Official Apple Event thread!

[richardycc]

the mini doesn't look that much smaller than a regular Ipad, I might just get the 4th gen Ipad instead.

I guess the mini picture I saw earlier was a fake, the real one looks a lot better. lol
Still need to see how the non-retina screen would look on the mini.

 

[Kaido]

I guess I am not the target market for the iMac but I really don't understand the design. Why make something so thin and "elegant" that the design compromises the functionality of the device.

Need an optical drive or another hard drive? Add wires and external boxes to your iMac. Want a powerful GPU to drive that high res display? Sorry, can't have that but hey, at least when you look at it from the side it looks thin!

-KeithP

Because you're a nerd, not a typical consumer - to you, the appeal is tech specs, not design. I love the new iMac, but I prefer using my Hackintosh, which is running triple monitors, terabytes of drive space with multiple SSD's, a custom video card, etc. etc. etc.

Good design sells - a Ferrari or Lambo or Corvette or Mustang isn't any better than a Saturn or a Kia, in fact they're worse as far as comfortable ride, good gas mileage, inexpensive parts, and interior room goes - but they're pretty and cool and fun and neat and that's what people like to buy. The iMac has a very appealing industrial design. Does it need to be thinner? Heck no! Even at 2 or 3" as it was before, it was still thinner than the stand, so there's no argument for the space issue. But it looks pretty, so people will buy it.

Heck, I'd buy it if I had the money :$

 

[KeithP]

To be fair, if you are the type that wants to open up your PC and upgrade things left and right, you're not the target audience.

Absolutely true. The unfortunate part is Apple doesn't offer any machines for a consumer that may want to add a hard drive, or wants a built-in optical, or likes to play games at the native res of their displays at reasonable frame rates.

Maybe they will surprise everyone with the Mac Pro next year. I doubt it but you never know.

Side note, also just noticed the new Mac Mini lost its discreet GPU option. Just Intel HD 4000 now.

-KeithP

 

[KeithP]

Because you're a nerd, not a typical consumer - to you, the appeal is tech specs, not design.

Well, I thought I covered that with the target market comment but okay. However the idea I don't care about design is absolutely false.

And I also reject the idea that just because the iMac is thinner that means the design is inherently better, at least for the iMac user.

For Apple it is great. A large number of people will think it looks cool and will buy it. They won't care that the product is compromised because of it. Apple will make a ton of cash selling these. More power to them.

I am just a little disheartened because I love Apple products but they really aren't making products I want to buy any more.

I know, I know...first world problems.

-KeithP

 

[jalaram]

On the plus side, it is the last one that supports the camera kit. So the last one with USB and SD card support.

I thought they announced the lightning equivalent of the USB/SD camera kit as well.

[Edit] Aikouka beat me to it, but I missed seeing it.

 

[mmntech]

I thought they announced the lightning equivalent of the USB/SD camera kit as well.

I've just been loosely following it. Though it still means having to buy all new accessories. :\

 

[QuantumPion]

The mini is really overpriced considering it has the old CPU and no retina display.

 

[jalaram]

I've just been loosely following it. Though it still means having to buy all new accessories. :\

My point is that it won't be the last model with it.

IMHO, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn't get the iPad 4. Your iPad 3 should still be good for 2 years.

 

[JackBurton]

The mini is really overpriced considering it has the old CPU and no retina display.

I don't get why people are screaming about $30. So if it was $299 it would then not be overpriced? I would prefer it be a retina display, but at 7.9", it's not possible just yet. So 1024x768 was the right move for compatibility sake. And compared to the Nexus 7, it's just no contest, the mini takes it. The Nexus 7 looked archaic when compared side-by-side with the mini.

So long story short, $299, $329, the difference is not a deal breaker and no way would I call it "overpriced." It's priced perfectly. Why? Because that's exactly the price people will pay. Anything less and you throw away potential profit.

 

[chin311]

Wow, wasn't expecting an "iPad 4", I got the "new iPad" aka 3rd one on launch, I don't really care too much because nothing life-changing about it.

I'm skipping this round of Apple shenanigans and keeping my 4S and iPad 3 til the next refresh of both...and then I'll go from there.

