Slashdot Mirror
New iMacs (and iPods)
Dilaudid writes "According to
this story at MacWorld Apple has just announced three new iMac models - all with Bluetooth and AirPort Extreme. More importantly there are new iPods too. Cool." The iMacs got a speed bump up to 1.25GHz, and the iPods were capacity-bumped up to 40GB.
...with prices in Dollars?
From Apple.com to avoid having to convert British pounds into prices that would be for the wrong market anyway...
Why do I h8 apple?
*cries*
;)
Good thing I have an iRiver discman though
-----Article:
>>>Apple upgrades iMac range
By Jonny Evans
Apple today introduced new iMac configurations featuring up to a 1.25GHz G4 processor and faster 333MHz DDR memory as standard.
Three models of iMac are now available as standard from the company: the 1GHz 15-inch screen Combo drive (CD-RW/DVD-ROM) iMac; the 17-inch model (with SuperDrive), hosting a 1.25GHz processor; and the 17-inch SuperDrive Plus model, which offers 1.25GHz, and ships with AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth built-in.
The 15-inch iMac costs 999; the 17-inch SuperDrive costs 1,449; and the 17-inch SuperDrive Plus costs 1,713. Prices include VAT.
All models are AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth ready, though the highest-end model is the only iMac with these features pre-installed. Other features common across the range include: 80GB hard drives (high end, 160GB); 10/100Base-T Ethernet; 56K internal modems; and Apple Pro speakers.
The new iMacs have three USB 2.0 ports and two FireWire 400 ports. They do not offer the new FireWire 800 standard.
The 15-inch model has an NVidia GeForce4 MX graphics card installed with 32MB dedicated DDR video memory - up from a GeForce2 MX. The two 17-inch iMacs offer NVidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics cards with 64MB DDR memory installed. Previously the 17-inch models featured the GeForce4 MX.
With Mac OS X 10.2 and Apple's iApps (iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes and iDVD), the software bundle includes: QuickTime, iCal, iChat, iSync, DVD Player, AppleWorks, Mac OS X Mail, Internet Explorer, Mac OS X Chess, Otto Matic, Deimos Rising, FAXstf, Acrobat Reader, and the Apple Hardware Test CD.
Apple has also introduced new iPods with a maximum 40GB storage:
>>>40GB iPod launched
By Macworld staff
Apple has introduced a 40GB iPod for 398.99 including VAT.
The new version replaces the 30GB iPod, although the price is unchanged. The 40GB model can hold 10,000 songs, and weighs 176 grams.
The 15GB version has also been replaced by a 20GB version, with pricing fixed at 299.
All iPods include earbud headphones, an iPod power adaptor, a FireWire cable and a 4-pin-to-6-pin iPod FireWire adaptor.
20GB and 40GB models include the iPod Dock, a carrying case and wired remote.
The link to the actual article is:
w sI D=6857
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/main_news.cfm?Ne
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Only the 1,713 17-inch SuperDrive Plus has BlueTooth and AirPort Extreme pre-installed. The cheaper models are just "AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth ready."
or you could just go to apple's site which is much less likely to get slashdotted:
http://www.apple.com/ipod/
http://www.apple.com/imac/
Before you freak at the prices, those are in pounds, not dollars. 1,713 works out to about $2,715 at today's rate.
Still not a bad price, considering what you get. I'll probably settle for more RAM for my iMac rather than replacing it with one of these, but it's an awfully nice machine.
Thats not new. The speed drop came when they announced the g5's, since the 1.25's could still boot into 9, while the 1.42 can't.
Mod point free since 2001
New iPods
New iMacs
The two smaller models are just Bluetooth and Airport ready, that means you have to purchase the add-on cards for 50$ respectively 99$ (according to Apple Store).
Make sure you order your internal Bluetooth module with your iMac, it can't be added later on (you'll need to use an external Bluetooth-USB-Dongle...).
Oh wait, they already did that.
You tell me how "whilst" differs from "while," and I'll stop calling you a pretentious jackass.
Slashdot once again displays its inability to perform even the most basic fact checking. The new iMacs do not come with AirPort Extreme or Bluetooth. They have internal slots you can fill in a CTO configuration.
In case the site is slow, here is a mirror.
Martin Studio Slashdot Policy
A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code.
Funny, there are a ton of other 40GB MP3 players that have been on the market for a little while.
This one is a bit cheaper than the iPod:
Archos
So, you might argue that the iPod is the smallest 40GB player out? Wrong again. Check this one out:
Rio Karma
Not that it's a BAD player- it's just not as Revolutionary as the Mac fanboys claim. :-)
Those iMacs don't look so bad... even if they're next to impossible to upgrade. :-)
Stewey
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
I have mine filled up but it is only about 50% music. The rest is backups of datafiles and source code. One of the great things about the iPod is that is is also a regular firewire disk drive and can be used as that as well.
Finkployd
Actually, Best Buy has been selling iPods for a while. They started carrying them when the current Gen. 3 models (slim design, "dock connector") debuted several months ago. You're correct, though: It's only recently that they've been test marketing Apple desktops at select Best Buy stores, presumably in an effort to prepare for a company-wide push.
-A.
What did the walrus say to the penguin? "No soap, radio."
Interesting that these machines use Bluetooth. My Thinkpad has bluetooth built in and I've just picked up a Bluetooth phone (Nokia 6310i). Bluetooth is *really* slick. I love not having to get my phone out of my bag to check contacts or sync with my address book. I can send SMS messages from my computer via Mobile Master again without having to locate my phone or punch text into a keyboard not designed for it.
I'm now very seriously considering getting a car speaker set for my vehicle and I'm certain my next PDA will have bluetooth. My next laptop will probably be a Powerbook and I hope they have bluetooth built in by then because I'm going to want it. It's one of those nifty technologies you wonder why you didn't bother with before.
