Archives: October 2004
Tue Oct 26, 2004
Apple's October 26th Press Event [RECAP]
Apple held a press event on October 26th with U2 and only the big wigs of media and press were invited. As of now, no stream is available but we will keep you updated. The following is a summary of today's multitude of announcements... More...
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Thu Oct 21, 2004
New Black U2 iPod
Forbes has a story reporting that Apple will soon be debuting a new, black iPod. It's going to come preloaded with the band's upcoming album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, and other selections from U2's 25 year catalogue. The new iPod is slated to be released the same week as the band's album, November 23rd.
Apparently, this is only a small part of a larger deal Apple has with U2. In addition to the recent Vertigo ads Apple is running, the album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb will get its run online with the iTunes music store for a few weeks, before being made available on other music networks. The actual CD, of course, will still be available in stores.
The official announcement from Apple regarding the black iPod is expected to be announced next week.
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Tue Oct 19, 2004
Apple Updates Hardware Lineup
October 19th: Previously rumored updates to the Powermac G5 and iBook line were announced today. Only new offerings and speed bumps but nothing too exciting. The updates only came due to demand and the iBook has become long in the tooth, last updated in April.
The Powermac G5 1.8Ghz Single CPU was released today as a low cost option (headless-mac). For the same price as a 1.8Ghz iMac, the tower has similar specs but is geared for those not in the market for an iMac but want comparable price and speed. The new Powermac is $1499.
The iBook G4 was given updates today to 1.2Ghz in the low end and 1.33Ghz. Once again, Apple forces you to purchase a 14 inch iBook to get a faster clock speed. I am not a fan of the larger iBook because you lug around an extra pound of computer for the same resolution as the 12" and with a larger price tag. The new iBooks also come with Airport Extreme pre-installed.
Finally, Apple has updated the Xserve Raid to 5.6 Terabytes of storage. This is a bump from only 3 Terabytes released at January's Macworld Expo in San Francisco. The pricing is still the same which makes the package only two dollars per gigabyte. Don't forget the Xserve Raid is certified to run with Windows and Red Hat and is a great option for IT manager in a Mac, Windows or NT environment.
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Mon Oct 18, 2004
Host Change Successful w/ New Domain Name
October 18th: After a week, the changes have taken place and we are up and running. The only thing we are still having problems with is the Forum, but it will be up as soon as we can get it taken care of. It has been a rough week with many sleepless nights.
State of the Union for MPG: We are one third complete with the redesign and are investing money in new backend applications to make the user experience more exciting. We also have come contests and new advertisers lined up when we make the MPG 2.0 debut. With hundreds of members, thousands of visitors, and a great team of developers and writers, we will be ready to cover MacWorld San Francisco in January. I hope you all be patient as we slowly make the transition.
We have also added a domain to the MPG family. Many complained MyPersonalGetaway was too difficult to say or spell for that matter so we have added ResoluteOpinion.com to our domain list in hopes users will visit more often. Visit http://resoluteopinion.com and experience a quicker route to MPG.
A final note; I would like to thank the team at Spymac Network in Canada and Germany (Rob, Jaime, Jason, Kristie, Christian, and others.). Also, Adam Barber, and Joel Mueller who have helped me along the way of this transition.
http://spymac.com/hosting for great webhosting, excellent support and competitive prices.
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Thu Oct 14, 2004
Apple News Digest
October 14th: A slew of announcements from the Computer maker today...
Apple has unveiled a new store concept for its retail sector, the "mini-store". Apple's new stores are half the size of their big brothers and are designed for colleges, and airports for students and traveling shoppers. The mini stores have the complete line of iPods, some of desktops and top selling hardware and software. There is also room for a genius bar for questions and repairs. The new stores debut all around the country this Saturday.
Also, Apple announced the sale of 150 million songs on the iTunes Music Store. This is a great milestone for Apple because back in June they had sold 100 million. Apple also stated users are downloading four millino tracks a week.
