Quote :

"Well if you want to ignore that the wait between some of those buttons (more like 8 if you have to change computers it's looking at) can take minutes if you have a large playlist then sure that's an honest way to portray it. "

So what you're saying is that you have a lot of music, but are somehow shocked that it takes time to go through those files and identify them the first time?

Quote :

"When WMC wasn't incorperated into windows media player, you had to download it seperately and it could be kind of annoying to even find on MS's website. "

There's a download link right on Wikipedia, which is the third result when you search for "Windows Media Connect" on the internet.

Quote :

"Also, how hard is it to install WMP 11 on windows 2000? Please, tell me the easy steps for that. My previous roommate never got it to connect to his machine."

I'm sorry, I didn't know you were using 7+ year old operating systems. God forbid that I should make the assumption that you'd be using even relatively current software with new hardware. Whatever was I thinking.

1/15/2008 9:38:53 PM

MacRumors had a continuously updating AJAX feed-page that was very fast and responsive. No refresh needed. New posts and pictures popped up as soon as they were posted
http://www.macrumors.com/
http://www.macrumorslive.com

1/15/2008 9:43:27 PM

btw - does anybody know the site that gives a time-based estimate on when the next revision of iPods and Macs come out?
It's really just a tracker that tracks when the hardware was last revised, and based on revision history estimates when the next revision will be.

I was really hoping for some kind of MacBook Pro update today, at least a spec bump or price drop, because it seems like the MBP has been stagnate for quite a while. But i definitely don't want to buy one now and have a new revision or model come out next month....

1/15/2008 9:45:33 PM

3rd post in a row....

now having had time to think about it, I can barely find a reason why you would buy the MacBook Air vs. a regular Macbook. I mean, come on, the MacBook is already quite small and very portable, is much more expandable, and several hundred cheaper. The size alone is not nearly enough of a reason to get it, unless you have a very particular need for a computer that can fit in an envelope. If you have the money to spare, I guess this would be a good "companion computer" to an iMac or even a bigger Macbook (Pro) that you could quickly and easily take with you, but not use as your primary machines.

having said that, there are several things, like the multi-touch trackpad and the LED screen, that I would like to see put on all MacBook models

1/15/2008 9:49:57 PM

Quote :

"So what you're saying is that you have a lot of music, but are somehow shocked that it takes time to go through those files and identify them the first time?"

It doesn't take long on itunes when viewing the share on other computers. Minutes+ on my 360 vs seconds on itunes. That's a pretty big difference. You're shocked that would bother me though? I'm betting you enjoy the DMV.

Quote :

"There's a download link right on Wikipedia, which is the third result when you search for "Windows Media Connect" on the internet."

Now - yes. If that were a problem I'd had this week then mentioning that would be remotely relevant douchebaggery as oppsed to just douchebaggery.

Quote :

" I'm sorry, I didn't know you were using 7+ year old operating systems. God forbid that I should make the assumption that you'd be using even relatively current software with new hardware. Whatever was I thinking."

My roommate's computer from last year- and because it worked. Calling it a "7 year old os" is disingenous considering XP is about 6.3 years old now and was, very recently, still the best selling OS out there. Hell, vista useage only outpaced Win2k useage october of 2007. It's also supported through 2010 supposedly, but hey microsoft supporting something doesn't really mean anything right? Also, not that it matters, but the hardware it was on was capable of running oblivion just fine but hey you're right that nobody should expect to be able to use WMP 11 on it or share files with the xbox. I'm sure something like iTunes wouldn't work on Windows 2000. I mean if MS can't be bothered to release something for an OS they still officially support, Apple surely wouldn't bother. Oh wait... they did as late as august 2007.

Anyways, it's obvious they've addressed the most minor of the issues that my roommate had with it last year. If only the fact that my former roommate now has even more reason to be happy about getting rid of his Win2k machine was enough to make up for the fact that you have no convenient way of backup or or expanding what you've purchased on the 360 or even the incredible slowness when dealing with large collections.

How were you to know what OS's I was referring to? Well I did list them. Besides, at the time I was even bothering to try to use my 360 as a way of piping media to my entertainment system you had to install the WMC crap on any machine that didn't have media center on it.

[Edited on January 15, 2008 at 10:24 PM. Reason : ]

1/15/2008 10:01:01 PM

^^ you already posted it :-p

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/

btw, i just watched the keynote and holy crap, randy newman is a raving lunatic

[Edited on January 15, 2008 at 10:03 PM. Reason : btw]

1/15/2008 10:01:53 PM

Quote :

"now having had time to think about it, I can barely find a reason why you would buy the MacBook Air vs. a regular Macbook. I mean, come on, the MacBook is already quite small and very portable, is much more expandable, and several hundred cheaper."

