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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 $99 price tag, it seems these rumored iPods could make big headway in the low end mp3 player market."
But will they introduce a user replaceable battery?
Evil people are out to get you.
iCan afford one!
Apple realized that you'll have to hide your iPod when you want to be with your 'cool' Windows using friends.
If they would see the iPod you'd instantly be removed from their hardcore powergaming group!
I want mine in Vomit!
The smaller and lighter the mp3 player, the better for joggers and runners. cd players are too bulky and heavy, but this could easily work.
what? Don't these people know how electronics work?! Gah.. well I for one refuse to buy one until they make it cost three times as much as a normal-sized one.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
What do they call iPod's size now?
So that's how it's going to work. Kill the current market by spreading specs and rumors.
100$ for a 2gb lightweight device by apple? amazing indeed.
Just like the Playstation 2's specs killed the Dreamcast.
Sorry, I'm just bitter.
I probably just need more brandy in my coffee.
Merry Xmas
Nouvelles de jeux et technologies en français. TC
Please?
You know that Apple-fanatics will think it will be the greatest thing even if its 10 lbs and has pointy barbs sticking out of it, but I just want to see what would direction they would go.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
i want one of these in the worst way as i said relatively recently here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=88765&cid=7679 795
that's an awful lot of room. the article doesn't mention battery life, which one would hope would support the storage capacity.
ed
Thank god, it's about time! The current Ipods are so bulky and unwieldly, I can't believe apple even introduced them!
"BadTimes will make you fall in love with a penguin" - Laika
will the headphones still be white? otherwise, how could i identify with other pods?
Wouldn't it have been smarter to release these BEFORE the holidays? Are they so down to the wire that a Jan. 6 announcement is the last possible day they can release them?
There is no gravity...the earth just sucks.
The current models fit my jacket pocket just fine, thank you kindly. And it holds lots more music.
My only thought is that by getting into the ~$100 range, that makes it something parents will buy for spoiled teens more readily. That would make it pocketbook sized. Assuming there is any truth to the rumor, of course.
-- I Am Not A Terrorist.
When you can get a cheap PII 100, install bsd on it, spend a week setting up a web interface and uploading all your songs, buying a cheap sound card, getting a car battery, put it all in a backpack and viola: Open Source MP3 player!
Well, damnit, I expect it to be half the size of the current iPod *AND* powered by a standard 9V battery! Otherwise, I'll throw it out when the battery dies and sue Apple!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
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??
Numerous sources have confirmed the keynote will be...
Sources said Jobs will unveil...
Sources anticipate that the suite's core applications...
Sources wouldn't rule out other software announcements...
In addition, sources point to developments...
While sources confirmed the announcements
Sources have confirmed there will be no new CPU announcements...
What is the open-source-minded geek supposed to think of this?
thank you slashdot for going back to your original roots. RUMORS. now we can use slashdot as a archival of vaporware that never made it to market.
This would be really great. I'd love to be able to give something like this to my teenage nieces. Sure they could use a full-size iPod, but $400 is a lot for a teen to carry around and probably lose or break. $100 would be cheap enough that pain of loss wouldn't be too awful.
Then I could just give them iTMS gift certificates for all future gifts. I'd be the best uncle ever!
...100$ for 2GB player sounds like a good deal for me.
-- grmbl woz heer
Time for Ogg Vorbis support too, don't you think?
I was just saying last night in IRC how I wanted a smaller, cheaper iPod... This is great! I don't want to spend a couple hundred bucks on an MP3 player, and I don't need that much storage (2 or 4 gigs should be plenty), but flash players are either too small (128-256 megs), or too expensive (>$150 or so). I'll probably end up buying one of these after I see a review on them... Now, any word on Ogg Vorbis support? FLAC would be nice, too...
Take a look inside of one and decide for yourself... hint not much room for any standard battery type.
It doesn't make any business sense. If this rumor is to be believed I think we would have heard it 2 months ago.
I am iterested to see what kind of user interface Apple comes up with for such a small device. As a G3 iPod owner, I think the control pad is about perfect. Any smaller, and it wouldn't be as usable. Not to mention the hassle of scrolling through 5 gigs of songs on a smaller display.
But, I am usually impressed with Apple's industrial design, so I'll probably be impressed again (except for the color choices - I mean *stripes*? Ugh).
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....
OtakuBooty.com: Smart, funny, sexy nerds.
"Introduction" is probably the wrong word; "announcement" would be a better way to put it. Apple, not unusually, often announces products prior to the actual ship date. Sometimes we Apple fanatics (read: frothing fanbois, but we mean well) use "introduction" as synonymous with "announcement."
want an mp3 player that can record with an internal microphone
:)
4 gigs full of karaoke. Yeecchhh!
Not to mention an accumulation of embarassing bathroom sounds because you forgot to turn it off at some point during the day.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
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!?
That's sounds just about right for me--a lower-priced, AAC-compatible player. However, wait--I wanted to be able to play mp3PRO files, too. Where's that player?
Harold
sorry, you must have meant to visit this site.
The life of the battery is NOT 18 months in all cases. The majority of iPods (many are >2 years old) are still working flawlessly. The manufacturer of the iPod battery claims that the battery should still function after three years of use (or about 500 cycles). YMMV based on the frequency and type of use but so far most 1G iPods are still working so there isn't a reason to suspect this claim is false.
On occasion you will get a 'dud' something common to all consumer electronics. While it's unfortunate that Apple didn't have a battery replacement/warranty program when those two gentlemen made their movie, that is no longer an issue now. Applecare and battery programs were announces before the ipod's dirty secret domain was even registered.
Furthermore, if you don't want to pay apple to supply and replace your battery, you can do it yourself - see ipodbattery.com
Mod down if you must:I know it gets annoying seeing the same old "ipods aren't disposable" posts every day but I'd be upset if someone didn't buy me an iPod for christmas because they saw the parrent post and asusmed it was accurate.
These might even be small enough to internally smuggle music into prison. This will become much more important when all of the illegal file sharing music lovers are locked away and tunes have more barter value than cigarettes.
'Nuff said.
as an AAPL shareholder, I do wonder what the margins would be on these.
Plus, would a new battery cost $99 too?
One thing I'd like to see is an AM/FM module on these. I have an AM/FM radio on my Sony MD player, which is nice.
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
Consumer: Sounds cool. What about the battery? Have you all thought about having a user-replaceable battery?
Steve Jobs: STRIPES! The new iPod will come in STRIPES! Who cares about the battery when you have STRIPES!
Amusing, that they call this a "low end" player... "Only" 400-800 songs? Gimme a break - How many of us spend so long away from a PC that we need more than 800 songs on a portable device?
If it plays Ogg Vorbis, they can consider me a potential customer. If not, well, I suppose they haven't lost me, since I'd never spend $400 for what amounts to a walkman-type device anyway. But I hope it does, because this sounds like almost exactly what I want in a portable music player (assuming it plays Vorbis, as I mentioned).
Hmm, one more qualification before I promise to buy it - If they plan to charge $100 to replace a $10 battery that dies within six months of the warrantee ending, I'll pass.
