Everyone Read This!!!!

WOW, a lot of hear poured into that first article. I couldn't image an all windows world...it would drive me nuts, I'd rather not use a computer at all if I had to use windows.

We should all rally around the iPod and the idea that a mac-only apple branded product was just released! This hasn't happened for several years! I personally want to see more of this, so I am willing to support apple's ipod now!
 
i agree!
this thing is so damn cool and i'm glad it's mac only.
so there, pc people, take your windows-only games and stuff and buzz off! (or buy a mac :) )
we have got the most stylish mp3 player ever seen, and it's a 5 gig portable drive to boot.
(if only i had the money ... oh well.)
 
So am I that is one reason why I ordered my iPod and the fact that it is actually worth the amount of money you pay for it.
 
Great article. I'm buying my iPod the minute it comes to the Apple store. It will finally give me an excuse to go to the Apple store
 
Wow. The first article (on applelust) really speaks to a lot of what I've been thinking about for the last couple of days about iPod. It's a little spooky. While I think that the points he made about the danger of becoming Amiga people might be a little (but only a little) exaggerated, he makes a lot of sense. Particularly when it echos some of what I've been thinking about.

On Tuesday, when the iPod was released, I was kinda dumbfounded. I didn't know what to make of it, and I felt a little cheated by Apple by doing the one thing that they knew would generated extreme interest within the Mac community. All they had to do is say "we're releasing something groundbreaking, and it's not a Mac", and we collectively became little kids on Christmas Eve - barely able to stand the wait for morning. Only, when morning came, we thought we'd been given socks.

Later, when I got home, I downloaded the videos of the introduction and the TV spot, and watched them. And watched them again. And again. Especially the intro. Something didn't make sense. I'd been very disappointed by the iPod, but here were Ive, and Moby (!) and friends gushing about this thing, and after a few viewings, it started making some sense:

- That thing is really small. I didn't realize until I started digging around that it was using a microdrive and not a typical 2.5" laptop HD, as so many have done before. Seeing people holding it in their hands, and knowing what the average hand's size is, it really made an impression.

- It's operation, while really simple, has a lot of punch. Seeing it being used, and how clean the interface is was really a kick. And it's all done with 5 buttons and a spin-wheel.

- Never once, did anyone mention Windows. This wasn't about "them". The whole tone of the intro completely ignored the "world outside" - this was about US. About Macintosh.

Of course, the simple elegance of the design (only 2 ports - headphones and FW), and the raw functionality (FW make USB look like a serial port in terms of speed), are something we can all agree on. I actually found myself start thinking that "well, it's only $400". Hang on a second... ONLY $400??

Surely I was firmly in the grip of Steve's ever-famous Reality Distortion Field.

So, I tried a little experiment. A friend of mine is what I think of as the typical Windows user - he's never used anything else, and although Windows annoys him from time to time, it just never really occured to him (until recently) that there was a different, maybe even better, way to go. I had him sit down and watch the intro video. But before I hit play, I told him that that the spot was for Apple's new MP3 player, and that it costs $400. For the next six minutes and forty-seven seconds, he was completely silent. I saw him grin, look surprised, and totally engaged in the show. When it stopped, his first comment was (and I'm totally serious, no BS) "Well... I guess I shoudn't have bought that new Dell machine. I mean, this thing only works with a Mac, right?"

I got it! If the iPod could make this kind of impact in a six-minute video, what kind of impression is it going to make when folks start carrying it around? It's immediate visual appeal is undenyable. Its functionality, solid. As the article mentions "Not only is it an MP3 player that's guaranteed to work with Macs (wow, what a concept!), it's designed specifically FOR Macs, to give the best Mac music-listening experience on the planet." Oh, and it has the power to sway long-time Windows users??

Still, $400 is a lot of jack. I sat discussing this point (and others) with my friend, and he put it into a bit of perspective. "How much did you spend on your last MP3 player?", he asked.

I placed my (pre)order this afternoon. :D
 
I've posted on here before that I think the iPod is cool technology, but too expensive. I have a lot of supporters on this issue, but the reason I think it's too expensive may be different then theirs. First, that $399 U.S. is $600 here in Canada. I have to come up with $600 to buy the same product you guys get for $400. You think it's worth $400? How about $200 more? Also, I think the iPod is priced excellently for the technology it has. The drive it uses alone retails for $399 U.S., that means you're getting the rest of the features free! That's a deal. So why do I think it's still too pricey? Because at the heart it's an mp3 player - and I get get another mp3 players for much less, albeit with less features, but less pain on the wallet. Or, at it's heart it's a portable HD, and I can get a portable HD for less. Yes yes, the iPod is smaller, faster, synchs with software, comes with a hidden Breakout game.. these are all awesome features. But I can't justify the cost for the use I would give it - which would be a portable mp3 player. I will take a look at it again in 6 months or whenever Apple drops their price on it.
 
I'm another Canadian.....and I am very seriously looking at ordering an iPod....hell, I am still using an old analog cassette walkman..time to move up!

As for the Canadian price, well, at current exchange rates, the $599cdn at the Apple store makes it actually *cheaper* than $399us.......
 
According to xe.com the iPod will only cost you yankees $380.076 USD if you buy it in Canada. C'mon.. buy foreign :D
 
A good article, but I don't appreciate the knock to Amiga people. I was, and will always be an Amiga person. I was not a fanatic, I would have loved an Amiga Netscape. And dealt with bugs...

10 years ago when I ran an Amiga as my exclusive platform, I said "Apple needs to re-write their OS and make it unix based, and run older apps in a virtual machine." I can't believe it's taken them this long, but...

With OS X, Apple has finally caught up, and passed up, the Amiga. 20 years after the Amiga's introduction.
 
fill me in, what's amiga? Please don't be so basic as to say... "it's an OS!", I figured that one out.
 
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