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
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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nice g5 x serves.
raids are multi platform.
“We also ought to update its companion product, the Xserve RAID.” Added new features including 3.5TB of online storage – 30 percent increase. SFP connectors built in for Fibre Channel. RAID set slicing up to 16 per RAID, on the file expansion without repartitioning. Now qualified new Fibre Channel switches. Certified on XP Pro and Windows 2003 Server and various Linux versions.
G5 Xserve: Single and dual 2.0GHz G5 processors, ECC memory, DDR 400 up to 8GB, up to 250GB of storage. Dual GB ethernet, FireWire 800, USB 2.0. Ship with Mac OS X v10.3 Server 10.3 and unlimited user license. Basic server 2.0GHz single processor for $2,999, dual 2.0GHz for $3,999, “compute node” version for $2,999.”
attribute from macentral.
i heard (was it posted here?) that people whose IBook’s logicboards failed were gonna protest. being an IBook G4 owner I’m an eager beaver about this issue.
You do know that the logic board issue is ONLY with the last G3 Model.
the G4 iBook uses the same logic board as the 12 inch Powerbook and does not suffer from any of the problems the last generation did.
do you think if there is a mini-iPod that he will wait till the LAST possible second to announce it?
I mean he starts with the mundane and moves into the AWSOME at the end, and most people think the mini-iPod is a great iDea.
really? i didn’t know that. cool! i was thinking that my ibook was so perfect that there HAD to be something wrong and then i thought i found the flaw. that’s great now i can relax
btw i’m looking at the feed, garage band looks really cool
for a second I thought this said XSteve’s.. sounds pretty cool to me.
yeah, I have a friend that is a Music teacher and loves to make music. I think he might actualy buy a Mac for this kind of stuff….but who knows.
I can’t hear any sound – tried in media Player Classic as well as the latest Quicktime
I get sound problems as well when viewing it with the Widnows QT, but it works on the Mac’s QT.
That’s really ironic considering the importance of the switcher market.
it is most likely a problem with your system/install. its working fine on 4 pcs here.
Odd. If other apps sound works so should this.
iTunes for Windows won’t play it either – it says its playing but is silent. Still – macminute seem to be doing pretty well with reporting it, I’ll read that instead.
iFrodo: “Wow, the new iPhoto is so cool, it lets me organize so easily my MountDoom pictures! My life flashed before my eyes!”
The above quote actually originated by my husband just a few minutes ago after I told him that Elijah Wood appeared in the iLife ad/movie at MacWorld. JBQ has certainly great humor.
wow that sounds sweet, I want one. Now.
By blah (IP: —.cable.mindspring.com) – Posted on 2004-01-06 18:21:37
You do know that the logic board issue is ONLY with the last G3 Model
No, actually it effects the WHOLE G3 line of iBooks after the Clamshells. SO basically all of the Dual-USB iBooks.
4 gigs for 249.
not bad, they are going after things like the rio and other near 200 dollar flash players.
but for 50 bucks more, now you get 15 gigs.
I am not going to be poo pooing it though, because the iPod mini is half an inch thick and the height and width of a business card. it is SMALLER than the flash players and only 50 bucks more, so they are going after the people who don’t want a huge hard drive player.
I think it will do very well because it will build on the iPod popularity.
umm..after the clam shells, you only HAD the last model.
Yup, that’s right… I would rather have seen a smaller capacity at a sub $150 price. Dare I say even $100.00? Sorry, I’m let down.
..because I’ll have one when they come to the UK too
Sounded like you were just saying the last release of the iBooks with whatever speed processor they had – aka the 900MHz line (I don’t remember what the final speed of the G3 iBook is)
I have to say that i am pretty disappointed by the price of the new ipod mini. Pretty cool tech, but for $50 i could get 11gb more?!?! COME ON!
I understand what they are doing as far as the market, but man that think should really be less than $200.
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.
so if you are don’t mind having 128 megs and never plan on upgrading the flash ROM in it to a larger capacity, then get a cheaper one, but if you want more capacity, the mini iPod is a bette deal.
I couldn’t agree with you more… The ipod mini sounded appealing when people were speculating them to be much lower in price. Now, I don’t think so. Price is still the determining factor to me.
you want a full blown HDD player then.
did you even listen to the speech? he was aiming this at the Flash player market.
in that market, you will have to pay 200 bucks to get 60 songs and a crappy interface. for 50 bucks more, you get 1000 songs and a great interface that beats everyone on the planet and in a smaller form factor than the flash players.
