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Yes, the keynote seems like it is taking FOREVER to get here. This whole Apple-switching-to-Intel-chips rumor is killing me.

I've already lost mine. This could be the real deal.

I've got 2,500 shares riding on this one. I will either make a bundle or loose a bundle tomorrow morning. Here's hoping for the former.

Go SJ!

MW = "changes", no kidding!

If steve jobs lets apple go to intel chips then Apple will lose its market share over night!

I for one will NOT buy all my apps AGAIN just to run them on a intel mac!

If Apple are gonna do this then I might as well move to windows XP - as the difference between macs and windows will be blurred at best.

Might as well go the whole hog and just switch to windows!

- Never thought I would ever say this - being a dedicated mac user for over 1 years!

Amend:

14 years! - opps!

When SJ cancelled the clone program, I was upset and Apple stock went up.
When SJ shook hand with BG, I was sure it was the end of Apple, but Apple stock soared.
When SJ open sourced Darwin, I was happy, but Apple stock did not do well.
Now with Intel switch, I am disappointed. Must be a good sign.

He IS planning to subject.... etc, etc.

Go read the posts by someone named "As Seen on TV" over on Slashdot. Many people believe this poster to be Steve Jobs. ASOT is a very, very strong believer in intellectual property rights, and has a very cold, corporate viewpoint about what Apple should do for the benefit of its shareholders. He clearly gives the idea that Apple does not build its plans around geeks (which can be loosely defined as people who read MDN)

Solar,

Transitive means you don't have to buy new apps.

i just can't see them doing something that people are predicting; i think there is more to this, and no one has guessed what is really going to happen. switching to x86 is probably not what is going to happen, but other than that, i don't have a clue what they might have up their sleeves.
magic word is "question." you just can't make this stuff up.

you all are pathetic. the mainstream media reports this every year, expecting apple to move to intel because it is the *logical choice* in their view. when it gets down to it all that happens is that apple's stock inflates right before every keynote and then shareholders at WSJ and C|NET sell off right before the keynote, making a tidy profit along the way.

they don't want you to understand that powerpc is just now beginning to show it's distinct performance advantages, and that apple would be stupid to switch to x86 at this point. it's the same principle for why changing lanes in traffic will never get you anywhere faster.

It's not a "mock turtleneck"! It's a real "turtleneck".

The "Mock Turtle" is a character from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and nothing to do with an article of clothing.

http://www.snark.de/carroll/alice/alice9.html

Sorry for the rant but that has been bugging me for ages.

Some advice: Sit back from your computer and think about how stupid this whole idea is. If Apple moved to Intel they would be forcing the developer of the many thousand's of apps that run nativley on OS X to rewrite their apps, all of the mac users would have to rebuy *all* of their software. Intel's chips are bigger, hotter, more expensive and slower than Apple's current lineup. This whole "no 3GHz in a year" reason for switching to Intel doesn't fly. Intel said that they would be past 4GHz by about the same time the G5 was supposed to be at 3GHz. last time I checked intel is only upto 3.8GHz. The G5 has gone from 2GHz to 2.7Ghz in 24months, a 35% increase. The P4 has gone from 3.2GHz to 3.8GHz in the same amount of time, which is only a 18.75% increase.
MW-stock

You guys are nuts. It's not about the hardware, it's about the OS! I for one will be tickled silly to be able to buy a copy of OS X for my home made system and throw Gate's trash OS in the garbage where it belongs. I personally think Bill Gate's worst nightmare is an Intel machine running Mac OS X. Lets face it, it's something he just won't be able to compete with.

It is a mock turtleneck, Dan.

Definition:
Mock turtleneck: A shorter version of a turtleneck, with upward-protruding neckline that does not fold over.
http://www.mensspecialtyretail.com/glossary.html

My photo:
http://www.apple.com/pr/photos/execs/jobsphotos.html

This is all so funny.

The tech media is in such an unusual dilema they don't know what to do :

On the one hand they need to write about Apple cause that's where the news is. On the other hand, they want their readers to find familiar information (buzz words) they can relate to (at least in the headlines).

This is what happens when selling news takes precedence over publishing information.

