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- danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24Almost everything that comes with a Mac can take advantage of it out of the box. The whole iLife suite, any of the pro apps from Apple and Adobe, video conversion applications like HandBrake etc. Apple has been running multi-core for years. Now even games on a Mac are some whate multi-threaded since they updated the system Open GL in 10.4.8. I saw a 70% increase in frame rate on my dual core iMac.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+29Why are Apple fans so ***** obsessed with RUMORS? In no other demographic or consumer group have I ever seen anything close to the psychotic fervor that Apple fans unleash upon every tiny little rumor they hear about in relation to this company. There are dozens of Apple rumor sites, and they're some of the most popular websites among the Apple community. Even the ones whose authors purposely make ***** up are seeing tens of thousands of daily page views. This is ***** insane! You people need to STOP and get some perspective.
To paraphrase William Shatner's quote about Trekkies on SNL: "Get a life, will you? It's just a computer company!"
Oh, and as I always am required to do to avoid getting knee-jerk idiots to mod me down, let me append this comment the way I append all others: I actually LIKE Apple! Okay? It's true. I like Apple products. I think the Mac OSX is a fantastic piece of software. But my enjoyment of Apple doesn't prevent me from realizing that many of you people are ***** NUTS!
This isn't news. It's RUMORS. The same RUMORS you post to Digg every ***** day, and the vast majority of them turn out to be *****. Stop posting rumors. Post news. I welcome Apple news. I can't stand Apple rumors. - wstrucke, on 10/12/2007, -2/+17don't fix it if it isn't broken. everyone still buys them, even with tiny modifications to the previous model.
- repruhsent, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13What's so dumb about it? They currently have dual Xeon CPUs, each CPU having two cores. Intel recently announced (released?) a quad-core CPU, so it seems reasonable that Apple would put these in their high-end workstation line.
I was going to buy a Mac Pro soon, but I think I'll wait until after Macworld, just to be safe. - Raian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12The "iPhone" would be one place to take the iPod. They are already mass producing many of the components needed for a phone so it would make sense for them to peruse that.
If they threw wifi into the phone and allowed you to do VoIP-- the phone would explode onto the market.
Most people seem to forget that Steve Jobs got into the business by screwing the phone companies, and I'm hoping we will see a return to those earlier blue-box days. - shad0w, on 10/12/2007, -2/+13I'm more interested to see where the iPod brand goes. What more can they do? The current iPods are really just slight revisions over the older iPods. The standard iPod really hasn't changed much since they added the click wheel.
- Lounger540, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11You really don't know what you're talking about do you?
- Maxpower57, on 10/12/2007, -4/+15then again, adding cores to a processor doesn't always make it better
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -7/+16There are plenty of graphics and encoding programs that can use multi-cores on a Mac. You've illustrated why PC users don't know what makes a Mac great. You have no experience with them. You just have no idea.
- nuclearpenguins, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Apple rumors making the front page of Digg? Say it isn't so!
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Since the dual core technology allowed us to use two separate mice, does that mean an 8 core Mac can allow us to use 8 mice?!
(reference to a previous article) - Nebbie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Programs designed to take advantage of multiple cores will work just fine on a single core system. All they are doing is breaking the program into separate threads.
A single program doesn't have to be designed to take advantage of all 8 cores either, you could for instance run 2 programs at the same time that are designed for 4 core systems, or multiple programs that each use different amounts of cores and the OS can sort out which threads go where. You might be running a program that is designed to have 10 threads working at the same time. On an 8 core you will have 2 cores that are running 2 threads each, and the rest are running 1. On a 2 core, each one has 5. A single core will run all 10 threads together.
Another way programs can be developed is have a variable amount of "worker" threads. The program can be told how many cores to use (or just use them all) and runs a worker on each one. The program can then send instructions to each one to tell it what to work on. If a process is going on that just requires 1 thread, then only one worker will be in use. If there are more processes required then workers, then some of those processes will have to wait for a free worker. A single core processor would only need 1 worker, and all processes would just wait one after the other, just like single core programs work today.
One way to picture it: Lets say you are downloading a single large file from the internet and it maxes out your download speed. You want more speed though, so you get several more high speed lines installed in your house (cause you are insanely rich or something) and break up the large file into small chunks, spreading those chunks around all of your connections. You've got a "multicore" internet connection now. But your neighbout isn't insanely rich and just has his plain ADSL highspeed to his computer. What happens when he tries to download that large file broken up into small chunks? They all share the same connection and the file will be downloaded at about the same speed as if it was one big file. The chunks do not have to be spread out evenly to match the connections, they just get spread around to equalize the load as much as possible.
