10 GB iPod Mini & 80 GB iPod?

[MacRumors]

According to MacWorld (http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=10524), Hitachi has announced at the CES show in Las Vegas they plan to at least double the current capacity of the 1" microdrive used in iPod minis within the year.At present Hitachi's most capacious Microdrive can hold 4GB of data, but the new drives, due in the second half of this year, will be able to hold between 8GB and 10GB, said Bill Healy, senior vice president of product strategy and marketing at HGST.

In addition to offering more storage space, the drives will also occupy about 20 per cent less volume than current models, said Healy. One of the biggest space savings will come from replacing the Compact Flash interface with a ZIF (zero insertion force) connector of the type favoured by consumer electronics makers.

Hitachi will also employ similar space-saving techniques to its 1.8-inch drive family, said Healy.

New versions of 1.8-inch drives, also expected in the second half of this year, will feature ZIF connectors and weigh 49 grams. A drive with one platter will offer between 30GB and 40GB of capacity, and one with a double platter will have between 60GB and 80GB of capacity, said Healy. Additionally, the drives will offer better shock resistance.

[puckhead193]

sweeeet..althought 80 gig of music :rolleyes:

[Bozola]

Wonder what that means for the FLASH ipod.

Could the 4gb get so cheap that it isn't worth producing?

One can only wonder!

Frederic

[Spock]

A 10 GB iPod mini at the same price would make me a new iPod owner

[aussie_geek]

Sounds great. :D I wonder what the power consumption and RPM's of these new drives are. I am sure they will find their way into Notebook computers in a few years. Imagine that - PowerBook G6, only 1/2 inch thin 100Gb HD, 10 hour battery life :p.......

aussie_geek

[Flying Llama]

well, 80 gigs wouldn't be used for music, but files and photos. :rolleyes:

[oingoboingo]

Unless Apple starts to move the iPod beyond its current music and photo storage capabilities (read: video), then I can't see an 80GB iPod generating much interest. Yes, an iPod can be used as a removable hard drive and all the rest of that, but how many of the millions of new iPod users who have joined the ranks in the past 6 months will care beyond the fact that they can store their entire CD collections 5 times over?

A 10GB iPod mini on the other hand could be huge (no pun intended). The 4GB of the current mini isn't looking all that huge compared to newer flash players, and at only 1000 song capacity, you don't exactly have to be a music fanatic to fill it up. A jump from 4GB to 10GB would really distance the mini from its high-end flash competition, open up the way for the Apple flash iPod (if that eventually comes true), expand the appeal of the mini to more people, and allow Apple to possibly transition the low-end of the current iPod lineup from 20GB to 40GB.

Or none of the above could happen. Don't be too accurate...you could be sued. :)

[themacman]

it would be used for movies, and the movies would come from the itunes movie store

[themacman]

that means we could easly be looking at 100 gb powerbook hds, minimum

[Lord Blackadder]

Unless Apple starts to move the iPod beyond its current music and photo storage capabilities (read: video), then I can't see an 80GB iPod generating much interest.

Exactly, which leads me to believe that the iPod's capabilities are likely to expand further.

[PlaceofDis]

i would like a regular iPod at 60 gigs, i dont need it to be for photos, i just want it so i can use it for backup and to hold my entire music collection,

[FightTheFuture]

an 8 or 10 gig mini would be great! i dont have that much music, and i would be able to backup my home folder on this beauty. plus the price is just as sexy as how they look. i'll take one with a color screen too - thanks mr. jobs! here's a third of my paycheck! :o

[whw5]

Well if this is true, Apple needs to get its battery life issues fixed. When I had my mini {before it was stolen} I only got about 3-4 hours of battery life out of it. I'd like to see at least 10.

[polyesterlester]

Yes! I desperately need a spare 80 gig hard drive, and if the SOB doubled as an iPod or iPod photo, I would be very, very happy.

[Daveway]

:yawn:
Why are we talkin about something that almost a year off when we have Macworld next week?

[dontmatter]

Sweet! here's what I see-mini's at 6 and 10 gigs, for $199 and $249, respectively. Ipod line upping capacity and either lowering price, except that it bumps into mini, or upping capacity and making them all ipod photos, for the same price points as pre-photo ipods came to. Hopefully not too big a capacity jump, because really, most people would rather have a price drop than that jump in capacity.

