As you no doubt heard, Apple today refreshed their MacBook lineup with across-the-board adjustments to pricing. I’ll let other sites comment on the news more generally, as this is a music site, not a notebook site. But the big news for audio in terms of I/O, just so you don’t miss that:

• FireWire on more models: Finally, you can again get a 13” MacBook (now called MacBook Pro) with onboard FireWire – a FW800 connector. That’ll restore the use of audio interfaces and certain high-speed storage, and means the MacBook is again a good choice as an audio machine at the US$1199 base price point.
• ExpressCard on fewer models: Oddly, the addition of a lowly SD card slot (nice for photography and mobile recorders) has supplanted the ExpressCard slot on the 15” MacBook Pro. If you want ExpressCard, you have to buy the 17” – which, in turn, loses the SD card slot.

Now, generally the news here is pretty good. For music, you probably aren’t too concerned about the GPU, so the 15” MacBook Pro at US$1699 is looking like a nice deal. But PC users are no doubt puzzled, given that all of these connections are standard equipment on the vast majority of PC notebooks, including ones that cost less than a grand. And there still aren’t as many USB ports as you’d like – you get two ports on all but the 17” model, which has three, and very often only one of those may actually be usable because of power issues.

MacBook Pro [Apple]

The battery life is also greatly improved, but unfortunately is no longer user-upgradeable. See further comments on CDMotion.

For those of you who are interested, Apple’s WWDC keynote has focused today on the iPhone 3G and the iPhone SDK. Macworld has a nice live blow-by-blow.

Here’s the bottom line for me. First, Apple has done an incredible job of demonstrating the potential of rich media apps in general, mobile and otherwise. They’ve showed off a powerful set of third-party applications that go beyond what most people think of on phones, including rich 3D, positional 3D audio (via OpenAL), and music apps. And it’s nice to see those rich media apps alongside things like push messaging. We’re seeing phones as mobile creative devices and not just as phones or even game systems. Music apps in particular prove to be massive hits with mainstream audiences, not just “pro audio” audiences. See our round-up of iPhone/iPod Touch music apps for a glimpse of what this can look like. Band, a set of software instruments, made an officially-sanctioned appearance right in the keynote to widespread cheers from a non-musician audience. And the fact that it’s official means you’ll get great new apps even without hacking your iPhone in the near future, as we hoped.

And this is, of course, what musicians and live visualists have been saying since the iPhone’s release: third-party software development, far beyond what Apple alone can imagine, is what really makes mobile devices interesting. Here on CDM, we’ve seen novel applications like VJs running live visuals in clubs and Pro Tools controllers, among other things, and now a lot of that is likely to become official. And given music apps for Nintendo portable game consoles and Palm and Windows Mobile PDAs, this should be no surprise. But what is a surprise, perhaps, is that mainstream audiences are excited about these things as we are.

We also now know the iPhone 3G will be US$199 and available in more countries, which means volume is likely to increase fast.

I don’t need to hype up the iPhone, though — I expect you’ve got the whole blogosphere for that. But platforms are about tradeoffs; there’s no such thing as a perfect platform. And with all the iPhone lust, we seem to be missing some of the downsides of Apple’s approach:

