If one could plug a form-factor-appropriate battery pack to the back of the unit, and if the screen were touch sensative for a stylus, this would be a sweet tablet!
Perhaps the size would have to come down and therefore the specs (even a dual core G4 instead of the G5?) but I am betting we will see more innovation out of this design than the single purpose of the iMac G4 design.
I love Apples and have been eagerly awaiting the new iMac G5, but as I view photos, it is only the specs and price (which I think are very competitive, even against the mass market of PC clones), that entice me to the new product line, not the style.
I say that as I sit before my iMac G4. Basically, I have adopted the logic of my little sister, who used to think the monitor was the computer and the CPU was the power supply. To me, the computer is just monitor and peripherals. I do not care about the case or external devices, save how convenient they are to reach when needed.
That said, I feel the new iMac G5 has diluted the attractiveness of the flatscreen because it has added visual weight to the LCD that in the iMac G4 incarnation, nicely blended with the background becuase of the clear housing around it.
Like I said, jury is out on this one and I look forward to seeing it in person.
I am excited aboutthe new iMac G5 because it allows apple to gain more expertise and hopefully economies of scale when purchasing components that can serve tripple-product-line-duty in the iMac G5, iBook, and PowerBook lines.
Apple is good at finding clever ways to reuse good ideas. For one example we can turn to is the "Wow" moment every iPod owner has had when opening the cube shaped box it comes in and remarking on how expensive that packaging must have been for Apple. It makes a good impression, but certainly added to the cost. But wait, Apple reused the same cube design no only on the iPod mini, but also for the iSight and the Airport Express. Just one example of Apple innovation re-visited.
My guess is that HP is thinking that people will "throw in an HP iPod" when making an HP computer purchase.
Exactly, plus, the whole "same price as Apple" can be fudged when the hPod is "bundled" with a computer. HP can take a loss on the computer if they are making highl margins on the hPod and the CONSUMER WINS!
Oh and about your tag line: Boycott Walmart - Recycle - Vote Bush out of office in 04 Three checks for me!
If I could turn back time...If i could find a way
on
Semper WiFi
·
· Score: 1
[Sorry in advance for the Cher lyric title]
If the US, Europe, and all other developed states could rebuild the infrastructure from a clean slate, wouldn't they implement WiFi (and GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions instead of the mesh(mess) of wires that criss-cross our landscapes and obscure our views?
If the above is true, then Wifi (and the aforementioned GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions are obvious in a place like Iraq that does not have the infrastructure that can support the needs of thousands of 21st century crusaders, er, soldiers. (no slight to the troops, just the politics).
of course, the last piece to the WiFi/GPS/Cellular&PCS puzzle is to figure out a wireless energy source - one that would not rely on massive drilling platforms, huge ovens spewing toxins, deadly radioactivity, or even something as mundane as holding back river waters and flooding lands. Yes, if only there was some way to have wireless energy that was silent and available to everyone, regardless of proximity to a power station (is the Sun a powerstation?).
This is a thrill the first time you see it high...it is a sci fi drama called The Cube and features an unknown cast of characters trapped in an alien's cube shaped, ever chaning space craft/dungeon.
It's not that women are not smart enough to be CompSci majors, its just that they can't physically handle it. CompSci is no different than other physically demanding professions like fire fighting or football playing or paleontology.
The female body just isn't built for the hours of intense physical excursion. CompSci demands endurance in the form of long hours of keying, interspersed only with intense first-person-shooter-coding-breaks requiring intense hand to eye coordination the female body just could dream of.
Plus, if a woman were to put the amounts of caffeine, sugar water, and cold bread with cheese and toppings into their bodies, they would quite literally die from the shame of doing to their bodies what we men have no qualms doing to our own.
I would recommend throwing it away (or recycling it if possible).
The reason?
It may end up costing more to run than a new system. When you are talking about a 5 year old PC, you are talking CRT, larger (size) but smaller (capacity) hard drive, inferrior cooling methods, slower processors, ram, and networking.
All this adds up to a system that runs slow and hot, driving up energy bills to run the system AND cool the room as well as taking a lot longer to perform a specific task, thus directly increasing energy consumption.
If you think that energy consumption isn't important, than I cannot help you. One day soon you will.
