Apple Announces New iPods, iTunes 10, Social Network, AppleTV

Steve Jobs gave his iPod keynote this morning. He started with iOS 4.1 and Game Center which will be coming out next week. iOS 4.2 will add printing to the iPad and will be out in November. The new iPod Shuffle has buttons again, and costs $49. The new iPod Nano has a tiny multi-touch screen, and an FM radio, and starts at $149. The new (thinner) Touch has the iPhone 4 screen, an A4 chip, and FaceTime over WiFi, starting at $229 for 8GB. They all ship next week. iTunes 10 looks the same, but adds a social network called "Ping," which basically looks like Last.fm integrated, and should be out today. AppleTV is updating: 1/4th the size, no purchases — only rentals. 99 cents for TV rentals (ABC & Fox), Netflix on Demand built in, and for $99.

Comments

Really?

[Locke2005]

iOS 4.2 will add printing to the iPad... About. Fucking. Time!

Re:Really?

[MrEricSir]

They've always had this feature, see?
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/04/humor-ipad-printing-simple/

Re:Really?

[Nimey]

But why would you want to print to the iPad?

Re:Really?

[poetmatt]

in this day and age, why would you even print anything?

for the most part it's just not as needed. Especially having an ipad. Need to show something to a friend? Just bring the ipad.

Re:Really?

[pitchpipe]

I know RIGHT?! They also added USB, Flash, a camera, and an HDMI output!!! Oh wait... no they didn't.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

I suppose. For me -- and I'm really invested in Apple hardware, both for myself and my family (5 mac users) -- there's nothing here of interest.

The iPad (which yes, we own two of) still lacks cameras and IR emission, needs a flat, un-wobbly back, still has enough wasted sq inches of bezel area to fit an iPod Touch into, still is bound to AT&T, still is too low-res to properly display even 720p, still lacks CF, SD and USB connections, still syncs by cable, still charges by cable, and still has a paltry 512 mb of memory, which, when they eventually get around to implementing multitasking, means that what you're actually going to get is something on the order of windows 3.1 multitasking with a few services, not actual task switching, etc. And it still costs *way* too much.

The iPhone... still bound to AT&T, still missing features other phones have had for quite some time. Can't use it here because of the AT&T monopoly, so it isn't worth anything to me.

Mac Mini... from a $499 (barely) entry mac with a great footprint to a seriously overpriced block that eats way more desk space...

Still no reasonable desk mac or straight up tower mac (not talking macpro... talking *reasonable*.)

Still got those OSX widgets stuck back on an invisible screen, where they're utterly useless to us... (luckily, there's Yahoo Widgets, which actually work like you'd want them to)

The iPod Touch... mm, nice new display and camera, they almost got me there, but considering the ios4 fake multitasking... I'll wait for one with a couple gigs of memory and some better battery technology so the thing can *actually* multitask.

Aperture still doesn't support stacked plugins... and we're on major release 3... oy. Likewise, Logicpro... still buggy as heck, still hasn't been updated.

And as for trying to sell me 99 cent TV shows... now that's simply straight-up funny.

Honestly, I think they're losing it. I have money, I like the gear, and it doesn't even seem like they are *trying* to get me to hand it to them.

Re:Really?

[daveime]

... as if millions of fanbois cried out in disappointment and were suddenly silenced. I fear nothing special has happened.

Never mind, there's always iDevice 5.0 right ? Maybe next year.

Re:Really?

[yuriyg]

iOS 4.2 will add printing to the iPad...

Apple just invented printing!

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

still charges by cable

Really really? How many devices have you bought recently from other companies that charge over the air?

Re:Really?

[onkelonkel]

The standard non-answer. Kind of sad.

Q. User - How do I get (Linux/Apple device/whatever fanboi loves the most) to do $foo?

A. Fanboi who won't admit that his precious can't do $foo. - Why would you want to do that?

Why would you want to cut and paste on an iphone? Why would you want to print from an ipad? Why would you want your email client to integrate with your calendar? Why would you want to move the "song name" column in itunes..........

Re:Really?

[srussia]

I suppose. For me -- and I'm really invested in Apple hardware, both for myself and my family (5 mac users) -- there's nothing here of interest.

[...rant...]

Honestly, I think they're losing it. I have money, I like the gear, and it doesn't even seem like they are *trying* to get me to hand it to them.

Sell or do not sell... there is no try.

Re:Really?

[Sycraft-fu]

Well if you've been an Apple fan for any amount of time you should know that they will not ever, at least as long as Jobs is around, produce a consumer tower. There has been hue and cry for one for as long as I can remember, and they ones that the clone makers made during that brief time did well. Apple does not care, they will not produce it for some reason.

As for cable charging, what other kind of charging do you suggest? Power does not travel through the air well, that whole inverse square law bites you in the ass. Tesla wanted wireless power, never could make it work for that reason. Inductive charging is possible but increases bulk and decreases efficiency, plus the device has to sit right on the charger to work. How is that better than a wire (inductive charging is normally only used for things like electric toothbrushes where water in the connector would be an issue). Cable is how power is done.

Re:Really?

[ArhcAngel]

So does the iPad have print drivers to print to the Kindle?

Re:Really?

[Kjella]

and still has a paltry 512 mb of memory, which, when they eventually get around to implementing multitasking, means that what you're actually going to get is something on the order of windows 3.1 multitasking with a few services, not actual task switching, etc.

The system requirements for Windows 3.1 was 2MB (4MB recommended). I'm not a big fan of the iPad myself for various reasons but you sound like you're on an anti-Apple rant. Computers have been fast "enough" for most people for a long time, and I can't really see why you'd try abusing an iPad into running anything like a workstation load. Or at least if you do, that you got any reason to complain about it not being the right tool for the job.

Re:Really?

[postbigbang]

It is our very destiny to use the wrong stuff to do work. We use spreadsheets as word processors and vice-versa. We have wall-wart servers, we rewrite WRT54gs and make them jump through fire hoops.

If we want to print from a phone or a pad, we'll fucking do it. If we want to use the iPad as a hammer or a tire chock, so be it.

Re:Really?

[Captain Splendid]

The standard non-rebuttal. Very sad.

Seriously, someone better answer the question eventually: Why would you want to print from the iPad? You bitches whine about your jetpacks and flying cars, but some of us just want that goddamn paperless office already.

Christ, it's 2010 and I'm still dealing with fucking fax tech. Tired of this shit.

Re:Really?

[Nimey]

You're trying too hard.

Re:Really?

[jgagnon]

I sometimes think Apple is a social experiment that is trying to see how far it can push people to buy things they didn't ask for but now want because they've seen them.

As for the charging thing... maybe they were referring to a cable connected to a computer instead of a wall outlet?

Re:Really?

[bigrockpeltr]

you do realise he said "But why would you want to print to the iPad?"

Re:Really?

[trapnest]

I understand you're trolling, but "freetard" hardly applies to apple users.

Re:Really?

[Servaas]

I suppose. For me -- and I'm really invested in Apple hardware, both for myself and my family (5 mac users) -- there's nothing here of interest.

The iPad still lacks cameras and IR emission, needs a flat, un-wobbly back, still has enough wasted sq inches of bezel area to fit an iPod Touch into, still is bound to AT&T, still is too low-res to properly display even 720p, still lacks CF, SD and USB connections, still syncs by cable, still charges by cable, and still has a paltry 512 mb of memory, which, when they eventually get around to implementing multitasking, means that what you're actually going to get is something on the order of windows 3.1 multitasking with a few services, not actual task switching, etc. And it still costs *way* too much.

Well luckily you thought before spending your hard earned money right!

which yes, we own two of

Oh snap...

Re:Really?

[trapnest]

I think he's referring to induction charging like the Palm Pre uses. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inductive_charging

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

So... what you're saying is that Apple can only be looked to for features already found in other products? I guess I'm not following you.

The reason I want the feature is because it's (a) practical and (b) useful and (c) reduces screwing with the device. I thought that was enough, but I guess I'll have to add "after microsoft does it"?

Re:Really?

[oji-sama]

They don't actually force you to print stuff even if the support is being added.

Personally, if I were to buy an iPad, I would certainly print train tickets and perhaps flight confirmation and check-in slips. I could have the information on the iPad (or something I'm actually using), but I kind of enjoy not having to worry if I'll run out of battery with surfing, playing videos and so on..

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

standard non-rebuttle-rebuttle-rebuttle:

Because paper doesn't have a friggin' battery life.
Say I have a map... or directions... or instructions... or anything like that on my screen. Boy, wouldn't it be nice to have continued access to important things like that while camping, on a long drive, etc?

Sometimes the best new technology gives you the option to go back to old-fashioned technology just in case.

Re:Really?

[cayenne8]

"in this day and age, why would you even print anything?"

Oh, I print off TONS of stuff still, especially at work.

While I do do a lot online, for things I reference a lot, or need to thoroughly read, I often print it to dead tree form. That way I can make it with my notes, etc.

Actually it really works for me memorizing things better that way too. When studying in college...during tests, I could often close my eyes, and see in my head the pages of my notes or books and the doodles and notations I had in the margins, and find my answers. I just can't do that on digital copies.

Sure, I use pure digital..but I still print off important things quite often.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

you should know that they will not ever, at least as long as Jobs is around, produce a consumer tower.

And I will never stop asking for them. And I fully expect to outlast mr. Jobs.

As for cable charging, what other kind of charging do you suggest? Power does not travel through the air well, that whole inverse square law bites you in the ass.

Inductive coupling works very well indeed when the coupling is close and the Q is high. See that nasty, otherwise utterly useless (well, it has a use as a gripping surface, but that's just because they failed badly on the design of the back, which should have had a combo stand/handgrip) fracking HUGE bezel around the iPad? That right there is an invitation for inductive charging, and reasonably efficiently, too.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

maybe they were referring to a cable connected to a computer instead of a wall outlet?

No. I'd like a surface I can put the iPad down on, or lean it against (upright would be awesome) where the thing is inductively coupled to a charger. It's perfectly reasonable to do; my toothbrush uses this method, in fact. I am not a fan of cables tying down my supposedly portable devices. At all. When I want to carry it away, I don't want to have to unplug it. I just want to grab it and go.

Likewise, when I want to sync it, I don't want to get off the couch or out of the tub to do so -- I just want it to get it done over the air, in the background, just like it installs and/or updates apps from the app store while you do other stuff. In fact, I don't see why I should be manually syncing the thing at all. OS updates... no, not them, either.

Re:Really?

[bdenton42]

Microsoft's system requirements have always be laughable. They say 64MB minimum, 128MB recommended for XP, which is a complete joke (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314865).

That said, the parent was probably exaggerating a bit with 3.1 and was really thinking of XP, which was a poor multitasker with 512MB but ran quite well with 1GB or more.

Re:Really?

[nomorecwrd]

Yeah.. that and Microsoft has been making slate computers since the early 2000's

is this true? MS making slate computers? - or any computer at all? Did I make myself forget something?

Re:Really?

[mattack2]

Why would you want to print from the iPad?

One of the coupon apps lets you print coupons directly from the app (on an iPhone). So that's one example. (I presume that one already works on the iPad, and presumably implemented the printing themselves.)

Re:Really?

[Goaway]

You're expecting those things in a software update? You should be kind of used to being disappointed by now.

Re:Really?

[poetmatt]

you know, reading is a good thing. In your case, you didn't.

I was not stating that they didn't need to be able to print, I asked separately why do people need to print anything these days, really.

That's not for or against feature inclusion. read the fucking post before you comment on it please.

Re:Really?

[jeremyp]

Yeah, good put down. But what's the answer to the question?

Re:Really?

[bennomatic]

And believe it or not, I'm sure Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. would like to punch you.

Re:Really?

[poetmatt]

this is for home, not for work.

I specifically phrased this as to not include work because a lot of people need things on paper for work environments still, and that's fine and reasonable.

However, a great deal of ipad owners are not for the workplace - some are, yes, but not many. So again, the question remains, how many people need to print at home? Train tickets is a legitimate reason if you don't have any other way to do it (and there are many).

Re:Really?

[gilesjuk]

Why would Apple produce a desktop machine when desktop machine sales are falling? 10% of the computer market is desktops and this is set to fall.

Most people use laptops now, unless you're some gamer type and Macs haven't really ever catered for that sector. The gamers are interested in tweaking everything and a Mac with no BIOS settings and incompatibility with commodity PC hardware just wouldn't appeal.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

The system requirements for Windows 3.1 was 2MB (4MB recommended). Computers have been fast "enough" for most people for a long time, and I can't really see why you'd try abusing an iPad into running anything like a workstation load.

Look. When Windows 3.1 was current, applications were written in C, generally were pretty darned small and efficient. Today, an "app" is a huge, bloated hunk of binary -- a quick look in my apps folder and a few info commands reveal app sizes from 7 mb to 165 mb -- and IOS won't fit on a few floppies, either. Looking at the iPad system stats, it shows that right now, I have 112 mb of system memory available to load an app into. Anything larger, and it'll page (or if it loads a part of the OS that isn't presently in memory.) The thing is grievously under-supplied with RAM, it just barely works as is. You try to truly multitask a couple apps, and it's going to defecate right down its leg. So they're not going to do that. Instead, they're going to give us some os services they deem important (playing music, some IM oriented stuff, like that) and that's it.

I can't really see why you'd try abusing an iPad into running anything like a workstation load.

I have a workstation on my desk. 8 Cores, 3 GHz, 8 GB of ram, multiple monitors, etc. It is *very* empowering. That's why I have it.

Now, the reason I want the iPad to be available in a ram-sufficient format that can multitask (hardly a "workstation" criteria, btw... a stinking Android phone can multitask... so could 6809-OS/9 in the 1970's in about 32k of ram) is because multitasking is highly enabling, and THAT is what I like my stuff to do for me.

Some things you might naturally pause - a game - when running something else. Other things, like an aurora warning application, need to run when they need to run, period. Yet other things, like a terminal window, need to be running all the time so you can see what's going on with whatever process you are running. And you need windowing to go along with that. This... this... "thing" they're going to put out in November... it is a serious ball of fail. Will it make the iPad better? Sure. Will it get the iPad even *close* to what it could be? No. And it can't. Because there's not enough ram, and the apps are bloated beyond belief.

you sound like you're on an anti-Apple rant

I'm not too happy with them right now, true enough. But I'm not savaging them for fun, or from the POV of someone who prefers something else; my investment in Apple "stuff" is pretty significant. That's why I'm so interested; because what these products do, and how they develop over time, really means a lot to me. with hundreds of apps purchased, a bunch of Macs and other Apple hardware in hand as well, I become very, very interested in just where Apple places its feet, and I'm not going to apologize for that. I think one of the biggest mistakes you can make is to become a sycophant just because you're invested: You're far better off to speak up if you think things can be improved. And brother (or sister), could things ever be improved!

Re:Really?

[gilesjuk]

Induction is less efficient too. It's why the transformer in a power supply is often nowhere near 100% efficient as induction is how they work. So combine a transformer with induction and you're wasting a lot of power.

Re:Really?

[Gulthek]

Anecdotes? Yeah!

When I'm doing reading for a course I write out my thoughts and key points in simplenote or notational velocity, then go over the reading again, then go over my notes again with new insights. I can close my eyes and visualize the ascii diagrams and notations and salient points; and also reference them quickly in class.

With Kindle and iBooks I can highlight and attach notes (timestamped notes!) to passages of text and then search *them* in addition to the actual text. Win, so much win.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Jobs knows that a consumer tower (Mac Pro Mini) is exactly what people want. However, he knows that people who want the expandability will pony up for it. Others will keep replacing iMacs when the video gets too old to play the latest Crysis variant.

If one looks at the days of Power Computing, they mainly sold mini towers, as this is exactly what people wanted.

Re:Really?

[jeremyp]

Yes, but why would you want to print those things from an iPad when, if you have a printer handy, you probably also have a real PC handy.

Re:Really?

[HuguesT]

Hello,

that was a good read:

...and still has a paltry 512 mb of memory, which, when they eventually get around to implementing multitasking, means that what you're actually going to get is something on the order of windows 3.1 multitasking with a few services, not actual task switching, etc

When Windows 3.1 came out PCs had in general ONE mb of RAM or less, and a few hundred MB or HD. I wrote my 300-page dissertation in 1993 on a NeXT cube, a massive workstation that cost more than most new cars (close to US 100k$ then) and that had a whopping 32 MB of RAM plus 8 MB of video RAM and 600MB of HD and that was a monster back then. When Windows 95 came out PCs had *8* MB or less and about 1GB of HD space, I remember it well because I tried to make my NeXT programs run on the one I had then and they were swapping like hell.

You got yourself confused over three orders of magnitude here. The iPad has as much RAM and as much HD space as a well-loaded win2k-era PC. So you can have real multitasking on the iPad, there is no problem there. In fact the iPad runs the Darwin kernel perfectly OK, and is multitasking just fine. The whole GNU development toolkit works fine on it.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

You've made a bad assumption here. I don't mind buying gen-1, imperfect hardware; it encourages the manufacturer. If they came out with (for instance) an iPad that had 2 gb of ram, real multitasking... I'd buy a pair of them immediately, too, and hand off the old ones to someone who could use them. Then when they come out with one with an IR port... you guessed it, I'll buy another pair. And so on. But see, right now, they haven't come with *any* improvements, so I'm not even thinking about buying. Get it now?

One more thing: That the iPad needs improvements, sure, I'm all about that. I posted here because this is one of Apple's brag days for the device, and because the upshot of it was a big yawn to me, and I think that's significant because I *am* a pro-Apple person and a potential buyer.

But if you ask me if the iPad is a technology / device that enables me and improves my life, I could bend your ear/eye for many, many paragraphs while saying yes, yes, yes. I am HUGELY pro-iPad. There's nothing like it out there (yet), and even if you duplicated or exceeded the hardware, the app space... wow. All I can say is good luck. And I *knew* I was getting something great, because we had iPod Touches prior to the iPad and *those* were just stunning little gems of tech. Which ALSO needed improvement (and are getting a little love this time around... camera, for instance.)

I don't know why people think you have to become a blind supporter just because you buy something, or why you're supposed to claim a device is perfect as-is, or why you're not supposed to buy it if it isn't absolutely exactly what you want. Something weird about all that I just can't connect with.

Re:Really?

[proxima]

But why would you want to print to the iPad?

Actually, from a ease-of-use perspective, printing to the ipad might actually be a really good idea. If you want a document from any application to be available for reading on the ipad, simply add a printer driver to the system that treats the ipad like a networked printer (and generates postscript or PDF versions of files). It's an interface that most computer users are familiar with, and it eliminates the need to worry about the file system or file transfer (especially via iTunes, ick).

I will still with Dropbox, but the premise of printing to the ipad actually makes a lot of sense to me.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

Why would Apple produce a desktop machine when desktop machine sales are falling?

Because an OSX desktop isn't a Windows desktop; OSX sales are rising. Rather well, too. From my end, the "why" is because I'd like to get five or six of them. From their end, presumably, they'd like to collect my money. They are *not* going to sell me more mac minis (at least, not the way they're going right now), they are *not* going to sell me anything with a built-in screen that isn't a highly portable device, and they're not going to sell me five-six macpros, because although I'm definitely the go-to guy for computers in this family, I'd like to have some cookie jar money left over; and as far as macbooks and macbook pros go, we have those, and frankly, the chiclet keyboards are the killer across the whole laptop line -- you can't write on them worth a darn unless you're a hunt-n-pecker. Everyone here can actually type, so those things are looked on with considerable distaste.

A tower would allow Apple to make a machine that was somewhere in the affordable range - easily under $500. It would let us pick and choose monitors and keyboards and mice. Just like the mini, only not so bloody expensive. Five $500 machines is less than ONE mac pro. It's a market segment they aren't addressing at all. So, IMHO at least, they should.

I might even outfit one of my businesses with towers like that, if and when. That would be quite a few machines. But again, there's nothing in the product line right now that makes me want to do that.

In the meantime, the fam's got five minis, and that's where we will sit. A lot of people want small towers. Maybe Apple will wake up some day to that clamoring.

Re:Really?

[Sechr Nibw]

Still got those OSX widgets stuck back on an invisible screen, where they're utterly useless to us... (luckily, there's Yahoo Widgets, which actually work like you'd want them to)

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20050422172929402
Summarized:
Run this in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.dashboard devmode YES

Log out, log in
Press F12, start dragging the widget you want on your ... visible? screen, then press F12 again. Release the widget.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

No, I'm not confused. The problem today is that the OS, and the apps, are huge by win 3.1 standards.

So while a few hundred mb was quite the workspace for windows, and even for things like redhat 9, it's insufficient for a machine that runs apps that are as large as 160 mb, and where the small ones are still in the 5 mb range or so; and the OS itself is huge - my iPad reports about 112 mb of ram free right now... and you know the whole OS isn't loaded; lots of stuff, unused, is either paged out or never got paged in or loaded as yet. You run a couple apps that use disjoint elements of the OS and you'll find out how limiting the available ram is in one big hurry.

I brought up win 3.1 because the execution model there is similar to the model for IOS; it doesn't really multitask, it is running this, or that, or the other. Not all three, priority scheduling, etc. IOS has all the bones needed to multitask, no question about it. But it's intentionally crippled to not do it because the ram isn't sufficient to the jobs at hand.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

Very interesting, thank you. I'll look into this. I'm just wondering what the downside is, if any. Memory leaks, etc... you'd think if it was this easy to make it work properly - a single switch - they'd have put it in the prefs somewhere.

Re:Really?

[Nimey]

Now that you mention it, that's not a bad idea.

Re:Really?

[swimboy]

Actually, printing to the iPad is already dead simple (at least if you're on a Mac). Just drop an alias of the iTunes application in your ~/Library/PDF Services folder and name it "Print PDF to iPad". Then in the print dialog box, the PDF dropdown will have an entry to print to the iPad. It automatically creates the PDF and imports it to iTunes, ready to upload to your iPad the next time you sync.

Re:Really?

[cpotoso]

I could have basically stated the same as you did. Agree 100%. I also have a substantial apple "investment":

Mac Pro, 8 cores Xeon 3GHz, 5 GB Ram, 1TB hd, 24" monitor

iMac, Core 2 duo, 2.4 GHz, 2 GB ram, 300 GB gd, 20"

Iphone 3G 8G

Ipod touch 8G

Used to have a mac mini for the home theater, but it died suddenly last week.

Now, I was waiting for the ipad to be something it is not: a simple entertaining device that would also be used to work on the go (edit documents, etc). Alas the ipad is simply an ipod on steroids. Useless for anything other than entertainment. PASS. I went and bought an HP 2740p notebook/tablet. Yes, it is expensive ($1500), but it is a real computer. Got me back to try Win 7 (had last used XP and switched to mac some years ago). You know what? Win7 ain't that bad. Had apple produced a decent tablet I'd never be back to the dark empire of MS. Perhaps now I will never be able to justify to myself spending 3* more to get a desktop machine from apple when Win7 is half-decent.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Still got those OSX widgets stuck back on an invisible screen, where they're utterly useless to us... (luckily, there's Yahoo Widgets, which actually work like you'd want them to)

Go to the Dashboard screen (using the keyboard shortcut). Click a widget and hold the mouse button down, as if you're moving it around. Hit the keyboard shortcut again, keeping the mouse button down. Release the mouse button. Voilà.

Re:Really?

[Man On Pink Corner]

Why would you want to cut and paste on an iphone?

I don't, and as an iPad user, I sincerely wish Apple would allow me to turn the feature off. The stupid paragraph-selection overlay comes on every time I inadvertently "hold it wrong" by resting my finger on the screen.

Trying to cram things like cut-and-paste and printing into iOS is exactly what I thought I was paying Apple to be smart enough not to attempt.

Re:Really?

[profplump]

I'm gonna go with "the huge margins on $1k+ machines". For the same reason that every other computer mfg. still sells high-end desktops. And Apple is by far the best at it: http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apple-has-91-of-market-for-1000-PCs-says-NPD/1248313624

I'm also not sure where you got your 10% number from. Last I heard it's more like 50%, maybe a little less. There are lots of laptops, but walk into almost any office in the country and you'll find a desktop in almost every cube. That's not going to change for the millions of users that have no use for a mobile machine until and unless laptops gain price quality with desktops (which is infeasible given current manufacturing technology).

Re:Really?

