Welcome once again to “This is Your Link!” And now, here’s your host, Art Linkblogger!
- Chessops is an excellent way to study chess openings.
Welcome to the inaugural post of my newest category: CoolStuff/Potpourri. This category will host short lists of incongruous items. Mostly link-dumpage, but also perhaps random thoughts, curious facts, and whatever else comes to mind. Possibly a precursor to a side-blog, if this category gets used too much. Without further ado….
- MattMcHugh.com has some wonderful, original short-story fiction. Reminds me of a resolution I made (Personal, #4… as yet unfulfilled).
- un:parsed is a new Blosxom blog, and a stunning demonstration of the power of simplicity. A very elegant, minimalist design. Yet another nail in the coffin of my current site layout. :)
(Via The Tao of Mac) Mail.appetizer shows a preview of new mail via a translucent window, so you can decide if you want to go check your mail right away. Sure wish they I had this for Outlook at work.
So I’m still watching Steve Jobs give his Keynote at Macworld. He just announced the iPod Mini. He stated that they are going after the “high-end ($199)” Flash-based mp3 players, which typically have 256megs of RAM (est. 60 songs). The mini will have 4 gigs of RAM memory (est. 1000 songs), will be the size of a business card, will be 1/2″ think, features the standard iPod interface, and will be compatible with the standard iPod dock. It will cost $249. Ooops.
This is one slick looking piece of hardware, and Jobs stated that $249 vs. the stated competition, i.e. $199 high-end flash players, is the best $50 you’ll ever spend. He did a nice breakdown of the market, showing that 31% is the target competition. But I still think they might have mis-calculated. For another $50, you can get least expensive full-sized iPod… which, Jobs announced, is now 15gig: (vs 10gig before) for the same $299.
Either way, they’ll be in store in Feb, and I do plan to check one out.
Oh, and they come in colors.
Update: The Tao of Mac has a nice summary of everything in the keynote.
Update 2: I may have been giving too short a shrift to the coolness factor. They are wicked cool… but if they had a 2 gig version for $149, I’d buy one for my teenage daughter, so she could use iTunes Music Store. At $249, that’s still a bit high for something a kid may lose… or drop.
Update 3: I changed “4 gig of RAM” to “4 gig of memory”, since I don’t think Jobs mentioned what kind of media is in the iPod mini. My guess is some kind of mini-drive. Flash would be too expensive.
Update 4: Confirmed – iPod mini uses hard drive storage. (via Daring Fireball)
Today is the day Mac fans have been waiting for… Steve Jobs’ Macworld Keynote. I didn’t get to jump into the streaming broadcast until an hour and 15 minutes had gone by, but I did tune it just in time to see the unveiling of the newest iLife app… GarageBand. This thing is incredible… not sure I could describe if it I tried. It goes on sale Jan 16, and I plan to be at the nearest Apple store (an hour away) that day. Hundreds of Over 50 software instruments, thousands of professionaly cut loops, instant recording, vinatge guitar amps… Incredibly cool.
I think the streaming link above will offer playbacks after it’s all over… definately check out the on-stage demo with Steve Jobs and John Mayer rockin’ out. I’ll be catching up on the hour+ I missed. When it’s done.