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You idiot, Tony Fadell left to become Obama's CTO.

An iPod in every pocket. Music to sooth the masses.

Only one pod cast and radio channel though, The One will use them to issue commands to his disciples.

Why does this turd of a man think he knows anything about what goes on inside of Apple anyway, much less why?

By the way, Earth is a planet and should start with a capital E.

And to think this man calls himself a writer.

Cringely is like an election ad,

'often quite entertaining, especially if you remember that a certain portion of it falls under the heading of "fiction," not fact.'

Nov 11, 08 - 10:28 am Comment from: hagar57

"But if Apple fails in that, Steve Jobs will just pick up the phone and choose IBM Microelectronics "
Make that "his iPhone".

I suggest watching the two PBS specials, "Revenge of the Nerds"
and Revenge of the Nerds 2.0."

Fiction is the word best used to describe Cringley's remarks.

IBM does not sue Apple but Papermaster.

Any future cpus from Apple would be ARM based not PowerPC based correct? Or are PowerPC cpus ARM based as well?

So, what - Macs go from PPCs to Intel and back again? I'm sure that will please developers... Or is it iPhones only that will be going PPC?

Funny fanbois, where is YOUR absolute proof that the article is biased and incorrect? Mere opinion is just plain gibberish.

Nov 11, 08 - 12:13 pm Comment from: McIntosh

When I read people like Cringely (or, far less willingly, Dvorak) -- tech writers who are essentially literary journalists -- sometimes I get the idea that their stories are intended to read more like soap operas than anything else. There's intrigue, grudges, scheming, double-crossing, egotism, etc. etc. I admit it casts a pretty interesting human element to otherwise ordinary tech developments. I wonder what kind of track record Cringley has in these sorts of prognostications.

Nov 11, 08 - 12:20 pm Comment from: HMCIV

... in the mind of Steve Jobs blade servers and iPods couldn’t be farther apart.

I'm telling you guys. When Steve Jobs unveils his line of iPod Touch and iPod Shuffle Blade Servers you will all be kicking yourselves!

Cringely is in the wrong job, he should be writing scripts for TV series like Dallas and Dynasty.

ARM and PowerPC are both RISC-based, but that is where the similarity ends. ARM CPU's are low-power embedded CPU's found in things like bank ATM's, mobile devices (such as the iPhone, iPod touch, etc.), and so on. However, P.A. Semi built StrongARM, not ARM, which believe it or not is actually different.

That's all moot, though, since despite Cringley's ramblings, none of this has anything to do with desktop CPU's, switching to PowerPC, or indeed anything other than Apple's intention to build custom CPU's for the iPhone and iPod touch (and possibly other iPod models). Apple is a control freak, and this gives them control about exactly what processor goes into their product. They will be able to tailor it in a way that other companies, merely purchasing a mass-produced general-application embedded processor, will not be able to match. This will likely give them a performance/power usage improvement that will help offset some of the battery life problems incurred by the move to 3G, and allow more advanced games and other graphical programs.

- Jacob

Nov 11, 08 - 02:02 pm Comment from: BC Kelly

C'mon Folks, and MDN


Cringely ventures into areas no mere mortal would dare consider


To speculate about what is in the mind of Steve Jobs ?

And then to write about it ?


Hey Folks, that takes a set of you know whats

And, often as not, Cringely does find the nail

Even if he doesn't always hit it on the head



BC

This guy is clearly an idiot. Saying that Apple is using P.A. Semi to create PPC chips is a huge indicator that he has no understanding of the situation. P.A. Semi will be used for mobile devices, not Macs, and they will be ARM processors. Jackass.

Nov 11, 08 - 02:42 pm Comment from: Roger Knights

@ Victor Meldrew:
From The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage:

"earth, moon, sun. Lowercase, except in the rare instances when they are referred to as astronomical bodies, usually in conjunction with other such bodies and without a the preceding."

Cringley is certainly entertaining. However, in terms of news or "inside scoop", Cringley hasn't been relevant since the mid 80s. These days, I'd give Dvorak more credibility in terms of knowing what's really going on. I don't mean to insult Cringley, but let's be honest.

