As of this writing Steve Jobs’ keynote is taking place, he has already announced a new Final Cut version, a new XServe, a new MS Office for Mac, iTunes and iLife 04, GarageBand, iPod Mini and more. View the keynote live or go to MacMinute for up to the minute updates.
MacWorld: Apple Announces New Products
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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well, the G5 is faster than the G4…if you ant a faster chip go with the G5.
umm, their exists no such device. you will need a hard drive based solution and all exist at the 200 dollar and up level (the Rio has a 1.5 gig some where near 200, but why not spend the 50 bucks more to get a better product?
Iphoto and iMovie have not been available for download in about a year and a half.
hello where have you been. and it makes perfect sense. 50 bucks…is that to much to ask for now 5 great products? you get the new ones with every new major OS release, if you want to have the latest and greatest iLife apps before 10.4 comes out, then buy them.
Oh…the G4 is a duelie!!! go with that one…a Duel G4 outpaces a single 1.6, but like others have said, I would get the duel 1.8 G5.
AX…have you been paying attention? BY THE END OF THE MONTH. Apple has started releasing other products AFTER Expos through out the year.
the speed bump of the G5 will be 2.6 for the top and 2.4 for the mid.
then in 6 months at the NY show (or is it Paris) where ever it is, the summer trade show, they will announce the 3 GHz G5. that is how it will work, that is how it has been going.
With a 2k Apple Loan you have to stay within that limit – and you aren’t allowed to use other means to supplement your purchase…and you have to be sure to figure sales tax, if that applies to you.
To choose between the two – it’s a tough decision. The G4 is faster than the 1.6 G5. RAM is cheaper for the G4. The G4 is much more compact, but not nearly as quiet as the G5’s with their series of fans and cooling areas. I might go with the G4 though. The G5 is the future, but the 1.6 isn’t a really “good” G5. It doesn’t really make good use of the advantages of the G5 processor. The bus is too slow for one thing. By the time Apple comes out with a 64 bit version of OS X, it’ll be time for a new Mac anyway 🙂 I say – G4!
That is yet to be seen. I’m still skeptical. If they live up to that plan then you have the absolute right to say “I told you so”. Meanwhile I’ll be cruising the Apple website order page.
I have read hundreds of comments here and on /. and nobody seems to have mentioned the casings. Anodised aluminium for the iPod mini versus what for the normal iPod? I really dislike plastic casings….what does the normal ipod have and is it any good?
Verses plastic.
if they are using Aluminum, then does that mean the iPod mini will be unscrewable?
“The $1699 (refurbished) G5 1.8 is a SINGLE CPU system. It is not the dual. “
Oops…my bad. I guess I was seeing things.
As far as choosing dual G4 or single G5, G4 wins.
If however you can get the few extra bucks for a dual G5, that is definately the way to go.
If the “verses plastic” was meant to be a spelling correction then I will correct you. “versus” is correct.
ver·sus ( P ) Pronunciation Key (vûrss, -sz)
prep.
Abbr. v. or vs. Against: the plaintiff versus the defendant; Army versus Navy.
As the alternative to or in contrast with: “freedom of information versus invasion of privacy” (Ian Hamilton).
I don’t think you guys really understand how big of a deal GarageBand is (and I mean to paid musicians whom already own pro audio software). I produce downtempo electro-acoustic psychedelic (bassy breaks stuff) tracks for a local label with Reason, Ableton Live and Logic, but none are as sweet (or should I say organic) looking as GarageBand for recording and editing tracks (Reason actually looks quite good for a synth/sampler/effects rack : yet visually lacks when one is editing within the track mode). Why should I even mention to you how good looking GarageBand is? Why you say? Simple. If it excites me to work with a good looking peice of software – which I admit – it does very much (appealing to my eye – with incredible ease of use and superior workflow), it will inevitably inspire my work. And if it inspires my work, in any sort of creative way, I would gladly pay far more than the small price of $49 for it! Now granted, it does not do all the things that Live, Reason or Logic does, but by the looks of it…. I think it will do what it does better than anything else I’ve seen. GarageBand should be able to listen to (and record in stereo, I believe) a firewire enabled piece of hardware (like Yamaha’s brand new o1x) with the knobs controlling any enabled AudioUnit plugins (in real-time of course). Will the AudioUnit capability within GarageBand allow me to use mastering plugins (not to mention 5.1 mixing)? How many AudioUnit plugins can run in real time while simply monitoring (or recording) my 12 String & vocals? Can you pre-record midi to the AudioUnit plugin effects while monitoring guitar or vocals while jamming to a pre-recorded piece (to provide dub-like capabilities)? Will GarageBand listen to more than one midi device at any given time (keyboards, mixer & envelope pedals)?
