of all the hard-core Yellow Box technology like Protective Memory and Preemptive Multitasking. Apple also stated that the average Macintosh Application is already 90% Carbon savvy. Therefore, all current MacOS applications 'tuned up' or written (if it's a new application) with the Carbon API's will run on MacOS 10. Apple expects the average 'Tune-Up' process to take 1 to 5 days depending on the application. They will also be providing tools to help developers with this slight transition. Carbon Daters is a diagnostic tool that will tell developers what portions of their applications need to be tuned up to Carbon.
Once applications are written in Carbon to take advantage of MacOS 10 (which is mostly the Yellow Box), a set of Carbon libraries for the current MacOS will make the Carbon applications backwards compatible with MacOS 8.X and 9.X. Like a Yellow Box for the MacOS.
Carbon is a way of taking current MacOS applications and turning them into MacOS 10.x applications. Linking current applications to the Yellow Box technologies. They will not be cross-platform via the Yellow Box because they use mostly MacOS API's. Applications written for the Yellow Box, using the Yellow Box API's and not the Carbon API's will be cross-platform (if Apple still plans on going cross-platform with the Yellow Box Technologies). Metrowerks has already developed a set of Macintosh Development Tools for Carbon.
The Carbon set of API's is not frozen yet. Apple is open to suggestions.
MacOS 10 (MacOS X)
MacOS 10 (MacOS X) will be a merger of MacOS 8.X/MacOS 9.X/Blue Box, Carbon, and Rhapsody/The Yellow Box. MacOS 10 will run all MacOS 8 applications (even if they aren't tuned for Carbon, see above). It will run Carbon Apps. It will run Yellow Box Apps. It slices, it dices, and it makes curly fries.
MacOS 10's (Carbon/Rhapsody) line up of features include.
- Protected Memory
- Advanced Virtual Memory
- Preemptive Multitasking
- Multithreading
- Fast Networking
- Fast I/O
- Fully Power PC Native! No 68k code at all!
- Faster Application Launching
There will be a beta of MacOS 10 by the end of Quarter 1 in 1999. Essentially it will combine the latest release of Sonata, which should contain Carbon, and Rhapsody.
MacOS 9.0
We expect that MacOS 9.0, code named Sonata will ship with the Carbon libraries in Quarter 3 of 1999. However, MacOS 9.0 will not run Yellow Box applications. Yellow Box applications will only run under MacOS 10.X and the cross-platform versions of Rhapsody (again, if Apple's cross-platform strategy is still in place).
MacOS 8.6
MacOS 8.6, to be released in Quarter 1 of 1999, will be a utility update to Allegro (MacOS 8.5). Like MacOS 8.1 was to MacOS 8.0. It will include bug fixes, minor new features, and will optimize Allegro further.
MacOS 8.5
Apple has officially announced that Allegro will be labeled 'MacOS 8.5' and will include everything we've told you about previously, including appearance improvements, updated MacOS managers, more PowerPC code, Internet integration, and new developer services.
In addition, Apple has announced that Allegro will ship with fast file transfer optimized for 100 MBps Ethernet and new services for developers that will allow them to begin development for Mac OS X. Allegro is said to ship in September.
MacOS 8.x and 9.x Applications Will Run On MacOS 10
Being that MacOS 10 will be a combination of the current MacOS, Carbon, and Rhapsody, all of the current MacOS 8.X applications will run on MacOS 10 EVEN IF THEY HAVEN'T BEEN TUNED UP FOR CARBON!, and this is a big deal. So all your current software will work on MacOS 10, it just wont be able to take advantage of the Yellow Box technologies like Multitasking. If they are updated to Carbon, they will take full advantage of MacOS 10, but this is solely up to the developer if they choose to update them. So basically, you have a transparent Blue Box.
The Yellow Box Is Not Dead!
The Yellow Box is not dead, settle down. The Yellow Box is the core asset of MacOS 10 (MacOS X). From the Apple Press Release now...Rhapsody contains technologies key to Mac OS X, including a microkernel-based core OS and an advanced software development environment.
The 'advanced software development environment' IS the Yellow Box. All of the hard-core technology's from Rhapsody and the Mach kernel will become the basis of MacOS 10. The other portions of MacOS 10 will be Carbon, and support for standard MacOS 8.x API's.
