I think the bigger story here is that Apple will not be selling them online. As far as I know, the first Apple product not to be sold online since they started the Apple Store.
From the Apple Store Online:
Where to buy: iPhone will be available in 8GB (black) and 16GB (black or white) models1 at Apple Retail Stores and AT&T Stores.
The absence of "right here on this page" is sad. If you want one, you're going to have to sit with the mob on July 11th. Boo.
It would be a pretty big mistake in my mind to drop support for PowerPC. There's still a huge installed base of PPC Macs out there and only 3 years later a computer not being able to install the 'latest and greatest' operating system sounds a bit like Microsoft forcing an upgrade.
In addition, it also keeps fat binaries out there in the spotlight. I'm betting that this won't be the last architecture switch for the Mac so it's probably a good idea to encourage people to keep making software that is 'universal' if for no other reason than to not let them forget how to do it.
No other advance would ever be as important as a quick way between the stars for colonization of other places in the galaxy. It would change our world so much indirectly just by us having the ability to leave it.
Honestly, 1-3 times a day there's a story approved from I Don't Believe In Imaginary Property. Thankfully, unlike Beatles Beatles Beatles, he's not using his URL to boost his search engine results but it does beg a question, how does that happen? Or are other submitters just submitting crap lately?
Talk about encouraging laziness! Why should an 'artist' garner a lifetime income from a single thing? I install an OS on a server, should I be expected to get royalties for as long as that server is in operation? No, of course not, that's insane. Yet this is how recording companies, legislatures and even maybe some real artists see the world. Make once, get paid many. I guess that's par for the course in a world that makes life entirely too easy.
15-inch MacBook Pros and now the MacBook Airs have LED-backlit LCD displays, not OLED displays. Unlike traditional florescent backlights for LCDs which become dimmer from age more rapidly, LEDs have a much longer lifetime in the 7-10 year range, allow for much whiter whites on the display and don't show a 'warmup' period when turned on.
OLEDs on the other hand refer to the organic light emitting diodes that make up the pixels of OLED displays. They emit light directly resulting in richer, brighter color from nearly any angle. OLED technology is in its infancy right now though and the biggest problem is that the organic materials they are composed of breakdown after a relatively short amount of time compared to the operating lifetime of an LCD.
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here).
Apple really missed the mark with this one here. At $1000-1200, it's reasonable but at %50 more it becomes laughable. I was really hoping for something in that range so I could replace my girlfriend's aging iBook but now it looks like I'll wait for an LED-backlit refresh of a MacBook, you know, that laptop that actually does something for $1200.
I'm with you that the whole suing a fan-site thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth but really the site was more than that. If ThinkSecret got word of a product a few months away from launch and it seemed credible enough, that really does give the competition an opportunity to get an early start on a similar product. That could have an effect in the millions of dollars range. I'm not saying everything ever printed does that but then again Apple doesn't sue for every rumor every printed, in fact, they've done so only a handful of times. Presumably when a 'rumor' report hits far too close to home to have come from anywhere but inside of Apple.
Apple certainly isn't the only company to use the 'upgrade to a higher model and get X' tactic. It's grossly common in the Auto industry as well. Take Audi, for example, sales of the A4 with the 3.2 engine were suffering because everybody wants a 2.0T engine, which is not a terrible amount slower, much cheaper and more upgradeable. What's Audi to do? Well, cut out options from the 2.0T and make convenience features like 'memory seats' only available on the 2.0T. And the engine upgrade option is much more than $50.
The point is that if you really enjoy the product, you'll dish out the extra cash to get more of it. More memory, more engine. The concept is definitely not unique to Apple.
My experiences are that the new features are awesome (even ones I didn't think I'd use) but stability has been thrown to the dogs.
Specifically, wake from sleep on my MBP has been completely hosed and works maybe half the time. I've resorted to simply shutting down every day which as of Leopard takes a while. Like a few minutes a while with a blacked out spinny wheel rotating away over my desktop background before it actually shuts off.
