U2 iPod, Photo iPod and Additional iTMS Localizations Released

[CalfCanuck]

Admittedly, no where near the maximum transfer speeds of USB 1.1 (12 Mbps) or USB 2.0 (480 Mbps), but that may not necessarily be Belkin's fault but could be due to limitations in the camera, as well.

Your last edit was misleading - USB uses MBps (Megabytes per second), while the Belkin uses Kbps (KiloBITS per second). So you have to divide the Belkin by 8 to get real speeds (which I'd assume are transfer speeds, not allowing for error checking.)

Edit - My mistake on USB. It's standard also uses bits (Mbps), although 480 Mbps is almost 1000 times faster than 600 Kbps.

 

[Yvan256]

I do record from my CD's and most of them are mixed... I do feel your pain having gone through it... I whish Apple could add a "Marker feature" in ITunes just like in FCP or FCP Express... This way we could join songs and still skip.

Hey Apple: I want royalties on this Idea!!!

Michel

Too late for royalties, I sent the feedback about this before even submitting my post.

 

[Engagebot]

who's going to pay that much extra to be able to view their multi-megapixel photos on a 2-inch ipod screen? even if it played videos, who cares?

it's a gimmick, and a weak one at that.

Yes, some of you macrumors people will think that everybody needs one, and its the greatest thing since running water, but the market won't support it. people just aren't going to spring for it. trust me.

 

[macinmind]

Apple has to move faster

These new iPods are exciting but technology is converging at a rapid pace. Right now I have 3 devices, a cell phone, a mini-disk player (yeah, it was a gift) and a PDA. My PDA can show pictures, play video and play MP3s as well as all the normal PDA applications. I would rather have one device that can handle these tasks instead of 3. INHO this is the way the industry is going with cell phones coming with larger capacity and one company putting a disk drive in a phone. I know Apple is partnering with Motorola, but will this be enough? Am I off base here?

I foresee a cell phone PDA with at least a 5 GB flash card in the future that will allow me to make calls, play multimedia (music, video and still pictures), and handle my PDA functions. Will Apple be a part of this? I sincerely hope so. But how big will it be and is there a battery out there to power it?

Just my humble observations.

 

[aussiemac86]

any more ipods?????

Im looking at getting a mini, in the next few days, what do people think about the possibilities fo apple releasing more ipods prior to christmas, or do you think that this is it as far as the choice of ipods go for the rest of the year?

 

[abc123]

IPOD UPDATE TOO
http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

 

[Engagebot]

sorry, but i'd pay $50 to get a black/red ipod. screw U2, i could care less. but black and red rocks sadam hussein's face off.

i may even trade in my 3G for a black/red one.

 

[Ugg]

Ok not sure if it was mentioned already, but to update all this software - iTunes and QuickTime - do I just go to Apple's site? Or will it be in Software Update?

I downloaded it directly from Apple as it hadn't yet appeared in update. Don't know if it's there now or not but.... I went to the iPod/iTunes page for the iTunes update and the QT page for the QT update.

I wonder why they didn't immediately put it in software update? Oh well.

 

[BornAgainMac]

All your porn in your pocket.

I still would like to see movies on the iPod since the movie sound will sound great with headphones. You can enjoy watching last night's episode of "Friends" while standing in line to pay for your groceries for example.

Also watching movies on your TV by hooking up your iPod to it. Perhaps studies show it's not a feature worth selling.

 

[KingArthur]

Photo iPod is one of the worst ideas Apple has ever had...

What a waste of color LCD screens. I wonder if they'll ever get the clue that we want to watch our own backup movie files on our iPods? If the 'video iPod' ever does become a reality, I bet Apple and the MPAA will make some worthless proprietary format that requires you to pay for encrypted divx files (which would be useless). If somebody hacks this new Photo iPod to play divx and xvid, I will have to sell my brand new (only been used once) 4g 40GB iPod.

You'd think they would've just waited to release the 4G iPods......

