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Wireless iPods, Soon?
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AvSRoCkCO1067
macrumors 65816
This would be a killer product if also booting Mac OS X mobile (to be released):
1. Make Keynote or PowerPoint presentations on Mac or PC.
2. Transfer to wireless iPod.
3. Carry only the iPod with you and use it as a wireless remote control to give a wireless presentation.
No cables or computers involved. Wow! It will sell millions in the corporate, education and domestic markets. Imagine the tremendous halo efect! Apple will double or triple market share of Mac as well!
1. Make Keynote or PowerPoint presentations on Mac or PC.
2. Transfer to wireless iPod.
3. Carry only the iPod with you and use it as a wireless remote control to give a wireless presentation.
No cables or computers involved. Wow! It will sell millions in the corporate, education and domestic markets. Imagine the tremendous halo efect! Apple will double or triple market share of Mac as well!
OMG this will be so totally awesome! Maybe they'll introduce it at the WWDC...
Oh wait, that already happened and this is recycled news. meh
Oh wait, that already happened and this is recycled news. meh
kashimo
macrumors member
Apple's headquarters has begun dispatching its staff to its major markets in Asia, to teach local sales how to demonstrate the new products, the sources noted.
Something about this statement means iPhone and not new iPod. Reason? The MP3 playing phones are selling very very well and Apple will have to break into a market currently dominated by Sony, Toshiba, Samsung and other Asian makers that are producing MP3 playing phones. The current Toshiba models have 2+ GB space for music. My phone can hold 250MB of music (old).
Softbank of Japan (recently bought Vodafone Japan) has been tooting the upcoming technology that they want to present to the market to take a bigger bite out of DoCoMo.
There was a rumore a few months back that the iPhone would be released first in Japan and then other places. Reason? iPod sales are falling as more Japanese want to have just one item to do phone and music. If the iPhone can do all the functions of a nano and a phone, you bet it would be a huge hit in Japan. Therefore Apple would have to dispatch lots of tech people to help get it understood not to Apple staff (like all of us...it would be a no brainer of a product) but to Softbank staff (mostly young minimally educated girls in cute uniforms).
Something about this statement means iPhone and not new iPod. Reason? The MP3 playing phones are selling very very well and Apple will have to break into a market currently dominated by Sony, Toshiba, Samsung and other Asian makers that are producing MP3 playing phones. The current Toshiba models have 2+ GB space for music. My phone can hold 250MB of music (old).
Softbank of Japan (recently bought Vodafone Japan) has been tooting the upcoming technology that they want to present to the market to take a bigger bite out of DoCoMo.
There was a rumore a few months back that the iPhone would be released first in Japan and then other places. Reason? iPod sales are falling as more Japanese want to have just one item to do phone and music. If the iPhone can do all the functions of a nano and a phone, you bet it would be a huge hit in Japan. Therefore Apple would have to dispatch lots of tech people to help get it understood not to Apple staff (like all of us...it would be a no brainer of a product) but to Softbank staff (mostly young minimally educated girls in cute uniforms).
i dont really think the ipod needs to be updated.
its great the way it is, and it hasnt even been a year since it was released!
why are you all on this idea of an ipod update?
the ipod isnt a computer that needs a new processor and faster components.
mp3 files just play.
its great the way it is, and it hasnt even been a year since it was released!
why are you all on this idea of an ipod update?
the ipod isnt a computer that needs a new processor and faster components.
mp3 files just play.
Chef Medeski
macrumors 6502a
Its at least good to see Microsoft put pressure on Apple because it forces them to actually innovate.... which is what it looks like its been doing.... i love capitalism.
petteri said:Here is a map of the Sirius satellite orbits. You can get a signal pretty far south, at least as far as southern Mexico. But to conserve power, Sirius shuts the power down once the bird goes "below" the equator. XM does have a owership in WorldSpace which does broadcast around the globe through a network of various satellites.
Very interesting. Wonder why they did a "wobbly" geo-synch, and how their receivers cope with it. I'd guess it's a cost-related thing, but maybe there's an engineering reason for it (certainly does keep at least one bird near-vertical within the US at all times ...) Note that XM is depicted there as a "true" stationary orbit above the equator.
