InfoWorld | From Macworld 06: iMac, iSight, Front Row, MacBook Pro, and so much more | January 13, 2006 12:02 AM | By Tom Yager

Enterprise Mac | InfoWorld | From Macworld 06: iMac, iSight, Front Row, MacBook Pro, and so much more | January 13, 2006 12:02 AM | By Tom Yager: "For rank and file consumers, these first x86 Macs are $1,300 previews of classy home entertainment boxes that will hit in the Summer and Fall, coinciding with Intel's own massive, multi-partner Viiv entertainment hub initiative, and Microsoft's Windows Media 11/Vista/Plays For Sure full-court press into desktops, set tops, DVRs, music/video players, mobile phones and wherever Windows Embedded can fit (everywhere). It'll all be in Apple's face. It's funny; if Apple had chosen AMD, Apple wouldn't have to defend itself from its main ally.

It was embarrassing for Steve to get pushed on stage with no commercial x86 software. Not even sexy shareware or freeware. Developers and exhibitors were blind-sided. They paid $999 for lease systems with very fast CPUs and atrocious graphics. Now that's flipped, and coders, though grateful for a one-to-one trade to an iMac, are faced with taking apps back to the drawing board.

Now that Apple's on Intel's roadmap, just like Dell, Apple's tightly-held product schedule will be much easier to predict. I called new systems at Macworld Expo based on Intel's roadmap, but made the error that I expected home entertainment systems would hit first, followed by high end. I like it better this way, and Apple's software VP summed it up nicely: 'We tell our engineers to work on systems that are exactly like those in customers' hands.'

Apple's failure to do that left Steve Jobs with nothing outside Apple's line to show but an embarrassingly slow copy of Photoshop running under the Rosetta emulator. Apple calls it an instruction translator. I call it an abomination, albeit a necessary one.

Secrets make for fun marketing, but developers don't like surprises. More about that soon. I've got a plane to catch.

Thanks for reading."