Rumors of Mini iPods

TheKidWho writes "According to Thinksecret: 'Reliable sources inside and outside of Apple have confirmed Apple will announce the new pocket-size iPods in a number of capacities and in various colors, including stripes. Capacities will be 2 and 4GB -- meaning users could store some 400 and 800 songs, respectively. Prices will start at around $100US, Think Secret has learned. It is not known if the new product line will be available immediately after introduction. It is also expected that current iPod models will be revamped to add body colors as well.' With the $99 price tag, it seems these rumored iPods could make big headway in the low end mp3 player market."

Comments

Batteries?

[TechyImmigrant]

But will they introduce a user replaceable battery?

Re:Batteries?

[drinkypoo]

This is certainly the crux of the matter. IMO the solution is to make it run off 2-3V external power, and then sell a battery pack that will snap on, plugs into the AC adapter hole (though it probably won't have one, instead running off USB) and you can slap alkalines, nicds, or nimhs in it. Sony has made a number of small portable devices powered on just this plan, and it worked really well. Then they can sell it with a removable battery pack with whatever battery technology they want in it, and you can replace it with an apple-sold or aftermarket (but unsupported) battery pack as well.

Re:Batteries?

[w3weasel]

just to clarify... you can not load music (mp3, aac etc.) files via the os and have them show up in the ipod's playlists. You can manage files by directory using only the OS's GUI, as long as you dont want them to be available in the ipod's playlists.

If you are reasonably adept at the CLI, you can shoe-horn files into and out of the active playlists directory on your ipod. This would be a laborious task, and there is no reason to do so, when the iTunes interface is so slick.

As for flexibility from your iPod, I'm shocked that no-one mentioned this: http://ipodlinux.sourceforge.net/

The hardware you want, with the OS you want.

-----------------------
quit crying you fscking baby!

Re:Batteries?

[Jon Abbott]

What ISN'T done, is the ability to manage files by directory: to drag and drop them using your os and "just have it work."

Just to clarify, the iPod does allow you to manage files by directory, and allow you to drag and drop them using the OS, however it does not allow you to do this with MP3 or AAC files that you wish to listen to with the iPod. iTunes manages music files on the iPod, but Finder (or Windows explorer) manages the rest of the files on your iPod (for when it is in firewire disk mode).

I'm not sure about how it works on Windows, but on a Mac you can have it in firewire disk mode and have iTunes open at the same time, which provides you access to both modes quite easily.

Brand Dilution

[kiwioddBall]

Can this be true?

Steve Jobs is well known for keeping a clean image on his products - it seems strange to me that he would allow rainbow iPods. Rumour has it he objected to the coloured backgrounds in the iPod adverts.

It seems strange that he would dilute the iPod brand at such a critical point in its existence.

Hmm.

Small iPods - no hard drives, only RAM based??

Storage device?

[John_Booty]

What kind of storage device would these use?

My first thought was the CompactFlash-sized "microdrive" hard drives developed by IBM (not sure if they belong to Hitachi now). A 1GB microdrive sells for about $200, though. Even with the volume discount Apple would surely get, it's hard to image they could hit that $99 price point at any capacity. And I guess flash memory is ruled out for price reasons too....

Re:Storage device?

[stuartkahler]

Up until now, the only demand for Microdrives has been camera owners who want a single Compact Flash card to take thousands of high resolution pictures. Microdrives use very few parts compared to a regular hard drive, so if they were produced in massive quantities, they could slash the price to a small fraction of the current one. Building the assembly line is likely the greatest expense in producing the drives.

If Apple came to IBM with an offer to buy a million of the 1 gig drives at $40 each, ($40,000,000 contract), I'm sure some VP would work their ass off to make it happen. Especially since it would help them reduce their price on CF Mirco Drives, and push regular flash memory out of the market. There's a massive market for 1-2 gig Micro Drives that is waiting for the price to get reasonable. Portable USB storage, video and photo cameras, MP3 players, PDAs, digital picture frames, just to name a few. It's actually pretty amazing that a solid state storage device has greater market share than a disc based one right now.

Re:Xmas?

[McAddress]

the entire idea is to release them after the holidays, this way no one will get a low cost iPod instead of a $300 dollar one. wether this will work or not remains to be seen.

Roll on iTunes music store

[adamwright]

All I want is the iTunes music store in the UK. My new 40G iPod is reading, meerly 2gig full. My credit card is ready, my bank account is ready. I've got enough of a buy list to spend 100 in 30 seconds.

So where the hell's the store!?

Screw the little one. . .

[jafac]

The *big* one, speculated about on http://www.macosrumors.com/

seems more interesting to me. . .

Sounds like an ideal companion to a mini-dv camcorder. If one could dump video to it in the field, and possibly do edits to it (portable iMovie?) - that'd be great. I don't really have much use for an ipod - too big for pocket transportability (really). Too small (storage-wise) to be useful as a semi-portable "desktop music server" - (though a G4 iBook serves that purpose pretty well).

Re:this is good for joggers

[ljavelin]

I run at least 18 miles a week with my iPod for the last 14 months or so. So far, no problems.

Of course it can't last forever, but it's lookin' good so far.

and for storage, they will use...

[ELiTeUI]

Toshiba's new 0.85-inch hard disks!

...or at least it would be QUITE a coincidence if they did not use these drives.

ELiTeUI

Re:this is good for joggers

[joe_bruin]

no, not flash, DRAM.

2 GB of flash is currently much too expensive. however, in volume, dram should be sufficiently cheap. yes, it's volatile. but if they have enough battery power to spin up and power a hard-drive, keeping dram alive for a few days at a time should not be a big deal. if you plug it into a usb port every few days, it should never lose power. and if it dies, well, you just have to reload all your music.

pretty clever.

Re:iPod battery FAQ

[Brat Food]

Course, theres also a little bit of economics to consider here:

Lets say, the iPod had the choice of using 2AA batteries. Lets's say you got your AA's at $0.50(too high? too low? i dont have to buy them). Lets's see what youve paid for JUST BATTERIES over the "300-500" charge average lifetime of apples built in battery:

err, $300-$500... I made my math too easy =(

Probably more depending on how much you use the ipod, if the ipod could run on only 2AAs, and what quality battery you buy for it. Still complaining? If you are really desperate, i think some companies offer *gasp* external battery packs. But even at 99 bucks, Apples battery replacement nost likely means your not gonna blow double that much on batteries over the next few years.

*CHEERS*

Re:2gigs for 400 songs?

[berniecase]

Most of my songs are over the 5 minute mark. Then I completely blow that away with a 20 minute version of Moby Dick from the Led Zeppelin DVD. Or, In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida. Or a two-hour trance mix from Oakenfold. I've found I just have to limit my playlists on my iPod by MB rather than time.