Macworld Expo: Mac mini & iPod shuffle
Apple began 2005 with a big bang from a little computer - the
Mac mini. For the first
time since 1997, when Apple introduced the Power Mac 6500 and Power Mac G3, they had a
desktop Mac intended for consumers that didn't have a built-in display.
At US$499, it was also the least expensive Macintosh Apple had ever
offered.
The Mac mini is an unusual desktop computer. It's tiny, as the name
implies, measuring just 6.5" square and 2" tall. Inside is an optical
drive (Combo or SuperDrive), 2.5" hard drive, room for AirPort Extreme
and Bluetooth, and one slot for memory. There are no expansion slots,
and there's no internal power supply - there's no room.
The Mac mini also marked one more first for Apple. Every previous
desktop Mac had shipped with a mouse, and all USB ones had included a
keyboard. Neither came with the mini.
The Mac Web was abuzz about the new computer, something several of
us had been suggesting Apple build for years.
On the iPod side of things, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPod shuffle,
the first iPod to use flash memory instead of a hard drive. It was also
the first iPod with no display. "Life is random."
Because of its size, the iPod shuffle didn't have room for a dock
connector. Instead, Apple built a USB 2.0 plug right into the shuffle.
It was the first iPod that didn't support FireWire.
January 12
Apple announced its best quarter ever. The holiday 2004 quarter had
generated US$295 million in profits. That included over 1 million Macs
(up 25% from the previous year) and 4.5 million iPods.
January 31
The 12" PowerBook
G4 hit 1.5 GHz at the end of January, while the 15" PowerBook G4 and its 17" sibling topped that
at 1.67 GHz. Bluetooth 2.0 became a standard feature, and Apple also
added a scrolling trackpad and sudden motion sensor to the mix.
February 23
The popular 4 GB iPod mini
was replaced with two new iPod
mini models that had new circuitry inside. This boosted play time
from 8 hours on a full charge to 18 hours. The new 4 GB iPod mini
sold for US$199, and the 6 GB model was US$249.
The only other change in the iPod mini line was discontinuing gold,
the least popular color.
April 13
Apple saw almost as much in profits during the first calendar
quarter of 2005 as it did during the holiday quarter of 2004 - US$290
million. Once again, Mac sales topped 1 million units, and iPod sales
had increased to 5 million.
April 27
Two weeks later, Apple unveiled improved Power Mac G5s. Each model had
dual processors, and speeds ranged from 2.0 GHz to 2.7 GHz, the highest
clock speed of any PowerPC Mac ever built.
SuperDrive speed increased to 16x, video RAM was doubled, and
"Tiger" (Mac OS X 10.4) came preinstalled.
April 29: Tiger
Speaking of Tiger, Mac OS X 10.4 was officially released two days
later. The hot new technologies were Dashboard, Spotlight, and
Automator. Tiger would would go on to be the longest shipping version
of Mac OS X, remaining on the market until October 2007, which it was
finally replaced by Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard".
Tiger was the last version of OS X to support G3 Macs and to
officially support G4 Macs slower than 867 MHz - Leopard would require
a G4, AGP graphics, 512 MB of RAM, and an 867 MHz CPU, although clever
users found ways to work
around the latter two requirements.
May 3
The thin iMac G5 received
a 200 MHz speed boost to 1.8 GHz and 2.0 GHz. For the first time, an
iMac included gigabit ethernet. The updated faster models also ran had
an 8xSuperDrive with dual-layer support.
June 6: Intel Inside
Steve Jobs shocked the Mac faithful on June 6 by announcing that
Apple would be migrating to Intel CPUs, although the first "Macintel"
models might not be available for a year.
Apple had a long history of porting the Mac OS to Intel, starting
with the Star
Trek project, and every version of OS X had been compiled in-house
for Intel as well as PowerPC chips.
Many of us on the Mac Web had pooh-poohed the idea, because
Intel-based Macs would have to be incompatible with the huge installed
base of Mac software. Apple addressed that with Rosetta, a PowerPC
emulator that allows most PowerPC OS X software to run on Intel-based
Macs.
The only hole in backward compatibility was Classic Mode, which is
not available on Macintel models. Those of us who love Claris Home
Page, Claris Emailer, older versions of Photoshop, vintage Mac games,
etc. will want to stick with PowerPC models until we find suitable
replacement software or someone creates a working Classic Mode for
Macintel hardware.
Macworld Boston: July 11-14
Macworld made an enemy of Apple when IDG announced that the July
Macworld Expo would move the from New York the Boston. Apple refused to
exhibit at the 2004 and 2005 Boston shows.
Due to lackluster attendance and Apple's boycott, IDG World Expo
announced in Sept. that it was canceling the East Coast Expo.
July 26
Apple speed bumped the iBooks, moving the 12" model to 1.33 GHz and
the 14" model to 1.42
GHz. Standard memory was increased to 512 MB, and Bluetooth 2.0 became
a standard feature.