You are getting into a different demographic for the ultra-portables than light portables or regular laptops. Travelers and executives will probably marvel at their size and end up buying them. This is a very niche market and for apple to showcase a new 'innovative' product in this category with it's fashion, trend setting appeals. It's a no brainer that people will flock to this product for bragging rights, just as with the ipod and iphone. I'd expect it to be popular among the young professionals and college students as that's apple's targeted market.

I do agree that you get more if you go with a regular MacBook or MBP, but I was surprised that the price didn't start off higher than 1800 for the size and features.

1/15/2008 10:27:22 PM

Quote :

"MacRumors had a continuously updating AJAX feed-page that was very fast and responsive. No refresh needed. New posts and pictures popped up as soon as they were posted http://www.macrumors.com/ http://www.macrumorslive.com"

worked great for me - I was pinned to macrumorslive.com during my lunch break via iPhone

1.1.3 is pretty cool I guess - I think that I'll need to be out in the middle of nowhere to really appreciate the cellphone triangulation


I thought it was great how AAPL stock dropped as if people were expecting an even more breaktrough product than last year

Introducing - a REAL Time Machine!

1/15/2008 10:37:49 PM

Doesn't apple's stock almost always drop after they announce a new product? If only they'd use that as a reason to get away from the condescending mac vs pc ads. That would probably take people not buying their stuff though.

1/15/2008 10:40:59 PM

I think over the past 4-5 years it's gone up on average

Quote :

"If you bought shares of Apple stock one month prior to each Macworld Expo since 2000, and then sold those shares at the closing price on the date of the keynote, you would have had only two losing trades and averaged a three percent monthly gain. That may not seem like a lot, but it works out to an annualized gain of 43 percent. There’s not a single broker at the New York Stock Exchange who wouldn’t sell his grandmother for that sort of return. So it seems that there’s some truth to the old adage after all."

[Edited on January 15, 2008 at 10:51 PM. Reason : http://www.peachpit.com/guides/content.aspx?g=mac&seqNum=180&rl=1]

1/15/2008 10:47:21 PM

Most people like those ads, FYI. Only people who really hate them are computer nerds.

1/15/2008 10:48:07 PM

the first one was funny

maybe the second

and the third

but it's gone on long enough

1/15/2008 10:49:37 PM

^^^ it's all right here
http://keynoteindexfund.com/

of course, with AAPL, the key over the past decade has been to buy-and-hold. We (my dad, bro and I) bought some AAPL in 2000, right before the crash. Then after the crash, we just got scared shitless and sold all of it and really took it on the chin. Of course, if we had held it, we would have easily recovered from the crash and would be at ~700% now.
Fortunately, I did buy a few shared about 2 years ago, and am up almost 150%.

of course, if you were really smart, you would have dumped your entire life savings into AAPL the second Steve Jobs walked back in the door, and you'd be over 4000% now....

[Edited on January 15, 2008 at 10:59 PM. Reason : .]

1/15/2008 10:54:27 PM

I was excited about what was going to be unveiled but was actually disappointed with the end result. I was hoping they would go more the home theater route: unveil new cinema displays/TVs and that the AppleTV "2" would be more robust too (more in line with an HTPC). If they didn't go that route I was hoping for more of a UMPC/Tablet than the Air, like something about 2-3 times the size of an iPhone. I guess I will have to wait another year before I give my money to Apple.

1/15/2008 11:00:27 PM

Boo cutting and pasting. But yeah I'll be waiting too- mostly for SSD to come down so I can get a cheaper peyrn based MacBook Air. Also, no point jumping into the potentially cool Apple TV as long as there isn't anything new worth watching on TV anyways. It would be funny if the writers strike doomed some of these content delivery models that relied on newer releases.

1/15/2008 11:06:12 PM

yeah, I wish they came out with a laptop/tablet PC with the multi-touch lcd screen tech from the iphone. That right there would make me buy it right now.

1/15/2008 11:34:10 PM

some of you guys are some real bitchy mofos. Every release apple has you come up with some BS excuse why you will wait another year. Next year when they come out with something that today you said you wanted to see you'll say "oh but i was hoping it would do my homework too...i guess i'll have to wait to give apple my money"

news flash: apple doesn't want YOUR money. They have plenty of other consumers who are more than willing to part with their money for current Apple products.