The difference in price between the low-end iPod and the
mini is just $50 … when the capacity is 10 times smaller …
this doesn’t make much sens to me … I wish the price was
way lower … $150 will make more sens IMO ….
Why get
the mini when for $50 more bucks you can have 10 times more
songs !! The size factor is nice, but ….
But… For $50.00 more I can get an extra 11Gb… yes, I realize the Ipod mini is “mini,” but it still seems like we are being hosed.
So why doesn’t Apple grace us with a low cost alternative with much less space. Say 1Gb for $100.00? That sounds a lot more attractive than 4Gb for $250.00!
great but too expensive – 149$ should be its cost. That would be a hit!
dude…ok, let me explain it.
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.
it is a market they are after, not a price competition with the market they own.
that is why. some times it sucks, but that is what the game or cross over markets is like.
get the 299 iPod then, but here is a fact, Apple never announced a cheap iPod before this, it was all rumor. don’t get mad at apple.
for people who buy Flash players…31 percent of the market, it is worth it….for people in the market for a HDD player, it is not, but most of them already own an iPod so it is a moot point.
Rio today announced a new 4GB version of their Rio Nitrus MP3 player. The 4GB version is based on the previous design and will have an estimated U.S. street price of $249.
http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/01/20040106090447.shtml
looks like the mini iPod is a good deal for the market.
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.
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….
My main problem with the mini iPod is that the 4 GB version costs $249 and the normal 15 GB iPod is “only” $299. Granted, the ipodmini is a bit smaller, but for only $50 bucks more you get 11 GB of space more, which is what ultimately matters on an mp3 player.
I don’t need an mp3 player personally, but if I was to buy one, I would get the 15 GB iPod, it makes a better deal than any of the other models IMHO.
For the iPodmini to make sense for me I would require it to have a price tag at $199.
US$300 for a 15GB player being affordable? Sorry, but with less money (US$290) I just got a nice Zen Xtra with 40 GB of space and better sound quality with a replaceable battery.
Just wanted to chime in on some fishy math that Apple is using. According to Apple, the 4GB mini iPod can hold 1,000 songs, and isn’t that exactly the same number of songs the original 5GB iPod held? I think we need to get some clarificaition on what exactly is a “song” from Apple.
Skipp
When they brought out the 5gig ipod, wasnt that 1000 mp3’s? In this case he may be talking about 1000 non-mp3 like the AAC for example. Smaller filesize, more songs….
Actually, the money is the same, depending in which State you live in. That Nomad indeed offers more drive space for the same money however it looks like a brick to me.
If you look just at the specs the mini iPod is not a “good” deal compared to the 15GB iPod for $299, But Like Lee Corso Likes to say…Not so fast my friend!
Apple is going after the flash player market after dominating the Hdd Mp3. If you compare the Mini to the new Rio then the Mini looks pretty damn good. Especially when you can get all of those cool accessories. But wait! For $50 more I can get a 15GB iPod. This is what is called walking the Dog. You move people up to the next more expensive and higher margin item.
It all makes sense. I would have liked to see the Mini iPod at around $199, but I understand what Apple is doing. They are going after the Flash player market. They are going for total domination of the downloadable music market. From begining (Garageband) to end (iTunes Music Store).
Now, about the Powermac G5. I was hoping to see a new PowerMac G5 at MWSF, but I know it’s coming. Apple did the samething last year at Macworld. Release some software and then at the end of the month introduce new hardware. I’m sure we will see the Dual 2.5 Ghz powermac before April.
most lacklustre macworld ever.
Did anyone else see the new benchmarks released in conjunction with the G5 XServe?
http://www.apple.com/xserve/images/chart_linpack_010604.gif
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.
From my own tests of our atmospheric modelling program RAMS (now released under the GPL, http://atmet.com), I have found that a dual 2GHz G5 using the IBM XL Fortran compiler 8.1 for OS X beats a dual 2.2GHz Opteron system using the Portland Group Fortran Compiler 5.1 for Linux/AMD64 which in turn beats a dual 3.2GHz Xeon system using the Intel Fortran Compiler 8.0 for Linux, with timestep values of 1.21, 1.28, and 1.32 respectively (lower is better)
If someone can find information regarding what compilers were used for these benchmarks I would be most appreciative. I’ve found the Portland Group compiler to be rather lousy performance wise, while the Intel Fortran Compiler is probably the best I’ve seen, but unfortunately dual Xeons are crippled by their bus architecture.
