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Apple Nixes Live Webcast, Satellite Feed
spamguy writes "MacInTouch reports that Steve Jobs' January 11th MacWorld Expo keynote address may not be broadcast live in any way. If you were hoping to watch Stevie present the rumoured sub-$500 Mac, the Motorola phone, the Flash iPod, and/or the office suite, you now have no choice but to buy your plane tickets to San Francisco ASAP."
Now they can't screw it up like Gates did. Although, no one can see it, so it doesn't matter if they screw up or not...
isnt it a good advert for apple when millions are tuning into live webcasts to see what's happening? it's not like it's doing them any harm is it? the news is out there.
dave
You know, there has been this concern in some previous years too and every year there has ended up being a live webcast. I suppose its possible, but I seriously doubt it. During almost every keynote, Jobs starts out with, "Welcome to MacWorld, we have XX thousand people attending, and another XXX thousand people watching this keynote throughout the world on the web."
I certainly hope there is a webcast, otherwise what will I do at work for those two hours? Actually write code? Bahhh.
I mean, shit, this is pratically begging for someone to use their Powerbook and iSight to do this.
Apple probably figured they didn't need to waste the money on the web cast because the audience will be filled with Apple fan boi bloggers uploading Jobs' comments in real time and streaming iSight video.
John.
it's being posted as a file later on, you can watch it as many damn times as you like then. Is this really bl**dy news??
you now have no choice but to buy your plane tickets to San Francisco ASAP
Or wait until the stream is released the next day.
Find funky gifts
Like how Apple paid for the shipping and repair of my iBook with a faulty logic board free of charge although I didn't have AppleCare and my warranty was expired. And how they even sent of a loaner iBook (with a faster processor and more RAM) to use while they fixed it.
Apple takes care of its customers better than most other computer companies.
Ciao
Motorola has already debuted its new phone at CES.
This is planted, just to get more attraction to the event. You don't know Mr. Jobs very well, do you?
Rumors, law suits, cancellations, more rumors... it all adds up to an exciting climax.
You can hang around on any of the Mac rumour sites, who usually have people at the shows connected via WiFi reporting on exactly whats going on - either via frequent updates to a webpage or on an IRC channel.
:)
Thats what i've done for the last few Mac shows where big announcements were expected
"Hey! Unless this is a nude love-in, get the hell off my property!!"
From all accounts, there is huge interest in this macworld, its being hyped up and they might fear that the webcast cannot handle any sort of predicted load. Instead they will just release it later after all the fanfare and the need to watch it dies away. Just as everyone says, it'll be out on the net anyway moments after the annoucement.
In any case I'll stay off the mac websites until its out for streaming, I want to be equally disappointed like I was last year when GarageBand was demoed for something like 2 hours with some no name artist looking interested.
Jonathanjk.com
You know Roland, you'd come across as far more credible in your quest to present yourself as a journalist if you could spell simple words like "rinse" correctly.
Don't you deal with Apple news on your site? If you do then you've probably just lost a few readers by suggesting that this is "obviously only of interest to Steve Jobs and Apple devotees", and they won't all be Apple fanatics: I'm sure there are plenty of non-devotees, including the CEOs of companies like Microsoft, Adobe, RealNetworks, Creative, HP and Sun to name but a few who pay close attention to what Jobs has to say.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Oh fuck, the sky is falling.
I'd expect there to be more than 6 people. Ever visit a Mac IRC channel during one of these things? ... ;_; ...
Ted: here it comes...
MacBoy: that wasn't so cool
iluvsteve: it's not small enough
lickable: i'm in love
gregmac: steve is hot
G6: what's happening now?!?!?
doug-eMac: OMGOMGOMGOMG
nickname: one more thing!
AppleDave: One more thing!!!
hax0r: he said "one more thing"
macdude: knew it! one more thing!
steveiloveyou: ONE MORE THING
iPaul: i bet it's the apple tv!
G6: i can't see the stream
yoda: onew moer thigns!!!!!
iluvsteve: one more thingg
BondiTed: there's one more thing!!1
MACSSUCK: YOU GUYS SUCK MY ASS!!!!!!!!!!!!
iDude: ha!
cindyjobs: one more thing!!!!
steve_: it's the icar!!!
mosesjones: one more thing!
applerules: better be a cheaper ipod!
freeipod: one more thing!