Just go ahead and say "I will never buy an apple product because they are too expensive for my taste"

1/15/2008 11:37:04 PM

I think 1800 is a good price point. I just don't have 1800 to spend on something like that right now. I'm not in that current market of trend setters or have an actual use or need for a product of that caliber. Considering I'm about to spend 3800 on a new lens for my camera next month.

1/15/2008 11:50:20 PM

^^ Haha, I'm just waiting for it to come down below $2500 with the flash drive. My budget isn't bitchiness nor is it supposed to be taken as a proclamation of doom for their products. It's a cool product, but since flash based hard-drive replacements are predicted to go form being stupidly expensive to within reason for many consumers during this year- I would wait regardless of what decently portable laptop I was planning to buy.

1/15/2008 11:54:27 PM

pfffht - ipod touch still the same size? fucking lame

1/16/2008 12:48:02 AM

I'll admit it, but I think a modification is necessary:

I will never buy an apple product because they are too expensive for my taste

1/16/2008 6:38:27 AM

Wil Shipley, creator of Delicious Library
http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/01/macbook-air-haters-suck-my-dick.html

Quote :

"I've read nothing but whining about the MacBook Air on Mac news sites since it came out this morning. Honestly, I just want to shake these people. Not, like, shake some sense into them, but shake them like you're not supposed to shake a baby. The criticism all basically goes like this: "It's not like a MacBook Pro!" No, really? Seriously? I mean, they introduced this new product, and it doesn't have the same specs as the MacBook Pro? God, that is bizarre. I wonder why they gave it a new name, and continue to sell the MacBook Pro, then, if it's not going to be exactly the same. I mean, that hardly makes sense, does it? Ok, fine, there are some people who want, like, an extra battery Pack. But let's admit amongst ourselves that the overwhelming majority of people out there have never pulled the battery out of their existing laptops, and didn't even know or care that it comes out. In fact, if something goes wrong with their battery, this majority -- whom we'll call "NORMAL PEOPLE" for convenience -- will just take the damn machine to the store and get it fixed, whether it's user-serviceable or not. Because we don't want to hassle with it. And there are people out there who do video editing on their MacBooks and want FireWire. Great! I respect your choice! You should buy a MacBook! It's an awesome machine! If you want to do that! Which I don't!"

1/16/2008 9:44:14 AM

Quote :

"I'll admit it, but I think a modification is necessary: I will never buy an apple product because they are too expensive for my taste"

fixed it for you. Just because Apple is too expensive for YOU doesn't mean its too expensive for the next guy.

a BMW might be too expensive for your taste but its not necessarily too expensive for someone else who can easily afford it with no set backs. You get what you pay for.

1/16/2008 10:29:13 AM

if you want a valid car comparision comparing a pc to a mac is like comparing a BMW to the same BMW with a 50% markup.

1/16/2008 10:35:55 AM

uh not at all.

You could say its like comparing a BMW M3 to a GM with similar performance.

You get everything but the quality and luxury that sets it apart. I have yet to find a PC laptop that doesn't look like a plastic piece of shit.

1/16/2008 10:42:48 AM

Anyone that thinks they can have macbook pro specs in a 3lb laptop is retarded. Almost every other slim notebook on the market today does not have the same specs at 1800. Shit, to get a c2d at 1.6ghz, 2gb of ram, etc., you'd look at paying well over 2,000. No firewire? What? I can't do video editing? It's a freaking ultra portable, they are not known to do video editing. Only one USB is retarded! You can use a usb hub... How bout you go design the same thing with more connectors.

I wonder if those "Smash my ****" people will go buy an Air and break it.

1/16/2008 12:44:26 PM

Quote :

"Anyone that thinks they can have macbook pro specs in a 3lb laptop is retarded. Almost every other slim notebook on the market today does not have the same specs at 1800."

exactly. i've heard over and over that macbook pros are overpriced, apple branded shit, blah blah blah...in the end you aren't going to find another computer that's equal to it for the price. is it cheap? hell no. but it isn't BUILT cheap either, and to all the people who've never used OS X, you're missing out--seriously. It's worth the price difference to me just to have an operating system that doesn't fucking crash twice a day.

