Macworld Jobsnote!

[Commander Taggart]

Starts in a half hour. Reality Distortion Field powering up!

I'm positively giddy! Although, I doubt anything will top last year's iPhone announcement... I'll bet Steve announces SOMETHING I'll want to buy. ;)

[Conner]

As an Apple stock owner, I agree that whatever he announces will be wonderful. And you should probably buy 2 or 3.

[Darth Marley]

Be the first to buy the iSuck.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iSuck

http://www.arkhamfilms.com/isuck.html

[Commander Taggart]

Meh. I was hoping to hear about the 20 gig, 3G iPhone.

Of course, Apple TV now supports HD and digital movie rentals. A little bit closer to the prophecy I was talking about over on the main board... the beginning of the end of movies on Disc... no matter what the format.

[Darth Marley]

No way will the disc end without some other form of memory media.

Downloading the amount of raw data to support an HD video file is time consuming, even for those blessed with genuine broadband.

All the Internet video revolution is happening with shitty resolution youtube crap.

You can make your computer do all those things you mention now. But the disc will not die.

[Commander Taggart]

I'm surprised to hear you say that, Darth... but ordering from Amazon or driving to Wal-Mart is also time consuming. For a lot of folks with true Broadband, I bet the time difference would be negligible. I live in a world-class city, and we're talking at better than an hour commitment for me to go purchase a DVD. Even Netflix makes me wait a day before the next title arrives.

If I can hang out in my underwear and socks (isn't that a nice visual?), waiting for the movie to download rather than go through all the effort to go shopping... it's a no brainer. If I've got kids and can snag the movie without bundling them up and shoving them in the mini-van... fuhgettabout it.

Discs days are numbered. You'll see.

The new Apple TV doesn't support 1080p, and still only plays iTunes content, so... it's still a non-purchase.

Sorry, Conner... Steve still didn't get it right.

[Commander Taggart]

I will say, Conner, that the more I look at it, the more the Time Capsule looks like a good deal for my girlfriend. Her wireless router recentlycrapped out, and she was in the market for a 500 GB external, anway. I think this may be just the thing.

[Langolas]

Ok - the Air is an $1800 paperweight. No optical drive. No ability to upgrade. One usb port. No firewire. No replaceable battery. If the battery does go bad you can send it off and pay almost $200 for a new one. No ethernet - oh excuse me a $29.99 dongle that plugs into your USB port. If I'm going to pay $1800 for a laptop it's going to have a helluv a lot more than what this PoS is offering.

I think I just read that Apple stock just took a hit after el Jobso talked about this.

[Commander Taggart]

Lang, the cost goes hand-in-hand with the expense of engineering this thing.

Apple is assuming that you are primarily going to use it with a wireless network (kind of the reasoning behind the "Air" name), thus no need for ethernet. The lack of the optical drive extends battery life to previously unachievable levels. Again, they're assuming you're going to install software and perform upgrades over your wireless network... as well as load media content wirelessly or via flash devices. The replacement battery is only $129 (not "almost $200"), and Apple isn't charging for installation. Far from being a "paperweight," the Air is a true Road Warrior's wet dream.

The air isn't a PoS at all, it's a high-end luxury machine aimed at a specific user class who can afford it.

If you don't need ultra-portability, then the MacBook and MacBook Pro lines offer all of the features you mentioned, with a user-replaceable battery.

Apple's stock dropped slightly, but I don't think it was because of investor disappointment with the Air, I think they were just expecting a bigger iPhone type announcement. The stock will rebound.

[Darth Marley]

I will say, Conner, that the more I look at it, the more the Time Capsule looks like a good deal for my girlfriend. Her wireless router recentlycrapped out, and she was in the market for a 500 GB external, anway. I think this may be just the thing.

If you have ever bought a new printer because your "all in one" quit faxing or scanning, then you understand immediately why this kind of product bundling is a marketing gimminck, an da mistake for consumers to purchase.

It is far better to get a wireless wouter with a few wired Ethernet ports, and some USB ports as well, so one can plug in a few drives and printers.

The "router + drive" combo has been available for a while now, and the better (non-Apple models) are able to actually run BitTorrent on the router,storing to the local drive.

The Air looks like a machine for the fashion conscious rather than a machine for power users.
But then, that has always been Apple's market.

Download with time restrictions?
Remember Circuit City's Divx Disc debacle?
If Apple were indeed a progressive company, this would not ever get discussion time at the table.

[Darth Marley]

Discs days are numbered. You'll see.


There are still applications and uses for some kind of permanent media for backup.

The cost to have a 500 GB drive compared with 150 DVDs on a spindle tells me that for backup storage, DVDs are still cheaper than HD space.

When DVDs fail, it is 4.37 GB at a time, not the whole drive.

When I need an operating system to install, how do I download it without having an operating system installed? Bootable removable media.

Once I have paid for a file, I expect to keep it. Large HD files that do not fit on a DVD-5 create a problem. I would have to pay extra for something difficult to keep.
Or I can buy the disc on a factory pressed DVD-9 or Blu-Ray.

[Langolas]

Lang, the cost goes hand-in-hand with the expense of engineering this thing.
.

Yeah, but 1800 is a lot for that, and you can get way better specs with a MBP for about the same price. I love how apple markets these things to people with disposable incomes - i mean more money than brains, and than tries to market to everyone else. Bah.

[Commander Taggart]

I see the source of our disagreement. I mean discs as the primary means of buying, selling, and playing media content. I suspect discs will live on as a viable data storage medium.