Power Mac G5

If you care about Apple, you are probably watching/reading the keynote right now. Go to MacRumors or MacMerc for live updates. MacMerc also has an AIM/iChat chat going. I'll give you my thoughts when it's finished.

It's Finished. Here are the goods:

Power Mac G5
1.6 GHz - $1999
1.8 GHz - $2399
2.0 Ghz Dual - $2999

The G5 looks to be a great processor. A single 2 GHz chip beat out the 3 GHz P4 in benchmark tests. The Dual G5 beat out a dual Xeon 3.06 GHz in Photoshop tests as well as many others. I will be getting one of these bad boys sometime next year.

Safari 1.0
New in 1.0: Safari is Mac OS X default browser, AutoTab loads folders quickly, Sync your bookmarks with iSync, Available in all Mac OS X languages, More AppleScripts available, Increased standards compatibility.

Seems pretty sweet to me. Even seems to run a touch faster. Best part of it all is the availability of the Safari SDK for developers (although it doesn't appear to be immediately available on the developer's page).

Panther preview
Panther is shaping up to be a mean beast. You can read about all the new features at the Apple site but I most look forward to the overhauled Finder, Font Book (font management app), overhauled Mail, Exposé, and built-in faxing.

iChat AV
Apple does audio and video conferencing through the IM protocol. This looks pretty sweet. The beta is available for free today (good thru Dec 31) and will cost $30 for Jaguar users and will be bundled with Panther. Then, to go with it...

iSight
A camera for videoconferencing, to be used with iChat AV. It is really small and has a lot of cool features (white-balance, autocontrast, etc.). A bit pricey at $149. Thankfully, you can use a firewire compatible videocamera instead of this with iChat AV.

That is it my friends. I think this is a big day for Mac lovers and computer users in general. The G5 really does push the envelope.