New iPod Next Week?

[1984]

Yep, UMD is crap. How many times do we have to pay for the same 1s and 0s?

Oh, and BTW the PSP 4-hour playtime is crap too. Ok, great games but not quite there as a portable music player.

Exactly. The worst part is that UMD discs are more expensive than DVD discs yet you get less. No menu, thumbnailed chapters, extras, etc. I got one movie and I doubt I'll get another.

I hope Apple doesn't put too much emphasis on the video aspect as they did with the photo aspect when the iPod photo was introduced. For now an iPod that remains a music player first and foremost yet can display photos and play videos will do. Music videos, movie trailers, video podcasts and home movies are enough.

It simply needs to serve as a stepping stone to a true universal media device in the future.

Just as the iPod Photo will sync with iPhoto and let you display photos for family and friends on your TV, the iPod Video will sync with iMovie and let you do the same with your home movies.

 

[madmaxmedia]

Well I guess if they come out with an ipod with a huge screen that plays videos has contact managment and addressbook, plays mp3s and has games then all they have to do is add handwriting recognition to the screen and rename it NEWTON!

Actually, a touchscreen would probably come at a later point, as well as built-in wireless. Not for a couple of years, and not until costs come down so that they could add these features without bumping the price levels.

But with each addition/revision, Apple will not ruin the basic music player functionality. A touchscreen could actually enhance it, or simply not do anything when you're playing music. It will also always be pocketable.

Cell phones are very similar, although with a different primary function. The most successful cell phones are those with a main numeric keypad, because that's still the best for making phone calls. Similarly, the iPod will keep its basic form factor and click wheel, unless they come up with something that actually works better for playing music.

The other difference is that Apple would be starting with a sales base of a few million units per quarter, vs. whatever the maximum sales was for the Newton. Apple was actually going to do a smaller Palm PDA-sized Newton, but decided against it.

 

[mac_hine82]

If apple took the regular color/photo ipod and let it play the music video's that have been showing up on itunes I think that would be cool but I don't think anyone is going to be running out to get in line for one. And I really don't think that apple would stop there. They have to have something cool up there sleeve if it does come out. I can't think of a time apple came out with something that I hated. If Apple came out with a turd Ipod I would like it.

 

[alien]

I still think it's funny that people don't think that apple would schedule a conference call/keynote for Powermacs that are dual core... they had keynotes for G3s to G4s, G4s to G5s, why wouldn't they have one for a dual core mac? Sorry to burst peoples bubbles, but NO vPod, NO iTMS video, and NO significant powerbook updates.

1) iPod nano: why kill off a new product so soon after debute

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

3) Powerbooks ultimately are limited by the current chips and other internal components. It's a 50-50 thing with powerbooks. either its going to be an incremental bump until they can work things out and give it a good showing at MWSF or WWDC, or they've finally done it and want to start off the christmas shopping season with a bang. With the amount of "When are the new powerbooks coming out" threads on here (even when people start asking for them when... oh... i don't know... a thread is started about iPods) I'm hoping that apple does come out with something next week.

Anyway... that's my 2 cents... now hit me up with another round of sake

 

[~Shard~]

Wow, I would have picked Saturday's Powerball numbers for the $205 Million dollar jackpot...but to each their own.

I never said I wouldn't do that - I was referring to the Apple announcement like the poster whom I quoted - or did you simply misread my post? Of course I would do that, that's a no-brainer...

Time machine forward 1 week? No! Time machine to travel back to 1980 to buy up all that star wars stuff that goes for $5000 a figure! Then travel ahead 20 yrs, buy the 10 core dual powermac at 20ghz and then come back to present. YEAH!

Exactly - and then sell the 10-core 20GHz PowerMacs on eBay.

 

[MacQuest]

NO to the video ipod or all things video. not gonna happen

I'm thinking that they will not come out with a "video iPod", "iPod video" or "vPod", etc.

I think that there will be a video playback device, but possibly not classified as an iPod, even if the form factor is similar or not.

That way SJ can say that he still believes, as he always has stated, that "no one wants to watch video on a tiny screen".

I'm almost leaning towards the older rumors of a Mac tablet device [yes, here we go again] with a 4x6, 5x7 or 8x10 LCD screen that could double as a mini lcd display and also as one of those electronic photo frames, except with video! Possible networking capabilities and limited input capabilities [maybe by stylus? Inkwell and return of the Newton anybody?]