G6: i want to see!1
3macs: one more!!
i want steve: one more thing!!
penis: he said one more thing!
And this goes on for about 90 minutes with a hundred or so people repeating every line out of Steve's mouth!
And trust me when I say the Mac web forums are much worse.
Yeah, I mean, stuff like Spotlight, CoreImage/Video/Data, Quartz Extreme, and the entire Mac OS X system in general are so behind the times.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Lots of people are new to Apple products because of the iPod. Having seen the iPod and been impressed by it, they are now interested in buying Apple computers, but the entry level price point is a little high.
There's your market.
the day before he makes it. Those rumor sites...
The "real" Roland Piquepaille is rpiquepa.
The user "Roland Piquepaille" is an imposter.
This paragraph says it all:
By all accounts the eMac is Apple's poorest selling Mac in the consumer sphere. Oh sure, it has some educational buyers, and probably outsells the xServe, but in terms of so-called consumer Macintoshes being bought by actual consumers, it's a lemon. It's an ugly box that forces you to have a giant 17" monitor with it at a time when ordinary users - not just geeks, not just trendy Mac users - are running out and buying LCD flat panels in droves.I know many, many, people who will not buy a Mac because of the high cost of entry. And when I say "Well, you can always get an eMac, they start at just $800", they always point out the monitor. It's not even as if you can throw away the monitor, it's there, even if you decide not to use it. Of course, Bill "Delusional" Palmer seems to think that this is a delusion on my part, that the many, many, people saying that they've made this argument and got this reply are deluding themselves. Well, there's either something very strong in the water and Palmer is a bottled water freak, or it's Mr Palmer that's living in a fantasy world.
So your comment
is just plain bogus. It does have a market, it's an entry level Mac. Right now Apple does not have an actual entry level desktop Macintosh. It has a Mac built for the education market that's kind of cheap, and it has an entry level laptop, but nothing in the entry level desktop area that works for general consumers. That's why Apple's marketshare is poor at the moment, so poor it's being beaten out by GNU/Linux, currently the ultimate niche product.As for the price, I agree it will not be $500. But those arguing that the headless iMac isn't real usually argue the product isn't real, not the price. The price is speculation. Realistically, we're looking at $600-700. At that price, it'll still be entry level, it'll still, despite the misgivings of those looking at specs alone, be low enough to attract substantial sales.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Lots of people are new to Apple products because of the iPod. Having seen the iPod and been impressed by it, they are now interested in buying Apple computers, but the entry level price point is a little high.
... I'm now eyeing the 20" iMac, but am waiting for Tiger, iLife '05, and a DVD9 superdrive before I take the plunge ...
Exactly.
I bought an iPod. I was impressed even with the box it came in, the packaging, the wrappers the cords were kept in, etc. Blew my mind. These people know how to design stuff!
4 months later, I took the plunge and bought an eMac (loaded up with RAM). Haven't touched my windows machines at home since then - 'cept to play a few games.
4 months after that, I convinced my employer to get me a Dual 2GHz G5 with a 20" cinema display.
My boss saw what it could do and how it played well in the windows network - so about 1 month later, there was another Dual G5 w/ 20" cinema display in the office (good thing he didn't get the 30" display, or else I would have been pissed off.. heh).
Oh, and a couple weeks ago Santa brought my daughter a pink iPod mini. This is the same daughter that has self-taught herself the whole iLife suite, and her and her friends don't leave the eMac alone when they're having sleepovers, etc. They make radio shows with GarageBand, convert to mp3, then drop them on CDs to show their friends. They make movies, edit them, and make really cool DVDs. She just turned 11, and I haven't had to show her anything. (Her Windows machine sits relatively unused in her room now)
(I think I'm the kind of customer Apple likes)
Not taking bulk quanity reseller pricing into account, right now, I can buy:
256MB DDR RAM can be had sub-$50
80GB HDD can be had for ~$40
Combo DVD/CD-RW drive for ~$30
So, we're already at $120 and counting
G4 processor and motherboard... not sure. Last I heard, the motherboard alone was around $400. They're not cheap like x86 PC motherboards because the market is small. And that does not include the cost of the processor. Let's figure that Apple can get these parts for significantly cheaper than you or I, though, and that these parts cost around $250
Plus you have to figure in the cost of the case and power supply. I'd guesstimate this to cost ~$50.
