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Apple Businesses

Apple @ MacWorld Tokyo 454

Posted by michael from the wunderchild dept.
rschroeder writes "Apple updated several products at MacWorld Tokyo tonight (or tomorrow morning). A $499 10-gig iPod, with, get this, custom laser engraving on the back, ($49 extra) and vCard support. They also announced a $49 USB bluetooth module, shipping in April, with beta drivers availble today. Among other tricks, Jobs synced a Clie with a mac via bluetooth. Also a new 23" (1920x1200 )Cinema Display. Jobs also said they're raising the price of the iMac due to LCD and RAM cost increases. All this courtesy MacMinute.com's live coverage." Maccentral has several stories about Jobs' keynote at the convention.
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Apple @ MacWorld Tokyo More

Apple @ MacWorld Tokyo

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  • Monitor envy (Score:5, Informative)

    by faust2097 ( 137829 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:31PM (#3198165)
    I was waiting for someone to outdo the 22" Cinema Display, funny it was Apple that ended up doing it themselves.

    • Re:Monitor envy (Score:3, Informative)

      by jimbolaya ( 526861 )
      Sun has a 24.1" LCD display [sun.com], which offers the same resolution of the new Apple display, though about $1000 more (from what I've read from other sources). Still, I drool over the Apple display.
      • So what you're saying is that the Sun LCD has a lower effective resolution (dot pitch) and higher cost...

        Little wonder you're drooling at the Apple display!
    • Samsung has a SyncMaster 240T, which has, among other things, multiple inputs (DVI/Analog D-Sub), picture by picture, picture in picture, etc.

      If you're a HD freak, check out Samsung's upcoming 241MP, which will support composite inputs as well, and includes a TV tuner. It's HDTV compatible. Pricing will be around $7000.
      • Too bad the SyncMaster 240T doesn't support 1920x1200 in DVI mode.
        • actually that's not correct. it didn't support it prior to late last year, but any newly mfg'ed 240T will. i've even read a report of one user sending his earlier rev monitor back to samsung who replaced the board for free.

          really, the issue is finding a card that supports better than 1600x1200 via dvi.

          there's another korean company which makes a monitor very similar to the 240T (same glass, different electronics, pivot but no remote) from a company called wide [wideusa.com].

          this also is a 1900x1200 native lcd with multiple inputs. i think they still bundle a geforce2mx that does 1900x1200 via dvi.
    • Viewsonic's got a 23.1" lcd for $3358 on pricewatch. Of course since it doesn't have apple's proprietary USB+DVI+Power plugs you also
      save $150 on not having to buy a converter to use
      with your PC.

      Note: You can get the Apple 23" for $3,289 if you're a student.
      • Converter? Can you please post details? I am in love with the 17" Apple panel on my Mac at work, and am about to spend 6k on IBM's 21" panel [ibm.com] for my Windows box. If I can use one of the new Apple panels for my PC I'll save a few grand. (though their resolution doesn't equal the IBM's 2048 x 1536)

        BTW, the ViewSonic's 1600*1200 resolution doesn't stack up to the apple. That 300*1200 extra pixels is another 20% more resolution.

    • Re:C# (Score:2)

      by Eccles ( 932 )
      I was waiting for someone to outdo the 22" Cinema Display, funny it was Apple that ended up doing it themselves.

      ViewSonic has had a 23" 1600x1200 LCD out for a few months now for ~$3500, so Apple was bested slightly already. (Even now, the Viewsonic has a larger screen -- 23" widescreen isn't as big as 23" 4:3 -- but the Apple is higher-res.)

  • Info on the new iPod software (Score:5, Informative)

    by MotownAvi ( 204916 ) <avi@NosPam.drissman.com> on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:33PM (#3198175) Homepage
    I just installed the new 1.1 software on my 5gb iPod with no difficulty. Comments:

    Contacts: The way this works is that when you upgrade to 1.1, you get a top-level folder on the iPod named "Contacts". Drop .vcf files in there, and you're off. Cute, but since I have my Palm all the time, it's less useful to me.

    Equalizer: Can't comment since I haven't set it for any songs.