I got my refurb macbook pro for $1600 and it's been the fastest computer I've had. Windows running in VMWare still runs faster than on any other computers I've had. I was originally going to install it through bootcamp so it'd really run as fast as possible but found I barely ever use windows now that I'm used to OSX so i just open up a VMWare session the time or two a week that I need to. It really is worth it (I never thought I'd say that)

1/16/2008 12:54:17 PM

i like os x as much as anyone. but i RARELY have experienced a crash with xp in the past few years. the only times i've had issues with my pc's have been hardware related.

1/16/2008 12:55:43 PM

Well, I can somewhat agree. I've always found windows to slow considerably and become much less reliable after a few months of constant use though. I'm hoping that isn't the case on the macbooks

1/16/2008 12:58:14 PM

^^depends on what you do. I crash windows all the time with multitasking with photoshop, flash, and other apps. Then again it does crash with internet browsing.

Quote :

"Anyone that thinks they can have macbook pro specs in a 3lb laptop is retarded. Almost every other slim notebook on the market today does not have the same specs at 1800. Shit, to get a c2d at 1.6ghz, 2gb of ram, etc., you'd look at paying well over 2,000. No firewire? What? I can't do video editing? It's a freaking ultra portable, they are not known to do video editing. Only one USB is retarded! You can use a usb hub... How bout you go design the same thing with more connectors."

who was saying that?

1/16/2008 1:05:01 PM

^ It will mostly because the slowdowns tend to be due to registry entropy

1/16/2008 1:11:52 PM

not to mention we have to reboot my gf's macbook fairly regularly because it decides it doesn't want to wake back up and/or applications start responding strangely

1/16/2008 1:27:22 PM

Ah, I haven't had any problems at all with mine yet. Entourage randomly locked up once but it came right back up and no problems since so I dunno... I guess time will tell.

1/16/2008 1:41:36 PM

^^You may be having issues with the SMC, does it only do that when coming back from "safe sleep" where it'll have white progress bar and blurred screen while it wakes?

1/16/2008 4:28:48 PM

Glove - just out of curiosity, are you pre-ordering a MacBook Air?

1/16/2008 4:36:33 PM

no...if I get one it won't be for another 6 months. This is too new of a product for me to jump on from day 1. Not saying I will wait for them to add more features or anything. But at least wait long enough to see what kind of issues they will have.

[Edited on January 16, 2008 at 4:46 PM. Reason : .]

1/16/2008 4:46:22 PM

good, there's some hope yet. there's Apple fanboy and then there's delusional Apple fanatic...the latter is anyone who pre-orders a product that hasn't even seen the light of day

1/16/2008 5:38:54 PM

Eh, doing that with the first release of the xeon mac pro's wouldn't have been that insane though. But yeah, ordering ANY laptop that's a completely new line for a company before you've given them a chance to actually break a few hundred times... risky.

1/16/2008 6:15:56 PM

^^huh? because i buy apple products i'm a fanboy? interesting. I guess i'm a Harris Teeter fanboy because thats where i buy my groceries.

1/16/2008 6:34:19 PM

Quote :

"who was saying that?"

Just continuing the rant from the above link.

1/16/2008 8:29:15 PM

Quote :

"^^huh? because i buy apple products i'm a fanboy? interesting. I guess i'm a Harris Teeter fanboy because thats where i buy my groceries."

now that's a funny quote if i've ever seen one.

1/16/2008 9:56:31 PM

Quote :

"because i buy apple products i'm a fanboy? interesting. I guess i'm a Harris Teeter fanboy because thats where i buy my groceries."

no, you're a fanboy because you defend the company against any and EVERY criticism, regardless of the validity. i don't see you making threads about how awesome HT's BOGO deals were this week

[Edited on January 16, 2008 at 10:02 PM. Reason : ]

1/16/2008 10:02:30 PM

^i don't defend everything apple, dumbass. Youre a hate fanboy. Hate on anything good. Go play with your linux box and leave the posting to the grownups.

1/16/2008 10:13:35 PM

leave it to Fake Steve to put everything in perspective
http://fakesteve.blogspot.com/2008/01/thank-you-and-much-love.html

Quote :

