5 GB iPod Mini In Production?

[agentmouthwash]

Apple is a company. if they make flash ipods, they will make more money.
End of story. If you don't want one, then don't buy one.

 

[Peyote]

maybe they will upgrade some of the features, like add a colored screen, or up the battery life to 15 hours. I really hope they come out with different colors this time around. I want a dark blue, or a black one with a white wheel. Please no flower power or Dalmation! !! For those who've been following macs for a while know what i'm talking about.. haha

They won't be able to some out with dark colors using the same process or materials. The colors might change, but if they keep using anodized aluminum, they will always be light colors. Anodizing aluminum just puts an extremely thin layer of color on it....the silver from the aluminum is still somewhat visible, so the color looks washed out, light, and pale. Fine if you're making aluminum easter eggs, but not if you want dark colors as well.

However you can easily create patterns using the anodizing process, so maybe we'll see some stripes or something.

 

[Max Rahder]

I'll buy one...

If they come out with a 5GB mini with new colors (because I can't get one in the same color as my kid or his friends), and it's <= $250, I'll buy it. I used to own a 20GB model, and it simply exceeded my needs. I *own* that much music, but I don't actually listen to most it. 5GB is ample for my day-to-day needs.

If the fllash version is $100 I'll buy one of those too. The closer the price approaches $150 the less likely I'll get it.

 

[Jerry Spoon]

Although people will no doubt be upset, this timing is perfectly reasonable. Apple can barely make enough minis now to keep up with the holiday demand. It makes sense to hold off on the new model until after the Christmas rush, and create new demand with the new version.

Absolutely. I think it's smart on Apple's part. I'm in the market for a new mini, but I'm waiting until January. Maybe this tactic is partially to blame for potential shortfalls in supply for the holidays.

 

[Jovian9]

Since they seem to be only increasing from 4GB to 5GB then they need to do the following to offset such a small increase in hard drive size:
-Better battery life (at least 12 hours)....this is really the only complaint my wife and I have with our current mini
-More Colors (orange, red, yellow, black, purple)
-AAC-Plus (so a lot more songs can fit on it)

 

[poiesb]

There won't be a Flash iPod

I would like to mention that there has been no real evidence that a Flash iPod will come out. This whole thing about the flash iPod started when Steven Milunovich from Merril Lynch said Apple would have one. I had a good laugh when that came out from him, cause he's a bum. How do I know? Cause I know him, as in personally/professionally as my father worked with the man for a number of years and loathed him. Mainly due to his style of recommendations, and that is to stretch the truth to fit what he thinks should happen. He shouldn't even be working over there, and should have been fired years ago, I've got no idea why he's there. Before I start to ramble, there is no real evidence that the Flash iPod even exists, just his initial "anonymous source" and then everyone referencing his idea as truth and then getting blown way out of proportion. So don't get your hopes up.

 

[nitropowered]

I said this in another ipod mini thread and i'll say it again.

No one makes a hard drive bigger than 5 gigs in the form factor the iPod mini uses. Sure, Sandisk makes a 6 and 8 gig compact flash drives but they are super expensive. Apple could stick two drives in a mini but that would require reengineering and increases the failure rate because of two moving drives.

I've really excited for MWSF and I think I might skip class that day to watch the Keynote, pending on a live feed. I need a smaller iPod for when I go out and ride my bike. Depending on cost and features I'd get an updated mini (hoping for more battery life) or a flashpod (Batt life is also important cause I tend to forget to charge my ipod and when I decide to use it, the battery is dead.)

 

[dongmin]

in addition to the bigger capacity, i predict...

-longer battery life, up to 12 hours
-aac plus support
-new colors (please please please orange)
-wireless!!! (no, just kidding)

 

[technocoy]

aluminum..

They won't be able to some out with dark colors using the same process or materials. The colors might change, but if they keep using anodized aluminum, they will always be light colors. Anodizing aluminum just puts an extremely thin layer of color on it....the silver from the aluminum is still somewhat visible, so the color looks washed out, light, and pale. Fine if you're making aluminum easter eggs, but not if you want dark colors as well.

However you can easily create patterns using the anodizing process, so maybe we'll see some stripes or something.

nope, sorry. have you never seen black anodized aluminum? or dark red and dark blue? these are very hot colors in the automotive accessory market. often used in aluminum engine dress-up kits.

also to the people complaining that apple is somehow trying to slip one by them by only releasing a 5gig mini: whay don't you go and start producing a drive small enough for the mini in larger capacity than 5gigs? then apple can quit being underhanded by only being able to buy whats available, and make the mini larger than 5gigs. apple can't put something in their product that doesn't exist in quantity. jesus. the only reason that people have the 5 gig drives already is because it was released right after the mini and the other manufacturers jumped on the "mini" bandwagon after apple's product was already in production witha 4 gigs. get a grip people! go buy one of the other products, more mini's for me, i say!

