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Apple To Introduce Video iPod?
xombo writes "iPoding and Mac Rumors as well as eWeek newsletter and Reuters seem to think that Apple will be introducing either a video-capable iPod -or- even better a Tablet Mac which may run into direct competition with Microsoft's similar product.
"The one thing you can say for sure is that they do have a lot of product out there right now and they're going to be hesitant to draw too much attention away from their existing products" by introducing new ones now, said Roger Kay, an analyst at market research firm International Data Corp.
Instead, Apple may unveil the long-anticipated video-enabled iPod, which will likely work initially only on Macintosh computers, Enderle said.
Apple's existing inkwell and Newton technologies seem to make them in the perfect position to take on Microsoft in what could be the biggest battle for the most worthless market sector (Tablet PCs), however as a Newton owner I think that the some-what-larger-than-Palm device size that the Newton line sported is much more user friendly and usable.
Read the Reuters article at reuters.." It'd be nice, but I'm skeptical on it actually being that.
Don't even ask.
Cunning linguists
Rumors suggest Apple may solve world hunger, send a manned mission to Mars by 2004, and release a machine which is fast enough to compete with PCs.
Thank you for playing.
(Gotta love Macworld Expo...)
Stéphane "Alias" Gallay
Now, where did I put this witty quote?..
however as a Newton owner I think that the some-what-larger-than-Palm device size that the Newton line sported is much more user friendly and usable.
:-)
Cmon, Apple's due for a limited-edition device. "The 25th Anniversary Newton" has a nice ring to it, no?
May we never see th
I've got a standard Jukebox 20, and the wife has the FM radio version, both are really reliable little units and there's even open-source firmware available for it called Rockbox.
Well worth a look, and IMHO superior to the iPod - certainly the ones I've played with anyway.
Smegma.
This was on Yahoo 3 days ago.
Is Slashdot relevant?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
The bottom line is that they are too expensive. Do not look for anyone except the rich kids in college to flaunt them. A great concept, converting your handwritten notes to say MS Word, but they are too expensive, except for the affluent. Hell..I still can't afford a laptop..
Solid!
Don't wait until tomorrow to see what is announced, read what *might* be announced today. After all, Slashdot won't be reporting on the speech tomorrow.
*rolls eyes*
Is 24 hours too much to ask?
...Is a video recording device that I can plug into my network. This way, all I need to do to schedule it to record something is enter it in iCal or email my computer. Imagine being able to use my Palm Pilot to enter in the time and date a program will be on, and all I have to do is sync it with the device.
'Nuff said.
Whew! This water sure is cold!
By the way..I meant "TABLET"..damn desktop computer...
Solid!
"...-or- even better a Tablet Mac which may run into direct competition with Microsoft's similar product..."
Why is Apple releasing a tablet so great if the idea of a tablet is so dull? Is this just MS bashing in disguise - "it is competing with Microsoft so it must be good". Constantly comparing yourself to the competition is a great way to give them credibility.
Read reviews of shopping cart software
Does anyone really need something like this? The iPod you can use in the car, while working out, or while sitting at your desk. Ripping or downloading songs is fast and the files are small. None of these things are true for an iVideoPod. The only place you could use such a thing would be on a bus or train or something, where most of the passengers tend to be older and poor (not exactly Apple's niche market, to put it nicely). If they want to continue to grab the rich college girl market, they'll need to come up with something more reasonable.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
This guy really knows what he is talking about.
When I charge it, it displays a nice little video of the battery charge going to low to high, and back again. If that's not high-quality video, then I don't know what is...
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Apple is about giving a good experience. Watching movies on an iPod is not really a good experience - massive storage requirements, pressure to have a large display on a small device, the need for battery life. Why make a video device that you can only watch one video on? I would rather them foray into consumer electronics, selling a Tivo-like device that if you subscribe to .mac you get the channel listings, or something like that. Not a video iPod....
"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes."
-E. W. Dijkstra
It'd be nice, but I'm skeptical on it actually being that.
Huh?
1. Next year theyll add a voice recording function 2. Then wireless connections will be available 3. Same people will call this kind of gadget mobile phone Any questions?
The USB2 is as fast as firewire; and it works without drivers on XP - comes up just like another hard drive. The big problem with the multimedia one they put out, there is an extra adaptor you have to get to use firewire or usb2. That was a major error in my eyes, since usb2 was built into the previous versions. Also, despite the repeated lies by steve jobs whores, the sound is better on the archos and most versions will record other sources to mp3. Of course the best sound comes from the Nomads, but those things are fatter than cowboi kneel.
It will take Microsoft 5 years to get it right. They release now so that Apple won't get a corner on the market. Of course, Microsoft's Tablet will be crap now, but people will buy anyway. Then either their Tablet will get good enough to use in 5 years or they'll kill off any competition in the market and then decide to kill theirs down the road.
