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urbangrind said:
I still think we aren't talking baout a bigger better iPod, i think we are talking about a whole new device.

And here is why. I can't prove anything, but when a friend of mine was at a trade show in Germany about two weeks ago. While browsing around the massive Apple tent, he can across a large group of people oohing and aahing over and apple PDA, not and iPod. the details from him were sketchy but he said it had a full length/width screen, with stylus input.

He said it is going to be expensive but the iPod prices are coming down, and not to be surprised if we don't see it for another 6 months. Call be all lies, but it does make for a good rumor.

Got Pictures? Links? Stories?
 
cxny said:
All I'm missing is a radio. Satellite radio eventually, but just plain old FM for now would be awesome. I could use a color screen for improved resolution although that may lead to shorter battery life and poorer visability in sunlight. Album art would be a cool feature but please don't try to become a video hub. It's all about the MUSIC.

At the moment, yes - but don't forget it's called the iPod, not the iJukebox!! I think by leaving the name open, Apple are leaving themselves some breathing room incase they want to add PDA/Video functionality to it.

Someone mentioned DVD playback? I can just see it now - a square box with a slot-loading drive on the top that's the same depth as a powerbook and the same dimensions as the superdrive, with a colour screen built into it, and a stylus... It could rival those tablet pc's, if anyone's actually interested in them!

Personally, I tend to agree with the comment that it's better to have a device that does what it does well, but playing MP3's isn't exactly a hard task. I'd rather have a newton-like device built on top of an ipod... maybe we could have a 3G upgrade that would just snap onto the front! :D

Hob
 
ericdano said:
Really? Why would it be a new device? The next logical step would be to put a entry screen on the iPod. They already let you sync up iCal and Addresses to it. Why not let people enter stuff on it. It would increase the functionality 10 fold.

this indeed is a thing i'd like to see. being able to view calendar and addresses us great, but usually when I have to input an address, i'm on the road with my ipod, so I actually have to write it down somewhere (= cell phone) and when i get home i can put it to ical. would be so much cooler, if I could just take a pen and write it to my ipod!

this surely isn't something everyone needs, but i guess there'd be a market for iPalm ;)
 
I said DVD playback, but that is silly. I actually ment something more like Quicktime format movies. Personally I wouldn't use such a function. But it is no doubt possible.

And when I said built on top of the iPod, I just ment a device that design wise started with the capabilities of the iPod and kept building on it conceptually.
 
Why WOULDN'T you want the ability to have your iPhotos on the iPod? It's well understood that the resolution is less than ideal, but it's better than my cellphone, and everyone and their brother want me to look at pictures on their cellphone. It's such an easy thing to add. If I'm stuck on some plane and I'm bored playing Sabatage (or, wait... Parachute), perhaps I will want to look at all my pictures. That'd be swell.
 
cxny said:
All I'm missing is a radio. Satellite radio eventually, but just plain old FM for now would be awesome. I could use a color screen for improved resolution although that may lead to shorter battery life and poorer visability in sunlight. Album art would be a cool feature but please don't try to become a video hub. It's all about the MUSIC.

yeah, i guess. it's an obvious feature to add & a lot of the PC players already have this, but my personal opinion is one of the main reasons i bought an iPod was so i didn't HAVE to listen to the crap that's on the radio. but, i know there's a demand for it, too. it couldn't be difficult to add, just not a priority for this iPodder...

(but i am w/ you on the color screen. i'm a designer, so i like the pretty pictures of album art. fluff? maybe, but it still looks nice)
 
mainstreetmark said:
Why WOULDN'T you want the ability to have your iPhotos on the iPod? It's well understood that the resolution is less than ideal, but it's better than my cellphone, and everyone and their brother want me to look at pictures on their cellphone. It's such an easy thing to add. If I'm stuck on some plane and I'm bored playing Sabatage (or, wait... Parachute), perhaps I will want to look at all my pictures. That'd be swell.

So maybe we will get photos on the iPod but an iPalm or Newton could be so much more than just photos on your iPod which has a pretty average screen for viewing them. And I see no sense in upgrading the screen dramatically just for photos when as a music player the current operating interface and therefore screen is awesome. But they are creative over at apple and like someone suggested before a new screen might bring a new operating interface.
 
No no you're all wrong, a RELIABLE source told me that it is in fact VIDEO encoding. There is an adapter to connect your iPod to a video-out port on your TV, DVD player, VCR, or Cable box, and the iPod records video and then uploads it to your mac.


