Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, iTS, Peripherals, Video, Other Events, Mac mini
Who knew that the new movies in the iTMS would *really* be yesterday's big news?
Yesterday morning, I posted a prediction that proved incorrect. Apple didn't announce movies in the iTMS to be the big announcement of the day. Nevertheless, I feel that the Academy Award Nominated Short Films appearing in the iTMS yesterday actually ended up being the biggest news of the day. As I noted yesterday, it's the first appearance of non-Pixar/Disney shorts in the music store, so it paves the way for more great content (although all of the films are presented by the Sundance Channel, so it is kind of like another TV network releasing shows on the iTMS).
As for all the other announcements from yesterday, I can sum them all up—explain why they are all dud announcements—in one simple word: overpriced. $1.99 for the new short films in the iTMS is a bargain. Everything else was overpriced. Overpriced like the $99 leather iPod cases that don't actually provide the user with any access to the controls of the iPod. Overpriced like the $349 boombox that still needs the addition of a $300 iPod to make it as cool as it can be (and even then it is not that cool; I mean "Hi-Fi" is a 70s term, and the boombox is an 80s device; how is this expensive iPod peripheral indicative of Apple's innovation?). Overpriced like the $599 and $799 Mac minis. One of the great things about Apple's Mac mini line should be its affordability, and yesterday, we saw little value added to the Mac mini line and yet the most expensive one of them runs just
I, like Jan, am under-whelmed by yesterday's announcements, and I agree with Damien that Apple clearly dropped the ball and our disappointment is not the creation of our fanaticism, but rather Apple's failure to live up to the innovation we've come to expect from them.
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
RB said 10:52AM on 3-01-2006
You are overthinking this too much. These are good incremental moves for Apple as they work their way into the living room. It will be easier for Apple to be considered as a top player in this market if they get consumers to take little bites now. Do you want a home run every time they step to the plate?
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djSyndrome said 10:54AM on 3-01-2006
"Sure, I can do that now with this model, but they *could* have made it a lot better and kept the price lower, imho."
Have you priced out a 2.5" SATA hard drive lately?
Put another way, there is *no* price increase. They simply did away with the $499 40GB model, which was worthless to begin with (I know, I owned one, and I returned it). Compared to the old $599 model, you're gaining:
-2 USB ports
-Intel Core Solo processor
-Maximum RAM ceiling raised
-Front Row and remote
-Gigabit Ethernet
-Higher FSB rate
-DDR2 RAM
-Digital Audio input and output
You're losing :
-20GB of hard drive space
The mini is an entry level machine. It's going to remain that way. Steve's not about to change course and make it something it's not; he'll introduce an entirely different product if there are different goals to be achieved (anyone remember the Mac TV?)
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djones said 10:55AM on 3-01-2006
Arkowi has hit the nail on the head. Apple is pursuing on-demand content, not broadcast recording. Some movie studios have already expressed interest in delivering theatrical releases as on-demand simultaneous to theater releases. Apple is pushing the technology to get there.
With as much might as they've poured in the iTMS and Front Row, I can't believe that any of you would even dream of Apple innovating against itself.
TUAW's shortsightedness and me-too aggregate blogging is really growing tiresome. And your math is bad. There's a $500 difference between the most expensive Mac Mini and the least expensive iMac. Not to mention that one is meant to be a stand-alone computer, and the other is obviously being designed as an extension of your home network. I'm personally considering the core duo Mac Mini to do double duty to play my videos in the living room and to use for distributed processing when encoding video with Compressor. As a processing node, I can't think of better bang for my buck.
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DrWho said 10:56AM on 3-01-2006
It seems to me that TUAW bloggers are in denial after Tuesday's event/let down (for some people).
The event was hyped up, not by Apple, but by Apple blog sites, including TUAW. This happens every time there is an Apple event large or small. Then when all the crazy speculation is over many people are pissed that reality doesn't match fantasy. And then you guys start positing stuff like "Hey - it's not our fault". Really? Get real.
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Justin said 10:57AM on 3-01-2006
IMO, this machine will make an excellent MythTV front end, once an Intel build for the front end app appears.
Honestly, they'll have to way up the hard drive space on the mini before it'll become a useful PVR. Most PVR solutions record MPEG2 at ~2gig/hour. I'd like to see at least a 350GB hard drive in the Mini before I would consider using it as a standalone PVR. I have a 450GB video partition in my MythTV machine.
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bradders said 11:00AM on 3-01-2006
I have far more money than sense and might even buy one of the leather iPod case for my Nano, but.. the headphones plug into the button of a Nano.