Woot!
It doesnt really matter to apple because all the iPods have been sold out this christmas season.
I'd love it to take one AA. That'd be perfect, since I've standardized on NiMH "AA" batteries.
My camera, my Garmin Legend GPS, and my portable Sangean radio all take AA. I have no desire to fumble around with smaller-but-lower-capacity AAAs.
That said, I have 1286 songs (totaling 2.2 days) and it only occupies about 1.5 gigs. It may seem like nothing compared to a 40 gig iPod, but you can hold a TON of music on a 2 gig player.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
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).
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
my open source luggable MP3 player runs Gentoo .. it's far superior to BSD. Does BSD have portage? No .. in fact /usr/portage doesn't even exist. Clearly an inferior design.
since they are set to "sell" 100 million songs through the Pepsi promotion...
All you have to do is introduce a cheap player and then they have the free music, and you have the Apple Ipod cast in stone as the mp3 player to buy.
moo.
Linq.. Just for the record, I think the $99 might be a bit optimistic, being a rumor and all.
Maybe they'll make the new one's "Lip Stick Pocket Sized" (the little pocket inside the big pocket in those stylish new ladie's jeans).
I imagine you'd spend almost as much, if not more, money on decent name brand batteries in an 18 month time span as you would on the Apple replacement.
Banaaaana!
When I saw this story it immediately made me think of this story from back in November on macrumors.
This snippet is what I recalled:
Toshiba plans to expand into 1" hard drives in the future. 1" form factor drives are already being produced by Hitachi at this time.
Toshiba supplies 1.8" drives for the current iPods. Seems a 1" drive is more likely than solid state memory for the new miniPods.
Seriously, though, I will really appreciate this addition to the mp3 player market. For price/performance (and coolness), there is nothing between the 128/256MB for $100 and the iPod for $400. I honestly don't need 10GB or more and will find the small form factor a double bonus.
Merry January to Me!
Under capitalism man exploits man. Under communism it's the other way around.
I'd spend a lot less. I have a set of excellent fast-charging AA's that I purchsed with a charger for about $20. These batteries are easy to change (and charge), and if I am caught between charges, I can run digital cameras, etc "with the bunny inside".
Not so with the iPod. This appears to be some sort of bad design trick by Apple to make the user suffer while they get large profits for the batteries. Look for a hardware hack to make the iPod run with regular batteries. Or would this invite DMCA suits?
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Actually, i'm fairly certain more than a few cellphones have this capability built in. Even the ones without cameras... ;)
(voice recordings can be compressed a *lot*, so it doesn't exactly take a 2GB iPod to make this feature useful)
This, while a great idea and I might even buy one, is pretty woefully undersized for my needs.
3455 songs totaling just shy of 20GB of data....10.5 days of solid played time, arranged by artist and title. (Yes, I own most of the CDs.)
And I listen to a lot of it at any given time...a track here, a track there, so that I really do use most of the collection all the time.
Too bad I think iPods suck, or I'd buy a 30GB one.
Ever single pair I own has a 5th pocket, all of them mens. Some were embrassingly 5$ walmart brand, some were embarrassingly $70 'chic' label brand.
But more on topic, yes, I would love if it fit in there
$750cdn is what it'll cost for ($603 with ADC discount) for a 40gb iPod because it's small. A 60gb nomad zen xtra will cost you half that much - but it's bigger (weight/volume) than the ipod. You're paying for it being compact. Just like Canon Elf digi-cams cost a lot, and tiny cellphones cost more than brick-sized disocunt pieces - small mp3 players that store a couple thousand songs are going to cost a fair ammount too. compare with the Nomad MuVo2: 1.5gb - $200 after $30 mail in rebate from crutchfield.com. If apple can get theirs out for $99 then they'll be one of the most cost-effective units in the low-gb MP3 player arena. Not everyone needs 21 days of music all the time. To carry 40 CDs in say half the size of an ipod would be a wonderful thing for many people. Especially if they could change those in a minute or two by plugging into firewire.
that would work fine and dandy for a flashcard based mp3 player with little moving parts, and a small LCD. otherwise you're going to get a couple hours out of those batteries in an mp3 player with a large lcd with a backlight, the ability to play games, and a hard drive all while listening to music.
- tristan
Finally - I can deal with a $100 iPod.
Apple tends to think that we all have oodles of money we can just throw at their neat gadets.
My budget has been cut since the economic down turn. Nice to see Apple givin' us po' boys a chance to participate.
Well... there's like a display, and a case, and some buttons, and some sockets, and a charger, and some headphones,
and some chips, and a circuit board, and a battery, and a CD, and box, and some profit. Stuff like that.
They could ship the same device, 'cept for a smaller drive, and people will bitch.
or they'll reduce the form factor or use lesser components and people will bitch.
They could have the exact same product they sell today, reduce the price by $150,
give $150 iTunes credit, and people would -still- bitch.
You do realize that making things smaller costs more money? That's why laptops are considerably more than computers (when same specs).
2 gig for $99 almost seems too good to be true. Although my need for an MP3 player is small, I gotta admit that at that price point, I'd probably pick one up. Assuming they can keep the form factor as nice as the current iPods of course.
Why sell a prodeut for $100 when people are buying in droves at $299 - $499?
So the idea of releasing them for xmas is a horrible one indeed.
I think that the timing of the cheaper miniPods coincides nicely with the $100 mill Pepsi give-a-way starting in February.
It's all a game, the game called 'Maximize Profits'. And selling only the current iPods for xmas make you a big fat winner winner chicken dinner. Also, how many people are going to return their $150 128 meg POS flash MP3 player to Best Buy to get one of these new miniPods? I'd say more than a few.
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
when it's leaked on Apple's web pages.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
That said, since a 600mAh Lithium polymer cell phone battery costs $34.95, the 850mAh or 1200mAh iPod batteries aren't a bad deal at $49.00, and Apple will even do the labor and return shipping for $50 more.
Maybe I'm just lucky. I trained for the New York Marathon, which involves running over 500 miles over 6 months or so. I carried by little 5GB iPod, listening to books on tape, music, etc.
I had no problems before, during or after the runs. I think it is because the hard drive is mostly not running - it grabs 20 minutes of music and puts them in flash memory and then spins down until it needs another 20.
So, on a 3.5 hour run, it will have accessed the hard drive 7 or 8 times. I recall that, on maybe two or three times over the entire 6 month period, the iPod paused between songs because (I think) the hard drive was trying to re-fill the Flash memory at the time I jostled it. It paused 2 or 3 seconds, and then continued on its merry way.
Now, I suppose it's possible that I'm just a very lucky guy. But that was some serious testing of the old iPod, and the wild joy of killing hours on a long run listening to music or getting lost in a good book -- well, give that up at your own risk based on some "running and iPods don't mix" theory, but my experience is that the fear is either overblown or altogether unfounded.
By the way, I take my 40GB out on runs now (much more modest, 4-5 miles a pop). No problems yet.
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
Actually, i'm much sicker of seeing all these uninformed ipods are disposable posts.
A little more info on ipod batteries.
