Future iPod Functionality?

[Wry Cooter]

Re: Great concept...

Originally posted by Timothy

Part of the problem with incorporating a PDA into a phone is that one of the most important uses of a PDA is taking notes when you receive phone calls. A bit difficult to do if your PDA is held up to your ear ;-)

And what is it that people write down?

Usually, its a phone number.

Caller ID can already do this, but a PDA Phone can store that in a meaningful or useful form. (I'd like to see a storable playback buffer of 30 seconds to grab quickly spoken numbers and addresses tho)

You can always have the caller alphanumeric page, email you the info or leave voice mail.

And when you aren't yakking into it, THEN you can take notes. Maybe even listening to the message you recorded when Joe told you the wrong directions to the party.

Oddly, I never did think much of the idea of PDAs being MP3 players. Or Cell Phones being MP3 players. Or their rings playing Harlem Shuffle. Its just that MP3s are such a hot sell you could probably sell a turd if it had a label that said "Plays MP3s!"

I think PDAs will merge with phones. And the growth of the PDA market is married to the idea, and dependant on the support the cell networks growing to support them. So its a wait and see proposition, to be a safely exploitable market.

iPod like devices will serve another sort of purpose- capturing and playing back large AV media files.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

duh!

You plug in an ear piece, and take notes as you talk.

 

[rushed4nr]

this is a test

Yeah, I hope the ipod will take on more multimedia fuctions than pda functions. Apple, who's been blamed for aiding music pirating, could change that perception and make a tidy little profit in the process.
Imagine if you will a world where you could download quicktime music files from a page much like Apple's popular movie trailers page. New and upcoming artists could post their songs there. You could preview them for free, and download them to your ipod for like 2 or 3 dollars. Apple gets a cut and the artists get a cut - everybodys happy. Ooops, did I mention when you download the song you'd also get the video, the lyrics, or whatever interactive fluff they wanna add that quicktime supports. Every iPod would be a walking kareoke machine (-maybe that's not a good thing-).
Heck, and if the music companies allow the Apple stores could double as music stores that you go in to load up your iPod with the latest singalongwithtunesandvideos files exclusive to iPod at first to serve as the pilot program to show that the music revolution can still be fair to both artists and listeners alike.

Are You With Me!!?? Are You With Me!!?? hello.....

 

[Wry Cooter]

Re: this is a test

Originally posted by rushed4nr
Every iPod would be a walking kareoke machine (-maybe that's not a good thing-).
Heck, and if the music companies allow the Apple stores could double as music stores that you go in to load up your iPod with the latest singalongwithtunesandvideos files exclusive to iPod at first to serve as the pilot program to show that the music revolution can still be fair to both artists and listeners alike.

Are You With Me!!?? Are You With Me!!?? hello.....

It would be like the Sing Along with Disney Tapes, except it would be Sing Along with Pixar, and our children could grow up to be bittersweet crumudgeons like Randy Newman!

 

[whatever]

All the iPod needs is BlueTooth

Last night on a flight the man next to me asked me about my iPod and I spent the next 20 minutes telling him all about it. One of the weird things was when he called it an MP3 player I had to correct him and tell him that it's not just an MP3 player. I then explained to him that when a new standard of music because available, Apple can create either a patch which will allow the iPod to use it. I often wondered why Apple doesn't talk about that fact. Correct me if I'm wrong, but that's a unique feature found only on the iPod.

The contact information on the iPod is excellent. Just last night I had to find a number and instead of digging out my Palm I just scrolled to the contact info on my iPod. Most excellent. IMOP the way my iPod displays my contact information is much better than my Palm.

What I would like to see is Bluetooth technology added to my iPod. A Firewire Bluetooth transmitter, similar to USB on Apple showed last week, could plug into the top of the iPod. A calendar would be nice and is possible.

Once Bluetooth is added to the iPod, the flood gates just open. A small Bluetooth tablet which acts like a tablet for entering data into the iPod or a Bluetooth keyboards. All Apple needs to do is add Bluetooth tech. to the iPod.

 

[mischief]

stirring the pot.

The App Arn posted in Article Discussion " 3D OS X" brings an interesting concept to mind.

What if Apple replaces the existing finder with something like this (plus a window feature to cover some limitations)? The iPod's control surfaces when combined with a touchscreen and Apple's Handwriting tech could eliminate the keyboard and mouse.

Now that I've started a round of flaming that does not use the obvious 3-letter cliche...........

 

[Gelfin]

Re: this is a test

Originally posted by rushed4nr
Imagine if you will a world where you could download quicktime music files from a page much like Apple's popular movie trailers page. New and upcoming artists could post their songs there. You could preview them for free, and download them to your ipod for like 2 or 3 dollars. Apple gets a cut and the artists get a cut - everybodys happy. [...]
Heck, and if the music companies allow the Apple stores could double as music stores that you go in to load up your iPod with the latest singalongwithtunesandvideos files exclusive to iPod at first to serve as the pilot program to show that the music revolution can still be fair to both artists and listeners alike.

Are You With Me!!?? Are You With Me!!?? hello.....

Um, no. Not with you. Liquid Audio is taking the slow boat to bankruptcy based on exactly this business model. The problem is that while this provides benefits to both artists and listeners, it cuts the real juggernaut of the music industry right out of the loop. You're asking Apple to backstab a legally sanctioned (and very abusive) monopoly, the very monopoly which already accuses Apple of abetting piracy just because they're selling a friggin' device.

