PowerPC
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Snow Leopard to drop PowerPC support?
PowerPC users, your days could be numbered. According to an alleged screenshot of Snow Leopard's system requirements, only Intel CPUs will get to take a ride on the 10.6 train as of now. The grab comes from an early version of the OS seeded to developers at WWDC this week, though given that Jobsy said we're a year out from an actual release, these things could change. Still, it's not looking promising for those of you who've stood by your older models -- but Apple shutting out legacy users doesn't come as a real shock, does it?[Via Mac Rumors; Thanks, Kiwi616]
EETimes: Apple was an investor of PA Semi before acquisition
It was just a couple weeks ago that Apple bought PA Semi, a custom PowerPC chip design firm. But now that a few details about the acquisition are leaking out, a new light has begun to shine on this subject. According to an EETimes post, Apple considered buying PA Semi back in 2005, prior to the Intel switch. Oh yeah, and one minor detail ... Apple has been an investor in the company since that time. When Apple started using Intel chips, that move sent a death threat to PA Semi.Per the EETimes story, Apple came along to purchase a new chip from PA Semi. PA Semi didn't have enough investor funding to undertake a new project. So, what does Apple do? They pay off the investors and buy the whole company. Apple bought PA Semi for $278 million -- no pocket change, that's for sure. How important could this chip be for Apple to pay that much money? Well it might just be for a new tablet Mac (remember, you heard this rumor here first).
iPhone SDK works on PowerPC Macs, sort of
A MacRumors post suggests that the recently released, "Intel-only" iPhone SDK works on PowerPC Macs as well. According to the post, it worked fine on a iBook G4 running Mac OS X Leopard. The post did go on to say that Xcode displayed an error message upon trying to build a project, saying that the "target architecture does not match." Errors like these are to be expected, but at least those PowerPC-using developers can start to develop for the iPhone. There is no word yet on how the $99 digital certificate will work on the PowerPC Macs. 3by9's website has the full details on how to get the SDK running on your PPC Mac.[original post by 3by9]
Current and future gaming on the Mac
MacNewsWorld has a pretty good in-depth overview up about Mac gaming: where it's at and where it's headed. The basic story is that the three things that have historically held Mac gaming back behind PCs (the technology differences, the OS, and the smaller installed base) are slowly disappearing. With Apple's switch from PowerPC to Intel, the introduction of Boot Camp and increasingly easy development in OS X, and the growing popularity of the platform, gaming is actually bigger on the Mac than it's ever been.But there is still a huge obstacle, and that is DirectX. Though there are ways around it (Freeverse actually mentions the Unity engine in the article), many developers are stuck developing in DirectX, and that leaves the Mac platform out of the loop. And there really isn't anything comparable to it in OS X, either. Graphics hardware remains a problem, but that just harkens back to the biggest problem of getting games on the Mac: support from Apple. Some developers say that there aren't games on the Mac because Steve doesn't want them there, and until Apple shows evidence to the contrary, PC will always be the gamers' platform of choice.[Via IMG]
Leopard on an 8 year old G4 Power Mac -- can it be done?
It's no surprise to hear that Leopard smokes on the latest Intel box, right? That's all fine and dandy for new Mac owners but what about the rest of us (the majority) who are still pumping that legacy PowerPC architecture beneath Cupertino's OS? How does Apple's OS of tomorrow run on say, an 8 year old Power Mac G4 (AGP Graphics)? We decided to find out. Our test machine sports a paltry 512MB and 1GHz clock courtesy of an after-market CPU upgrade (was 400MHz) -- just a tad better than the 867MHz / 512MB minimum requirement. While the box held up surprisingly well, there's one major problem which you old-timers should be aware of.