[CaptCanuk]

The iPad (which yes, we own two of) still lacks cameras and IR emission, needs a flat, un-wobbly back, still has enough wasted sq inches of bezel area to fit an iPod Touch into, still is bound to AT&T, still is too low-res to properly display even 720p, still lacks CF, SD and USB connections, still syncs by cable, still charges by cable, and still has a paltry 512 mb of memory, which, when they eventually get around to implementing multitasking, means that what you're actually going to get is something on the order of windows 3.1 multitasking with a few services, not actual task switching, etc. And it still costs *way* too much.

Look at your post, now look at mine, now look back at yours and wonder what's wrong with it, and then look at mine to find out:
- cameras - why does the iPad need "cameras" (plural)? Do you want to be "that" guy holding something the size of a book up to take a picture?
- IR emission - I'm guessing you want to replace your remote control with the iPad for some reason. I guess you've never owned a Palm Pilot or a Windows CE device with their IR emitters that were next to useless. If you really wanted to replace your remote, you need both a transmitter and receiver to capture IR codes that aren't supported
- Bezel wastage - go complain about that on every other device you own that has a screen - your TV, your laptop, your cellphones, your alarm clock. If you cut that bezel off, try using your iPad without blocking the screen.
- AT&T - I'm sorry you live in the US of A - us other Americans don't have this problem. There's also the option of not getting the 3G model.
- 720p - the iPad is 768p. 720p 768p in terms of vertical lines.
- CF - really? You really want to support that? I'm sorry you bought an SLR from 4 years ago - a form factor that is nearly fully dead. Nonetheless, a slot that size in a device that small is asking for gunk to end up in it.
- USB - there's a simplicity in not having this: it prevents people from asking how come device X doesn't work. It's a bus where almost anything can be attached. It draws power. You'll notice that Apple sells the cable connector add-ons with a USB port as a "camera connection kit". It's to weed out the guy who attaches his USB powered nerf gun.
- 512 mb of memory - Each iPad you have has only 256MB of system memory. You did say you had 2 iPad's so maybe you meant together :)
- multitasking - Your comparison to Windows 3.1 begs me to believe you don't understand how multitasking works on iOS 4.x. Feel free to Google.com it to understand more. Comparing to the iPad specs, back when Windows 95 launched, the fastest processor was a Pentium running at 233MHz and having 64MB of RAM would have been amazing. If applications for desktops were written with more care, you wouldn't have to keep buying a faster CPU and more memory every 2 years to run the same family of applications.

Anyhow, I'm on a horse ...

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

"The iPad (which yes, we own two of) ...... still costs *way* too much."

" Honestly, I think they're losing it. I have money, I like the gear, it doesn't even seem like they are *trying* to get me to hand it to them"

Honestly, it doesn't matter, you'll still end up buying [all] their gear.

Re:Really?

[Mike Buddha]

Used to have a mac mini for the home theater, but it died suddenly last week.

Macs don't die. If it's not working, you must be holding it wrong. Hold it correctly, say a prayer to Steve Jobs for forgiveness, turn it on again, remember how lucky you are that you aren't a Micro$oft drone, and sneer.

Re:Really?

[plurgid]

Logic isn't that bad dude.

I've been using Logic 9 daily for almost a whole year and never had a crash except for in the case of one "yar-maytee" type plugin.
Also use mainstage to gig out, it's also not that bad (a huge step up from the previous version).

as for the rest ... you have some points ... maybe except for the widgets. I'm also a win 7 user, and I'll say having the "widgets up front where I can use them" is a serious PITA ... I rather like the OS X approach, but to each his own.

What do you expect, man?
They're just a company ... makin' money ... sellin' things ... you know?
All things considered, they make some pretty nice stuff.

Re:Really?

[stewbacca]

I laughed, because when they said they are adding the FM tuner, I expected to see a post just like yours (but in reference to the FM tuner).

You have a very aggressive requirements schedule! The iPad has been out for what, 3 months?

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Microsoft has been making slate computers since the early 2000's.

Really?! No kidding! How'd that work out for Microsoft? Judging from how the iPad has been doing, Microsoft must have sold tens or hundreds of millions of them in the last 10 years! Golly!

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

Logic isn't that bad dude.

I think results vary. Every time I start it - and I mean *every* time - the audio is about 2 seconds behind. I quit it, start it again, and it works correctly. Every time I want to play, I have to set my mind to expect to restart the huge thing, so I don't get irritated and shaft my playing mood right out of the gate.

And I will freely admit that I don't find Logic intuitive, or the docs very well done. I know there's a lot of power in there, but I'm not doing well at finding it.

Mainstage is much easier -- and much simpler.

Re:Really?

[afidel]

I printed my boarding pass from my blackberry to the internet printer at a hotel last month without any PC involved, quite convenient.

Re:Really?

[david_thornley]

Why I want printing from the iPad is so I can talk some relatives into getting one as their main computers. The iPad is pretty close to everything these folks need, which is light word processing, email, web surfing, and mindless games.

Yes, I know you need to pay $99/year to program one, and the app selection is limited, but most people don't really care about that. Coincidentally, the people who don't care about that are the ones most likely to host botnets if they're allowed real computers on the Internet, and I'd rather like to get those people on iDevices for all of our sakes.

So, if they can use iPads as their main computers, I don't get stupid tech support questions. I have some confidence that they can figure out their email without my assistance. Heck, even my most technophobic relatives can probably have fun with one. They can browse the web without becoming part of a botnet.

Re:Really?

[Rewind]

Still got those OSX widgets stuck back on an invisible screen, where they're utterly useless to us... (luckily, there's Yahoo Widgets, which actually work like you'd want them to)

I disagree with that. OS X widgets are actually useful to me because of where they are kept. I hate that always clutter style on Windows or Yahoo. It is easy to bind dashboard to a keypress or a mouse corner (I do top right) and get them easily when you need them.

Re:Really?

[IICV]

Why didn't you wait for the 2nd generation of the iPad if you think it's that terrible? That's what I'm doing - but then, I never buy the first hardware revision anyway.

Re:Really?

[david_thornley]

The best birthday and Christmas presents are things the recipient didn't ask for, but likes anyway.

Re:Really?

[jedidiah]

> Seriously, someone better answer the question eventually: Why would you want to print from the iPad?

I don't want to get cake batter on my iPad.

What was the 2nd thing done with the Gutenberg printing press?

Re:Really?

[jedidiah]

This is not the 24th century.

Someone, somewhere will likely want a hardcopy. That's just the way it is.

It's far better to be prepared and capable when that odd requirement comes about rather than being totally SOL.

This sort of Lemming attitude is even more annoying than the corporate lockdown.

It's like DOS users on steriods.

Re:Really?

[AmonTheMetalhead]

This blew my mind... that bloody thing can't print yet?!

Re:Really?

[Ceiynt]

The movie theater I use doesn't have "future tech" allowing it to just know I bought my tickets from Fandango, thus requiring me to print my tickets. The airshow I went to recently also has the same drawback, requiring me to print my tickets. I find a neat recipe online, I print it now instead of adding some needless bookmark, yes, I could write it down, but it wouldn't be neat and I could write something down wrong. I print an online ad for a sale item at a store, so when I bring it to the store with me, I know what it looks like, the model number, and to know if the store is trying to bait and switch me. Again, I could write this info down and draw a sketch, but printing is better. I'm trying to sale something by putting a notice up on the board in my mail room. I can take a pic of the item and include it on the printed post. My daughter likes to color, so I find stuff she likes to color and I print it. I could go on and on. Not everyone lives in your paperless world; and not everyone lives in my print stuff word. Having the option to print and not using it is better then wanting to print and being told to fuck yourself.

Re:Really?

[vague disclaimer]

A company trying to get people to buy stuff? In a capitalist economy? Whatever will they think of next!

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

Look at your post, now look at mine, now look back at yours and wonder what's wrong with it, and then look at mine to find out:

Ok, I can do that. I'll keep score as we go.

why does the iPad need "cameras" (plural)? Do you want to be "that" guy holding something the size of a book up to take a picture?

Facing-away camera: Your kid is doing something funny, and the iPad is in your hand. Or you want to scan a DVD or CD or Action figure or whatever for your catalog(s.) Or you're Mr Fortune 500 Dude, and you want to use this as an inventory device. Or for any other reason we like 'em on our cameras.... because they're handy. Trying to argue that they aren't handy is both disingenuous and... well, kinda stupid. On top of the handy thing, the iPad's got a very pretty display. I know, because I use mine for (among other things) a portable photo portfolio. So it's a great match for photo display. It can *also* do some pretty fabulous editing; it's got enough power and memory to do quite a bit, and I would know, because I write that stuff for a living.

Facing camera: So you can cam-chat with your sons and nephew and sister, who don't live at home with you, or your elderly stepmother, who lives in Greece (Hi, Judy!) because such things are huge fun and etc., and IF there was $2 worth of camera hardware in there (if that) it'd be awesome. You did notice the facing camera in the laptop, right? And the photobooth app? You think there's a reason Apple did that? Front facing and all? Nah, couldn't be, right?

So far, me 2, you zero. Moving along.

IR emission - I'm guessing you want to replace your remote control with the iPad for some reason. I guess you've never owned a Palm Pilot or a Windows CE device with their IR emitters that were next to useless. If you really wanted to replace your remote, you need both a transmitter and receiver to capture IR codes that aren't supported

Wrong. Again. I do own a Palm. But more importantly, I own a Logitech remote, and I crave that kind of function on the iPad, which has a MUCH better display and interface. Also, I didn't say I wanted a *shitty* IR emitter, you know. I want an Apple one, and they've never built shitty that I've seen. I fully expect that if they added the feature, the IR emitter would be fabulous. And it isn't that I want to replace my IR remote, it is that I want to replace my IR remote(S.) There are quite a few. The Logitech does ok, but it could be a lot better. Why is the Logitech limited? Display, that's why.

So far, me 3, you still holding steady at zero.

Bezel wastage - go complain about that on every other device you own that has a screen - your TV, your laptop, your cellphones, your alarm clock. If you cut that bezel off, try using your iPad without blocking the screen.

[stares at phone... at ipod touch... at laptop... no bezel wastage and no problem on any of 'em. Stares at ipad - basically an ipod writ large - but huge wastage.] Because it's designed to be held by the edges. But it is too big for that. And the iPad (which, if you had read the thread before posting, you would know) I have already said should have been designed with a stand in the back that was intended to give you a one-hand grip. Then, no need for bezel. Well, other than that really cool wireless charging idea...

Oh, look: me 4, you've got zero in your kung-fu grip and just won't let go!

AT&T - I'm sorry you live in the US of A - us other Americans don't have this problem. There's also the option of not getting the 3G model.

What? That's incomprehensible. -1 for failing to read what you wrote before you pressed submit. For the record, I live in the USA, AT&T doesn't service this area, and you can't get an iPhone here. If you'd like to try to make a cogent comment on th

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

I didn't wait because I like it as is, as does my lady, and I didn't need to wait, and I like to encourage Apple when they're going in what I consider the right direction.

So I like the iPad... but I want to like it a great deal more. Is that a problem for you? Some reason I shouldn't feel that way that you know of?

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

I disagree with that. OS X widgets are actually useful to me because of where they are kept.

Well, that's good for you, then. Me, I have multiple monitors, and I want the real estate used as well it can be. I like having a few things up there to refer to now and again, and all I want to do to get to it is shift my eyes; not change my typing focus or move the mouse. And, thanks to a tip in this thread, I've got those widgets out where I like them now. But I still think it should be a switch in the prefs. I don't care if you want them hidden, and I don't even care if it's the default, but geeze, let *me* use them the way *I* want to, too.

Re:Really?

[fyngyrz]

It's why the transformer in a power supply is often nowhere near 100% efficient as induction is how they work.

No. Power transformers can be designed to be very efficient - in the high 90% range. There are many subtleties to inductor design, and it is certainly possible to make a lousy, inefficient transformer, or simply to provide a poor impedance match to it, or do something stupid like rectify only 1/2 cycle... but that doesn't indict the transformer itself. In fact, switching power supplies use inductors as well, storing considerable energy in the field of the inductor, and losing very little at all.

My concern isn't efficiency anyway, it is simply can one get enough power over there to charge the iPad as fast as the batteries can reasonably be charged, and the answer to that is an unequivocal yes. Efficiency is a different issue, and one I frankly don't think is worth being concerned about in the range we're talking about here. Although I bet Apple would worry about it. Wanting to be green and all, and thinking power consumption is part of that (I don't think so. I think rabid power consumption will get us out of the oil dependency business sooner, rather than later, and that this would be an extremely good thing.)

BTW, I'm an EE with many years of hardware design experience, so I do know just a little something about transformers, inductors, etc.

Re:Really?

[voidptr]

There's already several apps out there that turn the iPad into a networked wifi printer, or you can just use the OS X Print to PDF feature and sync the PDF over via any one of a number of mechanisms and apps (dropbox, iDisk, iTunes/iBooks, etc.)

Re:Really?

[PintoPiman]

As any software developer can tell you, adding features means adding complexity. Any single feature won't make a noticeable difference, but the more features you add, the more complexity you add. Complexity means harder UIs to learn, higher risk of bugs and longer release times.

The task of any project manager is to carefully consider the usefulness of any feature before it gets added. Apple knows how to say "no" to a feature. Their competitors don't. Compare an iPhone to a Windows Mobile device to see what the difference looks like in the end-product.

Folks continue to be surprised that Apple can sell products despite the "weakness" of not having $feature (wireless and FM on the original iPod, floppy disk drives, CD drives on the MacBook Air, Flash/USB on the iPad, and so on ad infinitum). These missing features are individually weaknesses, but for a large section of the consumer market, it looks like the resultant products are considered stronger as a result.

Re:Really?

[MikeFM]

I love Apple products but I have a ever growing lists of stuff I'd like to see changed. It isn't usually the crap the idiots, that want to whine that it isn't exactly like every other device they have, complain about though. Most of my complaints are about thing they've added to be more like other crap devices. Folders are horrible and are a major step backwards. I'm hoping that they did printing right and didn't try to make it work with the existing a-driver-for-every-device model but we shall see. The buttons are a bad decision and should go. They wear out before anything else and don't add anything to the experience. Network files and easier file sharing between apps should be available but it should look nothing like anything we see on Windows, Mac OS, or Linux. It should support automatic versioning and backup, simplify security, and not clutter things with details such as folders or network locations. It should have easy ways to quickly find the files you're looking for with the default view being the most likely suspects. Apple's multitasking model is better than that on other devices - it needs to grow still but it is a smart model instead of the brute force model we're used to. Cut and paste works better than on any other mobile I've tried but could use some minor tweaks - sometimes it is hard to activate and other times it jumps in there when you least expect it. And it needs to magnify the section you are working on more while you are cutting and pasting so you can work with the area with both hands. I still don't quite see why you need your email to integrate with your calendar. That's why you have a calendar app isn't it? Even for the business PC it's always seemed more hassle than it's worth. (Anyone have a good use case?) I can see some more flexibility in iTunes would be nice but I've seen many otherwise fine programs, especially media players, ruined by to much flexibility so it's a matter of finding the right balance.

Apple's approach is to do things slowly and actually consider them as they do them. So yes sometimes you wait for features and yes sometimes they still make mistakes or have to re-evaluate decisions as other factors change but overall it leads to a cleaner, better, design. Using a PC, Desktop Linux, Android, etc makes me cringe because overall they are badly designed. We have some WinCE mobile computers at work that each cost something like $2500 and you have to use this crappy little keyboard and trackball and a little pencil to poke at the crappy little icons and buttons. That is the perfect example of how a company like Microsoft just throws whatever crap they already have at a problem without bothering to try to see how to make a good user experience. Sure the damn things run IE and can print if you don't mind IE5 on a tiny screen and using the one printer from 1995 that the thing supports. Sure you could in theory run the apps you already know in an interface you already know except oops most of those apps won't actually run on WinCE on Bob's ARM processor and the ones that will don't work well at all on that tiny screen or resource limited system. So I guess you get a trade off. A low learning curve and the features you expect up front or a better longterm user experience. I like the later so I'll stick with Apple.

Re:Really?

[LordVader717]

I could list a hundred good uses, but how about you just shut up questioning how other people use their machines and stop trying to tell people what's good for them?

Trust an Apple fanboy to question printing....

Re:Really?

[TENTH SHOW JAM]

Would you allow me to use your iPad in my garage, so I can read how to change the oil on my motorcycle?

How about if you let me borrow it so I can read instructions on how to lay tiles outside?

These are two examples from the weekend. Printing is good. People who have lives have need for printed paper. Maybe people with iPads don't have lives...

Re:Really?

[IAmGarethAdams]

Maybe people with iPads don't have lives..

or maybe they also have a computer...

Re:Really?

[wiedzmin]

Flash support is next.

Re:Really?

[IAmGarethAdams]

Kind of like the iPad dock? Maybe that connector is too "plugged in" for you though.

Re:Really?

[camperslo]

Induction is less efficient too. It's why the transformer in a power supply is often nowhere near 100% efficient as induction is how they work.

An inductive charger is tougher to design than a good transformer. In general it takes a lot of copper to make a fairly low loss device that functions at 50 or 60 Hz (the power line frequency). Core loss and flux leakage issues aside, both need thick enough conductors to have low resistance losses, and enough turns (to get enough inductance) to draw little current with no load.

Depending on the design, some may question whether there are any undesirable health effects from magnetic fields near an inductive charger (similar to that from deflection coils in a c.r.t. monitor)

In practice it is attempts at cutting the size weight and cost of copper and core materials that leads to tradeoffs making some transformers inefficient under load or ecessively wasteful under no/light loads. The later is a common issue with wal-wart transformers/supplies.

The inductance needed, and thus the size and cost, can be reduced by operating transformers/coils at higher frequencies. Even PC power supplies and common curly CFL replacements for incandescent lamps have transformers in them. Those are just operating higher frequencies. In many cases the losses are mainly from the forward on-resistance of the switching transistors and diodes, and losses from them not quite instantly switching between on and off. My point here is that transformers/coil are not inherently inefficient.

Even at 60 Hz, it's not uncommon to have transformers of 95% efficiency if people don't cut corners. Even then switching supplies may offer lower waste under near no load conditions.

I wouldn't be surprised if the standby power wasted by an old 60 Hz inductive toothbrush base sitting idle is enough to run an iPad. Losses of only a few Watts may seem insignificant, but they add up, especially for things powered all the time. I once modified the power supply in an early digital alarm clock to save power. The savings were enough to watch a 13" color tv 2 hours a day. (The tv had a couple of modifications too)

Design choices in consumer devices have a massive energy impact. Perhaps with an optical or magnetic sensor to switch it on, and a high-frequency coil, an inductive charger could be fairly efficient. It still seems like needless complexity to me though.
I'm not sure I want the Apple TV with the rental arrangement, but they do deserve credit for going with a design with very very lower power consumption (less than x86 designs, and probably less than a VCR was even when turned off!)

Re:Really?

[IAmGarethAdams]

Facing-away camera: Your kid is doing something funny, and the iPad is in your hand

Best make the iPad absorbent too, so that when your kid is doing something messy, and the iPad is in your hand, you can wipe it up...

Re:Really?

[ogdenk]

The standard non-answer. Kind of sad.

Q. User - How do I get (Linux/Apple device/whatever fanboi loves the most) to do $foo?

A. Fanboi who won't admit that his precious can't do $foo. - Why would you want to do that?

Why would you want to cut and paste on an iphone? Why would you want to print from an ipad? Why would you want your email client to integrate with your calendar? Why would you want to move the "song name" column in itunes..........

Which is kinda funny because I used to print from my Newton MessagePad 2100 over the network and IrDA, cut and paste text and had an e-mail client that integrated nicely with the calendar. Oh, and I could run code of my choosing without resorting to hacking the device. Whatever the hell I wanted.

IMHO, the iPhone and iPad are a very pretty step backwards from what I was able to enjoy in the 90's and far more restricted at that. About the only thing an iPad or iPhone can do that the Newton can't is play 720p video. That and display images in color but I liked the grayscale screen personally. I could even run a BASIC interpreter without Jobs kicking in my door and accusing me of being a scumbag lawbreaker.

The Newton just got very bad press in the beginning and it took several OS revisions and a couple hardware releases to get right, by then it was kinda doomed.

All this shit and no OSX news, the one product Apple still has that I remotely give a shit about? Fuck you Steve.

Re:Really?

[John Whitley]

I would certainly print train tickets and perhaps flight confirmation and check-in slips.

On a related note, there are some airlines that have deployed boarding passes via a scannable image displayed on your smartphone's display... but let's just say that this technology seems to have a few bugs. A friend recently tried this, but the image didn't scan. Oops. Back out of security to get a proper boarding pass, back through the security line, etc. Apparently a Retina Display isn't good enough for the scanner. /snerk

At this point it's best to play it safe with a printed boarding pass as a backup until you're proven to your satisfaction that the paperless stuff actually works with your phone and airline.

Re:Really?

[ogdenk]

Yeah, considering NewtonOS 1.0 had IRDA and network printing support out of the box in 1994. I miss my MP2100.

I'm just wondering how they pulled this fiasco of restricting the shit out of a PDA and stripping most of the functionality that made a PDA useful, vehemently denying it's a PDA, abusing their developers AND users, and somehow managing to crawl on top of the world.

Steve's lucky NextStep, OpenStep, I mean MacOS X is really slick otherwise they are just a shitty consumer gadget company. Too bad he wants to try to kill desktop computing.

All this is the same Internet Appliance bullshit everyone was trying to cram down our throats in the late 90's. All those pushes failed miserably. Why is Apple succeeding? Because their toys are shiny and you can download the latest Britney Spears tune in one click now?

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I wish I could reach through my fucking monitor and punch people like you in the face.

But, dude, you already can! Trust me on this -- just wind up real good and punch straight through the monitor.

Remember, though, you've got to punch real hard otherwise you won't connect with those losers on the other side of the net.

Re:Really?

[Captain Splendid]

Trust an Apple fanboy to question printing....

You'll have better luck trotting that one out to someone who hasn't gone on record as saying OSX sucks.

Really? We're still using fanboi? Nothing new?

Anyway, some of us run businesses, and reducing the amount of paper we have to deal with saves precious time and money, but you go on thinking it's a conspiracy by a bunch of elitist snobs.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm pretty sure apple invented the slate computer this year it was the logical step after inventing the touch screen phone and the mp3 player, obviously this Microsoft guy hasn't listened to enough of Steve jobs’s keynote speeches otherwise he would realise how revolutionary apple really is. Like how they only make one type of phone, that way you never have to make difficult choices about screen size and processors. It’s the same with the software they decide things for you, like to get rid of flash; that cuts a lot of the internet out so I don’t have to waste my time on it. Compatibility, apple makes sure that apple products will only work with other apple products; this way you know which store to go to when something breaks, and you can only share stuff with other good, sexy, tech minded, unique induhviduals that make the apple brethren; and you don’t have to talk to those Microsoft and Linux guys who think they know stuff about technology, fools with their BSD (if you go to your friends house and you can’t recharge your iphone its time to re-evaluate the relationship). Apple even decides how you should hold your phone. I don’t know about the rest of you but I could never figure that one out, but now I just have to watch mr jobs, and if I don't remember the proper way I get gentle reminder in the form of my call dropping out (genius). What does apple charge for all these extra services, control and decision making? A really quite affordable although a little prestige’s fee for the rest of my apple life, and I can pay them no matter what I’m doing, playing games, listening to music, watching TV.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

The standard non-answer. Kind of sad.

A few months ago, the standard hater response to the iPad was "it will be a useless toy", and now you're picking on an actual user who doubts the importance of printing from it? The day printing is added? Does he have a lot to gain from that position??

Notice how I carefully individualize the side I wish to support, and how I negatively associate a group of people on the other end. I just read about that in a NYT article, fun stuff.

We get the same situation with Linux, and its fanboys responding with "nobody really needs CAD/FOO software" to people who claim Linux is utterly useless. Maybe... to a large extent.. fanboys everywhere are right once in a while, or MORE RIGHT than the idiots attacking them. I mean hey, they are USING the stuff in question at least, which is more than what can be said for people like you.

          It's almost like.. if you generically attack people who invested their personal time or money into something, they... get defensive, and respond with their personal point of view? How odd!?