What people need to understand is that there is very little difference between the music industry in the United States and a mafia organization. They just use oppressive contracts and lawsuits in place of protection rackets and drive-by shootings.

 

[photony]

Perhaps I'm the only one here who wants this, but I have a dozen friends and myself, all professional photographers and all Mac users who would buy an iPod tomorrow if there was an app that would automaticlly download images from a digital camera (to save CF card space) when plugged into the camera. A digital wallet of sorts to alleviate the need to bring a big Powerbook to shoots. Any programers out there want to make a few bucks?

 

[mark_sloan]

iPod and Bluetooth

The beauty of the iPod is its versatility and mobility. As someone posted earlier, put a Bluetooth adapter in the Firewire port and the iPod is able to connect wirelessly. Bluetooth enabled digital cameras would be able to upload to it without a problem, no more laptops to store your photos. The part I like most about the iPod... you can treat it like a repository. Others posted about wireless keyboards and tablets... how about a Bluetooth pen? You don't need a tablet. With Bluetooth you can have an earpiece for the phone and listening to music and a seperate pen to not only input into the iPod, but to interact with other "nodes". Use the pen to virtually "select" items from one iPod (or anything else for that matter) and copy it to another iPod. Using a wireless pen opens the door to new interface designs not limited by screen sizes... and with the iPod you have a mobile computer that fits in your pocket to record everything... I see something like the iPod eventually being kept in your pocket and forgotten about as much as actually holding it and pushing buttons. Or at least, it is possible.

 

[photony]

Bluetooth not necessary, as I can use firewire, and my Nikon D1x has no bluetooth to get TO the iPod, so one small cable is easy enough. I'm simply talking about an app that would turn the iPod into something that I could go to a shoot, have music to listen to, then when I fill a card, transfer the images to the iPod to hold for later so I can keep shooting. No need for pens and crazy controls. I just need an application that can be installed into the iPod to make it more for my purposes than just a music player. I have a nice MD player for that.

 

[Wry Cooter]

Re: iPod and Bluetooth

Originally posted by mark_sloan
The beauty of the iPod is its versatility and mobility. As someone posted earlier, put a Bluetooth adapter in the Firewire port and the iPod is able to connect wirelessly. Bluetooth enabled digital cameras would be able to upload to it without a problem, no more laptops to store your photos. The part I like most about the iPod... you can treat it like a repository. Others posted about wireless keyboards and tablets... how about a Bluetooth pen? You don't need a tablet. With Bluetooth you can have an earpiece for the phone and listening to music and a seperate pen to not only input into the iPod, but to interact with other "nodes"....

I admire your enthusiasm, but I think the following deserves reading:

http://www.mac-upgrade.com/article_115.shtml

 

[mark_sloan]

yeah, mostly dreaming

Yes. My enthusiasm is mostly dreaming, but groups like Sony have presented some really interesting applications of Bluetooth and other wireless technologies at UI conferences. No, I don't think Apple will do any of this soon. But I do believe some industrious programmers could release some really neat hacks...

As for the camera thing. Yeah. With the firewire cable you SHOULD be able to download your pictures into the iPod. Again, someone needs to develop it. Will Apple? Not enough resources... We're talking about a company that spent resources on getting quicktime movies to play in the Dock when they had not gotten DVDs to play correctly. I mentioned Bluetooth for this as well because I love the idea of keeping the iPod in a pocket and connecting without cable hassles... Of course few camera's have Bluetooth... And the pen wouldn't be needed, the dials on the iPod would be more than enough to find nearby devices and connect to them.

Again. My enthusiasm is based on concepts that were presented a year and a half ago at a conference. Nothing more. The reality is that Apple probably won't do anything groundbreaking with the iPod until some programmer does it first.

 

[whatever]

iPod saved my life, well sort of...

Well after posting my last post about my iPod dreams, I had to check an address so I grabbed my trusty Palm V and guess what? It was dead. I hope that when I get home tomorrow that it's cradle will bring it back (or do I finally have an excuse to buy a new one, any suggestions?). Well any how, I needed an address and I grabbed for my iPod and there it was. Thank God! My iPod saved my ass today!

Rock-On

 

[mcrain]

Originally posted by dukestreet
I have to agree, the iPod is just that, a pod, a seed. Soon it will sprout and eventually grow

Not too long till we have iWeed! Soon, there would soon be iHead shops, and all sort of iWeed paraphanalia!

 

[mcrain]

Ok, the last post was just plain silly. I admit it.

The iPod isn't just a mp3 music player. It's a 5-10 gig hard drive. There's no reason a phone couldn't be developed to sync with the ipod (especially if both were bluetooth enabled) to get phone numbers or worse, to record phone calls (legal or not).

Because it's basically just a hard drive, there's also no reason it couldn't become the storage device for data from all sorts of other devices. So, the main computer is the hub, but the ipod could be a portable semi-hub in a similar fashion.

Name any device, and you can probably come up with a way that a 5-10 gig portable drive could be added to make it more useful.

Examples:

10 gigs is 2 DVD's worth of video footage.
10 gigs is a lot of very high res photos.
10 gigs is 200 songs
10 gigs is a heck of a lot of addresses or phone numbers

Rather than make the ipod the PDA or the something that it is not, just keep it what it is. A nice music player that doubles as a big portable hard drive. Then, all you have to do is figure out a way to get other devices to dump and retrieve their data to and from it, and voila, all those other devices become more useful.

Can you say "hub"?