Apple to have something very big in their sleeve?

If you have paid any attenttion to Apple and what they have been doing lately, you might know that they have again today some sort of event behind closed doors in New York. They are going to introduce new PowerBooks and PowerMacs at this event but sneaking suspicion grows when the invitaion also says that they are going to have some "photography-related announcement" and the pitch black invitation also boasts a large camera lens. Also what is interesting is that Apple has also booked the biggest booth at PhotoPlus Expo held this Thursday and Friday. What is Apple up to? Are they going to build Apple camera? It was largely suspicious how much attenttion Steve Jobs gave to the built in iSight in the new iMac. And how much he touted the photograph viewing function in the new iPod. Well, we will be smarter later today or tomorrow, that is the only thing I'm sure at the moment. Go Apple I wuw uuu!

nathan

It had better be a camera. That would be AWESOME! I knew about the PowerBooks and the PowerMacs, but the camera would be icing on the cake. WOW! I can't wait (at least to know).

nathan

They used to have a camera. I don't remeber it, but my father had one.

Kosmo

Well, after long talk with other Macheads (believe me, Finland is jam packed full of them for some reason) we came to conclusion that it might be a) New Pro iPhoto b) Completely new photomanipulation package not just a editor/viewer c) They learned something new jerking around with the iSight (rumor says that they put them in to PowerBooks too and IF they update the ACD they put it there too) that they came up with a completely new camera.

Personally I see options b) and c) not so likely since Apple has close relations to Adobe and Canon. But one forum member tossed up a hilarius comment where he said that Apple might buy Photoshop from Adobe, kill the winnie support like they did with Logic and make it work better with other software and especially with their hardware. And they will name the new photoshop "Pixarina Pro" due to their close relations with Pixar :D Macheads wet dream but not going to happen.

Kosmo

They used to have a camera. I don't remeber it, but my father had one.

Yeah it was called Apple Quicktake and it resebled a binocular. Actually, scratch my previous comment on Apple having too good relations with Canon for them to make a camera.

It might actually be true, since Apple hasn't been too shabby producing things in the past, like the Newton, so their new found fanbase due to their gadgetty iPod, they might just be "crazy" enough to bring a digital pocket camera/web camera since if they are going to put built in iSight to the PowerBooks and the new ACDs they could scratch the iSight and bring the new digital camera to replace/enhance it.

So it is anyones game right about now.

giginger

How many of these events are they having? They seem to be constantly doing this lately.

Kosmo

This is the third in mere six weeks. But the first one was the announcing of iPod Nano which was targetted the iPod market, second one was the new iPod and new iMac which was targetted the iPod/Mac consumer market and this one is targetted towards Pro market.

giginger

That actually makes sense and I can see why they've done it now. A lack of thought on my behalf made me question their reasons.

Kosmo

Yeah it is actually pretty good planning, since this pro event is held just before the start of PhotoPlus Expo and they have some sort of photography announcement, so it makes sense. And if they would have announced the iPods and iMac now it wouldn't fit in the pro segment and the pro macs wouldn't have that much attenttion since everyone would be covering the iPods, not to mention that all the press at the event are from photography or graphics magazines.

giginger

When will Microsoft learn that this is the way to do publicity/press events?

Kosmo

I think right after they actually release something :D

giginger

ba da boom tsich! :D!

Kosmo

Ok, so the Apple Store updates are here and basically it is new lineup for Power Macs which are dual-core 2GHz, dual-core 2.3GHz and dual-core 2.5GHz. They all have slightly larger HDDs and all are updated with GeForce 6600 series GPUs. So updates there is minimal. No new displays. And PowerBook series seems unchanged and unattractive as before. The camera lens seems to be new post-production program for photographers. This announcement seems bit of a let down after the iPod video and new iMac, but I'm almost confident that there is more than meets the eye so I'll repost back later with more info.

Mark

I both love and hate how apple consistently puts out new products. Love: who doesn't like cool new gadgets? Hate: I bought an ipod and the next week a newer, better, cheaper version was announced.

Kosmo

Yeah, you are absolutely right. People spend hundreds of dollars for new goodies just for them to become "obsolete" in mere months, I mean, if you buy a Lamborghini Diablo in the year 1990 when it was introduced, it continued to be the top of the line for ten years before 2000 it was replaced by Murciélago. I bought my GeForce 7800 GTX when it launched and month and a half passes by and even faster GPU has been made by ATI and around 6 months or so, nVidia will bring new and even faster card to the market and my card is not the fastest anymore, and I paid almost 600 euros for my card.

stuart

But you paid for that specific product, you know these things move quickly. I paid £1300 for an iMac five months ago, fully expecting an update by now. Thing is, I'm happy with it, and that matters more than whether it is the 'latest model'.

