I never did blame apple for their overpriced products, since most of the time the MSRP is pretty close to other companies. But sometimes they release overpriced shit with subpar quality and old tech. One of them is the new HIFI iPod. Now, first of all is wrong to call it an ipod, since you cant tranfer you music to this thing, as it has no media capabilities nor storage capacity at all. It can only work with an ipod on it. So, what is it? a dock with speakers, that's all. You can get the apple remote+universal dock+AV cables combo for $99, and then conect it to your audio system or home theater. But what makes the HIFI completely absurd is that it isnt a real HIFI audio system. The truth is that is noting more than a cheap and poorly designed boombox. How lame the specs must be that apple didnt release a complete sheet but just some dB counts. But the worst part is the price: $349. Yeah, they charge that for a boombox that could be at Kmart for $99. Honestly, it has no screen (you've to deal with your ipod's one, like if you could see something on that at 3 or 4 feet away...) the design is just a block with handles and the remote functions are nothing but scarse. No please apple, dont even think about adding frontrow capabilities (even if its only music and photos) nor a remote with a scrolling wheel, we are not worthy.....
The sound quality of the iPod is actually less than the cheaper Creative Zen portable MP3 player when put under sound quality testing. Of course, you really can't tell the difference when playing music depending on the bitrate, etc. There has been dock w/ speakers for the ipod. Most of them are crap quality because the iPod is not made for a homebased sound system.
I own an iPod. The only accessory I bought for it was the case w/belt clip. Anything else is unnecessary. There is no need for a dock, or diff color cases, or the little iPod standing man. I hook it up to my nice stereo all the time. No need for a "hi fi" system.
Well the problem with this is that apple is entering anew phase that I call "product abuse". Like other companies did in the past, apple is trying to squeeze all the money they can from the iPod hype. The problem with doing this is that the consumer often gets tired quickly of the craptastic quality of accesories and shit. Is like SEGA with the Genesis: they kept releasing this accesories and addons that had no purpose whatsoever and before you can tell it, crash! their market share is dead...
You obviously haven't seen the $99 leather cases then....They look nice but thats mighty expensive. Seriously, here you need to remember apples old fashioned market - its people who will pay more for products than your average user. There are BOSE and altec lansing (Yup, i know BOSe are overpriced expensive shite, but people still buy it) speakers similar to this for about £100-150 around here, and people buy it in droves. But you have to remember that noone is holding a knife at your throat and forcing you to buy it. The iPod still has a minijack out, until apple adopt a proprietary audio output you can still just connect it to whatever the hell you want. So stop bloody moaning, theres no need to make a thread about it.
The real kick in the teeth is that it costs $99 for the big case that holds the ipod video. Then the ipod nano thats like less then half the size still costs $99! For alot less material... Dont even get me started on people who buy B&O... £9k for a tv thats not as good as a £2k one.
I do agree with that. I'm primarily a Mac user (and have been for nearly 10 years now) and I'm glad that the iPod has turned out to be such a huge success for Apple, generating millions of dollars of needed revenue and creating a better consumer identity for the company. The problem is, I don't like the new direction Apple is going in. They seem to emphasize their computers less while overplaying this iPod/digital lifestyle nonsense. It's kind of sad when you see the daily news on www.maccentral.com comprised of a half dozen announcements for the release of some new iPod case or accessory.
True, but their stuff weighs a ton - on a rented holiday house in denmark there was a B&O TV, and the remote weighed a complete ton - and if its heavy it has to be good....right?
Thing is, all these things are made in China or Taiwan and the manufacturers are not owned by apple, so its pretty safe to guess that you can buy one that was made in the same factory but be considered a "clone" or fake according to apple.
I never had anything against Apple, until this 'lifestyle' shit. $349 for a piss poor, monophonic (almost - lets face it, a few inches of seperation between high range drivers and a solo bass driver is hardly stereo.), ugly piece of shit. I'm not an audiophile, I've got more sense than that, but I do know three things. 1) Your iPod doesn't have good DACs or pre amps. 2) Playing shitty bit rate MP3/AAC is never going to sound good on anything. 3) That's some of the worst loud speaker design I have ever seen. iPods are ok for listening on the train or bus, where there is lots of background noise, but hi-fi? I don't think so. Do Apple still make computers?
True indeed. In fact, the white mouse and keyboard that came with my Mac actually have "Logitech" copyrights right on their casings.
Yup Yup but they use the same archetecture and componants of standard PC's (x86 Intel chips) but cost a fair bit more.
True, but not necessarily overpriced (in most cases) when you look at it in a bit more detail. Regardless though, it's the OS that makes the difference. OSX IMO is worth the perceived extra cost of the hardware.
That was the theory behind the xbox... :lol: I just can't see a market for this. People who buy ipods don't mind paying a premium for the brand, but to pay more than the ipod itself cost for a couple of lousy speakers? Even for brand loyalty, this seems a bit much....
Look I'm not bitching cuz is expensive. "I want a ferrari" that's bitching, but here I just complaint becos this thing is just absurd. That's what I was trying to say...
Get a sign stating with whatever you are bickering about today, hold it high, jump on the short bus, head over to apple HQ, and let them know what you feel about there products.
How lame must be to criticize apple that even maclovers are doing it! Fuck off, if it were for you conformists the 2600 would still be the only console around... BTW, here's a real HIFI system that can download music without a PC and to a 40GB HDD, has a 4 inch color screen and all the bells and whistles. Is from sony...
