Yes, the language is typical hyperbole, but there is a bit more going on there besides newer processors. The entire machine has been upgraded from PCIe 2.0 to RAM cards to drive bays. For power users there is something to get excited about here. These are also machines that aren't offered with less than 2GB RAM (whole lotta doubling going on).

Run eight 30" HD monitors from one station? No problem, Mr. Big.

A company shouldn't promote a new product that's faster than their previous products?

Slow news day?

I hope so. There is nothing brilliant about the "New and Improved" strategy. It is the oldest trick in the advertiser's book.

Apple has a great product line (I am a Mac user myself) but one of the charms of Apple has always been its unconventional marketing strategy. Macs cost more but come fully loaded and ready for use, as opposed to PCs, which require additional software and doctoring to get up to snuff. As soon as Apple resorts to the same lame "Buy a computer and get a keyboard FREE" approach that the PC manufacturers have used forever, Apple becomes just another PC manufacturer.

Apple has had a good run. They need to be very careful about going stale.

Farhad has lately tacked away from Apple after being excoriated in the comments sections, so his latest schtick is being an Apple skeptic. That's fine.

Joan W has reacted similarly in regards to the Democratic nomination coverage here. Temporarily at least.

The real news is that they are releasing this upgrade a week before Macworld, which most likely means that there are quite a few new product announcements slated for next week, otherwise they would have kept this announcement for next week. Hmmm, new superslim laptop and new apple tv with hd movie rentals slated for next week maybe.

This ad is a toned-down version of the old Apple claim that the latest Mac whatever is "as fast as a supercomputer". Every personal computer produced nowadays from whatever vendor is faster than a supercomputer of some older vintage, say 1966 (or '76 or maybe even '86). Moore's Law, anyone? Only Mac buyers were gullible enough to not only swallow this truism as if it were a revelation, but could often be heard repeating it as a mantra in the endless tiresome religious debate between Mac and PC/Windows owners.

Obviously Apple has much more interesting things to talk about at Macworld than the fact their desktop line and server line of machines are better than ever. Wow Manjoo, since these are essentially PCs why not give us an idea how these Macintoshes stack up against the latest offerings from Dell? Or would that be too much work?

I'm the type of engineering nerd who uses applications optimized for specifically this type of dual-quad computer (hours of execution time).

The really big thing here for me is the value -- go to the Dell web site and check out how much such a server will cost. A few months ago, I priced servers like this and came up with prices in the 10 to 20 K range, and I don't think they ran at 3 GHz. What the heck, go to the TigerDirect web site and cost out such a server (if you can), I think the prices you mention compare very favorably.

Now, if I get such a turn-key computer with an OS and warranty -- I'd be very happy. The last server I built was a big effort on my part, single quad, nominal memory, RAID for reliability, and I had to put it together and load in the OS (Linux X64).

I think Apple is moving into a new market.

Finally, 10 to 15 years ago I new that I would eventually have all the power of the then current Cray super-computer available to me in a laptop -- I believe that the day has come and Apple's products signify that. I really can't describe in the space of this letter the types of problems such a computer makes possible -- let's just say you can run a Google with a couple of them.

...Dan

There's nothing wrong or obvious about that quote or the press release. Only if your realize that the Mac Pro is Apple's top-of-line model, then would you hope a new model would be faster than the previous. In a product press release, it make sense to throw in the fact that this particular product is something 'special'.

The new iMacs weren't billed as "the fastest Mac ever" The updated Mac minis weren't either.

If the quote was "the fastest Mac Pro ever", well, that would be fairly obvious.

It has about 1100 2way G5's. Though to be fair that is outclassed by LLNL's 4608 way Xeon and there are 2 other 13,000-14,000+ Xeon clusters that are in operation near the top of the Top 500 list as well.

The VT Mac is ranked 108 in the world.

And my recent experience with Apple service makes me believe that Apple isn't near ready for the big time.

They should not try to get into the business arena witht he crappy service that I got.

IMac 2.33 Core 2 Duo drops a hard drive. It's my main machine having converted from Windows. Well, I can't fix it myself because I can't open it. I take it to the local Apple Store, 2 hours away, and get the 2 to 3 weeks answer to the question 'When'. But, if I buy 'Pro Care' I can get it in days. After having bought Apple Care for it in the beginning. Still takes 3 days.

Now the fan on the HDD runs top speed. Oh, there is a smear of some kind of glue on the screen. Oh, not every disc gets stuck in the thing. Oh, now another 8 hours back and forth to the Apple Store. YIPPEE! Oh, it's the 'holiday season'. Apple Store is a disaster around that time. So I wait. No onsite service. No local resellers that can save me 8 hours to drop it off and then pick it up again while fixing it. Now I'm back on Windows because I can't stand the fan sound and like to be able to get discs out of my computer. The glue streak isn't that noticeable.

I'm not a happy camper. I have three computers from them and I feel played. You see, there used to be a local service place. Oh, Apple shut them down for some reason. I feel like I bought a used car and now have to come into the back door to get service. I feel so valued as a sucker, and I'm back on Windows (XP Pro). Oh, and don't even get me started on Leopard. I still can't get Leopard to print to my Laserjet 3600.

Pox on both companies... I guess I'm stuck back in Windows hell. It's the same thing, same fire just different pan.