With the number of rumors circulating about today's Apple product launches, at least some of them
had to be right. And one was (no, we're not talking about the video shuffle). Apple has decided to go after the boombox
crowd, as well as home listeners, with the iPod Hi-Fi, a $349 speaker system with built-in iPod dock that runs on D
batteries as well as AC power. A rear-mounted auxiliary input works with the iPod shuffle (and third-party audio
players, though you won't hear Apple mention that). That sound you just heard, by the way, wasn't the iPod Hi-Fi. It
was the sound of a hundred iPod accessory makers moaning in agony.
posted Feb 28th 2006 1:34PM
ugly
Umm... I'm not sure it's large enough. I mean, make it 2, maybe 3 times bigger and it could also replace my sofa.
Complete. Waste. of. Time.
iFi
NASTY! There are so many better looking aftermarket alternatives.
wow thats it? Boring....
lovely
sucks, very disappointed no matter how great it sounds
No, it was the sound of the internet scoffing at a $350 boombox.
is it just me, or does the Bose ipod dock still look a lot nicer than this? hmph.
Not only is it ugly, but completely impractical. If you want to make a real boombox you have to make sure the ipod isn't going to fall off/out when you pick it up.
Who's gonna buy this? $300 gets you a better looking bose and klipsch stereo.
huh...
The market for ipod accessories is totally saturated.
Will this sell? For this price? gah.
ugly too
Kind of a dissapointing announcement today...How can this bring music to the masses. It is expensive, large, and ugly. Dissapointing...
bah! That's it?
#4. NO, its them scoffing at a 350 boombox with no radio, cd player, or anything else a useful boombox has ;)
Wow, that's possibly the worst Apple keynote i've seeen. But At least we got a new Mini with optical out.
No, it was the sound of the internet scoffing at a $350 boombox.
A $350 boombox without a radio or top carrying handle.
Bwahahahahahahaha!
well...
how many watts does it put out...
can i attach external speakers to it...
does can it play music from a mac mini..
the price point is too high... thats just me...
Come on people...
What The hell is that.I want a touch screen Ipod and instead you give us an overpriced mac mini and boombox accessory...No love loss though.:)..That better be the best sounding boombox ever for almost 700 dollars(including the cost of the Ipod).
Who would anyone want to buy this? Unless I've been living under a rock all these years why wouldn't you just buy a $10 cable and hook it up to your already exiting stereo?
This kind of simplistic device was in my head all along, hating the crap from Altec Lansing and Bose. Kudos to Apple for re-instating the power of a big and capable boombox, the idea from eiher Ive or myself via mind-logging
Watch as Apple's design team hits a boombox with an ugly-stick. only $349 per ticket!!!
that cheap looks cheap!
Fun!? Apple poo-on-a-stick was finnaly relasesd! yeah! More extrealy overpriced crap to buy! There is a reason Apple only has 4% of the market share.
What a pile of nonsense. But people will STILL buy this rubbish...!!
Steve Jobs knows his market very very well.
Wait! What's that sound? No it's not the "Hi-Fi," it's Apple's stock plummeting. There better be something fan-freaking-tastic coming on April 1st...
This did not warrant a special event. Big Apple mistake. I'd be pissed if I flew there for that. They could have announced this on the web.
EH, isn't Apple like a year and half slow on this?? Didn't Bose release this a long time ago? How is this new box different?
http://www.bose.com/controller?event=VIEW_PRODUCT_PAGE_EVENT&product=sounddock_multimedia_index&ck=0
wansel@mac.com went idle at 2:03:32 PM.
1. It's a ripoff. There are plenty of cheaper speakerdocks.
2. Just look at the positioning of the iPod! Surely if it slotted in like the Hard Drive on the 360, it would be easier to move around?
Worst annoucements ever.
did they fire ive? sad
WGAS! I mean, really... a Boom Box with an iPod stuck on it? Has Apple officially jumped the shark with this whole iPod business?
Still waiting for that video touchscreen iPod... still waiting...
http://www.apple.com/ipodhifi/design.html
It looks better on here
How could you even cary this around while using it, if someone bumps into you, you're ipod goes flying out of the top...
worst product apple's ever made....
All that fuss for a keynote and the only new thing was a stupid looking speaker dock for $350?
This is the dumbest idea ever.
With you on that one, electronicat.
