Apple should be selling them for $499 or less - who cares if the developers have them in the end? - it's just a PC.
Sorry, but that's just wrong. If they had to ramp up a PCB (printed circuit board) production line somewhere to build these things, the cost would be enormous. Bear in mind this cost is going to be shared across what, a few hundred prototypes? At most.
Prototype machines like this are ENORMOUSLY expensive. I believe the prototype Macs typically tested internally are valued at some tens of thousands of dollars.
I turned off Speech Recognition on my Mac - it was freaking me out when it started responding to voices on the TV. No lie! A typical conversation:
TV: "...we don't have the time..."
Mac: "It's seven thirty two".
Ok, it's not exactly riveting dialogue, but still.. You KNOW you're getting neurotic when your household appliances are having conversations and you start feeling left out.
Funnily enough, though, it seems like Slashdotters like to remember the initial projection, not the retraction
Well, IBM confirmed the existence of the 970MP (Antares) dual-core 970 chip back in mid-March, though that doesn't mean Apple will use it. However, Apple's CHUD tools now support Macs with 4 processors, which seem more than a little coincidental.
Funnily enough, though, it seems like Slashdotters like to remember the initial projection, not the retraction
Funnily enough, I had the same problem with my girlfriend. She never forgets me promising to always be faithful, but doesn't remember me retracting that promise on a stag weekend some months later.. Funny how that works..
(Obviously i'm only joking. Slashdotters with girlfriends are obviously a work of fiction, like the Easter bunny, multiple orgasms, or 3GHz PowerMacs..)
This is pretty worrying. Not only does it mean the restrictions in 4.7 are 'mandatory' (at least, to anyone who intends to keep buying from iTMS), but looking further ahead it means *every future* DRM or usage restriction in iTunes is likely to be mandatory for the same reason - as long as Apple is compelled to release compulsory iTunes security updates, any DRM restrictions contained in previous versions will be rolled in as well.
Although I love the instant access of online music purchasing (and much prefer Apple's business model to Napster's) I was *not* going to build a big library of iTMS songs as long as Apple dictated which devices I could listen to my music on. Now with the DRM/usage restrictions, I'm doubly not. (oops? double negative?)
It's basically built on top of AppleScript, so you won't be able to do anything that can't already be done with AppleScript. Apps or functions that aren't scriptable will be inaccessable to Automator.
And I must disagree here. I work in a tech support center, and most of the calls I get are from home users, aged 25-50, who could care less about games. They want to check their e-mail, surf the net, and type something every now and then. Most computer users don't give a damn about gaming.
Fair enough, but that sample is just of people who call tech support - I've been a PC/Mac owner/user for about 16 years, and haven't made a single tech support call in that time.
I don't think it should be that surprising that people less experienced in PC repair/setup/maintenance would be less likely to indulge in games. That still doesn't mean there isn't a lot of gamers out there - they're just not likely to call tech support often. (IMO, of course).
College and home users that are hardcore gamers (minority) are also power users. These are the kinds of people who should be looking at the pro series machines. The majority of college students and home users do NOT care about the latest games and are the target market for the iMac.
I like the way the "hardcore" term keeps getting bandied about to marginalise the gaming market. I'm not just talking about D&D playing, card collecting, 33 still single and living at home Johnny-no-mates hardcore gamers - all the (male) college students I knew played games, at least casually. Even if it wasn't the primary reason for buying a machine, they wouldn't buy a machine that couldn't.
It sounds like you are a Powermac type person.
What, professional and exuding power? Or loud and thicker than an iMac?
I think most people who read Slashdot, and have a propensity to post in online forums in general, forget that the vast majority of the PC using populus could not care less about playing Doom3, or the hardcore game du jour.
I'd have to disagree here. The iMac is the machine that's going to be pitched to home users and - in particular - college students; and they're the two core gaming markets.
If this simply involves project a few colours onto parts of the case, it might have short-term appeal.
But if it could project an image onto the case, it would be much more interesting! It could even project the screen contents onto the back of the case (Note to self: careful where you view that monkey porn!)
Either way.. it could potentially be useful. If you were a lab admin with a lot of Macs, you could have each set up to glow red when infected with a virus, blue if the network connection goes down etc.
I've done a few stints in Apple QA, and it seems to me its "mission" has changed dramatically since the second coming of Jobs.
Prior to that, the ethos was "get it right", so OS delays could (and would) stretch for months. But when I returned to a re-Jobsed Apple, I immediately noticed the difference - the ethos having changed to a "get it out" attitude. "We can fix it later".
Now, normally, I'd have thought that's a piss poor attitude to take for QA, but in truth, it's served Apple well. They've had several projects (the words "Power Express" still cause much gnashing of teeth in Cupertino) which meandered their product cycles being perfected and refined, until they were ultimately cancelled. There's a lot to be said for a short, strict project schedule. Apple have promised Tiger for 1st half 2005, and you know what? It'll ship in the 1st half 2005.
That said, I'm always staggered at the attention to detail in their QA. I remember a bug report being logged against Copland because it was thought its blinking smiley Mac might cause offense in some cultures. Not many companies (especially in the consumer marketplace) exhibit that kind of pedantry.
