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Apple on Blu-Ray, Touch Screen Displays, Netbooks
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sorry, but there are plenty of pro buyers who want to get this, if apple offered a option of a version without burning capability, then the option to upgrade to burning one for whatever price is needed.
anyway this is getting ridiculous now. they ought to have Blu-ray, they ought to provide option of matte display screens.
Apple does not provide HD movies as downloads. They are low bit rate, and do not contain HD audio
It's the same people who think they are downloading "the same as cd" rips of song on iTunes. The general public does not care or has no idea with their "high-end" BOSE speaker cubes. They will be the death of any type of HD audio/video format. SACD/DVD-A
Unless you want to see a bigger rise in the prices of Mac's then Blu-Ray is not the way to go right now. I think waiting for it to mature is a better idea for both the consumer and Apple. (Plus, if you are actually a hard core techie who loves high-def movies, would you really watch them on your computer...I tend to think not).
Disregard playback. What about the rest of us that want data storage options? And I've been the part of both HD-DVD and Blu-Ray since day one. If I'm flying for 6 hours to London , yes I'd like to be able to watch my Blu-Ray movies without ripping them on my laptop.
Why would the price go up? Just add the price for the drive as a configuration option. Only those who want it pay the fee.
This has to do with the drop in value of pound versus dollar, and nothing more.
That's unfair. Apple make their own software as well as hardware. Neither Dell, HP, Toshiba, or Acer make a custom OS that supports Blu-Ray.
I don't think Steve was talking about the hardware licensing. I think he was talking about the software - things like having HDCP copy protection throughout the OS to provide a secure path for media data. That stuff is very complex, and Apple has no rush to implement it. That said, I do expect it to ship with Snow Leopard. They're doing a lot of low-level system work and rewriting drivers, so they'll probably implement HDCP in them and be done with it.
As for the touchscreen Macs, I've been saying for ages (as have similarly pragmatic people) that it doesn't make sense. Still, that won't stop people wanting it. There's two types of people when it comes to stuff like this - the 'engineers', who only want something like multi-touch if it's needed and is useful, and the 'marketing guys', who want to add something because it looks cool and high-tech, despite not serving much purpose. Apple let the engineers have first say. That's why they recovered and are moving forward. Microsoft let the marketing guys have first say, which is why they're not.
I like the statement about netbooks. It makes sense for Apple to wait and see how people respond to the new class of machines. This is right up Apple's street. They can make sexy compact machines. They can make a good bid to steal this market from anybody, so let them take the setup risks. At the moment, it's niche, and another product would confuse the product line. Engineers, remember. There's no proven substantial demand, so Apple aren't going to go and pollute their product family with more devices that just look cool but aren't used.
I do agree with you on the point that I would definitely enjoy having Blu-Ray for storage and playback on long plane rides. However, I think that most people may not spring for the option on their MB. Also, the sheet fact that it would take an overhaul of the OS to incorporate the technology seems a bit daunting.
Exactly. You can attach a Blu-ray drive to a Mac but most people would expect if it was included, it would just "work" right out out the box in DVD Player. Apple's taking the "do it all or just don't do it" approach.
Even as a storage medium, blu-ray media is still way too expensive. Dual Layer discs are coming down in price lately which is definitely an option if you need a "solid" medium.
Next Apple moves will be Books and Games
Next Apple moves will be Books and Games
http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/next-apple-moves-will-be-books-and-games/
AMAZING!!!
Next Apple moves will be Books and Games
http://spidouz.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/next-apple-moves-will-be-books-and-games/
AMAZING!!!
Not really. He's right. Bluray at home for movies makes sense. They look fantastic. On a laptop? You ain't gonna see much of a difference. I'll bet we'll see bluray for authoring offered on towers when FCP Studio gets an update. But not on laptops anytime soon. They'll probably just support external drives on laptops for authoring. As for storage...1TB HDs are cheaper and doesn't require each computer to have a bluray drive in it to read it.
OK, I'm not going to defend all the reasons why again, suffice to say that I want Blu-ray (incl movie playback) as an option on the next computer I buy, and they're basically saying 'it's too much hassle right now' despite other computer makers managing it. That sucks.
Actually, on a laptop you are nearer to the screen usually, and most of the notebook screens have a resolution that would give you some benefit over DVD. The higher density of the pixels (versus a TV) is countered by being nearer the screen.
However, that argument misses the most salient point though, that if you have an increasing number of Blu-ray Discs, you don't want to have to buy the DVD or download as well just to watch it on your laptop. If the 'digital copy' or a DVD was included (as I believe Disney are doing with their new Sleeping Beauty BD release) then it wouldn't be so much of a problem, but that is far from ubiquitous on BD releases.
It seems the main issue (at least with people whom I work with) is not necessarily thinness anymore because most Mac portables and most high end PC notebooks are usually thin enough already but rather the machine's foot print. I bet a lot of road warriors would rather pick the "thick" 12 inch Powerbook form factor over the Macbook Air thin anytime.