I've had similar issues with my Mac Pro with trying to shutdown and also with sometimes the unlock dialog not appearing when waking from screensaver (not sleep, just the screensaver/screensleep). I have yet to break more than a week uptime on my Mac Pro with Leopard.
Those stability issues are a big deal and what's concerning to me is that they worked fine in Tiger. I also noted other Mac Pro owners with Radeon X1900s were having graphical glitches just like me immediately after upgrading. I dealt with it for a while assuming that 10.5.1 would fix it when it came out but it didn't. In the end, a firmware upgrade buried on Apple's site (and not presented in Software Update) released about a week before Leopard fixed the issue.
I'm just ranting now, but just figured I'd share my Leopard experience. All told, it's better than running Windows. Or some hosey, alliterated Linux distro.;)
You are also wrong. All iPhones are GSM with EDGE for data transfer (2.75G). They're quad-band phones which allow them to operate on the varying frequencies from region to region. The 'schemes' are identical, only the frequencies vary.
The next iPhone (which will probably be released 1Q 2008) will likely be 3G, which is to say GSM with UMTS or HSDPA for data transfer. And again, will support enough frequencies to allow them to have one phone sold around the world. This reduces cost by having a unified, simple product line.
I know everyone is just trying to be helpful but if you don't know what the heck you're talking about, avoid spouting purportedly factual information.
You're a tool. 3G refers to the UMTS/HSDPA (and losely EDGE though it's considered only 2.75G) part of the signal used for data transfer. The part of the signal used for voice is always plain standard GSM. A GSM phone from 10 years ago is just as usable today for voice. The only part that has been evolving is the data services.
I'm sorry but this is pure bs. Why would someone think because the screen is off and the device is sleeping that the device is off? My tiny brain would bring up the following points to alert me that the device is still actually on:
1) Device returns instantaneously when pressing the WAKE button 2) Carrier already attached at full when pressing the WAKE button 3) The ability to recieve phone calls while the device is sleeping.
Those might be some hints that "hey, just because the screen is off, it's still on." And I suppose you could also add to the list that standby eats up battery because the transmitters are on. I don't buy the ignorance excuse. To rack up charges that large, you'd have to on one mighty long cruise and if that were the case, the fact that you have to charge your iPhone that's been "off" every couple days might be a clue.
Further bunk in this article:
1) Calls the device "off", actually sleeping. Most other Smartphones have the same way of sleeping, only they have LEDs. Maybe that will be in rev B. 2) Says automatically checks email. It can be configured to do so, but it doesn't otherwise. I've heard of people complaining that the iPhone grabs other data while sleeping, I've never experienced this. Only mail when configured to do so.
In short, I know Cox sucks but it's better than the alternative. At least to my knowledge, Cox offers CableCARDs so you can use this new Tivo with it. The problem with Qwest is that since they use DSL to deliver the TV service (yes, Cat-5 plugs into the box, not coax), it's technically impossible for them to offer cable cards as far as I know.
Qwest TV sucks mostly because they don't offer an HD DVR. You can have either a SD DVR or HD gateway box, not both. Also, they didn't offer HBO in HD at the time which was an annoyance.
I'd love love love to get one of these, I'd fork over cash right now but I'm unable to get CableCARDs so the device is useless to me.
I live in Phoenix where Cox is the dominant cable provider but like so many other condo/apt. complexes here in the area, I'm locked in to Qwest's TERRIBLE DSL-based TV service. This is presumably based by contract when the complex was built because they paid for "pre-wiring" to each room. As a result, I'm not able to get Cox. This is not a technical issue, Cox is in the complex next to me. Just some scheme thought up by someone that was greedy at Qwest some years ago.
I have DirecTV right now. It would be nice if they provided CableCARDs but nope, they love as much control over their own hardware as possible. I have the DirecTivo (Hughes HR-10) so I'm not too heartbroken but still, the situation sucks. If they'd just build a unit with component in's life would be a little better, no matter how grossly expensive it would be.