"And then there is Air. I don't like to call it a product, because to me it's more than that. To me it's a vision. My vision. It's a statement. My statement. It's a no-compromise laptop that has the fastest processor ever invented, the most RAM available on any computer in the world, the best keyboard, the best screen, and the longest battery life of any laptop ever made, plus it's thinner and lighter than any computer ever created in all of history. How do we do it? How do we make the fastest, most feature-packed laptop but put it into a tiny package and give it such amazing battery life? I like to think of it as magic. And so should you. That's all you need to know. We did it. And it's magic. Finally I want to thank everyone in the audience yesterday for gasping and moaning every time I announced something. Really appreciated this, as always. I was especially grateful when the flickr feed didn't work and we were standing there with a giant blank screen and you all cheered and clapped like mindless zombies anyway. Yes! That is the spirit of our community! Also the wild cheers and gasping panting orgasmic growls when I walked you through the iTunes movie rental process? Fantastic job. Who would think that with just a few clicks of a button you could rent or buy a movie from the Interwebs, and you wouldn't even need to use a PC? Can you fucking believe it? Well, it's beyond rocket science, but we did it. Finally to all of the Apple engineers who worked on these fantastic earth-shattering products I want to send out a heartfelt thanks. Movie rentals on iTunes? This is Arno Penzias type stuff. A subnotebook with no optical drive that only weighs 3 pounds? How the fuck can we even do it? I mean we're defying the laws of physics. A router with storage that backs up all the Macs in your house? This is a man-on-the-moon level invention. To all those who say that America no longer leads in advanced research and technology, let the news go forward: We do lead. The leadership takes place at Apple. We lead. You follow. Without fail, like cows with rings in your nostrils, you follow. I love you all. Peace out. "

1/16/2008 11:11:22 PM

Quote :

"some of you guys are some real bitchy mofos. Every release apple has you come up with some BS excuse why you will wait another year. Next year when they come out with something that today you said you wanted to see you'll say "oh but i was hoping it would do my homework too...i guess i'll have to wait to give apple my money" news flash: apple doesn't want YOUR money. They have plenty of other consumers who are more than willing to part with their money for current Apple products. Just go ahead and say "I will never buy an apple product because they are too expensive for my taste""

Wow, so now we cannot even wish they made something different? I thought the whole point was to "think different" and not just "think about only those things which Apple tells you to think about". I anted Apple to go the route I mentioned because I think it would do more to force the hand of other manufacturers. The Air is just too limited of a target audience... it really is not a remotely practical solution for 99% of the population. I really wanted a iPhone-on-steroids tablet (minus the phone part), some new displays, and a more complete home theater PC. These are things that I do want and Apple is the company that push the creativity and attention to those avenues. Being happy with everything they put out is not going to encourage "bigger and better" development. Quit telling me to be a fucking sheep.

1/17/2008 12:54:46 AM

a piece.

1/17/2008 12:58:01 AM

^^ what you want may differ than what the market wants. MacBook Air too limiting? It's an ultra-portable, that's the priciest laptop category and the probably the smallest niche market in the computer industry, next to tablets. I do agree that it would be nice for apple to make a tablet pc with multi-touch, and I bet they are already building something similar, but to be realistic, the tablet pc market is again, very very small. It practically failed because they were underpowered (still are), lack features and support from the industry. They are ungodly expensive for a little more ease of convenience that most people were not willing to pay. It's a great tool and a great idea (mainly for teachers and business applications). When it hit the market, lots of people thought it would be a great success, yet not one of them bought it.

Besides, I'd say that for 2008, small portable internet ready devices, such as the iPhone, will continue to grow a lot more than regular computers (laptops and desktops). We already see this trend in Japan with smart phone and ultra-ultra portable laptops sale up. 2007 was the first year to see a fall in PC sales in Japan.

1/17/2008 2:02:14 AM

Quote :

"The Air is just too limited of a target audience... it really is not a remotely practical solution for 99% of the population."

This is completely and entirely wrong. In actuality it IS a completely practical solution for the vast majority of the consumer PC world. The only thing they missed on is the pricepoint, but that's never been much of a concern for Apple.

This thing hits its market segment right on the money, as does almost everything Apple has put out in the last couple of years.

1/17/2008 3:07:10 AM

air = cube

1/17/2008 3:15:45 AM

^^ No firewire= no DV movie editing.

I don't think iMovie yets support DV through USB (or if the consumer cams even do this).

As far as Macs go, this strikes me as a very expensive internet terminal.

The slow HD makes it practically useless for audio or even video work (never mind the lack of firewire). No express card slot means you can't even add firewire. And no optical drive means you can't produce any media in the field, without lugging around either a desktop or the external drive.

Toshiba has an ultraportable in the same weight class, almost the same size, that's a little bit cheaper, and has an optical drive, that I think is a better option.

And this is coming from someone whose been a Mac user for more than 15 years, and who is a self described Apple fanboi.

[Edited on January 17, 2008 at 5:42 PM. Reason : ]

1/17/2008 5:37:53 PM