Macworld Sanfrancisco 2003, New Apple softwares and hardware Options

[Francois Déchery]

We have a report here:
http://www.macmusic.org/news/viewnews.php/...lang/EN/id/310/

Any comments?

[lepetitmartien]

no desktop hardware boohoooooo

(I did the news of MWSF03, but it makes me berserck

[lepetitmartien]

Adn why the hell are they using the same tiny bitsy keyboard on both powerbooks.

The 17" is large enough to have a REAL keyboard, not those imitations for playing tetris. I want ALL the keys. NOW.

(and a G7 too

[lastmachine]

Ah, to make room for the speakers! This has been annoying since the switcher ad with the girl claiming to be some kind of music professional. What does she care if the speakers on her PC sounded like poo? "Oh, I was going to buy a honking big desktop PC to make all my famous music on, but since I refuse to buy speakers, I had to get an Apple for the sound quality."

Ditto on your keyboard sentiment--I'll get speakers. Headphones for mobility. Monitors, even. But I'll be f*d if I'm going to carry around a spare 105-key with my laptop.

--Hawk

[filarion]

also, the 12" powerbook has no pcmcia slot and no L3 cache, which makes it kinda unusable for serious audio (similar like the rev2 powerbooks). still, the 17" with a 23" studio display seems -the- setup I can dream about now. autosensing key illumination, sweet. as for using the same keyboard, I doubt that there'd have been enough space for a large one, afterall it's taking up hardware estate in the case interior too.

let's hope that they pull the same stunt like last year and introduce new desktops in a few weeks outside the expos.

This post has been edited by filarion: Wed 8 Jan 2003, 14:57

[ryosode]

Bottom line in my opinion. 17 inch model is too huge to be called as a "laptop", too heavy, speakers sound crappy, worthless for the price. 12 inch model is very cool. I think the 12 inch with Tascam US-428 or something like that would actually make a good portable recording solution, though probably not ideal for sequencing and mixing since the screen is a bit too tiny.

Anyways, MWSF as a whole was boring as hell. Not worth going. One thing I noticed was that emagic was given one machine space in the Apple booth to demonstrate Logic. Pretty pathetic, but this made me wonder if emagic softwares are going to be Apple brand soon (as opposed to PowerSchool or FileMaker which still keep separate brandname and booth away from Apple) just like Final Cut Pro. Will we have Apple Logic Express (= emagic Logic Audio)?

[lepetitmartien]

this 17" means some that don't need huge expandability can use it for both desktop and laptop use. As a graphic designer I find that sexy (but I need a real keyboard and my wacom). But who cares still about laptop speakers?

Anyway a great demo of iTime&Space Curve from our Stevy

the aluminium can be military grade (I can hear a US modular synth maker from here) it doesn't give us MORE power. Just filling some other niches (dwarfs and giants this time

[schoppito]

The 12" model seems like a perfect upgrade for me. Right now I'm using an Mbox with an Ibook and a fast external firewire drive to record voice, guitar or keyboards, when I have to travel. Usually two tracks at a time. I work on the mix at home. Works smoothly but I would enjoy a little more power. I assume I will be able to connect the powerbook to my flatscreen TV. Though I would like to know if new versions of any audio software such as protools, DP, or logic, are simply incompatible with the small screen. I also didn´t know about the nead for an L3 cache considering my basic setup. Is it something that will degrade the performance when I start mixing and recording several audio tracks, even if they are not coming from, nor going to, the system´s hard drive? Any comments would be really appreciated.

[Levon River]

I don't believe Apple will ever reach Jobs's "over 50% sales being portables" target until he gets his head out of the $3,000.00+ clouds for the better laptops. By the time the price point gets down to something which that percentage of his potential market segment can reach, the trade-offs for the money are too great as compared to the features of a much more powerful and expandable desktop at a comparable price. His marketing strategy is at war with itself. He's going to have to bring a lot more parity between the laptop vs. desktop series, both in performance and price, before he reaches his golden goal. Portabliity, alone, has lost much of its "glam" factor to continue to justify such an enormous price/performance gap.

Of course he can go right on selling them as rich-boy toys. But over 50%? In this economy?

I don't think so...

[lepetitmartien]

ssshhhh… Our Stevy was curving time and space again!

(I'm doting