Obviously I’m not sure on some of these paticular details, but I’ll find out soon enough. I must remind myself this is Apple’s first release of this product, and updates will inevitably follow!
The fact it will seemlessly integrate with Soundtrack (when scoring within FCP 4), plays and records at 24bit 96khz (I think – haven’t found the pdf on it yet – Soundtrack does – so GarageBand should), uses AudioUnits, comes with a large amount of high quality (better than CD quality) samples (some of the best I’ve ever heard by the way) and comes with 100 software instruments… well… it’s a steal (to say the least) at $49. Comparable software goes for hundreds of dollars more (not to mention the fact you get to upgrade your iDVD/ iMovie/ iPhoto as well). Not to mention the interface of those other apps are half as clean (re: slick) as GarageBand. Just check out the detailed “wood” side panels on the main mixer window. Don’t you think it adds a warm touch? I like details like that Thank you Apple!
I’ll be buying it… I’ll also be upgrading to the “Jampack” available for it as well.
GarageBand is the start of something incredible, for professional and amateur musicians alike…
End of story.
blah: well, they are not going after the cheapo players, they are going after the high end flash player market. 256 meg flash player like the rio runs $199, if you want that, why not get an iPod mini for 50 bucks more, hold 1000 songs rather than 60 and have the iPod ergonomics IN A SMALLER PACKAGE.
..and ..
you don’t want or need 15 gigs, so you go to the store to buy a flash player. oh look, the Rio is only 120 for 128 megs of flash…hmm that only holds like 30 songs…bleh…..lets see how much a flash upgrade is….256 costs…HOW MUCH…70 bucks!!! oh my….well, I will get 60 songs….as you walk to passed the other players on your way back to the rio you see this very small iPod…for 256 bucks you get more than 10 times the storage of the rio plus a 256 flash upgrade…not bad…wow and it is smaller and comes with a cool belt clip…and I have heard how the iPod is really nice to use…..screw the rio, i’m getting this.
And other stupid quotes about flash-based players.
Uhm, for a 4gb CompactFlashII player – Creative MuVo2, cost $299. And, it is smaller – 2.5″ by 2.5″, it also claims to last 14 hours on a single charge, amongst others. Much better for exercise – less moving parts, less damage and skipping. But if you are really into sports, there’s the XTrainer model – more expensive, less capacity, hardly any moving parts.
Compare the new iPods to just released entries from Rio and Creative and they are actually priced pretty well…. Still it’s disappointing that they couldn’t get a 2GB model out for less than $200.
Personally, I much rather spend a little more money and buy that MuVo than to lump it on a iPod mini.
I’m quite disappointed after today’s keynote. Looks like I’ll have to hold off until it comes. From this standpoint, it doesnt look like Apple will make dual 3ghz by the summer. Looks like I’ll be buying another PC for now….
Look, I’d be the last person to claim that the G5 is faster than a Xeon, but gigahertz has absolutely nothing to do with it. G5 is built completely different from P4, there’s no use comparing them on just one aspect.
Bascule: The dual 2GHz Opteron appears to score uncharacteristically low… and unfortunately with no sources on the numbers or information on how the benchmark was performed or what compilers were used, I’m really at a loss as to answer why.
Rule of thumb, wait till someone else does the benchmarks. Apple releases as little information as possible about the benchmark for a reason: It is because they probably tilt it their way.
Blackthought: Question?
Why does Office for the Mac aleays seem to be than its Windows counterpart?