The Cross-Platform Situation
The Cross-Platform strategy. This is very unclear. Steve Jobs made no mention of the Intel versions of Rhapsody. It is still quite unclear whether or not Apple has ditched the cross-platform strategy. But we doubt it. The way we see it, developers will have their choice of 2 APIs (actually 3) and two target markets. The 2 API's are Carbon, and the Yellow Box (3rd API is MacOS, since these apps will still run). The 2 targeted markets are MacOS 10/MacOS 8.x w/Carbon and the cross-platform market.
Writing applications for MacOS 10 can be done two ways.1)Via Carbon API's - MacOS Developers have to learn very little new material to write applications using the Carbon API's, which will take full advantage of everyone of the hard-core technologies in MacOS 10. However, Applications written using Carbon API's will not be cross-platform (unless Star Trek NG is a 'Reality').
2)Via Yellow Box API's - MacOS Developers would need to learn the Yellow Box API's to accomplish the same goals as writing for Carbon, with one exception; when writing for the Yellow Box, your applications will be cross-platform! They will possibly run on Windows 95, Windows NT 5.0, Windows 98, MacOS 10, and Solaris, assuming the Yellow Box framework will be supported on each of these platforms. Currently, we see this, and the fact that Yellow Box is a superior development environment, as the only incentives to choose to code for the Yellow Box, rather than Carbon. But indeed, they are large incentives.Rhapsody
Though Apple has still yet to comment on Rhapsody for Intel, and the whole cross-platform strategy, we suspect that Rhapsody Intel and possibly Rhapsody PPC will continue to be separate server solutions for some time After MacOS 10 is released. Though it also makes sense that MacOS 10 will essentially become the PPC server solution and Rhapsody for Intel the Intel server solution. (We also are speculating that eventually, Rhapsody for Intel will merge with an Intel version of Carbon to form MacOS X for Intel. Though these are rumors that make for interesting conversation at this point in time, only.)
MacOS 10 on the other hand will be the consumer OS, combining the Power of Rhapsody, with everything we've come to love about the MacOS and more with backwards compatibility!
The Rhapsody products will evolve as part of the cross-platform strategy, and Apple's stab at Windows NT. Rhapsody DR2 was released at the expo, in order to continue to provide developers with a head start on getting their cross-platform Yellow Box applications ready for the release of Rhapsody CR1 next quarter, and then the transition to MacOS 10. Details should be available by this time tomorrow night.
MacOS 10 G3 Only?
Will MacOS 10 (MacOS X) be G3 only? Sorry to say, but it looks like it from what Steve had to say. However, MacOS 8.x/9.x with the Carbon libraries (Sonata) will run on all, or almost all, of the PPC line. Users will be able to take advantage of all the hard-core features of MacOS 10, just no Yellow Box and MacOS 10's underlying features.
Apple has still yet to confirm what kind of hardware Mac OS X will require. It is still possible that MacOS X will run on the higher end 604e systems. However, Jobs speech makes us think otherwise.
What Do We Think?
We never liked Rhapsody to begin with. To us, the MacOS X strategy is phenomenal. At first, we were confused. But after several hours of discussing and looking into the information provided, we've come to the conclusion that this is 'Big Deal'. Carbon and MacOS X is what will save the Apple. Not the iMac, not the AMP, and not the WallStreet (though the new PowerBooks are really fine).
Carbon is going to place the Macintosh so far ahead of the rest of the industry, that it isn't even funny. The guys at Apple have found a way to provide a dual set of API's for a single environment. They've found a way to take current MacOS application and have them 'tuned-up' to run on an OS with close to every high-end feature one could dream of. And regardless, tuned-up or not, all current MacOS applications will run on MacOS X. This is the kind of technology the guys at Microsoft dream about. This is the kind of technology developers can work with. And finally, this strategy makes Copland look like a fisher price toy. Way to go Apple! We're so excited we may close down the site and start writing code for this puppy ;)
It may seem fuzzy to you now. But by the weeks end, you'll be thinking to yourself 'Wow, Alex, I think they've solved the puzzle'
More to come tomorrow afternoon! Check back then. We will be covering the WWDC from beginning to end. Updates will be made as information trickles in.Unedited Notes from Steve's Opening Keynote
Here are some unedited rough notes from Steve's Keynote. Please be patient as we update.
