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Ha! A $99 Mac. There isn't a $99 PC with Windows XP.

Anyway. I think that a $499 Mac might be their best selling since most PC buyers want cheap, cheap, and cheap. That's why Dell sells a lot.
 
sushi said:
Yep, that's insane for sure.

Uh, does he know that OS X will support a two button mouse? Might make a difference if he is thinking the reason that it doesn't ship with a two button mouse is that it only supports a one button mouse.

Sushi

I am using a Logitech cordless click plus mouse, with 6 buttons on my Mac
 
I just noticed a poll on a Norwegian it net-paper. Most of the people who hang out there are usually very anti-apple in their comments. However, this poll showed another side of the whole Apple/Wintel war:

itavisen.no said:
Would you buy a Mac if it was cheap enough?
Yes, of course: 806 votes
No, I'd get a PC anyway: 788 votes
 
Floop said:
While all the recent rumours have been interesting and intruiging... there is one thing which has been worrying me.

Two weeks ago, before the headless iMac rumour broke, everyone was adamant that MWSF would bring new PowerBooks, with a slim chance of new PowerMacs too.

Since then... we have heard precisely *nothing* about new PowerBooks or PowerMacs - zero, zip, zilch, nada, niente, NOTHING!

Given ThinkSecret's pretty excellent track record, this is leading me to be concerned because it might suggest that:

a) PowerMac updates are not happening any time soon
b) PowerBook updates are going to be so incremental that they are going to have a 'quiet' Tuesday-style-update rather than a trumpeted rollout.

As someone who has been gearing up to buy a PowerBook and PowerMac and am finally nearly there... after 18 months... I was hoping that MWSF would bring me quality updates in this product lines... but now I am concerned.

So my question is - am I being

a) unreasonably, irrationally paranoid
b) realistic, and preparing myself for the eventual reality of this NOT being 'my' expo!!


Floop
Only the terminally optimistic were citing MWSF. I would look more closely at the WWDC. With new chips from Freescale promised in the first half of 2005, and new chips from IBM supposed to be out this year (I believe I remember someone stating autumn '05, and as I recall both of the last two sets of PowerMac updates were in the autumn after WWDC announcements) Traditionally MWSF targets a more consumer audience. iPod Minis, iLife, etc. etc. (the obvious exceptions being two major PowerBook updates) whereas WWDC has a more 'pro' audience.
 
Its not Apple like

A $500 Mac would be nice but I don't think it will ever happen. Its not Apple. Hell I only make about $7.00 an hour and I still have a Mac. (Okay so I don't have any other bills to pay and still live at home but...:))
 
iFaulder said:
A $500 Mac would be nice but I don't think it will ever happen. Its not Apple. Hell I only make about $7.00 an hour and I still have a Mac. (Okay so I don't have any other bills to pay and still live at home but...:))
Yes but citing the fact that you're on a Mac fan site you're probably more willing to hand out the change for one. What about the people who buy sub-$500 Dells and so on? Thats an increasingly large market.
 
brap said:
OS X feels, to me, to be rather closer to Risc OS than any Windows version. You shouldn't have any problems at all switching over - just keep an open mind, and use a third party mouse... Going from three buttns to one will probably come as somewhat of a shock.

Still I'm sure you'll not be quite so stubborn as a Risc OS using mate of mine who refuses to even consider X simply because it doesn't ship with a multiple button mouse. Insane.

I do have a preference for the utilisation of 3 buttons that RISC OS has (my first computer was an A3000 :D ) but when I'm looking at an OS I'm not drawing any conclusions, negative or otherwise, from the number of buttons commonly used on the mouse. RISC OS's GUI etc was designed with 3 buttons in mind while Mac OS has commonly used 1 button. Unless everything I'd heard about Apple was wrong I'm fairly certain that I'd be just as productive with 1 mouse button as 3 :)

Actually the criticism of the number of mouse buttons has always made me smile. If Mac OS has been designed to commonly use 1 mouse button why would you need more ? And conversely I've heard people seriously state that they thought 3 mouse buttons would be too complicated for people to learn to use ..... :rolleyes:

Point being I'm sure I'll cope - I stopped trying to use the middle "menu" mouse button when on windows pretty quick so dropping another shouldn't be too difficult ;)
 
SiliconAddict said:
Well considering this thread has discussed everything and the kitchen sink I will bring up one final topic.

