Apple’s switch to Intel chips for its Macintosh computers has arrived, six months ahead of schedule, David Pogue writes for The New York Times. “The first such retrofitted model, the iMac, went on sale last week. Like the existing iMac model, which remains available, the new one is a sleek, thin, snow-white flat-panel screen with no actual computer box; the guts of the computer are hidden inside. The new iMac, like the old, is virus-free, spyware-free and gorgeous to behold. It still has a built-in camera for live Internet videoconferences, still can record DVD’s, still comes with a remote for controlling music, photo slideshows and DVD playback from across the room, and still has built-in Bluetooth and Wi-Fi wireless networking. Even the price is the same: $1,300 for the 17-inch model, $1,700 for the 20-incher. But now there’s Intel inside.”
“The official reasons [for the switch to Intel] are speed and heat; Intel’s newest chip, the Core Duo, offers more of the first with less of the second,” Pogue writes. “The switch is also good for Apple because it puts to death the Megahertz Myth. For years, Apple was at a public-perception disadvantage because consumers mistakenly believed you could rate a computer’s speed by its chip. “That 3-gigahertz PC must be faster than a 2-gigahertz Mac,” they would say. But megahertz comparisons are valid only between two chips of the same family.”
“The new iMac is deliciously fast when it’s running Intel-ready software. Just turning the machine on is a joy, because starting up now takes 20 seconds instead of 60, like the previous model; you’ll want to do it again and again. Programs open up a lot faster, too: GarageBand, for example, is ready for your musical inspiration in only 9 seconds, rather than 20. Web pages appear startlingly quickly: nytimes.com pops open in about 1 second (versus 2), Amazon is ready in 2 seconds (versus 4) and MSN appears in 6 seconds (versus 8),” Pogue writes. “In other words, if your computer world is complete with programs for e-mail, the Web, word processing, graphics viewing, music playing and editing of photos, movies, basic Web sites and music tracks, then choosing the IntelliMac over the regular iMac is a no-brainer. The computer comes preloaded with all the software you need, all Intel-ready. You get a heck of a lot more speed for the same price.”
“Apple has brought a staggeringly complex ship down for a surprisingly soft landing. It has made an excellent computer even snappier without increasing the price, and done an amazing job of concealing the technical plumbing,” Pogue writes. “The best news, though, is yet to come. It comes in two parts: first, the increasing speed as more and more programs are Universalized. Second, in principle, with the assistance of a driver kit that someone will surely write, Intel-based Macs can be restarted in Microsoft Windows. Everybody wins: Microsoft can sell more copies of Windows, Apple makes the only computers on earth that can run both consumer operating systems at full speed, and the masses don’t have to sacrifice the huge library of Windows-only software.”
More about “Universal Binaries” (programs that run on both old and new Macs), “Rosetta” for running PowerPC-only programs on new Intel-based Macs, older “Classic” programs that won’t run on Intel-based Macs, and more in the full article here.
Advertisements:
• MacBook Pro. The first Mac notebook built upon Intel Core Duo with iLife ’06, Front Row and built-in iSight. Starting at $1999. Free shipping.
• iMac. Twice as amazing — Intel Core Duo, iLife ’06, Front Row media experience, Apple Remote, built-in iSight. Starting at $1299. Free shipping.
• iMac and MacBook Pro owners: Apple USB Modem. Easily connect to the Internet using dial-up service. $49.00.
• iPod Radio Remote. Listen to FM radio on your iPod and control everything with a convenient wired remote. Just $49.
• iPod. 15,000 songs. 25,000 photos. 150 hours of video. The new iPod. 30GB and 60GB models start at just $299. Free shipping.
• Connect iPod to your television set with the iPod AV Cable. Just $19.
