January 11, 2005

Jobs unveils cheaper Mac... enters competition for the home front. and IPods for $149? "damn it! who are you!? what have you done to apple?"
  • I think this is my opportunity to finally jump the windows wagon and see what Mac is all about.
  • linkie brokie? Me no see...
  • Never mind... stupid DNS lookup...
  • just try apple.com...it's right there! and it's soo freaking cute too!
  • Also, if you prefer, the iMacMini and the iPod Shuffle.
  • I like the look of the macmini, but the iPod Shuffle... No screen? Either Shuffle or "Play in Order" mode? I love to not be able to select an album. Their solution? "Just have iTunes drop your playlist on and let it surprise you!" Thanks, but no thanks. I use shuffle mode rarely enough as it is. 4 hour battery recharge? My flash mp3 player has a 4 second recharge; that is, I simply drop a new AAA into it. I predict the iPod shuffle to either die an ignominious death, or rapidly become the iPod Flash, with at least a proper screen and interface. Even if they insist on keeping that stupid rechargable battery so they can extort you on its replacement 12 months later.
  • I want. I want I want I want! Finally, an Apply I can afford!
  • Apple Computer Inc. on Tuesday said it would begin selling a stripped down Macintosh computer without monitor or keyboard for $499 That's no fucking good; how you gonna watch pr0n on that?
  • Nice design. Only two USB ports, though, which means shelling out for bluetooth peripherals or finding another solution.
  • It's small, it's pretty, it's versatile, it's cheap and they've finally admitted that two-button scroll-wheel mice are what people want. Dash it all, were my years of sighing and shaking my head sadly when confronted with Apple obsessives all in vain? Clever buggers...
  • It's small, it's pretty, it's versatile, it's cheap and they've finally admitted that two-button scroll-wheel mice are what people want. Dash it all, were my years of sighing and shaking my head sadly when confronted with Apple obsessives all in vain? Clever buggers...
  • you can always buy a 4 port USB hub, and then you'll have 5 ports! (those are like 19 at best buy) Also if you have a Keyboard, mouse and monitor, you're set...
  • And how did that happen?
  • Awesome! I want one! The Mac mini, that is. I have an iPod...which is all of a year old and is already so last week.
  • Yes, the Reality Distortion Field doesn't work so good without the speakernote video feed... a music player in which I can't select the track I want, unless I clickclickclick a lot? Sounds like a discman to me... And the cheapest Apple display at $999?
  • Woo-hoo! Finally, I can run OSX without going bankrupt. And it looks like a lunchbox.
  • non apple Mac displays for anywhere from $89 - up
  • My dad will get one. I wonder what he'll do with his iMac onna stick?
  • Or just "splurge" on the $20 DVI to Video Adapter and use your MacMini on your TV.
  • For the record, after every major iPod announcement there are naysayings, and specifically people saying why they wouldn't purchase the device. The iPod mini was too expensive for the lack of space. The iPod itself was nothing more than an expensive player like the ones that existed at the time. The question is not "Why wouldn't you buy the iPod shuffle?" They're not trying to sell to people who aren't buying. The question is "Who is going to buy the iPod Shuffle?" So, what we have is an inexpensive player that you can grab for on-the-go activities like jogging, the gym, hiking, running around town, etc. It'll play audible stuff, it'll play iTMS music, it'll play anything in your iTunes music collection. It's tiny, your hard drive isn't going to crash, it'll run for 12 hours at a time, and you don't have to constantly buy batteries for it. By the time you might want to get a replacement battery for it, you'd just go out and buy the 2GB version, anyways. You can either have iTunes pick the music for you, or you can set up a smart playlist (like the one I have for working out, which is 2 hours of 4- and 5-star music that I haven't heard in the past month) based on your own criteria. Then, when you hook it back up to the computer, it marks that you've heard it recently, just as it would with the iPod or iTunes. That's one of the major advantages over any other flash-based player or a discman. Mind you, if it doesn't mark music as heard when it syncs back up, then it'll not be nearly as useful.
  • Specs say it comes with a regular vga adapter too.
