macfan70
Nov 27, 01:43 PM
This Asus LCD is great but even at 500 bucks very few people will buy it.
The rotating feature would be great for reading threads. ;)
Asus has this (http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=10&l2=88&l3=367&model=1136&modelmenu=1) display which includes speakers and a webcam. It would be nice if Apple introduced a similar concept with a display only. It would be prefect for the Mac mini.
The rotating feature would be great for reading threads. ;)
Asus has this (http://www.asus.com/products4.aspx?l1=10&l2=88&l3=367&model=1136&modelmenu=1) display which includes speakers and a webcam. It would be nice if Apple introduced a similar concept with a display only. It would be prefect for the Mac mini.
lordonuthin
Feb 10, 04:47 PM
On a side note, I have reached #977 overall with 6.4 mio units! I didn't think it was possible before the bigadv units...
Speaking of bigadv units, I haven't gotten any in the last 2 or 3 days, just regular units on my mac pro?
Speaking of bigadv units, I haven't gotten any in the last 2 or 3 days, just regular units on my mac pro?
Multimedia
Nov 18, 11:04 AM
Also, some uses of a program make it easy to use multithreading, and others don't. As an example, if you use Handbrake to do H.264 encoding, it is work for the developers to use multiple cores (it has been posted here that it uses three cores) for encoding a single movie, but it would be absolutely easy to use four times as many cores to encode four movies simultaneously.
Something like that would be perfect if you want to encode four half hour movies, but awful if you want to encode a single two hour movie.I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean. :confused: I'm kind of anti-H.264 because of how bloated the file sizes get when you use that format and because many viewers don't have H.264 players outside the Mac community. I'd rather target a file size and/or bit rate with good old fashioned universally viewable 2-pass FFmpeg encoding than not be able to do so for an H.264 encode.
My point that Handbrake could use up to 3 cores was that you could have that happening while encoding a DVD image with Toast using another 4 cores if you had an 8-core Mac without a performace-speed hit. As soon as a third process is instigated, all the programs would have to share restricted core limits but get a bunch of stuff done without us having to baby sit the queue.
I am confused by what you think about encoding 4 programs simultaneously vs. one alone. 4 simultaneously will take longer but be possilbe on the 8-core while much slower on the 4-core Macs. While one on a 4-core will do fine by itself, problem is as soon as you start doing anything else, it's speed is compromized while in an 8-core system that would-should not be the case. Does that make any sense?
Something like that would be perfect if you want to encode four half hour movies, but awful if you want to encode a single two hour movie.I'm sorry but I don't understand what you mean. :confused: I'm kind of anti-H.264 because of how bloated the file sizes get when you use that format and because many viewers don't have H.264 players outside the Mac community. I'd rather target a file size and/or bit rate with good old fashioned universally viewable 2-pass FFmpeg encoding than not be able to do so for an H.264 encode.
My point that Handbrake could use up to 3 cores was that you could have that happening while encoding a DVD image with Toast using another 4 cores if you had an 8-core Mac without a performace-speed hit. As soon as a third process is instigated, all the programs would have to share restricted core limits but get a bunch of stuff done without us having to baby sit the queue.
I am confused by what you think about encoding 4 programs simultaneously vs. one alone. 4 simultaneously will take longer but be possilbe on the 8-core while much slower on the 4-core Macs. While one on a 4-core will do fine by itself, problem is as soon as you start doing anything else, it's speed is compromized while in an 8-core system that would-should not be the case. Does that make any sense?
MacRumors
Apr 2, 06:59 PM
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wdlove
Mar 18, 10:11 PM
Many have called for the demise of Apple, but it is still going strong. Anyone that talks against Apple does it at their peril.
GreatestDane
Jan 30, 07:53 AM
I can't imagine many thieves break into cars to try to steal a built-in navigation system that is in full view on the car's dashboard though.
Maybe not in the US, but in Denmark built-in navigation costs in the region of 10000$ (I don't know how much it is in America), and if you see a car with it, you immediately think: "those people have money.", and if a thief (burglar?) thinks so to he is more likely to steal (from) your car.