AX, there were no indications Apple was going to announce any G5 upgrades at MacWorld (except the Xserve). I would look for those upgrades to come pretty soon. If you want one, hold off for a little while.
Okay, let me explain Apple’s pricing structure. For all their products, the low end device is there simply to hit a price point. Once you’re willing to buy Apple at that price point, the rest of the products are designed to lure you into spending just a bit more money to get a lot more. In this case, it’s designed to sell iPods to buyers who were going to just buy a Rio.
For the first time in a while, Apple owns a market – the hard drive based MP3 players. Now, it has to lure people outside of that market into buying Apple products. The mini iPod is a bridge. If you commit to buying a good Flash-based MP3 player, you’re committing to about $150-$200. For just a bit more, you can get a mini iPod with a much higher capacity, better interface, etc. You’re willing to spend just that bit more, so you commit to an iPod. You then look into iPod prices, and you find that for just a bit more, you can afford a much better iPod. Next thing you know, you’re spending $150 more than you planned, but have convinced yourself you’re getting a lot more out of it.
They’ll sell on their own, anyway – some people will appreciate the compact form factor. But they’re designed and priced more as a temptation.
JT
Question?
Why does Office for the Mac aleays seem to be than its Windows counterpart?
Think Apple kinda wasted this one. The device looks just right but the price definetly isn’t – for an xtra $50 who in their right mind wouldn’t go for the Ipod (15GB of disk space)?
Apple needs to drop the price to the sub $200 mark and then it would be worth purchasing until they do my own opnion is the iPod 15GB is just right.
harjTT
: o )>
The Zen Xtra is in a different league. The iPod is an ultra-portable HDD-based player, while the Zen is kinda-portable. Its volume is twice as large as the iPod (~100cm^3 vs ~200cm^3) and it weights more than two-thirds more (158g vs 268g).
As for better sound quality, that’s debatable. At least, I couldn’t tell the difference between the Zen and the iPod through my Sony D66 headphones — the MP3 format is really the limiting factor.
And the iPod *does* have a replacable battery.
Okay, not everyone – Blackthought also nailed this one.
The point i forgot to make is that no single step can be too large – all the prices have to be about $50 apart in this price range in order to keep luring up. Hence the pricing.
JT
Look for them soon, maybe a month or so, they will come. Then by next summer, it will be 3 Ghz. Yee of little faith.
Why would I spend $50 more to get a 15gig when all my music will fit on the ipod mini. How many songs do you actually listen to?
Why would I spend $50 more to get a 15gig when all my music will fit on the ipod mini. How many songs do you actually listen to?
Well, keep in mind the iPod doubles as an external FireWire hard drive… isn’t an extra $50 worth an additional 11GB of video/etc you could always have with you?
You’re right. However I need a machine now and was all set to buy. I’m not angry though. I just expected there would be more of a transition to dual 3ghz than just releasing it in 1 blow. I’ll just buy a cheapie PC to do me for the meantime and I guess it will be my game box in the future anyway.
Has anybody else noticed that for the past year Apple has been releasing products more frequently? They use to only release products at major trade shows…noe they can come anytime. It seems that Apple is getting more aggressive.
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?
SO, in this player the “18-month” battery can be replaced?
i really hope that they decide to come out with a lower priced 2 and/or 1 gb. player sometime, a 1gb. for 99.99 would eliminate all competition from my viewpoint….plus that’s about all i could afford…
/me resumes checking out cd/mp3 players instead…..
you can replace them in the original iPod!!! stop trolling.
how was that a troll?
he simply wants to know if the battery can be replaced in the mini ipod
it is a troll because you have to be living in a hole to NOT know the battery is replaceable. if you are in touch enough to know about the neistat movie, yu are in touch enough to have seen post after post after post pointing people to 3rd party battery sites, the apple battery replacement program, and the applecare you should buy when getting an expensive item.
http://www.apple.com/hardware/ads/1984/1984_480.html
Check it out for yourselves, they’ve inserted an iPod on the runner! It sounds too bizzare to be true, but check it out! Oh my god…
Looking at the website .. is there any difference between this new one and the old one besides size and color?
