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June 19, 1997
Advocacy
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January-June
June 19, 1997
Some beta testers on the net have gotten a look at a prototype of Apple's forth-coming PowerBook ("Kanga") which is a based on the new G3 PowerPC chip. They say it runs roughly twice as fast (201 percent speed increase) as the fastest PowerBook 3400 on the market today, which is to say twice as fast as the fastest laptop in the world. The current ship date is late October.
Further down the PowerBook path is Kanga's big brother Wall Street. If you'd like to check out the specs on both of these bruisers, try the PowerBook resource on the net, O'Grady's PowerPage.
June 16, 1997
"For the third year in a row, the Apple Macintosh led the PC industry in repurchase loyalty in 1996, according to new research from Computer Intelligence (CI), the computer and communications industries' leading source of fact-based information."
June 12, 1997
Apple's PowerBooks are backordered to the tune of $200 million. Apple makes the fastest laptops in the world so if they can just get them out the door, the financials should improve considerably.
An interesting thought regarding the PowerBooks is a PowerBook and Virtual PC combination. Since Pentium laptops are currently limited to a lower speed (because the Pentium gives off too much heat to run them any faster), it may be possible by end of the year to have the fastest Mac and Pentium laptop on a PowerBook, an idea that sends me into a fit of giggles. Virtual PC starts shipping on Monday.
June 8, 1997
Apple's System 8 is now in final beta and should be released in a few weeks. Beta testers rave.
Connectix' Virtual PC, the do-everything emulator, is also in beta. The testers are very impressed with the program's stability and ability to run multiple OSs at good speeds. Running on a 200 MHz PowerPC, my understanding is that the emulator clocks in as a slow Pentium, roughly a 486 DX/66 equivalent. (Nonetheless, the program emulates a Pentium chip.) Impressive speed for an emulator, but what I want to see is what kind of scores it turns in when the new PowerPC G3 ("Arthur") chips start shipping later this summer. Virtual PC ships June 16, 1997.
The rumor mill has it that Apple has two new PowerBooks in the works, both based on the blazingly fast G3 chip. The currently-shipping PowerBook 3400 series is already the fastest notebook computer on the planet, so the new models should increase that lead by a sizable amount. (Until Intel finds a way to cool its fast chips, PC notebook speeds can't increase by much.)
May 23, 1997
The May 20th issue of Age from Melbourne, Australia had a story on the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and Rhapsody. (The Age is one of the top newspapers in Australia.) Here's a quote:
Demonstrators ran the fastest Pentium Pro II machines against next generation PowerPC Macintosh computers to show the speed of their products. In one, the 300-MHz Apple rendered a Photoshop image three times while the 226-MHz Pentium was churning through the same file just once.
In what I think is a brilliant move, Apple has decided to spin off its Newton division. This should allow both companies to focus more specifically on the products their trying to sell. The new Newtons are reportedly great machines.
Interesting stuff at a place called emulation.net. Apparently, somebody's written an emulator for all the old arcade games (like Pacman, Kangaroo, 1942, Wizard of Wor, Donkey Kong, etc.). You'll also find emulators for older computers like the TRS-80 and the Atari 800. Supposedly most stuff runs quite well on PowerPC machines. Worth checking out if you're a gamer or if you're looking to expand your software base.
May 17, 1997
Poor Exponential Technologies, the makers of fast custom PowerPC chips, closed their doors this week. Unfortunately for Exponential, their technology was overtaken by Motorola and IBM. According to Apple, the new PowerPC "G3" chip is as fast as Exponential's custom 410-MHz PowerPC chip, costs half as much and takes lots less energy to operate. These G3 chips should begin shipping late summer/early fall.
May 9, 1997
Test results are in regarding the Pentium MMX, Pentium II (MMX built-in) at 250 MHz and PowerPC at 200 MHz. Let's get brutally to the point: The PowerPC kicked them up a tree, and it did so with three weighty handicaps: (1) it ran MacOS 7.6 which, as we know from May 7th's article, is 30 percent slower than the forth-coming System 8; (2) the PowerPC chip ran on a 50 MHz system bus vs. a 66 MHz bus for the Pentium systems (the upcoming Motorola bus, Viper, for PowerPC runs at 83 Mhz; and (3) 200 Mhz isn't even the fastest shipping PowerPC!
May 8, 1997
Mac gamers who need the latest news can find it at The Mac Gamer's Ledge.