Ah.. but according to Stephen Hawkings, time travels in both directions. Hence it's possible the IEEE will have had copied it from Slashdot!
(I've always secretly suspected Slashdot is the point origin of all time, with time travelling forwards and backwards from it. Hence, all of humanity's writings past and future are just a plagarisim from one off the cuff remark in a Slashdot thread. Maybe even this one. Hi mum!)
Is all this verbal sparring a fight for the hearts and minds of consumers, or is this just the preface to a court battle?
Reading between the lines in Apple's release (assuming that's still legal these days!), it would seem they're more inclined to break Harmony's compatibility in the future, rather than sue.
..I don't want any stinking choice! (Not that I should have any say in the matter..) Apple should tell me what to do with my iPod, and damn any company that lets me decide!
Seriously, when is choice ever a bad thing? Ok.. apart from "Do I watch the end of the game, or do I go to the fridge to get a beer". That's nasty.
Jack & the BeansTalk - a networking protocol for telling tall tales?
LivesTalk - bovine communictions?
LetsTalk - The 'digital lifestyle' equivalent of a "Dear John.." letter..
Well, it's hard to believe Apple spun off the iPod into its own division just to upgrade disk capacity once a year.. perhaps a new colour every new and then..
Most likely, PDA-esque features will continue to creep into future iPods, and the iPod will evolve into Apple's "Next Big Thing", rather than arriving with a splash like the Newton. IMO, of course..
did not find any flaw in Linux itself, just that the interface for management was not quite there
This, for me, really illustrates the culture clash between Apple and the open source/Linux community; I've always had the impression that for the Linux crowd, the back-and is all important and adding the UI is just a finishing touch. The above comment would seem to confirm that view.
But for Apple, it's the UI that is all-important. I think a lot of people underestimate the time it takes not just to implement a UI, but to get it right.
You couldn't imagine Apple ever dismissing an issue as "That's just UI stuff..". "Just back end stuff" maybe!
Slashdot Mirror
Apple should be selling them for $499 or less - who cares if the developers have them in the end? - it's just a PC.
Sorry, but that's just wrong. If they had to ramp up a PCB (printed circuit board) production line somewhere to build these things, the cost would be enormous. Bear in mind this cost is going to be shared across what, a few hundred prototypes? At most.
Prototype machines like this are ENORMOUSLY expensive. I believe the prototype Macs typically tested internally are valued at some tens of thousands of dollars.
I turned off Speech Recognition on my Mac - it was freaking me out when it started responding to voices on the TV. No lie! A typical conversation:
TV: "...we don't have the time..."
Mac: "It's seven thirty two".
Ok, it's not exactly riveting dialogue, but still.. You KNOW you're getting neurotic when your household appliances are having conversations and you start feeling left out.
Funnily enough, though, it seems like Slashdotters like to remember the initial projection, not the retraction
Well, IBM confirmed the existence of the 970MP (Antares) dual-core 970 chip back in mid-March, though that doesn't mean Apple will use it. However, Apple's CHUD tools now support Macs with 4 processors, which seem more than a little coincidental.
Funnily enough, though, it seems like Slashdotters like to remember the initial projection, not the retraction
Funnily enough, I had the same problem with my girlfriend. She never forgets me promising to always be faithful, but doesn't remember me retracting that promise on a stag weekend some months later.. Funny how that works..
(Obviously i'm only joking. Slashdotters with girlfriends are obviously a work of fiction, like the Easter bunny, multiple orgasms, or 3GHz PowerMacs..)
This is pretty worrying. Not only does it mean the restrictions in 4.7 are 'mandatory' (at least, to anyone who intends to keep buying from iTMS), but looking further ahead it means *every future* DRM or usage restriction in iTunes is likely to be mandatory for the same reason - as long as Apple is compelled to release compulsory iTunes security updates, any DRM restrictions contained in previous versions will be rolled in as well.
Although I love the instant access of online music purchasing (and much prefer Apple's business model to Napster's) I was *not* going to build a big library of iTMS songs as long as Apple dictated which devices I could listen to my music on. Now with the DRM/usage restrictions, I'm doubly not. (oops? double negative?)
It's basically built on top of AppleScript, so you won't be able to do anything that can't already be done with AppleScript. Apps or functions that aren't scriptable will be inaccessable to Automator.
If it has a UI, it's Applescript-able. Check out http://www.apple.com/applescript/uiscripting/.
Ok.. Ok.. so they got the wrapper off. Big deal..
What we wanna know: HOW DOES IT TASTE?!?
From the iMac mini page:
"Keyboard, iPod mini, dock, hands, AirPort, Bluetooth and PC sold separately."
Cheeky monkeys..
iPod frozen.. must give three finger salute... only has two buttons... much confusion...
And I must disagree here. I work in a tech support center, and most of the calls I get are from home users, aged 25-50, who could care less about games. They want to check their e-mail, surf the net, and type something every now and then. Most computer users don't give a damn about gaming.
Fair enough, but that sample is just of people who call tech support - I've been a PC/Mac owner/user for about 16 years, and haven't made a single tech support call in that time.