Apple has grown is cash build up from 1.6 Billion at the end of dec, adding 200 million more in the first 2 quarters of 98 for a total of 1.8 Billion in Cash. Jobs noted that they plan to assure customers that Apple will be here 10 years from now. He mentioned that Apple's market value is now way over 4 billion
Apple has sold over 500,000 G3s. Most successful product line in Apple's history.
Job's then went in to the ritual speech about brands, where he mentioned, "A trusted brand is like a trusted friend"
'Of course we are going to go after new customers, of course we are going to go after Wintel users" Not to ignore installed based.
Steve Jobs noted that he found the "Best industrial design group, at Apple" Refered to the casio watch in his reference to design.
Talked about iMac compared to Compaq. 'The fastest Pentium 400 is SLOWER " Appluase from the auidiance before he could finish the statement.
20 % of new homes in Silicon Vally have Class 5 wiring for Ethernet. This is one of the reasons Jobs wanted the iMac to ship with 100BaseT ethernet as standard.
Steve said he wants to talk to people about bundling some 'Kick-Ass' games with the iMac.
Steve Jobs ran the iMac Video
"Hi, I'm Macintosh. It sure is good to get out of that bag"
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"We are here today to roll out our software strategy, and it looks REALLY GOOD"
Jobs stated that Apple would be focusing on 3 core software projects.
#1 : MacOS
#2 : Java
#3 : Quicktime
Quicktime
------------------
Jobs referred to the digital media as a 'Tower of bable'. Nothing communicates with eachother. Quicktime fixes all that.
"QuickTime is to the digital media what postscript was printers"
Steve Jobs then showed a hilight video on QuickTime.
Jobs talked about streaming in QT3. There will be a new release of QT in the fall. RTP (Real Time Protocal) will be included in the version of QT that will ship this fall. This is live streaming over the net. Currently, the media has to be file based. They demoed live streaming of themselves at the WWDC.
They inbedded live streaming QuickTime movies into a Microsoft Word file. Remote web page control through QuickTime as well.
Java
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Want to do three things with java
1)Unify the JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Apple wants them to be one.
Microsoft, Apple, Metrowerks and Netscape will be standardizing on one JVM.
2)The version that will ship with Allegro will be 1.1.6 swing.
3)Make Java Faster
in 8.0
272 Caffine marks
in 8.1
3 times score in 8.0
2700 Caffine marks Netscape
3900 Caffine marks IE
Internally
3100 Caffine marks, in Allegro.
Plan to have it up to 4000 by the fall.
MacOS
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'The most important peice of software we've got".
MacOS has 12,000 Applications. Far from something they should discard. It needs to be polished and extended.
"What was this rhapsody thing?" "Rhapsody was some great technology, it ran some old apps and some new apps" When you ran the blue box under this thing, you didn't get any of the new features.
Rhapsody was great technology but it wasn't good enough.
They want an advanced OS that wants Mac Apps.
Protective Memory
Moderdern Protective memory
Preemptive Multi-Tasking
Multi Threading.
"We set out to Just Do it"
MacOS 10
The biggest leap since 1984, and it is going to bring all of its apps with it
MacOS 10 has two parents.
MacOS 8 And Rhapsody.
8,000 APIs in the MacOS. About 2000 of those APIs are bad news. They are getting rid of them in MacOS 10. Renaming the 6000 and adding some new ones, 'Carbon'.
Carbon Daters : diagnostic tools. Used by Apple.
Need to tune up aps for Carbon.
Carbon will run on OS 8. - YellowBox on MacOS.
1-5 days to tune up your app.
All products shipping will run on G3.
MacOS 10
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Protective memory
Virtual Memeory improved
Preemptive Multi Tasking
Fast Networking
Fast i/o
Full Power PC! No 68k in it
All the Apps will run on OS10, but will not take advatage of the new features.
Allegro 8.5 in September.
Q1 Next year
8.6
Sonata
macOS 9
in Q3
DR2 Available today.
Ship 1.0 of Rhapsody Next Quarter.