Lastly, a flash ipod. Oh, and no thinksecret to tell us when. Can't say how i feel on that one.

[Xtremehkr]

If the iPod lost more size would it lose its distinctive shape? unless the reduction in size was proportional?

At that point does it become too small?

I like my minipod as it is sized now, though the case I bought for it makes it about the size of a cellphone.

Leaves room to add more features though.

[adam1185]

more flash ipod details

http://thinksecret.com/news/0501expo4.html

[2A Batterie]

This would be great for folks who prefer to encode their music with Apple Lossless or other formats that are better than MP3. If Apple came out with an 80gb iPod, I would buy one in a second.
Apple, if you are reading this, please don't sue me.

[Abstract]

So now I can store more porn on an iPod Photo? Sweet!!


I just don't see the need. Actually, I don't see the need to carry that many of your photos around with you, unlike a person's music collection, so maybe I'm not the one to ask.

However, I'd be excited about an 8 or 10 GB iPod Mini. The Mini is what I wanted to begin with, but due to carrying capacity, I went for the iPod 20 GB. Also, the battery life on the Mini is crap, so if they can get that sorted, I might consider a Mini. :)

[DarkSideofMoon]

Does anybody else who uses iTMS Canada not get the free download of the week, either? I've waited in suspense every Tuesday to see if it would ever be there! I've even hoped that my iPod-iTunes-file-swappers friends would maybe take a likening to the store if there was a free download... you know, to see how simple things really are.

I haven't checked all the other stores, but do any other countries not get the free download? :(

To be partially on-topic, I think Apple is going to have to reach a limit at which to stop at capacity of music. 3 years ago, when the first iPod was introduced, it had a 5 GB HDD. And now we're talking about a drive that has 16 times the capacity, in a more compact form factor (not sure about that, though). Somehow, I just don't see another 3 years down the road a 1.28 terabyte iPod coming out (16 * 80 GB). I mean, it'd be cool to hold that much in your hand, but this is about reality; not seeing which company can boast such a ridiculously and largely unused amount of space (if used solely for music and photos, that is).

[Xtremehkr]

I should add that Pods can't really become too small. All accessories are kind of a pain to wear, maybe the shape/form could evolve into something more wearable.

Maybe one day the entire Pod could just be an earpiece with an extension leading to the other ear. Like a Bluetooth earpiece with an line leading to the other ear. I don't want to favor left/right but I am thinking of something along the lines of the radio only Walkman that is housed entirely as a headset.

[adam1185]

Does anybody else who uses iTMS Canada not get the free download of the week, either? I've waited in suspense every Tuesday to see if it would ever be there! I've even hoped that my iPod-iTunes-file-swappers friends would maybe take a likening to the store if there was a free download... you know, to see how simple things really are.

I haven't checked all the other stores, but do any other countries not get the free download? :(

To be partially on-topic, I think Apple is going to have to reach a limit at which to stop at capacity of music. 3 years ago, when the first iPod was introduced, it had a 5 GB HDD. And now we're talking about a drive that has 16 times the capacity, in a more compact form factor (not sure about that, though). Somehow, I just don't see another 3 years down the road a 1.28 terabyte iPod coming out (16 * 80 GB). I mean, it'd be cool to hold that much in your hand, but this is about reality; not seeing which company can boast such a ridiculously and largely unused amount of space (if used solely for music and photos, that is).

itms canada doesn't get the free download of the week yet. I also noticed they didn't update the store this past tuesday except for a red cross button :(

[swissmann]

I think 10 GB is starting to be adequate in 80 is close to being adequate for a lossless form of encoding. The problem is that you need at least that much space on your computer as well to keep it all synced up. 80 GB is a big chunk of most sized drives to say the least.

[Yvan256]

Does anybody else who uses iTMS Canada not get the free download of the week, either?

Not only don't we have access to free tunes, but I'm stuck in french in the iTMS (my Windows XP is in english, my iTunes is in english... why is iTMS showing me french text?!)

Not a problem for me, but it must be annoying for a lot of people who can't read both languages. Why isn't there an option in our profile to decide what language we want to use?!

