The Ad Said I Could Gain Three Inches If I Purchased Their Product

...So I did.

Within 48 hours of purchase, a 20" intel iMac was delivered to my door direct from Cupertino, California. I upgraded to a 2.0 GHz intel dual-core processor from my 2.5 year-old 1.8 G5 Power PC processor.

The reasons for this purchase is multi-faceted, but I felt I could use a machine that could crunch all the audio processing I am using while recording DH's album -- and my 'archaic' G5 is barely keeping up with 24 tracks of audio.

The other reason for upgrading involved my folks. You see, their (current) computer is a Strawberry iMac they purchased in 1999. They have been long overdue for an upgrade, and they don't necessarily need "bleeding edge" technology. So I agreed to sell them my old iMac for a reduced price.

Speaking of "bleeding edge" technology, the iMac I purchased isn't brand new. It's been refurbished, and is approximately 1 year old. Nonetheless, it came with a 1-year warranty, and still packs double the processing power my old Mac could do. I had many reasons for choosing an older computer, versus a technology that is cutting-edge.

1. Technology such as computers depreciate in value at an alarming rate. If a person needs the latest and greatest gadget, the consumer is going to be taken (financially) to the cleaners. I saved a huge bundle of cash by buying a refurbished computer from Apple. Somewhere in the vicinity of $400-500, to be frank.
   
2. I didn't feel I could afford a brand-new machine. Two thousand bucks isn't petty cash. Spending 1400 bucks on an older machine lessened the sting.
3. I was specifically looking for a model with a larger screen. As much as I would have loved to buy a 24" iMac (the current Core 2 Duo model) just wasn't in the cards, and the price tag was well out of my range. The refurbished model won again in this category.
   
4. Buying an older model computer allows the manufacturers time to work out the bugs. My Macbook is the prime example of this. I have lost count how many times that laptop has been in the shop, and it still needs to go back for repairs.
   

I guess what they say about "bleeding edge" technology is right. It is a two-edged sword. Either you try to keep up with technology, spending many thousands of dollars on the latest and greatest, but what you pay for, doesn't always work the way you want it to.

The Intel transition is still occurring, and even though it has been a year since Apple released their first computer with an Intel chip, there are still many, many programs out there that do not run natively on the Intel architecture. This means that many of the programs I use (games fall victim to this problem more often than not) either work very slowly, or not at all.

Had my recording software not been Intel native, I would not have upgraded. Fortunately, GarageBand and Logic were two of the first programs ported to the new architecture. A lot of the third-party synths and effect plug-ins I use haven't released Universal binaries, so either I am forced to wait, for find other options.

With all that being said, I feel a lot more confident in myself, now that I have gained three inches.

Brave New World aka A Pact With The Devil?

This must be the biggest news in Apple's history since the introduction of the iMac. The rumors indeed have been true, that Apple is leaving Motorola and IBM for good, and future computers will be built using Intel processors.

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs made the announcement at the Worldwide Developers Conference yesterday, I felt the Earth shake.

This is huge.

From a hardware standpoint, by 2007, all Apple computers will be virtually indistinguishable from Wintel boxes. This has been a long and painful progression for Apple, as the first Macintosh was built with components that were specially designed and incompatible with IBM PC architecture. Little by little, Apple has realized that their future would reside in components that would be compatible with the rest of the computing world. I remember the day that Apple began using PC compatible hard drives and RAM, which was likely one of the smartest moves they ever made. Now the transition will be complete by 2007.

A lot of die-hard Apple fans feel like they have been abandoned. I have mixed feelings about the switch, as I think the effects of this transition will only be realized over the next year. I am sad to see Apple drop the IBM architecture, as I had good vibes about the next-generation Cell processor. I do believe the switch has saved Apple from an uncertain future. Switching to Intel is another step in the direction of convergence, where all computing platforms (OSX, Windoze, and *nix) will be able to interact with one another on an unprecedented level.

About an hour ago, I watched Steve Jobs' Keynote where he announced this incredible news. The crowd was eerily quiet by the announcement, likely due to mass shock. One of the most riveting statements Jobs made was that all versions of OSX have been developed on both PowerPC and Intel architectures. I think this was a precautionary measure, if Apple computer sales tanked, then they could release OSX to the PC platform, and still manage to stay alive in the software business. You cannot deny that when it comes to synergy in software development, integration, and ease of use, Apple is at the top of the heap.

I think it is going to be exciting to see Apple's next-generation machines. I particularly like the fact that I could run OSX, Linux and Windoze on one machine. This would be an ideal software development platform, as you could simultaneously develop software for all computing platforms on the fly. It was stated at the conference that future intel-based Macintosh computers would be able to run Windoze, but PC Clones would be incapable of running OSX. I am curious to see how they plan to accomplish this; I am sure some hacker will be able to make a crack so the rest of the computing world can use the world's most advanced operating system. You know as well as I do that there are countless PC users out there who are sick and tired of viruses and spyware. This might be the development they have been waiting for to take the plunge and switch to a more robust and secure operating system.

Over the past day, I have been reading a large number of forums who are discussing this very subject. The general consensus is not very optimistic. Many feel that the transition is going to be a bumpy one, and will hurt Apple in the short run. From what I saw from the keynote, the transition from PowerPC to Intel is going to be seamless, and transparent. Developers are encouraged to develop cross-platform binaries from this point forward, a new version of XCode -- Apple's software development package -- was released yesterday that allows developers to port their software to Intel platforms with little headache. In fact, they claimed Mathematica was ported in approximately two hours.

It is Rosetta that will allow backward-compatibility for PowerPC developed software to run seamlessly on future Intel machines. It is an amazing translation / emulation technology that Apple developed, which is incredibly fast, and superior in every way to Classic emulation. With all these developments, I doubt we will even see a hiccup in the migration from one platform to another.

On a slightly different tangent, I guess Apple's old slogan Think different no longer applies.