2GB and 4GB iPod Shuffles?

[NuMan]

my concern

As long as I am wishing, this is what I'd like to see:
1. 120GB iPod photo - well, I guess that would be a regular iPod now given that the regular iPods all are color screens now.
2. No delays on the Intel switch - for Apple the faster the better now that it is announced.
3. A Nokia phone (or Apple branded Symbian or something) iTunes compatible with good camera etc.
4. Nokia 6630 synching.

I am concerned about a delay in the switch. If Apple/Intel are unable to get it right or to make the switch on time, it could be a serious black eye for Apple. I would assume they are relatively close to being able to switch now or they would not have announced it.

I would buy an iPod today if I could use it as an external hard drive running OSX. Maybe this is already possible. Is there a way to do this?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

the deal ends on the 24th of september. so i doubt the mini upgrade will happen till then.

the iPods are bootable with Mac OS, ive booted OS 9.2 off of my ipod 20GB 4G and my friend booted 10.3 off of his mini but got a kernal panic right after finder launched, ive read it will kill the iPod if you do this much. I know its not what you meant but who cares.

What do you mean it will kill your ipod? I play WoW off of my iPod, and it hasnt broken yet...I can't see it being much different (HDD access wise) from booting an OS.

I could go for the 6gb price drop that will hopefully come, and I'm gonna be so pissed of they upgrade the mac mini's. I might just have to ebay mine and buy a new one...any takers?

 

[dizastor]

When is this iPod madness going to end, we want COMPUTERS not personal stereos.

This "iPod Madness" is probably the only thing that will allow Apple to coast through the rough transition from PPC to x86. Start to worry if the bottom drops out of the MP3 player market and there is no more iPod news.

 

[rockthecasbah]

Well it is pretty obvious this kinda stuff would happen eventually, and now that it is time, any dates being thrown around for the updates? (it's not like it matters for me, half filled 20gb 4g) 🙂

 

[woodman]

I could go for the 6gb price drop that will hopefully come, and I'm gonna be so pissed of they upgrade the mac mini's. I might just have to ebay mine and buy a new one...any takers?

I'll give you $250 🙂

 

[mwpeters8182]

I don't own an iPod of any flavour yet, 🙁 , but the mini's curved metal body looks as if it would be tougher in use and looks nicer with out the seam all the way round it.

I've got both a 1G iPod and a mini. I'm not sure about the current iPods, but my 1G is much sturdier than my mini. I dropped the mini about a foot and a half, and there's a big dent, and the plastic holding the dock connector popped out. Meanwhile, i've dropped the big ipod down the stairs, and it still chugs along.

Though, the small size of the mini is incredible. It's so much better to carry around all day.

 

[caveman_uk]

This "iPod Madness" is probably the only thing that will allow Apple to coast through the rough transition from PPC to x86. Start to worry if the bottom drops out of the MP3 player market and there is no more iPod news.

I think the huge pile of cash in their bank account will help more. iPods make a lot of money - Macs make a lot more. Even selling a lot more ipods won't make up for not enough Mac sales.

Personally I couldn't care less about new ipods. I've got an ipod already. I'm happy with it. I'm not buying a new one until it dies and I don't care how many podcasts it can play or how many colours the screen has.

The UK is a sad, sad country.
( I've lived there for 28 years)

Really... Thanks for sharing that with us. 🙄

 

[atomiton]

i agree that a 4 gig shuffle would be a bit much without a screen, but i'm sure theres a market for it. after all, its tiny (which is good), and i personally like just playing through my library on shuffle. its almost scary how well the ipod usually picks just what i wanted to hear, sometimes before i realize it.

Although... usually... since it's all your music, chances are, when your mind hears the song, unconcious says to your concious brain: "Hey, I wanted to hear that..."

It's likely a mental reactionary thing... and if you don't believe me, try predicting the next song.