So either
1) the designers thought about this and have put a hole in the bottom of the case for me to plug the 'phones into. Possibly making it abit fiddly when I want to take my Nano out.
Or 2) they didnt, and I have to stick the Nano into the case screen first, making it a real PIA when I want to use the menu; as now I have to take the whole thing all the way out to see the controls and the screen. I guess on other iPods you wouldnt need to remove it all the way, just far enough to see the screen and the scroll wheel.
You know what, either way sucks. I'll go buy that diamond encrusted one from Tiffany instead.
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darleen Michael-Baker said 11:02AM on 3-01-2006
What L.D. said. For crying out loud ... how can you sit there and whine that the Mac Mini isn't a good value?
I bought one last year about 2 seconds after it was introduced. I bought the 1.42 Ghz with a combo drive (smacks head on monitor for not buying the super drive) and added bluetooth. I paid $724 for it. NOW look what you get! Don't tell me that isn't a good deal.
I don't know why you expected some big whoop de doo anyway. This isn't the BIG product announcement anyway.
shakes head in disgust.
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alexander Kohlhofer said 11:04AM on 3-01-2006
I think being disappointed by apple for not living up to expectations for constant innovation is silly. They do innovate and they do it often. Some products might not qualify as innovative by some standards but Apple should be allowed to release them anyway. or should they rather keep them secret (and not sell to countless people interested in buying them anyway) until they can bundle it with something "great" (and what qualifies as great anyway)?
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Mike Farrell said 11:04AM on 3-01-2006
I'd like to point out that we haven't actually HEARD the Hi-Fi yet. I'd also like to point out that high quality full sized speakers sound better then tiny speakers, and that those tiny iPod speaker sets that seem to get great reviews sound absolutely horrific with the except of the Bose SoundDock which only sounds OK, not really good.
Personally I really want to hear it before I feel any particular way about, since its appearance doesn't offend me since I've long since resigned myself to the fact that great audio generally has that appearance.
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Dan LaMee said 11:23AM on 3-01-2006
I'm so glad that there are folks out there that aren't so totally oblivious to reality. In this case, I'm talking about the people defending Apple's decisions about the Mac Mini and Hi-Fi. When there was only nine comments on this post, I started writing this entry:
http://www.blumenvasen.org/archives/2006/03/01/hifi.php
Basically, I think that the Hi-Fi will sell just fine, provided Apple's hype about the sound quality proves to be fact. And of course the Mac Mini will sell, how could that be disputed when you consider who the buyers will be!
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Gary said 11:32AM on 3-01-2006
I think the point here is that Apple had a special event for what was really just routine announcements. If you don't back up your hype - you generate disappointment. I was somewhat underwhelmed myself by the event - had Apple just announced these updates/products on their website - the reaction would have been different. Of course, oddly, we, the Mac faithful/fanatics, aren't really who the event was aimed at.
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Ben Drawbaugh said 11:36AM on 3-01-2006
Hi-Fi might be a 70's name but it still holds true today. I applaud Apple for using the "correct" terminology rather than something that doesn't fit like "HD" Radio. In case you were wondering AM and FM are not Hi-Fi just like "HD Radio" isn't "HD".
I think too many people just had their hopes set too high. I predict a much bigger announcement April 1st on Apple's 30th birthday.
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Still Disappointed! (in TUAW) said 11:42AM on 3-01-2006
You have officially lost a reader who has followed you from the get go and who visits your blog about 2 dozen times a day.
TUAW has lost all professionalism and it's potential to be taken as a serious jounalist. But maybe I thought too highly of your blog. Maybe you are all a bunch of 12 year old switchers. Or maybe you just want to cause a stir among your readers to get your hit count up. Sorry to say it didn't work. In fact I don't think I'm going to subscribe to your blog any more. There are plenty of other more professional bloggers out there - like Spymac! :-D
Just keep in mind there is a difference between critical analysis and BITCHING like a little boy who just lost a game of dodge ball because the other team ganged up on him. Sorry, life's not fair and you don't always get what you want. Sometimes the world doesn't revlove around you!
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yap said 11:49AM on 3-01-2006
In other news, the girl I met last night from match.com didn't look as much like Maggie Gyllenhaal as I had hoped.
Now remind you, she didn't ever tell me she looked like Maggie Gyllenhaal. But what happened was I found this interesting girl off match.com, and after exchanging e-mails I asked all my friends to e-mail drawings to me of what this lady might look like. My favorite drawing was the one which was a spitting image of Maggie.