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaI'm pretty sure apple invented the slate computer this year it was the logical step after inventing the touch screen phone and the mp3 player, obviously this Microsoft guy hasn't listened to enough of Steve jobs’s keynote speeches otherwise he would realise how revolutionary apple really is. Like how they only make one type of phone, that way you never have to make difficult choices about screen size and processors. It’s the same with the software they decide things for you, like to get rid of flash; that cuts a lot of the internet out so I don’t have to waste my time on it. Compatibility, apple makes sure that apple products will only work with other apple products; this way you know which store to go to when something breaks, and you can only share stuff with other good, sexy, tech minded, unique induhviduals that make the apple brethren; and you don’t have to talk to those Microsoft and Linux guys who think they know stuff about technology, fools with their BSD (if you go to your friends house and you can’t recharge your iphone its time to re-evaluate the relationship). Apple even decides how you should hold your phone. I don’t know about the rest of you but I could never figure that one out, but now I just have to watch mr jobs, and if I don't remember the proper way I get gentle reminder in the form of my call dropping out (genius). What does apple charge for all these extra services, control and decision making? A really quite affordable although a little prestige’s fee for the rest of my apple life, and I can pay them no matter what I’m doing, playing games, listening to music, watching TV.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Only read the last bit... learn to balance paragraphs better.

I have a progressive list of devices in my house, half Apple, half PC. Out of usefulness my Ubuntu desktop sees more use than my Windows Laptop and iPad combined. Sorry, Apple fails when it comes to delivering tools that are actually useful. The only time an Apple product is used is to play Angry birds or when I'm going to a cafe and I want to look like a smug prick.

With my iPad I can lord over the cafe and read the newspaper digitally whilst all the rest of the people around me have to read it off recycled paper! oh the smugness you can cling to when you have an iPad! my wife hates it when people look over at your table. I think its a such a laugh!

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Out of curiosity, what's wrong with using an iPad dock? And inductive charger would still require you to put it down in a specific location, so how is that much different than the dock option?

Also, you lose efficiency with inductive charging...it's a worthwhile trade off when you have a device like your toothbrush that's designed to get wet, but for a device that uses a lot more energy, it would waste a lot more energy. Rather than inductive charging, I think it would make more sense to have exposed contact points that would line up with the charging station...my universal remote uses this method.

Re:Really?

[MidnightBrewer]

Actually, it wasn't a non-answer, you just didn't agree with it.

Good job on the army of straw men, by the way! Very nice. Were you aware that some of them can actually be answered with "you can"? (Two out of four, actually, which makes half of your rhetorical questions useless. I'll leave it to you to figure out which two). Worst of all, none of them actually have anything to do with the original posters' question or answer, unless you count repeating the first question. Without actually answering it. Which I suppose would technically be a "non-answer", wouldn't it?

How did this get rated "insightful" again?

To actually say something on-topic, I actually avoid printing things, too, because it wastes paper. That doesn't mean I wouldn't mind having the option, though, which is one of the reasons why I haven't bought an iPad yet. I vote with my money, and a first-generation Apple product with no front-facing camera and which weighs a ton is definitely on that list of things I'm going to pass on for now. My MacBook Pro and iPhone don't leave much wiggle room for a tablet device.

Re:Really?

[proxima]

Actually, printing to the iPad is already dead simple (at least if you're on a Mac). Just drop an alias of the iTunes application in your ~/Library/PDF Services folder and name it "Print PDF to iPad". Then in the print dialog box, the PDF dropdown will have an entry to print to the iPad. It automatically creates the PDF and imports it to iTunes, ready to upload to your iPad the next time you sync.

No, the whole point is to eliminate itunes, an unnecessary and annoying intermediary (requiring a cable no less). This is about wifi-based printing.

Re:Really?

[proxima]

There's already several apps out there that turn the iPad into a networked wifi printer, or you can just use the OS X Print to PDF feature and sync the PDF over via any one of a number of mechanisms and apps (dropbox, iDisk, iTunes/iBooks, etc.)

Sure - I use Dropbox regularly and have no problem generating PDFs from the apps I care about. But the ipad really needs multitasking to enable wifi printer emulation all the time. The idea is to reduce the number of steps to get your documents to the ipad down to one: just print, and it's there.

Nice to know that there are apps to do the emulation part, now we just need multitasking. Done right it's easier than even the 20 seconds required to use Dropbox.

Re:Really?

[mattack2]

Though I thought Fandango also gives you a big-long-number that you can use INSTEAD of a printed ticket. You could take a snapshot of the screen and use that instead.. (let the ticket taker read it/type it in.)

I haven't used Fandango in a long time, so maybe I'm misremembering from some _other_ online ticket system (e.g. ones I've gotten from buying other products).

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

ddddddddddddddddddddddd I'm pretty sure apple invented the slate computer this year it was the logical step after inventing the touch screen phone and the mp3 player, obviously this Microsoft guy hasn't listened to enough of Steve jobs’s keynote speeches otherwise he would realise how revolutionary apple really is. Like how they only make one type of phone, that way you never have to make difficult choices about screen size and processors. It’s the same with the software they decide things for you, like to get rid of flash; that cuts a lot of the internet out so I don’t have to waste my time on it. Compatibility, apple makes sure that apple products will only work with other apple products; this way you know which store to go to when something breaks, and you can only share stuff with other good, sexy, tech minded, unique induhviduals that make the apple brethren; and you don’t have to talk to those Microsoft and Linux guys who think they know stuff about technology, fools with their BSD (if you go to your friends house and you can’t recharge your iphone its time to re-evaluate the relationship). Apple even decides how you should hold your phone. I don’t know about the rest of you but I could never figure that one out, but now I just have to watch mr jobs, and if I don't remember the proper way I get gentle reminder in the form of my call dropping out (genius). What does apple charge for all these extra services, control and decision making? A really quite affordable although a little prestige’s fee for the rest of my apple life, and I can pay them no matter what I’m doing, playing games, listening to music, watching TV.

Re:Really?

[yeshuawatso]

This is an excellent point. While I personally wouldn't keep an iPad (I already purchased and returned it after two days), these things could make wonderful replacement PCs. They're brain-dead simple and have a support network for apps equal to that of Windows. However, there are just too many problems that prevent these devices from being replacement PCs: Flash support (a big one for all these "photo sharing" sites); mouse support (touch screens can often times be inefficient and lack precision); bluetooth file transfer (since USB support isn't going to happen, transferring files via bluetooth is a wonderful alternative. This requires a shared file system of course--another thing not likely to happen).

That's it. Change those few things, this makes a wonderful PC replacement device. Otherwise, plop Ubuntu on an x86 and hope for the best. Less maintenance cost (i.e. time) at the cost of easy software add-on accessibility.

Re:Really?

[Abcd1234]

I sometimes think Apple is a social experiment that is trying to see how far it can push people to buy things they didn't ask for but now want because they've seen them.

Pro-tip: "you" are not "people". "People" clearly want these things. "You" don't. That's fine, but don't presume you know what other people want or need. That's enormously arrogant, and you wouldn't want to be arrogant, would you?

Re:Really?

[yeshuawatso]

SO, what you're telling us is that you're buying Apple gear, unsatisfied with the results, describe Android/PC features, yet, you continue to buy Apple gear. I'm not sure if there is something wrong with you or maybe Apple products are laced with a pheromone that forces you to buy more Apple products. Either way, you're exhibiting a very strange behavior for consumer purchasing. The only reasonable explanation is a wife who refuses to use anything else, for whatever social/symbolic reason.

Now on to what caught my eye. Inductive coupling requires resonate frequencies that won't cause interference with other parts on the device. An electronic toothbrush doesn't have too many parts to worry about. An iPad, on the other hand, does. Since you called it by an electrical engineering name, I'm going to assume you understand what I'm talking about. Finding that frequency may not be as easy as it looks. I can't say for sure as I never tried (wasn't part of my labs). But if you're that unsatisfied with your Apple purchases, then stop buying Apple products until they have what you're looking for in the tech.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

What the hell is wrong with my comments I’m not insulting any one. The worst I said was fool. Its not that it’s in there and I have my filter set to high. I can see flame bait and -1 trolls but not me. screw you /. you censoring dick, you can't handle the truth.

Re:Really?

[yeshuawatso]

Macs don't die.

Try telling that to my poor iBook. Died a year ago and won't come back from the grave. Just gives me my waking "chime."

Re:Really?

[jgagnon]

Pro-tip: Don't take life too seriously or you'll find alternate uses for your anus... like a cigar clip.

Re:Really?

[yeshuawatso]

but walk into almost any office in the country and you'll find a desktop in almost every cube.

Great point. Towers offer something laptops can't compete with: interchangeability. It's a lot cheaper to replace a fan, hard drive, RAM, etc in a tower than a laptop. The only thing that comes anywhere near as cheap are thin clients. And since any major user of thin clients will be ordering a lot of them, the replacement cost is around $90-100. A lot cheaper than a $500 laptop.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

printing a map/directions for a friend to go from my place (or wherever the iPad is at the moment) to his final destination. there. are you still in denial?

Re:Really?

[Drakino]

The standard troll, kind of sad.

Look, people buy devices based on what they can do. Trolls point out what devices can't do in an attempt to act all high and mighty that they found some "flaw". No device, or OS or anything is perfect. But people find what works for them, and they use said things to get stuff done. Does it really bother you that someone else has a device that can't (currently) print?

Sometimes the why questions are relevant to figure out someones use case. Not everyone has a need to print, not everyone has a need to have one app instead of two for e-mail and calendaring, and so on. But in your world, asking why means your a fanboi (wtf? since when is i a replacement for y), so I figured it's only fair to automatically label people as trolls for pointing out flaws.

Re:Really?

[GameboyRMH]

Sounds like you need to stop painting yourself into a corner with Apple-pliances. An N900 would address all your complaints about the iPad except for the wired charging and table stability, but it's more of a PDA than a tablet (although PDAs are better than tablets because they can fit in your pocket, they have proper rear-facing cameras and you can make calls on them).

You don't need to sell all your Apple stuff at once, just start phasing it out as you upgrade. Don't stick to one manufacturer or operating system just for the sake of consistency and try to minimize the use of closed or platform-specific software wherever possible. That's what I do and everything works together nicely with everything else, even my Win7 gaming machine.

Re:Really?

[djrogers]

iOS 4.2 will add printing to the iPad... About. Fracking. Time!

No kidding - all those Android tablets have been printing for YEARS... Yup, Apple's way behind the curve on this one - totally missed the boat. I mean, really - it should have been obvious to anyone that a media/web tablet would need printing capability! Printing out web pages and emails to compressed dead tree material is TEH FUTURE.

Re:Really?

[nedlowe]

Especially Gandhi, who gets frustrated that no-one seems to be able to spell his name correctly.

Re:Really?

[Vectormatic]

Windows 3.1 actually ran quite do-able (in my own childhood memories) on a 386sx with 1mb

i think the grand-grand parent means that with todays bloat in applications (compared to win 3.1 days), 512mb of ram combined with the 'multi-tasking' seen in iOS 4.x will deliver a similar experience as the windows 3.1 days

Re:Really?

[LordVader717]

You'll have better luck trotting that one out to someone who hasn't gone on record as saying OSX sucks.

It was just a jab pointed at defensive bigmouths.

Anyway, if you're printing when it isn't absolutely necessary you're doing it wrong.

And if buying a device which doesn't support printing will help you reduce paperwork you're doing it very very wrong.
Not that the iPad is something that's fit for the office anyway.

Re:Really?

[Vectormatic]

i agree with most of your arguments, save for these two

- 720p - the iPad is 768p. 720p 768p in terms of vertical lines.

720p means 1280*720, which the ipad can not display, playing a 720p video on the ipad without seriously raping the aspect ratio means scaling the video down to 1024*576

- USB .. It's to weed out the guy who attaches his USB powered nerf gun.

So basically you are saying apple are a bunch of elitist assholes, who no longer support their "think different" creed. (To me thinking different means (among other things) to dont give a fuck about what other people think, and just enjoy your nerf gun, if thats your thing)

as for the memory, 256mb in an ipad is way to little, but that is just my opinion

Re:Really?

[oji-sama]

Folks continue to be surprised that Apple can sell products despite the "weakness" of not having $feature (wireless and FM on the original iPod, floppy disk drives, CD drives on the MacBook Air, Flash/USB on the iPad, and so on ad infinitum). These missing features are individually weaknesses, but for a large section of the consumer market, it looks like the resultant products are considered stronger as a result.

And so, as the $features actually are slowly being included to Apple's products are the products (in your opinion) getting bloated? Or are you saying that after all these years we finally get FM the way it is supposed to be done?

Re:Really?

[tehcyder]

Try getting a proper job, you'll find that a lot of stuff needs to be printed and stored.

I wouldn't have used this in an argument about the iPad (which is clearly not a business machine) but you used the now legendary words "paperless ofice".

Re:Really?

[tehcyder]

Need to show something to a friend? Just bring the ipad.

Well, you could say the same thing about a laptop too, I suppose, but then people would just laugh at you.

Re:Really?

[tehcyder]

They can browse the web without becoming part of a botnet.

This is just a variation on the retarded argument that it is only Windows that is vulnerable to viruses, and that Apple/Linux/whatever machines are magically immune.

You wait until there are a significant enough number of people using iPads to access the internet, the crackers will always be ahead of the average user.

Re:Really?

[tehcyder]

USB - there's a simplicity in not having this: it prevents people from asking how come device X doesn't work. It's a bus where almost anything can be attached. It draws power. You'll notice that Apple sells the cable connector add-ons with a USB port as a "camera connection kit". It's to weed out the guy who attaches his USB powered nerf gun.

No, it's just another way for Apple to grab more of your money.

Re:Really?

[Painted]

Oh, god, I would hate* your design of an iPad- bezel-less with integrated grabbing/standing bits? That would make me sad.

Not saying that all your ideas are bad; a reasonable mid-tower Mac with a replaceable video card in particular is a "WTF why does this not exist?" question...

Re:Really?

[Capt.DrumkenBum]

I'm not sure I want the Apple TV with the rental arrangement

I am interested to see if/when people hack this little box, and what they manage to make it do.

Re:Really?

[camperslo]

Well not having an x86 like the current Apple TV, it won't be able to run Mac OS X apps, take OS X add-on Quicktime codecs etc. With a low power ARM CPU, they're no doubt using another chip or the GPU for h.264 decoding, so that'll be what it has the horsepower for. A hacked version will be more like a jailbroken iPhone/iPad than a Mac. I wouldn't expect to be able to add an ElGato Systems Eye-TV Hybrid USB tuner for cable/over-the-air tv with this one.

Re:Really?

[poetmatt]

Having the option to print and not using it is better then wanting to print and being told to fuck yourself.

maybe if you equated something in reality and also read my fucking comment, you'd realize what I was saying. I'm not saying nobody should have the option, I'm just saying not everyone needs it. That doesn't mean you should not be allowed to print or that printing is wrong or something else.

your lack of reading states more about your comment than the argument in it.

Also, really "you could write something down wrong"? Can you not read that ABC 123 6 F gets written down the same way you read it? Was this a troll? Are you not literate? It sure seems it.

Re:Really?

[Anonymous Coward]

Feed the trolls, all of them, it's entertaining. The GP did answer one of your questions, I asked separately why do people need to print anything these days, really, with multiple examples. Are you a troll? Are you not literate? It sure seems so.

Re:Really?

[AmiMoJo]

The iPad is a pretty bad computer. The browser is very basic and they won't be able to watch videos on sites other than YouTube. Word processing, even just a letter, is no fun at all with the on-screen keyboard. Holding the thing or having it flat on a desk is far from an ideal viewing angle too, fine for short stints but you wouldn't want to write or read anything too substantial on it.

I don't think the iPad was ever designed to be a computer and it certainly can't replace one.

AppleTV?

[ibsteve2u]

Nothing but Microsoft commercials on it, right?

Re:AppleTV?

[Pojut]

It will be interesting to see how it compares to GoogleTV once that launches. If GoogleTV does even half of what they say it will, things will get mighty interesting mighty quick.

Re:AppleTV?

[daveywest]

I think the MSRP on the Boxee Box just got pushed down a bit.

Re:AppleTV?

[Anonymous Coward]

Roku dropped their prices yesterday http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2010/08/30/businessinsider-roku-slashes-prices-ahead-of-apple-itv-launch-2010-8.DTL

Re:AppleTV?

[cynyr]

the boxee box basicly uses ffmpeg to play videos. Does the iTV support 1080P AVC(h264 lvl 4.1 or 5.1) + DTS in a mkv container? how about anything outside of quicktime formats?

Video formats

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

ohh hey look it can't do full 1080P let alone a bluray dump. so why is it better than an boxee box? it has shows you can buy for $0.99? boxee has them for free and i heard rumors about a paid service coming.

Looks like the boxee box will play more than the iTV. The iTV looks like it's a phone4 in a mac mini case, with hdmi, spdif, 10/100 ethernet, and usb... Something to think about. I wonder how much the screen costs on a ipad..

Re:AppleTV?

[Annorax]

What happens to the functionality of my first generation Apple TV?

I mean.. we've bought a ton of shows for the kids to watch -- I can only assume that we won't lose the ability to play those. Bad assumption?

Re:AppleTV?

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

you mean, Apple TV. iTV doesn't support 1080p, they only broadcast in 1080i

Re:AppleTV?

[Anonymous Coward]

yeah - because a product that isn't shipping is rumored to be cool will definitely be worth the wait over a shipping product.

Like Android and its open app store vs. the iPhone and the App store controllership... ...sheeshh...future fanboi grows old and dies waiting for the next release...

Re:AppleTV?

[gmhowell]

You still waiting for Duke Nukem Forever?

Re:AppleTV?

[guruevi]

The problem with either is and always will be content. AppleTV and GoogleTV would do better with 2 or 3 tuners and a recording function (eg. a simple-to-use, generic hardware DVR) but it won't - just like TiVo this would open them to a lot of hurt from content providers (suing because you can skip their ads) and patent semi-trolls (orcs?) like TiVo.

I'm glad AppleTV gets Netflix which might make it interesting since it's a cheap box but 0.99 per show is still quite steep and 4.99 for HD rentals is very badly priced if you can go to a RedBox and get one for $1/day. However Apple (and Google in the future) will have their nuts clamped for at least the near future by the content providers who won't budge very much on prices just to keep the cable networks alive. Warner but also a bunch of others have too much interest in the waste of bandwidth that cable-tv is. IPTV (by anyone, Google or Apple) in the US would be a great step forwards for the customers (and the economy) but our dear ol' buggy whip makers won't allow it.

First iPost

[Anonymous Coward]

directly from Steve Jobs keynote and only readable with authenticated apps.

Re:First iPost

[plover]

directly from Steve Jobs keynote and only readable with authenticated apps.

Nice try at a first post. Too bad it took you two-prior-posts worth of time to get it approved through the App Store.

Re:First iPost

[Anonymous Coward]

directly from Steve Jobs keynote and only readable with authenticated apps.

Nice try at a first post. Too bad it took you two-prior-posts worth of time to get it approved through the App Store.

These were hackenposts from a non-authenticated hardware appliance.

Re:First iPost

[coastwalker]

Strangely I don't own any apple products - or a TV for that matter. I don't like monopoly's. I suspect that I am a dying breed but anyway, good luck to you drones.

Re:First iPost

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't like monopoly's what? Colour? Hairstyle?

why no AM as well?

[Joe The Dragon]

why no AM as well?

Re:why no AM as well?

[plover]

why no AM as well?

What is this "AM" of which you write? Is it related to that unused setting on my home stereo, or that collection of unprogrammed numbers labeled "AM" on my car stereo?

Re:why no AM as well?

[Steauengeglase]

[Puts tin foil hat on] The same reason there is a push behind FM in cellphones. iBiquity wants a paycheck and is very happy to cut deals to get hybrid receivers in as many devices as possible.[/Puts tin foil hat on]

Or it could have something to do with the range and poor reception of AM.

Re:why no AM as well?

[derniers]

being Apple it only comes with PM

Re:why no AM as well?

[NetDanzr]

I use my mp3 player only for audio books. If it could receive AM signal, I'd also listen to sports and talk radio shows. Believe it or not, but AM stations are still very popular.

Re:why no AM as well?

[fotbr]

You do realize that AM stations, by virtue of being much further down the RF spectrum, have a much, much bigger range, right?

Re:why no AM as well?

[WMD_88]

AM radio requires a special ferrite bar antenna, which won't fit inside a small device (and give decent reception). With FM, they can just use the headphone cable as an antenna.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Steauengeglase]

Honestly. No, I didn't.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not in Europe, they're not.

At best there are two or three stations on AM that rebroadcast the FM stations, but mostly the whole AM band is empty. Well, except for a handful of pirate radio stations or local church services, but those have a range of about a mile. The rest is blissfully empty.

Re:why no AM as well?

[DrgnDancer]

You just a succinct (I believe accurate) technical answer to a question about an Apple product on Slashdot... Is that allowed? :-)

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

AM talk radio caters to the Beck/Hannity/Limbaugh Axis-of-Evil, iProducts don't.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

AM Radio also doesn't require power :D just something to amplify the signal to audible levels.

Try this, grab a coil of telephone wire, RJ45, RG6 etc, plug it into the wall (wether you have service or not) then stand on it. Now touch the end of amplified speakers. Voila, AM radio. Given, no way to tune it, but hey, you can hear everything at once.

Re:why no AM as well?

[mini me]

The iPod I can understand, but why does a cell phone need an FM receiver? It already provides an internet connection that gives you access to virtually every FM station on the entire planet.

Re:why no AM as well?

[localman57]

No, AM radio works fine without a ferrite bar antenna. If it doesn't it's because you're holding...

Ah, fuck it. Too obvious.

Re:why no AM as well?

[tibit]

Fsck AM, but does the FM tuner include digital demod for HD radio? Now that would be something. FM radio by itself: meh.

Re:why no AM as well?

[tibit]

I think that the the headphone cable would be a good enough approximation for an AM and FM antenna. Car radios don't have a ferrite bar antenna and they work just fine picking AM off the whip antenna.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Abstrackt]

You just a succinct (I believe accurate) technical answer to a question about an Apple product on Slashdot... Is that allowed? :-)

You just a person who forgot a word? :p

Re:why no AM as well?

[xs650]

You do realize that with Apples talent for incorporating antennas in their products, they would would have a very short range unless you held it just right, right?

Re:why no AM as well?

[jgagnon]

AM channels are still used frequently in higher traffic areas (in the US at least) for dedicated traffic updates and information, such as near major bridges.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Above]

You are right from a technology perspective, but not correct from a real world perspective.

From a pure RF perspective AM frequencies can be picked up further away at the same power levels, provided no obstacles.

In the real world, AM radio starts off at a disadvantage, a 50,000 watt limit compared to FM's 100,000 watt limit. However it also turns out that the lower frequencies are more susceptible to interference, and don't penetrate buildings as well. AM is also greatly affected by the time of day, as atmospheric conditions make a huge difference.

This is why around a major city the 100,000 watt FM station can be pretty reliably picked up in a ~100 mile radius by a car antenna, but many AM stations are completely full of static and buzz, unlistenable right downtown.

Re:why no AM as well?

[phyrexianshaw.ca]

except small campus radio networks. which will be a large number of students interests. (and also a key market segment)

until the IPv6 internet starts the dawn of mandatory multicast, a radio antenna will always cost less than an internet connection for >50 continuous users.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Ironhandx]

Wow. Just wow.

I get AM signals from Russia in Newfoundland, Canada sometimes due to the extraordinary range and a trick of the signal bouncing off the atmosphere. Its real quiet and a bit fuzzy but its understandable. At least, it would be if I spoke Russian.

FM gets fuzzy more than 100km from the transmitter.

Re:why no AM as well?

[MaWeiTao]

I thought there was some technical limitation due to requirements on antenna size or problems with interference. I could be totally wrong about that because it's also my understanding that some German company, a few years ago, offered an MP3 player that did support AM radio.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Blackdognight]

Based on my very limited radio knowledge I suspect because AM requires a MUCH larger antenna and a good ground for effective reception. Ref: http://radiomagonline.com/transmission/antennas/radio_antenna_basics/

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

a special ferrite bar antenna,

Big words... non-technically a "ferrite bar antenna" is called a STICK. A stick made of iron.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Dynedain]

Actually those whip antennas are only for FM, not AM. If yours is removable, try taking it off and you'll see that AM still works with no degradation to reception.

I believe the AM ferrite bar is built-in to most car stereos.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know the technical details of it, but AM tuners typically require an antenna that's too big to fit in today's ever shrinking PMP devices. The FM tuner uses the headphone cord as its antenna.

Remember pulling open that transistor radio as a kid? That big black bar you recall seeing is the AM antenna.

Re:why no AM as well?

[WMD_88]

It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. :)

Re:why no AM as well?

[WMD_88]

Ionized iron. ;D

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

AM reception requires a (proportionately) large ferrite antenna, which FM does not. Not enough real estate in the device to shoehorn the antenna in.

