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Flash iPod: 'Life is Random'?
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io_burn said:
I agree with most of what you wrote (take some issue with the point about competitors already making superior products). That said, I think the biggest issue with a screenless iPod would be one of perceived value in marketing. Unless I'm very wrong, this flash iPod won't come at a $49 (or, likely, even $99 price point). At that cost, people are going to want a screen and the ability to choose songs, even if it's something that they would do exceedingly rarely.
I've had a 256 meg rioSport for about a year (my 2G iPod crashes incessantly on long runs). I have rarely used the screen except to adjust some settings. It's probably been on "Random" for 99% of the time that I've owned it. That said, I would have a hard time replacing it with an iPod where you couldn't choose songs or at least make minor tweaks to some of the settings.
At its likely price point, a screenless iPod would just be too easy a target for competitors' marketing--even if it makes all of the sense in the world. That is the biggest reason that I think it unlikely. Remember, the group of people on the MacRumors forums is a very small subset of the people likely to buy this product, and even among this group, people are very ambivalent. Outside this group, my suspicion is that reaction would be overwhelmingly negative to not having a screen or any mode other than "Random".
What if this thing is actually a detachable remote for the iPod. That way people who bought it could eventually someday upgrade to the full price iPod and Apple could make lots of money. Plus they coudl get current iPod owners to buy it for something like $99 and then if you wanted to take something smaller with you (because life is random) then you could leave your iPod behind and just take the iPod shuffle with you. It could happen...
Loge said:Just wondering ...
Am I the only person who's had an iPod more than a year and never ever used shuffle?
Yup.
The only one out of several million owners.
Rootman said:
No, you're misinterpreting it.
The page is a 'park' page for the domain "lifeisrandom.com".
Macdock web hosting is going to be hosting the website that uses the domain. They aren't the ones lifeisrandom.com will be going to.
Actually, I'll wager someone who has heard the news about the banners at Macworld registered the domain in the hopes of cybersquatting and getting $25 grand or so out of Apple for it. After all, Apple has their own servers so they wouldn't need a hosting company to park a page for them.
mhouse said:
Thank you. People penny pinching over price drops shouldn't be spending their money on MP3 players.
SeaFox said:
Apple does use a hosting company....at least for apple.com they do. It's not registered to Apple. I'm not up to speed on domains and hosting though, so maybe I'm misinterpreting.
Anyway, there are regulations in place to prevent cybersquatting. If you had the domain before the company that wants to use it, you hae to show how that domain relates to your business...simply owning a domain before someone else isn't enough anymore.
It really depends on what random means (if this is true).fregedegpo said:
For instance, I might sync 4 play lists to this small iPod, but the songs require twice the space as the iPod has. So the sync randomly selects half of my songs from each play list.
Then I listen to whichever play list I want. When I re-sync, any song I've listened to (or skipped!?) is removed from the iPod and replaced with another song from the playlist.
With 2 hours a day on the train that's 30 songs. So 4 playlists with 60 songs each would be ample for me, and give me 4 different styles of music to listen to. I have 4 playlists I listen to often - a 5 star playlist, 3-5 star "least recently heard", German music, and Mellow. It would work well for me (though "least recently heard" would have to change to "least recently heard or skipped").
Enjoy the rumors while you can. You can bet after all this that Apple isn't going to tolerate it again. I wouldn't be surprised if they just started leaking false information. Hmmm.... maybe they already have.
Loge said:Just wondering ...
Am I the only person who's had an iPod more than a year and never ever used shuffle?
I'm with you. I've had 3 iPods and have never used the shuffle feature. I don't like guessing what's coming up next, I like knowing. I even took it off the main menu of my mini.
I think this is BOGUS. I think that the owner of the site that's claiming this saw the "LIFE IS RANDOM" banners and is making up this story so that he'll get a lot of hits. He seems to think that his story makes sense.
His claim of having to DELETE pictures sounds MEGA-FISHY. There is NO WAY that he even had a PRE-LOOK at such a product. You can bet all of the goods to be shown tomorrow are looked tight away.
Then there's the banner... who says it's even an APPLE banner. I don't see a logo. The font is not very typical of Apple. The color kind of is, but I just don't know.
I think the more obvious reason for the banner (if it IS an Apple banner) would be to promote iLife 2 -- or Work. There might be other banners that finish the thought that will make sense tomorrow. Again, I'm suspect that it even belongs to Apple to begin with.
I say "macitynet.it" is full of crap.
His claim of having to DELETE pictures sounds MEGA-FISHY. There is NO WAY that he even had a PRE-LOOK at such a product. You can bet all of the goods to be shown tomorrow are looked tight away.
Then there's the banner... who says it's even an APPLE banner. I don't see a logo. The font is not very typical of Apple. The color kind of is, but I just don't know.
I think the more obvious reason for the banner (if it IS an Apple banner) would be to promote iLife 2 -- or Work. There might be other banners that finish the thought that will make sense tomorrow. Again, I'm suspect that it even belongs to Apple to begin with.
I say "macitynet.it" is full of crap.
JGowan said:
The font on the banner is the same font Apple always uses these days....Myriad (I think?).
I suppose it's a hoax also that Apple Registered a new trademark called "Shuffle"....right? Yeah! The US Patent and Trademark office are in on it too...they want to give that guy more hits to his website!
Good job Sherlock!
I think that it's priceless that the majority of people appear to be slating this product and saying how much they hate it. It hasn't even been released yet for god's sake! If you don't like it when (if) it comes out.......don't buy it. I sometimes wonder if this site should be called MacWhingers instead.
Life is Random - iTunes 5
I believe the "Life Is Random" slogan is for a new iTunes feature designed to apply to the new Flash iPod.
It will automatically select 1GB worth of random songs that can be downloaded to the new iPod in seconds without having to choose for yourself.
I think the new "iPod Random" (I'd be surprised if they actually called it that) will likely have a smaller than usual screen to view track information.
As for further features in iTunes 5, I would like to see at least these 2:
1- Multiple Albums,Artists,Genres for each track
> Many songs are performed by multiple artists. With the current iTunes, you need to choose one or put in both, thus creating a totally new Artist category for that one song. This also applies to Genres where a song can be Rock, but could also be a Soundtrack. Additionally, a lot of songs are contained in different albums. This is a major limitation in iTunes and it's time this be corrected.
2- Ability to place playlists in subfolders
> For people who like to break down their playlists into categories, this will be a welcome feature. A good example would be putting all your soundtrack playlists under a soundtrack folder or have all your party music organized under a "Party" folder with playlists like "80's party", "Dance", etc.
I believe the "Life Is Random" slogan is for a new iTunes feature designed to apply to the new Flash iPod.
It will automatically select 1GB worth of random songs that can be downloaded to the new iPod in seconds without having to choose for yourself.
I think the new "iPod Random" (I'd be surprised if they actually called it that) will likely have a smaller than usual screen to view track information.
As for further features in iTunes 5, I would like to see at least these 2:
1- Multiple Albums,Artists,Genres for each track
> Many songs are performed by multiple artists. With the current iTunes, you need to choose one or put in both, thus creating a totally new Artist category for that one song. This also applies to Genres where a song can be Rock, but could also be a Soundtrack. Additionally, a lot of songs are contained in different albums. This is a major limitation in iTunes and it's time this be corrected.
2- Ability to place playlists in subfolders
> For people who like to break down their playlists into categories, this will be a welcome feature. A good example would be putting all your soundtrack playlists under a soundtrack folder or have all your party music organized under a "Party" folder with playlists like "80's party", "Dance", etc.