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Apple @ MacWorld Tokyo
rschroeder writes "Apple updated several products at MacWorld Tokyo tonight (or tomorrow morning). A $499 10-gig iPod, with, get this, custom laser engraving on the back, ($49 extra) and vCard support. They also announced a $49 USB bluetooth module, shipping in April, with beta drivers availble today. Among other tricks, Jobs synced a Clie with a mac via bluetooth. Also a new 23" (1920x1200 )Cinema Display. Jobs also said they're raising the price of the iMac due to LCD and RAM cost increases. All this courtesy MacMinute.com's live coverage." Maccentral has several stories about Jobs' keynote at the convention.
I was waiting for someone to outdo the 22" Cinema Display, funny it was Apple that ended up doing it themselves.
Contacts: The way this works is that when you upgrade to 1.1, you get a top-level folder on the iPod named "Contacts". Drop .vcf files in there, and you're off. Cute, but since I have my Palm all the time, it's less useful to me.
Equalizer: Can't comment since I haven't set it for any songs.
Now Playing: Pressing the center button when playing a song no longer switches between elapsed time and time remaining. The normal display now shows both. If you press the button, you get the diamond-in-the-rectangle of iTunes, and you can use the dial to shuttle backwards and forwards. Trés cool.
Shuffle: You can now choose between shuffling between songs or between albums. I'm not quite sure what that means.
Bugs fixed: The bug where pausing and then unpausing would land you somewhere totally else appears to be fixed. Another bug where the iPod would cut songs off at the end is also fixed. Alas, the one that prevents "Dvorak" (with the accent over the r) from displaying properly is still present.
Easter Egg: It's still there, in the Legal section off the Settings main item.
And of course, more languages that I don't understand.
Avi
raising the price of the iMac sounds like a fair deal to me... any other computer manufacturer would raise the price of their stuff if supply was low... just simple economics. i think this is a good move to apple, although it might make some people mad (minus those with pre-orders)
All the advances are good and fine, but the increase in the iMac category may really hurt. I realize that the increase in necessary becuase of the increased costs, but the iMac is what makes Macinctosh a viable comeptitor. The G4 and soon to be G5 towers are excellent, but only cover a very small demographic and their high cost makes them prohibitive. The lower cost iMac can go head to head with most PCs and in some cases, offer a better value. While I agree that the high end computers are more fun and interesting (from a marketing/sales perspective). The lower cost machines are what is going to make money. Something that I believe Apple is still desprately in need of. It may be a smarter move to swallow the increased costs for the time being and attempt to move more volume.
of all the different MacWorlds? There sure do seem to be a lot of them... A schedule, perhaps? It would be nice.
Everything is mainstream now.
More importantly, who is buying these things?!?
Wouldn't a more rational plan be to drop the iPod to $299 and sell this new version for $399? (which is what it's going for now)
$500 seems like an AWFUL lot of money for a product with a 90 day warranty.
iTunes 2.04 was also (quietly) released, nothing new here except better stability.
Also, the Bluetooth update won't be avaliable for download till April (this from Apple's site).
-- Your local friendly mad scientist-in-training
There is a small amount of infoon the Apple website.
Also, The Mac Observer has a nice blow by blow of Steve's keynote.
Otherwise, cool stuff!
Say hello to zMac.
It's good to see that Apple's embracing the technology, giving it a greater chance of widespread adoption. Remember what Apple did for us with USB and Firewire?
:)
Now if only they had bluetooth support for the iPod, I'd be happy about not having to connect it up to the PC every time I wanted to transfer a file.
Having played with an iPod before and found that the sound is a bit try, the EQ is a welcome addition and was the one thing that didn't convince me to buy one over a NetMD-based walkman. Contact management is just damn cool, evidence that Apple listens to the community out there (remember that iPod contact hack?). Good work, Apple
Microsoft Office AND Appleworks on the same iPod!t ml
http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50688,00.h
"Which iPod is yours?"
"It's the one that says 'Bad Mother Fucker'"
You're going to look awfully silly with that big ol' 40GB Maxtor hard drive on your hip as you go jogging. And I'll bet you'll feel silly, too, when you realize that the Maxtor can't play music on its own.
