Feb 28th Products: Intel Mac mini and iPod Hi-Fi?

[Spanky Deluxe]

I suspect a 23" iMac, 2.16 GHz.

The only reason being, Apple hasn't put the 2.16 in the iMac yet.

Since a 23" ACD costs $500 more than a 20" ACD so a 23" iMac would probably cost at least $2199 which is a very attractive price. A 2.13Ghz Core Duo 23" screen could be very popular. Although you are begining to get into PowerMac prices there.

 

[psendeavor]

i don't need the DVR stuff because cable tv s***s here in belgium

Having lived in both Belgium and the US: yes, cable TV's bad in B, but definitely not as bad as in the US. Less commercials, y'know. Bring on the DVR stuff here too!

 

[kugino]

It could never be the quality of a CD with it encoded, for it to be CD quality it would have to be AIFF which currently has not DMR. Let alone probably 95% of humans cant even tell the difference any way....

part of the reason people can't tell the difference between AIFF/AL and 128 AAC is because people listen with crappy headphones. the ipod is a rather capable source, given a proper headphone amp and headphones. armed with some good equipment, i'd say a lot of people would be able to tell the difference between compressed and uncompressed music.

 

[TaKashMoney]

Am I missing critical details here? For all those who say a macmini is way too underpowered for DVR and would have to be much more expensive to function properly, the current 80 gb TiVo costs $220 (without the discount, apparently you can get it for 60 bucks now). How is a full-functioning mac-mini not powerful enough to do what a $200 machine has been doing for years?
High-Def may be an issue but its certainly not a large enough deterrant from such a large market space. I feel this rumor is definitely plausible.

 

[Bosunsfate]

If people can download files/shows/movies, who is going to watch the adverts? most channels rely on this as a source of income

30 second adverts are going the way of the dodo bird. The real future of advertising is in direct product placement within the show/movie itself. This is nothing new and has been going on for quite some time.

The difference is that it is now showing better results than direct advertising. Hell, you are already seeing it in podcasting!

 

[skibob1027]

Of course, I mean, I get it. Sitting behind my cardboard iMac...

Also a Dave Glover listener (if not from STL, then you can hear him filling in for Glenn pretty often)? They're both great!

 

[timswim78]

It could never be the quality of a CD with it encoded, for it to be CD quality it would have to be AIFF which currently has not DMR. Let alone probably 95% of humans cant even tell the difference any way....

When listening on a high-end stereo, most people will be able to notice the difference.

 

[johnpaul191]

I still think 1.99$US per episode is way too expensive.

However, if Apple had subscriptions to TV shows directly, I could drop my digital cable box (still catch the local news for free), lower my overall costs and get more shows that I like, and not miss any either (VHS tapes are such a hassle, I don't even bother recording shows anymore).

Paying for only the shows I want? Downloading them and watching them when I want? All for possibly less money, with no ads on top of that? Sign me up!

i agree that it seems odd to buy a show for $1.99, but a lot of people do buy shows, and keep doing it. in all fairness i live in a house with cable and have a dumb TiVo (no service, works like a VCR). i know a few people that live in the city and get almost no TV reception and do not subscribe to cable. they don't have cable partly on principle and partly because, at least here, you can not get cable for less than $40/month. you get a lot of channels but that's still $40/month just to get a TV feed. compare that to $8 or $16 per month to watch 2 TV shows they want to watch as they air as opposed to waiting for the DVDs in the late summer.

though when you add in the a la cart cable TV thing it makes the iTMS TV offerings seem a little different. Apple has not been into the subscription model, but i would not be surprised if somebody else does jump on that. i think the TV networks demand the $1.99 because they are offering shows with no commercials. is it confirmed that Apple still gets the same $ from TV shows as from songs? not same percentage, but same amount of cash? i know that was the rumor at some point.

 

[TaKashMoney]

timswim78 that simply isnt true for many good encodings. One way digital encoding works is by cutting out the frequencies present on cd that are either too high or too low for a human's hearing threshold. (So they can shrink the file to a more manageable size) You could play a well-encoded file with speakers made by God and it would be impossible for ANYone to hear a difference simply because our ears do not detect the frequencies.
However, I will admit that some encodings with extremely low bit rates obviously cut down on information we CAN hear, in which case people will be able to hear the difference.

 

[carve]

ipod hi-fi.

if your going to be able to downlaod music on your ipod and ONLY your ipod what will happen if u drop your ipod and you lose all of your music and videos, photos etc...i think i have a very good point here.

