At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference, Apple have revealed the new Mac Pro and its specifications. It’s going to be powered by two or four 2.66 GHz 64-bit dual-core Intel Xeon processors (that’s some seriously high end Intel kit) and have 1 GB RAM as standard on the less powerful model. The Mac Pro isn’t going to be cheap (as you can see from the picture, courtesy of Engadget), but it certainly is a very powerful machine.

The Mac Pro seems to be keeping its predecessor the Power Mac’s design but really upping the specification. The Mac Pro is now the last Macintosh to be upgraded to use Intel processors. We first saw the Mac mini going Intel, followed by the MacBook Pro, the MacBook and now the Mac Pro.

At Apple’s WWDC, Apple also previewed the upcoming update to their flagship operating system Mac OS X - codenamed Leopard. You can see a sneak preview that Apple have put together on their site.

As ever, Gizbuzz will keep you up to date with any more news that comes out of the WWDC, including of course whether the rumours of an ‘iPhone’ will be confirmed.

AppleInsider are reporting that they have heard rumours that Apple will be one of the first companies to do a major rollout of Intel’s new Core 2 processor series. There’s no details of what Mac models will be using the Core 2 chips, but there is speculation that a new revision of the MacBook Pro will surface, sporting the new Core 2 Duo configuration.

Now according to the article, Apple plan to use the Core 2 configuration known by its codename Merom. Merom is actually a 64-bit chip, unlike the 32-bit Core Duo chips used in the current MacBook and MacBook Pro models. Presumably this will still run 32-bit Intel software written for Intel Macs natively, but will there be any special 64-bit Intel applications (other than Mac OS X itself) to take advantage of the 64-bit architecture?

Following from their very successful line-up of the Core processor series, Intel have released the Core 2 series. The Core series, particularly the dual-core Core Duo configuration were very popular in laptop computers, including Apple’s MacBook and MacBook Pro laptops.

The Core 2 line will continue to focus on the mobile computing market but will also aim for more high-perfomance desktop machines. One of the benefits of the Core and Core 2 ranges has been high energy efficiency, and it seems Intel are banking on this once again to get the more heavy-duty Core 2 chips into more laptops, where power consumption is a very important issue.

Where Intel have recently missed out on sales to AMD has been this extremely high-performance desktop market. The AMD Athlon 64 X2 range has almost dominated this type of ‘gaming machine’ for some time, and with the release of the Core 2 aimed at this type of machine as well, it’s obvious Intel wants to regain ground, while still dominating in the mobile space (with the Centrino brand). They are also branching into the new media PC market with the Viiv (pronounced like ‘five’) brand, of which new Viiv machines will be running Core 2 processors. It makes sense, as power consumption for media PCs is also important (to keep cooling requirements down).

PC Pro is reporting that Dell has decided that Apple’s got it right, and is abandoning their well known internet and telesales only approach in favour of opening two retail stores, one in Dallas in Texas and another in New York. They are hoping to use the stores to build their consumer sales business, by allowing sceptical consumers the chance to try before they buy.

They will not, however, be using their new shops to sell anything. Apparently they are not prepared to abandon their ‘build to order’ approach to computer sales. In an interview with the Austin-American Statesman, Jim Skelding, the director of the pilot scheme, said ‘It’s a physical extension of the direct model, so customers can touch and feel the products’.

This approach potentially makes a lot of sense. Dell’s current model works supremely efficiently, helping them to become the biggest computer manufacturer in the world. However, it is a model potentially more suited to business, as the small business buyer is far more likely to know exactly what he or she needs and is less concerned with the way the machine looks or feels, reducing the need for hands-on experience and in-person advice. (I say small business because Dell has a completely different approach with large scale corporations, offering consultancy and rental schemes). The individual consumer is likely to know less, and therefore will appreciate these new stores. It also allows Dell to reach out to first time computer users, who are out of reach of its powerful internet marketing campaigns. Although it’s only a pilot scheme, I suspect it will work, and we’ll be seeing lots more stores in the mid-term. I just wonder whether they will stick with their ‘no sales’ approach, and start stocking common configurations. And will they stock Alienware? We’ll just have to wait and see.

New York City is now home to not one, but two official Apple Stores. Apple’s latest Midtown store has caused a lot of interest, because of its 30-foot high glass entrance and of course the fact that it is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Also, a lot of the actual store space (4,000 sq ft) is underground, so once again Apple seems to have won over customers on design and innovation.

There’s also an 8-minute video of Steve Jobs (Apple’s CEO) talking about the launch of the new store at UNEASYsilence, which has probably been deliberately launched very close to the launch of Apple’s latest MacBook laptop.

(And on a completely different story, congratulations to Huw for a successful move over to Gizbuzz.co.uk and Wordpress)