HP's Blue iPod Revealed

[DeepIn2U]

MCCFR, and WinMacGuy,

Thanks for your insight. I'm thinking that this will indeed be better for Apple.

Now on the part of HP being an innovator....this is actually legit, not of lately but remember they've been around a lot longer than M$ or Apple. It used to be owned by a Family that was also started in a Garage.

Hewlett Packard had many subsidiarys.....Hewlett & Packard is one of them I believe. I think they've innovated components to the common HIFI stereo if I'm correct.

I do hope to see iTMS workout for more countries before the summer begins...why? Most memorable hits are released in the summer, along with people dressing less, having less stress, becoming more fit, listening more to music, etc etc (hey don't bash me on this.....I'm freezing here in Hamilton at -28 degrees Celcius!!

I'm starting to realize that I can archive most of my data off of my Tungsten T1; and replace most of my usuage with a SonyEricsson T616 and an iPod Mini. Sure I'd loose out on eBooks but hey Audible should tie me over right??LOL!!

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by Powerbook G5
Either way, Apple wins if it is in fact Apple who is receiving to profits from these HP branded iPods. Does this mean that HP just gets the mindshare or would they get some of the cash, as well?

Well, Apple has huge profits and PC makers are used to selling all their lower cost PC's for little profit if not at a loss. So I imagine Apple dropped their margin a bit and HP takes up the slack for itself.

 

[mzlin]

Don't think all PC makers are the same. HP is no Dell or Gateway. HP is the granddaddy of technology companies; before they made PCs they made everything electronic from transistors to processors to calculators to mainframes. In fact HP is still primarily not a PC company; virtually all their profits now come from the sales of inkjet printers and inks (which they invented), and they are trying to get into servers and services (like IBM).

HP has always innovated on the science and engineering side of things, kind of like IBM but not as big. HP has a long history of real basic science and engineering invention, and that's real invention, not business model invention like some of you kids here are speculating. For decades they held the lead in high-end calculators; this was back when getting logical circuits into a handheld device was a big deal. They invented inkjet printing and continue to make improvements there. They are doing some basic research on molecular electronic circuits -- circuits made of atomic-level structures. They were doing some development on instruments for all sorts of things including high-throughput DNA detection and nanoscale biology before they spun all that off into Agilent. They made their own line of server chips until Intel and Sun and IBM made it too difficult for them. There are a ton of other things that I don't know about. I think after IBM, HP has the most new patents issued a year.

There's a little more here:
<http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/hpads/1999/timeline/timeline.html>

This alliance with Apple is actually an alliance of two old innovation-driven companies that have lots of experience in seeing their ideas copied by others for cheaper, against two of the most unapologetically unoriginal of those copy-catter companies -- Microsoft and Dell. So those of you who mock HP's claims to innovation should do a little research first, and then save your rotten tomatoes for those companies who really claim credit they don't deserve.

 

[maxterpiece]

devil got my woman

Originally posted by Prom1
I'm freezing here in Hamilton at -28 degrees Celcius!!

holy crap that's cold... it is -13 celcius here (8 farhenheit) with a wind chill of -4 fahrenheit (NYC area)... and i can't take it.

someone said (something like) "AAC isn't Apple technology" -- AAC isn't apple tech, however the ITMS DRM, Fairplay, is apple tech.

not that HP is copying or ripping Apple, but in regard to the attempts made to say that and compare that to microsoft -- it is the nature of business for people to copy innovation. Getting bitter about it does nothing. It is those who continually innovate their technology that succeed. If Apple is to maintain their lead in the digital music "revolution" (i don't know if that deserves quotes or not), they have to keep make their solution the best. Other's copying apple will only spur them forward and will only make our experience and options better. If apple ever stops making new, great and usuable tech and decides that people should buy their products simply because they innovated the technologies (even though they are available by those who copied them), then I'll jump for a PC and save myself a bunch of cash. Apple did just that in the 90s when they lost all that market share and people were saying they were heading towards bankruptcy. When I was looking at my choices for a new comp in '97, I chose a PC because i had no reason to justify spending a ton of money on an apple. And I don't want to hear anyone jumping in and screaming at me for my loyalty... Apple is a company. if you were to give them your money no matter what because apple is your friend (or something), they'd take it and run. It is fun to root for apple because there arent very many companies that draw their customers mostly through innovation. ON and on I could go, but i think you've got my point.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by pyro
Instead of making support for ****ty little wma files how about flac, shn, or ape?