This, plus the recent virus scare and all the stories of problems with Intel iMacs are not going to push Apple's stock higher.
um... what a pile of crap! It's ugly, no top handle, no fm, ... no SIRIUS (or xm for that matter) and um.... did I mention UGLY??? Stevie needed a special event for this??
W. T. F.
Audiophile? Audiophile??!! Did he forget that those 1 Billion songs were sold in 128K encoding??? Bah!
This thing is almost as ugly as the HUNDRED DOLLAR leather case. Steve, dude......
Man - what a let down :(
and no air tunes? or wifi. what crap. actually that sound was the apple stock taking a nose dive. lost over 2% since the keynote.
uggh. For 350 you can go to Best Buy and grab a moderate priced tuner and some decent shelf speakers. Drop the price by about 150 dollars and maybe someone would buy it....
I guess Jobs thinks if he slaps an Apple logo on it, the faithful will jump right in line...Not this time Steve...
Why does steve hate the radio? If that thing had a tuner in it and the ability to play CDs then maybe, but it just plays from an ipod? I know the whole "keep it simple" thing, but come on! Please, I just want a FM Tuner!!!
This is not a boom box!!! It does one thing and no matter how good it sounds it will not replace shit! Replace my sterio?! Sorry, but I enjoy listening to the radio once in a while.
I am a total mac fanboy and this made me die on the inside.
Quote: "Mac killed my inner child"
LAME. And I say that as a charter member of the Apple Fanboys and a stockholder.
My new project is to burn and rip all my AAC protected files and look forward to moving on from iTunes until Apple allows me to use MY phuking music on ANY player.
This Apple announcement was a waste of Engadget's valuable bandwidth.
That averages out to $116.67 a speaker.
What a total rip off Steve!!!!
Wow, hideous. Absolutely terrible.
Looks like a toaster oven.
Wow 350 for a crate.
Engadget, I notice you dont put this product down at all even though the majority sees it as a peice of crap. Whats the deal?
Does Apple think people are stupid enough to think you need the dock to connect to stereos or are people really that stupid
Look, we all know it "shouldn't" sell, but imagine it's August and you're about to send your little princess off to a private university. What's another $350 at this point? A stupid product...stupid like a fox.
Sweet, I can't wait to waste my money on this and that $99 (less than a hundred!) leather ipod sock.
And because this can be used at home, it will be way better than hooking up a $500 mac mini to my stereo via the optical out and playing it on my hifi stereo.
Apple, you smell bad sometimes. The stench is one of stupid.
Could comment #19 be ANY better?
Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo I Speaker is lame. sheesh $350
I think not.
This is a bad move. There are plenty of third party solutions for this problem, and they're in a far better position to do something better and offer a wider range of solutions than Apple can. In addition, this is only going to sour relationships between Apple and those third parties.
:yawn:
If any of you are looking for a great radio to play your iPod thru, I currently use a Sony CFD-G500 CD Boombox. I bought this bad boy from circuit city for around $79, and it has a LINE-IN jack on the top for your iPod whatever. It used 8 D-Cell batteries and is very loud. just wanted to save you $250.
Lata.
it is so simple, people will clamor to it just for its flat style, yet still cold and cool at same time, they seriouslly could have made it customizeable, i can see decals in the future for the unit, and face plate replacements with designs/art...
It can go inclosed on a bookcase or shelf, as some stated its missing radio/XM/whatever
6 D-size batteries...im sorry but apple could have atleast made a special battery for this and still got a sizeable chunk of money for them, let alone have it chargeable on the unit...
they could have included a larger display LCD, just for the unit...so that while sitting away from the unit, you could select songs at ease...the remote is pointless for distances greater than 10 feet(which is funny that one of the example rooms is a dorm room...)
though few questions: what is the equivlant pointage of this unit ?...is it 2.1? 3.1? 5.1?
I'm dissapointed its not even got a tv/monitor out. At least some of the newer 3rd party dock accessories have this.
what a funny new product -.-
Yawn. 4am in Japan. Not worth my time. Friggin' iHiFi doesn't even do wireless networking...
And how many people with computers at home are gonna plug in their iPods into speakers? I'd say most of use will continue to play music from our friggin' computers, maybe via AirportExpress.
Minis are a good sign - but they really need to fix FrontRow before they add functions like BonJour to it...
Can that monstrosity double as a car battery?
worst. product . ever
If I was an ipod accesory maker I would be jumping for joy - because when they look at my ipod boombox with actually useful features for half the price $$$$$$:)
Features that should have been added
- A added screen so I can see what I'm doing from accross the room
- A shuffle port on the FRONT!