• You have to wade through Apple’s reality distortion field to get at what’s really unique. 3G? GPS? A conventional headphone jack? Live maps? Push contact information? Online uploading? Let’s just be clear — some of this isn’t really news so much as Apple plugging obvious downsides of its version 1.0. And hyping up these features distracts from things that Apple is doing first (like shipping a real, rich media-savvy SDK).
• Apple squeeze? Aside from another $100 subscription fee for data services, I think what’s silly is iPod Touch users having to cough up yet another ten bucks for a firmware update. Does $10 really make a difference? Of course not. That’s why it’s especially annoying. It’s like American Airlines’ new $15 bag fee. It’s just not something customers will feel good about. I’ve never had to pay for firmware for any device, let alone for a firmware update whose main feature is the ability to buy more stuff. (How about a $10 rebate for software purchases, at least?) Update: Commenter sqook points to an Engadget report in which the upgrade fee is an accounting requirement. Perhaps someone can explain why competing media players like the Zune and Archos seem to get firmware updates that add new features free. Updated again: Some of you have spoken up, and …well, let’s just leave it at this boils down to some legal issues I don’t fully understand. Let’s just swallow the ten bucks and go back to complaining about the MobileMe subscription fee. Unless that’s an accounting thing, too … sigh.
• The developer tools aren’t free, and that means a lot. Sure, $100 isn’t much to pay for a development kit with which you can test on the device. (The free download is currently a beta and doesn’t include a license for testing or distribution.) But that’s just the beginning — think "free and open source." Compare NetBeans and Eclipse, open-source tools for mobile development. The open source tools run on any OS (Solaris, for crying out loud), whereas Xcode is Mac-only, Leopard-only, and even Intel-only. The open source tools tend to have (arguably) richer feature sets and wider communities. If they don’t do everything you want, you can easily customize them and extend them. That’s not to say some people aren’t happy with Xcode, but the free apps can offer more value to developers – and they’re getting better at a breakneck speed.
• Apple’s platform tools don’t work elsewhere. Past mobile frameworks like JavaME/MIDP have certainly had their problems, but they allow developers to write apps that work in more places. Now, Apple may make a value proposition to developers that says its own platform is worth being on. (See also: Mac, Apple II.) But by definition, someone’s left out of the party – meaning there are other opportunities elsewhere.
• Apple controls functionality and distribution. This one’s a little trickier, as it’s a glass half-empty/half-full situation. On the half-full side, Apple’s new developer store could make it easier for developers to sell software. On the half-empty side, the developer keeps only 70% of the revenue and remains at Apple’s whim. By contrast, I could write a Java app right now for Blackberry and various phones, put it on my website, and give it to anyone, which in the age of Google is a very valid way to sell software.
• Sometimes Apple seems to have a one-track mind: I’m also disappointed that we still don’t have a hard disk iPod with the iPhone/Touch software interface. Keep in mind that the iPod is still Apple’s number one-selling device. And speaking of Apple’s bread and butter, while WWDC thankfully has three tracks (iPhone, Mac, IT) and plenty of Mac focus, the Mac seemed noticeably absent from the keynote today.

But my point isn’t really to criticize the iPhone — I think it’s a fantastic piece of work. Smart design and smart technology are about making trade-offs. Many of these downsides (Apple’s control over the development tools, APIs, and store) are upsides for some. But that means for each of these points there’s an opportunity for someone else.

Beyond Cupertino: The Multi-Platform Ecosystem

The point is, Apple’s solution isn’t the only solution out there. And I think competition is what will make this whole area interesting — and more interesting still for iPhone lovers, too, because competition will keep the whole area moving. It’s important to note that, while Apple rightfully deserves credit for shipping something great and shipping it first, the enabling technologies aren’t necessarily from Apple.

The soul of the iPhone is, in generic terms:

• New mobile processing technology with more brains and less power consumption
• Increasingly-affordable display and touch technology
• Desktop-class rich media capabilities: video, 3D, and sound. 
• OpenGL ES mobile graphics, a new mobile standard for rich 3D
• OpenAL positional audio, also an open standard
• Desktop-class OS frameworks to put it all together

Apple’s implementation is indeed something special and something Apple owns. Their patent portfolio for multi-touch and gestures, for instance, is deep, and it’s stuff that isn’t easy to develop. And the way you develop on iPhone is dependent on their self-sufficient ecosystem of the Mac, Cocoa, Quartz (the display framework), and Xcode. And it’d be a mistake to underestimate the work they’ve done in hardware and UI design. But it’s also just one gadget, and part of what it demonstrates is the untapped potential of these technologies.