 

[Rower_CPU]

hmmm.... Only 2 of the 7 stories on the main page are about Mac computers.

Fine - go over to http://applerumors.com then! 😛 🙄

You've been around here long enough to know how the site works. What's with the troll?

 

[Doctor Q]

Assuming the rumor is true, then given the timing I can't believe they'd be stockpiling them now and not announce them at Macworld Expo in San Francisco the second week in January (Jan 10-14).

So I'll be expecting the 5GB iPod mini announcement during the Keynote speech, which is Tuesday the 11th from 9:00am to 10:30am. In fact, I'll predict the new iPod mini will be announced at 9:32am and that all Keynote attendees will get one. If not, people will have to get them from Oprah shows instead.

 

[Some_Big_Spoon]

Well fantastic. This slight, incremental update will surely be the answer to all of life's problems.

I'm glad the ipod's are selling well, really I am, but I'm really jonesing for a taste of the details on the productivity software and computer hardware updates that might be unveiled at MWSF. Have any more of those?

 

[kerb]

we just got my kid sister one for christmas
i doubt she'll miss the other gig seeing as she'd struggle to fill the 4gigs there is already

she's fickle and could very easilly just swap tracks around on iTunes

cool little upgrade but not going to disappoint people who got them at christmas

When mini's get to 10 gigs then I'll be interested.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Assuming the rumor is true, then given the timing I can't believe they'd be stockpiling them now and not announce them at Macworld Expo in San Francisco the second week in January (Jan 10-14).

So I'll be expecting the 5GB iPod mini announcement during the Keynote speech, which is Tuesday the 11th from 9:00am to 10:30am. In fact, I'll predict the new iPod mini will be announced at 9:32am and that all Keynote attendees will get one. If not, people will have to get them from Oprah shows instead.

"Just one more thing..." 😀

That would be neat, if everyone got one. But I don't think they'll do that. They didn't do that with the G5s, did they?
Oprah did give out 15GB iPod (3G) to everyone once...

 

[AmigoMac]

According to the RDF 😀 it's a 25% increment in 1 year... 😛 awesome!
Of course they will come with one or two new features and the same price... it's amazing, cool, a big success, beautiful, you'll love it as much as we do. Looking forward to MWSF 05. 😉

 

[Rod Rod]

4-5 GB is a slow start. i love the form of the mini, i just want about 15 GB of songs on it. one day it will happen (and probably by then i will want about 20 GB of songs) Its just a nice case to prove that Moore's Law is hard at work!!!

This does nothing to "prove that Moore's Law is hard at work." Moore's Law is about the number of transistors. It's not about hard disk drive capacity, MHz, screen size, or any other quantitative aspect of electronics.

I suppose you could propose wPod's Law though. 🙂 It may catch on. If I understand you correctly, your law would state that desired HDD capacity outpaces what's currently on the market by 33%.

 

[williamsonrg]

I would like to mention that there has been no real evidence that a Flash iPod will come out. This whole thing about the flash iPod started when Steven Milunovich from Merril Lynch said Apple would have one. I had a good laugh when that came out from him, cause he's a bum. How do I know? Cause I know him, as in personally/professionally as my father worked with the man for a number of years and loathed him. Mainly due to his style of recommendations, and that is to stretch the truth to fit what he thinks should happen. He shouldn't even be working over there, and should have been fired years ago, I've got no idea why he's there. Before I start to ramble, there is no real evidence that the Flash iPod even exists, just his initial "anonymous source" and then everyone referencing his idea as truth and then getting blown way out of proportion. So don't get your hopes up.

Umm, does this qualify as libel? Just curious...


Anyway, I'm excited for a new mini. Assuming my girlfriend doesn't get one for Christmas from her parents, it'd be a great birthday or Valentines Day gift. And actually, I wouldn't mind trading my 15gb 3G for a 5gb mini, but I won't.

 

[Yvan256]

i imagine they will update more than just the capacity? i mean, "updated mini with 5 GB!" isn't all that significant of news on its own to be the highlight of MWSF.

They'll probably simply mention it after introducing the 1GB Flash iPod mini.

It's not like everything they do needs to be a highlight...

 

[Yvan256]

I'll be interested to see what colors apple uses on the new upgraded mini's to differentiate them from the previous models. Hooray for metallic shiny-ness!

