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Rumors of iPod mini, 100 Million Songs, Xserve G5 All True
The mini is anodized aluminum and comes in silver, gold, blue, green, and pink. Accessories include a dock and armband. It can be connected to the computer via FireWire 400 or USB 2.0.
Jobs also announced some changes to the existing iPod line, including a bump from 10GB to 15GB for the $300 version, and new in-ear headphones for $40.
The Xserve G5 is, like the previous Xserve, a 1U server. It can hold up to 8GB of ECC DDR 400 memory, and up to 750GB of storage. It includes an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server 10.3, and comes in three configurations: 2GHz for $3,000, dual 2GHz for $4,000, and cluster node dual 2GHz for $3,000.
The Xserve RAID got a bump, too. The 3U RAID has a 500GB increase in capacity to 3.5TB for $11,000; 1.75TB for $7,500; and 1TB for $6,000. And, it is now certified for use with some versions of Windows and Linux.
Jobs, with the help of recording artist John Mayer, introduced the newest member of the iLife media application family: Garage Band. It is a music instrument and recording tool, that can mix up to 64 tracks, comes with 50 software instruments, over 1,000 professional loops, and 200 effects. It can record live instruments and take input from a USB or MIDI controller. It simulates various modern and vintage amps for guitar playback.
The optional $99 Jam Pack adds 100 more instruments, 2,000 more loops, 15 more amps, and more effects.
iPhoto, the most maligned of the iLife apps for its performance problems, received a much-needed update. It can now handle up to 25,000 photos (instead of mere hundreds), and adds automatic and smart albums (similar to iTunes), ratings of photos, and sharing via Rendezvous. Like iTunes, you apparently can't modify descriptions and titles through sharing, but unlike iTunes, there are no copyright restrictions.
iDVD and iMovie also got updates: better control, new and improved effects, and more. iMovie has exporting directly to your iDisk for use on your home page and importing directly from an iSight camera, and iDVD adds a navigation map and archiving projects for burning on another computer. iDVD also gets higher-quality Pro encoding, with 2 hours per DVD.
iLife, for $49, and the Jam Pack are available starting January 16. There was no indication that any new components of iLife will be available for free download, but iLife will be included with all new Macs.
Final Cut Express was bumped to version 2, and is basically updated to include the features from Final Cut Pro 4. Upgrades are $99.
Microsoft announced Office 2004, an upgrade to Office X. People who purchase Office X now until the spring, when 2004 is released, will be eligible for a free upgrade.
Pepsi's iTunes Music Store giveaway will begin on February 1. Yellow caps noting the 100 million song giveaway will have a 1 in 3 chance of winning.
Jobs also noted that iTunes Music Store has 70% of the market share for online music purchasing; that 50,000 audio books were sold for the quarter; that 500,000 songs are now online, making the store the largest online; and that one person has spent $29,500 on iTunes Music Store. Yes, $29,500.
They updated the classic 1984 commercial for it's 20th anniversary. The girl is now wearing iPod... :)
t ml
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/1984_480.h
And that makes me wonder what new stuff Apple will introduce on January 24th...
The mini (4GB) version is $249, that is $62 per GB. On the other hand the 15GB 'big brother' iPod is $299, a mere $20 per GB. That makes the final 11 GB on the 15GB model a bargain at only $50: less than the cost of ONE iPMini GB.
;)
Of course, Apple uses what is pretty much a 1/.8 rather than a 1/0.55 exchange rate for the UK market, so I'm scammed either way
Also, has anyone got a URL for a video of the full keynote like the one for where he announced the G5s?
Steve himself announced it was going to happen when iTunes Music Store was originally rolled out.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
It seems as if the new mini-ipod is playing catch up with the already-announced Rio Nitrus. It's equally priced, stores 4 GB as well, is the same size if not smaller, is actually lighter, has double the battery time, and is expected to ship this month, instead of february, like the mini pod. Although you could cop out with the "stylish design" argument before, the shots of the new minipods, even with all the new colors... well, they look like butt. The nitrus, from what I've seen of it's current 1.5 gig version, is pretty quick to pickup with it's ease of use, as well. The only real advantages i see the minipods having is the firewire and mac compatibility....
I would have never imagined that they would include an application as great as GarageBand and kept the price of iLife at $50. GarageBand is gonna compete with products like Guitar Port, so you get amplifier simulations for a tiny price. They sounded great too. I just can't believe this, it's gotta be a strategy to sell more Macs because the technology behind GarageBand (and its $99 add-on) is NOT cheap. If it were a demo for a high-end application I would have been just as floored. How much is a G5 again?
Also worth noting is that they officially announced Xgrid, their clustering software. There had been a maililng list for it a couple of months ago that was later shutdown. From the press release it says:
"Xgrid makes it easy to turn your Mac cluster into a supercomputer," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "The new Xgrid software agents use Apple's breakthrough Rendezvous networking technology to automatically discover, connect and manage tasks across available systems in a Mac cluster."
The entire press release can be read here and in it they say they have posted a beta version of the software but I've yet to find it.
Now, the 4 gig iPod Mini has a 4 gig hard drive and it holds 1000 songs? It only holds 800 of those 5 meg songs we had on our 5 gig iPod 2 years ago!
That's because the new numbers are based on AAC compression, which is a bit more efficient than MP3. AAC wasn't available when the original iPod came out.
When you have nothing left to burn you must set yourself on fire
The iPod mini is not solid state; it has a hard disk.
My guesses: no import of other formats, and it will support any hardware that can be connected by USB.
It's worth noting that Garage Band seems to be a miniaturized version of Apple's $199 Soundtrack application, which may have the features you need.
The average 1U case has more fans than a desktop does running at even higher speeds to pass the air through it. A Powerbook is expected to run with perhaps one tiny fan that only comes on when it gets warm enough to keep it quiet and save power. There's no comparison between a laptop and a 1U server case.
You can easily get the 20gb Rio Karma for $250 as well - vorbis, flac, 16 hours battery, ethernet, etc etc.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
"If Macs have sufficiently high quality A/D conversion for this purpose, then you should be able to use any recording software, and I believe there's plenty of it."
Plenty of it that costs way more than $50 that does the same thing. The closest thing I can find that does decent Amp-modeling and multi-track recording is at least over $100, if not closer to $200 or more. Unless you know of a $50 music recording application that does the same stuff...
Throw in the fact that it comes with plenty of other neat, helpful applications too, and the whole ilife pack starts to look like a ton of fun...
Although I agree with those complaining about the price, one nice feature of the iPod mimi is it will charge via USB. And, it actually ships with a USB cable.
You also get the remote ($39), the dock ($39), and the carrying case ($39).
So, 5 gig plus $117 worth of accessories for $100.
Not a bad deal.
they say they have posted a beta version of the software but I've yet to find it.
How about here:
http://www.apple.com/acg/xgrid/
There's a link on the right to download the preview release.