The batteries cost about $50. That's a damn good deal for a Li-Poly battery. Apple just charges you $50 more for them to replace it for you. If it's not wrth it to you, buy a battery, pop the case off, and replace it. pretty easy. Yes your cell phone battery is cheaper, but that's becasue it's a low-capacity NiMH battery. A similar battery would almosy double the size of the ipod and last about for 30 mins of music.
Apple can' use a standard battery. Cylinder cells hold little charge and are huge. Apple's custom batteries can be molded to make use of every spare area inside the ipod. I remember people comlaining about how the smaller G2 ipods had a shorter battery life. It if was a standard (which doesnn't exist) battery, it would be a lot worse. And a battery hat neesds to be replaced every 300 charges (whiich is about 3 years for most people; the ones whose batteries are dying must charge it too often) doesn't need a little door. THe case isn't that hard to remove.
Disclaimer, etc:
I'm a mac fan. Also i just got my new G5 Sunday and am still getting used to the new keyboard, so sorr about the bad typing.
Yes, 640,000 songs ought to be enough for anyone, at least at this point.
sulli
RTFJ.
You CAN replace the iPod's battery if you aren't a pansy about opening consumer electronics. In fact for series 1 and 2 iPod's you can get an ~20% higher capacity replacement. The folks at the strangely named ipodbattery.com will be happy to sell them to you and they even include instructions on how to do it =)
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
With the $99 price point, replacing the battery is no longer necessary. Just buy a new one when your old one dies.
So you've got:
People buying iPods and exposure to 'Mac Life'
People buying Music to go with their iPods
People re-buying iPods to match their music when their iPod dies.
Is Steve finally giving apple a smart business plan to go along with smart products?
dave
I hope Best Buy carries these min-iPods. My bonus this year was a gift card to BB. My wife and I have been seriously talking about an iPod as a way to play our music collection in our vehicles (which have standard cassette, no CD). The problem is they're expensive (I'd hate to have someone break into our car to steal it) and still a bit too large (I'm not going to want the thing in my pocket for a couple hours). We don't have an extensive music collection - it would fit a couple times over on the 10GB iPod. This sounds like a perfect fit for us.
Constitutionally Correct
ipods already have white stripes... white stripes on a white background :)
jred
I'm not a mechanic but I play one in my garage...
You're blaming Apple for ThinkSecret's rumors?
If I were to sell an iPod, I would use the current model, not a future release; any more than I would use OS X Panther vs XP, and not vs Longhorn.
GPL Deconstructed
1. Lock-in all those customers who converted their audio collections into *.ogg
2. Have anyone who sees an *.ogg, think about the only player which can play them
You can get a 2.2G one by some company called magicstore new off ebay for $180. Since its a standalone product and more of a niche one than an ipod the profit margin is probably considerable. Still it seems too good to be true that I could get an ipod with 2G for $99 anytime real soon. Also- if they used cf sized microdrives I'd hope they'd just use a cf slot so you could expand. Such players exist, but nothing with the looks, interface or sound quality of an ipod.
Personally I use an ipaq 2215 (sdio/cf/bluetooth/400mhz) as my portable audio/video player (and pda funcs). Now if only there were a bootloader that worked with it and linux I wouldn't feel dirty every time I use it:)
Many of us do not need the space, and don't have the money. These min-iPods are a perfect solution - all the space I need at a price I can afford.
By comparison, I haven't filled up my computer's 6GB drive in 5 years, why would I want to buy a now-typical 60GB model? I'd rather pay 25% as much for 10% the space. That other 75% is money down the drain.
Constitutionally Correct
the issues is that it is not consumer friendly to change the battery.
You or I can do it, but what about average consumers?
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
the neuros does pretty cheap too my emph' added:
The NiMH batteries in the Neuros and the Lithium Ion battery in the Neuros HD are expected to last at least 1 1/2 - 2 years (depending on usage). Only our Neuros technical team can replace the battery for you and, as a result, it is not consumer-serviceable. Our battery replacement policy is as follows.
Within Warranty (90 days parts, 1 year labor)
-If within first 90 days of purchase - NO CHARGE
-Past 90 days, but within 1 year- $7
Outside of Warranty
Neuros 128- $8
Neuros HD- $12
To have your battery replaced, please send us the Backpack portion of your Neuros in a padded envelope with your name, address, phone number, e-mail (along with a check payable to Neuros Audio) to:
Neuros Audio
Attn: Battery Replacement
1941 N Hawthorne Ave
Melrose Park, IL 60160
really? i didn't think so either.
you're a pretty comprehensive thinker.
-- john
I want it to be smaller then a standard 9v battery, and be powerd by a standard 9V battery!
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The problem with hard drive damage is that constant vibration or jarring will cause damage to the read/write heads. And if your lucky, it will cause minute pits to the platters film (Even if the platters are glass substrate).
Life is not for the lazy.
I don't have a top of the line Bluetooth phone, I have to connect my lil' ol' Motorola v60i via a USB cable, but since I got it, my Palm M130 sits at home, unused. And I sit and play blackjack while bored instead.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
I owned a 1G iPod that had a battery failure. Yeah, it sucked. But the difference is that I abused that little thing and it lived. I also put it through some harsh conditions and it lived. I bought a 3G 10 GB iPod on eBay for $225. Microsoft couldn't do it and not many other companies could because Apple has a loyal fan base. If you ever use an iPod on a daily basis, you'll realize why people continue to buy them. There are also fixes for the battery problem and replacements that are 3rd-party solutions for less than what Apple charges. It's a rechargable battery smaller than a credit card. It's not something you can just go out to the store and pick up. Ask Dell if their new music player has a user-replaceable battery. $5 says it's not. To quote their own website "Fixed rechargeable battery with up to 16 hours battery life." Key word there is FIXED. And if they have a battery problem, they'll have a replacement program.
It does present a standard USB (or firewire) FS interface (FAT32 for the Windows ones, HFS+ for the Mac iPods). I don't know if you can load songs onto it that way directly; you probably will still need a program to update the song DB files, but there are several OSS projects to do so (mostly directed towards Linux, obviously). I'd just use the iTunes software, but if you don't like it for whatever reason, try one of the free (as in GPL, iTunes already being free as in beer) iPod loaders. It takes standard MP3 files (both VBR and CBR encoded, so your lameenc collection should work just fine) and AAC files.
Every cloud has a silver lining (except for the mushroom shaped ones, which have a lining of Iridium & Strontium 90)
I just got an iPod for Solstice (actually, I got it a few weeks early), and the single best feature about it is the games.
That's right. The 4 crappy games that came on it are a blessing.
I HATE shopping. I've hated shopping since I was young and my mother dragged me out to malls to shop around. Back then, they didn't even have chairs everywhere. I stood around and hated the experience. Now, when I go shopping there are chairs everywhere, but nothing to do. It turns out, I still hate the experience.
But now that I have an iPod, I can listen to the music, toodle around with Parachute or Name that Song, and look up every once in a while to say, "Yes dear, that looks great." I don't know if any of the other MP3 players out there have these little time wasters on them, but they should.