At least one of those two things--tablet or enhanced ipod/handheld--are what I think are most likely tomorrow as well. Apple has recently improved all their products--superdrive in the tibook, quartzextreme in the ibook (and man does that make a difference), powermacs up to 1.25 GHz, and the 17" imac. Speed-bumping the xserve would be nice but it's not a show-making announcement.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Is that they'll make iSync Zaurus compliant. :-/
Trolling using another account since 2005.
(except that i probably misspelled it...)
The one thing you can say for sure is that they do have a lot of product out there right now and they're going to be hesitant to draw too much attention away from their existing products"
certainly you don't want to diminish sales of your own products, but if the sales would otherwise go to someone else (e.g., somebody with a color something-or-other, or a tablet something-or-other...
then maybe you do want to saturate the market with your own products?
The article posting said, "in what could be the biggest battle for the most worthless market sector (Tablet PCs)." It goes on to say something like, "it would at least be nicer than a Newton or a Palm".
This is hardly a ringing denunciation of MS while at the same time praising Apple. None of the posts as of the time I'm writing this are heaping praise on Apple either.
I really can't see a video iPod being successfull. It would make it so expensive and for what? Who puts on the visualizations and stares at them? I unfortunatley don't have time to get stoned and look at my computer screen, let alone shell out $500 to stare at my screen while listening to Wilco on the train. I am also not going to shell out $500 to watch a DIVX movie on a screen the size of a matchbook. Do you forget that this kind of activity would kill the battery in far less than the 13 hours I get out of mine? I can see them opting for a color screen just for the hell of it and putting an FM tuner in the mix. But as for video, it would have to be a new device altogether to be any good.
Sound waves should be free!
1,000, 2,000, then 5,000 songs, all in your pocket. Not much video is going to been seen from there, I seriously doubt such a change in what the iPod is all about, forgetting about complexity, and just listening to music, but who would have thought that they would have added a calendar, and contacts features. I don't think it would be smart, I think they should fix existing iPod bugs before attempting another revolution.
Whats wrong mith M$s tablet? I thnk they did a fine job, i played around with one at circuitccity and the hadwriting recognition is amazing. Micorsoft put out a quality product for once, but unffortunately, its too expensive and is really only a niche market.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I won't go about watching any video-material on a few square cm. display with poor color depth and/or lighting. Besides, it will probably consume a /lot/ of batteries...
The only way to experience video anyway near pleasantly would be through a head-mounted projection display. This will, however, seriously reduce your movement and reaction capablities, but still...
Still, I think I'll pass and stick to good 'ole audio instead...
Invoicing, Time Tracking, Reporting
Its not possible.
iVideoPod would be a wankers dream.
Sheesh, its as if you guys have never even dreamt of pocket porn...
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
Investment in those who are supporting the platform through thick and thin, by buying them out and/or paying for more aggressive development. First, sink funding and other technical resources into finishing Chimera and maintaining it as the default OS X browser. Consider buying or subsidizing OmniGroup for their nonbrowser products to make peace and calm fears. Buy or fund the Watson folks to both enhance Sherlock and continue work on their Sherlock companion. Bundle basic functions into Sherlock -- build Watson into a more feature rich extension of .Mac services for those who ante up the $100 a year.
Buy and bury Quark for good. QXP5 is terrible and the lack of an OS X product is hurting adoption rates of X and new hardware purchases. Release an OS X version of QPX6 as a glorified conversion tool to InDesign. Announce the EOF of QXP, put the last nail in the Quark coffin and embrace Adobe as a strategic partner.
Further work on iSync to make it the defacto desktop synchronization tool for all Palm OS devices. Create a universal ease to using Palms, Handsprings and Clies to shore up defection from those companies customers to bargain basement Pocket PCs. Any enemy of Microsoft is a friend of Apple.
Develop a TiVo and/or Replay connectivity application by purchasing or funding El Gato's EyeTV project. Don't take the time and efffort to develop a competing product when you can add the value and fuctionality end users want by working with an existing DVR hardware vendor. Apple will capture significantly more revenue if they can get just 10% of TiVo and Replay's customer base to buy a Mac by bundling innovative software than they ever will competing in an already crowded, low margin device market. Add value for an already enthusiastic customer base rather than take the R&D hit reinventing the wheel. Most early adopters have already invested in TiVo or Replay. Likewise, most are probably unwilling to abandon those in favor of a similar product from Apple.
Apple needs to reward developers to encourage new ones and the formation of corporate alliances will give more customer contact with potential "switchers."
A "Video iPod"? Good grief. Why would I want a device that's bigger than my PDA, and less functional than my notebook PC? Apple needs to read Slashdot and see what people really want. Then, they can start working on an iPod with a bacteria-based hard drive, made of X-Box parts, and mounted to a scooter. Of course, the manual would have to be open source.