  • yeah, I'm not sure I get the shuffle thing. I have an iPod, and I rarely use anything other than shuffle, but I still don't think I would give up the option... The minimac, man that is going to be freaking huge. Watch Apple's userbase jump up to like 3% over the next few weeks ;-P (Kidding, I'm a lifelong mac user. It might go all the way to 5%)
  • I'm guessing the market on mac keyboards and mice just went up (eBay).
  • This post is teh suck. What, you want I should start posting links every time a press release falls out of Microsoft, Red Hat, or Ubuntu?
  • Ok Ok Just to be fair I'll post a Microsoft news item. Feel better now?
  • If I could put 1GB RAM into this minimac thing at a reasonable price, it'd be on my shortlist of stuff-to-consider-buying. A Mac I wouldn't feel guilty about buying? Amazing.
  • So what you're saying is... I could get: Low-end minimac - $499 Hub because of the pitifully low number of ports - $50 Monitor - $100 mouse and keyboard - $50 speakers - $50. So what you mean is I can spend $750 on a system with a low-end non-apple supported display, low end non-apple supported peripherals, and I save a whole FIFTY BUCKS compared to the low-end emac. SIGN ME UP.
  • This post is teh suck No matter what, even with a rabid fan base that swoons over every Jobs product, and Apple's products being far from perfect, these unveilings still are important events for all to follow. Why? Because it's been Apple's products which have been shaping consumer computing for the last decade. Seen the million ipod mp3 clones flooding the stores? The shiny, then colorful, then metal, then back again white enclosures, all curvy and translucent, appearing in everything from PCs to floor vaccums? The importance of video, sound, interconnectability of gadgets? Alll those ideas and products didn't came out of Microsoft, that's for sure. disclaimer: I earn my living using apple products
  • yeah, post Ubuntu stuff. Warty Warthog will be teh bomb to run on the iMac Mini. None of this freaky OS X stuff for me.
  • No matter how you slice it, even using ridiculously cheap components will only save you $100 versus buying a brand-new Emac with the same fucking specs. Is $100 worth it for good support and knowing you bought a quality product? if not, why are you buying a mac in the first place?
  • And there's also this news bit Seriously, though... this thing is a novelty bunk item. Its price point of $500-$600 will bring in alot of new Mac Users, as well as allow some older G3-G4 tower users to upgrade processor-wise, but there is a complete lack of PCI ports and other upgradeable features. God only knows what you have to do to change the HD on this. I'll admit I'm intrigued, but I bet dollars to donuts there's going to be a recall on at least some of these... It basically is a G4 iBook with no screen, trackpad or keyboard. That's why they can sell 'em for cheaper. The iBook goes for $1,000 so they're losing a bit on the profit margin, but not too much considering the reduction in hardware for Apple. Nice marketing idea, though... I wouldn't buy one though.
  • My god...it's like a religion with you people...
  • I think the target may be people who already have keyboards, mice, and monitors. Either they'll be adding a 2nd (or greater) computer or they'll be replacing one with a set of perfectly good peripherals. I know that I have a box of keyboards in my fireplace because of computers I'm no longer using (and because of my KVM). My KVM switch has a four port hub built into it. My monitor has a USB hub in it. So does my keyboard. My external HD can daisy chain a firewire device off the end. So can my burner. I'm not an iMac customer. I want a high-powered box that will last for years. But my dad has an iMac. He'd be a good candidate for this. It's not like he doesn't have a good monitor that he invested in some time ago. And in this case, if he upgrades, he'll still have the Keyboard and trackball that he's already bought. And expect 3rd party bundles to start happening soon. Buy you Mac Mini from Mystore.com and we'll throw in a Kensington trackball and a Matthias keyboard for free! I'll be interested to see if it's a big seller. It's certainly a price point that they've been dinged in the past for not serving.
  • "you people" When will the bigotry end?
  • I'd love to own a mac, but I need a Win-based pc to write code on. Besides, to me it's all or nothing. If I buy a Mac, I want it to go vroom, so I'd rather pony up the $1500 for a G5 (which I don't have).
  • People with a spare monitor, keyboard and mouse! Wow, those are common. Great marketing there. Do you people forget that we're geeky enough to be posting on an internet message board and therefore in the top 10% of geekitude in the population? Very few people outside very limited geekery circles have extra peripherals. Very few.
