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Steve Jobs Surprises The Crowd: Apple's New Macs And Mac OS X Server Yesterday's keynote speech by Steve Jobs, Apple's iCEO was his best yet. He was helped by having great products to discuss and spectacular demos that all worked flawlessly. Here are the highlights: The keynote started with an advertisement featuring Hal 9000, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Hal apologizes for the Y2K issue and says that Macs are the only computers that are free from it. It was funny and effective. It's also available for download on Apple's website. After that, Steve introduced Apple's new line of Power Mac G3s. They are certainly distinctive and, unlike the iMac's, they are not beige. And they are fast: with a copper-based 400MHz processor, ATI Rage 128 and FireWire. They will also support Silicon Graphics' OpenGL graphics library (to be included in a future version of the OS). Datchley's Blog Prices start at the same price as the old G3s: $1599. Two new monitors (Studio Displays), which look almost like an iMac, are designed to work with it. The flat panel display has been redesigned to match the overall look of the other 2 monitors. The FireWire demo was particularly cool. FireWire is essentially an alternative to SCSI (which isn't included with these Macs; however, you can be an SCSIcard to add the capability). It is much more efficient than SCSI, as it doesn't require ID numbers or terminators and can handle much more than a 7-device limit. It is also faster. The demo showed a drive (coming soon from VST) that can fit in your pocket and directly mount to the desktop as soon as you plug it in to the FireWire chain (no external power is needed). And, if you are like me and like your Mac easy to open up, you'll love the new G3. One press of a button and a door swings open that reveals the entire inside of the machine. The only thing missing from these new Macs (taking a cue out of the iMac is a floppy drive, although Steve did not mention it in the keynote). [Note: Steve accidentally referred to the new G3 processors by Motorola and Intel. He meant Motorola or IBM. Next up was Mac OS X Server (due to ship in February). The network bootable feature is what caught my eye. This means you can start a client Mac connected from the server's System Folder. This can be done by the client Mac even if it doesn't have a System Folder on its drive. It doesn’t even need a drive to do this (a “true” network computer). Steve showed 50 iMacs all connected to the same server running QuickTime movies at high framerates - all the while being synchronized. Wow! Mac OS X Server also includes the Apache HTTP web server and WebObjects application server. Steve also briefly mentioned Apple's forthcoming FinalCut Pro video editing software (and a version of it is showing at the Apple booth). Next, Steve spoke out about the Mac's dedication to the game industry, particularly with regard to the Quake Arcade. He also showed Connectix' Virtual Game Station emulator. (Detailed below). Finally, Steve revealed the new iMac revision. It comes with a 266MHz processor, a 6 GB drive and costs $1199 ($100 less). It's also available in five different colors. By the way, the iMac sold over 800,000 units since it first shipped, 32% to first-time computer buyers and another 13% to Intel users. Apple's site has a variety of press releases, each with more information. Apple Launches a New Desktop Lineup in 1999"
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