It has to be said that some people were saying Apple had wrung everything out of the iPod with the rather lackluster iPod Photo and the bizarre U2 model a few months back, but this week’s MacWorld came a shot in the arm to everyone who likes Apple gear.
Apple stole the show with the iPod Shuffle and the Mac Mini. Both of these are excellent products in my opinion – the new iPod not only gives Apple a contender in nearly every sector of the portable music market, but at USD100, it might even appeal as a second iPod for some, wanting something for sports etc.. The MacMini is similar – it’s after people wanting to get into Macs, but is really targeted as a 2nd machine for Windows owners who have iPods and want to check the Mac out – hence the lack of keyboard mouse (and monitor), which also of course, helps keep the price down. I can’t help thinking this is ‘Son of Cube’, though at the correct pricepoint – something it’s predecessor lacked. For all Apple’s new toys, check out their website.
Macworld is also a time when software vendors release and preview upcoming products. As usual there were some stunners, such as a sneak peak at the new Transmit 3 from Panic, but to me, the biggest announcement was not just that Barebones would release TextWrangler2, but that it would be free (it was USD50 I think). I got into BBEdit via the old BBEdit Lite, a free editor with a subset of the features, and I ended up mpoving up the the incredible full version. Although Barebones deny TW2 is the modern equivalent of BBEdit Lite, in the market, I think that’s how it’s seen. I wish them luck with this, they’re a decent company, and they make good, solid Mac software.