Apple & Blu-ray

[CptGreedle]

The Tower will always be faster than the iMacs. True the iMacs are fast and very nice, but the towers are much easier to upgrade and enhance.
Plus the towers support the new quad-core processors... essentially 8 processor cores inside each tower. Plus they support more RAM and storage.
The drawback is the tower is EXPENSIVE. They have no built-in monitor like the iMac does, and already cost more than an iMac.

It is up to you, lower price and decent performance or higher price and excellent performance.

[TJandBLU-RAY]

Originally Posted by CptGreedle

The Tower will always be faster than the iMacs. True the iMacs are fast and very nice, but the towers are much easier to upgrade and enhance.
Plus the towers support the new quad-core processors... essentially 8 processor cores inside each tower. Plus they support more RAM and storage.
The drawback is the tower is EXPENSIVE. They have no built-in monitor like the iMac does, and already cost more than an iMac.

It is up to you, lower price and decent performance or higher price and excellent performance.

Price means nothing to me. I'll pay for quality any day.

[TJandBLU-RAY]

So I know there is going to be an Apple event September 5th. Okay, so tell me something I don't know.

While shopping on iTunes today I was struck by something - just how heavily Apple is promoting both the newly acquired John Lennon as well as his partner in crime Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. They are in heavy top banner rotation, and they appear to always be next to each other. I take this as a sign - I think Apple is finally ready to announce The Beatles on iTunes at the event September 5th.

September 5th in conjunction with a slew of new iPods seems like the perfect time to me. Everything is in place, the planets are aligned - Across the Universe.
Peace

[iamsparticus9]

if i'm not mistaking doesnt bill gates own part of apple? why would they support blu ray? it wouldnt make much sense...unless something has happened since i last heard and he sold his stake in the company

[irfoton]

From:
http://www.macworld.com/news/2007/08/28/dvd/index.php

"Schoeben declined to discuss features in future product releases, but did point out that DVD Studio Pro does have support for the HD DVD format. What’s more, Apple belongs to the Blu-ray organization, which is responsible for promoting the next-generation optical disc format."

[jedivball]

Originally Posted by iamsparticus9

if i'm not mistaking doesnt bill gates own part of apple? why would they support blu ray? it wouldnt make much sense...unless something has happened since i last heard and he sold his stake in the company

About 10 years ago, microsoft bought some shares of Apple, I don't remember how much. I believe it was non voting shares and I also think they sold off what they did own. I don't have any link to back this up, but I remember reading something about them sell off Apple shares.

[The Guardian]

I found this online:

From apple's 2003 SEC filing:

"In August 1997, the Company and microsoft Corporation (microsoft) entered into patent cross license and technology agreements. In addition, microsoft purchased 150,000 shares of apple Series A nonvoting convertible preferred stock ("preferred stock") for $150 million. These shares were convertible by microsoft after August 5, 2000, into shares of the Company's common stock at a conversion price of $8.25 per share. During 2000, 74,250 shares of preferred stock were converted to 9 million shares of the Company's common stock. During 2001, the remaining 75,750 preferred shares were converted into 9.2 million shares of the Company's common stock."

So as of 2001 they owned 18.2 million shares in Apple. Not sure if they still have them, but Apple currently has 869.64 MILLION shares outstanding so Microsoft might own 2% of Apple which isn't enough to force them to do/not do anything.

[CAB]

Originally Posted by jedivball

About 10 years ago, microsoft bought some shares of Apple, I don't remember how much. I believe it was non voting shares and I also think they sold off what they did own. I don't have any link to back this up, but I remember reading something about them sell off Apple shares.

And a good hunk of cash in exchange for (here it comes) EXCLUSIVITY for Internet Explorer on the Macs. Same dance, new decade. Yeah, I use Firefox.

[EricJ]

Originally Posted by jedivball

About 10 years ago, microsoft bought some shares of Apple, I don't remember how much. I believe it was non voting shares and I also think they sold off what they did own. I don't have any link to back this up, but I remember reading something about them sell off Apple shares.

MS bought shares during the Windows "monopoly" trial, back in the pre-iMac "famine" days, before Steve Jobs refitted the company--
Back then, the industry assumed Apple only had two years to live, and analysts guessed that MS was realizing they had a very, very good reason to make sure there was still another operating system available...