How about for relatively recent [emphasis added] Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac?... just last night I was looking into converting the little blue gumball to Linux.
According to EveryMac, your computer was released 10/5/99 - that's five years give or take a few weeks. How is that relatively recent when Apple only started selling Macs 20 years ago?
The list price was $999 which means you have gotten core computer usage for ~$200 a year, or less than $0.55 a day. Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a system that DOES run OS X.
Did you know about this or this? Both are in the range of your existing investment - AND YOU GET A NEW APPLE COMPUTER!
This is not a flame or a troll but a real question.
If OS X can run most/all linux apps via X11, then why would someone want to run Yellow God native?
I thought the achillies heal of linux is the difficult/multivariation/infinitely configurable interface. Seems like if OS X nips that issue, and offers support of linux apps (X11), then I don't get the need to buy a G5 and ditch the OS it comes with for Yellow Dog.
First: Steve, best wishes and speedy recovery. Millions of people are praying for you and wishing you well.
Second: Does anyone think this will serve as a 'wake up' call to Apple's leadership and innovation practices?
I am a Switcher and what I found when I started following the world-that-is-Apple that Steve === Apple. He was a founder, when he was outed the company went on a death spiral, when he came back it got a second life with the 1st gen iMac and now Appel rules digital music.
But is that the best way to run a company? Certainly you NEED a strong leader, but it seems a bit pied piper to me. What would the next years look like for Apple if Steve had had terminal cancer? Has Apple grown into an organization that can go on without him?
I work for a small business and our founder and president of three decades will soon retire. He has run his company very patriarchially (sp) and it has been interesting to see senior managment change their styles to rely less upon the president for decision making and instead, take that on themselves.
I use that as an illustration of growing pains that Apple may one day soon face. How to instil the innovation and business savvy of Steve Jobs throughout the organization so that Apple will be a strong company well past Steve's tenure.
This is not exciting because of iTunes integration - I mean, after we have come to love carrying 10,000 songs in our pockets how can we go back to 12?
No, this announcement gets me drooling for the Apple-Motorola collaboration that could bring to market the first ever Apple branded PDA-Phone. It has been said before that Apple has all the pieces it needs for PDA functionality, but WiFi or Bluetooth isn't going to make a personal communicator useful beyond the home, office, or WiFi Main Street USA. No, Apple needs a mobile phone partner to offer wireless Internet access, oh yeah, and to make phone calls on.
The mobile phone industry went a stray with the whole 'camera phone' concept. Perhaps Apple can resurect the flat PDA market and the breath new life into moible phones with this partnership.
This feature was called "Home on iPod" and was to be part of Panther but was pulled pre-release. (more here or here)
This would be the single biggest feature inthe history of a PDA and perhaps it will be 'held' by Apple until they do what Steve said they would not do and create a new Apple PDA to replace the Netwton from years gone by. Apple already has Ink Well handwriting technology which has been well reviewed by those who review such technologies.
The feature was called "Home on iPod" and was to be released in Panther. (more here or here)
It woudl be the single biggest boon to a PDA type device in the history of PDAs so perhaps Apple pulled it from Panther to make it into their version of the Personal Digital Assistant ("Archive").
After reading the article, I see clearly that this device is exactly as Apple has described - it was almost like reading from Apple's own materials on Airport Express.
Particularly interesting was how well it worked with both Windows and Apple environments.
This review makes me keenly aware that this product is a 'must' have luxury' for the road warrior who needs a single, small, device to handle multiple calls of duty. Armed with this iPod sized device, a few cables, and the install CD (or access to the Interweb) a road warrior has a superior acessory for their PowerBook or Inspiron.
There is a great deal of chatter about how Duke is so stupid as to fall for Apple's marketing and this thinly vailed disguise to get the students buying iTunes and so on.
Let me give a different perspective. The high school I went to (yeah it was private but I read/. every day so you tell me if you think I was in the 'in crowd') was the first in the US to distribute Palm PDAs to incoming Freshmen. The idea was that they would be able to keep organized, download class schedules, take quizes, etc. (read more). This was seen by some as just a way to get local media attention and promote the school.