The reason the Palm became popular was it was first out with the correct form factor. You couldn't carry a Newton in your pocket, so the appeal was very limited. If Newton had been the size of a Palm, it would have become popular. Palm's licensing of the OS also had an effect, but it was the convenience of the size that made it take off.I do software development for the government focused on training and tracking. We take tablet PCs and Pocket PCs very seriously for this type of work... in fact we are already doing enterprise level R&D with them as a target platform. Remember, the government collects a lot of information about things and then must manage it. This is easier said that done...
I agree with the parent that watching video on a handheld-size screen wouldn't be worth it in most instances. A laptop or maybe even a palmtop DVD player is about the bare minimum size, and even then its usefulness is limited.
But just as the iPod with a built-in speaker would be useless, it's very useful with headphones. Why not a video iPod with a set of VR glasses? The only pair I've seen was kind of awful, but maybe that's the killer hardware to make the application useful.
It'd be worthwhile for long commutes, plane trips, lying in bed and not disturbing your mate, and so on. The right video glasses would even transform portable computing -- imagine a Palm or similar sized device that could be used without a display. Enabling transparency could even allow you to see *and* see video at the same time.
I think the rumor mills are hearing the truth but misinterpreting it. A video screen (say 6-inch diag.) iPod like device as a portable photo album could be slick.
Don't think "QuickTime in your hand" think "iPhoto in your hand".
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
it ain't gonna happen. the best you can hope for is an apple branded DV camcorder that doubles as an ipod with removable media (DV tapes) and can play DV video. whee.
moox. for a new generation.
OK... Slashdot, News for Nerds.
/. is supposed to post news, not crazy rumors.
News!!
I'm a mac geek and I'm combing the mac rumors sites like any hard core mac geek, but
Sheesh! How long till CNN starts posting breaking stories about Apple rumors?
I'm not feeling witty so bite me
... Apple should give a try to this "BluePod" concept before burying itself under the "portable video" idea. I mean, nobody really ever wanted video-capable cellphones (ready from almost 5 years) basically because watching coloured stuff moving on a oh-so-small screen isn't exactly a great experience. A video-iPod wouldn't be different.
Apple is great in "thinking different", opening new markets. The "TabletPC" or "portable video" concepts are old things that no one still proved profitable.
-- Let's go Viridian.
I don't think a video iPod would be a bad thing - personally, I'd like a Palm style PDA with the 5 to 20 G drive inside - that way, I can store all my ebooks (yes, 16 MB has now become too small - thanks, Tolkein and Rowling!), documents, etc.
But for video - something to watch sitting at the couch ("What's that dear? You want me to sit on the couch and watch Pride and Prejudice with you again? Well, that's fine - I'll put Utena on the handheld."). Here's what I'd like to see:
1. A decent DVD ripper. Theoretically, if Apple made it so it only ripped the video to the handheld, they might - just might - avoid the legal entanglements. I know - I'm smoking crack just thinking about it, but this is a wish list. I'd like to stick a DVD into a tray in my Powermac, have it ripped to a 1 to 2 G MP4 file (including subtitles/optional languages taken care of - yes, I'm an anime geek fan, who asked you), then placed on the portable.
2. 802.11/Bluetooth support - yes, that would make copying a 1 G file a long time - but if we're assuming this also does MP3's as well, then I'm just putting the unit in the same room and synching up. Or "streaming" video/music from somewhere else. (Could be used as part of Apple's Digital Hub theory.)
Without turning this into a full fledged PDA, I can't think of what else I'd really like to see. (Well, unless you really want to make me a Gameboy Advance with a 1 G hard drive to cache ROM images of all my games so I don't have to swap cartidges - wait, there's that crack pipe again, my bad.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
the obvious solution:
Apple will be coming out with a special edition videoPod that will wirelessly connect to your incoming TV signal and allow you to record your favorite TV shows directly to your iPod. You could preview the captured shows directly on the new high-res color screen (running OS X lite), but the genius is that you can use the optional* connection kit to connect your videoPod to any TV or computer** to play your movies with full HD quality and surround sound.
get those rumors flying!
* = Apple always seems to charge about $20 more for "optional" cables like this
** = in the rev2 version, Apple will offer an optional adapter that turns the videoPod into a digital projector, so you can tack a bedsheet on the wall and watch your movies anywhere, as big as you like.
As far as the video i-pod is concerned, the market for such a thing would be so small. While MP3 is on just about everyone's computer, a large percentage of users are not downloading movies or editing video, mostly due to cost and bandwidth restrictions. The learning curve doesn't help either. The other reason why a vid-pod would fail is the experience would such, nobody wants to watch video on such a small screen, especially mac users who probably already have a ibook or tibook. The people who don't have laptops may be interested, but they will correctly reason that they shouldn't by such a toy, when they can save x amount of dollars more and get a full fledged laptop.