There ain't no rules here; we're trying to accomplish something.
Well considering neither your standard MP3 player or USB 2.0 hard drive have a master bus controller or software, they can't talk to one another. You could carry both the MP3 player and hard drive around until you were blue in the face but you couldn't transfer any of the songs without a host system.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
Anyone know where I can see a copy of Jobs' keynote address?
Lawrence Lessig is my personal hero.
From what I've seen of the details of the levy, that only counts for blank media. If they delivered the iPod with music already on it, it would not be taxable. Of course, that could change.
I'd just love to see you fit your Maxtor USB 2.0 HDD in your pocket, myself.
A little tidbit for those college students/those with parents/friends in the education industry. Try going to the Education Apple Store, things are cheaper for 'ya.
Example: 5 GB iPod: $369 (Normally $399)
10 GB iPod: $469. (Normally $499)
Hey, $30 off isn't too bad. Just trying to get the word out.
This is big. If Apple is on the blue tooth train, then it means that the standard will be back from the dead when M$ put it by not supporting it in XP, and will become successfull (see USB for some background.) Apple is obviously working on new desktop and laptop systems with bluetooth integrated. It's not rumors but very certain that BT is what Apple need for their digital hub strategy. I wonder how they are going to cop with interference between BT and 802.11b. And it will be really funny to see how other vendors are playing catch up with Apple when they realize that bluetooth is a really neat solution to connect devices. In M$ interest not to connect easily with Palm, this is the only reason why the beast of Redmond killed the technology by not releasing drivers last summer. However, all the devices like PDAs (ex: iPaq, Loox, etc...) are released in Japan with BlueTooth in standard. Again, US is lagging big time behind Japan when it comes to wireless (3G, and now BlueTooth.)
PPA, the girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
The Macworld Conference and Expo/Tokyo 2002 website is here with information on the event and the exhibits.
There is also a thread at Macrumors on the event.
Those wanting to watch the keynote are out of luck because there are no plans to broadcast it this year, like they have done in the past.
--Metrollica
I totally agree. Though I am not quite informed as you are as the reason for microsoft killing bluetooth Ive seen what sticking with plain old 11b is doing to the area (seattle). I mean its fun surfing through badly protected windows domains with wireless implementation in the middle of the night from your car with a couple of friends with laptops. But it gets old after around a month. Hear Hear to Apple! oh yeah and if any apple rep wants to buy my loyalty forever respond and offer me a 23" display.
Maclegion.org has a few good articles about this stuff. Their best is on the new disply and is worth checking out.
Traditionally 'Alan Smithee' is the moniker taken on by a movie director when he is so ashamed of his work that he will not be associated with it by name.
So it's a little worrying to see who they reference (via graphic) as the iPod project manager on the story link.
:)
Imagine the new iPod announcement there: US$599 gets you a 0-gig iPod, a $100 expense voucher for driving to the US border, and a $100 budget to buy a 10-gig drive there.
The proposed CA$21/GB levy applies only to recording devices on which no sounds have ever been fixed. Apple could just cut a deal with Vivendi to put an MP3.com sampler on each unit before shipping it.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I'm curious as to how Apple got their brand new "Contacts feature" seen here. It seems to me that two other people beat apple to the punch. iPod Organizer and ipoAddress.
I'm curious as to whether Apple went to the developers, and bought the idea/software. I know they did this for SoundJam, in order to get iTunes. They literally bought out every SoundJam developer, and took the software.
I also know this is how the "time in the title bar" idea got started. 3rd party software, bought by Apple. Any facts surrounding this acquisition?
There is a beta that has been out since late December, Apple even has a page dedicated to it:
http://www.apple.com/macosx/applications/palm/
The release notes for Palm Desktop for Mac OS X said the Clie was supported, and I can synch my Handspring via USB just fine. There are also a lot of conduits available or in progress on the page.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
"Although no one believes that the iMac price increase is due to manufacturing costs..."
