iPod I am officially getting old.

[sanford]

Make no mistake I think all the new Apple gadgetry announced today is great. But I suddenly am at a loss as to how new Apple media products apply to me.

The new iPods, I have a 5G 30GB bought right when they came out last year; and if I were to buy a new one today, I'd still opt for the very thin one. I'd get no extra capacity. I'd get a little more battery life, a brighter display -- I use the one I have today as a flashlight to check the baby in the middle of the night; it's pretty bright -- and the search feature. Well okay I'd like to have the search feature, but not enough to replace the whole deal.

Movies are great, but no DVD burning? The limited studio selection is fine; we have small kids and frankly Disney and Pixar would be our *first* choices for studio selection. But we would rarely if ever watch movies on the iPod screen and rarely watch movies on my MacBook. We need them in our room, the kids' rooms and the living room. I'd buy one of these iTV things for $300 but I won't buy *four* of them for $1,200! And where do I put all these movies? I suppose they are pretty big files. I have a 60GB hard drive in the MacBook, which is plenty for my work files, 15GBs of music, lots of photos, and room for more music and thousands more photos and quite a few home movies. Where am I gonna put 20 near-DVD quality movies? I know I'm supposed to go out and buy a new iMac with a huge hard drive to do this, but beyond setting up a multi-thousand dollar system so I can buy movies online, we don't need a new iMac.

This stuff is great, but I get the distinct feeling I don't fit into it anymore -- unless I'm missing something.

Anyone care to speculate on whether or not the search function and gapless playback will be made available on the last year's first batch of 5G iPods? Apparently they are calling the new ones 5Gs as well -- what? 5G Bright? -- so I'm wondering.

 

[Bibulous]

yeah I agree, while the iTV is nice, it is going to take some serious storage space on your Mac and a $75 month high speed connection to make it work. Also I did not hear anything about a TiVo like option to record TV

 

[sanford]

I hadn't thought of recording TV, we already have a DVR. But yeah, you'd think you'd want to record TV and then be able to watch that anywhere you have an iTV.

The bottom line for me is that it's getting all too confusing and expensive. The expense I can justify, once, for setting up a home entertainment center. But I don't want to feel like I need to upgrade an expensive home entertainment component -- the iMac for example -- every year or two so I can get the most out of it. It's bad enough feeling like I need to upgrade an iPod or a Mac.

I thought I'd never buy songs from the iTunes Music Store, but I eventually discovered that depending on the purchase I didn't miss the physical CD -- and suddenly I could buy singles again, which have been pretty much gone since I was a teenager. But the investment there was an iPod, which I already had. Movies, though, I can see all these gadgets I'll need to buy and install and configure and maintain. I am better off buying DVDs at Target or Amazon, renting on Netflix. Some people will love this, but I think it's the kind of thing you buy into when you're young, very mobile or just starting out, setting up a new house or apartment, yet to have kids and all the special requirements they come with.

 

[Sesshi]

No you're not getting old, you're just getting into the same hype as everyone other yahoo is. You guys all make up what you want (regardless of whether it's practical or realistic) then get crestfallen when it's not delivered. So the new iPod doesn't have a built-in laser gun for zapping other MP3 players. So it doesn't have thought control. It was never even hinted (because Apple never hint unless they want to build markets, see iTV) by Apple in the first place.

The 5G refresh is exactly the same as the Photo refresh which kept the 4th Generation going for a fairly long time. There will be a 6G along, just not now.

Personally I'm quite happy that I won't feel the temptation to buy a new 'big' iPod for a while, but I will be picking up the 8 gigger.

 

[hdsalinas]

Or I am getting old too, or I am not ipod's target market

I just turned 30 a couple of months ago and as much as I want to be exited about the new ipods and itunes, I cant. I have always wanted to get an ipod but I just dont listen to music enought to buy one. I have an Ipaq Pocket PC that I could use to listen to mp3s but I never do.

I dont buy DVDs simply because I really dont see a point in watching a movie that I have already seen since I know what is going to happen. Same applies to music, I get bored of a song or album very fast. In fact I dont think I have purchased a single music CD in like 5 years (well I purchased two but I was just replacing two that where badly scrathed). I also get bored with games really fast (like in 10 minutes into playing, although there are some like Flight Sim that I can play for almost an hour!)

too bad, maybe if someone gives me an ipod I start listening to music again.

 

[quigleybc]

I just turned 30 a couple of months ago and as much as I want to be exited about the new ipods and itunes, I cant. I have always wanted to get an ipod but I just dont listen to music enought to buy one. I have an Ipaq Pocket PC that I could use to listen to mp3s but I never do.

I dont buy DVDs simply because I really dont see a point in watching a movie that I have already seen since I know what is going to happen. Same applies to music, I get bored of a song or album very fast. In fact I dont think I have purchased a single music CD in like 5 years (well I purchased two but I was just replacing two that where badly scrathed). I also get bored with games really fast (like in 10 minutes into playing, although there are some like Flight Sim that I can play for almost an hour!)

too bad, maybe if someone gives me an ipod I start listening to music again.

