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.

Comments

For a minute there,

[Mordant]

I thought you were saying that the new iPods had BlueTooth and Airport Extreme support, heh.

Now, that would rock. Apple, are you listening?

Re:For a minute there,

[geekoid]

sweet. then you could put on some light weight P2P software and be sharing music with inbody within range.

Re:For a minute there,

[ottffssent]

No, no, no. Not for bulk copies. For updates.

The iPod is small enough (or thereabouts), lasts long enough (I'd imagine), has enough features, (though vorbis audio support would rock), and enough space (there abouts). What it doesn't have is enough convenience.

When introduced, ipod + itunes were dramatically more convenient than their brethren, and rightfully won in the marketplace. Now, they need to continue to evolve to maintain that lead.

Consider: palm pilots need to be charged / sync'd. Cellphones need to be charged and sometimes sync'd. Digital audio players need to be charged / sync'd. All of this introduces clutter and inconvenience; it's time to move forward. The ritual of coming home, plugging in all your gear, running some software, and then getting on with your evening has become familiar to many of us, but is no more reasonable a way to conduct business than using Office out of habit.

While the ipod has come a long way, it has a long way to go in terms of convenience. Bluetooth networking, in combination with magnetic induction chargers provides the technical foundation for another leap ahead in usability. Nobody will begrudge a company a bit of one-time-setup hassle such as plugging in an ipod to grab a few dozen gig of music. But consider the long-term convenience of having a device that you can toss in a corner and expect it to just do the right thing. Personal electronics should enhance and adapt to my lifestyle, not require me to adapt my lifestyle to my gadgets. Having to periodically be within a few feet of a power outlet and a firewire or USB jack is not the right way to interact with one's gear.

A PDA or cellphone or music player or whatever else comes along should be more aware of its surroundings. It should notice when it is in range of its home network and should download new music, new contacts, new appointments or avantgo info, whatever it needs. When it finds itself on a little charging mat, it should charge. When I pick it up in the middle of a transfer and walk away, it should deal with it seamlessly, without complaint or error.

Apple made the first leap; others have followed. It's time for them to move again.

iPod longevity

[bokelley]

It's been a while since the iPod came out, and it still seems to be one of the best MP3 players out there. So what's next? Seems like more storage doesn't make a difference at some point (ooh 15,000 songs instead of 10,000).

Re:iPod longevity

[Frymaster]

I mean if [high end fashion designer] sold t-shirts at $2 fruit-of-the-loom prices, they wouldnt be [high end fashion designer], would they?

well, you're working under the assumption that the hipster label shirt is the same as the fruit of the loom shirt. of course you are correct (as a side note, tommy hilfiger actually manufactures nothing. not a damn thing. they just license manufacturers to put the log on their shirts.).

given the features (storage, connectivity, price &c) the ipod is actually fairly reasonably price. you can find comprable players for maybe ten or twenty per cent less but that's a very thin margin compared to the fashion industry!

Re:iPod longevity

[in7ane]

What does RIAA think about this? If you look at how many people buy the 15,000 song iPods - have as many people bought 15,000 songs, at a cost of around $15,000 (taking the price from, say, from the iTunes music store)?

More importantly, will RIAA now subpoena the list of people who bought the large iPods to prosecute them?

Where are the PowerBooks?

[dusanv]

All current models are pretty old and especially the 15'' (introduced November last year). The rumour is that Motorola has trouble churning out the latest G4 in any significant quantities. Or maybe they'll go G5 :) Anybody got any info?

Re:Where are the PowerBooks?

[frankie]

The new PowerBooks will be announced on Tuesday, September 16. Personally, I'm annoyed that they have been delayed for so damn long. I wanted to replace my dear old Pismo last month.

If the new AlBook 15 doesn't have at least FX 5200 video, I'll probably buy a marked-down TiBook instead.

Ipod question

[BenjyD]

Is there anyone out there who has actually filled up a 20Gb Ipod and would want a 40Gb version?

I'm not trying to knock Ipods- I'd actually really like to know if anyone does have that many MP3s etc. I think my entire CD collection would fit several times over in that much space.

Not to mention 10,000,000 songs downloaded

[amichalo]

Also announced along with larger capacity ipods (20 and 40 to replace 15 and 30 GB models with no other changes in HW or SW stated) and faster iMacs (the 1.25 Ghz 17" now packing a 160 GB HD) there is even more significant news.

The real news here is that since April 28th when the iTunes Music Store opened, there have been more than 10,000,000 songs downloaded by the US Apple consumer base runing OS 10.1 and iTunes 4. Very impressive in my opinion. The 10,000,000th song was "Complicated" and was sold on September 3rd. Apple stated they are selling 500,000 songs per week.

The first week Apple stated they sold 1,000,000 songs so that plus half a million a week after corroberates the 10 MM song claim and shows a steady rate.

It would be interesting to know how BuyMusic.com is doing with their knowck off...especially after all the bad press and sites like BoycottBuyMusic.com and DontBuyMusic.com have exposed some shady dealings with artists, consumers, and their advertising.

And Apple a day keeps Windows at bay

I'm waiting for the model with mic/line in

[jcsehak]

No, there's no actual proof that they're ever going to make one, but c'mon, isn't it the obvious next step? Record your entire classroom lecture for study purposes, record the next Phish show, record your own demos -- with a simple little multitracking app, it could kill portable 4-tracks. Or, plug your iSight into a video in and turn it into a video camera.

Also, with a mic in, you'll be able to use Apple's speech recognition software to give it voice commands -- no more fuddling around with menus, just speak into the mic: "iPod, play Smashing Pumpkins, album Gish" or something like that.

Audio in

[zoidberg2k]

The new Imacs have grown an analogue audio in port.

ARRRRRGGGGHHHH! What?!? No audio input?

