A few months back I did a bit of speculation that Apple would probably be doing a price reduction of their iPod line-up to be more competitive with the iPhone’s current price. And while I wasn’t entirely right with my predictions, I was pretty close. Let’s start from the bottom of the line up:
The iPod Shuffle - No price cut here. The same storage capacity for the same price, however there are a few new colors.
The iPod Nano - I was really close here. I did correctly predict that Apple would drop the 4GB model. However, I incorrectly guessed the price of the 8 GB model (I was $50 shy).
The iPod Touch - Another close one. I knew that Apple would lower its price, but I over-guessed it. I guessed that the price would be $150 for the 8Gb model. However, instead Apple made it $229. Still, a much better price in my opinion. I would still like to see a 4GB model iPod Touch though. I believe that would have a lot of uses, and could be sold at $150.
The iPod Classic - I did predict that Apple wouldn’t change the price of the Classic. However, I didn’t predict that they’d knock off the fatter Classic and bump the storage capacity of the skinnier version.
So there you have it. I was close, but not exact. At least those who thought I was completely wrong with my price-cut plan have something to gawk at now.
Lastly, here’s the new iPod Nano ad. Isn’t it gorgeous?
There are a ton of Twitter clients - applications which let you use Twitter instead of needing to goto twitter.com to tweet - available, and I’ve tried most, if not all of them (for the Mac at least). I’ve had some good experiences, and some bad ones. But from this I have a pretty good idea of which is the best.
Now, first and foremost, I’m not a fan of paying to do something which should be free. So basically no Twitter apps which cost money I consider to be worth it. That being said, what is the Twitter app that I preferred? Well, quite simply it’s Twhirl.
Twhirl not only looks good (in my opinion), but it’s very functional. Any link you post is instantly turned into a tinyurl.com link which is nice. The interface is very intuitive. And best of all, it’s cross-platform.
Twhirl was programmed in Adobe Air, which is a programming language Adobe is pioneering that any OS can run (well, only Windows and Mac OS X have official version at the moment, Linux is only in beta).
Some niceties that Twhirl provides are:
A very customizable notification system: Basically if you want to be notified at a certain time, Twhirl can probable do it.
Integration with Jaiku and Pownce: While you cannot view your friends pownces or jaiku messages, you can post to those services simultaneously with your tweets.
Configure the interface: Although I cannot figure out how to change its theme, you can change things like opacity, font type, size, etc.
I consider Twhirl to be one of the best, if not the best Twitter client you can use. Try it out if you haven’t been satisfied with what you’re currently using.
In the future I will not use cable. Why? Because I hate the tactics used by the cable companies. Not only that, but the price is outrageous. $150 a month for TV (w/ 500 or so channels full of ads) and a 5 download / 2 upload internet connection? Rip-off.
In the future I will only pay 1/3rd of the price. How will I manage that? Well, it’s really a simple plan actually.
Watching TV is basically dead for me. I have subscribed to various news aggregators for my daily news, as well as podcasts. So I could do without TV altogether. However, my local news stations are still important. Therefore I will be switching to… wait for it… rabbit ears! Or, more appropriately known as an antennae. Now, yes in 2009 analog connection for these antennae will be gone, however there is still a digital antennae you can buy, which is what I will buy.
So, why an antennae. Well, you get FREE TV signals from it, as well as FREE HDTV versions of those stations. Yeah, the keyword is free. You might not get many channels with it, but you do get the core channels for your local area. Plus since I live in hurricane-prone Florida, I don’t have to worry about the TV cutting out due to the cable-lines being down. All I’d have to worry about is power, in which I do have a generator to deal with that.
Well, that takes care of TV. What about the internet? Simple: Verizon’s FiOS internet service. For $47.99 a month I can get 10 download and 2 upload. Slightly better than my current plan. For only $10 more though, I can get a 20/5 connection. By far superior to any Cable internet plan out there, and without the crap companies like Comcast do to its users.
I love when Windows fan-boys make false claims about OS X. Funny stuff like this happens:
I don’t hate Windows. In fact, I use it regularly for, ironically, gaming, but what I do hate are the ignorant morons who spread lies like this. Come on! Do your research or you’re just going to get owned like this again and again.
Are iPod prices cuts coming soon? I think so, and here’s why.
With the introduction of the iPhone 3G we were astounded by the price of only $200 for an 8 GB model. That’s completely insane for all the features you get. Now, granted you do have to have a 2-year contract with whomever your iPod carrier is, but that’s still amazing.
So, what about the ipod Touch? The base model is still $300 for the 8GB model. Wait, what? The 8GB iPhone, which does a lot more than the iPod Touch, as well as giving you free upgrades to future updates (where as iPod Touch users need to pay for future major revisions), is selling for $100 less. What the hell? This makes absolutely no sense from a sales stand-point. Who would buy the iPod Touch over the iPhone? Well, yes, people who don’t want the 2-year contract, but that’s a very niche market.
It’s because of this very reason that I believe iPod price cuts will soon hit.
Now, Apple could just cut the iPod Touch models down $100 for each version so that they match the iPhone (like they did for iPhone 1.0). However, considering that the iPhone now has built in GPS, this is no longer a reasonable plan. And since Apple tends to like pricing their iPod’s in divisions of $50 ($50, $150, $200, etc) the next price down prices the iPod Touch at the same price as the iPod nano. So who, then, would buy the iPod Nano (well, the 8GB model is $199 right now, so no one’s buying that model anyhow)? No one. Therefore I believe the Nano will also see a price cut down to $100 (well, $99, but whatever) for its base model.
Therefore the iPod line-up will probably look like the following in the near-future if customers decide to not buy the iPod Touch for its ridiculous price:
The iPod Touch’s models would then be $249 for the 16GB model and $349 for the 32GB model. Also, I believe that Apple will kill their 4GB iPod Nano if they did this plan and only do the 8GB model (for $99 of course). This is the only way Apple can fix their colossal price screw-up with the iPhone.
