iPod Pro 60GB (CONCEPT!)

[Foocha]

In an idle moment, I put this together in Photoshop - it's been on my mind for a while - I'd like to rid myself of phone & PDA, and just carry one gadget around with me... from Apple, of course.

From Apple's point of view, now seems like a good time to release a sub-notebook style Mac which is iPod branded - hook the Mac into the current iPod hype by positioning the device as the new top end iPod.

It would of course be really neat for watching Movies ripped from DVD using an iTunes-style application (and of course with permission from the rights owners!)

You'd take phone calls via the iPod headphone which would have a built in mic. Of course it would also feature Bluetooth for syncing with a desktop Mac or laptop.

There's a click wheel which can be used to navigate through special versions of the Finder, iTunes, iPhoto and the new DVD application. Plus a trackpad for normal Mac applications. Text entry is via Inkwell, with detachable stylus and touch sensitive display.

Calls are made via a special version of Address Book, or a keypad application that uses the touch sensitive screen.

What do you guys think?

 

[AoWolf]

Wishful thinking (not that I don't like it) Oh btw wide screen might be kind of hard to hold.

 

[oingoboingo]

Interesting. The cost of such a device might be pretty steep, but it would certainly get the mass media foaming and drooling at the mouth for another year or two and keep interest in the Apple brand rolling along. What I still find amazing is the amount of attention and praise lavished on the iPod by the mainstream press years after its release...and it's 'just' an MP3 player. If Apple did a combo iPod/PDA/phone as well as they do so many other things, I think the media attention would be overwhelming. Maybe they would only sell 500 of them (at $2000 a piece) and it'd be the biggest disaster since the G4 Cube but it's an interesting concept anyway.

 

[Foocha]

True - price could be a problem, but...

1. Remember how many people said that the iPod was too expensive when it launched
2. It needn't be a high specced G5. Mac OS X could run on a cheaper Freescale processor designed for embedded systems.

I think they could shift quite a few at a price of $799

 

[iLikeMyiMac]

Ergonomically I don't think it would make a good phone but as a high end PDA it might have potential.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

I like the concept. It seems rather like a Palm Pilot or a PocketPC, except, obviously, a Mac. That said, why the trackpad? In this application, I think a stylus would work much better. The stylus would also work well as a text input device.

Basically, I see this sort of thing as being best executed as a Mac version of a PocketPC. Put a hard drive in there, sell it with a stripped-down version of Panther, bundle iPhoto, iTunes (operable by the standard iPod interface), and QuickTime in it, I think that'd work well. Make it so that standard Mac apps would run on it just fine, and there wouldn't be any real software worries.

 

[jsw]

I like the concept. It seems rather like a Palm Pilot or a PocketPC, except, obviously, a Mac. That said, why the trackpad? In this application, I think a stylus would work much better. The stylus would also work well as a text input device.

Ah, yes, but scrolling around the screen without using the stylus would be quite nice.

This might be a bit out of reach now, but not for long. The key problem is likely battery life.

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

Good point about scrolling without the stylus. How about integrating that with the iPod click wheel? There could be a small switch or button so you can change from the iPod mode to the scrolling mode, perhaps.

 

[jsw]

Good point about scrolling without the stylus. How about integrating that with the iPod click wheel? There could be a small switch or button so you can change from the iPod mode to the scrolling mode, perhaps.

Good point, but the trackpad will still work better for mouse movement - the click wheel will be useable, but not as easy to control fine movement with.

 

[Mastif]

concept

i posted this a while ago in the ipodlounge concept competition

 

[Daveman Deluxe]

Good point, but the trackpad will still work better for mouse movement - the click wheel will be useable, but not as easy to control fine movement with.

The problem with that is that for fine movement on the trackpad, you use your index finger and not your thumb. Based on the way the device is shaped and appears to be weighted, it would be hard to use any digit except your thumb on the trackpad. If the trackpad were used ONLY for scrolling, though, that wouldn't be a problem. Alternatively (or additionally), it would be an innovative (maybe even good) idea to have a Bluetooth stylus that would have a scroll button on it. Granted, the stylus would have to be thicker than the average PDA stylus is currently, but it would be more useful that way, and it would actually be more ergonomical--wider writing implements reduce pressure on the fingers and thumbs, and reduce muscle strain.

What I'm saying is that while the trackpad would probably work fine for scrolling, I don't think it would work very well for manipulating the cursor, and I can think of other, more compact (and therefore cost-reducing) ways to scroll.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Nice ideas, but with a video screen that small, would it have windows? You'd not be able to have multiple windows overlaying on each other, it would be quite annoying. I'm thinking you'd have a single interface that could change depending on the document/app you were currently running.

D

 

[Foocha]

I agree - the interface would need to be simplified, although it would also need to be able to run normal Mac OS X software.

I think the solution would be two-fold:

1. Introduce a new user-interface concept in Tiger - Full Screen. This would be equivalent of full screen in Windows (ie the frame of the window would appear to clip to the edges of the screen). It could be triggered by clicking on the green maximise button whilst holding the option key down, or in System Preferences you could change it so that Full Screen would be the default behaviour of the green button. iPod Pro would ship with this as the default configuration.
   
2. Create iPod versions of the following apps: Finder, iCal, Address Book, Mail, Safari, iChat, iPhoto... and of course iTunes. The iTunes user interface would need to be similar to the current iPod interface, and all of these apps would take advantage of the new Full Screen mode by default.

I would envisage the device to have a 700x400 pixel screen, and the iPod Pro would have an alternative version of the doc - perhaps appearing be default on the right-hand side, with two columns of icons.

 

[SiliconAddict]

To be honest I couldn't care what it looks like as long as it has a 60GB drive in it. I want an iPod damn it!! But I need a 60GB drive to fit all of my tracks.