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4th Generation iPods?
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ethernet76 said:
It depends what you're doing as a journalist/photographer.
I'm a mountainbiking journalist so carrying around a G4 laptop as well as a D30 and lenses isn't something you ever do. It's hard enough to cycle with a D30 in your backpack as is.
We don't use IBM microdrives as they are too fragile in cameras. Just compact flash cards.
Also, I'm likely to be away for days or weeks at a time. Sometimes miles from nowhere eg. A week in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco.
Either you carry a bunch of cards with you and delete the ones you don't want to use or you dump them to something else. An iPod would fit the bill. It's a cheap alternative to buying something like an image-tank, xs-drive or nixvue.
There's a whole bunch of these things already - go see http://www.steves-digicams.com/digi_accessories.html#storage some of which are even mp3 players also. None of them have colour screens.
Even as just a consumer, I don't want to take my laptop with me on holiday. An iPod however would be just perfect. I don't see why they've not done it even in the 3G iPod.
All of these features add-ons seem a little dubious to me.
I could see Apple adding a video out port, but not on the iPod itself, rather on a separate dock. It would be a nice feature, but only useful in combination with an IR remote. It just doesn't make sense to put it on the iPod itself. It will turn off some customers who don't want to pay for a feature they don't need. Putting it on the dock gives Apple both design and marketing flexibility.
A color screen would be nice, but I just don't see how current battery technology would support an 8 hour life at the current form factor. Its its color screen vs size and battery life, I think most people are going to take the latter.
However, I do think the iPod has rapidly matured, and bumps in HD space are not going to be enough to propel sales much longer. Major feature add-ons will come, and I'm guessing the mini-Pod will become the sole music player and the current iPod will be transformed into a portable multimedia swiss army knife.
I could see Apple adding a video out port, but not on the iPod itself, rather on a separate dock. It would be a nice feature, but only useful in combination with an IR remote. It just doesn't make sense to put it on the iPod itself. It will turn off some customers who don't want to pay for a feature they don't need. Putting it on the dock gives Apple both design and marketing flexibility.
A color screen would be nice, but I just don't see how current battery technology would support an 8 hour life at the current form factor. Its its color screen vs size and battery life, I think most people are going to take the latter.
However, I do think the iPod has rapidly matured, and bumps in HD space are not going to be enough to propel sales much longer. Major feature add-ons will come, and I'm guessing the mini-Pod will become the sole music player and the current iPod will be transformed into a portable multimedia swiss army knife.
I think that those wishing for a built in AM/FM capability are going to be disappointed. Apple (in the person of SJ) seems loath to relinquish control overthe quality of what you hear on the iPod just as they seem to want to control the way OS X looks - hence no themes any longer.
The problem with such devices is that the reception is so variable, especially on AM. I bought a 'radio walkman' for walking around campus, and recption is great in some places, awful in others. FM is better, but not much.
I really think that Steve can't bear the thought of fuzzy, distorted analog sound, or cheezy commercials, on the iPod. He is able to ensure that only crisp digital sounds are available right now, though of course he has no control over peripheral manufacturers.
The problem with such devices is that the reception is so variable, especially on AM. I bought a 'radio walkman' for walking around campus, and recption is great in some places, awful in others. FM is better, but not much.
I really think that Steve can't bear the thought of fuzzy, distorted analog sound, or cheezy commercials, on the iPod. He is able to ensure that only crisp digital sounds are available right now, though of course he has no control over peripheral manufacturers.
I have to be admit I was quite upset when I first read this RUMOR yesterday. You see my trusty 5GB iPod died on Friday. It took a nasty fall and actually bounced straight up a good two feet before landing on the ground. Yet, the iPod managed to work for a couple of days before the harddrive died. Yes, only the hard drive died on it. Everything else works.
But I digress. On Monday night I decided I needed a new iPod. I thought long and hard and decided to purchase the 40GB model. I thought long and hard and worried that the 4th generation iPods would appear shortly after. But then I thought about it.
