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Taken in retrospect, this was only a taste, as "The best is yet to come."

Apple didn't want to stuff everything into Macworld during a non-Jobs keynote.

Prepare yourselves, because I have a feeling that Apple is about to blow us all away. The question is: How soon?

Actually, a better question would be: For how much?

The 17'' MacBook Pro at $2,799 in this economy... Simply put, it's a lot, especially when those same specs can be found elsewhere for less.

And did anyone else notice that the matte display (now lovingly reworded to "widescreen antiglare display") is now a $50 premium, when it used to be a free alternative? It's just another example of Apple charging for things that used to be free, like the Apple Remote.

Taken in retrospect, this was only a taste, as "The best is yet to come."

Apple didn't want to stuff everything into Macworld during a non-Jobs keynote.

Prepare yourselves, because I have a feeling that Apple is about to blow us all away. The question is: How soon?

^ don't get your hopes up man.

The 17'' MacBook Pro at $2,799 in this economy... Simply put, it's a lot, especially when those same specs can be found elsewhere for less.

The same can be said for the other Macbooks and Macbook Pros. But they have their market, and so does this 17-inch beauty.

But I won't be getting one because the Air is on my shopping list atm, as well as a Macbook, which I'll get for a family member.

Actually, a better question would be: For how much?

The 17'' MacBook Pro at $2,799 in this economy... Simply put, it's a lot, especially when those same specs can be found elsewhere for less.

And did anyone else notice that the matte display (now lovingly reworded to "widescreen antiglare display") is now a $50 premium, when it used to be a free alternative? It's just another example of Apple charging for things that used to be free, like the Apple Remote.

^ this is why i refuse to buy apple products, too damn expensive in today's market and recession.

what exactly is happening with the DRM-free music on itunes? do we have to buy the 1.29 'plus' tracks to get drm-free? if thats the case then by the end of the quarter when all 10,000,000 songs are drm free, itunes will have a .99 drm track, and a 1.29 drm-free 256kbps track?

iPhoto 09 used iTunes scrollbars now. Or was it like that before?

It's like that in iPhoto '08 as well.

I've got my thoughts and a bit of a summary at my blog if anyone's interested. I still can't believe that someone hacked into MacRumors' Live Feed, that's just childish and it ruined it for a lot of people.

^ don't get your hopes up man.

You kidding?? Have you been on a different planet for the last three years?

With the cash and unbelievable opportunities they have?

And with plenty of unfinished business to discuss, like the iMac, Mini, Snow Leopard, iPhone, etc. I'm quite confident Apple knew exactly how this Macworld would go down with everyone. And it was all carefully planned, and very deliberate.

I think that now, more than ever, the suspense is truly where Apple wants it to be, and where the competition hopes it wouldn't be. Already we have a killer 17-inch monster notebook and beautifully updated software. And this isn't even the REAL keynote. Which will be done by Jobs, since he wasn't well enough to do this one. Which also goes some way to explaining why they gave all the so-called "filler" to Schiller, and partly why the Macworld became a place-holder for something else. Something much bigger.

Just listen to good old Tony B. Now is the time to really fear Apple.

You kidding?? Have you been on a different planet for the last three years?

With the cash and unbelievable opportunities they have?

And with plenty of unfinished business to discuss, like the iMac, Mini, Snow Leopard, iPhone, etc. I'm quite confident Apple knew exactly how this Macworld would go down with everyone. And it was all carefully planned, and very deliberate.

I think that now, more than ever, the suspense is truly where Apple wants it to be, and where the competition hopes it wouldn't be. Already we have a killer 17-inch monster notebook and beautifully updated software. And this isn't even the REAL keynote. Which will be done by Jobs, since he wasn't well enough to do this one. Which also goes some way to explaining why they gave all the so-called "filler" to Schiller, and partly why the Macworld became a place-holder for something else. Something much bigger.

Just listen to good old Tony B. Now is the time to really fear Apple.

did it ever occur to you that the company might not have anything really big planned yet ? just because microsoft will have 7 doesn't mean apple with automatically have something better to present right now.

did it ever occur to you that the company might not have anything really big planned yet ? just because microsoft will have 7 doesn't mean apple with automatically have something better to present right now.

