OT: New mac computer

PH125 wrote on 1/11/2005, 6:43 PM
I just posted this in another forum and thought I would copy paste it here...

At the following URL you will find the brand new product from apple, which they hope will rocket the Mac platform to popularity only seen by Windows. The mac "mini" is basically a second attempt at the earlier mac cube that sold so low apple immediately pulled it from production.

http://www.apple.com/macmini/

This thing can be described as no more than a joke. No keyboard, no mouse, no display, just a box with a DVD drive and a few ports, with no room for expansion. The highest HD avaliable is an 80 Gig, so anyone hoping to do video work can forget it, unless you want to chance your captures to a USB hard drive if you run out of room. So basically, by the time your done building this thing up to an acceptable level, and buying all the stufff that it doesn't come with, you end up paying as much as you would have if you had bought a loaded Dell.

And if that wasn't enough, Apple is also adding insult to injury by releasing a new line of flash memory ipods with NO display. Wow, that should be convenient when I'm browsing through hundreds of songs, what genius thought that one up.

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

I seriously hate that company more each day.

Comments

p@mast3rs wrote on 1/11/2005, 7:05 PM
I hate them too but sad thing, more and more indie filmers are using FCP. From what I saw, Motion and Shake are really nice. Just sucks they will never port them to PC.
farss wrote on 1/11/2005, 7:07 PM
I agree, they never really 'got it' and every effort they're losing it more and more. The only thing they ever made that vaguely interested me was their NuBuss stuff.
Bob.
rmack350 wrote on 1/11/2005, 9:06 PM
I'm not sure I get it. What's to hate? If you want to buy grandma a Mac then this might be a decent way to go.

The solid state ipod is pretty much like all the other solid state jukeboxes out there. You load up a playlist at home and then go out for a jog with it.

Nobody said that you had to buy it. Don't waste your hatred on something so inconsequential.

Rob Mack
Laurence wrote on 1/11/2005, 9:31 PM
I got my daughter an iPod for Christmas. The one I got her has a display by the way, but not one of the fancy ones that will show color jpeg slideshows. It really is a pretty neat piece of hardware, and the integration between it and iTunes is brilliant. We do transfer the tunes from a Windows machine though. I don't like using a Mac all that much, but I am grateful that Windows has the competition. Without it I'm sure that PC progress would be much slower.
FuTz wrote on 1/12/2005, 2:32 AM

Just buy gran'ma a PIC by AMD if she just wants to send e-mails...
farss wrote on 1/12/2005, 2:58 AM
Can someone decode the TLAs please?
Is a PIC like an AXE?
FuTz wrote on 1/12/2005, 3:00 AM
Personal Internet Communicator.
http://www.amdboard.com/pic.html

Hee hee, no. Not the PIC Zappa used on the forehead of this "contestant" on the Joe's Garage album...in fact, this one was an *ice PIC*. Does it mean it melted after a while? o_O
musman wrote on 1/12/2005, 3:42 AM
" I am grateful that Windows has the competition. Without it I'm sure that PC progress would be much slower."

Absolutely right. Competition is good. So is variety. Still, I've heard a lot of very silly things about the G5 that reduce use and expandability but Apple thinks cater to the consumer market. For example, the G4 was rack mountable, the G5 is not. Conscious decision b/c Apple wants people to see their lovely creation.
Of course I don't know too many PCs that are rack mountable.
OdieInAz wrote on 1/12/2005, 5:03 AM
Solid state shuttle ? Check out this caveat on their web page:

"Do not eat iPod shuffle"

http://www.apple.com/ipodshuffle/

PeterWright wrote on 1/12/2005, 5:10 AM
Form ahead of function ...

Do you think Apple could be positioning itself in the market?
David_Kuznicki wrote on 1/12/2005, 5:20 AM
--I hate them too but sad thing, more and more indie filmers are using FCP. From what I saw, Motion and Shake are really nice. Just sucks they will never port them to PC.

I used to hate FCP, until we installed it at work when one of our Media 100's went south. It's not just happening with indie filmmakers-- FCP certainly is taking over broadcasting as well.
That being said-- FCP is not a bad system once you get used to it. Definately not deserving of hate, although I personally find Vegas more intuitive. Its logging tools put Vegas to shame.
Motion is cool... but it's still buggy & takes a hell of a system to run. Sort of like After Effects lite... for the people who don't want to learn AE.

And Shake still makes absolutely ZERO sense to me! I guess that, coming from the world of AE, Shake seems counterintuitive. DVD Studio Pro, however, is my preferred authoring software.

But remember, these (FCP, Vegas, whatever) are just tools, all pretty much capable of pretty much the same thing.
rextilleon wrote on 1/12/2005, 6:24 AM
To bad it really can't handle video---I would be a perfect way for me to learn FCP, because producers seem to be using it more and more and I have lost some work because I dont know it.
wcoxe1 wrote on 1/12/2005, 6:35 AM
It is as capable of video as their other low end comp, iMac or such, you just don't have any room for anything beyond the basic program and one hour or so of AVI. By the time you get the Apple keyboard and mouse and 80GB HD you could have had the iMac, which I believe is more expandable.

It is going to sell on the cute factor to both kids and the parents who think that they MUST buy their kids a computer and don't know any better. It WILL sell, just like the 1982 IBM PC, which was about $999, plus keyboard, plus monitor, plus floppy drives, plus memory, plus plus plus. By the time you got a working unit, it was close to $3,000.00, just like the Apple II .

Oh, I suspect that it WILL sell. Cute sells, ignorance of the full price sells, ignorance of capabilities and needs sells, lots of reasons.
logiquem wrote on 1/12/2005, 7:14 AM
I am skeptical here. Price is really too high to compete entry complete PCs or Shuttle like units. Maybe i am wrong, but it looks as a pure marketting product for me, more destinated too boost event more iPod sales as a new, expensive, accessory...

I would be curious to see *actual* product performance/reliability. Mac Cubes were probably their most horrible/cute product ever, crashing zillions times a day in real life multimedia duty...