|
"Froot Loops"? No Way! (6/29/04)
|
 
|
| | |
June's almost over, folks, and as we've already pointed out, it's been one seriously overstuffed month when it comes to momentous Apple announcements. It kicked off with the surprise introduction of AirPort Express and its oh-so-funky AirTunes functionality, followed that up with speed-bumped Power Macs, shuffled right on into the Steve-hosted London intro of the European iTunes Music Stores, followed that with iPod Your BMW and Apple Remote Desktop 2, and then capped it all off with yesterday's new displays and that sneak preview of Tiger. Any more and we're pretty sure that most Mac users' heads would pop like an egg in the microwave.
Presumably that's why the company's being so hush-hush about its latest change: AirPort Extreme price reductions. As reported by MacMinute, Apple's $99 AirPort Extreme cards have dropped to $79, while its high-end $249 AirPort Extreme Base Station (the one with the built-in modem and antenna port) has fallen to $199-- all with nary a press release in sight. So if you were in the market for a high-end Base Station, congratulations! You get to save fifty smackers. And if you were in the market for a low-end Base Station, congratulations! You can't get one anymore!
Yes, it seems that Apple has nixed the $199 Base Station sans modem and antenna port, because it's mysteriously vanished from the AirPort Extreme Tech Specs page (not to mention the Apple Store). So if you have no conceivable need for a modem or an antenna port in your Base Station, tough noogies, because you're getting 'em anyway, and you're not saving a dime-- but hey, at least Apple's not making you buy the high-end Base Station at its original price. That is, they won't unless you start getting uppity about it. So cool it.
As for the lack of a Steve Jobs Media Event Extravaganza to announce these significant changes to Apple's wireless product line-up (or, indeed, even a measly press release just to acknowledge their very existence), we figure it either comes down to Apple wanting to avoid all the lawsuits that a mass egg-in-microwave head-popping epidemic would surely spawn, or the company not wishing to upstage yesterday's Tiger preview and new displays with a ground-breaking and paradigm-subverting alteration to its AirPort product matrix.
Either way, can you believe how much colossal product news we've gotten this month? And there's still one day left in June! We're hard-pressed to imagine how Apple could possibly top news of price drops in its AirPort line-up; something about what Phil Schiller had for breakfast, maybe? If they say "donut," that we can handle... but if they say "glazed" instead of "jelly," we're probably just going to faint dead away. There's only so much excitement one can take in a month, you know.
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (4789)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/29/04 episode: June 29, 2004: Despite our better judgment, it looks like we got dragged into the Konfabulator kontroversy after all. Meanwhile, the world of rap decides that the Fresh Steve and DJ Jazzy Ive are collectively the second most powerful entity in music, and Apple rejiggers its AirPort Extreme product line-- can you stand the excitement?...
Other scenes from that episode: 4787: Sticky Just Thinking About It (6/29/04) So much for remaining blissfully neutral. We thought we'd successfully ducked getting mired in this sort of controversy when that whole Watson-Sherlock flap was raging (yeah, you thought it was odd that such an obvious dramatic plot point never made it onto the AtAT airwaves, didn't you?), but whoops, we got cocky and blinked-- and now this whole Konfabulator-Dashboard thing just smacked us upside the head with an unpleasant wet slapping noise... 4788: Apple Representin', Yo (6/29/04) Moving on to a less-icky subject: say, how about Apple's growing street cred in the world of rap? Ha! Admit it! That was the third least likely phrase you ever thought you'd hear us say, right behind "you don't hear enough talk these days about the amazing health benefits of stuffing rabid weasels down your pants" and "something about that Windows GUI just makes us want to go right up and hug it"...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
