Viewer Mail – Volume 2

Seems like it was time for another one of these…we’ll paraphrase some of the comments and questions we’ve gotten over the past few days and try to get some answers out to everyone…

First, is what is Apple’s plan for the daylight savings time fiasco that is coming up in March as a result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (spring forward a couple weeks earlier, fall back a week or so later)? Well, good news, it has been in place since 10.4.6.

Next, iPod warranty pricing…we’re told that the pricing has recently changed from $249 to $179 (or less) to replace a broken iPod…NICE. In fact, many of the prices have gone down considerably…Thanks KH for the tip!

When will the new Mac Books be released?? Sorry to say, it is looking to us like it’s going to be a little while still, maybe not until WWDC :(. We will keep everyone posted. By the way, did you notice that we NAILED the fact that WWDC was going to be in June? We had that here before anyone else did, at least, as far as we know!! Anyway, that would be both for the whole line perhaps, including the long-awaited ultraportable (which we’ve been calling Mac Book Mini around here).

iLife and iWork dates, Sky, you wanted to know…well, here’s the scoop, they are still on track for Leopard-time…why is that? It isn’t because they require Leopard (although, vice versa may be true, that Leopard may not work with older versions of iLife in particular)…they will work better with Leopard and have more features if you run them in Leopard (vs. Tiger)…one reason to hold them back is they have a lot of interface cues from the new operating system, and Apple is still trying to keep that under wraps…a bigger reason though, is that it makes sense to release them at the same time…when the Mac faithful show up to buy their copy of Leopard, it will be easy to upsell them on a copy of iLife ’07 or iWork ’07…better yet, look at it this way…if you’re going to plunk down $79 for iLife ’07 and $129 for Leopard…that’s a couple hundred bucks…suddenly people will start thinking “gee, if I put that money toward a new Mac, and put the old one on eBay…I’d come out pretty good”…Apple is no fool.

HDJ speculates on a new iPod coming in a few weeks alongside an iTunes update…we will just be honest with you and tell you we haven’t heard anything specific about it, but if anyone DOES have anything specific to share, drop us a line!

Speaking of dropping us a line, several have commented that since Apple and Google are all buddies these days, and we are using a Gmail address for tips, we must be secret agents working for Apple to catch spies…well, dangit, you got us! Seriously, put that tinfoil hat back on, and while you’re at it, better make a full tinfoil suit to go with it 🙂

And, saving the best for last, LF writes with a juicy tip…that USB2.0 port on the Apple TV…you know, that could be used to add a Blu-ray drive (or HD-DVD, but take it from us, Blu-ray is well on its way to dominating…it holds more data, and Sony is not going to give in and ship their movies on HD-DVD…whereas all the other studios are going to give in and go Blu)…that is genius! The Apple TV already has the horsepower to display HD content streamed from a computer in your home (and soon directly from iTunes!)…no reason it couldn’t do the same from a locally attached device!! And, it would be a lot cheaper than existing players, because you’d already own the bulk of the device in the form of the Apple TV itself, you’d basically just be buying the drive!!

PHEW! Lots more to comment on, but this post is already getting pretty long…you know our usual way of closing things down…comments below, tips to applerecon@gmail.com and take a few seconds to give us a…

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