It would be a perfect accessory to any Mac [especially the Mac mini] , but in no way a replacement.

I'm just thinking that the iPod name will stay specific to Apple's current products, and that a major new function like video playback would not be called an iPod, even if it was designed by the "iPod division" which I think they just called it that to form a R&D division for any new peripherals that they may want to look into developing. iPod branded or not.

We'll see next Wednesday.

 

[podfuture]

1) iPod nano: why kill off a new product so soon after debute

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

1) iPod nano: why kill off a new product so soon after debute

iPod Video will be at a higher price point. Only a small impact on nano sales.

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

Even broadband could be a bottleneck if Apple doesn't do something to compress the content. Dialup is hopeless even for iTunes songs.

 

[MacQuest]

Sorry to burst peoples bubbles, but NO vPod, NO iTMS video, and NO significant powerbook updates.

WOW! You are a newbie...

 

[abhishake]

WOW! You are a newbie...

I agree with you..

Obviously there is going to be something with video guys. How can you just ignore all the clues that everyone has been hinting at. I think AppleInsider has the real scoop on this one, and they're going with a Video iPod.. Plus if the WSJ says that Apple is going to release a video iPod, then it's going to happen.

EDIT: Well not really an edit.. I can't find where I read the Wall Street Journal bit, as I didn't read it in my WSJ.. So disregard that statement.

 

[Peace]

I agree with you..

Obviously there is going to be something with video guys. How can you just ignore all the clues that everyone has been hinting at. I think AppleInsider has the real scoop on this one, and they're going with a Video iPod.. Plus if the WSJ says that Apple is going to release a video iPod, then it's going to happen.

When did the WSJ jump into this ?

 

[watanabe]

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

Even broadband could be a bottleneck if Apple doesn't do something to compress the content. Dialup is hopeless even for iTunes songs.

Granted, selling movies could be a motivation for Apple, and then broadband could be a bottleneck, but why does it have to be about people buying movies?

Apple created the iPod photo, and they don't sell photos to you now, do they?

There are 3 sources for movies

1) downloaded, either via purchase or free
2) captured, via cable/satellite/ota
3) created, via camcorder/software

I mean, Apple has 2 of their 4 iLife packages (iMovieHD and iDVD) dedicated towards enabling people to make and distribute home movies, doesn't that provide some reason for a vPod?

And capture and playback of tv, well, look at the dvr market, it exists and is growing. Whether it needs to be mobile is hard to say, but can't be dismissed outright, I'd say.

As an owner of a photo iPod, yes, its not ideal in terms of screen size, but boy, its better than nothing and convenient as all heck to be at a restaurant catching up with friends and pull out the iPod and show some recent photos. Or visiting family and plugging it into a TV and away we go.

Now, whether video is a big enough market and the technology is feasible now in terms of cost & performance, I don't know if that time is now. But it certainly will be at some point. Anybody who thinks otherwise is just kidding themselves.

 

[alien]

1) iPod nano: why kill off a new product so soon after debute

iPod Video will be at a higher price point. Only a small impact on nano sales.

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

Even broadband could be a bottleneck if Apple doesn't do something to compress the content. Dialup is hopeless even for iTunes songs.

Only a small impact on a product that already isn't doing too well is a pretty big deal. As much as I think that an ipod with video capabilities would be cool, I don't think that apple would do it. I mean, come on... think about it... we're using pro machines right now that are 2-3 years out of date... video capable portable devices haven't been around that long. Apple has to wait until the margins are right (ie. out dated tech) . In all seriousness... apple likes the three product lines: Mac mini/imac/powermac, ipod shuffle/nano/ipod. while there are similarities with the nano and ipod there are still enough differences to make it a different line. Look at the top of the line imac and the low end powermac... other than a processor... what exactly is the difference? (i know bus and the like but come on... a consumer machine that's about as good as a "pro" machine?)