 

[johnpaul191]

I think you've hit the nail on the head with that one.

I really really *really* hope they don't put DVR into the mini. If they spend money on decoders and extra connections on the back then they'll have less to spend on other parts of the mini. Also DVR functionality would be useless for a huge proportion of Apple buyers.
-SNIP-

remember that the name Mac Mini DVR is a product of the rumor mills. *IF* the device is real, that could be how it was described, or roughly the form factor it was based on. completely off the top of my head they could make the Mini into a more cube-like shape to allow for the extra space, or make it wider. think a device in the rough form factor of a DVD player. that way it would stack up with other devices (though what else would you need?). anyway if you take the mini, make it a little shorter and wider it could have the full sized HDD, as well as all the components and room for cooling. if something like this comes, i hope it supports cablecard2.0. TiVo Series 3 with dual CableCard2 (HiDef) slots was shown off already and will be out this year.

i do agree that it seems odd to offer a DVR just as they are trying to sell TV shows. it could happen, but seems odd. they would have to ensure they can provide the TV schedules, which means launching their own service or a partnership with somebody else. even without DVR, there could be a market for a media center Mac. FrontRow plus DVD player, and maybe can talk to other Macs on the network to stream content (like iTunes does). i do not know if video can be streamed over the network like iTunes does. iTunes sharing stalls sometimes, and it would be really annoying for video.

 

[dicklacara]

That's the whole idea. There's no "channels" anymore... just shows that you subscribe to. Just like the RIAA isn't needed anymore with the iTMS, channels aren't needed anymore with a media store with subscriptions.

"Channels" become "networks", i.e. "The Discovery Network" (American Chopper, Daily Planet, How it's Made, etc). Just like you can pick any tune from an album/label, you pick shows from a network.

...

Are we tuesday yet? <g>

To go 1 step further, the individual becomes the network--

--Sam Smith's media

or

--Here's Don Williams' stuff

or

The Rhona Rodgers Show

or, just

--Look at (listen to) me!

 

[MarcelV]

High-Def may be an issue but its certainly not a large enough deterrant from such a large market space. I feel this rumor is definitely plausible.

I agree with you, it's sufficient. Not for HD, but most people are still watching SD, even if they have an HDTV. (Multiple reasons for that, like insufficient availability of channels, cable and satelite not providing all local feeds, most people not having an OTA box plus ignorance of the general public not realizing HD-TV's need a different feed for HD). But I don't feel Apple will go the DVR route. One simple reaosn, it will alienate the networks that they need for iTMS. There isn't sufficient material yet on iTMS for the TV shows to be a good a-la-carte alternative for cable or satellite. They will need much more shows to make that happen. Tivo and NBC, even that NBC is a Tivo partner, fighting as the network doesn't like the TivoToGo solution as it doesn't benefit NBC. And because NBC is becoming a very good partner for Apple, I highly doubt they will go the DVR route already.

To go 1 step further, the individual becomes the network--

In theory and concept this looks very nice, but it is flawed for a few reasons. One of the reasons is that people not necessarily want to look for TV, TV just 'finds them' (turn it on, it's there). Most people are tired in the evenings because all day long they have made decisions. And that's why TV became big at night. It was a their ability to move away from a pressure, away from the daily tasks. It will take a genration or 2 to change that. Second argument against this, is that there will be much less commercial incentives to create a show. If you currently create a show and sign up with the network you're guaranteed viewers. Now you're asking companies to create shows that will have much less viewers. This may not be economic feasible at all. Third, a whole new compensation model will need to be developed for actors. It will be much harder for actors to score a hit series, because there will be much more shows available to choose from and therefore less viwers per episode. Therefore much harder for actors to negotiate an income.
Not that it will not go that direction, but now is not the time, IMHO

 

[u2mr2os2]

While we're all wishing...

Regardless of what's coming Tuesday, all I really want is a headless Intel iMac to hook up to an HDTV since I want both an iMac and an HDTV but cannot afford both. A high-end Mac mini might just fit the bill.

 

[Shasta]

timswim78 that simply isnt true for many good encodings. One way digital encoding works is by cutting out the frequencies present on cd that are either too high or too low for a human's hearing threshold. (So they can shrink the file to a more manageable size) You could play a well-encoded file with speakers made by God and it would be impossible for ANYone to hear a difference simply because our ears do not detect the frequencies.
However, I will admit that some encodings with extremely low bit rates obviously cut down on information we CAN hear, in which case people will be able to hear the difference.

there are very few frequencies on a CD that we cannot hear. A CD is sampled 44100 times a second with a bit resolution of 16 bits.