Joost releases beta 1.0 to public
This blew by us earlier in the week, but in case you haven't grabbed it yet, the Joost beta 1.0 is now available for download to the public. So all of us plebians who haven't gotten invites to try it out yet can now inspect the groovy IPTV viewer that everyone's been talking about (and running on AppleTV) for months.There is one catch that will trip up a few of us newcomers: Joost is still only for Intel Macs, so our PowerPC brethren are left out in the cold watching TV the old fashioned way-- on a television (and at normal quality with no lag-- whoops, low blow?). The latest release also adds a few new features, including faster streaming for low bandwith connections (touche), and a few other interface tweaks. Joost is available for free, now to anyone, over on the website.Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
Amiga returns to the hardware game, promises two new PPC desktops
Don't call it a comeback. Or, um, something like that. Amiga hasn't been exactly prolific since 2001, when it "began" development of AmigaOS 4.0, but now that it's finally shipping that retro-modern OS, attention has turned to hardware: where oh where is a modern PowerPC machine to run this on? To that end, Amiga is teaming up with ACK Software Controls to build two new desktops, both offering complete experiences to new and seasoned Amiga users. Twelve months in the making, the flavors are a $500 consumer version and a $1500 "power design." Both seem rather cheap, given the exclusivity of the Amiga market these days, but we're not complaining -- and we're sure the imaginary people who will actually buy these aren't either. Full launch deets and hopefully specs should be unveiled next week sometime. [Via TG Daily]
PowerPC flavor of Ubuntu becomes 'unofficial'
Attention people who run Ubuntu on your PowerPC Macs! Good, I think I have managed to get the attention of the 3 people that fall into that category. The PowerPC distribution on Ubuntu will be classified as 'unofficial' as of version 7.04.What does that mean? It means that if there are any bugs in the Ubuntu code that really break things on the PowerPC side, the release will not be held up to fix them. Furthermore, the Ubuntu PowerPC Architecture Team will be responsible for supporting the codebase for the PowerPC distribution. If you would like more details about this decision check out the PowerPCReview page on the Ubuntu wiki.I have fooled around with Ubuntu, and it is a nice, solid OS (heck, Peter Rojas loves it and that's gotta count for something) but I can't say this is a surprise. Apple isn't pumping out any PowerPC machines anymore, so clearly support for that chipset will wane over the years.[via MacSlash]
And the next-gen winner is ... IBM?
Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft are all in a battle to get their product in your living room. Given that most consumers have either constrained time or money, they won't be able to get all three. Slice it how you may, there will be one definite winner in the next-gen marketplace; (drum roll) that winner is IBM. Regardless of which console a consumer ultimately chooses, IBM will be getting a cut of the profits. IBM developed the processor in the Wii and Xbox 360 and IBM also has their name on Cell, along with Sony and Toshiba. Owning the processor trifecta is more than enough to make up for losing Apple's business to Intel. No other company stands to win regardless of which console takes the top spot. Even ATI, whose chip is in the Wii and 360, could stand to take a back seat to Nvidia if the previous generation's sales numbers repeat themselves. No matter what turns out, we already know IBM won the console wars. Now that's settled, we should start arguing over which IBM chip will win. [Thanks, Gamer Jay]
Elgato unveils dual-tuner EyeTV Diversity USB stick in the UK
If you didn't bite when Elgato released its pocket-friendly EyeTV Hybrid, you may be interested in its supercharged successor, the EyeTV Diversity. The USB 2.0 stick makes for easy travel, and this rendition sports dual attachable antennas and a DSP, "which uses information from both tuners to generate the best signal possible." Designed to work with DTT / DVB-T signals, the device supports dual tuner functionality, PIP, scheduled recordings via the included EveTV 2 software, and a one-year subscription to the "tvtv" program guide. It touts seamless integration with Toast 7, and even provides easy converting for use on video-playing iPods. The company also notes that 1080i and 720p viewing / recording is possible on Macs housing "dual PowerPC G5 or Intel Core Duo" processors, and the dual-tuner USB stick can be picked up now on the other side of the pond for €149.95 ($191).[Via digg]
Adobe's John Nack explains lack of PPC support in Soundbooth
