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  • Swad

    MacBook Pro Performance Analysis

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Craig "The Guru" writes to us to share his benchmark analysis of a new MacBook Pro at MacWorld. Although we’ve seen several benchmarks for the new iMac, Craig is one of the first to test the preproduction MacBook’s abilities with several different benchmarks. His results seem legit… and he can’t be all that bad since he likes the Dandy Warhols. His findings?
     
    The overall results of this analysis indicate that Apple's new MacBook Pro is an improved machine in many ways. While some areas are yet to be examined, it is safe to say that the new MacBook is Apple's fastest laptop yet.
     
    Thanks for the great info, Craig!

  • Swad

    How Much Does an iMac Really Cost?

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    To be honest, stories like this BusinessWeek article "Is the New iMac a Cash Machine?" are always a little hard to accept - ya know, the ones where industry analysts dissect a new computer to determine manufacturing costs, etc. It's especially hard to gauge when you're dealing with Steve Jobs, who could probably sell ice to Eskimos... or at least get cheapo prices from Intel. But, nonetheless, here are the findings:
     
    Silicon Valley research firm iSuppli conducted a teardown analysis of the $1,299 17-inch iMac containing the Intel chip. Researchers use such analysis to estimate how much a computer maker pays for components and what profit may be wrung from sales. It costs Apple $898 to assemble the iMac before loading it with software and packing it in a box, iSuppli says.
     
    The most expensive component in the iMac is the Intel Core Duo processor. Apple's paying about $265 apiece for the chip, iSuppli estimates. "We made a conservative guess that Apple is getting a 10% discount on that chip," says Andrew Rassweiler, manager of iSuppli's teardown team. "But Apple is Apple. It's such a tough negotiator, that discount could be higher."
     
    Two other Intel-made chips, which sit between the Intel Core Duo and other systems in the computer, cost $14 and $31, respectively, iSuppli says. That makes Intel's total silicon content in the new machine worth about $310, or more than one-third of the cost of materials, using the researcher's estimates.
     
    But how does that compare to the last PowerPC-based iMac G5, released just last October? Comparisons, it turns out, are tricky. First, Apple rarely sheds any light on the costs of components it buys from its suppliers -- and those suppliers rarely talk about the prices they charge their customers.
     
    Some analysts suggest that Apple might have been paying less than $100 for the IBM single-core PowerPC 970 chip that went into the final iMac G5, which would imply an increase in materials cost of more than $200 per unit.
     
    "I don't know how much Apple pays for that IBM chip, but you can bet it's absurdly low," Nathan Brookwood, head of market researcher Insight64. "Apple has this crazy idea that it shouldn't have to pay as much as everyone else. And whatever it's paying for the IBM chip, I'm sure it's paying more for the Intel chip."

  • sHARD>>
    The folks at ArsTechnica have gotten their hands on a new 17" iMac Core Duo and run it through it's paces. During their review, they tried their hand at answering one question we've all been pondering: Can the new Intel based Apple machines run Windows? It seems no, for now.
     
    "In the 36 hours I've had this machine, I've spent a fair amount of time scouring the Internet looking for clues on how to get Windows installed. Unfortunately, I came up empty, and due to time constraints I wasn't able to spend the time I wanted to trying to hack the iMac."
     
    While it may be theoretically possible, it seems that no one can quite figure out how to use the new EFI-based system - yet. While this doesn't rule out the possibility of current generation Windows XP, it could be awhile before users are able to take a good look at the new machines and figure out just how to do it. As for the future? Windows Vista is slated to support EFI, so unless Apple has instated a bootlock, which they deny, all should be groovy in the Windows world.
     
    Check out the Windows booting attempt, or just read the full article on ArsTechnica.

  • Swad

    Behold, Firefox for Intel Cometh!

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    Mozilla dev Josh Aas (I wonder how many times he was teased as a child about that last name) has announced that the official version of Firefox for Intel will be arriving this March. The holdup? A few "minor bugs" with Java and Flash.
     
    I know many web developers who would argue that Java and Flash are neither "features" nor "minor bugs."

  • Swad

    User Experiences With New iMacs

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    We've gotten some feedback from those who have been using the new iMacs, and all of it (so far) has been resoundingly good.
     
