Peeve Farm

g r o t t o 1 1

Peeve Farm
Breeding peeves for show, not just to keep as pets

  Blog \Blôg\, n. [Jrg, fr. Jrg. "Web-log".
     See {Blogger, BlogSpot, LiveJournal}.]
     A stream-of-consciousness Web journal, containing
     links, commentary, and pointless drivel.

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Tuesday, January 28, 2003
11:52 - Stopping the Gap http://www.apple.com/powermac/	(top)
Okay, it's not a very exciting announcement-- but I suppose that's why they call it a "speed bump". Power Macs are now up to 1.42 GHz. Whoopee, I hear you cry. Well, yeah, that's pretty respectable-- but it's still "polishing a turd", as Marcus puts it. This machine won't do much to leapfrog Apple back to the forefront of the speed game or anything, not that those who "get" what the Mac is about really mind much. Mac people understand all too well that speed does not equal usability; it's a factor, yes, but it's not the only factor. Not remotely. Well-designed, intuitive, integrated software with predictable and standardized hardware (and all the benefits that come with it, such as iPods and ColorSync) on a machine where you have to see the rainbow pinwheel occasionally is a fine alternative to spending three days trying to upgrade Windows on a machine that pops up its error dialogs instantaneously. Where this will hurt is in potential converts. This machine still won't cut much of a dash in speed bake-offs; it won't attract gamers, nor will it woo back the graphic designers who have decided that a lack of reliable color-matching technology and a butt-ugly MDI interface on Photoshop is a small price to pay for a little more speed on Gaussian blurs. Plus the way they've lowered the price on the bottom-end machine is to make it single-CPU again, which is not the straightest pitch I've ever seen Apple hurl. No, this is no savior machine; we won't have such a thing until we can get those faster buses and faster disks (c'mon-- still ATA/100? And only on one of the channels?). And that won't happen until the 970 is ready, and that can't come soon enough. But unless it's this fall or so, there'll be problems; one more speed bump is probably all we can expect Apple to be able to squeeze out of these things. That said, though, there are lots of nice, welcome additions to the new machines. 800 Mbps FireWire, for one thing. That'll help quell the rising tide of USB2 devices, maybe even reminding people of the benefits of having integrated power that requires no wall-leech A/C adapter, and daisy-chainability, and loopability/sharability independent of central CPU control, and so on. Or at least, maybe it'll help quell it. And there's 802.11g ('scuse me, AirPort Extreeeeeeme!), and integrated BlueTooth, and a 4X SuperDrive, and so on. It's certainly a more attractive machine than it was before; it's just no showstopper. What does really make me sit up and take notice, however, is the new display lineup. 17" is now as small as it gets, for $699 (formerly $1000). There's a new 20" widescreen Cinema Display, at $1299. And the 23" Cinema HD Display, the one with pixel-for-pixel HDTV compatibility for DVCAM editing and such, is now down from $3500 to $1999. I wonder where that price break came from? Has their new Taiwanese LCD contractor had some kind of new manufacturing breakthrough? Whatever the explanation, this is damned good news. It's hard to deny, even among the most skeptical, that Apple displays are some of the best in the business. They always have been; it's a point of pride for Apple. The only sticking point has always been price: I can get a top-of-the-line Apple monitor for $1000, or I can get one that's almost as good-- and has analog inputs as well as DVI, and has picture-in-picture and integrated speakers and stuff-- for $800. It's been a hard game for Apple to play-- very much the same battle they've had to fight for so long now. Subjective quality is what they charge so much for, but subjective quality doesn't show up in the bulleted lists in the glossy brochures. From a 30,000-foot view, Apple products look like bad deals. They're not, but it's just far too easy to get the impression that they are. But, well, whatever miracle they've pulled off to get the pricing on the displays into this range, it's a serious coup. Now Apple displays are a good deal again, even on paper. So it's not a bad day at all.