Don't you know, "water cooler talk' is exactly where you find out what's really going on...

U.S. stranded cost bonds soft, large ABS list seen EOM

Bulldog, I don't know who you are nor do I care, neither do I care how many shares of Apple you have. Equally you've no idea who we are, or how long we've been posting here.

Plenty of people have managed to join the board since it started and not get bent out of shape when it doesn't quite conform to what they expect. Heck, I'm British and I don't worry when there's a few OT US political posts, I just ignore them. Why not just ignore what doesn't interest you?

You know, co-operation and compromise can go a long way.

I do hope you enjoy talking to yourself, because I expect that's what you'll be doing...

Goodbye and thanks for all the fish.

Maybe it doesn't have to. As much as the 'industry' is convinced we need tablet devices, maybe the market isn't there yet. I could well be wrong though...

OT: USB Audio.

All Pro work is at least 24bit/44k these days, much is 24/96k. All current semi-pro USB audio I'm aware of is 24 bit capable, most of it is 24/96k capable (which is of course overkill for most of the market...).

All current Macs have 24 bit DACs AFAIK, and my 3 year old USB interface (Line 6 Toneport UX1) is 24 bit.

Actually thinking about it my 10 year old DAT has 20 bit A>D and DACs.

USB Audio & Linux. Don't use it so my comments may be well wide of the mark. Never seen a USB audio device that ships as standard with Linux drivers. May not need them of course as a device may need only to be class compliant to work.

I'm sure they are out there, but in the semi-pro music/audio world that seems to be the case.

Thanks Yofal, curiously Acquisition is working fine wirelessly on my Macbook, just not on the desktop which is hardwired to the Airport. I'll check out that site.

Anyone here use Acquisition? Been using it on & off w/o trouble for 2 - 3 years. Just (finally) set up an Airport Extreme, pretty sure I've pu all the port forwarding info in there correctly, and now it won't connect. Deleted prefs and restarted Acquisition, still no dice.

Anyone using it successfully with Airport?

I'm well aware of the price differential, but my point was re size, barely any smaller than a full blown laptop. people I've spoken too are more concerned about the size of the device they're carrying, not just the weight.

The price may well drop more, but are they actually making any money on these? They've just announced they're closing their European ops in Ireland moving to Poland.

Don't believe for a second that Apple will be immune from the oncoming downturn (which I believe many people are still in denial about), but I don't think chasing to the bottom is the solution.

Like your thinking, which means more than likely it won't happen... EOM

What was missing from the keynote - the Macbook Wheel

http://www.theonion.com/content/video/apple_introduces_revolutionary?utm_source=embedded_video

Dell errr...'Netbook'? Amazing, according to the dimensions in that picture the Dell netbook is barely any smaller than the Macbook, (about an inch narrower, other dimensions are actually bigger!).

OK it is (less than 2lbs though) lighter, but a smaller screen, less connectivity, no optical drive, much, much slower processor. the only advantage I can see is price.

While I can see the benefits of a smaller form factor, making a Netbook the same size as a normal laptop seems pointless.

Just skipped through it, Phil's no Steve, but better than most tech co. officers as a presenter.

iMovie 9, that interface is superb, probably not what you'd want to use for very detailed longform editing, but for fast news cutting it'd be brilliant. Much faster paradigm than Avid, I wonder if the Pro Apps could have that style of editing as an option?

iPhoto 9 had some nice features, and the Garageband tuition thing might actually get me to pick up that guitar I bought 2 years ago.

17" MBP looks good, only the higher res screen available now I see. Quite a jump in resolution from the 15" to the 19" though.

28" iMac - I find that hard to credit, unless the screen is that same res. as the 24". Those 30" screens haven't come down much.

Re Looks like the other guys are getting better with design..

Jeez, you really think so? That's not design, that's just "let's make a weird shaped box to look 'cool' "(or in this case, not).

Design is about form and function, there' s no connection between either there.

Fail.

Nothing, as far as I can see... EOM

The video out jacks are important for presentations, and I note Apple's offering has got them

Depends what you call 'video'. I see no mention of S-Video, or composite video out on either of the new laptops. That would count out using my widescreen CRT TV to watch movies / iPlayer. I presume it's not part of the Display Port standard.

I've seen virtually no mention of this anywhere, I presume any projectors I'm likely to find in offices I'm visiting will have VGA? Seems a bit of an assumption...

Actually lack of S-Video/composite out counts out the VJ market as most of those guys use small vision mixers/fx boxes to combine/manipulate images from their laptops with live cameras and other devices. Can't be done with VGA or any computer display output.

BTW, working in TV what I regard as 'video' is what's broadcast on TV, it's a signal that can be picked up live by any video device and manipulated, then sent on to another device. Computers don't generate video, they have a display output - not the same thing especially in these days of 'protected' content via HDMI etc.

Baldrick points out that a lot of pros that need FW. Not just pros though. Students, amateur musicians / recordists who want to record more than stereo, and everyone even vaguely connected with the media. The latter are expected to shoot and edit video / audio material even if they're not directly involved in that field.

Do most camcorders have USB2.0 these days? Can't say I've looked.

We all have portable Lacie drives at work with multiple connectors. If at all posssible we use FW as it seem a lot faster than USB2.0.

Fail to see how that would replace the Mini, as it'd have to cost more with a built in screen / keyboard.

If Apple do decide to go for the 9" netbook market, they're going to have to price below $999.

Haven't a clue how that cable would work, not only are FW and USB different electrically, they are completely different protocols.

Just taken another look at that cable, it's not FW to USB at all, it's USB to Mini USB (the connectors you find on digital stills cameras).