May 7, 1997
Earlier reports on System 8 (aka Tempo) show applications garnering about a 30 percent speed increase on PowerPC computers. System 8 has just entered beta testing, and from the sounds of it, the software is quite stable.
According to a report published on the Internet, Intel's Pentium Pro and Pentium II processors have a serious floating-point error. (This error does not appear in the x86 , Pentium or Pentium MMX microprocessors.) Intel, which introduced the Pentium II yesterday amid great marketing hype is exploring the problem. Quote from Intel spokesperson: "All microprocessors have flaws."
April 29, 1997
PowerBooks captured 7.9% of domestic U.S. notebook sales in January, up 7% over last year, according to market researcher Computer Intelligence (CI), in La Jolla, Calif.
It's not really a Mac thing, but Apple's new Newton MessagePad 2000 is selling like crazy. All the reviews I've read say that's terrific, too.
April 25, 1997
Claris Corp., Apple's wholly-owned software subsidiary, announced its second record-setting financial results in row. The makers of FileMaker Pro, Claris Works, Claris HomePage, Claris Emailer and Claris Organizer made $69.7 million last quarter.
At least one of my good friends who's a bit of a gamer on the Mac (Hi Matt!) will be cheered by knowing that Civilization 2, Masters of Orion 2 and Quake are all due out for the Mac by the end of August.
April 22, 1997
Latest education sales figures from the second quarter of the 1996-97 school year (from the Software Publishers Association's Upgrade magazine; the article is entitled: "Technology Buying Trends in the School Market" by Dr. Robert Resnick).
CD-ROM Sales by Type
Macintosh up 16.9%
DOS down 4.6%
Windows up 12.9%
Hybrid up 22.6% (hybrid contains both Macintosh and Windows sales)
Software Sales by Type
Macintosh up 20.5%
DOS down 5.4%
Windows up 8.1%
April 21, 1997
Apple announced that it sold its 27 millionth Macintosh last month.
April 20, 1997
Okay, let's deal with the bad news first: Apple declared a $708 million loss for the last quarter. While the results are somewhat disappointing, here's why it's no big deal:
1. At least $430 million of it was for the purchase of NeXT, the company that's leading the charge of writing Rhapsody, the next-generation MacOS system software due in late-1999.
2. Another $155 million or so was for the corporate restructuring in March. Apple pared back to concentrate on its primary businesses and let some people go. The reason for this charge is that Apple took care of its released employees with generous severance packages. That, friends, is how good businesses operate when a downturn forces them to layoff employees.
3. Apple has $1.4 billion (that's right, billion) in cash right now. They're not going to go bankrupt any time soon.
4. DataQuest, a company which tracks computer industry trends and statistics, predicts a giant late summer to fall quarter for Apple. DataQuest expects Apple to ship computers like crazy because, according to DataQuest, Apple's price-performance ratio hasn't been this good in years.
5. The Macintosh platform saw sales of approximately 2.5 million machines last year. Apple has a current order backlog of $300 to $400 million.
6. The Macintosh platform continues to be a leader in desktop publishing, web site creation, education and other special markets. Also, its share of the business market has risen substantially in the last few months.
7. Current Macintosh models are faster than any Pentium, Pentium Pro or Pentium II system. (This includes MMX systems.) Motorola has a Mac prototype (shipping this fall) which is so speedy that MacWorld can't get accurate measurements on it because their testing software wasn't designed to go that fast.
8. The 3400 series Powerbooks are the fastest notebook computers in the world, and Apple's backordered into the millions of dollars on them too.
9. System 8 (aka "Tempo") is on schedule for release this summer and early word is that it is extraordinarily stable, and offers significant speed and feature advantages over the currently shipping System 7.6 (which was just introduced in January).
10. Nay-sayers who insist on Windows compatibility will get their wish in June, when Connectix Corporation will release Virtual PC, a program which emulates DOS, Windows 3.1, Windows 95 and OS/2 (among others) on PowerPC chips. Latest rumor is that the program offers "game-playable speeds" and will be priced around $150.
April 19, 1997
Yes, it's ultra violent. Yes, it's ultra sexist. But Duke Nukem 3D wasn't voted PC game of the year for nuthin'. If you liked Doom, Duke Nukem 3D will blow your little mind. And if you're a Mac gamer, here's the good news: Duke Nukem 3D will be released for Mac in June. The playable demo will first be available from MacSoft.