    Now Playing: Pressing the center button when playing a song no longer switches between elapsed time and time remaining. The normal display now shows both. If you press the button, you get the diamond-in-the-rectangle of iTunes, and you can use the dial to shuttle backwards and forwards. Trés cool.

    Shuffle: You can now choose between shuffling between songs or between albums. I'm not quite sure what that means.

    Bugs fixed: The bug where pausing and then unpausing would land you somewhere totally else appears to be fixed. Another bug where the iPod would cut songs off at the end is also fixed. Alas, the one that prevents "Dvorak" (with the accent over the r) from displaying properly is still present.

    Easter Egg: It's still there, in the Legal section off the Settings main item.

    And of course, more languages that I don't understand.

    Avi

    • Re:Info on the new iPod software (Score:5, Funny)

      by flynt ( 248848 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:40PM (#3198206)
      Shuffle: You can now choose between shuffling between songs or between albums. I'm not quite sure what that means.

      Allow me to clarify. Shuffling between songs would take all your songs and play them in random order.

      Shuffling albums would take all your albums and play them in random order. So, Album2, Album4,Alubum3..etc...

    • Equalizer: Can't comment since I haven't set it for any songs.


      Look in Settings->EQ. It now allows you to change the setting on the fly, whereas with the old firmware you had to set the EQ for songs with iTunes. You get to choose from a menu with such names as "Bass Booster," "Latin," "Deep," and "Pop." OK, but I would have liked a little graphic showing me what each setting did


      Another change: the backlight timer can be set for 10 sec (previous max was 5 sec.)

  • sounds fair (Score:2, Insightful)

    by chabegger ( 232188 )
    raising the price of the iMac sounds like a fair deal to me... any other computer manufacturer would raise the price of their stuff if supply was low... just simple economics. i think this is a good move to apple, although it might make some people mad (minus those with pre-orders)

    • Re:sounds fair (Score:3, Insightful)

      by ostiguy ( 63618 )
      Any other manufacturor might not have done such a foolish thing as integrating the display. Seriously, I am not trolling here - just look at the attempted consolidation in the ram market right now. I think every area of the it industry had hardware surplus based on skyrocking demand for 5 straight years, and then stopped. Apple probably viewed the cheap lcd prices as a natural parallel to the hard drive and cpu performance inc. vs price metrics, whereas the lcd prices were probably very depressed by massive overproduction.

      Having to raise prices is truly ridiculous. It just hurts apple even more in the last 9 months of this year as the x86 folks keep pushing the mhz gap higher, and thus the apple/x86 price comparison keep getting worse for apple.

      • Re:sounds fair (Score:4, Insightful)

        by the_2nd_coming ( 444906 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:08PM (#3198330) Homepage
        yeah, being one of 2 PC makers in the Black this year,having 60 million in the bank and having no debt can realy Hurt, it hurts realy realy realy bad.
        • Build a Mac yourself for $500...

          Build a PC yourself for $500...

          See the difference now?

          I'm in the black. And I didn't raise the barrier to entry on my product more than the cost of a new computer.

  • Not yet mastered. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by guamman ( 527778 )
    All the advances are good and fine, but the increase in the iMac category may really hurt. I realize that the increase in necessary becuase of the increased costs, but the iMac is what makes Macinctosh a viable comeptitor. The G4 and soon to be G5 towers are excellent, but only cover a very small demographic and their high cost makes them prohibitive. The lower cost iMac can go head to head with most PCs and in some cases, offer a better value. While I agree that the high end computers are more fun and interesting (from a marketing/sales perspective). The lower cost machines are what is going to make money. Something that I believe Apple is still desprately in need of. It may be a smarter move to swallow the increased costs for the time being and attempt to move more volume.

    • Re:Not yet mastered. (Score:3, Informative)

      by Publicus ( 415536 )

      While I agree that the high end computers are more fun and interesting (from a marketing/sales perspective). The lower cost machines are what is going to make money.

      Not sure I agree with you. While I may be wrong, the G4 towers probably make more money for Apple (per unit) than anything. I doubt if they make much of anything on the iMac. It's probably just more of a maintaining market share thing, keeping it a viable platform so software gets released for Macs.

      I could be totally wrong, I haven't looked at any numbers, but my gut tells me that the $3500 dual processor G4 tower and the Cinema Display carries a much larger margin for Apple. Not sure how the total sales of these units factors in.

