INTERACT FORUM
More => Old Versions => Media Center 14 (Development Ended) => Topic started by: JimH on October 01, 2009, 05:20:22 pm
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It would cost JRiver several hundred thousand dollars to make a Mac version, so let's do this....
If, in the next 30 days, 100 people agree in this thread to order a Mac version, we'll set up a web page and take advance orders with a 50% deposit on a $60 retail price.
If, in the next 90 days, we can sell 4000 subscriptions, we'll start work. That's $120,000 in deposits.
If we can't finish within 6 months from the time we start, or if not enough people subscribe, we'll refund all the deposits.
[ EDIT by JimH -- not enough interest at this time -- closing this now ]
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I wouldn't trade my unibody MacBook Pro for any PC laptop. Seamless, rock solid, sturdy, light weight and thin, and no junk/stickers placed on the device which just look awful. Of course I also would rather have fewer very high quality devices than a bunch of crap--which is what I used to go for. Quality over quantity all the way!
But if the software you want isn't on it ?
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It would cost JRiver several hundred thousand dollars, so let's do this....
If, in the next 30 days, 100 people agree in this thread to order a Mac version, we'll set up a web site and take advance orders with a 50% deposit on a $60 retail price.
If, in the next 90 days, we can sell 4000 subscriptions, we'll start work. That's $120,000 in deposits.
If we can't finish within 6 months from the time we start, or if not enough people subscribe, we'll refund all the deposits.
Seriously?? Count me in for three...
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Thanks, Ed. We'll include an autographed picture of Matt's dog.
Yes, I'm serious. I just don't expect that there is enough demand.
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Yes, I'm serious. I just don't expect that there is enough demand.
I'm a bit skeptical too (especially without some advertising, since JRiver is probably all but unknown in the Mac-World), but we will see...
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It would cost JRiver several hundred thousand dollars, so let's do this....
If, in the next 30 days, 100 people agree in this thread to order a Mac version, we'll set up a web site and take advance orders with a 50% deposit on a $60 retail price.
If, in the next 90 days, we can sell 4000 subscriptions, we'll start work. That's $120,000 in deposits.
If we can't finish within 6 months from the time we start, or if not enough people subscribe, we'll refund all the deposits.
Count me in. I'd pay $60 to not need to run vmware fusion anymore.
I think JRiver needs to do some work on canvassing support too though. 4000 subscriptions from a user base that has never heard of the product isnt going to happen. That is a given. But if there were real commitment to keep publicizing the software when it is done, I dont see why 4000 people (who have heard about the software) wouldnt buy it. Especially since it would be the only competition to itunes.
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I just thought I'd chime in, though I'm sure Jim knows how I feel on this...
Literally the only piece of software I feel is "missing" on OSX is MC. There just isn't anything even close on the OSX side, and (of course) iTunes is a complete joke. I'd pay a premium cost for a license for MCosx, for sure.
My words exactly.
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Count me in. I'd pay $60 to not need to run vmware fusion anymore.
I think JRiver needs to do some work on canvassing support too though. 4000 subscriptions from a user base that has never heard of the product isnt going to happen. That is a given. But if there were real commitment to keep publicizing the software when it is done, I dont see why 4000 people (who have heard about the software) wouldnt buy it. Especially since it would be the only competition to itunes.
oooo lah lah
Any chance for an investment/funding opportunity here?
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So how is it gonna be this supposed MC for Mac, iTouch and iPhones will not work on their own dear platform, or they will and then all Windows users will cry bloody murder?
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Ahh, but if they can somehow get the keys to those players then its win-win for both platforms ;D
So why should Apple care enough to do this ?
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> think JRiver needs to do some work on canvassing support too though.
> 4000 subscriptions from a user base that has never heard of the product isnt going to happen.
Perhaps the people pushing a Mac version of MC can go door to door selling subscriptions.
Bill
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I would just love if the MC development was split in half, and overall development was slowed down. I don't care that much if the app is going Linux, Mac or if it's staying Windows. I'd use dedicated MC machines for this anyway. Development pace, integration and potential users does make me concerned though.
I don't think you'll get those 60$ from me...
I'd be happy to pay for other stuff, to support you though.
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Perhaps the people pushing a Mac version of MC can go door to door selling subscriptions.
;)
I like the McMac name, by the way. Apple would definitely threaten to sue.
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I like the McMac name, by the way. Apple would definitely threaten to sue.
Or McDonald's... ;) ;D
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count me in for one.
mkmac is the original name of Scheme's extend-syntax, the coolest macro language ever.
j
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Count me in. I'd be pleased to help the cause.
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6 so far.
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I am interested in participating in the Media Center on the Mac initiative.
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Count me in, please
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Count me in.