It only seems better than the previous version. Compare Office 2003 with Office v.X – you would find Office 2003 being better. Why? Office:mac is normally released some time after Office for Windows, in this case “mid-July” (in Microsoft speak, it could mean December, for all you know), so they can add new features Office already has in the R&D labs. And Windows has even more features.
It’s a cycle.
As for better, it is pretty subjective. I found Word v. X to be pretty slow with a lot of Excel charts and graphs in it, in comparison with Word 2002, for example.
Blackthought: I wonder if Apple will find a way to use the iTunes Music Store to sell more macs and just not more iPods? Maybe Garageband is a step in that direction?
Well, good underground bands should already know how to use a professional audio software, and they are barely to be seen on iTunes Music Store. Just like iMovie that created a large amount of reeeaaaalllly bad home movies, I’m sure Garageband would create an entire new class of tasteless music.
Besides, I really hope Apple would use iTMS to make money instead. Perhaps one day, Mac would be but a distant memory, and Apple a well-established media giant. Who knows? Follow the money-trail.
blah: you can replace them in the original iPod!!! stop trolling.
For the amount of times you were wrong, just like the guy you called troll, probably you should add “troll” to your business card.
blah: and cheap AAC compatible flash players will be available this year. AAC is a standard in MPEG, its acceptance is a forgone conclusion.
The only format that became accepted without RIAA or MPAA blessings was RIAA. MPEG2 for example became widely used because of DVDs. And since RIAA didn’t bless AAC as the industry standard, I’d suggest you hold your peace (They afterall agreed to similar contracts they signed with Apple with those not using AAC).
Oh, and MP3 became a standard because it provided the best compression for a near-CD quality format and it, at the time of Napster and MP3.com, didn’t have any licensing fee. ACC can’t claim to have both.
blah: the mini has a 1 inch hard drive. but that does not matter. a hard drive that small is so impact resistant that you would have to physically damage it with a hammer to damage the hard drive from running biking or what have you.
This pretty much shows you have no idea how a hard disk works. All hard disks have moving parts, which differ it from flash-based memory solutions. They are great for cost reduction, but not as good in speed nor in impact resistance. If the 1″ hard disk was so impact resistant, why did Apple bothered to add buffer cache for skip protection?
And BTW, most active people aren’t that bothered about damage to the hard disk, rather they are bothered about skip protection.
Great, they expect me to pay $50 to update a program that I already own. But, like, wow, the version number has doubled, it must be amazing!
I have no need whatsoever for iDVD, iMovie, and GarageBand, I’m busy enough as it is.
I’ll reserve my judgement on GarageBand until I see some reviews in Sound on Sound, Computer Music etc. but that doesn’t change the fact that I don’t want it, and shouldn’t have to pay for it.
They are *not* after the flash-playermarket, they are making once again a skewed comparison to make their over-priced rubbish look better. Don’t fear, Hardocp is to the rescue to put it into the right perspective for you:
“Apple launched its new iPod Mini today with all the hoopla and fanfare on a level that only Apple can achieve… announcing an MP3 Player. Even though they make almost no money on their music sales, hitting the 30 million downloads is pretty impressive.
[…]
Coincidentally I just watched Steve Jobs on CNN talking about the iPod Mini and I have to say one thing about that guy…he is the KING of marketing BS, I mean the best I have ever seen. There are a bunch of MP3 players that are at least 10GB ( many larger ) already on the market at the same price point but Jobs makes it sound like they are releasing something “new” and kept comparing the iPod Mini to 64MB compact flash players. This is the same “fastest computer on earth” and “first 64bit computer” style speak we should be used to by now. Anyone who gets one of these, let me know what you think.”
BTW, 1-2 years after the gay cloured iBooks finally were recognized for what they really are: goofy, gay-couloured toys and rightly so abbondoned — Now you are all falling for the same shit again in form of an mp3-player..? Don’t you Mac-users ever learn your lesson..?!! I would be really afraid of getting smacked in a dark alley at night if somebody found out that I am in possession of a pink mp3-player.
