Ok the Gameboy is now WiFi, how about the iPod?

[tjwett]

http://www.theregister.com/2004/05/12/nintendo_ds_comms/

i would like to see Apple add 802.11 to the iPod. the ability to stream from your computer via Airport and to connect to the net for things like streaming radio would be killer.

 

[mms]

Except for the fact that it would kill battery life. Airport makes your battery drain really quickly, which you can easily test if you have a notebook. There are already enough complaints about the battery life, and Apple doesn't need to add unneeded features to makes it even more so.

 

[Phatpat]

What about if wifi was only available when the iPod was docked? Say you have your iPod connected to your stereo in your living room, and your mac is in your office. You could wirelessly add music to it without having to ever remove it from the dock.

 

[7on]

I get good battery time with wifi. I got about 4 hours last night.

 

[rainman::|:|]

What about if wifi was only available when the iPod was docked? Say you have your iPod connected to your stereo in your living room, and your mac is in your office. You could wirelessly add music to it without having to ever remove it from the dock.

the only way i could see this being a big enough selling point would be if it could do it from your car, so when you start your car in the morning, it gets a fresh update as you pull out. but for many people, especially those in apartments/condos, that's impractical.

paul

 

[SiliconAddict]

WIFI's radio size and power consumption has drastically decreased in the last couple of years to the point that just about every Pocket PC and more then a few Palm/Sony PDAs now ship with one embeded in the device. they now have WIFI radio's the size of SD cards....

Keep in mind that while that looks large its as thin as a quarter. In fact I think it wouldn't be out of the realm of possibilities for Apple to have a very thin slot on the side of the iPod that can accommodate this upgrade. Maybe even put it just below the dock interface on the bottom below the battery? So users have the choice to upgrade to WIFI if they wanted to?

Also keep in mind that Apple could implement a system similar to how CPU's scale their performance depending on if they are plugged in or not. The radio would be inactive and turned off when away from the outlet (overridable of course.) and when you plug it back in the radio would turn back on. Or how about the cache method? the iPod already has x amount of memory to store songs retrieved from the hard drive. What if it used that cache to receive songs from WIFI then turned the radio off. Played the music, retrieved more music played the music, and on and on and on. There are a number of possible scenarios that can be used to conserve power. The key overriding issues are ease of use, performance, size, and price.
Ease of use? This is Apple. That's a nonissue.
Performance? To get the best experience you would need an 802.11G radio for the best possible bandwidth. Current SD radio's are purely 802.11B right now. B becomes an issue with anything other then web surfing. A typical 4 MB file takes about 2 minutes to transfer. That's a heck of a lot of time to have the radio on for a single track. I think for Apple it would be 802.11G or bust.
Size. Again the size of an SD WIFI card is relatively thin it might bulk up the iPod a bit but not a whole heck of a lot. Is the thickness of a quarter going to bug you?

 

[mms]

Well, even the thickness of a quarter would make a difference considering how think it is riight now. For example, the iPod Mini is 0.12 inches thinner than the original iPod. It doesn't sound like much, but if you've held both and actually compared, it you can definitely tell the difference.

If the iPod is going to be docked when the WiFi is used, as Phatpat suggested, then it is pointless. If that functionality was necessary, then a solution would be to put WiFi in the dock, keeping the iPod the same size. Not that I think that Apple would ever do that.

 

[tjwett]

and nobody said it had to be on ALL the time. i turn Airport on and off on my PB all the time to conserve battery life. and i wouldn't want to use it to actually download and upload big files from the web, or even my computer. really i would just like to be able to listen iTunes Radio streams from around the house. i just think it would be neat.

 

[titaniumducky]

http://www.theregister.com/2004/05/12/nintendo_ds_comms/

i would like to see Apple add 802.11 to the iPod. the ability to stream from your computer via Airport and to connect to the net for things like streaming radio would be killer.

That'd be cool. It would have to be something turned on manually (for battery purposes). However, they should add a REALLY high density battery in there (as big as size will allow). 15 hours of music would be nice. Not because I want 15 hours of music but because then I could have about 6 hours of music plus WIFI and other peripherals and games.

 

[rainman::|:|]

the chrome back would block the signal, making the iPod a unidirectional device, you'd have to point the screen in the direction of the other device to get a good signal. Something to think about.

Apple makes things user-friendly because they know which features to incorporate and which ones are too complicated. I think this is the latter.

The cards have to get thinner than a quarter before they could be incorporated without making the iPod larger. A card slot would make the iPod *signifigantly* thicker, remember a little plastic channel has to be inserted, for the card to slide into, and a card interface would need to be on a raised daughtercard, i'd guess it would add a quarter of an inch, at very least. This is why the batteries are sealed, because adding a battery compartment would have needed more space.

Perhaps a device that attached via the dock connector. Like an iTrip. The antenna would be outside of the iPod, and it wouldn't add space. It'd only be there when you need it. And it'd be available separately, so it wouldn't raise the iPod price unless you bought one.

paul