As for the loss of FW being a big deal, well it kind of scuppers the idea of the Macbook being a media tool. Most Video cameras still use FW, the vast majority of semi pro/pro audio interfaces use FW. The latter include the Apogee Duet, a stereo FW only interface which was designed in collaboration with Apple.

While cost is an issue for many, a lot of people also prefer the smaller size of the Macbook (I did). There's not a lot of difference in performance between the Macbook and the Pro.

I suspect that's why Apple has removed FW from the Macbook - too many people realising the Macbook was more than adequate for audio/video work. An effort to differentiate 'consumer' vs 'pro', unfortunately I don't think it'll work as many can't afford the Pro. I expect to see the white Macbook to be the bestseller of the line until it's demise.

No good for he Macbook, needs an Express34 card slot. EOM

OT: Inquisitor. Changing the main search engine to Yahoo has fixed it, but I can still search Google from the bar using Inquisitor's search engine list w/o a problem. Must be an Inquisitor thing I guess.

OT: Yes I do use Inquisitor, I'll try changing that. EOM

I wonder if Google has done something? Started a couple of days ago, very strange...

OT : Weird Safari fault. Can't access Google via Safari (just permanently loading). Not only that, but after attempting to access Google I'm unabling to load any other website, or even access my router via Safari. Quitting Safari fixes page loads until I try accessing Google again, then the same thing happens.

The problem only exists in Safari.
Fine with Camino.

Safari 3.1.2; OSX 4.11. Reset Safari, cleared cache etc. BTW M/c has been switched off since this 1st occured. After resetting could access Google once, after that back to square one.
Any ideas?

OT: Ah dear old Newsnight, a source of some grief for me today, but still the best programme we do.

Yep, definitely a case of "move along now, nothing to see here"...

Notice that while the 17" Pro still available it's not mentioned. Try finding it via the 'Mac' tab on the Apple site and it doesn't exist (at least I can't find it). Not listed as a configuration of the Pro, I can only find it on the store.

Try searching AAPLs website, it's amazing what you can find on there EOM

Never mind the iMacs, what about the Mac Pros and Macbook Pros?

Performance of non-SCSI, non-FireWire hard drives seems peachy, no?
Actually, no. USB2 HDs get nowhere near the advertised spec for USB2. Firewire drives don't reach full FW spec either, but generally it seems FW 400 drives outperform USB2 drives by about 2 to 1, don't know how FW800 drives perform.
I know audio guys use external FW drives - they generally won't touch USB2 drives with a bargepole.

Congrats Louis!

Purchased a refurb Macbook recently, absolutely fine so far. Only 5 months old and came overspecced - a 250Gb HD and the full 4Gb RAM (not what it said in the advertised spec). A very good deal, I bought extended Applecare with the money I saved on having to upgrade RAM etc.

Right you are... Just over the other side of the road in fact. Plenty of Mac users here Sadly we're not supposed to be much longer - moving to central London in 4 years.

Don't think the problem was just with O2.
Talking to a guy this evening who'd queud for 3 hours outside the Apple Store Regents St. Said they were having trouble activating them in the store, iTunes server issues? He wanted to bring it out this evening, but describes it as 'currently a very colourful brick'. Also spent sometime online at home trying to activate w/o luck.

The problems at launch featured in both our evening freesheets.

Renderfarms. Not sure if general purpose GPUs would be much help for cinema rendering. The way game and high-end cinema rendering is approached is completely different. With the latter you tend to render out multiple passes of lighting, shadows, reflections, specular highlights etc. These are then composited together, doing this gives a great deal of control of the 'look' of the final output.

Games are based on modelling things with a little 3D detail (ie polygons) as possible, then cheating more detail using various mapping techniques.

If the algos used in the former type of render can be ported to take advantage the GPUs pipeline they could help. Regarding resolution, many films are posted in HD these days, and both the Xbox 360 and PS3 have HD output.
Resolution isn't the issue, if we just sat and watched a videogame we'd soon notice the compromises in the visuals, being actively immersed we're too busy avoiding obstacles to notice.

Be thankful you're not asking me in 3 weeks time after I've done the Maya rendering course...

Macs & Pixar. I thought I'd replied to this,... Renderman's been running on OSX for a while, I don't think this is any indication that Pixar has gone Mac.
It's more than likely their renderfarm is Linux. Our current renderfarm is Linux and we're currently debating whether to go to Renderman as our render platform as we need speed. What workstations the artists at Pixar are using I can't say, but I'd be surprised if the Mac is the dominant platform.

Games development dominates a lot of the bleeding edge 3D these days, and we know which platform leads there... Just spent a week on a Maya (3D) course in London, don't recall seeing a single Mac anywhere in the company.

BTW, don't really play or follow games but was shown a couple of technology demos of what is possible in realtime now...
http://www.crytek.com/technology/cryengine-2/videos/ (particularly the 2nd video on the page)
http://www.projectoffset.com/videos.php
Remember these aren't prerendered.

I've some catching up to do.

You're not supposed to buy it w/o a contract... Notice of the UK store there's currently no way to buy it. They redirect you to Carphone Warehouse or O2. The US store does mention Apple stores as a place to buy.

$199... tempting

You're not supposed to buy it w/o a contract... Notice of the UK store there's currently no way to buy it. They redirect you to Carphone Warehouse or O2. The US store does mention Apple stores as a place to buy.

$199... tempting

You're not supposed to buy it w/o a contract... Notice of the UK store there's currently no way to buy it. They redirect you to Carphone Warehouse or O2. The US store does mention Apple stores as a place to buy.

$199... tempting

This isn't a midsize Mac - it looks Apple TV size ie. smaller than a Mini.