Mats
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;)
I like the McMac name, by the way. Apple would definitely threaten to sue.
or Walt Disney, sound like the name of the main person from "donald duck in scotland".
interesting initiative btw, hope you guys succeed.
:)
gab
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Jim perhaps you could cut down on that development money if you started off small. You could just make a client that could tag and play music files (and sync back to the main MC server). If at that stage it looked like no-one was interested, you could freeze development. If however maclings everywhere swarmed to the software for it's ability to create "views" and "more than 3 categories" (at which point you'd already have itunes beat), then that could encourage you to add more and more functionality to the product over time.
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I think an exclusive "order here" thread and another "chat about it here" thread would make this easier to track.
gappie's right, will be interesting to see how this unfolds....
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Jim perhaps you could cut down on that development money if you started off small. You could just make a client that could tag and play music files (and sync back to the main MC server). If at that stage it looked like no-one was interested, you could freeze development. If however maclings everywhere swarmed to the software for it's ability to create "views" and "more than 3 categories" (at which point you'd already have itunes beat), then that could encourage you to add more and more functionality to the product over time.
I think there's a high chance of that happening if they do as you suggest.
No half measures, as the first post says, full app 8)
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I'm in.
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10
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Jim, please count me in for two copies.
If this leads to a Linux version (Even if a further year or two down the line) I'm willing to add a further two to the list :)
-Leezer-
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Thanks. At this rate (12 in 48 hours), we'd get to 100 in about 2 1/2 weeks. I'm guessing it will slow down. Still, I'm surprised and grateful that anyone would take a chance on a product that doesn't exist yet.
You're correct that Linux would be much easier if we had a Mac version.
We've done the groundwork over the last couple of years. Almost none of our code depends on Windows now.
For this to work, there would have to be something of a ground swell of interest and that could only happen if our customers became evangelists.
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Just as a random thought, have you thought of talking to MacHeist or someone similar? ( http://www.macheist.com/ )
Advantage of this would be getting the product to a *huge* audience, and IMHO would generate the levels of interest you're looking for. I admit this would not bring in full-price sales as a starting point, but the publicity generated probably would.
Edit: Might be a good idea to stickify this thread ;)
-Leezer-
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You're correct that Linux would be much easier if we had a Mac version.
We've done the groundwork over the last couple of years. Almost none of our code depends on Windows now.
Interesting
It would cost around $1 million in development and most Linux users don't pay for software. We'd love to do it.
I guess we live in a different world now :)
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Please count me in.
That would be wonderful.
For now, i'm using MC on my Mac-Car-PC via Parallels.
It would be much easier to drive with a native Mac version ;D.
In my home, i replaced all PCs with Macs.
So i also have to use Parallels here.
It works, but it would be far more pleasant with a native MC.
Fred
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+1
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I bought my wife a Macbook recently., If she can get used to MC on that, maybe she won't be afraid of the living room HTPC anymore.
Count me in for one too. I'll ask around and if my friends are interested, I'll pay their deposits too.
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+ 1
(expecting full support for iPhone / iPod Touch + ape/flac)...
/Olle
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(expecting full support for iPhone / iPod Touch + ape/flac)...
The iPod situation won't change. Touch and iPhone can't be reliably supported.
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Ahh, but if they can somehow get the keys to those players then its win-win for both platforms ;D
So why should Apple care enough to do this ?
There goes that theory ::)
This is a serious bummer, how can you have an app on a Mac and NOT play with Apple's products !!!
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There goes that theory ::)
This is a serious bummer, how can you have an app on a Mac and NOT play with Apple's products !!!
Because of Apple? >:(
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+1
[edit: with hope that it'll also lead to a linux port ;) ]
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+2 pre-buyers of my friends
I'll wait for windows version with improved client-server mode and other long awaited features like synchronization statistics with not-mac devices and I not very like this idea. My opinion coincides with the exact post of MrHaugen.
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Yup - I'm in too. +1.
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My favorite platform and my favorite app? A no brainer. Count me in. +1
Has someone posted this on AVS Forum? Possibly another path to generate interest.
Tom
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21
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+1
I'm in for sure, if the audio part of MC is as is, we have a winner. (flac, ape, asio, etc...)
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Has someone posted this on AVS Forum? Possibly another path to generate interest.
That would boost interest for sure.
I found this thread by chance, I'm sure many don't know it exists.
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I posted on head-fi.org...
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f46/new-mac-media-powerhouse-j-river-considering-os-x-version-449222/#post6068147
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I'am in ...
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23
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I submitted this to TUAW (http://www.tuaw.com/). They might just do a quick story on it, which could generate some interest in the hardcore-mac world. Maybe not as well (they might frown on a story about a 3rd party vendor who "might" do an OSX version). Who knows... Did anyone post something over at AVSForum?