Maybe not in the US, but in Denmark built-in navigation costs in the region of 10000$ (I don't know how much it is in America), and if you see a car with it, you immediately think: "those people have money.", and if a thief (burglar?) thinks so to he is more likely to steal (from) your car.
FireStar
Oct 1, 05:58 PM
Not sure. I do however, find it funny, that some of the major case manufacturers take so long to release cases. I realize the understanding is that Apple doesn't leak the specs until the day of the Keynote announcement. But, there were eBay sellers with silicone cases available the day of the Keynote (they may have even been up before, I didn't look) that fit perfectly. I bought some of them. So there ARE leaks in China, and the cheap case manufacturers get their hands on them successfully, so I don't know why the major manufacturers aren't privy to the same leaks.
I find it depressing. :( Sorta. I would like more cases out sooner, at least from major case manufacturers. (Especially Switcheasy. :() I however think I'm gonna get a Griffin Reveal (Case with clear backing) so I can have the durability of a case and the customization of a skin. (For the most part.)
I find it depressing. :( Sorta. I would like more cases out sooner, at least from major case manufacturers. (Especially Switcheasy. :() I however think I'm gonna get a Griffin Reveal (Case with clear backing) so I can have the durability of a case and the customization of a skin. (For the most part.)
alec
Oct 23, 10:11 AM
New MacBook Pro's and video iPods for some, abortions and miniature American flags for others
ffakr
Nov 25, 05:32 PM
Dell is setting the pricing. It's not about the vendor costs.. it's all about what vendors think customers will pay.
I'm shopping for one to two compution nodes right now and the Dell Quad-Core 1U servers price at a bit cheaper at 1.86GHz [quad] vs. the dual-core system at 3.0GHz. Since 1.86GHz is very near the low end of the processor line, I'd suspect that we'll see the high end quad-cores sell for much more than the high-end Dual-cores. It won't matter what the part costs are [they are much closer]. There's too much extra value to end users who really need to run a lot of threads.
For most people, one Core2 Duo is plenty of horsepower for a long, long time. I'm typing on my new MacBookPro Core2 right now. One downside with the Core2Duo.. the thermal envelope IS higher than the Yonah CoreDuo processors. This thing gets pretty loud when the cpu [and the fans] spin up. It is wicked fast though [15" model with 2.33GHz]
This is one reason why I don't suspect we'll see a Core2Duo in a Mini any time soon. First off, the cpu is way too fast for a system with Integrated grpahics (unless you want a mini computation node). Unfortunately, Apple hasn't listened to me for the last few years so they haven't built in X-Grid support into all their consumer apps. If they had, your Mac MediaCenter could invisibly speed up the rendering of your iMovie project that you do on your iMac or Macbook. ;-) [as I always tell Apple, I hold no IP on potentially good ideas I provide publicly to Apple, go take them]
For most people, the towers are way too fast. I've set up a few dual-dual 2.66GHz machines and they are wicked fast. It really is difficult to slow them down even when you go out of your way to try (like Mathematica, HandBrake, a fork-bomb, and several other apps).
For me at home, the only reason I'd want a Tower would be for the X1900 video option. The Core2Duo iMac is more than powerful enough in every other way (even the occasional video work). I don't loose money when I'm waiting on a computational cycle though (like some of the people here)
At work, it's a different story. I'm looking for a very small computational cluster or One large computational node and 4 CPU cores may not be enough for multiple users.
Quad Dual-Core Opterons are too expensive so the Dual Quad-Core Intel systems would be perfect. The only problem is, at 1.66 and 1.83GHz, I'd likely be better off with 2 dual-core Core2Xeons running at 3.0GHz because they'd retire threads much faster and they run cooler (our chiller is over 20 years old so heat is a big issue). The Quad-Core Xeon chips run back up into the thermal range of the old P4 family chips. My whole excuse for new funding is to replace cluster of 22 single processor cluster nodes (ranging from 750MHz to 1GHz Athlons).
