Flash iPod: 'Life is Random'?

[davebach172]

didnt apple take on a wifi engineer not too long ago?

how about a screenless flash based ipod that has wifi built in to control the airport express? now THAT would be neat!

(although wifi might add to the price - maybe one model with it, and one (cheaper one) without?)

either way, i cant wait till tomorrow!!!!

 

[ioinc]

Well of course, the world is filled with cheapskates, not much Apple can do about that.

Wow! What a condescending attitude. (it goes well with your last post which seems to be as much a personal attack as a response)

Believe it or not, there are lots of people out there that may not have the massive discretionary funds that you might have. This does not make then cheap. Perhaps less fortunate than you... but not cheap.

And there is something Apple can do... they can market a product for them. "Less" money to spend is not the same as "no" money to spend.

 

[mcmav37]

Steve Jobs, and I quote, "and those little flash players that never see the light of day and get tossed in a drawer" mwsf 2004

Yes, and the key part of this quote was "little flash players." The rumored iPod flash has anywhere from 4-8 times as much storage as the devices SJ was referring to.

 

[dekator]

Thinking about it, I see a need for the following:
1) Play/Pause
2) Skip to Random Song
3) Volume Up
4) Volume Down

That's about everything that I'd use while running. Come to think of it, that's 99% of what I use in iTunes, too.

Well, I think we shouldn't be too ideologically exclusive. Most times when I explicitly listen to music, I choose a different song here and there but also listen through a playlist at times (more rarely). I know many people who do the same. I've learned in this discussion that by doing so I'm not 'a normal person'. Well, I can live with that (seeing which ppl here claim to be normal I can actually live very well with that ). But I'm disgressing. When I'm working out I hardly change songs, yet it's nice to have that option, I think. Yet, this whole discussion is highly hypothetical. One thing that struck me as very annoying is that when you choose an EQ preset is that that preset is carried over to the next song etc. That's really bad as I listen to many different genres. The iPod caters to different habits and I guess we should let each other be and accept our differences.

My current guess for the 'random' thing is: We have a multi-purpose Flash thingy here. The world's biggest memory stick (no penis-envy please! ;-)) an MP3 player and, and, and... so you can 'randomly' use it for different puroposes. Wouldn't use the word random like that but then...

 

[spercharged69]

Believe it or not, there are lots of people out there that may not have the massive discretionary funds that you might have. This does not make then cheap. Perhaps less fortunate than you... but not cheap.

When iPods dropped in price last time they dropped by what, $30? Waiting months for a $30 decrease in price is being cheap. Sorry.

 

[jhomayne]

one of these (http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040022898/) with 256mb would suit me down to a tee.

 

[mcmav37]

I think we are off track

First off, I think that it is unlikely those guys saw the new iPod flash. I do think the sign is probably actually in existence, but we haven't seen the whole thing.

Imagine for a second if we were all Nike junkees and someone had seen a poster stating "Life is short." We would all be up in arms saying, "Is Nike gonna try to say that their products will shorten your life or fall apart quickly?" But, once we saw that the whole slogan was "Life is short, play hard" it would all make sense.

The poster could be for any number of things (including another company entirely) but consider these possibilities:
"Life is Random"

-"Luckily iLife 05 helps you organize it all"
-"But your music is at your fingertips"
-"Let the new iPod flash control it"
etc.

 

[Peyote]

I'm quickly losing track of this thread, but I don't think anyone has noticed that the "Life is Random" poster isn't a silhouette. It's an arrow, on the right at least. Perhaps a few curvy arrows going in different directions, probably to symbolize randomness?

I expect there is also an iPod on there somewhere, perhaps an arrow or two are curving around it in pseudo-3D.

This has been noted, and speculation says that it is likely the two arrows crossing icon from the Random button in iTunes

 

[ioinc]

When iPods dropped in price last time they dropped by what, $30? Waiting months for a $30 decrease in price is being cheap. Sorry.

Apparently $30 is something to apple, otherwise they would drop the price. But since it is so meaningless to you, perhaps you would send me $30 just to prove the point.