 

[TuxDave]

I am just a little disheartened because I love Apple products but they really aren't making products I want to buy any more.

-KeithP

Then you need to hurry up and get old and lazy like the rest of us! I attribute that to my decrease in "upgrade frenzy".

 

[QuantumPion]

I don't get why people are screaming about $30. So if it was $299 it would then not be overpriced? I would prefer it be a retina display, but at 7.9", it's not possible just yet. So 1024x768 was the right move for compatibility sake. And compared to the Nexus 7, it's just no contest, the mini takes it. The Nexus 7 looked archaic when compared side-by-side with the mini.

So long story short, $299, $329, the difference is not a deal breaker and no way would I call it "overpriced." It's priced perfectly. Why? Because that's exactly the price people will pay. Anything less and you throw away potential profit.

What? Who said anything about $299? This thing should be $199 or $249 tops (with the ipod touch being $50 cheaper). You know they are going to refresh it in 6 months with a new version with retina and A6 CPU. The pricing should be:

ipad4: $499
ipad3: $399
ipad2: $299
ipad mini: $249
ipad touch: $199

 

[runawayprisoner]

At least it has 8GB standard. Maybe the retina display costs more than we think, hence the larger markup for the 13" (or did they stealth drop the price on the 13" non-retina?).

Actually, it "only has 8GB". Because there is no 16GB RAM upgrade option.

I don't think the Retina Display in the 13" model would cost more than that in the 15" model... plus you're getting dedicated GPU in the 15" model and a quad-core CPU.

Something is very off with that pricing in my opinions.

 

[GWestphal]

Are people really surprised Apple released a lightning iPad? Did they think Apple would actively segment their products with two connectors?

This was obvious and expected after Lightning was initially announced.

What would be neat with the Fusion drive is if you can manual specify certain folders to go to the SDD part.

 

[JackBurton]

What? Who said anything about $299? This thing should be $199 or $249 tops (with the ipod touch being $50 cheaper). You know they are going to refresh it in 6 months with a new version with retina and A6 CPU. The pricing should be:

ipad4: $499
ipad3: $399
ipad2: $299
ipad mini: $249
ipad touch: $199

Pricing has more to do with the competition than their own products. The 16GB Nexus 7 (their closest competitor) is selling for $249, and that is pretty much breaking even (They're basically just selling the hardware at cost). Why would Apple price their tablets with little to no profit built in? Because they're a charity now?

 

[mmntech]

Are people really surprised Apple released a lightning iPad? Did they think Apple would actively segment their products with two connectors?

This was obvious and expected after Lightning was initially announced.

What would be neat with the Fusion drive is if you can manual specify certain folders to go to the SDD part.

I don't think anybody is surprised. It's just we thought it would be the 3 with a Lightning. We didn't think the 4 would come out a mere six months after they conned us all to buy the third gen. There's been a lot of bad blood between Apple and it's iOS install base this fall. People will keep buying their stuff in droves but I can't help but feel the magic is starting to ware off after Steve's death.

 

[JackBurton]

I don't think anybody is surprised. It's just we thought it would be the 3 with a Lightning. We didn't think the 4 would come out a mere six months after they conned us all to buy the third gen. There's been a lot of bad blood between Apple and it's iOS install base this fall. People will keep buying their stuff in droves but I can't help but feel the magic is starting to ware off after Steve's death.

I disagree. This event was pretty awesome.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

The iPad Mini strikes me as the weakest new product introduction by Apple in some years. I literally do not understand what would possess anyone to buy it given the specs and pricing of its competitors.

I look forward to checking out the Retina 13" MBP but I would expect I will just stick with what I have now (a mid-2009 13" MBP with 512GB Crucial M4 and a brand new battery). The Retina machine would be a very costly upgrade and I am not convinced it would be a worthwhile one for me.

 

[manly]

I don't think anybody is surprised. It's just we thought it would be the 3 with a Lightning. We didn't think the 4 would come out a mere six months after they conned us all to buy the third gen. There's been a lot of bad blood between Apple and it's iOS install base this fall. People will keep buying their stuff in droves but I can't help but feel the magic is starting to ware off after Steve's death.

only in America are product refreshes bashed as premature.