BTW.. it was some stupid ffakr who predicted in the last thread on this topic that we wouldn't see quad-core mac towers at this time. :-)
I still suspect we'll see Quad-Core chips in one or two high end Tower models only and that will happen at MWSF at the earliest. I also think that it is no coincidence that Apple hasn't replaced the old PPC XServe Cluster Node yet. :-) Considering the relatively low part cost if moving from dual to quad cores.. I suspect that Apple will return the XServe Cluster Node and it may be Dual quad-core only.
ffakr
I'm shopping for one to two compution nodes right now and the Dell Quad-Core 1U servers price at a bit cheaper at 1.86GHz [quad] vs. the dual-core system at 3.0GHz. Since 1.86GHz is very near the low end of the processor line, I'd suspect that we'll see the high end quad-cores sell for much more than the high-end Dual-cores. It won't matter what the part costs are [they are much closer]. There's too much extra value to end users who really need to run a lot of threads.
For most people, one Core2 Duo is plenty of horsepower for a long, long time. I'm typing on my new MacBookPro Core2 right now. One downside with the Core2Duo.. the thermal envelope IS higher than the Yonah CoreDuo processors. This thing gets pretty loud when the cpu [and the fans] spin up. It is wicked fast though [15" model with 2.33GHz]
This is one reason why I don't suspect we'll see a Core2Duo in a Mini any time soon. First off, the cpu is way too fast for a system with Integrated grpahics (unless you want a mini computation node). Unfortunately, Apple hasn't listened to me for the last few years so they haven't built in X-Grid support into all their consumer apps. If they had, your Mac MediaCenter could invisibly speed up the rendering of your iMovie project that you do on your iMac or Macbook. ;-) [as I always tell Apple, I hold no IP on potentially good ideas I provide publicly to Apple, go take them]
For most people, the towers are way too fast. I've set up a few dual-dual 2.66GHz machines and they are wicked fast. It really is difficult to slow them down even when you go out of your way to try (like Mathematica, HandBrake, a fork-bomb, and several other apps).
For me at home, the only reason I'd want a Tower would be for the X1900 video option. The Core2Duo iMac is more than powerful enough in every other way (even the occasional video work). I don't loose money when I'm waiting on a computational cycle though (like some of the people here)
At work, it's a different story. I'm looking for a very small computational cluster or One large computational node and 4 CPU cores may not be enough for multiple users.
Quad Dual-Core Opterons are too expensive so the Dual Quad-Core Intel systems would be perfect. The only problem is, at 1.66 and 1.83GHz, I'd likely be better off with 2 dual-core Core2Xeons running at 3.0GHz because they'd retire threads much faster and they run cooler (our chiller is over 20 years old so heat is a big issue). The Quad-Core Xeon chips run back up into the thermal range of the old P4 family chips. My whole excuse for new funding is to replace cluster of 22 single processor cluster nodes (ranging from 750MHz to 1GHz Athlons).
BTW.. it was some stupid ffakr who predicted in the last thread on this topic that we wouldn't see quad-core mac towers at this time. :-)
I still suspect we'll see Quad-Core chips in one or two high end Tower models only and that will happen at MWSF at the earliest. I also think that it is no coincidence that Apple hasn't replaced the old PPC XServe Cluster Node yet. :-) Considering the relatively low part cost if moving from dual to quad cores.. I suspect that Apple will return the XServe Cluster Node and it may be Dual quad-core only.
ffakr
archer75
Sep 6, 10:03 AM
Not impressed. I could put a Core2duo in my mini myself. I want a better video card in the mini.
MikeDTyke
Nov 30, 07:31 AM
If the iTV is going to cost £100, it will need to do something pretty special to be a success - everything that Microsoft offerings can do at the very least.
The quoted price is $299 which nominally translates to £157 + Apple stiff a brit tax + Government screw yer countryman tax.
I'm expecting £199.
If you think the iTV will do everything that a media centre pc circa(£800) does then i want to know what you are smoking?
It'll be a highly focused 1st release ie, everything in the Sept presentation + RSS feeds rebranded as clever channels, delivering usual junk off YouTube and Google video.
Games, ichat, online imovie editing, they'll be in patch releases, when you buy iTV 2 or never, cos Steve thinks those things suck ass on a TV.
