News: Jobs introduces new hardware, software at Seybold keynote

MacWeek, March 23, 1998 by Kelly Ryer, David Morgenstern

During his keynote address, Jobs also introduced a 300-MHz Power Mac G3 and a new, high-style LCD display. In addition, Jobs impressed attendees with a technology demonstration of a Mac running on a 400-MHz PowerPC G3 processor.

Jobs quoted Adobe Systems Inc. CEO John Warnock, calling Apple's ColorSync technology "the lingua franca for cross-application work." Jobs said ColorSync will move to Windows by the end of the year or early in 1999. In addition, he said Adobe has committed to supporting ColorSync fully in all its publishing products, including Acrobat, Illustrator and Photoshop.

"There really can be reliable cross-platform standards," Warnock said when he joined Jobs on stage. Warnock said reliable color was "absolutely essential for Acrobat" and added, "We want color to be a very predictable science."

ColorSync will also be added to Apple's QuickTime technology. Apple demonstrated support for embedded profiles and monitor intents within QuickTime 3.0. With a ColorSync effects filter, QuickTime rendered a color-corrected video in real time.

"It's about time" for a cross-platform version of ColorSync, said Shalon Clevenger, Web editor at International Reading Association of Newark, Del. "It's a good example to put forth for both platforms. I'm tired of all the wars."

ColorSync 2.5, which Jobs said is shipping now, supports Apple-events scripting, calibration and multiple processors. In addition, he said Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.1 will use ColorSync when it ships in April.

Web developer Andruid Kerne, principal of CreatingMedia of New York, said his company is starting to use ColorSync for its site and clients. However, he said widespread cross-platform adoption may take several years. "Getting it into distribution, out in the channel - that will make the big impact," Kerne said.

Jobs also unveiled a new feature for QuickTime. In a demonstration, Apple Vice President of Product Marketing Phil Schiller used Photoshop to paint on four frames of video, then created a time line to play them sequentially. QuickTime handled the layers automatically, without having to render the sequence.

In addition, software shared the stage with several hardware announcements, which drew applause from the publishing assembly.

"There's a real need for speed," Jobs said, offering a technology demonstration of a 400-MHz PowerPC. He said the prototype chip was based on a copper process (see 02.09.98, Page 1). In early 1999, Apple will ship systems using the high-performance copper-process chips, he said.

Jobs also rolled out a 300-MHz version of the Power Mac G3. A version with 1 Mbyte of backside Level 2 cache (running at half the processor speed), 128 Mbytes of RAM, 6 Mbytes of video RAM, a graphics card with 8 Mbytes of VRAM for dual monitor support and an 8-Gbyte Wide Ultra SCSI-3 array will cost $4,899.

The crowd cheered as Jobs conducted a "bake-off" demo between an Intel Pentium II-based workstation and Apple's G3 line, including the forthcoming processor and Apple's current 266- and 300-MHz systems.

He also unveiled the Studio Display, a $1,999 flat-panel monitor that he said will ship in early May. Perched on a glowing blue stand, the active-matrix LCD has a 15.1-inch viewable area and supports multiple resolutions from 640 by 480 pixels to 1,024 by 768 pixels. It will also handle NTSC, PAL (European) and SECAM (French) video-in.

Jobs dodged questions about forthcoming consumer products and low-cost Macs. He said, however, "Apple hasn't had a great consumer product in the past couple of years. This fall, Apple will have some good stuff."