      Oh well... I can't afford any of it. I wish I could.

      • Actually, the margin on the iMac is 20%, and the margin on the high-end Tower is 30%. They all have to sell pretty well for Apple to make its profit targets.

        I think these price increases was so they could maintain the 20% margin. Otherwise their shareholders get pretty upset.

        I'm not sure what the margin on the new Cinema Display is, but the only people who will buy it are seriously rich hobbyists and seriously professional graphic artists and motion graphics/video editing people. That's a rich audience, but the whole market for that thing is a few thousand people.

        At least they undercut Sun, who is charging $4,500 (versus $3,500) for what looks like almost the same thing.

        Sun beat them to market, though.

        D

    • Re:Not yet mastered. (Score:4, Insightful)

      by blonde rser ( 253047 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:49PM (#3198463) Homepage
      The lower cost machines are what is going to make money. Something that I believe Apple is still desprately in need of.

      Exactly what aapl [yahoo.com] are you looking at. Apple may not hold the record for market share but when it comes to making a profit Apple holds her own. One of the great things about Apple is they have so much in the bank that they can afford to take a risk here and there. The reason the price went up: their research suggests people will pay more. This is not a desperate act. And I doubt anybody in the market will interpret this as a desperate act either.
  • of all the different MacWorlds? There sure do seem to be a lot of them... A schedule, perhaps? It would be nice.

  • the prices goes UP? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by jchristopher ( 198929 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:36PM (#3198192)
    Apple is the only company that RAISES prices as time goes by. How can they possibly justify $100 for an extra 5 gigs of storage?

    More importantly, who is buying these things?!?

    Wouldn't a more rational plan be to drop the iPod to $299 and sell this new version for $399? (which is what it's going for now)

    $500 seems like an AWFUL lot of money for a product with a 90 day warranty.

    • Re:the prices goes UP? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by k_187 ( 61692 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:43PM (#3198227) Journal
      because the hard drives that are in the iPods are insanely expensive. The 5gig HD that's in the low end model would cost you $400. With the iPod you're getting the HD and the mp3 playing stuff. You're not going to find apple selling these things for less than they can get the HDs for.
      • because the hard drives that are in the iPods are insanely expensive. The 5gig HD that's in the low end model would cost you $400.

        Oh really? Here's a link to the Smardisk Firefly [smartdisk.com], a small portable drive with the same mechanism. It sells for $199, and you can be sure Apple is getting them for way less than that in bulk.

      • Re:the prices goes UP? (Score:5, Insightful)

        by dhovis ( 303725 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:00PM (#3198299)
        That $400 price for the iPod HD was true when the iPod first came out, but the price has come down quite a bit. You can get a 5GB firewire drive based on that HD for as little as $170. Check out this article [dealmac.com]at dealmac.com.

        The real reason the 5GB iPod is still $400 is that people are still buying it. If Apple was having trouble selling them, the price would have dropped to $350 or $300. They are still hot, and there is still no comparable MP3 player on the market, period. Size, capacity, battery life, and firewire. No other MP3 player matches the iPod in all 4 of those categories. Until one does, Apple can charge what they damn well please. That is the free market at work.

    • Re:the prices goes UP? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by dada21 ( 163177 ) <adam.dada@gmail.com> on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:44PM (#3198234) Homepage Journal
      And, thankfully, the free market sets the price just fine. Some people find great value in a good interface and a product backed by a company that has surprising amounts of reboundability.

      I personally would not pay $500 for this device, but since its selling, many people will. Why question it, you either can't afford it, or don't see value in that product for that price. If you want it cheaper, asking Apple won't hurt though...

    • Re:the prices goes UP? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Graymalkin ( 13732 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:09PM (#3198333)
      What is it with the Wintel retard demographic on slashdot. "How could this thing possibly cost money when I can find supposedly equivilent parts for much cheaper!" The iPod uses a firewire port, have you ever seen a cheap firewire controller worth buying? I haven't heard of any. It's also got one smooth looking screen with a pretty low dot pitch for a monochrome LCD. The battery isn't exactly some shit Energizer or Duracell. I also can't believe you said Apple is the only company to raise prices as time goes by. How much was RAM going for last spring and how much is it going for right now? It certainly isn't any fucking cheaper.