The quoted price is $299 which nominally translates to £157 + Apple stiff a brit tax + Government screw yer countryman tax.
I'm expecting £199.
If you think the iTV will do everything that a media centre pc circa(£800) does then i want to know what you are smoking?
It'll be a highly focused 1st release ie, everything in the Sept presentation + RSS feeds rebranded as clever channels, delivering usual junk off YouTube and Google video.
Games, ichat, online imovie editing, they'll be in patch releases, when you buy iTV 2 or never, cos Steve thinks those things suck ass on a TV.
skunk
Mar 21, 05:39 PM
Loyalists blow with the wind, and the prevailing wind happens to be from Vichy. .... sorry, Tripoli. :oI think that's the prevailing water.
macgeek18
Feb 20, 11:49 PM
It is time to drink the intel Kool-aid my friend
Lol I again drank it 2 days ago by buying a Intel MacBook. Sorry G4's, looks like retirement is looming again. ;)
Lol I again drank it 2 days ago by buying a Intel MacBook. Sorry G4's, looks like retirement is looming again. ;)
UnreaL
Sep 7, 06:44 AM
Well I ordered the new lower model Mac Mini, this will be my first Mac (and its not even for me! For sister..)
1) CPU being Core Duo not really a problem, sims & firefox etc are not going to strain it!
2) 512mb memory is a let down, but im not waiting or paying the amount extra for 1GB as again she wont use it.
3) No superdrive is a let down, I would have spent the amount extra to upgrade if it was there, but I'm not buying the model with better GPU and slightly bigger harddrive and anyway she doesnt use DVD's.
Basically Bootcamp caused me to convert, without it I would have kept her on PC
Well we'll have to see.
Got it for �360 from the Apple higher education store, cant wait :D
1) CPU being Core Duo not really a problem, sims & firefox etc are not going to strain it!
2) 512mb memory is a let down, but im not waiting or paying the amount extra for 1GB as again she wont use it.
3) No superdrive is a let down, I would have spent the amount extra to upgrade if it was there, but I'm not buying the model with better GPU and slightly bigger harddrive and anyway she doesnt use DVD's.
Basically Bootcamp caused me to convert, without it I would have kept her on PC
Well we'll have to see.
Got it for �360 from the Apple higher education store, cant wait :D
SvenSvenson
May 3, 03:25 AM
But they could have made it much better, intuitive and easy. It doesn't mean that going from iOS to MacOSX, you are going to deal with the computers, the same old way.
People are not pointing with fingers and now they have an extra real estate. A mouse has both right click and left click which in my opinion, every computer user knows about.
For a second, forget that you have never seen iOS, but you want to delete the app from launchpad, the only way that comes to your mind is either:
holding the app and dropping into trash OR
right click -> delete
It doesn't have to be the same, seriously.
Actually, in my experience, a lot of nontechnical people DON't use right-click. Also, if you're new to the Mac, (and possibly not very computer literate), dragging an application to the trash to uninstall it is not very intuitive (if you even realise in the first place that applications should be uninstalled).
As the whole Launchpad is new, I personally think that it's OK that it operates differently too. I actually quite like the idea of it and am interested in trying it.
Steve
People are not pointing with fingers and now they have an extra real estate. A mouse has both right click and left click which in my opinion, every computer user knows about.
For a second, forget that you have never seen iOS, but you want to delete the app from launchpad, the only way that comes to your mind is either:
holding the app and dropping into trash OR
right click -> delete
It doesn't have to be the same, seriously.
Actually, in my experience, a lot of nontechnical people DON't use right-click. Also, if you're new to the Mac, (and possibly not very computer literate), dragging an application to the trash to uninstall it is not very intuitive (if you even realise in the first place that applications should be uninstalled).
As the whole Launchpad is new, I personally think that it's OK that it operates differently too. I actually quite like the idea of it and am interested in trying it.
Steve
Chris Bangle
Sep 5, 08:48 AM
2pm GMT
As i said earlier
As i said earlier
Lord Blackadder
Mar 6, 12:08 PM
regarding cars as very international affairs: the history is plastered with failed attempts at "world cars" .. even more so when a car makers call one of their cars a 'world car' in their PR before the release
That's true, though there have been a few successes, like the Ford Focus.