Anyway, on an unrelated note, I think it’s cool the way they update their website at the same time as the keynote – that’s pretty slick
you’re absolutely right if we were talking about the normal ipod, however, we aren’t
now, if the mini ipod and the normal ipod are using the same battery, lol, that’d be some trippy physics i’d love to see
>Looking at the website .. is there any difference between this new one and the old one besides size and color?
weight
>Check it out for yourselves, they’ve inserted an iPod on the runner! It sounds too bizzare to be true, but check it out! Oh my god…
Heh… they did. Thats funny.
I was planning to buy the top end ipod, but the high price of the mini has me scared now. With nothing close to compete with the cheap flash players I fear the long term effects that this will have on aac as a viable format.
I like to pay for music when the artists deserve it. I really like itunes and the way apple has things set up. Apple has the lead now but with the market being flooded with cheap wma devices, I can see the scales tipping away from them.
Apple needs to get over themselves and do something to protect their market. If they don’t want to enter the cheap flash device market, find someone who will. It would be in apple’s interest to have cheap aac itunes compatable flash players being sold instead of cheap wma flash players. They are not going to get the sale anyway, they might as well have it go towards something that will help keep the ipod comatable.
If apple lets this market crawl away from them because they wanted to maximize today’s profits at them expense of tomorrow’s, I will be pissed. In the future I do not want to be buying wma from walmart. Please apple do something.
I think it was just for fun though…I don’t see how that commercial as it is, can be rerun. I mean, the Mac is already introduced…maybe, as a superbowl add they will play that and rather than the end comments, they will have a fast forward of 20 years with the Mac ending with the G5 and iPod …then say “20 years of Mac…just wait to see what the next 20 years will bring”
that would be cool.
eh? what are you talking about…the mini ipod competes right in the high end flash market.
and cheap AAC compatible flash players will be available this year. AAC is a standard in MPEG, its acceptance is a forgone conclusion.
Creepy, I feel like they want me to join a cult or something.
WOW WOW WOW!!!
Cool stuff after cool stuff after cool stuff. They just took the best of the best and made it smaller! Macs always have the cooler stuff.
The obvious question: Silver, Green or Blue?
These iPods are going to be massive hits IMO. The colors they’ve chosen appeal to a vast markets and the pricing is right from Apple’s POV. If they had priced it at $150 or something, they would have risked cannibalizing the sale of higher end iPods , thus cutting into their profit margins.
As for the 1984 ad, it is still a true masterpiece.
I wanted to get the MINI but it is too much money. I want one with only 1G of Memory, and 1/2 the cost! I can alwsays re-sync my player with different songs each day?!?!?Apple is doing with the iPod what they did with the MAC. Apple used to have 50% market share of personal computers. They will have 2% of the MP3 players if they don’t change their ways!
I’d buy the Ipod becuase it’s more than just an MP3 – I’d be using it as a portable HD and with 15GB of space it’s more than adequate for backing up data etc.
For all those saying “but for $50 I can get 11 more GB”:
You are all making the assumption that storage capacity is the highest priority for all buyers of mp3 layers. There will be a subset of buyers for whom size is a significant priority. It may even be _the_ top priority. These are the people for whom the iPod mini is targeted.
Also, one advantage of the iPod mini is that since it is a flash-based player, there are no moving parts, making it ideal for someone who wants an mp3 player to take along while running/biking/doing other sports. In this case, size becomes a big issue as well. For these users, being able to hold 2-3 hours of music is plenty, and well within the storage capacity of the iPod mini. Remember, 2-3 hours of music was the storage capacity of the original Sony Walkman when it was introduced.
You may also laugh at the people who would buy the iPod mini as people concerned only with style and having too much money to know what to do with it. But these may be the people that keep Apple in the black.
Consider drive capacity and cost.
The drives in the large iPod are at a sweet spot in price where the manufacturers, instead of continuing to support lower capacities, are rather beefing the drives up more and more while lowering costs. You can no longer get a 5 GB drive. Soon the 10 GB drive will be gone. Apple will have 15,20,30,40,60, who knows what in drive capacity going forward in the future.
Now consider these ultra-mini drives in the mini iPod. They are extremely expensive. If they have already gotten to a point where they can ship large volumes of 4 GB drives to Apple, the cost difference between a 1,2,4 GB drive is probably not much. So people who are claiming that they should have halved or quartered the capacity and cut off $100 bucks are fooling themselves. (Yes, Apple probably has a nice margin, but not that nice.)
