Poll: Favorite New Product from MacWorld?

[MacRumors]

Vote: Poll: Favorite New Product from MacWorld? (http://www.macpolls.com/?poll_id=352)

[OutThere]

Both the Xserve G5 and GarageBand are wicked cool...

[ckwm]

Got to be Garageband. A chance to relive my youth!

[edesignuk]

You need an option "Was not impressed" ;)

[macFanDave]

but only if it's free!

Even if it's only free to loyal .Mac members like me. If that happens, I'll feel a little sorry for people who aren't shelling out for .Mac, but otherwise I'll see that I got sucked in by iTools only to get sucked in again by iMovie and iPhoto. What's next? Will I go to my local heroin dealer and get the first dose for free?

[1macker1]

i'm not impressed by any of this. I don't use servers at home, so i could care less about them. As for the others, meh.

[latergator116]

Originally posted by edesignuk
You need an option "Was not impressed" ;)

hehehe.. was just about to say the same myself

[latergator116]

hmmm.. is Garageband a free download?, because I can't find it on apples website.

[awulf]

This was a terrible keynote, making iMovie & iPhoto paid versions was bad.

The iPod mini is over priced, the G5 Xserve is good but no use to me, iLife with GarageBand is good value for money but no use for me.

[odditie]

What are you talking about?

Lots of good came from today's keynote...I have to say the mini iPod is my favorite, but the new iLife is awesome as well.

Money isn't everything in life, these programs that Mac has put together are high quality, and have had many hours of work in development, so give those employees their money for their great work.

Chris

[jzieske]

I am most looking forward to the new iPhoto.

Even though it will cost money. It looks like it is worth it for an avid photographer. That is if it as fast as they want us to think it will be.

[slowtreme]

I really wanted it to be the iPod mini, but the ability to create DVD content without a Superdrive installed is the best thing I got out of this.

[evil_santa]

why didn't they have the ipod mini for christmas!!!:confused: I would have thought that this was a better time to snatch the market share. I would have got one for my wife instead of the refurb 10GB. A 2GB ipod for around the $200 would have been even better.
Garageband came a close second!

[Spagolli94]

As a creative professional, there was very little good news from the day. I can't believe how little hardware they released. Don't need an XServe and I already have an iPod.

They spent the whole day talking about iLife. So what, they released GarageBand, which will be nothing more than a fun gimmick app for most users and finally fixed some bugs in iPhoto and iMovie.

Lame.

[wordmunger]

Garageband. But I probably won't buy it. Not for $50, when I don't need the other iLife apps. I'd play with Garageband if it was free (or $10--if it was an option to buy iLife apps a la carte), but I already have one MIDI app that I haven't even installed. How about giving .mac users the option to freely download iLife apps.

[latergator116]

Originally posted by Spagolli94
As a creative professional, there was very little good news from the day. I can't believe how little hardware they released. Don't need an XServe and I already have an iPod.

They spent the whole day talking about iLife. So what, they released GarageBand, which will be nothing more than a fun gimmick app for most users and finally fixed some bugs in iPhoto and iMovie.

Lame.

Totally agree.

[Sabenth]

garage band thats all that sort of took my intrest sorry to say bit disapointed beyond controll

[themadchemist]

I wish everyone wouldn't complain so much. The Keynote is just advertising time for Apple and it probably figured it should spend it on stuff that was NEW. As long as it was, the additional discussion of released speed-bumped G5s would have made the speech too long.

I think they are there because they will be easy to implement with the 90nm processors Apple has already started using (Xserves), so as arn said, look out for updates in the next few weeks. Since the product is already there and a few hundred MHz isn't that big of a deal, he'll save this for a quiet update.

I was surprised not to see a display update, but again, that doesn't seem to be the kind of thing Steve wants to spend time on in his keynotes. His keynote seemed to be about a digital lifestyle and monitor just doesn't cut it. I think you might see those in a quiet update, too.

Now if there were Powerbook updates cooking, I think those would have appeared at the expo. I mean, if there were updates other than a minor speed bump. News like a dual G4 PB or a (yikes!) G5 PB is the stuff of keynotes because it is so drastically different from what existed before.

iMac G5 updates would have been at the expo, too, but without speed bumps on the PowerMacs, the lines would have become too close together MHz–wise. So I'm thinking a PowerMac update soon and an iMac G5 at WWDC.