Some corners of the Mac web aren't too happy about Adobe's choice to not support the PowerPC chip with their latest beta offering, Soundbooth. We've received a few comments on our original post, and Macintouch has a few posts from readers who are, let's say, 'somewhat upset.' To help bring some sense to the table, Adobe's John Nack (the product manager of Photoshop, mind you) has stepped in to lay down the company's decision on his blog. Long story short, John explains that support isn't being 'removed' from the product - while it's been dubbed as 'Audition Elements' by some, it's a brand new baby for both Mac OS X and Windows. In this context, Adobe made the choice of streamlining development (supporting one chipset) which favors focusing on things like features and performance, rather than trying to get a team of audio engineers who are used to working with Intel-based chips to start jugging a second architecture (PowerPC) which Adobe believes Apple is treating as "dead to us."I think this is a really difficult position for Adobe to be in, and given the circumstances, I understand their decision. While the PowerPC architecture is by no means 'dead' just yet, it's getting up from the dinner table and making its way for the coat closet (don't forget, there's plenty of conversation and lingering while putting one's coat on and rounding up all the kids). Readers at Macintouch have cited that a fair portion of the Mac audio industry are still using PowerPC based rigs and probably will for quite some time, and I think that might also have been a significant factor in the decision: Soundbooth isn't competing with Pro Tools and professional workflows, it's a mid-range app (at least from what I understand). I am certainly no software engineer, and I know equally little about the intricacies of audio software, but if a company with Adobe's girth says that now is a bad time to start building PowerPC support into a brand new product - I'll listen. From the non-developer sidelines, it sounds like it's a lot easier for code ninjas who already had a PowerPC app to unite forces with Intel support (thanks in part to Apple's UB efforts), as opposed to getting Intel backgrounds (remember: Adobe's audio guys are coming over from Windows development on this one) to shake hands with PowerPC. In the grander scheme of Adobe matters, however, they haven't shown this "abandoning" attitude in any of their other existing products, such as the entire Creative Suite (in fact Nack reminds us PPC hasn't gone anywhere in CS3), and even Lightroom Photoshop Lightroom, another recent beta offering for the pro photography crowd, is in fact a Universal Binary. I think Soundbooth was simply caught in the crossfire of this chip architecture migration, and Adobe had to make a hard decision that was ultimately tipped by looking ahead at the Mac platform, and realizing exactly where Soundbooth is going to sit on the ladder of Mac OS X-based audio editing.
PowerPC performance tweak
This tweak was reported to us by reader Blake some time back, but I've only recently had the chance to test it out myself. And, like most of the respondents in this thread, I agree that there's a noticeable improvement in framerate, though Blizzard poster Tigerclaw comments that the performance impact will really only effect those with heavy UI usage. The feature, added in patch 1.12.1, is designed for PowerPC Macs (the Intel systems already use "a better mode of optimization" according to Tigerclaw) with more than 512MB RAM, as it may add a couple of extra megabytes of memory usage. It's still considered a beta feature, but it's easy to enable and easy to disable if you have trouble with it. So if you run on a PowerPC system, give this a shot -- you may notice a 5-15% improvement (though some report even better improvements).
Rumor Mill: Mac Pro in new enclosure at WWDC
ThinkSecret is saying that Apple will announce the Mac Pro and a newly designed enclosure at its World Wide Developers Conference next month. The Mac Pro is the rumored name of the Intel machines that will replace the PowerMac G5's. According to the rumor site, the new Mac Pro's will come in configurations similar to the PowerMac G5, including single and dual processor systems. I suspect the new machines will be sporting the newly released Core 2 Duo Intel processors, however, what I am having a hard time visualizing is what Apple will do to the enclosure. With the MacBook and MacBook Pro, Apple has continued to distinguish their pro machines by their shiny aluminum exteriors. Will Apple stay with the monolithic cheese graters, or will they go with something more subdued and refined? Only time will tell.
A simpler process for creating a bootable PPC and Intel drive
A reader of macosxhints.com has posted another method for creating a bootable drive that is friendly to both PowerPC and Intel Macs. While it's a twelve-step process, macosxhints.com has called it 'simpler', so who are we to argue? If you've been hankering for a way to create a bootable drive that can play on both sides of the Mac CPU fence, this tip just might have you covered.