I do. The LCD production has not kept up with the demand (because people love the iMac, you see), so the manufacturer raised the cost of the LCDs. Ergo, price of iMac went up.
It's not exactly a secret.
The price will go down eventually, when supply meets demand. It happened with LCD displays for cell phones a few years back.
Offtopic, I know, but I would really like to see SHN (shorten) file support. Sure, you could transfer them on there, but I would like to see the iPod actually play them.
Mp3s are just too lossy for my liking. I could still fit a few losslessly compressed albums on a 5 or 10 gig iPod, which is fine by me! Anything to keep from bringing a battery-draining CD player and loads of discs.
Anyone know if that kind of hack is even possible? If it was, I'd buy one in a second.
the price of memory went up for the iBook's too. it was $300 for the 512MB upgrade, it is now $400, well that's what it was when it went up nearly 2 weeks ago. the salesperson actually told me to not waste my money on "Apple memory" and do what she did, buy it online! (course i saved myself even more...)
I was waiting for someone to outdo the 22" Cinema Display, funny it was Apple that ended up doing it themselves.
ViewSonic has had a 23" 1600x1200 LCD out for a few months now for ~$3500, so Apple was bested slightly already. (Even now, the Viewsonic has a larger screen -- 23" widescreen isn't as big as 23" 4:3 -- but the Apple is higher-res.)
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Try here instead.
I love the SHN format for downloading shows of etree or Furthur but as a portable device format it doesn't stand a chance because the filesize is just way too large and there are no SHN chip decoders in existance. What I would really like to see is a lossless format that reduces file size even further. Shorten is basically abandonware that has been adopted by a niche.
Actually, exactly the same thing has happened in the Mac world over the last few months. For instance, the high end PowerMac G4/dual 800 was $3,499, while its dual 1ghz replacement is $2,999. The PowerBook G4/667 was $ 3,500 when it was first released; now it's $2,999.
The new iMac is only a little more expensive than previous iMac price points, but you're getting tons more for your money.
D
5GB iPod (refurbished) for $339 from store.apple.com (Click on "Special Deals"). Comes with the same 90 day warranty as a new iPod.
--
The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
Things have changed. Micron (Boise, Idaho) is taking over the industry. They bought Toshiba's DRAM business, they bought TI's business, they bought KMT's business, and are negotiating to buy Hynex, which is in trouble. They and Samsung are in a race for the #1 spot now; if the the Hynex deal goes through, Micron will be far bigger than Samsung in DRAM.
In 2001, there was a huge DRAM glut, which pushed prices down. Micron, instead of cutting back, used its advantage as the lowest-cost producer to squeeze out the weaker players. Here's an overview of the industry.
It looks like that when the dust settles, Micron will have about 40% market share, Samsung (S. Korea) about 22%, Elpdata (Japan) somewhere under 20%, and minor players the rest. The era of brutal competition in DRAM may be ending. The number of players is much smaller now. We may see more "stability" in DRAM pricing.
Wouldn't be easier just to redesign Unix users?
Ergonomica Auctorita Illico!
No lossless compression, but you can still store several 600MB CDs of audio.
iPod specs
-pmb
$2,000 got you the machine you could afford -the one that you could use Office and Quicken on, play most middle-of the road games, and if you were willing to wait a long time, dabble in graphic design and multimedia.
Now the machine you really want still costs $4,000, but the machine you can afford is down to $1,500, and it does far more than even the best home computers did just two or three years ago.
The fact that there are $500 commodity PC boxes available is nice, but does that mean that the $1,500 iMac no longer has value to the person who purchases it?
It seems to me that rather than comparing the prices of PC and Mac CPUs and peripherals, we ought to be comparing overall value to the consumer - i.e., is this machine doing everything I want it to do, for a price that I find worthwhile?
If you love your Mac, but you don't love PCs, there must be more perceived value in the Mac for you. If that's the case, isn't it intrinsically worth more to you than a less expensive PC?
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
Before you Apple fans begin to flame me: I once had an apple. It was my favorite computer of all time. I miss it. I just can't afford a Mac.
And how much do you value your time?