  • One more thing... (Score:4, Informative)

    by S-prime ( 550519 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:38PM (#3198198)
    iTunes 2.04 was also (quietly) released, nothing new here except better stability.

    Also, the Bluetooth update won't be avaliable for download till April (this from Apple's site).

  • iMac prices up $100 (Score:2, Informative)

    by Van Halen ( 31671 )
    Apple also announced a $100 price increase [apple.com] on all three iMacs. I guess their profit margin couldn't quite absorb the increase in LCD and memory prices lately.

    Also, The Mac Observer has a nice blow by blow [macobserver.com] of Steve's keynote.

    Otherwise, cool stuff!

    • From the article:

      "Rapidly increasing component costs is an industry-wide issue right now. Since the new iMac's launch in January, memory costs have tripled and flat-panel costs have increased twenty-five percent, with little relief in sight,"

      I know memory prices have increased a little but tripled? I guess Apple can't just come out and say "We priced the new iMac too low so in order to obtain maximum profitability we are going to raise the price"

    • Look on the bright side. Now, instead of early-adopters getting shafted by lowering prices, they're getting the bonus. $100 off an iMac, instead of, say, $100 on? That's $200 I'm glad to pocket.

      It's just too bad that this will hinder adoption, because this really is a great computer, even without all the awesome bells/whistles. This is what computing should be. Well... Maybe not exactly, but it's cute.

      --Dan

  • Bluetooth, iPod improvements. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by zardie ( 111478 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:42PM (#3198219) Homepage
    It's good to see that Apple's embracing the technology, giving it a greater chance of widespread adoption. Remember what Apple did for us with USB and Firewire?

    Now if only they had bluetooth support for the iPod, I'd be happy about not having to connect it up to the PC every time I wanted to transfer a file.

    Having played with an iPod before and found that the sound is a bit try, the EQ is a welcome addition and was the one thing that didn't convince me to buy one over a NetMD-based walkman. Contact management is just damn cool, evidence that Apple listens to the community out there (remember that iPod contact hack?). Good work, Apple :)
    • Syncing music over bluetooth would be god awful slow. Do you really want to move up files at 70-100k a second?

      I guess if you had some sort of queing method in place to automatically upload files if you were near that would rock.

      The other thing no one seems to mention. Bluetooth seems to gobble a lot of power when running in discovery mode. Yes I know it isn't comparable to 802.11 but when it cuts the standby time on a phone from well over a week to a couple of days it is a pretty big hit.

  • Now I can get... (Score:5, Funny)

    by cliffy2000 ( 185461 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:42PM (#3198221) Journal
    Microsoft Office AND Appleworks on the same iPod!
    http://www.wired.com/news/mac/0,2125,50688,00.ht ml

  • custom laser engraving? (Score:4, Funny)

    by StevenHallman76 ( 455545 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @10:49PM (#3198258)
    "Which iPod is yours?"

    "It's the one that says 'Bad Mother Fucker'"
  • Anyone know where I can see a copy of Jobs' keynote address?

  • Price Breaks for Students (Score:4, Informative)

    by PMAvers ( 449202 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:01PM (#3198307)
    A little tidbit for those college students/those with parents/friends in the education industry. Try going to the Education Apple Store, things are cheaper for 'ya.

    Example: 5 GB iPod: $369 (Normally $399)
    10 GB iPod: $469. (Normally $499)

    Hey, $30 off isn't too bad. Just trying to get the word out.
    • A little tidbit for those college students/those with parents/friends in the education industry. Try going to the Education Apple Store, things are cheaper for 'ya.

      Example: 5 GB iPod: $369 (Normally $399)
      10 GB iPod: $469. (Normally $499)

      Not that I'm complaining (being in the education industry myself). It just makes me wonder, what possible academic value does an iPod have? If none, then what's the point of academic pricing again? Not that I'm complaining, mind you (me want bargain!)
      • To get us poor starving college students on the Apple train. Most die-hard Mac-users I know started in uni.
      • what possible academic value does an iPod have? If none, then what's the point of academic pricing again? Not that I'm complaining, mind you (me want bargain!)