[dongmin]

Sounds great. :D I wonder what the power consumption and RPM's of these new drives are. I am sure they will find their way into Notebook computers in a few years. Imagine that - PowerBook G6, only 1/2 inch thin 100Gb HD, 10 hour battery life :p.......

aussie_geekYou can even imagine a scenario where you have two of these 1" drives built in for 160GB of data. But the biggest barrier to these going into laptops is the speed. 4200 rpm just doesn't cut it any more.

[dongmin]

Unless Apple starts to move the iPod beyond its current music and photo storage capabilities (read: video), then I can't see an 80GB iPod generating much interest. Yes, an iPod can be used as a removable hard drive and all the rest of that, but how many of the millions of new iPod users who have joined the ranks in the past 6 months will care beyond the fact that they can store their entire CD collections 5 times over?Well, with 80GB, you'll be able to do:

music
photos
videos
and Home on iPod!

[oingoboingo]

Well, with 80GB, you'll be able to do:

music
photos
videos
and Home on iPod!

That's the kind of stuff I'm looking forward to ('Home on iPod' especially). That's why I commented that unless Apple expands the iPod's applications beyond music and photos, then an 80GB product won't be all that exciting.

[xsnightclub]

Awesome news! Sounds like we can look forward to a 1.5 hour keynote about how great the iPod is and some news about sales at the iTMS.

And the "one more thing" will be about the three 'amazing' new colors now available for iPod Socks.

[Platform]

You can even imagine a scenario where you have two of these 1" drives built in for 160GB of data. But the biggest barrier to these going into laptops is the speed. 4200 rpm just doesn't cut it any more.

Yes for video and audio and new OS you need 7200rpm

[BWhaler]

Man this is rough.

I know I am going to buy the next iPod mini for the better battery life. (I do a lot of international flying.)

And then, with a 10 gig drive, I'll have to get another one because of the sizable capacity jump.

Curses...the continuous march of technology is brutal sometimes...

[Littleodie914]

Woo hoo! A 10GB mini would be awesome... Especially if the size were to stay the same, or even get smaller! :eek:

[Platform]

Woo hoo! A 10GB mini would be awesome... Especially if the size were to stay the same, or even get smaller! :eek:
Yeah looking like we are getting iPod micro :p

[~Shard~]

Good to hear, but not surprising - that's the way technology goes!

Hmm, maybe Steve will surprise us and actually announce these at MWSF next week - after all, it's not like has has much else to talk about... ;) :cool:

[zelmo]

A 10GB mini would go a long way towards closing the growing gap in the iPod product line. There is currently nothing in between the 4GB (soon to be 5GB) mini and a 20GB iPod.

[longofest]

Toshiba announced similar 1.8" specs just recently. They created a way to represent the bits vertically instead of horizontally, which can make more data fit on the disk. Release date is mid-2005. Dual-platter version will hold 80GB of data, whereas a 40GB version will be able to be reduced to 1 Platter.

Personally, I'm looking forward to the slimmer 40GB iPod, and hopefully a price-cut as well.

Currently, Apple uses Toshiba drives in its regular iPods, and Hitachi drives in its iPod mini.

Link to original info: http://www.macworld.com/news/2004/12/14/toshiba/index.php

[proglife]

I think 10 GB is starting to be adequate in 80 is close to being adequate for a lossless form of encoding.

There you go!

PLEASE don't say silly things like "80GB is way too much". That's the oddest thing I've ever heard. I'd LOVE to be able to fit my entire collection on my iPod in Apple Lossless. That would be a total dream come true.

Now just give us optical/coax out...

[Porchland]

I should add that Pods can't really become too small. All accessories are kind of a pain to wear, maybe the shape/form could evolve into something more wearable.

Maybe one day the entire Pod could just be an earpiece with an extension leading to the other ear. Like a Bluetooth earpiece with an line leading to the other ear. I don't want to favor left/right but I am thinking of something along the lines of the radio only Walkman that is housed entirely as a headset.

I'd be happy if Apple would just come out with over-the-ear sports ear buds. As cool as the white ear buds look, I can barely walk very far without them falling out. And forget about running.

[ASP272]

Since I got my 4g iPod I've been blown away by the speed at which it transfers files as a hard drive, and a music player for that matter. An 80gb iPod hard drive would be awesome, and the mp3 player would be an awesome bonus! I am content with my 20gb for now though. They have to add video to get me interested, as someone else already stated.

