Many had been suspecting that Leopard was falling behind schedule, and today, Apple officially announced that it has. From their website:
iPhone has already passed several of its required certification tests and is on schedule to ship in late June as planned. We can’t wait until customers get their hands (and fingers) on it and experience what a revolutionary and magical product it is. However, iPhone contains the most sophisticated software ever shipped on a mobile device, and finishing it on time has not come without a price — we had to borrow some key software engineering and QA resources from our Mac OS X team, and as a result we will not be able to release Leopard at our Worldwide Developers Conference in early June as planned. (more…)
Category: Apple,Software
Yeah, that about sums up how I feel about today’s announcements from Apple. Apple has always been a company that charges a premium for it’s products, but this is getting ridiculous.
First up, the new Intel Mac mini. Available in two flavors – a $599 Core Solo 1.5ghz chip with a 60GB HD, and a $799 Core Duo 1.66ghz with an 80GB HD. Yes, Apple jacked the price up by $100 on both the low and high end model. What do you get with the new Mac mini? Well as expected, you get Front Row and the Apple Remote. You get Airport, Bluetooth and USB. You can expand these models up to 2GB of RAM. However, while Front Row has been beefed up with subnet sharing of files, it did not gain the widely anticipated (and highly requested) DVR capabilities.
Oh, and the kicker here is that these new minis feature Intel Integrated Graphics Chipsets (GMA950). Yes, that new 512MB mini you just bought is already running shy about 80MB to handle it’s graphics processing. Isn’t that special?
Clearly, someone in marketing (and Steve himself, for that matter) didn’t learn the painful lesson of the Cube.
Also introduced today was the iPod Hi-Fi, a large rectangular speaker that has an iPod dock/connector on top. It also features built in handles on the side so moving it from room to room should be a breeze. The problem? The price, of course. At $349, the iPod Hi-Fi is $50 more than the Bose Sounddock, which I consider to be the best iPod home audio solution available. Time will tell if Apple will be able to sell these things at such a high price.
The final laugher of the day is the new leather iPod case from Apple. Basically a leather pouch with no window to view your iPod’s screen, no click wheel access, and no common sense. I say no common sense because at $99 this has to be the most brazen attempt to cash in on the iPod craze. Will people buy them at this price? I’m sure some will. But I’m hopeful that most people will have the sense to see what a ripoff this product is.
Today’s announcements have obviously left me puzzled. Has Apple become intoxicated with it’s own success? Time will tell if these products will sell, but I’m betting they won’t be strong points in the product lineup.
Category: Apple,Hardware,News
Apple released the iPod Updater, which delivers iPod Software 1.1.2 for iPod shuffle, iPod Software 1.0 for iPod nano, iPod Software 1.2 for iPod with color display, iPod Software 1.4 for iPod mini, and iPod Software 3.1 for iPod with Click Wheel.
According to Apple:
iPod Updater 2005-09-23 delivers the following software: Features of iPod Software 1.1.2 for iPod shuffle: – Bug fixes for iPod shuffle
The software is available through Software Update or Apple’s Support site (link below).
[ iPod Updater 2005-09-23 - 32MB ]
Category: iPod
Ever since Mac OS 9 was supplanted by Mac OS X, Math and Science professionals have been in need of a quality graphing calculator for their Mac OS. OS 9 included the Graphic Calculator application, but Mac OS X still has no built in graphing calculator.
Apple is looking to change that with Tiger. Instead of developing its own, Apple has bought a product called Curvus Pro X from Arizona Software, according to AppleInsider. Although screenshots and descriptions are still available from Arizona Software about Curvus Pro, a message on their website explains why they are no longer distributing it.
“On July 22, 2004 Curvus Pro X was bought by an international company and its distribution has been discontinued. It is therefore not possible any longer to download nor to buy any kind of registration license for this program.”
AppleInsider has several screenshots of the rebranded “Graphing Calculator” from a recent Tiger seed.
Tiger is expected to ship in the first half of 2005.
Category: Apple
Apple will be opening a slew of new stores in the coming months. Seven new Apple Stores will be opening between now and next year. The stores will be located in Los Angeles, CA (Century City); Rancho Cucamonga, CA (Victoria Gardens); Danbury, CT (Danbury Fair Mall); Wilmington, DE (Christiana Mall); West Des Moines, IA (Jordan Creek); Braintree, MA (South Shore); and Lynnwood, WA (Alderwood Mall).
Category: Apple Retail
Wired Magazine is reporting that the speculation regarding WMA support for the HP branded iPod is just that – speculation.
Category: iPod