Like I said, this girl looked nothing like Maggie! What the hell? Now I'm so upset, I hate match.com, I hate the new girl from match.com, I don't hate Maggie (yet) but I'm close! This is BS! Ive been hoodwinked!
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C.K. Sample, III said 11:59AM on 3-01-2006
yap, lol best criticism/comment I've ever received. Love it.
However, the main problem is it is all overpriced. SO, you left out the key element of me not bothering to use Match.com to try to meet Maggie, b/c of how expensive it was (then going on to argue all these other bits in my ranting fashion).
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Don O'Shea said 12:12PM on 3-01-2006
I wonder if Sir Jonathan wasn't off being tapped on the shoulder by Her Majesty when the iPod Hi-Fi design was being finalized. Surely, the location and docking structure could have been better done. It looks like a lone ice cream bar in a grocery cooler.
Between that and the leather iPod holster, their design chops appear to be slipping.
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arkowi said 12:39PM on 3-01-2006
Id like to integrate Maggie Gyllenhaal's video.
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yap said 12:41PM on 3-01-2006
I guess the announcements being overpriced or not is up to consumers individually. The new minis seem fairly priced to me. They include airport and bluetooth, and an upgraded CPU. I am not an audiophile in the slightest, I have no idea whether the hifi is overpriced. I've heard the Bose Sound Dock at Sharper Image, it sounds pretty good and is priced at $300 on their website. Maybe the hifi is $50 too much, I don't know. As for the $99 ipod case, it sounds like a lot for what it is - but there's probably a market for that as well. I know my girlfriend buys $99 refills for her leather day planner - I have no idea how much the actual planner cost, but those types of things can be expensive.
To clarify, what I wrote wasn't meant as criticism really, I am not feeling overly critical. Just had a silly thought. I wasn't knocked off my seat after yesterday's announcement, but Apple hadn't really given me any reason to anticipate anything exceptional either.
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djones said 1:40PM on 3-01-2006
Opinions and impressions can stand scrutiny, criticism, and debate. They are your opinions, C.K., and are as valid as anyone else's, but please, please edit your posts for factual errors. Critics should only be able to attack your opinions, not your truthfulness. That really goes for all of the TUAW bloggers, who have an increasing track record of making false or misinformed statements in their posts, and not bothering to correct them once someone points it out. I know you don't get paid for edits, but as you can see from this thread, your core readers are increasingly getting disgruntled with the site. (*wonders to himself if that's somehow intentional to drive page views up, and certainly hopes that to the list of flaws, we can't add "shills"*)
Cheapest iMac: $1299
Most Expensive Mac Mini: $799
$1299 - $799 = $500, not $400.
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Thomas said 1:49PM on 3-01-2006
Not that I'm gonna buy another mini, cos the one I already have is still more than good enough for the use I put it to but, if I were in the position for one it would still be a great buy because I have a 19" screen, I have a keyboard (an apple one at that) I have a mouse. It may not be as good a spec as an iMac but for a beginner mac or a second mac then it saves me a rather hefty some of money. Fine by me.
Also why the hell do people keep saying boom box? It's not a bloody boombox, it's a (supposedly) audiophile quality speaker system for your iPod. It's not really meant for people who own a shuffle or a Nano. It's for people who can afford to pay for a quality set of speakers to plug their iPod into - ideally for a bedroom, study or kitchen say. I won't buy one but see nothing wrong with apple selling one, other companies do, why shouldn't they share the pie? They baked it after all!
The case again is not for your average iPod owner - it's a premium, high-end product for people who can afford to pay for it, same as the Gucci cases are, same as the diamond encrusted cases are. Apple's more budget offering is the iPod sock.
Apple's stuff has never been cheap. Full stop. You can say that it represents great value - and it does, and maybe these are not as good value as other things they sell. Well don't buy them then! Stop whining because every product they release isn't some huge revelation and something you want to rush out and buy. Some people will love these products and those are the people they're selling them to. They won't expect to sell an iPod Hi-Fi to every iPod owner, hell 1 to every 1000, every 10,000 owners/buyers would be seen as wildly successful most likely. Shockingly there are things in this world that everyone thinks are too expensive - I don't think Bentleys are worth the large amounts of money they cost but I don't go moaning about them.
Apple announced an event, they didn't say it was big, they didn't imply it was big. For NEW products and the first Intel versions of products that's what they do - it gets them a whole lot more publicity than they could any other way - at little cost. Seems pretty damn smart to me.
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