Apple iPod and U2 Event

[nagromme]

Also likely: an updated number of songs in Apple's library--a counter to MS "matching" Apple's million. (And misc. other stats no doubt--maybe sales vs. MS.)

(I do not expect iPhoto for Windows, because it's not a direct revenue source like iTunes and because Windows users could just drag photos over by hand the same as Notes--if the photo iPod's real.)

 

[swissmann]

Steve Jobs, Bono and The Edge...

Is it just me or do these names sound funny together.

I don't care much about the announcement - I like my 4G 20 GB iPod a lot already.

 

[MiquelCo]

Goes on Europe...

It could be the announce of the launch of the iTMS Europe. October is ending and there is the rumour that it will lanch this month. The event is sheduled at 10 AM Pacific Time, thats 7.00 PM CET, good time for Europe.

 

[MCCFR]

'Stealth' launch of iTMS in several new markets: Spain, Italy, Canada amongst others - no big deal now as iTMS is established on both sides of the Atlantic, everything else is considered 'incremental' growth. These could be launched at 10:00 (Europe) and at 09:00 (Eastern, for Canada) and therefore be open by the time Steve and chums take the stage in San Jose.

The launch of iTMS in several new markets would barely make jaded media hacks rise from their beds, and certainly not in California for markets that have nothing to do with USA, so why the hoopla?

U2's new album - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - launches 'physically' on 11/23, exactly 28 days after this event: I'll give dollars to doughnuts that they are going to announce that (for the first time with a 'major' album release) the virtual product is going to precede the physical product EXCLUSIVELY on all iTMS sites for four weeks as an album-only release.

It's what I'd do if my mix tapes had been stolen whilst I was mixing (U2), and it's what I'd do if I were SPJ trying to grind Napster et al into the dirt before Xmas whilst creating more column inches for the product that is making my market cap reach dizzying levels for the first time in five years.

 

[corywoolf]

I knew it!!!!

check it out, i posted this a few days ago in the ibook thread.

* #74
corywoolf

macrumors newbie

i look into the crystal ball.... and see a new line of ibooks with a new casing and no price drop. maybe a superdrive in the 12 in" model too (available). the ibook will incorporate color changing led lights that can be blinked to the music or can tell battery life, time of day, etc.I think the led lighting technology that apple patented is going to play a roll and everyone forgot about it by now. so maybe they will make the ipods more flashy and the ibooks more flashy too.
The ipod will most likely have a commercial premiere with U2 or some other band. The ipod will probably just have a color screen with the option to browse by artwork. the ipod and ibook will be getting commercials to try to boost holiday sales. I would think the ibook would be resembling the dramatic change of the new imac. they want to target the youth by making the ibook as cool to own as the ipod. maybe they could bundle a ipod mini with a ibook?????

but check out the pic i made, my first mach add, i know its pathetic compared to the experienced people's


well i was close at least!?

 

[crakly]

how about this?

consider the evidence:

1. U2 are Irish
2. Ireland doesn't have an iTMS
3. Apple has a strong presence in Ireland (UK Apple Store is run from there)
4. Ireland has more internet users (by percentage) than the UK, France or Germany

I reckon we're going to see iTunes Ireland as well as the hardware announcements...

 

[mdetry]

ITUNES fo the rest of Europe

consider the evidence:

1. U2 are Irish
2. Ireland doesn't have an iTMS
3. Apple has a strong presence in Ireland (UK Apple Store is run from there)
4. Ireland has more internet users (by percentage) than the UK, France or Germany

I reckon we're going to see iTunes Ireland as well as the hardware announcements...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
For sure this is a big event of Itunes Store for the rest of Europe and U2 is a big band to get all the press talking about Itunes/ipod again. For sure there will be some Limited edition something also...

 

[wjdennen]

Don't get your hopes up!

I think a new iPod would be great. But, those who are expecting it at this U2/Apple announcement might be disappointed.

I still go back to my original thought:

Apple will sponsor U2's next tour, which will kick off in early 2005.

They're going to announce this at the event. Of course, it's likely they will announce other stuff too...

 

[JGowan]

Think it's possible that Apple would release a U2 iPod preloaded with U2's new album a month before the album comes out?

uh... no. Considering that thieves have stolen a copy of songs from the very album you're talking about back in July with a major investigation launched by French police. It wouldn't make any sense to put the album out a month ahead of time on the IPOD or otherwise,... it would just make it that much easier to get out on peer-to-peers early.

 

[JGowan]

I still go back to my original thought:

Apple will sponsor U2's next tour, which will kick off in early 2005.