Now what might the trend for these drives in the future be? They are so small (and their applications geared to smaller uses) that their capacities will not increase as fast as their prices will reduce. So what do we see…
The iPod will get larger capacity drives, sport a “larger” interface, have the “dock” interface for peripherals, and may see some price reductions.
The mini iPod will not grow in capacity as quickly, may actually grow “down” to lower capacities, and should see larger price reductions. (Remember the iPod debuted at 5GBs and (I believe) a $500 price tag; now, for that same price you get 40 GB, and the lowest capacity is only $300 only two years later.)
Another point: people who say: “for only fifty dollars more… 11 GBs” why weren’t you saying at the last introduction “for only a hundred dollars more I get 20 extra GBs”? Why? Because most people REALLY don’t need that capacity.
Next point: the beauty of some people opting for the iPod over the mini and vice versa is that this takes production pressure off of Apple. The fact is (despite all of the whining) Apple cannot keep up wiith demand at current prices. SOMEONE PLEASE TELL ME where anyone in any kind of business would ever LOWER prices when they are not able to meet DEMAND. Please show me how that makes business sense.
Finally: I’m actually shocked. I wanted to upgrade my 10 GB to a larger capacity (40 or +), but now I am considering this. I’m really sold on the form factor and the fact that all the functionality is there. The iPod can’t really go in a pocket (with keys or cellphone), I don’t like wearing a holster to carry it, running or anything extremely physical is a concern (not because of skips) but because the size of it makes it feel like it would fly loose. This solves all those problems.
Hard drive based.
It’s aimed at the top of the Flash market, but it, itself, actually supports these new micro drives.
At the same time, I do agree these are much better suited to fitness-oriented users. And they will definitely prefer this form factor to the larger capacity iPods. (Some people only listen to music when working out. I, personally, listen to music all the time.)
music players and song downloads
how tired coming from a computer company
here we are in 2004, just 6 months out til the date jobs said we would have a 3ghz g5 and not even a single speed bump since release.
whaling yet again
market first, deliver late.
It’s kind of funny that after 75 comments nobody is surprised at the fact that dual 2GHz. G5’s go into a 1U rack form factor these days. I remember debates here and on other sites about the G5 generating too much heat for a compact rack enclosure. Seems to me the 9 fans in a tower are just made to be as silent as possible. The G5 tower could otherwise do fine with just a single fan per CPU I guess.. Any informed comments?
I seriously doubt that Apple will lose market share to the likes of the garbage that is out there.
to geeks? sure, because to most geeks, a big hard drive is worth more than an interface, so even though it takes 10 minutes to scroll through the music on some Dell DJ or iRiver, they will buy it because bigger is better to them.
and people will end up buying iPods and iPod minis because it is a cool device and is great to use. note…the iPod will also not suffer at the hands of PC geeks who constantly recommend PCs to people that are clueless because consumer electronics are sold as devices not big boxes that people are afraid to touch like a computer.
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.
dude…Apple has changed their release format. they have had this change for a year or so. the G5 speed bump will be announced when it is ready for production like they did with the iBooks.
look for it in about 3-6 weeks.
that is a good point…and HELLO ECC RAM!!!!!
in the server room, noise does not matter, so yeah, but for a desktop that will get used for Movie and sound and music..silence is golden.
since it is the media os
Haven’t you ever noticed that a laptop costs more than a desktop computer? Well the same goes for the mini iPod compared to the full size iPod. Yes it costs less. But that’s because it only has 4GB of storage as compared to 15 to 40GB. If the mini iPod at 15GB of storage it would probably be at _least_ $100 more than the “full size” iPod.
So … smaller form factor. Higher cost. That’s the way things are. And they are VERY cool. I’ll probably buy one for my wife (mini iPod). The only question is how to find out which color she would like without her finding out why I’m trying to find out.
Yes I wish they were $199 intead of $249. But Apple is going to sell a BUNCH at this price.
and next Christmas…if you take into account the price drop that the original iPods went through in just 2 years…I bet they will be 199
Anyone know what the battery life on the new ipods are, and how ‘shock resistant’ the hard drive really is ?
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.
Perhaps, but it’s not clear what the effect would be on a higher vibration platform, for example a motorcycle.