Apple's reliance on its iSync technology to get all the information from its keyboard-enabled computers into your peripheral devices could be a major part of that plan.
Have you tried to use iSync? God help us if Apple is betting anything on that program. (My Mac won't even recognize my iPod since I installed iSync 1.0.)
The iPod has a year warranty.
Under certain ideal conditions.
Wow, like the iPod always has.
I don't think this will fly in the consumer market though - look at all of the hospital and other field-type application that PDAs get used for. The people don't think of them as PDAs, because they're just using a tool to do a specific job. I can see tablets in a similar position, where they are adapted for specific uses in specific environments, and they do great.
I, for one, don't have good enough handwriting for anything to recognize. Even graffiti didn't get it right more than about 80% of the time.
Ironically, the only people left with decent handwriting seem to be older folks who didn't use computers until much later in life; their handwriting clarity was important for communication. Us "kids" (i'm 34) who use a computer all day generally can't hand write for shite.
See the section this story is in? You just defined Apple - it wouldn't matter, they'd still be able to sell them to the Apple faithful.
maybe it should be called viPod. Cause emacsPod would be kinda lame.
So what does the fake iWalk look like this time?
want to try plugging two hard drives into your usb2.0 ports on your motherboard, and I'll plug two hard drives into the firewire ports on my mac, lets see who can write and read a 5gb file from each drive faster...
I'll beat you by at least 40%, if you don't know why visit google.
At the desk, the tablet can be set in a lucite cradle with matching fire-wire plug, making it look a lot like a 14" apple studio display. On the go, just pluck it from the lucite base and go. The screen is pressure sensitive when using the battery powered stylus. There are no buttons at all on the device. The computer is turned on or brought out of sleep by placing your hand palm down on the screen. This also serves as a biometric password based on finger lengths and palm shape (if enabled).
the case is nominally white, but fiber optic LEDs allow the case to take on hues from red to blue. The case flashes as an alert signal which can be enabled in the network panel to flash when the Airport locates a rendevouz enabled signal, or when new mail arrives, or an iCal appointment alarm is set.
It will come with new version of apple remote desktop which will enable it to act as a hand held remote screen and input device for a central server. This enables it to be the "remote control" for the digital hub: watch movies on it, or control your music system, Sync your blue-tooth phone, etc....
I've heard the price point will be in the low $2000 range.
Disclaimer: Sorry, I cant tell you how I know this. But (hint) I'm out of a job and looking for work. post below if you might have a job for a power systems electical engineer.
"most worthless market sector (Tablet PCs)"
I hate to post an opposing opinion, but I have had my Compaq TC1000 TabletPC for nearly a month now, and it has truly revolutionized the way I use computers. As a laptop, it is powerful enough to run SQL Server 2000, IIS and Visual Studio.Net, allowing me to have a full development environment with me wherever I go.
As a tablet, I have learned to keep handwritten notes and sketches of my architectural meetings, which are later searchable without having to convert them to text first. It records voice dictation for small notes, and does nearly flawless speech recognition for larger documents. Every way I want to use this computer is covered, with and without keyboard or pen.
It is small enough to throw into any carrying bag you need it to fit in, and the resolution of 1024x768 is extremely crisp and clear, especially using the Clear Type feature of XP.
I think people who spend so much time bashing Tablets haven't bothered to see how they have revolutionized computing. Maybe not for you, but certainly for me.
For those considering a foray into the Tablet market, I highly recommend the Compaq product.
I've got VMWare workstation loaded on it, and its 30 GB drive has plenty of room for virtual machines of all my favorite operating systems...
Don't bash it until you try it. Blanket comments like "most worthless market sector" aren't doing anyone any favors, especially the people out there that could benefit from this technology. And if it isn't for you, that's fine too.
http://www.ucomics.com/foxtrot/2003/01/03/
Why would anybody want a tablet? Let's see...bigger form factor...
I almost expect Apple to introduce an Olfactory Output Peripheral System (OOPS), called iSmell.
Jobs himself has said on more than one occasion that Apple isn't planning on a PDA. I, for one, am glad. Their efforts should be focused more on things that integrate the Mac into someone's entertainment center. Imagine what Apple could do with the media center PC concept that Microsoft has. I just added a Keyspan Digital Media Remote to my iMac about a week ago, and I totally see now what I've been missing. Now I can control iTunes from the couch, blasting through the big stereo. In addition, if Apple added PVR functionality to OS X, they'd have a leg up on the competition.
What I'd like to see is a Firewire-based PVR with an 8" screen. Not only will it record TV, but you'll be able to watch it on the 8" screen (portably) and on the Mac and TV. It's like having a TiVo to go.