(Although it took the form of offering Office and Work available as Apple-system programs.)

Originally Posted by CAB

And a good hunk of cash in exchange for (here it comes) EXCLUSIVITY for Internet Explorer on the Macs. Same dance, new decade.

...Which IE deal was later struck out as part of the Monopoly settlement, and Macs went out with IE and Netscape on board.

Originally Posted by TJandBLU-RAY

So I know there is going to be an Apple event September 5th. Okay, so tell me something I don't know.
While shopping on iTunes today I was struck by something - just how heavily Apple is promoting both the newly acquired John Lennon as well as his partner in crime Paul McCartney, and Ringo Starr. They are in heavy top banner rotation, and they appear to always be next to each other. I take this as a sign - I think Apple is finally ready to announce The Beatles on iTunes at the event September 5th.

They've already got EMI Records, as part of their new "Rights-free" system--
The whole frustrating "Apple Music" lawsuit was resolved as of this year, but Sir Paul is testing the waters carefully. A bit of Ringo here, a bit of post-Lennon there...

[iamsparticus9]

ah cool i couldnt remember i just remember it was a big deal when it happened b/c the relationship between jobs and gates... thanks for answering 150,000 shares for 150 million?? hmm does microsoft like that number or something? seems like it keeps popping up :P

[TJandBLU-RAY]

Sept. 5 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. unveiled new versions of its best-selling iPod media player with touch screens and video games, giving Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs new gadgets to entice buyers during the holiday shopping season.

The company will add a new iPod Shuffle and a smaller iPod Nano, Jobs, 52, said today at an event billed as ``The Beat Goes On'' in San Francisco. The new Nano, available in five colors, will play games such as a Sudoko program developed by Electronic Arts Inc. Nano prices will start at $149.

The company also built on the success of its iPhone, released in June, by introducing an iPod with the same touch- screen technology. The new iPod Touch has the same 3.5-inch display as the iPhone, built into a thinner package, and can connect to a wireless network. Like the iPhone, it can play videos from Google Inc.'s YouTube service.

Jobs typically releases new iPods to spur orders in the last three months of the year. The iPod, along with sales of songs and videos through the company's iTunes store, accounted for more than a third of revenue last quarter. Aside from the iPhone, which combines the media player and a mobile phone, Apple hadn't updated the iPod in almost a year.

``This is an incredible iPod lineup for the holiday season,'' said Jobs, who wore his trademark black turtleneck and jeans.

Apple also said it would update its iTunes software. Customers will now be able to buy ring tones for 99 cents and add them to their iPhones. Computer users have downloaded more than 600 million copies of iTunes, Jobs said.

IPod Classic

The company also updated its video player, renaming the device iPod Classic. It will cost $249 or $349, depending on the amount of storage.

``Over the holidays, the iPod and accessories can contribute as much as half of their revenue or more,'' said Shaw Wu, an analyst with American Technology Research in San Francisco. He rates Apple shares ``buy'' and doesn't own them. ``New models are important because the iPod is such a material part of their business over the holidays.''

Apple's introduction of the $79, clip-on iPod Shuffle in October helped drive iPod shipments to a record 21.1 million units during the 2006 holiday season.

Apple's shares fell $1.49, or 1 percent, to $142.67 at 1:44 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. Before today, shares of the Cupertino, California-based company had increased 70 percent.

Apple has sold more than 100 million iPods since their debut in 2001. It's the best-selling digital media player in the U.S., with about a 70 percent share of the market, according to the NPD Group Inc. in Port Washington, New York. ITunes is the most popular site for legal music downloads, NPD said.

[KevinShaw]

Apple doesn't currently offer any hardware or software for making Blu-ray discs, and it was a disappointment to many that they didn't address this in FCS2. You can apparently prepare an HD-DVD project and burn this on a red-laser DVD which may play in HD-DVD players, but that's not really an HD-DVD and is limited to the capacity of standard DVDs. Or you can buy Adobe CS3 for Macs and a third-party Blu-ray burner and see if you can make a Blu-ray disc that way...but you may need Roxio Toast to actually burn the discs. It would be nice if Apple would get their act together on all this.