But it really did help the students. Sure you can beam stuff and play games and otherwise goof off with the device, but it also helped the students stay organized and keep their digital documents with them when they need them.
Now I'm not saying the iPod is going to help Duke students graduate in 3 years, and there are huge differences between the iPod and a PDA, but for digital arts students who need to work on a project outside the studio, or the Comp Sci student who wants a backup of the source for their thesis, there are applications outside the music realm.
Not to mention, this huge roaming profile rumor that one will be able to keep their user profile on an iPod, and when connected to a Mac, at home or on campus, log into their user account with their background and preferences, desktop files, user directory files, iCal calendar, address book contacts, Safari browser bookmarks, etc.
Now THAT would make huge sense on a campus setting.
I find it so frustrating how a device can not just have a SINGLE purpose these days. Most notably I am upset at how many 'cameras' manufacturers are shoving down my throat: My Cell Phone has to be a camera, my video camera has to be a still camera too, as does my Sony Clie PDA.
Which brings me to my worry: The PDAing of the iPod. Just because something can do a task doesn't mean it is well suited for it or should do that thing. Witness that the iPod also has a calendar and contact list. Mind you, you cannot add or edit these things, but they are available for reading and syncing to your Mac's corresponding applications.
BUT WHY?
I guess the thought is that because your iPod is portable it should be able to carry around the data that might be nice to have when away from a device that should contain said data.
But doesn't it make sense to have a music player with a simple interface and a single purpose? No confusion in the marketplace. No R&D time spent adding features outside of the scope of the device. Why should my PDA have a camera and play MP3s and play full motion video? How is this part of a Personal Digital Assistant? It's like these "SUV" luxury 4x4 stationwagons. What the heck is this car-plane-boat anyway?
All this rant just to say that I think the SanFran WiFi hot spot list belongs on the laptop that could use it, or at most a WiFi PDA, but not the NON-WiFi, NON-PDA iPod. It is just dilution of the purpose of this great music player.
Now if Apple would pretty-please make a PDA again...
I sympathize. This is always an issue when companies, but particularly Apple it seems, upgrade a model line.
My advice is first, enjoy what you have which is the best digital music player in the world and second, be sure to check the rumor sites before major Apple purchases. This site even has a buyers guide that advises you where in the product life cycle an Apple product is.
I'm very curious, if you'd be able to inspect the contents of all iPodii in use, what the ratio of MP3 to AAC would be. I'd be flabberghasted if it would be below 400%. My ratio is infinity - there is not a single AAC file on my iPod.
Here's my single data point to counter yours: Not only do I not have a single MP3 on my iPod, but I only have 20% of my 5000 song collection as MP3 and they are the songs I can't find on iTMS or only want for a single play (ie dance music).
This is just to say that though you may think my choice of audio format odd, I think the same of yours.
Between the extra batery life and the new scroll wheel, I would go for the Gen4.
I have an iPod Mini and my favorite aspect is not the size or the color, it's the scroll wheel. It is SO easy to use when you can scroll and then click. You don't forget the orientation of the wheel because when you hold it in your hand, you can tell which way is 'north' on the iPod, even though you are holding it at a 315 degrees instead of 360 degrees.
Hard to explain, easy to understand in person. Bottom line is, if it only costs you shipping, I would get the Gen 4.
In the meantime I can't help but think all the loyal third-party vendors of accessories for the 3G (there were alot after the holiday boom) would be a bit miffed that Apple changed the design again. Leaving them to re-make many of their already well sold products.
Really? I couldn't imagine they are upset at Apple. Apple has CREATED an entire acessory industry and when new products come out, especially when the design changes. Now your iDevice that you love doesn't work with the new iPod, so you have to buy a new one where as you had no reason to need a new one prior to the upgrade.
Plus, you might sell your old iPod on eBay, creating a new owner who also needs the old-generation iDevice...
Slashdot Mirror
If one could plug a form-factor-appropriate battery pack to the back of the unit, and if the screen were touch sensative for a stylus, this would be a sweet tablet!
Perhaps the size would have to come down and therefore the specs (even a dual core G4 instead of the G5?) but I am betting we will see more innovation out of this design than the single purpose of the iMac G4 design.