Related articles:
Universal Binaries and Intel-compatible Mac applications list – January 24, 2006
Growing reward pot awaits first person to get Windows XP running on Intel-based Mac – January 24, 2006
CNET FAQ: Will your Intel-based Mac run Windows? – January 20, 2006
Macs that run Microsoft Windows will be a boon for Apple – January 19, 2006
Windows to run on Intel-based Apple Macs before end of year? – January 18, 2006
Intel-based Macs may boot Windows XP after all – January 13, 2006
Apple + Intel’s Vanderpool could equal Windows compatibility in Mac OS X – January 09, 2006
Is Steve Jobs prepping ‘The Cupertino Project’ – Intel-based Macs that will run Windows apps, too? – December 27, 2005
Report: Apple contracts with Intel for design of next-gen Power Mac motherboard – December 27, 2005
Report: Quanta and Asustek to partner with Apple on new Intel-based iBooks and PowerBooks – December 27, 2005
Intel ‘Yonah’ specs, performance detailed; processor expected to power first Apple Intel-based Macs – December 22, 2005
Move to Intel-based Macs one of the most important switches Apple has ever made – December 22, 2005
It’s official: Apple CEO Steve Jobs to deliver Macworld San Francisco 2006 keynote address – December 01, 2005
Will future Intel-based Apple Macs offer multiple OS worlds via virtualization? – November 16, 2005
Apple patent application designed to prevent Mac OS X from running on non-Apple hardware – November 09, 2005
Apple patent application describes Intel-based Macs that run Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows – November 05, 2005
How Apple can win the OS war – October 19, 2005
Is Apple morphing Mac into the ultimate PC capable of running Mac OS X, Windows, Linux? – June 20, 2005
Intel’s built-in virtualization tech could be one way to run Windows on Intel-based Apple Macs – June 16, 2005
Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ ultimate goal: ‘to take back the computer business from Microsoft’ – June 16, 2005
Intel-based Macs running both Mac OS X and Windows will be good for Apple – June 10, 2005
Why buy a Dell when Apple ‘Macintel’ computers will run both Mac OS X and Windows? – June 08, 2005
Will developers stop writing Mac applications if Apple ‘Macintel’ computers can run Windows? – June 08, 2005
Windows users who try Apple’s Mac OS X Tiger might not want to go back – June 07, 2005
Microsoft: The safest way to run Windows is on your Mac – October 08, 2004
Mine is faster than that!
Even Photoshop doesn’t take THAT long.
is it possible? first post???
*sigh*
I love Dave. He writes the simple facts. Why does it appear that he and Walt the only ones who get the obvious?
btw, check out The Joy of Tech: http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/
funny as usual
Before these first came out, I was kicking myself for buying a 1.8 Ghz 17″ before the iSight ones came out… then after they did, I realized I probably did the right thing overall. Sure it would have been nice to get the iSight/FrontRow model, but it would have stunk to have to buy one of those over the intel one- and there’s no way I could use an intel one, between all the PowerPC apps/games I have and the classic apps I still need occasionally.
Where the heck?
Are they getting 60 second iMac G5 boots at?
Mine only boots in under 45 seconds and the iMactel is 35 seconds.
10 seconds BIG FRIGGING DEAL.
What Apple did with the Mactel versions is give a impression of a fast boot with the interface loading, but the “guts” take longer and is behind the scenes still loading.
Microsoft type tricks.
The PPC matched even against the Mactels chips will smoke them.
The new Core Duo’s are not even close to a old Dual 2 Ghz PowerMac!!
There are numerous flaws in the new Intel chips.
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/01/24/1537231&from=rss
Please stop saying Mactel. Please.
Once the transition is complete, the OS wars will be back on. Finally, Apple will be able to compare OS to OS and prove to the word what a flaming bag of dog crap bloatware Windows is.
hey Macromancer, d’ya like Pogue’s “Intellimac” moniker better? I know Ido.
The PPC version is just shy of a 1.0 release and the x86 version will be ready before most of us ever own an Intel Mac. You can keep your Mac Windows free and still run PC only apps on your Mac without emulation.
http://darwine.opendarwin.org//
http://www.winehq.org/site?ss=1
http://appdb.winehq.org/
ARTISTICULATED,
“I love Dave. He writes the simple facts. Why does it appear that he and Walt the only ones who get the obvious?”
Because they actually <u>use</u> Macs for their all-around computing needs.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”LOL” style=”border:0;” />
MDN MW: respect
I’ve got to have a lot of respect for David Pogue and Walt Mossberg.
Once the transition is complete, the OS wars will be back on. Finally, Apple will be able to compare OS to OS and prove to the word what a flaming bag of dog crap bloatware Windows is.
Outstanding. I’ve been saying “It’s the OS, Stupid”, long enough. Great to see others catching on.
Yeah, faster next year. Macbook pro is not even out yet, they still have to migrate the rest of the line. I would say in January 2007 Macworld for another iMac and Macbook.
Help. Why is everyone talking about faster Macintels when Apple still hasn’t shipped the first laptop yet. The iMac is not even a month old. The PC world is still waiting for their chips.
Run window softwares? Does it mean we can the virus too????!!!!!
NNNNNNNoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The dark side is clouding us, soon!!!!
I’m looking forward to the PowerMactels later this year.
I hope someone figures out how to run Windows in a window while in Mac OSX or run the programs without running Windows at all. I’m sure someone can figure out how to make it happen… so get busy.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
http://musobs.blogspot.com
whow: startup time of an iMac 60 secs?
My 3 year old 1 GHz powerbook G4 start up in about 45 secs
Amazon in 2 secs on the new intel dual core iMac in stead of 4 secs? What happened? On my same old trusty powerbook 1GHz, amazon is there within safari in a flash.
I’m looking forward to the bunny rabbit
Macbookpro shipping details just got updated:
estimated shipping 15th February, estimated DELIVERY 22ND FEBRUARY!
Can’t wait..
Funny really, the last time I had cause to start a Windows PC it was more like 2 minutes…and 2 hours later you have to do it again. So that’s the comparison thats really valid to make.
I doubt very much that David D is telling the facts as he’s been presented with them. So some machines are well maintained and remain fast and others are slower. Big deal.
Anyone else get this yet? Apple just updated my Macbook Pro order (placed on 18th Jan): now says est. delivery 22nd February!
David Pogue writes a good line, but he’s fudging the truth a bit and he’s got the buisness sense of a idiot.
Just like Apple says the iMactel is 2x as fast as a iMac G5 when in truth it’s about 1.25% in real world tests.
There is no way in hell Apple is going to let Windows run natively on Mac’s, it will destroy their market share through dillution of the OS, which drives sales, not hardware.
And the nickname is Mactel to distinguish it from a Mac PPC
It’s is and was a Mac first, Apple designed the thing, only the procesors have changed.
Should we call the Mac’s with WD drives Westmac’s?
STUPID ASS
I actually own a brand new 20″ iMac with 1GB of RAM as well as a Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5, so I thought I’d give my two cents from my own personal experiences with them.
“Mine only boots in under 45 seconds and the iMactel is 35 seconds.
10 seconds BIG FRIGGING DEAL.”
My Intel iMac boots in 26 seconds (average of 3 timed boots), not 35 seconds. So the fact that it does so nearly twice as fast as the iMac G5 IS indeed a big deal.
“The PPC matched even against the Mactels chips will smoke them.
The new Core Duo’s are not even close to a old Dual 2 Ghz PowerMac!!”
Again, my first hand experience shows this to be completely false. Using the latest versions of HandBrake (0.7.1 for Intel) on my Intel iMac and (0.7.0 for PPC) on a Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5, H.264 encoding speed is virtually equal. To be exact, the Intel iMac averaged 61 fps encoding a full 96 minute DVD, while the Dual 2.5 PM G5 averaged 59 fps. And this was using the exact same settings in HandBrake on the exact same material.
As for the “flaws” in the Core Duo chip, there are flaws in EVERY CPU commercially available. It’s something that 99.9% of users will never see, notice, or ever have to worry about.
I’m looking forward to the PowerMactels to be able to run windows software without windows, or at least Mac versions of all windows software because Apple will make it really easy for developers to compile their windows code for us.
I forgot to mention above that the Dual 2.5 Power Mac G5 I was comparing my new iMac to has 2GB of RAM and has two single core PowerPC 970FX CPUs. And both are running OS X 10.4.4.
Again, my first hand experience shows this to be completely false. Using the latest versions of HandBrake (0.7.1 for Intel) on my Intel iMac and (0.7.0 for PPC) on a Dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5, H.264 encoding speed is virtually equal. To be exact, the Intel iMac averaged 61 fps encoding a full 96 minute DVD, while the Dual 2.5 PM G5 averaged 59 fps. And this was using the exact same settings in HandBrake on the exact same material.
But your Dual 2.5 most likely has a larger fuller slower hard drive with 8MB of cache instead of 16MB and a near empty drive like the new drives in the iMactels
As for the “flaws” in the Core Duo chip, there are flaws in EVERY CPU commercially available. It’s something that 99.9% of users will never see, notice, or ever have to worry about.
Pentium 4’s – 65 known errata over the lifetime of the processor
Core Duo’s -34 known errata within the first 20 days
This is a new high for crapola processors from Intel
And they are going into Mac’s.
Perhaps you forgot about the P4’s hyperthreading expliot?
Oh yes, PC users had to turn if off.
We will start seeing exploits based on these flaws before long as the corrections will have to be done in the OS.