(Oh, I hear the iPod does other things, too, like keep your contacts, alarms, notes and files. So handy!)
Mini iPod 99. .99
Battery 99.
Song
Just purchased a 10GB iPod for my fiancee for Christmas.
She'll never fill it up, and I knew that, but she wanted an iPod.
Now there are smaller ones that are $200 cheaper, and in colors as well, after I shelled out another $50 and got a custom paint job on it at ColorWare.
Apple, damn you!
Does anyone know of a tiny form-factor storage media that costs roughly $50 / GB?! I'd love some miniature removable media at that price point! So far, the best I've seen is the MagicStor 2GB CF hard drive for about $200.
:-(
Maybe it'll just use the same 1.8" hard drive tech as the existing iPod line, with the rest of the electronics shrunk...
You do know what the HD in 'Neuros HD', stands for, right? It's backlit too, by the way.
Vino, gyno, and techno -Bruce Sterling
Small size (2.6" x 2.6" x 0.8"), 1.5 GB or 4 GB capacity, starting at $199?
http://www.nomadworld.com/products/muvo_2_15/
I also have a Nex II which uses compact flash and could use a MicroDrive. It has a nice screen and more navigation capabilities, but it has no advantages for jogging over the pen drive.
Lasers Controlled Games!
As we are seeing, a new niche in the mp3 player market is being created. Creative just released a compact 4GB micro-drive MuVo2 MP3 player, here , and we have already seen a "pocket-sized" 1.5 GB player released by Rio, here. Apple is just bringing out the competition now. They will be tough to compete with.
I still don't understand why anybody would want an ipod over an iriver 390t (msrp $199) - see http://www.iriveramerica.com/products/iFP-390T.asp
iPods are overrated and overpriced - couple that with a hard drive (read: moving parts) and, well, ugh.
"Sir it would be cheaper to buy a new model than replace the battery"
Or
"Would you like to buy the battery replacement plan for 99 dollars sir?"
Storage-wise, a 2-4Gb iPod wouldn't be a problem for me. My old-model 5Gb iPod, even with 500+ tracks on it, still hasn't exceeded 2.5Gb of content - and a lot of the tracks on it are just ones I 'kinda' like, rather than love. I can keep them on my iBook if I don't want to listen to them on the move.
And at $100 (probably UK 100, even though the exchange rate is now massively in the UK's favour - it should only be about 65) I can live with the battery issue.
(Although it'll probably only be OS X 10.3 compatible, which would rule me out as I'm still running 8.6/9.2 and have *no* compelling reason - and this is not open for debate for X-zealots, since my primary app on my elderly but beloved 450Ghz graphite clamshell iBook is Word 5.1 - to change...)
You must think in Russian.
Well, of course it doesn't make any sense, if you think the only thing in the iPod is a hard drive. But let's take a quick look at one, without going too far into it:
- Hard drive - this will probably go down in price as capacity is reduced, but probably not as a linear function
- LCD screen - This probably won't go down much in price, other than due to volume discounts.
- Buttons/Wheel - probably won't be any cheaper
- Battery - if Apple does like everyone is whining about and makes one removable, this may increase the cost (more parts to manufacture/assemble)
- Assorted other circuitry - As with the LCD screen.
Yes, there is a lot more in an iPod, at a glance, than just a HD. So why would a iPod that is 1/10th the capacity be 1/10th the price again?(FWIW, a couple of months ago I bought a new 40 GB HD for cheap. The price of the 80 GB model was a little less than double, yes, but wouldn't you know it - I could't find a 20 GB model for anything less than about $10 below the price for the 40 GB. That's half-capacity for about 3/4 the price.)
I-beads are great little MP3 players. 256 Mb, rechargeable off the USB port, keychain, with that built in microphone you want. I found mine at www.mp3playerstore.com but you can look around. There seem to be more places selling it outside North America.
It was SpyMac that announced and had forged VIDEO (not just pictures) of the fake Apple PDA (called the iWalk). Looking at their site now doesn't turn up much of any news, fake or real.
This is not to say that ThinkSecret is clear of wrongdoing. They did post about an Apple PDA called the MacMate back in 1999, but obviously that never came to fruition.
RonB
It is human nature to take shortcuts in thinking.
from someone who's never used iSync with a newer model cell phone and a Mac.
True enough, since my phone and PC address books sync just fine. I don't, however, have a native C compiler for my phone. Do you?
Anyway, I think you missed my point... You can't say that you no longer need a PDA because your phone acts like one, as an argument against including basic PDA functionality in other portable devices such as an iPod.
More relevantly, and the justification for my sarcasm, your reason for no longer needing a standalone PDA has NOTHING to do with your use of a Mac. Nothing at all. Yet, you mentioned it as though you had some magical combination, rather than just two devices following a particular standardized interface.
If anything, you could thank Motorola for making a cell-phone include those aspects of a PDA you find most useful.
(Okay, Zealots, I've tossed you another one to mod down. When will I learn to keep my mouth shut in any thread having anything to do with Apple? Ah well, I have karma to burn. Bite me, rabid fanboys!)
I've felt for a while that there wasn't any really good options for mp3 players for most users. Flash based mp3 players are either really low capacity (256mbs or less) or start going up significantly in price. The HD based one's seem to be just inflating the size with out decreasing the price and are far beyond the capacity of what most people need. The 2-4gb size range would seem to be the sweet point for me and if apple can put something as slick as thier Current iPods out at the 100-150$ price range I think it's gonna be a huge hit.
I recall some arcticle on slashdot i think about some drive manufacturer working on small 2-4gb hd's that they where trying to decrease cost and power consumption by integrating as many things into a single chip on the drive as possible, eliminating the caching on the drive etc. Basically just simple cheap low power storage for portable devices. Sound like the type of thing they would be using.
Do you honestly believe Apple would be replacing batteries at all right now had these two gentlemen not gotten nationwide press?
He put his boots up on the table and made a face. "The sig," he smirked. "You can waste your life in search of the sig."
"From the vaporware dept"... Michael, How can anything be vaporware if the company hasn't announced the product yet and its very existance is only a rumor?
-3Suns
~~~~
The Revolution will be Slashdotted
Five long years, he wore this iPod up his ass. Then he died of dysentery, he gave me the iPod. I hid this uncomfortable hunk of music up my ass two years. Then after seven years, I was sent home on parole. And now, little man, I give this iPod to you.
is a mega-Ipod that will store a billion songs and be worn in a backpack like case and the battery worn around the waist like Batman's utility belt. At least that's what I think :-P
Shop smart, Shop S-Mart.
This is not at all the case. Copying your music to the iPod happens automatically by default. You can get songs off the iPod with lots of 3rd party software tools. It's much easier than any other mp3 player I've seen.
If you have to mortgage your house for a 50 dollar battery, you need to move anyway.
Yeah, someone else pointed that out. I do have quite a few short songs, but most are 2 minutes or more. They are recorded at 64-386kbps (or something like that). I'm amazed they are so small too, but they sound fantastic and they're tiny, so I'm not complaining.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Notice that the copy even suggests why you would want replaceable batteries as a standard feature - road trips. Also notice that they aren't dinging you for $100, plus shipping, to replace a battery.
