Macworld Expo dominates this issue, with Adam’s analysis of Apple’s vision for the Mac as a hub for the "digital lifestyle," and its new media software, iTunes and iDVD. Jeff Carlson then looks at the star of the Expo, the fast and sleek PowerBook G4 Titanium. We also round up details of Apple’s forthcoming Mac OS X 1.0, note the release of Mac OS 9.1, apologize for our mailing list server dying last week, and welcome our latest sponsor, Bare Bones Software.
TidBITS Mail Server Woes -- Last week, our primary mailing list server suffered severe drive failure approximately four hours after we started distribution of last week's issue, TidBITS-562
Bare Bones Software Sponsoring TidBITS -- We're happy to announce our latest sponsor, the well-known Bare Bones Software. For those vacationing without satellite Internet connections in Outer Mongolia for the last few years, Bare Bones is best known for BBEdit, their powerful text editor, and Mailsmith, which brings BBEdit's text-editing and searching power to email
Mac OS 9.1 Available Online at Nearly 70 MB -- Apple has quietly released Mac OS 9.1, the latest version of its shipping operating system. Mac OS 9.1 improves support for Multiple Users and iTools, and offers a number of under the hood enhancements including AppleScript 1.5.5, AppleShare Client 3.8.8, OpenGL 1.2, revised FireWire software, a new process manager (enabling faster task switching and better performance for some background applications), and a substantially revised nanokernel
Apple has often been accused of lacking direction or being unable to explain how Macs are different from PCs - perhaps the most valuable thing Steve Jobs brought to Apple has been focus, particularly with the iMacs and iBooks
Despite Steve Jobs's talk of ripping CDs and burning DVDs, the real heat of his Macworld Expo keynote address came at the end when he unveiled the PowerBook G4 Titanium, a svelte portable that promises to blaze through your data, roast your lap, and burn a hole in your pocket.
The buzz before the Expo suggested Apple had a new laptop in the works, and the question before the keynote became: would it be a jaw-dropping reinvention or just a speed-bump upgrade with improved specs? Make room on the floor for your jaw.
Mercury Rising -- The PowerBook G4 is certainly faster and more powerful than its predecessors
The thrust of Steve Jobs's keynote at Macworld Expo last week in San Francisco may have been to position the Macintosh as the hub for today's digital lifestyle, but equally important in the speech were the details Jobs provided about Mac OS X 1.0.
Jobs first gave a brief demo of a few of the already-known features of Mac OS X, after which he showed the changes Apple has made since the public beta, based on feedback from the user community