SO the max frequency recorded is 22.05 kHz at 65,535 discrete volume steps
humans can hear up to around 20 kHz, though we can sense and feel frequencies outside of that limit (psycho-acoustics)

when you encode a song the algorithm cuts some frequencies and boosts others to replace them with harmonic distortion. Our brain will also fill in some of the gaps

many people cannot hear the difference, but even on my iPod, I can tell the difference between a Loss-less format (a form of compression that when decoded *usually* has the same digital make up as the original file) and a lossy format like AAC and MP3... but I use my ears for a living

Shasta

 

[Aeolius]

How is a full-functioning mac-mini not powerful enough to do what a $200 machine has been doing for years?

You need to factor in the price of TiVo service, as well; $12.95 per unit per month or $299 for the life of each unit.

 

[Grasbak]

I am hoping for something that doesnt require getting a new mac!

Something like an video airport express that has already been mentioned. Get Front Row to everyone (I suppose there would be a minimum spec) with remote then some hardware which lets your mac run the media in the house. Send audio to any stereo / movies / programs to any TV.

Possible?

 

[adamberti]

If people can download files/shows/movies, who is going to watch the adverts? most channels rely on this as a source of income.

Some companies are already changing their style. Bosunsfate mentioned direct advertising, but they're also adapting to the technology. I recently read an article about some new KFC ads. There are one or two frames within the commercial you can only see if you catch it with a DVR - you have to pause. These frames tell you how to get a free KFC sandwich coupon. So now if enough companies start doing this, you're going to have consumers taking more than 30 seconds to watch the ad. But then comes the internet, one guys finds it, posts it on 'tvads.com' and no one else has to watch it.

I think it's a neat idea, but if I was to start checking every ad, it would take a bloody long time.

 

[moosecat]

The real deal?

Sorry if I missed discussion and/or explanation of this upthread.

 

[cyberddot]

THAT is not what I was hoping for...

That looks like a pretty limiting product...no chance to fit a nano in that baby. Ugly, tippable, no visible output/input? How did that 'pod make any connection to the pod-plastic-expansion unit?

Ummm...no, thank you.

PS: Can I see a video of the making of this image?

 

[mackeeper]

Sorry if I missed discussion and/or explanation of this upthread.

NO NO NO NO NO! If that is seriously what the Boombox is, or even remotely like I will be MAD MAD MAD! What a stupid peice of junk!

 

[age234]

It seems the picture's gone. Does that mean Apple found it?

[edit] Never mind, it's back.

 

[ScubaDuc]

Having lived in both Belgium and the US: yes, cable TV's bad in B, but definitely not as bad as in the US. Less commercials, y'know. Bring on the DVR stuff here too!

As a "guest" I can say that yes, cable TV is the pits here in Belgium. I resorted to satellite so I can get something different but still, TV either here in EU or in the US , in my modest opinion, has taken a turn for the worse with all those reality shows It really doesn't matter what channel you watch, the game show is the same, only the language differs!

 

[Peace]

Sorry if I missed discussion and/or explanation of this upthread.

Unless Apple has fired Jonathan Ives I'd say this pic is a concept done by 2ndEdison..

[edit] more on this product.. The picture shows " nxt speaker technology".This technology came out in 2001 and has been updated and is now called Distributed Mode Loudspeaker (DML) technology now commonly referred to as ‘flat panel’ loudspeakers. see http://www.nxtsound.com/index.php?id=372

The above product is an OLD concept from 2001.
[/edit]

 

[ScubaDuc]

After looking at the intel price list for cpu's I am going to give my opinion on the specs. If they keep the 499 price point they cant do the core duo or solo the machine wouldnt be able to make a profit. So I think they will go with a pentium M with with 950 chipset, intel hd audio, and a standard rca or svideo out on the standard model. Then they will offer a mid grade unit that has all that plus a source for video in. Then finally the high end model with a core solo cpu, Ati all in wonder graphics for hd in and out, and a smart universal remote that can control everything from your ipod dock to your stereo and tv.

What about the new "old" Intel Pentium D, (805) that seems to run pretty cool? Newegg sells it for less than $150....Seems better than a Pentium M and surely Apple could get it for a lot less. Power per-se is not so important in a plugged in machine as heat is and if they re-design the enclosure to fit a 3.5" drive, there might be room for some additional cooling. However, the D805 is 64 bit... I guess we'll all have to wait, CC at the ready but I really hope Apple is not going to cripple the video card this time around!