There are cross-platform, sometimes open-source ecosystems evolving, too, which could bear fruit in the long run:

• Java, which is about to get a major kick in the pants from JavaFX (which includes new development tools, new media codec support, and the ability to work with other Java tools)
• Linux, which arguably has a leg up on modularity and customization to different hardware configurations, and could wind up on quite a few devices
• An open source development toolchain (likely to include development tools like NetBeans and Eclipse)
• Google’s Android platform
• Adobe’s Flash/Flex, which finally is getting more mobile-savvy and more open (at least in parts of the development chain and player)

That’s not to say this set of tools is superior to the iPhone/iPod Touch — on the contrary, so far, while there are some "smart" Linux devices out there, there’s not much shipping in quantity and the rich media toolset integration has a long way to go.

But is it a wide open playing field? Absolutely. And while the window of opportunity could close quickly, Linux and Java platforms have an opportunity to play for mobile development that they didn’t really get on the desktop. The ability to have an open alternative is likely to motivate both sides and create a more mature environment overall.

"Mobile" isn’t limited to phones, either — see the fun, LEGO modular-like do-everything, open-source BUG gadget. We hope to have some features on developing for it on CDM Labs soon. And there’s the GamePark Linux-based game console, as well; there are various reasons to think game-specific features may still have some appeal. (The DS isn’t losing any steam soon.)

The desktop could be transformed by these changes, too. Lower power consumption, richer media support, more affordable computing and display technologies, and easier cross-platform development all matter to music and visual software on laptops and desktop machines as much as handheld gadgets.

New Creativity, Hopefully Including the iPhone

Back to what this means for musicians and visualists, I think we’re about to see mobile devices that get some powerful and wonderful features alongside our computers. Think mobile apps with powerful recording, synthesis, music making, and effects capabilities, or VJs with mobile devices triggering videos right off their player or controlling computer visuals by remote multi-touch. (In other words, think about what we’ve been seeing — but just imagine more of it.)

The important thing is, the iPhone is just a part of this larger puzzle. Eventually, I think we’ll see Apple’s mobile devices benefit, as well, not only from Apple’s toolchain but multi-platform software as well — provided Apple doesn’t squash that kind of innovation by keeping it out of their store.

I’m not deluded. I know that crazy drum machines or VJ apps won’t exactly determine the fate of the mobile computing business. On the contrary, I think our role as artists is to show what can happen at the bleeding edge when we push these devices to be expressive. And I think people enjoy that it’s weird and not just business as usual. The technologies that will allow us to do that, though, are intimately tied to those that drive mainstream applications for sound and visuals.

Apple has raised the bar, no question. If its competitors are really listening, they’ll learn from what Apple is doing right — and see opportunities to do things differently, rather than just ape the iPhone blindly, to take advantage of what is on the flipside.

Being as this is CDM, I bring up this rant in part to tease out what I hope we’ll cover on the site, which is how to develop for some of the multi-platform tools; we’ll definitely be tracking that and the open-source development that happens as well as the proprietary goodies.

And if you all start reading this on your mobile device, I’d better start being less … verbose. (I know: I’ll type on my phone. That’ll fix it quick.)

Apple made a controversial announcement at the World Wide Developers’ Conference, which went something like this: “We’ve got a new, innovative way of giving you developer access to our phone: we’re not.” (I’m paraphrasing; see the full quote below.) In less than 24 hours, this has devolved into an online debate between defensive “traditional” developers and Web developers, Apple critics and apologists. Many have tried to turn it into a debate over what whether or not web apps are applications. That’s silly. Of course web applications are apps. Here’s the real problem in a nutshell:

1. Apple is ignoring what makes non-Web apps valuable. That’s their choice — it’s their phone — and we could forgive them and maybe even agree with them, except –

2. They’re then trying to distort reality around them so that things they’re saying that happen to be wrong wind up being right. Lots of companies do that, but this being Apple, some people are actually listening, and I hope they’ll stop.