For the record, I walk to work unless the temperatures is around 10F or below. I intentionally located myself near my job, and made some sacrifices in order to do so.
That's true, though there have been a few successes, like the Ford Focus.
For the record, I walk to work unless the temperatures is around 10F or below. I intentionally located myself near my job, and made some sacrifices in order to do so.
rockstarjoe
Jul 18, 02:31 PM
Why not offer both a subscription and an a-la-carte system? The rental movies could be cheaper, lesser quality and last for only a certain amount of plays/days while the ones you buy to own can be of higher quality, more expensive and you get to keep it.
I think you are on to something here. I believe it will work like this:
!) Rent a movie from the ITMS and it will download (not stream) to your computer. It will be in a less than DVD quality format, most likely in whatever format plays on 6G ipod. Let's face it, the 6G ipod and the iTunes Movie service will both be announced at the same time, and that time is not WWDC. The movie sales will drive 6G ipod sales, therefore they must play on 6G ipods, therefore they will not be DVD quality.
2) Movies will have a limited number of plays, rather than a limited number of time to view. Or, alternately, you will pay-per-view (literally).
3) The movie rentals will be cheap (under $5). If you like the movie you will have the option to buy the DVD. Buying the DVD through iTMS will "unlock" the rented copy of the movie on your hardrive, allowing you to own it forever and also to burn it to DVD if you choose (although, again, it will be in less than DVD quality). The real copy of the DVD will be full price plus shipping and the hard copy of the DVD will arrive in the mail a few days later. It will be the same as the retail copy.
This means money for Apple from movie rentals, plus money for Apple from 6G ipod sales (and perhaps Mac Minis if Frontrow gets added in to this), plus money for the BIG STUDIOS for the rentals AND the DVD sales.
It is a win-win-win for the consumer, Apple, and the movie studios... thus I think this is the only way it will happen. What do you guys think? :)
I think you are on to something here. I believe it will work like this:
!) Rent a movie from the ITMS and it will download (not stream) to your computer. It will be in a less than DVD quality format, most likely in whatever format plays on 6G ipod. Let's face it, the 6G ipod and the iTunes Movie service will both be announced at the same time, and that time is not WWDC. The movie sales will drive 6G ipod sales, therefore they must play on 6G ipods, therefore they will not be DVD quality.
2) Movies will have a limited number of plays, rather than a limited number of time to view. Or, alternately, you will pay-per-view (literally).
3) The movie rentals will be cheap (under $5). If you like the movie you will have the option to buy the DVD. Buying the DVD through iTMS will "unlock" the rented copy of the movie on your hardrive, allowing you to own it forever and also to burn it to DVD if you choose (although, again, it will be in less than DVD quality). The real copy of the DVD will be full price plus shipping and the hard copy of the DVD will arrive in the mail a few days later. It will be the same as the retail copy.
This means money for Apple from movie rentals, plus money for Apple from 6G ipod sales (and perhaps Mac Minis if Frontrow gets added in to this), plus money for the BIG STUDIOS for the rentals AND the DVD sales.
It is a win-win-win for the consumer, Apple, and the movie studios... thus I think this is the only way it will happen. What do you guys think? :)
petsy
Mar 24, 12:07 PM
Woulda been funnier if the conversation looked like this:
Q: Apple killing iPod?
Sent from my iPhone
A: We have no plans to
Sent from my HTC Hero
I'd like to see a new Classic though, preferably before summer. I'm out of space and there's 40+ gigs in my iTunes that I can't sync to my pod. Don't want to go the whole summer without an updated pod.
Q: Apple killing iPod?
Sent from my iPhone
A: We have no plans to
Sent from my HTC Hero
I'd like to see a new Classic though, preferably before summer. I'm out of space and there's 40+ gigs in my iTunes that I can't sync to my pod. Don't want to go the whole summer without an updated pod.
