Slightly annoying (to say the least) is that the looped streaming netcast of Jobs’ keynote at WWDC is consistently freezing up Quicktime for me, so I woke up at 5am for nuthin’. But it’s not like that’s the only place to find out about the news–I just would have preferred to see it that way.

Yes, the mistakenly leaked G5 (photos, QT VR) details were indeed true, and some other cool stuff got released as well. The CPU is the new IBM PPC 970, and the top-end model is a dual 2.0 GHz processor, which in terms of hertz alone is at least a match to the 3.2 GHz Pentiums coming out about now. But the PPC has always dome better than the Pentiums in a hertz-to-hertz match, meaning that the new top-end system is closer to a 5- or 6-GHz Pentium system. And the price for the dual 2GHz PowerMac will be $3,000–almost $300 less than the present dual 1.25 GHz G4 system sells for today. The “low-end” system (1.6 GHz) will sell for $2,000. Jobs claims the equivalent Dell would cost over $4,000, but that’s probably including software extras whose equivalents come free with the Mac. Still, as I calculate it, the top-of-the-line Dell and Mac G5 will cost about the same, and the G5 will give significantly better performance. Jobs demonstrated the G5 outpacing that Dell 2-1 in a Photoshop test. Even if rigged, you can bet the Mac will still be faster in a more objective test, at least in part because of the new, wider 64-bit architecture, allowing more data to flow through the processor at any given time (like widening the mouth of a bottle to let liquid pass through more quickly).

Better yet, Jobs promised processors up to 3 GHz within 12 months–and it’s not clear if that will be the PPC 970, or the next-generation PPC 980, which is supposed to go up to 5- to 6-GHz within the next few years. Without question, the Mac, long in the Motorola doldrums, is now in clear sailing waters. I’ll likely wait for the 3 GHz model myself, simply because that’ll be in line with my next scheduled desktop buy, and the G5 will be tested and true by then.

Other details on the new system: dual 1 GHz frontside buses, very fast for getting around bus bottlenecks; Apple is finally out of that morass as well, and has jumped ahead of Wintel (max 800 MHz bus). The new bus effectively allows a whole DVD’s worth of data to be transferred through the processors in less than a second, if the DVD could be read that quickly! 512K L2 cache, now up there with the biggest that Wintels have. Up to 8 GHz of DDR400 RAM (if you can afford it). Optical audio for Dolby 5.1 surround sound, fast graphics bus, Firewire 800/400, USB 2.0, the works.

Coming out “before the end of the year” (a bit cryptic, but then the G5 came out WAY earlier than expected), is Panther–Mac OS 10.3. Panther will make the new G5 accelerate to full power, as it will be 64-bit compatible. If you buy the new G5 Macs in August, you’ll still be getting OS X 1.2 (Jaguar), which will run natively on the G5, but won’t give you full advantage of the new chips. All the same, you will get the GHz advantage with Jaguar–it will run natively on the new chip, not in emulator (slow) mode. But Panther will really speed it up. Hopefully for those customers, they will get a free upgrade to 10.3, but you never know.

The new OS does more than just upgrades to run on the new CPUs. It also has a new filing system that catalogs everything on your drives, making a search for a file go amazingly quickly. Up until now, the Mac OS find file feature has run rings around Windows XP, which requires a multi-step process before you can start the search, and the file search itself takes forever. Jaguar introduced the in-window search bar, always visible, which scans whatever folder or volume is open quickly for any text string. Panther will take that further, dropping search times from several seconds to IMMEDIATELY. Fast, no wait, no spinning or waiting cursors. Type in a partial filename and a list will instantly appear, paring down as you type in more letters, just like in Apple’s iTunes. This is now system-wide, available to many apps. Other file-handling features will include a safe-erase, where data is overwritten several times when thrown out.

New finder windows will include customizable favorite folders and a slightly better arrangement of files in the window, and this will also be available in open and save dialog boxes, for the first time. And finally! We’ve got back the Labels ability, so you can customize and sort files by your own definitions. This has been missing since OS X replaced OS 9. They will appear as a colored loop around the file name, a nice touch.

Also made easier will be network connections–they will show up automatically in a new window, instead of having to use the “Connect to” command in the Go menu.

Window control in Panther will also get a nice revision with something called Exposé (if your browser can read that last accented “e”), which allows all open windows to be quickly tiled, highlighted, or set aside to reveal the desktop, using the F9, F10 and F11 keys (keys assignable, Jobs said). I just saw the demo, and MAN, is it nice. On a keystroke or a corner-mouse, you can have all open windows minimize to the point where all windows are fully visible; mouse over any window and you see its title; click on one and that window comes to the front. No more going to menus or trying to select buried windows when too many are open. It’s like spreading everything out and just picking up the one you want, but it’s all automatic and graphically slick, thanks to Quartz Extreme. Another feature is to make all windows step aside so you can see the desktop; select an icon and drag a little, and the windows come back for really easy drag-and-drop.

iChat will get its long-awaited video upgrade, and will cost $29 for Jaguar when it comes out, but will be free in Panther. You can buy a nice Apple camera (“iSight“) set for $150 or so as well, and if you have a good internet connection, you can supposedly get very nice 2-way video conferencing. Apple seems to be claiming you can do it at 56K as well, but I wouldn’t expect very good quality…. Audio connections will also work for those without cameras. Jobs demoed to new technology with Al Gore calling him, and Jobs calling Apple reps across the country and the world. Looks very slick, very good quality in the demo.

Other new features include fast user switching, allowing different accounts to not only be used concurrently without quitting apps, but to switch in just a second or so, with a nice 3-D graphic transition to boot. Font control is being vastly improved, allowing you to switch fonts on and off as well as group them quickly and without quitting or restarting any apps. By creating font “collections” and switching each one on or off, you can go from hundreds of fonts to just a few in just a few seconds. That’ll be great for me, as I use hundreds, but hate going through the vast list in apps like MS Word.

Rendezvous (remote server browsing in Finder), the Preview app (dramatic speed upgrades, very nice text searching added), the Mail app (thread sorting), Print-faxing, iDisk and (for developers) X11 all will be getting tweaks and upgrades as well. So call it a pretty well-rounded upgrade. And count on paying about $130 (probably $100 street price, maybe $70 academic) for the upgrade. I was going to wait to re-install my OS (gotta do that every year or it gets too buggy), but Panther might not be out till December (though it could be sooner), so I’m doing it in August instead, and I’ll just upgrade when Panther comes out.

All in all, a very good step for the Mac. Question is, will it increase the Mac’s faltering market share? Hope so…

UPDATE: Finally got the stream to work. Figures, I’ll have to leave for work well before I can see the whole keynote. Rrrgg. Extra details include the new Tokyo Apple store in Ginza, which is slated to open “early next year.” Jobs showed a rendering of what the shop will look like, but no landmarks to show where on the Ginza it’ll be.

He also showed a cute bit from Jay Leno, where an Osama bin Laden double was singing “Big Butts” while listening to an iPod, as a joke ad for the Apple Music Store.