Macworld Expo: Day 2: The Apple booth and beyond
Macworld Expo: Day 2: The Apple booth and beyond
The Apple booth When you first enter the Apple section of the Exhibit Hall, you are immediately greeted by several banks of new 17" iMacs. In fact, no other Mac model is apparent anywhere. If you searched a bit, you would find one bank of eMacs (this was the first time we had seen this model "live"; personally we found it less appealing than it looks in photos; it has a more bulky box appearance compared to the original iMac). The new Xserve models were on display in a separate small but still prominent section of the Apple booth. If you searched harder, you'd find a few laptops. At first, we thought that Power Mac G4s were almost nowhere to be found. But we did eventually find one bank of them in the far corner of the booth. Apple has understandably always featured its latest hardware in its booth. But we don't recall ever seeing it quite this lopsided. Various sources have predicted that Apple will be releasing new G4s (and flat panel displays) in August. Perhaps, it is in anticipation of this that Apple did not want to draw attention to its existing G4 models at this Expo.
The new iPods were also on hand. I had a chance to experiment with the solid-state "scroll wheel." It worked similar to a trackpad, changing the display without any moving parts, as you slid your thumb over it.
Speaking of Apple products announced at the Expo (see yesterday's Expo report), the cost of Apple's new software and services is emerging as a major issue:
Mac OS X price Many Mac users are complaining about the pricing of OS X 10.2. In particular, as stated yesterday, there is so far no announced reduced upgrade price. This means that if you purchased a retail copy of OS X 10.1 as recently as last week, you will have to shell out an additional $129 to get the 10.2 upgrade. I still suspect/hope that Apple will offer some sort of reduced upgrade price between now and August 24, but I am far from certain that they will.
If you just bought Mac OS X Server, you appear to be even worse off. Getting the OS X 10.2 Server upgrade will set you back at least $500.
Update: The Apple Store for Education is selling Mac OS X 10.2 for only $69.
.Mac price Several readers claimed that Apple had initially promised "free email for life" when iTools was first announced back in 2000 (I can't recall if this was the case or not). If so, the new $100/year fee for .Mac would break that promise. Perhaps in recognition of this, there is some indication (on this page) that Apple is offering a free email-only version of .Mac. However, we could not find the "Email Account Management button" mentioned on the page (see also yesterday's related ".Mac for free, limitations" article).
Update: The language on the Apple page has now changed to clarify what is being offered: Email-only accounts are $10/year and are only for secondary users added to an existing "full" account.
Brent Rossow points to this iTools membership agreement page, which clearly states that Apple was not promising anything "for life." As noted by Ben Rosenthal, the original press release also makes no mention of any "for life" promise.
QuickTime price QuickTime users are now discovering that the $29.99 upgrade price for QuickTime 6 is just the beginning. If you want to play MPEG-2 content via QuickTime, you will have to purchase the MPEG-2 Playback Component for an additional $19.99.
Update: A couple of readers pointed out that there are separate MPEG-2 Components for OS X and OS 9. So, if you want both, it will be $40.
No upgrade price for OS X 10.2, no more free iTools services, a double upgrade price for QuickTime 6. Apple is taking a much more aggressive position about the pricing of its products and services. Not surprisingly, a significant user backlash (letters of complaint, petition drives, etc.) is already underway. But whether the backlash gathers force or quickly dies out still remains to be seen. On the plus side of the ledger, the newly announced iTunes 3, iCal, and iSync are all free. And the new iPod now offers more features for less money.
Beyond the Apple booth Wandering around the rest of the Expo floor, we could find very little of particular interest beyond what we mentioned in yesterday's report. The lone exception was the new Epson Stylus Photo 960 printer. It features a paper dispenser separate from the traditional sheet feeder. It is a "wheel" that can hold a roll of glossy photo paper; the look of the device is not unlike a roll of toilet paper. You can use this paper to print standard size photos. When the photo printing is complete, the printer cuts the paper and spits out the finished product. It is border-free and looks almost indistinguishable from photos that you would get by dropping film off at your pharmacy. Truly amazing. The printer will cost a little over $300 when it goes on sale in September. I believe it replaces the similar Stylus Photo 890 - which also has border-free roll printing. But the 960 is the first time I had seen this feature in action.
One other note: The author of the Marine Aquarium screen saver showed up in the Speaker's Lounge on Tuesday. I wasn't there at the time, but I heard that almost everyone was so impressed with the program that most wound up purchasing a copy. I have since checked it out and it is indeed a spectacular aquarium animation. We've come a long way from the old Pyro "fish" screen saver.
Apple Store My son hoofed it down to the new Apple SoHo store, which opened yesterday. It was packed, as you might expect, despite its large two floor size. Its "Grand Opening Calendar of Events" features a month of filmmakers, photographers, designers, musicians and more - discussing their use of a Mac. In addition, Mac authors Jim Heid, Chris Breen, and Adam Engst are scheduled for guest appearances today and tomorrow.