PS: No, I don’t have anything against gays, however, that doesn’t deny there is such thing and it doesn’t deny the fact that former iBooks and now these players look gay + I don’t have problems speaking out what everybody is thinking already.
Coincidentally I just watched Steve Jobs on CNN talking about the iPod Mini and I have to say one thing about that guy…he is the KING of marketing BS, I mean the best I have ever seen. There are a bunch of MP3 players that are at least 10GB ( many larger ) already on the market at the same price point but Jobs makes it sound like they are releasing something “new” and kept comparing the iPod Mini to 64MB compact flash players. This is the same “fastest computer on earth” and “first 64bit computer” style speak we should be used to by now. Anyone who gets one of these, let me know what you think.”
oh, come on, lets be honest here, name one CEO who doesn’t BS their way; be it the Linux chief claiming to be at the head of a so-called “revolution” to Microsofts CEO claiming technological advances but since he is so technically illiterate he doesn’t know what he is talking about.
Atleast when Steve Jobs introduced the G5, he was willing to admit he didn’t know some of the concepts. Compare that to Balmer, (former manager from Proctor and Gamble IIRC) who has absolutely NO idea about information technology, he is then backed up with Achlin whose last experience with a non-Microsoft operating system was 30 years ago back in his university days.
Compared to other players in the market, Microsoft has to have the most over of touch management. Bill Gates slams Linux yet he can never name specific issues he has. He has never run it, looked at the source code let alot point of specific issues, again, compared to Steve Jobs – “Saltan of Spin”, Bill Gates has to be the worse of the lot.
BTW, 1-2 years after the gay cloured iBooks finally were recognized for what they really are: goofy, gay-couloured toys and rightly so abbondoned — Now you are all falling for the same shit again in form of an mp3-player..? Don’t you Mac-users ever learn your lesson..?!! I would be really afraid of getting smacked in a dark alley at night if somebody found out that I am in possession of a pink mp3-player.
PS: No, I don’t have anything against gays, however, that doesn’t deny there is such thing and it doesn’t deny the fact that former iBooks and now these players look gay + I don’t have problems speaking out what everybody is thinking already.
Even as a gay guy I certainly wouldn’t purchase a gaudy looking mini iPod. Macs prior to G5 IMHO were too plastic/cheap looking where as the G5 has kept to the minimalistic idea. eMac isn’t so bad and the iMac isn’t bad either.
It is also nice to see that in 10.3 they toned down the theme and made it more professional/reserved.
no spelling correction. I was just adding onto what he/she had said.
the iPod-Mini is aluminum VERSUS Plastic of the iPod.
that is all I meant by it.
I saw them Demo it on Tech TV…dude…that is some cool stuff. the Piano is sensitive to the acceleration you put on the keys of the keyboard!!!
that is good enough that a person could learn the Piano on that rather than a full sized one….though there is a tactile difference unless you get a good keyboard.
This pretty much shows you have no idea how a hard disk works. All hard disks have moving parts, which differ it from flash-based memory solutions. They are great for cost reduction, but not as good in speed nor in impact resistance. If the 1″ hard disk was so impact resistant, why did Apple bothered to add buffer cache for skip protection?
I was talking about damage to the hard drive…you want to see people who think this is a real issue…head over to /. and see all the comments about it. the skip protection is a moot point since the buffer is large enough to store 20 minutes worth of AAC music and 15 minutes of MP3.
their is NO end user difference between Flash and hard drive solutions when the appropriate buffer is added.
and a 1 inch hard drive IS more impact resistant as far as damage…which is what I was talking about.
they have been doing that since about a year ago or so. you don’t want to pay for the new version…then wait until you upgrade your OS again and you will get the latest version.
I don’t care if you think everything out of his mouth is BS, but you apparently did not watch the keynote…he did not just compare them, he pointed out the MARKETS….they OWN the HDD market with 31% of the over all MP3 player market where only 8% are the other HDD based players…..31% or there about is the high end Flash market, like the rio. they are going after the people who pay 200 bucks for a flash player for its size. that is a fact, live with it.
Anonymous, I think you’re the only one thinking about these colors being “gay”. Why are you preoccupied with it?? Have you thought that a teenage girl might like a pink iPod?