I love Apples and have been eagerly awaiting the new iMac G5, but as I view photos, it is only the specs and price (which I think are very competitive, even against the mass market of PC clones), that entice me to the new product line, not the style.
I say that as I sit before my iMac G4. Basically, I have adopted the logic of my little sister, who used to think the monitor was the computer and the CPU was the power supply. To me, the computer is just monitor and peripherals. I do not care about the case or external devices, save how convenient they are to reach when needed.
That said, I feel the new iMac G5 has diluted the attractiveness of the flatscreen because it has added visual weight to the LCD that in the iMac G4 incarnation, nicely blended with the background becuase of the clear housing around it.
Like I said, jury is out on this one and I look forward to seeing it in person.
I am excited aboutthe new iMac G5 because it allows apple to gain more expertise and hopefully economies of scale when purchasing components that can serve tripple-product-line-duty in the iMac G5, iBook, and PowerBook lines.
Apple is good at finding clever ways to reuse good ideas. For one example we can turn to is the "Wow" moment every iPod owner has had when opening the cube shaped box it comes in and remarking on how expensive that packaging must have been for Apple. It makes a good impression, but certainly added to the cost. But wait, Apple reused the same cube design no only on the iPod mini, but also for the iSight and the Airport Express. Just one example of Apple innovation re-visited.
My guess is that HP is thinking that people will "throw in an HP iPod" when making an HP computer purchase.
Exactly, plus, the whole "same price as Apple" can be fudged when the hPod is "bundled" with a computer. HP can take a loss on the computer if they are making highl margins on the hPod and the CONSUMER WINS!
Oh and about your tag line:
Boycott Walmart - Recycle - Vote Bush out of office in 04
Three checks for me!
[Sorry in advance for the Cher lyric title]
If the US, Europe, and all other developed states could rebuild the infrastructure from a clean slate, wouldn't they implement WiFi (and GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions instead of the mesh(mess) of wires that criss-cross our landscapes and obscure our views?
If the above is true, then Wifi (and the aforementioned GPS & cellular/PCS) solutions are obvious in a place like Iraq that does not have the infrastructure that can support the needs of thousands of 21st century crusaders, er, soldiers. (no slight to the troops, just the politics).
of course, the last piece to the WiFi/GPS/Cellular&PCS puzzle is to figure out a wireless energy source - one that would not rely on massive drilling platforms, huge ovens spewing toxins, deadly radioactivity, or even something as mundane as holding back river waters and flooding lands. Yes, if only there was some way to have wireless energy that was silent and available to everyone, regardless of proximity to a power station (is the Sun a powerstation?).
This is a thrill the first time you see it high...it is a sci fi drama called The Cube and features an unknown cast of characters trapped in an alien's cube shaped, ever chaning space craft/dungeon.
Really bad but fun for an evening.
Parent is an OBVIOUS joke - and was modded up "funny" until the troll patrol hit it up.
I hope the meta-moderators have better sense of humor
It's not that women are not smart enough to be CompSci majors, its just that they can't physically handle it. CompSci is no different than other physically demanding professions like fire fighting or football playing or paleontology.
The female body just isn't built for the hours of intense physical excursion. CompSci demands endurance in the form of long hours of keying, interspersed only with intense first-person-shooter-coding-breaks requiring intense hand to eye coordination the female body just could dream of.
Plus, if a woman were to put the amounts of caffeine, sugar water, and cold bread with cheese and toppings into their bodies, they would quite literally die from the shame of doing to their bodies what we men have no qualms doing to our own.
I would recommend throwing it away (or recycling it if possible).
The reason?
It may end up costing more to run than a new system. When you are talking about a 5 year old PC, you are talking CRT, larger (size) but smaller (capacity) hard drive, inferrior cooling methods, slower processors, ram, and networking.
All this adds up to a system that runs slow and hot, driving up energy bills to run the system AND cool the room as well as taking a lot longer to perform a specific task, thus directly increasing energy consumption.
If you think that energy consumption isn't important, than I cannot help you. One day soon you will.
How about for relatively recent [emphasis added] Apple hardware that will run OS X poorly, like my aging 350MHz iMac? ... just last night I was looking into converting the little blue gumball to Linux.