If they made the iPod and iTunes compatable with some of those files (preferably flac and/or shn) then they'd have nearly the entire bootleger community on their side.

Who owns SHN and FLAC? Maybe it's a licencing issue.

Then again they don't support Ogg Vorbis, either. Doing that and releasing iTunes for Linux would make the whole open source community cheer.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by avus
You should keep doing that if you like to listen to what is available in iTMS US, because iTMS Japan will feature a completely different set of music and musicians for an obvious reason (catering the Japanese market, that is).

That's not a good reason!

We're talking about an online business here. There's no shelf space to devide out to differnt genres.

True, Apple could have a localized start page for the iTMS's foreign counterparts-- Actually, they could have a customizable start page for everyone via a cookie or something. Electronic music fans get Paul Oakenfold's celebrity playlist and don't see that Nelly has a new album out, ect.-- but where was I, oh yes. There's no reason not to make the American content available in Japan (and the Japanese content available in the U.S.) for marketing reasons. People just buy what they want and ignore what they don't. This would make it a heck of a lot easier for people who enjoy "World" music to find it. Imagine you're studiing another culture for school, you could go to the ITMS and get ahold of tunes from that region without having to choose from the paltry dozen or so artists the record store keeps (and pay horrible import prices for albums).

Apple could still charge differntly for the tracks, with pricing based on your address if this is an international licensing issue. But there's no reason to keep content separate when everyone's accessing it through a global network.

 

[SeaFox]

Re: Never underestimate the power of blue.

Originally posted by iMeowbot
In a poll conducted right here, a solid 43% picked blue as their most wanted iPod color! Nothing else came close.

If the Cylon Red control button lights are replaced with either white or blue, I'm buying like three dozen of 'em (or at least one anyway).

Yes, but I think we were talking about a rich metallic blue. Not the blue you get when you eat a rich metallic blue iPod and throw it back up twenty minutes later.

 

[SeaFox]

Originally posted by Fukui
You mean the ones that try to sell you those 40 Gigahertz hard drives?

I was at Best Buy once and had to lecture one of their computer guys about the correct specs for WiFi. He was trying to tell me the types were 802.11a, b, and c. And he thought 802.11c was the "secure" one. He didn't know G could be used on B either.

I had to run down all the specs (and inform him 802.11i was the secure one and hadn't been ratified yet). Before he believed I actually new what I was talking about.

It's kinda sad when you know more than the guy getting paid nine-something an hour and has been "trained" in all this stuff.

Especially since I had applied for job there and never got called back.

 

[jnasato]

I agree with probably more than 80% of this thread...

Blah.

 

[Cochrane]

When I first saw the picture I thought it was a joke. Someone using Photoshop to make the player blue. It just looks horrible! I don't like the look of the 3G-iPods compared to 1/2G and mini but in this fashion it just looks bad.

I imagine scenes on the street where"White-Pod"- Users start laughing at someone who uses a "Blue-Pod" and tell him that "this is not the real thing, only for people to poor to buy a real player or for people not cool enough for an iPod". That's the way I will do it even though I still use a 2G-iPod.

If you say that's mean then you're right.

 

[lakhdip]

HP the Innovator

Originally posted by Bob Knob
Hmm, HP is the innovator? That's like saying the guy who put the first whitewalls on tires invented the wheel. I think she has been drinking the same water that Gates does.

She said HP is an innovator, and that is very true.

