Apple is Going to chop down the tower so you can fit it in your pocket.

Look we have seen what apple has done to the editing system the changed everything. The turned it into a hobbyist nle. I said on this forum that this put my guard up for what they will do on the mac pros.

Now we have some indication of this here:
[www.washingtonpost.com]

They simplified FCP to run or kinda run with less resources therefore easier to run on a tablet. Not to say i have seen it run on a tablet. But Mr. Jobs is driven to leap into a post PD based world. Maybe we get 6core laptops but i would guess that in the next 2-3 years the MacPro will get what FCP got. (take That 12core)

Apple is turning from powerful to make things more portable. Which is a terrible notion for me, as i like to edit on large obtuse screens and have a cpu that i can plug 10-15 things into. But this article and a couple of others has me worried about where the tower will be in 2014-ish.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

You're taking everything out of context. Jobs said it was the Post PC era when the iPad came out. He's right in that people, like my wife, can very easily go days without using her Mac Mini, blogging, editing magazine articles and various other creative endeavors all on her G1 iPad. He doesn't mean that all they're going to build is laptops and PodPadPhones.

By 2014 it won't be a tower because it won't need to be as big as a tower. Until camera acquisition resolutions stop growing at the same pace as computing power we'll always need the strong boxes with the connectors for customization, I don't think Apple is going to ignore that because there is money to be made there, and more importantly, a sector to direct and shape and eventually own.

Tell you what, I'll BET you that you're wrong on this. If I am right you have to stop making any predictions for two whole years on this forum. If you're right, I'll quit being a moderator. I think you're making a wild misreading of HP's calculated gamble on giving up their core competency and failure to outdo the iPad, and you're linking that to Apple's next as yet unannounced product. If you can't separate PR talk at product launches from corporate planning please don't continue predicting things.

If the next Mac Pro doesn't have enough connectors to plug 15 things into, including using Thunderbolt Drives, displays, I/O boxes and PCI/firewire and USB breakout boxes my bet stands. It will also take at least 64 GIG of RAM but come stock with less. I am also guessing that it will come stock with a solid state system drive but I am not as confident about that. I think there's also a good chance it will have fewer PCI slots or even none and come with an optional PCI expansion chassis.

So the bet is there, 15 connectable devices and 64GB ram capable, should you choose to accept it.

ak
Sleeplings, AWAKE!

It's no secret the towers are going to get smaller and potentially just disappear altogether. The next release of the Mac Pro is supposed to be about the same size / design as what we all know today.

Jobs is talking about the home consumer for sure when he says the PC is going away and people want the iPad for their main computer. Mac Pros are considered an "enterprise" machine these days I'm sure and of course they are not really into Enterprise any longer really. It's a valid question as to how long a full sized Mac Pro will continue to exist. I'm sure they are going to get smaller very soon.

Thunderbolt is the new answer and that's something I posed at our first Atlanta Cutters meeting discussion panel to the manufacturers. With the new computers getting smaller, are we now going to have a series of external boxes hanging off the back of our computers to edit video?

Thunderbolt I/O

Thunderbolt Expansion Chassis

Thunderbolt RAID connection

etc.... So you'll have a daisy chain of stuff if you need to have all that extra "stuff" to do your work. It was an excellent discussion with Avid, Autodesk, AJA Video Systems all there in person and Evan Schechtman for Apple and Richard Harrington for Adobe. The consensus there was the Mac Pro as we know it will not be with us much longer. Definitely this next release but beyond that, the machine will change and most likely for the smaller.

And yes you have seen FCP running on an iPad 2 in all of those TV ads running lately. It's still called iMovie right now, but since it's essentially the same software you'll see FCPX on the iPad probably by the end of this year or next year.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
biscardicreative.com

[online.wsj.com]



www.strypesinpost.com

The news is that HP is exiting the PC industry. I'm not sure how that bodes with companies with HP workstations. Also, it was in a Wired interview (or maybe the Register), where one of the engineers that built the first IBM PC, talked about the demise of the PC. He uses a tablet PC as his primary computer. It's not a surprise to me, because I use an iPad for emails and paperwork. You do not need a tower for most work.

The MacBook is EOL, and many are expecting the MacBook Pro to take on the form factor of the MacBook air. Eventually, the processing speed is going to catch up in about a year or two, and all you need is thunderbolt expansion for storage/IO devices, which is already built into the current MacBook Pros.

Meanwhile, the design of the tower may become more modular and scaleable. The fundamental premise of having one design for consumers and another design for pro users is outdated for the most part. Most pros have different hardware needs. Some require a faster processor with less GPU power, some require faster cores and less multiple processors, some require more processors, some need more connectivity. You can build a super computer and satisfy all the needs of everyone, but at out of this world prices, or build a machine that satisfies 80% of your marketbase, or even better, build a basic chasis with expansion capabilities that is completely scaleable.

That is not to mention that we are living in a post SGI Onyx/IR world. And computers are pretty fast now. Most people have no need for a 24 proc monster with virtual cores. And also, gone is that DVE box. iMovie runs on an iPad, and FCP X will make that leap soon. I can't imagine cutting a long form show on a touch screen device synced up to rushes over wifi, but let's face it. With iAds and a cloud server, you are seeing the beginnings of a full fledged media ecosystem with advertisements and distribution system.



www.strypesinpost.com

Ok, Mr. Kines,
I will tentatively as a shifty, non-binding agreement, take your bet. lol

I would not mind a 15% smaller tower, but connections are important. Thunderbolt is an infant right now and devices have to implement this tech into their products still.

But the way that apple has been moving lately, they may go forward with the 'smallatization' of the tower and the peripheral developers will just have to catch up and enable Thunder on their MXO's, AJA's, telecine devices and so on. The we between a rock and a equipment upgrade that may take years.

""" What you do with what you have, is more important than what you could do, with what you don't have."

> > > Knowledge + Action = Wisdom - J. Corbett 1992 """"

This info is one year old but still good--
Apple Desk top sales click here

Also I have a relative who works for Pepisco--IT department head --
Pepisco is switching to Apple products -- Iphones to Mac Pro Desktops --

As long as people want to run multiple application in bossiness settings and Not Crash the tower and editing power you want is going to be available