  • Also, that's a brilliant slogan: The Mac for people with keyboards in their fireplace.
  • OK, we'll see.
  • This isn't for people with spare peripherals. It's for PC users who would like a Mac, but don't want to pay to replace the monitor, keyboard, and mouse they already use. This product is not for Apple users. It's for PC users who want to switch. That said, if you want more than the anemic 256MB of RAM that comes standard, and you don't want to void the warranty, you have to pay Apple's gougetastic RAM prices, so it's not nearly as much of a bargain as it seems.
  • Yeah, 'cause lots of PC users are totally willing to give up their working PCs for something unfamiliar and just as costly.
  • People with a spare monitor, keyboard and mouse! Wow, those are common. Great marketing there. Every person who's ever owned a desktop PC? That's not exactly a narrow market. It doesn't have to be a spare keyboard if you're going to ditch the old CPU, it can be your only one. Apple is once again trying to convince people to switch. PC users like and are used to component systems? Okay then, Apple will do a component system. Sounds like a pretty sound strategy to me.
  • Whoops, dirigleman beat me to it.
  • not everyone needs a computer to be a workstation. I'm interested in the potential for this to be a dvr/media center, since tivo isn't doing so well these days. from that perspective, it's a huge selling point for me that there's no display. if the intended market is windows users who have iPods, then these folks do already have a monitor and other peripherals (besides the point that they had enough money to get an iPod in the first place).
  • Yeah, 'cause lots of PC users are totally willing to give up their working PCs for something unfamiliar and just as costly. I doubt any PC users who aren't already in the market for a new computer will race out to get one. But I know quite a few people who would rather have a Mac and are put off by the price tag. This just removes one of the barriers to purchasing a Mac.
  • wow musingmelpomene, you're acting like it's going to eat your puppy.
  • Inexpensive mp3 player? I got my 256mb player free with my free cell phone, and it has a one line screen, and much more versatility than that stupid iShuffle. Their product is overpriced, not inexpensive.
  • I don't like either the Mini or the Shuffle (and I'm irked that people who poo-pooed flash-based players when the iPod came out are now praising Apple's flash-based player as the greatest invention in history), but I don't doubt they'll both sell like hotcakes.
  • I so want one of these. I have an extram monitor sitting around and at least 2 sets of mice and keyboards, as well as 2 sets of computer speakers that are all going unused (well I have the extra monitor hooked up so I can feel like a real man with a dual monitor set up, but still). Maybe this summer I'll get one. Especially with the university discount, I don't know how i could resist really. This will sell just as well as the ipod mini which people decried as too expensive (of course I still think those are stupid). There are lots of people that want to buy a mac just to screw around with it. There are tons of tech guys who would buy one as a secondary computer. Heck, with the tv adapter, this would make a killer media center too.
  • A mac DID eat my puppy once. And thank you for bringing up such a painful experience! (I may have been partly at fault for regarding a puppy as "removable media.")
  • well, here's a puppy named Mac who's going for $600. he even has a microchip! :)
  • I just ordered one for my mom. It'll replace the POS HP I got her a few years back and I don't have to switch out her monitor, keyboard or mouse. Win-fucking-Win. And yes, Virgina, there are people who will buy this. In droves.
  • Yeah, 'cause lots of PC users are totally willing to give up their working PCs for something unfamiliar and just as costly. As others have mentioned, it's the perfect drop-in replacement for an aging PC. Cheap, easy, mom-friendly. I may buy *my* mom one, as a matter of fact.
  • All of a sudden the world doesn't seem like such a bad place ...
  • Since we are now posting commercial links to help companies sell shit, would you like to learn about About All-Natural Penis Enlargement ?
  • Can we cut the cries of commercialfilter? It was old when the blue was doing it. And all of you who bitch about Apple product placement, if Microsoft or Red Hat ever did anything that was worth talking about and wasn't a cold rehash of something we'd all seen before, maybe they'd get a post too. I'm just sayin...
