[01/09/2001]
MWSF galore
Looks like Apple pretty much killed everyone who was sceptical about what they'd be announcing, as well as everybody already seeing them dead. If the stuff that Mike has posted at xlr8yourmac is all true (I haven't followed things yet), the new PowerMacs are going to kick SERIOUS ass. Already the words "733MHz G4" should make people's hearts jump in the chest.
MacNN has some more text on the whole thing, but still not much more than a few impressions. The new PowerMacs are truly amazing (I think), Mac OS X is going to ship on March 24th (final version), a new digital music application "iTunes" has been demonstrated, as well as a new goal for Apple and the Mac.
MOSR has all the facts summed up nicely and tighly. That's the way I like it.
MacWEEK also has a nice wrap up.

[01/09/2001]
Facts ala G-News
I'm just going to list the facts how I extracted them from the Keynote stream:

• Mac OS X
• Much improved Dock, Finder, Applemenu. Generally impressed me much more than all the other times before. This is going to be great. Ship date fixed to March 24th 2001. There are already 400 developers writing Carbon or Cocoa apps, 1200 apps coming this year, 350 already announced.
• PowerMac G4
• "Power to burn"
• 466-533-667-733 MHz G4 processors, single CPU, with the 533MHz version available in a MP config. 466+533 shipping now, the other two in February.
• "Totally new architecture"
• 133MHz Bus and RAM speed (no DDR as of now), 4x AGP slot with write combining (best way to feed graphics cards), 1000 Mbit Ethernet, FireWire, USB, 4 PCI slots! with much improved speed. All this makes me think that this is already UMA-2 standard, especially because he was talking about some removed bridges etc... Otherways it's some kind of UMA-1.5 at least.
• CD-RW drive in all machines.
• SuperDrive in the 733MHz top model, that reads and writes CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-ROM and DVD-R, whih is an industry first!
• nVidia GeForce2 MX graphics card in the top 3 models!!!!! Rage 128 in the 466MHz model so far.
• All models feature a new audio system with a built in amplifier for superior sound.
• Extra speakers available in the Apple store for 59$.
• Prices for the machines are: 1699$, 2199$, 2799$ and 3499$
• The first two models have 128MB RAM, the top two will have 256MB standard. Harddisk sizes are 30GB(?) 40GB, 40GB and 60GB.
• All this translates into the best Macs we have seen to date, really:)
• Maya and Photoshop
• Alias Wavefront showed off this great 3D tool under Mac OS X. This is certainly going to get several professionals back to the Mac. And of course, Apple compared a 1.5GHz P4 against the 733MHz G4 and the G4 was 33% faster still. 36 vs 24 seconds to be exact.
• PowerBook G4
• Speeds of 400 and 500MHz G4
• Only 1" thick, thus thinner than the Sony VAIO
• Only 5.3 pounds light
• Made of titanium
• 5 hours of battery life
• 15.2" mega wide, ultra flat TFT screen (it's huge) and a full-sized keyboard.
• Slot loading DVD ROM, Airport ready, S video and VGA vieo out, FireWire, USB, IrDA and everything else you could possible want.
• However only a Rage Mobility 128 chip, would have expected a Rage Mobility M4.
• First PowerBook I ever wanted to have:)
• iTunes
• Plays sounds in all formats (maybe not quite all, but a lot), easy CD ripping, no restrictions to speed or bit rate, MP3 encoding, internet radio, cd-burning, playlists and library function (searchable) all integrated, MP3 player feeding too. Everything is just drag and drop. Very cool indeed. The whole thing is free for download and runs on Mac OS 9. Support for CD-RW so far only for Apple's own drive, patches are coming soon though for all the other drives.
• iDVD
• Easiest DVD creation ever, drag and drop for almost everything, encryption into MPEG-2 format via software, using Velocity engine. Encryption time taken down from 25x real time to 2x real time, most certainly due to some very cool algorythms using Altivec. Very cool. Professional version also available, called "DVD-studio Pro".
• iDVD comes bundled with every DVD-R drive, DVD-studio Pro costs 995$,like Final Cut Pro.
• Other cool stuff I forgot to mention
• CD-RW burning works with drag and drop. Mount the CD-R or RW media in the Finder, put stuff on it, drag it to the trash and confirm to burn it, very cool.
• Apple's look at the PC is that it is not dying, but entering a new aera of "Digital Lifestyle" where the PC serves as a Hub between all the digital devices that we live with today. Like CD players, DVD, camcorders, MP3 players, Mobile phones, digital cameras etc etc.
• New buzzwords for you: "Power to burn", "Digital Hub", "Digital Lifestyle", "Titanium" and the old fashioned "Gigaflops". These are now up to 5.5Gf per second with the new top model.

[01/09/2001]
Various
Shugashack has some news on Quake 3 and various updates that have been released for it (dunno about the Mac versions though) as well as some new old games announced for the Xbox.

[01/09/2001]
Oopsies
MacObserver has some news on the company behind the new audio system in the new G4s. Apparently they leaked some info before they should have (like ATI last time). However, I don't think Steve is going to be as angry as last time, also because their amplifier system cannot be removed as easily as an AGP card.

[01/09/2001]
MacPlay hires new president
MGL notes that MacPlay has now officially appointed Diane Zammit as their new president. Hope this si going to push their PR a bit.

[01/09/2001]
Rumors
AppleInsider, has some rumors, that actually already turned out to be facts. One about Apple acquiring SoundJam (think iTunes) and the other about Apple going CD-RW (which the new PowerMacs do feature).

[01/09/2001]
Glaze3D, Bitboys, dead
IMG notes that TreshsFiringsquad notes eomthing that looks like the official epitaph to Bitboys grave. I mean we knew it was only Vaporware, but now it's official. Good thing we have GeForce2 MX cards now:)