Apple’s delay of Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard “is a bigger deal than what many people make it out to be, because Apple has painted itself, and thereby customers looking to buy their products, into a corner. It could be that iLife’07 and iWork’07 are delayed for completely unrelated reasons, but rumor has it, that the two suites will be Leopard-only. If true, this means that Apple may as well skip the ’07 iteration and go directly to ’08. Users don’t seem to be screaming for new versions of iLife and iWork (although I wouldn’t mind an improved version of Pages), but it’s still lost sales. For the hardware, it’s much worse. Prior to the Intel transition, hardware updates meant a few hundred MHz of CPU speed here or an integrated iSight there, nothing to get worked up about. However, last year, Apple upgraded the iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros from a 32-bit to a 64-bit CPU. Not a big difference in everyday use yet, but it could be if the 64-bit optimizations in Leopard are as significant as some people claim they are,” Iljitsch van Beijnum writes for Ars Technica.
“Something that should be a big deal for everyone are the screen resolutions… In Tiger, there is rudimentary support for “resolution independence,” a mechanism that allows software to take advantage of additional pixels by making text and images sharper, rather than have everything on the screen get smaller and smaller as resolutions go up. Resolution independence should be much more mature in Leopard, so it makes sense that Apple will come out with updated hardware to take advantage of this capability, although strangely, Apple told developers that this would happen in 2008. I predict that many of the people who buy a new laptop or an iMac with integrated screen between now and the moment the screen resolutions go up will be quite unhappy when they see how sharp text is on a 200 or even a 160 PPI screen. Remember, you’re staring at that thing many hours a day,” van Beijnum writes.
van Beijnum writes, “The fact that Apple introduces these types of new technologies as part of a new Mac OS X release means that such releases, and thereby slipping dates, are at least somewhat of a big deal.”
Full article here.
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I am tiring of these clueless wipes at Ars. Their writers are fiction dumbass writers.
Close the frigging site down guys.
However, last year, Apple upgraded the iMacs, MacBooks and MacBook Pros from a 32-bit to a 64-bit CPU.
Say it ain’t so! Are the Core Duo’s really 64-bit? I don’t recall that being the case.
MW: deal!
I don’t think so. I also think that leopard will be a significant update to Tiger and make Vista look like a 5 year old operating system like it really is and not brand new. iLife could have significant updates such and blueray and HDDVD compatabilities, new title options, sound effects, video effects and a whole lot more. Plenty to look forward to with iLife.
iLife ’06 is more than acceptable for the average person buying a Mac. People buy Macs for reasons outside the scope of this report, not for screen resolutions.
They buy it for the experience, ease of use, productivity, all of which is not affected by the delay in Leopard.
It sounds like there wasn’t much to write about today so Iljitsch van Beijnum had to go dumpster diving for content.
iWork needs incredible updating and need to be more open-source. the major problem with the ilife and mac apps is that no other program can open a garageband song, a keynote presentation, or ical calendar. APPLE NEEDS TO FOCUS ON CROSS-PLATFORM (MAC WINDOWS AND LINUX) COMPATABILITY!
I think the Core 2 Duos are hybrid 32/64 bit while the regular Core Duos (mac Mini) are just 32.
@coolfactor
The Core Duo’s are 32bit however the Core 2 Duo’s are indeed 64bit.
Delay = Not a big deal
Press Release = VERY BIG DEAL
Why tell millions of Mac users that the iPhone is the priority.
Let’s see, in the past year Apple has removed the word ‘Computer’ from their name, had a MacWorld with 0 new computer announcements, introduced 2 really cool gadgets (iPhone and AppleTV) but no updates to Mac Mini or Apple Displays, delayed OSX Leopard 4 months (and still no mention of what the ‘other features’ are) and no mention of an iLife or iWork update.
The smart press release would of been short and sweat…
“We are working our tails off to complete OSX Leopard but it still hasn’t met our very high standards for our customers. We will release OSX Leopard this fall. Thank you for your patience!”
Just where does the Mac fall on the list of priorities at Apple?
how bout it….MS Publisher files that open in Pages…
Pages is a delight… and iLife 06 has no competitor.