According to EveryMac, your computer was released 10/5/99 - that's five years give or take a few weeks. How is that relatively recent when Apple only started selling Macs 20 years ago?
The list price was $999 which means you have gotten core computer usage for ~$200 a year, or less than $0.55 a day. Perhaps it is time to upgrade to a system that DOES run OS X.
Did you know about this or this? Both are in the range of your existing investment - AND YOU GET A NEW APPLE COMPUTER!
This is not a flame or a troll but a real question.
If OS X can run most/all linux apps via X11, then why would someone want to run Yellow God native?
I thought the achillies heal of linux is the difficult/multivariation/infinitely configurable interface. Seems like if OS X nips that issue, and offers support of linux apps (X11), then I don't get the need to buy a G5 and ditch the OS it comes with for Yellow Dog.
From the hi-res looks of things, the year 2020 soldier (on the left in black) is gonna promote friendly fire casualties with his mask all fogged up.
First: Steve, best wishes and speedy recovery. Millions of people are praying for you and wishing you well.
Second: Does anyone think this will serve as a 'wake up' call to Apple's leadership and innovation practices?
I am a Switcher and what I found when I started following the world-that-is-Apple that Steve === Apple. He was a founder, when he was outed the company went on a death spiral, when he came back it got a second life with the 1st gen iMac and now Appel rules digital music.
But is that the best way to run a company? Certainly you NEED a strong leader, but it seems a bit pied piper to me. What would the next years look like for Apple if Steve had had terminal cancer? Has Apple grown into an organization that can go on without him?
I work for a small business and our founder and president of three decades will soon retire. He has run his company very patriarchially (sp) and it has been interesting to see senior managment change their styles to rely less upon the president for decision making and instead, take that on themselves.
I use that as an illustration of growing pains that Apple may one day soon face. How to instil the innovation and business savvy of Steve Jobs throughout the organization so that Apple will be a strong company well past Steve's tenure.
This is not exciting because of iTunes integration - I mean, after we have come to love carrying 10,000 songs in our pockets how can we go back to 12?
No, this announcement gets me drooling for the Apple-Motorola collaboration that could bring to market the first ever Apple branded PDA-Phone. It has been said before that Apple has all the pieces it needs for PDA functionality, but WiFi or Bluetooth isn't going to make a personal communicator useful beyond the home, office, or WiFi Main Street USA. No, Apple needs a mobile phone partner to offer wireless Internet access, oh yeah, and to make phone calls on.
The mobile phone industry went a stray with the whole 'camera phone' concept. Perhaps Apple can resurect the flat PDA market and the breath new life into moible phones with this partnership.
This feature was called "Home on iPod" and was to be part of Panther but was pulled pre-release. (more here or here)
This would be the single biggest feature inthe history of a PDA and perhaps it will be 'held' by Apple until they do what Steve said they would not do and create a new Apple PDA to replace the Netwton from years gone by. Apple already has Ink Well handwriting technology which has been well reviewed by those who review such technologies.
The feature was called "Home on iPod" and was to be released in Panther. (more here or here)
It woudl be the single biggest boon to a PDA type device in the history of PDAs so perhaps Apple pulled it from Panther to make it into their version of the Personal Digital Assistant ("Archive").
After reading the article, I see clearly that this device is exactly as Apple has described - it was almost like reading from Apple's own materials on Airport Express.
Particularly interesting was how well it worked with both Windows and Apple environments.
This review makes me keenly aware that this product is a 'must' have luxury' for the road warrior who needs a single, small, device to handle multiple calls of duty. Armed with this iPod sized device, a few cables, and the install CD (or access to the Interweb) a road warrior has a superior acessory for their PowerBook or Inspiron.
There is a great deal of chatter about how Duke is so stupid as to fall for Apple's marketing and this thinly vailed disguise to get the students buying iTunes and so on.
/. every day so you tell me if you think I was in the 'in crowd') was the first in the US to distribute Palm PDAs to incoming Freshmen. The idea was that they would be able to keep organized, download class schedules, take quizes, etc. (read more). This was seen by some as just a way to get local media attention and promote the school.
Let me give a different perspective. The high school I went to (yeah it was private but I read
But it really did help the students. Sure you can beam stuff and play games and otherwise goof off with the device, but it also helped the students stay organized and keep their digital documents with them when they need them.
