Okay, so I was at Macworld SF today and I thought I'd post my opinions on everything I saw since I was able to see it all first hand. Feel free to comment on what you think as well.
I'll start with the iLife '05 and iWork suites. The thing I like most about these software apps is the packaging. The iLife and iWork retail boxes look great and really do more for the brand image than the old iLife '04 box did. The updates to the iLife suite are solid. I especially like what they did with iPhoto--the 3 sizes of softcover photo books are very cool. As for iWork, Keynote's new transitions and animations are good additions. But Pages is probably the ugliest app Apple has ever made--uglier than AppleWorks. However, I used it for a bit and it works well. It can definitely do more than Word, is easier to use, and is well integrated with the iApps (for example, you can bring up a media window that shows thumbnails of all your iPhoto photos, then drag one onto your document).
Okay, now the Mac mini. It looks awesome. It is very small (you can hold it on your palm) and is aluminum so it matches the ($1000+) Apple displays. The power supply is external, though, and is quite large (at least twice the size of the iPod's), but I guess you can hide that somewhere. However, by the time you upgrade the RAM, hard drive, add Bluetooth and Airport, a keyboard and mouse, and a display, you may as well get an iMac G5. There is certainly a market, though, for those who already have those things from their old PC and don't care if they match. I would buy one just for the looks. It is disappointing that Macs will no longer hold their value as much. My eMac 1GHz is just about worthless now, I suspect.
And finally the iPod shuffle. It's about the same size as one of those USB memory sticks, except about twice as long. It's ugly compared to the iPod and iPod mini--no rounded edges, just a white rectangle with some buttons on it. However, I think it has a market among younger kids. The price is right, for sure. One problem I forsee with the design is that it doesn't seem very future-proof. If you only have 100 or 200 songs on it, it may not be a big deal that you have to cycle through your entire collection to get to a song you want. But what about when it gets upgraded to 2GB or 4GB? If you have a thousand songs, that cycle is going to be a lot longer. This was the whole problem that the scroll wheel solved, but this iPod doesn't have it. I was looking forward to getting a 5GB iPod mini, but it looks like I may have to wait a little longer...
I'll start with the iLife '05 and iWork suites. The thing I like most about these software apps is the packaging. The iLife and iWork retail boxes look great and really do more for the brand image than the old iLife '04 box did. The updates to the iLife suite are solid. I especially like what they did with iPhoto--the 3 sizes of softcover photo books are very cool. As for iWork, Keynote's new transitions and animations are good additions. But Pages is probably the ugliest app Apple has ever made--uglier than AppleWorks. However, I used it for a bit and it works well. It can definitely do more than Word, is easier to use, and is well integrated with the iApps (for example, you can bring up a media window that shows thumbnails of all your iPhoto photos, then drag one onto your document).
Okay, now the Mac mini. It looks awesome. It is very small (you can hold it on your palm) and is aluminum so it matches the ($1000+) Apple displays. The power supply is external, though, and is quite large (at least twice the size of the iPod's), but I guess you can hide that somewhere. However, by the time you upgrade the RAM, hard drive, add Bluetooth and Airport, a keyboard and mouse, and a display, you may as well get an iMac G5. There is certainly a market, though, for those who already have those things from their old PC and don't care if they match. I would buy one just for the looks. It is disappointing that Macs will no longer hold their value as much. My eMac 1GHz is just about worthless now, I suspect.
And finally the iPod shuffle. It's about the same size as one of those USB memory sticks, except about twice as long. It's ugly compared to the iPod and iPod mini--no rounded edges, just a white rectangle with some buttons on it. However, I think it has a market among younger kids. The price is right, for sure. One problem I forsee with the design is that it doesn't seem very future-proof. If you only have 100 or 200 songs on it, it may not be a big deal that you have to cycle through your entire collection to get to a song you want. But what about when it gets upgraded to 2GB or 4GB? If you have a thousand songs, that cycle is going to be a lot longer. This was the whole problem that the scroll wheel solved, but this iPod doesn't have it. I was looking forward to getting a 5GB iPod mini, but it looks like I may have to wait a little longer...