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The Odds at Macworld
Moby Cock writes "Jason O'Grady has posted the odds on what is to be announced at the Macworld Expo beginning next week. Coming in at 100:1 is OS X 10.5 and even money on a new and sexy Intel Mac Minis and iBooks. Gentlemen, start your credit cards."
1. Improved video iPod with larger horizontal screen
2. More tie-ins with TV producers
My blog
10. OS 10.5 - not gonna happen. Apple is focused on Rosetta/Xcode QA for Mac OS X86. Whatever works well gets ported to 10.5 (think of 10.4 as the beta for X86)
9. X86 Powerbook - Could be. I would bet on this one.
8. iWork '06 - Could be. Who cares? I really like iWork '05. Pages is a treat, and Keynote is indespensible for me. But if they are working on a spreadsheet, yeah, this is the time to release it.
7. iLive '06 - Unless it adds things similar to Front Row, I don't see that it needs anything more than bug fixes. I wouldn't bet on it.
6. BT remote - Definitely going to be some kind of Front Row remote. Bluetooth? Probably. All new Macs have it, for several months now.
5. iTunes price increases - Not gonna happen. Steve knows this market. The market will not ignore him, no matter how greedy they are. Too much money is being made.
4. AirPort Ultra - Neat idea, but I won't bet on it. I would buy one, though
3. 1GB iPod Nano - Don't think so. The shuffle fills this space, but that's not big enough for the Nano's market segment.
2. X86 Mac Mini - I'd bet on this. I might even buy one for my parents. Their old IBM suck ass.
1. Widescreen X86 iBook - This one is obviously going to happen, but probably not now. Apple will drop 4:3 format entirely, as will the rest of the world (showing they are, as always, technology leaders). They just won't cannibalize Powerbook sales with iBooks until they have milked it long enough.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
I would have to agree with you. The music industry is looking INSANELY greedy with this move. I hope Apple holds out and holds their feet to the fire.
My prediction: If Apple goes to $ 1.99 for popular songs (read all but a small token number of the songs on the sight), allofmp3.com will begin to become an _enourmous_ hit (think Napster at its height). The RIAA is going to absolutely freak out and do everything in their power to shut them down. The funny thing is that that sight is bringing true market dynamics to selling music online (along with giving customers what they want, no DRM crap), but as much as they _say_ they are capitalists, the RIAA is just a price fixing oligarchy.
Musicians obtain the vast majority of their income from live performances. Recordings serve the same purpose as radio play -- to promote performances. AllofMP3 does not represent a market failure.
There was music before there were records or radios. Selling copies of pre-recorded music is a very recent phenomenon for this art form. The disappearance of substantial cash flow from record sales will not harm our musical culture.
Here's hoping that the new Mac Minis, whenever they arrive, have a few specific improvements:
1) Optical Audio (we want surround sound!)
2) Better DVD playback software (for a UI centered company like Apple, "DVD Player" program blows donkey wang)
3) RF receiver (for my kick ass universal remote, or maybe Apple can make a bluetooth+RF remote)
4) Better support for my TV (having to use VNC to set it up is beyond most people)
I've been using a Mac Mini as my entertainment hub for a while now (almost a year), and its great. DVDs, AVI and WM files, ITunes though my stereo, internet surfing on my HD TV, flash, movie previews, games; the list goes on and on. Its quiet, low power, wakes quickly, and does what I want it to do.
Oh, and can you guys please make it so I can autohide the menu bar? You know, like the dock can do.
The last time I was at a Mac World was in the early 90s in Boston when I was a teen. I was supposed to be giving out free subscriptions to macworld magazine or something, but ended up mainly talking to Julie Strain and some other Penthouse Pets that were there promoting some Penthouse VCDs and the programmers of it. :)
;)
Some executive from Microsoft coming over and hanging out too. With the programmers, basically talking about some info John Carmack posted on Worldnet BBS about using Eigenvectors for color quantization of video to 256 colors. A great excuse to spend some time in their booth
When Carmack came up, of course so did Wolfenstein. I remember the MS guy talking about how it gave him motion sickness. LOL
I was suprised by the sheer amount of porn there. They had one porn booth that was enclosed in a curtain with the hardcore stuff. There were so many dudes in there, when you walked by, you could see their shapes presses against the curtains. Like in the movies when the ghouls start coming out of the wall.
Damn that's creepy. Last place I'm going to watch porn is pressed against 20 other dudes.
-William Shatner can be neither created nor destroyed.
Quicken for Mac is awful.
I'm glad to know I'm not alone in this sentiment. I tried migrating from Quicken 2005 for Windows (running in VMWare) to Quicken for Mac 2006 and it was a disaster. Migration issues aside, when I managed to get enough imported to start using it, it crashed left and right. Intuit's "support" consisted of a painful java-based chat with some ESL monkey who was totally unhelpful...
Now I'm working on getting my money back and figuring out some other way to get my wife involved with the finances.
A host is a host from coast to coast...
Unless it's down, or slow, or fails to POST!
allofmp3.com is not illegal in russia, that's why RIAA bought a resolution on the american senate on an atempt to bully russia into passing some sort of DMCA. here.
now let the "soviet russia" jokes begin.
What ? Me, worry ?
It's true. It doesn't work well with right-handed use. Still, for having the easiest scroll ball, having the easiest side scrolling, and the easiest middle button of any scroll mouse, I think it still wins, just not as large of a margin as it should.
The side buttons are kind of worthless though, given how much force it takes to activate.