Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

PortalPlayer Planning Wireless... Wireless iPod?

pubwvj said:
Apple's going to add wireless, but it won't be an iPod in the existing sense. Rather the new handheld will be an iPal with support for MacOSX so you can access your documents, web, email, VOIP, etc. The PDA market has been tanking but Apple knows how to bring it out of the doldrums with a Real World rugged device that keeps your data with you all of your iLife.
Click to expand...

lol... it was just a matter of time before the inevitable clearly-apple's-gonna-release-some-crazy-PDAish-iPodish-device post. I swear every time theres a rumor about anything somene brings up this crazy idea. We heard it before the nano came out... then we heard it for the "And one more thing..." event... and its relentless.

I would love such a device... anything to replace my dell x50v.... but its just not gonna happen.
 
nagromme said:
Wireless video would be cool, but you'd still need to carry a wireless video receiver to hook up to the presentation system. And you wouldn't need Firewire or booting: you can transfer the presentation over USB. (Current iPods already allow you to make presentations--you just have to have a cord going to the TV/projector.)

But in general I think it's "other" uses like that which make more sense that replacing the iPod's usual cable with wireless. Wireless for remotes, or audio, or some new purpose, could make more sense than for music synching.
Click to expand...

You cannot do a full Keynote or PowerPoint presentation from an iPod because for that you need to boot Mac OS X on the iPod and run the application. I am talking about full video and full presentation; not just a static slide show. I am talking about running Keynote and PowerPoint applications on the iPod. And a booting iPod should be a Firewire one.
 
imagine if your ipod could play your entire music collection (I have almost 200gb) anywhere there is a wifi hotspot. Now imagine this capability once wimax is in place. I have been streaming my collection to my sony clie using slimserver and pockettunes, but this is incredibly cumbersome. I can only imagine that apple could come up with an easier and more elegant solution. With a powerful enough battery, I really think that this could be a killer app.
 
I'm still annoyed that they took away the ability to update smart playlists on the fly on the iPod Color, without having to resync.
 
you mean "USB is every bit as good as 1394", right?

zang said:
For most users, they won't be transferring gigs upon gigs everytime they sync their ipod because once most of their library is on it, it'll stay on it, with a few minor changes here and there. For this reason USB2 won't seem like much of a difference at all from FW.
Click to expand...
USB2 and 1394a are so much faster than the transfer rates of 1.8" disks and flash that they are effectively exactly the same.

It's time to let go of 1394 - it may live on as a DV camera port, but as far as the mainstream goes it is dead. Apple is ahead of the fanbois in realizing this.
 
...or buy a Dell...

Marx55 said:
You cannot do a full Keynote or PowerPoint presentation from an iPod because for that you need to boot Mac OS X on the iPod and run the application. I am talking about full video and full presentation; not just a static slide show. I am talking about running Keynote and PowerPoint applications on the iPod. And a booting iPod should be a Firewire one.
Click to expand...
(The Dell Axim PDA has Powerpoint, and VGA output....)

You don't need, and don't want, a full desktop operating system on a handheld. Windows CE is a rich subset of Windows APIs which make it fairly easy to port applications to a phone or PDA - while leaving out things like RAID support which are nonsensical for a handheld. Windows Mobile 5.0 has raised the bar for what a handheld device can do....

I don't have much need for a tablet/PDA/newton/whatever. My Windows phone (Samsung i730) has Bluetooth, WiFi, EVDO (DSL speed Internet), QWERTY keyboard, plus full phone functions. It runs MS Streets with active GPS mapping, MS Office, Outlook, Internet Explorer, and hundreds or thousands of other apps.

"Windows Mobile" means that my telephone has many of the capabilities that my desktop has.... I don't need XP on the phone.

Apple should have owned this market, and probably would have if Jobs hadn't killed the Newton. Instead, Steve handed it to Bill on a golden platter - and he's taken it to market.

BTW, if Apple wanted to do "OSX Mobile", they'd be smart to replace Darwin with an embedded Linux (Monta Vista Linux is already on some phones) and put a rich subset of Cocoa on top. Hacking OSX into the memory and power constraints of a handheld would be an enormous task - adding an OSX-like layer on top of another unix-like OS that's already available for handhelds would be much faster to market.
 
Azurael said:
What about FireWire then...?
Click to expand...
#1. Steve Jobs said the features comment.
#2. Steve jobs did not say they were ending Firewire.
#3. Why is everyone believing that rumour?

EDIT: I realise you were talking about FW on iPods, not on future macs with the rumour of it being removed.
 
