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the Power Mac G5's 17% first-year failure rate remains far higher than the industry average of 5% (see Gartner's recent report on PC hardware reliability, linked below). If Apple is to maintain its premium pricing, it should provide premium reliability. As things stand, high Power Mac prices must include high warranty service costs built-in. With an overall failure rate of 23%, a quarter of which occur outside of Apple's 1-year warranty, and an average of 1.29 repairs per affected unit implying repeat problems, Power Macs are neither cheap for Apple to service after the sale, nor cheap for buyers. Power...

Beginning today, you can download a brand new version, Google Earth 4. Running on OS X? Feel the love. Prefer Linux? Ditto. Yes, we're releasing simultaneously for PC, Mac (universal binary for full performance on both Intel and PowerPC based Macs) and for the first time ever, native support for popular Linux distributions.

Apple vice president of worldwide product market David Moody spoke to invited guests at a special press event on Wednesday in New York City. Today’s event is all about bringing innovations to creative pros, Moody told the assembled. “We have several announcements spanning hardware and software,” he said. New PowerBooks First on the list are refreshed PowerBook models. Moody announced two new systems — 15-inch and 17-inch PowerBooks. The 15-inch model now features a screen with 1440 x 900 resolution, the same as the previous generation 17-inch model. The 17-inch model now features a 1680 x 1050 pixel display —...

Appleinsider claims that Apple will be introducing new iPods and Pro Macs in October. The 5th generation iPods will revise the hard drive based iPods and are rumored to provide improvements in size/form factor. The new iPods are believed to utilize a higher density 1.8" Hard Drive from Toshiba which are available in 40 and 80GB sizes. Also expected soon are upgrades to the PowerMacs and PowerBooks, but little definitive information is not available on these upgrades. Appleinsider previously expected hardware announcements at Apple Expo Paris. Other sites also predicted PowerBook updates for Paris... but no hardware announcements came at...

September 15, 2005 - Apple's Power Mac G5 line will see an upgrade in the near future, possibly before the close of the month, sources have informed Think Secret. Poor sales of the current models is likely the driving force behind the premature revision, which will come less than six months since Apple last upgraded the line. The April Power Mac G5 revision saw only an incremental boost in performance as the top-end model went from dual-2.5GHz processors to dual-2.7GHz. At the disappointment of many potential customers, Apple continued using the single-core PowerPC 970FX processors in the G5s and not...

About the Mac OS X 10.4.2 Update (Delta) This software updates Mac OS X 10.4.1 to version 10.4.2. Important: Please read before installing You may experience unexpected results if you have third-party system software modifications installed, or if you have modified the operating system through other means. (This does not apply to normal application software installation.)The installation process should not be interrupted. If a power outage or other interruption occurs during installation, use the standalone installer (see below) from Apple Downloads to update.If issues occur during installation--for example, Software Update quits unexpectedly--please see this document. Installation You have two...

Highly reliable sources have confirmed the specifications of Apple's forthcoming revisions to its Power Mac G5, iMac G5 and eMac systems, expected to start shipping within a few days of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger's April 29th release. New Power Mac G5 systems, code-named Q87, will top out at 2.7GHz, sources said, while video cards are being upgraded with double the SDRAM. All models will feature SuperDrives offering dual-layer DVD+R support, as well as DVD±RW/CD-RW compatibility.

Cupertino’s 64-bit desktop system and Panther OS mix beauty and exceptional performance Companies large and small routinely set their expectations of computer systems according the capabilities of Intel-based x86 computers and 32-bit Windows. We’re due for a shift in standards. Enter Apple, which got the bright idea of taking a pair of 64-bit IBM PowerPC CPUs, jacking them into server-class internal buses, and squeezing the whole thing into a desk-side tower chassis. The result, the Power Mac G5, delivers on the present need for rapid computing, deep multitasking, and responsive user interfaces — as well as the future need (current...

update SAN FRANCISCO--Apple Computer CEO Steve Jobs rolled out on Monday a new crop of Power Macs he says can outperform any Windows-based PC on the market.Speaking at the company's annual developer conference here, Jobs announced that the Power Macs will be built around IBM's new PowerPC 970 chip and come in three flavors--a 1.6GHz model, a 1.8GHz model and a 2GHz model. The machines, available in August, are priced at $1,699, $2,399 and $2,999. Dubbed the G5, the new chip is the successor to the G4 that's now used in the Power Mac lineup. On top of new chip,...