Nov 11, 08 - 03:48 pm Comment from: Yours Smugly

Once again: there's no such person as "Robert X. Cringely":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

1. iPhone/iPod touch use an ARM processor. The ARM processor is a licensed PPC design.

2. PA Semi also licensed PPC, and build PPC dual-core and single core processors.

The likelihood is that Apple will use their own PPC-based processors in handhelds, and perhaps Apple TV. No one develops for Apple TV, and OS X runs on both platforms, so there you go.

The desktop is likely to stay Intel for quite some time... That said, Apple moving more and more of the heavy lifting to the video chipset, thus if Apple has the ability to design their own X86 CPU's for desktops and laptops, don't think they won't do it.

Nov 11, 08 - 08:02 pm Comment from: s

1) ARM and PPC are not related. ARM started as Acorn RISC Machine, which was designed to replace 6502 in Acorn Computer. PPC is based on IBM Power Architecture with Motorola bus and additional (or eliminated unwanted) instructions for Apple (AIM alliance - Apple - IBM - Motorola).

2) PA Semi licensed PPC and builds PPC chips for embedded application (IBM and Freescale/Motorola also sells PPC chips for embedded applications. May be IBM feels threaten?).

As for which architecture is more fit for which application: It really does not matter any more. It was important, when CPU were "relatively" slow and memory was limited. Today, who cares. CPU is fast, even the smallest iPod has enough memory for programs and I'm sure PA semi can take any CPU architecture and make it power efficient (at which point, I expect Apple will choose an architecture they do not have to pay licensing fee on, e.g., PPC. Why pay Samsung to fabricate the chips and pay license fee to ARM for ARM core design, especially when PA semi already has a working core?).

Will Apple switch their desktop/laptop computers back to PPC? I doubt it. Intel is doing a fine job. There is no reason to go back. It will just remain in background to remind Intel, Apple has options.

Why did Apple decided to replace VP leading development of iPod/iPhone? May be they just decided they need to change direction. In early iPod market, Apple differentiated iPod from other MP3 through software/user interface. Mr. Fadell was the right person to lead the group developing software. Today, iPod/iPhone software are mature (OSX) and may be Apple believe they need to differentiate their product in hardware (chip level) [Microsoft is capable of duplicating iTune and iPod software given enough time]. So, may be Apple decided to take the competition to next level and chose Mr. Papermaster, a hardware person, to take the lead.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Tynan

Nov 11, 08 - 09:56 pm Comment from: theloniousMac

Cringely is wrong as USUAL.

I agree with Truthman. This has ben my guess for the last week."Tony Fadell left to become Obama's CTO". My guess is that the whole CTO cabinet position was thought up by Jobs'. I can imagine Steve saying to Obama "government dose not get tech" and Obama saying "well in my administration I want to address tech issues"

Tony Fadell "family reasons" right!

Just a guess but look at google and Apples' escalating lobbing expenses

Where's your absolute proof the "article" is anything other than Cringley's opinion?

"Once again: there's no such person as "Robert X. Cringely":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_X._Cringely

There's no such person as "Mark Twain," either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain

So, once again, what's your point?

Did Bob pee in our cornflakes?

There is a, albeit not enormous, difference between referring to an actual author writing under a pseudonym as an 'idiot', and calling a fictional character, whose opinions are attributed to him for the purposes of entertaining the easily amused, the same.

Either way the story attributed to the imaginary Mr. Cringely is complete rubbish.

And, no, I did not pee in your cornflakes.

The reason Apple purchased PA semi is for microprocessors. Apple was already a PPC partner. Papermaster has expertise in PPC microprocessors. Here is my speculation:
Both the XBox and the Playstation use PPC chips. Apple is acquiring expertise to design the same class of chips in order to control features and price in game consoles. Apple has been adding features to OS X to make it ready as a software platform suitable for game development. the iPhone and iPod touch have been particularly successful in this area. So it seems to me we might see a game console from Apple in the next couple of years.