I'm amazed at how many people will "save" themselves a few hundred bucks when buying a PC, only to waste months of their own time and effort on keeping it working.
But then again, those $400 MSN "rebates" were a bit hit too. Suckers.
-pmb
My fiancee is studying music in school, and she has to listen to a rediculous amount of music. One of the reasons she got a laptop was to be able to rip the CDs in the library so she wouldn't have to fight for access to them with others in the classes.
Now when she gets new listening assignments, she hops into the library, rips the CDs, syncs the iPod, and she's set. If she really likes the music, she makes a copy of the CD to go in the CD Jukebox in our apartment so she can listen to the higher quality recording.
Now she doesn't mind the 30-45 minute subway rides that she does getting around town because she just turns on her iPod and the music is waitting for her.
Could this be done with non-Apple equipment, sure. However, the two hours of helping her adjust from being a Windows user to a Mac user made up for it from reduced tech support on my end... As I type away on my Windows machine whose copy of Internet Explorer couldn't use view source last week...
Alex
Newer ipods and bigger cinema displays are great, but MacOS X is vastly more important. Guess the transition period needs to be lengthened now.
$24 t-shirts, $50 jeans, does Abercrombie & Fitch only cater to the super rich?
Yes. Take your broke ass to American Eagle (Dell).
You either get it or you don't. You either "get" paying more for the end-to-end experience, or you buy some cheap knockoff down the way. You may have something similar, but you don't have the original, nor will it ever be the original, nor will all the complaining that the original costs more, or your knockoff performs the same function make your cheap knockoff the original.
Get over it.
Not since Marie-Antoinette played milkmaid has looking simple and honest been so fake and complicated.
Seems to have been alot of really positive (overall) articles on apple and their products lately.
I used to be a Mac slammer. Nothing made me quite as happy as slamming indignant Mac die hards, unless it was slamming brainless Microsoft Bots. That was before Steve Jobs came back to apple. Then I started watching them with interest.
Now, after all these good stories lately, about the ipod, imovies, OS X and its unix environment, I have to say someone slipped me some of the Mac coolaide.
I want one! I want one now! Damn! And I'm happy about it too!
Gimme a mac!
You can use VCF files to make todo lists/display random text data.
.vcf file\n3) Copy to contacts folder on iPod
And it's a heck of a lot easier and more elegant than setting up mp3 tags.
begin:vcard
version:3.0
fn:To Do List
title:1) Write Perl Script\n2) Write
end:vcard
Voila.
I wonder if this new Apple display will be the first to incorporate Mitsubishi's Feed Forward Display Technology. Then we'd finally be able to watch full motion video and play QuakeIII on our LCD Displays - and I'd actually consider owning one.
the ability to deal with an HFS+ firewire hard drive, right? That's all the iPod is, really, that and some software to play the tunes on it.
BlackGriffen
Sun patented ugly design too I can tell. At least and not like Apple, Sun can rest assured that one will copy their design. Plain Fugly!
PPA, the girl next door.
-- I feel better now. Thanks for asking.
Even better would be flac support which is LGPL'd, supports ID3 tags and works very well.
Check the back of your iPod. Under the edched logo you'll find your iPod's serial number etched in as well, and it matches the serila # you'll find in 'settings'.
Kinda cool, kinda unnoticed.
Kevin Fox
the difference is, I own a Mitsubishi 22" DP2040u. The SGI sucks 27 watts, the DP2040u sucks 155 watts. Used 16 hours a day, 31 days a month, results in a 12 dollar electric bill. Including the $75 recycle fee, I can run my monitor for 10 years before my total cost of ownership exceeds the SGI. $1500 invested instead of spent on a flat panel makes the CRT pay for itself relative to the flat panel in the same timeframe. I still have an 8 year old 21" HM-4520-D. I know the life expectancy of a CRT. The apple cinema display has a life expectancy of 15000 hours. That is less than TWO YEARS. 6 years peak with conservative use.
So, with 1/3 the life expectancy, Buying THREE for every one CRT, Where are your cost of ownership numbers now?