Oh, if you do have a Nokia phone, their Nokia Connection Manager software is a bit hit/miss as to whether it will work with a given bluetooth device. Doesn't work with my T30 but I've been able to work around it. YMMV.
They keep using quality parts, which tends to keep the price up.
If you go to the Apple Store, there are three base models of iMacs to choose from. The top model has the AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth built-in.
They did this with the Cube, but it didn't catch fire like the original iMacs did so I doubt they'll be trying that again.
Not exactly true. The G4 Cube was monitor-less, but it was far from cheap. It cost just below a PowerMac with the same peformance, but with very limited expantion slots.
The cool thing with the cube was that it was almost completely silent (no fans what so ever!). Only a 5400rpm disk.
Another interesting thing with the cube is that it's second hand value is still very high, often around 500 to 900 dollars (ebay), even though the model is old. That's about half its retail price as new...
Probable impossibilities are to be preferred to improbable possibilities.
Aristotele
Both of those are ugly as sin and lacking in basic features. No FireWire. No AAC support, either encrypted or unencrypted; oh-so-useful WMA instead. No on-the-go playlists. No synching with iTunes. No support for storing contacts and calendar items. The list goes on.
Nobody said the new iPods were revolutionary. (The first one was, of course.) Rather, they're simply better products than the competition.
eDigital's been selling their Odyssey 1000 player for a very long time, which is almost the size of an iPod, stores 20GB, and though it doesn't appear to have a line-in, it does have a built-in mic to record your lectures. Also, its mic does the voice-recognition thing so you can cue up your Phish shows without having to press any annoying buttons. Battery lasts 12hrs, and it also sports an FM tuner.
Can't you see that everyone is buying station wagons?
But how about an MP3 player that holds all of my songs? What would you suggest, on top of buying a $60 HD?
*Note, with an iPod, all the music is synched, so I've actually got two backups; my PowerMac is the main copy, the iPod is the backup of my music.
**Data storage is actually cheaper using DVD-Rs than HD, so I archive to DVD
***iPods provide 'offsite' backup insurance, where a 120gb HD does not.
GPL Deconstructed
It'll cost you about $35 to add FM capability to your iPod.
GPL Deconstructed
I believe they understand the market fairly well.
Of the 10 iPod users I know not one is interested... a couple would like to see an FM tuner but none want recording ability.
IE is bundled with 10.2, Safari is bundled with 10.3.
"Reality is just a convenient measure of complexity" -Alvy Ray Smith
No, there's no actual proof that they're ever going to make one, but c'mon, isn't it the obvious next step?
You can have this now, from Neuros - plus FM in and out, and swappable HD or flash "sleds" to boot. I'm seriously considering buying one.
Downmodding is the refuge of the weak. Don't downmod, make a better argument!
Remember: coffee first, then post:
The other commercial solutions are not offering MP3s because they cannot get labels to agree to distribute music in that format. Most of the others are going the Microsoft route, which does not support the iPod.
I disbelieve. There are two heuristics to tell if something is over-priced. The first is: nobody buys the thing, or you sell fewer than you expected. The second is: you have *reliable* marketing research tells you that a lower price would sell you more than enough additional units to make up for the reduced price. I don't think it's always easy to justify the second course of action. If we pretend that the gross profit on an iPod is about $100, than a $50 reduction in price would halve that number, and we would have to sell twice as many of them to make up the difference. I think you can see the risk here. The iPod is the best seller in its category, and while you can find cheaper hard-drive based players, nobody has come out with a clearly better one. I think the nominal prices will drift down over the next couple of years, but the real price will (and has) sunk like a stone. The original iPod was 5 MB for $500. The top-of-the-line model is now 40 MB (8 times the capacity) and comes with much better interface options. That's huge real improvement in 3 years...
Babar
No base iMac comes with either of these options. Only CTO iMacs do. The fact that Apple just so happens to conveniently put a maxed-out CTO on their store page does not make it stock. You can't buy this iMac at the local Apple Store, nor can you add Bluetooth later if you don't buy the CTO.
Please, moderators, check the information yourself before moderating down because ignorant replies don't bother to check the facts themselves. There are only two stock iMac models; two SKUs that Apple sends out. Anything else is CTO.
Why not just pick up a Qube II off of e-bay?
;)
It'll run Woody just fine and some minimal upgrades would give you a pretty decent box for simple file serving/mp3 storage pretty cheap. Dual NIC interfaces, extra PCI slot for wireless, etc. etc.
And it *is* totally silent. At least mine is.
Check out http://www.shon.org/qube/ for more info (although his is running NetBSD).
Ahem!
This is the same price as a low end iMac.
Any more baseless questions?
ALL HAIL BRAK!!!
NEWS!!!!!
The most successful legal music downloading service in pc history and its not front page news?. Apple is back in black and trolls have another nail for their.
*niX MacDogg
I don't know about Bluetooth, but when Apple says "Airport ready" they mean you get the slot for the card, and that the antenna is already built into the case. The antenna connector is of the right length, and neatly tucked to the side of the Airport card slot. The Airport card itself doesn't come with anything else, because the computer is "ready" for it.
Unless you're running RAID, it is highly unlikely that you will fill the bandwidth of Firewire 400, let alone Firewire 800. The fastest 7200 RPM hard drive on the market does 55 MBps tops, just 5 more than 50 MBps, and not even close to 100 MBps. I guess its good to have headroom for firewire hard drives or something, but seriously, its not even going to come close.
Let alone what the iPod has in it. A 3600 RPM drive if you're lucky. Probably not. 20 MBps? 10? My roommate says he can transfer at 2 MBps; highest report are 7-8 MBps.
The space unintentionally left unblank.