I’m going to say this the long way around, because I type fast and think in sprawling, high-word-count ways. Our friends at Rogue Amoeba, one of our favorite audio developers for the Mac (notice how multimedia keeps coming up), put this more succinctly:

Web Apps Are Not Applications

We know that making SDKs is not easy, and so it boggles the mind that you were able to create a complete iPhone SDK so quickly! So much access, provided so seamlessly – it is really quite amazing.

With this new SDK, we can create something neither of us could possibly have done alone, and make the iPhone platform the mobile platform to develop for.

Anxiously awaiting his copy of the iPhone SDK,
Sarcastic Developer

Web apps are wonderful. I spend huge amounts of time in them. But as musicians, you know why web apps alone aren’t enough. Hardware access and multimedia capabilities are vitally important for some (but not all) tasks. Take them away, and your expensive computers become instantly less useful. This matters to some more than others, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter. In fact, try this experiment: take your Mac. Remove all audio and MIDI device support, allowing only iPhone and the OS to make sound. Now you can’t even record a voice memo or phone call — no mic input. Next, reinstall your browser, removing Java and Flash. (Good: I can read Penny Arcade and CDM — well, most of CDM. Bad: I can’t watch Homestar Runner. Or YouTube. Or use embedded Flickr apps. Or use entire websites. Uh-oh.)

A phone is not a Mac, and that’s a good thing. But to assume these two things equate just doesn’t make sense. Design is about compromises, and that’s a good thing. But now design is about making compromises, then changing the reality around you so that they’re not compromises any more?

Here’s a short list of other things an iPhone web app can’t do that (with the notable exception of multi-touch) the vast majority of phones can — yes, including that crappy low-end Nokia you got free with service. Really. Look up the developer site for your phone, and check it out.

1. Access the phone’s hardware vibrate and sound functions to provide notifications and feedback.
2. Make use of the entire screen. (The iPhone demo app ran only within the Safari browser, which takes up a significant amount of screen real estate.)
3. Access the phone’s multi-touch gestures (the key advantage of this device in the first place). Gestures are intercepted by Safari.
4. Provide more sophisticated interaction, UIs, animation, gaming functions, audio playback, and video playback. Java and Flash evidently aren’t supported, and while the iPhone OS can perform some of these functions, only Apple is really allowed to develop for it. If something isn’t important to them, it just doesn’t happen at all.
5. Provide network access beyond web protocols. For instance, on a cheap Blackberry I can log in and restart the CDM server via ssh when there’s a crash. On iPhone, I can’t. That was never a security concern for any of the countless Java-based phones that support this feature. Does everyone want this? Of course not. But it’s not the phone companies pushing to limit the iPhone, because they’ve actually worked to extend phone capabilities.

AJAX is great technology, but creating a lot of hype around a technology doesn’t magically make a specialized tool the right tool for every job. Java and Flash may annoy users when they’re used in places they don’t belong, but used correctly, they provide vital functions that web technologies (”Web 2.0″ or not) don’t have, like support for multimedia formats.

It may take people like us — those of us who push the envelope of technology to produce music, visuals, interactive phones as performance tools — to explain why web apps alone aren’t the future. Music, after all, is often exactly the kind of “rich” that makes a rich client.

That’s not to say your $500 is badly spent on an iPhone, or even that Apple’s making the wrong move. Many have pointed out that this approach makes a certain amount of sense. A lot of applications don’t need the above features. Many Java phone applets — like recent clients for Gmail and Google Maps, for instance — are there to make up for the fact that phones have truly awful browsers. I personally would rather spend hundreds on a device that has multimedia and hardware integration, but I can see why Apple’s move might be smart. The problem is, they’re trying to present this decision as something it isn’t.