Krak

Im with Mark. They bring out new stuff (only slightly newer with slight improvements) so quick. Its money money money they want. As if $2.5k for a computer wasnt enough, they release one every month. I was irritated a little about the iPod minis then the nano a few months after I got mine, but I dont care anymore. I'd rather have the flash version vs the hdd but I can do without the color screen. Dont thing I want one actually. And the iPod video? I think thats stupid. Still, Im not an Apple fan. Never have, never will be. The iPod is as far as I go down that path. And it is outdated already.

Kosmo

Thing is, I'm happy with it, and that matters more than whether it is the 'latest model'.

Yeah you are right about that, me and my roommate occupied the two macks at the school where we studied and even if they were "outdated" they ran the programe we used completely fine, and that was the main goal. Besides, there are dudes coding mad software on some p3 Linux machines with 128mb memory and so on. I have done few of my best works on 1.5Megapixel camera and old quark.

Still, Im not an Apple fan. Never have, never will be. The iPod is as far as I go down that path. And it is outdated already.

Using Apple machinery is not Apple fanatics, I myself am a major PC boi because of the simple thing. Most of my toold of trade has been made for PC for so long and most of my gear works perfectly on PC. But I love Mac because it just makes my job so much easier not to worry about something hogging up my memory or someone trying to hack through my firewall OR maybe PAYING for some of those essential software in this internet heavy society. I mean, use IE on a non firewalled computer without the latest security patch and virus guard for one day and your windos is bye bye. That is the thing I love about Mac. Everything works, silk smooth.

Krak

I see your argument. I've had to use Macs before when I was in Video Production and I hated it. I just don't care for the things. As for the memory hogging, hacking, viruses, etc.. again, lol, I must have the magical setup. I personally just don't like em. I like their monitors, real slick, but my 20" Trinitron looks just as nice, not widescreen but eh, its a monitor not a TV. And LCD is no good for me, I play games a lot (dont care for them either).

Kosmo

Umm... I don't know if you have tried the 20" wide screen Dell LCD Monitor that is basically the same as current 20" ACD, but it rocks in gaming, you are fooling yourself if you are thingking that CRT monitorcan beat that *chuckles*

Krak

You ever seen a trinitron? Nope never seen/heard of those, not a big fan on the LCDs so I never look em up, and last time I checked you cant change the refresh rates, and you have to use the native resolution or it looks like shit. Not exactly flexible if you ask me.

Minisweeper

there isnt a refresh rate on lcd's. It doesnt refresh it just changes what's necessary. It's the response time that's important. i guess the resolution thing could be an issue but anything at what's not its normal resolution looks a bit stupid anyway. The trinitrons are nice, but the dell lcd's are damn sexy. I want a pair of the new 24" ones.

nathan

I want the Quad. Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie. I actually have no use for it, so it would just be bragging rights and calculating Pi to millions of decimal places for me. (I have it to 4 million. Took my dual 2.5 a day for two :P See what happens when I get bored!)

lech

The next question for me is: when the hell is jobs going to drop the announcement that osx will run on all pentiums? that would be the best announcement I could ever hear come directly from apple and I would be the happiest mofo ever.

Kosmo

Jobs has stated that Apple will not port Mac OS to PC platforms.

lech

I know, but it would be nice if I could just order "apple certified" intel parts to build up my own mac cheaply based on the next intel cpu's and have it rival any pc I have here. If Jobs fueled that kind of market switch, you would see a ton of people abandoning the windows platform for a mac system. I would estimate that at least half the people on a windows machine would do it. I would.

Kosmo

But the core idea behind Macs is just that the whole package is done by Apple designed and tested to work like a clock. If they made Mac OS for PC or would make Macs DIY it would destroy the whole founding idea rendering the whole universe obsolete.

Evios

lech, your estimation of half is off I believe. For half of user population to switch, you're including business. Businesses running on PCs with special in house software developed to only work with PCs will never switch. They can't afford to have the software rebuilt. Along with that, there are simply too many people who don't want to change. They will upgrade their windows, but to learn a whole new operating system is not something they want to put their time or money into doing. You're also grouping gamers in there, and as of right now, the apple gamers are far and few in between. I think a good number of people would get a second system, one apple and still retain their PC for other stuff. I think the overall percentage of people who would actually completely drop windows for a mac is more like 5-10% of the population and that may be an overestimate. Most people who don't want to use windows... don't. they install *nix.

lech

But the core idea behind Macs is just that the whole package is done by Apple designed and tested to work like a clock. If they made Mac OS for PC or would make Macs DIY it would destroy the whole founding idea rendering the whole universe obsolete.