When Leopard and the new iWork and iLife 64 bit apps come out no-one will be able to even see Apple on the horizon…
van Beijnum is no big deal, somewhat actually. We’re talking no major revenue loss, by any delay, just perhaps a few months slide of marginal inducement.
As much as I’m looking forward to Leopard, if my life, or self-identity, ever gets to the point where any software delay for ANY reason becomes a big deal, I would have to seriously consider therapy.
I wrote about this the other day, but this was a killer decision for the education market. If they’d rolled it out this spring, we’d have it on a lot of our computers for the next school year. If it comes out after July, we’ll wait a whole year. Will also be hard to convince administration to get that new MacBook cart– we were counting on Leopard as a selling point.
Bad Apple
ATTACK OF THE INCOHERENT, ILLOGICAL, SPELLING-CHALLENGED FANBOIS!
1) Open-source the iLife suite? Just. Shut. Up. Now.
2) “Apple takes the ‘computer’ out of their name, so instantly, overnight, they are no longer a computer company!” Do you spend the rest of your time on prisonplanet.com?
You guys make satire too easy.
Remember, you’re staring at that thing many hours a day,” van Beijnum writes
Wise words…
coolfactor: “Are the Core Duo’s really 64-bit? I don’t recall that being the case.”
Yes, coolfactor… They are 64 bit… Now, stop acting cool and asking dumb questions, and look up these trivial bits of info for yourself!
Otherwise, I totally disagree that any delay is a “big deal”… especially due to resolution independence… Besides, rather than let some self proclaimed pundit prognosticate, let’s wait and see what the buying public has to say, shall we?
Could the delay also have to do with improving protocol improvements with MS products. Since the EU is forcing more openness.
Was this guy a proponent of the G5? They are 64 bit.
I don’t care about the delay I have finally saved enough to buy my first mac (15″ pro) and next month I will be a mac user.
This is Apple not MS so if your waiting for the latest and greatest you be waiting forever. Every time I turn around
apple has update something. I’ll update to leopard when it comes out unlike MS Vista Leopard wont cost $300.
Prior to the Intel transition, hardware updates meant a few hundred MHz of CPU speed here or an integrated iSight there, nothing to get worked up about.
Didn’t integrated iSight come out with the MacBooks with the Intel transition?
MW: nearly
Core duos are 32 bit chips, Core 2 duos are 64 bit.
Everything I have read, listened to , had exposure to suggests 64 bit computing is not a big deal for the average user. All it does is allow the system to address bigger blocks of memory-possibly useful in scientific applications, totally irrelevant for email, spreadsheets or listening to music.
The Leopard push back is NOT a big deal, this time.
Having to wait an additional 4-6 months is not a big deal-I will worry if when October comes around Apple announces it has been pushed back again.
BustingTheSkullsOfIdiots — I don’t think you know what satire is. Start busting your own skull.
Resolution independence should be much more mature in Leopard, so it makes sense that Apple will come out with updated hardware to take advantage of this capability…
I don’t quite follow what this has to do with the delay of Leopard being a big deal—which it really isn’t, except in the befuddled brains of so-called experts whose sense of self-worth is evidently derived exclusively from running around crying “The sky is falling! The sky is falling!”
Nevertheless, the subject of resolution independent display is an extremely interesting one. Personally, I’ve been waiting for it for almost twenty years. It was obvious as soon as Adobe started building text bitmaps on the fly in the late 80’s that a way to make this a resolution-independent process was needed. Unfortunately, no one has ever made it happen; but if someone did figure it out right now, the results would be spectacular on todays high-rez, high-contrast monitors. If the rendering engine could redraw the screen on the fly at the same apparent size, everything would suddenly snap into sharp focus. That would be cool!
“. . . we were counting on Leopard as a selling point.”
Why?
Does Leopard have something that’s not in Tiger that would make its delay a deal breaker for your high school’s education needs?
Just curious.
If the rendering engine could redraw the screen on the fly at the same apparent size, everything would suddenly snap into sharp focus.
…at the same apparent size but at a higher resolution, that is.