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Todays weather report from HELL: It's COLD, REAL COLD. Why heck...slap me silly and call me Sally...did I just see a flying pig go past my window? Yep, sure did, and it just IM'd me requesting a flyby. That would be a "Negative Ghostrider...the pattern is FULL".

Today marks a day in history which we Apple zealots will never forget. It almost feels as if we have been violated. There comes a time in a man's life where he must humble himself and admit he was wrong. My predictions were a tad bit off we could say. I am still trying to recover from todays madness and must regroup myself and accept the fact that this is NOT an alternate universe we have just been tele-ported to.

Well folks, the rumors as reported by CNET were in fact, TRUE. Apple has announced a partnership with Intel that will put an Intel based processor at the very soul of the next generation Macintosh, beginning this time next year (2006). Apple will transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007.

I guess this comes as a shock to us who have always believed the hype that RISC based processors were faster and more efficient. I for one not only drank the kool-aid, I lived it and preached it. The fact that Microsoft switched their next generation XBOX 360 to the same processor used in a Mac was kind of a validation that we Mac-heads were indeed correct, and had the baddest processors on the market. So that leaves many of us asking: WHY? The answer is actually quite simple. IBM dropped the ball in a MAJOR way. Lets get this out of the way first, IBM Makes a kick-ass processor. There is no question that the G5 processor is by far superior to anything on the market. However, IBM missed the mark in delivering a 3GHz processor to Apple as promised, and they have not been able to produce a mobile version of the G5 for the PowerBook line. These are not exactly things to be taken lightly by Apple. It does Apple and the rest of us no good to have this great processor if we can't create new products that are worth upgrading to. It is really that simple. So if you are feeling a little betrayed and Jaded, you can put the blame on nobody but IBM. Way to go Big Blue.

So what's this mean for Apple? A lot of people are truly pissed off. I attribute that to more of an emotional state of mind than a logical rationalization. It is human nature to cry foul and say you are going to go buy a Dell. But seriously, who are we kidding folks. Lets not lose focus of the real story here. It's about the OS dummy. Quite honestly, I could care less about what is under the hood as long as my computing experience does not change for the worse. In NASCAR racing, everyone is running different engines (Ford, Chevy, Dodge, etc), but they are all limited to the same amount of horsepower. The real difference in the race is the driver and the team. Well, a Mac will still be driven by OS X, no matter what the CPU powering it will be, and the same engineering team will be innovating us into the future at Apple. This is probably a good move on behalf of Apple and I for one am not one to say it wont work. If I were that smart, I would be sitting right next to Steve Jobs helping pilot the mother-ship. But alas, I am a humble schlep in the grand scheme of things.

There are still a lot of questions to be answered, but the writing is pretty clear. The biggest concern was the ability to port apps to an Intel architecture and Apple has all but blown us away with their solution for this. Between the Rosetta emulation technology and the new X-Code tools, running PPC apps on Intel will honestly be painless. This probably won't be anywhere near as painful as some people would like you to believe. For those of you wondering if this means you can run Windows on your Mactel, well...that is a big question mark that is yet to be determined. I also wouldn't expect you to be able to grab an Intel version of OS X and be able to drop it on that old x86 beige box you have lying around. These are but a couple of the many questions that will be brought to the table over the following year.

A lot of people (including myself) speculated that sales will drop for Apple over the next year until the new hardware is released. After giving this a lot of thought today, that may not exactly be true. Keep in mind that although Apple is switching to Intel, they will still be supporting PPC code for a VERY long time. There is honestly no reason for anyone to wait up to 2 years to buy a new machine. The G5 you buy today will be running for a VERY long time since a developer can recompile for both platforms effortlessly. In the near future, you will be seeing software released with the code base for both architectures on the same CD/DVD. This will in essence future-proof your purchase. It would be complete lunacy to go buy a Dell in lieu of a Mac at this point in the game. Apple is without a questionable doubt the most innovative company on the planet, and I have no reason to suspect this move will be anything but a success.

Full Quicktime archive of the WWDC 2005 Keynote will be available via this link very shortly. Other points of interest today is an interview with Steve Jobs on CNBC this afternoon. More in-depth discussions can be found at the usual news sources. So there ya have it. No new hardware (but the week isn't over yet). Whatever happens, I think it is safe to say that whatever other news we read this week will not top today. This was a biggie. I hope everyone is coping with this ok. Don't everyone go get drunk all at once and tattoo Apple on one ass cheek and Intel on the other! :-)