Re:why no AM as well?

[DwySteve]

You just a succinct (I believe accurate) technical answer to a question about an Apple product on Slashdot... Is that allowed? :-)

You accidentally the whole verb!

Re:why no AM as well?

[mea_culpa]

Could be that with FM you can use just about anything for an antenna, in the case of a portable music player headphone wires work great. AM on the other hand requires something much more exact and bulky. iPod nano wouldn't be nano anymore.

Re:why no AM as well?

[dangitman]

I get AM signals from Russia in Newfoundland, Canada sometimes

But can you see Sarah Palin from your house?

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

Rubbish. Here in the UK I can pick up loads of stations from all over Europe.

Re:why no AM as well?

[tibit]

OK, so somehow it measures the magnetic component only, as that's only what can pass through the shielded case of the radio. Hmm, I didn't know that.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when is the UK part of Europe?

Re:why no AM as well?

[stewbacca]

why no AM as well?

The fact that Apple caved and provided an utterly useless feature like FM radio is bad enough...now you want Rush Limbaugh and Glen Beck as well?

Re:why no AM as well?

[stewbacca]

I wish I couldn't HEAR Sarah Palin from my house...

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

What's with the "Wow. Just wow." part? Are you amazed that the entire world isn't in possession of esoteric details about spectrum?

It's good to know you Slashdot nerds haven't picked up any social graces in the few months I couldn't stand coming to this site.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Potor]

In Europe, I only listen to AM - the BBC World Service to wit.

Re:why no AM as well?

[QuantumBeep]

Go to an electronics supply catalog and try to find "iron stick".

Re:why no AM as well?

[Anonymous Coward]

You are an idiot.

Re:why no AM as well?

[deniable]

That's not a problem for digital data. Combine it with some AM or FM and you can pack more data on to the carrier.

Re:why no AM as well?

[deniable]

I try not to hold my ferrite bar in public.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Xest]

You can probably be excused for that if you live in the middle of a large country such that you never really got outside broadcasts on AM.

Here in the UK and presumably much of the rest of Europe, it's just something people understand, because if for example you run through AM frequencies in the UK, you'll pick up stuff from France, Belgium, Holland and so on.

There was always something amusing as a kid about tuning into a foreign radio station, I don't know what, but it was just something that made you giggle to yourself.

Re:why no AM as well?

[Trillan]

It's allowed, sure. But it *is* discouraged.

Facebook dead

[line-bundle]

This sounded like a hammer nailing the first nail into the facebook coffin.

Take my word: Ping is the Next Big Thing(tm)(sm)(c).

Re:Facebook dead

[Anonymous Coward]

We need an extraction team in here, now! This man has been fully swallowed by the RDF!

Re:Facebook dead

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh could you imagine? And you know that they are going to discriminate you based on whether or not you use OSX. IMO it has the potential to be a grand purge of stupid off of the internet.

Re:Facebook dead

[Crash Culligan]

line-bundle: This sounded like a hammer nailing the first nail into the facebook coffin.

Take my word: Ping is the Next Big Thing(tm)(sm)(c).

I can't tell if you're being serious or not, but I'm more inclined to believe you are.

First off, they are not going to overtake the likes of Facebook by following it, and the first thing I thought when I saw the Ping design is, "What, did they reskin Facebook or something?"

Second, integration with iTunes does not a social network make. It's a good start making it extraordinarily convenient to a lot of people, but what ultimately makes or breaks a social network is two things: 1) how many people actually make use of it, and 2) how the owners handle people who cause trouble, whether being disruptive, destructive, or dissident. In that second regard, Apple has a somewhat dubious history.

Re:Facebook dead

[localman57]

grand purge of stupid off of the internet.

Again? It's not gonna require a merger with Time Warner this time, is it?

Re:Facebook dead

[vivek7006]

Oh yeah! Facebook is like totally dead. Especially since installing crappy, bloated iTunes is so easy and way better that using facebook on a browser!

Re:Facebook dead

[JayWilmont]

Right idea, wrong target.

There is one social network that is still holding on by its fingernails by focusing on music, which has always been a strength: MySpace.

Re:Facebook dead

[Mongoose Disciple]

Nah. It's not killing Facebook. It's just a further fragmenting of the social networking world.

You've got Facebook for social networking with most of the people you know.

You've got MySpace for networking with the teenagers you know that are still living in 2005.

You've got Twitter for the people you know who think you'd like a play by play of every meaningless event of their day, or who like to regurgitate political talking points in 140 character form.

You've got LinkedIn for people you know professionally.

Now you'll have Ping for the hipster douchebags you know. Since some people are or know a lot of douchebags, it could be a big success, but I still don't see it overtaking Facebook at this point.

Re:Facebook dead

[kdogg73]

I don't think Facebook is going anywhere. Especially a coffin. Maybe you are being sarcastic, but what Facebook has encompassed is a one-stop-shop. But even being the closest thing to online social perfection, everyone still struggles to find the importance of staying on top of it everyday. If it doesn't feed your needs, then it can't cater to everyone like breathing air. Although, there are those that breath Facebook like air.

Sure, I see this Ping being useful for expanding music tastes, but covering high school reunions and what you are doing right now? No. It will all merge one day. It's natural like precipitation that falls from the sky will make its way to the ocean.

Re:Facebook dead

[srussia]

Nah. It's not killing Facebook. It's just a further fragmenting of the social networking world.

You've got Facebook for social networking with most of the people you know.

You've got MySpace for networking with the teenagers you know that are still living in 2005.

You've got Twitter for the people you know who think you'd like a play by play of every meaningless event of their day, or who like to regurgitate political talking points in 140 character form.

You've got LinkedIn for people you know professionally.

Now you'll have Ping for the hipster douchebags you know. Since some people are or know a lot of douchebags, it could be a big success, but I still don't see it overtaking Facebook at this point.

You forgot Orkut.

Re:Facebook dead

[Yvan256]

Is that thing still around? That's like GeoCities 2.0, right?

Re:Facebook dead

[Mongoose Disciple]

You forgot Orkut.

You're right. It's for the people you know who live in Brazil who aren't on Facebook. (In my case that's an empty set -- my Brazilians are on Facebook or LinkedIn as appropriate.)

Re:Facebook dead

[Richard_at_work]

So did everyone else...

Re:Facebook dead

[JxcelDolghmQ]

For the Brazilians you might know?

Re:Facebook dead

[srussia]

You forgot Orkut.

You're right. It's for the people you know who live in Brazil who aren't on Facebook. (In my case that's an empty set -- my Brazilians are on Facebook or LinkedIn as appropriate.)

You forgot Gisele.

Re:Facebook dead

[jgagnon]

IMO it has the potential to be a grand purge of stupid off of the internet.

Damn you and your empty promises. :p

Re:Facebook dead

[Gilmoure]

Where's tumblr fit in to all this?

Re:Facebook dead

[cynyr]

for all of the Brazilians you know?

Re:Facebook dead

[joshier]

Just because myspace is in heavy decline doesn't mean they were doing all the wrong things. facebook is severely lacking in the music area and apple have been luck/smart/quick enough to try and capture that market. Users are on the rise for music, just check out spotify/last.fm/we7 sometime. Personally I hope that the quicker we get away from status updates and the focus on what we're all doing in the very moment the better.

Re:Facebook dead

[LynnwoodRooster]

I'll wait until Netcraft confirms it, and Dvorak denies it...

Re:Facebook dead

[Anonymous Coward]

In finnish, "orkut" is a short for "orgasmi", which is the same thing as "orgasm".

Re:Facebook dead

[mjwx]

Take my word: Ping is the Next Big Thing(tm)(sm)(c).

Just like Google Buzz was.

Re:Facebook dead

[deniable]

Yeah, just like traceroute killed MySpace.

Re:Facebook dead

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm with you on this one.

All I see happening is Apple further leading the Apple fanboys (and girls) down the path to hell that is Apple lock-in. Once they're pulled away from anything non-Apple, the assimilation will be complete (as predicted by the "Futurama" episode where Mom keeps declaring the masses "Stupid A$$holes" for buying the "Eye-phone").

Whereas Facebook was a good idea that became the realm of the aforementioned a$$holes, Apple is shooting out of the gate with all their loyal a$$holes in tow. Or "hipster douchebags". You say "poh-tay-toh"...

Re:Facebook dead

[Vectormatic]

just wait untill apple 'patches a safari bug' horribly killing facebook rendering on any idevice, and then a month later, rejects the facebook app from the app store, and uses their remote backdoor to kill it on every idevice.

i'm only (half) kidding off course...

Re:Facebook dead

[alexandre_ganso]

I thought that but not for facebook - because it does not have farmville - yet.

But there are other social networks that yes, might be in problems. One is Last.FM, because its social part is EXACTLY what Ping is. The only difference between last.fm and ping is that in DE, UK and US, you can listen to music on it for free. For the rest of the world, and for those who pirates songs, ping is free while last.fm is not.

Another one in danger is spotify - more or less the same, but with different country options. So where spotify is not free, ping has an advantage.

Although hard to believe, MySpace is huge for indie bands. Nothing related to the big recording companies backing iTunes can compete with that, so it is more or less safe. They must thank god everyday for not being bought by yahoo.

Another one that seems dead already is RDIO.

Re:Facebook dead

[vuffi_raa]

This sounded like a hammer nailing the first nail into the facebook coffin

not really, if anything it challenges last fm, soundcloud and myspace, which is pretty much only used to host music nowadays. Facebook doesn't really have a lot of options for distributing or networking around music.

I am prob one of the only people here with an

[hsmith]

Apple TV, and I do enjoy it. But going to "rentals only" is sure a load of shit. I don't mind paying for TV I like, but if I am going to be forced to "rent" shows I'd like to watch a few times, I'll just go buy DVD's then.

But, the netflix addition is nice, but they don't have enough content to view on demand anyway.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[luiss]

You can stream from your computer.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[grub]

You can stream from your computer.

But will it stream x264 and/or xvid from the computer? That's the big question for me. The original AppleTV didn't, only Quicktime and MP4 IIRC.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Anonymous Coward]

Same formats as the original unfortunately.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[EvanED]

But, the netflix addition is nice, but they don't have enough content to view on demand anyway.

What about all of these?

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[JakiChan]

I'm gonna bet it will only stream videos that can play in iTunes. That would rule my subtitled anime mkv files right out.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[ricosalomar]

Yeah. That's gonna be a problem.

Gonna have to get a dedicated box just to run handbrake.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[StoatBringer]

The problem then is that you have you have to have your computer turned on and have iTunes running. Not a huge inconvenience, in the grand scheme of things, but if I'm downstairs and decide I want to watch something, I then have to run upstairs and turn everything on, log on, start up iTunes and then go back down again.

With my current AppleTV I have the internal drive full of my favourite movies and TV shows and it works quite happily as a stand-alone device. If I buy movies from the AppleTV they eventually
get synced to the machine upstairs and backed up, but I don't need to worry about the other machine being switched off or going into standby .As for the "instant streaming" from the web, that's great if you have a decent connection. If not, with the old ATV you could start it downloading and then watch the whole thing later when it had finished.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Gilmoure]

I have a MacMini has home AV server with all our ripped movies, purchased content (a few kids movies and modern Dr. Who eps) as well as a tv tuner for recording stuff. It's on all the time but isn't hooked up to a monitor or anything. Just sits up on a shelf next to a cat6 drop I had installed when we built house. Streaming to AppleTV works fine so one of these new mini-AppleTV's will probably work for us. The price is low enough that I'll probably put one in the guest room soon.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Anonymous Coward]

You can stream from your computer.

But will it stream x264 and/or xvid from the computer? That's the big question for me. The original AppleTV didn't, only Quicktime and MP4 IIRC.

Transcoding is your friend. Streaming transcoding is your close friend.

Disclaimer: I've never tried either program, I just did a quick google search. Or maybe TVersity or Orb will support the AppleTV.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[cayenne8]

"The problem then is that you have you have to have your computer turned on and have iTunes running. Not a huge inconvenience, in the grand scheme of things, but if I'm downstairs and decide I want to watch something, I then have to run upstairs and turn everything on, log on, start up iTunes and then go back down again."

You don't just leave all of your computers in your house turned on 24/7??

I thought pretty much everyone did that these days...honestly.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[eldepeche]

From the tech specs on apple.com:

* H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
* MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats
* Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

So yes, you will be able to use x264 to encode videos that will play on this. But there are a ton of other devices that will stream 1080p H.264 with better audio, so unless you really want the privilege to spend a dollar an episode for a TV show...

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[TobyRush]

I don't mind paying for TV I like, but if I am going to be forced to "rent" shows I'd like to watch a few times, I'll just go buy DVD's then.

Are you really buying a lot of stuff through your Apple TV? What non-Apple TV-owners may not realize is that when you buy something through the Apple TV interface, you cannot move it to another device (like an iPod, iPhone, or other computer). If you have a computer in the house somewhere, it makes a ton more sense to buy the media through iTunes on the computer, and then either stream it or copy it to your Apple TV.

We rent stuff on the Apple TV (which allows us to start watching it before the download completes), but if we decide to buy something, we do it on the computer. That way we can transfer it around at our leisure. So for us, having the Apple TV do rentals only is not a big deal.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[timeOday]

Don't new TV's basically have "AppleTV" built in? Newer Sony TVs (and I imagine other brands) can stream from computer (DNLA), stream from Internet (including netflix, with Hulu joining next month), can play pictures/movies from USB storage... what else does AppleTV do?

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[CronoCloud]

Not unless you want a very large power bill. Sure, tech-obsessed geeks don't care, but most people do.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[slriv]

This is it. I have a first gen Apple TV and although for the longest I was using it hacked and running xbmc and other packages. Today I simply watch what I've already got in iTunes streamed from the computer. Storing any of this crap on the Apple TV is just wrong anyway.

The big thing I worry about is that their rental system is pretty messed up today. You start a download and then try to go do something else (like watch youtube videos or whatever) and then you find your download has been paused until you resume it (LAME). Throw in that their servers must be made out of Pentium 1s wired up with banyan vines or something from 20 years ago and you'll be lucky to watch a rented HD movie on your Apple TV 8 hours after starting the download. Frankly, they have to fix that if they want people to flock to this system.

Beyond that, they need to make i support other formats beyond the quicktime formats. I don't mean abandon what they have, but rather support the others and naturally other containers. It's stupid I have a bunch of movies I ripped years back that I can play in itunes (with addons etc) but can't be viewed on any of my itunes controlled devices. This is really the biggest problem I have with the whole itunes/idevices thing. I like the interface, I kind of like itms and I like that at least the music is drm free, but no out of the box support for other video formats and even some audio formats makes it kind of a pain to deal with for me.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[grub]

I've tried both to my xbox. Ok, but the Popcorn Hour NMTs are far easier and don't require transcoding.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Anonymous Coward]

what else does AppleTV do?

Work with your year-old plasma TV for only $100?

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[GraZZ]

Let's all go replace all of our TVs then. But that's expensive and wasteful. If only someone would sell a little box I could plug into my current TV that does these things...

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[cayenne8]

"Not unless you want a very large power bill. Sure, tech-obsessed geeks don't care, but most people do."

Compared to the amount of my power bill my AC runs up during the summer....computers on 24/7 don't even make a dent.

Seriously...how much can an avg 2-4 computers on all the time run you? I don't know anyone out of my friend set that has such a money bind that they could even notice this on the power bill.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Marcika]

Don't new TV's basically have "AppleTV" built in? Newer Sony TVs (and I imagine other brands) can stream from computer (DNLA), stream from Internet (including netflix, with Hulu joining next month), can play pictures/movies from USB storage... what else does AppleTV do?

Link with your iTunes account for a seamless movie buying^Wrenting experience. Link with Mac and iTunes for photo album and music album playback. Have a pretty UI. Provide a monoculture with a large enough installed base for snazzy apps to be developed.

Now I don't like the piece of bloat that is iTunes/iTMS and thus won't purchase any product that requires it -- but there are tens of millions of people who do (and tens of millions more who won't even know what iTunes is, but would love an easy-to-use old-people friendly movie rental machine).

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[The End Of Days]

Some of us aren't trying to set a record for wasteful consumption.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[Anonymous Coward]

Accommodate early adopters with buyer's remorse? I would think that the number of DVD drives sold independently of PCs would show that adding an upgrade for 1/10 or 1/20 the cost makes a lot of sense. It may be that this generation of AppleTV will only have TV's x years or older as a market, but that is the market that first went HD and so likes toys. If Apple is able to upgrade AppleTV over the years to be the equivalent of *latest features in new TVs* and the TV manufacturers don't make their TVs software upgradeable (and what is their incentive to do so?) AppleTV could be viable longterm. After a little experience in this market, they could parlay their alliance with AT&T into designing a friendly user interface for U-Verse.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[adolf]

AppleTV lets me keep functions in separate boxes so that when one fails, I don't have to toss (and replace!) the whole mess.

Just as my stereo is just an audio system and my TV is just a video monitor, AppleTV is just a source device. These things can connect together, but are not dependent on one another in order to operate.

My money would rather buy non-portable things that do one thing well and can be upgraded and replaced easily, than monolithic things that cannot be. I do not ever want to be forced to buy an entirely new television just because streaming formats have evolved, and Sony (or whoever) doesn't care to support them on my older set*, nor do I want to be swayed one direction or another by such features when purchasing devices.

For instance: When I bought my TV a couple of years ago, I didn't care much about what inputs it had, how shitty its speakers were, what stuff I could jack into it with USB, how many digital formats it could support, or how gee-whiz its included remote control was. I only cared that it had an excellent picture and good community support. Adding more features only serves to detract from the goal of selecting a display with best picture quality at a given pricepoint.

YMMV.

*: Obviously I could always buy a Sony with DLNA or whatever, jack it into my network, and add whatever set top box is needed later on down the road, but I'd rather reach the logical conclusion of that straight away and buy separate components to begin with.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[cyclomedia]

My always-on computer is an ex-laptop, running off a barely warm 14v wall-wart with battery, screen, optical drive and keyboard removed for optimal power consumption and cooling :-) (keyboard,mouse and video are hooked into a KVM next to my "proper" computer but i generally tend to just ssh into it)

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[MBGMorden]

Install XBMC and it will. I personally have no use for my AppleTV in it's default state, but I love the little thing with that installed.

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[cayenne8]

"Some of us aren't trying to set a record for wasteful consumption."

I'm not "trying" to do anything...just isn't something I'd have given much of a 2nd thought to as being any type of issue. Some of my boxes at home are servers I use (personal)...some of them are MythTV boxes...etc.

And the rest..well, just never thought about turning them off...that way whenever I'm home, I can use one no matter what room of the house I'm in without having to wait to boot, etc...

Re:I am prob one of the only people here with an

[iainl]

AppleTV is the only device that can stream iTunes-encrypted files to your TV/amp, that's the sole difference. If you're the sort of person who has spent a lot of money in the iTunes store on video files, it's got a use.

Otherwise, yes - new TVs, new Blu-ray players, PS3s, 360s and God only knows what else will stream DNLA stuff. Plus my laptop's got a HDMI output, so I could just cut the network bit completely, and not worry about the fact my ageing 802.11b network doesn't have the bandwidth for HD.

Market Dominance

[Haffner]

The new iPod Touch is going to dominate the market. It's better than many point and shoot cameras, it's better than pretty much every other media player, it beats out flip video recorders, it has extensive gaming platform options, and it's good enough for watching media on.

I don't love Apple, but it looks like they've created the gadget for teenagers or people who rely on a non-iphone as their primary phone.

Re:Market Dominance

[kdogg73]

OT:

"Going to war without the French is like going deer hunting without your accordion." ~General Norman Schwarzkopf

I liked that quote so much, I had to look it up. According to Snopes, Jed Babbin said that.

Carry on.

Re:Market Dominance

[Gazoogleheimer]

It's better than many point-and-shoot cameras? That's simply an absurd claim. I suppose, however, that instead of actually judging it upon what the pictures look like, modern cameras are now ranked based on how well you can share your (bad) pictures on (bad) websites so you can show your (bad) friends your (bad) adventures.

Re:Market Dominance

[Anonymous Coward]

"Better than many point and shoot cameras"? You must be joking.

It has two cameras. One is 0.3 megapixels, one is 0.6 megapixels. Both have cheap, plastic, fixed focus, fixed focal length "lenses". Both have absolutely tiny sensors like the typical cellphone cam, vastly smaller than even a cheap entry-level point-and-shoot camera, and microscopic compared to the sensors in many cameras.

It doesn't "beat out" Flip's products, either. It just barely matches them on feature set -- not a difficult task, because the Flip recorders are likewise extremely poorly specified, and sold mostly on hype.

The iPod Touch isn't a replacement for even the cheapest dedicated camera. It will slightly edge out absolute bottom of the line camera phones, and that's about it.

Re:Market Dominance

[mrjatsun]

> The new iPod Touch is going to dominate the market. It's better than many point and shoot cameras

ummmm... yeah... No....

From the tech spec...
        still photos (960x720) with back camera

They put a crappy camera in there.. Just meant for video. Doesn't make much sense...
Maybe they're trying to protect the iCamera market in 2011... ;-)

Re:Market Dominance

[WillAdams]

You said:

``It's better than many point and shoot cameras''

According to:

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

it has ``still photos (960 x 720) with back camera''

If it had the same camera capabilities as the iPhone, I'd agree --- but either those numbers are wrong, or it's seriously crippled as a camera.

William

Re:Market Dominance

[tuppe666]

No the gadget for teenagers is a smartphone. I suspect it will be the new wave of cheap Androids. I say this simply because listening to your music on your phone is just "What people do". Its become nonsense to say otherwise.

I also suspect saying that its an extensive gaming platform has yet to become a reality, although MOST of the hardware is there, even for some unique gaming experiences. Its not the new Nintendo. However much it is sold as such.

Re:Market Dominance

[drsmithy]

I liked that quote so much, I had to look it up. According to Snopes, Jed Babbin said that.

Made even more hilarious since they're both American.

Re:Market Dominance

[tepples]

it looks like they've created the gadget for teenagers or people who rely on a non-iphone as their primary phone.

Especially given the reluctance of the major smartphone makers to make an "Android pod touch" for people who are currently happy with the cheaper plans available on dumbphones (for example, as low as $5/mo for Virgin Mobile) and don't need web unless they're already in Wi-Fi range.

Re:Market Dominance

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously.

With the small form factor and general utility, I had gotten myself really worked up that the new iPod touch might make a great camera replacement. Then I saw those specs and just felt disgusted.

Re:Market Dominance

[MrHanky]

Wrong. It has a decent camera for a phone -- but nothing special. Not even for a phone. And come to think of it, you can get phones at practically the same price point with an equally good camera, that can do everything the Touch can, and much more. So why buy the Touch? For the slightly better screen and the gyroscope? It's a fine device, but there's just no reason to buy an iPod anymore. The iPod came along with downloadable mp3s, but streaming is just so much more convenient these days -- at least as an option. And for that, you really want a 3G connection if you ever step out of your home. Streaming is what's going to dominate the market, and iTunes is going to struggle to compete.

Re:Market Dominance

[inpher]

You said:

``It's better than many point and shoot cameras''

According to:

http://www.apple.com/ipodtouch/specs.html

it has ``still photos (960 x 720) with back camera''

If it had the same camera capabilities as the iPhone, I'd agree --- but either those numbers are wrong, or it's seriously crippled as a camera.

William

That is the video resolution, not the photo resolution. In fact it is exactly the same as the iPhone 4 in terms of picture size/quality.

Re:Market Dominance

[UnknowingFool]

I wouldn't say "better" as that is somewhat subjective most of the time. I would think it would be more used due to the convenience of not having to carry another device. However, it doesn't have a zoom. In terms of sheer pixels, it doesn't have the same resolution. Pretty much these days, I use my camera phone if I need to take a shot of something unexpectedly. If I planned to take pictures (family events, outings), I normally bring my camera.

Re:Market Dominance

[djdavetrouble]

"Then I saw those specs and just felt disgusted."

I realized just now that tech companies are actually delaying the digital convergence, and the profit must be staggering.

"boys, if we can delay this convergence thing a couple of years, we can sell millions of cameras, mp3 players, ebook readers, flip HD cams,
we'll get to the convergence later"

Re:Market Dominance

[Anonymous Coward]

The new iPod Touch is going to dominate the market. It's better than many point and shoot cameras, it's better than pretty much every other media player, it beats out flip video recorders, it has extensive gaming platform options, and it's good enough for watching media on.

I don't love Apple, but it looks like they've created the gadget for teenagers or people who rely on a non-iphone as their primary phone.