 

[Object-X]

Apple needs to change the shuffle

A 2GB Shuffel is simply too big for the limitations of the design. If they increase the capacity then they need to add support for more than one playlist and add a screen. I like the Shuffle, but don't like being limited to one gargantuan playlist. Just adding three playlists and a indicator light to which one is selected would be an improvement.

 

[atomiton]

A 2GB Shuffel is simply too big for the limitations of the design. If they increase the capacity then they need to add support for more than one playlist and add a screen. I like the Shuffle, but don't like being limited to one gargantuan playlist. Just adding three playlists and a indicator light to which one is selected would be an improvement.

i agree... i have language lessons on mp3, and it's annoying to have to shuffle through these too...

 

[Marx55]

But of course:

PROJECTIONS - FLASH MEMORY & HARD DISK FORM FACTORS:
FLASHpen -- 0'85-inch -- 1-inch ----- 1'8-inch ---------------- 2'5-inch ------------------ 3'5-inch
4GB 2GB 4GB 30GB 80GB 250GB - retail October 2004
8GB 4GB 8GB 60GB(8GBFLASH) 160GB(16GBFLASH 500GB - retail June 2005 perp. rec.
16GB 8GB 16GB 120GB 320GB 1TB - expected perp. rec. June 2006
32GB 20GB 40GB 300GB 800GB(100GBFLASH 2'5TB - expected perp. rec. June 2007
64GB 40GB 80GB 600GB 1'6TB 5T - expected perp. rec. June 2010
128GB 80GB 160GB 1'2TB 3'2TB 10TB - expected perp. rec. June 2012

iPod Shuffle: flash
iPod mini: 1-inch drive
iPod: 1'8-inch drive

 

[madmaxmedia]

When is this iPod madness going to end, we want COMPUTERS not personal stereos.

Why do people think Apple can only do one or the other? There are employees that work on the iPod line, and employees that work on the computers. New iPods are not holding up new computers.

Regarding display, it would be cool if they could have the same sort of display as the new Sony mp3 players, where the letters shine through the surface-

http://sonystyle.com/intershoproot/eCS/Store/en/imagesProducts/jump_pages/flashplayer/

But then they would have to be a different color.

It would also need at least one more button to navigate through playlists or albums, etc. You could alternatively have a menu-based interface, but I don't like that idea as much.

I'd rather set up playlists on my computer, then hit a single button on the Shuffle to cycle through them.

 

[ioinc]

As much memory as you want.

It is silly to put limitations on how large the memory can be without a screen.

Most of the poeple I know use the shuffle feature most of the time on their high capacity iPods..


For some strange reason most (or all) of the music on their iPods is stuff they enjoy. (probably because they were the ones that loaded it 🙄 )

As such, they seldom need to skip past a song they don't like.

 

[macnews]

I think at some point a screen less shuffle will be pointless. IMHO, I think that level is 2-4GB size. Not everyone will be happy with 4GB screenless but there is probably a market out there for them. I'm sure Apple's research on how people have used the 4GB mini would support this if they go this route.

However, I think rather than do the typical - introduce a higher capacity shuffle at the same price, they should still keep the 1GB model and drop the price, while removing the 512MB version. Then as prices drop, remove the 1GB and drop prices on the 2 & 4GB versions vs replacing them. Eventually, I could see a screenless 2 & 4GB shuffle, then 4GB+ shuffle with a small 2-3 line screen perhaps slightly larger in size.

Finally, I think the current standard iPod form factor size will disappear as drive size shrinks while capacity increases. The mini and shuffle sizes are nice and very handy.

 

[Lacero]

I'd rather have an iPod mini 4GB that uses flash memory, then having a 4GB shuffle.

For 4GB shuffle, it should at least have a rudimentary screen that shows at least the song playing and number of tracks. I fast forward and review feature would be nice on the shuffle as well. Other than that, I think experience tells us that storage space is not very important to the average iPodder.