Now I'm not saying the iPod is going to help Duke students graduate in 3 years, and there are huge differences between the iPod and a PDA, but for digital arts students who need to work on a project outside the studio, or the Comp Sci student who wants a backup of the source for their thesis, there are applications outside the music realm.
Not to mention, this huge roaming profile rumor that one will be able to keep their user profile on an iPod, and when connected to a Mac, at home or on campus, log into their user account with their background and preferences, desktop files, user directory files, iCal calendar, address book contacts, Safari browser bookmarks, etc.
Now THAT would make huge sense on a campus setting.
I find it so frustrating how a device can not just have a SINGLE purpose these days. Most notably I am upset at how many 'cameras' manufacturers are shoving down my throat: My Cell Phone has to be a camera, my video camera has to be a still camera too, as does my Sony Clie PDA.
Which brings me to my worry: The PDAing of the iPod. Just because something can do a task doesn't mean it is well suited for it or should do that thing. Witness that the iPod also has a calendar and contact list. Mind you, you cannot add or edit these things, but they are available for reading and syncing to your Mac's corresponding applications.
BUT WHY?
I guess the thought is that because your iPod is portable it should be able to carry around the data that might be nice to have when away from a device that should contain said data.
But doesn't it make sense to have a music player with a simple interface and a single purpose? No confusion in the marketplace. No R&D time spent adding features outside of the scope of the device. Why should my PDA have a camera and play MP3s and play full motion video? How is this part of a Personal Digital Assistant? It's like these "SUV" luxury 4x4 stationwagons. What the heck is this car-plane-boat anyway?
All this rant just to say that I think the SanFran WiFi hot spot list belongs on the laptop that could use it, or at most a WiFi PDA, but not the NON-WiFi, NON-PDA iPod. It is just dilution of the purpose of this great music player.
Now if Apple would pretty-please make a PDA again...
I sympathize. This is always an issue when companies, but particularly Apple it seems, upgrade a model line.
My advice is first, enjoy what you have which is the best digital music player in the world and second, be sure to check the rumor sites before major Apple purchases. This site even has a buyers guide that advises you where in the product life cycle an Apple product is.
I have purchased 600 songs from iTMS (and do not regret a penny of it). The addtional 3400 are a ripping of my CD collection to AAC.
Will Iriver be forced to drop the price on their models to remain competitive with Apple? If so, that would be great news.
I take it you are implying that with a lower iRiver price, it would cause Apple to lower iPod prices again, and THAT is what would be good news.
Certainly, owning an iRiver, at any price, is very, very bad news.
I'm very curious, if you'd be able to inspect the contents of all iPodii in use, what the ratio of MP3 to AAC would be. I'd be flabberghasted if it would be below 400%. My ratio is infinity - there is not a single AAC file on my iPod.
Here's my single data point to counter yours:
Not only do I not have a single MP3 on my iPod, but I only have 20% of my 5000 song collection as MP3 and they are the songs I can't find on iTMS or only want for a single play (ie dance music).
This is just to say that though you may think my choice of audio format odd, I think the same of yours.
Between the extra batery life and the new scroll wheel, I would go for the Gen4.
I have an iPod Mini and my favorite aspect is not the size or the color, it's the scroll wheel. It is SO easy to use when you can scroll and then click. You don't forget the orientation of the wheel because when you hold it in your hand, you can tell which way is 'north' on the iPod, even though you are holding it at a 315 degrees instead of 360 degrees.
Hard to explain, easy to understand in person. Bottom line is, if it only costs you shipping, I would get the Gen 4.
In the meantime I can't help but think all the loyal third-party vendors of accessories for the 3G (there were alot after the holiday boom) would be a bit miffed that Apple changed the design again. Leaving them to re-make many of their already well sold products.
Really? I couldn't imagine they are upset at Apple. Apple has CREATED an entire acessory industry and when new products come out, especially when the design changes.
Now your iDevice that you love doesn't work with the new iPod, so you have to buy a new one where as you had no reason to need a new one prior to the upgrade.
Plus, you might sell your old iPod on eBay, creating a new owner who also needs the old-generation iDevice...