Apple is a great company and has some very innovative products, but HP founders made a contribution far greater than Apple has. It's hard to find a greater example of something done well than what Packard and Hewlett did with HP. Their innovation in products was matched only by their commitment to their employees and their values.

 

[hipvictor]

corpse power

Appleturns correctly identified the variety of HP blue...

corpse blue.

it is the CSiPod. Someone need to find who killed it...certainly it wasn't Jonathan Ives.

 

[MrMacMan]

Originally posted by fBaran
Oh wow. That's so NOT gonna make me buy on now. [insert online sarcasm 8)]

Its not sarcasm is you have to say it is.

That is just 'Irony'

It has to be intended, understood to be Sarcasm.



Also the color looks bad... but I guess I will have too see it in real life for a better view...

 

[flipperfeet]

Originally posted by SeaFox
That's not a good reason!

We're talking about an online business here. There's no shelf space to devide out to differnt genres.

True, Apple could have a localized start page for the iTMS's foreign counterparts-- Actually, they could have a customizable start page for everyone via a cookie or something. Electronic music fans get Paul Oakenfold's celebrity playlist and don't see that Nelly has a new album out, ect.-- but where was I, oh yes. There's no reason not to make the American content available in Japan (and the Japanese content available in the U.S.) for marketing reasons. People just buy what they want and ignore what they don't. This would make it a heck of a lot easier for people who enjoy "World" music to find it. Imagine you're studiing another culture for school, you could go to the ITMS and get ahold of tunes from that region without having to choose from the paltry dozen or so artists the record store keeps (and pay horrible import prices for albums).

Apple could still charge differntly for the tracks, with pricing based on your address if this is an international licensing issue. But there's no reason to keep content separate when everyone's accessing it through a global network.

Respectfully, I believe this is primarily an issue related to the Daedalean nature of licensing in each country, not simply a marketing decision to offer certain content in one country and not the other. Although I have a hard time imagining Ayumi Hamasaki having the same level of success outside of Japan.

 

[pyro]

Originally posted by SeaFox
Who owns SHN and FLAC? Maybe it's a licencing issue.

Then again they don't support Ogg Vorbis, either. Doing that and releasing iTunes for Linux would make the whole open source community cheer.

Well FLAC stands for "Free Lossless Audio Codec" (http://flac.sf.net) so to my understanding, nobody really.

And Shorten files (shn) I think are open source too (http://etree.org).

 

[deejemon]

*

 

[iMeowbot]

Re: Re: Never underestimate the power of blue.

Originally posted by SeaFox
Yes, but I think we were talking about a rich metallic blue. Not the blue you get when you eat a rich metallic blue iPod and throw it back up twenty minutes later.

Oh come on, everyone knows that's not the real color. It's certainly not any of the blues HP commonly uses, and it's playing in the video off against a screaming blue backdrop.

HP's real life lightish blue should make the iPod look a lot like a giant Aqua widget, especially under that clear shell.

 

[doogle]

Originally posted by deejemon
I noticed that too, about the HP woman saying that they went "looking" for technology for their media player, but later saying that Apple "came to us". Seems to contradict themselves.

I think they rushed the speech part and never really worked how to make the speech (press release) satisfy both parties...(which party bent over for the other!
Nobody wants to admit anymore that they didn't come up with the idea!

 

[winmacguy]

Originally posted by deejemon
I noticed that too, about the HP woman saying that they went "looking" for technology for their media player, but later saying that Apple "came to us". Seems to contradict themselves.

And she goes on about how innovative HP is. What exactly is their contribution to this product? They picked out the color and the name (boring name, btw), and they install iTunes on their PCs.

I think the so-called hPod is going to be in an interesting position, particularly as far as having its own identity. I expect that the hPod will identify itself slightly differently to iTunes, and also expect that iTunes will be updated so that it does not refer to the HP model as an iPod. I also expect Apple will also provide HP with an "hPod Software Updater". But iTunes has Apple logos all over it, and I expect an HP-branded version of iTunes would be out of the question. So, we have an HP product that isn't really, and relies on non-HP products (iTunes, iTMS).

