Here comes the bride

I didn't get a present! But they didn't invite me, so that's okay. Apparently, since Steve Jobs was in black and Paul Otellini was in white, the Sydney Morning Herald says that Apple and Intel are getting married. I assume it's the corporations and not the people, since the law treats corporations as people, but same-sex marriage isn't legal in California. It probably doesn't mean that much for Intel, since Apple only accounts for single-digit share of the computer market. It doesn't magically make my current computers run faster or different. However, it's seems to be newsworthy since all the major news outlets covered it in significant detail.

I'm going to geek out now. I like Macs. I want an Intel-based Mac, even though I have a top-of-the-line PowerPC-based Powerbook G4. I want one laptop on which I can run both Windows and Mac OS X. I want it with a 12-inch screen or smaller, because lighter is better for me. I also want to be married to Jennifer Connelly, while I'm wishing for things I can't have.

I'm doubting ease of running both Windows and Mac even though the new Macs have Intel components that are similar to what Windows laptops are using. Phil Schiller, VP of Marketing at Apple, must have a rehearsed script, because in an interview, he said that Windows would not be precluded from running on the new Macs, which is the same exact thing he said six months ago. In fact my first post quoting those same words. I don't imagine it being as easy as people hoping, which is just inserting the WIndows XP disc and booting. For one thing, the new Macs use Extensible FIrmware Interface (EFI) instead of a normal BIOS, which Windows XP doesn't support. Windows Vista will, but that is still a ways off. VirtualPC might be interesting if Microsoft creates a version for the Intel-based Macs. Instead of selecting an operating system when the computer starts up, it would just be running Mac OS X, running Windows when I need to play a game without a performance hitch, and switching back to my Mac applications when I feel like doing work. However, that's speculative. I'm sure people cleverer than me will work out a good solution.

Some things I've noticed about the new MacBook Pros. First, the website doesn't list the battery life. It uses a 80-watt power supply instead of a 65-power supply and comes with a 60 Watt-hour battery instead of a 50 Watt-hour battery, but doesn't tell me anything about the battery life. The Intel Core Duo processor is supposed to be power-efficient, but will I be getting more battery life, less battery life, or the same battery life as my Powerbook G4 15" DL SD? The resolution and aspect ratio have also changed. My Powerbook G4 has a 3:2 1440x960 15.2-inch screen. The MacBook Pro has a 16:10 1440x900 15.4-inch screen. 16:10 is an aspect ratio that is common on Windows laptops. It's closer than 3:2 to the 16:9 used on widescreen movies. Of course, they could just go 16:9. Horizontal I am also curious why Apple only went with the 1.67 or 1.83GHz Core Duo, but the iMacs are using the 1.83GHz and 2.GHz versions of the same chip. Why couldn't the MacBooks use the faster chips? The new power adapter is cool. The previous power tip was fragile. The light-up ring is gone, but there's still a LED to show charging status. The use of ExpressCard is another example of Apple not being the first with the standard, but the first one that was big enough to matter. There's not much that uses ExpressCard now, but in a year, no one will care. Some people have complained that it uses ExpressCard/34 instead of ExpressCard/54, but the smaller format is meant for laptops while the larger is meant for desktops. OK, enough nerd hottalk.