  • *takes opportunity to stand on surlyboi's side* If I were at home, I'd probably get one for my mom too. My dad and I are gadget freaks, and we have spare monitors, keyboards, mouses (some still in their original packaging!) and other accessories just lying around. It's small enough to put in my room, with a tiny monitor, my dad's PDA foldable keyboard, and my mini mouse, so it's pretty handy. It's not the Second Coming, I know, and I'm aware that everyone's who's irritated by this FPP has certain justification to be that way; but for people like me, who like Mac's designs and interface, but lack the money to buy a 'normal' Apple, it's quite nifty.
  • Hmm. In a few months, if they update the software bundle with the mini to include Tiger, iWork and iLife, it will become a serious question if we should just spend a few hundred more and replace an aging box instead of upgrading the software for it. I mean, it's not going to be everyone's choice, but the three packages are $287 and the hardware+ three packages is $499.
  • Speaking as a Mac user, I must say YAY MAC! YAY MAC! YAY MAC! And pretty much everyone here is correct. And I want an iPod so bad it hurts, although I'd like a screen with it, too...
  • woo! something else to run debian on!
  • well since a $2000 Mac performs nowhere near as well as my Dell, I'm sure a $500 Mac (for which we get no technical specs whatsoever) must logically be the best computer ever.
  • So here's the start of an analogy: "Windows is the Republican Party. Mac is the Democratic Party." How does the analogy end?
  • only cuz i love apple can i post this.... iProduct
  • OK...it's not like a religion...it *is* a religion. And the evangelists in this thread are making me nervous.
  • Well, lookee here. I think ol' rocket88 has some REPENTIN' to do! Whaddya reckon boys? Shall we help him to SEE THE LIGHT?!? /demonic preacher
  • Yeah but does it come with iYiYiYi?
  • Yeah but does it come with iYiYiYi Is that a technology option or simply a high-pitched chant?
  • regarding tech specs: looks like there are all the specs you could want right off the front page.
  • So what you mean is I can spend $750 on a system with a low-end non-apple supported display, low end non-apple supported peripherals, and I save a whole FIFTY BUCKS compared to the low-end emac. Check it out, y'all. Mel has stumbled on the business model. If you already have a computer with a separate monitor, keyboard and mouse, buy a Mac mini for anywhere between $500 and $1,000 depending on how you fit it out. If you don't have any of those things, buy an eMac or an iMac. They're better value. Cool, huh? Very few people outside very limited geekery circles have extra peripherals. Very few. That's funny. Last time I checked, there were something like 60 million desktop computers in this country alone. Of those, something like 90% are PCs, which typically do not come in an all-in-one form factor. In other words, there are an estimated 50 million desktops onto which a Mac mini could drop right in place right now, right this minute. Sounds like a market to me. Sounds like a business plan. But don't take my word for it. Seriously. Look at Apple's track record. Since 1997 when Jobs took the top spot and brought his team in, Apple has released 15 major product lines: the iMac, the Power Mac G3 (blue-and-white version), the iBook, the titanium PowerBook, the Power Mac G4, the Power Mac G4 Cube, the second-generation iBook, the aluminum PowerBook, the G4 iMac, the Power Mac G5, the eMac, the G5 iMac, the iPod and the iPod mini. How many of those failed to be anything less than huge successes? One. What are the odds that Apple has the right idea here and that you — with all due respect — are missing it? On a different note: well since a $2000 Mac performs nowhere near as well as my Dell They have Mac OS X on a Dell now? Talk about burying your lede. What's that? Oh, sorry. I guess you and I just have different definitions of "performs." I didn't realize "does nothing useful really really fast" was all it took to qualify.
  • It's not true that a Dell "does nothing useful really fast." It gets infected with zombie malware just minutes after you connect it to the internet, and then it's useful to spammers.
  • Minutes? It's closing in on seconds. And me and Harrell seeing eye to eye on something? Stop it dude, yer scarin' me. =)
  • fuck it, I'll just buy it cos it looks cute. Honestly people...try different waters a little.
  • Honestly people...try different waters a little. Somehow, when it's the 73rd comment in a thread this kind of comment makes me smile.
  • as long as it doesn't make you cry Hawthorne darling, I have no problems.
  • And me and Harrell seeing eye to eye on something? Stop it dude, yer scarin' me. =) The scary part is Rush Limbaugh is a Mac user.