Regarding the price of the iPod, Apple has always kept its prices as a mix of what the market says, and what Apple says. It’s never been in a price war with anybody, and doesn’t want to be. It’s prices have little to do with the actual cost of manufacture. It doesn’t want to ship commodity products, it wants to ship “Think Different” products. Also, Apple has always been a Product company more so than a systems company, that’s why things like the iPod fits.
Commoditization will kill Apple, and they know it. It’s hard enough to innovate and keep ahead of the game for any time now as it is. Right now, they set the bar with the iPod and iTunes.
They even set the bar a bit with Mac OS X, but there is so much entrenchment, that “Switching” is like pulling teeth, so there’s less success.
To the consumer, the iPod and Mac OS X offer commodity services, but have the value add of Apples signature style and attention to detail. People who enjoy those details will pony up the extra $$$.
Currently, there is no product in the mini-iPod form factor that can compete, at any price. Period.
There are similar machines, but they either lack capacity, or they gain size and weight. The mini is “in the middle”.
I have been looking for a player. I considered Flash players, MP3 enabled CD players, and the iPod. My application is special in that I want this for my motorcycle.
I felt the iPod was simply overkill for what I needed. I LIKE the Flash players, but they’re really hurt in capacity, and would cost twice what a nice CD player would, with less capacity (and no interchangablility).
The Mini is nicely in the middle, and perhaps it’s worth the “extra $50”.
I do think I’m leaning toward a CD player, though. Several have built in radios, and some have decent remotes for notable things like volume. We’ll see.
“Perhaps, but it’s not clear what the effect would be on a higher vibration platform, for example a motorcycle.”
If the iPod is on you or strapped to you, it will not vibrate at a rate even close to that of the motorcycle. You absorb much of the vibration.
Yes, a fair bit of vibration, but I think you’d be fine.
“It’s kind of funny that after 75 comments nobody is surprised at the fact that dual 2GHz. G5’s go into a 1U rack form factor these days. I remember debates here and on other sites about the G5 generating too much heat for a compact rack enclosure. Seems to me the 9 fans in a tower are just made to be as silent as possible. The G5 tower could otherwise do fine with just a single fan per CPU I guess.. Any informed comments?”
Spot on Bas. That is way, way more interesting news than this mini-iPod thing that is getting so much attention around here. Maybe we can start a new thread…
I have a question. That Virginia Tech supercomputer that was made out of 1100 PowerMac G5s and is the 3rd fastest computer in the world, wouldn’t it have been much more worthwhile to build that thing out of racks and racks of the new XServe G5s rather than using PowerMacs? The XServe has every advantage of being a real server product in form-factor, manageability, etc., compared to PowerMac workstation boxes. I guess the boys and girls at Virginia Tech just couldn’t wait for the new XServe G5’s to come out before making their ‘point’, but I really think they should have waited anyway. They would have ended up with a far superior cluster if they had.
I’m not surprised because I was pretty sure it was coming.
I never believed that the heating issues were that severe because I actually looked at the specs of the G5, and I also understood that the PM was designed for quiet.
I also anticipated that these would be 90nm chips (WHICH THEY ARE!!!), which would further reduce the heat output.
Yes, it is exciting news though.
And, yes, people question Apple’s motivations and decisions; well, how ’bout VT, who simply wanted to hit this years list in time, forgoing the inevitable XServe with 90nm chips, ECC RAM, and smaller form factor?
Well, they should be happy, and I’d imagine with the info from Big Mac and the new XServes, some people will be building some SICK clusters.
Sorry to go off topic. But I decided to switch over to a Mac. I just got a 2k loan from the apple store and wondered if I should go with a dual G4 1.25ghz/512 ram/Radeon 9000/superdrive @ 1924$ or the 1.6ghz G5 with 512 ram/Radeon 9600/superdrive @1974$. I use mainly Photoshop, but I also enjoy music/video editing too. I was hoping they would have announced something new at the show to bring prices down on the desktops but no go I guess. Maybe I should just wait?
It will be out in a couple of weeks. They have done this before. End of January, you will have your 2ghz single, and your duals at 2.4 and 2.6 or what ever they choose. Then you have about 4 to 5 months till the next update. What is so wrong with that AX. It will give you more time to save up some more money to buy those games that are coming out. Give it time dude, and might I ask, when was the last time that Intels made a full 50% jump with their processor speeds.
Hey, is anyone thinking, if they could make the g5 fit in the xserve, they could be coming close to making that laptop. Hey now.