This is the funniest comment I've read in the long time. I thank you.

Re:Market Dominance

[tgibbs]

The automated HDR looks like a very cool feature, and addresses what I find to be the biggest limitation of simple cameras--the limited dynamic range with automatic exposure. I don't know of any point-and-shoot camera that does this.

Re:Market Dominance

[bigrockpeltr]

yes because 10 yr old sub megapixel point and shoot cameras are still point and shoot cameras you insensitive clod!

Re:Market Dominance

[lowlymarine]

Cameras, photos, and video
Video recording, HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with audio; still photos (960 x 720) with back camera

There is no ambiguity whatsoever to that sentence; the rear camera is not the same as the iPhone 4's.

Re:Market Dominance

[Anonymous Coward]

Read that line again. "still photos (960x720)..." It's a seriously crippled cam and they didn't even include the LED flash for it either.

Re:Market Dominance

[Hijacked Public]

If it is the same camera as in the iphone 4, it is better than many. Different from 'better than most', of course.

The color is oversaturated but that is what most people want. Focus is usually sharp and tap-to-focus is more intuitive for most people than center focus and recompose, or whatever other half working focus wizardry is being tried these days. Low light performance is not good at all and the painfully white flash blows highlights inside whatever meager range it has, but on camera direct flash sucks universally anyway.

The main deficiency is that it is hard to hold steady, which is exacerbated by having to tap the screen to capture the photo.

Re:Market Dominance

[demonbug]

I liked that quote so much, I had to look it up. According to Snopes, Jed Babbin said that.

Made even more hilarious since they're both American.

Ssh, if you bring up the fact that the U.S. couldn't have won the revolutionary war without the help of the French half the population's heads will explode, and the rest of us will have to spend all Labor Day weekend cleaning up the mess!

Re:Market Dominance

[tayhimself]

It is unlikely that it is much worse than most smallish p&s cameras. The sensor size (1/3.2") is worse, but there are a number of advances over regular point and shoots. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/06/sizing-up-the-iphone-4-for-shutterbugs.ars

Personally I think the HDR camera mode is really cool.

Re:Market Dominance

[Tuneland]

"Better than many point and shoot cameras"? No. But it's like today's Polaroid.

Re:Market Dominance

[Just Some Guy]

It doesn't "beat out" Flip's products, either. It just barely matches them on feature set -- not a difficult task, because the Flip recorders are likewise extremely poorly specified, and sold mostly on hype.

I bought a Flip for two reasons: 1) it was cheap, 2) it's extremely simple and I don't need 1,000 "professional" settings to record my kid's piano recital. Sure, there are better cameras, but there weren't any that were better and cheaper and easier to use when I bought mine.

Re:Market Dominance

[ichthyoboy]

The new Canon S95 has this as well.

Re:Market Dominance

[tgibbs]

That's nice to know--I was looking for a point-and-shoot camera with this feature some months ago and couldn't find one. Of course the S95 is brand-new and costs as much as the top of the iPod Touch line (although it has other desirable features, and doubtless better optics).

Re:Market Dominance

[arikol]

I agree with the you on the actual quality of the camera.
However, the usage of modern cameras is mostly for opportunity pics which means that the best camera is the one you always have on you. Additionally, the HDR feature should make the pictures seem quite a bit clearer/better than the any single pic.

It's just about modern usage patterns, although I think they should have higher res still pictures on the back camera. Preferably something like on the iPhone 4 which actually gets better pics than my two year old Olympus which is bigger than the iphone.. The Olympus wins on resolution (and physical zoom) but loses badly on noise, sensitivity and speed.

Re:Market Dominance

[dangitman]

It's better than many point-and-shoot cameras? That's simply an absurd claim.

I take it that you are not familiar with the point-and-shoot cameras that most people carry? To say that they are shitty would be too generous.

Re:Market Dominance

[Overzeetop]

A trick (you may already know) is that you can press the "shutter" button, and it will capture on release. That helps a _lot_ with steady focus. Of course practice helps too. Then again, I cut my teeth developing my own b&w film and making prints in a real darkroom.

I agree - I've been very pleasantly surprised by the new camera - it's head and shoulders above any other phone camera, and as good (for it's limited zoom range) as many of the small-sensor cameras on the market.

Re:Market Dominance

[EvanED]

Unfortunately, iPhone != iPod Touch, and if the tech specs people are linking two lower (on Apple's site) are accurate, the cameras are vastly different. The new iPod Touch has a lower resolution than the digital camera my parents had when I was in high school a decade ago.

I am by no means a megapixel counter. I just replaced an 8 MP camera with an 18 MP one (Rebel XT to a T2i), but the increase in pixel count was one of the least attractive changes. I'd much rather see Canon take a couple generations, not increase the pixel count at all, and half the noise. But at the same time, 960x720 won't even fill some netbook monitors at 1:1.

Re:Market Dominance

[tayhimself]

Yes agreed. I made some incorrect assumptions.

Re:Market Dominance

[AmonTheMetalhead]

Phone camera's are junk, the only thing i use them for is to take a snapshot of a poster with events if i goto a concert, or snapshots of the whiteboards at work after a brainstorming session (to lazy to write it all out again)

Re:Market Dominance

[PintoPiman]

That's simply an absurd claim. I suppose, however, that instead of actually judging it upon what the pictures look like, modern cameras are now ranked based on how well you can share your (bad) pictures on (bad) websites so you can show your (bad) friends your (bad) adventures.

Well, yeah. That's what most folks take photos FOR. Professional photographers have their wants and needs, but for just about anyone else, photos are about sharing moments with others. Photos of your kids doing stuff, photos of your friends on a trip, photos of a cool sunrise on your vacation. Convenience of use (if your phone is your camera you only need one device), management and sharing can easily trump quality or features.

I have a high-end DSLR and an iPhone 3GS. Guess which one I use more? Ask any pro photographer and he'll tell you that a camera's only good if you have it on you.

Re:Market Dominance

[PintoPiman]

It doesn't "beat out" Flip's products, either. It just barely matches them on feature set -- not a difficult task, because the Flip recorders are likewise extremely poorly specified, and sold mostly on convenience and ease of use at the expense of high-end features.

FTFY

Re:Market Dominance

[Nysul]

"Many" includes the vast sums of POS digital cameras already out there. My iPhone 4 sure as hell beats my 5 year old Sony P&S, my parent's 2 year old Kodak P&S, and my grandparents (I don't even know what brand it is but it's junk). I'm sure it is nowhere near the quality of a nice $350+ modern P&S camera but nobody expects it to be.

Re:Market Dominance

[boreddotter]

I believe they sacrificed camera quality for two reasons:

1- to differentiate it from the iPhone.
2- To make the iPod Touch thinner.

Re:Market Dominance

[Anonymous Coward]

From a "Kevin J Moran" no less.
Where you born with that last name or is it more of a fitting description, Moran?

Re:Market Dominance

[mjwx]

It's better than many point-and-shoot cameras? That's simply an absurd claim.

Indeed, I have an old Canon Ixus 70 point and shoot (powershot something or other for you yanks) and it's so far superior in terms of focusing and picture clarity then any phone or MP3 player I've seen. Even my new Moto Milestone which does fairly good pics at 5 Mpix is nothing compared to the quality I get at the same res on my Canon. Lets not even begin with action shots, I've never seen a mobile take a picture of anything moving without the whole thing being horribly blurry and compared to Canon G9 or even a modern Ixus action shots on my point and shoot suck.

Re:Market Dominance

[wbo]

I don't know about other brands, but most Sony point and shoot cameras support automatically taking 3 pictures at 3 different exposure values (usually called bracket exposure) which can be later combined into a HDR image. I have used it on several occasions on my W290 and it works quite well.

I suspect other manufactures have similar options - this is definitely not unique to Apple.

They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Steauengeglase]

That's gonna be awesome for internet help-desk workers. How about creating a Flickr clone and calling it iFconfig?

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[MrEricSir]

Sure, and the Windows version can be called iPconfig.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Junior J. Junior III]

There should be absolutely no confusion about this, since iFconfig and ifconfig are clearly not the same. Any unix user knows this!

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[six025]

Sure, and the Windows version can be called iPconfig.

As a Mac convert, I think the Windows version would be more appropriately named Pong ;-)

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Dancindan84]

A mapquest clone called traceroute?

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Anonymous Coward]

Voice communication, however, is case-insensitive.

This of course, is news to Unix users, as this requires interacting with other people without using a computer.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ya but on HFS+ with case-insensitive filenames they are........

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[cynyr]

a maps.google.com clone called nMap?

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[e4g4]

Voice communication, however, is case-insensitive.

Nonsense - I yell all my capital letters.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[chickenrob]

I did a traceroute on your birthday party location. Is your address 192.168.0.1 Main street?

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[veg_all]

Almost every non-cl-using employee I've met in the web business uses ping as a synonym for 'contact', but often specifically contact over the internet, though IM or email or whatever and has for a couple or three years at least. I've always figured it was probably cl-using employees using it in a similar sense, which they do, and have as long as I remember, and being overheard. This made it sound 'hip', in a geeky kind of hip. This means it's our own fault.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[Bob_Geldof]

nmap is 13 years old today. May it live to be 113.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[drinkypoo]

icanhazcheezburger is being renamed to cat
all porn sites will be merged into two: head, and tail
fox news is now known as kill

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[cthulhu11]

I've used OSX desktops/laptops since 2003 (when I gave up on Solaris for that role) and have largely been pleased at stuff Just Working, but the case sensitivity is a seriously *WTF were they thinking* annoyance. Sure, you can turn on case sensitivity, but various software doesn't grok it and it's not worth the aggravation.

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[ErkDemon]

May 2009: Microsoft launch a new ... search engine ... and call it bing
Sept 2010: Apple launch a last.fm ripoff and call it ping.

The people who own the ding.com and qing.com domains must be hoping that someone makes them an offer soon.

People are really running out of ideas.

PS: Ever noticed how much the "bing" logo looks like the logo for "Blender"?

Re:They had to name it ping, didn't they?

[ErkDemon]

PS: Ever noticed how much the "bing" logo looks like the logo for "Blender"?

Okay, "looked", past tense. They've now changed it. But the "bing" favicon on my browser is still a blender-like blue b with an orange target bullseye.

No iTunes yet but...

[sherpajohn]

We got a few significant OS X 10.6 updates today - firmware, graphics and security. Well maybe not today, MacBook has not been on for a few days...darned wedding.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Flea of Pain]

You know your apple fandom has gone to far when you are angry that you are getting married because it means you can't turn on the MacBook for a few days. Seek help.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not necessarily his wedding.

[whoosh]

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm surprised he turned it off at all. Shouldn't he be complaining that the wedding interrupted his uptime?

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Matt Perry]

I didn't see anything in there about him participating in the wedding.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Flea of Pain]

That's even worse!!! I kid though, that was an oversight on my part.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

And even if it was his wedding it's still just a church visit (if you're a Christian) followed by a party. The only remarkable thing about the whole thing (unless you're reeeally Christian...) is that it's hugely more expensive than the average church visit and party.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

Fucking WHOOSH.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[CheeseTroll]

Well, speaking as a guy who got married (I won't say how long ago!), the few days leading up to one's wedding are generally a heckuva lot less pleasant than the few days after the wedding.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

He's not allowed to see the MacBook before the wedding. It's bad luck!

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[Anonymous Coward]

You know your level of autism has gone untreated too long when you can't even identify a joke when you see one. Seek help.

Re:No iTunes yet but...

[DarthVain]

You misunderstand. He is marrying his MacBook. This is also the reason it is not turned on.

Zing.

Coldplay?

[quangdog]

I thought John Mayer was the go-to artist to show up at Apple events....

99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[WillAffleckUW]

I'm really glad to hear that ABC and NBC will be paying us 99 cents to watch their shows.

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[Anonymous Coward]

I assume if we're paying $1 per show, there aren't commercials in the shows, right? .....right???

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[MrEricSir]

Yes, it's the AllAdvantage business model for TV! Can I also get referral commissions?

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[DCstewieG]

Ars Technica live blog said they are commercial-free.

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[scorp1us]

Right, but why would you pay when they broadcas tit for free?
We need a TV tuner solution that can stream to our AppleTV.
This device would be called a DVR.
So what we need are DVRs that can stream to AppleTV.

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[ProfessionalCookie]

Yes, that's correct.

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, it's the AllAdvantage business model for TV! Can I also get referral commissions?

I got some real money from those folks back in the day...good times...

Re:99 cent rentals for ABC and NBC

[Sunshinerat]

Not on cable, the FCC does not allow such filth to be broadcasted for free.

The top things AppleTV users requested...

[thestudio_bob]

They listed the top things users were requesting for a new AppleTV, but I have a sneaking suspicion that their users were maybe the content providers.

Seriously... the number one requested feature is a frick'n DVR!!!

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[Anonymous Coward]

They listed the top things users were requesting for a new AppleTV, but I have a sneaking suspicion that their users were maybe the content providers.

Seriously... the number one requested feature is a frick'n DVR!!!

Call your cable company - the system that was *supposed* to make it possible to build DVRs that worked on any network (CableCard) is an unmitigated clusterfuck, mostly due to providers not wanting to give up the $5/mo "box rental" business.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[kimble3]

We wouldn't need a DVR if they would just let us down free TV episodes through iTunes! That is the killer app... The economics just don't make any sense at all... I can get a DVR set top box that will let me record and save as much as I want for $10 a month or I can watch 10 episodes once with the Apple TV... which do you think people are going to do?

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[MemoryDragon]

Well face it AppleTV has been a pointless garbage product and ever will be until Apple steps from its high horse or we do not want TV on AppleTV, which probably will happen when hell freezes over. The only thing which was a plus for the old apple tv you could mod it to a real power mac and use it more or less as a cheap unix server, but thats it period. With the new one they took the only real interesting part away and now it is totally pointless and uniteresting unless you want a streaming client which cannot even do UPnP for 99$.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[samkass]

Seriously... the number one requested feature is a frick'n DVR!!!

What they've given you instead is a way to cancel the DVR service ($10/mo) and cable service ($60/mo) and instead get the 10-20 episodes you actually watch for $0.99 each without missing anything or getting overwritten by a President's speech. It's a la carte television! If Comcast let us pay for only what we watched you'd be dancing in the streets. Instead people love to find a way to hate Apple.

TiVo already does DVR pretty well. What could Apple really have added there?

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[Anonymous Coward]

Insightful, really? AppleTV isn't cable and it isn't live TV. People want dvr's to fast forward through commercials, pause live tv and record shows to watch at their convenience. Please explain how AppleTV, with no commercials, on-demand shows and ability to both pause and skip to different points in a show/movie differs from this experience?

If people want to own the shows in perpetuity (since you can store shows locally with a DVR), they can purchase them at the iTunes store and stream them via their AppleTV box to watch as many times as they want.

AppleTV can be either a supplement or an alternate to cable, but I assure you there Apple has absolutely no interest in it working WITH cable.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that even count as a feature when it's so many miles away from the point of the device it's not even funny?

I mean, come on. It's like being pissed off that a desktop computer doesn't come with a V8 engine.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[Have Blue]

Apple is not trying to coexist with cable TV, they are trying to destroy it. Once they get you to cancel your cable, DVR functionality will just be dead weight.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[mrmoj0]

Apple will never include a DVR. They not only won't embrace the horrible channel numbering metaphor that we rely on today, but also wouldn't allow the complexity of integrating with a cable company or other tuner to muck up the simplicity of their product.

I want to watch a show. I don't want to remember what channel it's on or what time it's on. A DVR is a decent patch to shore up the existing video delivery system, but won't last long in the ongoing evolution.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[Cloudgatherer]

This is true. A friend of mine did cancel his cable TV and watches his television from his AppleTV, either buying individual episodes or entire seasons so he can watch what he likes.

What I am a little surprised about is the AppleTV move to no purchasing (only rentals). If true, that seems like a step backwards in how my friend is currently using his AppleTV. I would have to question why he would keep using the device if the service no longer offered individual episodes or seasons for purchase.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[FLaSh SWT]

He can still purchase the episodes or seasons but will have to do so from iTunes on his computer and then stream the purchases locally to the AppleTV. This may add an extra step he used to be able to do directly from the ATV?

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[DirePickle]

I don't have cable and haven't for ages, but you just made me want to give Time Warner money just so that Apple loses.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[illumin8]

Seriously... the number one requested feature is a frick'n DVR!!!

That's because people are idiots and they only want the function of the DVR - being able to time shift their favorite shows. They don't care how it is delivered. The DVR is a hack, meant to record content that is broadcast at a fixed time for later playback.

When people finally have the "universal library in the cloud with all TV shows and Movies ever created" they'll wonder why they even cared about DVRs in the first place.

Re:The top things AppleTV users requested...

[cheesybagel]

Digital "rentals" are stupid. People should be able to buy the episode once and watch it forever.

You will also likely at least have a couple of news channels you will want to see on cable for which the Apple "rental" service is useless. For these channels some form of web streaming is warranted. IMO you are better off with some form of web video streaming device. At least you can watch Youtube, Crunchyroll, and (if you are in the US) Hulu.

Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[dsgrntlxmply]

I use a Shuffle to play nasty industrial "music" to get me through gym sessions. The gen. 2 Shuffle worked very nicely, but eventually succumbed to some combination of sweat and battery cycle limit. The gen. 3 that I got to replace it has been a bitter disappointment.

I can only hope that the newly announced Shuffle has cured itself of the extreme idiocy of having the controls embedded in the earphone cord. "Ear buds" do not work for me - they fail to block external noise, and they fall out of my presumably alien mutant (not-Apple-spec.) ears. I ended up having to buy a $20 Belch-kin accessory to be able to use a decent Sennheiser sports headset.

Navigation with the single-button control has been an unspeakable horror. Having to click 3 times to move backward, would be a challenge for me if I were doing nothing else, and is made worse while I am grinding away on a stationary bike. I end up getting voice titles, fast forwards, replays, and anything other than the steady backward progression through recently played songs, that I wanted.

I want something small and minimal: no glowing screens. I want something that was designed to be USED.

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[Yvan256]

That's the fourth generation iPod shuffle. Almost the same as the second generation, a tiny bit smaller, with playlists and voiceover.

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[DrgnDancer]

I love the theory of ear bud controls, but the practice seems to have a lot of flaws. I got a fancy set of ear buds with my iPhone that allow me to control the iPod functionality (and are also the mike when I use the phone function). If I'm just walking down the street they work great. They also work fine as a telephone headset. The problem comes when I attempt to jog with them, which as it happens, is the primary intended use for headphones on the device for me.

I start to sweat, and beads of water run down the cord to the mike/controller. Eventually enough water hits it to start shorting the switches that are supposed to control the music and I start getting random stops, pauses, plays, fast forwards, or rewinds. Now I have to keep to two sets of headphones. One for use while I'm working out, one for use when I need to use the phone hands free. It's a minor complaint, but I sure wish they'd do something about it.

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[adamstew]

Congratulations. You got exactly what you wanted. They are going back to the old design of the shuffle: clip on device with a 4 way nav and a center button. They are then adding to that, the voice-over ability, so you can have multiple playlists, etc.

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[IndustrialComplex]

It's a minor complaint, but I sure wish they'd do something about it.

iSweatband. 2011.

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[prestonmichaelh]

Get a Sansa Clip+. They are about the same size as a Shuffle, play just about any format of music file, have great battery life, a lot bigger internal memory for the price, plus a microSD slot to expand their capacity. The battery life is great. There is a small glowing screen, but it dims/turns off after about 10 seconds without a button press. I honestly don't understand why people by Apple music players (ipod, shuffle, etc.). I'm not trying to be insulting or anything, I just don't get it. The Clip+ doesn't even look ugly. What could the Shuffle do that it doesn't, except maybe have perfect integration with iTunes, which is a horribly bloated program anyway (and which will sync to a Clip+ as well).

Re:Hoping for Shuffle UI improvement

[mlts]

Same thing I said. The 2G Shuffle had a lot going for it. It was reasonably priced, had the buttons on the device so I could use cheap earbuds or something for the gym, had a decent battery life, and was all around well designed. The third gen looked cooler, but one either had to buy an adapter for the buttons or use special headphones. Don't forget the multiple tapping needed to skip back and forward songs.

"Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away" seems to sum it up best about the latest Shuffle. For the form factor and what the device does, it is extremely hard to improve on the 2G design. The 4G did so by having one switch (on/play sequence/play shuffle), as opposed to two (on/off and sequence/shuffle), as well as having voiceover, and being able to use the buttons from the third gen Shuffle.

Apple's battery technology has improved significantly since the 2G Shuffle, so I'm hoping that addresses the parent poster's issue with the previous 2G.

morning announcements from Apple...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yay.

(hits snooze button, rolls over and goes back to sleep)

99c shows is not good enough

[Anonymous Coward]

If I watch 2 shows a night, that's $60, which is what I pay now for cable (taxes included) for hundreds of channels, + HD channels, a PVR, free shows on demand, music channels, etc, etc...

NO THANKS.

Re:99c shows is not good enough

[Anonymous Coward]

You should probably get (already have, more likely) a DVR.

For the many of us not paying $100+ for cable TV, we could potentially pay the same $100 a month for (hypothetically) watching anything we want on demand on an iTV.

Or, again more likely, we have Netflix for $15 a month, and would only use this on the rare occasion we want to watch something not on Netflix Instant which is also not available on DVD.

The real competition to the $1 tv show rentals are the fact that the DVDs will be cheaper and permanent.

Bluetooth for the nano

[oracleguy01]

I was hoping they would be adding bluetooth into the nano. That would have been a reason for me to buy a new one. I don't like those bluetooth add-on accessories, it would be a lot nicer if it was integrated in.

Re:Bluetooth for the nano

[MBCook]

I would think that would drain its little battery pretty fast.

Re:Bluetooth for the nano

[yyxx]

Bluetooth is very low power, and it basically doesn't use power if it's not used.

Re:Bluetooth for the nano

[AmonTheMetalhead]

I don't like the new nano, touch interface and way to small, knowing myself i'll lose it within 24 hours after buying it, if i were to buy it. I'll keep the previous model for now. That's probably the only apple tech i actually like.

Re:Bluetooth for the nano

[Vectormatic]

tell that to my cellphone

just having bluetooth turned on (and not even connecting to any device) cuts battery damn near in half

Maximum HD resolution is 720p

[Anonymous Coward]

And why is it still limited to 720p (Apple TV Tech Specs) as the maximum HD resolution>? I under stand the iTunes store currently only offers 720p HD content; however, since you can also stream from your own computers it would be nice if you can watch 1080p content from them on a large screen HDTV via this device....

Re:Maximum HD resolution is 720p

[Reason58]

I think that you answered your own question: if you could stream your own content at 1080p then it would make their stuff look worse by comparison. The AppleTV is there to rent you iTunes content.

Re:Maximum HD resolution is 720p

[random coward]

The processor/chipset they chose to hit the pricepoint can't handle 1080p. I saw that too laughed.

Re:Maximum HD resolution is 720p

[scuzzlebutt]

720P ought to be enough for anybody.

Re:Maximum HD resolution is 720p

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe because no one can tell the difference between 720 and 1080 anyway? It'd be a waste of everyone's money to put any effort into supporting it.

My dad watches analog TV that looks like it's snowing on his gigantic HDTV, as do the vast majority of clueless people sold these specious upgrades.

You may as well be asking why Apple isn't supporting 3D. It's a niche that no one actually cares about.

WTF is wrong with tactile feedback?

[Anonymous Coward]

Touchscreen on the nano. No more reaching into my pocket to advance songs, no more using it for running wrapped in plastic to keep the sweat out of it, basically no more using it. Except to watch what, HD movies that I rent from Apple? Cause those look great on a 1/2 inch screen...

Re:WTF is wrong with tactile feedback?

[Anonymous Coward]

How about just keep using the one you already have, douchebag?

Repeat After Me

[magusxxx]

*holds up the new iPod Touch with Red leather lockscreen* The People's Republic of Ping...on AirTunes we sing...

Not what I was hoping for from AppleTV

[GlobalEcho]

I had been hoping for (but not expecting) an AppleTV capable of working with 1080p (or at least 1080i) video. Instead, they went the other direction, making it tiny, less power-hungry, and cheaper.

Many folks will probably be happy with this one, but I would have liked something more DVR-like to go with my OTA antenna and MythTV/Plex setup.

For those keeping score at home, Plex just went to v9 and is supposedly even more awesome.