Only reason why Apple wont release blu ray is cause they wont make AS much money do to them having to pay the licensing and buying a sony or LG drive to put in their machines as their own.
Apple is all about making money, greed, so till Jobs can figure out how to make MORE money by selling BR drives, they they wont, his excuse is the biggest bunch of BS i heard this week.
As stated before, if Dell, HP, Acer, etc. can have it then why can't Apple?........he is just trying to find a good way to monopolize BR to the Apple consumer where there is no way to get around it.........greedy bastards!!!!
Apple is all about making money, greed, so till Jobs can figure out how to make MORE money by selling BR drives, they they wont, his excuse is the biggest bunch of BS i heard this week.
As stated before, if Dell, HP, Acer, etc. can have it then why can't Apple?........he is just trying to find a good way to monopolize BR to the Apple consumer where there is no way to get around it.........greedy bastards!!!!
Agreed totally for some reason the Air would make sense to me if it was smaller. But now it is just so pointless.
Translated with iJobs:
a) It doesn't work. We can't (yet) properly rip movies using OSX and transfer them to iTunes.
or
a) We want people to BUY OUR HD movies from the iTunes Store.
b) We are working on it.
c) We are working on it.
d?) We spent a lot of time redesigning enclosures well above the industry standard and trying to get glass trackpads right.
I honestly don't understand all the fuss about tablets (as opposed to touch screen laptops or desktops, which are non-starters). The first thing I would have to do with a tablet is plug a keyboard in. I don't get their purpose at all.
Could a tablet-Mac-wanting person explain it to me?
To be fair, the studios themselves were as much to blame for the failure of SACD/DVD-A as consumers. They never marketed them properly. I never saw a display at any record store pushing them. Not one. How are consumers supposed to buy them if they don't know about them? I hated the goofy packaging they used, too. I like CD jewel cases much better.It's the same people who think they are downloading "the same as cd" rips of song on iTunes. The general public does not care or has no idea with their "high-end" BOSE speaker cubes. They will be the death of any type of HD audio/video format. SACD/DVD-A
I'm not sure they actually wanted them to succeed, because they are so paranoid about high-res formats being pirated. The thing is that I don't need to break a studio's stupid DRM scheme to pirate, I just need to copy the data wholesale. Any properly licensed player will treat my pirated disc as if it were the real thing.
If the problem was to make a Blu-Ray drive work and play movies, you would be right. That's not a problem at all. What is a problem is to get Blu-Ray drives to work and fulfil all the requirements of the movie industry. You don't even want to know how much work Microsoft had to invest to get this working. Like the video driver that controls HDCP has to use hard encryption to receive commands to turn HDCP on or off; the video driver has to be digitally signed so it cannot be replaced with a driver that claims HDCP is on when it is in fact turned off; stuff to make sure that the movie is encrypted in memory and doesn't end up in your swap file when using virtual memory; making sure that you are not running on a virtual machine and so on and so on and so on. Making it work is ten percent of the effort. Pleasing the RIAA is another 90 percent.
Steve Essentially said its coming
I think his words were, we're waiting for it to take off, then we will incorporate blu-ray. He's only gonna be 4 years late (from his keynote at Macworld in 2005 "the year of HD")
I was at costco and players are down to $229. I bought my first DVD player for $250 (still have it too) This will be the christmas of Blu-ray, for those who say I am fine with DVD, I would ask are you still watching VHS too?
The biggest thing is not Blu-Ray, its HD content, its 1920x1080, because that standard will be around for a long, long time. Blu-Ray just happens to have won the format battle so it will be around for a long, long time.
I wonder how Steve talks about Blu-Ray while he is in the Disney board meetings. Nahh, lets not release movies in Blu-Ray, the licensing is too complicated...
I have an HD camcorder, but no way to output the better quality video, no way to share it with anyone, guess what, that makes iMovie worthless. Frankly I have no idea what Steve is thinking.
I think his words were, we're waiting for it to take off, then we will incorporate blu-ray. He's only gonna be 4 years late (from his keynote at Macworld in 2005 "the year of HD")
I was at costco and players are down to $229. I bought my first DVD player for $250 (still have it too) This will be the christmas of Blu-ray, for those who say I am fine with DVD, I would ask are you still watching VHS too?
The biggest thing is not Blu-Ray, its HD content, its 1920x1080, because that standard will be around for a long, long time. Blu-Ray just happens to have won the format battle so it will be around for a long, long time.
I wonder how Steve talks about Blu-Ray while he is in the Disney board meetings. Nahh, lets not release movies in Blu-Ray, the licensing is too complicated...
I have an HD camcorder, but no way to output the better quality video, no way to share it with anyone, guess what, that makes iMovie worthless. Frankly I have no idea what Steve is thinking.