I don't think it should be that surprising that people less experienced in PC repair/setup/maintenance would be less likely to indulge in games. That still doesn't mean there isn't a lot of gamers out there - they're just not likely to call tech support often. (IMO, of course).
I disagree with you.
Damn.. I really should have patented that line..
College and home users that are hardcore gamers (minority) are also power users. These are the kinds of people who should be looking at the pro series machines. The majority of college students and home users do NOT care about the latest games and are the target market for the iMac.
I like the way the "hardcore" term keeps getting bandied about to marginalise the gaming market. I'm not just talking about D&D playing, card collecting, 33 still single and living at home Johnny-no-mates hardcore gamers - all the (male) college students I knew played games, at least casually. Even if it wasn't the primary reason for buying a machine, they wouldn't buy a machine that couldn't.
It sounds like you are a Powermac type person.
What, professional and exuding power? Or loud and thicker than an iMac?
I think most people who read Slashdot, and have a propensity to post in online forums in general, forget that the vast majority of the PC using populus could not care less about playing Doom3, or the hardcore game du jour.
I'd have to disagree here. The iMac is the machine that's going to be pitched to home users and - in particular - college students; and they're the two core gaming markets.
If this simply involves project a few colours onto parts of the case, it might have short-term appeal.
But if it could project an image onto the case, it would be much more interesting! It could even project the screen contents onto the back of the case (Note to self: careful where you view that monkey porn!)
Either way.. it could potentially be useful. If you were a lab admin with a lot of Macs, you could have each set up to glow red when infected with a virus, blue if the network connection goes down etc.
117 in 30 seconds.. that's a pretty impressive 234 words per minute*. Duuude, is your keyboard smokin'??
;)
(* with a conservative estimate of 0 minutes, 0 seconds devoted to analysis, design, building and testing!
I've done a few stints in Apple QA, and it seems to me its "mission" has changed dramatically since the second coming of Jobs.
Prior to that, the ethos was "get it right", so OS delays could (and would) stretch for months. But when I returned to a re-Jobsed Apple, I immediately noticed the difference - the ethos having changed to a "get it out" attitude. "We can fix it later".
Now, normally, I'd have thought that's a piss poor attitude to take for QA, but in truth, it's served Apple well. They've had several projects (the words "Power Express" still cause much gnashing of teeth in Cupertino) which meandered their product cycles being perfected and refined, until they were ultimately cancelled. There's a lot to be said for a short, strict project schedule. Apple have promised Tiger for 1st half 2005, and you know what? It'll ship in the 1st half 2005.
That said, I'm always staggered at the attention to detail in their QA. I remember a bug report being logged against Copland because it was thought its blinking smiley Mac might cause offense in some cultures. Not many companies (especially in the consumer marketplace) exhibit that kind of pedantry.
Ah.. but according to Stephen Hawkings, time travels in both directions. Hence it's possible the IEEE will have had copied it from Slashdot!
(I've always secretly suspected Slashdot is the point origin of all time, with time travelling forwards and backwards from it. Hence, all of humanity's writings past and future are just a plagarisim from one off the cuff remark in a Slashdot thread. Maybe even this one. Hi mum!)
Is all this verbal sparring a fight for the hearts and minds of consumers, or is this just the preface to a court battle?
Reading between the lines in Apple's release (assuming that's still legal these days!), it would seem they're more inclined to break Harmony's compatibility in the future, rather than sue.
..I don't want any stinking choice! (Not that I should have any say in the matter..) Apple should tell me what to do with my iPod, and damn any company that lets me decide!
Seriously, when is choice ever a bad thing? Ok.. apart from "Do I watch the end of the game, or do I go to the fridge to get a beer". That's nasty.
And that's forgetting..
Jack & the BeansTalk - a networking protocol for telling tall tales?
LivesTalk - bovine communictions?
LetsTalk - The 'digital lifestyle' equivalent of a "Dear John.." letter..
Well, it's hard to believe Apple spun off the iPod into its own division just to upgrade disk capacity once a year.. perhaps a new colour every new and then..
Most likely, PDA-esque features will continue to creep into future iPods, and the iPod will evolve into Apple's "Next Big Thing", rather than arriving with a splash like the Newton. IMO, of course..
I'm pretty sure slashdot has some kinda regular expression search replace setup for certin key words to be arbitrarily replaced by "iPod".
Don't be such an IPOD, you IPOD!
And you can Apple's iPod site
Since when is "can" not a verb.. [/feeble]
...and so's my wife!
did not find any flaw in Linux itself, just that the interface for management was not quite there
This, for me, really illustrates the culture clash between Apple and the open source/Linux community; I've always had the impression that for the Linux crowd, the back-and is all important and adding the UI is just a finishing touch. The above comment would seem to confirm that view.
But for Apple, it's the UI that is all-important. I think a lot of people underestimate the time it takes not just to implement a UI, but to get it right.
You couldn't imagine Apple ever dismissing an issue as "That's just UI stuff..". "Just back end stuff" maybe!
What of DesktopX (link? Wasn't this out even before Konfabulator?