The MacOS Xclave - Special Coverage of the October, 1999 Apple Media Event

Yesterday, Steve Jobs conducted an Apple Media Event.

One of the most amazing parts of the streaming of this event was that Apple was literally unable to handle to total number of people who tried to watch the streaming broadcast via QuickTime 4.0. In fact, for much of the event, I was the eyes and (for a while) the ears of the MacNN live reporting of the event as I had made sure to catch a stream 30 minutes before the broadcast began. Unfortunately, I lost sound after about half an hour, and I lost the video about 10 minutes after that.

As I promised yesterday, below is the fine-tuned version of my live reporting of MacOS 9, Sherlock 2, and the new set of iMacs.

And for those of you who question why the MacOS Xclave, a MacOS X and MacOS X Server related site, would cover this Apple Event, remember this: all of these new iMacs and MacOS 9 itself are all going to be part of the MacOS X experience. These iMacs will run MacOS X, and MacOS 9 will most likely ship within the "Classic" environment, or Blue Box. If you would like to watch the broadcast for yourself, just go to Apple's site and watch the streaming video yourself. You will, of course, need QuickTime 4.0 installed on your Mac or Windows computer.

The event started with a quick tip of the cap from Steve Jobs to the recently deceased Akio Morita, the founder of the Sony Corporation.

Jobs started product announements by jumping into the first pressing announcement of the day, MacOS 9. Available starting October 23, 1999, MacOS 9 will sell for $99 and features a number of new and/or updated MacOS features, such as:

Sherlock 2 - an updated version of Sherlock which features the new QuickTime 4.0/FinalCut Pro metallic appearance, and has been specifically crafted to search not only your hard drive or internet search engines, but also LDAP directory servers as well as auction tracking.
Keychain - Keychain allows users to save all your major username/password pairs in a special personalized, secure, database. And all applications which are written to use Keychain will automatically check with Keychain to see if there is a corresponding username/password for the server or file once you are authenticated by the system.
A new Network Browswer - integrated with Keychain, Network Browswer can access http, ftp, LDAP, and AFP servers among others.
Auto updating OS - Apple has gives MacOS 9 the ability to download system updates from secure Apple servers, giving you the option of keeping the system as up to date as possible.

Phil Schiller demonstrated how Sherlock 2 conducts multiple types of searches. In addition to the ability to create sets of sites to search (channels), Sherlock can also search LDAP servers and online auctions. And more importantly, Sherlock's user interface has been customized for each type of search.

Schiller also showed off the power, ease-of-use, and various applications for the Keychain technology which allows users to store passwords to servers, encrypted files, and more. Showing off both local files, and connecting to a computer at Schiller's home, both utilizing Keychain transparently.

Also being showcased is the new Auto Updating feature of MacOS 9. Not only can you set your computer to update files at predetermined intevals, the OS also has the ability to check for specific little pieces of system software to update (including a demo of OpenGL being updated without a reboot). He also showed off a version of the new Pod Racer game on the MacOS with very nice graphics.

Then Jobs retook the stage, and proceeded on to go through the Consumer/Profession Portable/Desktop grid...

Starting off, the Power Macintosh G4 - featuring that amazing "door" as well as being a supercomputer on a chip, starting at $1599. Also noted prominently is the Apple Cinema Display - the seize of a 24" CRT display, but twice as sharp and twice as bright. Jobs said the Apple Cinema Display is the largest LCD display "ever".

Next, the PowerBook G3 which has 5 hours of battery life, and DVD capabilities. Jobs said that they have almost caught up with the amazing demand, and new machines should be coming into the pipeline very shortly!

The iBook is next, and Jobs went through all the specs of the iBook, and mentioned that its the next fastest portable on the market to the PowerBook G3. Jobs said the earthquakes in Taiwan slowed Apple's iBook production down a little, but now they are back on schedule for prompt delivery. Jobs then showed the two iBook commercials being shown on tv.

Now onto the iMac...2 million items shipped, generating $2.2 billion of revenue for Apple.

Then Jobs detailed the most recent results of the iMac polls, detailing how many people are connected to the Internet with their iMac, as well as first-time percentages and more.

The day after Apple shipped the first iMac, Apple was working on the next version of the iMac, and Tuesday was the announcement of the culmination of these efforts.

General information on the new iMacs:

350 Mhz PowerPC G3
100 MHZ System bus
Standard memory configuation of 64MB RAM
Maximum memory increased to 512 MB RAM
A new door on the bottom of the system for easy memory upgrades
6 GB Hard drive
2 independent USB ports, allowing 12 Megabits/second through each port
V.90 56kbps modem
10/100 Ethernet port
Rage 128 video built-in - 8MB VRAM, and running via 2X Advanced Graphics Port (AGP) technology
new Harman-Kardon speakers built-in for the best possible sound - additionally, Harman-Kardon will introduce a sound-over-USB subwoofer which is specifically designed to work with the iMac, and will be available in November for an addition $99
Slot-loading CD-ROM drive - no tray. Works like an audio CD player works in most autombile-based CD player.
AirPort-ready - like the iBook, you will have to purchase an AirPort card for $99 from Apple, and is installable via the same hatch on the bottom of the computer as the memory installation.
There is no fan in the computer. Without a fan, Apple has reduced the noise pollution of the computer. When chugging away, the iMac runs at about 30 decibels which is quieter than most any other computer model on the market, and when the computer is idling, this number drops to about 17 decibels, which Jobs said was below the threshold of hearing for most people.

Jobs then rolled out a "refined design" iMac and showed off the platics and design changes. You can now see all the way through the back colored plastics of the iMac because all of the electronics have smaller footprints, and shifted down in the design. The new version of the computer is also 1" shorter than the previous versions of the iMac.

The new basic version of the iMac (with the specs formentioned) costs only $999. Jobs said they had laboured to increase value while reducing costs.

Also, the new CompuServe program where they will give you a $400 rebate coupon of the price of a new computer when you register for 3 years of service, is also extended to the new iMac.

And in line with what many had reported previously, there are in fact three different versions of this new iMac:

For $999, you get the version of the iMac as listed above. However, this model is only available in Blueberry.

Then it starts to get interesting. The iMac DV sells for $1299, and has a 400Mhz PowerPC G3, 4X DVD-ROM drive (as opposed to CD-ROM), two FireWire ports, an external VGA port for video mirroring, and a 10 GB hard drive. You can get this iMac DV in your choice of five colors (tangerine, lime, grape, blueberry, and strawberry).

And even cooler, the iMac DV Special Edition. For $1499, you get all the features of an iMac DV, but ships with 128 MB RAM and a 13GB hard drive. And you can only get this version in graphite, the same color used for the PowerMacintosh G4. This is very cool looking, by the way.

Jobs touted these two machines as being amazingly fast and powerful video editing tools, and went through the industry standard of FireWire and went through different types of applications for it. Also, Jobs said that all DV versions of the iMac will ship with new software called iMovie which is a toned-down customized version of Apple's own Final Cut Pro. With it, you can create fairly complex video and import and export via FireWire. Very cool stuff.

Jobs is also played a DVD-version of "A Bug's Life" in one of the new iMacs to show off the DVD drive and the Rage 128 graphics. And it's free advertising for that other little company he's a part of...:)

Steve showed off iMovie and FireWire and created and showed and imported and exported video using the iMac DV. It was definitely a successful trial as the audience ate it up!


			All content - ©1998-2012 - Mark J. Hershenson

An Apple Media Event - Jobs unveils the second generation of iMac