Based on price points Apple would never release a new line of iPods before June, even if they were sitting all boxed up in a warehouse.
Here is the logic I used: the 4GB minis sell for $250.00 and are selling like hot cakes. The first production run of these cute little iPods will be sold out shortly. So there is no need to change the price of it.
For only $50.00 more you can buy a 15GB iPod. Apple will not release a lower priced iPod because of the Mini.
For a $100.00 more you can get a 20 GB iPod, I wouldn't be surpised if Apple drops this model and replaces it with a 30 GB, because for another $100.00 you can double your disk space and get a 40GB.
So Apple is basically stuck with keeping the low end iPod at 15GB and the high end one at 40GB. For the time being.
What I've been told that this will happen is that this summer:
iPod Mini $199.99
20GB iPod $299.99
30GB iPod $399.99
40GB iPod $499.99
But I digress. On Monday night I decided I needed a new iPod. I thought long and hard and decided to purchase the 40GB model. I thought long and hard and worried that the 4th generation iPods would appear shortly after. But then I thought about it.
Based on price points Apple would never release a new line of iPods before June, even if they were sitting all boxed up in a warehouse.
Here is the logic I used: the 4GB minis sell for $250.00 and are selling like hot cakes. The first production run of these cute little iPods will be sold out shortly. So there is no need to change the price of it.
For only $50.00 more you can buy a 15GB iPod. Apple will not release a lower priced iPod because of the Mini.
For a $100.00 more you can get a 20 GB iPod, I wouldn't be surpised if Apple drops this model and replaces it with a 30 GB, because for another $100.00 you can double your disk space and get a 40GB.
So Apple is basically stuck with keeping the low end iPod at 15GB and the high end one at 40GB. For the time being.
What I've been told that this will happen is that this summer:
iPod Mini $199.99
20GB iPod $299.99
30GB iPod $399.99
40GB iPod $499.99
stoid said:
that would be great.. both of my iPods (2g and 3g) looked terrible after 2-3 months of usage, on the other hand my 12"PBG4 looks like new after 9 months.
PortalPlayer
Did anyone bother to read PortalPlayer's press release from January 8th???? i know my post was long, but i still see arguements going on here about video-out and photo capabilities when PortalPlayer announced yesterday that it's new chip does all this. By the way, PortalPlayer makes the current iPod chip.
http://www.portalplayer.com/news-an...oto_jukebox.htm
Did anyone bother to read PortalPlayer's press release from January 8th???? i know my post was long, but i still see arguements going on here about video-out and photo capabilities when PortalPlayer announced yesterday that it's new chip does all this. By the way, PortalPlayer makes the current iPod chip.
http://www.portalplayer.com/news-an...oto_jukebox.htm
appleinsider question
So will it be iTunes 5? What will the color of the note be?
iTunes 1=multicolored
iTunes 2=blue
iTunes 3=purple
iTunes 4=green
also, what os does the iPod use?
AppleInsider.com said:
So will it be iTunes 5? What will the color of the note be?
iTunes 1=multicolored
iTunes 2=blue
iTunes 3=purple
iTunes 4=green
also, what os does the iPod use?
Video goggles?
This is just speculation, but when Steve said that you couldn't reproduce the video experience like you could audio, but that they were working on it, I got thinking. I've seen these video goggles, where you watch movies in a virtual theater environment (they're like VR goggles, but simpler). Could apple partner with some company that makes them? This would be a real ipod-killer killer.
A 40 GB ipod plus these would still be competitively priced and _way_ better.
http://www.reviewfinder.com/reviews/glasstron/index.asp
This is just speculation, but when Steve said that you couldn't reproduce the video experience like you could audio, but that they were working on it, I got thinking. I've seen these video goggles, where you watch movies in a virtual theater environment (they're like VR goggles, but simpler). Could apple partner with some company that makes them? This would be a real ipod-killer killer.