Don't be surprised when Apple finally caves and makes iPod batteries easily replaceable. They'll claim it's a great new feature.
i didn't think so either.
Yep, I agree. You didn't think.
You mean like this ?
s /A ppleStore.woa/72204/wo/Aa4Za3pnDdrh2QydyzX17nAOkN7 /3.4.0.5.10.11.5.13.0
http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObject
Belkin Battery Pack for iPod
If you are willing to put up with the added bulk, you can add it on to your 3G iPod. The external battery pack uses 4 AA batteries.
I hold it, that a little rebellion, now and then, is a good thing. -- Thomas Jefferson
From what I understand, Apple instituted a replacement program about two weeks *before* the video hit the 'net. The two gentlemen decided to release it anyway, cause they knew it would generate tons of press.
seriouslyexcited.net
Do you ever RTFA or do you just listen to other asshats on /.? They registered their domain ONE DAY before Apple announced their $99 replacement program.
They didn't start anything.
This is just silly. The only DAPs similar to these 'mini-iPods' are the Rio Nitrus @ US$219.99 SRP and the RCA Lyra RD2760 @ US$249.99 SRP.
So what we are to believe is that Apple is going to put out a 'mini-iPod' that has 3 times the capacity for less than half the price? Make sense: after all, Apple is known for putting out products that are all of sleek, stylish, well-made and cheap.
Wait, no, they aren't; we forgot the Apple Tax(tm)!
I can believe that possibly Apple is reading a 'mini-iPod', but if it's less than US$300 I'll be damned surprised.
Wood Shavings!
- Godai
Apple's in a very good position right now - they've managed to get themselves into the good books of both the Free software community and the music industry.
However, if they add Ogg Vorbis support to the iPod then they'll have to
It seems that they are pursuing the third option: ignore Ogg Vorbis and piss off the very small (and to them, not particularly useful) Xiph community.
The US Army: promoting democracy through unquestioned obedience
Cylinder cells hold little charge and are huge.
If this were true, it would beg the question 'what the heck are the battery vendors putting in those cylinders, then?'
Of course, this is merely a hypothetical question, though I'm sure conspiracy theories will be spawned by my mere mention here of the notion.
If the assertion were true, there'd be battery vendors producing big cylindrical batteries with almost infinite life, since they could cram in more of the 'good' whatever that's supposedly only in the tiny little expensive batteries sanctioned by Apple.
"Apple's software is one way only...copy to the ipod or delete it. You can't copy from it. "
Apple's software, yes. But XPlay lets you drag and drop music either to or from the iPod; I find its a more elegant solution than iTunes, because it lets you use the pieces you like for downloading, ripping, managing ID3 tags. Then when you connect an iPod, it shows a special music folder that you drag and drop your music.
And yes music comes off as easily as it goes on.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
So parents buying the cheaper iPod for their kids makes the teens spoiled? What, exactly, would buying them the original iPod have been?
To say that parents might consider a cheaper version of the iPod is not a good argument in favor of their kids being spoiled.
--
RumorsDaily
Give me a friggin' break! Have you looked at the batteries at ipodbattery.com? They're thin and rectangular and would be simple to make user-replaceable. It's not as if they're molded around internal components. I think Apple was just looking to generate future revenue.
i just encoded a cd the other day in vbr (lame's alt preset standard) and the average bitrate of the files is between 154kbps-196kbps, yet winxp tells me that the files are anywhere between 400-500kbps, and some seem to be read as 128kbps (they're not).. so i'd say winxp probably isn't calculating the values in vbr correctly. and if my results are any indication, i'd guess your mp3s are actually encoded at somewhere around an average bitrate of 100kbps or less. at the bitrate i used, a 70-minute cd takes up about 90MB, so 2gigs is roughly 1500 minutes of music, or 375-400 4-minute songs.
2GB? $100? Made by Apple? I will buy one of these the very second they become available. At that price I won't worry about the battery dying after a couple years, I won't have iPod envy when the new version comes out, I won't cry if I drop it on the floor and break it. A wonderful idea, Apple - I only wonder if they will be able to make enough of them.
(Not in relation to the mini-iPods, as I don't know their specifications, but there seem to be enough idiotic battery posts, so...)
Q: Is the iPod's battery replacable?
A: Yes. Apple has an official battery replacement program for $99. You send your iPod in (any model iPod), and Apple will replace the battery for $99.
Q: Is the iPod's battery user-replaceable?
A: Yes and no. The iPod's case is not designed to be opened, so, in that repsect, it's not what you would generally refer to as "user-replaceable". But, the case can be opened, and there are several third parties that offer replacement batteries for the iPod, such as iPodBattery.com (instructions available at that link) and PDASmart, for as low as $49. Some will even do the replacement for you if you send it it.
Q: What's the deal? Does Apple think the iPod is disposable?
A: No.
Q: I heard that the iPod's battery only lasts 18 months, and then you have to buy a new iPod, is that true?
A: NO! The vast, vast majority of even the earliest iPods, now over two years old, continue to function just fine. Some iPods, however, have had issues with batteries. Lithium ion batteries are only good for 300 to 500 charge/discharge cycles. For this reason, certain customers' usage patterns may cause the batteries to degrade, or fail, sooner than others.
A2: If the battery does fail, and the iPod is no longer under its original one year warranty or $59 AppleCare Protection Plan, or any of numerous third party service plans, you don't have to buy a new iPod. You may replace the battery yourself for as little as $49, or have Apple perform the replacement for $99.
Q: Why didn't Apple use better batteries?
A: Apple used the best lithium ion battery technology available from leading battery manufacturers. This is the best, most cost effective battery technology available given the requirements of the device. The lithium ion batteries Apple uses are no different than lithium ion batteries used by anyone else. The battery should last most normal users several years.
Q: Why doesn't Apple make the battery easily replaceable, then? Or use different batteries, like AA?
A: Because if they did either, the size of the batteries and/or the access panels and mechanisms required to access the battery would make the unit significantly larger than it is, likely by several milimeters in thickness at a minimum, and it may possibly affect other dimensions as well. It was an engineering decision to use an integrated battery; if it were not integrated, the unit would not have the small, sleek form factor that makes it so attractive. Additionally, the iPod's battery is indeed replaceable, as has been discussed above.
Q: Well, no one else does that!
A: Wrong. Prime example: Dell's new DJ portable music player uses an integrated, non-user-replaceable lithium ion battery, just like the iPod. Dell also has no plan or program to replace batteries outside of warranty at this time.
Q: But, Apple only released their battery replacement service because of all the bad publicity from the Neistat brothers' video.
Wrong again. Apple released the battery replacement program as early as November 14. ipodsdirtysecret.com was only registered on November 20, and started being heavily publicized on November 21. Additionally, Apple had been planning the battery replacement program for months - these types of service programs don't just happen overnight - before Casey Neistat even had his first contact with Apple. The video campaign had nothing to do with Apple's rollout of the battery replacement program.