In any case, still, you're not going to see those satellites from Bombay, no matter how long and hard you look, without a really big mirror ...
ezekielrage_99
macrumors 68040
KingYaba said:
Sounds pretty likely to happen, like a large percentage of the people here I am waiting for the next updates of the iPods before I buy.
izzle22
macrumors 68000
There is NO way in hell Apple will ever release anything in a country other than the USA first. So you can stop getting your hopes up. Apple is an American co. and they will release products here first such as Sony sometimes releases products first in Japan. This is just my opinion, I could be wrong.
kashimo said:
jettredmont said:
He's talking about streaming over the Internet, not picking up a satellite signal.
dbhays
macrumors regular
April Dancer
macrumors regular
direzz said:
Because they introduced video playback capability, that's why. I travel and this iPod has meant that I don't have to drag around countless dvds to while away hotel room evenings. I love it, but ultimately, the screen is ever so slightly too small (not by much, I'm not asking plasma screen here!) and I need more storage. I know I could go and buy an Archos or some such other brand but I really don't want to do that, and I'm very sure that Apple don't want me to either.
If it was still purely an mp3 player I would totally agree with you. Besides, 10 months+ with no update is a long time in the life cycle of an iPod. Only going by previous form. 🙂
jettredmont said:
That's exactly why they did it. The higher the "look angle" ,the fewer drop outs of the signal there are due to something (tall building) blocking the signal. It cut the cost of building repeaters in every nook and cranny of every urban area. Although now with the new portable unit they have been putting more of these up. An added benefit of the orbit is that those three people living in Northern Canada can get a signal!
I don't think Apple is concerned so much about not being able to sell a Sat ready iPod outside North America. It's more about how to integrate the Satellite service into a revenue stream for iTunes. If they can find a way to make cash with satellite radio, it will happen.
I don't really see the demand behind adding wireless functionality into the iPod. I think wireless is the buzz word right now and investment managers and industry analysts don't even know what it means.
Bluetooth headphones, if they sound good, and bluetooth syncing is the only function people might use out of this. However, most people charge as they sync, so they would need to connect the iPod to the computer anyway. Bluetooth headphones would need to be charged too, and that is a nuisance.
The only thing semi-useful out of 802.11 is sending audio to airport express. But I use my laptop for that already, so does this really add any functionality? No one I know will be typing in a 256-bit WPA key into their iPod so they can play their iPod music over their friend's airport express, either. At work, I can view and sample my coworker's library on my computer - even when they leave for lunch. And if I like it, I can buy it on iTunes right there. Again, where is the usefulness of a wireless iPod?
I can see how XM radio might be useful to many, even though it doesn't appeal to me. However, I would think Apple would want an exclusive deal if they were to offer this feature.
Bluetooth headphones, if they sound good, and bluetooth syncing is the only function people might use out of this. However, most people charge as they sync, so they would need to connect the iPod to the computer anyway. Bluetooth headphones would need to be charged too, and that is a nuisance.
The only thing semi-useful out of 802.11 is sending audio to airport express. But I use my laptop for that already, so does this really add any functionality? No one I know will be typing in a 256-bit WPA key into their iPod so they can play their iPod music over their friend's airport express, either. At work, I can view and sample my coworker's library on my computer - even when they leave for lunch. And if I like it, I can buy it on iTunes right there. Again, where is the usefulness of a wireless iPod?
I can see how XM radio might be useful to many, even though it doesn't appeal to me. However, I would think Apple would want an exclusive deal if they were to offer this feature.
Sirius impulse
Exactly what I do -- listen to Sirius in the car and look at the display whenever I hear a great old song or something new I like. When I get to work, I launch iTunes and add the songs to my shopping cart. Then I purchase when I get home and finish checking out this weeks new releases!
apb3 said:
Exactly what I do -- listen to Sirius in the car and look at the display whenever I hear a great old song or something new I like. When I get to work, I launch iTunes and add the songs to my shopping cart. Then I purchase when I get home and finish checking out this weeks new releases!
Sirius bests XM
Especially since they have ads on their music stations now. Sirius had 600,00 subscribers before Stern and now has over 4 million. Sirius WILL surpass XM sometime in the next year. The reasons are simple:
1. Howard Stern
2. Exclusive NFL, NBA, NHL (all now) and Nascar (as of 2007) programming.
3. Commercial-free music stations
apb3 said:
Especially since they have ads on their music stations now. Sirius had 600,00 subscribers before Stern and now has over 4 million. Sirius WILL surpass XM sometime in the next year. The reasons are simple:
1. Howard Stern
2. Exclusive NFL, NBA, NHL (all now) and Nascar (as of 2007) programming.
3. Commercial-free music stations
iBorg20181
macrumors 6502
April Dancer said:
Add to this the fact that the iPod's storage capacity has remain unchanged for, perhaps, the longest time in iPod history. With video capability, 60GB just isn't that big anymore. Hasn't Seagate had an 80GB 1.8" drive available for several months?
We need to have a new, improved, (and thinner?) form factor, with larger capacity, at the current price point.
apb3
macrumors regular
iBorg20181 said:
But.... I never keep ALL the vids i've downloaded on the iPod. Do you personally need to? or can you do as I do and just uncheck the boxes in the iTunes lib (or use the manual transfer method) for videos you don't want at that time/for that trip?
