[geeks] Mac World announcements...

[Mark]

On 16 Jan 2008, at 03:46, Shannon Hendrix wrote:

> Not at the show, but Apple did recently release new Mac Pros.  They
> also released new video cards, but inexplicably they won't work on the
> older Mac Pro, even those less than 2 weeks old.
>
> That is... um... stupid.

Apparently this is caused by a disparity in the version of EFI used  
between the two models of Mac Pro. The old one used EFI32, and the new  
one uses EFI64. AFAIK Apple are working on a fix apparently, and  
suspiciously all the cards are suddenly on a 3-5 week back order at  
the online Apple Store. I want a GeForce 8800GT for mine and I'm  
willing to pa the wedge, but I'd also like one that works too :P

> Apple already has almost no video card options, and this has ticked a
> lot of users off.

... including me...

> Hopefully they'll listen to the petitions that started up and fix  
> this.

As I mentioned, AFAIK a fix is on the way. No telling how long it'll  
be though, I can't afford one ATM though so I'm happy to wait a few  
months.

> Better yet, it would be nice if the dismal graphics hardware selection
> was fixed overall.
>
> It's a PC, a nice one, but fairly generic so there aren't as many
> excuses now for not having more graphics options.
>
> It would also help if the industry would work on this together with
> Apple.
>
> Maybe if the PC industry moves to EFI, it will help.

Vista SP1 was mooted to have apparently added EFI support. I don't  
know if that will make it to the final release though. RCs are out for  
Vista SP1 now, so if you know anyone involved they might know. If EFI  
support DOES stick in SP1 then it would not only be removal of a major  
hurdle to using it instead of the old BIOS system (as Apple have  
demonstrated, legacy support isn't that hard anyway), it would also be  
a good point for Microsoft to push Vista over XP, so it's in their  
interests too.

> I was also hoping we might see 10.5.2 released, but that's not a big
> deal.  Rather see it working well than rush it for the show.

Ditto.

> The new "Time Capsul" will probably be a hit for a lot of home users,
> but even nicer would be units capable of more storage.

I want one. I need a decent 11n base and also a 500GB space to backup  
to would be great.

> The laptop is interesting, and hopefully that CD/DVD sharing software
> for MacOS and Windows will be generally available to everyone.

The laptop is a dog, it's a sick LG-Prada-esque joke if you ask me.

> The iTunes stuff... yawn.  I can drive to the video store and get 1-3
> dollar rentals faster than iTunes can download high quality content.
> I thought the prices were pretty high for something you have to
> download and have less control over.

Many people will pay surprisingly large amounts of money to stay sat  
on their ass in a warm house ;)

> A lot of people will be happy with the release of Office 2008

Except those who use VBA scripting... or like me don't need enough  
features of Office that iWork '08 isn't perfectly sufficient (as it  
should be for a lot of home users) and a fraction of the price.

-- 
Mark Benson

My Blog:
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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."