I like strawberries. Yes. There I said it. I mean peaches are good. Apples are OK if it wasn't for that dang skin. But strawberries rock. Well strawberries and watermelon but there is the whole seed thing that somewhat ruins the watermelon going experience. Yah strawberries are where it’s at. :cool:

Strawberry pie topped with Cool Whip and served with a hot cup of coffee... is there anything better? Apple can release a $500 iMac, ship it with iWork and Tiger and throw in a free iPod Flash and I honestly can say that it still would not be as good as strawberry pie and coffee.

Well I kinda stayed on topic...
 
iFauldera Mac said:
Hell I only make about $7.00 an hour and I still have a Mac. (Okay so I don't have any other bills to pay and still live at home but...:))

No bills and you live at home? Yah, just wait until you're living in the real world buddy... :p :cool:
 
Speed, Elegance and Ease of Use:

There have been several comparisons of WinXP and OS X and various PC hardware vs Mac hardware.

Here is one experience that tells a lot:

Last night I installed OS X on a new iMac G5 (1.8GHz, 2 Gig RAM & 250 Gig Drive).

The OS comes preinstalled, but I was installing a beta release that specified a reinstall.

The entire install took less than 30 minutes (including all software options and formatting the hard drive).

I had to answer a few questions at the beginning, then the system ran, unattended for about 28 minutes, until reboot.

After reboot, I had to answer another question or 2 (setup wizard) and select how I wanted to attach to the Internet (use an existing Airport setup). The setup set the necessary parameters & ran to completion.

All in under 30 minutes.

Then Software update found some updates to install (beta OS update & updated versions of iLife components. I agreed to the updates & these were applied.

All this occurred with minimal time, data entry, attention -- I did not have to sit by the computer waiting to supply answers questions intermingled in the install process. There were no dialogs telling me that i should do this or that, now, or it would nag me until I did.

A very, clean, fast & pleasant experience.

My only recent Win experience is installing WinXP Pro under virtualPC. It was slow (as expected) but nowhere as clean & required me to babysit the install-- so it would not hang, endlessly waiting for a dialog response.

It would be interesting to see how "this" Mac experience compares to a similar complete reinstall by Win users.

Finally, theWinXP Pro is the most expensive OS that I have ever purchased -- $249 for a upgrade to WinNT.

And people complain about the $129 for OS X.

This is unrelated to a $499 Mac, but in a way, it illustrates some reasons why the Mac is appreciated by its loyal owners, and being considered by potential switchers-- The Mac is just... just... unkclunky!

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication!

Dick
 
Headless imac eh ? for 499 ?

yeah , if it all works out it will be a good deal , im looking for a new mac here soon , no more second hand , running a G3 - 350mhz now with panther, runs it alot better then u would think. its got over 300 mb of ram. i was thinking about en emac , but a friend told me about this deal going on at mac world , soo that kinda changes a few things, but 1 major thing .. how long are they gonna be available for ? is this a 1 time thing ? or temporary ? hopefully you can give me some answers, comments on an emac 2 maybe ? basicaly to use for games, music , video , photoshop , surfing , mine can do all that , just abit too slow .. ne way , let me know what u think, thanks.


mac-man
--------------------
G3 iMac - 350mhz
Mac Os X Panther 10.3.5
80 GB HD
320 MB Ram
 
hey all, i am sure this was talked about much earlier in the thread but i didnt really feel too much like sifting through the whole thing to find out.

my question is, is there any word as to what type of graphics we might see in this headless iMac? Is there any word as to how upgradeable this thing is going to be? Just some thoughts really.

