links for 2006-02-28

• web|log of Ross Gerbasi » Blog Archive » Extreme Video Plugin 2.0 beta
  (tags: web|log of Ross Gerbasi » Blog Archive Extreme Video Plugin 2.0 beta)
• Steve Jobs’ definitive wardrobe
  (tags: Steve Jobs’ definitive wardrobe)

Buy my old Mac Mini

I just ordered the new 1.66 Core Duo Mac Mini with 2-3 day shipping. So, I am selling my 1.33Ghz Mac Mini for $439 on eBay on a 1 day auction.

It’s a great system and comes loaded with iLife ’06, iWork ’06, Adobe Photoshop CS, Apple Front Row, and many other aps. I will even fill it up with non-DRM music if you mention you saw it on my site here for you.

Just got an email from Apple: Estimated delivery of Intel Mac Mini: March 2rd. 2 days, pretty quick!

iPod leather cases

These are the leather cases for the nano and 5G iPod that apple announced today as well. The description reads:
Hand-crafted from fine Italian leather with an extremely soft and durable lining, the iPod Leather Case offers a snug, secure fit. A gentle pull of the ribbon will gracefully expose your iPod when you are ready to use it again. For use with 30GB iPod with video (also available for the 60GB and nano).

They are all $99 (no student discount)
They ship in 3-4 weeks. If you ask me, with no screen view or click wheel control, they aren’t worth it. Only iPod case that is worth that much is a Vaja case if you ask me.

Apple's Fun Products

Well it was almost a let down the Apple announcement today.
There is a new Mac Mini with Intel (that I will be buying), and an iPod HiFi speaker system, which is UGLY.

The iPod HiFi costs $350 ($329 student) and comes with a remote control, audio in (optical and analog), you can add batteries, etc. It’s everything that everyone thought it would be, but not that attractive the way most apple products are. The Fury 2.1 speakers from Sound Druid and ThoughtOut are far better looking than this speaker, and I am guessing they sound a hell of a lot better, and won’t scratch as easily.

The Intel Mac Mini comes in a single or dual core system. Both come with 512MB of DDR2 ram, 64MB video memory, FOUR usb ports and 1 firewire, optical in/out, 54g wifi, gigabit ethernet, and bluetooth. Front Row with Bonjour is now included with an Apple remote. You can stream all your media across multiple computers with the new Front Row.

The 1.5Ghz Core Solo is $599 ($579 student) with 60 gig HD SATA and a combo drive.

The 1.66 Core Duo is $799 ($779 student) with 80 gig HD SATA and a SuperDrive with dual layer support.

I have a feeling my 1.33 Mac Mini is getting replaced with a 1.66 dual core.

New Products

Apple Event – Fun New Products

This is the coverage of the coverage. I’ve got about 10 different sites, chat rooms, and IM’s open and I’m ready to post the details as they pour in. Stay tuned… (items in reverse chronological order)

10:39am PT – So, what’ve we talked about today? Some really cool products, a new Mac mini that runs 5x faster… Front Row with Bonjour, update will go out later this week… iPod cases, they’re really, really nice. And, of course, the new iPod Hi-Fi.

10:40am PT – Thank you very much for coming today, and we’ll see you all real soon…

JOBS IS WALKING OFF-STAGE, THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY!

No updates, don’t know what is happening!!!!

Jobs: We have some rooms upstairs – sample a kitchen, dorm room, living room, study.

It even has an auxiliary input in the back so you can plug your shuffle in. Let’s look inside… we’ve integrated the electronics and the power supply in there, there’s no power brick. You can power this off D size batteries, you can take it out the cabana or the pool, great sound wherever you are. We have two 80mm mid range drivers in sealed acoustic suspension. We have a 130mm dual voice coil woofer with a ported bass reflex design, we get great bass on this thing that doesn’t distort when you crank it up. It has a sealed resin enclosure that doesn’t vibrate. … one of the things’s we’ve done is putt a speaker option in the iPod menu. Update’s already out, you can set the tone control, boost the treble or the bass.

IPod integration: there’s a software update for iPods that puts a speaker menu item in the main menu.
Tone control, backlight always on or off, large album art on or off.
Screen can go black and just show album art.
Controlled with the Apple Remote.
Price: $349 – Goes on sale today.

Pull black grille off of white box to reveal three speaker drivers.
Integrated power supply – no brick.
Power it off of six D-size batteries if you want. “Several hours outside.”
Two 80mm mid-range drivers in sealed acoustic suspension.
In center is 130mm dual voice coil woofer, ported bass reflex design.
Great bass, doesn’t distort when cranked up.
Universal Dock connector and integrated handles.

Comes with inserts for every iPod. Two buttons – volume control.

iPod Hi-Fi
Home stereo. Reinvented.
Looks like a center channel speaker with iPod dock on top.

Jobs: 40% of all autos sold this year in US will have iPod connectivity as an option.
Now’s time to add In the Home. People like to use iPods with groups inside. Problem with these products – stereo products – is that they don’t offer home stereo quality.

What is home stereo quality. Audiophiles need a large sound stage. you can hear the performers sounding larger than the speakers. Precise imaging and separation. Each instrument can be heard separately. Third thing is wide frequency range. You want great bass, also be able to hear the highest frequencies. You also want room-filling power without distortion.

–New Products–
Leather iPod cases – black for 5G and nano
No screen or control access.
$99 each – mid-March.

“It took McDonalds 8 years to sell a billion burgers.”

“Fifty percent of our entire product line is now available with Intel processors, in less than sixty days,” said Jobs.

‘Let’s talk about music.’
Jobs discussing iPod and iTunes numbers.

1.5ghz Core Solo 667 mhz fsb, 512mb memory, integrated graphics 60GB drive, combo drive – $599
Second model with Core Duo – 1.67, 80GB drive + SuperDrive – $799
Both available today.

Standard features: Tiger + iLife ’06, Apple Remote + Front Row, Airport Extreme + Bluetooth, DVI Video Out, USB, FireWire, Gigabit Ethernet.
Price: $599

The Mac mini appears physically the same as it did before, but it’s 2.5x to 3.2x faster than its predecessor (using the same benchmarks Apple offers for the iMac and MacBook Pro), thanks to the inclusion of the new Intel Core Solo CPU, depending on clock speed. For the Core Duo models, it’s 4.8x or 5.5x times faster on those tests.

“Front row with Bonjour” is the software’s name.
Media from any other mac or windows computer running iTunes will be piped over to the Mac mini hooked up to your television set.
Mac mini comes with iLife ’06.

Shared Photos and Video – Same idea only for photos and videos. Can stream iTunes TV shows.

– New Feature –
Shared Music – Bonjour technology, allows devices to find themselves automatically over a network, access music library wirelessly.

The redesigned Mac mini features gigabit Ethernet, a total of four USB 2.0 ports, analog and SPDIF audio outputs and more.

“And, of course, you can also hook it up to televisions,” Jobs told the audience. It’s been widely speculated that Apple might use today’s event to introduce a Mac model with better home entertainment integration.

The new Mac mini, like its iMac sibling, features Front Row, an application that makes it possible to view movies, listen to audio, watch music videos and more from your Mac, in full-screen, using an infrared remote control from across the room. The Mac mini now sports an infrared sensor in the front of the Mac min, next to the machine’s optical disk drive slot.

As demonstrated by Jobs, Front Row now has a new feature — the ability to support shared music libraries accessible through iTunes. So using Front Row, you can listen to the contents of other machines running iTunes on the same subnetwork.

Front Row software
IR sensor on right of disc slot
Six button Apple remote

Jobs told the assembled reporters that Apple is on track to convert its entire professional line of Macintosh computers to Intel CPUs this year. Apple tested those waters in January when it began shipping its mid-range consumer model, the iMac, with an Intel chip inside.

“The reviews are the best we’ve gotten for any machine we’ve ever shipped. and we also announced the MacBook Pro, we started shipping it last week. Lot of customers have already gotten theirs, again the reviews are off the charts.

Mac mini goes intel

Jobs introduced the new Intel-based Mac mini, Apple’s low-cost consumer desktop system. The base model features an Intel Core Solo CPU — a single-processor, single-core CPU. But the company is also introducing a Mac mini that features Intel’s Core Duo processor — the same kind of CPU that powers the iMac and MacBook Pro.

New Mac mini
Based on Intel
Single and dual-processor chip versions
2.5x – 3.2x faster
Same exact form factory

Update on Intel transition. Discussing Apps.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage of Apple’s own Town Hall facility at its Cupertino campus. Apple is introducing fun things today, he said — “medium scale things, but our customers want all of them.”

Everyone is being seated. Apple design guru Jonathan Ives in front row. Music by U2, Green Day, others.

Apple executives and press are still gathering.

Jon Rubinstein, Senior Vice President of Apple’s iPod Division, Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of hardware marketing, and other execs making their way through crowd.

We’re just ten minutes away now…

Only about 150-200 people at the event

Apple store is down!

Fake Mac tablet????? The MacPad

No visible posters or banners of products.

Apple corralling everyone in now.

Media is gathering outside building. Attendance appears to be extremely limited

If Microsoft did the iPod box

Now this is one of the better videos I’ve seen in quite some time.  

This is my first attempt in posting a YouTube video on the site, I hope it works.

WWJD?

Engadget had a photoshop competition about What Would Jobs Do this Apple announcement. Some of the entries are really good, and many are far fetched. Here are some of my favorites.

My roomie has talked about wanting something like this for a while now:

This is a possibility at today’s event:

 

This would kick some major ass:

Finally I would kill for one of these:

Bose to take on iPod?

This is quite far fetched, but there are rumors that Bose will come out with a iPod type device on their March 2nd announcement. I HIGHLY doubt this.

If anything, they will come out with a better iPod SoundDock to compete with a new Apple iPod HiFi speaker dock, or maybe they partnered to create it. Apple did used to feature Bose SoundDock’s in the front window of their stores.

Free Pancakes

Today only at IHOP(r) from 7am till 2pm. It apparently is Shrove Tuesday or National Pancake Day.

Too bad I won’t be able to make it, but still a good deal.