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New iPod Design Pictures Leak
Brian Hoyt writes "Apple's new iPod design will be announced Monday. A cover picture depicting the new design from Newsweek has been discovered early. MacRumors broke the story - MacRumors and more specifically the cover itself - NewsWeek"
It's not a big stretch from the iPod Mini to the design shown in the picture. I'm pleased with the new design... kind of back to it's roots.
My biggest problem with the previous design is the unapparent secondary button function. When the buttons are arranged around the wheel, the special combinations (Menu & Play/Pause to reset) make a fair sight more sense. Holding Menu for the backlight is especially obscure. I discovered this intuitively on my Original iPod - all of the buttons on the Original had an important Continuous Press function before the first several updates that gave us a new time search for the songs. My friend didn't know about the Menu Backlight - he used the automatic backlight - until I told him with his 30g. He's not stupid by any means, there just wasn't any reason that the second button over would also be a special Backlight control.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
Makes me wish I didnt just buy a 40gig iPod in Ginza. Damn damn damn
i'm sure this is going to flood someone badly, but here is a close up http://www.spymac.com/upload/gallery/f_0/user_117/ medium/upload_200466.jpg
The only signifcant drawback to the current material used in the regular iPod is its tendency to pick up scratches/fingerprints on its back.
I was also hoping that the new iPod would have an easy-access compartment for replacing batteries.
Still, looks interesting. May have to break down and get the 20GB model...
The PC Weenies: 11 Years of Online Tech 'Too
I always thought that the radial design of the 1G and 2G iPods was superior to the "row of buttons" of the 3G iPod. I thought that the iPod mini was even better with the combining of the wheel and the buttons.
Another notable difference here is the darker buttons. I've yet to decide if that's a good or bad thing, as far as design goes. What do you people think?
samrolken
Hopefully the sale of a new iPod will make the price of the older versions drop considerably. I really want one, but I think they currently are ridiculously overpriced. Especially here in the Old World. Is a 15Gb iPod for 100 euros too much to ask?
When the last big rev of the iMac got released (flat screen), Time mag. leaked all the details something like 12 hours before Steve officially intro'd it. Obviously, Jobs had a cow over it -- they stole his thunder!
I wonder if Newsweek just pulled the same stunt by mistake?
Man, I just would not want to be anywhere near Steve Jobs right now...
here.
/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5457434/site/newsweek
disappointing....
The only problem with Apple is that I lust after them.
Now, my 40GB iPod is obsolete! I must have the yellow one.
The reason for that is, slashdot is about technology, the iPod happens to be an example of technology that has become a growing cultural icon.
When the three headlines for a huge publication are "9/11", "Iraq", and "iPod", with the "iPod" leading. It's almost surprising that slashdot doesn't have _more_ articles about it.
Despite the lack of significance (it is, after all, simply a music player), there are many surrounding wider effects that have come from it, and this is where the publicity is deserved.
Best of all, you don't even realize your strings are being pulled. You think you're outsmarting Apple and reading something they don't want you to read.
Tell your friends about xenu.net
The sensible (and arguably the best) method of putting tracks on it is iTunes, even when music match for the PC was responsible for this, it too did a fine job. iTunes is available for Windows & Mac, linux programmers have also created similar music syncing software.
To address your format concerns, the iPod plays AIFF, WAV, MP3, Audiobooks and AAC. The first three of those are DRM free. Additionally the rights management on AAC is hardly limiting, the rights are static and unable to be changed by a 3rd party over time.
The price argument is negotiable, with 3Million sales, it couldn't be too limiting a price.
That eight hours is only for perfect use and just like birth control perfect use is rarely what you end up with.
In reality the iPod (and I'm talking about the 2G here) tends to last around 4-6 hours depending on use. I personally keep mine on shuffle and skip through songs at a rate of perhaps one skip for every 5 songs or so. This gives me about this range of total battery power. This is all because the only way it gets 8 hours out of the battery is by spinning the hard drive up as little as possible and instead only feeding data into the cache every 20 minutes or so. Thus the often erroneous claim of 20 minutes of skip protection, in particular if the hard drive is set to spin again there is absolutely no skip protection in my experience. Anything you do to make the hard drive spin up (e.g. skip songs, thus running through the buffer faster, randomize songs, etc.) will lower your listening time.
Don't forget that it constantly loses power (albeit in a low-power sleep state) no matter what you do as there is no way to turn it off. I doubt this is ever a significant factor although you'll probably find it dead or close after a week or so without charging.