I was talking about damage to the hard drive…you want to see people who think this is a real issue…head over to /. and see all the comments about it. the skip protection is a moot point since the buffer is large enough to store 20 minutes worth of AAC music and 15 minutes of MP3.
their is NO end user difference between Flash and hard drive solutions when the appropriate buffer is added.
and a 1 inch hard drive IS more impact resistant as far as damage…which is what I was talking about.
Okay, on hard disk failures – as long that 1″ hard disk still have moving parts, it is prone to failures. Especially with vigourous movements. Can you say otherwise? If this isn’t the case, than it would be the first hard disk that is really shock resistant (something I doubt).
and a 1 inch hard drive IS more impact resistant as far as damage…which is what I was talking about.
How is this so? They removed those moving parts? They stopped using platers? Wait, have you even use the hard disk for a prolong period of time in the first place to be so sure?
Besides, I personally believe that iPod mini should have chosen CompactFlashII like MuVo2 instead of a hard disk. Flash memory solutions are moving from strength to strength, although slower than hard disks, they are potentially faster moving than 1″ hard disks. That way, iPod mini can range from, say, 128mb to 4-5gb, and Apple could potentially take over the lower (and higher) ends of the market.
they have been doing that since about a year ago or so. you don’t want to pay for the new version…then wait until you upgrade your OS again and you will get the latest version.
Imagine, if Microsoft does this, you’d be all over them (BTW, I do support this move, they aren’t making any money from free downloads).
MS already does this. you don’t get good software on windows unless you buy it.
as for the hard drive issue…I am not saying the hard drive is not failure proof, but it certainly is not prone to failing. it is a fact that the smaller a hard drive, the more resistant to failure it is from moving.
go read up on slashdot about it, there are some nice posts on the apple story about the size of hard drives (physical size) and their resistance to failure.
the iPod and the Mini iPod had drives are such a size that you would have to do some serious damage to it to cause a hard drive failure, add to that the fact that the hard drive is only spun up in most cases every 15 to 20 minutes, and the probability of the hard drive failing from the appropriate shock during a read or write is very very small and unless you are super paranoid, should not even be considered an issue.
1,000 songs because of AAC compression scheme. It saves more space than regular mp3s with better quality. At the time 5G came out, apple has not adopted AAC yet. The data was caculated on mp3 compression. Now 4G iPod mini data is caculated on AAC compression scheme.
Hope it helps…
Come on, you can throw Zen Xtra at someone and get him killed… It looks like a big piece of brick and it is HEAVY. iPod is quite skinny, light and sexy… There is a design style and a life style there in iPod.
MS already does this. you don’t get good software on windows unless you buy it.
No, I was saying pulling something off like Apple – offering for free, then after that only offering as part of another pai product.
the iPod and the Mini iPod had drives are such a size that you would have to do some serious damage to it to cause a hard drive failure, add to that the fact that the hard drive is only spun up in most cases every 15 to 20 minutes and the probability of the hard drive failing from the appropriate shock during a read or write is very very small and unless you are super paranoid, should not even be considered an issue.
Explain the logic to me, that the smaller the size hard disk, the less chance of breaking? To my logic, parts within the hard disk should be more fragile, being smaller, thus easier to break. Besides, if iPod mini is built anyway like iPod, the hard disk wouldn’t be much of a problem because of the shock-resistant rubber protection built into the chassis. And if there’s any drop or shock that is strong enough to damage the hard disk, trust me, it would damage other parts.
My argument was that Apple should have gone with flash for iPod mini. My rationale is that the iPod mini could possibly be smaller – no need for impact-absorbing rubber padding, for one, or buffer memory, and since flash needs less power, the size of the batery could be shrinked too. And not only that, it could potentially be cheaper, seeing how flash memory have been increasing in capacity and decressing in cost with an acceleration higher than small sub-notebook hard disks.
fine, you think a flash storage would have been better, that is great.
the logic behind the hard drive breaking is this.
as the radius of the arm and the platters decrease, the vertical acceleration also decreases, i.e. they get stiffer.
this is a concept that can be seen with many materials.
look at a tape measure. if you pull it out one inch, it is much more difficult to bend than if it was 1 foot.
that is why there has to be a greater force to have the hard drive arm scratch the platter, the arm and platter just don’t move in the vertical direction as much as they do at 3.5 inches.