I was so ready to buy the new mini ipod. $250 is $100 more than I want to spend. Can someone point me to a mp3 player that can hold 300-500 songs for $150?. I just want something for my car & for walking.
I wasn’t really impressed with the iPod mini. Their price point is $50 too high. At a $199 price point the iPod-mini would dominate the mid range MP3 player market. Pulling iPhoto and iMovie for downloading is also not a good thing.
ECC on the XServes is good and and an updated XRaid is great.
Overall a not very exciting MacWorld. iLife for $49 is nice but it should be made cheaper or free for .Mac subscribers.
In a bit of irony the best news was Office 2004 Mac and an extended commitment by Microsoft for a future version of Office for Mac.
“Sorry to go off topic. But I decided to switch over to a Mac. I just got a 2k loan from the apple store and wondered if I should go with a dual G4 1.25ghz/512 ram/Radeon 9000/superdrive @ 1924$ or the 1.6ghz G5 with 512 ram/Radeon 9600/superdrive @1974$. I use mainly Photoshop, but I also enjoy music/video editing too. I was hoping they would have announced something new at the show to bring prices down on the desktops but no go I guess. Maybe I should just wait?”
I would spend a couple hundred more and get a dual 1.8 G5. The 1.6 is nice and all, but there isn’t a huge price gap between the 1.6 and the 1.8, yet you get a ton more power. The apps it seems like you are into also run great on a G5. The G4 is a dying breed. They are nice, but not as nice as the dual G5s. You might want to check out the deals they have on refurbished G5s to see if you can bring the brice down a little.
“Sorry to go off topic. But I decided to switch over to a Mac. I just got a 2k loan from the apple store and wondered if I should go with a dual G4 1.25ghz/512 ram/Radeon 9000/superdrive @ 1924$ or the 1.6ghz G5 with 512 ram/Radeon 9600/superdrive @1974$. I use mainly Photoshop, but I also enjoy music/video editing too. I was hoping they would have announced something new at the show to bring prices down on the desktops but no go I guess. Maybe I should just wait?”
You might want to look at the dual 1.8 G5 that is going for $1,699.00 (refurbished). Check out the Apple Store online and find the image link that is a red tag that says “Special Deals.”
Actually, it would not have automatically been better to build the cluster out of XServes. Xerves are more compact, so when you have to rent expensive colocation space or fit a bunch in a cramped data center, they’re great. But if you have lots of room, it may be better to use bulkier machines, because access to the innards is a little more convenient.
The $1699 (refurbished) G5 1.8 is a SINGLE CPU system. It is not the dual.
…as to the original person’s question… I would choose the Dual G4 1.25 over the single G5 1.6. The Single G5 1.6 and 1.8 are really not impressive, imo.
Thats right. Me of little faith. Seeing as there are no updates as of yet, I believe it will be a tough one trying to reach dual 3ghz if they have trouble with anything after 2ghz. Certainly leaves a lot up to blind faith.
I think only fools and people with no clue thought this would be a problem. Much like those who think a G5 Powerbook won’t happen or is near impossible. I doubt Apple had any trouble at all with this.
Apple stayed hush about the ideas to protect sales, saying it will be tough makes people buy G4 powerbooks and xserves because they don’t think the G5 will happen soon. Furthermore like others mentioned all the cooling in the PowerMacs is for noise, not because of heat
I guess the boys and girls at Virginia Tech just couldn’t wait for the new XServe G5’s to come out before making their ‘point’, but I really think they should have waited anyway.
Except that they needed computing resources now and not at some unspecified time in the future. An interesting article about how the supercluster came into being is http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/10/29/osxcon_g5cluster.h… .
Need AM/FM Tuner! (w/ recorder would be nice)
I like the mini and would buy at price point. The form factor is the seller for me, not the gigs. I do not need to carry 15 gigs worth of songs, can’t listen that much.
But the size is perfect for running, gym, traveling, etc. and for swapping songs with friends or for taking songs/albums to store on work pc.
Only thing I would like is AM/FM TUNER. That is big for me. I like to listen to some local stuff or news. Recording from tuner would be nice too.
I believe the mini is the form factor of the future for the iPods. As the 1″ HDs grow in capacity they will fill the current iPod line up. The regular iPod line up will probably morph into a portable entertainment device with capacities of >100 gig, color screens, and WiFi, that can carry iLife created media to any outlet.