Steve Job's keynote just finished (MacWorld New York.) New 17 inch flat panel iMac (1440x900). 256 megs ram, 80 gig hard drive, Superdrive (DVD player/burner; CD player/burner), Gforce 4 mx graphics.
$1999.
Clearly the most powerful consumer machine in the $2000 range. Only an incremental improvement, but it's very impressive nonetheless. As a first computer there isn't a better choice.
Also, the 5 gig iPod drops to $299, the 10 gig to $399, and a new 20 gig (!) is $499. Oh, and they work with Windows now. Still can't make playlists on the fly though. :(
Lots of Jaguar (OS X 10.2) previews. Out August 24th. $129. Looks great.
iTunes 3 is out, with only minor revisions. But my most wanted feature was added, so I'm very happy. iTunes will now automatically normalize the sound levels of all songs across your collection. This was a nightmare problem for me making playlists for the restaurants. I had to go in by hand and tweak the levels on all the songs because some CDs are so much louder than others. But no more. Nice.
iCal is the new (free download of course) calendar app. Looks very slick. I'll be quite interested to see how open the data format is.
More to come on iSync and Rendezvous. Certainly Palm and bluetooth phone owners will be happy with the much improved integration. Looks like I might have to get the Sony/Ericsson T68i.
i thought the new ipod was a pretty good buy just as a storage device -- 20 GB for $500 sounds good, right? -- but then I went shopping for a firewire drive...maybe i'm just way out of touch (Bush Sr-style) but i'm STILL reeling from the fact that a 160GB firewire drive cost all of $400. $2.50 per gig!!! and getting cheaper by the day!!! that means it's cheaper AND easier to just buy more hard drives than to back up (say) a 100+ GB music library on DVD-R...now physical media can die everywhere. apparently this revelation about the potential impact of cheap storage at the consumer level is not news at apple...but what happens in 5 years when Samsung makes a 100GB music player for $59.99?
"...but what happens in 5 years when Samsung makes a 100GB music player for $59.99?..."
Hopefully the drives (and connecting technology) will be much faster.
But 5 years? I don't know. My guess is the iPod will rev to 40 gigs next, then 60, then 100 (or maybe 40, 60, 80, 160.) I don't think it will take 5 years. But I guess that's not the $59.99 Samsung... Yeah, maybe 5 years for that price (or $99, or whatever.) Apple should be there in 18 - 24 months though (but it will cost $499!)
Been to the SOHO Apple store Big Jimmy? I believe you are the target demographic.
Hey Jim, I want to install free pro tools 5.0.1 onto my Mac. I've been searching google for any known issues/conflicts with Jaguar 10.2 but can't find anything, I'm sure there must be some discussion on the topic somewhere on the world wide web. Where should I go?
I don't really know. I found a slashdot like apple audio site, but now I can't find it (should have blogged it at the time.) I'll see what I can dig up.
I'm obliged. What I'm really trying to do is hook a turntable up to the mac. I've heard that Pro Tools is the way to go. Any thoughts? ...Fingers? Tom?
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$1999.
Clearly the most powerful consumer machine in the $2000 range. Only an incremental improvement, but it's very impressive nonetheless. As a first computer there isn't a better choice.
Also, the 5 gig iPod drops to $299, the 10 gig to $399, and a new 20 gig (!) is $499. Oh, and they work with Windows now. Still can't make playlists on the fly though. :(
Lots of Jaguar (OS X 10.2) previews. Out August 24th. $129. Looks great.
iTunes 3 is out, with only minor revisions. But my most wanted feature was added, so I'm very happy. iTunes will now automatically normalize the sound levels of all songs across your collection. This was a nightmare problem for me making playlists for the restaurants. I had to go in by hand and tweak the levels on all the songs because some CDs are so much louder than others. But no more. Nice.
iCal is the new (free download of course) calendar app. Looks very slick. I'll be quite interested to see how open the data format is.
More to come on iSync and Rendezvous. Certainly Palm and bluetooth phone owners will be happy with the much improved integration. Looks like I might have to get the Sony/Ericsson T68i.
- jim 7-17-2002 7:09 pm
i thought the new ipod was a pretty good buy just as a storage device -- 20 GB for $500 sounds good, right? -- but then I went shopping for a firewire drive...maybe i'm just way out of touch (Bush Sr-style) but i'm STILL reeling from the fact that a 160GB firewire drive cost all of $400. $2.50 per gig!!! and getting cheaper by the day!!! that means it's cheaper AND easier to just buy more hard drives than to back up (say) a 100+ GB music library on DVD-R...now physical media can die everywhere. apparently this revelation about the potential impact of cheap storage at the consumer level is not news at apple...but what happens in 5 years when Samsung makes a 100GB music player for $59.99?
- big jimmy 7-21-2002 12:38 am
"...but what happens in 5 years when Samsung makes a 100GB music player for $59.99?..."
Hopefully the drives (and connecting technology) will be much faster.
But 5 years? I don't know. My guess is the iPod will rev to 40 gigs next, then 60, then 100 (or maybe 40, 60, 80, 160.) I don't think it will take 5 years. But I guess that's not the $59.99 Samsung... Yeah, maybe 5 years for that price (or $99, or whatever.) Apple should be there in 18 - 24 months though (but it will cost $499!)
Been to the SOHO Apple store Big Jimmy? I believe you are the target demographic.
- jim 7-21-2002 6:14 pm
Hey Jim, I want to install free pro tools 5.0.1 onto my Mac. I've been searching google for any known issues/conflicts with Jaguar 10.2 but can't find anything, I'm sure there must be some discussion on the topic somewhere on the world wide web. Where should I go?
- steve 12-08-2002 7:10 pm
I don't really know. I found a slashdot like apple audio site, but now I can't find it (should have blogged it at the time.) I'll see what I can dig up.
- jim 12-08-2002 8:26 pm
I'm obliged. What I'm really trying to do is hook a turntable up to the mac. I've heard that Pro Tools is the way to go. Any thoughts? ...Fingers? Tom?
- steve 12-09-2002 7:39 am