- A Top mounted handle - no of this retarded G4 tower handle crap
- A radio
- A mp3 CD player (possibly with the ability to import to ipod)
- A more secure dock so I can just lift it up and go without risking damage to the ipod
- An extra ipod dock I mean this thing is huge why not?
And btw whoever came up with this attrocity should
be fired -
out of a cannon -
into the sun
It is very ugly and wayyyyyyy to expensive and i think nobody is going to buy this. It is a huge let dowen.
Someone must have been replaced at apple. They keep making worse and worse decisions IMO.
First, larger dpi on powerbooks/macbooks.
Then smaller viewing angle on new macbooks, 125 degrees vs 135 degrees (and screwed me on return policy)
And now this POS announcement.
Apple, you have pissed off this 3 yr mac user.
If you really want to see something funny, sync up the minutes of the Steve Jobs speech with the movement of Apple's stock today.
Nice work by all. And by all, I mean everyone except for those who work at Apple.
PLUSSES: The remote control is a good thing. I can see lots of uses for it - in the kitchen, bedroom, outside, etc. I've done the dock-to-PC-speakers as a portable stereo at several parties and at the beach.
MINUSES: The thing is ugly! I can't believe this is an Apple product! And as several people have mentioned, the iPod just hanging off the top is bad bad bad - it limits the mobility of the box.
CONCLUSION: It's not a bad idea, but other companies have executed better. If the iPod was docked in such a way where it wouldn't fall out if you were carrying it around, and it was closer to $200, I'd say maybe. But this is a big miss.
Steve Jobs said I have to get one of these cause it will make me cool. Right?
ugly...put this in my house..what do apple know in speakers...the Bose one look and sound better..
Awesome! A hi-fi system so I can hear all the compression errors on my illegally downloaded mp3s! Good idea, poor as hell implementation. As someone with a REAL home theater system, this is laughable. I have small, light portable speakers for my iPod when I want to have tunes on the go, and I plug it into my receiver that drives speakers that are so much better than these it's not even funny.
Gah, I'm not even going to make this a long post - so many other people have already noted that there are more, far better third-party products on the market already.
Whoa what a big fuzz for a few little products. Is Engadget in the future also providing live coverage when Lenovo or Dell launch 2 new laptops, hahahaha...
Live Coverage for a 99$ leather case muah......
I think Apple is stretching here with an iPod Boombox. You take a boombox to the beach, to the park, camping, etc. I wouldn't take that anyplace where it could potentially get damaged. Additionally: A boombox in the home? Sorry Apple, I already have an Airport Express that goes through my receiver, and I use my laptop as a remote. I'm not understanding the thinking here. $400? I'd rather put that towards a Zone Player by Sonos. Or a TRULY portable boombox with line in. I think this might be their first failure in years.
Lame
If it's sturdy enough for people to sit on it, it doubles nicely as designer furniture.
Yup I think I'll keep my 80 buck Sony box w/ the line-in and my GORGEOUS 70 buck vaja case ...
No Wifi built in, that would have made it at-least new and interesting. I bet the Bose sounds better anyways.
#63, How do you know how these sound? You sound like a Bose brand fanboy to me.
They can't be serious about this 70's style crap. I love my white iBook, but i would not carry around a box made of white plastic. and this black grille is soo conventional.
I really hope for Apple that this product became only this ugly because their designers were busy preparing something great for April 1st.
There's no cd or radio cause their gonna sell an add on piece later? piece of garbage for $350. I can't wait to see which one of my friends is the first to get it then get pissed off when scratches appear all over it out of no where(mostly from looking at it)
the ugly tree has moltened a lot on this!
the is the bigest load of s*** that i have ever seen in my life
Actually, it is the largest iPod dock i have ever seen.
Yes, this may be a little over priced, but it's really not that ugly, it's simple. How many of you set your speakers in the middle of the room as an eye piece? And it's not a boombox. This is meant to be put in one place and left for an extended period of time, not to be moved every two seconds. Is the Bose sounddock really any cheaper? and does it have as much wattage output or optical in so you can set your mac mini next to your Tv with this under it? It may be not the best thing to plug your iPod into and carry down the street ala 1988, but it'll be a welcomed addition to my living room.
hahaha who in their right mind!!!