Okay this is obviously BS... but how cool would this be? :p
 
I think of my iPods as music players. The other big use I have for my iPods is a portable, bootable hard drive. I could pretty much care less if it can encode WMA, OGG or anything else. I have no use for a color screen. I think those are all neato add ons. To me the iPod is about as perfect as it needs to be. I couldn't be more pleased than I already am.

My 2 cents
 
Steamboatwillie said:
I think of my iPods as music players. The other big use I have for my iPods is a portable, bootable hard drive. I could pretty much care less if it can encode WMA, OGG or anything else. I have no use for a color screen. I think those are all neato add ons. To me the iPod is about as perfect as it needs to be. I couldn't be more pleased than I already am.

My 2 cents

I agree, now lets talk about the Newton!
 
Ok I am new to all this posting but just what if the iPod was bluetooth enabled (not sure if that would work that great) but it would be cool. Just think about .... off to dream land ... you get in your car and your car responds to you ' Welcome Jason how are you doing I see you brought your ipod would you like me to throw down some tunes for you' or you walk in to your house and you stereo says to you ' Welcome Back Jason, kick off your shoes and let me roll a few hits your way' or even you walk to your computer and it says to you 'Whats up fool, you here again? sweeeet, lets play so hard phat beats yo!' and this is all just walking around with your new 8th generation iPod.... dreaming is fun . :)
 
rosalindavenue said:
In another one the 4th gen iPod speculation threads, someone said that a lot the features getting talked about (other than, obviously, the color screen) could be accomplished via firmware upgrades and/or via a new dock. Given that the portalplayer chip already supports so many of these features, I'm optimistic that apple will be able to at least bring the 3g owners along for a big part of the 4th gen ride. How great would that be-- it would sure take a lot of the sting out of having paid $400-$500, and the PR for apple would be incredible.

Ummm, yeahhh, greaat, no. :rolleyes:

Apple's a business and they want to sell you another iPod, not extend the life of your old one. It all comes down to the fact that the iPod is regarded by Apple as a short-life product (like a walkman or a cd player) not like a computer.
 
urbangrind said:
No pictures! No links! Just the story!

But why not? Why cannot such a device be in the making?

What tradeshow? I can only guess of one in Germany that happened recently where Apple had a presence (and I was there and they showed no such device even to the VIP guests.)
 
urbangrind said:
I agree, now lets talk about the Newton!

...In another thread, preferably (there are already hundreds of threads about the possibility of a new Apple PDA. This discussion has been going on for years).
 
johnnyjibbs said:
Why do you think it took nearly 10 years for GameBoy to go colour? Game Gear, Atari Lynx - they were all much better technically but no-one wanted them because they only had an hour of battery life.

But they are today ? Right ? So no reason why the iPod needs to take another 10 years.
 
legion said:
What tradeshow? I can only guess of one in Germany that happened recently where Apple had a presence (and I was there and they showed no such device even to the VIP guests.)

I don't know how to spell the name of the town in Germany but it sounds like 'Due'-'bi'

It might be BS, I cannot confirm either way.
 
johnnyjibbs said:
If the iPod had all these new complicated features, a colour screen, and had an in-built DVD player it would have to be bigger. This would then compromise its ability to be a small and best-of-field music player (including less battery life). Most of the time you don't want to watch a movie - and, as Jobs said himself, there's no substitute to headphones with video - you're stuck with a tiny and low quality screen.

Therefore I don't expect the new iPods to be very different to the current. Maybe video out capabilities (why not?), and maybe a face redesign (similar to the iPod mini and ironically the 2nd generation iPod) and higher capacities. As soon as you start putting on touch screens and stylus pens or colour monitors and flash card sockets, it becomes one of those useless jack of all trades but master of none things and suddenly you've lost the reason to own an iPod in the first place. Remember, escapism.

The comments above illustrate an important point, which is that consumers should be wary of purist rhetoric and spin from Apple regarding dedicated-function consumer devices. Is less more? Sometimes. Is less more when you are missing features, have the wrong price point and lack the resources and vehicles to dominate your corner of the multi-media segment? Probably not.

When it comes to the consumer, Apple is, once again, setting themselves up for "marginalization," and they have no clue about the commodity/converged marketplaces or how to produce or ship large-volume products in a timely manner. Less is less. There's nothing inherently wrong with a dedicated-function device, but it better have the price-point it needs to achieve volume and you better be able to ship it.

In the media space, these realities are coming at Apple so fast, they're not even going to know what hit them. And, besides cheaper dedicated devices, they're coming in the form of the Sony PSP (PlayStation Personal) and other converged/commodity devices.