.....so do you use your Mac for fun at all??

 

[hdsalinas]

I dont have a mac yet, but I use my current PC mainly for graphic design (work) and internet (fun). I watch my rented DVDs on my TV. I do watch DVDs, I just dont see the point of buying them. I have a 4 months old baby and I guess soon I will have to get all those disney CDs.

I do have an itunes library but I dont I have more than 4GB worth of music.

 

[sanford]

We don't buy a lot of DVDs either -- except for the kids and that's a whole different thing; kids will watch movies over and again for weeks, and then return to them months later.

I do listen to a lot of music, but I don't buy a lot lately. It takes time to find things you like and buy them. I don't have any time (see the part about the kids).

I just thing it's funny that I may have finally grown out of the Apple demographic. We used to have a lot of disposable time and a fair amount of disposable income. We read a lot, watched many movies, bought music, we bought and played some video games. We *were* perfect Apple customers. At this stage in our lives it would be pointless to buy a new, fully outfitted iMac to download and buy movies, broadcasting them to an iTV on a brand new flat-screen TV. We'd never have time to install it and keep it maintained, let alone watch movies with it.

What I need from Apple is a hardware/software package to streamline naptime, bedtime, the whole works. Then they'd have a truly thrilled customer.

 

[hdsalinas]

I understand you Sanford,

I guess I have very particular music taste. Most of my favorite singuers are not recording new albums simply because they have passed away (like Sinatra and Nat King Cole) and most of their good stuff I already own I love Tony Bennet but not the lastest thing he has been doing.

Also here in Honduras there is not a lot of music available (if none) for me. I tried buying a couple of albums from itunes but since they dont have a Honduran store they wont take my credit card.( i really dont know why since amazon does)

So the itunes store is pretty much worthless for me

 

[sanford]

It's the licensing, I think. Apple works out different licensing arrangements with record labels depending on where the iTunes will be sold. So Amazon will take your credit card because they sell a physical product for which they don't have any particular licensing arrangement. They need to work out a store for your area; hopefully something for all of Latin America as lots of places cover all of North America.

 

[dextertangocci]

... and a $75 month high speed connection to make it work.

For the equivalent of $75, you would get a 192kbps line with a 2GB cap here in South Africa

 

[Cooknn]

Someday we will be able to browse through movies, shows and sporting events in an iTunes type interface and immediately be watching On-Demand in Hi-Def on our HDTV. All that for a reasonable monthly fee. And, if you choose to, you can purchase new release DVD Titles (with all the extra's) the same way, for a competitive price compared to brick and mortar stores.

Yeah, it will happen. But these baby steps are killing me. Hopefully we won't all be dead before this comes to fruition

 

[pianoman]

i'm only in college and with yesterday's product announcements, i feel like i don't need a full-size iPod. i don't watch movies on my iPod, i don't play games. i use it at the gym and when i travel. i have two nanos now (i only use one, the unused one was a freebie) and i'm thinking of getting the new shuffle. i just don't need the extra stuff.

 

[kjr39]

I'm with ya.

You're not alone at all.

I'm looking at a lot of the new media products that Apple is releasing and realizing that they just do not fit what I want out of video management solution.

I have only bought a few singles (20-30) off of iTunes and use it mostly as a means to sample music before I buy the CD. If I have a choice between itunes and the store, the store always wins for buying an ablum. For /usually/ the same price, I get a CD and can rip it to my computer at lossless...

I haven't bought a TV show off of iTunes and doubt I will. I just don't understand buying 'Lost' from iTunes and now a $300 device to watch it on my TV when my cable-provided DVR records the show every week at HD quality for $6/month.

Now with movies, I'm pretty much paying the same price not to have a physical copy and give up the ability to lend to a friend or sell on eBay if I don't want to keep it.

I just want a simple way to listen to music and share it throughout my house. I don't care to watch video or take that need with me everywhere I go. (FWIW, same thing goes with a phone. I just want to talk on it. Not play games, have a calendar, etc, etc, etc.)

 

[Sesshi]

I just want a simple way to listen to music and share it throughout my house. I don't care to watch video or take that need with me everywhere I go. (FWIW, same thing goes with a phone. I just want to talk on it. Not play games, have a calendar, etc, etc, etc.)

And iTunes is what?

 

[rdowns]

Me too. My 15 GB iPod is about out of space and I am/was in the market for a new one. Nothing knocked my socks off, I don't want to watch TV or movies on my iPod, I'll watch things on my laptop when I travel. I have about all the music I want so more space isn't even that appealing. I might just opt for the 8GB nano and "only" take half my music collection to work every day.

What I really want is an easy way to move TV shows from my Tivo to laptop.