A 40 GB ipod plus these would still be competitively priced and _way_ better.
http://www.reviewfinder.com/reviews/glasstron/index.asp
Hector said:
Sorry, this is a little off topic, but what is a coaxial optical cable? I'm used to coax meaning conductor and shield, but that wouldn't make sense for optical, I don't think... I don't do much with digital audio.
Thanks--
Did you buy a case from them, or try to protect them? Ive got PDA screen covers cut to fit on mine to prevent surface scratches. They work great. takes some time to cut them out, though.toughboy said:
jouster said:
I don't know if this is true. People can but 32 and 64 kbs mp3s if they wanted to, but FM quality radio is out of the question, doubt it. If Apple refused to put FM it wouldn't be for the reasons you stated, it would be for something else, mabe to make the iPod a little sleeker.
Just My Opinion could be wrong
Dude!
Actually, I use my camera and iBook specifically for that purpose! The iPod would blend the storage capacity of the iBook with the portability of the camera. Perfect!! If only the software could get beefed up, like giving slide shows.
carletonmusic said:
Actually, I use my camera and iBook specifically for that purpose! The iPod would blend the storage capacity of the iBook with the portability of the camera. Perfect!! If only the software could get beefed up, like giving slide shows.
Analog Kid said:
I think this
was meant to have punctuation, such as:
As far as the subject of being able to display photos, I think that would be great. I'm planning to buy an iPod as a storage unit while I'm taking photos. It's cheaper than buying high capacity (1 - 4 GB) Compact Flash cards, even with the Belkin media reader.
Well, as the new PortalPlayer SoC handles all of this, I believe it!
I expect the new PortalPlayer SoC to be made on a smaller process (130nm?) than the previous chip, so power usage will be lower, hence allowing it to run faster and do more, or do the old stuff and use less power.
No mention of video is made though. This is a shame, I was expecting Apple to update iTMS to allow downloads of refactored Quicktime music videos (made to the resolution of the new iPod's screen) for $1.99 - $2.99 a piece. But this doesn't look possible.
The new screen has a strong chance of being OLED - this technology has grown a lot in the past year, and is now being used in devices quite a bit. It uses less power, so a 2" OLED colour screen (twice the resolution of the current screen in both directions) could use the same, or less, power than the current monochrome display. Remember that no backlight is required with OLED as well.
The current iPod has a "160-by-128-pixel resolution, 0.24-mm dot pitch" display. That is a mere 2.5KB display. A 320x256 16-bit display will take up 160KB of memory, quite a lot more! Maybe that high a resolution is a bit much to expect, although for a device that can show photos, a low dot pitch is a good thing to have. Maybe the resolution will be 240x192 instead, a 90KB display. These size screens are available in OLED format, and used in devices already.
Of course, an OLED display is also thinner than an LCD display. This could create more room for battery inside, in case the power usage goes up.
This does match iLife quite well. iTunes plays and manages music and integrates with iPod, iPhoto shows and manages pictures, and now will integrate with iPod. iPod already does portable MacOS X Firewire boot/recovery and standard file transport. Quite a remarkable device. Now if it allows automatic retrieval of photos from popular digital cameras as well ... mmmm.
All in all, this could be the iPod I finally go for, as long as the 20GB $299 version has all the features of the 50GB $499 version anyway. Especially if it has an OLED screen, I want to see what the fuss is about. Heh.
I expect the new PortalPlayer SoC to be made on a smaller process (130nm?) than the previous chip, so power usage will be lower, hence allowing it to run faster and do more, or do the old stuff and use less power.
No mention of video is made though. This is a shame, I was expecting Apple to update iTMS to allow downloads of refactored Quicktime music videos (made to the resolution of the new iPod's screen) for $1.99 - $2.99 a piece. But this doesn't look possible.
The new screen has a strong chance of being OLED - this technology has grown a lot in the past year, and is now being used in devices quite a bit. It uses less power, so a 2" OLED colour screen (twice the resolution of the current screen in both directions) could use the same, or less, power than the current monochrome display. Remember that no backlight is required with OLED as well.