I think my example was a bit too long... but yeah, multicore is a good thing. Running multiple processors (multicore or otherwise) is not new by any means and desktop applications will take advantage of them once they are designed that way. A lot of other people think multicores are useless because most of todays desktop applications don't take advantage of them. That reasoning can be applied to almost any new piece of hardware in a computer. Over half of my hard drive is still unused, the applications I run are not designed to take full advantage of it. Do I want a hard drive half the size? Nope. The games I play would run just fine with a lower speed video card, did I make a mistake when buying it? Nope, future games will be able to take advantage of it better.
Gah, I gotta start putting a word limit on my posts... I'll just cut myself off here. I'll just end on the point that I'm responding to your post because you aren't bashing these multicore systems, you just want to make sure we weren't being forced into a useless upgrade. There are a lot of people spreading FUD about these things but the truth is they are just like any other top-of-the-line upgrade, it isn't for everyone, and isn't made to instantly obsolete all older hardware. It's just the beginning of a transition for desktops that will take many years. - johnpaul191, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5GAH! rumors! these rumors seem to be based on more insight that real inside sources.
the 8-core rumor is based on Intel releasing new 4-core chips in january (and the Mac Pro has 2 chips). though Intel has had a 4-core chip out for a while right? one that Apple has not started to use. i don't know coding enough to know if those 8 cores would require software specifically written to use it. Adobe CS3 is supposedly not even going to take advantage of 64 bit (according to another digg post). if that's true, would they write software that can use the 8 cores only in the Mac Pro tower (and Xserve)? a ton of photoshop users like their MacBookPros.
there is always a refresh of Apple's displays on the horizon. that's just common sense. now that the iSight camera is not available, people assume the Apple displays will have built-in iSight. might be possible. it's also possible Apple is revamping the iSight camera because the guts have something toxic that Europe flagged.
i find it hard to believe that the little iSight camera in my iMac has the image quality of the standalone model. the idea of a stand alone is also kind of important to the Mac Mini thing. if you are intended to buy a relatively cheap Mac and use your existing KVM gear, then why would you go pay a premium price for an Apple LCD just to have a built-in camera? there are not a ton of 3rd party firewire Mac-friendly cameras out there either. people are always asking Mac techies what their options are if the iSight is really gone. one of the top responses is to get a used on on Ebay. - Nebbie, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3digg down, messed up
- cinnix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2What would be good is a touch sensitive strip like the rumoured iphone patents. Like have a strip on the right side of the keypad for easier scrolling through webpages.
- heyy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i thought it was called mish mash pro
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow... that's one happy fanboy.
- lopla, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Just get ready for the announcement of Apple Osmosis. Osmosis will allow all win32 apps and games including DX10 to run on Leopard in what is termed "NN" or "Near Native". Performance in Osmosis is around 92% of actual. where did I get this info and why am I leaking it? Because no one will believe it anyway, but the keynote and announcement of Osmosis will go down in history as the death of Microsoft. Jobs will really take the world by storm this time.
- Smeed, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cool, 1 core worked perfectly fine a year ago. Where the hell has this need for eight come along? I can understand two, but anything beyond that seems retarded with the kind of support they have for dual core already.
- nobogeys217, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I think 15" Macbook (not Pro) would outsell any notebook. The current macbook is a great deal but 13.3" is kind of small. The screen maybe what is holding some people back.
- BigKoala, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My advice: Buy as much Apple stock as you can (maybe even get a loan) because Apple is going to take over the whole PC industry.
- kryszpin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1i am a mac user, mac's are nice, but ***** this stupid rumors, this is only 9 days to keynote, we will see. rumors don't changing anything.
- froinlaven, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I'm personally looking forward to my 8 core display in January.
- etechonline2002, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1macs are going to take over.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I was thinking the new iPod will launch with the iTV.
Think about it, its what sony is trying to do with the PS3. Have something hooked up to the TV that can get video from your PC and download things from an online store though wi-fi, and then have a portable wi-fi enabled device that can receive the content on-the-go(PSP for Sony). - Sandkat, on 10/12/2007, -3/+4I seriously doubt we'll be seeing an iPod update in January. There's a lot of people who bought new iPods for Christmas and then coming up with a new version the next month would be suicide. I'd say if we saw an iPod update it will be for the holiday 07 season.
- repruhsent, on 10/12/2007, -4/+5Not really useless - you can perform one CPU-intensive task (ripping a CD to MP3, for example) while you do another CPU-intensive task (ripping another CD to MP3? or something) without the huge performance hit you'd get on a single CPU machine.