So are these '5G iPods' now?

DivX encoding requires a TON of processing power, power which I am sure the iPod does not have. I'd guess that the iPod would have enough power to decode MPEG-2 or even quicktime files using certain encoding algorythms, but I'm doubting it would be able to handle much more than that, although I am the first to admit I am FAR from an expert on the subject.

 

[Ugg]

Im looking at getting a mini, in the next few days, what do people think about the possibilities fo apple releasing more ipods prior to christmas, or do you think that this is it as far as the choice of ipods go for the rest of the year?

I doubt there will be, especially in the lower price range. Apple introduced the new iPods now to take advantage of the Xmas season. It wouldn't make sense for them to introduce a cheaper mini when it is the hottest tech item of the year. Personally, an update to the mini is probably not going to happen until mid 2005. Although if the competition heats up early next year maybe a price drop would happen but I doubt there's anything on the horizon that will make that happen.

 

[Poff]

And what's the difference? The second glacier moves at twice the speed of the first one?

Whenever I see Kbps, it signals that the transfer speeds are so slow that the manufacturer doesn't want to casual users to know the truth.

So divide by 8 to get to KB, then calculate sppeds per minute. With error checking, I calculate the Belkin Media reader comes out to about 1.5 MB / minute, while the Camera Link (on PC) might end up at 5 MB / minute.

So even simple 1 GB compact flash card, ont he fastest option, will take about 3 hours. Do you expect a pro photographer with 2-4 GB of daily downloads to spend an entire night with this garbage? Even an amateur with a 512 MB card upload will almost 2 hours ...

The fastest reader doesn't work with click-wheel iPods. (It says so on Apple-store.)

 

[joeboy_45101]

Frankly, I'm not very impressed with today's offerings. The U2 iPod is awesome looking but it comes only with a $50 gift certificate off of the complete U2 collection(which is about $400). That would have been better if the iPod was pre-loaded with the collection.

The Photo iPod is really kind of a waste in my opinion, you have to take your pictures sync them from your camera to your machine and then sync them to your iPod. And who is really going to look at those pictures for very long? It could be useful, but not very.

iTunes 4.7, I was hoping for iTunes 5 and some better features.

iPod Software, now Apple is having to deal with 5 different versions of iPod Software. It would make more sense to have one software version for all of the iPod's. And this is not impossible, the software would just take advantage of the hardware and include any features as specified.

 

[RBMaraman]

Quick question:
The website lists "Artist Alerts" as a new feature in iTunes, but I cannot find it anywhere. Has anybody else?

Go to the music store and search for an artist. Click the arrow next to an artists name in the list of songs that appears, and you will be taken to the page that displays all the albums by that artist. In the top, right hand corner you'll see the "Artist Alert" feature.

 

[jsw]

To everyone complaining that they can't see their photos immediately by just hooking up a camera:

I understand your desire to do this. It makes sense as a product idea. However, note that the iPod Photo is essentially the same hardware as the iPods, and it doesn't have the CPU power to convert JPEGs. iPhoto/iTunes does the conversion to 220x176. The iPod can't. The photos stored on the iPod are not the photos stored in iPhoto - they're essentially just large thumbnails. Hence the need for the iPod->Mac->iPod cycle on pics downloaded from a camera.

This is just rev 1, folks.

 

[Abstract]

please, use a better choice of word. no one's "forcing" you to spend anything or buy anything. if you aren't convinced of the value, that's fine, but don't make it sound like they are making mistakes just because you don't want one or don't want to pay for one.

Yeah, seriously. Its getting pretty annoying. You're a consumer. If you don't like it, then don't buy it. That's the way it works with everything else, so why complain only about Apple?

Don't buy it. Simple.

 

[jsw]

iPod Software, now Apple is having to deal with 5 different versions of iPod Software. It would make more sense to have one software version for all of the iPod's. And this is not impossible, the software would just take advantage of the hardware and include any features as specified.