You do not own a cinema display. You have absolutly no idea what it costs to own one.
If voting were effective, it would be illegal by now.
So, with Apple leading the renaissance in wireless networking (it was their introduction of the AirPort that kicked of this current wave of activity) how will they reconcile this with Bluetooth? All of their computers ship with wireless card slots and built-in antennas; they all also ship with USB ports (also popularized by Apple.) Which is to drown out the other? While it's true that they can co-exist it is at the expense of greatly reduced data rates, already an issue for folks used to 100 Mbps or 1,000 Mbps (standard on many Mac models) Ethernet.
My own bet is that before or along-with any USB-BlueTooth product introduction Apple will ship a revised AirPort, or at least a software tweak with a built in Bluetooth-friendly autonegotiation. Or, failing that we'll see the release of an AirPort II featuring 802.11a (at 5 GHz and capable of 54 Mbps) thus safely different from cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, 802.11b, 802.11g, Bluetooth, HomeRF, and a half dozen other wireless applications.
As to microwave ovens - well 2.4 Ghz is the resonant frequency of water so no change possible there. However it is something to think about as you hold these various new wireless devices up next to your body.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Pulp iPod
A wireless keyboard that you have to plug in. Why, that's brilliant!
sic transit gloria mundi
The ones we sell to yankee doodle suckers do, yeah...
Hey, how would you like a 23" display? :)
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Nah, just kidding
deus does not exist but if he does
If you store uncompressed albums, your iPOD will also be battery-draining.
These HDD based MP3 players usually spin the HDD once in a few minutes to buffer something like 5 minutes into RAM. Using uncompressed sound, your HDD will be continuously running, shortening the battery life a lot.
1. It can correctly display some previous undisplayable Chinese characters now, which is a great saving: a very common character that is used in Chinese names can now been seen. It was such an eye-sore!
2. There used to be a track in my iPod that would freeze up the machine. Now the problem is gone.
Good job, Apple!
This is the funniest signature I could ever think of.
This may come as a bit of a surprise, but Apple hardware just isn't that expensive for what you get. It's just that you tend to get a really well-balanced, complete system. Most "bargain-box" PC's are crippled by poor system design. In terms of day-to-day performance, it's hard for me to tell my Dell Optiplex GX240 (1.7 GHz P4) from my custom-built 800MHz P3 at home. Our department got the Dell really cheaply, though, so I can't complain about the relatively poor performance.
To fairly evaluate the price Apple is charging, why not compare more equivalent hardware? I priced out a IBM ThinkPad T23 vs. an Apple PowerBook a few days ago. The high end T23 sports a 1.2 GHz Pentium THREE processor, 256MB RAM, 60GB HDD, 14.1 inch display,10/100 Mb networking, and 16MB video RAM. The cost on IBM's web store is $3,599.00
The high end Apple PowerBook "ultimate" model has a 667 MHz G4 processor, 1 GB of RAM, 48 GB HDD, 16 MB video RAM, Gigabit networking, wireless networking and a 15.2 inch display). It retails for $3,699.00.
Feature-wise, my personal opinion is that the PowerBook is more "loaded" than the ThinkPad. However, the cost difference between the two is less than 3%.
Looks to me like the Apple price is very competitive.
Likewise, if you look at the extra $100 Apple announced as an increase in the price of iMacs, you still get a great system for the cost. Sure, you can find "cheapo" PC boxes for less, but you get less computer as well. Apple doesn't market "discount" computers. Just because the iMac is the lowest end system Apple makes you shouldn't compare it to the lowest end PC available. The two are in different classes. Compare the iMac to a comparably-built PC and I think you'll find that Apple's prices remain quite attractive.
Life is short: void the warranty.
See one in a store? No. Going to see one in a store? No.
First off Apple generally uses pretty high quality components. Their LCD is a sight nicer then your $300 closeout special. Apple also integrates everything a hell of a lot better. Of course that's a lot easier when the OS comes from the same vendor (where's yours?) Indeed right there is half of the value of the machine, it runs MacOS X. And of course the included applications, not shovelware but good stuff that works with the hardware and works intuitively.