As for the dial-up/compression response. On an average dial-up connection, how long does it take to download a 3mb song? Roughly 3-5 min... maybe more? To think that a mediocre quality full length feature film is 800+ meg... we're talking about 5-6 hours at least to download? I don't see that in the cards. There are good points about people liking the option, but Steve has said time and time again... you give the ipod a feature, you can't take it away. It's just not the right time yet... keyword "yet". As for being able to 'rip' your own dvds. How feasible is it to do these days? I don't know about you but audio and video compression is a bit of a processor hog, and a time consuming effort. I think it would be great to have video on an ipod... i wish they had it years ago. I wish that we had a 3 ghz G5 when Steve said we would... but it'll happen when it's ready. I don't think that a vpod is ready yet, nor does steve want it to be ready.

One last question to everyone before I end my rant and have another sake. I don't know about you... but I'm not a "pro", but I've never owner a "consumer" machine. Apple needs to get up with the times. I guess people who like to game are "pros", people who want the newest tech are "pros", I don't know about you but I guess everyone in the wintel world are "pros" because they seems to get the latest and greatest tech as soon as it comes out. Sure it isn't as spiffy, or as nicely put together, but is it really worth spending 2 - 3x as much on a computer that is out dated 2 years before you buy it? This is coming from a guy that's used a mac since... well... 85. It's time to stop with the marketing and start delivering.

As the pope said to hamburgler... I'm outty!

 

[gugy]

it's interesting how everybody are fighting for their wishes to come true.

On Wednesday we are going to see just 1 thing.
Something related to Video, probably the Ipod video or some sort of DVR/airtunes for video.

On Tuesday we'll see updates for PowerMac and possibly Powerbooks.
• Powerbooks sporting a small speed bump and maybe better screen and more HD capacity.
• Powermacs with dual core.
• Hopefully price drops on cinema displays

AppleInsider and Think Secret are both right, each with a pice of evidence.

That's it!
cheers

 

[Brad Raple]

Here's my thoughts. They NEED a new powerbook, and can't wait until June for one, but what can they come up with? I can't see them changing the form factor, wouldn't make sense for just one revision. But would they go to all this invitation hassle for a minor bump?

On the pro desktops, I could be wrong, but doesn't it take some serious software reworking to take advantage of multicore processors, both OS AND 3rd party software? Would that make sense for just one revision?

They need to come up with something, and it needs to be done before the holidays, but I can't see them doing anything crazy (Like a new form factor) unless they're able to keep it for the intel powerbooks as well.

Which brings me to my last point, I know that intel is really shifting towards a platform model, using their own proprietary video cards on their "centrino" line. You don't think Apple would ever use integrated intel graphics on their notebooks, do you? Even for an ibook, I would hope for better, but then again, Apple's never been shy about giving out crappy graphics cards.

If I knew they were coming out with something substantially better, or dropping the price, I'd ebay my 12" PB tonight. Of course, if I knew that, I wouldn't be speculating on these boards either.

 

[ncoffey]

In response to alien:

1) iPod nano: why kill off a new product so soon after debute

A $350 or $400 music player (that happens to have a big screen and video capability) won't kill off a $200-$250 player that is 1/5th the size of it. (by volume) If anything the cheap, small player will kill off the big, expensive player.

2) most of the population has dial-up (i know... crazy)... not so good for downloading huge movie files

Most of the population don't have iPods. People with dialup aren't really in anybody's target market these days because they're cheapskates that won't spring for the high speed and therefore won't spring for an iPod. These same people waited for the $30 Apex DVD players. (Nothing wrong with this group of people, but I wouldn't want to target products towards people who don't buy big ticket items) There is more to this dialup demographic of course but remember that are countries other than the U.S. in which people buy iPods, and many of those people have high bandwidth connections which could easily be used for a pay bit-torrent like movie service. (With big fast company servers added in just to make sure everyone gets fast rates even in the early days of distribution of a new flick.) I agree, however, that a 2 hours+ movie service is very unlikely for tuesday. Shorter features that are easily compressible is probably more likely for starters.

3) Powerbooks ultimately are limited by the current chips and other internal components. It's a 50-50 thing with powerbooks. either its going to be an incremental bump until they can work things out and give it a good showing at MWSF or WWDC, or they've finally done it and want to start off the christmas shopping season with a bang. With the amount of "When are the new powerbooks coming out" threads on here (even when people start asking for them when... oh... i don't know... a thread is started about iPods) I'm hoping that apple does come out with something next week.