[wPod]

come on 10 GB mini. . . . while my 1st gen 10 GB iPod is nearly full, i think id delete some never listened to songs to give myself some extra space so i could have the cooler form factor of the mini. but if its the second half of the year then it will probably be announced in the summer and ship in fall.

[shamino]

well, 80 gigs wouldn't be used for music, but files and photos.
What makes you say that? I've got 35G of music, ripped at 128K AAC. If ripped at a higher bitrate, my CD collection could easily fill 80G. And there are plenty of people with collections larger than mine.

Using a codec like Apple Lossless (that claims to get 2:1 compression), you have an average bitrate of around 700K. At this rate, an 80G drive can hold about 250 hours of music - or about 3750 songs (assuming an average length of 4 minutes per song.)

[obeygiant]

pretty soon it'll be,
"have ever song ever made!" on you iPod.

[virus1]

wow... genius... almost seems too good to be true. that definatly has enough storage for a laptop. it probably takes up less space and power, leaving more for the processor... do i smell a powerbook around here somplace?

[B_Gates]

Now is a good time to increase the capacity of the mini ipod

[FelixDerKater]

10GB is the perfect size for the iPod mini.

[kuyu]

I'm not sure if this is public info yet, but Seagate is going to start making 1.8" drives for the ipod.

Not really a big deal, but I think they make the best HDD hands-down (five year warranty).

[Earendil]

Who thinks everyone forgot about the 2.5hd? I've had my lap top for over a year now, and have yet to see a faster and larger drive than the 80gig/4800 that I have.

oh well, yay mini, maybe I can use one of those drives in a few years ;)

[zelmo]

wow... genius... almost seems too good to be true. that definatly has enough storage for a laptop. it probably takes up less space and power, leaving more for the processor... do i smell a powerbook around here somplace?

Aren't these drives only 4200? The current PB offers an upgrade to a 5400, so that would be a step backwards. For big honkin' video files, you really want 5400 as the base config with an option to step up to 7200, don't you?

[Yvan256]

There you go!

PLEASE don't say silly things like "80GB is way too much". That's the oddest thing I've ever heard. I'd LOVE to be able to fit my entire collection on my iPod in Apple Lossless. That would be a total dream come true.

Now just give us optical/coax out...

You have optical/coax headphones? ;)

[zhenya]

I for one am waiting for an 80gb model before I upgrade my 3g 40 gig. I use about 35 GB now, but 80gb would allow me to compress my entire cd library with Apple lossless.

[Yvan256]

I for one am waiting for an 80gb model before I upgrade my 3g 40 gig. I use about 35 GB now, but 80gb would allow me to compress my entire cd library with Apple lossless.

If you could fit your entire CD library in 80GB with Apple Lossless, and already have 35GB right now, that means you must be using 320kbps. Am I right?

Of course, using Apple Lossless on the iPod would absolutely kill the battery in a few hours. Not important if you mainly use it in a car, though.

[patrick0brien]

Woo hoo! A 10GB mini would be awesome... Especially if the size were to stay the same, or even get smaller! :eek:

-Ahh, so nice to finally be able to talk to you guys about this :D

Note that the Microdrive is actually 20% smaller because of the move to the ZIF standard rather than the CompactFlash standard for interconnect. So the idea that a company could take two and put them into a single body is entirely possible.

I've got a few new Micros around the office and I can say these things are really tiny. The possibilitie are getting incredible.

And let's not forget the other end, the 500gb Deskstar: oooOOOooo!

To give you a picture go here (http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/hgst/?epi_menuItemID=2dcd772d4d32c6fd25ad4e8060e4f0a0&epi_menuID=f3422d6ea3268f8d5f5a530560e4f0a0&epi_baseMenuID=22f0deefa8f3967dafa0466460e4f0a0) .

NOTE: Aside from the official released information here (http://www.hitachigst.com/portal/site/hgst/index.jsp?epi-content=GENERIC&folderPath=%252Fhgst%252Faboutus%252Fpress%252Finternal_news%252F&docName=20050105.html&beanID=736703123&viewID=content), this is speculation and not meant to be confirmation or denial of any additional information that may exist.

Sorry guys, I can only talk about things officially released, and I like my job. I want to keep it. ;)

[Surreal]

i import my cds as apple lossless.

