iPod touch Mockup: iPod Home

[ravenblue]

Here is my mockup of the "iPod Home". This is intended to demonstrate a "midsize" form factor, somewhere between a notebook and iPod. About the size of a portable DVD player.

This would be geared for leisure-based, "at home" uses of an ipod. The target market would be the "multitasking teen" but could include a variety of other home-based activities, including:

• Watching (and purchasing) TV and Movies
• Listening to (and purchasing) music
• Web browsing
• E-mail, IM
• Calendar
• Notepad, to-dos

The unit would feature a built-in speakers. Future models could include a built-in isight , enabling photos and video capture, portable video chat. The camera would face the user, appropriate for the narcissistic nature of today's video-blogging, youtube lip-syncing teen. The addition of a hi-fi stereo microphone may also make it appropriate for recording music with a streamlined version of garageband.

Software could include screen-sharing to your mac at home, so you have access to your user login from anywhere in the house, or anywhere in the world with a dotmac connection.

The unit would also feature a magnetic back, allowing it to stick to a fridge, locker, or other metallic surface.

 

[Santa Rosa]

The unit would also feature a magnetic back, allowing it to stick to a fridge, locker, or other metallic surface.

Cant see Steve demonstrating that on stage lol, "boom and it sticks to your fridge"

Your idea is interesting but I very much doubt anything like that will happen. The thinking really is your either going to have an iPhone or iPod Touch or a Mac of some description, nothing in between.

 

[ravenblue]

Yeah I kind of doubt we would see it anytime soon, at least not until there is the right combination of consumer psychology and market drivers. A device like this makes little sense to an adult consumer, who typically "master of their domain" and will consume most of their media either on their PC or in their couch.

Today's teen, however is a different animal. They can be pathologically social, multitasking, mobile, and most importantly, private. Having a computer in their room is an option for those who can afford it, but not everyone can. Having an iPod is more affordable but even an iPod Touch is too small for watching TV and movies.

 

[zap2]

Big iPod touch?


Not a bad idea...but price worries me. 32Gb iPod touch forces it to be atleast 599, or much lower speced


Sadly, I don't see the room in Apple's line up

 

[aethelbert]

Nice idea, but there's no room for this in the product line. And when you say that for some a computer is too expensive, this would be more so.

 

[PMB]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A93 Safari/419.3)

neat idea, but it may never happen, though we will never truely know till it happens

 

[ravenblue]

I guess it would depend on how they would market it. Marketing a device like this as an iPod might be a bad idea.

Instead, This could basically make this into a wireless display+keyboard+mouse device, and allow multiple users to use the same mac, building on the "digital hub" concept.

They could bring costs to a minimum by making it wholly dependent on a host mac in order to run (sort of like the first AppleTV)... But using the same screen-sharing technology built into Leopard.

Having multiple users running multiple apps on multiple desktops is already supported in the OS. (I accidentally discovered this by logging in with ARD with my own username while another user is using the same computer with fast user switching enabled with me already logged in... our mouses and keyboards don't interfere)

 

[pieseller]

"Cant see Steve demonstrating that on stage lol, "boom and it sticks to your fridge"

that just made me burst out loud laughing at work.

love the idea of The Steve slapping it onto a fridge and turning to the audience with a the look of a hero.

 

[pjac]

Nice mock-up. I'd be very tempted with one of these - especially if it had bluetooth (like the iPhone but not the iPod Touch) as that opens up a whole load of cool add-ons like GPS and a wireless keyboard.

P.S. You missed out an eBook reader as a potential app

 

[bacaramac]

I like it, looks like a replacement for the Logitech Harmony 1000. Add infrared so it can control your Home entertainment. Love the idea of screen/app sharing, let the Mac do the lifting and this unit can just be the interface. NICE.

 

[Santa Rosa]

turning to the audience with a the look of a hero.

Reality Distortion Field on full tilt

 

[cjmal]

Cant see Steve demonstrating that on stage lol, "boom and it sticks to your fridge"

That's hilarious, haha.

 

[lofight]

Very nice idea! I love it. But I don't think the market is big enough. It should also be able to remote control a tv/DVD player/apple tv/mac. It must have widgets. It must be able to watch live tv. It would be very handy for example: It's hanging on the fridge, and the mother is working in the kitchen to make a meal. She doesn't want to miss Desperate housewifes, so she just watches via the "iPod home" Desperate Housewifes in the kitchen. Now after making a special meal, she forgets one part of the recipe, she just searched via a widget on the "iPod home" for the full recipe. There are many nice features it could have, but I see this more of a future thing. Like when your house is fully controlled by a remote. If you're walking to your iMac and you have the iPod home in your hand, you could put the iMac remotely on, and when you would arrive it would be ready. You could even have a small widget on your iPod home with basic things you could remotely do with your iMac.
It would also be nice, if you could use it as a tablet with a stylus. And it must have a strong battery so that you don't need to constantly plug it in.

 

[4DThinker]

It's a nice idea.

Price matters. Can it be made and sold for the same as a portable DVD player?

Weight matters. Can they make it the same weight or even lighter than the current Touch?

Power matters. Will it last at least 4 hours between battery charges, with the screen on the whole time? You don't want to be tethered to a cord. Best if it comes with two batteries, and you can swap a good one out for the dead one.

Feel matters. My Touch is easier to hold onto when in a case. This "new" model needs to be naturally comfortable to hold.