The current iPod has a "160-by-128-pixel resolution, 0.24-mm dot pitch" display. That is a mere 2.5KB display. A 320x256 16-bit display will take up 160KB of memory, quite a lot more! Maybe that high a resolution is a bit much to expect, although for a device that can show photos, a low dot pitch is a good thing to have. Maybe the resolution will be 240x192 instead, a 90KB display. These size screens are available in OLED format, and used in devices already.
Of course, an OLED display is also thinner than an LCD display. This could create more room for battery inside, in case the power usage goes up.
This does match iLife quite well. iTunes plays and manages music and integrates with iPod, iPhoto shows and manages pictures, and now will integrate with iPod. iPod already does portable MacOS X Firewire boot/recovery and standard file transport. Quite a remarkable device. Now if it allows automatic retrieval of photos from popular digital cameras as well ... mmmm.
All in all, this could be the iPod I finally go for, as long as the 20GB $299 version has all the features of the 50GB $499 version anyway. Especially if it has an OLED screen, I want to see what the fuss is about. Heh.
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/03/18/1325235.shtml?tid=109&tid=141&tid=187&tid=188
Microsoft's ipod Killer to be priced around$700-$800 Plays MP3,s and Video in WMA format. This won't sell not at that price and considering it will be three times as thick and twice as long as well as twice as heavy than the current ipod's. These upcoming creative players could hardly be called portable and even if Apple has something like this up it's sleeves it would cost through the nose and still be twice the size of our current ipod's. If a Creative Mp3 Video player will cost $700-$800 expect an Apple one to Cost about $1000 sure if Apple gives us one it will probably be better than any other on the Market, but we will have to pay that Premium price and don't expect it to be the same size as our current ipod's. Anything Pushing anywhere near the $1000 mark and if it is twice the size of the current ipod won't sell for mass appeal as at that rate one would be better off buying an ibook or PB 12".
Microsoft's ipod Killer to be priced around$700-$800 Plays MP3,s and Video in WMA format. This won't sell not at that price and considering it will be three times as thick and twice as long as well as twice as heavy than the current ipod's. These upcoming creative players could hardly be called portable and even if Apple has something like this up it's sleeves it would cost through the nose and still be twice the size of our current ipod's. If a Creative Mp3 Video player will cost $700-$800 expect an Apple one to Cost about $1000 sure if Apple gives us one it will probably be better than any other on the Market, but we will have to pay that Premium price and don't expect it to be the same size as our current ipod's. Anything Pushing anywhere near the $1000 mark and if it is twice the size of the current ipod won't sell for mass appeal as at that rate one would be better off buying an ibook or PB 12".
Little Endian said:
Yeah, it is a joke isn't it!
If I desperately wanted to watch a movie on the move, I'd get a slimline portable DVD player for a third of the price - $200 get you a 7" LCD machine: Amazon Listing, leaving you a full $500 for a top of the range iPod for general use!
And it is guaranteed that the interface will not be as good as the iPods!
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Little Endian said:
And since many geeks who would buy this already have laptops with dvd players which are only probably double or tripple the size, why spend good money on such a device...?
aswitcher said:
Well I'm a person that doesnt have a laptop with DVD player...I would get the 4th Generation iPod if it could play videos for $1000 anytime
Have a nice day "geek"
Hattig said:
Portable DVD Players with the LCD screen is crap...the max hours of the battery is 2 and half hours...you cant even watch Lord of the Rings on it....
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DREAM COME TRUE!
I WANTED AN IPOD LIKE THIS EVER SINCE I HEARD ABOUT A THING CALLED IPOD!! DREAM COME TRUE!
Macrumors said:
I WANTED AN IPOD LIKE THIS EVER SINCE I HEARD ABOUT A THING CALLED IPOD!! DREAM COME TRUE!