I usually put enough to last me a trip and a few extra - my oldest son insists on his Clone Wars Vols. 1 and 2 and some Mystic Force Rangers, my youngest, Baby Einstein and some ripped kids shows off of Tivo - not Tivo supported yet on mac but my wife's PC laptop from her lab gets the shows transferred and I muck about with it - COME ON Tivo, get with it!!!! - and I insist on my Streets videos and presentations in Keynote.
On that point, someone mentioned wireless usefullnes in the presentation arena but it is quite easy to just use the iPod as an HD and run it from there or use a dock w/ remote, but I do appreciate/like that wireless idea for this app nonetheless 😎 ; maybe as an add-on like an FM transmitter or iTalk with its own power supply/easily swapped AA, AAA, independently rechargeable or whatever batteries so as to avoid my issues with wireless killing iPod play time capacity during untetherd use?
Not as elegant or "SEXY-WOW!," as mobile OS X or whatever but I've sold quite a few old-time PC guys on the merits of apple by showing them the difference between the real Keynote presentation straight off a mac laptop and the exported - more or less; less mostly - PPT show run from the iPod through their windows box in the briefing area.
The iPod mobile Firefox and the ability to do that with any software really (given the effort and skill) also had them excited. Security, uniforminity and transportability of essential info/prefs/forms data/ pushing info out to such devices in the hands of squad leaders and even the regular soldier/security contractor a la an ITMS type interface are a big concern for us which this type of development provides to a degree.
And the iPod or a mac laptop coupled with Keynote and it's ease of use, clarity and attention grab during the few briefings I've handled has already convinced a few of my superiors to 1) pay for a new mac laptop for me asap and 2) requisition some more on a test basis to work out just how much more secure they are than leaky windows boxes and, I extrapolate, the Zaney or whatever MS will call their iPod Killer if it makes it to market. (comments, ideas, proof-of-concept walk-throughs would be helpful in my crusade in this area. Maybe "Crusade," is a poor choice of words....🙄
The rest of my family's personal vids, video-grams, "miss you" videos, etc I keep archived in iTunes on one drive location shared by all computers authorized to do so - or backed up somewhere if you'd rather do it that way - but with drive storage getting even more affordable by the minute and the soon to be pervasiveness of Network Drives without the need to log into a "server" as such, I've no issue keeping them (unchecked so they don't sync to the iPod next time) in my regular library shared between all my computers (when I'm at home).
My wife has no issue keeping up with this way of doing things while I'm away and she's not really as computer savvy as I 😛 and includes a work PC 😡 in the mix. We just point all the home machines to one of our big external drives dedicated to music and video - or you could use an alias on each machine that does the same thing I suppose. She's been able to troubleshoot that herself with minimal input from me after the initial walk-through/discussion of the theory behind it. Once I cycle back to the states and spend some cash we will be able to afford - and I hope I will be able to convince my wife of the necessity of getting netdrives; it'd be convenient for her work from lab - yeah that's it... and we're going to soon need to have separate HDs for music and video with the relevant appps pointed accordingly to the right location. Two, three clicks in the apps pref panel. Easy as making MREs.
This also does away with the need to have shared music libs on the same subnet, duplicating libraries on each machine and thus wasting space, the headaches of making sure we all have the same access to the same libraries or doing backflips/using unsupported hacks to make sure everyone has the latest download purchased on "Machine X" available for all other authorized computers - all you need do is access the drive(s) wherein resides the "real" library you need for that particular app.
That said, being rather far from home at the minute I have been reduced to having a real (read: extra) copy of everything on my laptop here and it's a real pain in the ass. Especially when one of us buys a new track or video and I need to get it FTPd from her to me, me to her or sent some other way back and forth so we all have an actual copy, but this is only temporary one way or the other...😱 It was just too snail slow doing it the aforementioned way from here.
Depending on quality offered with the alleged movie service, however, a bump to 80Gig wouldn't be bad but I think I could make do with my 60gig with some planning ahead as noted above.
I think we all agree on the need for bigger screen real estate but when you start adding the bigger/better res screen, an HD bump of at least 20gig high end, the no-touch thingy, the wireless everyone but I seems to find useful/feasible, etc... into the price factor, the iPod looses some of it's appeal to the masses and becomes the must-have-tech-geek-mac-fan gadget my gen 1 was way back when.... Oh you should have heard my wife then. And do you still remember being in public with one - the only one? 🙂
Geeky, but we (or, more precisely, Apple) were right.
