'iTunes + iPod Video' Sighting

[pale9]

I think you're mistaken, and are visiting the wrong website by accident - this is MacRumors, not MacFacts. We talk about rumors here - there's no guarantee whether they'll be right or not, and it would be naive to put any stock in anything that's mentioned whatsoever!

yes, i understand its a rumor site. however, if every other rumors turns out to be false, whats the point? since apple has a relatively small product lineup, some rumors, even if based on pure phantasy, have a good chance of turning out to be correct.

 

[~Shard~]

yes, i understand its a rumor site. however, if every other rumors turns out to be false, whats the point? since apple has a relatively small product lineup, some rumors, even if based on pure phantasy, have a good chance of turning out to be correct.

Yes, you would think the odds would be in our favor, wouldn't you? However, you just never know what good old Jobs has up his sleeve - or in his jean pocket's pocket.

But yes, Jobs has always been good at turning phantasy (as you seem to like to spell it ) into reality.

 

[ronrosell]

It's a smartphone

Check out MOSR -

http://www.macosrumors.com/20050918B.php

its going to be a NANOBOOK ---- not an iPod Video

basically, a very very very small laptop

BRING IT ON!!!!!!!

You're right. Actually, that was my prediction a hundred or so postings ago.

Apple looks for what's not working in the marketplace, then comes out with a solution. The original Mac was the answer to the DOS command-line interface. More recently they looked at video chatting, which was pretty poor, and came out with the iSight/iChatAV, which set a new standard followed by others (and incorporated into AIM 5.5). They looked at MP3 players, and, well, we all know what happened to that market.

Now, PDA's have become a stagnant market; the real interest is in PDA/Phone hybrids. And what has Apple said or done about phones? They released the Rokr with Motorola, all the while somewhat distancing themselves from Moto's specific implementation. Jobs in an interview at Macworld Paris referred to the Rokr as mostly something for their engineers to "learn from." During the launch presentation at one point he looked like he wanted to throw that thing to the floor. The Rokr's main flaw ... and the main flaw in most cellphones ... is lousy user interface design, in this case Motorola software. (Apple didn't design the Rokr's phone features; they just ported an iPod player to it.)

I think they're going to go after this next, applying Apple's design savvy to a handheld device that competes directly with Windows Mobile and PalmOS based phones. (Indeed, this may be part of the reason Palm is supporting Windows Mobile on the next Treo ... they saw this coming.)

The company that gave the world the iPod, entering the Smartphone market. Their brand recognition would be awesome. Their smartphone would probably have a superior interface to anything else out there. It would play music and quicktime movies, of course ... PDA's have a screen large enough to watch a movie during a long business flight ... but the main app would be a communication and organization tool. Built-in video camera supporting iChatAV/AIM 5.5. Running OS-X so it can run OS-X apps. Inkwell handwriting recognition, supplemented by one of those little fold-up full keyboards that are popular with other PDAs. (Thumbboards are lousy if you're a touch typist ... one's brain is trained to associate the key positions with various fingers, whereas using all thumbs forces everyone to hunt and peck.) A nice, 1.8" 80gb hard drive giving it far more capacity than any other smart phone or PDA out there. And a deal with T-Mobile to roll it out on their new 2.5G EDGE network in the US, which is due to debut THIS month. (Concidence? How about the fact that T-Mobile dropped their only Windows Mobile smartphone this month?) T-Mobile could also support this in more markets worldwide than any other GSM operator ... their networks outside the US are more advanced. (Vodaphone also has this reach, but they'd need to design both a CDMA version for the US / Verizon and a GSM version for most other Vodaphone markets. Moreover, the new Windows Treo will be carried by Verizon. Still, it could happen. They might even do a dual-mode design; there are a couple of such phones on the market.) T-Mobile, if that turns out to be the carrier, is also in a position to leverage their hotspot investment with this device, which certainly would support WiFi as well as EDGE.

Despite the Cingular deal on the Rokr, I doubt that Apple would look to them as a longer-term network partner. Their network isn't global ... they have roaming agreements, but no overseas marketing reach. And let's face it, Cingular is the Gateway of the cellphone business. Sprint has some of the same problems: no overseas presence, and a poor customer service reputation that Apple would probably want to avoid. Of course, BusinessWeek could have it right ... Apple could launch their own network, reselling capacity from existing cellular networks the way Virgin Mobile does.

The Mac Nano! Running OS-X Kitty or Tabby or ... someone suggested a word beginning with P but I'm to shy to repeat it.

If I'm right about this you all have to reward me by chipping in and buying me one.