Detlev
Aug 16, 05:51 PM
OMG this will be so totally awesome! Maybe they'll introduce it at the WWDC...
Oh wait, that already happened and this is recycled news. meh
Oh wait, that already happened and this is recycled news. meh
SeaFox
Dec 28, 01:52 AM
anything is possible minus 1 thing: the option to dock and iPod simply is so out of place that I do not know why it keeps getting brought up. iTV is focused on streaming content from your computer, not your iPod.
I think an iPod dock is a great idea. It would be nice to be able to use your iTV for something without a computer running. Hey, take your iPod to a friend's house and you can all watch a movie at their house from your collection, just like taking your entire video library with you.
There are two problems with this:
1) HD content takes up a huge amount of space. So if Apple did offer HD movies, the copy iTunes will transfer to your iPod would be reduced quality.
2) iTunes purchases would not be playable on the component outputs on the iTV. The movie studios would require you use an HDMI connection or something else that supported HDCP to ensure you didn't copy the movie out of the iTunes ecosphere.
As several of us have discussed before, my hope is that iTV will be able to stream all forms of content on my computer, but with particular emphasis on digital media. So if I want to bring a word doc up and type or a movie I am working on in final cut pro, I can do so. Similarly, and with more fully developed components all my digital media can be run on my tv. The goal is to make this experience integrate all the entertainment features we love, but throughout our homes. Quality preservation is essential and I think they will work to ensure that takes place.
The issue here is you're asking your iTV to open other files, in other words, you're asking it to be a regular computer. That isn't going to work because it makes the OS/interface more complicated. A home entertainment component needs to be simple and fast. This is where Apple's embedded OSX rumors would be coming in. Everyone read that and thought about the Apple Phone because that was the hot topic of the week and the was the notion of a PDA Apple phone. But an embedded real-time operating system is just what the iTV needs.
People need to stop comparing the iTV to a Mac Mini, they should thinking of it the same way you think of an XBox compared to a Windows PC. Yeah, they're both made by Microsoft, but the XBox doesn't run Windows, it runs a smaller GUI on top of what is mostly a DirectX back end.
What's funny is the reason people keep thinking of the Mini is because what consumers really want is an Apple DVR, a Mac Mini with a little stronger hardware, no external power supply, and a built in tuner. Add PVR functionality to Front Row and maybe a little bit more expansive remote and you'd have that. But since the Mini isn't expandable, it isn't even possible for a consumer to cobble together the solution themselves from a PCI tuner card and DVR software available, the closest they can do has lots of "extra parts" lying around from the ElGato external tuner, a monitor adapter to give them the connection they need, and the Mini's power supply, and it still would not be as easy to navigate since a keyboard would probably be needed at some point.
So a MacMini wont download and play a HD movie or display a word doc, and you need the iTV to accomplish this basic task?
No, it will do those things, but a MacMini costs $600. Not everyone wants to keep their main computer hooked up to the TV. The iTV allows them to watch their iTunes Store-purchased movies on a larger screen than their regular monitor without moving their computer.
Also, most people don’t need final cut pro or photo shop. So, that’s why I was thinking this could be a basic computer. If not you will need the mac mini to go with it, and why not simply include the iTV with the Mac Mini so you don’t have two devises in a limited shelf space.
The iTV is meant to be an add-on to an existing Macintosh household. Not a self-contained entertainment product like a CableCo box or a PS2.
The idea is the iTV would support more common TV connection methods out of the box, be designed to fit in better aesthetically with home entertainment components, offer better video performance, overall stability, and lower power usage than a MacMini for less.
Is the problem the iTV will address processing the images or scaling them?
I hope so. Maybe it will be upconverting for watching current iTunes movies on an HDTV?
I think an iPod dock is a great idea. It would be nice to be able to use your iTV for something without a computer running. Hey, take your iPod to a friend's house and you can all watch a movie at their house from your collection, just like taking your entire video library with you.
There are two problems with this:
1) HD content takes up a huge amount of space. So if Apple did offer HD movies, the copy iTunes will transfer to your iPod would be reduced quality.