80 gigs is beautiful.

and before anything is said about how you can't tell the difference; i can.

i accidentally imported rebirth of the cool as mp3. as i listened to it on my speakers i thought the computer speaker, i thought that was the culprit. so i put on my headphones, which are what i usually listen on. well...after a few tracks i just decided that the cd was reorded horribly. i wasnt that happy, but i didnt think much of it. about 20 minutes later i notice my import settings are on mp3. i delete the files with extreme prejudice and import as lossless. much better.

i have only imported a 3rd of my cd library..at MOST and i am at 20 gigs.

i WANT 100. but 80 will "suffice" ;)


P.S.

they had BETTER put the 80 gig in the iPod as well as the iPod photo.
i do NOT need a color screen. andi do not WANT a color screen.

[Surreal]

Of course, using Apple Lossless on the iPod would absolutely kill the battery in a few hours. Not important if you mainly use it in a car, though.

are you trying to make me cry?
what do you mean by this?
explain yourself.
the battery life is less with lossless?
woe is me.
oh..woe...woe..is me

[patrick0brien]

are you trying to make me cry?
what do you mean by this?
explain yourself.
the battery life is less with lossless?
woe is me.
oh..woe...woe..is me

-Surreal

Simply put. Lossless - or AIFF files, are larger, and contain more information for the DH to read, and the Cache is used far more heavily. Therefore, al of that extra HD usage, uses battery time. The iPod pre-caches as many songs ahead in the arrangement as can fit in the cache. If you do lossless, it can do that.

Additionally, all of that extra HD reading will shorted the HD's lifetime.

[Linkjeniero]

are you trying to make me cry?
what do you mean by this?
explain yourself.
the battery life is less with lossless?
woe is me.
oh..woe...woe..is me

Of course the battery lasts less with Apple Lossless, because each minute you hear takes more space in the hard drive, and so it needs to spin more than it would with a 128 kbs encoding.

[shamino]

Of course, using Apple Lossless on the iPod would absolutely kill the battery in a few hours. Not important if you mainly use it in a car, though.
It wouldn't make much sense for the car either. Road/wind noise will almost certainly drown out any improvement in the audio quality.

But that's not the only place to use an iPod. I suspect many people leave convenient cables/docks attached to their home stereo systems, in order to use the iPod as the main source of music at home. For this, lossless would definitely be worthwhile, as would digital output.

[JonMaker]

You can even imagine a scenario where you have two of these 1" drives built in for 160GB of data. But the biggest barrier to these going into laptops is the speed. 4200 rpm just doesn't cut it any more.

RAID them. :eek: (RAID 0)

Use both drives for storage (have a total of 160 GB), but distribute it over the two drives in such a manner that both can be accessed at the same time, thus doubling (theoretically) the speed. Access times would still be an issue, but I'd buy a 'book with a built-in internal RAID just for the cool factor. :cool:

[Yvan256]

i import my cds as apple lossless.

80 gigs is beautiful.

and before anything is said about how you can't tell the difference; i can.

Ok, so you can hear the difference. I won't try to convice you otherwise, because I don't have your ears (and I know mine are crap).

But did you at least try other settings? Especially, did you try AAC instead of MP3? Both are lossy, but AAC sounds a LOT better than MP3. Also, you can try higher bitrates (did you try AAC 320kbps?).

Maybe you already tried it all though, and you'll be staying with Apple Lossless anyway.

[Yvan256]

are you trying to make me cry?
what do you mean by this?
explain yourself.
the battery life is less with lossless?
woe is me.
oh..woe...woe..is me

Well, the battery life for the iPod is based on 128kbps file. This is important, because the iPod needs to read data from the HD and then put it into its internal RAM (32MB buffer, I think).

A 4-minutes song at 128kbps means around 4MB for the file. Which means the iPod can spin up the HD, buffer 8 songs, then stop the HD. That's why there's a delay when you skip "next track" too fast (the iPod has to reload since you skipped over songs it had already buffered).

Now, a 4-minutes song in Apple Lossless means around 20MB for the file. Sure, the iPod can put a bit more than one song in the buffer, but this buffer will get emptied pretty fast, so the HD runs about 5 times more often.

And the HD is probably the main thing that kills the iPod's battery (not sure the % of the power required for the HD vs the other parts though).

So, in the same general idea, the battery will last more for 128kbps than 320kbps, but will last a whole lot more if you used 64kbps, etc.