Apple considered small chip startup over Intel?
Steve Jobs' announcement -- almost a year ago, now -- that Apple was transitioning to x86 processors was one of the most shocking bits of news that the industry had ever heard, and yet there were a group of employees at a startup chip manufacturer called PA Semi who were even more shocked than most, according to reports, because right up until that keynote, they were sure that their company, and not Intel, would be chosen to supply the brains for what's now known as the MacBook family of laptops. The Register is reporting that PA Semi had a close relationship with Apple in the months prior to the switch, and that the two companies were working together to gauge the feasibility of running native PowerPC-coded software on 2GHz dual-core chips that PA Semi claims run at only a third of the 21 to 25 watts consumed by Intel's Core Duo models. Sources who spoke to El Reg say that executives were virtually positive that they'd win the contract, and that CEO Dan Dobberpuhl was understandably "furious" when he found out PA Semi had been passed over. The company still has a bright future developing chips for the embedded market and storage devices, but they'll probably never again have the opportunity to become an instantly-recognized name like Intel, AMD, or IBM.
Who needs an Intel Mac? Sign me up for a PowerPC G6 Macintosh
Intel Macs are so yesterday. I'm all about the "PowerPC G6 Macintosh," and it's only $499 to boot!Engadget found a company (who might have already been threatened/litigated out of existence by the time you read this) by the name of Red PC who is selling a computer they call the "PowerPC G6 Macintosh." But wait - in addition to getting a supposedly next-gen PPC cloned Mac - there's more! Included in their Apple-defying price of $499 (along with this gorgeous case) is a hacked version of Mac OS X (it's reportedly a Pentium-based machine), Microsoft Office 2004 and - drumroll please - Photoshop CS2!Nothing says "I'm feeling suicidal" like stepping on the toes of three of the largest players in the computer and software industries.
The switch from Intel/NVIDIA to IBM/ATI
The "Dean" (har har) of Xbox education, Dean Takahashi, wrote a typically thorough and thoughtful piece for this month's Electronic Business magazine. What? You're not a subscriber? Tsk tsk. Lucky for you, the good folks at EBM have put the article online.Takahashi profiles Nick Baker, one of the 360 system architects who decided to switch chip camps, going from Intel to rival IBM and switching from NVIDIA to (bitter) rival ATI. Takahashi covers the fascinating project of building a next-gen game console in -- what we assume is -- just a taste of his upcoming book on the 360.One of the most interesting parts in the piece is Takahashi's details surrounding the shortage of the GDDR3 RAM. He writes, "Both Samsung and Infineon Technologies had committed to making the GDDR3 memory for Microsoft. But some of Infineon's chips fell short of the 700 megahertz specified by Microsoft. Using such chips could have slowed games down noticeably. Microsoft's engineers consulted and decided to start sorting the chips, not using the subpar ones. Because GDDR3 700-MHz chips were just ramping up, there was no way to get more chips. Each system used eight chips. The shortage constrained the supply of Xbox 360s."Microsoft has argued that it was a generalized component shortage, but we've known better. [Thanks, Joe]
Camino 1.0.1 with security, Java, Keychain updates
Hot on the heels of Firefox releasing a 1.5.0.3 security update, Camino has been bumped to 1.0.1 with mostly security and bug fixes which include: Fixed several critical security issues, including those fixed in version 1.8.0.3 of the Mozilla Gecko rendering engine. Upgraded the bundled Java Embedding Plugin (http://javaplugin.sf.net) to version 0.9.5 d Improved ad-blocking, especially of German ads Enabled the opening of local SVG files Fixed an issue where Camino on Intel-based Macs was unable to read Keychain entries stored by Camino on PowerPC-based Macs As always, you can snag a copy from CaminoBrowser.org.
1.7GHz Powerbook G4s before the Intel Switch?
File this under: Rumor / I doubt it.