Are you seriou? Apple sponsor U2? Apple is all about holding ON to the money, not giving it away. It is a MUSIC EVENT. Apple is all about Music if it benefits them (MUSIC STORE & THE IPOD) -- this is definitely a kickoff of a NEW 60GB IPOD. Apple helped U2 by helping them produce the video and giving them prelease status on their homepage and store -- and U2 is helping Apple by helping them launch an all-new color ipod.

U2 will become today's equivalent of the 90's Jeff Goldblum. The "spokepeople for the rest of us".

 

[MiquelCo]

I reckon we're going to see iTunes Ireland as well as the hardware announcements...

Only ITunes Ireland?,
I think the most of EU countries will enter this time in, as announced Apple a few weeks ago. Of course nobody knows in how many countries are they launching this time.

 

[rt_brained]

Yeah, Steve Jobs in one room and Bono and The Edge on the big screen from overseas.

 

[rt_brained]

A U2 branded iPod? Hmmf! I recently watched the new "Vertigo" iPod commercial. All I can say is that Bono sure is in love with himself.

Hmm, I've watched that video several times and I don't get what you're talking about. Bono IS the lead singer of U2 and they usually get most of the attention on-camera and off. However, most lead singers do have a strong desire for attention.

The de-facto standard of 99% blacked out silhouettes was obviously thrown to the wind so we can clearly see the bands faces. <shakes head> Don't get me wrong, I like U2, I even think the new tune is kinda catchy but really. Also it's kind of strange that the commercial seems more geared to promoting U2's single than selling iPods.

Seriously, from a marketing point of view, could you even imagine negotiating that commercial with U2's agent and trying to convince them that the whole thing would still have to be shot in silhouette? One reason the silhouette concept works is because the viewer (man or woman) is supposed to imagine themself as that person dancing around in the commercial.

The same trick has been employed in car commercials and print ads for years. Show the product, but don't let the viewer see someone else using the product. It's subliminal, but it works. If U2 were in complete silhouette, then they wouldn't need U2...they could just use actors...and the spot would have much less visual impact.

Now if they could come out with a Radiohead branded iPod... Maybe, just maybe...

Well, if Radiohead is still around in 20 years and maintains the same consistent level of success as U2, perhaps we'll be graced with out first Radiohead iPod video. Perhaps Thom Yorke will have grown as tired of his whining lyrics as I already have.

 

[applekid]

I haven't read any posts, so excuse my ignorance

Anyways, I think we could see an iPod Mini refresh or an addition of a few colors, but the iPod Minis are popular as is, so it probably won't be happening. Unless they wanto create a 4 GB line and say an 8 GB line. The hypothetical 8 GB replaces the 4 GB for prices and the 4 GB goes down another $50. The only problem in that I see is we've had no HD rumors and I don't think the mini's target audience needs that much more space.

That color iPod would be nice right now. I was thinking it'd be sweet if the color iPod was to have an iTunes-like interface. That would create some more familiarity. And as I've said in the 60 GB Color iPod, I'll say it here again, I think what we see in a color iPod will be a taste of the 5G iPod.

A U2 iPod would be interesting, if ThinkSecret is right. I'd like to see other bands do something similar where they load it with their music and design the casing of the iPod. I do miss those signature iPods. I wouldn't have bought one since I wasn't in need of an iPod, but it was an interesting concept that could bring back for the holidays.

 

[killmoms]

Hopefully Apple gets their collective heads out of their ***es and gets seamless transitions up an running on iTunes and the iPod. Hasn’t this been the #1 requested feature since the iPod came out???

Gapless playback for MP3 is a hack, something I believe Apple is loathe to implement. MP3 has a fixed frame size for audio, so if a song ends in the middle of a frame, it pads the frame with silence. Since this is the case, encoders have to add a flag to show when the song actually ends which a player can then interpret (non-standard), and/or the player has to do some fancy interpretation to eliminate that silence on its own. Other lossy formats like OGG do not have a fixed frame size, so they can achieve truly gapless playback with a player that buffers the next track immediately after the first. This buffering can be done with MP3s, but you'll still almost always get a split second of frame padding silence without code like I mentioned above. I'm not sure if AAC has a fixed or non-fixed frame size, I'd have to look into that.

 

[Poff]

If only Apple had released the iPod mini using a standard CompactFlash hard disk (instead of "built-in"), there'd be people buying the iPod mini for the 4GB CompactFlash drive and selling the "empty shell" for about 50-100$ on eBay (like Creative's 4GB MuVo).

It used to work with both the iPod mini and Creative 4GB MuVo, now it works with neither of them unless you can get your hands on an old one. When people noticed this, the flash-compatability was removed from those cards. They prolly get them cheaper than the "normal" CF-cards, which they'll only get for close-to-retail price.