[GryphonTech]

What are they thinking? This is what everyone wants.

This is what everyone is screaming for! (at least I am)
I mean, what with Sony being paranoid with their MD format, the market is screaming for a digital recorder that you can actually use.

Why is this so hard for Apple to understand.

-- I drank WHAT!!??!! , Socrates

Great use for 802.11 & || bluetooth on ipods

[Dave500]

I am beginning to wonder when apple will be brave enough to release what has to be the "killer" 802.11 application for mp3 players - personal streaming.

Just imagine how cool it would be to share your music and playlists with any other ipod user within range. Tired of your own collection? Try listening to Bob's ipod 4 seats behind you.

The register has also thought about this - http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/39/28467.html

What do people think? I would love this, but there are - erm - interesting legal aspects.. ;)

What's really interesting...

[edremy]

is how little money this must be making Apple

10M songs? Yeah, but it's only 0.99 per song, so that's less than $10M. IIRC, Apple keeps about a third of that, so ~$3M.

How much did it cost to program, to feed the lawyers to get all the contracts, to set up the servers/bandwidth needed? (And the Apple Store is *fast*- they didn't skimp here.)

I can't imagine this is going to have a big positive impact on Apple's bottom line, unless (and it's a big unless) the publicity they are getting sells more Macs/iPods. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the sole reason they are bothering.

Re:What's really interesting...

[discstickers]

Actually, I think that Fred Anderson, Apple's CFO, basically said that. The iTMS is a trojan horse to get people to buy iPods and the iPod is a trojan horse to get people to buy Macs.

Just a thought...

[raptor21]

Assuming that a Apple user only downloads songs legally through iTunes MS.

The 40GB ipod would hold $10,000 dollars worth of songs. That's a little too much change to be carrying around in you pocket don't you think. You could get mugged for that kinda dough.

Mugger: hand me you wallet.... no wait, Say, that's one of em new 40GB iPods ain't it, whats that iPod worth.
Guy being mugged: I'd say about 5 grand, it's only half full.
Mugger: Screw the wallet, hand me that iPod.

Re:Just a thought...

[mrpuffypants]

And imagine how much more the robber could get if all that music was bought on CDs?

Re:Headless iMacs

[King Babar]

Why can't Apple make a less expensive headless box? All thier lower-priced units have some sort of monitor attached (e/iMac).

I thought about this, and I came with at least 4 reasons.

1. The demand for headless boxes is probably less than you'd imagine. Most Mac buyers are not switchers, so I don't think they are as likely to have a dreamy monitor hanging around *unless* they were already buying the PowerMac line, and that's headless.
2. Headless has gotten more complicated to do right and do well. A dirt-cheap headless box would ahve to be pretty well integrated, but then you face the immediate problem of whether or not to provide DVI connectors, or what size monitor you want to support.
3. A lot of monitors people have lying around to use with a headless box are pretty poor quality, and the one thing Apple *doesn't* want is people running Mac OS X and having the result look crappy. Graphics people have nicer monitors, and would know better than to blame the platform if they used a cheap monitor and it looked bad. The extreme entry level crowd is different.
4. The notebook is the new headless Mac! OK, so it's not really headless, but the low end notebooks (iBook and 12" powerbook) can fill a part of the headless niche, and be notebooks, too. They perhaps aren't optimized for this usage yet, but they can do the job. Or, put it this way: your choice would be a $700 slab or a $999 iBook or a $999 iMac. The difference here is that one of these is *also* a notebook, one of thes comes with a *very nice* LCD monitor, and the other one is just a slab. I don't think it would be such a hot seller.

Current iPod models are Amazon #1 #2 #3

[afantee]

In fact, there are 8 iPods in the top 20 best sellers. The question is would the new models kick the competitions out of the top 10 altogether.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t g/browse/-/300330/ref=br_bx_c_1_5/002-8192629-3045 663

Re:Get a Neuros

[ZackSchil]

Does not play iTMS DRMed files
Costs the same amount as the iPod ($399, 20GB Models)
Is larger and heavier than the iPod: 5.3" x 3.1" x 1.3", 9.4 oz. vs 4.1" x 2.4" x .62", 5.6oz.
Cannot use Firewire or USB 2.0 without a special "backpack" (iPod uses a USB/2.0 adaptor kit to translate pins)
Not nearly as good looking
Difficult syncing
No smart playlists
No Mac support

Your average listener does not have any OGG Vorbis files. The FM transmitter and tuner sound cool but not cool enough. Apple will add voice recording to the iPod with a firmware update, the hardware to do so is already in place. This player sounds cool but it's by no means at all an iPod killer. Has any one out there actually used one as well as an iPod? How do their features compare? Ease of use?

When the iPod will come with bluetooth or WIFI?

[javatips]

Instead of increasing the disk capacity of the iPods, they should include bluetooth or WIFI.

This would allow one to listen to live stream with their iPod. This could also be used to use the iPod as the computer headset so you can ear the system sounds while listening to your music.

Another use (which the RIAA would certainly not approve) would be to allow one to stream it's music to somebody else (make it to one device at a time with not recording feature, so the "industry" is not to grumpy about it) listen to ones tracks.

Re:I thought the IPod was "Lame"

[amichalo]

Wow, re-reading the score 4-5 /. posts when the iPod was first announced is really quite interesting.

It would be interesting for /. to run a "year in review" and highlight some threads of technology announcements and other geek worthy news with 365 days worth of hind sight to see how people's first impressions can be accurate...or not.

I particularly like the Apple share holder who was upset at the pricing...that it won't sell because it was $400, not $200. I suppose teh same share holder is pretty happy the high margin audio player is the #1 digital music device in the world.

Wow!

[dacetone]

Anyone else notice that the new iMac configurations are shipping with Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4? Right on.