What Changes To The iPod Would You Like To See?

[Sol]

Three ideas for improving the iPods

I want the iPod to list compilation albums and artists the way iTunes does: in its own 'Compilations' menu and not mixed in with the rest of my artists. At first I had all my compilations in the iPod but all these obscure artists with only one or two tracks were listed amongst my Artists menu. I have unchecked all the compilation tracks from iTunes until (hopefully) Apple updates the firmware.

Shuffle should be more accesible. Having to go back to the top menu in order to select Settings, then Shuffle Songs, then to go back and then continue down the path to the playlist or artist whose songs you want shuffled is too much work. I predict that the next generation of iPods will improve on the current interface by having an iPod Shuffle-like shuffle/playlist button at the back.

Some kind of video output would be nice for when the iPod Photo is used to play music through the television. A low-resolution iTunes visualier would be great or even something basic like a progress bar, track information and album art. I was a little disapointed not to see such a feature in the iPod Photo's current firmware since the slideshow function can allready display graphics that fade in and out.

 

[Veldek]

I think it's only sync'ed since the 3G iPods.

It works with my 2G iPod, though I’m not sure about the first generation.

 

[Benj]

1. Better battery life (the 3G is pretty poor).

2. Thinner (so 40 GB is size of 20 GB - current 40 GB is too big).

3. A choice other than white - I'm bored and I think the iPod is now sufficiently well entrenched that it doesn't need to be so distinctive.

I actively don't want any other features (BT, card readers, colour screen, radio). Keep it simple. I have devices for the other stuff - let's keep this so that it works for everybody and doesn't become a nerd gadget. (As much as most of us like nerd gadgets.)

 

[3Memos]

Go color screens for the entire iPod line. Drop the "photo" name and simplify the lineup to only include 20,40 & 60 GB photo-capable iPods. For the mini, increase to 5GB and make slimmer in width, make 20 hours battery life.

 

[spercharged69]

I wish my iPod Photo could play movies.

 

[Yvan256]

3. Instead of just having the option of "Most Played Songs" that have played on your iTunes, include an option for "Most Played Songs" that have played on your iPod, or the ability to combine both for a more accurate "Most Played Songs" list

When you sync your iPod, it already combines the "play count" values.

I had a song in loop while doing some work (with the iPod), and when I re-synced the value in iTunes, it jumped by more than 50.

 

[Yvan256]

Shuffle should be more accesible. Having to go back to the top menu in order to select Settings, then Shuffle Songs, then to go back and then continue down the path to the playlist or artist whose songs you want shuffled is too much work. I predict that the next generation of iPods will improve on the current interface by having an iPod Shuffle-like shuffle/playlist button at the back.

I'd make it "loop one, loop all, shuffle all" instead.

And yes, the loop/shuffle options should be allowed to be in the main menu, even for older generation iPods.

 

[Yvan256]

Yeah, it needs to have a least eight tracks of simultaneous 16-bit, 44KHz recording.

Introducing... GarageBandPod!

 

[Yvan256]

The iPod is perfect the way it is. Perhaps get rid of the mirror back and replace it with something that doesnt scratch as easily or shows fingerprints. The anodized aluminum of the mini comes to mind.

Not a bad idea. Though I think in aluminium it would need to be thicker than what it currently is.

I just want a 10GB iPod mini. A silver one, I guess (to match the Mac mini).

 

[3Memos]

Perhaps an XLR adaptor for the iPod? Allowing you to record 4-channel 48Khz 16-bit audio to your choice of Uncompressed or 256Kbps AAC.

 

[Yvan256]

Gapless in iTunes is easily achievable. Turn on cross-fading (iTunes Preferences / Audio) and set the time to 0. This doesn't translate to the iPod, though, which is a consistent disappointment.

Doesn't quite work right in Windows either.

Try with Jean-Michel Jarre's "Les champs magnetiques" (Magnetic Fields), and while there's no gap if you set "zero second cross-fade", there's still some weird stuff happening (easy to hear when going from track 3 to track 4).

It's like the beginning of track 4 gets a few milliseconds skipped or something.

 

[Yvan256]

PRICE PARITY for non-Americans!!!!!

Prices were adjusted a few weeks ago. The Canadian prices are now much closer to the USA prices.

Also, don't forget that in some countries (like UK, I think), the prices have to include all taxes in the price. Other countries, such as USA and Canada, have lower prices but we do pay taxes when actually buying the items.

In the end, you only have your government to blame, now.

 

[Yvan256]

EDIT: WHOOHOO!!! I made a 68000!