Re:Not what I was hoping for from AppleTV

[Lumpy]

Why? there is ZERO content on CableTV and broadcast that is 1080p or will EVER be 1080p because ATSC is 1080i maximum. the only content you can get that is 1080p is bluray. and honestly I have ripped many 1080p blurays to mkv and unless you have a HUGE bitrate it's not worth it.

1080p is a red herring for most people right now. in fact most BluRay discs are NOT 1080p content. they may be encoded at 1080p but the source material on them are not. In fact the copy of casablanca I have looks better on my DVD player with upscaler than on the BLuray... I really dont need to see clearer film grain. Granted I'm watching on a small 92" screen with 1080p projector... and we sit only 9 feet from the screen so I'm within the sweet spot for size and resolution.

Out of the 80 Blurays I have watched maybe 10 have been clear enough source material that I noticed it was 1080p.

Re:Not what I was hoping for from AppleTV

[GlobalEcho]

You're right that 1080p is a red herring. That is why if you read my post carefully you'll understand that I really care at the 1080i level. The AppleTV does not support that either, which is a significant limitation for those of us receiving uncompressed 1080i over the ether.

What's with the coverage on this?

[liber9]

The Slashdot/Gizmodo/Engadget coverage isn't headlining the fact that this doesn't do 1080p. What's going on here? That's a huge, and inexcusable, shortcoming.

Re:What's with the coverage on this?

[timster]

The Apple TV hasn't ever done 1080p. Anyone who cares already knows that. And very few people have the bandwidth to stream 1080p anyway, so who cares?

Re:What's with the coverage on this?

[liber9]

If it supported 1080p, I would have bought it. So I do.

Re:What's with the coverage on this?

[farble1670]

And very few people have the bandwidth to stream 1080p anyway, so who cares?

everyone who has cable or dish or an OTA HD antenna gets at least 1080i. that's their competition, so yes, a lot of people care i guess. they paid top $ for the big flat panel TV for a reason.

Re:What's with the coverage on this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really, mine does claims to have a resolution of 1080p, my Samsung 32 inch TV claims to be in 1080p. Interesting.

Re:OSX or IOS only

[Phleg]

Anyone with VLC could have watched the keynote. Apple was using standard RFC-standard HTTP video streaming. Microsoft hasn't implemented it on Windows yet — what do you want them to do?

they just kicked Facebook in the balls...

[Anonymous Coward]

... I'm a little stunned that the ping 'iTunes Social Network' isn't getting more attention. They just completely ripped off Facebook, basically verbatim. It will have proper privacy controls, be linked in to all of your iTunes media purchases... and basically instantly on all iOS devices. Sure it was pitched as a way to talk about music, but only to distract people from the fact that it does everything Facebook does (pictures, general status updates and conversations, Liking, etc). I don't see how they avoid a lawsuit from Facebook, but more directly, I think it will be an instant smash hit and will erode Facebook's userbase considerably-- particularly if they do privacy controls properly.

Re:they just kicked Facebook in the balls...

[MrNiceguy_KS]

Facebook has 2 advantages: 1) people are already using it. 2) No iTunes

In my view, 2) is a HUGE advantage.

Rear cam stills under 1MP is not dominance

[xmark]

960 x 720 = 691200 pixels

I'm guessing this must be the front cam spec, and the article reported it incorrectly.

Also, it's surprising that the base model will have 8GB of RAM. That's actually a downgrade from the previous version.

Re:Rear cam stills under 1MP is not dominance

[inpher]

That 960 x 720 is video resolution. The 8GB number is not RAM, it is flash-based storage.

Re:Rear cam stills under 1MP is not dominance

[samkass]

960 x 720 = 691200 pixels

I'm guessing this must be the front cam spec, and the article reported it incorrectly.

Apple is reporting the same thing on their Tech Specs site. It looks like that camera is primarily for video (it has just enough resolution to call itself a 720p HD camera.) If that's really the still photo resolution then this is pretty much a "show friends what I'm doing on Facebook" camera. Which, considering the market (teenagers looking for a cheap gadget), is probably reasonable.

But it doesn't rival point-and-shoot cameras.

Now the iPhone 4's 5Mp camera with HDR is going to rock.

Re:Rear cam stills under 1MP is not dominance

[cynyr]

oo a tiny 5MP sensor and a very very very short lens. Did you know that D3000 has a "point and shoot" mode? most SLRs do usually named "P" for "programmed mode". Anyways, I fail to see how much could be worse than my noisy fujifilm z70, man does that thing take shity pictures.

Re:Rear cam stills under 1MP is not dominance

[AmonTheMetalhead]

Actually, the Nikon D3000 has an auto mode for the people who can't be arsed to read a manual.

Camera's on phones suck for 3 reasons:
- Tiny sensors == crappy light sensitivity
- Tiny lenses == Crappy light sensitivity
- Absolutely horrid user experiance == bad ergonomics, camera shake

Don`t forget Apple TV

[Ilgaz]

If I wasn`t living in one of countries which Apple/MPAA/RIAA whatever makes impossible to buy/rent stuff from iTMS, I would order Apple TV right now.

If it has no hidden evil terms, 100 dollars, quicktime/itms, I am sold.

If you just knew

[Ilgaz]

How many developers keep confusing gnu iconv with iConv on OS X and their compile fails.

Agreed.

[nortcele]

I'm a fan of the apple products as well. Now if they wanted that Apple TV to make a killing, they should have put a USB or firewire port on there so that those that do want to manage space and have local content... could do so. Let advanced users or developers expand it and hack it. What kind of 3rd party hardware can be created for the new Apple TV? So far it looks like none.

I do like the new iPod Touch. Not in the market though, because I have a 3rd gen touch. iPad is tempting me, but I want all the stuff that the parent post pointed out. Won't buy until many of those are met.

So for now, the Popcorn Hour C-200 continues to make our TV viewing convenient. Software is a little clunky or slow in spots, but my grade school kids operate it fine. I won't be buying any Apple products for Christmas. Sorry Steve, you'll have to raze the old house and build the new without my financial help.

Re:Agreed.

[adamstew]

There is a USB port on the back of the device: http://images.apple.com/appletv/images/whatis_gallery_slide220100901.jpg

Looks like it might even be a comba e-sata/USB port. Hard to tell from the picture... but the icon next to it is clearly a USB port icon.

Re:Agreed.

[Gilmoure]

It looks like the new Apple TV is just a video version of the , allowing streaming video/music from iTunes hosting devices. And it doesn't act as a wifi hot spot.

As for iTunes 10, am bummed that it doesn't see iPhone/iPod Touch/iPads as Airtunes devices and stream media to them. I hate having to dock my iPhone in order to update files on it. I have ElGato EyeTV on my Mac Mini home server and it can stream both live and recorded tv shows to my iPhone, even over 3g connection. Wish iTunes did this.

Re:Agreed.

[rogabean]

Apple's site lists it as a Micro USB port for "Service and Support".

Re:Agreed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Which is exactly what it was listed as on the last ATV (except not Micro). Putting a disk there with a bootable partition caused it to boot to the external media instead of the internal disk. This one probably does something very similar, or provides some other overwrite-my-installed-OS mode when connected via USB. Either method would allow for pretty easy changes to the OS.

But Apple has been steadily removing OS-like features from the ATV, since long before this hardware change, so I suspect this one will be harder to do other things with. The first version was essentially just 10.4 that launched FrontRow instead of Finder, (literally by renaming the FrontRow app to Finder) so it was pretty easy to get USB/SMB/mouse/etc. support working. That's probably not the case with this version.

Re:Agreed.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone bother to check out the annoucements/website and not just follow the freetard herd here?

They have a feature to stream video from a computer. So you can buy videos (and store them) on your PC (which has a hard drive) and stream them out to the iTV (which does not have a hard drive).

Re:Agreed.

[Hadlock]

I would imagine the new Apple TV is just an iPad with HDMI out and no internal touch screen. If there's Hulu for the iPad, Hulu for the Apple TV isn't far behind. I'll probably be buying one of these before the end of the year and dropping my cable subscription for good.

Re:Agreed.

[Zemran]

I too think that the latest ATV is a severe disappointment. I think that the old ATV is a great home server that you can do what you want with. Stick in a 1TB drive and a few hacks and it is fantastic. I do not want to store everything on my laptop and the ATV saves me having to have a desktop for that purpose. All the movies and music etc. that I want to keep, I can keep without filling up my HD and I can access all that stuff on the TV. It is a great piece of kit.

The new ATV is just a tool for Apple to sell stuff from their store. Good for them but of no use to me.

Camera... 720 x 960?

[acomj]

The camera takes stills at... 720 x960.

This is clearly not the same camera as the iphone. Ok for snaps, but not much else...

This was a test...

[TheWizardTim]

A test of the new Apple data center.

I read that this event was used to test out the ability of the new data center that Apple built. I assume that the new Apple TV content will be served from this site, and they wanted a good test to see how well it worked out.

http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/20/apple-data-center/

Re:This was a test...

[Anonymous Coward]

If it was a test, it can't possibly have been very taxing, since the video delivery was via edgesuite (akamai) - you could stream video to the hundreds of thousands, possibly millions of users from just one single server that delivers a single stream to edgeduite/akamai/limelight/other CDNs. URL was http://qthttp.apple.com.edgesuite.net/1009qpeijrfn/1240/1240_090110_094007_725.ts

Child labor laws

[tepples]

No the gadget for teenagers is a smartphone.

Older teens, perhaps. But most U.S. states have child labor laws that prohibit children aged 13 to 15 from working to afford the cheapest smartphone plan, which is $69.99 per month. A PDA like the iPod touch doesn't require a voice and data plan.

Re:Child labor laws

[lowlymarine]

How many teenagers from 13-15 are going to be on their own plan, though? Almost anyone that age is simply going to be on their parents' or other relative's plan as an extra line. Hell, I'm 22 and still just using an extra line on my aunt's plan because hey, it's only $30 a month that way instead of $80, and college isn't getting any cheaper.

Re:Child labor laws

[tuppe666]

I'm not American so I will apologize. I pay half that in the UK, and 13-15 year olds routinely have mobiles. It is 8 Dollars for extra Data Plan, over a two year contract that is still cheaper than a touch! $192, For the convenience of have one device that is always connected to the internet as opposed to just through WiFi of course in the UK at least Data-Plan is optional...is it not the same in the USA. :)

Re:Child labor laws

[rueger]

But most U.S. states have child labor laws that prohibit children aged 13 to 15 from working to afford the cheapest smartphone plan, which is $69.99 per month.

Hardly an issue since Mom and Dad are likely footing the cel phone bill.

Or the kid is selling drugs on the side to his school chums...

Re:Child labor laws

[tepples]

Almost anyone that age is simply going to be on their parents' or other relative's plan as an extra line.

Which is exactly my point: "I'm buying you an iPod touch until you're old enough to work to pay for an Android phone."

TiVo still has one big advantage...

[alispguru]

A remote with a keyboard.

Re:TiVo still has one big advantage...

[Lumpy]

Tivo also has a huge disadvantage of the requirement of a $55.00 to $99.00 monthly service fee to get content. Oh and it's $13.00 a month guide service fee.

Re:TiVo still has one big advantage...

[Anonymous Coward]

Advantage over what? If you have an iPod Touch, iPhone, or iPad, you can use it as a remote (with full keyboard and other context-sensitive controls) for your Apple TV. They've had that feature for at least a year... don't recall exactly when they started that with the previous Apple TV models.

I've never gotten it

[Sycraft-fu]

A good number of Mac fans seem to have an abusive-spouse kind of relationship with Apple. I mean I can understand if Apple makes a product you like so you buy it. I know a few people like that. One guy does professional Final Cut Pro work. The Mac Pro works great for him, he'd want a workstation anyhow and the additional hardware (capture, fast drives, etc) were more than the base system. Ok fine. Also my coworker has an iPod Touch. It had the features he wanted in a media player, nothing lacking from his perspective as he wanted it for pretty simple things, also ok.

However I don't get the people who continually bemoan the things Apple leaves out, or the products they won't produce, yet flock to Apple's products time after time. It really is a "He hits me because he loves me," kind of cognitive dissonance.

Buy the products that do what you want. IF they don't do what you want, don't spend money on them.

Re:I've never gotten it

[Goaway]

Perhaps because the things other companies make are utter shit in comparison, even taking into account the things Apple might leave out that you would like?

Re:I've never gotten it

[mattack2]

However I don't get the people who continually bemoan the things Apple leaves out, or the products they won't produce, yet flock to Apple's products time after time. It really is a "He hits me because he loves me," kind of cognitive dissonance.

You don't seem to understand the concept of: It works best (for the particular person in question) among all of the alternatives. That may mean the person still complains about it.. A LOT. Since they're using it, they know about what they like and don't like about the product.. and most people complain more than they praise.

You could be negative and say "least bad". There are TONS of things I would improve about Tivos for example, but they still do what I want(*) as well as any of the alternatives I've seen. (Even saying that, I'm *vaguely* interested in the Ceton 4 tuner card, and I don't do Windows anything.)

(*) Record TV shows conveniently, mostly. I've also done a bit of video podcast playing from the Tivo and lately transferred more stuff to computer -- sometimes to make podcasts to listen to on my phone.

Re:I've never gotten it

[KshGoddess]

Perhaps because the things other companies make are utter shit in comparison, even taking into account the things Apple might leave out that you would like?

Yes. This. A million times. I'm required to use a windows pc for work, and I'm almost homicidal at the end of the week with the little things that work on my mac (at home) which absolutely don't on my work machine.

It's not even that I consciously agree with everything the mac does, just that when my mac does something stupid, there's some logic to why it does it, and when I use windows, the logic is all sideways. Don't get me started on linux. It acts like the schizophrenic child of frankenstein it is. Saying it's better than a windows box is like saying having one leg on fire is better than being entirely on fire.

Personally, I'm thinking the apple tv looks like finally a usable product, and would be 100% worth buying if it did one little more thing. Hulu. (Although right now, I'm using understudy with front row to do hulu and netflix, so there's no reason to go out today and blow $100.)

The ipod revamp is pretty sweet, the nano looks like a nice interface, the "all clickwheel" shuffle looks usable, and at $50, a nice entry-level device. The 4.2 announcement to bring more usability to the ipad is pretty sweet, too. All in all, a nice presentation.

Yes, I've drunk the kool-aid. But my mac has ksh, so it's all good.

Re:I've never gotten it

[david_thornley]

How about the people who use Microsoft stuff and complain about it, or those who use Linux and complain about it? What's special about Apple here, except that you notice the Apple people more for some reason?

Re:I've never gotten it

[ToasterMonkey]

A good number of Mac fans seem to have an abusive-spouse kind of relationship with Apple. I mean I can understand if Apple makes a product you like so you buy it.

However I don't get the people who continually bemoan the things Apple leaves out, or the products they won't produce, yet flock to Apple's products time after time.

I'm pretty sure people in an abusive-spouse relationship don't cry to their neighbors about how bad the situation is while slugging through it.

I AM sure that people in normal, healthy relationships do complain about each other, sometimes frequently, and the complaining is not a clear sign to outsiders that the relationship is not an overall success.

So.. is that hard for you to understand, or are you one of those nitwits that _thinks_ they have no complaints about their spouse, or that it isn't normal?

99c shows is great

[dazedNconfuzed]

My family watches maybe 2 shows a week, that's $8, which is way less than cable for a broad menu of stuff we don't want or at inconvenient times, and the "hockey puck" makes PVRs obsolete, streams the ever-growing Netflix menu on demand, streams our music library from any computer, shows video/photos from my iPad, etc, etc...

Hey, it may not be for you.
It's great for me, and a bunch of millions of others like me.

New iPod Touch missing GPS :-(

[ad454]

Even though a large percent of apps in the iTunes app store are location aware and require GPS to work properly, it is very disappointing that the new iPod Touch (and the current WiFi only iPad) does not have a GPS receiver yet. It is very useful to have turn-by-turn GPS navigation, current location weather forecasts, gas prices, and other services all running on an iPod Touch and WiFi iPad as well as they run on the iPhone and iPad 3G.

Re:appletv = fail

[Rude Turnip]

FFS, the standard Slashdot reply to a new Apple product has made it to the thread. This device just works. Failure is not defined as not using your particular connection method. This device connects to a standardized ecosystem, streams h.264 video and reaches out online to a couple of reputable for-pay services. It's incredibly compact and affordable. I can put Apple TV units in a few rooms of the house for the price of a PC strung up to a single TV without the hassle of VLC and none of the weight of a chip on my shoulder.

Re:OSX or IOS only

[mevets]

Why would you want to run anything else?

Nano features

[DirkBalognapantz]

The Nano lost its camera and video playback. I thought the last generation was sort of cool. Anyone else feel like it's now more like a fancy Shuffle?

The only thing I was hoping for

[Voyager529]

was iTunes Lite. iTunes doesn't need to be a 100MB behemoth; Red Chair Software had great iPod syncing software that fit within 5MB, a streamlined Winamp install can take less than 10MB, and you can't POSSIBLY lead me to believe that the other 85MB is required to make purchases. Cut it down to a manageable size, remove the networking crap, and stay the HELL out of my startup entries. Am I being unreasonable here?

Re:The only thing I was hoping for

[mdarksbane]

I'm sure that in a day of 500gb hard drives, base systems shipping with 4 gigs of memory, and 6 mbps download speeds being the base standard, making iTunes smaller is a *huge* priority. Not that I wouldn't appreciate it, too :(

Re:The only thing I was hoping for

[binary paladin]

"Am I being unreasonable here?"

Yes. However, Apple isn't and isn't generally.

Re:The only thing I was hoping for

[Painted]

I was hoping for iTunes Pro, that would allow us hierarchies, tagging, etc. But I agree- iTunes desperately needs a fork into a lite and an heavy-duty version.

Re:The only thing I was hoping for

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you get them to see the light, ask Apple to give Adobe a call...

Re:The only thing I was hoping for

[cheesybagel]

How about not requiring me to restart windows after an update?

Mac mini

[SuperKendall]

For heavier-duty video needs, the new Mac mini exactly addresses your needs - better HDMI support, and able to handle any resolution.

Re:Mac mini

[cynyr]

and a starting price of 4 times as much!!

Re:appletv = fail

[goombah99]

* You can not mount a network hard drive (without hacking it)

* You can not mount a usb hard drive (without hacking it)

* Format support is very limited. For example: you can not play xvid, divx and a bunch of other formats

I think you're currently better off connecting a computer to your tv and run VLC on it... unless of course you like apple dictating what technology and media you have access to.

How much is your time worth? It's $99 !!! No cables, no computer in the loop. You can use your computer while the kids watch the video. And if you need to do all the BS you want you can just do that on your computer and stream in in H264 to the device. Don't give me some rubbish about the transcode from xvid ruining the picture quality. If you care about that then you are 0.00001% of the market.

Announce iTunes 10 for UK site

[joshier]

http://www.apple.com/uk/
And then add a button saying "iTunes 10 Free for Mac + PC, Download iTunes"
then upon final download button, name to "iTunes 10. Coming Soon. Download iTunes 9 now"
Nice way to start with consistency, yeah.

Re:appletv = fail

[tgibbs]

Shorter appletv = fail: "OMG appletv is not a computer!"

I use iOS to ping!

[uncledrax]

ping
Protocol [ip]:
Target IP address: 8.8.8.8
Repeat count [5]:
Datagram size [100]:
Timeout in seconds [2]:
Extended commands [n]:
Sweep range of sizes [n]:
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 8.8.8.8, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 12/14/16 ms

------
I think Steve Jobs had a chip on his shoulder about the networking world.. and he's trying his best to win a name space war.

advantage nullified.

[goombah99]

You can use your ipod or iphone as an input dev to the apple TV, and that's even more expressive than just a keyboard.

Re:advantage nullified.

[cynyr]

ohh good, a $200-$600 remote for the damn thing too...

Re:advantage nullified.

[Yvan256]

You say that like it's a bad thing that the remote costs at least twice as much as the device it's controlling.

Re:advantage nullified.

[Anonymous Coward]

I love to use to use my iPhone as a TV remote controller while cooking lunch.

h.264 support, no xvid

[SuperKendall]

From the Tech Specs:

H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats.

Re:h.264 support, no xvid

[Anonymous Coward]

No MKV or xvid? Guess I'll keep the PopcornHour boxes.

Re:h.264 support, no xvid

[CronoCloud]

In other words, still not as good as a PS3.

Re:h.264 support, no xvid

[e4g4]

Quite a bit cheaper, though.

Re:h.264 support, no xvid

[Vectormatic]

in other words, still not as good as my $100 asus media streamer with full 1080p support, and huge codec support list

never mind the fact that i can watch an episode of show X *for free* time and time again from my very own fileserver

Ping? Seriously??

[Virmal]

Bing --> Microsoft; Ping --> Apple; Ding --> ??; Sing --> The rest of us?

Re:Ping? Seriously??

[demonbug]

Bing --> Microsoft;

Ping --> Apple;

Ding --> ??;

Sing --> The rest of us?

Doesn't Southwest use Ding! or something for their special-offer system?

Re:appletv = fail

[cynyr]

My TV still has RF in, and my "amp" still has 2 channel dual rca jacks. Also my PS3 and an "Apple TV" share no formats in common. the PS3 will only play lvl 4.0 or 4.1 h264, where as the ATV will only play lvl 3.1 main.

You are right about the cost though, a PC even an ION based one is going to run you $300. hassle is fixed by installing XBMC or Boxee on it instead of just VLC.

Apple TV will own the market.

[Lumpy]

This is the change that EVERYONE was waiting for. This puts Tv on demand at the pricepoint that even cheap-ass ol' me will even pay. That's $12.00 a year per TV show (as most tv shows are half assed and only release 12 episodes a year / season) So if I get rid of Comcast or Dish at even the low price rate of $39.00 a month. I can watch 39 specific TV show episodes per month for the same price. This is far more than I can watch anyways because 99% of what is on cableTV sucks. And these are commercial free.

This means I'll pay about 1/3rd of what I pay for cableTV a month to get the programming I want. The ONLY problem is that TV shows like Colbert Report and Daily show are 4 times a week, and I cant see the audience of those tv shows paying $32.00 a month just to watch those two shows.

Now, what I want to know is does the interface give me a custom "shows I like" menu that will show that I have not watched or what is new, or will it be like the crappy current interface where I have to go searching for everything......

Steve said over and over "it is easy to use" well; easy to use is a menu of only my stuff I like....

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[demonbug]

No way I'd pay $1 to watch a TV episode once. Don't know about others, but assuming a $1 price point to own a song is more or less legitimate, can't see paying that much for a single viewing of a TV show. I value the vast majority of TV shows less than a single good song, so even $1 to own a TV show episode is pushing it (this may be why the only TV shows I own copies of are Firefly, Flying Circus, and Fawlty Towers).

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[Yvan256]

I'm just waiting to see rental season passes like they have (had?) for buying the episodes.

If they cut the price in half for SD files I'm sure a lot more people would go for it. And since not everything is 44 minutes long, cutting the price in half yet again for 22 minutes long shows would be perfect. Single episode, 22 minutes long, SD resolution: 0.25$ rental.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[Anonymous Coward]

If a 24 hour rental isn't enough, you can still buy the show at the normal price and stream it from your computer / iWhatever.

I know many people who pay $100+ a month on TV service, and watch fewer than 30 shows a month. If they could somehow just pay $1 per show for the shows they watch, whenever they want, that would suit them better. No commercials is just icing on the cake.

The problem right now is they are apparently only offering ABC and FOX programs, both of which are freely available over the air or online. If they can get more pay networks in there, especially CNN, Comedy Central, ESPN (for the shows, the sports would be more complicated) that would go a long way. Another 6-12 networks on board would be enough for a LOT of people.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[cc_pirate]

It's STILL only 720P max... WTF?

Hello!?!?!?! 1080P is the HD standard at this point. 720P is pathetic for 2010. PATHETIC!!!

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[bennomatic]

Theoretically, I feel the same way. But I've got stacks of movie/TV season DVDs that I paid more than $1/episode for and have only watched once. Only a couple of early Simpsons seasons have gotten more than a few watches each among the TV shows. Among the movies, Pulp Fiction's gotten its fair share of watchings, but others probably would have been a better deal if I'd rented.

Because I don't get AMC, I buy Mad Men and Breaking Bad through iTunes, and since they're not Avatar, I get the non-HD versions and save a few bucks. I end up paying over $1/an episode, and rarely watch an episode twice. The exception is the Mad Men episode, "The Wheel", where Draper gives one of the best business pitches I've ever seen. I watched that scene 10 times when I was preparing a presentation for a conference, and I'm sure it helped me get the promotion I received a few weeks later. For that, I would have paid $10 for the multiple viewings.

