Jobs: New Intel Macs are "screamers"

	The software that complements the new hardware.

The company's consumer applications, including iLife, will run natively on the new Intel processors starting immediately, as well as on the Power PC chip. Professional audio, video and photo applications will be updated in March, and customers will be able to buy a "crossgrade," or new version of the existing software, for US$49 (S$80.08), he said.

Most other applications will run smoothly by using the translation software called Rosetta, which will come with every new Intel-based Mac, he said. Microsoft's Office will be one of those applications.

Microsoft Mac Business Unit general manager, Roz Ho, joined Jobs onstage to say that the software powerhouse is moving ahead to create an Intel-based version of Office. She announced a deal between Apple and Microsoft under which Microsoft will continue creating new versions of Office for Mac for a minimum of five years.

The "commitment should leave no doubt in your mind that we're here to stay, and we're in it for the long term", Ho said.

The quick release of the Intel-based products has left some developers, who expected a few more months before release, scrambling to transfer their own applications over to an Intel-compatible version. Code written specifically for that hardware will typically run faster than software written for the PowerPC chips, but using the Rosetta translation software.

Some of the largest developers have already done considerable work, and are nearly ready to release product. An Adobe spokesman said their Photoshop application would have to wait until the next scheduled update (which doesn't have a date attached yet), but their new Lightroom software will be released in Intel-compatible version sometime in the next few months.

"We think it's great that Apple was able to get this ahead of schedule," said Kevin Connor, Adobe's senior director of Product Management for Digital Imaging. "We've already got (Lightroom) running in house on Intel based Macs. We've been waiting until they ship to post it, and now this will let us get that out too".

Other developers are starting to release Intel-based versions of their products too, but they hadn't been warned of the change in the release schedule, Jobs said.

Same form factor, different organs.

For years, the Intel chip has been "trapped inside PCs--dull little boxes, dutifully performing dull little tasks", the ad says. "Starting today, the Intel chip will be set free, and get to live life inside a Mac."

As is often the case, some of the wildest predictions about potential products turned out to be off the mark, including rumors that Apple would have a plasma television with a built-in Mac computer. The company also did not update the Mac Mini or iBook with Intel chips, as many enthusiast sites predicted.