So, the upcoming Apple Event on Tuesday, Sept 9th looks to bring yet another revision to the iPod lineup... or so the most credible rumors tend to point anyway. I never understood why people get sooo upset on forums in regards to speculation of what will and wont be revealed in these events... Its like people tend to take it really personally if people dont believe their opinion is the right one. Others flat out lie, claiming "I know for sure because I have inside information" blah blah blah. That is beyond me why so many just flat out make stuff up like that... Anyway, sure I love to speculate, but thats all it is, and honestly I can wait patiently to see whats going to happen on Tuesday... Im sure there will probably be "...Just One More Thing".

So browsing through CNN today I came across an article in their Money section and I was quite surprised at the writers tone in regards to a few statements. Now, I am not an "Apple Fanboy" by any means. I own Apple products, and I also own "others" as well. I love some of the things my Apple products do, and at the same time there are some things that they do that I absolutely hate, hence the need to keep these "other" products around. I use what suits my needs at any particular moment. Anyway, back on track, the writer talked about how a revolutionary reveal would be needed at the event to "save" the ipod line as in his words its doomed to fail with the iphone taking over its duties. Hmm... First of all, I dont think the product line really needs to be "Saved" from "Dying"... I think the market share speaks for itself. Second, as amazing as a concept that this may be, not everyone has an iPhone! I know tons of people who have iPods and no iPhone for various reasons. I also see tons of kids... like really young kids... with ipods. I highly doubt mom and dad are going to replace that with an iphone for their 10 year old... well some maybe But thats a different story. Another huge factor which a lot of people seem to fail to mention or compare in these stories is storage. Talk to me when the iPhone has 160gig of storage... and when it does they will probably come out with a 1 TB edition classic

The other thing I have been seeing on a lot of forums is people complaining they just arent excited for product releases anymore. This is kind of sad to me, especially when referring to a company like Apple. It seems like people expect an iPhone like breakthrough every time Jobs hits the stage and then are disappointed when it doesnt happen. Then out comes the fodder from all directions of how things are "failing" and all that other nonsense. Dont get me wrong, there were definitely issues with both iPhone releases, MobileMe recently and various other things, but really, what other companies dont suffer the same fate... Im sure many companies would love to have Apples "problems". What other companies can you name that even have half the hype and people interested when Jobs is scheduled to give a Keynote somewhere?

I write this because Im wondering...is it just me?? Or do you guys feel where Im coming from?

Another funny bit I caught on another forum, from an obvious MS fanboy, got all bent out of shape when people were slamming the new MS Seinfeld/Gates commercial... ok, promoting any company aside... that was some of the worst money spent on tv advertising I have seen in a long time. Just my 2 cents... unless they actually DO come out with a PC that IS made of cake... then I will eat my words and call it the best commercial EVER! But anyway, back to the MS Fanboy, after the usual back and forth banter about PC vs Mac, he comes out and says that "Its not a fair comparison as MS makes SOFTWARE and APPLE makes HARDWARE".... hmm... he's right... if only Apple would come out with some sort of product that would compete with Vista...

So anyway, hope everyone enjoys the show on Tuesday.... Who knows, maybe we will be surprised...

Jay, well said. To address a couple things...

First, the people that get upset when you don't believe their same thoughts and the others that spread rumors. These are the fanboy immature, 14 year olds, and less knowledgeable users. Or, at least, that has been my findings.

As for the iPod, I use to think the same thing when the iPhone first came out. I thought, man, this is gonna kill the iPod. But, now I have really rethought this. It isn't going to kill the iPod. It just means the iPod line needs to be rethought. The classic will go away over time, not now, but in a couple years when SSD catches up to 90% of people's music library size. Somewhere around the 64GB mark sounds about right. Or maybe even now with the 32 mark and the 64 in the near future. The touch will take the classic's place. But, there will always and forever, as I see it, remain a market for an ipod thats very portable, for people that like them to workout. I have an iPhone and I love it, but I can't work out with it, its too bulky and heavy to use. So, I have a nano that I use, and will always have a second one for this purpose, until the iPhone gets smaller somehow...

Those MS commercials...ha. Just a terrible waste of money. Horrible marketing, and I have no problem admitting good marketing techniques, whether I like the company or not.

Steve is obviously going to announce the all new "iPhone BH", to be powered by miniature black holes which will no doubt start getting churned out by the LHC on sometime on wednesday.......

Well, there goes all my prototypes out the window. Damn Apple, you win again!


In all seriousness though, I was extremely perplexed by that MS Commercial. I understand their trying to humanize Bill Gates and his corporation. However, that commercial mentioned nothing of the products... or really anything Microsoft at all.

