At Macworld Expo in
January 2002, Steve Jobs unveiled the flat panel 15" G4 iMac at
speeds of 700 and 800 MHz, as well as the OS X-only iPhoto software.
Apple also announced that from this point forward new Macs would ship
with Mac OS X 10.1 as their default operating system, although they
would also include the Classic Mac OS for those who needed to boot into
it or use it for Classic Mode.
Better iBooks
On January 7, Apple introduced a 14" iBook, essentially the
12" 600 MHz iBook with a
larger screen. It had the same white look, the same design, the same
CPU, the same graphics processor, and even the same resolution, just
scaled up for the larger LCD.
On May 20, Apple boosted the iBook to 700 MHz. The new 12" iBook and 14" iBook were the first iBooks
to include Mobility Radeon graphics and the first with 16 MB of video
memory. In addition to a faster CPU, the new PowerPC 750fx had a larger
cache as well (512 KB vs. 256 KB).
The iBook took another step forward in early November, when the
12" iBook and
14" iBook were introduced
at 800 MHz. This revision also included the Mobility Radeon 7500
graphics processor and 32 MB of video memory (16 MB on the low-end 700
MHz 12" model).
Improved Power Macs
On January 28, Apple launched the 'Quicksilver 2002' line of
Power Mac G4 models, the fastest using a pair of 1 GHz G4
processors, the first time Apple had achieved that level of
performance.
In late February, Mac OS X reached version 10.1.3.
iPod News
Apple introduced a 10 GB iPod on March 20 and began shipping a
Windows-compatible iPod (it shipped with MusicMatch software - iTunes
for Windows was a ways off yet) on July 23.
At the same time, Apple moved to a touch-sensitive scroll wheel,
replacing the spinning scroll wheel in the 1G iPod, and also introduced
a 20 GB model. The new iPod proved so popular that even Dell sold
them.
Improved PowerBooks
The next generation PowerBooks arrived at the end of April. Although
they looked like earlier versions at a glance, the new 'Ivory' PowerBooks included a
higher resolution display (1280 x 854 instead of the older 1152 x 768)
and a DVI port for use with digital monitors. A 1 GB level 2 cache plus
667 MHz and 800 MHz CPUs gave very perky performance.
The new design included Mobility Radeon 7500 graphics with 32 MB of
video memory, and this is the oldest PowerBook to fully support Quartz
Extreme graphics (part of OS X 10.2 and later).
The PowerBook G4 was further improved in November, with the
introduction of 867 MHz
and 1 GHz models, the latter being the first PowerBook available
with a built-in SuperDrive. The new PowerBooks had Radeon 9000 graphics
and were the last version of the Titanium PowerBook series. These are
the oldest PowerBooks officially supported by Mac OS X 10.5
"Leopard".
The Education Mac
The G4 iMac turned a lot of heads with
its novel design and flat panel display, but it was also beyond the
budget of many schools that had used the far more affordable G3 iMacs
for years. To meet the needs of this market, Apple introduced the
"great white Mac" in late April.
Known as the eMac
(for education Mac), the new desktop computer used a traditional CRT
display along with front-mounted speakers, just like G3 iMacs had.
Improvements included a 17" flat CRT and a G4 CPU. It was available in
a 700 MHz CD-ROM configuration with no modem for under US$1,000, and
the 800 MHz version included a Combo (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) drive. Although
only a bit larger than the original iMac in its dimensions, the eMac
was a heavy beast at 50 pounds.
The "education only" eMac got a lot of attention outside of the
education market, and Apple began offering it to the consumer market
five weeks after its introduction. We used a 700 MHz eMac at Low End
Mac for a few years, then migrated to 1.25 GHz. The display worked
nicely at 1280 x 960 resolution, but the speakers tended to buzz at
even moderate volumes - solved with a cheap pair of external
speakers.
Growing the iMac
In July, Apple introduced a 17" version of the G4 iMac with
a 1440 x 900 display and a SuperDrive as a standard feature. It ran at
the same 800 MHz speed as the top-end 15" iMac G4.
A New Power Mac Design
Apple once again changed the
appearance of the Power Mac G4 when it introduced the 'Mirrored Drive Doors' models in
August. All of the new models had dual processors: 867 MHz, 1 GHz, and
a new high of 1.25 GHz. This would prove to be the last model to boot
into the Classic Mac OS, and it would be reintroduced as a single CPU
1.25 GHz model in June 2003.
The biggest drawback of the MDD design is that the faster models
used a 167 MHz system bus instead of the 133 MHz bus of earlier Power
Macs and slower MDD models. While this allowed for faster memory
access, few upgrade vendors made CPU upgrades to work on the faster
bus. From the viewpoint of someone who wants to upgrade the CPU for
maximum performance, Power Macs with a 133 MHz bus are the better
choice.
With the redesign, Power Macs once again had a maximum RAM capacity
of 2 GB, just like the first two generations.
A 1 GHz dual MDD Power Mac has been the workhorse production machine
at Low End Mac headquarters for several years now, replacing a 1.25 GHz
eMac. We bought it second-hand with a SCSI card installed, and we've
upgraded it with two USB 2.0 cards, 2 GB of RAM, two 400 GB 7200 rpm
hard drives, and a second SuperDrive (16x vs. the original's 4x speed).
We still have one free PCI slot, and we're using to original Radeon
9000 Pro video card, something we'll probably replace someday. We
usually run Mac OS X 10.4.11 "Tiger" on this baby, as we're dependent
on Classic Mode to run Claris Home Page, but we've also played with Mac
OS X 10.5 "Leopard" on it, and it handles Leopard well - although a
better video card would definitely help.
Mac OS X 10.2 'Jaguar'
Apple's new operating system took a big leap forward with version
10.2, which was unleashed on August 23. Apple streamlined the look,
improved performance, and added Quartz Extreme, which worked with any
Mac that had AGP video and at least 16 MB of video RAM. Quartz Extreme
uses OpenGL commands and offloads processing from the Mac's CPU to the
Radeon or Nvidia GeForce graphics processor.
New features included iChat, Apple's instant messaging client for
.mac and AOL users, and Address Book, a system-wide repository for
contact information. In all, Apple claimed over 150 improvements in
Jaguar, and it was the first version of OS X to reach a wide
audience.
Jaguar marked the end of the "happy
Mac" at startup, replaced by a gray Apple logo.
Next - 2003: First OS X Only Macs, iBook G4,
Power Mac G5, iMac G5, and Mac OS X 10.3
