Wednesday, July 17, 2002

Reduced Expectations: MacWorld NY So I got up this morning at 5:55am and turned on the streaming video to watch The Steve. My reaction...nice, a few bumps, some grinds and some kewl stuff. The Bumps: There seemed to be a lot of glitches in the demos. Nothing to match the camera throwing event of last years event. No demos of new software from other companies (well, there was Real, and it was real brief). The Steve mentioned new stuff, but didn't demo anything Did Glasser look embarassed to be this late with RealOne? I am sure he must have loved the streaming Quicktime and talk about open standards...not. iChat: do I really need another chat client? I will stick to Fire for the ability to use multiple protocols. Who thought to invite the cellphone guys? Boring... The Grinds: $99 for .mac...get real Apple! As neat as some of .mac's features look, I will not pay that much for it. I will also not pay for a full year in advance. The $49 special for current users of iTools is good, would be a great price for discount/advance payment for a full year. Apple also needs to provide some basic package for free to entice people in, the trial doesn't cut it. They should come up with some kind of monthly subscription fee...say, $4.99 per month, I'd pay that. $129.00 for 10.2?? Say what? No upgrade price? I've looked all over the Apple site and read the Up-To-Date information. All I have to say to Apple on this is KMA. This is "Think Bogus", "Think Rip-Off", and it will not fly. I expect to hear a lot of screaming about this one. The Kewl: iSync is pretty cool. It is going to take a while for this to sync in, but there's a real need for this. The Steve is correct in driving the Mac to the center of other tools. It makes sense that you would want to use one device to support the other devices in your life. I can't wait to see the home entertainment piece that will come later (hmmm, yes just speculation). The new iMac is fantastic. The fact that it's priced only $100 over the previous top model is simply incredible. Way to go Apple I love what Apple is doing with the iPod. The new price structure is great and the add-ons are wonderful. This is one place where Apple rocks. Bringing out iPod for Windows is also a great move, that will drive a lot more sales. iPod is one of those moments when Apple just shines at what it does best --- innovate. The digs at Microsoft were wonderful. I loved the one where The Steve noted that the adoption rate for X is faster than any adoption ever -- faster than "anything ever seen on Windows." He went out of his way to rebuff the crap that Microsoft spewed forth earlier this week. The price may suck, but the features and improvements in 10.2 are wonderful. I am jazzed to dive into it and use it...once I can find a copy (I will not pay $129.00). Apple keeps working on refining the OS and it shows. Integrated searches and the upgrades to the integrated programs shine. We will have to see what the price issue does to sales though. iTunes 3.0 is fantastic. I have already converted all my artist playlist over to Smart Playlist. No longer will I have to update these as I add music. This is the most dramatic change to the product since it was first introduced. Thank you Apple. MPEG4 streaming is FANTASTIC!!! This is the first one I have watched that was viewable from start to finish. I could even run it double size and see what was going on. The demos of the technology did it justice. I was able to put the window onto my second monitor and check my email, read news, and listen at the some time. Apple has outdone themselves with this one. So what is the verdict? It's mixed. I was not upset with the lack of hardware announcements, I expect those next month. The new software was wonderful. The streaming video was great. Apple needs to look at it's pricing strategy and it's upgrade policies. I will not pay $129 for an OS, when I just bought 10.1 less than a year ago. The pricing for .mac is also too high. The value may be there, the justification for the price just isn't. Now I'm just going to wait to see what the August Special Event brings...new towers perhaps?...mj 11:36:31 AM

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