There's more that Apple can do - how about adding SPDIF and S-Video outputs to all Macs so that we can use them as our main DVD players? How about that remote control, a la MacTV?
There's so much that can be done to make a Mac truly the center of a digital lifestyle, and a PDA just isn't one of them. Apple should focus on entertainment, something they're good at, both with A/V and Photo products.
I think Apple should get together with Apple records and create a line of pies. Specifically, an apple pie. So then it would be the Apple Apple Apple pie.
-russ
Don't piss off The Angry Economist
And then he'll go back to watching a movie with the archos, or recording to it from his stereo...
Why not fork?
That would be great. They were just too ahead of their time the first time, and people wernt ready.
The future of tablets may be underestimated as well.. 10 years from now I'd bet they are just as much a common appliance as the PDA is today.. A staple in the business world.. creeping into the home..
Its a shame Jobs is an idiot, and got out of the market a tad too early, when they *created* the market in the first place.. Just before it really took off..
Patience is a virtue
---- Booth was a patriot ----
go to www.iphone.org that is what apple is going to release. Then go to Shampoopoo.com and say hi!
...is the theatre which surrounds it. Most Macheads enjoy the rumor-mongering as much as Apple's actual products. They're cheaper, too. ;-)
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
Hold on cowboy! You have to wait for him to find his power supply.
A great concept,... but they are too expensive, except for the affluent.
That never stopped Apple before. *cough*Cube*cough* (not to mention the $10k TAM.)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Another example of how Apple gets ahead of itself. While on ocassion they introduce a great product, or at least a product that earns them a nice chunk of revenue. They get ahead of themselves and the public by releasing a product that is not ready for primetime then proceed to loose millions on it.
MP3 player good, established market. iPod video player, bad. How many people go around sharing videos or ripping movies off newly DVD's like they are with MP3's? Very very few.
This thing is going to go the way of the Newton.
Apple should (and will, I think) add software and support to the Ericsson P800 mobile phone. This is already a good phone, a good PDA, an MP3 player, a video player, a Java machine, and has enough CPU power to run iPhoto, probably play QuickTime video, and lots of other stuff. Remember the Ericsson chief on stage with Jobs last year? I think they had a lot more than just iSync support for the T68 phone in mind. This a a great chunk of hardware Apple could integrate fully, maybe even make an Apple branded version.
Mike from www.myallo.com/blog
this would be a very logical move for apple. They have all of the software and equipment necessary to do it: Low End G3 Processors Small LCD Screens Ink Well handwriting recognition iSync the iPod's peculiar architecture (in that it was put together by multiple companies) and of course their head-strong approach to wireless As you can see, this is the perfect sector for Apple, something that Microsoft can't even do effectively. If they could take the compact design and 3rd party composition of the iPod and mix it with the light weight power of the iBook and the handwriting of Inkwell they're in a very good position to start bargaining for the tablet architecture. They just need to know how to market it, and as we've seen: they know how to do that.
It's no longer iMars its the iDeath()(we'd tell you the rest but we'd have to send you to the MPAA).
The comment on apples competing with pc's: Other than quake(that is SO tired) they: Do photoshop mars rising, deimos rising, and 802.11 nuf sead
This is old news but will be presented tomorrow, Quicktime for Mobile Phones. No, video iPod!
>> Had I been going to bed earlier every night? Have I been sleeping later? Has Tyler been in charge longer and l
I'm a bit surprised by your comments. 256Mb CF cards are now down to 24p/Mb (£60 from dabs.com), and I wonder how many of these you would need for a two week holiday. I'd imagine the average user would only get through one or two (depending on the size/quality of your photos). For instance, a 3mp picture at normal compression quality on my camera tends to come in at about 600k. I could fit >400 pictures on a single 256Mb CF card.
Even 'fine' quality jpegs are only around 1,200k - giving you 200 pictures/card.
If you're an avid photographer, I'd have thought you could spend the cash on a couple of 1Gb microdrives (£200/each).
I suppose if you want to store all your pictures uncompressed, you're looking at up to about 20Mb/picture, which is when current CF will not suffice, but then solutions to that problem already exist - see The Digital Wallet.
However, I don't think the number of people who will only take photos uncompressed is very high - I think CF works fine for the vast majority.
Perhaps I'm underestimating the number of photos an avid photgrapher would take in two weeks?
...is something to happen to the iBooks, specifically the 12-inch models. $999 buys a nice notebook, but those g3 processors are a sticking point. It's good to see them getting upgraded with better video and such, but what Apple really needs to do is cut costs another $100 or so. They could have a dynamite seller in their hands, and a great argument for people to switch, because despite the aging g3 processor, you'd be hard-pressed to get a PC laptop of that quality for under $1000.