I wanted an iPod very badly after getting a chance to hold one at BestBuy a couple months back, but decided against it because of the high sticker price. Then, a few weeks back, a friend of mine gets an iPod, and I got to handle it a bit more, and my lust grew and grew, but my wallet did not. And so, I hatched a plan then and there to get myself a "free" iPod.
I'm a product designer by trade, and often work with clay when fleshing out prototypes, and so one day I borrowed my friend's iPod and made a detailed mold. You can probably see where I'm going with this, so I'll skip some of the finer HOWTO details.
To make a long story short, I made a dummy iPod that looked just like the real thing with a great paintjob, weighing just as much with the fishing lead-weights I embedded inside. I then returned to BestBuy and asked to see the 40GB iPod demo unit again. Those guys tend to watch you like a hawk, though, so I casually said to the salesperson, "Let me see how well this fits in my pocket for walks through the park and such," and I proceeded to slip it into in my pocket where I immediately swapped it for the dummy unit. I continued to pretend to play with the dummy unit, then handed it back. Now the moment of truth: my heart skipped a beep, but the salesman was nonethewiser as he put my dummy unit back on the display shelf.
I walked out with a brand new iPod that day I am in LOVE with it! I do feel a little guilty about the whole "stealing thing" - I have never ever done something like this before - so I have resolved to buy a new overpriced Macintosh next year as payback.
the issues is that it is not consumer friendly to change the battery.
You or I can do it, but what about average consumers?
Somehow, i end up doing it for them.
it better play ogg too. AND have three mouse buttons.
Why would you want a string instrument for your open source iPod? So you can play along? Or for the jokes maybe?
Trollem mirabilem hanc subnotationis exigiutas non caperet
This sounds stupid, My 5Gig iPod is already pocket size. I have no trouble getting it in to my front pocket of my jeans.
The capacity and price will be exactly in my range. Apple, consider me a future customer.
Okay, this is probably just a troll, since it says it isn't one, but it's a new troll to me. Anyway...
Is there support for OGG files?
Probably not. Yes, OGG is an open standard. Yay. That's nice. I don't feel like re-encoding 10GB of songs.
Can I use it between my home PC and my work PC both of which run Linux?
Hasn't someone released software to let your Linux-using PC's talk to the iPod? I think so.
Can I copy a new track to the iPod at home and then download from it to my work PC?
Yes, just use the iPod like a FireWire hard drive, which it is.
Will it play those files that I want to copy FROM IT to my other PC?
This is the same question you just asked. Are you expecting a different answer?
Oh, and if Apple thinks I am going to pay $100 for a portable player and then $50 for batteries, they are nuts.
What does the Neuros run on? Happy rays of sunshine? I couldn't tell from the site. Maybe it said it in the "demo", but I'm not downloading flash over dialup.
BTW, if you don't want DRM, don't download music from a music service. That's the only way you get it, and that's true for any service, not just the iTMS.
Also, if you get modded, you'll probably be modded flamebait. A troll has to actually look like he knows what he's talking about.
Such a smug attitude from someone who is painfully
... the Nomad was one of
ignorant about other mp3 players on the market.
Have you ever looked at anything else or do you just
clutch your iPod close to your chest while you
rock back and forth in the dark closet to an
endless loop of "Steve Jobs is infallible, Apple
is heaven, they make no bad design descisions and
everyone else is simply inferior...."
The Creative Nomad Zen NX has a removable battery
(you simply snap the lock on the front bottom of
the player and the cover pops off. Viola, battery.)
The battery is also standard, so therefore, will
cost less to replace. The battery also lasts longer,
of about 14-17 hours straight. The hard drive in
the Nomad is also a standard notebook hard drive.
Easy to replace the drive or upgrade with standard
parts. Oh. And the Nomad 30GB model is $150
cheaper than the iPod's 30GB model.
Aside from trendy factor, the iPod doesn't really
have much going for it compared to some other
mp3 players on the market.
Lest I forget... PCMag did white noise playback
analysis of more than a dozen different mp3
players. The iPod has a bit of sound colorization
and a brick wall cut off at around 17khz (or was
it 19? I can't remember)
the most consistent in sound playback AND it only
has a slight dip AFTER 20khz. Compared to the
Nomad, you can't call the iPod audiophile quality.
Oh well. Apple zealots will always be much more
ignorant and self righteous than the rest of 'em
out there.
It is not terribly difficult to replace the battery in the iPod, I wish it was easier, but so be it. If the average consumer doesn't want to mess with it, they can send it in to Apple and pay the $50.00 labor charge. Heck the average consumer does this all the time when they take their car in for service.
You final argument on "people who buy iPods" is simply poor logic on your part. According to you, there are only two types of people, trendy and music lovers with practical needs. If you buy an iPod you are trendy if not, your are a music lover with practical needs. Can I turn the argument around and say that the definition of a practical music lover is someone who doesn't own an iPod?
Isn't it quite possible that there are music lovers who decide based on set of criteria that the iPod is the best device for them? If so, are they trendy?
MacRumors has a more complete history of the rumors surrounding the mini iPods. Think Secret is not the only source pointing toward their introduction.
Perhaps it's just a misprint, but at the ~1 meg per minute that mp3s are (and nearly every other popular compressed music format) that's 2000 minutes on 2gig, or nearly 600 songs averaging 3m 20s a song. 400 songs would average 5 minutes per song, which seems a bit long for the average song.
Example: a recent complilation CD I created of modern hip-hop & rock music had 20 songs in 78 minutes, or 3.9 minutes per song.
Course using the same numbers (3m 20s per song) the 4gig unit would hold 1200 songs, not 800 as reported.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
That's not how you spell cavalier, dumbass. (Or their, for that matter.) If you're going to troll, at least learn to spell first.
Oh, and no entry found for fagotry. Did you mean factory?
ignoring your indignance, your assumption was flawed. why would anyone in their right mind only buy disposable batteries?
a few years ago, rechargable batteries were invented. so you pay $11 for some 2200 mA NiMH energizers' and 15 for a charger. then you've spend about $30 after taxes. after about 1.5 years, you run those down and fork out another $11. plus there is always the convenience of being able to use batteries you can pick up from any store when you dont have the opportunity to charge your device.
-- john
i almost got my girlfriend an ipod for xmas, but i am holding back. her birthday is in march, maybe by then i can get an ipod that can do live music recordings of her singing. i used to have an archos recorder, but it was quite flaky and then died.... ah well...
wtf is a sig?
Yep, I just hate being able to update and charge my iPod with just one cable....not nearly as fun as all those extra cables and chargers included, or available for an additional fee, with the more advanced units on the market these days.
Um. So you know about ipodbattery.com. So you know that they, like, _are_ user replacable, right? WARNING DOES NOT COMPUTE!
Buddha says, "Shut your karma hole."
Wait, I think this has been totally missed - what PDA has a user replacable battery? Like that I could just go down to the local PDA Hut at the mall and pick up a spare or two or three for the next time I go off into BFE for a month or four. I'll admit to being slightly out of this loop, but I've never particularly _noticed_ 'em floating around.