I am pretty much sold on the idea as it is. I would have no problem with buying a decent monitor and just switching one of these things out ever 2 years or even less. could be a really great idea for those of us that like to stay rather current but dont need the top of the line. monitors are reusable after all.
 
iFaulder said:
a really cool guy said:
my question is, is there any word as to what type of graphics we might see in this headless iMac? Is there any word as to how upgradeable this thing is going to be? Just some thoughts really.

I don't see it being very upgradable or expandable. As for graphics it would most likely be equal to the eMac.

heard

thanks

i think this thing could be nice. it will pretty much provide me with everything i need. i play a little UT, i live on the internet, i type every day of my life, and i like to watch dvds. this could be the perfect home based replacement for my aging 500Mhz iBook. dont know if you can tell, but i am pretty much excited about this.
 
What if it's false information "leaked" deliberately?

I've already said I'm skeptical. What if someone at Apple deliberately "leaked" false information to TS in order to distract us and the competition from what is really coming. In the past months, Apple managed to keep the really important things secret. The only exception being Asteroid but that's not a core product so it's no big deal. Wouldn't it be possible that Apple plans to announce something big (e. g. PB G5, new PM) and wants to make sure it remains a secret until Jan 11? Granted, a PB G5 seems out of the question but a new PM is definitely possible. Yes, I know, I might be a bit too pessimistic but a cheap headless Mac would be such a big change in Apple's strategy that I can't help being skeptical. I find it strange that all those new things leaked so early, after all, the keynote is still more than a week away. Furthermore, if all those rumours were true, MWSF would be extremely heavy on consumer products. Although MWSF is consumer oriented it's still strange that there doesn't seem to be any movement in the pro sector.
 
Rootman said:
You just do, trust me.

Uhm... no, you don't. Well, maybe. It's a personal preference. I use multi-button scrolly wheel mice at work on PCs, but I prefer a one button Mac mouse at home. I tried a multibutton mouse on my Mac, but it just didn't make me any more productive. Also, I find pressing PageUp and PageDown on the keyboard a lot easier on the fingers than a scroll wheel.
 
corywoolf said:
they didn't do that when florida was hit...

cool imac idea though....
i would be very suprised.
maybe sugar is a codename for the box. it sounds more like an entertainment device to me... maybe the missing link with airport express, it could hook up to your TV or something? :rolleyes:

How many people died when Florida was hit? You know the death toll in the South Pacific is something like 148K+ now. Not everything does or should revolve around the US you know...

I really hope this has a G5 rather than G4. I know they have supply problems and all, but I can't see buying a new computer with a slow G4 processor just because of the form factor of the box it is in. But then, I may not be their target demographic.
 
in the reacent times with everything thats supposeldy been leaked and a lot of people going on about the pro line dosnt the pro line usualy get all the neat upgrades first etc without a doubt its not going to be like apple decides nope no pro stuff this year just work with the normal users this year ... Ok right iam dreaming you can wake me up now lol

And whose going on about one button mice whats it matter how many buttons a mouse has as long as it moves the pointer around the screen lol
 
Zaty said:
I've already said I'm skeptical. What if someone at Apple deliberately "leaked" false information to TS in order to distract us and the competition from what is really coming. In the past months, Apple managed to keep the really important things secret. The only exception being Asteroid but that's not a core product so it's no big deal. Wouldn't it be possible that Apple plans to announce something big (e. g. PB G5, new PM) and wants to make sure it remains a secret until Jan 11? Granted, a PB G5 seems out of the question but a new PM is definitely possible. Yes, I know, I might be a bit too pessimistic but a cheap headless Mac would be such a big change in Apple's strategy that I can't help being skeptical. I find it strange that all those new things leaked so early, after all, the keynote is still more than a week away. Furthermore, if all those rumours were true, MWSF would be extremely heavy on consumer products. Although MWSF is consumer oriented it's still strange that there doesn't seem to be any movement in the pro sector.