So, in order to write about Apple the press feels they need to make it an Intel topic and invent conspiration theories in the process of getting there. How they manage to get [respectable] anal-ysts to concur is beyond me.

... pathetic.

Intel chips in Macintosh computers, yes why not (probably already happened). Intel as the main CPU, come on let's be serious.

Come to think of it, there is one way Apple could incorporate an Intel CPU in a Mac in a way that would please both its existing customers and help sell more Macs :

They could add it as a secondary CPU and build an "emulator" for Windows running natively inside the Mac (something integrated like Classic). It wouldnt realy be an emulator but it would certainly beat the crap out of Virtual Pc.

Probably not going to happen either but hey, we're in the dream world right now aren't we.

I heard about this new emulation software months ago and thought it would pan out that we could run windows apps (read games) on PPC. I never thought it would go the other way but if they can do it without taking a performance hit then it might be a possibility. Traditionally being a hardware company, you wouldn't expect them to let OS X run on home made computers tho and I believe somebody has said something about other elements than the chip which would keep them proprietary.

Man, if this is all true it is gonna throw me in a major quandary. I was all set to buy a PowerMac but the right path might not be so clear after the keynote tomorrow. I am NOT EVER gonna be switching to windows tho so whatever Steve comes up with had better make sense.

Isnt it funny how Sony and MS are moving there game consules to powerpc type chips. The Xbox has always been a pc . my firends have them and hack them about as they know how to muck about with PC hardware/software. so the xbox 360 is seen running on powerpc's to demo them but evidently NOT OSX OS running it. Evidently they have to emulate the xbox 360 to play current xbox games.
This is all soundling like a "switcharoo" isn't
Will Apple become Microsot and Microsoft become Apple (hardware that is .
It is a crazy time we live in isnt it

>Apple's shift to Intel really all about Hollywood>

Is this the same Hollywood that has debased whatever culture remains in the US?

inaminit, you've got it backwards. apple is a computer company...it sells such great software so people will buy the hardware. if os x wasn't amazing, why would I buy apple hardware? how many linux users run their os on apple hardware? computer hardware doesn't exactly sell itself, and apple has learned that to sell computers, you have to sell everything about them...the hardware, the software, the whole experience. IF (and it's a big if) apple switches to x86...you will NOT be able to run os x on a home-built computer...that's just not how apple works (and survives).

If it really is all about the DRM capabilty of Intel's dual-core Pentium D, then I'm even more convinced that Apple has a home media device up its sleeve, and that x86 won't be used in Macs any time soon. As many others have noted, developers would have a foaming fit at the thought of having to switch architectures, especially right after the release of Tiger. (Transitive is still vaporware as far as I'm concerned), and such an announcement would cause hardware sales to evaporate. It makes more sense however, if Apple announced a living room box a la Tivo dedicated to managing and downloading movies, with a chip that features hardware DRM. The movie studios and other content providers would find this far more palatable. Remember the hoops Jobs had to jump through to get the record companies on board iTMS; it would be much worse dealing with movie studios.

inaminit:

Its not about hardware. Its not about the OS.

Its about software and the massive disruption that two incompatible machine codes will place upon developers and consumers.

Why do people assume that Gates would be threatened by a chaotic processor switch by Apple? Even long-term, the switch would hardly be a threat to Microsoft. And in the short term, it would be a major threat to Apple.

It ain't gonna happen.

I'm curious as to why you would be "tickled silly" to run OSX on your homemade box. Aside from Dashboard and MAYBE Safari, what software would you be able to run?

Maybe the Intel chip will only be used in the iHub device?

Even if they do move the whole OS to Intel, they stand to lose their 2% share but might attract a sizeable chunk of the other 98%.

Intel for PC owners.

PPC for Mac users.

I could live with this. I doubt Bill Gates could.

Compared to M$, Apple is a small software company.

I've been thinking about the resources that creating a Pentium D-specific version of Xcode would require. Apple has been working for 18+ months on Tiger. I cannot believe that they would have taken people off Tiger and devoted them to the development of an x86 Xcode.

http://developer.apple.com/macosx/xcode2.html

Therefore, I have to assume that there is no feasible way a x86 machine running OSX is about to be introduced. I concur that an application-specific, home media box running some single-purpose (no Finder) OSX derivitive is possible. But I doubt even that, as it is not the "Apple Way" of doing things.