Heck, we pay $10 to see a movie in a crowded theater where the guy on your left stinks, the guy on your right won't stop talking, and the guy behind you clearly has TB based on the blood splattering out with each cough. Why not $1 for an hour's entertainment? Sure, $0.50 would be better, as would $0.25, but $1 is not out of line with a lot of other things most people spend their money on.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[alexandre_ganso]

Hey, that's less than you pay for the virgin dvds you record the pirated downloads and keep making dust in your basement. Hell, for that price I will watch star trek: the next generation again, with no commercials and it will be about half the price of the dvds I have no space in my apartment for...

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[Painted]

I think the opposite- most programs I watch have 20-26 episodes, and for Daily Show and Colbert, I can BUY them for $10/mo (20 episodes). But a $1 rental*? That's somewhere between double to 10x what I'd be willing to play.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[Anonymous Coward]

Let me educate you. TV shows are BROADCAST TV shows. This means they are created for TV BROADCAST and are only created at 720p/1080i It seems you know nothing at all about HD or anything else and cling to a number that is actually useless but let me clairify it.

If you want them to upscale 720P content to1080P to make an idiot like you happy, I am certian they will oblige.

NOTHING ON TV IS MORE THAN 720P IT"S THE BROADCAST STANDARD YOU FUCK_WIT. ATSC and QAM are 720p/1080i ONLY. If you actually had any education at all in AV gear or even HDTV in general you would have known this. But no you are one of those brain dead idiot that Best buy loves because you buy whatever had the biggest number... Ohh they have 480hz TV's coming out soon!!! OHH OHH!!!

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[illumin8]

Now, what I want to know is does the interface give me a custom "shows I like" menu that will show that I have not watched or what is new, or will it be like the crappy current interface where I have to go searching for everything......

The interface Steve showed looked very nice. It has a favorite shows section where you can see icons for each show you like, with a numeric badge similar to the push notification on iOS showing new content for each show. The favorite shows icons can even be rearranged by holding down the select button on one of them for a few seconds, which puts the icons into "jiggle mode" similar to rearranging icons on iOS.

In short, they just made the first set top box interface that doesn't completely suck.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[illumin8]

No way I'd pay $1 to watch a TV episode once. Don't know about others, but assuming a $1 price point to own a song is more or less legitimate, can't see paying that much for a single viewing of a TV show. I value the vast majority of TV shows less than a single good song, so even $1 to own a TV show episode is pushing it (this may be why the only TV shows I own copies of are Firefly, Flying Circus, and Fawlty Towers).

Basically, the TV shows are either going to be ad supported or cost money. You pick. You can pay $0.99 to rent an ad-free version, or you can go to Hulu where advertisers are paying approximately 20 cents per ad to show you about 5 ad spots during the show.

TV content is not free to produce, but $0.99 is probably the most reasonable price they've had so far.

Now, if they would only add 5.1 surround for HD shows and closed captioning, they'd have a guaranteed hit on their hands.

Re:Apple TV will own the market.

[Anonymous Coward]

but have you thought of the people whose time is worth more than $3 per evening?

Could have been

[SuperKendall]

"Better than many point and shoot cameras"? You must be joking.

Actually if it had had the 5MP iPhone 4 camera, (which is probably what he assumed since I assumed it too until I looked at the tech specs) he would not have been joking, that could replace a P&S for most people.

It's sad the still resolution is still low. The fact it still does HD video makes me suspicious it really is the iPhone 4 camera, just turned down in software... I look forward to seeing the component breakdown.

Re:Could have been

[Anonymous Coward]

Software crippled is a possibility, but they also did take out the LED flash for it, too.

Re:Could have been

[cetan]

[[Actually if it had had the 5MP iPhone 4 camera, (which is probably what he assumed since I assumed it too until I looked at the tech specs) he would not have been joking, that could replace a P&S for most people.]]

You don't understand the difference between "better than" and "willing to settle for."

People who are replacing their digital cameras for the iPhone 4 camera are not doing so because it is better than their point and shoot. It's not. They're giving up a number of features they don't understand, don't know how to work, or don't find important for a single button, slower operation, and lower image quality.

Re:Could have been

[LordVader717]

Megapixels are meaningless. It still has a crappy fixed plastic lens with no focusing ability. In fact, considering that high resolution sensors perform worse in low-light conditions it will only make the small size more problematic.

Re:Could have been

[SuperKendall]

You don't understand the difference between "better than" and "willing to settle for."

Actually, yes I do. I have a SIgma DP-2s that I use for a P&S. It has a DSLR sized image sensor in it. So I know what quality can look like.

But my wife has an oldish Cannon S90. Judging the images, the iPhone 4 camera could basically replace that camera, and also takes far better video.

People who are replacing their digital cameras for the iPhone 4 camera are not doing so because it is better than their point and shoot.

The best camera is one you have with you...

They're giving up a number of features they don't understand, don't know how to work, or don't find important

Which makes the iPhone 4 a better P&S camera for those people.

Because they CAN use it, instead of getting confused by it.

Again, it's a shame THAT camera is not offered on the iPod Tuch too, or it could have replaced a P&S for a lot of people. Especially with a super-easy to use HDR mode as they demonstrated...

Re:Could have been

[Anonymous Coward]

The fact it still does HD video makes me suspicious it really is the iPhone 4 camera, just turned down in software...

And if it is - hello, mr. Jailbreak!

Meanwhile in Yahoo

[ultramarweeni]

Accordng to Yahoo, "Apple unveils new box for streaming movies, TV". First Steve claimed to have revolutionised telephony by -- OH WOW -- video calls (FaceTime) and now they have found the way to stream movies to homes: Television!

Re:OSX or IOS only

[Anonymous Coward]

what do you want them to do?

Put it in Quicktime for Windows.

Re:appletv = fail

[rotide]

Standard Apple fanboi reply. "It just works!". Yes, it does the limited things it does very well. But if you want it to play any video file you have? Chances are, you're out of luck. I'll get right to my point. If _everything_ you need is handled by the iWhatever you have, _awesome_ for you! But if you have something that doesn't work with it, say a codec that is not supported, you're absolutely shit out of luck.

A PC might be lacking in many areas. But if it doesn't do what you need it to, you can _make it_ do it. What, media player doesn't allow your codec? Install VLC. What, Media Center isn't playing your codec? Install Boxee. What, windows sucks for your uses? Install Linux.

Apple: no we don't support that format, but why would you want to?

Re:appletv = fail

[Lumpy]

you = fail.

I'll be 100% on your bandwagon the second you can tell me how to get a Netflix plugin for my XBMC

No A Windows Media center bloated monster is not the answer... I can build a XBMC device that will do 1080p for $199. that has HDMI out and fits behind the TV. You CAN NOT DO THAT with Windows Media center.

The apple TV 2 is a awesome device that will own the market. the $0.99 per tv show is a sweet point as well because it means that most people will spend less than their monthly cable bill for BASIC cable.

Re:New iPod Touch missing GPS :-(

[0100010001010011]

The reason is the way it's packaged on the iPhone is the GPS/GSM chip is integrated.

Honda Civic = fail

[binary paladin]

* You cannot haul a California king size mattress (without a hitch and trailer)
* You cannot haul 12' x 4' sheets of drywall (without a hitch and trailer)
* Passenger space is very limited. For example: you cannot easily transport 6 children in it
I think you're better off just getting a Ford F-150 with a king cab and bench seats... unless of course you like Honda dictating what can and cannot transport in your vehicle.

As someone who uses a number of Apple devices where they make sense (my laptop and my music player) and other stuff where they don't (my gaming machine and my phone) I don't know why people freak out about Apple products doing what they always do. My mom doesn't give a shit about xvid or divx. She doesn't rip her DVDs. She doesn't store them digitally or download torrents. She certainly isn't going to configure anything or care about storing rentals.

My parents can plug this box in and be GOOD TO GO. Like most Apple products, this is an appliance and marketing and targeted as such. I really wish I could have fails like the Apple of late. My car would be a lot nicer!

Yes, the device is a fail at doing things it was never designed for. Most devices are. My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[takotech]

Depends on what is clogging the toilet.

My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[hexadecimate]

Yes, the device is a fail at doing things it was never designed for. Most devices are. My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged.

That's a shitty analogy.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[Anonymous Coward]

Passenger space is very limited. For example: you cannot easily transport 6 children in it

Says who?

My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged.

Is that a challenge?

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[binary paladin]

"Says who?"

Says anyone who doesn't stuff their kids in the trunk.

"Is that a challenge?"

Sure. Next time your toilet is clogged, I suggest you use a pencil instead of a plunger.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

You can transport six kids in a honda civic, two of them just have to ride in the trunk.

Okay you can't legally transport six kids in a honda civic.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[BrianRoach]

Exactly.

You know what? My wife can use AppleTV. She loves it. She's not a techno geek, and doesn't even know what any of the things people here are going on about.

I use handbrake and convert everything of mine that I want to stream. It's not an arduous task. I have an XP VM running on my basement server for iTunes.

I'm going to buy one of the new AppleTVs for the bedroom TV. The addition of Netflix is going to make her day. I'll get bonus husband points.

The day geeks realize that consumer products are meant for the other 98% of the population is apparently the day I'm going to have to purchase a pig-sized flyswatter.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[bakdor]

Yes, the device is a fail at doing things it was never designed for. Most devices are. My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged.

Not mine.

Re:Honda Civic = fail

[Anonymous Coward]

"My pencil, for instance, is an epic fail when my toilet gets clogged."

All depends on whether you want to get your hands dirty...

Micro-USB on back?

[Anonymous Coward]

From here: http://www.apple.com/ca/appletv/specs.html

"Micro-USB (for service and support)"

Doesn't my Motorola DVR have one of those on the back? And doesn't it get used for NOTHING AT ALL???? Seriously, what's it for? Why are you wasting money putting that there? I'm sensing Steve trying to put in a stupid thing to actually turn this thing in to a set top box that only a couple months ago he railed against.

Internet a la carte TV; don't need DVR

[dazedNconfuzed]

You forgot the >$60/mo for cable TV service to get data to that DVR.

This is (well, is the beginning of) what-you-want when-you-want pay-for-only-what-you-want Internet-driven "a la carte" TV in a cheap ($99) convenient (power, HDMI, done) small (hockey puck) package which people have been clamoring for. It renders the DVR obsolete.

Wonder when networks will talk Apple into pushing free, but commercial-laden, episodes.

Re:appletv = fail

[tooyoung]

A PC might be lacking in many areas. But if it doesn't do what you need it to, you can _make it_ do it. What, media player doesn't allow your codec? Install VLC. What, Media Center isn't playing your codec? Install Boxee. What, windows sucks for your uses? Install Linux.

99% of users: "What is a codec?"

The Question Is

[Anonymous Coward]

Will they ( iPods-iTunes-10-Social-Network-AppleTV ) BLEND?

Yours In Vladivostok,
K. Trout

iPod Touch

[demonbug]

Complete specs here.

I was looking forward to this, basically hoping for an iPhone without the cell phone feature. Sadly, lacking GPS and with the dismal 960x720 still photo resolution (seriously? what were they thinking?) no way I'm going near it. Could have been great, but looks like they cheaped out in all the wrong ways for me.

Re:iPod Touch

[BBTaeKwonDo]

GPS would be nice if you want to use it as a replacement for a TomTom-type device, but other than that, I can't think of much use for it. Since it's WiFi-only, so weren't going to get traffic data or location-aware maps anyway.

I think the resolution is a tacit acknowledgement that the camera will take photos that are middling at best, just like the cameras built into cell phones, regardless of their pixel counts.

Re:iPod Touch

[xigxag]

Near as I can tell, the new iTouch is a proper superset of the old one in terms of functionality. They didn't pare back a single feature, so everything is at least the same, or improved, for the same price. I too am disappointed that the thing doesn't have every dream feature I ever wanted (128GB? mkv?) , but it's hard to hate on a solid improvement.

Re:appletv = fail

[MrHanky]

Wrong. It simply does not work if you're trying to do anything but consuming content from iTunes. You're a fanboy and a fraud.

Buttons!

[A Guy From Ottawa]

Finally! Someone with a brain (or just common sense) was put in charge of the new shuffle's design.

I've been holding off on getting a new jogging ipod for a while because the 3rd gen shuffle no-button design was ridiculous. Steve-o thought he could sell a whole bunch of button-less shuffles and lock the consumers (not customers) into buying expensive replacement headphones over the next few years.

Turns out the "consumers" saw right though the ploy and didn't buy the poorly designed ipods in the first place. All hail common sense and voting with our wallets!

And now to hand over another $49 to Apple :S

Overload

[dazedNconfuzed]

They had to limit distribution. The limited audience was still big enough to crush video stream service, at least to many. Best to limit to those who have a history of shelling out big bucks to Apple, rather than to curious tightwads.

The new Apple TV is interesting

[OrangeTide]

After the recent update of the software on my Roku box, I am ready to switch to something else. The new AppleTV is priced competitively (I paid $100 for my Roku a few years ago), and I can't imagine the user interface being worse than the new Roku.

Apple admits one mistake, makes another

[Anonymous Coward]

The Shuffle doesn't need buttons? Yeah, right. Tactile feedback is very useful, especially when the controls are tiny. They've corrected that problem for the Shuffle by bringing back proper control buttons. Good move.

But ... now they've made almost the same mistake for the Nano -- multi-touch display? I'm sorry, but it's not as easy to use as a scroll wheel, and I can't see the point of multi-touch with such a tiny display. People will be fumbling with the thing in their pocket, cursing it when it gets bumped while the screen is still active, cursing that they have to lock the screen and unlock it to try to keep that problem under control, and so forth. It's silly and not worth it at that size rather than having dedicated buttons. At least they left the volume controls, and the accessibility options are cool (although if there were tactile buttons, largely unnecessary), but on the whole it looks like a step backwards.

Re:Apple admits one mistake, makes another

[RapmasterT]

Multi-touch sucks hairy balls for a workout media player. it's kind of cool, but I don't even think I can FIT two fingers on that little screen to multi-touch anything.

Now we have buttons on the shuffle...just like we USED to have on the shuffle, but they told us we didn't want.

anyone else getting the idea that apple model years are all about "different" not "better"?

Question for Apple fans..

[RightSaidFred99]

So we have the iPad now, which many of you rushed out to buy. It's missing a lot of basic things connectivity and storage wise. Things what it's obvious people wants.

So Apple of course planned this and the Next iPad will Solve All Your Problems. Nevermind that your problems are artificially created.

So my question is, when you rush out and buy the Next iPad that Solves All The Problems that Apple made inherent to the current iPad specifically _so_ you'd buy the next one, won't you feel really stupid? I mean, seriously? We both know it's going to happen.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[RapmasterT]

well, you have me there. The ipad has serious flaws, so I guess I should have bought...um...that other tablet PC. You know, from the vast market place of tablet computing devices of which the iPad is a flawed and pitiful example. oh that's right...there's NO other competing products (unless you count a freaking laptop with the screen twisted around like a possessed Linda Blair).

When the market is awash in ipad killer competitors that do everything the ipad doesn't, THEN I'll get involved in fanboy bashing with you, but until then, the ipad may not be perfect, but you can at least actually BUY one.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[mjwx]

so I guess I should have bought...um...that other tablet PC.

Yes, they are called laptops. Often cheaper and always more functional then Ipads.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[UnknowingFool]

Yes people should get laptops instead of iPads. You people who want a 10 hour active, instant-on laptop that the other company sells. You know that multi-touch one that weighs about 1.5 lbs. Oh wait, no one else makes it. Maybe people who want a laptop will buy one. People who want an iPad will buy it. Two different devices, two different purposes.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[mjwx]

Yes people should get laptops instead of iPads.

Yes,

People should also stop believing marketing. I guess your nick is quite appropriate

You people who want a 10 hour active

No-one I know with an Ipad has been able to get it past 5 hours in real world conditions. It does worse then my EeePC.

instant-on laptop

Also dont know where you get this idea from. It takes just as long as my Ubuntu install from a cold start. If you're using standby as a measure of "Instant On" then Even Windows fits the bill.

You know that multi-touch one

And other gimmicks.

about 1.5 lbs

I'm sorry but here we use Metric measurements. Lets assume 2KG, if you have a problem lifting 2KG spend that A$700 on a gym membership and plenty of 13" laptops come in at under 2 KG. Most netbooks come in at under 1 KG.

Plus they will have a keyboard, not require a separate machine for activation, loading music, not tie you into Apple's distribution channels, have networkable storage (using CIFS and NFS) as well as being completely interoperable with all your other kit. Oh and can be used in any type of secure business enviroment. Because the Ipad does none of the above.

As for being a tablet, the Ipad is a complete failure because it cannot interoperate with other devices (mass storage) or other networks (join domains, network protocols like CIFS), everything requires a separate machine with Itunes so it cant be shared around (back to mass storage). Either the entire tablet fad will blow over or the Ipad will be killed by more functional Android or even WebOS tablets (as unlikely as it is for WebOS to get off the ground) which may even offer such functionality as joining a domain, connecting directly to a projector or becoming an input device for laptops and desktops.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[UnknowingFool]

People should also stop believing marketing. I guess your nick is quite appropriate

I buy devices on what I need. That's why I don't have an iPad. Unlike you, I can see that people who buy one are doing so because it meets their needs not mine. Geeks like you fail to understand that you do not represent everyone. You represent yourself. Apple's success must be so disconcerting to your world view. That's why Apple's success must be solely attributed to marketing. Otherwise you might have to admit that you don't understand people.

Your entire problem is that you can't understand that some people don't want a laptop. If they wanted one, they would have bought one. All you see is the technical capabilities and think that is the entire sum of a user needs. You're not thinking about what users want in terms of user experience. Technically if I want to drive 500 miles a 1978 beat-up truck will get me there. I will enjoy the trip more in a new luxury sedan. Buy you would quip about how I can't haul a stack of wood with my luxury sedan and not understand why I didn't buy truck.

I'm sorry but here we use Metric measurements. Lets assume 2KG, if you have a problem lifting 2KG spend that A$700 on a gym membership and plenty of 13" laptops come in at under 2 KG. Most netbooks come in at under 1 KG.

I'm sorry here we accurately convert measurements. It takes like a second to look up Google that 1.5 lbs = 0.68 kg and Google is free. The problem with netbooks is that they are essentially a smaller laptop. There are cheap ones. There are light ones around 0.68kg. But few of them are both.

Plus they will have a keyboard, not require a separate machine for activation, loading music, not tie you into Apple's distribution channels, have networkable storage (using CIFS and NFS) as well as being completely interoperable with all your other kit. Oh and can be used in any type of secure business enviroment. Because the Ipad does none of the above.

Again, do you not understand the concept of "purpose"? Apple didn't design the iPad to be a replacement for any netbook or laptop. And people do not buy it because they wanted a laptop. Before if people wanted a portable device to read email, play music and surf the web, the only choices they had were laptops or netbooks. Now they can get something optimized for those purposes not a general device.

As for being a tablet, the Ipad is a complete failure because it cannot interoperate with other devices (mass storage) or other networks (join domains, network protocols like CIFS), everything requires a separate machine with Itunes so it cant be shared around (back to mass storage). Either the entire tablet fad will blow over or the Ipad will be killed by more functional Android or even WebOS tablets (as unlikely as it is for WebOS to get off the ground) which may even offer such functionality as joining a domain, connecting directly to a projector or becoming an input device for laptops and desktops.

Tablets have been around a long time but have been less than successful in the market place. Care to guess why? While they might do more than the iPad, they sure cost more. They were basically a desktop shoved into a small form factor with little thought that a user might need a different UI concept. I am interested how Android and WebOS will enter the market and they are more solutions to the same problem that tablets have failed to address.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[RapmasterT]

No-one I know with an Ipad has been able to get it past 5 hours in real world conditions. It does worse then my EeePC.

I'm sure even YOU wouldn't argue that battery life varies with the usage profile. Sounds like the people you know are using the HELL out of this device that you think is useless. Hmm...someone has to be wrong here.

Also dont know where you get this idea from. It takes just as long as my Ubuntu install from a cold start.

Frankly, that's bullshit. You'll still be looking at POST while a true instant on device is half done with whatever you turned it on for.

Plus they will have a keyboard

Let me see you using that keyboard while walking around, or lounging on the couch. You'll get it done, very slowly and looking like a douche.

As for being a tablet, the Ipad is a complete failure

I think most businesses would KILL for a failure of this magnitude. Don't you?

, everything requires a separate machine with Itunes so it cant be shared around (back to mass storage)

I haven't connected my ipad to a PC once since I activated it (a step that I agree is completely unnecessary). Hardly a "requirement".

. Either the entire tablet fad will blow over or the Ipad will be killed by more functional Android or even WebOS tablets (as unlikely as it is for WebOS to get off the ground) which may even offer such functionality as joining a domain, connecting directly to a projector or becoming an input device for laptops and desktops.

you just spent all that time telling us why tablets are stupid and useless, now you tell us the ipad will be killed by other tablets. Fanboism is douchebaggery of the first order, but your position runs a close second.

Re:Question for Apple fans..

[RapmasterT]

so I guess I should have bought...um...that other tablet PC.

Yes, they are called laptops. Often cheaper and always more functional then Ipads.

I have a laptop. and I have a netbook. and a couple of workstation PC's. Here's the funny thing, they all fill a niche that I've found useful, and not one of them completely replaces the others. "always more functional" may be true if your usage patters are extremely limited, but mine aren't.

If you can only afford ONE device, then by all means buy the most general purpose one you can find. But if your lifestyle allows you the luxury of buying devices that fit specific use cases, then why not. I dont' see the need to try to make a netbook work where a tablet would work better just so I can be super-anti-fanboi.

Re:appletv = fail

[samkass]

You are not the target audience for AppleTV. You are part of the tiny fraction of the country who knows what "xvid" and "divx" are. You are the type who would rather spend a weekend hacking an old PC to do something than spend $99, stay within the "ecosystem" and just enjoy what the device can do. That's great. You're not Apple's customer. We get it. That doesn't mean Apple failed.

already there

[yyxx]

This puts Tv on demand at the pricepoint that even cheap-ass ol' me will even pay.

Many of the big cable providers give you movies on demand for very little money already (I don't know whether they include TV shows, but I suspect they do).

So if I get rid of Comcast or Dish at even the low price rate of $39.00 a month.

You still pay for Internet access, and the difference between Internet and Internet+cable isn't that large (at least for my provider).

Re:appletv = fail

[Rude Turnip]

I'll take it a step further, why are people playing with dozens of codecs?

FLAC

[QuietLagoon]

Still no FLAC support in iTunes or anywhere else in the Apple music infrastructure. Many sites use FLAC for concert recordings and other high-quality digital downloads.

Re:FLAC

[Zelgadiss]

You can always convert it to Apple Lossless at no quality loss, if you really want it on your iDevice.

Troublesome but it's possible.

Re:FLAC

[mblase]

Still no FLAC support in iTunes or anywhere else in the Apple music infrastructure.

Google "flac quicktime" and pick your favorite plug-in. Seriously, it took you this long?

Re:FLAC

[QuietLagoon]

Few, if any, of the plug-ins handle tagging. What I would like to see is FLAC handled as a part of the CoreAudio infrastructure, not as a partially-implemented plug-in.

Re:appletv = fail

[rotide]

Ya, how dare people have different types of video files! NO! you may not use format X that your digital video camera uses! NO! you may not use format Y that your family reunion was output in and your Cousin overseas sent you! NO! you many not use format Z that you got on a thumbstick with your purchase at BestBuy!

NO! Apple only wants you to use formats available on iTunes or is otherwise blessed by the magical Steve! Screw choice when you have have the privilege of displaying your Apple Logo!

Logo

[MeatyDemon]

The best thing I saw out of this whole keynote is the iPod Touch Logo. Have they always had those color finger prints for behind the "Touch" letters? I think that looks really nice. Other than that, does a nano really need a touch screen? It seems to me it would be a bit awkward to hold when trying to use the touchscreen.

Re:Logo

[jo_ham]

The fingerprint logo is new - it's a tie in with the new touch screens on the Nano.

Re:appletv = fail

[CronoCloud]

the PS3 will only play lvl 4.0 or 4.1 h264, where as the ATV will only play lvl 3.1 main.

The PS3 also plays the lower profiles and most certainly could play AppleTV formatted video.

Widgets on main screen

[200_success]

It is possible to move OS X widgets to the main screen. It's silly that it's a hidden feature, but it does work.