We’re at a critical point, where users are either going to understand what makes rich clients different from thin clients, or they aren’t. Creative artists are right in the center of the capabilities of a rich client that will never be a web app — web protocols are light years short of being able to, say, run Ableton Live in Firefox, and why would you want to? Yet people make the nonsensical argument that web apps and rich apps are identical. Apple isn’t helping, because the whole essence of their presentation was based on the assumption that people wouldn’t notice the difference. Here’s their speech, which was — rightfully — met with stony silence by a room full of developers who understand the difference:

Steve Jobs:

“What about developers? We have been trying to come up with a solution to expand the capabilities of iPhone by letting developers write great apps for it, and yet keep the iPhone reliable and secure. And we’ve come up with a very sweet solution.”

“We’ve got an innovative new way to create applications for mobile devices … really innovative. And it’s all based on the fact that iPhone has the full Safari inside of it … and it gives us tremendous capability, more than has ever been in a mobile device to this date. And so, you can write amazing Web 2.0 and AJAX apps that look exactly and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone. And these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services. They can make a call. They can send an email. They can look up a location on Google Maps. After you write them, you have instant distribution. You don’t have to worry about distribution; just put them on your Internet server. And they’re really easy to update; just change the code on your own server rather than having to go through this really complex update process. And they’re secure … and they run securely on the iPhone, so they don’t compromise it’s reliability or security.”

“And guess what? There’s no SDK that you need. You’ve got everything you need, if you know how to write apps using this most modern web standards … you can go live on June 29.”

Words that don’t fit the context here: “sweet”, “solution”, “innovative”, “really innovative”, “new.”

I actually don’t recall Apple even using the word “innovative” in recent memory. That’s a word Microsoft likes to use when they’re doing something unoriginal, or stupid, or both. Of course, this shows incredible hubris, especially at a developer conference.

The crux of the problem is claiming that creating web apps is a new idea, that full-featured browsers on mobile devices is a new idea (it’s not), that basic integration with calling features and email is a new idea (hello, Treo?), that that kind of integration is real hardware integration (it’s not), that somehow “Web 2.0″ (whatever that even means) and AJAX are better than or can fully replace other technologies (they were never intended as a replacement for things like Java or C, period), that online delivery is an awesome, new feature (Java apps do it, too, only not on iPhone since it can’t support it), that the omission of an SDK is a “feature” or itself innovative (come on), that applications outside browsers are inherently dangerous to security and reliability (Java mobile apps in fact do neither), and that Apple is somehow enabling people to build apps for the iPhone when in fact all you’re really doing is developing webpages just like you always have.

I love Apple; I think they’re probably the single smartest tech company on the face of the Earth. So I don’t ask much: just stop spouting total nonsense at developer conferences, okay? When Apple announced the Intel transition, also at WWDC, they actually went as far as claiming you could rewrite entire applications for Intel using only a “checkbox.” Now they’re claiming to have “innovated” by “discovering” web browsers. What’s next?

In a little while, Steve Jobs will be keynoting Apple’s developer conference. I doubt that anyone will be thinking about audio drivers. So in the remaining moments to do that, let’s go — because 10.5 looks like it’s yet another release from Apple that takes music production seriously.

Most of us didn’t expect any major improvements in Apple’s Core Audio in 10.5 — nor need them, as Core Audio is rock-solid for most of what we need to do, in terms of performance and reliability. That’s not to give Apple a free pass; there have been some compatibility issues with point releases (10.4.9 comes to mind), bumps in the AU plug-in format’s evolution, and so on. But at the end of the day, the Mac is an OS that works for music production, more seamlessly and easily than anything else out there. Yet Apple is in fact making some improvements to its audio driver system even in 10.5:

164 Professional Audio Input and Output with Leopard Mac OS X Essentials Presentation
Discover Leopard’s support for the recently-approved USB Audio Device 2.0 class specification and how to write spec-compliant descriptors for your high-speed USB audio device. Find out how to unleash the power of FireWire peer-to-peer networking using Leopard’s all-new FireWire audio drivers and enhanced Audio/Video Control (AV/C) media services. Learn how to implement user interfaces and vendor-specific AV/C commands to control your audio device.