  • Only because he uses what's handed to him, I'd wager...
  • Yes, because God forbid we should just have a nice, pleasant conversation without dragging politics, kicking and screaming, right smack into the middle of it. Well done, fellows.
  • Methinks the lady doth protest too much. Politics was never mentioned 'til you brought it up...fellow. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar and all that.
  • I should point out that, at least on the Best Buy website, the ishuffle is actually competative against flash drives. There is a price premium, but not by too much. When compared against flash mp3 players, ishuffle actually wins on price. I'm not all that hot on it as an mp3 player, but as a value added flash drive ... assuming it can function as a simple flash drive. As for the mini, like others, I'm thinking the mom replacement computer. And, I wouldn't be suprised if this weren't the target market: 20-30 yr olds who want to get mom something cheap and simple to do her websurfing on.
  • >well since a $2000 Mac performs nowhere near as well as my Dell When I moved in with my girlfriend about five or so months ago I gave her my old G3-400 laptop to use as I was tired of fixing her XP based PC all the time. Ever since then she's been quite happy and managing all her needs on a four year old Mac and has needed zero tech support, not even a "how do I...". My PC was a top of the line workstation when I bought it a year ago, but now it sits and mainly just downloads bit torrents. I've largely given up trying to keep it secure. And even when I do use it I find myself spending way too much time working around a clunky user interface. Life on the Mac, for me, is just so much more productive even outside of the no virus/spyware removal/management time. Even with 'just' a 1.33ghz processor my level of productivity is light years better than on my PC. To each their own... Even if your PC was actually faster than a decked-out G5 what's the point really? Theoretical limits? How many computer users really tax their systems? Computers are tools, and what works best for an application is what's best. Like others on this list I'm contemplating a MacMini for my folks too, so they can get the loser PC out of the house and have something they'll actually find function with. Because of distance I can't do tech work for them anymore and my brother is too damn slow in responding, so they're often without a computer for weeks at a time now just so that Windows can get worked over again because it's eating itself alive. At least with a Mac should anything actually go wrong I could talk them through it on the phone in under ten minutes. Worst case scenario, "put in the system restore CD, choose 'archive and install', let it run for a while, come back to a new computer with all your old personal data on it." Seems a rather functional solution to me.
  • >the ishuffle is actually competative against flash drives Yeah, this is what's got me excited. A 1gig flash drive that I can store a whole day worth of music on too...and still have room for some files? Now that excites me. Currently I use a pre-NetMD MD player, and I never program the track titles in. So having the simple controls is hardly offensive to me. But, having the plug and go simplicity would be a delight. I've shied away from the bigger iPods for size and price reasons, but this one might just hook me. ..assuming it's good for simultaneous music and data storage anyways...
  • Well, at the very least, no one's come up with the, "but you can't play games!" bit yet.
  • ...if Microsoft or Red Hat ever did anything that was worth talking about and wasn't a cold rehash of something we'd all seen before, maybe they'd get a post too. Ishuffle is not something "worth talking about", it's a "cold rehash" of mp3 players that have been around for a long time, except it's more crippled, and costs more. The iMini is just a cute, cheap computer. It's not the amazing spantastic event you make it out to be. Neither of these are. If "worth talking about" is the bar to stop this from being commercialfilter. Swap any mention of apple from this post, and replace it with another company, like sony or dell. See how uninteresting the post becomes? It's an ad, nothing special. Disclaimer: I'm not an applehugger or applestomper. I do plan on owning a mac, eventually. Maybe once I feel safe from turning into the zombie productshiller that applehuggers become.
  • Well, at the very least, no one's come up with the, "but you can't play games!" bit yet. Actually, I would want the Mac mini specifically *to* play games. See, I review games on the side, and we have a glut of Mac titles since none of us has a Mac. I'd be willing to spend $500 and drop it into my existing setup with a KVM for this purpose.
