The new C22 and MC75
(Credit: McIntosh Labs)Apple was founded in 1976; McIntosh Laboratories goes all the way back to 1949.
Computers get old really fast, while TVs age a bit more gracefully. But there's not much of a collectors market for old TVs or computers, at least by people who use them on a daily basis. Face it: computers, iPods, and TVs are disposable technology, while the useful working life of great audio designs is measured in decades. Many decades. Case in point: McIntosh's classic designs from the 1960s still fetch big dollars. Which is why buying really good stuff makes sense.
I doubt Apple will be celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Apple II in 2037 with a commemorative reissue, and I can't imagine Sony announcing plans to offer Trinitron CRT TVs anytime soon. Audiophiles still covet classic tube and solid-state electronics, and pay big bucks for good condition originals.
Which brings us to McIntosh's 60th anniversary limited-edition reissues of its legendary amplifiers, the 75-watt MC75 monoblock tube amplifier (modeled after the original 1961 version) and the C22 stereo preamplifier (originally introduced in 1962).
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The film MacHeads, which is scheduled to be released this fall, takes a close look at the culture surrounding Apple and its products.
(Credit: MacHeads)If Tuesday's news of new, more-powerful, Mac laptops wasn't enough to stoke the fires of the Apple faithful, I've got even more to offer.
Tuesday afternoon, the producers of the forthcoming film, MacHeads, released a new trailer. The film is scheduled for a fall release. No word yet on how it will be distributed.
The film, as noted here in January, will take a close look at what Wired writer Leander Kahney has termed the "cult of Mac."
The new trailer doesn't shed much more light on the contents of the film, but for real, ahem, MacHeads, the minute-plus of new footage will nevertheless be catnip.
Featuring video from Macworld, New York's Fifth Avenue Apple Store, the DigiBarn computer museum, and elsewhere, the film looks to be an in-depth examination of just what makes the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone, and Apple's other products seem like cultural phenomena rather than just consumer electronics.
After Monday's forecast in which he foretold Apple moving 45 million iPhones during 2009, Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster is back with another aggressive estimate.
Shipments of Macs, like this new MacBook Pro, were up 60 percent in February, according to NPD.
(Credit: Apple)On Tuesday, Munster released a research note in which he estimates that Apple's U.S. consumer market share for Macs stands at 21 percent, while its worldwide share is about 10 percent. He comes to this conclusion by using numbers released by market research firm IDC, which found that Apple's worldwide share of the PC market grew from 2.4 percent to 2.9 percent between 2006 and 2007. He notes that 70 percent of the global PC market is enterprise computing, a sandbox in which Apple doesn't often play, so the 21 percent refers just to the consumer business in the U.S.
These are just estimates, but it does appear Apple is at least off to an impressive start this year. NPD, which tracks retail sales only, also found evidence of notable growth for Apple's computer business in the month of February. NPD estimated that overall Mac shipments were up 60 percent, compared with the rest of the PC industry, which grew at a 9 percent clip.
Munster also gathered data from Dell.com, HP.com, Lenovo.com, and more and concluded that though Macs are often knocked for being outrageously expensive compared with their Windows-running counterparts, the average Apple desktop is 16 percent pricier and notebooks 9 percent more expensive.
I woke up Monday to the announcement that starting September 24, the XO laptop (famous as the little laptop that could) will be made available to buyers in so-called first-world countries, in quantities less than 100,000 units. In fact, for less than $400 you can give one and receive another--an excellent solution to an age-old moral dilemma.
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(Credit:
eBay)
If you saw our recent item on the shrine to the Mac and wanted to build one of your own, here's your chance to get started.
Gizmodo notes that 40 Macintosh Classic IIs are for sale on eBay, with bids starting at $799 for the whole lot (or you can buy them now for $999). But as others have noted, they're not exactly a bargain--especially when you consider what a pain it is to get rid of any old computer these days, now that they're classified as hazardous waste. But hey, if you're looking to spruce up your decor, it still beats cinderblocks.
No, the Japanese "I'm a Mac" ads do not include Hello Kitty, Pikachu, or anything with tentacles. But they're quite funny in their own right, if only because I have absolutely no idea what the actors are saying in them but can still pretty much grasp the message that they're trying to convey. It's interesting, too, to see how the Japanese ads are much more reliant on physical expressions and gags, whereas the British Mac ads that Candace blogged here a few days ago are all about the wit (not surprisingly).
Additionally, I am of the opinion that the Japanese "Mac," like the British one, is much cuter than Justin Long of the American ads (and Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story fame).
(Via Valleywag.)
P.S.: One member of our team, whom I will allow to remain anonymous, commented that he "can't wait till someone does one in Klingon."
(Credit:
Chip Chick)
If the term "Apple fanboy" were in the dictionary, a line drawing of Jeremy Mehrle could well appear beside it. Chip Chick says the St. Louis resident has 74 Macs on display, including 30 that adorn the bar pictured here. "His collection contains 18 different CRT-based iMacs, a Next Cube, four different Apple II computers, and a 20th a Anniversary Mac," she says, citing MacLife Magazine as her source. It's even more impressive when you see the photos of the rest of the abode, which can be found on Flickr.
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