Okay, you want marketing material on "sshing to your linux box"? Are you daft? Do you realize that nobody save for a few technical people will know what that means? The point of advertising is to reach the largest number of people with your message. Disqualifying 90% of the audience with severely technical things is stupid. The same people that would complain about that are the same people would complain because the OS isn't free (like beer and freedom). You're obviously too picky.
Saying all that, I too want these features but it's far from what I'd call a deal breaker if I can't ssh from it given all that it CAN do.
It could be just because I'm "young" but I owned 2 previous model Mustangs and think they were the most beautiful out of all of them (leaving alone the fact that, ignoring that it made less HP than foreign V8's, it had much more power than the old 'classic' models). In fact, the model before that, the almost universally panned 'bubble' model, was my first car that I bought. In any case, I loved them all. I think they're great, simple cars. They're not supposed to the greatest thing ever, they're just supposed to look good and spin the rear wheels, both I think they do in spades compared to the originals.
And also, yes, I think the partially Ferrari inspired remodelling of the current Corvette looks brilliant even though I'm no GM fan.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the bigger story here is that Apple will not be selling them online. As far as I know, the first Apple product not to be sold online since they started the Apple Store.
From the Apple Store Online:
Where to buy:
iPhone will be available in 8GB (black) and 16GB (black or white) models1 at Apple Retail Stores and AT&T Stores.
The absence of "right here on this page" is sad. If you want one, you're going to have to sit with the mob on July 11th. Boo.
Because some people irrationally think that one American provider is better than another... which is patently false. They all suck.
It would be a pretty big mistake in my mind to drop support for PowerPC. There's still a huge installed base of PPC Macs out there and only 3 years later a computer not being able to install the 'latest and greatest' operating system sounds a bit like Microsoft forcing an upgrade.
In addition, it also keeps fat binaries out there in the spotlight. I'm betting that this won't be the last architecture switch for the Mac so it's probably a good idea to encourage people to keep making software that is 'universal' if for no other reason than to not let them forget how to do it.
That is such a retarded comment for so many reasons.
Selling to specialized markets.
Jobs wasn't around for about 13 years of those 30 years.
Relative numbers of an architecture.
And the all important, who cares about how many computers they sold? Isn't it more impressive that they have X tens of billions cash in the bank?
It's very clear it means a cumulative number. Why would Apple set the bar so high?
In plain simple english, they want to hit 1% market share which is 10 million iPhones at some point in 2008.
No other advance would ever be as important as a quick way between the stars for colonization of other places in the galaxy. It would change our world so much indirectly just by us having the ability to leave it.
Honestly, 1-3 times a day there's a story approved from I Don't Believe In Imaginary Property. Thankfully, unlike Beatles Beatles Beatles, he's not using his URL to boost his search engine results but it does beg a question, how does that happen? Or are other submitters just submitting crap lately?
No reasoning behind this, just curious.
Talk about encouraging laziness! Why should an 'artist' garner a lifetime income from a single thing? I install an OS on a server, should I be expected to get royalties for as long as that server is in operation? No, of course not, that's insane. Yet this is how recording companies, legislatures and even maybe some real artists see the world. Make once, get paid many. I guess that's par for the course in a world that makes life entirely too easy.
15-inch MacBook Pros and now the MacBook Airs have LED-backlit LCD displays, not OLED displays. Unlike traditional florescent backlights for LCDs which become dimmer from age more rapidly, LEDs have a much longer lifetime in the 7-10 year range, allow for much whiter whites on the display and don't show a 'warmup' period when turned on.
OLEDs on the other hand refer to the organic light emitting diodes that make up the pixels of OLED displays. They emit light directly resulting in richer, brighter color from nearly any angle. OLED technology is in its infancy right now though and the biggest problem is that the organic materials they are composed of breakdown after a relatively short amount of time compared to the operating lifetime of an LCD.