Now we all knew that there wouldn't be some sort of video player or a rehashing of the Pippin or what not. I was kind of hoping to see a new 20th Anniversary Mac and felt that that hope would be realized when Steve started the keynote by talking about the 20th Anniversary, but in retrospect, it makes financial sense that they wouldn't waste R&D developing one. The last 20th Anniversary Mac was highly overpriced, and the keynote made it clear that Apple is really trying to shatter the common assumption that Macs cost more. Think of his comments about the supercomputer, the iPod, and iLife. They were all meant not only to emphasize how great a deal Apple products are for the money, but really how much cheaper they are than products from PC manufacturers. Moreover, the 20th Anniversary Macintosh released in '96 (right?) sold very poorly and before the end, the price was slashed dramatically. I really don't think that's a situation that Apple wants to deal with just to commemorate an anniversary.

Now I must say that the Microsoft presentation was the most boring thing I've seen in a long time. I'm glad we've got friends in the enemy camp, but they aren't very good presenters! Now the guy was o.k. He was cool and relaxed like Steve and talked the audience. The lady was really uptight and tried to use forceful speech, but it really just came out as forced. Everytime she opened her mouth, I wanted to cringe at how boring and awkward she was. I was glad, though, to see the Excel page view. That is welcome. The Word note-taking thing looked like another failed attempt by Microsoft to be intuitive: For the most part, it looked pretty clunky and inefficient. I can just imagine how many times the Paperclip would pop up while trying to work in THAT format and how many times MS would try to flag something that shouldn't be flagged or prevent you from formatting the way you want to. The recording feature, though, seems useful.

All in all, it wasn't the greatest keynote in the world. Seeing as our last major SteveNote was the introduction of the G5, I'm not surprised that a lot of people see this one as a let-down, especially those who have only recently joined the Mac world. But compared to the dark days Apple has seen, things are looking pretty bright, and to hear marketshares on the music products be so high is definitely very exciting. When Apple jumps by 100 million songs in Feb. & Mar. (from the giveaway), its marketshare is going to be even greater. It'll also draw a lot of newcomers into the store, like me for example. By giving away those 100 million songs, Apple's marketshare will jump to at least 85% (a very conservative estimate) from 70%. I wonder how much of that Pepsi is subsidizing...It's an expensive ad campaign, but I think it's one that will be effective. Anyway, things are looking good and for all those who are disappointed, I've just got to say that I expect the WWDC SteveNote to be a whirlwind of a presentation!

[Nermal]

The keynote was very disappointing. GarageBand was the best, but I don't see myself using it. As for the iPods, who in their right mind would pay $249 for 4 gigs when you can get 15 for $50 more? They've really screwed up with the prices there.

[ebuc]

The new Xserve seems by far the best news so far. At 90 nm we know where that is leading to.........

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by Nermal
The keynote was very disappointing. GarageBand was the best, but I don't see myself using it. As for the iPods, who in their right mind would pay $249 for 4 gigs when you can get 15 for $50 more? They've really screwed up with the prices there.

Think about the size! I wish the prices were lower, too, and you're right that there isn't much of a price differential, but the hard drives cost too much for Apple to sell these things for less! Apple is a corporation and no matter what the volume, you don't make money by selling your products at a loss.

Nevertheless, I will continue to argue that the iPod has an incredible bang for the buck when compared to other slightly cheaper, much uglier mp3 players with only a small fraction of the iPod's capacity.

[CrackedButter]

I voted for GarageBand and the ipods were a close second even though i am dissapointed with them.

I don't do anything with music other than listen to it and i thought this app was great, even the expansion pack for it looked exciting.

I mean i don't even need musical equipment to make music, i would use this to create music for my own pleasure however since alot of music doesn't cater for my needs anyway. i find myself listening to weird exotic stuff to get the buzz, like japanese or german heavy metal enough though i don't understand the words.

Anyway...

I might be tempted to try this app, but at the moment my credit card is full so i have to wait.