If they are going to add wlan capacity, they will do it to give the possibility of sharing music. Ipod + Bonjour + iTunes Sharing. Just as you can do in iTunes, you could do with people on the street, in the train. with the number of ipods sold, this could become a killerapplication with people meeting on the street because of the same musictaste etc.

I would definitly go in this direction, probably with the integration of an ichat for ipod... Seems dificult, but they could surprise everybody with a decent solutuion.

In my opinion, the sharing possibility of iphoto and iTunes was all about the ipod in the first place...
 
It seems likely that this is going to happen at some point. Although, since charging/syncing are a necessity, it's not entirely clear where the benfit is... I can think of one situation where this might be a nice feature - where the ipod forms the basis of an in car entertainment system. If the ipod was used solely with the car, then it might be convenient to have it sync wirelessly when you get home? It's a bit of a *niche*, but it's one of the few situations I can think of where this might be genuinely useful.

J
 
diotima1212 said:
If they are going to add wlan capacity, they will do it to give the possibility of sharing music. Ipod + Bonjour + iTunes Sharing. Just as you can do in iTunes, you could do with people on the street, in the train. with the number of ipods sold, this could become a killerapplication with people meeting on the street because of the same musictaste etc.
Click to expand...

I take my last comment back :rolleyes:

This is another pretty cool idea! :) At first thought, I'm not sure that the record companies would be so keen... However, since the music is only available to people within a small radius, it's not really that different to itunes sharing.

diotima1212 said:
I would definitly go in this direction, probably with the integration of an ichat for ipod... Seems dificult, but they could surprise everybody with a decent solutuion.
Click to expand...

It would actually be quite easy to set this up using a combination of rendezvous and ad-hoc wireless networking...
 
Mitch1984 said:
I don't know about the benefits of having a WIFI iPod would be apart from syncing but wireless headphones would be great if they didn't need charging all the time.

Haha, here's an oxymoron for you all; A wireless lanyard....:rolleyes:
Click to expand...


A Sum of the Best iDeas posted here for potential wireless uses:

1. Streaming Content from Hot Spots
2. Downloading Songs from iTunes
3. Use the iPod as a remote for Front Row
4. Wirelessly connect to iPods in your range and have a feature similar to the shared library feature in iTunes.

ps no one cares about wireless headphones. apple needs to focus on making headphones that dont die after a week.
 
wi-fi or a better wireless solution for iPod is fantastic

thejadedmonkey said:
How about if they add something people actually WANT, like firewire and a radio?!:mad:
Click to expand...


Why settle for local radio, when you can listen to the countless of internet radio stations out there.

I'm actually trying to get an iTrip like device for my Nano so that I don't have to listen to the local radio:D
 
Super Dave said:
I have NO idea if this would work, but my friend has this theory and I kinda like it.

A cellular phone that does VOIP for free when in range of WiFi and uses standard networks when not. Is this possible?

David :cool:
Click to expand...

A phone like that either already exists or at least is planned for production. I read about it in Wired I think. Its a good idea, but WiFi seems like so much trouble to configure just to make a phone call. Until the industry gets better about standards a phone like that will be annoying to use.
 
Super Dave said:
I have NO idea if this would work, but my friend has this theory and I kinda like it.

A cellular phone that does VOIP for free when in range of WiFi and uses standard networks when not. Is this possible?

David :cool:
Click to expand...

yes, that's happened already, and the market for smartphones wi-fi capable is growing steadily; i think apple will join the pack around 2008 though...
 
touch screen

would really love to see this

yes batt wont last long (could make a better batt)

but widescreen movies on your ipod:D

u could turn off the screen whilst music is playin(aka little switch next to hold) or disable the touch format by the hold switch.

or even a megapixal camera

stuff wireless i would love to see this
 
iMeowbot said:
WiFi might be a nice thing to add to a dock, to go along with AirTunes. Inside a player? Meh. I wouldn't want Bluetooth headphones, they're kind of redundant inside and I'd rather not take an expensive headset outside to get lost or stomped on.
Click to expand...


I agree on this. I think a wireless dock for wireless syncing is a nice idea. But there's no need to build that into the iPod. It would only result in a larger iPod. Wireless headphones are not here yet. A bluetooth dock would be easy to do I would think.
 
savar said:
A phone like that either already exists or at least is planned for production. I read about it in Wired I think. Its a good idea, but WiFi seems like so much trouble to configure just to make a phone call. Until the industry gets better about standards a phone like that will be annoying to use.
Click to expand...

Yes, they have something like that in Japan. Something that switches between their cellphone networks and a local WiFi network if in range.
 
EricNau said:
If they did update the iPod, when would they do it. I was going to buy an iPod anytime now, but now I'm having second thoughts.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing springtime. Expect better video support and either lower prices or larger capacities. :cool:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back