Anyway... that's my 2 cents... now hit me up with another round of sake

About the powerbooks/powermacs: I don't really know, but anything would be better than nothing. I don't see powerbooks with anything more than incremental updates to processor speed. Other hardware features would be possible I suppose but I don't see raw chip speed being boosted (or a 7448 anytime soon). Maybe we could see higher resolution screens, built in iSight, and two 7447A chips in a 17"? PowerMacs are not too unlikely to be updated to dual core chips. I don't think this is the focus of the keynote in any event. I would think that in the first round we'll see the base models with one chip, and two chips only in the top end model.

As for the sake, I'm up for a few rounds. It's a long wait till Wednesday.

P.S. As always, don't read too much into what I've said here. It's just fun to speculate.

 

[Mod_Edit]

*crosses fingers*

G5 Jesus!

(someone is so going to mod-port me for that, but, it's funny)

 

[adrian-cg]

(or a 7448 anytime soon)

Why not? The 7448 is just a drop in replacement for the current chip in PB's..

 

[Chundles]

As for the dial-up/compression response. On an average dial-up connection, how long does it take to download a 3mb song? Roughly 3-5 min... maybe more? To think that a mediocre quality full length feature film is 800+ meg... we're talking about 5-6 hours at least to download? I don't see that in the cards.

It'll take a hell of a lot longer than that. Dial up gets you about 20MB an hour at best. For even a 500MB movie it would take over a day to download. Just not worth the trouble really.

I hate dial up. And I hate our big national communications provider for not being able to have high speed access despite being on a major road in our 9th biggest city.

 

[BWhaler]

I wonder if the madonna Ipod will come with a little red string lanyard?

Funniest post of the day. No question about it.

 

[BWhaler]

I really wish Apple would quit this whole waiting game tactic altogether. I mean, is it really necessary for Apple to go to such extreme precautions to protect information related to new product updates anymore?

0. Why tell competitors what you are doing?

1. So competitors don't pre-announce products to steal Apple's thunder. Microsoft used this technique and coined the expression vapor-ware. But it works.

2. Apple may decide to not release something.

3. If you pre-announce, you kill sales of existing products because people wait for the next big thing.

4. It called trade _secrets_

5. It gives time to patent what you need to. This is critical nowadays.

6. More free publicity. Build excitement.

Honestly, the list goes on and on. If it annoys you, you don't have to come to Apple rumor sites. But it is brilliant business strategy.

 

[nagromme]

If Apple came out with a turd Ipod I would like it.

 

[ncoffey]

Why not? The 7448 is just a drop in replacement for the current chip in PB's..

Because somewhere in some article I read in the past week that Freescale won't be able to produce these in quantity till sometime next year. (Don't quote me on that. If it isn't in any of MacRumors, ThinkSecret, AppleInsider, MacOSXRumors or these forums then I probably dreamt it. I certainly won't be searching through all these for that info againt though. )

 

[podfuture]

Not quite dark enough.

Maybe a good Zen Micro color if you know what I mean.

 

[ncoffey]

<snip>

6. More free publicity. Build excitement.

Honestly, the list goes on and on. If it annoys you, you don't have to come to Apple rumor sites. But it is brilliant business strategy.

I can't agree with this part enough. I saw Apple video player rumors today on the text based news on TV when I was flipping between news stations. That's phenomenal marketing right there. Microsoft could learn a thing or two from Apple product releases. (XBox 360)

 

[Chundles]

Most of the population don't have iPods. People with dialup aren't really in anybody's target market these days because they're cheapskates that won't spring for the high speed and therefore won't spring for an iPod. These same people waited for the $30 Apex DVD players. (Nothing wrong with this group of people, but I wouldn't want to target products towards people who don't buy big ticket items) There is more to this dialup demographic of course but remember that are countries other than the U.S. in which people buy iPods, and many of those people have high bandwidth connections which could easily be used for a pay bit-torrent like movie service. (With big fast company servers added in just to make sure everyone gets fast rates even in the early days of distribution of a new flick.) I agree, however, that a 2 hours+ movie service is very unlikely for tuesday. Shorter features that are easily compressible is probably more likely for starters.

What are you stupid? It's not a function of just shelling out cash for high speed. I cannot get high speed, not at all, and I'm in a rental property so I can't get cable either. You have to realise that these cheapskates you talk of are so sick of dial up they want to scream but they often have no other option so we begrudgingly put up with it.

As for your views, I think I'll just send them out with the garbage.