So, wow, in other words … in a release that’s largely focused on Core Animation and the visual side of the operating system, Apple has added new FireWire support, networking over FireWire, and driver-free USB 2.0 support. (Right now, you can plug-and-play class-compliant USB 1.1 audio devices, but not USB 2.0. Erm … or whatever those two USB specs are really supposed to be called; that’s another discussion.)

This is great news, because typically adding driver support to Core Audio would not require anything new on the application side — meaning you’ll soon be able to plug in devices and reap the benefits, at least for things like plug-and-play USB 2.0 (provided your hardware is up to spec).

Microsoft recently held an Audio Summit to talk to its partners about what was needed in their OS. FireWire and USB support would be extremely high on my list, yet Vista still has to catch up to the level of support in Mac OS X 10.2. Windows’ internal USB/FireWire support is basically unusable for pro audio, there’s not anything near approaching plug-and play with USB MIDI and USB and FireWire audio devices, and Windows lags badly behind key features on Mac and Linux for inter-app audio and MIDI, device aggregation, and other tools that are essential to building a music and audio creation studio. Apple, having taken care of a lot of the basics, can now go on and actually innovate with features like networking. I was told Microsoft basically ignored USB, FireWire, and MIDI support in general in Vista, aside from overhauling the driver model and thus breaking a lot of backwards compatibility. (But overhauling the driver model doesn’t necessarily benefit the music and audio market.) Meanwhile, not a single OS release has gone by that Apple hasn’t made significant improvements to its pro audio capabilities. (And, as I’m fond of pointing out, that benefits not only “pros” but anyone who cares about music.)

Just sayin’. And this is not to be smug or launch an OS war; I genuinely hope Microsoft makes an effort to do better.

Any developers at WWDC who can report back? I couldn’t fly out to San Francisco this week.

1. OS X is 64-bit, top to bottom: Here’s a real demonstration of the difference between Apple and Microsoft. Windows XP x64 has been a mess; virtually no one has adopted it (despite some advocacy on the part of music developer Cakewalk), and a lot of software isn’t compatible (like, notably, any music software that relies on PACE, as well as many drivers). Now Apple will make OS X 10.5 entirely 64-bit, with seamless compatibility for 32-bit apps. Hopefully that includes Core Audio; we’ll be asking more about the details on this.
2. Automatic backup: Time Machine provides automated backup of everything you do, answering a real need as Apple has found only 26% of users polled are backing up. (I’m guessing 75% of them were lying, too.) Restore everything or some things, locally on a hard drive or on a server. It even works with applications like iPhoto. It’ll be interesting to learn more details on this; this is a feature I’ve wanted Apple to add for years.
3. Time Lord: [Demonstrating the new Time Machine UI] “Time is a dimension that recedes into your desktop,” says Lee, a la Expose. A timeline on the right side flips through earlier iterations of a folder in Finder. This is a key point, because one of the oft-overlooked needs for backup is undoing human/user error, not just recovering from a drive failure. Everything works right within the Finder. “Best backup UI ever,” says Lee.
4. New Software Bundle: Leopard will now come right out of the box with Boot Camp (for Intel Macs booting Windows), Front Row (the multimedia app), and the fun photo app Photo Booth, plus, a new app –