Of course there's also the point of the screen being on a pedestal. That's unique in the industry and totally rocks - it's amazing how seductive it is to have a display one can casually reach out & reposition, tilt, angle. It really does change the experience and some panel-on-pegs is not the same at all.
Then there's that whole service & support thing. You may disdain it but the iMac is the intro level computer and ask any real vendor - it costs, it costs a lot to support folks. Phones, websites, repairs, parts, trained folks, etc. You may be willing to spend half a day getting your CD burner to work; most folks just want one that works and if it doesn't a number to call and a quick & easy resolution path.
Am I a Macolyte? No. I have a few, and yeah the mac.com address (free, stable, fast, offers POP, IMAP, SMTP, WebDAV, HTTP, no adverts, can't beat that) but I've also a room full of PCs. Which do I recommend to folks? Depends on what they want to do and how they like to work.
For some things Macs are spot on, for others PCs are a better choice. Macs are price competitive (your apples-to-oranges comparison notwithstanding) as one long as one avoids the Apple memory. The iMac is a great intro or home machine, trivial to set up and fast enough. I also find the laptops to be good deals with rugged cases & long battery life. The G4s are fine machines though they do cost the dickens but if ya need them there they are. Depending on your business a Mac might or might not be appropriate, certainly in some fields a Wintel box is a much better choice, others a Mac fits the bill.
But you, you seem to have a chip on your shoulder. Fine. But don't go making stupid statements and not expect to get called on them. Nor come looking for an argument or to act out your frustrations at whatever. We've both had our say and at this point any further discussion would be almost like baiting those foamers one sometimes finds on streetcorners - just inane & embarrassing for all around.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
Not entirely true. My Powerbook G3 running OS-X has the control key in the right place, as well as the control key on the bottom next between 'fn' and 'option'. I'm an old NeXT guy, so there was no way I was putting up with OpenStep 5x with the control key in the wrong place.
It wasn't that hard to do. If you are interested, let me know.
Awesome furniture, accessories and cabinetry in Santa Rosa, CA: http://humanity-home.com/
If I could mount a railgun to a toaster, you can bet I would. You can't have too many railguns.
Well thank you for your helpful and informative posting. I've no doubt it will be well appreciated by those folks who haven't had your fortunate experience.
I've had any number of friends and clients report problems, particularly those in device-rich environments like offices. Indeed one recently had to decide between their new Siemens 4200-series 2.4 GHz consumer phone system I'd recommended and their WiFi base station just brought in as part of another project. The same is true for the customer who watched his presentation go down in flames when a bevy of Bluetooth devices in the room slowed the 802.11b link he was on down to uselessness.
No doubt the authors of numerous articles on this exact topic (see Google) will also be cheered to hear that you've exhaustively researched & tested this and determined their own results are in fact wrong.
Where would we all be without your support and cheerful insight?
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
I did, in fact, read all of the links in the story except the MacCentral one. I had submitted a story on all this just a minute or so after the guy that got it did, so I thought I'd add the little tidbit that I didn't see in his submission. I was wrong. Can slashdot ever forgive me?
As I said, moderators, please mod me down to -1 (I'm posting this at +2 for maximum karma damage) and if you find it in your hearts to do so, moderate all of my recent posts down as well. Thank you.
Say hello to zMac.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Sucker? I think not. I was in california, and they way they intially worded it, you got 400 dollars worth of stuff at best buy, you agreed to a long term agreement, which is illegal to do in Cailifornia, rendering the contract null.
Basically, I got 400 dollars worth of stuff free.twice.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Same thing with my powerbook G4, although the caps lock light still toggles on and off when technically it's acting as a control key. Go figure.
I'm just waiting for the flood of people cashing in their 22" Cinema Displays to buy a 23" Cinema Display HD...
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
the /. crowd is not the target for an iPod.
There is a reason stores like Old Navy and the Gap make a ton more money than the cheaper Target stores. Apple is going for the experience and looks conscious consumer, where there is a ton of cash to be made.
--SC
You read fiction? I write it! Lemme know what you th