[Macmaniac]

Ok everyone is going to yell at me, but after I looked at Cnet's product comparison of other HD based mp3 players I realized that Creative and Archos both have a a product similar to the miniPod thats only $50 less then their larger storage players, so maybe there is not such a big deal after all, besides the miniPod has a greater storage capacity then the Archos or Creative at the same price.

[wdlove]

I voted with the majority on GarageBand, because it was the newest of the iLife features. Will be interested in trying to do some mixing of music myself, it entails all genre of music. All the updates of iLife were also impressive. When I do transition to X, will have the ability to share photos with my wife over our wireless connection.

[mainstreetmark]

Originally posted by themadchemist
Think about the size! I wish the prices were lower, too, and you're right that there isn't much of a price differential, but the hard drives cost too much for Apple to sell these things for less! Apple is a corporation and no matter what the volume, you don't make money by selling your products at a loss.


We already know they (possibly even the same company) makes a 2G in the same size for $70/100,000, which woulda made a KILLER $150 or even $200 player with 500 songs (still more than 60!). it woulda wiped that Rio off the planet, being better in every category.


Nevertheless, I will continue to argue that the iPod has an incredible bang for the buck when compared to other slightly cheaper, much uglier mp3 players with only a small fraction of the iPod's capacity.


Here's bang for the buck for ya:

15Gig: $300/15 = $20/gig
40G Fat Boy: $500/40 = $12.5/gig
4G Mini: $250/4 = $62.50/gig!!

The entire problem with the Mini is it's so close in price to it's next of kin. If there were no 15G, the Mini would be awesome. But for the cost of a night-of-drinkin, you could upgrade to the 15G. Perhaps that's a manipulative plan on Apple's part. The mini being only a carrot on the way to talking you into a "real" iPod.

[Wonder Boy]

i was hoping for new displays, but i guess that didnt happen. i went with garage band. 50$ is a much better deal than shelling out 300$ for Live 3.0/

[big duane]

actually, i'm most excited about the In-Ear Headphones. i've been looking for a replacement to the default apple ear buds, but have been hesitant to shell out 100 bucks for the ones currently on the market. i'm anxious to read some reviews.

[idkew]

Originally posted by macFanDave
but only if it's free!

Even if it's only free to loyal .Mac members like me. If that happens, I'll feel a little sorry for people who aren't shelling out for .Mac, but otherwise I'll see that I got sucked in by iTools only to get sucked in again by iMovie and iPhoto. What's next? Will I go to my local heroin dealer and get the first dose for free?

ditto, exactly.

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by Nermal
The keynote was very disappointing. GarageBand was the best, but I don't see myself using it. As for the iPods, who in their right mind would pay $249 for 4 gigs when you can get 15 for $50 more? They've really screwed up with the prices there.

Buying iPod mini and so is 5 my Mac friends and 10 of my PC friends.
So thats 16 minis already sold.
I already own a 40GB iPod, but I like more other friends need a smaller iPod for exercising and such.

Best parts were:
Xserve and Xserve raids
iPod mini
Garageband*I play guitar and keyboard*
Entire iLife package.

They could take out the USB 2.0 cable for the iPod mini and make the price $219 or $210. But then they would piss off all the PC users which still has BIGGER market share then we Mac users have.

[ITR 81]

Originally posted by Wonder Boy
i was hoping for new displays, but i guess that didnt happen. i went with garage band. 50$ is a much better deal than shelling out 300$ for Live 3.0/

The new displays won't come until they release the new G5 PM's.

[Wonder Boy]

Originally posted by ITR 81
The new displays won't come until they release the new G5 PM's.

i guess i was hoping for those too :)

[pimentoLoaf]

I have an original 15gb iPod, which got discontinued a few weeks after purchase. Never understood why Apple did that and can heartily recommend buying one as it's not too small and holds plenty of good stuff.

[pugnus maximus]

voted for GarageBand, but I am also very excited about iPhoto and iDVD...
my 1700 photos are really bogging down iPhoto.
I can always use more effects and themes to impress my friends (iDVD)

[richie]

I think the reason people are seeing this as disappointing is that we don't get to play with anything new, now, for free. If they'd even posted the new iPhoto and iMovie for download, it would've softened the blow.

Oh, and I voted for GarageBand, but I doubt I'll ever buy iLife independent of an upgrade of Mac OS X.

