With Apple’s announcement of a $200 price drop at the “Beat Goes On” conference on September 5th, 2007 many early adopters were downright pissed. As Steve Job’s said “I have received hundreds of emails from iPhone customers who are upset about Apple dropping the price of iPhone by $200 two months after it went on sale.” Apple decided to be generous and give every early adopter a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store. While this is a very nice offer I have a few thoughts on the matter:

1. Every single tech gadget receives a price drop within the first year of the product’s launch. Early adopters realize this and generally pay a premium so they can have the device before anyone else. If I was an American and knew that any early adopter would be given a $100 in-store rebate within a couple months I would have bought the iPhone on opening day.
2. These early adopters are whiners Come on, you spent $600 for a phone, YOU HAVE MONEY TO SPARE!!!
3. Apple lowered the price because of the new iPod Touch a device that is basically the same as the iPhone except for the phone part. It’s also $100 cheaper

I think Apple did the right thing to please its customers. I’m more laughing with the whiners. You wanted the technology as soon as it came out and you payed for it. Don’t be surprised when the price drops a few months later.

Every so often Apple holds a conference and releases new products (or updates an existing product line) and this past Wednesday was no different with Apples “The Beat Goes On“. It seems lately that Apple has been bringing out quite a few new products. A few recent products are:

• iPod nano - September 7th, 2005
• iPhone - January 29th, 2007
• iPod touch - September 5th, 2007
• iPod classic - September 5th, 2007

Each one of these devices is geared towards a different group of people but the problem is that none of the gadgets is overly impressive by itself. When Apple first unveiled on October 23, 2001 it was exciting because it greatly improved on the generally lacking mp3 players of the time. Since then Apple has released 6 generations of the iPod, brought out new iPod variations such as the mini, shuffle, nano, and the touch and to be honest none of them are anything fantastic and new (though the touch is a decent attempt).

iPod Touch
The Apple touch is basically the “poor mans” iPhone. I think Apple wanted to get the features of the iPhone (minus the phone) to the general public. It’s $100 cheaper than the iPhone so more people will be able to afford it but it really isn’t that impressive. At any time you can listen to your music or watch your videos like a normal iPod or if you’re near a WiFi access point you can browse the web or watch YouTube videos. The problem with this device is that the the maximum hard drive size is 16GB!!!! That’s ridiculous, you can hold a few thousand songs and a couple videos but thats it.

iPod Classic
This is the 6th Generation of the iPod classic. With the advances in 1.8″ hard drives Apple has now included a 80GB version and a 160GB version. This means you can now hold 20,000 and 40,000 songs or a tonne of movies and pictures (or both). Apple also introduced a “better” interface for the iPod including album art and other things (I haven’t used it yet but I’ve heard from early adopters). The problem with this device is that while it incorporates a huge hard drive (160GB) it doesn’t have any advanced features like the iPod touch that people are now wanting with their devices.

I think that Apple should have waited a year or so and waited for the prices on the hardware to drop a little bit, and then release the iPod touch with a much much larger hard drive. The problem with all of these devices is that neither are overly impressive. Imagine having the iPod touch with 160GB hard drive so you could actually hold everything you needed.

If Apple continues with their recent releases and doesn’t give us a device that is truly an awesome thing (like a 160GB Touch) it could lead to a disaster.

On Monday August 20th 2007, Samsung announced its newest addition to their 1.8″ hard disk drive (HDD) line-up. A new 160GB 4200RPM business card size hard drive. Now some of you I’m sure, are wondering why this is such big news and why I’m even writing about it, well let me tell you.

1. Largest Capacity 1.8″ Drive
   This is the largest capacity 1.8″ drive that has ever been made. The next largest is only 120GB so this new drive is adding another 40GB which is quite a feat considering how small the drives are.
2. Can Be Used in iPod’s and Other Mp3 Devices
   This new hard drive will be able to be used in iPod’s and other Mp3 devices, increasing the amount of storage available by double or more. The current 80GB iPod can hold 20,000 songs or 100 hours of video. With this new drive you could double that to 40,000 songs and 200 hours of video. No one really needs that much capacity but I’m sure a few people will enjoy it.
3. Can be Used in HDD Camcorders
   This new hard disk drive can increase the size of the largest HDD Camcorder by more than double. This will allow for more recording and higher quality footage (pack more onto a single disk).

“Big deal! There are 1TB drives now” you might say and yes you’re correct. But the 1TB drives can’t fit into an iPod or a camcorder so this is a very big deal. Samsung hasn’t said when they’ll be shipping the new HDD but I hope it’s soon so I can upgrade my iPod.

With the release of the new iMac yesterday I thought it would be appropriate to vent my frustration with the product. Now before you start flaming me let me clarify a few things. I LOVE Apple products. I’ve used their laptops, Mac Pro’s and other devices a lot and praise almost every Apple device. I just think that when it comes to the iMac Apple dropped the ball. Here are a few reasons why I dislike iMacs
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