2) iTunes purchases would not be playable on the component outputs on the iTV. The movie studios would require you use an HDMI connection or something else that supported HDCP to ensure you didn't copy the movie out of the iTunes ecosphere.
As several of us have discussed before, my hope is that iTV will be able to stream all forms of content on my computer, but with particular emphasis on digital media. So if I want to bring a word doc up and type or a movie I am working on in final cut pro, I can do so. Similarly, and with more fully developed components all my digital media can be run on my tv. The goal is to make this experience integrate all the entertainment features we love, but throughout our homes. Quality preservation is essential and I think they will work to ensure that takes place.
The issue here is you're asking your iTV to open other files, in other words, you're asking it to be a regular computer. That isn't going to work because it makes the OS/interface more complicated. A home entertainment component needs to be simple and fast. This is where Apple's embedded OSX rumors would be coming in. Everyone read that and thought about the Apple Phone because that was the hot topic of the week and the was the notion of a PDA Apple phone. But an embedded real-time operating system is just what the iTV needs.
People need to stop comparing the iTV to a Mac Mini, they should thinking of it the same way you think of an XBox compared to a Windows PC. Yeah, they're both made by Microsoft, but the XBox doesn't run Windows, it runs a smaller GUI on top of what is mostly a DirectX back end.
What's funny is the reason people keep thinking of the Mini is because what consumers really want is an Apple DVR, a Mac Mini with a little stronger hardware, no external power supply, and a built in tuner. Add PVR functionality to Front Row and maybe a little bit more expansive remote and you'd have that. But since the Mini isn't expandable, it isn't even possible for a consumer to cobble together the solution themselves from a PCI tuner card and DVR software available, the closest they can do has lots of "extra parts" lying around from the ElGato external tuner, a monitor adapter to give them the connection they need, and the Mini's power supply, and it still would not be as easy to navigate since a keyboard would probably be needed at some point.
So a MacMini wont download and play a HD movie or display a word doc, and you need the iTV to accomplish this basic task?
No, it will do those things, but a MacMini costs $600. Not everyone wants to keep their main computer hooked up to the TV. The iTV allows them to watch their iTunes Store-purchased movies on a larger screen than their regular monitor without moving their computer.
Also, most people don’t need final cut pro or photo shop. So, that’s why I was thinking this could be a basic computer. If not you will need the mac mini to go with it, and why not simply include the iTV with the Mac Mini so you don’t have two devises in a limited shelf space.
The iTV is meant to be an add-on to an existing Macintosh household. Not a self-contained entertainment product like a CableCo box or a PS2.
The idea is the iTV would support more common TV connection methods out of the box, be designed to fit in better aesthetically with home entertainment components, offer better video performance, overall stability, and lower power usage than a MacMini for less.
Is the problem the iTV will address processing the images or scaling them?
I hope so. Maybe it will be upconverting for watching current iTunes movies on an HDTV?
zoozx
Sep 7, 08:14 AM
ps this download system will never work until the time it takes to DL a full movie is under 2 hrs. Most films now are 4-8 gigs.
Flowbee
Sep 6, 06:18 PM
Yes. I want rentals. I almost never want to see the same movie again, so I won't want to store it.
Rentals are what I would use. At a sufficiently low price, of course. $2 for close to DVD quality would be OK. (I'm less picky about rental quality than purchase quality.)
I'm with you on that one. A decent rental download or on-demand service is the only thing that will get me to give up Netflix. I'm just not buying any more movies. In fact, I'm currently selling my DVD collection (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdz-2000QQhtZ-1).
Rentals are what I would use. At a sufficiently low price, of course. $2 for close to DVD quality would be OK. (I'm less picky about rental quality than purchase quality.)
I'm with you on that one. A decent rental download or on-demand service is the only thing that will get me to give up Netflix. I'm just not buying any more movies. In fact, I'm currently selling my DVD collection (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZdz-2000QQhtZ-1).
hismikeness
Mar 22, 03:58 PM
Is there an app in which the face of the iPod touch/iPhone has a digital scroll wheel on the bottom half and a screen on the top half to simulate the iPod Classic interface? Maybe that would be enough to satiate the holders on to the classic?