Comparing Games and Tunes:
Apple has sold 3+ million iPods into the market (since late 2001)...whoopee! Well, Sony has sold over 20 million Playstations and Nintendo has sold a similar number of GameBoy Advance (hand-held) consoles (also since 2001). In fact, in Nov. 2002, Nintendo sold 1.5 million units in a single month and have outsold the iPod overall by approximately 7 to 1. Sony plans to sell 3 million PSP's in a single quarter during the upcoming 2004 Christmas season.

Beyond Sony's initial PSP projection and likely high-volume, competing music-only devices, what do you think the penetration of a hand-held PSP will be with a color display, that will also, no doubt, be able to link to Sony's music store and play color music videos? Oh...and by the way, the Universal Media Disc (UMD) format implemented in the PSP is probably going to become the standard for unifying games and multi-media (music, music videos). What about the cross-marketing potential of such a device?

So, in less than 2 quarters, a multi-media Sony Playstation Personal will easily surpass iPod volumes and drive Sony's music + video + game store. Okey Dokey, Apple iPod/iTMS. Giddyap, donkey.

Nobody expects Apple to make a video game console. I merely use the PSP as an example of a high-volume product in a similar price range to the iPod ($300+) that is going to completely change the market's multi-media focus and shift the standard. Sony basically just has to exhale to set the standard. What can Apple do about that? It's a tough one.

However, Sony will probably have to subsidize initial PSP manufacturing, as Apple should be doing RIGHT NOW with the iPod to achieve volume. But, I guess it doesn't matter what the price or subsidization is if you can't deliver the units. The iPod minis may be on track by the time the PSP appears (Christmas 2004), if Apple is lucky and can figure out how not to be held hostage by disk drive manufacturers. Too bad they don't have higher iPod volumes - that might give them some clout.

I've posted in other threads about Apple's catastrophic business logic failing in regard to the iPod, and it seems like Apple has about 6-12 months before Sony (for example) kicks their sleek, overpriced, 6-week-lead-time butts out of the digital media market "lead position." It's easy to lead when the competition isn't competing yet. The writing is on the wall unless Apple has a major shift in their ideology and understanding about how to target consumer products and own the space they helped define.
 
urbangrind said:
I don't know how to spell the name of the town in Germany but it sounds like 'Due'-'bi'

It might be BS, I cannot confirm either way.

Or it is not in Germany at all... ?
Emirates? Dubai?
 
IPOD needs an edge from other players that are catching up fast!

here's a list I think will make the ipod dominant:

1- media readers (compact flash, SD cards, ect...) That will make a digital
camera owner, a must Ipod owner. If I not mistaken, there's already a
player like that already. maybe can display the pictures while on vacation
with output features to tv screen or computers.
2- $50 reduction on all ipods
3- being able to change the battery just like a digital camera.
open bay and pops out the battery. don't have to carry
extra device to give me longer battery life.
4- color screen if there's more games incorporated. But, I prefer battery life
than color screen if it affects it alot.
5- make it a keoki player by being able to display the songs lyrics. Most of the songs I listen don't have lyrics, but I know alot of people who would benefit from this feature, specially women who would love to sing along,and
people from other countries that gives up on try to undersand the true meaning of the song. World won't be a better place.
 
I'm of course wondering when this is going to happen.

I'm stuck in an uncomfortable position of waiting to buy an iPod, but want that 4th gen sooo bad. My friends all are sporting 20gigers and loving it, but I'm holding out. The personalization offer ends the same day as the Brilliant savings promo, right? I'm wondering if it's really workable to order a 3rd gen. iPod on the last day of the offer, and then if they release new ones at WWDC I'd be covered to return it, right? Yes, this all sounds crazy, like I had ought to just shut up and buy one now- but I'm of the opinion that the consumer is entitled to want the best bang for the buck.

So if nothing comes out by WWDC I'll assume no iPod is coming out till the end of the year, in which case I'm buying right after June.

...Please release the 4th Gen by WWDC! :D
 
I would like to see Apple do something like this:

4gb mini-ipod $189
8gb mini-ipod $239

20gb ipod $299
30gb ipod $349
50gb ipod $449

Battery increased to 16 hours - across the board.

iTunes for Linux and Ogg Vorbis support to grab the Linux crowd.

No other fancy gizmos.. i think battery life and lower prices are more important to the ipod then colored screens and recording functions.
Ogg Vorbis is important too. People are buying crappy players just for that.
 
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