But I like rendering the universe obsolete...

Anyway, you would be suprised at how many woes I have heard from people stuck with upgrading from previous windows to XP... All pretty much complaining that they would probably switch to Macs if things weren't so retarded with MS. And you would also be suprised at how many gamers these days actually run under macs.

To be quite honest, as much as I like apples design sense, the fact that the only god damn color is white or chrome really limits any choice you have. Which is why I would LOVE it if they just shipped the hardware to mount in a case of my own. Apple, I'm sure is seeing the whole 5-10% thing as well, but I'm sure if they tried, tons of people would buy up their hardware if it were super-cheap. The mac mini caused their revenue to spike for 2 months. Dropping some DIY hardware packages into the market could prove another spike if it was cheap and freely available.

Ask yourself this: what geek out there wouldn't drop cold cash for cheap hardware they could run an alternate OS on? Even if it was just to mess around with, I don't know anyone out there personally that goes all out and grabs the tech support and extended warranty and pays to have a prebuilt computer. Half the cost of PC's from OEM's are mostly due to bullshit install/setup + assembly cost. If you break the parts down to how much they cost individually at retail cost and assemble it yourself, you'll laugh. This is why PC's sell, So if Apple dropped DIY kits for the masses, everyone could help advance the mac further instead of them catering to just those people who can afford one :P

Kosmo

I made two computers. Apple Quad 2.5GHz 2 x 2.5GHz dual-core PPC G5 1024MB 533MHz DDR2 250G HDD nVidia Quadro FX 4500 512MB Pci-E 2 x 20" Apple Cinema Display cost. $7,006.00 Dell Precision WorkStation 670 2 x 2.8GHz Intel Xeon dual-core cpu 1024MB 400MHz DDR2 250G HDD nVidia Quadro FX 4400512MB Pci-E 2 x Dell 2005FPW 20" widescreen display, uses the same panel as the ACD 20" cost. $9,354.96 Dells price is insane and that is with cheaper displays and cheaper GPU, just to make a point that Apple hardware isn't always more expensive. I used the Xenon processors because I tought Dell was having an advantage with the cheaper parts. The iMac is harder to compare since it's not actually a normal computer, but I made a slightly similar system from Dell with the Dimension system and they actually come pretty close on price except the Dell had a normal 20" screen where as the iMac has a 20" widescreen and a dual layer Superdrive and Dell has a normal DVD burner. My brother got that Acer Ferrari laptop some time ago, and it cost about 2000€ about as much as the 15" PB. So all that alk about Apple being expensive is bullshit, it's just talk, maybe it was true some time ago, but you can't get pre-built system cheaper from a coumputer vendor, maybe then you could go cheaper if you bought that pieces separately and built the computer yourself cutting corners everywhere like ordering parts from cheaper countries like Finnish order parts usually from Germany. Apple's offerings just start high, they don't have those cheap-ass systems other vendors pack, but come on who the fuck would like to buy a 500 dollar computer anyway? Besides, Apple offers the Mini that sucks like all the computers in that price range. So the conclusion is that it's not the price that keeps people from buying Apple computers, it's just the fact that they don't want to (or rather, they don't NEED to buy Apple computers because they are mainly targetted at professionals, not home users).

Minisweeper

'who the fuck would like to buy a 500 dollar computer anyway?' - how about pretty much any business which needs an utter shit load of dumb terminals? Hardware goes out of date. Fast. You can buy hardware which is 6 months old much cheaper than the brand new stuff and in most cases you're really not missing out on much. On all pc parts there is a pricebreak where the value for money kicks in - e.g. hard drives reach a point where the cost per gig is cheapest and then it gets more expensive as you move onto the new bigger platters which havent had the benefit of enormous mass production yet. When i build pc's for myself or for money i pretty much always spec to the current price-breaks. Most people dont want shit hot systems - they have a budget in mind and perhaps a few ideas ('ooh i want one of those flat screen jobbies') and if you point out to them that buy buying at the pricebreak (either saving or costing them £50) they'll usually agree that it is a good move. If i suggested they spend an extra £X to buy themselves a mac they'd want a good reason - and lets be honest, most people dont even *realise* that windows pc's fill themselves with shit - and turn the idea down. If i could spec them up one for a similar cost to the pc they might start to consider it a viable alternative. Whether macs are aimed at the high end market or not, theyre still missing out on a huge market by doing so. And as for businesses, i'd say that theyre aimed at *design* businesses which benefit from their advantages. For the majority of businesses out there pc's are still the way to go and i dont see apple doing jack shit about that. To be honest, i believe apple *could* take over the market if they really put their minds to it. But they dont want to.