Then transition begins in OS 10.
Beta of 10 in Q1 in next year.
Q3 of next year MacOS 10 will be released.
Avie Tevanian came on to Demo the new technology.
Preemptive Multitasking - As they were dragging the movie in movie player for carbon, it kept playing.
Protective memory demo brought applause from the crowd.
Demoed Claris Works on DR2
Ben Waldman (spelling) from Microsoft came on stage. Manages the MacOS unit at Microsoft.
Norm from Macromedia came onstage and was very pleased.
Greg Gilly from adobe has Photoshop running on Carbon.
He ported Photoshop 5.0 to Carbon by himself.
There is a metrowerks compiler for carbon.
What happened to Rhapsody for Intel?If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Hewlett Packard To Produce USB Printers For iMac! |
The iMac's introduction, though quite impressive, brought to question numerous loose ends and incompatibilities. It's our strong beliefe that many of these questionable areas of the iMac will, over time, become less intimidating. There seems to be a solution to almost all of the iMac's problematic (if you can even call them that) areas, with the exception of the PCI and non-upgradeable processor areas. The 'majority' of the 'targeted customer' for the iMac 'does not' need PCI slots. The iMac will come standard with an ATI Rage card for 2D/3D acceleration, it will have 100BaseT Ethernet standard. The 'average first time buyer' will need nothing more, nothing.
The Floppy Situation
The iMac will have no floppy drive standard, however sources have confirmed that an external Apple USB floppy drive is under development at Apple, and will be an options via the Apple Store for an additional cost (sub $100). One source claims "The floppy for the iMac will look like a cross between the design of the external PowerBook 2400's floppy drive, and the iMac's mouse. Very cool." In addition to USB floppies, 3rd parties have promised, and in some cases already announce removable media solutions for use with USB. Expect the options to increase in the coming months.
Printing On The iMac : Oh So Simple....
Printing on the iMac. Being that the iMac will ship with the absence of a standard serial port and a parallel port, the only way to print from the machine would be via the Universal Serial Bus, unless you're going to print over an Ethernet network, or purchase a form of convertor; but for the average user, these are not attractive options.
Solution: Apple makes use of their new alliance with Hewlett Packard to produce a USB printer fit for the iMac. And this is exactly what is happening. Thanks to a reader, and pr contacts at Apple and HP, we have now CONFIRMED that Hewlett Packard has indeed promised Apple that they will produce a 'low cost' USB printer that will be MacOS compatible. What exactly does this mean? Printing problem solved. Consumers could not use current printers or their old printers to begin with. It's part of the conversion phase. In fact, Hewlett Packard will not only be producing one low cost USB and MacOS compatible printer, they will produce several models for the wide range of demands of modern day consumers. Steve may be arrogantly selfish, but he's not an idiot.
So despite the outrageous and otherwise complicated iMac printing solutions that have popped up all over the web, the easiest way is usually the best way ;) Sometimes it seems as if we don't give Apple enough credit. They think out these products before they announce them. They pay people to do this kind of stuff.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Tomb Raider 1 & 2 For Mac? MacMDK Ready! |
Tomb Raider I and II
Recently the guys over at the Macintosh Gamers Ledge, and Tikkabik, two great Macintosh game sites, posted an e-mail which was received by one of their readers in response to an inquiry about Tomb Raider for the Macintosh. The response clearly states that Eidos will either port, or develop Macintosh versions of both Tomb Raider and Tomb Raider II. We at Reality think this is a 'Big Deal', and many Macintosh gamers may have missed this bit of news. The e-mail clipping has been re-posted below.We will be producing a Mac version of both Tomb Raider I and II in the near future.
Unfortunately, the plans have not yet been finalised so I can't tell you much about it at this stage.
Keep an eye on the Eidos websites / gaming press for updates.
Regards
Susie Hamilton
PR Manager
Eidos Website.MacMDK
MDK, the 3-D action game from Shiny Software is just about ready for distribution. Reality sources have obtained early releases of the game. With 12 Mbytes allocated to the game, everything runs smoothly, and error free. Full install is about 115Megs, Maximum install is about 200 megs. Users can choose to install just the application file and preferences taking up only 2.5Mbytes of disk space.