        Music students typically carry around a load of CDs and DAT with current songs they are trying to learn, or pieces they are studying. Putting all of that on an iPod would make it easier (and is faster than transferring to tape or burning a CD). The iPod is also a 5 or 10 gig hard drive, which has similar academic value as a Zip drive.

      • My fiancee is studying music in school, and she has to listen to a rediculous amount of music. One of the reasons she got a laptop was to be able to rip the CDs in the library so she wouldn't have to fight for access to them with others in the classes.

        Now when she gets new listening assignments, she hops into the library, rips the CDs, syncs the iPod, and she's set. If she really likes the music, she makes a copy of the CD to go in the CD Jukebox in our apartment so she can listen to the higher quality recording.

        Now she doesn't mind the 30-45 minute subway rides that she does getting around town because she just turns on her iPod and the music is waitting for her.

        Could this be done with non-Apple equipment, sure. However, the two hours of helping her adjust from being a Windows user to a Mac user made up for it from reduced tech support on my end... As I type away on my Windows machine whose copy of Internet Explorer couldn't use view source last week...

        Alex
    • Even better:

      5GB iPod (refurbished) for $339 from store.apple.com (Click on "Special Deals"). Comes with the same 90 day warranty as a new iPod.

    • Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Thursday March 21, 2002 @12:46AM (#3198663)
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • BlueTooth (Score:5, Insightful)

    by pinkpineapple ( 173261 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:05PM (#3198319) Homepage
    This is big. If Apple is on the blue tooth train, then it means that the standard will be back from the dead when M$ put it by not supporting it in XP, and will become successfull (see USB for some background.) Apple is obviously working on new desktop and laptop systems with bluetooth integrated. It's not rumors but very certain that BT is what Apple need for their digital hub strategy. I wonder how they are going to cop with interference between BT and 802.11b. And it will be really funny to see how other vendors are playing catch up with Apple when they realize that bluetooth is a really neat solution to connect devices. In M$ interest not to connect easily with Palm, this is the only reason why the beast of Redmond killed the technology by not releasing drivers last summer. However, all the devices like PDAs (ex: iPaq, Loox, etc...) are released in Japan with BlueTooth in standard. Again, US is lagging big time behind Japan when it comes to wireless (3G, and now BlueTooth.)

    PPA, the girl next door.
    • I totally agree. Though I am not quite informed as you are as the reason for microsoft killing bluetooth Ive seen what sticking with plain old 11b is doing to the area (seattle). I mean its fun surfing through badly protected windows domains with wireless implementation in the middle of the night from your car with a couple of friends with laptops. But it gets old after around a month. Hear Hear to Apple! oh yeah and if any apple rep wants to buy my loyalty forever respond and offer me a 23" display.

    • Re:BlueTooth (Score:2, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward
      It may be that Bluetooth and 802.11b (Airport) can coexist in the same frequency range (2.4GHz), but at the cost of reduced data rates/throughput. It is interesting that Apple offers Bluetooth as a USB dongle rather than have it built-in so at least there is some seperation between the Airport (802.11b) antenna which is built into the computer/laptop and the Bluetooth unit. Maybe Apple can build-in Bluetooth and have a more effective solution (less intereference) in the future if they ever update Airport from 802.11b to 802.11a which operates in a different frequency band of 5.8GHz.

      • Re:BlueTooth (Score:3, Funny)

        by stripes ( 3681 )
        It is interesting that Apple offers Bluetooth as a USB dongle rather than have it built-in so at least there is some seperation between the Airport (802.11b) antenna which is built into the computer/laptop and the Bluetooth unit.

        Or maybe it is just that they figure people won't buy a whole new computer just to get it? I expect future Apple products will build the BT module in (unless there is basically zero demand).

        Well that and if you put a Blue Tooth antenna inside a TiBook I bet it has a range of about 3 inches :-)

  • The Macworld Conference and Expo/Tokyo 2002 website is here [idg.co.jp] with information on the event and the exhibits.

    There is also a thread [macrumors.com] at Macrumors on the event.

    Those wanting to watch the keynote are out of luck because there are no plans to broadcast it this year, like they have done in the past.

