Apple Unveils Dual Processor G5, 20-inch iMac, and Panther Optimized Products

CUPERTINO, California—Apple unveiled G5-optimized versions ofFinal Cut Pro 4, Shake 3 and DVD Studio Pro 2 which have all beenfine-tuned to take advantage of the incredible performance andarchitecture of the Power Mac G5 and Mac OS X version 10.3“Panther.” The new version 4.1 of Apple’s Emmyaward-winning Final Cut Pro now delivers simultaneous playback of sevenfully uncompressed standard definition (SD) video streams withreal-time effects using a dual 2.0 GHz processor Power Mac G5 andXserve RAID. The new G5-optimized Final Cut Pro 4.1, Shake 3.0.1 andDVD Studio Pro 2.0.2, with the new Compressor 1.1 update, areimmediately available for current Final Cut Pro 4, Shake 3 and DVDStudio Pro 2 customers as free software updates fromwww.apple.com/software/pro.

“With the new releases of Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro andShake, we have optimized our suite of professional applications to tapthe advanced architecture of the Power Mac G5, and the results areunprecedented for both real-time and rendering performance,” saidRob Schoeben, Apple’s vice president of Applications Marketing.“All this performance is available at a fraction of the cost ofsystems requiring dedicated hardware.”

While broadcast professionals will benefit from this newindustry-leading SD performance of seven fully uncompressed streams, DVeditors will benefit from the groundbreaking ability of Final Cut Pro4.1 on a Power Mac G5 to deliver five simultaneous streams of DV videoin safe-mode without the use of any additional hardware. In addition tothe real-time performance, Final Cut Pro 4.1’s rendering is nowalmost twice as fast at 32-bit floating point render jobs on a PowerMac G5 when compared to a Power Mac G4. This breakthrough performanceremoves the barrier of long render times and allows broadcast andpost-production professionals to work at higher levels of qualityfaster than ever before.

“Using other tools, we would need days, even weeks to produceDVDs for our clients. Final Cut Pro 4 and DVD Studio Pro 2 give us theflexibility to deliver the highest quality of work without requiring usto spend a fortune on additional hardware,” said Sven Krong,co-founder and president of Click Media, an interactive communicationsagency with clients such as Fox, Warner and Dreamworks. “Afterpreviewing the new G5-optimized versions of Final Cut Pro and DVDStudio Pro, we are blown away by the results. We now have thehorsepower to deliver stunning results to clients in a fraction of thetime it used to take and all at a cost we can afford.”

DVD Studio Pro 2.0.2 with the Compressor 1.1 update delivers asignificant performance leap for encoding projects from Final Cut Pro4.1 into MPEG-2, supplying the highest quality for DVD authoring.Compressor 1.1 completes high volume and repetitive encoding tasks upto 55 percent faster on a Power Mac G5 when compared to a Power Mac G4.The integrated workflow between DVD Studio Pro 2 and Final Cut Pro 4saves time and hard disk space while delivering pristine-quality videoby removing the need for an intermediate export file therebyeliminating generational loss.

Shake 3.0.1 for the Power Mac G5 and Panther continues to set thestandard for advanced compositing and visual effects with an extensivetoolset specifically designed to handle the most complex tasks in theindustry. Shake 3.0.1 is now optimized to render up to 45 percentfaster on a Power Mac G5 when compared to a Power Mac G4. Theimage-processing engine can now handle massive amounts of data evenfaster and with better results. Free distributed rendering on Pantherenables any artist to produce film-quality content at unprecedentedspeeds.

Together with Logic 6.0, Apple now offers its entire suite ofprofessional applications optimized to leverage the performanceadvantages of the Power Mac G5.

Pricing & Availability

Final Cut Pro 4.1, Shake 3.0.1 and DVD Studio Pro 2.0.2, with thenew Compressor 1.1 update, are available immediately to current FinalCut Pro 4, Shake 3 and DVD Studio Pro 2 customers as free softwareupdates from www.apple.com/software/pro. Final Cut Pro 4 is availablefor $999 (US) and DVD Studio Pro 2 for $499 (US) through The AppleStore, Apple’s retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers.Registered Final Cut Pro users can upgrade to Final Cut Pro 4 for $399(US) and registered DVD Studio Pro users can upgrade to DVD Studio Pro2 for $199 (US).

Shake 3 is available for Mac OS X, Linux and IRIX through AppleAuthorized Pro Film and Video Resellers. Shake 3 for Mac OS X comeswith unlimited render licenses for $4,950 (US), and Shake 3 for Linuxand IRIX for $9,900 (US) along with annual maintenance of $1,485 (US).Existing Shake for Linux, IRIX and Windows customers have the option todouble the number of their existing Shake licenses at no additionalcost by migrating them to Mac OS X.

Full system requirements and additional information on this suite ofprofessional applications can be found at www.apple.com/software/pro.

Apple is offering customers a chance to own a complete system forprofessional digital content creation and delivery at a discount.Customers who buy a new Macintosh computer together with Final Cut Pro4 and DVD Studio Pro 2 can save $300 (US). Customers who already own anew Mac can save $150 (US) with the purchase of Final Cut Pro 4 and DVDStudio Pro 2. These offers are available to customers worldwidestarting today through February 28, 2004, and all savings arecoordinated through mail-in rebate. Additional terms and conditionsapply, see www.apple.com/promo/prosavings/for full details.

Apple also introduced a new 20-inch iMac, the largest flat-paneldisplay ever offered in an all-in-one desktop. The new 20-inch iMacjoins the 15- and 17-inch models in the popular consumer desktop lineand offers twice as much screen area as the 15-inch display model,enabling users to view more than two full pages side-by-side.

The new iMac also includes Apple’s latest operating system,Mac OS X version 10.3 “Panther,” pre-installed, offeringover 150 breakthrough new features, including Exposé for instantlyviewing all your open windows at once; iChat AV, the ground-breakingvideo teleconferencing software; and Fast User Switching, to easilyenable the iMac to be shared among multiple users.

Finally, Apple introduced a new model of its revolutionary Power MacG5 desktop computer, a dual processor 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 desktopstarting at $2,499 (US), and lowered the price of the single processor1.6 GHz model to $1,799 (US). The Power Mac G5 lineup now includesthree models: dual processor 2.0 GHz, dual processor 1.8 GHz and singleprocessor 1.6 GHz. Featuring the world’s first 64-bit desktopprocessor with the industry’s first 1 GHz front-side bus, thePower Mac G5 offers unprecedented memory expansion of up to 8GB andadvanced 64-bit computation, while running existing 32-bit applicationsnatively.