Slashdot Mirror
A Basket Full of Apple News
active8or writes "During hit keynote at MacWorld San Fransico, Steve Jobs introduced the new tools from Apple. One, iDVD was a very powerful tool for making DVDs at home, and iTunes a powerfull MP3 and music ripping, writing, playing environment....for free. This seems to follow their new "killer apps" strategy. In addition, a 733 MHz G4 was introduced, and the entire line got a update. ". The new powerbook looks awesome (if only it had 3 mouse buttons).
Not to mention that one new option for the G4 Desktop (and standard on high-end prebuilts) is the "SuperDrive"... a single-tray, multiple-laser drive that basicly combines CDRW and DVD-R. Yes kids, real DVD-R, play it in your consumer $150 DVD deck. Apple sells DVD-R blanks for $10 at store.apple.com. Probably can find them cheaper elsewhere.
If only it had 3 mouse buttons.
You got both hands on the frickin' keyboard anyhow.
Karma karma karma karma karmeleon: it comes and goes, it comes and goes.
Before it gets flying too thick, take a look at buying a 533 G4 for $2199 and adding a SECOND processor for a lousy $300, from the Apple Store as a "Build to Order" option. Total=$2499, including 128 RAM, 40 G HD, CD-R/W, Nvidia Card, and Gig-E.
--
$tar -xvf
Sorry, this is wrong on multiple counts. First, Aqua or any other GUI takes essentially zero CPU time if you're not actively using it. For example, the iMac behind me is running Mac OS X Beta with a (transparent) terminal window running top. dnetc is using 98% of the CPU, Window Manager is using 0.6%. Second, Aqua is not mandatory. You can drop to a text console and do everything from there, or telnet or ssh in.
Apple should be spending time making an OS X server that actually lets you remotely administrate the server, with an optional GUI in case you can't
Which is exactly what they did.
How to solve most of our problems: 1.Lots of nuclear plants. 2.Cure aging.
Apple's Tech Info Library (http://til.info.apple.com/techinfo.nsf/artnum/n24 940) says,
"Note: In compliance with the MPAA, DVD-R discs with CSS-encrypted video data cannot be read."
Everyone, please, calm down and listen!
I know all of this stuff seems amazing. In fact, most of it really is. What you need to understand, though, is that your 'oohs' and 'ahhs' are not your own.
You are currently under the power of Steve Job's mind-control marketing skillz.!
Now, there is only one way to possibly get out of this situation before Steve has you drinking Kool-Aid and chanting about the glory of NeXT.
First, go to the Apple Store. Now, pick out one of the super-hype systems that amaze you so much.
Play with it.
Configure it.
Now, once you've selected every possible option, and loaded this potentially-yours Apple with all the goodies that make these machines so great, look at the price.
There you go, you're back to normal. These systems are damn cool, but it's probably time to pass...
(Oh, btw... I am an Apple owner and user, so please keep the flaming down...)
--
Feminism is the wild notion that women are human beings.
Steve Jobs claims that the MPEG-2 (encoding) CODEC that iDVD and DVD Studio Pro use is "much faster than any other". He claims that most other software encoders for MPEG-2 run at about a 20:1 ratio, while the CODEC Apple has can encode at about a 2:1 ratio on a G4... that is, 30 minutes of video can be encoded into MPEG-2 format in about 60 minutes.
That's fine and dandy, but how fast are other software encoders out there? Are they really as slow as 20:1? Perhaps they're even faster than Apple's 2:1 claim? Curious.
1000BASE-T creates a 250 megabit full duplex channel on each of the four pairs of wire in a CAT-5 cable. The nodes on each end of the cable transmit and receive in the same frequency band. They use hybrids and echo cancellation, much like a high-speed modem, to separate the transmitted signal from the received signal. A 3COM paper on the subject is available here.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
The price cuts were also no big surprise - of course the audience cheered, but the press had been giving Apple a beating for the past month or so about soft sales. "Soft Sales? Price Cut!" Apple had already been doing it in the form of rebates.
Even March for OS X was no surprise - CNET called it "late", but that's pretty much what people have been expecting.
Steve always gives a good show, though.
-----
Klactovedestene!
A few interesting points:
Avi
I remember back when the original Mac "superdrive" was a 1.44 MB auto-inject/eject floppy drive that would read and write Mac and PC format HD floppies (it was "super" compared to the 400/800KB DD Mac-only drives that were its predecessors). Now we get 4.7GB per disc - super-schweet! You've come a long way, baby...
My only caveat - does the DVD authoring include CSS-free and region-free options? Can you rip & copy DVD's with it? I'd hate for something this cool to be locked into the MPAA's riduculous regime....
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
#include "disclaim.h"
"All the best people in life seem to like LINUX." - Steve Wozniak
Here's my brief review of iTunes. I'm comparing it (indirectly) to other Mac MP3 players, such as SoundJam, Audion, and MACAST (formely MacAmp).
iTunes kicks ass.
Functionally, it has more cool features than most other MP3 players. The CD burning ability is really great and intuitive (just build a playlist, and hit the Burn CD button), but it unfortunately does not support my CD burner (Ricoh 7060A). The interface is very pretty, although some people may miss skin support. I haven't checked the quality of iTunes-encoded MP3s, but all the right options are there, and it of course automatically gets track info from CDDB when ripping songs from CDs.
Its "Browse" button organizes MP3s in a heirarchial fashion by Artist, Album, and Song, in a manner I haven't seen in other MP3 players.
What's missing? Support for my CD burner would be nice. It would also be good if ID3 tag info could be edited directly in the playlist window, instead of by opening a "Get Info" window for the song. Other than that, a great first version.
> when they should be focusing on speed
... OS 9 is not getting any faster when it has only three months of service left as the current OS ... OS X Public Beta is not performance-tuned ... it's a beta.
