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.
Why can't Apple make a less expensive headless box? All thier lower-priced units have some sort of monitor attached (e/iMac). Why not have an iMac-class system without the screen? Their product line seems to be all or nothing (G5 tower or iMac with integrated monitor).
Get these (relatively) unimpressive updates out of the way to make room for the real ones at Apple Expo in Paris.
You tell me how "whilst" differs from "while," and I'll stop calling you a pretentious jackass.
I still firmly believe that Apple would do well to release a cheapper version of the iPod ($100-200 range) for those that still want an iPod but can't drop $500 on one.
However, I still appreciate the looks that I get walking to class with my 30GB; I sure wouldn't want to become just "one of the crowd"
What would you use it for? You're not really going to copy over your MP3's at a miniscule 20Mbps, when Firewire is 20x faster?
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
I've got 80+ albums at an average of $22 each or so (a lot of import CDs from Japan), so maybe $1,760 worth of music resides on my iPod... my then $399 now $299 10gb iPod is cheap insurance against my music collection getting stolen in my car, for example, while simultaneously allowing me to access *all* my music in a simple fashion.
Then there's the fact that my iPod is *also* a backup of my PowerMac, which is worth much more to me than $299; the peace of mind of having a portable bootable backup is immeasurable, short of spending 2 years recreating all the data on my PowerMac.
Sure, there are other hard drive based mp3 players, but none that allow me to boot my PowerMac, and none that allow me to copy my entire music collection onto it in 6 minutes.
GPL Deconstructed
Is there anyone out there who has actually filled up a 20Gb Ipod and would want a 40Gb version?
I know some people out there actually use their iPods as part of their DJ ensemble. Whereas a typical song may only be 3-4 minutes, a decent trance mix may last half an hour or so. Have a trance section in your iPod, a drum and bass section, house, trip-hop, and you'll see that it fills up rather quickly.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
What kind of moron modded it as offtopic? This is an extremely informative link...better than the original article.
What i don't like is the fact that, sure they [Apple] upped the Ghz on the iMac, but they don't have the slower model for less money. :P but it still pisses me off
I would buy the slower model (800mhz g4) for less money but Apple doesn't give me the option.
One has to pay the same price whenever they buy the computer from Apple.
I know, I know, profit margins and such
----
In Soviet Russia, the overlords welcome you!
You could have looked up http://www.xe.com/ucc and done the conversion yourself in less time than it took you to complain about it.
Consider it a reminder that you don't live in the center of the universe, and that there are actually people living elsewhere on this spinning rock that are just as entitled to have their currency represented as you are!
Could you please just make a PDA already?
If anything, it will force other PDA makers to keep up with you and we call can have better products.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Complaining that Ipod doesn't support Ogg is like complaining it doesn't support LP's. Put simply on the consumer digital music scene Ogg is a noshow. That's not to say nobody uses it, but the people who do probably make up .002% of all consumers. Why should Apple even bother with a format nobody uses?
MP3 is freely available and is the defacto standard. There is no shortage of MP3 players both hardware and software based, nor apps which rip to MP3. Ogg while not "patent encumbered" is a solution in search of a problem.
I think its great that game companies are going Ogg(although where's the savings for me??) and I think its nice that for commercial products you have this good free codec. But for the rest of us will stick with what works and what is standard, free, and easily available.
So cry all you want for Ogg but don't be surprised when we all ignore you and stick with what works.(Not a flame)
Just wait until the "right-click" concept just blows them away.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
That just means you aren't the target market. The thing that you get with the iPod is decent storage space, decent hardware, and really great system integration.
It is pricey, but so are Plasma TVs. If it's out of your price range, it isn't for you. It's for the millions of people who do buy them. It's ok to not want to buy something, for whatever reasons. I have an Archos mp3 player, it has 6GB of storage. It has good battery life, it's integration is mediocre and it's footprint is fairly large. It still works perfectly fine for me, as it's just a USB hard drive and I don't need iTunes to listen to music.
The iPod isn't for me. I'm ok with that.
I don't need to post a comment bitching about something I'm not going to buy, though. But, if everybody didn't do that there would only be about 15 comments under this story.
Dacels Jewelers can't be trusted.
Snort. Complaining that a 2 year old product isn't revolutionary is pretty funny.
A number of computer manufacturers are using the marketing con, of "'insert technology name here' ready". For example "bluetooth ready". In most cases taking a closer look at the specifications reveals that the computer does not come with the technology mentioned, but simply has a slot that will accept the device. So in the case of the iMac, you are going to have to buy the bluetooth card, unless it says something like 'bluetooth included'. I know of a couple of friends being caught on this one.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Look, I am as big an Apple fan boy as the next guy, but minor product updates on the front page of slashdot? I think Hemos has been hit by the Jobian Reality Distortion Field.
All those costs you talk about are fixed costs.
In other words, when this is deployed to Windows (the other 95% of the computer using population) - it will suddenly make up a lot more than 10 mill in revenue. It will go spastic.
That will in turn encourage iPod sales, and those iPod sales will in turn encourage more music store purchases. Then they can start the real cross-pollination; "buy an iPod, get 10 free songs at the Apple Music Store".
If enough people start doing it, it's gonna hit a critical mass then just explode. The only risk Apple faces is if MS/whoever starts eating Apple's dinner. OTOH, very few of the other solutions will work with the world's most popular MP3 player - the iPod.
