Macworld Announcements

what do you mac folks think of the iTunes 04 costing $49?

...or the new mini iPod for $249? hmmm.... *scratching chin*

So far, I've been noticing little to get excited about, unless you're a Video Macster... Some new cool stuff for musicians, too. Not much for us graphics geeks... yet.

The 20th anniversary of the Mac still seems pretty cool. Not sure what they'll do yet, but Jobs says it's going to be an exciting year. Sure hope he quits crapping on his loyal clientele by charging them more each year to stick around. (.mac, iTunes, OSX updates, etc.) How about some kind of reward for sticking with it?

comments? links?

i dont know about that mini ipod, I dont really like the look. and 250 for a smaller 4 gig ipod when i can get a little bit larger 15gig for 300. but im sure alot of people will think the colors are cute and buy them.

And dont you mean ilLife 04 instead of itunes?

I don't mind the $49 for iLife at all. If it was just iTunes, yes, but it's not, it's all 5 apps. I'll be pre-ordering my copy today when I get home and can find my Apple Loan Number. iPhoto has some great new features, and iMovie does as well. I haven't used iDVD yet but will soon and the updates there look great as well. GarageBand looks fantastic. Can't wait to use it. I don't even play an instrument anymore, but it will be great for bands everywhere. A whole studio in your little Mac! Then you can make a music video in iMovie and burn it all to a DVD. Pretty incredible. So yeah, iLife for $50 is more than worth it in my opinion. Like Steve said, all of that on Windows would be at least $300, and still wouldn't be integrated at all.

The iPods... Eh. Too close to the price of the 15gb I think. For $50 more you can get 11gb more space. Though I guess if you really need the smallest one possible it's cool. It also comes with the belt clip and dock and stuff which the 15gb doesn't.

New apple branded music keyboard looks cool, could be fun to play with GarageBand with. New earphones would be nice...

didn't get to watch the keynote as i'm not on broadband at the moment so sorry if i'm asking a dumb question, but i thought all the iLife stuff was integrated into OSX already?

chris

Ok, I'll say it

The new iPods are ASININE

And I'm as much of a Mac-Lover as anyone, but let's be honest here, $249 for 4 gigs of storage?!. As I understand, as was rumored on spymac, slashdot, and others, to be Apple's way to break into the flash-based MP3 market. How does a unit that's only $50 less than a 15 gig standard, full featured, brand new iPod, that's what, an ounce heavier, and 11 gigs less costing $250 help them do that?! Also, this I think will help competing manufacturers because other companies are making 20, 30 and 40 gig units that are only marginally more expensive than the MINI 4 gig iPod.

I was kinda excited about the whole mini iPod idea, thinking that I couldn't blow upwards of $300 on what was essentially a glorified walkman, so the Rumored Mini iPod, thought as soon as yesterday to cost more like $100-$150, actually costs far more, and has WAY less storage. I, like some of you, I'm sure, would use an iPod for more than just music. I'd use it as an external HD. But 4 gigs?! I could buy ALL KINDS of storage for the same price. The colors are...colors. They don't make or break the deal. It's all about the price and the storage. Both of which I think are terrible.

GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH

/me is done

Yeah I agree with your iPod thoughts pganguly. I don't really see a market for that model. It's not really an entry level, and if you're going to spend that much you might as well get over 3 times the storage for $50 more. If it had been $150 or even $200 it would have sold like crazy.

But I guess they aren't having trouble selling the original iPods anyway... 2 million of them sold now. 30% of the MP3 player market, and 55% of the revenues, if I remember correctly. 70% of the online music download market.

Fig, iLife comes with OSX, yes, but to get the updated versions you have to pay the $50. GarageBand would be an enormous download with all of those loops and synths on it. The new iLife comes free with every new Mac though, and with the next version of the OS.

I think they missed their price-point on the 4Gig miniPod. They should have priced it @ $195. Woulda sold a million out of the gate.

Yep, I saw it during school and started talking really loudly to myself about how stupid it was and I got sent to guidance....

But anyways, so, wait, iTunes is still free?

Yeah, I guess in the eyes of the 'uneducated masses', the new iPods look pretty cool. But for people like us, who think in pixels and gigabytes, it's just not quite worth it to pay that much for something that just doesn't hold that much information. Also, when I buy a powerbook, odds are I'll have that with me wherever I am, and I'll just listen to music off of there anyway. So, either way, I'm in no hurry to get an iPod

iTunes is still free and you can still download it from the iTunes web site. iLife is still free when you buy a Mac or a new OS. If you want to upgrade iLife to iLife 2.0, you pay the $49.00. ($29.00 student pricing). Which gives you new iPhoto, iMovie, iDvd, and Garageband.