... OS 9 is not getting any more reliable when it has only three months of service left as the current OS ... OS X Public Beta is obscenely reliable already.
... not just for the looks, but also for things like the fact that all Macs have easy-open doors for users to install RAM, even the notebooks (the keyboard pops-up).
... introduced the first CD-ROM, first CD-R/DVD-R combo, first consumer UNIX, invented FireWire, open sourced the core of their commercial OS (where is Windows, where is OS/2?).
... these devices that surround us are getting better-looking.
...
> and reliability.
Speed
Reliabilitiy
Yes, Mac OS 9 is stretched to the breaking point. So, what? Mac OS X is 10 weeks away and runs more Mac OS 9 apps than Windows 2000 runs Windows 98 apps. Plus, there are lots of updated apps coming.
Also, to say that Apple's only innovation is candy colors is really ignorant. All of their computers have AirPort and built-in antennae, optical mouses, no fans except in the tower (which has one little one that turns off when cool), more than twice the notebook battery life of their nearest competitor, the biggest shipping LCD display, numerous industrial design awards
Geez, they also invented pull-down menus, drag and drop, overlapping windows
AND, what if their only innovation was candy colors? I read an article from the head of some plastics association who said that Apple had driven the plastics industry forward by creating translucent, transparent, textured, colored, and intricately-shaped plastics. That's a great innovation
Give them a break already
As part of the announcements, Apple will be selling blank DVD-Rs for $10 each. One of the arguments against DVD piracy has been the high cost of blank media. Poof!
So can I put a DVD in one machine, send via ethernet to another with a superdrive and make a copy?
Think we'll ever see something like this in a Sony?
Steve M
Link given (http://stream.apple.akadns.net/keynote_010901_ref . mov) was broken due to the magic of "spacedot," that lazy perl code that adds rand om sp a ces to lon g wor ds, as if mySQL or Perl or HTML really had such wordwrapping limits.
Fixed:. mov
http://stream.apple.akadns.net/keynote_010901_ref
[
Mac OS 9.1 was also released, but it wasn't mentioned at the keynote. Got to Apple's Mac OS 9 page and see for yourselves!
Supreme Lord High Commander of the Interstellar Task Force for the Eradication of Stupidity
A) The people all over the world behave that way. The Americans don't have a monopoly on wasteful behavior. For example, people in China dump waste into the Yellow river. People in India do the same thing to the Ganges. People in developing contries waste natural gas through poor training (and laziness, it takes a while to light a gas stove.) If they could afford it, Europeans and Asians would waste just as much as Americans do. If you don't believe me, then go to Bankok, Thailand. You'd think you were in LA, sans the tight air-control standards. (BTW, I'm not talking out my ass, I've *lived* in these places)
B) Don't get *me* started on democracy. There is a reason for the electrol college which you stupid populists don't seem to get. (BTW, I'm a rabid democrat.) The electrol college assures that the majority does not totally outweight the minority. Do you really think that the politicians would give a damn about the jews in Florida if it weren't for the electrol college? How about blacks, arabs, and other minorites? Of course not! If it was just population, then they'd only be playing up to the white majority. The debate over majority rule was settled two hundred years ago during the first few presidencies. A general concensus was made (by politicians *far* more qualified than Hilary Clinton) that while the majority did in fact control the country, their power had to be kept in check to protect minority rights. The whole American democracy is based on checks and balances (and if you jaded Americans think that the US democracy is overrated and corrupted, try living in Asia or parts of Europe...) Well, welcome to one of these checks.
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
You can do a track by track clone of a DVD and get a perfect copy if you have a DVD player and burner in the same system.
well no, not exactly. by the looks of things, i'm not really sure there is a way to do a track-by-track copy of a DVD. as far as i know there's no "ripping" option to make an image of a DVD, and from what i've seen, there's no "burn from image" option on these new Macs.
while it would be possible to "rip" the video stream and re-encode it to a new DVD, you'd be without the DVD menu, or any of the extras that ship on DVDs these days. not to mention the fact that this would be an extremely long procedure, and not worth it to most people.
i imagine the real "danger" would be from people downloading DiV/Xs from the net, converting them to Quicktime, and then burning them to iDVD. still not ideal, as you only get the "bare movie," but probably good enough for most casual pirates.
still, unless i'm reading all of this wrong, there's no way to make bit-for-bit copies of DVDs using this drive. this could all change in the future however, as it seems that the only thing holding it back is the availability of proper software.
a couple of things: it should be noted that Apple will be selling blank DVD media (that will play in commercial players) for $10/each. that's amazing. secondly, i really hope it's possible to burn region-free DVDs. i don't want region coding infecting the movies i create.
- j
First, that doesn't address the issue of region coding. A byte-for-byte copy of a disk from another region is going to be just as unplayable in a standard, region-based player.
Second, I believe that burned DVDs have a lower capacity than commercially pressed DVDs. According to the first hit on "DVD burner" in google, it appears that the DVD-R specs are just for burning a single-side/single-layer, giving 4.7 gigs of storage. Certainly worth drooling over, but not enough for massive movie piracy.
That'll only happen if Apple can get it through Joe Average's thick skull that actual performance is only partly a function of MHz. This might be a little easier than it would have been if Intel hadn't shot itself in the foot with the Pentium-4.
(No offence meant to anyone out there named Joe Average.)
the point is: macOS is designed for one button mice. Winders is designed for 9buttons/3wheels/2levers/1footpedal mice. linux gui-makers fell into the the "more-is-better" mentality somewhere after that.
2 1337 4 u!
it would seem they have silently released a new version of os x server that is the same rev as mac os x
see this page
the animal doesnt even have opposable thumbs, focker!