[Fahd]

All I have to say is the mini-iPods are super over-priced. But really, I should have known Apple better than that. So much for the $99 and $149 prophecies. :rolleyes:

[djdarlek]

Originally posted by odditie
What are you talking about?

Lots of good came from today's keynote...I have to say the mini iPod is my favorite, but the new iLife is awesome as well.

Money isn't everything in life, these programs that Mac has put together are high quality, and have had many hours of work in development, so give those employees their money for their great work.

Chris

my sentiments exactly. I mean, $49 (i guess around £30) is unbelievably cheap for that feel good factor of actually buying software. garageband sounds like it's worth hundreds of dollars on its own, and we must not forget that Apple do realise when certain programs just aren't good enough. I mean with iPhoto it sounds like they've completely rewrote the code from scratch and i'm sure we're all looking forward to speed on a par with iTunes. At last I may actually be arsed to rate my photos! well, couple that with 'actually use iPhoto'.

All this can't be a bad thing.

[sjk]

Before the keynote I'd thought $199 for an iPod mini would be "reasonable" (for Apple; the $99-$150 speculations seemed silly) so $249 was a bit of a shock, especially with only a $50 difference between it and 15GB model. I suppose they overpriced it knowing they'll sell a bunch anyway (even I'll probably buy one for my wife's birthday this week) then lower it in a few months... or come out with a 2GB version for $199.

I voted for GarageBand. I'll get it when I buy a desktop Mac, which I'd hoped would be a G5 iMac... and I may still hold off for the next hardware announcements even if it's only a bump of the G4 lineup. And the iPhoto upgrade looks okay tho' I still don't understand the one-level limitation on playlists, like iTunes. Why no sublists?

[ZildjianKX]

Originally posted by Spagolli94
As a creative professional, there was very little good news from the day. I can't believe how little hardware they released. Don't need an XServe and I already have an iPod.

They spent the whole day talking about iLife. So what, they released GarageBand, which will be nothing more than a fun gimmick app for most users and finally fixed some bugs in iPhoto and iMovie.

Lame.

My sentiments exactly.

And we didn't even get a release date for a solid release date for G5 compatible VPC either... oh well.

[Centris 650]

Originally posted by edesignuk
You need an option "Was not impressed" ;)

I agree. I was hoping there would be this option but if I had to pick one it would have to be the ipodmini. (I will ALWAYS think of M&M mini's when I here of this product!) While the price is very strange and (IMO) a tad high it's still very cool looking.

Garageband is cool too but I'm so NOT musically inclined it's pathetic. I've ordered iLife but I doubt I'll do anything with Garageband. (OBTW, I'm just glad they didn't call it iBand or some other nonsense.)

The lack of hardware was disappointing too. I got tired of "...and here we made a little movie for us to watch!" :rolleyes: Let's see some new machines! I believe this is Apples way of getting away from major HW announcements at MWSF.

I can tell you this I was going to buy a new mac this September but I'll probably wait until AFTER MWSF next year so I don't have to shell out another $50 4 months later for updated iApps.

[CalfCanuck]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark
Here's bang for the buck for ya:

15Gig: $300/15 = $20/gig
40G Fat Boy: $500/40 = $12.5/gig
4G Mini: $250/4 = $62.50/gig!!

The entire problem with the Mini is it's so close in price to it's next of kin. If there were no 15G, the Mini would be awesome. But for the cost of a night-of-drinkin, you could upgrade to the 15G. Perhaps that's a manipulative plan on Apple's part. The mini being only a carrot on the way to talking you into a "real" iPod.
While we were all disappointed by our fantasies ($99 for a 2 GB mini iPod), did you even LISTEN to the speech? Steve doesn't want to sell the mini to people who already are in the iPod camp. For them the choice for a 15 or 40 gig is obvious.

His market is the "high-end" MP-3 player market. He wants NEW customers. Toss in an extra $50 and we'll give you 16 times the storage.

Apple 4G Mini: $250/4 = $62.50/gig!!
Competitors 256 MB mp3 player: $200/.25 = $800/gig!!!!!

I wish it was solid state flash RAM to get away from the moving parts of a hard disk (take a look at some threads of serious runners and their experiences with the iPod), but that's still a couple of years down the road.