24/48hr window for rentals

[mzs]

The 24 hour window to watch rented movies in will not work for me. The 48hr windows for TV shows may be just barely enough. Once you have kids and a life it tends to take a few evenings to finish a film. I don't understand why they cannot expand that to something like a 5-7 days to be in the same ballpark as DVD rental places.

Re:24/48hr window for rentals

[Anonymous Coward]

You have to return the streamed copy so that someone else may rent it. Don't be so selfish.

New Nano?

[Gothic_Walrus]

Did anybody want a touchscreen Nano? Better yet, what good does a touch screen that's about an inch and a half square do anybody? I have a feeling that my stupidly large hands would be completely unable to operate the new Nano, and I know I can't be alone there.

This seems like a design regression. I know that touchscreens are sexier than the old wheel was, but was there really anything wrong with the old Nano design that warranted throwing it out entirely?

Re:New Nano?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only that but it's also "multitouch." Apparently you can't pinch to zoom but you can rotate. What the hell does rotating 90 degrees accomplish on a SQUARE screen!?

Re:New Nano?

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only that but it's also "multitouch." Apparently you can't pinch to zoom but you can rotate. What the hell does rotating 90 degrees accomplish on a SQUARE screen!?

The clip on the back of the Nano is one-way.

The Apple website shows a Nano clipped onto a person's shirt and the display rotated so that the screen is readable to the person looking down.

Re:New Nano?

[Abcd1234]

Did anybody want a touchscreen Nano? Better yet, what good does a touch screen that's about an inch and a half square do anybody?

That's dead easy for anyone who spends more than 10 seconds thinking about it: how else do you build a device that compact with both a display *and* a control interface, save by combining the two?

Re:New Nano?

[Vectormatic]

i dont see the rationele behind the touch screen either. From the looks of apple's site it doesnt run iOS with apps and such anyway, so i dont see the point in using a multi-touch interface (i wouldnt even know how to use multi-touch in an ipod only interface)

The nano 1 and 3 looked a bit off to me with the very long body, the 2g nano looks just about right to me, now they have gone back to an 'aspect ratio' that somewhat makes sense to me, but they go and 'revolutionize' the UI so much that i have no clue if this will even work.. touch screen buttons need more area then physical buttons, so i'm not sure they can even cram the same amount of info on the device as with the old split screen/controls setup

Re:New Nano?

[1110110001]

Jobs said: "Peoples want buttons". That was when he introduced the "new" iPod Shuffle. Especially at sports it's useful to control your iPod without having to look at it. Guess people are still buying it.

Re:New Nano?

[Julia Cameron]

I'm a girl -- ok, a woman -- but girl-sized, with absurdly tiny hands. I have super coordination (I'm a musician) and even I have trouble with those da*m tiny touchscreens. God only knows how you big blokes manage. Furthermore, there is nothing sexy about an elegantly-designed device with a screen that is covered with fingerprints. And how well can we see graphics and photos on a tiny screen?

Re:New Nano?

[gmhowell]

TPIUWP

Re:New Nano?

[Anonymous Coward]

I know I'm a little late to the show here, but as a runner, here's my thought....Touchscreen! Finally! Because unlike the ipod touch, its got a new layer of control software that supports "gestures" (I'm guessing it's like "slap the touchscreen" = next track, etc). I run with a older "wheeled" ipod classic, and its a bitch to switch tracks or select another playlist during a run.

Re: (appletv == fail) = Funny

[repetty]

* You can not mount a network hard drive (without hacking it)

* You can not mount a usb hard drive (without hacking it)

* Format support is very limited. For example: you can not play xvid, divx and a bunch of other formats

I think that's a VERY funny observation that you made!

Seriously -- it has been tagged "Insightful" but it's just full of "Funny."

Yes, AppleTV will fail, utterly. Eventually Apple will make billions of dollars with it and the little geekfreeks on Slashdot will have all of the indignation that they crave.

So what?

[Anonymous Coward]

oo a tiny 5MP sensor and a very very very short lens. Did you know that D3000 has a "point and shoot" mode ...

So what? Does the D3000 let you make video calls via wifi, or play games, or listen to your library of music, or watch movies?

No, because it's a DSLR.

This discussion is about the iPod and similar devices. Specialized devices will always outperform multi-purpose devices. This is not news, or even interesting.

Transcode and stream

[lullabud]

There will surely be an app that transcodes on the fly and streams to Apple TV.

Re:appletv = fail

[d*m*int]

No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.

Sony NEX

[Anonymous Coward]

Sony NEX series does HDR and panorama. Some of their regular P&S and SLRs also do that. CHDK (custom firmware for Canon cameras) does that. HDR (and sweep panorama mode) is the new thing after the megapixel war, so all the new cameras will have it.

Don't upgrade.

[lullabud]

I have a solution to your problem. Don't upgrade.

Good point

[SuperKendall]

Software crippled is a possibility, but they also did take out the LED flash for it, too.

I didn't even notice that one, though with the limited res of the camera it hardly matters.. it is nice for video though.

iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[Slider451]

I have the 2008 iPhone 3G. My phone has been very sluggish ever since I installed iOS 4. I've completely reset the phone to no avail. Curious if others have experienced this.

I'm currently eligible to upgrade to an iPhone 4 with no penalty on my contract (ends in December). I'll probably do it, only because Droid hasn't quite compelled me yet, and Windows Phone even less so, but I hate rewarding Apple for making me feel forced to upgrade just to get a working product.

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[mkiwi]

Steve Jobs said during the keynote that iOS 4.1 fixes the performance problems with the iPhone 3G. (Yes, I have had them too.) The software update will be released in a week or two, so I'd try it out before purchasing a new phone.

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[RapmasterT]

yeah, I experienced something like that. After installing the 3.2 update my 3G slowed to a crawl. Countless times I tried to take a picture of something and by the time the camera app actually started, the picture subject was a distant memory. It would save up screen touches until it could catch up, so 20-30 seconds later the phone would still be executing every sequential screen touch I'd made in frustration.

I paid the ETF fee to break my contract and get an android Evo 4G. best money I ever spent. Not that the phone is so fantastic, but that I don't feel like punching babies every time I use it now.

and that was 3.2, not even ios4. I can imagine the horror of using Ios4 on a 3G. Apple should be ashamed of letting a bloated OS even be installed on hardware that can't use it. I thought "user experience" was important to them. But I guess it drives upgrades...

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[Pahroza]

Go into your settings and disable all the spotlight settings. It should speed up a bit.

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[boreddotter]

I think iOS 4.1 undresses those problems, a quick search shows that the beta has improved the performance, if I'm not mistaken it was mentioned in the keynote today too.

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[Anonymous Coward]

The iPhone OSes have been getting slower pretty much since the first release. It was more subtle, or perhaps a special case since it was audio, but switching to 3.x versions for the exact same application as in 2.x on the same iPod Touch required that I increase audio buffer sizes to 512 frames from 256 frames for playback, which changed the latency from being good to being slightly unacceptable compared with pro-quality audio software.

Re:iOS 4 runs like crap on my 3G

[Slider451]

Thanks for the replies. Looking forward to the update.

Re:appletv = fail

[rotide]

You're wrong, there is a computer in the loop. The Apple TV device is nothing more than an extremely proprietary $100 computer that is handicapped in what it can do. The funny part is the last portion of your retort saying you can stream files off your computer to the device to bypass the limitations of it. Why not cut out the middle man and just go with a real system (that you can build quite cheaply) that will play all the formats you want? And if it doesn't do what you need right now, tweak it so it does. Or, go with the Apple TV and still use your computer to actually watch what isn't on iTunes.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[lbates_35476]

I agree with most of your post. I also agree that we are out here with money, but just don't like what we see. I just looked at new Apple TV and was severely disappointed: 720p only, no DVR, HDMI w/HDCP only, etc. Crap my 65" HDTV, that is only a few years old, doesn't even have 720p or HDMI (component only).

Another gripe is that I ABSOLUTELY refuse to rent movies for $3.99, $4.99 or more and be constrained to something like 24.48 hours. Sorry, but you should be selling most of them for $1.99-$2.99 because most of them really aren't worth watching more than once. I started purchasing DVDs when they became popular and then just stopped. It wasn't worth the cost to "own" a copy of the movie. Since they aren't HD, I find re-runs on HBO/Starz and record them on my HD DVR. Not that is something that actually works pretty well. .99 for a TV re-run is also, as you put it, straight-up funny. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks that the cost to ship me some bits down the Internet should be a LOT lower a'la Hulu or Netflix. Come on guys, do the math. There are hundreds of millions of potential customers out here. Didn't you learn anything from iTunes. Get the price down low enough and people will purchase 10 times as much stuff, but we have to be able to keep it and to play it on whatever we want.

Re:appletv = fail

[rotide]

Who said XBMC? Oh, you did. Try Boxee. And this is the glory of a PC. If it doesn't do what you want, install the app that will let you. If your iWhatever doesn't do what you want, well, too bad, I guess.

Re:New iPod Touch missing GPS :-(

[Yvan256]

AFAIK the iPod touch and iPad both use Skyhook. Depending on where you use it, it's either almost as precise as GPS or completely useless, i.e. not working at all.

Re:appletv = fail

[hexadecimate]

Oh, MrHanky. So indignant and so totally clueless. It's almost like you are sounding off about something you know nothing about. If only there were some web site or something where you could learn about the device before making stupid comments.

It will stream mpeg-4 and h.264 files from my computer to my TV. I don't actually know if I need a gizmo to do this, as it's not too hard for me to plunk my laptop beside the TV and attach a simple cable, but for some people it might seem like a worthwhile device.

If you could stop foaming for a second and educate yourself before you spout off, maybe you won't come across as such an idiot.

Pricing?

[rsilvergun]

Is it 99 cents to 'rent' one episode? That's way, way too much.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[fyngyrz]

Get the price down low enough and people will purchase 10 times as much stuff, but we have to be able to keep it and to play it on whatever we want.

Totally. If we were talking about *permanent* ownership of a TV show for .99 -- well, that's something else: there are a few series, and the very occasional stand-alone show I'd be interested in, and I am *really* not a fan of the tube.

I mean, you can DVR a show and keep it around for quite some time (as long as you can spare the space), for free. I just can't wrap my head around this whole "stream once for .99" thing they're cobbling together.

If you watch ONE show a night on that thing, you're going to have tossed $365 out the window over the course of a year. And you will have exactly nothing to show for it. If I'm going to put $365 or more down for something I can't keep, I'm going to hire me a model and do a really erotic lingerie shoot, or something along those lines. I mean, there's spending money, and there is throwing it right the heck out the window.

Also add this

[Ilgaz]

You also need to get rid of interference of a digital device (a chip, set of chips) next to that antenna.

I think podcasts can be used to replace the need for AM radio. Or, if device is connected type, non amazingly dumb talk radios "air" to stream in 32kbit (or even less) mono format, recently some even "discovered" "speech optimized" codecs.

In case of people thinking of "emergency radio", please, get a cheap, bulky, battery powered, old fashion analogue or digital radio and put alkaline batteries in it. Nothing can/will beat it.

Re:appletv = fail

[MrHanky]

Oh, so it will stream from your computer. Your computer running iTunes. It will stream file formats supported by Apple, and nothing else. It simply does not work in most cases.

Re:why no AM as well? Radio Interference!

[seawall]

I've seen some mighty tiny AM radios; sometimes using the case and that big bag of saltwater holding it as an antenna. What I haven't seen is a wide-band AM transmitter crammed into the same cubic centimeter as an AM receiver. Digital devices tend to produce a lot of RF that AM radios pick up. The way AM picks up stray signals is the reason FM was developed.

Back in the day (before computer sound hardware) the most common technique to produce "music" (more of a pitched buzzing) with a computer was to take advantage of various loops producing pitches you could hear on an AM radio. It was also used for diagnostics; I could sometimes hear the system go off the rails (Gad I am old).

Wait....

[AmonTheMetalhead]

... Are you telling me the iPad can't even f'cking print document?! And now they're going to try & kill last.fm? Oh and what about those rentals? Fuck that shit

Re:appletv = fail

[OverlordQ]

FFS, the standard Slashdot reply to a new Apple product has made it to the thread. This device just works.

As long as you hold it right.

Why I Almost Bought My First Apple Device

[pandrijeczko]

I've a Nexus One phone with Froyo 2.2 that I'm very pleased with but my one negative with it (or any other phone for that matter) is storage capacity. It's a great MP3 player but the biggest MicroSD card currently is 32GB and here in the UK they cost something close to £100 each - so I opted for a 16GB one at about £30.

Consequently, I'm now looking for an MP3 player that can hold as much of my (entirely legal CD) music collection as possible. I don't buy digital music (I prefer tangible & plastic) so have no interest in iTunes, but a 160GB iPod Classic seemed the best solution to store and play the majority of my 1000+ CD collection that I've ripped to MP3.

However, having done a little research on the web, I've discovered heaps of complaints regarding the new 8th Generation iPod Classics over here in Europe. Apparently, Apple have implemented a volume limiter in the 8th Gen Classics, supposedly because of EU sound level requirements and lots of people are now complaining about being unable to hear their music if background noise is high.

Okay, I accept this might have been forced onto Apple to a degree, but why then do other manufacturers of portable music devices not have the same volume limiting installed on their devices? Sure, music at loud volume for a sustained period will damage hearing but I would at least like the option of turning it up high when ambient noise levels are also high...

Incidentally, if anyone wants to throw some suggestions my way as to good alternative MP3 players with 100GB+ of storage, then I'm all ears - or, indeed, if there's a workaround for the volume limiter on 8th Gen Classics.

Likewise, I don't use iTunes and I'm mostly Linux user anyway but I understand that applications like GPod in Gnome work okay with with Classics - unless someone can tell me otherwise.

But for the moment, I'm not buying the Classic because there are that many complaints about the volume limiter issue here in Europe.

Re:Why I Almost Bought My First Apple Device

[dafing]

I'm a big Apple fan, I use a 120GB iPod Classic for podcasts, I need at least 100GB of storage, otherwise I'd have an iTouch.

I hope you decide to get a Classic.

Re:appletv = fail

[Anonymous Coward]

Screw iTunes and AppleTV, go with Western Digital Live. Around $100 and does pretty much everything. Been using mine for over a year. They have a newer model that will do Netflix as well.
I'm happy without iTunes.

USB Media - Check!
DLNA Compliant - Check!
Network Shares - Check!
Pandora - Check!
HDMI - Check!
Optical Out - Check!
Composite AND RGB - Check!
1080p - Check!

And it will run every format I've thrown at it:
Video:
AVI (Xvid, AVC, MPEG1/2/4), MPG/MPEG, VOB, MKV (h.264, x.264, AVC, MPEG1/2/4, VC-1), TS/TP/M2T (MPEG1/2/4, AVC, VC-1), MP4/MOV (MPEG4, h.264), M2TS, WMV9

Photo:
JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PNG

Audio:
MP3, WAV/PCM/LPCM, WMA, AAC, FLAC, MKA, AIF/AIFF, OGG, Dolby Digital, DTS

Playlist:
PLS, M3U, WPL

Subtitle:
SRT, ASS, SSA, SUB, SMI

http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-Network-ready-Player-WDBAAN0000NBK-NESN/dp/B002KKFP9Y/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1283380337&sr=8-2

Re:appletv = fail

[AmonTheMetalhead]

Correction, the device just works if you are content with working the Apple way, as soon as you want some flexibility you need to hack the hell out of it, good for noobs, bad for nerds.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[MichaelJ]

If you watch ONE show a night on that thing, you're going to have tossed $365 out the window over the course of a year.

But compare that to likely well over $400/year for cable ... this is the ultimate a la carte solution for the casual or infrequent watcher.

I need more info on iOS 4.1

[davvr6]

Waiting with a Parrot RKi8400 in it's box cause right now bluetooth audio isn't working and dock connection has quit. I'm not opening the box just to find out what doesn't work. Apple what were you thinking all kinds of stereo makers are broken , see http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2470321&tstart=0 Apple has broken a whole bunch of stuff with 4.0 4.01 and 4.02 4.1 where are you and do you make owning Parrot RKi8400 worth owning or not? I have 30 days with amazon to return it. What i really want is for the dock connector to work and I would also like the option of crummy blue tooth audio. 3Gs 32GB

Re:I need more info on iOS 4.1

[davvr6]

4.0.2 for the most part works with Parrot RKI 8400 software version 2.2 Bugs are slowness to index but blue tooth audio is clear bit breaks up foe a half second once and a while. Cautious to upgrade to 4.1

Re:appletv = fail

[RyuuzakiTetsuya]

or using a UPNP server that transcodes to h.264 anyway.

AppleTV still supports UPNP.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[fyngyrz]

I was comparing it to $0 / year for an antenna system or free streaming, actually. Can't imagine spending $400/year for cable. What for? For $400, the things you could do or buy... and you'd spend it watching the TV? There's the Internet, and you would *never* run out of things to watch for free there. Want to watch the Daily show? Go to the net, there it is, free, legal, etc. True for a *lot* of shows. ABC streams free content to my iPad, if I could only stand to watch it. I mean, I get that other people want to watch tv, but to pay $400/yr for it... that's kind of like setting your money on fire. Where is the benefit?

Touch as VoIP handset?

[tatankachip]

Damn. Was hoping that the new iPod Touch would have a mic/speaker combo (like the iPhone without the monthly cell phone tithe) the that could be used as a VoIP phone. No, I don't want to have to use a wired headset to do this, and I don't want to use the speaker. So close... or am I mistaken about its configuration?

Re:Touch as VoIP handset?

[Karlt1]

Damn. Was hoping that the new iPod Touch would have a mic/speaker combo (like the iPhone without the monthly cell phone tithe) the that could be used as a VoIP phone. No, I don't want to have to use a wired headset to do this, and I don't want to use the speaker. So close... or am I mistaken about its configuration?

It does have a built in mic and speaker. Every Touch since 2008 has had a speaker and the mic was added for FaceTime support.

No GPS for the Touch? Bah

[kindbud]

The camera is a nice addition, but there is no compelling reason to upgrade from my Touch gen2 to this, unless there was a real GPS chip in it. Maybe they will add one before Android totally eats their lunch.

Re:appletv = fail

[Pahroza]

But it comes with a free download for a video of Natalie Portman eating hot grits.

Re:appletv = fail

[shutdown -p now]

the standard Slashdot reply to a new Apple product has made it to the thread

AppleTV is not a new product. It's been out on the market for a while, and it's a fail based on experience so far - not because of anything it does or doesn't do in particular.

facebook trademark

[Anonymous Coward]

Now now, Apple can't just willy nilly start using words that belong to other big corporations, like "face". Also, "time" is easily confused with a magazine by that name. This won't go anywhere.

I wonder which butt fuck company will sue who first.

Re:OSX or IOS only

[yourexhalekiss]

Indeed, here's a photo of someone using their Android phone to watch the keynote.

Summary

[sootman]

Has wireless.* The Nomad is dead so space comparisons are moot. So, um, great!, I guess. :-)

* Sadly, still no wireless syncing of any kind. Dear Steve, I just want to sync a couple new songs and contacts every once in a while. Pleeeeeeease?!?!?

And the icon for this article...

[sootman]

... is a decade-plus-old Palm--why, exactly?

Re: You have it mostly correct

[otuz]

Where is the benefit?

The benefit is: no ads. Probably saves some time in the effort of searching for and loading the "free" content too.

Nothing about...

[Anonymous Coward]

improving the quality of the *sound* at all?

Thought not.

No, actually it doesn't have those things

[SuperKendall]

Megapixels are meaningless.

Yes.

It still has a crappy fixed plastic lens with no focusing ability

No. At least, not the iPhone 4 camera. It does have autofocus. The lens is still plastic, but not utterly crappy.

Also, as you noted, megapixels are meaningless - but what the iPhone 4 camera sensor does have is a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, which makes low light pictures with the thing reasonable in quality.

In fact, considering that high resolution sensors perform worse in low-light conditions

Yes, but again the sensor addresses that issue. 5MP is about right for a camera size sensor, it offers a decent sized image but any more and noise would increase with I think not much real gain in quality. I hope they stay at that size for a while.

Re:New iPod Touch missing GPS :-(

[bennomatic]

Well, that and the fact that the iPhone is the flagship product these days. I personally want an iPod touch with GPS, compass, gyro, retina display, forward and rear facing cameras and 3G data but no voice so I can use it (via Google Voice + Skype) as a phone without the phone service for $15 or $25/mo.

That'd be awesome. But I'm not surprised they're not offering. Yes, Apple makes great products, but they don't do it just for their health. They want to drive as much profit as they can.

So either I'll convince my employer to ditch their blackberry contract and get me an iPhone, or when (if ever) it becomes important enough to me, I'll pony up and buy one myself. I'm not going to hold my breath waiting for my non-phone-phone.

It would be cool though... especially if it had provider-agnostic (or at least provider-promiscuous) data radios. And while I'm at it, I'll suggest that they offer a meta-service, so that I pay one fee to Apple, and that allows me to hop on whatever 3G/4G/WiMax network is available (or fastest!) wherever I happen to be.

And there'd be ponies! No... UNICORNS!

Re:OSX or IOS only

[jo_ham]

Ah yet another blind "fact" about an Apple event and/or product.

Nice to see you get smacked down with the photo of someone watching the keynote on an Android phone. Did you even check before posting, or do you just have some axe to grind?

Underwhelmed

[Anonymous Coward]

Another way to print money, Think different Steve. A genuine fanboy (fanboi?) writing from his MacBook Pro. I want to INOVATION... not clever ways to strengthen garden walls. Kudos on the improvements.

I Don't Care

[smittyman]

I have HTC and IRiver

Re:OSX or IOS only

[BlackSnake112]

Actually just stating what Apple said on their own website. Putting it in quicktime for all platforms would have been better. If any other company had done this there would have been an uproar on here. But Apple gets a free pass.

But you are a pro apple fan boy (based on your past comments on here), so why would anyone expect anything else.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[commodore64_love]

In a previous message you said:
>>>The Internet has not reached everyone (we're at about 77% penetration to date), nor do I expect it ever will unless it becomes free, as television broadcasts were initially.

TV hasn't reached everyone yet either, although it's close. TV reaches 98% of all US homes according to Nielsen's coverage figures and internet penetration into homes is above 90% (about equal to a network like CW or MyNetTV). As for "free" yes there are internet services like NetZero and Juno that offer free access to anyone who wants it.
.

>>>What for? For $400, the things you could do or buy... and you'd spend it watching the TV?

Or just buy TV on DVD. $400 will rent you several season sets of your favorite shows, and still leave money left over to buy a month's worth of food. Buying cable makes no sense.
.

>>>Go to the net, there it is, free, legal, etc

Comcast, Cox, Time-Warner, and others are already working to seal this loophole. They don't want you watch CATV shows for free online, so they are negotiating with cable channels to look the episodes behind walls. You will only get to see the online reruns if you have a Comcast, Cox, etc subscriber number. This plan was supposed to be implemented in Fall 2009 but hey delayed iit to Fall 2010 instead.

Re:New iPod Touch missing GPS :-(

[sciencewhiz]

And even if they were packaged separately, the GPS receiver is so poor, it needs time and approximate location from GSM to have a chance at working.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[bill_mcgonigle]

and internet penetration into homes is above 90%

As I recall, that's the ZIP statistic. If one home in a ZIP code is served, all are assumed to be. Some FCC commissioners were pushing for ZIP+4 statistics. The initial number I heard was 65% based on that. I think some of those commissioners got 'moved on' in the Bush->Obama changeover, not sure where that project is now.

Apple TV

[J-1000]

I don't see Apple doing very well in this area. They succeeded with iPods because they took an existing product (buying music) and made it better. With Apple TV they are taking an existing product ("free" TV shows) and trying to monetize it in a way that doesn't make sense to consumers. Buying TV shows was already a bad value. Renting them is even worse.

Re: You have it mostly correct

[lbates_35476]

I don't watch ads now. I DVR everything and use the "skip 30 seconds" button as needed.

iPod Touch

[lemoon]

What made me most excited is the iPod Touch! It plays Music and it is a Phone, It has a Front Facing Camera, Led Flash and is a Tablet at the same time. JUST MAGICAL! With Retina display, Led Flash, iOS 4.1 with Game Center, Facetime with front camera. wow, OMG, just thinking to buy a new one! The Game Center really stunned me, can't wait to experience it! you know Im a totally ipod tunch games fanboy, have collected many games online!!! like this: http://www.ifunia.com/ipod-column/free-ipod-touch-games.html