5. Spaces: Apple has finally taken on virtual desktops; Lee says it’s a “nice, clean implementation, even if we’ve seen this kind of thing before.” All due respect to Linux, I’m sure Apple can implement this more elegantly than GNOME and KDE.
6. Spotlight Finally the Way We Wanted It: Search machines and servers on your network as well as locally, use advanced search booleans (finally, Apple Spotlight catches up with 1970s search tech!), and use a dedicated app launcher, recent items
7. Core Animation: A new animation layer for developers that integrates text, images, and OpenGL 3D, but with start, goal, and key frames, for adding animated interfaces easily to the OS. Sounds a lot like Microsoft’s new presentation facilities, but Apple-style (and based on OpenGL rather than DirectX); it’ll be interesting to hear how this relates to Quartz Composer (which lacks keyframes). More on this, most likely over at Create Digital Motion. Right now, we’re stuck trying to figure out what the heck this slide means (via Engadget).
8. Text-to-Speech dramatically improved: Get ready to sample it into your next mix. ;)
9. System-wide to-do item service: We’ll assume you’ll see a zillion GTD hacks for these in the coming months, even though I’ve gone online with all my info, thanks.
10. Dashboard: “Over 2500 widgets,” says Apple. “About ten of them useful,” says Lee. “Dashcode, with templates, graphical tool for HTML/CSS, and a parts library,” says Apple. “Okay, we’ll finally make a CDM widget,” says Peter. And in the Dashboard-actually-becomes-cool category: JavaScript source editor/debugger, and the Web clip feature lets you make any part of a web page a widget. Nice. (Now I can stay up to date with Penny Arcade.) Easy, on-the-fly widget creation sounds like the real goal.
11. iChat: Boring: Tab chats, multiple logins, invisibility, etc. — it’s ironic to get these features in iChat, as Lee is telling me about them via Adium, which already does it. Cool/silly: Photobooth effects, video recording, animated buddy icons, “iChat theater”, backdrops. Hopefully this means we’ll have some remote video interviews via iChat on CDM soon. Very useful: share photo slideshows and Keynote presentations.

Leopard Sneak Peak [Apple.com]

Lee Sherman is live at the WWDC keynote. Phil Schiller has good news regarding the new Mac Pro tower, singling out pro audio applications to demonstrate the new machine’s speed:

1. Intel Xeon Woodcrest-based: Core 2 dual core CPUs up to 3GHz (that’s Core 2, not Core Duo, meaning the latest version of Intel’s Core architecture — and probably exactly what Apple was waiting for to go to Intel in towers); 64-bit, 4 MB shared L2 cache
2. Good “performance per watt” (that’s not just Apple blowing smoke this time; PC press have confirmed that about Core 2)
3. Quadruple your pleasure: Two dual-core CPUs, 2.1x faster than the existing top of the line G5 quad
4. Faster audio performance: Logic Pro is 1.8x faster than the G5 quad; Soundtrack Pro 1.6x faster. (These are the first we’ve heard of Soundtrack benchmarks, but we verified the basic claims of the Logic benchmarks on the Intel laptops at Macworld)
5. More storage: Finally, Apple is addressing the gripes about the G5 design: 4 hard drive bays for up to 2 TB of storage, a second optical drive, more front panel I/O and slots, but all fit in the same enclosure; thanks to the fact that there’s less need for cooling, there’s more space for expansion


6. US$2499 buys you a single, standard configuration: dual 2.66 XEON, 1GB RAM (underconfigured there, but okay), and 250GB HD, plus SuperDrive
7. “Highly Configurable”: You can configure options from there; NVIDIA Quadro graphics are available as an option

And so, Apple has “completed the Intel transition.” I have to say, it really sounds as though Apple has delivered here. I had hoped Apple would either go with a smaller case or deliver more storage options. The latter of these options is really ideal, given the pro market. The big question will be performance, as compared to the previous Power Mac G5s. The G5s perform so well, ironically, that unlike the laptops there may be less incentive to upgrade immediately if you have a late-model G5. But with Intel’s roadmap as healthy as it is, the long haul looks very good indeed, and if you’ve got an older tower that you’ve been waiting to upgrade, you may finally have a reason to spring. We’ll bring you more details on these machines as we get them. Now, since the case is the same, I hope we see more options for toting these giant towers on the road.

Now that Apple has delivered pro towers, you can also expect Digidesign will be making the TDM version of Pro Tools Intel-native very soon, too, so stay tuned for more on that.

Mac Pro [Apple.com]