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Apple WWDC 2006 - My Thoughts
Wow, another World Wide Developers Conference is done. This conference means new Apple products and updates!

First before I talk about what actually happened, I’m going to talk about what I saw as happening.

I thought Apple would release a new mobile phone. I thought it would be much better then the Rokr although having iChat would be a big maybe. Having a better iTunes interface was something that I would have thought to happen, but seeing the rumors of the iChat mobile led me to believe that could happen too.

Next, I thought an update to the Xserve was going to happen since every other product was on the Intel chip making it obvious that the Xserve would be next.

Not only would they move the Xserve to the Intel chip but also the PowerMacs, sorta obvious.

An Airport Express for doing video, but then we discussed this at work and we couldn’t agree on which video ports they would need on the unit because it could end up being a lot.

A preview of OS X Leopard would also happen, and I would have a copy by the end of the night.

Alright, so most of these things happened and some didn’t…here’s my thoughts on what really went down at WWDC ‘06!

The new Mac Pro is the replacement unit for the PowerMac G5 and it looks amazing. The ability to have 2TBs of storage in the unit is great, and I think Apple is starting to understand people don’t like it when the machines come with 256MBs of RAM or maybe even 512MB, especially in these “prosumer” units. Boosting it up-to 1GB of RAM; STOCK is a great move on Apple’s part. Not only that but you can slam 16Gbs of RAM into one of these puppies!! The use of the Intel Xeon chip is a great idea, although is it better then the Intel Core 2 Duo? I would have thought they would use the Core 2 Duo in the Mac Pros and Xeons in the Xserve, I always thought the Xeon was a server chip, not a workstation chip, but hey, it works for me! The elegant design of the Mac Pro enclosure is absolutely spectacular. Somehow I believe each design Apple puts out is the best, just to be awed again when a new product update comes out. There is one thing I didn’t like about the design, and it’s the 2 optical drives. Don’t get me wrong, I love the idea of 2 internal optical drives, but it looks a little weird with 2 slots (maybe I am just so used to the one slot on the PM G5), it just looked so good with one slot. I also checked the Apple Store website because I wanted to see if they had the Blu-Ray and HD-DVD drives as CTO options and they don’t…so if I were to get the Mac Pro, it would be put on hold until those drives become an option. Overall I am very very impressed with the Mac Pro, although this is definitely a “prosumer” machine as it can get pretty pricey. I think the lowest I got it down to was about $2200, which isn’t too bad, but no soccer mom, or really an average Joe will buy this unit.

XSERVES!!! Now this is what I had been waiting for myself, and well worth it. The new Xserve use the Xeon chip also and support 2.25TBs of storage in the 1U unit. This next part sorta got my attention because it’s not something I would expect in an Xserve, and that a built-in graphics card, a superdrive, and a huge amount of space for RAM. This thing can take 32GBs!! WOW, who wants to get me one of these?! I also really liked the idea of the new redundant power supplies incase one goes, you got a backup right there, great idea! I have the Xserve G4 now, and it’s not really even noticing the amount of work I do on it, so maybe one of these bad-boys would be a little bit much for me, but hey….I can still want it!

The last major thing out of this years WWDC in my opinion was Mac OS X Leopard. The things I want to cover for Leopard will probably get posted in another article since I might have a lot to say about what they talked about. Briefly, I am highly impressed with it and it looks very very innovative. Tasks and working in the OS X environment look much easier, and I love to say this, it makes me want to use the computer more then i already do. They have so many new and cool features (see other article) that make the overall user experience fun and enjoyable! Apple has done it again and they will put out another award-winning operating system, Hasta la Vista, Vista!