Paradise Road: Ken’s Blog

Title reference, the new Apple Intel ad.

I got my Apple iMac Core Duo today.  Couldn’t wait and hooked it up at work.  Not that I’ve been a fan of Mac for long, but it’s gratifying that, despite the usual animosity on both sides of the fence, my coworkers were sufficiently jealous that I had the thing.  Typically once people see the ‘other side’, whether that’s Mac or Windows, they realize that things aren’t all that different/bad.

At any rate, so far my impressions are extremely good.  Performance is extraordinary compared to the Mac Mini that I was using, and the monitor is crisp and bright.  I haven’t run into any problems thus far with this being an Intel architecture, other than a game (X-Plane) that isn’t Universal Binary yet.  That will change in the coming weeks.  I think iPhoto’s performance could be better, but then again who doesn’t?  Everything else seems to work gorgeously!  Apple makes a darned beautiful, sleek, and simple product.

Now that the Mac is my ‘primary’ system, I’m hoping to spend more time in X-Code teaching myself development beyond the world of Web/server side scripting.

Well, Apple didn’t debut the Intel Mac Mini nor the Intel iBook as everyone expected at MacWorld last week.  What he did debut was dual-core Intel-based iMacs and a PowerBook replacement called MacBook Pro.  Both of them were a bit out of budget.  What I didn’t factor in was that Mac OS X left a big impression on me from using the Mac Mini for several months, and I miss using the OS.  Since debuting the iMac Core Duo, I’ve been increasingly interested in this high performance, “scrolls like butter” according to Mr. Jobs — er… hot knife through butter — Mac that is capable of truly replacing the PC.

So, I got one.  I got my shipping notice today that its on its way straight from Shanghai, China.

This will be the first “new PC” that I’ve had since my old Gateway 2000 computer in 1998.  All the computers that I’ve had since then were homebuilt and upgraded from homebuilt.  I’m actually happy to be getting away from it, I’m tired of dealing with minor hardware incompatibilities, needing to tweak to get stuff working just right, dealing with heat vs. noise and the thing sounding like a jet engine, and so on.

Next week, January 10, Steve Jobs will stand up and announce new Apple products for 2006.  Amongst the expecations for the announcement are new Mac Minis that are fully realized media centers and new iBooks.  Both of which are expected to have Intel’s new Yonah processor.  Apple is moving much quicker than expected into the Intel arena, a fact that I didn’t take into account when I bought my Mac Mini three months ago.

As a result, I’m eBaying the Mini to get back as much as I can before its value falls too far, and will put the funds toward one of the newer Intel-based Macs.  If it happens that Jobs & Co. announce a new dual-core Yonah-powered iBook, I might very well sell my old Windows laptop on eBay to make up as much cost as possible, and buy a full fledged iBook.  And, if these new Yonah chips are as powerful as what I’ve been reading, then the laptop might be a full desktop replacement.  Heck, according to the first specs, a Yonah chip under full load uses less power than an Athlon 64 X2 3800+ at idle, and the 2.0GHz Yonah chips in many cases outperform the Athlon 64X2 3800+ and run neck and neck with a 4200+.  Come on Apple, bring on the Intel!