[Yvan256]

RAID them. :eek: (RAID 0)

Use both drives for storage (have a total of 160 GB), but distribute it over the two drives in such a manner that both can be accessed at the same time, thus doubling (theoretically) the speed. Access times would still be an issue, but I'd buy a 'book with a built-in internal RAID just for the cool factor. :cool:

How about this though: the next PowerBook upgrade could have both a Dual-Core G4 from Freescale AND two laptop HDs in Raid 0. :D

[Vector]

I have a little over 40Gb of music right now and of course my 40Gb iPod only holds 36.5Gb or so. I encode most of my music at 196kbps, so it isnt just those who use lossless encoding who need larger iPods. I have a lot of music that i still haven't put on my computer so i could really use an 80Gb iPod. I'll settle for a 60Gb iPod that is not an iPod photo.

I hope Apple doesn't wait until next fall to up the hard drive sizes in the regular iPods.

[Surreal]

hmmm thank you for all the replies

i havent had the money for an ipod so i havent really thought about it too much.

and i actually havent tried higher than 168..or something liek that. but the main thing that informs my saying i can hear the difference is stereo image. so my question is does the higher setting help that? i will check but you might answer before i get around to it and save me the trouble. ;)

dag. i wonder what the battery life is with lossless...anybody know? checked the website and nada.

i don't listen on the train (live in NY and use earplugs on the train to keep the sounds from hurting my ears)

[Yvan256]

and i actually havent tried higher than 168..or something liek that. but the main thing that informs my saying i can hear the difference is stereo image. so my question is does the higher setting help that? i will check but you might answer before i get around to it and save me the trouble. ;)

Well, my tip is to try only a single song. Take the song you think sounds the worst in 128kbps MP3, then do multiple compressions of it (always from the CD/WAV/Apple Lossless).

A lot of people have good ears and stick with AAC at around 160 to 192 kbps. And as I said, MP3 sounds a lot worst than AAC, so ditch MP3 and try only AAC.

Me? I can barely hear any difference between 64 and 128kbps AAC. :o

[Penman]

well, 80 gigs wouldn't be used for music, but files and photos. :rolleyes:

My GF just bought me a 60GB iPod and I still need more room just to get my music in. It's all 100% ripped from CD's of mine too. We're a minority but there are a significant number of music fans with more than the 1500-2000 CD's it takes to fill a 60GB ipod with tunes ripped at 160 kbps. I'd love a 200GB iPod so I can store all my music and some video and still content at decent quality. You'll all laugh in 5 years at doubting the space could be useful. With new formats and lossless codecs TB are going to be used eventually.

[weldon]

My GF just bought me a 60GB iPod and I still need more room just to get my music in. It's all 100% ripped from CD's of mine too. We're a minority but there are a significant number of music fans with more than the 1500-2000 CD's it takes to fill a 60GB ipod with tunes ripped at 160 kbps. I'd love a 200GB iPod so I can store all my music and some video and still content at decent quality. You'll all laugh in 5 years at doubting the space could be useful. With new formats and lossless codecs TB are going to be used eventually.
This is an involved solution, but I would recommend that you buy a couple 300GB drives and rip all your CD's to Apple Lossless. Then use iTunes to transcode from Lossless to 128kbps AAC. Then set your iPod to synch only the 128kbps AAC files. That way you can keep your lossless files and reduce the space used on your iPod.

I've always liked the way that Windows Media Player did the transcoding to lower bit rates for portable devices. I wish there was some seamless handling of multiple bit rates within iTunes.

[Yvan256]

I've always liked the way that Windows Media Player did the transcoding to lower bit rates for portable devices. I wish there was some seamless handling of multiple bit rates within iTunes.

I've sent this very idea to Apple a few months ago...

In fact, I've sent a LOT of ideas to Apple since the last few months. Never received any reply (not expecting any, but still, for the dozens of ideas I've sent...)

[dlisle20]

i think 80GB is silly and an unecassary amount of space for music, what is that, 30,000 songs? its bigger than my bloody hard drive!

powerbook g4 17' 1GHZ 512RAM 60GB

[Vector]

i think 80GB is silly and an unecassary amount of space for music, what is that, 30,000 songs?

As many people including myself have mentioned, it is not unnecessary amount of space for some people. While most people couldn't fill that space up with music, therre are some that can. I have a 40Gb iPod that is full and i have a couple of Gb that are on my computer that won't fit. I still have many more cds that i want to burn, but i dont want to have to get a 60Gb iPod Photo when i wouldn't use any of the extra features.