I also agree in regards to the iPhone never replacing iPods. I'm in love with dedicated devices. One device that can do many things, is great. But I like being able to pick up another one and be completely disconnected. I'm only one person, but if there's one there's bound to be others.


And I sure hope that Apple releases a sweet MacBook Mini or something of the like soon.

Well, now the event has come to pass: no MacNews. Again.

I would expect, however, that there will be refreshes across the board before the holiday buying season begins in earnest. Otherwise, Apple is likely to see a downturn in Mac sales for the holiday quarter. It seems less likely that there will be any new/updated models until Macworld, though (and now's the time to get free expo tickets!).



^ Very true. ^ This is why Apple itself views the iPod/iTunes, iPhone, and Mac as three legs of a stool. And I agree: dedicated devices rock. Although I have an iPhone, I only rarely use it as an iPod; I have an iPod for that. ::)

Well, in the aftermath it was a mediocre event at best.

Not rushing out to get a new product, although I foolishly installed iTunes 8. I usually make it a habit to wait for the first update at least to pass before jumping on a X.0 version. Now I have the Blue Screen of Death on my Vista machine.... Me and half the world apparently.... I cant believe the temp fix is unplugging my HP printer while my iPhone is connected to avoid the BSoD. Well, I could uninstall iTunes and revert to a previous version. Although I am HOPING (ie have a small ounce of hope) that Apple will resolve this mess in a matter of a very short period of time (ie by tomorrow). Then I can just update and be back to normal with much less hassle.

Its extremely disappointing that a Quality Check couldnt find an error that seems to have affected a large number of users. Seems sloppy to me.

Also, doesnt inspire faith to install the iPhone update that is supposed to be available tomorrow. I was surprised however to hear Jobs spill the words out of his mouth that the updates sole purpose is to fix several bugs in the iPhone. That does push the scales a little more towards confidence, as I do appreciate companies actually admitting to problems rather than masking them.

My feelings at this point are this... Stop trying to move forward at 100 MPH and fix what you have in the market!

Well, as far as new devices and software go..
I always wait until at least the first minor revision has passed the public test. Mainly to avoid issues like that. (I'm a software developer, and our major revisions always contain the most bugs -- not because of lack of testing but more that the marketing team is breathing down to have the next one out. There could be many other reasons for this.) Once you have an inside eye on the process, you'll feel a bit more compassionate towards Apple and their X.0 or 10.X releases.

Apple is deeply scrutinized for not have everything perfect on their releases, but it isn't always possible. Especially with driver conflict issues. The funny part about this, is that I can pull out a Microsoft defense on this one. They're designing a system of drivers that has to work on many many different platforms.

When I picked up Leopard at 10.5.2, I was pretty happy. The only one that still occasionally runs me into troubles is the Dashboard kernel panic bug, that freezes one of the cores. Unfortunately, I can't update because my miniscule 60GB drive is full of work. ::)

Yeah that was my feeling too, marketing pushing the deadline. I definitely dont expect Apple or any company for that matter to deliver a perfect product on the first version of a major release. But for a BSoD by simply plugging in my iPhone... that just doesnt seem right. I could understand if we were talking about a handful of people that maybe had a driver that didnt agree with the system or something like that, but for the washington post, ny times, cnn, etc. to pick up the story within hours tells me its more than a handful. Also, last I checked Apple had no comment to multiple requests from news outlets. Granted Im sure thats a whole 'nother process for them to make a public statement, hehe

One just has to ask themselves, didnt they plug a device into at least a few vista machines with an ipod/iphone?

I agree there is time needed to work out bugs, etc., but this just seems like too much of a major flaw to me. Honestly, it brought down my Vista machine that has had months of up time until this No small feat!

I feel I have been telling myself that Apple will fix this and fix that and have just let a handful of problems "off the hook" since they cause me a lot less problems than my "other" devices. So to have so many in a row, and then this as the cherry on top I guess was finally enough to lose my enchantment with their "flawless" record.

Dont misread though, Im ranting a bit more than necessary Im sure All said and done they have provided me with less headaches than the alternative, so overall I am still happy. I guess being blinded by so much trouble free hardware and software, when something like this happens it hits you a little more But hopefully this downward trend starts turning upwards. I want my worry free existance back!!

Ahh, and swooping in to save the day just in time... Enter 2.1 Firmware! Better Battery Life, Reception and better functionality! I could care less about Genius really, just happy for the other improvements

...Oh, and it works and didnt kill my comp, extra added bonus!!

In all seriousness, 2.1 is great!

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