Has it been shown anywhere that the 4G iPods and the iPod Photos don't share the same software? I could hook a B/W or greyscale or color monitor to my old IIci, and I didn't need to reinstall the OS each time.

 

[joeboy_45101]

Has it been shown anywhere that the 4G iPods and the iPod Photos don't share the same software? I could hook a B/W or greyscale or color monitor to my old IIci, and I didn't need to reinstall the OS each time.

So, then why are there different version numbers? Why are you trying to argue with me here check it out for yourself:

http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

God forbid I not absolutely love the iPod Photo. To me it is kind of overkill for the iPod brand.

 

[Stella]

Remember the 'Hidden functionality' crap in the G4 iPods?

itunes 4.7 doesn't deliver any of this, I wonder if any thing ever will?

No doubt ( I suspected this all a long) that the 'hidden functionality' was a ruse to get people to buy it.

iPod Photo.. I think its excellent addition and a natural one at that given the iApps. If Apple had implemented a card reader people would be moaning about the extra cost and / or that their chosen media format isn't supported.

 

[Doctor Q]

Ok not sure if it was mentioned already, but to update all this software - iTunes and QuickTime - do I just go to Apple's site? Or will it be in Software Update?

The links for downloading have been on the MacRumors front page (see the Updates to this news story) since shortly after the news was first posted. I don't know why the updates don't appear in Software Update as soon as Apple posts them, but you don't have to wait if you go straight to the download pages.

 

[Loge]

Pleased to see they now include the case again (on iPod Photo); though I appear to be just about the only one who likes it

 

[jsw]

So, then why are there different version numbers? Why are you trying to argue with me here check it out for yourself:

http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/

God forbid I not absolutely love the iPod Photo. To me it is kind of overkill for the iPod brand.

Cool. Fine. I didn't see that.

However, they're all incorporated into iPod Updater. Just like all the various versions of OS X for different hardware configs are incorporated into the OS X install disks. So I don't see the problem. It's not like you need to download five different versions or that you might pick the wrong one.

And I'm not expecting you to love the iPod Photo. However, a year from now, that's all you're going to be able to buy.

 

[Jovian9]

I have to sell my 4G 40GB iPod now and I just got it in late July

I think the pricing is okay. The $100 difference just doesn't get you photo abilities, but 3 more hours of battery life. The more battery life the better. To me that is definitely worth it. The size difference is trivial......remember the 1 & 2G iPods? The U2 Pod is kind of cool, but I do not like U2. Come on Radiohead Pod (just dreaming)!

Someone please hack this and allow video to be played out of it. I would love to store my collection of music videos on this and hook it up to the TV when I want to watch them (don't really care about watching them on the iPod screen).
Or maybe Apple will enable this feature with an update after Tiger is released and we get the better video encoding it promises.

Great release. I'm glad they named it iPod Photo and have the iPod Store now. They are seperating the lineup of iPods which is great. You still have your dedicated music iPods which I think is very important.

 

[joeboy_45101]

Cool. Fine. I didn't see that.

However, they're all incorporated into iPod Updater. Just like all the various versions of OS X for different hardware configs are incorporated into the OS X install disks. So I don't see the problem. It's not like you need to download five different versions or that you might pick the wrong one.

And I'm not expecting you to love the iPod Photo. However, a year from now, that's all you're going to be able to buy.

You're probably right about that last bit. I just hope there is a significant price drop. iPod Photo is should really be looked at as a 4.5G iPod.

 

[Yvan256]

I don't think you can expect iTunes to automatically know the difference between regular tracks and ones that don't have a gap. I believe this is more or less determined by how the files are mastered. For example, Oxygene, Part III actually has some silence built into the end of the track (or at least it does on my CD).

But, I agree, iTunes and iPods need gapless playback, if only as a preference!

iTunes/iPod would know because we'd still rip the tracks "joined". Apple already has the feature built-in, except it destroys the ability to skip tracks (since Oxygene becomes "track 1 of 6" and "track 3 of 6", sort of).