To simplify the iBook line, there was no longer a 14" model with a
Combo drive.
At the same time, Apple also moved the Mac mini to a 512 MB base
memory configuration and made AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0
standard on the 1.42 GHz model.
August 2: Mighty Mouse
Starting with Apple's
Lisa in 1983, Apple had never shipped a mouse with more than a
single button. In fact, the company had even invented a "no button"
mouse in which the entire mouse was the button.
A lot of Mac users wanted more than one button, and companies such
as Logitech, Microsoft, Kensington, and countless others offered USB
mice with two or more buttons - and often with scroll wheels as
well.
Apple's Mighty Mouse (although Apple had licensed the name from CBS,
which owned the
Mighty Mouse cartoons, a company called Man & Machine had been
using the name for its mice before Apple's came to market and sued over
the name) gave Mac owners the opportunity to buy an Apple-branded mouse
with extra capabilities. You could use one side as a right-click, the
other as a left-click. You could squeeze it - and use software to
define what your Mac did when the mouse was squeezed.
The Mighty Mouse had three innovations, one in software and two in
hardware. The first was that it would behave exactly like a
single-button mouse unless you changed that behavior in System
Preferences. The second was that there were no separate right and left
buttons. Instead, Mighty Mouse detected which side you were
pressing.
Finally, Apple skipped right past the scroll wheel and scroll wheel
with horizontal tilt used by the rest of the industry and introduced a
pea-sized trackball on top of the mouse. This can be used to scroll
vertically, horizontally, or at an angle.
September 7: iPod nano
The iPod mini, Apple's most popular model ever, was discontinued on
Sept. 7 and replaced with the iPod nano. Slim and tiny, the iPod nano
had 2 GB or 4 GB of flash memory, a color screen, and shipped
in white and black.
The iPod nano was the first iPod with a screen that didn't support
FireWire, and also the first that didn't ship with an AC adapter for
charging the unit.
On the down side, the iPod nano was extremely susceptible to
scratching, leading to several class action suits against Apple and a
burgeoning range of protective covers and cases.
September 24
There was much joy in Macville when Apple announced its best fiscal
quarter ever with a net profit of US$430 million. Sales included over
1.2 million Macs (up almost 50% over 2004) and nearly 6.5 million
iPods.
This also marked the end of Apple's best fiscal year ever.
Shhhh, Don't Say a Word
On or about Sept. 28, Apple began shipping an updated Mac mini without ever
officially announcing it. The new models ran at 1.33 GHz and 1.5 GHz,
slightly faster than the models they replaced.
The SuperDrive model now has an 8x drive, and the 1.5 GHz Mac mini
has 64 MB of video memory - twice as much as the 1.42 GHz model. Also,
5400 rpm hard drives were now standard (vs. 4400 in earlier minis).
Without opening the box it came in, there is no way to know whether
you were receiving the improved model or not. Apple only maintained
that you will get "at least" the specs advertised for the original Mac
mini.
October 12
The iMac G5 was
redesigned, and the model introduced on Oct. 12 was thinner, 100 MHz
faster, and included a built-in iSight webcam. To our knowledge, this
was the first time a desktop computer included a built-in webcam.
The new iMac G5 was the first Mac to use the PCI Express bus, and it
also supported DDR2 memory. The 17" model ran at 1.9 GHz, the 20" at
2.1 GHz.
In another Apple first, these were the first iMacs without a
built-in modem (not counting some earlier education-only CD-ROM
models).
At the same time, the full-sized iPod was upgraded with a 320 x 240
2.5" display and the ability to play video. Apple also announced that
some ABC television programs would be available through the iTunes
Music Store at US$1.99 per episode.
As with the iPod nano, the AC charger didn't ship with the 5G iPod
and there was no support for FireWire. That was a real disappointment
to longtime Mac users, since Apple had offered FireWire on Macs
since 1999 but didn't
include USB 2.0 until 2003, long after it had become standard on all
Windows PCs.
October 19: Hi-res PowerBooks and Dual-core Power Macs
The PowerBook line saw one more revision. The new 15" PowerBook G4 saw resolution increased from
1280 x 854 to 1440 x 900, and the new 17" PowerBook G4 received a
1680 x 1050 display instead of the 1440 x 900 of earlier 17"
models.
Unfortunately, the new displays had some teething problems, and
there was widespread reporting of horizontal bands on the new
screens.
At the same time, the Power Mac went into it's PowerPC incarnation.
The Power Mac G5 Dual
included a dual-core 2.0 or 2.3 GHz G5 CPU and PCI Express
architecture.
Need more power? The Power Mac G5 Quad was built
around a pair of dual-core 2.5 GHz G5 CPUs. It was the most powerful
PowerPC Mac ever.
Next - 2006: The Mac Goes Intel
