Slashdot Mirror
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.
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).
You can stream from your computer.
That's gonna be awesome for internet help-desk workers. How about creating a Flickr clone and calling it iFconfig?
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.
John
OT:
I liked that quote so much, I had to look it up. According to Snopes, Jed Babbin said that.
Carry on.
Let's face it, most of us are scoffers. But moments before zero hour, it does not pay to take chances.
They've always had this feature, see?
http://appadvice.com/appnn/2010/04/humor-ipad-printing-simple/
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
You do realize that AM stations, by virtue of being much further down the RF spectrum, have a much, much bigger range, right?
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.
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!!!
The real Sig captains the Northwestern. This one captains
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.
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
You just a succinct (I believe accurate) technical answer to a question about an Apple product on Slashdot... Is that allowed? :-)
I don't need a million points of light, just two points of multi-mode fiber and a 10 Gig-E router.
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.
"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.
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.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
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
Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
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?
No comment.
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..........
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
So does the iPad have print drivers to print to the Kindle?
"A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it." - K
You're trying too hard.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
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?
Remember to maintain your supply of
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?
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.
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.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
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?
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
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 :(
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..
It is what it is.
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....
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
The reason is the way it's packaged on the iPhone is the GPS/GSM chip is integrated.
* 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.
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.
And believe it or not, I'm sure Ghandi and Martin Luther King, Jr. would like to punch you.
The CB App. What's your 20?
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?
It's a dirty job, but someone's got to do it. :)
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.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
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?
Goo goo g'joob.
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 ...
---- The geek shall inherit the Earth.
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.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes