Sensory overload
This morning Apple released a new batch of products at the annual Macworld Conference & Expo in San Fransisco. Plenty of speculation about what was going to be released especially since the PowerBook was nearing its replacement time but the rumors have been mainly about a headless iMac, an office suite and a flash-based iPod. There were also whisperings of a new iLife package (iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto, iTunes, and GarageBand), larger capacity iPod mini, and a product that was supposed to be a hardware complement to the music software, GarageBand.
Of all those, these were the newly announced products and I say they're fantastic.
Mac mini. US$500
Reminiscent of the commercially failed but critically acclaimed PowerMac G4 Cube, this small box contains just as much computing power than the last single processor PowerMac G4 released by Apple in 2003 with a better graphics card. All in an attractive, handy, portable, light packaging. Looks like Steve Jobs' obsession with the Cube lives on. He released a product called the NeXT Cube when he was CEO of NeXT Computers in the mid 80's after leaving Apple and the G4 Cube was also his pet project. This time, he won't be disappointed.
This lunch box Mac is for newbies, switchers, and anybody who wants a cute little computer packed with power. Physically it's only 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches, foot print area less than a sheet of A4 paper, and much shorter than an iPod. The box it comes in will be smaller than an iPod's box. You can stack 7 of these babies and a PC tower would still be taller. You have to buy your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor though but seeing as this is targeted at current PC users, they most likely already have them anyway so it's a nice little replacement. Don't worry about Mac-specific keyboard, the Mac OS will remap your Windows key as the Apple/Command key.
iPod Shuffle. US$99-$149
The smallest iPod EVER! Capacity at 512MB-1GB, this tiny USB 2.0 device is small than a bubblegum stick and just as light. Apple's warning on its website, Do not eat iPod shuffle. LOL XD XD.
Only Apple can come up with such cool looking products.
Now, the software. These are Mac only
iLife 05 (US$79, free with any new Mac purchase).
iPhoto 5, iMovie 5, iTunes 4.7, iDVD 5, and GarageBand 2. The perfect media suite for budding creative artists. iDVD now supports DVD+RW in addition to DVD-RW and iMovie can handle high definition video. Too many improvements to mention over the last iLife update so I'll just let you check it out yourself
iWork (US$79)
Apple's AppleWorks (ClarisWorks) have been the low cost alternative office suite for years and years and it seemed abandoned until iWork was announced. The iWork, while not as complete as AppleWorks, will be Apple's new alternative to Microsoft's Office:mac. It includes Pages, a Word-compatible word processor, and Keynote 2, Apple's killer presentation software, who many say is miles ahead of Microsoft's ubiquitous PowerPoint. No spreadsheet, no drawing tools, no communications tools unlike AppleWorks, which incidentally still ships with every iBook, iMac and the new Mac mini.
For a lot of people these will be enough as not half as many people use spreadsheets as do word processors. No doubt the next incarnation of iWork will be much more complete. For its price, this beats Office:mac for the typical home user.
FinalCut Express HD. US$429
Apple's mid-range movie editing software gains HD support so it won't be left behind by iMovie. LiveType and SoundTrack, which have always been included with Final Cut Pro, is now bundled with FCE HD. SoundTrack itself, was sold as a standalone app until last week when Apple pulled it off the market. Apparently in preparation for its inclusion to FCE HD.
I woke up this morning expecting some great products to be announced by Apple and while I'm slightly disappointed the PowerBooks aren't updated, I'm impressed with what they got. I'll be getting iWork when it comes out next month and I'm pretty sure there's a space for the Mac mini somewhere at home.
Of all those, these were the newly announced products and I say they're fantastic.
Mac mini. US$500
Reminiscent of the commercially failed but critically acclaimed PowerMac G4 Cube, this small box contains just as much computing power than the last single processor PowerMac G4 released by Apple in 2003 with a better graphics card. All in an attractive, handy, portable, light packaging. Looks like Steve Jobs' obsession with the Cube lives on. He released a product called the NeXT Cube when he was CEO of NeXT Computers in the mid 80's after leaving Apple and the G4 Cube was also his pet project. This time, he won't be disappointed.
This lunch box Mac is for newbies, switchers, and anybody who wants a cute little computer packed with power. Physically it's only 6.5 x 6.5 x 2 inches, foot print area less than a sheet of A4 paper, and much shorter than an iPod. The box it comes in will be smaller than an iPod's box. You can stack 7 of these babies and a PC tower would still be taller. You have to buy your own keyboard, mouse, and monitor though but seeing as this is targeted at current PC users, they most likely already have them anyway so it's a nice little replacement. Don't worry about Mac-specific keyboard, the Mac OS will remap your Windows key as the Apple/Command key.
iPod Shuffle. US$99-$149
The smallest iPod EVER! Capacity at 512MB-1GB, this tiny USB 2.0 device is small than a bubblegum stick and just as light. Apple's warning on its website, Do not eat iPod shuffle. LOL XD XD.
Only Apple can come up with such cool looking products.
Now, the software. These are Mac only
iLife 05 (US$79, free with any new Mac purchase).
iPhoto 5, iMovie 5, iTunes 4.7, iDVD 5, and GarageBand 2. The perfect media suite for budding creative artists. iDVD now supports DVD+RW in addition to DVD-RW and iMovie can handle high definition video. Too many improvements to mention over the last iLife update so I'll just let you check it out yourself
iWork (US$79)
Apple's AppleWorks (ClarisWorks) have been the low cost alternative office suite for years and years and it seemed abandoned until iWork was announced. The iWork, while not as complete as AppleWorks, will be Apple's new alternative to Microsoft's Office:mac. It includes Pages, a Word-compatible word processor, and Keynote 2, Apple's killer presentation software, who many say is miles ahead of Microsoft's ubiquitous PowerPoint. No spreadsheet, no drawing tools, no communications tools unlike AppleWorks, which incidentally still ships with every iBook, iMac and the new Mac mini.
For a lot of people these will be enough as not half as many people use spreadsheets as do word processors. No doubt the next incarnation of iWork will be much more complete. For its price, this beats Office:mac for the typical home user.
FinalCut Express HD. US$429
Apple's mid-range movie editing software gains HD support so it won't be left behind by iMovie. LiveType and SoundTrack, which have always been included with Final Cut Pro, is now bundled with FCE HD. SoundTrack itself, was sold as a standalone app until last week when Apple pulled it off the market. Apparently in preparation for its inclusion to FCE HD.
I woke up this morning expecting some great products to be announced by Apple and while I'm slightly disappointed the PowerBooks aren't updated, I'm impressed with what they got. I'll be getting iWork when it comes out next month and I'm pretty sure there's a space for the Mac mini somewhere at home.
This entry was posted
on Wednesday, January 12, 2005 at 9:51 AM.
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