As for the 14-inch models? Honestly, I could care less. I don't think 2 inches of laptop screen space is worth the extra weight and size, and I also think it's too much to spend on a g3 processor-based laptop. Like it or not, this isn't like the Pentium 3 vs. the Pentium 4. There's a huge jump in performance between the two, and Apple has made it all but obvious that g3's are going to become a thing of the past. This is why it's crucial that Apple make the push for low-price iBooks now, before g4 becomes a nessecity, and they're back to almost-square-one in prices because they lost all the cost-cutting they could do with the g3.
Basically, if I was Jobs, I'd be playing up the iBook more as the "laptop for the common man". It's light, it's durable, it's easy to use, it's even affordable, compared to most laptops that aren't overglorified paperweights. Sure they're already hot with education, but that should only convince Apple more that the iBook could be huge with the right blend of advertising and price-slashing.
Why bother installing linux on this "video iPod" You can get a computer as low as $200 with $500 you can get a decent computer. ASDF
It's ASDFing to the Ultra!!!!!
I don't think a video iPod would be a bad thing - personally, I'd like a Palm style PDA with the 5 to 20 G drive inside - that way, I can store all my ebooks (yes, 16 MB has now become too small - thanks, Tolkein and Rowling!), documents, etc.
I swear, the only reason the storage market hasn't died is because of the pack rat mentality. Do you really need all your ebooks in your pocket, or just the ones you're reading right now? I can just imagine a future where every device we own contains all the data we have in every other device because you never know when you might need it...
At first swipe, I agree that the vidPod seems lame - no one wants to watch video on a 2"x2" screen. However, as an extension to iPhoto and iDVD, I think the vidPod makes more sense.
Scenario: You're going to see Grandma. The highest tech piece of equipment she owns is a color TV - with a remote! (MAYBE she's cutting edge and owns a VCR.) However, being the yuppie-technocrat that you are, you have a digital camera, DV camera, and a Mac loaded with the way cool iPhoto and iDVD.
Now, how can you amaze Grandma with footage from little Suzie's latest soccer game, and photos from the family vacation to the timeshare in Mexico?
You could:
a) Print out photos and bring your DV camera to hook up to Grandma's TV.
b) Burn photos and video to a DVD and bring your DVD player to Grandma's.
or....
c) Write all your photos & video to your vidPod (which also holds the MP3s you listen to at the gym).
I think a marketing case could be made that scenario "c" is more convenient. Also, I like the post that mentioned direct dumping of digital pics to the vidPod; add in dumping of DV and I think you have a case for a near universal, portable storage device with various in/outputs - headphone, s-video, firewire, bluetooth.
The Archos video camera is intriguing, too. Unfortunately, adding this type of functionality would put Apple in direct competition with Sony, Canon, et al and I don't think Apple wants to go there.
This sounds too good not to be true. The little nuances, like a battery operated pen and the lucite stand make it sound like inside info.
But I seriously doubt Jobs is going to announce it tommorrow. If they were we'd have heard some hype like we did for the ipod and the imac.
This sounds like some disgruntled contractor that got to see a prototype thats 6 months for mproduction. It's telling that he says hes a power systems engineer and most of his comments concern things that eat power.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
It's possible to be too small. Perhaps, being a man, I don't appreciate what it is like for people with delicate little girly hands, but I find Archos jukeboxes fit perfectly in my hand. Anything smaller would be a little awkward.
I also find the iPod to be rather ugly. It looks like it was designed by someone who designs overprices cigarette lighters.
If apple were to release a handheld to compete with Palm and Microsoft, I would line up to buy it. I think it's high time Apple created an embedded and scaled down form of OSX, an elegant form factor, and an innovative way to input data like the newton. Apple has shown the ability to do all of these things, so I can only hope that they'll enter the PDA field with as much innovation as they did in the MP3 player field.
God is real unless declared integer.
If Apple was gonna do something, it would do it right with something like this.
What about the iPod with audio-in... AKA pure digital handheld audio recording? I have inside info that Apple is working on that, or if not, they at least have thought about it and are condsidering it. Maybe we'll see tomorrow...
Ahh, you're just stupid.
Asia Apple users have been clamoring for a notebook/sublaptop from Apple for a while. The smaller iBooks are okay, but I think they might like something a little more chic.
As well as the extra storage, you'd also be able to view all the pics you've taken, and keep some pics permanently on the device.
Microdrives aren't too bad, but like the guy above said, they're much more expensive than HDs. Also they drain power badly - not good if you've got a digicam on the road.
One major problem though with this idea is what storage format would they use? Digicams use a large variety of cards: CF, SD/MMC, smartcard. Not to mention proprietry formats like Sony memory stick and the Handspring devices. Whatever Apple came up with would be bound to disappoint a lare proportion of the masses. Apple itself does not have any commitment to any storage format, although their friendliness to open standards like firewire would suggest they'd go for CF or SD (or maybe both like the Handera PDA).