-- james
The big selling point for me was being able to use it for backups. My nightly really-important-to-me backups are far too big to fit on a CD. They do fit on a DVD if I want to wait a couple of hours to master and burn it. It's just a couple of minutes to copy it all to the iPod, though.
Oh, and I get to carry a crapload of my music around at the same time, which means I'm more likely to actually have the thing with me most of the time.
-- The world is watching America, and America is watching TV.
Not when said NVRAM devices still cost several times more per MB than a hard drive does.
Apple can cram 40GB into this device for far less than it'd cost for an NVRAM device of the same capacity.
Just to nit-pick:
Servers and bandwidth are not a fixed cost.
When your load increases by a factor of 19, your costs for servers and bandwidth also go up.
--
Use Vobbo for Video Blogs
'Do you feel better now'
No, I don't really feel better...I can't express the depths of my dislike for those who feel the need to endlessly disparage my choice of computing platform...
This is a heartfelt plea...I have dealt with morons like the parent poster for over a decade. It never ends. I don't know what drives these people(or is it you?) to perpetually carp on about us 'Mac-Heads'...I have never gone out of my way to insult linux-users or Windows-users and have only done so sparingly, in response to trolls. How insecure is the rest of the computing population that they feel compelled to ridicule people who choose to use a Mac -- insulting them at every turn, and then accusing them of being elitist or some other B.S.
I use a Mac because I get my work done -- regardless of what it cost me...and that is my choice -- and a good one that has clothed, fed, and housed my family for many years in the past, and many years to come.
What part of the fabric of society has frayed to the point that abuse of a minority is fashionable...Grow up, back off, and let's just try to get along somewhere in the middle.
Thank you for listening...
We apologise for the fault in this post. Those responsible have been sacked. -- Signed RICHARD M. NIXON
...
Wow, a record label I've never heard of, featuring Artists I've also never heard of, uses OGG _in addition_ to mp3. How convincing.
Gee... going from "I've never seen an OGG file" to "Yeah, so some record label out there uses 'em along with MP3 files. Big deal". I provide an example of a place who uses 'em, and you scoff at the example provided. Talk about being closed-minded. :)
Oh, and you might want to download some of those OGG files and pop them into your favorite player of choice. There's some good music waiting to be discovered there. Just because you haven't heard of it before doesn't mean it's not good.
Just a small note: MP3 is not free. It is owned by the Fraunhofer institute in Germany. They license it to a number of companies, in this case Apple. Apple pays a fixed sum per year to them on their customer's behalf.
There are a number of free players and encoders out there that are not liscenced, but these are explicitly infringing on Fraunhofer's patents. They simply have not been taken to court. This is very similar to the whole gif case (the algorithm behind the gif format was patented... recently expired in the US).
Ogg Vorbis is a small player, but it is a truly free one.
And as an owner of a iPod, why would you use mp3 when AAC is so much better.
"It's interesting that you make BuyMusic.com plaintext, but BoycottBuyMusic. com and DontBuyMusic. com hot links."
Not really. See, in order to go to BuyMusic.com you need to run Windows and use IE something or other.
Now, how many \. fall in that category?
Another poster had a good address for those tin foil hat thingies, I'm getting one now, you interested?
I think, therefore I am...I think.
Neither is the iTMS, which uses the AAC format specifically because it's DRM-enabled. Granted, the DRM is less onerous than any of the other competing choices, and the fact that AAC provides better sound quality at the same bitrate is a bonus.
"No, no, no. Don't tug on that. You never know what it might be attached to."
No, it makes perfect sense. Most open source advocates are just tired of being involved with a system where the big players don't play fair. Microsoft routinely cheats and lies. They are a convicted monopolist. Perhaps Apple just hasn't had the opportunity yet, but they don't regularly cheat and lie. They sell proprietary software, but they are generally nice and fair in their business dealings. There's little (if any) reason to dislike them like Microsoft.
Just because Company A and Company B both sell proprietary software, this does not make them same in every respect.
Heck, Apple even makes use of open source software and plays fair with open source programmers.
I can't really comment on the lesbians you've been around, except to suggest that perhaps they weren't really lesbians, but instead "adult performers" only claiming to like other women to get you to pay them more.
One possibility would be to use bluetooth as a "splitter" for multiple, wireless headsets. It would be great to keep the ipod safely away in a backpack or coat pocket, while a bluetooth remote controlled the tracks (and duplicated the display) and a bluetooth headset played the music. a friedn could them easily "authenticate" their bluetooth headset for the iPod and share the tunes, er, itunes.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
It's especially unfortunate that you don't like being called an elitist, when everything from Apple's ads to pricing is pitched at elites. You don't think it's the Volkswagon Beetle of computers, now, do you? (I'm referring to the cheap VW Bug of yesterday, obviously, not the expensive mutation built today for elites--and featuring an iPod deal right now, LOL!)
I bought my Mac for various reasons, and people can think whatever they please. But one thing is certain: Apple designs and markets its machines for a niche audience, not for Everyperson, and that strategy invites invidious response just as all expensive goods do. Why pretend otherwise?
...in combination with magnetic induction chargers...
Right, because I want a big magnetic field half an inch away from magnetic storage media.
Bluetooth would be useful. I'm afraid someone's going to have to make RF-based power transmission more efficient before you can cordlessly charge an iPod, though. My toothbrush doesn't have any hard disks inside it.
p
In Korea, long hair is for old people!