I can't wait to post "I told ya so" in less than 24 hours.

Is the keynote being broadcast?!?!

The author's argument makes not sense. If Intel can emulate PPC, then can't PPC emulate x86? Besides what I remember about Transitive is that it run at about 80%, not 100% that's rediculous. There will be much code that has to be emulated on a per-instruction basis too because the Transitive system emulated blocks of code that is cached.

I don't beleive it. There are huge holes. iTunes and iPod DRM'd music, why would hardware DRM on a Mac for movies be outside of the grasp of Apple, would Steve Jobs roll over so quickly after so masterful a win? I don't think so.

Just the same old rumor coming 'round.

Something has got to give with all this tension!

First the waiting for the release of OS X Tiger. Hanging around my front porch waiting for the UPS dude. And now this potential watershed moment in my Mac life!

Damd this waiting and suspense! Damd it all to hell!

All I can say is that if my shiny new PowerMac, Powerbook, & Mini all become a legacy architecture by tomorrow afternoon, that's the last Apple product I will buy. I felt edgy buying into proprietary hardware, but if the proverbial rug gets pulled out from under me, hello Linux.

Think of the businesses. Apple will lose ALL credibility in the corporate space. Single vendor hardware typically is a no-no, but I wouldn't want to be the IT director of a large Mac based infrastructure that suddenly and without any warnings, find that all that hardware/software needs to be ported all over again.

Dell sucks, but one of the reasons they're successful in the corporate world is that they publish a hardware ROADMAP. With Apple; it's surprises. And businesses DON'T LIKE SURPRISES.

I'm placing my bets on a iPod Video player with an Intel chip inside, the new Pentium D with DRM built in. You can't tell me Apple is switching when it looks like IBM has finally got the PowerPC at triple-core and 3.2GHz (Xbox 360).

Please stop writing "If Apple uses Intel chips. Apple will have to re-write all its software"

Instead, scroll back up to the top of this page and read the artical snip.

If you're confused click on the "full artical here" link and read.

If you're still confused click on the "or so the company claims" link and read.

I apologize to those of you who actually read before you post.

This product is similar to Virtual PC except it allows OSX to run on an Intel Chip (for our discussion) so well, that apparently only an extreme power user will see the difference.

Power users are not going to be abandon. I'm sure Apple will continue to upgrade the G5 product line allowing a smooth transition. Who knows maybe the pentium D chips with the Transitive emulator will perform quite well.

I'm still not convinced; I'll be one of those Mac users that will be dragged kicking and screaming :-\

Funny thing is that Intel claims no DRM in the Pentium D and the new corresponding chipset.

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=23708

I wanted to know if all the "experts" on these message boards who love to claim they know better than....well just about everybody will come back and eat their words if Demi-God Jobs comes out tomorrow and proclaims Apple and Intel a match made in heaven. I mean seriously eat their words. Not the typical "well I guess I understand why they are doing it" or the "this move was inevitable", I want to hear blunt honesty. Something like "I guess I am not the all knowing expert I always thought I was", "wow Jobs must really not read my messages and see how upset this makes me" or more importantly "maybe sitting in my living room and typing away on my keyboard doesn't give me the kind of insight I believed I had into Apple's inner workings." Just wondering.....

Now I don't know if they will make this move or not. I would think not but then again who the hell am I to be sure one way or the other? What the hell do I know about Apple's best business interests? Or better yet, what do all of you?

So if crow is on the menu tomorrow I just want to know if all the appropriate parties are going to eat up.

Bandit Bill:

Can't stop writing it cuz Transitive is vaporware.

Also, the main premise of this article (in which you place so much credence) is flawed. If Apple's video ambitions rely on a critical mass of computers utilizing HARDWARE IP protection, than the iTunes/iVideo store is dead in the water. There is no existing market.

This "download a video" technology is unlikely to be rapidly adopted, like say DVD.

According to TiVo's website, there are only 1.9 million TiVo subscribers. Nothing to scoff at, but not world-shattering. How many satelite radio receivers are there in the wild? Far fewer than iPods. Dramatically fewer than Macs/PCs.

These are the hardware technologies Apple would be competing against. Apple would be doomed like a Napster or a BuyMusic.com.