Also, the "smaller" form factor you mention would, I think make battery life even less satisfactory for long haul trips w/out the ability to recharge often or at all. Add the wireless some are clamoring for and you might get 30 minutes if you're lucky. Hell, the latest Streets exclusive video is longer than Thriller at 20 minutes!
Tangentially, has anyone else seen the news stories (mostly since the Dell battery issue) about fuel cells or some other sort of power source for these devices that seem to be more and more dangerous from a heat standpoint?
Anyone with some technical background in that area with some insight on cost, size, cell life, feasability for an iPod like device, etc??? Would that make sense in a next gen iPod (and/or laptops, tablets (come on apple! I still love my Newton!!), an iPhone/vid chatter/presentation device thing, etc...??) maybe that's a partial solution to some of my and others' concerns with all this wireless talk and hoped-for new features.
apb3
macrumors regular
ipodG8TR said:
XM has ads on the MUSIC stations?? ugh. Do you have both XM and Sirius or did you see that somewhere? I'd like to read that press release to see what they have to say and how they spin it. "We're not terrestrial radio, we're better. Oh wait, we are pretty much the same now... buy Crest! Sirius who?"
I understand the commercials/ads on talk-type radio on Sirius - and XM too I assume - especially the live ones as it takes time to change guests, pee, put the seat back down, set up segments, etc... and even recorded ones need separators/change of pace markers or whatever of sorts. If it brings in more revenue so my subscription is a bit lower, OK, I can deal. But not on the music channels. I can tell you, being able to hear and have personalities use the F-word and talk about pooh graphically (while sometimes funny) was not the main reason for my decison to go from terrestrial radio to Sirius (before Stern even made the leap). One of the big motivations was not having to sit through those lame local commercials touting some local PC repair man or dental office (sorry if that's you...) or the stations next "big" promotion just to hear a few songs I may or may not like. I want Punk or rap or old standards or comedy or Korean or way-out-there commentary? I tune to that specific station and know I will hear what I am in the mood for without idiotic offers for 0% financing until 2008 for those who qualify - I have the yellow pages and google, thanks.
MikeELL
macrumors regular
Hi, here's an excited essay for you all!
You've read some talk about apple releasing the iPhone concurrently with the next gen iPod... I'm going to make a prediction (read: wish) of what I see as the ultimate convergance of all the rumours I've seen lately. If I'm right, I'll keep talking about it for quite a while 🙂
I predict that the "iPhone" is the next-gen-iPod. I think that apple will happily combine both devices if/when they could be satisfied that both sets of functionality were covered.
I forsee a (3G?) phone which is also the next gen ipod (has a none-touch screen over it's entire face). This timing would tie in well with Leopard's release timing. My reasoning is that if Leopard's rumored ability to call any Phone is true, why not speak of it at the wwdc06 keynote unless they had integration with a smart new phone that they hadn't released yet? (the tech itself isn't anything new)
I therefore think the iPhone (combined with iPod or not) has to come before Leopard's release.
It is the talk of wireless iPods which has made me think that iPod/iPhone will eventually be combined. If a combo device has bluetooth/wifi, it also means it can function seemlessly with front row - also not mentioned in wwdc06 keynote and begging for an update given Apple's obsession with Macs as media devices.
For the record, I'd also like to see something like elgato's eyetv incorporated into front row - record from tv and send to your phone/iPod while using the device as a remote control for tv - but that probably counts as a second wish.
Cheers,
MikeELL
You've read some talk about apple releasing the iPhone concurrently with the next gen iPod... I'm going to make a prediction (read: wish) of what I see as the ultimate convergance of all the rumours I've seen lately. If I'm right, I'll keep talking about it for quite a while 🙂
I predict that the "iPhone" is the next-gen-iPod. I think that apple will happily combine both devices if/when they could be satisfied that both sets of functionality were covered.
I forsee a (3G?) phone which is also the next gen ipod (has a none-touch screen over it's entire face). This timing would tie in well with Leopard's release timing. My reasoning is that if Leopard's rumored ability to call any Phone is true, why not speak of it at the wwdc06 keynote unless they had integration with a smart new phone that they hadn't released yet? (the tech itself isn't anything new)
I therefore think the iPhone (combined with iPod or not) has to come before Leopard's release.
It is the talk of wireless iPods which has made me think that iPod/iPhone will eventually be combined. If a combo device has bluetooth/wifi, it also means it can function seemlessly with front row - also not mentioned in wwdc06 keynote and begging for an update given Apple's obsession with Macs as media devices.
For the record, I'd also like to see something like elgato's eyetv incorporated into front row - record from tv and send to your phone/iPod while using the device as a remote control for tv - but that probably counts as a second wish.
Cheers,
MikeELL