I told my wife this morning to be prepared: I might be wielding the credit card this afternoon.
Have no fear.
This thing has no feature that sets it at all apart from competitors -- not even a trademark Apple design feature, like incredible thin-ness or light weight or something.
It has handles -- but it looks like if you tip it slightly when you carry it your iPod (which doubtless cannot be in its case) will tumble out.
No screen -- so I have to get up and walk across the room to see details of music, etc.
No radio tuner -- I, for one, listen to news on the radio all the time and would never replace a stereo that permits that with one that doesn't.
And it costs $349? I guess I'll go to Radio Shack and buy that mini-to-mini cable after all.
IS IT JUST ME OR IS THAT THE UGLIEST THING ON THE APPLE WEBSITE!!! EVEN THE OTHER SPEAKERS NOT BY APPLE LOOK SEXIER THAN THAT BIG OL POS!
Damn thing better be deafeningly loud with temple bursting highs and vomit inducing lows.
1) this was not a "keynote". it was a media event.
2) $350 for GOOD speakers is not a rip, my center channel cost that much and it has the same amount of drivers. now whether or not these drivers warrant the price, i'll wait & see (hear).
3) i love the design, although i want a white grill. go to Best Buy & look at the boombox aisle. THOSE are ugly.
i don't understand the dock on top, though. that's great for when it's sitting on the table, but sucks for the beach or picnic.
and where the hell is this $100 case? i can't find it on the site. does it come w/ a $50 iTMS gift certificate??
Wll Iv been sitting on my x-mass bonus wating for something new from apple (touch screen ipod or tablet). THat sound youe here is me running to another company to give my money to. Im not wating antil april 1, just to be dissapointed again.
Thud!
haha bill gates must be laughing in his chair, reading all these comments :)
go bill!
Here is the competition:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/ref=amb_link_33503801_32/002-1542131-4741634?%5Fencoding=UTF8&node=13996491
Not to mention all stereo component systems where you plug your ipod cable in...
Lame ugly product.
Wow, the apple remote must be really important to these guys, b/c I assume that's why they didnt put in radio or cd playback. I suppose the "audio in" covers that, but then you have to have a seperate remote for that. Well, there goes simplicity... BTW, if all the apple devices are using the same remote, how does one keep from turning on the ipod hifi while turning on a movie on his mac, if they are in the same room?
Its a little pricy, yeah. But if this sounds good, its a great product if you need a portable boombox. I've tried using the other docks out at the basketball court and they sound like crap. This would be perfect. Would work in the driveway when I wash the car, the backyard doing yardwork, the park when I take the dog to play frisbee, or a million other places that I'd like to have some amplified music.
Personally, I have no use for radio or CD. FM radio is 75% commericials and idiot DJ's, with 25% straight up bad music. And what do you need a CD for when you have an ipod? Plus, looks like it does have an aux in if you need to plug something else in there.
I've used the other docks, they don't cut it. Turn up any of them and they distort, crackle, and sound like ass. I like this thing.
Finally, this wasn't the main event, the intel mac mini was. This was a sidenote.
The guy who made the comment about watching the stock price in correlation to Jobs speech was not kidding.
I went to wsj.com and graphed it for the day by 15 minute intervals and the Apple stock plummeted over 2% at the time of the BOOMbox announcement.
whether or not apple should be in the speaker business is one question. i don't really care.
whether or not this thing is worth the hype and the steep price tag depends 100% on how well it delivers up the goods. if apple is willing to hang their reputation on this thing, i'm willing to at least give on a listen next time i walk by an apple store.
for the record, i don't think this is really a boombox. it's a low-end home stereo system or a high-end spare system for your office/bedroom/etc. who's really going to lug it around on battery power with an expensive little ipod balanced on top? maybe i'll bungee one to the back of a moped. that'd be pretty pimp.
"D-cell batteries sold separately."
Holy cow . . . . that sucked. What they need to do is cut the size by 75%, add air tunes and I'd buy it. I want a remote, wireless speaker option. This was, seriously, a waste of Jobs' time.
iCinderblock
I see this glass half full.
At least they are showing some improvement and support for the iPod itself, via the new iPod updator. I've been waiting for a line out adjustment feature for the past two years. Everytime I hook my iPod up to my Pioneer headunit I have to go into the eq settings on the iPod and turn off the bass because the sound is terrible when processed twice.
This crap item that no one will buy at least prolonged the life of my 5G iPod another month or so.