The only viable solution is cross-platform software and existing hardware.

This is a moronic article. Copy protection based on a chip/hardware serial number would be no more secure than one based on software.

What is everyone talking about. Intel in a Mac is not news. Apple needs something now, product in a box, or better yet, tomorrow, to keep the momentum of Tiger, Mac mini and the G5's going into the holiday season. G5 laptops, 3ghz+ dual core G5, G5's across the entire line of Apple products. And maybe a new product. This is big news, not freak-en Intel. The public and Apple's shareholders aren't going to wait two years before they see more powerful Intel hardware than todays IBM PPC. This talk of Intel was started by the PC pundits. Their future jobs are at stake. The only way Intel will make the CPU's that go into Macs is if IBM licenses them to make the PPC. Even IBM uses Intel inside their boxes. Tests of the 2.5ghz Mac G5 against the fastest Intel show a very slight lead over Apple and the damn thing cost a lot more money then the Apple G5. Apple is not going to take a step backwards. There are severe hardware and software issues to solve before going to x86 systems. You would think Apple would first sue IBM for not producing results as promised or make them license the PPC before going to Intel for their x86 CPU.

--Solar Flare--
"I for one will NOT buy all my apps AGAIN just to run them on a intel mac!"

You want to move to Windows XP and buy all new apps, and then do it again with Longhore, because you don't want to "buy all my apps AGAIN"

Stick with the Mac! By the time you purchase an Intel Mac you will most likely have already upgraded your apps for other reasons. And they will run natively on both platforms.

Then again it is a rumor, it think, right? What did the New York Times confirm again?

Magic Word "knew" (sorry, I couldn't pass that one up.)

Dear "Just Wondering,"

To be fair, I wouldn't be surprised if many of the readers of MDN are in fact fairly expert in Apple's business. For example, I have been using Macs for 21 years, programming Mac software for a living for 18, and have been an Apple shareholder for 12 years. I have closely observed Apple's spectacular successes and failures over the years.

That doesn't mean that any of us claims to be, as you say we claim to be, "all knowing" experts. That would be a pretty outrageous, even blasphemous, claim. But it does mean that we're not all blathering hacks holed up in our living rooms chain smoking and playing armchair CEO as you suggest.

Yeah, because Apple and IBM can't make their own DRM.

And even better, Apple really wants to use DRM controlled by Microsoft.

MDN, think things through before you retread opinion found on the web. You're better than this.

Just kidding...

I'm not buying....still too many holes. There will have to be some major advancements announced if the whole line is to be moved to Intel. The key still is, the articles all say Intel, not x86.

Tomorrow will be the first time that I will be upset that I am on the East Coast. Not till after 1 PM will I know the truth......

'Just Wondering' I'm with you on that!

For all you arm chair "Apple CEO's", "Mac Experts", "Analysts" and what not, if iCon throws everyone a curve ball tomorrow or sometime soon, prove you got some and admit your ignorant stupidity with some style and grace.

For those needed help with this, it goes something like this: "Yummy (licks lips and fingers), crow".

damm. this thread exploded...

if apple switches to intel, then it's bye, bye apple.

I'll be getting a dual-processor boxx with AMDs instead...

I don't understand why it would be bye bye apple if they switched to intel.

I may agree if it were a switch to x86, but its clearly not, and Intel does more than just x86

Don't believe it. Not x86. Maaaybe if Intel puts out another architecture. God save us if Apple goes w/ hardware DRM. That will be tough to swallow.

"I'm not buying....still too many holes."

Um, yeah.... The holes are not going to be filled in until the announcement is actually made.

Geesh

"if apple switches to intel, then it's bye, bye apple."

Donnie, See ya later!

Hey HedgeHog,

Here's a temporal lesson.

No one actually has to wait longer than anyone else to know what the truth is on this matter. Everyone gets to find out the same "truth" at the same moment, no matter what time the clock says, because Steve Jobs will only be giving his keynote address one time.

... that is, unless you believe in parallel universes.

It's all relative.

Here is something from the past.

devil-inside.jpg

The only thing that I am really sure about with the Apple to Intel story is that tonight Steve Jobs is sleeping alot better the Bill Gates is.