The video will be a fringe benefit. The killer feature will be surfing the web using sherlock on a webPod that is linked to the bluetooth phone in your pocket.
You can be on the bus and buy movie tickets off the net. You can be at the airport and check your flight schedule.
You can be on your boat and check the weather radar.
Oh and you can check your email from anywhere.
WAP on a 1 inch screen is lousy. Web with handwriting is on a high res 5" screen is good.
Look at the people buying blackberries and SideKicks.
PS if it has TiVo it will sell twice as many.
[archos video jukebox]
>like we did for the ipod and the imac.
Well, the flat-screen iMac had absolutely no pre-MacWorld hype (except for Time Canada's "accidental" posting of the iMac article the night before the keynote)...all the rumor sites were dead wrong last January when it was announced.
As for the iPod, there were rumors also, but none of them were 100% correct...
Shame on Google.
I loaded this article at a threshold of -1, and the report appeared at the top of the screen. Then I changed the threshold to 1, and the report disappeared. So I guess that the article rating is either -1 or 0.
What about the iPod with audio-in AKA pure digital handheld audio recording? I have inside sources that Apple has either been working on this or at least has thought of it and has considered it. We'll see tomorrow...
There is no techniocal reason why OS X can't run on TabletPC hardware --except Classic, of course. Imagine: Cocoa, Carbon, Darwin, not to mention QuickTime all runing on a TabletPC with Intel Inside.
This is not only cool, it's a step towards a new-and-improved hardware-independent Apple.
The only danger I see is that if it's released for TabletPC, it will be bootlegged and running on a standard wintel box in no time.
So what!
I didn't buy the Mac for anything else other than I just don't have to deal with the BS when I need to do some real work.
(Well, unless you really want to make me a Gameboy Advance with a 1 G hard drive to cache ROM images of all my games so I don't have to swap cartidges - wait, there's that crack pipe again, my bad.)
Well, Nintendo is supposed to be making some sort of announcement tomorrow as well, in New York. Wouldn't it be funny if Apple introduced the often rumoured iConference package, with Nintendo joining in from the other side of the continent?
Steve: "Today we're happy to announce Apple's new partnership with Nintendo of Japan. We'll be working to develop the Gamecube 2 together as well as the Game Boy Advance 2, which will feature mp3 playback and Quicktime compatibility. Oh, and one more thing. Nintendo has graciously decided to port their classic SNES and N64 games to OS X, with Gamecube games heading our way in a few years time. Download the Ocarina of Time demo now!"
Wait, now I'm the one on the crack pipe. Steve Jobs, talking about unreleased hardware. Never in a million years!
According to sources, Apple will actually show the an Apple PDA with a color screen and many ports to accept digital camera cards (so now you take your iNewton along with your digital camera for almost infinite storage).
Under certain Ideal conditions
Both USB2 and Firewire are faster than current harddrives. Technically USB2 is faster than Firewire (480 Mb/s vs. 400 Mb/s), but they work using 2 fundamentally different methods of communication. Firewire uses a peer-to-peer method where USB2 (and USB) use a master-slave method. Personally, for computer to device communication I'ld perfer the USB2 (since the master would be much faster than the slave), but for device to device communication I'ld perfer Firewire (since both devices should be about the same speed).
The biggest problem with the iPod (in my mind simply a portable harddrive) is that it is too easy to use. I have seen people walk into a computer store, buy an iPod, open the box, and then download all the software off the demonstration Macs. That could be really bad for Apple, since that keeps people from buying (and therefore making) software for Macs. Hopefully, Mac OS-10 (OSX is a different operating system by a different company) keeps this from happening.
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
Pretty cool. For as you say:
Of course my iBook runs Apache, MySQL, PHP, perl, python, and a myriad of Unix and GNU goodies, and the sites I develop are able run on nice inexpensive Linux and Unix boxen without any changes - whereas .NET and Microsoft's kooky JDK are hobbled by Microsoft's shortsighted marketing schemes.
Of course you can - and should - install PHP, Apache, and MySQL on your laptop, and throw CygWin on there for a tiny bit of Unix power. Then you can develop in perl, C++, PHP, etc., and free yourself from the trap that is .NET.
Heh, can you install your OS on an Archos, and boot from it as an external HD?
I don't know if you can, but I'm damn sure you can with an iPod. Great for music, and "just in case" backup support.
I hope that was a troll, as everything you said was either half informed, or total bunk. I thin the only accurate sentence was your first one. (And don't ask me what Mac OS-10 is.)