Here is a news flash... to some people (even if you are not one of them) $30 has value.

 

[Yvan256]

Well of course, the world is filled with cheapskates, not much Apple can do about that.

It's not about a cheapskate, it's about not wanting to pay insane prices for entertainment devices.

Would YOU pay 250,000$US for a car? No? Then you must be a cheapskate... from the point of view of a Billionaire.

Not everyone has the same kind of money to burn on everything. Some prefer to pay more for their cars, some pay more for their computers, etc. It's about choices, not being "cheapskates".

 

[aseh]

First of all that would be an FM receiver. Secondly, if Apple calls it "iPod radio" and doesn't have an AM/FM receiver, I could see some people suing Apple for false advertising.

The name "iPod DJ" would convey the idea far better, IMO.

They would spin that it *is* a radio - just a radio for the digital age. Also, the radio analogy would make sense to the target market for this device, people who are new to digital music. "iPod Flash" wouldn't make any sense to someone who doesn't know what a flash card is, but "iPod Radio" would. (iPod DJ would work as well, but I think iPod Radio is catchier.)

From a marketing perspective, this is a great move. If they just produced a smaller iPod, it would get a decent amount of coverage because it's a new iPod. But releasing a new iPod *without a screen* & then calling it a radio will get a much larger amount of news coverage. Even though in the long run, they might sell more units if it did have a small screen.

(And obviously I was referring to an FM receiver, not a transmitter - thanks for the correction.)

 

[Yvan256]

You will eat your words. You will eat them.

I sure hope Metatron has a printer, or else it's going to be pretty difficult.

 

[spercharged69]

$30? That's dinner.

Meh, whatever.

 

[ioinc]

$30? That's dinner.

Meh, whatever.

How very eloquent of you... can I use that some time?

"Meh, whatever"

How fortunate to be as fotunate as you. I wish money were so meaningless to all.

 

[Arcus]

I love how they blurred out the guys head in the pictures. Like they wouldn't know who he was from that shirt he is wearing?

*rolls eyes*

Anywho....

I for one do not think this is a banner for the new iPod. But if it is I would venture to say it is the beginning of something like:

"Life is random."
"Make sure your music is not"

Or something of the sort. The idea of apple putting out a flashed based player with no screen is ubsurd.

 

[Yvan256]

When iPods dropped in price last time they dropped by what, $30? Waiting months for a $30 decrease in price is being cheap. Sorry.

Nobody said anything about anyone waiting for Apple to drop their prices before buying! Are you just trolling or what?!

We're talking about (example) people buying a competitor's product because it costs 150$ instead of Apple's at 250$. Stop trying to be snob and putting people down because they're not as lucky as you as far as money goes.

 

[dubbz]

$30? That's dinner.

Or enough food for a week.

 

[Yvan256]

$30? That's dinner.

Meh, whatever.

30$US = 37$CAN. Sorry to pull you from your ivory tower, dude, but that's half my groceries for a week.

 

[spercharged69]

We're talking about (example) people buying a competitor's product because it costs 150$ instead of Apple's at 250$. Stop trying to be snob and putting people down because they're not as lucky as you as far as money goes.

You misunderstand- People buy iPods because they're snobby, trendy, and seen by most people as 'cool' thanks to Apple's AMAZING marketing on the product. There IS no good reason for all Apple products being overpriced. Sure, the interface is nice, the music store is handy, but at the end of the day the iPod is just another MP3 player. Any shopper doing any comparing buys a Rio product, or something else, nothing aside from insane marketing and market saturation makes the iPod any better.

 

[andrei]

Italian original

is a bit different:

"L'iPod lo abbiamo parzialmente visto nella sua illustrazione e sembra essere privo di display o comunque non delle dimensioni e fattezze che conosciamo ora, e qui si spiega anche lo slogan "life is random", probabilmente con un tasto si passa alla canzone successiva e con un altro a quella precedente."

this means:

we have seen the iPod in the pictures and SEEMS to have no display or, at least, not at the dimensions and shape we know now, which justifies the slogan "life is random"; probabaly with a button one goes to ne next song and with another to the previous one.