You're more right than you know.
The difference in price between the 'middle' MacBook and it is $500. I put together a WHOLE PAGE of stuff that is on the cheaper MacBook but not on the Air. And for less money, seriously, look at the specs, it's freaking hilarious. I'm a huge Apple fan boy but I can't say I'm enthusiastic about something that is so blatantly only sold for the 'cool' factor (insert your 'isn't that all Apple products' line here).
Apple really missed the mark with this one here. At $1000-1200, it's reasonable but at %50 more it becomes laughable. I was really hoping for something in that range so I could replace my girlfriend's aging iBook but now it looks like I'll wait for an LED-backlit refresh of a MacBook, you know, that laptop that actually does something for $1200.
Are you sure you really want to advertise that?
I'm with you that the whole suing a fan-site thing leaves a bad taste in the mouth but really the site was more than that. If ThinkSecret got word of a product a few months away from launch and it seemed credible enough, that really does give the competition an opportunity to get an early start on a similar product. That could have an effect in the millions of dollars range. I'm not saying everything ever printed does that but then again Apple doesn't sue for every rumor every printed, in fact, they've done so only a handful of times. Presumably when a 'rumor' report hits far too close to home to have come from anywhere but inside of Apple.
Apple certainly isn't the only company to use the 'upgrade to a higher model and get X' tactic. It's grossly common in the Auto industry as well. Take Audi, for example, sales of the A4 with the 3.2 engine were suffering because everybody wants a 2.0T engine, which is not a terrible amount slower, much cheaper and more upgradeable. What's Audi to do? Well, cut out options from the 2.0T and make convenience features like 'memory seats' only available on the 2.0T. And the engine upgrade option is much more than $50.
The point is that if you really enjoy the product, you'll dish out the extra cash to get more of it. More memory, more engine. The concept is definitely not unique to Apple.
Priorities certainly can change over 8 years, don't you think?
Thanks for this. I'll give it a try today!
I experienced this exact thing while I was using the developer ZFS r/w kernel extension.
I stopped using ZFS on Leopard and voila freezes stopped.
I'm with you on most of that.
;)
My experiences are that the new features are awesome (even ones I didn't think I'd use) but stability has been thrown to the dogs.
Specifically, wake from sleep on my MBP has been completely hosed and works maybe half the time. I've resorted to simply shutting down every day which as of Leopard takes a while. Like a few minutes a while with a blacked out spinny wheel rotating away over my desktop background before it actually shuts off.
I've had similar issues with my Mac Pro with trying to shutdown and also with sometimes the unlock dialog not appearing when waking from screensaver (not sleep, just the screensaver/screensleep). I have yet to break more than a week uptime on my Mac Pro with Leopard.
Those stability issues are a big deal and what's concerning to me is that they worked fine in Tiger. I also noted other Mac Pro owners with Radeon X1900s were having graphical glitches just like me immediately after upgrading. I dealt with it for a while assuming that 10.5.1 would fix it when it came out but it didn't. In the end, a firmware upgrade buried on Apple's site (and not presented in Software Update) released about a week before Leopard fixed the issue.
I'm just ranting now, but just figured I'd share my Leopard experience. All told, it's better than running Windows. Or some hosey, alliterated Linux distro.
You are also wrong. All iPhones are GSM with EDGE for data transfer (2.75G). They're quad-band phones which allow them to operate on the varying frequencies from region to region. The 'schemes' are identical, only the frequencies vary.
The next iPhone (which will probably be released 1Q 2008) will likely be 3G, which is to say GSM with UMTS or HSDPA for data transfer. And again, will support enough frequencies to allow them to have one phone sold around the world. This reduces cost by having a unified, simple product line.
I know everyone is just trying to be helpful but if you don't know what the heck you're talking about, avoid spouting purportedly factual information.