BTW, I just got my 40GB iPod photo for Christmas, and it is SWEET.

-Joe

Wow, talk about time zones... You're 10 days early.

Hum, care to send me the winning lottery numbers for this friday? 😀

 

[Yvan256]

This is great news, more capacity!!! I wonder how it will affect current pricing?

If it's anything like Apple's most recent moves, the price will either stay the same or go down a bit (I wouldn't expect more than a 25$ price drop though, if any).

 

[Yvan256]

I think the big story is going to be the release of AAC plus. Sure, the mini will have a bigger HD, but with AAC plus, you'll be able to fit 4,000 songs on it instead of 1,000. That's a BIG story!

With the numbers I've read, AAC plus should be able to deliver the same audio quality at 48kbps as AAC at 128kbps.

128/48 ~ 2.7, round that down to 2.5, which means iPod mini would fit 2500 songs instead of 1000.

But if they upgrade the HD to 5GB, that means 3000 songs instead of 1000. A nice "three times more storage space" is easy to use in marketing. It also upgrades all the current (and older?) iPods capacities by 2.5. 😎

The question is, can the other iPods be updated with AACplus? I have doubts for the 1st and 2nd generation, but what about the 3rd? And most important, will Apple update the firmware of the older iPods (if the iPod can do it). Will they "updgrade" the iTMS songs to AACplus? Will they keep using the "old" AAC at 128kbps?

As for myself, it would mean I'd have to re-rip all my 50+ CDs, but it would turn my 10GB iPod into a ~25GB iPod, and lower my 7.61GB collection to about 2.86GB...I'd go from only having 24% space left to having just a bit over 10% used. 😀

Edit: just realized that with AACplus, I wouldn't even NEED my 10GB iPod, I'd have more than enough space with a 5GB iPod mini! Dark Blue please 🙂

 

[Yvan256]

I think the big story is going to be the release of AAC plus. Sure, the mini will have a bigger HD, but with AAC plus, you'll be able to fit 4,000 songs on it instead of 1,000. That's a BIG story!

Just another note: they could easily talk about H.264 and then chain the demo to "another CODEC" talk which would lead to iPod Flash (why it's cool even with "only 512MB").

"Now that's you've seen what H.264 can do with video, let us show you one more thing..." 😀

 

[Stella]

Good foresight = Apple well may pull a stunt like you say - only releasing updated iPod software to support AAC Plus for the latest iPods.. leaving older models out in the cold ( even if it is technically feasible )

Wouldn't surprise me.

With the numbers I've read, AAC plus should be able to deliver the same audio quality at 48kbps as AAC at 128kbps.

128/48 ~ 2.7, round that down to 2.5, which means iPod mini would fit 2500 songs instead of 1000.

But if they upgrade the HD to 5GB, that means 3000 songs instead of 1000. A nice "three times more storage space" is easy to use in marketing. It also upgrades all the current (and older?) iPods capacities by 2.5. 😎

The question is, can the other iPods be updated with AACplus? I have doubts for the 1st and 2nd generation, but what about the 3rd? And most important, will Apple update the firmware of the older iPods (if the iPod can do it). Will they "updgrade" the iTMS songs to AACplus? Will they keep using the "old" AAC at 128kbps?

As for myself, it would mean I'd have to re-rip all my 50+ CDs, but it would turn my 10GB iPod into a ~25GB iPod, and lower my 7.61GB collection to about 2.86GB...I'd go from only having 24% space left to having just a bit over 10% used. 😀

Edit: just realized that with AACplus, I wouldn't even NEED my 10GB iPod, I'd have more than enough space with a 5GB iPod mini! Dark Blue please 🙂

 

[JoePike]

This does nothing to "prove that Moore's Law is hard at work." Moore's Law is about the number of transistors. It's not about hard disk drive capacity, MHz, screen size, or any other quantitative aspect of electronics.

I suppose you could propose wPod's Law though. 🙂 It may catch on. If I understand you correctly, your law would state that desired HDD capacity outpaces what's currently on the market by 33%.

Maybe the funniest post I've read on here in quite some time. Well done, Rod. Well done indeed.

-Joe

 

[AliensAreFuzzy]

As for myself, it would mean I'd have to re-rip all my 50+ CDs, but it would turn my 10GB iPod into a ~25GB iPod, and lower my 7.61GB collection to about 2.86GB...I'd go from only having 24% space left to having just a bit over 10% used. 😀

It wouldn't do both. Only one. 2.86GB of 10GB is 28ish%. So, AAC plus would allow for more songs, but the way you're saying, it wouldn't do it quite that much.