Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Ok, I know SigmaTel don't make flash, but just think about this thing for a while anyway..

The iPod mini, according to Steve Jobs, targets the HIGH END flash-market. They still have no players targeting the LOW END market. They could plan to do something like that. A $150 512mb iPod flash?

On the other hand, Steve has always talked about how these players almost can't hold a song and you throw them away after using them a couple of times..
 
2 GB

I've always thought Flash iPods were a matter of time--when price vs. capacity were right to make something you wouldn't just "throw in a drawer and forget." Maybe just the Mini with a CF card.

I see 2GB as the minimum to meet Apple's standard for usability. (Maybe 2x1GB or 4x512 if that's more cost-effective.)
 
Thoughts on the iPod Tiny

iPod Tiny would have one feature that no other flash based player does: iTunes Music Store compatibility. Apple could make more money from the music sales than from the hardware.

Speaking of hardware, due to the small capacities of flash memory, the screen resolution could be half of the iPod Mini; browsing a small library could be done in as little as three lines of text.

The click wheel could be seperated from the main body, much like the current iPod Remote. With a small library users would get in the habit of shuffling their music so click and forget would be the way to use this thing.

The dock connector would not be necessary. A mini USB port would save space and provide enough electricity to recharge the Tiny battery.

Apple Lossless support could be dropped from the firmware of the iPod Tiny. There would be too little space for lossless files and the battery would drain quicker. Besides, the environments where a flash player would likely be used would not be ideal for uncompromised audio quality.

Last but not least, if the iPod Tiny is cheap enough it could be included as a bonus with every new Mac purchase. A bonus like that would pay for itself in online music sales or if it convinces people to buy the full-size iPods.
 
AoWolf said:
It would go against the whole iPod philosophy to put flash memory in it unless its over 4 gigs...

iPod philosophy? Its about the money, not the philosophy. If Apple want's to sell more music to more people they need to sell more MP3 players. Flash is the next thing to sell with. Apple sells a combo MP3 player/music store combo. By adding a more cost effective flash based player they increase the market share for both. That philosophy will win.
 
Everyone is thinking small

Right now, we are a hop, skip and a jump from being able to make the iPod mini into a Memory based(no HD) player. Without a increase in price of a decrease in size.

The iPod's HD is to small for my needs, however if they said it will have a 50 hour battery life I would get one is a second.
 
No, not gonna happen...

The iPod is also a HD... Everything Apple makes has to be useful on a computer... A flash based iPod would be way too slow...

Highly doubt it..
 
CF Compact Flash is not slow.... When will you people learn, USB is slow, 5 year old Flash was slow. Look at the new CF cards and you will see its NOT SLOW!

mr_mac said:
No, not gonna happen...

The iPod is also a HD... Everything Apple makes has to be useful on a computer... A flash based iPod would be way too slow...

Highly doubt it..
 
Skip-proof? Huh?

If true, it could mean a cheaper, lighter, skip-proof iPod.

So, what? The 20+ minutes of skip protection of all previous iPods isn't good enough?
 
Please no

Flash players are pretty useless, except for jogging and running. Their lack of skipping is the only redeemable factor. I don't see how a flash player could become a good enough product to have the "iPod" name.
 
Niiiiiiiiiice

On a kind of related note, has anyone else heard of a new audio codec called he-aac? Apparently it can compress cd quality audio at 48kb/s. Hope Apple adopt this new version, it will speed up downloads, no loss of quality and maybe make your ipod battery last alot longer. Nice
 
are they?

Think about it this way:

Q. What does the iPod mini use for storage?
A. A 4GB Hitachi Microdrive,

Q. How much did this Microdive go for on its own when the iPod mini first came out?
A. Around $279 (Now down to around $200 with rebates)

Q. How much is a 4GB SanDisk CF card on eCost.com right now?
A. $289

So basically, the price of 4GB of flash memory has dropped to the point where it costs about the same as the microdrive did when mini first hit the streets. In essence, Apple could simply replace the microdrive with a flash card, and not change the appearance or price, but increase battery life by a huge amount. There are other options there of course, too.