You're a tool. 3G refers to the UMTS/HSDPA (and losely EDGE though it's considered only 2.75G) part of the signal used for data transfer. The part of the signal used for voice is always plain standard GSM. A GSM phone from 10 years ago is just as usable today for voice. The only part that has been evolving is the data services.
I'm sorry but this is pure bs. Why would someone think because the screen is off and the device is sleeping that the device is off? My tiny brain would bring up the following points to alert me that the device is still actually on:
1) Device returns instantaneously when pressing the WAKE button
2) Carrier already attached at full when pressing the WAKE button
3) The ability to recieve phone calls while the device is sleeping.
Those might be some hints that "hey, just because the screen is off, it's still on." And I suppose you could also add to the list that standby eats up battery because the transmitters are on. I don't buy the ignorance excuse. To rack up charges that large, you'd have to on one mighty long cruise and if that were the case, the fact that you have to charge your iPhone that's been "off" every couple days might be a clue.
Further bunk in this article:
1) Calls the device "off", actually sleeping. Most other Smartphones have the same way of sleeping, only they have LEDs. Maybe that will be in rev B.
2) Says automatically checks email. It can be configured to do so, but it doesn't otherwise. I've heard of people complaining that the iPhone grabs other data while sleeping, I've never experienced this. Only mail when configured to do so.
In short, I know Cox sucks but it's better than the alternative. At least to my knowledge, Cox offers CableCARDs so you can use this new Tivo with it. The problem with Qwest is that since they use DSL to deliver the TV service (yes, Cat-5 plugs into the box, not coax), it's technically impossible for them to offer cable cards as far as I know.
Qwest TV sucks mostly because they don't offer an HD DVR. You can have either a SD DVR or HD gateway box, not both. Also, they didn't offer HBO in HD at the time which was an annoyance.
Nope, very few options here.
I'd love love love to get one of these, I'd fork over cash right now but I'm unable to get CableCARDs so the device is useless to me.
I live in Phoenix where Cox is the dominant cable provider but like so many other condo/apt. complexes here in the area, I'm locked in to Qwest's TERRIBLE DSL-based TV service. This is presumably based by contract when the complex was built because they paid for "pre-wiring" to each room. As a result, I'm not able to get Cox. This is not a technical issue, Cox is in the complex next to me. Just some scheme thought up by someone that was greedy at Qwest some years ago.
I have DirecTV right now. It would be nice if they provided CableCARDs but nope, they love as much control over their own hardware as possible. I have the DirecTivo (Hughes HR-10) so I'm not too heartbroken but still, the situation sucks. If they'd just build a unit with component in's life would be a little better, no matter how grossly expensive it would be.
If it used a SIM card, and had an open API, I'd be a lot more impressed.
It uses a SIM card and has a (sort-of) open API. Go away.
Okay, you want marketing material on "sshing to your linux box"? Are you daft? Do you realize that nobody save for a few technical people will know what that means? The point of advertising is to reach the largest number of people with your message. Disqualifying 90% of the audience with severely technical things is stupid. The same people that would complain about that are the same people would complain because the OS isn't free (like beer and freedom). You're obviously too picky.
Saying all that, I too want these features but it's far from what I'd call a deal breaker if I can't ssh from it given all that it CAN do.
I'll see you in 13 days when the phone is selling for the same price they've been advertised as ($499 & $599).
It could be just because I'm "young" but I owned 2 previous model Mustangs and think they were the most beautiful out of all of them (leaving alone the fact that, ignoring that it made less HP than foreign V8's, it had much more power than the old 'classic' models). In fact, the model before that, the almost universally panned 'bubble' model, was my first car that I bought. In any case, I loved them all. I think they're great, simple cars. They're not supposed to the greatest thing ever, they're just supposed to look good and spin the rear wheels, both I think they do in spades compared to the originals.
And also, yes, I think the partially Ferrari inspired remodelling of the current Corvette looks brilliant even though I'm no GM fan.