Macworld San Francisco '06 Keynote Recap
Published January 11, 2006
Mac OS X 10.4.4 was released today, updating many things including Safari, iChat and Dashboard. New Widgets include: People, Google, ESPN, Whitepages and Ski Report. According to Jobs, more the 1500 Widgets have been created.
Indeed, Dashboard Widgets are one of the better features of 10.4. Even KDE 4 is going to support them.
Steve Jobs always has something up his sleeve, and this time it was the MacBook Pro. Most people expected an Intel based iBook, but Apple went and bumped the PowerBook first.
The faster processor is somewhat negated by the fact that most applications still needs to be emulated. That is a problem, and will be a problem for some time to come. That is why the MacBook Pro is "4x faster" than the PowerBook G4 - it needs to be for emulation. Imagine how fast it would be like with native applications running on it. The Operating System and Apple software does not count. I am talking about native Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and the like.
I am not in need of a new portable Mac at the moment, but if I was, I would hold back. If I have learned anything, it is to wait for version 2.0 of any new portable Apple hardware.
I could not recap every minute detail of the 2006 San Francisco Macworld Keynote, so be sure and watch the video from Apple.com. You really should watch it, there are some funny moments, as always. The new Intel/iMac commercial gets a chuckle every time I see it.
Of all the product announcements today nothing was better than the transition of Apple hardware and software to Intel chips. Once Apple updates their Pro line of software, Universal Binaries and this new Mac hardware will look more appealing to me. By that time the Adobes and Microsofts of the world will hopefully be ready for the Intel switch too.
GarageBand 3's Podcast Studio and iDVD 6's (finally) wide screen menus were the highlights this year for me. I also can't wait to see the second generation MacBook Pro.
It is yet another fine day to be a Mac user. April 1, 2006 will mark 30 years for Apple, which has gone through some tough times in its past - especially the last 10 years. Does anyone remember that Gil Amelio (widely criticized during his tenure) became Apple CEO in February of 1996? Apple has come a long way since then.
- Macworld San Francisco '06 Keynote Recap
- Published: January 11, 2006
- Type: News
- Section: Sci/Tech
- Filed Under: Sci/Tech: Software
- Writer: Ken Edwards
- Ken Edwards's BC Writer page
- Ken Edwards's personal site
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Comments
I really doubt we will see standard motherboards. The chipset from Intel seems like a good bet to be standard, but I think the motherboard is still going to be good old proprietary Apple.



![Mac OS X v10.4.3 Tiger (DVD) [Old Version] Mac OS X v10.4.3 Tiger (DVD) [Old Version]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41FV37KBR6L._SY90_.jpg)




Apple's seems to have run out of innovation cojones for the iPod - the big announcement was a remote
The Intel chips means Apple has a second (third? nth?) chance to standardize motherboards and chipsets, as well as open up to third-party makers, a la the IBM PC - too bad it's at the end of the PC age.