Edit: just noticed that I'm a 6502 myself.

What does it take to become a G5?

 

[Yvan256]

True. 0-second crossfade is not exactly the same thing as true, gapless playback. The former makes volume changes; the latter does not. And as noted, the iPod does neither of these.

Indeed. Apple should fix this. If set to "zero", there shouldn't be any fade-in/fade-out at all.

I also suggested ways to patch this for both iTunes and iPod (metadata in a big fused track that knows where each track inside it starts/ends).

 

[Yvan256]

Strange. The iPods are supposed to have like 20+ minutes of skip protection. I've had a 1st-gen, 3rd-gen and now a iPod Photo and not one of them has ever skipped on me, and I even took my 3rd-gen off-roading a few times (where my brother and I were completely blown away by the skip protection). My iPod Photo does reset itself more often than I would like though.

If you check the specifications webpage, the iPod Photo doesn't have as much skip protection as the other iPods.

And for off-roading, I'd choose the iPod shuffle, dejo.

 

[Counterfit]

I'd like to see a mini with a 40GB drive.


Yeah, I'll hold

 

[iKwick7]

Bluetooth 2 With some really cool Apple wireless headphones.
Automatically pause when I get a call to my Bluetooth phone.

That's all I want right there. Bluetooth.

 

[stevehaslip]

How about a shuffle playlist option? Its all well and good hacing a shuffle for the whole library but how about a shuffle option for just the selected playlist?

If im wrong and it already exists then please correct me as I'd love to be able to do it.

 

[stevehaslip]

Edit: Double Post

"The server is too busy at the moment. Please try again later."
Been happening a fair bit recently?

 

[spercharged69]

That's all I want right there. Bluetooth.

Oooo... good call on BlueTooth. Once you originally load your iPod up with music, how much do you transfer to it? Very little in my case, I sync up every once in a while with maybe 100MB worth of music. Awesome for BlueTooth 2.0.

 

[Fredstar]

How about a shuffle playlist option? Its all well and good hacing a shuffle for the whole library but how about a shuffle option for just the selected playlist?

If im wrong and it already exists then please correct me as I'd love to be able to do it.

Select shuffle songs in menu and select a playlist and press play...

 

[Benj]

That's all I want right there. Bluetooth.

Wouldn't the sound quality be dire? It is bad enough with regular Apple headphones, let alone BT ones.

Depending how fast BT 2.0 is I guess it could be used for transfers though.

You realise all this will be pricey though - we either end up with all iPods costing more or a totally fragmented range.

Most buyers will not want to pay any extra for most of these suggestions. (As shown by allegedly slow iPod Photo sales.)

 

[Mechcozmo]

I'd like to see a larger built-in RAM buffer. This would help preserve battery life (fewer spin-ups of the hard drive), and also help with skip protection. I've just walked home from work (an hour-long walk) and my 4G 20GB iPod skipped 3-4 times. I'm not jogging or running...just walking. I get skipping almost every time I walk anywhere for longer than about 10 minutes. I've also had my iPod lock up hard a few times while walking, requiring a reset. Not fun.

I was skiing recently, and a friend of mine took his 3G snowboarding. He said that it never skipped, but when we came in for lunch, it had actually frozen. Frozen as in, too cold of a frozen. We let it sit for a few minutes, and slowly the metal warmed up. It worked fine after ~20 minutes, but the screen was still a bit ghoasty. That cleared up, too. His dad took his iPod Mini out the next day, no skipping, but he held it closer to his chest so it didn't freeze.

It works with my 2G iPod, though I’m not sure about the first generation.

Works with my first generation...

Apple, please give us a software update! I've got iPod version 1.4 on my iPod, can't you get me something like 2.1? I know we are on 3, but I'd like the extra games... extra features... cmon!

 

[3Memos]

Select shuffle songs in menu and select a playlist and press play...

When Apple added the Shuffle command to the main menu of the 4G iPods and iPod mini, we should have known something was up with the iPod shuffle. It all makes sense now. Steve and Apple deliberately trained us to use shuffle, so we were better prepared to use the iPod shuffle.

 

[stevehaslip]

Select shuffle songs in menu and select a playlist and press play...

shucks! makes me look stupid! i've only had my ipod for a few months and hadn't really thought about shuffle much. The thing that threw me off is that the numbers at the top of the screen still say traack 2 instead of the actual position of the track in the original playlist.

Well this keeps me happy, i can't really ask for much more from an iPod now, although it would be cool if it could butter my toast?