Hmmm, maybe feature-wise, Snow Leopard won't beat 7, if you compare it with their previous OS respectively. But performance-wise, I'm pretty sure Snow Leopard will beat 7 hands down, games excepted obviously.

did it ever occur to you that the company might not have anything really big planned yet ? just because microsoft will have 7 doesn't mean apple with automatically have something better to present right now.

I really don't think Windows 7 even factors into Apple's strategy, tbh.

did it ever occur to you that the company might not have anything really big planned yet ? just because microsoft will have 7 doesn't mean apple with automatically have something better to present right now.

no. but chances are, they do have something hidden somewhere. after all its apple. i mean sorry but they came up with something somewhat great right in time quite some times and often with hardly anyone expecting that.

surely those times could be gone now but its not totally unrealistic thinking to expect apple to have something huge to come up with. especially with, LTD, to much unfinished business and things yet to be talked about.

im just saying. ;)

as much as i appreciate your optimism, LTD, but concearning windows 7 we all should be careful. we really dont know what it will be capable of yet once finished. the same goes for snow leopard, though. ;)

Actually, we do know what it will be capable of. And some are already reporting that the Beta is faster than Vista and XP.

Windows Vista -> Windows 7 is moving in the opposite direction of Leopard -> Snow Leopard. Vista was a major rewrite of the Windows kernel. It rewrote its security model, its performance model and changed the way memory is used, media is organized, etc. This is similar to what Snow Leopard is doing. Snow Leopard is adding in new performance optimizations, reworking media with QuickTime X, etc.

Now, Windows 7 will improve upon everything Vista added. The user interface is being cleaned up and matured. Things that were broken in Vista are being fixed. This is similar to what Leopard did. It took the Tiger GUI but improved it and added some new things.

I think that now, more than ever, the suspense is truly where Apple wants it to be, and where the competition hopes it wouldn't be. Already we have a killer 17-inch monster notebook and beautifully updated software. And this isn't even the REAL keynote. Which will be done by Jobs, since he wasn't well enough to do this one. Which also goes some way to explaining why they gave all the so-called "filler" to Schiller, and partly why the Macworld became a place-holder for something else. Something much bigger.

Maybe Apple is waiting to have Snow Leopard ready when announcing the new iMac and Mac mini ??

I think the Macworld presentations were becoming an issue for Apple....As someone said it makes Apple try to set these deadlines they couldn't meet...rather than just releasing the products when they were really ready like how other hardware/software sites do it.......just release it when it's finished without bugs.

I believe we will see lots of updates during the year...without the need to have big presentations...

WRT iTunes "upgrade your stuff to DRM Free music".

My library contains 975 iTunes store purchases (3 movies, the rest are albums songs, a dozen iPhone applications, and half a dozen oldschool iPod games).

Of the ~950 songs I've bought, 263 were DRM encumbered.

Of those iTunes has offered to upgrade 168 of them to DRM free versions (including some embarrassing singles that I ordered & burned for my mother but deleted years ago). The remaining 95 songs aren't eligible for upgrades yet.

Total bill is going to be about $40, Albums are typically going for $3.00, singles for $0.40 (?).

Shorter albums are significantly cheaper like Against Me!'s 6-track acoustic album is only an extra $1.78

Most expensive upgrade is Morcheeba's Deep Dive and Weezer's Red Album (deluxe editions) which will be $3.60

20090106-drdgmxkxhdre2nrahw4k63c9ic.jpg

Still waiting for iTunes to finish the upgrade. I'll let you know if your old & busted DRM tracks hang around to stick up your library or if they just get replaced.

EDIT: There was lag and my screen sharing connection to home stalled up. DRM files can be set to the trash or set to your desktop.

20090106-xqmxbeign1tqf7q81396ngrcqx.jpg

After picking a choice you just get a truckload of downloads as if you had decided to suddenly purchase 20 albums.

Edited by evn.
Vista beat Leopard feature wise but due to Live Essentials Snow Leopard may catch 7 up.

It's not so much about features but what features, and how they're implemented. Leopard proclaimed to have "300 new featuers," but then it was revealed that Apple considered 10 minor revisions to iCal to be 10 of the 300 new features.

And the reason for Windows Live Essentials is that it will allow Microsoft to constantly update applications like Windows Live Mail. In Vista, Windows Mail was integrated and never updated. Now, they've removed that obviously dead program and replaced it with something much better, even though it's not integrated.

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