I am not saying it is impossible, but you need a greater force to do it…what that force is, I do not know, I would need to developed or see the functions used when determining such things in research because the platter material might be different than a normal disk, or the arm might be made of something else and each material or composite has its own function for such calculations.
Wow, I’m Hetero, and I am not disturbed by imagery of Homosexuals expressing love. Whatever your basis is for your ethics, homophobia is unnatural no matter what colour your iPod is. It is learned, like all human hatred.
If you don’t have problems “speaking out”, then why did you post as anonymous? Personally I am sick of having gay sexuality continually forced on me in the media. I almost throw up when I see them kissing on TV. Whatever your basis is for your ethics, gay sexuality is unnatural no matter what colour your iPod is.
Whoa, this site isn’t for religious nor political opinion.
Urm, most hard disk damage is done not during use, rather during shipping, and damage is usually something to do with the head. I would know this as I once handled a lot of hard disk warranty claims. Most damages done during use, grant, is regarding the platter, but often, it is the head. And most damages to the plater isn’t cracks (in most cases, it is pretty impossible inside the hard disk), rather scratches – I don’t see how smaller platers decreases this risk.
So far, I have not seen proof that 2.5″ or 1″ hard disks are any less damage prone than regular laptop and desktop hard disks.
Uhm, for a 4gb CompactFlashII player – Creative MuVo2, cost $299. And, it is smaller – 2.5″ by 2.5″, it also claims to last 14 hours on a single charge, amongst others. Much better for exercise – less moving parts, less damage and skipping.
The Creative MuVo2 4GB is a Hard Drive based player. http://us.creative.com/products/product.asp?category=3&subcategory=… it’s in the first paragraph, so it has just as many moving parts. Also it may have a smaller height 2.5″ compared to the iPod 3.6″ but it’s width and depth is greater 2.5″ compared to 2.0″ and 0.8″ compared to 0.5″, so it’s cubic inches is 5.4(MuVo) compared to 3.6(iPod) so the MuVo is also bigger, but it is 0.4 ounces lighter than the iPod 3.2 compared to 3.6. Also, to add songs to the MuVo you have to drag and drop them, while the iPod Auto-Syncs, and in my opinion, having used both, the interface on the iPod is much better than the MuVo. So actually you would be paying $50 more for the MuVo, which gives you the same capacity, a bigger size, and a worse interface, I think I would rather spend my money on an iPod. The only advantage the MuVo has is the swappable battery (for $49) and it’s claim of 14 hours of continuous playback (although the specs page says that actual battery life will vary with use). But I think I would still rather have the iPod.
Have you ever had headphones on or earbuds in your ears for over 8 hours?
Hurts after a while doesn’t it?
I’ve had an iPod for nearly 2 years, have flown crosscountry numerous times with one, sometimes two, layovers… making some trips last for 20 hours… I have never had the iPod die on me.
Simply tunr of the EQ and the backlight… and if you take reasonable breaks — I am still an avid music listener and virtually use the iPod non-stop — you will not epxerience any problems.
Also, I’ve probably dropped the Poid 50 times and handle it quite roughly. I haven’t had a single problem with the HD. It is a rather sturdy little product.
kev: My mistake. I got it from http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031218/sfth087_1.html
The lightweight and compact NOMAD® MuVo2® 4GB is as small as a flash memory based player at less than 2.6 inches by 2.6 inches, yet with its tiny Compact Flash Type II one inch micro drive it can carry up to 2100 songs in high-quality WMA format!
Of course, that story is about the 4GB version. I don’t know, I remember reading sometime ago on Gizmodo of a micro drive like that. And I remember when I was blogging about it (http://blog.rajanr.com/blog_b.php?p=36&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1), I have not seen the words “hard disk” on Creative site.
Forgiven? 🙂