I also like the idea of adding a 1GB or so buffer to the big iPod to increase battery life.
 
Is it my imagination or, is the iPod going through the Skirt, Mini, Micro, Micro Mini...... :)


There is now a 4 Gig Flash Card yes 4 Gigs.

And with the 0.85 inch HDD, it would seem the iPod is going to shrink a lot. :D

or will prob have the iPod (Skirt), iPod Mini (Mini), 4 Gig flash (Micro), 0.85 inch HDD (Micro Mini).

if this is true we will see the 0.85 HDD make its way into a G5 PB, since it can then be RAID setup. Sick stuff a 64 bit dual core with Raid setup. Now you are talking performance in a 1 inch or less form. :D
 
Skipping is an issue?!

QFace said:
Flash players are pretty useless, except for jogging and running. Their lack of skipping is the only redeemable factor. I don't see how a flash player could become a good enough product to have the "iPod" name.

I do not understand why you think skipping is an issue for the current iPods. I own a 40 GB iPod and I run with it strapped to my arm every day. In the two months that I have used this iPod there has not been one skip. All iPods so far have loaded data from their hard discs to the 32 MB of memory to eliminate skipping. If anyone has ever experienced skipping the most likely explanation would be that they are playing tracks that are bigger than 32 MB in size.
 
You'll see the 80 GB iPod way before Apple ever considers the idea of using flash chips. Well, they've probably considered it, but there's more money to be made in the big drives. With all the anti-skip time on the current models, why even worry about solid state? :confused:
 
This memory could be used for lot's of things...

Brainstorming possible uses for this memory...

How 'bout adding memory cards to hard drive-based iPods as a cache. Perhaps
it would be possible to load some music from the hard drive to the card and
temporarily put the hard drive to sleep.

This might help with shock prevention and add to battery life.

Of course, this wouldn't work if the user kept selecting different songs from
their library, but if you were shuffling through the library, the iPod could
load stuff into flash and sleep the drive.

Wouldn't it be great if this doubled (or more) the battery life on an iPod?

Don't know what you'd charge for this though...
 
I to, think bigger is better when it comes to the iPod. But.... Think about a 4/5 gig iPod with a 48 hour battery life. It would be really nice to only have to charge it once a week and still be able listen to it 6+ hours a day.

ASP272 said:
You'll see the 80 GB iPod way before Apple ever considers the idea of using flash chips. Well, they've probably considered it, but there's more money to be made in the big drives. With all the anti-skip time on the current models, why even worry about solid state? :confused:
 
??? Ummm? Thats a great idea!!!! However the iPod already has/does this.

danr_97070 said:
Brainstorming possible uses for this memory...

How 'bout adding memory cards to hard drive-based iPods as a cache. Perhaps
it would be possible to load some music from the hard drive to the card and
temporarily put the hard drive to sleep.

This might help with shock prevention and add to battery life.

Of course, this wouldn't work if the user kept selecting different songs from
their library, but if you were shuffling through the library, the iPod could
load stuff into flash and sleep the drive.

Wouldn't it be great if this doubled (or more) the battery life on an iPod?

Don't know what you'd charge for this though...
 
Because at a price point under $200, it becomes that much easier to buy one for yourself, one for your significant other, one for your boss, etc.

:rolleyes:

ASP272 said:
You'll see the 80 GB iPod way before Apple ever considers the idea of using flash chips. Well, they've probably considered it, but there's more money to be made in the big drives. With all the anti-skip time on the current models, why even worry about solid state? :confused:
 
CF does have a lot of benefits, non-moving parts mean no moving parts can fail. I dropped my old iPod from about waist height and the drive died, got replaced.

I think 4gb is as big as it gets right now, I'm still impressed by Lexar's 8gb CF drive and to think it's just 2gb the original iPod :p

Going static doesn't seem to bring anything apart from reliability and power savings...
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.