I think I read somewhere that some operating systems were working on running a single thread across multiple cores to speed things up. With this, you wouldn't need any additional "programming" to take advantage of multi-core CPUs. - PSXer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Dude, those new displays are awesome.
- Wootery, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"Apple is going to take over the whole PC industry"
Doubt it - they've never going to conquer the low-budget market, especially in laptops. - friend18, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I'm hoping for a "Mac" to be released like Kevin Rose predicted. I think that would be great. Diggnation fans know what I'm talking about.
- mytimac, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1the quad core proc (so possible 2 quad core) will be arriving in the xserve very very soon, that is what I have been told by someone with good contacts.
- wstrucke, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1.... or a larger one.
http://www.macworld.com/2006/12/features/trends1/index.php - zzyzy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1How about the upcoming Supreme Commander RTS game (using Boot Camp)? That running on a octo-core machine. Sweet!
- HomieG6189, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0To be honest, I'm more excited about the "iPhone"
- geronimo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I've been doing the 8 core thing(intel 53xx series) for about a month and it is pretty powerful. Good to see Apple catching up.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1None yet, but its more for multitasking in the beginning.
Encode 6 movies while playing something. Sounds crazy, yet awesome at the same time. - mytimac, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1For desktop uses, not much will use 8 cores. But as I said above the xserve is getting them and that is huge for certain complex tasks.....
- cthellis, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1What the hell is an 8-core display?
- Zadkiel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1What application is going to run on 8 Cores?
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1I'd rather have the new ipod.
- arachn1d, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Wow that is pretty insane, I don't know how anyone could run out of processing power these days. (Unless you're rendering insane graphics or movies).
- Pharoah6905, on 10/12/2007, -6/+4i dont know if there will be any major change to the iPod (touchscreen, iPhone, ect.) but to me it looks like there's some solid evidence that there will be an update to the iPod.
1. Steve Jobs is giving the keynote
2. The Nano and Shuffle both recieved major updates at the "It's Showtime" event this past September yet the 5th
generation iPod only got some software upgrades and a price drop
3. The 5th generation iPod hasn't had a major update since the "One More Thing..." event in October 2005
4. It will be too late for anyone who purchased an iPod for Christmas to exchange them, since it is out of the 14 day
return window
Just my 2ยข
Pharoah6905.blogspot.com - Endeavour3d, on 10/12/2007, -13/+9Even if this is true, multiple cores are useless without the programming to take advantage of them. I know PCs barely has a market that takes advantage of multi-core CPUs, so I would think there is an even smaller market for Macs.
- danielwsmithee, on 10/12/2007, -7/+3I don't think there will be huge variations quickly. They have always taken the incremental upgrade approach. Eventually they will remove the click wheel and go full screen, but the underlying functionality will not be improved much until a few revisions after that (i.e. progressivly become more llike a PDA).
- mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -8/+4I agree with ilyag. Why are people so obsessed with Apple rumors? I could see even one every now-and-then, about a fairly big release, but every single day we are bombarded with "OMGz, Apple might maybe kinna sorta release XYZ next month!!"
And its not even like these rumors are coming from reputable sources. It would be like me setting up "thinkpadrumors.com" and randomly saying something like "Lenovo to bring back A Series next month with 17" Widescreen! OMGz!" Sure, its not out of the question, but since when does a guess/wish/hope of some random blogger constitute news? - Arkonnan, on 10/12/2007, -13/+8@23r17i05o42n re: encoding
I am currently ripping a DVD on a PC with a dual core processor. When that is complete in about five minutes, I will then encode it in DivX format w/AC3 5.1 audio for viewing on a portable device. But you know, being a PC user, I obviously "have no idea".
Also, ignore the small render farm in my basement which I use for 3D rendering(coincidentally, what I do for a living). I don't want to shatter your fragile illusions about what makes a Mac great. - arjunm, on 10/12/2007, -9/+1That is insane. It doesn't make any sense! Apple makes very powerful computers, but at this point, an 8-core is just overboard.
http://www.kamu.ch/blog - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -25/+16Agreed! I don't know why some many people are will to praise Apple for products they've not even produced yet.
They must have some bad ass marketing, as it seems anyone who purchases something made by Apple is determined to spread the Gospel, as it were.
People seem to forget that Apple is a company like any other, that wants _your money_. Nothing else. - BigKoala, on 10/12/2007, -10/+1Let's suck d***.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -17/+4dumbest rumor i've ever ***** heard, i miss the old video ipod rumors
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