  • except it's more crippled, and costs more. posted by Mr. Knickerbocker at 01:30PM UTC on January 12 According to Best Buy's MP3 player page Insignia - 256MB (with radio) - $129 iRiver - 256MB (w/radio & voice) - $149 iRiver - 512MB (w/radio) - $199 MPIO - 256MB (w/radio) - $149 MPIO - 1GB (w/radio) - $249 MPIO - 256MB - $129 Philips - 128MB (w/camera) - $249 Philips - 256MB - $149 Philips/Nike - 128MB - $149 Philips/Nike - 512MB - $199 Rio - 256MB (w/radio & voice) - $159 Yepp - 256MB (w/radio) - $149 SanDisk - 1GB - $199 Amazon.com iRiver iFP 799T 1 GB Flash MP3 Player - $229 Creative NOMAD MuVo TX FM 256 MB MP3 Player (DAP-TD0004) - $99 Sandisk 512 MB Embedded MP3 Player - Blue - $114 iRiver iFP-795T 512 MB MP3 Player - $185 Rio Nitrus 1.5 GB MP3 Jukebox - $169 iRiver iFP 999T 1 GB Flash MP3 Player - $288 The point is that Apple has done something truly revolutionary (for Apple) ... they are actually competing on price Within the MB range the iShuffle is either the cheapest or the second cheapest flash player out there. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you said "I was thinking about Brand X, but I'll probably go with Apple because it's cheaper." Disclaimer: I own no Apple products and am still on the fence on the 1GB shuffle, as I don't listen to music and I'm not sure I need a flash drive that badly
  • More expensive? Doing a quick froogle search, it appears that the shuffle is $30 less than any equivalent mp3 player. Sure, a 512 MB shuffle costs more than a 256 MB or 128 MB mp3 player. Duh. But if you think the screen is worth $30, that's cool, spend the extra money. The most important thing about the iMac mini is not that it's a revolutionary computer. It's because people have been saying that Macs are more expensive than PCs, though recently adding equivalent features have shown that's not the case. Now Apple has a computer that's less expensive than the lowest-end Dell computer, as well as computers that, on the higher end, are lower-cost for the equivalent features. Incidentally, you'll not that this is not a religious post. These are just little facts that I'm adding to show the value of the new announcements. Obviously, if you don't want one, that's great. But there's no reason to say it's too expensive when it's less expensive than the competition's devices. On preview: What LarindaME said. Also, I'm an Apple Consultant, though I don't generally make money off of consultancy, I just do it to get the extra money for work. But I am a Mac guy, and have been since 84.
  • surlyboi, do you know what is getting even more tiresome than cries of commercialfilter? Commercialfilter.
  • Oh, and that's "I just do it to get the extra tech info for work", not the extra money. Just in case you read that far.
  • heh. individual sales is only part of the market. imagine a university it department- they need oh, 200 mac units, to "compliment" the 800 pc units they have on campus. They have all of the gear. they have old g3 eating up space. they get an education discount. and when they plug them in the mac's work. a small hypothetical university in north dakota. my old office would have been much smoother if it had been a mac office. populated by folks with insignifigant tec skills. and they have the gear to get this little mac running with the minimum cost. lot's of people won't get one. but lot's of people will. because i want one. and there are lot's of folks like me. typed on a mac. within sight of my beloved cube. which is currently sitting on top of my dell. and check it out: my dell is way faster and newer look at all the neat stuff it can do. i use a five year old mac because it is better. the dell is a slave to the mac's - there to lift the heavy weight, and replaced with another when it dies.
  • Politics was never mentioned 'til you brought it up...fellow. Why did you feel the need to slowly and deliberately type a flat-out, bald-faced lie?
  • Easy, big fellas! Macs, PCs - who gives a shit? I've had both at home, used both in the workplace, and found neither to be noticeably superior. A computer is a computer, and every one of them is a boat anchor unless someone tells it what to do. It is the person that drives the nail, not the hammer.
  • On the other hand, I'd take one of them buck-fitti ipods, thank you very much.
  • I agree with Fes. Is there really that much of a difference, or is it more a difference of corporate image? I've always used PCs/WindowsXX and never had a problem with any of them. What's the incentive to switch? (Plus a lot of the software I need to run isn't available in Mac versions)
  • Oh god, this made front page of today's newspaper. Fucking humans disgust me. This is why corporations have no respect for humans.
