them's some small apples

The new Apple iPod Shuffle

from http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=4662

Steve Jobs’ major announcement at MacWorld yesterday was that the Mac and the iPod are getting smaller and cheaper with the release of the Mac Mini and the iPod Flash.

During a keynote address to the rapt audience of Apple fans, Jobs unveiled the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle, along with several enhancements to the forthcoming "Tiger" version of Mac OS X.

Both the Mac Mini and the iPod Shuffle are designed to attract mainstream users who may be familiar with Apple's other products, but are unwilling to spend the money on the full-featured versions, Jobs said.

The Mac Mini is a complete Macintosh system not much longer or wider than a compact disc, and shorter than an iPod Mini at only 4.9cm. It features Apple's G4 processor, a generation behind the G5 processor currently shipping in Power Macs and iMacs.

Apple will release two versions of the Mac Mini on January 22. The least expensive model will cost $499 with a 1.25GHz G4 processor, 256MB of 333MHz DDR SDRAM, a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM/CD-RW optical drive and a Radeon 9200 graphics processor.

The other model costs $599 with a 1.42GHz processor and an 80GB hard drive.

The iPod Shuffle is Apple's vision of a low-cost music player that is extremely easy to use, Jobs said. The earlier versions of the iPod came with hard disk drives ranging from 4GB for the iPod Mini to a 60GB iPod Photo. The iPod Shuffle can store either 512MB or 1GB of data on flash memory.

Most users will put music on the iPod Shuffle, but it can also be used as a portable USB device, Jobs said. The bottom of the iPod Shuffle snaps off to reveal a USB attachment which can plug directly into a PC or a Macintosh, he said.

Coming off a fourth quarter in which the company sold 4.5 million iPods, Apple now holds 65 per cent of the market for digital music players, Jobs said. The remaining chunk of that market is held by a variety of flash-based players that will now compete with the iPod Shuffle.

The 512MB version of the iPod Shuffle will cost around $99 while the 1GB version will cost $149.

"We've just begun the era of digital music," Jobs said. Apple now takes in more revenue from iPod sales than it does from selling computers, according to the company's third-quarter earnings release.

Keynote attendees greeted the Mac Mini and iPod Shuffle with sustained applause and cheers, as they did just about every new feature or product shown during Jobs' two-hour presentation.

For more information see the Apple Web site.