[Yvan256]

i think 80GB is silly and an unecassary amount of space for music, what is that, 30,000 songs? its bigger than my bloody hard drive!

Apple states the 40GB as being able to hold 10 000 songs. So a 80GB one would be 20 000. However, these numbers are only for songs that are 4 minutes long and encoded at 128kbps.

If you encode at 256kbps, cut that number of songs in half (you end up as if your iPod was 40GB instead of 80GB). If you use Apple lossless, cut that number by 5.5! (same as a 15GB iPod!)

Yes, 80GB might seem big for an iPod, and it's also the same size as my desktop PC. But capacities always go up year after year, it's nothing new (my iPod has 10GB, same as my IBM Thinkpad 760XL laptop).

Even my desktop videocard (Radeon 9600XT) has twice the RAM (128MB) of my laptop (64MB)! :eek:

[shamino]

and i actually havent tried higher than 168..or something liek that. but the main thing that informs my saying i can hear the difference is stereo image. so my question is does the higher setting help that? i will check but you might answer before i get around to it and save me the trouble. ;)
I don't know for sure, but if your big problem is stereo image, another experiement would be to rip with the stereo mode set to "Normal" instead of "Joint Stereo". This is an MP3 option you can set (but unavailable for AAC. I think AAC uses normal stereo at all times.)

In joint stereo, the file doesn't store left and right audio channels, but insteads stores left+right and left-right composites (which are converted back to the original left and right channels on playback). Doing this tends to give better quality compression with the MP3 algorithms, which is why it is commonly used. It may be contributing to the stereo image problems you're noticing, however.

[BWhaler]

When Apple releases the modest update to the mini soon, I will try to resist the urge to upgrade my current mini and hold out for the 10 gig model.

Honestly, the 1 gig bump means nothing to me, I just want longer batter life since I do a lot of international flying. But hopefully I can fight the urge and do the practical thing.

But I am not optimistic. the draw of new Apple products is simply too strong. And too easy to rationalize.

[air23cary]

is the new ipod mini still going to be released this january? anybody know how much it will cost? what colors it will come in?

[3Memos]

i think 80GB is silly and an unecassary amount of space for music, what is that, 30,000 songs? its bigger than my bloody hard drive!

powerbook g4 17' 1GHZ 512RAM 60GB

Mr. Lagerfeld would strongly disagree with you. ;)

[edwardcheah]

I'm think of getting the $99 ipodshuffle and an ipodmini gen2 when it comes out.

i think having an 80Gig ipod or even a 40gig for that matter is too much for me, i don't have like so many songs, i bet i haven't heard 80gigs worth of songs in my life.

[shamino]

... i bet i haven't heard 80gigs worth of songs in my life.
Well, that all depends on the bitrate, now doesn't it?

At a bitrate of 1.4M/s (uncompressed audio from a CD), 80G is only about 1800 songs.

At a bitrate of 24K/s (compressed to abysmal quality, but what Sony has been advertising for some of their players), 80G is over 100,000 songs.

[air23cary]

does anyone have any update on the new mini ipods thta are supposed to come out? they were supposed to be released in january i thought???

[~Shard~]

does anyone have any update on the new mini ipods thta are supposed to come out? they were supposed to be released in january i thought???

They were released, they're called "iPod shuffle"... :p ;)

With the release of this new member of the iPod family though, I don't think we'll see any iPod mini updates for a little while yet... I'd give it a couple months... :cool:

[Surreal]

AAC at 320 isnt bad.

it might even be psychological ...although i used a relatively blind test.


but yes, that would be adequate for my ipod. one fourth the space is worth whatever loss there is for that ..

but it WOULD be nice if i could rip eveything to lossless and then have it simply reencode on dump to ipod.

[Paladin]

It shouldn't be that hard to re-encode the songs when transferring them to an iPod. When I plug in my 1GB Shuffle, it gives the option of compressing to 128kbps before transferring. Maybe they'll add that functionality to the full size iPods too.

[musiclover137]

i still really want a line in on the new iPod. with that and more space i'd be happy.

[.:*Robot Boy*:.]

Hey,
This is probably old news, so I'll give you the short version.