  • Some Good Articles (Score:2, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward
    Maclegion.org [maclegion.org] has a few good articles about this stuff. Their best is on the new disply and is worth checking out.

  • Alan Smithee??? (Score:5, Funny)

    by Nathdot ( 465087 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:22PM (#3198373)
    Traditionally 'Alan Smithee' is the moniker taken on by a movie director when he is so ashamed of his work that he will not be associated with it by name.

    So it's a little worrying to see who they reference (via graphic [apple.com]) as the iPod project manager on the story [apple.com] link.

    :)
    • I like to use Alan Smithee or Leonard Shelby. They are good fictious names I can easily use on the web site. Sometimes we mix match each others names, anything to stay interesting but still below the radar. I'd be more woried what product Alan Smithee was the manager for. ;)

      Whats up with that 4 score... kharma whore! hehe :)

  • Did Apple steal it? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by batobin ( 10158 ) on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:23PM (#3198378) Homepage
    I'm curious as to how Apple got their brand new "Contacts feature" seen here [apple.com]. It seems to me that two other people beat apple to the punch. iPod Organizer [ipodorganizer.com] and ipoAddress [kohlenbach.de].

    I'm curious as to whether Apple went to the developers, and bought the idea/software. I know they did this for SoundJam [soundjam.com], in order to get iTunes. They literally bought out every SoundJam developer, and took the software.

    I also know this is how the "time in the title bar" idea got started. 3rd party software, bought by Apple. Any facts surrounding this acquisition?
    • before those two software packages came out, people had been doing this by hand anyway. Those two developers just took an idea more or less in the public domain and wrote software to make it easier. Apple simply added in the functionality people had been hacking into the iPod on their own to begin with...

    • Re:Did Apple steal it? (Score:3, Interesting)

      by dhovis ( 303725 )
      I don't think Apple bought anything. They may have noticed that the people who had come up with ways to encode contact info into MP3 ID3 tags were getting a lot of attention.

      From what I can tell, this upgrade lets the iPod recognize the vCard format and puts a visible folder on the iPod called "Contacts". Any vCards in that folder show up in the "Contacts" menu on the iPod. Simple as that, and much simpler than turning your contacts into silent MP3s.

      The iPod apparantly has a pretty nifty OS with 2 ARM processors and 32MB of flash in it. It is probably capable of a lot of things (OGG support, perhaps). Don't expect Apple to come out with a dev kit for it anytime soon, though. I'm sure Apple does not want to have to support 3rd party software, and I think it is unlikely anybody would create a "killer app" for the iPod, other than the "killer app" that it already has. Most likely you would only see a few games.

    • Re:Did Apple steal it? (Score:2, Informative)

      by batobin ( 10158 )
      To reply to my own original post:

      I did some research, and it turns out Apple implimented the contact feature much better than anyone else has previously. The other poster was correct to say that it now runs off of vCards. Very cool.

      Also, to reply to what someone else said. The new iPods (and all the old ones updated by the new iPod firmware [versiontracker.com]) can indeed support Ogg Vorbis. Very cool!

  • I'll tell you what I would really like on an iPod (Score:3, Interesting)

    by thesolo ( 131008 ) <slap@fighttheriaa.org> on Wednesday March 20, 2002 @11:31PM (#3198405) Homepage
    Offtopic, I know, but I would really like to see SHN (shorten) file support. Sure, you could transfer them on there, but I would like to see the iPod actually play them.

    Mp3s are just too lossy for my liking. I could still fit a few losslessly compressed albums on a 5 or 10 gig iPod, which is fine by me! Anything to keep from bringing a battery-draining CD player and loads of discs.

    Anyone know if that kind of hack is even possible? If it was, I'd buy one in a second.
  • the price of memory went up for the iBook's too. it was $300 for the 512MB upgrade, it is now $400, well that's what it was when it went up nearly 2 weeks ago. the salesperson actually told me to not waste my money on "Apple memory" and do what she did, buy it online! (course i saved myself even more...)

  • RAM pricing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday March 21, 2002 @12:34AM (#3198617) Homepage
    I hadn't looked at the DRAM industry in a while, and was surprised to see what's happening. Back in the 1980s, the Asian countries took the DRAM business away from the US, and Intel exited the DRAM business.

