Perc
Very Odd Looking Vehicular Object
So who else watched the Apple WWDC keynote stream yesterday? I have some thoughts:
New CPU architecture. I was along for the ride the last time they transitioned (PPC -> Intel) and it went smoothly for the most part. The Core Duo chips were certainly a TON faster and more power efficient than the G4's, but it took a while for the big software companies to get their titles ported to Intel. Notably Photoshop. I remember the tears of joy when they released a time-limited public beta of Photoshop 5.0 (iirc) for intel, which promptly was cracked and used by everyone until the stable version came out. Also, Microsoft Office (which is a slow pig even on modern Macs these days) took forever to come out. Something tells me the new versions of key apps will come out quicker this time around because Apple has way more klout now than they did back then. Also, emulation seems to be easier to do with this transition than before. There are also alternatives that weren't around back then, like Affinity Software's suite of graphics apps for iOS and macOS. It's a great hobbyist alternative to the pricy Adobe subscription and I bet they'll have Arm versions out when the new hardware ships.
Ditching the industry standard for desktop/laptop chips is a ballsy move, especially if you remember the days when Apple was in a terrible performance rut thanks to their PPC architecture and their CPU vendor not keeping up. But this time it seems to be Intel that's behind the curve and Apple has the ability to do something about it. I would love to listen in on the boardroom talk at Dell & co right now.
New macOS look. I'll reserve judgement until I get to use it but it did look pretty nice. I'm hoping that Apple Mail is more than just a re-skin, but maybe i'm the only one in the world that still uses a desktop mail client that isn't Outlook.
iOS gets widgets! Yes, Apple invented widgets! I know, Android has had it since the beginning. It's still a nice addition. They also barely touched on an important detail: iPadOS will allow you to change the default browser and mail client. Let's hope that's true for iPhone as well.
New CPU architecture. I was along for the ride the last time they transitioned (PPC -> Intel) and it went smoothly for the most part. The Core Duo chips were certainly a TON faster and more power efficient than the G4's, but it took a while for the big software companies to get their titles ported to Intel. Notably Photoshop. I remember the tears of joy when they released a time-limited public beta of Photoshop 5.0 (iirc) for intel, which promptly was cracked and used by everyone until the stable version came out. Also, Microsoft Office (which is a slow pig even on modern Macs these days) took forever to come out. Something tells me the new versions of key apps will come out quicker this time around because Apple has way more klout now than they did back then. Also, emulation seems to be easier to do with this transition than before. There are also alternatives that weren't around back then, like Affinity Software's suite of graphics apps for iOS and macOS. It's a great hobbyist alternative to the pricy Adobe subscription and I bet they'll have Arm versions out when the new hardware ships.
Ditching the industry standard for desktop/laptop chips is a ballsy move, especially if you remember the days when Apple was in a terrible performance rut thanks to their PPC architecture and their CPU vendor not keeping up. But this time it seems to be Intel that's behind the curve and Apple has the ability to do something about it. I would love to listen in on the boardroom talk at Dell & co right now.
New macOS look. I'll reserve judgement until I get to use it but it did look pretty nice. I'm hoping that Apple Mail is more than just a re-skin, but maybe i'm the only one in the world that still uses a desktop mail client that isn't Outlook.
iOS gets widgets! Yes, Apple invented widgets! I know, Android has had it since the beginning. It's still a nice addition. They also barely touched on an important detail: iPadOS will allow you to change the default browser and mail client. Let's hope that's true for iPhone as well.