We've posted several screenshots from the MacMDK Pre Release CD below.
If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| Sub $1000 Mac For Christmas? |
Oh boy, oh boy! Mommy I want the new Apple _______ _______ for Christmas! Things are already starting to heat up in Cupertino for the long winter that lies ahead. From the e-mail posted below (see blue highlighting) and the recent outburst of information by our favorite source, Larry 'the man' Ellison, it has become quite obvious that Steve has yet to show his true inspiration in the Apple product line. Read below.
>>Along the way we'll give you the inside scoop on some upcoming secret
>>hardware, some cool new stuff from Motorola, and find out what Apple has in
>>store for the retail marketing side of things this Xmas (and I assure you
>>we have some good news here.)The Cat Must Remain in the Bag, For Now..
We're making an educated guess that Apple has lots more to impress us with in the coming months. You thought the iMac was a big deal? Think again. Over the past week, we've received a slew of information on Apple's future hardware plans. Material we regretfully cannot publish at this point in time. If you would like a hint, read last weeks news, as it contains clues. Remember folks, not everyone needs or 'wants' a machine with the speed to 'toast' a Pentium II 400MHz processor. That is a pure luxury. And you will pay $1299 for it. But imagine a machine that will compare to a 250-300MHz Pentium II, and then 'Think Different'.If you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| WallStreet - All Models Use The 750 Chip! |
Finally, after much confusion as to exactly what chipset the low-end versions of WallStreet will use, Apple's newly posted PowerBook G3 developer notes tell us once and for all. And as we published on countless occasions, despite numerous attempts by our readers and other media outlets to prove us wrong, the low-end cache-less versions of WallStreet will use a 750 chip and NOT a 740 chip.
The G3 microprocessor in the Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series computers runs at a clock speed of either 233, 250, or 292 MHz, depending on the model. Table 2-1 (page 24) shows how the speeds of the CPU clock, the backside cache, and the main memory bus are related.
The PowerPC G3 family of microprocessors includes the PowerPC 740 ô and the PowerPC 750 ô ; the Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series computers use the
PowerPC 750.
Note
The 233-MHz model does not include a backside cache.This information is published on pages 23-24 of the PDF document. As we stated earlier, although economically, it costs more to produce the cache-less 750 chip than it does the 740 chip, Apple most likely was able to purchase the 750 in bulk, where as they could not do this with the 740 chip at this point in time. Therefore, the 750 was still the most cost efficient solution.
One of our readers also brought to our attention that for Apple to use the 740 chip on the low-end, they would need to produce 2 different variations of the daughtercard because of the different pin count on the 740 and 750.
WallStreet Review?
Due to the fact that Apple has yet to ship the 250MHz and 292MHz versions of the WallStreet PowerBooks to its distributors, we do not have a version to review, yet. But we will, and the review will come as promised. Just maybe later than we expected.
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| New Apple Commercial |
Apple ran a sneak peek of their new 'Steamroller' PowerBook G3 commercial at the May 6th event. Fortunately for us, it was captured on video and now translated into QuickTime format. We've mirrored the 2.9Mbyte .mov file to several servers. The version we've obtained has higher video quality, but lower audio quality than the one OSRumors posted over the weekend. This version also appears to be just the commercial its self and not the WWDC environment.
For those who care not to download the file, here's how the commercial runs.
Richard Dryfus comes rolling in on a giant steam roller crushing numerous Pentium Laptops as he recites...
"There is a time and a place for subtlety,... this is definitely not the time,... or the place.
Because the entire Pentium Note Book World has just been flattened by a machine with a chip that is up to twice as fast."
A WallStreet PowerBook slides in...
Text Display overlaying the top of the new PowerBook, placed below the white Apple logo on the top of the PowerBook...
'The New PowerBook G3'
.::fade out and into::.
'Think Different'They really should fit 'www.apple.com' into the final version somewhere, but it's their call. Choose a file mirror below.
Steamroller Ad Download Sites
Apple_SteamRoller_Clip.mov (2.9MBytes) - HTTP Mirror
Apple_SteamRoller_Clip.mov (2.9MBytes) - FTP Mirror
Apple_SteamRoller_Clip.mov (2.9MBytes) - Allegro Net HTTP Mirror
Apple_SteamRoller_Clip.mov (2.9MBytes) - HTTP - MacNN MirrorIf you have any further information on this subject, please inform us.