[Fahd]

Originally posted by CalfCanuck
...Toss in an extra $50 and we'll give you 16 times the storage.

And once we're ready to buy that I guess he'll say toss in an extra $50 and we'll give you almost 4 times the storage.

The ipod mini is only mini in size and storage, not in price. :(

[CalfCanuck]

Originally posted by Fahd
And once we're ready to buy that I guess he'll say toss in an extra $50 and we'll give you almost 4 times the storage.

The ipod mini is only mini in size and storage, not in price. :(
I agree that it's over the "magical" $199 price point, but it will be under $200 by summer or late fall (after Apple milks the extra $50/unit out of early adopters!).

But my point is NOT to compare it with the iPods, but to the MP3 players that Apple designed it to compete against.

[Fahd]

Yeah I know and I wasn't arguing with you. I apologize if it seemed that way to you. I guess I'm just not too happy with Apple at the moment with their pricing. I already have the 20 GB and I was planning on getting about 5 of the mini-ipods to gift to people.

[Fender2112]

Originally posted by ebuc
The new Xserve seems by far the best news so far. At 90 nm we know where that is leading to.........

Even though most of us knew the 90nm chip was coming, I think this is perhaps the most significant news.

[~Shard~]

Definitely GarageBand, hands down! But, I'm a musician, so I understand that many non-musicians out there could probably care less about it. Still though, whether you use it or not, you have to admit it's a damn cool app!

[IndyGopher]

I voted for the other iLife apps. I will gladly pay $50 for a copy for my sister's family just to stop explaining why I can put 2 hours (and often much more) on a DVD I make with DVD Studio Pro, while my brother-in-law has to edit each 2 hour VHS tape he has of the their kids down to under 90 minutes to use iDVD. For myself, I will happily another $50 for the hours I will spending playing with iPhoto and Garageband. With all the additions to iMovie, I might just use it for some of the quick-n-dirty stuff instead of FCP, too.

[rueyeet]

I can't truly say the keynote was disappointing, because it contained pretty much everything the rumors had pegged as actually likely: A focus on software instead of hardware, G5 XServes, a new iApp, and mini iPods. Hopes for some fantastic new hardware something were just that: hopes, based on the fact that this is the 20th anniversary.

So we got what we expected, with some added treats: G5's at 90 nm, consumer-simple music creation, and the new Office. The only really disappointing elements were the high initial price of the iPod minis, but I'll bet Apple's seeing what they can get away with and may lower prices later--and of course, that iPhoto and iMovie are no longer free.

Instead of looking at this as a disappointing roundup of non-hardware yawns, think of it as only the beginning of the 20th Anniversary year. They can't play all their cards for the year in January, after all. Don't look at it as "is this all we get?"--look at it as "wonder what's ahead?"

I voted GarageBand, which I am going to restrain myself from buying until I've taken some time to learn Photoshop Elements, which I got for Christmas. With any luck, I'll be just about up to speed on that when they release the G5 PowerBooks, and if the initial reviews come in favorable, then I can replace the TiBook 667 DVI with a spiffy new AlBook G5, and get the new iLife and GarageBand in the bargain. For me this would be perfect timing!

Disclosure: I have no creative musical talent whatsoever, and still can't wait to play with GarageBand. At least I do have a good ear for pitch.... :p Really, my Windows computer got me on the Internet, got me started with MP3's, and enabled me to do word processing. My Mac does all that AND makes me want to create and try things. How cool is that?!

Second vote: iPod mini, which actually may get bought first. The reduced size will be a huge benefit, as long as the battery life isn't similarly reduced. Also the dock lets you do some neat stuff that the old, pre-Dock connector iPods just don't lend themselves to as easily, like charging while playing to speakers...

I just have to say: if this is just what they came up with for the beginning of the year, I can't wait to see what the rest of the year has in store. Go Apple! :cool:

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by mainstreetmark


We already know they (possibly even the same company) makes a 2G in the same size for $70/100,000, which woulda made a KILLER $150 or even $200 player with 500 songs (still more than 60!). it woulda wiped that Rio off the planet, being better in every category.




Here's bang for the buck for ya:

15Gig: $300/15 = $20/gig
40G Fat Boy: $500/40 = $12.5/gig
4G Mini: $250/4 = $62.50/gig!!