The OS doesn't cost Apple anything to bundle, but it does cost them to develop it and they're not just doing that for their health. Presumably they'd want to recoup something on the investment. For now, though, let's say they're giving out free crack in the hopes of hooking a few more Mac junkies, and give away the OS with the hardware, and no cost is factored in. They'll make up for it by charging for updates every year, anyway.
So now, we're up to $420. An $80 margin is barely making it worthwhile for Apple, considering all the R&D they have to put in to bring this product to market. But if every miniG4 buyer ends up becoming a Mac convert, and later on decides to buy a G5 (or a G6 or whatever is out by that time) it will have been well worth it for Apple. This is a venture to expand their marketshare, not just to compete with Dell.
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I was notified this morning that our University will be hosting a live satellite feed of this event, and our IT staff were all invited to attend.
Not sure what the original piece was based on, but it wasn't fact.
I should also note that the only other times our school has gotten a live satellite feed, they announced some pretty kick ass product.
I'll be attending a remote broadcast of the event, and our Apple sales rep. will be buying lunch (so it's not exactly unsanctioned).
They -are- doing a live, remote broadcast. The only question is "how public will that broadcast be?"
Maybe their bandwidth bills were too high after the last one, so they decided to record, encode, and blast to Akamai after the event.
--
Dell has a particular formula for success but they're extremely vulnerable. Slight market adjustments could cause HP to succeed and Dell to Chapter 11, or vice versa.
You don't want to get into a commodity market if you don't have to. It's one of the first rules of business. Apple has no reason to enter a commodity market, they merely need to create a machine that will attract significant customers. It can be underpowered relative to commodity PCs, as long as the price is low and the reputation (through products like OS X) is good enough.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Everyone is writing in about how everything will be put up online as soon as it happens anyway by people doing transcription sitting in the audience.
If Apple wanted to limit Internet coverage, though, for whatever reason, they could easily shut down the publicly-available WAP in the convention hall. Do not tell anyone about it and then turn it off at the start of the keynote speech.
Sure, some people could get around that using cell phones, but the scramble would limit a lot of the "blow-by-blow" coverage on websites and IRC channels.
- (c) 2018 Hank Zimmerman
when your company is run by a charismatic visionary. When he's up, he's way up and he brings everyone with him. When he's pissed, he's way pissed and he lets even his customers feel the heat.
That's why a lot of the older Mac users (myself included) cringed in '97 when Jobs took over full control of the company. Sure, he's got the marketing touch, but he can really be a brat at times. I mean, why did he kill the Newton division, which was a) way, way ahead of Palm and Microsoft, particularly in vertical markets, and b) out of the red and starting to make money? Could it be that he killed it because it was the brainchild and pet project of his former rival, John Sculley? Is there really any question?
Obviously, it's not because Jobs is opposed to marketing non-Mac gadgets; the iPod is doing phenominally well. And we know that after Jobs killed Newton, he tried to buy out Palm, which was largely staffed by those former Newtonites that he axed. So, why did he give up a market leadership position and then scramble to get it back? He killed Newton out of spite. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
Jobs is a great visionary, but he, himself, needs somebody to pull on his reigns every now and then and remind him that this isn't all about stroking his ego.
What is the attraction?
A Steve Jobs keynote is performance art. It's salesmanship taken to it's ultimate height. It's better rehearsed and staged than a Broadway musical. There's suspense, drama, comedy.
If any actor on Broadway or Hollywood could perform this well, they would quit and immediately start doing what Steve does. Because there's more fame, praise, adulation, and money in it than whatever they're currently doing.
Peace be with you,
-jimbo
XML Tools for Mac OS X
Steve's magic isn't strong enough to support a reality distortion field big enough to go global on this one--must be a real hum-dinger --or-- he doesn't want the store slammed before it's updated.
More likely, he's "punishing" the unruly rumor mongering masses for the leaked insider info. More hype. Love him. Hate him. He still wins.
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...