I went to my local Apple Reseller today to pay for the PowerBook that I got yesterday and I asked about their Cram and Jam promotion (my sister wants to get herself an iPod with my education discount). Anyway, they said they couldn't sell me a 20GB iPod 'cause there aren't any left in the country... but here's the juicy part - apparently they can't get any in because they're expecting Apple to announce a new model in 3-4 weeks.

Thinking about it know, it was kind of vague as to whether it would be a new model or a new generation... possibly they're just discontinuing the 20GB and introducing a new top-end model.

So... there ya go...
Tim.

[EssentialParado]

Well, we all know the online Apple stores have suddenly changed shipping day's of the iPod Mini's. But as for a new iPod? I don't know. I just hope the new mini iPod will be more than 5GB. I'll be happy with 5GB, I guess, but 6GB would be such a big difference.

I have 20GB of music, growing each week (not from stealing music I'd like to add), and I have the choice of a 20GB iPod, or a blue iPod Mini, or to wait for the updated range. At the moment I'm waiting for a new iPod Mini. I was always planning on a normal iPod for all the music I have. But after using my friend's iPod a few times, it's seeming old-style now. Am I crazy?

And I know, this post is the most fragmented thing :rolleyes:

-Luke

[maya]

When the iPod mini was first introduced people said." its not big enough for all they music," and then placing some logic into it they said, "its only for those short trips and workout sessions." And then they realized that during workout sessions an iPod mini and iPod tend to skip during playback when running or jogging for a longer duration, so we have the Shuffle.

Sure 60GB looks like ample storage today, and 80GB looks too crazy to even think about filling, however some have decided that Loss-less encoding is better, then we also have HE-AAC which will place even more emphases on quality encoding at a minimal size.

Apple can always release a thinner, shorter iPod mini. There is nothing defined that it cannot loose some weight or its dimensions as had happen to the regular iPods in the past. Or Apple can increase the battery life to 18-24 hours standard. Why is it that 3rd party solutions can boost the iPod playback time with they replacement batteries to 22+ hours and Apple only 5-12 hours. Something is wrong here indeed, Apple put in inferior batteries to begin with. Its down right embarrassing to say the least, you market a music/hdd player that can hold thousands of music/pictures/data files and you have rotten battery life. Some one is sleeping at Apple iPod R&D section. :rolleyes:

How has is it to increase the battery life, really if the competition can do it why not the No.1 music player supplier.

10GB iPod mini, tell me something that wasn't inclined to happen over time. ::old news::

80GB iPod ::same as above::

An 80GB iPod will only be an extension to the iPod Photo line, not video. For that they will release a 100GB iPod Video minimum.

What ever happen to the capabilities of streaming music either via built-in to the iPod or its Dock to AE or even BT 2.0? So I can input data without syncing to a Mac. Now that would set it apart from the rest once again. :)

[~Shard~]

I just hope the new mini iPod will be more than 5GB. I'll be happy with 5GB, I guess, but 6GB would be such a big difference.

1 GB extra would be a huge difference for you? How about 6.25 GB? :p ;) When it comes down to it, everyone has different needs/sizes of music libraries, so I'm sure some people are saying, "4 GB is fine, but 5 GB would be really nice", while others say 5 GB is far too much, others say it's far too little, ad infinitum. Apple will make a decision on this product which will makes sense for the masses, as it's impossible to cater to everyone's specific needs. Hopefully you'll be happy with the results. :)

[DrGruv1]

well, 80 gigs wouldn't be used for music, but files and photos. :rolleyes:


Well, I've got a dedicated LaCie 500gb for just Itunes.. Full Bandwidth over 11,000 songs and 320gb so far... :D

[rockandrule]

I just received my silver iPod mini about a week and a half ago, and my battery-life is decent. I normally listen to it the entire time through school (8 hours) and I normally have about a quater of the battery left. I don't find this to be any sort of downside, 10 hours of life (or so) is definitey a good deal, in my mind.

What are the specs of these third-party batteries, and how much do they cost?

[~Shard~]

Well, I've got a dedicated LaCie 500gb for just Itunes.. Full Bandwidth over 11,000 songs and 320gb so far... :D

And all legally acquired too I'm sure... :p :cool:

[EssentialParado]

I normally listen to it the entire time through school (8 hours) and I normally have about a quater of the battery left.
Lol. Aren't you supposed to be learning in school hours? :p