    Things have changed. Micron (Boise, Idaho) is taking over the industry. They bought Toshiba's DRAM business, they bought TI's business, they bought KMT's business, and are negotiating to buy Hynex, which is in trouble. They and Samsung are in a race for the #1 spot now; if the the Hynex deal goes through, Micron will be far bigger than Samsung in DRAM.

    In 2001, there was a huge DRAM glut, which pushed prices down. Micron, instead of cutting back, used its advantage as the lowest-cost producer to squeeze out the weaker players. Here's an overview of the industry. [siliconstrategies.com]

    It looks like that when the dust settles, Micron will have about 40% market share, Samsung (S. Korea) about 22%, Elpdata (Japan) somewhere under 20%, and minor players the rest. The era of brutal competition in DRAM may be ending. The number of players is much smaller now. We may see more "stability" in DRAM pricing.

  • What's on my mind is... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Stenpas ( 513317 ) on Thursday March 21, 2002 @12:55AM (#3198686)
    It's been six months since the last major MacOS X update, and as Steve has said, we should be done with the transition to MacOS X this upcoming March 24th. So where's the update that makes the rest of the transition possible? It's not good enough in its current form.

    Newer ipods and bigger cinema displays are great, but MacOS X is vastly more important. Guess the transition period needs to be lengthened now.

  • Good Apple spin lately (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Gaetano ( 142855 ) on Thursday March 21, 2002 @01:02AM (#3198709)
    Seems to have been alot of really positive (overall) articles on apple and their products lately.

    I used to be a Mac slammer. Nothing made me quite as happy as slamming indignant Mac die hards, unless it was slamming brainless Microsoft Bots. That was before Steve Jobs came back to apple. Then I started watching them with interest.

    Now, after all these good stories lately, about the ipod, imovies, OS X and its unix environment, I have to say someone slipped me some of the Mac coolaide.

    I want one! I want one now! Damn! And I'm happy about it too!

    Gimme a mac!
  • I wonder if this new Apple display will be the first to incorporate Mitsubishi's Feed Forward Display Technology [extremetech.com]. Then we'd finally be able to watch full motion video and play QuakeIII on our LCD Displays - and I'd actually consider owning one.

  • Every iPod has custom engraving already (Score:5, Informative)

    by KFury ( 19522 ) on Thursday March 21, 2002 @02:14AM (#3198895) Homepage
    Check the back of your iPod. Under the edched logo you'll find your iPod's serial number etched in as well, and it matches the serila # you'll find in 'settings'.

    Kinda cool, kinda unnoticed.

  • AirPort vs Bluetooth (Score:5, Interesting)

    by maggard ( 5579 ) <michael@michaelmaggard.com> on Thursday March 21, 2002 @02:37AM (#3198912) Homepage Journal
    802.11b & Bluetooth have one problem - they conflict. So do 2.4 GHz cordless phones and microwave ovens for that matter. Indeed some folks are finding old 900 MHz cordless phones and baby monitors to be more reliable then the increasingly trafficked 2.4 GHz Industrial-Scientific-Medical bands.

    So, with Apple leading the renaissance in wireless networking (it was their introduction of the AirPort that kicked of this current wave of activity) how will they reconcile this with Bluetooth? All of their computers ship with wireless card slots and built-in antennas; they all also ship with USB ports (also popularized by Apple.) Which is to drown out the other? While it's true that they can co-exist it is at the expense of greatly reduced data rates, already an issue for folks used to 100 Mbps or 1,000 Mbps (standard on many Mac models) Ethernet.

    My own bet is that before or along-with any USB-BlueTooth product introduction Apple will ship a revised AirPort, or at least a software tweak with a built in Bluetooth-friendly autonegotiation. Or, failing that we'll see the release of an AirPort II featuring 802.11a (at 5 GHz and capable of 54 Mbps) thus safely different from cordless phones, microwave ovens, baby monitors, 802.11b, 802.11g, Bluetooth, HomeRF, and a half dozen other wireless applications.

    As to microwave ovens - well 2.4 Ghz is the resonant frequency of water so no change possible there. However it is something to think about as you hold these various new wireless devices up next to your body.

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