Mac user angst

[hkriffraff]

This is my first year as a Mac user and I’m getting accustomed to having to look forward to big events hoping that something I want will be released. So far the year has been a disappointment… the iPod mini release was at first exciting, but as an “international” customer, it seems I’ll have to wait until the thing is outdated before I have any chance of getting one.

Then I was hoping for the new iPods, but nothing at WWDC. Does this mean that the earliest possible release will be the Paris expo? Another gripe is the unreasonable price of a .Mac subscription - which mostly includes features I have no use for, but now seems more and more necessary to get all the touted OS features.

 

[bousozoku]

You can thank Hitachi for the lack of iPod Minis. They didn't forecast properly, so there aren't enough hard drives. Still, they approved an expansion--for December. I suppose if Apple is willing to go with 5 GB drives from Seagate, they could alleviate the problem but not totally eliminate it.

I'm not sure why Apple would introduce updated iPods at WWDC but there should be a revision within a couple of months.

As far as .Mac goes, I haven't seen much in it, so I haven't tried it. The virus protection may be necessary some day soon, but that's the only thing of value.

 

[3-22]

This is my first year as a Mac user and I’m getting accustomed to having to look forward to big events hoping that something I want will be released. So far the year has been a disappointment… the iPod mini release was at first exciting, but as an “international” customer, it seems I’ll have to wait until the thing is outdated before I have any chance of getting one.

Then I was hoping for the new iPods, but nothing at WWDC. Does this mean that the earliest possible release will be the Paris expo? Another gripe is the unreasonable price of a .Mac subscription - which mostly includes features I have no use for, but now seems more and more necessary to get all the touted OS features.

I feel your pain... I'm coming up on a year with my new Mac and the novelty is starting to wear off. Now that most of the apps and hardware (iTunes, iPod, etc.) I like are Windows compatible it's not such a requirement to have Mac.

The announcements today were disappointing. Nothing in tiger seems all that revolutionary, and as a developer it was pretty weak for a developer conference announcement. They also appear to be getting higher and higher prices, perhaps targetting the professional market but that eliminates me.

Oh well, maybe I'm just going through the 1 year "itch"...

 

[Duff-Man]

Duff-Man says....it is a *developer* conference - not the place for them to introduce their *consumer* line of products. More new stuff is surely coming...remember - they do not just use these shows for product introductions, they also have their own press events whenever they want. The iPod was originally intoducted at a special Apple Event remember.....oh yeah!

 

[hkriffraff]

WWDC may be a developer conference, but the Jobs Keynote was nevertheless a major PR event. So doesn’t it stand to reason that any major product launches wont’ happen in the reasonably near-future if they didn’t happen at WWDC?

 

[tjwett]

..Nothing in tiger seems all that revolutionary, and as a developer it was pretty weak for a developer conference announcement...

what, aren't you excited to get into some serious javascript and start developing some really neat "Widgets"?

yeah Apple, way to get the developers all charged up!

 

[Mudbug]

for those questioning the value of .mac

It seems as tho a revised retail version (2.5) will be available July 15.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t.../ref=sr_1_7/104-3552074-6274365?v=glance&s=pc

 

[stoid]

...Nothing in tiger seems all that revolutionary, and as a developer it was pretty weak for a developer conference announcement...

Maybe nothing revolutionary for a developer, but that Apple is going to include meta-searching like Microsoft scratched from the 2006(7) release of Longhorn...

Apple is including a service that THE LARGEST software team on the planet could not write given even a year or two more time. That's pretty damn exciting at least.

 

[iJon]

personally i didn't find the keynote to excited, but then i watched it. I was able to see spotlight, and the cores in action and i was quite impressed. i dont code so i dont know if thats not exciting or not though.

iJon

 

[hkriffraff]

What exactly is .Mac Retail? It still seems on the pricey side! I think Apple should offer a stripped-down, low-cost service for people who don't want anything except the services needed to use OS X functionality (eg, iDisk, Backup).

With an estimated 25m Mac users worldwide and only 500,000 subscribing (many of these must be switchers trying it out), .Mac subscription is a large and pricey service bundle that makes the rest of us feel left out on our OS functionality.

 

[Mudbug]

What exactly is .Mac Retail?

as opposed to a downloaded or bundled version. Full retail price, not discounted or at an upgrade rate. And unless something super-duper is included in the next release, I won't feel like I'm missing out on anything.