    Don writes to give us a taste of the speed of the UI. Granted, these Quicktime videos (UI, Booting) were taken with his cell phone, but they do give sense of the iMac's speed as well as Don's love for resizing browser windows. Is it just me, or have I seen hacked OSx86 machines boot faster than this one?
     
    Also in the mail is a letter from Dennis telling us, "I wanted to provide some feedback as there have been numerous folks asking about dual booting installing xp by holding the c key. I can confirm that the c key does not working OSX just boots up. I havent tried much else as i received bought it last night but i can confirm that this thing is extremely FAST. I ran a few high def videos at full screen and compared with a powerbook G4, intel 3.4ghz PC and the imac 2.0 core duo. the imac was flawless - i could even drag the high def video around the screen really fast without disrupting the video. The powerbook choked and the pc hung up a bit - my pc has a geforce 7800 gt video card also. I am extremely happy with it!"
     
    Thanks for the letters, guys. Are you getting a new iMac? Have you already gotten one? Let us know your thoughts and impressions!

  • Swad
    We’ve received some information regarding Apple's newest portable, the MacBook Pro, and with it a hidden message for would-be hackers. We were made privy to a text dump from the System Profiler of one of the new MacBooks and, naturally, couldn’t wait to sort through its contents. What we didn’t expect to see was a warning from Apple to those that would hack OS X, presumably to those wanting it to run on beige-box PCs:
     
    --------------------------------------------------
     
    _name
    Dont Steal Mac OS X
    [...]
    Copyright © 2006 Apple Computer, Inc. All rights reserved.
     
    The purpose of this Apple software is to protect Apple copyrighted
    materials from unauthorized copying and use. You may not copy, modify,
    reverse engineer, publicly display, publicly perform, sublicense,
    transfer or redistribute this file, in whole or in part. If you have
    obtained a copy of this Apple software and do not have a valid license
    from Apple Computer to use it, please immediately destroy or delete it
    from your computer.
     
    --------------------------------------------------
     
    The most interesting part of this message? It’s placement, found in /System/Library/Extensions/Dont Steal Mac OS X.kext Despite being a lighthearted jab at hackers, it seems that Apple is taking the pirating of the new OSx86 seriously, since the same kext is not found in the PPC version of 10.4.4. Is this simply a hidden message for the interested parties, or is it a new tounge-in-cheek implementation of OS X’s TPM security? Details are sketchy at this point… watch this space for more news as we get it.
     
    [Digg this Article]

  • Swad

    Will New Intel Macs Run Windows?

    By Swad, in OSx86,

    No one seems to know.This betanews article seems to think that they won’t, due to the EFI (see below article). But Apple, as they’ve always said, won’t prohibit people from installing Windows on their Mac. From an MSNBC article:
     
    “That’s fine with us. We don’t mind,” Schiller said. “If there are people who love our hardware but are forced to put up with a Windows world, then that’s OK.”
    “Any new machines that are on the market that run Windows are great,” said Scott Erickson, director of product management and marketing for Microsoft’s Mac business unit.
     
    So what do you think? Has Apple effectively shut out Windows installation until Vista ships? Is this a mistake or a smart move?

  • Swad
    We’ve received reports today that Apple is putting in place a Developer Transition Kit Exchange Program to give DTK owners an iMac at no charge. As one developer exclaimed, “That was the best $999 I’ve ever spent!” DTK owners will receive, in exchange for their current units, a base-model iMac to “help you finish and ship your Universal Binary.” Below is an exclusive screenshot from Apple’s developer site:
     

     
    And yes, for those wondering, we’re all insanely jealous.
     
    EFI
     
    Also, on the hardware front, Apple updated its Universal Binary Guidelines and revealed that the new Macs will be implementing Intel’s EFI (extensible firmware interface) to replace the venerable BIOS. Wikipedia explains,
     
    The Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI) is an updated BIOS specification developed by Intel. Designed for use with trusted computing, it allows vendors to create drivers which cannot be reverse engineered. It also allows operating systems to run in a sandbox, delegating networking and memory management to the firmware. Hardware access is converted to calls to the EFI drivers. The EFI BIOS is used to select the operating system, replacing boot loaders.
     
    The EFI is important as it may be a component that Apple uses to lock OS X to their hardware. Since EFI was not present in the DTKs, we can only surmise that Apple’s use of “Trusted Computing” will be changed significantly with the new models.
     
    [Digg this Article]

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