The entire problem with the Mini is it's so close in price to it's next of kin. If there were no 15G, the Mini would be awesome. But for the cost of a night-of-drinkin, you could upgrade to the 15G. Perhaps that's a manipulative plan on Apple's part. The mini being only a carrot on the way to talking you into a "real" iPod.

I'm not arguing with you that the mini is a TOTAL ripoff when compared to the standard iPods, but when you compare the mini to, say, a Rio flash drive, the mini wins hands down.

However, for being so concerned with price per gig, you seem to be a big fan of a 2GB mini at even $200, which would be $100/gig. Even the $150 price that you would suggest is ideal would be $75/gig. These are both more than the current iPod mini.

On the other hand, you could argue that the slope of the function size vs. price/gig is greater between the 15 gig and the 4 gig mini than between the 15 gig and the 2 gig mini...In other words, one could assume that the smaller the drive gets, the worse price/gig one will receive. Then, it may be meaningful to analyze how much worse that price is for a given reduction in capacity. While the unit price for the 2 gig is worse than that of the 4 gig, that is because it is supposed to be. And it can be seen that the 15 gig is 3.75 times the capacity of the 4 gig, but that the 4 gig's price/gig is 3.125 that of the 15 gig. That suggests ~.833 slope. On the other hand, the 15 gig is 7.5 times the capacity of a hypothetical 2 gig and that the 2 gig's price/gig (assuming a $200 price tag, which most people seem to agree would be fine) is 5. That suggests ~.667 slope.

The argument above, though, is a bit convoluted, and for a person who is truly interested in price/gig, the 2 gig drive simply wouldn't be a very good deal by comparison.

I agree, though, that psychologically, the $200 mark is an important one in the consumer's mind, and that many budgets will be set not to allow the purchase of a product that exceeds that milestone. That could be detrimental to Apple's bottom line.

In the end, it is an interesting conundrum. From the perspective of the iPod mini compared to other similarly-priced players (from companies besides Apple), it looks like a great deal. However, when compared to its Apple brethren, it doesn't look as good. If the iPod were obscure, then this wouldn't make much of a difference, because the iPod mini would be compared to mp3 players in general and would win easily. Fortunately for Apple's bigger picture but unfortunately for the iPod mini, its older brother is the standard of excellence in the mp3 player market. It will inevitably (like all other mp3 players) be compared to the iPod and there it will not perform as well.

[bennetsaysargh]

garage band will be one of the best programs that i will use ever! if you think about it, it is worth way more 49 dollars, and then you also get the rest of the ilife updated. garage band is a revolution and will help people make better music and play better music.

[york2600]

Originally posted by themadchemist

Now I must say that the Microsoft presentation was the most boring thing I've seen in a long time. I'm glad we've got friends in the enemy camp, but they aren't very good presenters! Now the guy was o.k. He was cool and relaxed like Steve and talked the audience. The lady was really uptight and tried to use forceful speech, but it really just came out as forced. Everytime she opened her mouth, I wanted to cringe at how boring and awkward she was.

You probably couldn't tell from the video stream, but she had some sort of disability that kept her from speaking normally. Something that made her really tighten up. She had difficulty pronouncing many of the words. Again you probably couldn't tell from the video stream, but it was pretty apparent in person. Just thought everyone should know before they gave her a hard time. If there wasn't a reason that really would have been a painfully bad speaker.

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by york2600
You probably couldn't tell from the video stream, but she had some sort of disability that kept her from speaking normally. Something that made her really tighten up. She had difficulty pronouncing many of the words. Again you probably couldn't tell from the video stream, but it was pretty apparent in person. Just thought everyone should know before they gave her a hard time. If there wasn't a reason that really would have been a painfully bad speaker.

Ah, my mistake, then. But I couldn't tell from the video stream. Now don't I feel like a jerk?

[bennetsaysargh]

i actually felt bad for her because in the stream i heard a few laughs from people in the crowd i think. kudos to her though because she did good even though she had a speech disability.

[themadchemist]

Originally posted by bennetsaysargh
i actually felt bad for her because in the stream i heard a few laughs from people in the crowd i think. kudos to her though because she did good even though she had a speech disability.

I also didn't hear the laughs. Man, I feel like such a tool for criticizing her.