 

[macnews]

I just checked out the link someone posted to the new sony mp3 player. Wow, now this could challenge the shuffle IF Sony dropped the price. The size is slightly larger than the shuffle, but the battery life is longer, it has an organic display (more cool factor) and has a FM tuner (I would prefer AM as well but that is another post). While the shuffle/iPod are more than just features, there are some things Apple needs to look at going forward.

 

[wnameth]

A 4 gig ipod shuffle? I seriously doubt that.. I mean, the shuffles are mainly for working out. 4 gigs of music in a shuffle is just a waist.. You can't listen to it al during a workout, and you can't navigate to your favorite song..

yes but you can have 120 songs on it and 3.5GB of data, very useful for storage, like a big zip drive with an added bonus of music playing ability

 

[atomiton]

I'd rather have an iPod mini 4GB that uses flash memory, then having a 4GB shuffle.

For 4GB shuffle, it should at least have a rudimentary screen that shows at least the song playing and number of tracks. I fast forward and review feature would be nice on the shuffle as well. Other than that, I think experience tells us that storage space is not very important to the average iPodder.

Currently Shuffle has a rewind and FFWD... just hold the << or >>

 

[bdkennedy1]

I don't believe this at all. It takes 45 minutes to fill up my 512mb shuffle. That means it would take 6 hours to fill up a 4gb one.

 

[apple_g5]

4gb shuffle... that's insane... I've already huge problems navigating with 1gb... that's insane!

8gb mini... that's great!

 

[corey]

I'm speaking for the Mac users who like ipods, not for ipod users who drink beer (stella) that is commonly known in the UK as 'wife beater' .

You're probaly too off your face to realise I said no problem with ipods, lets have some computers as well. My post wasn't anti ipod or anti mac it was about priorities.

I'm a mac user who enjoys my ipod, but you don't speak for me.

And a fine pint is just as satisfying as a nice glass of wine.

 

[ccrandall77]

Who would buy an 8GB mini if the 6GB one was $50 cheaper? This would be the opposite of whats going on with the iPod line... you can get tripple the space for $100 more.

I would gladly buy an 8GB mini for an extra $50. I have a 4GB mini now and its completely full. If I wanted to stuff all the music I really like onto my iPod, I'd need around 6GB... and I'd like to have the extra 2GB for storing files and stuff.

You can't compare the mini's to the regular iPod line. It's a completely different form factor. I've had several iPods including a 10GB Second Gen, 40GB Third Gen, and a 40GB Fourth Gen. I recently sold the 40GB Fourth Gen and went with the mini. For one thing, it doesn't get all scratched up like the regular iPods do. More importantly, though, the larger iPod is not the best size for the gym and even for toting around.

I had a Marware armband for my regular iPods and it would often slide down to my elbow while working out. The mini with armband is so much nicer (except my arm is a little too big for the armband... wish they made one for guys that do a lot of weightlifting). And the mini fits nicely in my pants pocket while the larger iPod is just too bulky.

I hope they do upgrade the mini to at least an 8GB drive (10GB would be perfect). And I hope they put a color screen on and add the iPod photo's capabilities so I can download pics off my camera from time to time. Bluetooth would also be very nice.

 

[FriarTuck]

If I'm going to be putting podcasts on my entry-level iPod, it's going to have to have a screen. While shuffling may be fine for music, it doesn't work for podcasts.

 

[iMan]

don't hold your breath...
if you hadn't noticed, the ipod is the coolest thing since the wheel. i think apple is going to ride this wave until there's 3 ipods for every person on the planet.

In case you didn't notice - the iPod IS the wheel... in disguise...

iPods are the new wheels - clickwheels... 😀

 

[trrosen]

My Thoughts

how about this

Shuffle in 1 and 2 GB (inevitable)

New mini "Flash" in 4 and 8 GB...flash memory...same size width and height but 1/3 as thick...and double the battery life (doable)

iPods at 40 and 80 GB

vPod video player with 4x6.5 HD screen and 80GB drive with optional second drive (I can dream can't I)