  • Why did you feel the need to slowly and deliberately type a flat-out, bald-faced lie? Please, by all means enlighten me as to the lie. But here's a real bald-faced lie for you, coupled with an actual entre into politics... Iraq has WMD. Feel free to go nuts.
  • And this is why we can't have nice things. Quick, get under cover!
  • Sorry, Neddy's right... we're hhhhhurting Monkeyfilter. I hearby pledge to be nice. Just keep those cats away from me.
  • Ahh thanks, much better
  • Better than what?
  • Better than Ezra, perhaps.
  • politics. That being said, this thread is so amusing. Nothing like dropping an adorable but expensive gadget in the middle of MoFi to get us going. Disclaimer: yeah, I know the new mac and ipod are cheaper/smaller, i'm speaking in generalities you fuck.
  • Well it is very shiny.
  • rocket88: What apps do you need that you can't get (either the same or functionally similar versions of) on Mac OS X? I know there are some, but I'm hazy on what they are. I think that 90% of users spend more than 90% of time using browser, office suite (word+excel, generally), and email. Add Quicken, AIM, and iTunes, and that's more than 90% of what I spend my time running on my home Macs and Office PCs, so that stat feels right to me. Custom VB apps or Access DBs are definite possibilities, although there are equivalent products on the Mac Platform (or which are platform independent). So, what am I not getting that people want to do with computers that they can't do on a Mac? I'm not a half-bad developer and if there is a gaping hole, maybe I can fill it.
  • VB apps and Access DBs are not real programs. That being said, there's still not a lot of options in the AutoCAD department for Macs, other than that and the lack of Half-Life 2/Everquest2, the "no software" argument is basically BS.
  • MCroft: I'm an engineer, and do a lot of my work from home, so I use specialized electronic design/layout/simulation tools, as well as mechanical CAD tools. Most of these will likely never have Mac versions. IMO the Mac will always be a tool for writers and graphic artists.
  • mini mac preview. now with extra bigfoot images
  • the Mac Mini is pictured next to the, er, bait. Oh man, I laughed really loud at that one.
  • i've said it before and i'll say it again... GOD BLESS APPLE. sure it's a religion, and i'm the preacha man! i've had my ibook for about a month now, and not only have i not left the house without it, i have never had to spend one femptosecond maintaining it in any way...i have never had to shut it down, restart it, reboot it, run an arcane antivirus gauntlet, defrag it, install a driver, or read a lengthy error/alert message written in klingon hebrew. I have plugged it into 7 year old printers, pc's that are even older, oatmeal 5.25 floppy drives,the tv the stereo the microwave the cat, whatever...they just pop up on the desktop and i'm ready to ravage away. I have photoshopped some pretty elaborate xmas cards, thrown together and hosted my first website, and discovered the joys of truly effortless wireless networking...I have been surfing the internet on the bus, people, THE BUS. I have even composed a song in garageband in a few short hours that, when i play it for my friends, they say "OMG! that's AWESOME, who is this?" I am almost completely tone deaf. If that's not a miracle, i don't know what is. Halleluiah, Halleluiah. Steve Jobs is my copilot! In the hundreds of hours that i have been forced to use pc's, i have come to the conclusion that, no matter how powerful they claim to be or who makes them, they are Nothing more than. A machine. For playing. Solitaire. oh, and i've come up with another good reason for buying the new iProducts...solely for the purpose of increasing Apple's market share! hell, fuck all y'all, i'm gonna buy two of everything! ok, now maybe i'm going a little overboard....
  • Word to your Mother, sexyrobot. On the other hand, while I was reading this thread, the G4 I use at work froze up, and I had to pull the plug. My Mac. Froze. Up. While reading this thread. Irony just thinks she is soooooo funny, doesn't she. Regardless, I LOVE not ever having to worry about the Blue Screen of Death. Not Ever. There are drawbacks, but most of them fall in the "It would be fun to have that little PC-only program or game, but not necessary" category. The only thing wrong with Macs is that the rest of the world doesn't use them/program for them/etc. I read a humor piece once that was about what cars would be like if computer companies built them. After bashing on Microsoft for a page or two, the last line was roughly something like, "And Apple would make a car that is faster, more fuel effcient, and easier/more pleasant to drive, but will only run on 30% of the roads."