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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
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
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
because the hard drives that are in the iPods are insanely expensive. The 5gig HD that's in the low end model would cost you $400. With the iPod you're getting the HD and the mp3 playing stuff. You're not going to find apple selling these things for less than they can get the HDs for.
11 was a racehorse
12 was 12
1111 Race
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And, thankfully, the free market sets the price just fine. Some people find great value in a good interface and a product backed by a company that has surprising amounts of reboundability.
I personally would not pay $500 for this device, but since its selling, many people will. Why question it, you either can't afford it, or don't see value in that product for that price. If you want it cheaper, asking Apple won't hurt though...
"Which iPod is yours?"
"It's the one that says 'Bad Mother Fucker'"
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.
I'd just love to see you fit your Maxtor USB 2.0 HDD in your pocket, myself.
The real reason the 5GB iPod is still $400 is that people are still buying it. If Apple was having trouble selling them, the price would have dropped to $350 or $300. They are still hot, and there is still no comparable MP3 player on the market, period. Size, capacity, battery life, and firewire. No other MP3 player matches the iPod in all 4 of those categories. Until one does, Apple can charge what they damn well please. That is the free market at work.
--
The internet is the greatest source of biased information in the history of mankind.
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.
yeah, being one of 2 PC makers in the Black this year,having 60 million in the bank and having no debt can realy Hurt, it hurts realy realy realy bad.
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
What is it with the Wintel retard demographic on slashdot. "How could this thing possibly cost money when I can find supposedly equivilent parts for much cheaper!" The iPod uses a firewire port, have you ever seen a cheap firewire controller worth buying? I haven't heard of any. It's also got one smooth looking screen with a pretty low dot pitch for a monochrome LCD. The battery isn't exactly some shit Energizer or Duracell. I also can't believe you said Apple is the only company to raise prices as time goes by. How much was RAM going for last spring and how much is it going for right now? It certainly isn't any fucking cheaper.
I'm a loner Dottie, a Rebel.
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.
:)
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?
The lower cost machines are what is going to make money. Something that I believe Apple is still desprately in need of.
Exactly what aapl are you looking at. Apple may not hold the record for market share but when it comes to making a profit Apple holds her own. One of the great things about Apple is they have so much in the bank that they can afford to take a risk here and there. The reason the price went up: their research suggests people will pay more. This is not a desperate act. And I doubt anybody in the market will interpret this as a desperate act either.
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.
$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
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!
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
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.
The transition was completed at MacWorld in January when all Macs started shipping with Mac OS X as default. What else is needed to complete the transition?
Somewhere in the heavens... they are waiting.
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.