Apple is also giving 300 loops to .Mac users as a promotion of its new Jam Packs for Garageband. Since none of us are .Mac users, we don't give a rat's behind.
One final thing: The media contact for Apple retail store's name is "Fletcher Cook". Myself and a business partner were discussing if Fletcher is a man or woman. We will call soon to figure it out, but who names their kid Fletcher anyway? We also were wondering if Fletcher Cook is related or wed to Tim Cook, a VP at Apple. Just a puzzling tidbit.
That's all for today, talk amongst yourselves.
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Wed Oct 13, 2004
DD News: Conference Call Hightlights
October 13th: From DD News
Apple on Wednesday announced their 4th quarter results. We are thrilled to report our highest fourth quarter revenue in nine years, said Steve Jobs, Apples CEO. We shipped over 2 million iPods, our Retail store revenue grew 95 percent year-over-year, and the new iMac G5 has received phenomenal reviews and is off to a great start. Apple shipped 836,000 Macintosh computers and 2,016,000 iPods during the quarter, representing a 6 percent increase in CPU units and a 500 percent increase in iPods over the year-ago quarter. Apple posted a net profit of $106 million, or $.26 per diluted share. These results compare to a net profit of $44 million, or $.12 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. For more info, check out the press release. They will have a conference call today at 5:00pm, which we will cover, and post highlights here.
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iPod continues with success, but can it stay on top?
The digital music player competition is heating up just in time for the holiday season. Reports are all over the internet about the success of the iPod. Research company The NPD Group states that the iPod has a hold on 92.1 percent of the hard drive-based digital music player market. That same group reported that the iPod has an 82 percent share of the market in U.S. retail stores. These figures are rising. The iPod continues to eat up market share of other products.
Apple continues to have success, but can they keep it up?
More...
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Tue Oct 12, 2004
New iPod Ad with U2's Vertigo
October 12th: On iTunes Music Store and Apple's Website, a new iPod ad has been released featuring U2's song, Vertigo Exclusively on iTunes.
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QuarkXPress 6.5 Released. Why?
October 12th: Typically we either report news or write opinion articles based on the news, but this is current news in an opinion article, if you will. Quark, today, announced QuarkQPress 6.5. It will be shipping in thirty days and will have long awaited features. On their website, they seven new features and the popular, "and much more!", which only says, "this is the best we have". I will settle for seven more features if they are things I really need and before Quark could not offer me.
Let's analyze the additions to Xpress 6.5. "Click Full Story" More...
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Sat Oct 09, 2004
iPod AV: Artist Rendering
Recently, rumors began popping up all over the place about a new iPod, starting with a in-depth exclusive on ThinkSecret. Ryan Katz writes, "Apple's iPod will widen its horizons and gain photo-viewing capabilities within the next 30 to 60 days, highly reliable sources tell Think Secret. The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499." As yet another exclusive of being a Different District member, you can view a high quality artist's rendering (with some help from the iPodLounge Gallery) image here.
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Fri Oct 08, 2004
Spymac Network = A Complete Package
Spymac Network, Inc. (http://spymac.com) has it all for today's Mac users. In a nutshell, you can engage in conversation, use their .Mac similar services, advertise your website, host your website, use their blog software, gallery and have an @spymac.com email address. Many were happy with just the community and complain when Spymac adds features week after week but for many, Spymac is a godsend for Mac users that need it all in one place at a great price. More...
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Sat Oct 02, 2004
iPod wins 'Gold' in Japan's 'Good Design Awards'
Apple's iPod mini received a 'Gold Prize' in Japan's "Good Design Awards". Japan's design evaluation and commendation awards offer awards in several categories, including Ecology, Interaction, Small/Medium Enterprises, "Long-selling", and Product Design, where Apple's iPod mini received the highest distinction, a "Gold Prize' in the Digital Audio Player category. In July, Apple's iPod packaging won a design distinction award.
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