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| The iMac And WallStreet Unveiled Updated |
Yesterday afternoon marked what may have been a milestone in the history of Apple Computer, though this we will have to wait and see about. Regardless, you have to say 'WOW' for a number of reasons. First off, the thing that impressed us the most, was the fact that Apple kept the iMac from the aggressive media, and outlets such as ourselves and our friends at OSRumors. We like to be surprised too you know? And it was indeed a pleasant surprise. Second of all, the design on this thing just makes your eyes light up, whether you liked it or not. And finally, what about the PowerBooks? After Jobs unveiled the iMac, the whispers over the new PowerBook's speed, outrageous hardware craftsmanship, and industrial design virtually came to a halt. The most exciting pieces of hardware Apple had ever introduced took a second seat to Steve's new toy, almost instantly. That in its self is a quite impressive. (We on the other hand, are still more impressed with the new PowerBooks, rather than the iMac, but it all depends on how you look at it.) In the long run, the iMac stands to put Apple back on the map, where as the new PowerBooks just make you drool.
The iMac
The iMac, or InternetMac, will be targeted at the 'consumer market', as a 'consumer product'. It will provide everything you need to connect to the Internet, including a 15 inch monitor, with the speed that toasts a 400MHz Pentium II. Quite a piece of hardware for $1299. When you turn this puppy on, its translucent turquoise plastics light up, along with its newly designed USB circular mouse and translucent keycaped keyboard. It glows in the dark, it has a handle for transporting, and it is aerodynamic. The CD ROM ejects for use as a cup holder when no CD is present in the drive... Of course we are kidding.
One could almost bet that Steve Jobs had a strong influence in the design process of the iMac. Jobs introduced the machine with flare, enthusiasm, and a twinkle in his eye. He was undoubtedly very proud of the iMac. The introduction resembled that of the original Macintosh back in 1984. As he lifted the sheet covering the iMac, the word 'Hello' was promptly displayed on the screen, followed by a heart warming '[again]'.
"The back of this thing looks better than the front of the other guys.", "This is incredible compared to anything else out there. It looks like it's from another planet...and a good planet. A planet with better designers." Jobs said. He began to play with the mouse, and as happy as a kid who was just handed a lolly pop, he let out, "It's the most wonderful mouse you've ever used.".
The iMac will ship with a 233MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 512K of backside level 2 cache, 32MB of SDRAM (expandable to 128MB), a 4GB IDE hard disk drive, two 12Mbps Universal Serial Bus (USB) ports, a 4Mbps infrared technology (IrDA) port, keyboard and mouse. Plus built-in a 24x speed CD-ROM drive, built-in 15-inch monitor, built-in 10/100BASE-T Ethernet support, built-in 33Kbps modem, built-in stereo speakers with SRS sound, and bundled software that includes : MacOS 8.1, Internet Explorer 4.0, AOL 4.0, Apple Works (Re-Branded Claris Works), Quicken Deluxe 98, File Maker Pro 4.0, and some games to be announced at a later date.
The iMac will ship with the absence of PCI slots, and without SCSI. But then again, how many first time buyers are going to need a zip, 3dfx card or so forth? The iMac will also contain two USB (Universal Serial Bus) that will replace Apple's traditional ADB (AppleTalk Desktop Bus) ports, which shows promise. iMac is due in August. Just another reason to 'buy a Mac'.
iMac Images
The good folks at the Northwester University Mac Users Group have posted some great shots of the iMac. Below are a number of links to the various iMac images.
iMac Logic Board iMac Glows! iMac Back Glowing iMac Mouse iMac Glowing iMac Back Logo iMac From Side iMac More Glowing iMac Speaker
Update
New iMac Close-Up Images
Several readers have send us bundles of iMac images. After sorting through a couple of batches of these images, we've found some images that appear to be new. See below links.
iMacUSBMouse.jpg iMacFront.jpg iMacCDROM.jpg iMacUSBKeyboard.jpg iMacCovered.jpg
The WallStreet PowerBooks
The WallStreet PowerBooks lived up to everything we've expected, and more. The engineers really deserve a round of applause for this one. It's quite amazing. As promised, we will have a review of an actual WallStreet within the week. Dan M. sent us a preview of Apple's new fold-out ad for the new line of powerbooks.
click here for a larger scaled image.
click here for a larger scaled image.