Personally I've always thought Apple's 12-month cadence for iDevices a tad slow in light of Android's aggressive push. I highly doubt 6 months is the "new normal" but they can indeed shrink the product cycles by a bit to (arguably) stay ahead of the competition.

 

[Aikouka]

Here I was all ready to get one, but the cellular ones don't come out until mid-November. Bummer.

EDIT:

Although, at least it will give me time to go to the Apple Store and play around with a WiFi-only iPad Mini to see what it's like.

 

[GWestphal]

I don't think anybody is surprised. It's just we thought it would be the 3 with a Lightning. We didn't think the 4 would come out a mere six months after they conned us all to buy the third gen. There's been a lot of bad blood between Apple and it's iOS install base this fall. People will keep buying their stuff in droves but I can't help but feel the magic is starting to ware off after Steve's death.

Nobody "conned" you into anything. If you bought an Apple product, YOU walked into an Apple store (or partner reseller) and YOU purchased the product.

They couldn't rightly just upgrade the port and leave every thing else intact, that would be a poor business move, so they did minimal updates (new camera and A6), the camera is the most surprising thing here, since A6 was announced in the iPhone 5 any top tier mobile device would have it.

Complaining that you had the newest device for 6 months vs 12 months is asinine, especially since the writing was on the wall since the introduction (and rumors) of A6 and Lightning.

 

[GWestphal]

As Apple has more competition and as design factor becomes marginalized by competitors having improved design, you should expect Apple to become more agile and compete more in the technical arena (meaning faster refreshes). This does mean the Jobs "magic" is wearing off or at least changing, because Jobs believed in great design allowing a device to have great function.The only things really changing in the next few years is CPU which is on Intel's 1 year time table and RAM which changes every 3-4 years which is from JEDEC.

 

[QuantumPion]

Pricing has more to do with the competition than their own products. The 16GB Nexus 7 (their closest competitor) is selling for $249, and that is pretty much breaking even (They're basically just selling the hardware at cost). Why would Apple price their tablets with little to no profit built in? Because they're a charity now?

The Nexus 7 has a higher resolution and faster processor. I'm not saying what Apple should charge, what I meant was that is what I am willing to pay for. It's not worth it to me to pay premium apple price for a device which is essentially obsolete out of the gate. I'll wait for the retina ipad mini this spring.

 

[Aikouka]

I'll wait for the retina ipad mini this spring.

Do you think that Apple is going to keep up with the half-year upgrade cycle after this latest release? I can't be certain, but I think that this is more or less to push the iPad to a fall release time frame for the Christmas shopping season. What makes me a bit weary on that is the SoC as the A6X is a little deceiving in its namesake. The difference between the A5 and the A5X is that the A5X has a boosted CPU clock speed and twice as many GPU cores. At least according to Apple's page, the A6X still only has four GPU cores just like the A5X, and I don't recall Apple touting its increased graphical capabilities. For a "true A6X", you might have suspected 6 GPU cores compared to the A6's 3.

EDIT:

Never mind, they do tout the graphics performance:

The new A6X chip inside iPad is up to twice as fast as the previous-generation A5X chip, and it delivers up to twice the graphics performance, without sacrificing battery life. Which means even the most advanced apps are smooth, responsive, and incredibly lifelike.

 

[runawayprisoner]

Do you think that Apple is going to keep up with the half-year upgrade cycle after this latest release? I can't be certain, but I think that this is more or less to push the iPad to a fall release time frame for the Christmas shopping season. What makes me a bit weary on that is the SoC as the A6X is a little deceiving in its namesake. The difference between the A5 and the A5X is that the A5X has a boosted CPU clock speed and twice as many GPU cores. At least according to Apple's page, the A6X still only has four GPU cores just like the A5X, and I don't recall Apple touting its increased graphical capabilities. For a "true A6X", you might have suspected 6 GPU cores compared to the A6's 3.

EDIT:

Never mind, they do tout the graphics performance:

Ya... I opened a new thread to discuss the A6X. Nobody saw that coming. I tell ya.