As Jim mentioned... If we want this to happen, we'll have to be evangelists on it ourselves. I'm confident that there is a need for this software on OSX, and that if word got out, it WOULD sell. One thing about Mac users is that they tend to be even more willing than Windows users to shell out money for even small utilities. People will pay $30 for simple desktop utilities on the mac side, and it wasn't so long ago that people still regularly bought a file archiver for OSX!
Come on, people... There's 23 of us here in just this little community. If we all tell some people, start some threads, and evangelize just a little, we might actually get somewhere!
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I'm in, where do I pay?
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I know a lot of you like apple products, but what if we were able to have a mobile device that allowed us to customize the display of what our organization scheme is? I know apple will block that attempt, so what if we looked at Google to see if they're willing to support such an endeavor in order to boost the functionality of their gPhones where iPods have us limited?
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I will buy MC for the Mac.
Dale Engle
Tampa, FL
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Bartman, your iPod post is here (http://yabb.jriver.com/interact/index.php?topic=54351.0).
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It would cost JRiver several hundred thousand dollars to make a Mac version, so let's do this....
If, in the next 30 days, 100 people agree in this thread to order a Mac version, we'll set up a web page and take advance orders with a 50% deposit on a $60 retail price.
If, in the next 90 days, we can sell 4000 subscriptions, we'll start work. That's $120,000 in deposits.
If we can't finish within 6 months from the time we start, or if not enough people subscribe, we'll refund all the deposits.
JimH,
any chance of having the same thing for Linux? I'd spend 60$ for a Linux version: when building a Linux MC HTPC, the money we save on Windows will fully refund us the 60 bucks spent on Linux MC!
Ciao,
Roberto D.
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Because i have changed to the Mac with all my computers, i will not upgrade to MC 14 any more.
MC 12 and MC 13 fulfilled all my wishes on the Audio-side and i'm not interested in Video or TV with MC.
So the only reason for me for a new MC would be a version on the Mac.
iTunes, which does all and everything, and does it well on a Mac, is an application that is too big for Audio-only purposes.
For me, an Audio-only MC Mac would be the right way to go.
I hope this will become true.
Fred
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iTunes, which does all and everything, and does it well on a Mac, is an application that is too big for Audio-only purposes.
lol
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25 in 11 days.
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Before this goes to far, could you say a little something about what kind of impact this would have on the overall development of MC? Not that I believe the interest would be good enough for this to really become a problem. But people might want to hear about the down sides as well as the upsides, before voting for something like this.
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I'm in.....just me know where to pay.
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+1 for me. I been trying to figure out how I wanted to do this for a while now.
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Before this goes to far, could you say a little something about what kind of impact this would have on the overall development of MC? Not that I believe the interest would be good enough for this to really become a problem. But people might want to hear about the down sides as well as the upsides, before voting for something like this.
I suspect that this is why the development costs quoted would be so high (because they would be hiring an all-new person/people to do the port and maintain any OSX-specific code). That way it could be done without negatively impacting development on the Windows side to a substantial degree.
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I suspect that this is why the development costs quoted would be so high (because they would be hiring an all-new person/people to do the port and maintain any OSX-specific code).
Glynor,
unless current staff work for free, their time on a particular project must be charged to that project, so I guess that costs could potentially be the same whether JR want to use new people or use current people (or any mix of current and new people).
The big difference, money and time wise, is the current people know-how in mac developing, cause retraining would have huge costs and adversely affect the delivery schedule.
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It seems that Apple's share of the PC market is increasing...
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/10/14/mac_sales_grow_11_8_as_apple_takes_9_4_u_s_market_share.html
Dale Engle
Tampa, FL
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my 2 cents... i dislike apple highly! yes ive tried it, and i'm the one who has todo all the compatibility tests and tweak them to work with apps that we need to use...my GF has one and just bought a new one, i know from her and from many other apple users i have talked too, (and my only fiddling) many of them hate the itunes app! and many of them including my gf just love the fact everything goes together seemlessly in jriver. so i think if you guys could get the marketing out there. you may get some great results. after all you already have the ipod feature built in which my gf loves, so it's safe to assume you have her sold! not to mention then she wouldnt have to use vmware fusion.
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59 posts, 27 orders in 19 days.
Thanks to all who opened their virtual wallets, but it looks like the interest is insufficient.
This test is over. There won't be a MC Mac version in 2010.
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Oh, that makes me sad :'( ...
... because i have to transfer my MC -Libraries to iTunes somehow and close the JRiver chapter.
Had a couple of nice years with MC but everything has an end, i fear.
Fred