What's in store on the 28th?

case_sensitive

Anybody got a better inside contact than appleinsider/thinksecret?

My predictions, based on what I've read are:

Feature-length movie downloads from iTMS, still not outside the US though.
iBook intel, to be called MacBook
ipod accessories, probably the iBoombox thing
A few more PRO apps to go intel native, or at least be announced.

What I *want* is a duo-core Mac mini w/PVR and Cinema touchscreen LD/TV, but I doubt I'll get either.

Fenster

It looks to be a fullscreen, touchscreen video iPod, from pictures that have been floating around these past few days. Check Slashdot/Digg/Ars Technica.

Oriel

I hope there's a new iBook. If there isn't, then I'm stupidly going to have to buy the Macbook Pro...

Ham'nd'egger

sinecurea wrote:

I hope there's a new iBook. If there isn't, then I'm stupidly going to have to buy the Macbook Pro...

Well, seeing as the Macbook's have already had a CPU upgrade before they even shipped, that may not be all that unlikely

flogen

I'm hoping on either a new mini mac or ibook; probably going to see the ipod boombox, there's some AirTunes stuff coming too apparently;
I wonder if we'll see the touchscreen ipod or the touchscreen apple computer, hard to tell...

babypink

better get the credit card ready....have the feeling its gonna be a good one!

spartacus93

I though it was on at 5, not starting until 6 now.

flogen

http://www.macrumorslive.com/web/

good live blog here...

spartacus93

Won't be long now

IrishEmperor

what a disappointing announcement

mac minis with integrated graphics for $100 more[$599]... (Irl: €649: $785)

$350 speakers? sigh...

a $100 leather case......

babypink

IrishEmperor wrote:

what a disappointing announcement

ditto here.....bit of a let down

spartacus93

IrishEmperor wrote:

what a disappointing announcement

mac minis with integrated graphics for $100 more[$599]... (Irl: €649: $785)

$350 speakers? sigh...

a $100 leather case......

Couldn't have said it better. Them speakers are ugly, although im sure it will grow on me. But €370, Id rather get the Bose sound-dock.

m_stan

the dual-core intel based mini is nice. also, the hdd is now upgradable to 120gig, the ram to 2gig. so it's gonna be a much beefier machine than that old top-end machine I bought just a few weeks ago.

that said, it's getting expensive.

for me it's not worth the upgrade though, not until they do some cool pvr stuff. the extra speed plus frontrow and the remote aren't justified by the price. esp when my existing little mini works just great !

step in the right direction, but they need to go one further with the mini and make it a ful media center competitor. then it'll be the ultimate living room computer system.

IrishEmperor

if you really want a leather case:

http://www.dasblau.com (60 George Washingtons)

case_sensitive

Ok, where they could do little wrong before, they seem to have made up for lost time yesterday..
€350 for a set of ugly speakers??? €99 for easily the worst iPod nano case/sleeve yet conceived? And there's the Mini.
I'm not surprised that the Mini doesn't have PVR capability, after all, it would canabalise their iTMS video (which we STILL can't buy, grrr), but for god's sake, Intel GMA950 integrated graphics? Sticking with 2.5" drives? Their own quicktime subpage suggests that it definitely won't play 1080p, and will struggle with 720p HD video. I'm also disappointed, though not surprised at the speeds of the processors, 1.5 Solo and 1.66 Duo? To top it all off, they're no longer cheap.
Plus points are the decent audio in/outputs, TV out cable in the box, and it's probably as quiet. Plus, I suppose I could cough up €200 for one of those case-matched external drives/USB hubs.

With the same processors as Wintel boxes, it's going to be very hard to hold these machines up to their competitors with a straight face, particularly given that a PVR solution for the Mac costs a minimium of €150 (or €300 if you want hardware encoding), whereas I can stick a PCI card into any PC starting from €60. I'm seriously considering a HTPC, where an Intel Mac mini was a virtual shoe-in.

m_stan

all valid points, but when you think about it - if they put 3.5" drives, decent graphics, pvr cards and faster processors into a mini, it'll no longer be quiet and no longer be small - two of the main reasons why I for one bought mine.

the trade-off is a good one. it's just a pity they're getting so expensive.

case_sensitive

This is what I actually want them to build..




You'd easily fit a 3.5" disk in there, and integrate the PSU. Why not a 4th tier of desktops? I think there's room for something between the mini and the iMac, and in my head, it looks like this.

flogen

mini mac very disapointing alright, will certainly wait and see what the ibook has to offer, it'll probably be no different besides a new processor, but so what? The mac mini would have been perfect as a media centre pc, but instead they just upped the price (wasn't affordability the whole point of the mini?)