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| A New Macintosh Software Company? |
With over 3 years of research and development on new software technology, a group of developers from Venice, California, may be ready to join the ranks of the numerous Macintosh Software companies who've already found instant success. Though many legal issues need to be taken care of, and a company name instated, these developers are confident that they will be able to make the final push to get at least one of their products on the market in the very near future.
With expenses being one of their major obstacles at this point in time, mainly for corporate reasons, they are thinking of allowing investors to buy into the company and its technology over the web, via small sums; sub $100 range. Though, they are still mellowing over the legal limitations of such an arrangement and are still looking for investors.
Among their many projects is a revolution in 3D, code named Event Horizon. The power of a $30,000 modeling and animation package, with the ease of use you've come to expect on the MacOS and much more. The project, previously deemed 'Reality Studio', will feature an interactive immersive modeling environment that brings virtual reality and 3D modeling to the masses, along with an intelligent contextual help agent to aid newbies and experienced users. The immersive environment is said not only to be stereoscopic, but will rendered faster than 60 frames per second in true photo-realistic quality without hardware acceleration. Images : Image 1, Image 2.
click here for a full scale image.
A children's 3D application for MacOS, Windows, and Java will use the QuickTime Media Layer (QTML) extensively to empower kids to create exciting works of art to hanging on the fridge, place on a website, or to bring into school. This application closely resembles what a KidPix 3D would look like. See a sneak peek of this application here.
The team of developers also has planned an application for multimedia professionals. Can't afford a supercomputer for non-linear real-time editing, titling, effects and rendering? This application will feature automated match moving, lighting generation, and much, much more for the professional studio that doesn't need the burden and cost of UNIX. Real-time is the name of the game.
A second technology is targeted to deliver real-time, interactive, and dynamic content over the internet. The technology will initially be used to promote their other products and technologies, but will also open up endless possibilities for advertisement and cross-marketing with third parties; as content can be user-specific- show them the advertisements and products that match their profile, and swap in new banners, etc. on the fly.
Among the teams various technology up for licensing on a per-case basis are a set of extensions to RAVE that accelerate and improve frame rates with large scenes. Applications that use the technology no longer have a distinction between interactive and non-interactive renderers. It's that fast. This technology was built on a 6100 (65-140fps vs 12-16 for normal qd3d/rave), so it runs just about anywhere, and it'll accelerate anything that uses RAVE or QD3D, even material that's developed by others.
A set of renderer extension technologies that allow specific renderers to be accelerated by the host application, and also enable new features like volumetric lighting and radiosity solutions, are also planned. Work on a 3-D MacOS and environment manager with stereo optics is also rumored to be underway. We'll have more information as it becomes available.
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| This Week's Apple News |
Larry Spills The Beans Again!
"You really haven't seen Steve's products yet. He picked the best of the [existing] products and made some decisions to simplify things. He really killed about 80 percent of the products. But you're going to see the products Steve originated come out very shortly, and Apple will be back to innovating. Apple's future is in creating digital appliances--low-cost, very easy-to-use computers in the range of $500 to $1,500."
Apple Store Posts Record Sales
-http://www.apple.com/pr/library/1998/may/8sales.html
-Apple Store 1.9 Million. Educational Apple Store 1 Million. All in 24 hours.SuperDisk drives for USB
-Imation Corp and Panasonic Industrial Company will develop a USB version of the SuperDisk drive for which can be used with the iMac.
TBWA Chiat/Day Wins International ADDY Award For Apple Commercials.
-"In an full page advertisement in the May 1st New York Times, the 1998 International ADDY Award winners were announced. TBWA Chiat/Day, Venice won the prestigious advertising award for its Apple "Think Different" television ads. One of the copywriters who was also named in the award? Steve Jobs."
Steve Jobs Has Apparently Changed His Bumper Sticker!
-It now reads, "Cover me. I'm changing lanes."
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