Cellphones I'll grant. But what sorta consumer numbers are there for cellphones versus iPods? As ubiquitous as iPods are, I don't think they even dent cellphone numbers.
Buddha says, "Shut your karma hole."
I think this is overly optimistic, as Apple doesn't like to service cheap items. Colours maybe, hopefully not in the same shades as the iPod ads.. but not minis.
Having just assembled my music collection this week, and finding that I have close to 70 GB of mp3s and mp4s (m4a), I won't be buying anything smaller, that's for sure.. hope they drop a big (80 or so) one on us.
Going to put them on DVD now, as half the CDs I've burned with MP3s (over 100) are suffering from data loss due to unreadable files.. only 2 years after being burned! Any of the Kodak ones are still working fine.. just other brands. Hope to get a home jukebox for MP3 DVDs.
Well, then you're too much of an aesthete for me, buddy.
No iPod will be dragged kicking and screaming to the brink of kitsch if it is redesigned to overcome the present deficiency. That's merely a canard of your making.
Apple's current iPod iteration, in fact, has already sacrificed form for function. The first generation's face is purer and less cluttered; its beauty is what launched this craze. But nobody is clamoring for a return to vulnerable moving parts.
If Apple's competitors make market gains because of the battery issue, you'll see Ives quickly make the battery replaceable and that will be that.
If he keeps the full sized ones white and makes only the mini iPods colored, then they will appear as much different products to many people, and some (with sufficient bankroll) might buy one of each, for the classic white look (undeniably tasteful) and a mini one for jogging.
"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals."
And surrender my collection of 5,000 Bay City Rollers outtakes, demos, and rarities?
I think not, sir. I think not.
"kicking and screaming to the brink of kitsch"
and the image of duck manufacture, in the
words of Yeats, "from a mouthful of air"....
Such acts of surreality *must* not go unrewarded.
-I like my women like I like my tea: green-
random question: why are batteries cylinders? wouldn't a cube or rectangle make more sense, i mean, in the end they always end up in a rectangular hole, so isn't the difference in area just lost space that could be used for more mAh? also, anyone want to do the math, and want to tell me what the percentage diference between a cylinder and a rectangle is?
-and occasionaly a giant moose.
The iPod shows up as a new drive and synchs with iTunes at the same time.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
They keep getting harder to find. I bought one about a year ago called a Diva. It's tiny and light and lasts forever on one AA battery.
The downside: the UI designer must have been a 12 year-old intern.
Donate background CPU time to fight cancer.
By your logic, Dell and Windows are "doing something right".
Think about it this way Coward you can have car battery die and the car is dead. Replace the battery and the car is alive again because it's running like it use to before the battery failure.
Gods, I can't believe I'm replying to this.
If you don't like the product, here's something new you might try...
Don't buy it.
(Myself, I'm looking forward to a potential companion to my Riovolt sp250.)
"Stupid! Stupid stupid stupid stupid! I touched the hot wire right there - I'm an idiot!"
Not that I've used this for ripping from friends' iPods...
-T
Uh, the difference in area between a circle and a square x height?
x being the length of a side, the area of the square is x*x
The same area of a circle is Pi*x*x/4
So a square is x*x(1-Pi/4) bigger than a circle, and x*x(1-Pi/4)*h denser than a cylinder.
The percentage difference? A rectangle would be 4/Pi-1 times denser.
GPL Deconstructed
Um. So the point is that Apple does not make it easy for the battery to be replaced. Note the ipodbattery.com installation instructions: "Begin prying 6 cm down left or right seam..." and "insert screwdriver...". On a $400 device one should not have to pry the case open to replace the battery, would you not agree?
when you've locked in the industry, and you've become a monopoly people don't really seek out alternatives. i've showed people at work my powerbook and none of them had seen a mac in awhile but all the ones i showed it to were blown away. most people don't even consider them. dell's just profiting off the fact that windows is the #1 OS. if it were mac os x, or linux, you better believe they'd ditch windows as long as it was profitable. they're a business, in the most pure sense, who's sole purpose is to reduce costs and increase profits and to hell with the customer as long as it's "good enough" that the customer will buy it.
they're the exact opposite of apple, who's interested in capturing the consumer through innovation and quality, not reducing costs and mass producing.
- tristan
I see all these comments saying you can't make it cheap enough via RAM or Flash and that there aren't HD's small enough. What about this from Cornice. Also mentioned here.
Hoyty
Oh, forgot to reply to this:
I thought I read in a post that if you copy music to the iPod as a regualer hard drive, then the iPod won't play it. If that is the case, then it is pretty worthless IMO.
Okay, here's how it works. The iPod is one drive that works in two different ways. One way is an automatic sync up with iTunes (which you can also do yourself). The other is to use it as a detachable hard drive. The files iTunes puts on your iPod aren't visible when you view it as a hard drive. This makes sense, actually, as it keeps the two uses of it logically separate.
Now, to copy music back to a computer and be able to play it on your iPod, there are two ways to do it.
First, is the simple way. Copy the file to your iPod when it's acting as a hard drive. Copy it to the computer in question. Drop it into iTunes (or whatever) and let it copy back to the iPod.
Second, you can open up the iPod when it's acting as a hard drive, go into the invisible iPod_Control folder, then the Music folder. Next you'll have various folders to choose from. I have F00 - F19. You file will be in one of these folders. Why it spreads your music across 20 folders, I don't know. Maybe it's to try to prevent copying back (but that's a pretty weak scheme for doing so). Maybe it's because the iPod can find a song more easily using some sort of hash (but why not simply access by filename?). Doing it this way, however, you'll notice that all non-alphanumeric and non-period characters have been turned to underscores. I can only assume that's so they can use the same code on the Windows side, which doesn't allow nearly as many characters in filenames as the Mac does.
(It's interesting to note that each of the folders, F00 - F19, has files running A-Z. It doesn't split up based on first letter, at the very least.)
A friendless geek wouldn't be out of the house for more than 8 hours though ;-)
mogorific carpentry experiments
Like I needed an ipod with 8GB of capacity or something. I'm fully capable of just copying songs over whenever I feel a change of music style. 800 songs is still a lot, and this makes it a lot more affordable for me. If this is real, I'm buying one as soon as it hits the retailors.
A rumor does not a truth make. But OTOH I'm savoring all the scepticism and mention of Apple Tax here. If the rumors and the prices quoted are true, I'm not going to stop gloating.
:-)
After all, the rumors could be true, It wouldn't surprise me. Why?
1) They are determined to make this iTunes thing work. The iPod is a huge factor in this. Up until now they've catered for the fashion conscious and music freaks. In order to really corner the market, they now have to go for 'the rest of us'. For the first time they have the opportunity to make a cheap mass produced thingy that still has Apple appeal and quality. You think they let this one pass by?
2) There've been tech reviews of smaller drives, ram and whatnot. Since the original iPods were made with the best and the latest, why not now? With the sales experience they have now, they know they can't go wrong if the price is right. And some of the stuff that goes in those white thingies must have gotten cheaper, no?
