Rumor roundup: iPad to ship March 43rd, HDMI coming to some Macs, Netflix coming to iPad/iPhone
I don’t normally comment on rumors, but I really can’t find anything else to wrtie about at the moment, so here’s my 2¢ on a couple of the latest rumors swirling around the interwebs.
iPad to ship March 43rd
Yes, the rumor mill is now predicting Apple will perhaps miss its March shipping deadline by a couple weeks. Apple has had more than a couple delays in shipping products in the past, and usually for big ones it pre-announces months in advance, so this would not be surprising. However I tend to agree with those who think the iPad will indeed begin “technically” shipping in March, with a very limited supply – although I would not rule out a scenario where Apple begins accepting online pre-orders in late March, for an April 8th delivery, just so that it FEELS Like they made their March deadline.
On a side note, how cool would it be if Apple stopped pre-announcing all their stuff 4 months before it shipped, and just one day you woke up, checked Apple.com, and saw there was something called an iPad, and it was available?
HDMI coming to some Macs
This rumor seems to particularly be attached to the Mac mini, and I can understand why it might be, as the Mac mini is really not good for anything other than being what the Apple TV SHOULD be, so it would make sense. But Apple only fairly recently began trying to force the mini dsiplay port down the world’s throat, and I think they still have about 2 years before they admit defeat. I would not entirely rule out that a new Mac mini ships with BOTH a mini display port and HDMI, but Apple seems to like its customers to buy adpaters, so I am not holding my breath on this one.
The upside to this rumor though, if true, might imply that the Apple TV would die, and the Mac mini would get a blu-ray drive, thus finally becoming something you can hook to your TV and replace a couple other gadgets. That is, assuming Apple either allows (or doesn’t purposely block) Netflix streaming from running.
Netflix streaming coming to iPad/iPhone
Speaking of Netflix, there is now a rumor of Netflix streaming coming to the iPhone/iPad, based on a new survey Netflix has sent out to gauge interest in such a thing. Even if you don’t have Netflix, an iPod touch, iPhone, or iPad, if you have a shred of decency, I implore you to take the survey and tell them YES WE WANT NETFLIX, if for no other reason than you know some lame tablet from HP or Toshiba or something is going to offer it and make us look bad. Plus I loves me my Mystery Science Theater re-runs on demand. A similar survey came out a few months back about PS3 Netflix demand, and we all know what happened there.
The Problem with HDMI Only
HDMI may be great for going to your TV, but about people who have a separate sound system? Apple solved that problem by letting sound go through HDMI and RCA-out connection simultaneously on the AppleTV. If the Mac Mini is really supposed to be so media-consumption savvy, do we expect to see some other sound I/O options besides a headphone jack?
As far as the iPad goes, I think Apple needed to announce it a couple of months in advance so developers could have a chance to test their apps with the new SDK, and also be able to develop some new apps for the new form factor. You can’t sell a new product like the iPad without a decent number of apps for it.
The HDMI rumour sounds crap to me. I would think it would be more that there will be an HDMI adaptor for DisplayPort because adding a third video port just doesn’t make any sense and considering HDMI is really nothing more than DVI with sound it makes more sense it will be an adaptor.
Also I disagree with the comments about the Mac Mini. It is now a really powerful machine in fact it is the same power as a MacBook with the added advantage of technically supporting 3 monitors and 5 USB ports as opposed to 2 monitors and 2 USB.
The Mac Mini server is also really cool and will be on my list of purchases this year as well as the 3G iPad.
I have 3 Mac Mini’s, one of which is the SL Server edition. I love them all. The MM Server is more than powerful enough to handle my 40+ domains, DNS, email, etc.
My older Mini at home (2ghz Duo2) is plenty powerful for my desires in that it streams 1080pHD content from my Drobo’s onto a 27″ LCD without frame drop or delay. The oldest Mini (1.6ghz Duo1) I use at work in IT. It’s not the fastest champ in the world but it gets the job done and it dazzles the other techs. They’re amazed at what it can do for being so compact.
I don’t know what more you’d want from it unless you’re a hardcore gamer in which case why use a Mac at all? I can see specific needs for power but that’s hardly the norm of most users. I was a huge fan of the Cube (still have one) and am more so for the Mini. I love the small footprint and near-silence. It’s beautiful. I’ve recommended it to several friends that now own one and just adore it.
@Dan
The “headphone jack” doubles as an optical audio out port. Apple has been doing this for years on all of there product line.
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
I think the mac mini has taken a turn in the right direction as a server device. Max the memory and add an external drive and you have a great home/media server device. Plug that into your TV and you have something. In fact if all your media was stored on a mac mini, you could use iPad throughout your house, without need of a desktop (unless for work).
Steve is on the right path if this is true. To bad the iPad has such adverse affects on the software community (Appstore).
hopefully we won’t have to wait for the iPad past the 26th – so much hype for the product and for it to miss it’s launch date would really screw up apple’s lead on Tablet PCs before Dell makes a knockoff.
C’mon Doc,
I LOVE my Mini-I actually own four. The current release (actually mine was last March) is VERY USABLE. The nVidia chipset makes most game playing reasonable. The thing fits in the palm of my hand, and I upped the RAM to 4GB and swapped in a 500 GB 7200 RPM hard drive. Along with my 1.5 TB Newertech external, I can do 95% of what a Mac Pro can.
March 43rd? Wow… that is a long wait!