Apple adding 'kill switch' to iPhones
By Doug Gross, CNN
Pandora is angry about the royalties it's paying to music publishers,
so the company is making a bold move: It's buying a terrestrial radio
station in South Dakota mainly to score lower rates. FULL STORY
Google on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to let it be more transparent about secret data requests from the government. FULL STORY
If you'd like to have lunch with Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, it will cost you at least $42,000. FULL STORY
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Pandora buys South Dakota radio station in bid for lower fees CNNMoney.com
Julianne Pepitone Filed under: Tech Biz
Google says it 'has nothing to hide' about government snooping CNNMoney.com
David Goldman Filed under: Tech Biz
Yahoo's Marissa Mayer auctioning off lunch for charity CNNMoney.com
Julianne Pepitone Filed under: Tech Biz
44
Google buys social mapping service Waze CNNMoney.com
David Goldmano
Apple refreshes Macs and iOS, unveils iTunes Radio
By Doug Gross and Heather Kelly, CNN
With iOS 7, Apple gets its mojo back CNNMoney.com
Adrian Covert
The beautiful new Apple computer most people won't buy
 |
Can Apple still innovate?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- Apple previewed its new Mac Pro desktop computer on Monday
- The new design is striking but offers fewer options for expansion
- For creatives to switch to the machine, third-party companies must embrace Thunderbolt
- The Mac Pro is one of Apple's priciest products, starting at $2,499 for the most basic setup
It also costs thousands of dollars and is way more machine than most people will ever need.
The Mac Pro is aimed at a
narrow market of professionals such as photographers, videographers,
designers and animators. Since the line was first announced in 2006, the
Pro has received relatively few upgrades compared to the rest of
Apple's product line. The company has been busy focusing on its hit
consumer and mobile devices, leaving many professionals wondering if
they were being left behind.
For people using the
desktop computers in their businesses, the external look of a Mac is
often secondary. So periodic internal improvements to the old tower
design were enough to keep them satiated. Others had already abandoned
the Pro line as the iMac and MacBook Pro became powerful enough to meet
their photo- and video-production needs.
The sleek, rounded new Pro is a design marvel compared to its clunky predecessor.
For the remaining power
users, reaction to the new Mac Pro is mixed. And the future of the
computer, which is 2.5 times faster than the current model, is still
unclear.
First things first: The
new Pro is a design marvel compared to its clunky predecessor -- a
sleek, black cylinder that bears little resemblance to computers as
we've traditionally imagined them.
It's smaller and cannot
be expanded and customized as much as the previous system. Apple has
built a machine so unique that people who want to add to it will end up
building out, adding components like hard drives and PCI cards
externally.
To make that expansion possible, the industry must first embrace the Thunderbolt input-output standard.
For example, it's no
longer possible to pop in standard video cards. Mac Pro users will have
to either get cards that fit the custom shape of the new computer or
plug them into the computer using a Thunderbolt 2 connection.
A look at Apple's new operating system
Is there excitement around Apple again?
Apple's iOS gets new look
"It's either going to
change the way computers are built, or it will fall by the wayside,"
said Tony Welch, the creative services director at the Beyond Pix
production studio.
Welch is excited about
the new product and hopes to upgrade his studio's systems, but he hopes
Apple's "risky" bet to depend heavily on Thunderbolt for expansion
pushes the companies that make hard drives, PCI cards and other
peripherals to support the connection technology.
But Chris Layhe of CLAi, a San Francisco post-production studio, is less impressed.
"Basically, it's two Mac
Minis tied together in a cylinder," he said. "It's a load of rubbish.
The things that we need in the film and video business, everything's
dependent on cards."
Users of the new Mac Pro
may want to stray outside Apple's closed system. Layhe, who has been
shooting and editing film for 28 years, has seven Macs at his company.
He is in the process of building a "hackintosh" -- a custom PC that uses
the same cards and boards found in a Mac that can run Mac software, but
has more USB slots and can take additional cards. These unofficial
systems can cost as little as $1,500 to build.
"We don't want to switch
to PC because a lot of the software we use is Mac only, and we've been
Mac users for a long, long time," said Layhe, adding that all his
backups and stored video are Mac compatible.
Launched in 2006, the
Mac Pro is one of Apple's priciest products, starting at $2,499 for the
most basic setup. Many creatives who need to squeeze the maximum amount
of power out of their machines get custom Mac Pro configurations, which
can go as high as $12,000, not including monitors or accessories.
A price hasn't been
announced for the new Mac Pro. Monday's unveiling was just an early
preview, and the computer won't be available until later this year.
Pro users are a small
part of Apple's business. Only 19% of the company's revenue in the first
quarter of this year came from Macs. That's just shy of the 21% it made
selling iPads and a far cry from the 49% it made on the iPhone.
When Mac Pros were
struggling, it was creatives who gave the brand some of its
respectability and a cool factor. For now, they are enjoying a rare bit
of attention from Apple and hoping for the best.
"We're all glad that
they came out with a Pro tower at all," Welch said. "I think we were all
fearful that they would abandon the pro community."
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