You can take the conspiracy in a totally different direction.

Apple, pissed off about the rumor sites, leaks this fake cheapMac information to two of the biggest offending sources (TS and AI, sites it has sued for information regarding the Asteroid leak). They know that the cheapMac (and to a lesser extent, iWork) are possibly the biggest Mac rumors and the most desired products, and would create a huge buzz.

Once January 11 comes and goes, and there is no cheapMac and no iWork, then the credibility of TS and AI is hit hard, thereby reducing their audience. In other words, these big rumors could be a trojan horse to take down the rumor sites.

Why not leak Powerbook G5 info then (since it is probably would be a BIGGER rumor than cheapMac)? Because they do plan on doing a Powerbook G5 someday soon, and the failure to produce at the Expo would shine a huge, ufnlattering light on the older (yet still expensive) Powerbook G4.

So yeah, it could all be a big conspiracy :)
 
Thataboy said:
You can take the conspiracy in a totally different direction.

Apple, pissed off about the rumor sites, leaks this fake cheapMac information to two of the biggest offending sources (TS and AI, sites it has sued for information regarding the Asteroid leak). They know that the cheapMac (and to a lesser extent, iWork) are possibly the biggest Mac rumors and the most desired products, and would create a huge buzz.

Once January 11 comes and goes, and there is no cheapMac and no iWork, then the credibility of TS and AI is hit hard, thereby reducing their audience. In other words, these big rumors could be a trojan horse to take down the rumor sites.

Why not leak Powerbook G5 info then (since it is probably would be a BIGGER rumor than cheapMac)? Because they do plan on doing a Powerbook G5 someday soon, and the failure to produce at the Expo would shine a huge, ufnlattering light on the older (yet still expensive) Powerbook G4.

So yeah, it could all be a big conspiracy :)

You could be onto something :)
 
sunilraman said:
dude, what the other poster said about dual-core
dualcore!!!!!! yeahhhhhhh :D

ps thanks for the iSock bit :)

[sidethought]
hmm.. so there could be down the line a dual dual core g5 running a dual dual link nvidia card with dual displays? im confused :rolleyes:

[sidethought#2]
i am going to be an a** here and suggest that given the average gullibility and IQ of a windows user when they market a 2ghz dualcore g4, they will have to call it 4GHZ because that's where intel is/almost is at.... :(

You know what'd be ironic? The most expensive PC's nowadays now have a system where using two NVidia Geforce 6800 GT (the GT is barely slower than the Ultra, but takes up only one slot instead of two) connected to each other each in seperate slots, you have a system with dual graphics cards.

So what about a dual dual dual link nvidia cards, with dual dual-core G5's? :)

That'll be the PowerMac in two-three years. :D Unless Apple gets a G6.
 
Floop said:
Dude. Credit to you for your length explanation.

However the fact that Apple charge more than $99 for Panther, or iSight, or a keyboard and mouse, would have been enough for me to conclude that a $99 iMac is a complete fantasy.

Put it this way - if Apple release a $99 iMac, I will publicly eat my shorts, care of said iMac and more expensive iSight camera ;-)

In 50 years when computers are small enough to fit in your pocket and considered standard accessories, make sure you post that video of you eating your shorts. It will be most amusing.
 
tralfam said:
How many people died when Florida was hit? You know the death toll in the South Pacific is something like 148K+ now. Not everything does or should revolve around the US you know...

I really hope this has a G5 rather than G4. I know they have supply problems and all, but I can't see buying a new computer with a slow G4 processor just because of the form factor of the box it is in. But then, I may not be their target demographic.

The eMac still has a G4.

And I severely doubt Apple is going to dump the G4 anytime soon. I expect they'll keep the G4 in the eMac and go 2 GHz once Moto releases those 2 GHz G4's. Eventually it'll go dual core 2 GHz 64-bit G4. w00t.
 
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