After I got my BMW back in school, I got a Table PC. Not at all portable enough to fit into the sport little 300-series. So I got daddy to get me a 740i. The Table PC fit in, but it was still too bulky. I ended up throwing it away and getting a Tablet PC. Now all the other kids in their BMWs are jealous. It's fun being an affluent college student.
from Linux1394: What exactly is IEEE 1394? It is a serial bus similar in principle to USB, but runs at speeds of up to 400 Mbit/s and is not centered around a PC (i.e. there may be none or multiple PCs on the same bus). It has a mode of transmission which guarantees bandwidth which makes it ideal for digital video cameras and similar devices.
from Linux-USB:The specification (version 1.0) was first released in January 1996 and the latest official version 1.1 was released in September 1998 The document is still under development and a version 2.0 was announced in 1999. The USB is strictly hierarchical and it is controlled by one host. The host uses a master / slave protocol to communicate with attached USB devices. This means that every kind of communication is initiated by the host and devices cannot establish any direct connection to other devices. This seems to be a drawback in comparison to other bus architectures but it is not because the USB was designed as a compromise of costs and performance. The master / slave protocol solves implicitly problems like collision avoidance or distributed bus arbitration. The current implementation of the USB allows 127 devices to be connected at the same time and the total communication bandwidth is limited to 12Mbit/s. Howewer use of low speed devices, management of USB "interrupts" and other overheads mean that actual throughput cannot exceed about 8.5Mbit/s under near ideal conditions, and typical performance may be around 2Mbit/s.
finally, for the speed of USB2, check out any one of numerous product descriptions such as this one:USB 2.0 runs at up to 480 Mbits/sec.
Galium Arsenide is the material of the future, and always will be.
How many times have you been on a trip and run out of space on your digital camera's built in card and didn't particular want to drag a laptop along with you on vacation? Probably, non Zero.
People do look at the photo collections they just took in the last day or less. Long term storage? Yes, that should be in iPhoto (or equiv.). Short term on the go, it is not without utility. It is more of iPod as portable storage device as oppose to photographic/video device.
[ either need a USB connector and/or media connectors. An iPod with USB would be useful with more devices; albeit slower transfer times.
Would that expand the market for the devices? ]
Peace
Oops, guess you're not really a BMW owner since any BMW owner would know that the models are referred to as the 3-series, 5-series etc., not the 300-series ;-)
nice idea, but you try doing that with wireless... where's the bandwidth?
I have lottle doubt it will have airport Wi Fi 802.1g in it so it will have plenty of bandwidth for wireless movies. Even 802.1b has just barely enough as is. For example, if a typcial dvd movie is on the order of 2GB/hour then that's less than 5 Megabytes per second which should be sustainable on a 802.1b. Plus if you allow for some pre-cacheing of the movie its no problem at all. On the otherhand the Windows SmartScreens cannot show movies this way beacuse they have to transmit the movie uncompressed from Mpeg2 in raw video format. Apple wins again.
Please examine the stats on the Archos Jukebox 6000. Not only does it have a built in screen to watch DIVX MPEG4 movies and a 20GB storage capacity, it also can use a digital still/video camera attachment (webcam quality, some places are shipping this with it) and a video output jack (RCA phono plug). The thinkgeek price is a little high, i've seen it for around 300 by cruising pricewatch.com. Yes, it's mac an PC compatible. The 29GB non-video enabled jukeboxes have sunk well below 300.
Since when has /. decided it will try to compete with all the idiots who run the Apple rumor sites?
This is "entertainment" or what?
I had an idea for that. But I thought it would be kinda dumb. But I eventually liked the idea, but mentally voted it down, thinking that the ARM processor in it couldn't handle it. But, if it is an entirely rebuilt iPod, it could work. But I'd be pretty sad. No RotK Trailers on the go for me!
Rawr
be sure to visit this page to read my extensive summary of the current Macworld rumors
Ah, you got me. Nope, I don't have a BMW (though I probably knew that, it wasn't near the top of my recollection.) I'm a very happy Volvo owner, though there are a couple of models of BMW that would be fun to drive for a few days.
If the apple PDA has an IR port like an iPaq or my much cooler Zaurus, you could use it as the remote..:)
IF apple put as much innovation into a new PDA as they did into the original Newton, they could do great things. Especially considering their reputation of having long battery life on their portable devices.
You like your new Mac more than you like me, don't you, Dave? Dave? I asked...She said Yes.
The PDA market is oversaturated as it is. And regarding IR ports - why? Apple doesn't ship any computers now with IR ports. It wouldn't make sense to make a PDA with IR, if the computers also don't have IR.
Apple should focus more on the software needed to make common PDAs work well with OS X. iSync's getting there, and if Apple continues to add meaningful and useful improvements to it, it'll be a great App.
Apple should allow third-party developers to create apps for the iPod. The platform's already there - why not make it easy for developers to write software for it?