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Steve Jobs, at the Apple WorldWide Developer Conference, said in his keynote address that they are dropping developer support for Mac OS 9.

Jobs calls the next step 'X only'. "It's time to drop OS 9," he said. "We can do things in X that we just can't do in 9 ... a hundred percent of what we're doing is X only. Mac OS 9 isn't dead for our customers, but it is for [developers]. Today we say goodbye to Mac OS 9 for all future development". This event was marked on stage by Jobs opening up a coffin which had inside a boxed copy of Mac OS 9!

Jobs also announced that 'Jaguar', Mac OS X 10.2 would have some very innovative features :-

• Finder improvements -- integrated search, multithreading support, automatic thumbnail creation, spring loaded folders.
• Quicktime 6, "Integrated into Jaguar." Highest quality video, open standard. AAC audio, invented by Dolby. Instant on streaming, free QuickTime broadcaster.
• Universal Access. Zooming supported via Quartz. Screenreader -- cursor over text will read it to you. Full keyboard access. Visual notification.
• Quartz Extreme: Takes the compositing engine in Quartz, and accelerates it in graphics cards. Combines 2D, 3D and video in one hardware pipeline via OpenGL. "Everything on the screen is being drawn in hardware by OpenGL." Requires AGP 2x and 32MB of video RAM.
• Inkwell. Handwriting recognition technology. Recognized by any application that uses text, even basic UNIX applications like Terminal.
• Rendezvous. Dynamic IP discovery. Lets computers "dynamically discover each other and share them." Proposing as a new industry standard. Jobs cited example of multiple Macs working at home sharing MP3 files with iTunes between multiple computers.
• iChat: AIM-compatible messaging built in to Jaguar. Can create buddy list of anyone on the local network, as well. You can use your Mac.com name and don't need AOL account. Sorting. "First time AOL has let anyone under the tent," said Jobs (although others have reversed-engineered AIM compatible chat apps).

Well there you have it, lots to digest.

News source: Slashdot
View: MacCentral WWDC Keynote coverage

The added clock speed, faster bus and new RDRAM translate into an overall desktop performance boost that helps Intel finally pull away from rival Advanced Micro Devices. The bus provides a data pathway between the processor and memory. Maintaining a proper ratio between the bus speed and the clock speed of the processor is an important element in preserving performance as processors get quicker.

Boosting the bus will make room for faster Pentium 4 processors. But it also helps Intel up the ante in its desktop performance race with AMD. Intel and AMD have been trading blows on the desktop since the introduction of the Athlon in late 1999.

Of course, AMD has several tricks up its sleeve, including Thoroughbred, a new processor that will bring higher clock speeds later in the year. In early 2003, PC makers will also begin shipping systems based on ClawHammer, a new chip that AMD says will begin at 2GHz speeds. Currently, AMD's fastest desktop chip is the 1.73GHz Athlon XP 2100+. Despite the difference in clock speed, the Athlon chip offers competitive performance to the 2.4GHz Pentium 4, reviewers have said.

While Intel pulls away with the 2.53GHz and its associated performance enhancements, AMD won't be far behind with its forthcoming 1.8GHz Athlon XP, the model number of which has yet to be announced.

Intel's introduction of the 2.53GHz Pentium 4 comes just about a month after the launch of its 2.4GHz chip, but the transition to a faster bus sets desktops up for a parade of faster chips in the future. For example, Intel has said that the Pentium 4 will reach 3GHz in the fourth quarter.

Meanwhile, raising the bus speed helps Intel make room for new Celeron chips based on Netburst, the processor architecture debuted with the Pentium 4. Forthcoming Celerons will jump from their current 133MHz bus to the 400MHz bus used by the current Pentium 4 platform, sources have said, and sport much higher clock speeds than current Celerons.

Later this month, the company is expected to debut its first Netburst Celeron chip, a processor that runs at about 1.6GHz, some 300MHz faster than its current Celeron offering. Meanwhile, a new, lower-cost version of its 845 chipset will help PC makers offer Netburst Celeron PCs at prices well below $1,000.

New high-end machines fitted with the 2.53GHz chip, the 533MHz bus, large allotments of RDRAM and 80GB or so hard drives are expected to start around $2,200 to $2,300.

Dell Computer, for example, will offer a Dimension 8200 with the 2.53GHz chip, 512MB of RAM, an 80GB hard drive and a 15-inch flat panel display for $2,299. However, the company will also offer similarly configured 8200s with the 2.26GHz and 2.4GHz chips for about $2,000 and $2,200, respectively. The company's new flagship PC will be a Dimension 8200 fitted with the 2.53GHz chip, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive, a high-end Nvidia Ti 4600 graphics card, a 17-inch flat panel display and a DVD+RW drive. It will sell for $2,999.

Gateway will also roll out new high-end PCs. Its Gateway 700XL will sport the 2.53GHz chip, 1GB of RAM, a 120GB hard drive and a DVD-Recordable drive along with an 18-inch flat-panel display for $2,999.

The new Pentium 4 chips will also be available in Compaq Presario 6000 and Presario 8000 series PCs. Prices on the new machines will start at $1,599 and top out at about $2,999 for a 2.53GHz machine with a 15-inch flat-panel monitor. The new 2.26GHz, 2.4GHz and 2.53GHz chips list for $423, $562 and $637, respectively.