Mac OS X 10.1 dominates our issue this week, as Adam looks first at the myriad details surrounding acquiring the upgrade, then focuses on the significant improvements that Apple made, and finally offers some guidance to help you decide when to upgrade. In the news, Microsoft releases a free Word X Test Drive, Apple ships a new entry-level iMac for $800, and Apple postpones the QuickTime Live conference until February of 2002. Next week: our 600th issue!
Apple Adds $800 iMac to Lineup -- The iMac product grid at Apple's online store gained a new low-cost configuration this week. The new $800 iMac is available only in Indigo, and features a 500 MHz PowerPC G3 processor, 64 MB of RAM (as opposed to 128 MB in the next model up), a 20 GB hard disk, and a CD-ROM drive (as opposed to the CD-RW drives that are otherwise standard across the line), plus the standard complement of ports on other iMac models
Microsoft Offers Word X Test Drive -- For those with Mac OS X 10.1, Microsoft is offering a free Word X Test Drive to give people a look at what's coming in the final version of Office X for Macintosh, due in a few months
Apple Reschedules QuickTime Live 2001 -- In the wake of its cancellation of Apple Expo 2001 in Paris, Apple also announced last week that it is also postponing the QuickTime Live 2001 conference, originally scheduled for 08-Oct-01 through 11-Oct-01, until 10-Feb-02 through 14-Feb-02
On Saturday, 29-Sep-01, Apple started shipping the long-awaited Mac OS X 10.1, which brings the company's next-generation operating system a large step closer to the mainstream Macintosh audience.
The first four minor updates to Mac OS X 10.0 fixed bugs and made behind-the-scenes improvements to the initial release of Mac OS X
At the July 2001 Macworld Expo in New York, Steve Jobs previewed Mac OS X 10.1, wowing the audience with a demonstration that promised massive speed improvements, the return of features previously exclusive to Mac OS 9, and a host of interface tweaks to address the most glaring of Mac OS X's usability holes
The real question I'm sure many of you are asking at this point is if Mac OS X 10.1 is good enough to entice those who haven't yet set themselves up to be Apple's guinea pigs