I wonder whether HP will sell their version as being "Mac compatible", or whether the accessories supplied with the player will support the Mac (ie: will it only ship with the USB 2.0 cable, or with the regular iPod Firewire cable).

I also wonder whether there are any reciprocal agreements from HP - whether, in return, they have committed to bring any of their products to the Mac, or at least re-affirm their committment to the Mac. HP provided the last of the StyleWriter series, and they have printers and scanners, etc, but I wonder what else we can get out of them, or whether Apple thought to push them for anything?

In any case, the deal has the nice side-effect of getting QuickTime installed on every HP PC.

The main and obvious benefit is the fact that PC users buying a Compac laptop or HP PC will get iTUnes anywhere in the world in 173 countries that HP distributes to 33% of the PC market

 

[rjstanford]

Originally posted by winmacguy
The main and obvious benefit is the fact that PC users buying a Compac laptop or HP PC will get iTUnes anywhere in the world in 173 countries that HP distributes to 33% of the PC market

Won't the other countries be annoyed when they find out that they can't use it without an American credit card...

-Richard

 

[nagromme]

HP iPods will cost the same as other iPods

Or within a couple bucks.

Why would Apple agree to be undercut?

And HP says they will be priced competitively. The iPod already is--it outsells all others. Nobody ever said the HP would be priced MORE competitively than the iPod already is.

By summer, iPods may well be even better/cheaper than now. But I can't imagine pricing being much different between Apple and HP.

 

[pyro]

Just found out that the Rio KARMA player has a 20gig storage thing currently and is planning to upgrade to 40 and 60 gig. It also supports FLAC files so untill the iPod can do **** like that I've lost all interest in ever buying it.

But also Theres one other flaw I've noticed with the iPod. Everything has to be in play lists. You can't do like with a mp3 CD where you can, for example, make a folder for Tom Waits, then make a folder inside of that for each album/show. With the iPod you have to just make a play list...

So I think iPod still has a way to go.

 

[hipvictor]

playlists

Pyro,
You should check out the iPod in person. There are two navigation options-- Playlists and Browse.

The Browse function allows you to Navigate by Genre, Artist, Album, and Song...within each category are subcategories-- i.e., artist>album>song. You can play all of an artists tunes, one particular album, one one particular song.

I own a 30gb and for a few weeks I had no playlists and just navigated via browse. It is very easy and very intuitive.

Hope you have interest again, dude.

 

[hulugu]

Originally posted by pyro
Just found out that the Rio KARMA player has a 20gig storage thing currently and is planning to upgrade to 40 and 60 gig. It also supports FLAC files so untill the iPod can do **** like that I've lost all interest in ever buying it.

But also Theres one other flaw I've noticed with the iPod. Everything has to be in play lists. You can't do like with a mp3 CD where you can, for example, make a folder for Tom Waits, then make a folder inside of that for each album/show. With the iPod you have to just make a play list...

So I think iPod still has a way to go.

Uh, Dude you're wrong. The iPod can do anything the Karma can except for the ethernet and FLAC/Ogg Vorbis support. It can do playlists on the fly, or it can play music by Genre, Artist, Album, Composer, etc. So you could set it to play randomly within your Tom Waits collection or play straight through Rain Dogs.
The Karma is not a bad device per se, but its interface isn't very good, the volume buttons, scroll button, and play buttons can't be operated with one hand, which is the true genius of the iPod.
Also, the iPod's headphones and dock are much better IMHO.

 

[pyro]

Alright sorry about that then. I was just going by what my bass teacher and this other guy told me about their iPods.

The flac thing is still a major must before I invest in anything like that since all I would listen to is bootlegs and they're all in lossless formats and intend to keep them that way.

Also sorry about the profanity, keep forgetting about that rule since it's not mandatory on any other boards I use.