 

[Yvan256]

You misunderstand- People buy iPods because they're snobby, trendy, and seen by most people as 'cool' thanks to Apple's AMAZING marketing on the product. There IS no good reason for all Apple products being overpriced. Sure, the interface is nice, the music store is handy, but at the end of the day the iPod is just another MP3 player. Any shopper doing any comparing buys a Rio product, or something else, nothing aside from insane marketing and market saturation makes the iPod any better.

You ALSO misunderstand the strong points of the iPod, which are the interface, iTunes, and the iTMS (technical strong points). The fact that's it's "cool" has nothing to do with it (its marketing strong point).

There's two sides with the iPod. You're on the "cool, expensive, trendy" side, I'm on the "easy-to-use, easily manageable, easy-to-use store" side.

I paid the price for something I could use without thinking about it, you paid the price to show off you have enough cash to have one. While you wish it was even more expensive (to show off even more), I do wish it wasn't as expensive so more people would buy it (thus limiting Microsoft's control with their crappy WMA format).

 

[chevyorange]

ipod radio, perhaps?

I've been hoping the impossible, a Sirius iPod.

I know it isn't gonna happen but that is what I want.

 

[paulypants]

You misunderstand- People buy iPods because they're snobby, trendy, and seen by most people as 'cool' thanks to Apple's AMAZING marketing on the product. There IS no good reason for all Apple products being overpriced. Sure, the interface is nice, the music store is handy, but at the end of the day the iPod is just another MP3 player. Any shopper doing any comparing buys a Rio product, or something else, nothing aside from insane marketing and market saturation makes the iPod any better.

If the Flash iPods come in at 129 - 149$ as rumored than they will definitely NOT be overpriced for 1GB - 2GB Players. Virgin had a Flash player with 128MB and 256MB capacities for 80 - 100$ respectively. It doesn't have a screen either...

http://www.virginelectronics.com/is...ategoryID=&ProductID=UkGsHgcawO0AAAD_vzp6F4jB

 

[ioinc]

People buy iPods because they're snobby, trendy, and seen by most people as 'cool' thanks to Apple's AMAZING marketing on the product.

Actually, some people use them to listen to music too.

 

[daSilVetZ]

I'll believe it when I see it. A slogan like "Life is random" just doesn't fly in my book. This is another fake story.

Macity is a serious mac news site, they aren't part of the "rumour mill". that banner i not a fake story, it's a picture of the Moscone center from the outside. As far as the iPod "micro", the guy says it is all white, imagine if infact it uses that patent that Apple filed a while ago , the light-mood changing sensor thing , i don't know if you guys remember but something to do with the whole object changing colors or somethng, that could be cool, hence maybe the random thing.. bah- we'll see

EDIT :Here is the description of the patent that Apple filed :

The invention pertains to electronic devices capable of dynamically changing their ornamental or decorative appearance, i.e., the outer appearance as seen by a user. The electronic devices generally include an illuminable housing. The illuminable housing, which includes at least one wall configured for the passage of light, is configured to enclose, cover and protect a light arrangement as well as functional components of the electronic device. The light arrangement, which generally includes one or more light sources, is configured to produce light for transmission through the light passing wall(s) of the illuminable housing. The transmitted light illuminates the wall(s) thus giving the wall a new appearance. That is, the transmitted light effectively alters the ornamental or decorative appearance of the electronic device. In most cases, the light is controlled so as to produce a light effect having specific characteristics or attributes. As such, the electronic device may be configured to provide additional feedback to the user of the electronic device and to give users the ability to personalize or change the look of their electronic device on an on-going basis. That is, a housing of the electronic device is active rather than passive, i.e., the housing has the ability to adapt and change. For example, the light may be used to exhibit a housing behavior that reflects the desires or moods of the user, that reflects inputs or outputs for the electronic device, or that reacts to tasks or events associated with operation of the electronic device.