This Story Posted:
January 5th
12:06 PM/CST

 
 

Monday, January 4th

[12:06 PM]
The Mac Observer MacWorld Keynote Coverage
Steve Jobs has finished his keynote speech at MacWorld and has as usual blown everyone away. We have compiled an overview of the keynote that includes highlights. Several of the sections have their own separate comprehensive report.

G3 desktops [Coverage added 3:45 PM CST]

Processor:

  • 1.6 million G3's sold, with over $3 billion in revenue
  • The new line will include processor speeds up to 400 Mhz G3's,
  • TL2 cache set at 2:1 ratio (up to 200Mhz)
  • System Bus speeds are now 100 Mhz bus
  • New G3's use copper chip technology!
  • ByteMark benchmark crush PII processors: A G3/400 measured 13, With a PII/450 coming in at a paltry 5.6
  • New G3 beat out compaq 450 about 2:1 in photoshop test

Graphics:

  • RAGE 128 standard in new G3's.
  • Test results comparing frame rates: Rage Pro: 36 fps, Voodoo 2: 50 fps, Rage 128: 62
  • MacSoft Dark Vengeance ran at 56fps on the Mac Rage 128, 45 fps on Voodoo2 equipped PII/450
    [nice to see Apple doing direct comparison's now and not being artsy and wishy-washy. Hitting them where it counts is the way to go!]
  • Apple has licensed OpenGL and it will be included standard in new releases of MacOS
  • Apple has teamed with SGI for this, as SGI is going to use this as the start of a BIG push to make OpenGL the standard. [With cross-platform support, it could put a REAL damper in 3Dfx world]

Expandability:

  • 1 GB RAM max
  • 100 GB Internal HD capacity
  • 3 64-bit PCI slots
  • 1 double speed PCI slot
  • 10/100BaseT built-in, optional 1GB ethernet available
  • USB standard
  • Ultra ATA and Firewire (400 MBps) standard, SCSI being phased out
  • An easy opening door that exposes everything in a very easy to use manner

 

Pricing

  • Ranging ranges from $1599 to $2999
  • Desktop's start at $1599
  • Minitower at $1999

iMac

  • Sold more than 800,000 units in 4.5 months.
  • The iMac has won a number of Best of Class awards
  • Sales data - 32% first time buyers, 13% from Windows, 55% existing mac users
  • Online data - 82% of iMac users are online with 74% online within first hour of opening the box.
  • New iMacs - 266 Mhz G3, 6 GB hard disk, $1199
  • Old units fall to US$1049 (Rev A and Rev B)
  • New colors include lime, blueberry, grape, peach and strawberry (and original Bond - Blue)

Studio Displays

  • 2 new monitors added to the lineup
  • A brand new color scheme that matches the Yosemite PowerMacs
  • Price drop on flat panel Studio Display to US$1099
  • USB hub included in new 21" Studio Display With Color Sync

Commercials

  • 2 new commercials, "Open Minded," and "Secret Door"
  • They were rated by applause and "Open Minded" won
  • Both commercials feature the new G3's and their easy-open cases, etc.

OS

  • MacOS 8.5 sold over 1 million this far retail (i.e. Upgrades, not on machines) to make a total of over 2 million out since it's introduction (new machine sales with it on it included)
  • OS X done by 2000.
  • OS X Server done and released today. Includes "Boot from Network" option, among others. iMac’s make the perfect client machine here…
  • OS X server will begin shipping in February for $995

Games

  • Quake II, Starcraft, Tomb Raider III, Sim City 3000, Heretic II to be released among others
  • John Carmack of id software says that quake arena is being simultaneously developed on both the Mac and the PC! According to Mr. Carmack, "There's no reason why the Macintosh can't be a perfect gaming platform." Mr. Carmack added that Quake Arena has only 15k of Mac-specific code, making cross-platform development smooth and easy (not to mention the fact that the engine would be available for more titles)
  • Connectix released the "Virtual Game Station," a Sony Playstation emulator for the mac!!! The demo version of it ran great.

Other stuff

  • 1,355 new macintosh apps released since the iMac launch.

Apple