3) If all's said: what's so surprising in Apple attacking a large niche market with competitive prices? Some of their professional software is dirt cheap (in its class) and some of those packets are best of breed. That's exactly what the iPod was: competitive (in its class) and best of breed. Some of Apple's computers are very competitively priced. Look at their laptop offering, the emacs and the dual 1.8 Gig G5. In their class they kick ass and you can't go much cheaper without either sacrificing in features and quality or investing time and effort in building your own - without the usual warranties...
In short: while this is a rumor, it's not so far out if you look objectively at Apple in general and their iTunes/iPod story specifically.
Rant over
I think, therefore I am...I think.
Final Cut Pro
:-)
Logic
Keynote
iLife
Wireless keyboard and mouse
Dual 1.8 G5
Most of their portables
While some of these are pretty expensive, they're competitive pricewise and are extremely useful. Affordable of course depends on your budget. Wish I could buy a G5, but it's affordable in the sense of "If you need a high performance computer, that one gives you plenty of oompf for your bucks".
If memory serves, you work for CompUSA.
I'm sure CompUSA sells some stupid PC stuff as well. You never get cynical when pushing these over the counter?
BTW totally unrelated: what about writing it all down "Diary of a computer salesman" would sell, if spicy enough
I think, therefore I am...I think.
I shall call it ... MiniPod
*puts pinky finger to corner of mouth*.
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
what are the dimensions of a Nomad Zen NX? would you care to give a comparison to iPod's dimensions? i haven't found on their site any documentation about which battery it uses, how much it costs, and what it takes to replace it. It does say it's a replaceable battery, but technically, iPod *also* has a replaceable battery.
hint: if the iPod is a smaller, more portable form-factor while touting similar capacity, while being less confusing, with less holes to plug shit in, less buttons to fuck with, your average consumer ain't guna give a shit about a device that's a geek's dream. detachable this or that, believe it or not, is confusing to the average user. It's a matter of which audience you cater to. More on this later.
There are reasons why there are tradeoffs. the iPod is extremely small for the capacity it offers, it is extremely portable and unintrusive. i have fit mine (2G) in just about any pocket i've had. Furthermore, many of my co-workers had bought competing players, absolutely every single one of them complained about either its form-factor or lack of capacity. Nomad Jukebox3 is a big square-ish size, much like today's CD players that are basically the size of a CD, which is NOT a form factor that is nearly as appealing as one of an iPod's. Don't get me wrong the features and interoperability capabilities of the Nomad jukebox3 are simply impressive but when a device's form-factor is not really a constraint, you can go to town with features. That doesn't mean this is necessarily what the average user Apple targets will be drawn to. The Jukebox3's affluence of buttons and holes to plug things in also make it, to your average non-computer geek, a "complicated", "confusing" device, while geeks see those features as a God-Sent. it's all relative. Sure the lack of replaceable battery is frustrating. But it ain't the first time, nor is it ever guna be the last time this sort of issue will plague consumer electronics.
Replacing an iPod battery is NOT that hard, you just gotta be careful and requires a bit of skills. If that doesn't do it, then pay the $100 for the cost of the battery and to have someone else install it and be done with it. Or buy extended warranty such as AppleCare or one from Fry's, Best Buy, CompUSA, FNAC, or whoever sells you the iPod. It ain't that bad. People always pit the price of a battery against the price of the device it goes into and get infuriated to "pay $100 for a battery for a device that's only $400". No no no and no. Most resilient, quality batteries are expensive and that's the fucking way it is. Especially the type of flat one required for the iPod, it is quite a nice piece of engineering. When it dies, you gotta pay. period. Take a deep fucking breath and accept this fact.
It always works like this: you shop for some device, it tells you it's rechargeable, but no one ever cares to ask "yes but for how long, what do i do when it can no-longer hold a charge" to make an informed purchasing decision based on those questions. They don't think, then get pissed when the inevitable happens, then go whine at their lawyers, who in the end will be the only winners in the upcoming class-action lawsuit. Once people also get the device they rarely ever look at best practices included in their manual to enhance battery life. There you have it.
feel free to read a couple more ideas about why things may be the way they are.
this isn't about zealotry. some people happened to have understood why Apple has made the compromises it did at the time it did and accept 'em without whining all fucking day, and will eventually vote with their feet and potentially wait for improvements, others choose to bitch around, karma-whoring on slashdot, thinking they're smart and have a fucking clue about industrial design and stating the obvious ad nauseum, bragging about how device X or Y has a detachable this or that while never addres
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As much as I'd like to, I can't see a $99 iPod happening.
Jobs is steadfastly commited to unrelenting quality, but the real price one pays is for the "Apple experience" if you will. Plenty of people have a good chuckle at the idea of the "Apple tax", but that's the best way to describe it. In the end, wether you know it or not, you're paying that extra dough for an iPod because Jobs wants a very specific experience given to his customers, from the packaging, to the interface, to the zen-like simplicity of the operation, even down to the matching white headphones. A $99 iPod would mean that Jobs would have to cut some serious corners, and even though you couldn't keep a $99 iPod on the shelves it would sell so fast, I think that kind of price point would make Jobs too uncomfortable with what he'd have to give up in the process.
Time will tell though...I think a "low-end" iPod is inevitable. It's obvious that the iPod appeals to more than the hardcore, everything-on-CD-ripped-at-VBR-minimum-320kbps digital music crowd, and vision aside, Jobs is no stranger to supporting the less fanatical, with things like the iBook and eMac. So why not make low-capacity iPods?
In my mind, the real question is, how low will Jobs go? Anyone can see why a $99 iPod would be an awesome thing, but look at how much criticism the full-fledged iPod has gotten from the vocal sect. You can practically picture the anti-mac-zealots in the wings, eagerly awaiting to rip apart this supposed foray into mass-market electronics. Considering how many would be bought, even the slightest flaw in a low-profit-margin, low-end iPod would spread like a vocal wildfire amongst owners, having the potential to severely tarnish the reputation of Jobs' beloved company, one of it's greatest assets.
I don't argue with any of your points; I was merely illustrating that the parent's arguments were conflicting: it was saying Apple sell a lot, and therefore they must be doing something right, while contrasting Apple with Dell and Windows. I thought the parent stood up on itself without the final flourish. Sales are no indication of quality, though they are an indication of a *business* doing *something* right. Apple is successful partly because of high quality orignal engineering, but also because of its marketing, which plays to these strengths and can lead to blind slaving consumer behaviour as pernicious as that which MS rely upon. Jobs is a very successful businessman, and you don't become one of those simply by being a good engineer. I have an iPod, run Linux at home, Windows and Unix (remotely) at work from a Dell machine. I guess I'm just a technology whore.
I think that having two different form factors will destroy the iPod brand. It'll introduce descrimination between people with proper iPods and those with mini iPods and will confuse people when an iPod is mentioned. "Wait, which iPod?"
I have a website. It's about Macs.
Good points - all of them - especially the last... to which I would like to add...
It's Voila, not "wallah".
Holy crap!
Go valmont! Good post.
[topic] Err. Yeah. Go iPods, too? Yeah, that'll do.
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