 

[Poff]

Gapless playback for MP3 is a hack, something I believe Apple is loathe to implement. MP3 has a fixed frame size for audio, so if a song ends in the middle of a frame, it pads the frame with silence. Since this is the case, encoders have to add a flag to show when the song actually ends which a player can then interpret (non-standard), and/or the player has to do some fancy interpretation to eliminate that silence on its own. Other lossy formats like OGG do not have a fixed frame size, so they can achieve truly gapless playback with a player that buffers the next track immediately after the first. This buffering can be done with MP3s, but you'll still almost always get a split second of frame padding silence without code like I mentioned above. I'm not sure if AAC has a fixed or non-fixed frame size, I'd have to look into that.

iTunes has a gap on AAC aswell, and it's making me go crazy when listening to live-albums!
Almost every mp3-program I tried on the pc had gapless playback. Even winamp!

 

[sethypoo]

Apple's facination with U2 is a little weird. Oh well, whatever gets that 60GB iPod out!

 

[U2Rules!]

Finally something worth posting about! I'm very excited to see what this turns out to be.

 

[neier]

Another way for Apple to deal with DRM

The problem with that situation is how does iTunes tie the Fairplay (DRM) track to you? I was under the impression, and correct me if I’m wrong here, that it was the process of purchasing or downloading from iTMS that added the hash into the song to tie it to your account. Unless Apple has a way of remotely doing this I don’t see how this would work. What I do think is more likely if they tried this would be to script a download off of iTMS from a hidden location. I can’t imagine Apple doesn’t have the capabilities to setup a new iTMS “page” for an album that isn’t release yet. If it simply allows you to download the songs without needing to go to that page??? *shrugs* whatever.

Apple could probably hack the firmware to write-protect the U2 songs, so that they are not ever deleted by a sync. That would take care of the disappearing music problem. In fact, the firmware may have some of that already. Does anyone know how Duke's freshman iPods handled the pre-loaded material?

To counteract the disk-mode copying of the songs, if I remember correctly, the "hard" part is getting the songs ONTO the iPod. You can't take an iPod and copy protected songs off of it into another copy of iTunes anyway, so these U2 songs would be no different, and Apple wouldn't be extremely worried about people copying the songs from the iPod, because nothing would be able to play them.

If this is correct, then the only thing I wonder about is how to make backups for disc crashes, etc.....

 

[jmelrose]

My guess is that U2 are going to perhaps announce they will offer exclusive live content via iTunes from their upcoming tour. A REALLY cool move would be offering a highlight show from each of their major tours throughout their career, much as the Dead have put all their stuff out.

I don't see them releasing content actually ON an ipod. They would have no way to DRM it, and I think most people who would buy a U2 ipod would already have most of their catalog already.

Or, even cooler technology (although admittedly unlikely)... some bands have technology where CDs can be bought of a concert immediately after the show. What if instead the show was mastered on-the-fly and then customers could bring an ipod to an Apple iTunes kiosk (where you can buy the new U2-edition iPod!) after the show and d'load the show to their ipod. Transferring the AACs would take just a minute or two for the whole show. Lots of options there in using the ipod as a media distribution option. The only question would be how to get the music from the ipod onto the computer. Saving it to the data folder seems the best option, although it could be problematic if people try to buy with a full ipod. Maybe too many headaches after all...

 

[kiwi-in-uk]

My pick ...

iPod flash (for the kids for Xmas)
iPod 60 Gb colour (for the parents for Xmas)

The U2 stuff is "symbiotic" if U2 track(s) are bundled.

 

[rlw]

Holidays are coming

The holiday season is coming, so I think that Apple will release a new mass market type of product - not just minor updates, new iTunes countries, or a niche product (like a U2 iPod). Maybe one of these:

Car
Better solutions for using an iPod in your car. Apple already has stated that they will be focusing in this area.

Remote
Some type of remote for controlling iTunes/Airport Express? I have to believe that Airport Express is only part of the bigger picture. Again, Apple stated that the "living room" is part of the music focus.

 

[rlw]

U2 Preloaded Songs

Perhaps instead of preloading the songs, the iPod could come with a certificate for free U2 downloads. This would be one way to get around the Snyc issues.

 

[~Shard~]

The holiday season is coming, so I think that Apple will release a new mass market type of product ... Maybe one of these:

Car

Sweet, an Applemobile! Why didn't I see this before, it's such a logical progression for Apple to move into the automotive industry! They can release a car called the "G5" and it can have dual engines. (Of course, with Pontiac releasing the new G6, that could cause confusion....) And who needs airbags, because if it's running OS X, it'll never crash!