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.

Comments

Archos is a nice alternative

[Joel Rowbottom]

Archos have been doing this for a while with their Multimedia 20 product - it's using USB2 rather than Firewire but it's a lovely friendly unit, and also has things like CompactFlash adaptors so you can use it as a backup for your digicam. Plus if you plug it into your Linux box you can mount it as a standard USB storage device.

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.

Re:Archos is a nice alternative

[Anonymous Coward]

You jest that the Archos is better than an ipod?

I have both the ipod (20GB) and the Archos Jukebox. It came with a 6GB disk and I upgraded to 30GB. (This is not the video device).

The s/w on the Archos is totally crap, but the hw is not bad. However the constant hard disk speed up/slow down is very very annoying. I upgraded to the gpl-ware Rockbox which is a vast improvement on the Archos s/w.

But - the flipping thing takes an age to boot up and doesnt remember where you were when you turn on. The ipod is flawless in this respect (it has no real OFF button - but just goes to sleep where you are).

The slow boot up and disk seeking for songs makes it great as a piece of hifi but not a portable device (its too big and bulky).

The ipod is superior than the Archos in a lot of areas.

But having said that - the Archos is much cheaper than an ipod. They are both good devices but the Archos is NOT better than an ipod.

allapple.com make the best predictions

[edLin]

This guy really knows what he is talking about.

Re:What I would like to see...

[Brummund]

FWIW, one of Sony's high-end camcorders had an ethernet plug, and an embedded webserver with applications for editing (like deleting scenes etc). I can't find it on the sony site, but they've got some new bluetooth cameras, too

Re:No Way

[dolanh]

Unfortunately, a lot of people seem to be missing the point (or at least, a major selling point) of a "video iPod". It's not about the video -- though in the future it could be -- it's about the stills.

The digicam market is growing very quickly as are digicam file sizes. Even large CF cards are not sufficiently large to hold enough images for a 2 week vacation -- for an avid photographer, no where near sufficient. Apple could kill two birds with one stone (kickass MP3 player, kickass digicam storage, etc) by releasing something llke this.

Ironically, I've emailed them at least twice asking them to consider updating the iPod design to be able to store CF files directly from the card. If this rumor is true, photogs everywhere will be cheering.

Re:Hypocritical?

[Ineffable 27]

That quote -- "...-or- even better a Tablet Mac which may run into direct competition with Microsoft's similar product..." -- was not put there by the submitter or editor, but is a direct quote from the wire service article. So it does not reflect any Slasdot 'bias.'

Re:I agree with this post

[Anonymous Coward]

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.