Overall though the battery is, I've found, good enough that if you start fully charged in the morning you can carry it around all day without incident.
It's because of the small i at the beginning.
Iran & Iraq should change their country names in iRan & iRaq to get more leading headlines.
1% APY, No fees, Online Bank https://captl1.co/2uIErYq Don't let your $$$ sit in a no-interest acct.
...use Privoxy with referrer-spoofing. Any link I click to www.domain.com/foo/bar.html, has a referrer of "www.domain.com", no matter where I came from. Works with every site I know of. I consider it the same way as pop-ups. It was a privilidge, you abused it, I revoked it. No referrers for anyone.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Not a chance. Wireless technology would mean the death of battery life. Also, few people would be accepting of a separate technology to sync contancs and notes, especially at the cost of battery life. The addition is hardly needed, either. Most people don't sync from multiple computers so removing the "inconvenience" of having to place the iPod in the Dock - virtually no work - just isn't worth the additional price (or reduced profit) and confusion for the user.
That what was all this school was for... to teach us how to solve our own problems. -- janeowit
I am so confused as to what you are talking about. Are you saying the story isn't true? Are you implying that someone hacked into Newsweek's site and posted 6 fake pages with pictures about the new iPod? Jackass.
I'm certainly curious about what this means to the market for iPod accessories. When the 3G came out third-party manufacturers immediately dropped support for 1G and 2G iPods in most cases. Apple as well decided to more or less drop support of the older models up to and including the lack of firmware updates to provide many of the same features as present in the new models (I am told that it would be possible to add such things as on the go playlists and such, but Apple merely chooses not to). As the owner of a 2G I was, of course, upset by the idea that my iPod no longer seemed to exist.
While this design seems to be much more in line with the non-3G what with the return to the wheel as opposed to the independent buttons I'm curious as to where the compatibility will lie. Will earlier models suddenly be supported once again (probably unlikely, the wheel looks to be sized differently and the cutouts for the various ports are different, it might work as a kludge at best)? Will 3G-style products suddenly drop out of sight just like what happened when the design was last changed significantly?
There are some valid questions here that I don't think Apple or many others are bothering to consider. Yes there are advantages to making improved designs, but Apple doesn't seem to be paying any attention to the benefits of a consistent design with only functional improvements.
I know its off topic, but damn... Steve's got some sweet glasses. I wonder where a guy gets a pair like that. Those are. by far. the coolest glasses I've seen. /four-eyes since six years old
Yes, and I think Apple have lost sales to all the other unemployed, Linux using, Ogg Vorbis fans. That's 14 sales lost right there! ;-)
A lot of people will like the fact that it 100 dollars less. Some will like the 50% improvement in battery life. Others will dig the fact that you can have multiple on the go playlists. A couple will like the menu redesign. And a handful will like that you can speed up or slow down audio books, with no pitch distortion.
In the scope of all things, is it of any real importance that Apple has yet again changed the buttons on the iPod? I own several Macs and an iPod 3G and I couldn't care less.
What does that say about our society when a fairly simple re-design of a product garners such attention? Is it really important? Does it make your life better somehow?
Just get over yourselves.
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety" - BF
Steve needs to get a new iBlade for his iRazor.
Surely running on shuffle can't use that much more power - all the iPod has to do is preselect the random songs, read them into cache and then spin down. It might need a bit more seeking, but that can't use that much power compared to spinning the disk.
It's not like the iPod doesn't know what song it's going to randomly play next.
If you were talking about the iTunes music store, you might have a point. As it is your post doesn't make any sense.
The iPod does NOT require DRM, I don't know where you got that idea. You can play your music in multiple formats, the most widely used being MP3. It also plays DRMed music from the music store, if you choose to use that.
If you want to get the music off it again, there are several apple scripts floating around to do it. The files are only hidden after all.
The Xserve was going to be called the iRack until George started talking smack about Iraq.
I have a website. It's about Macs.
True 4GB CF cards with actual flash mamory and no moving parts costs >$1000.
Mostly because the iPod didn't have a whole lotta butotns in the FIRST place. How many devices do you have with buttons EVERYWHERE? (Digital Cameras come to mind...with cellphones a close second.)
The fact the ipod's hitting it's 4th (5th if you count the mini) generation without a major overhaul of the ui shows how well designed it was in the first place.
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Have you actually *tried* dropping them? iBooks look like they would break if you dropped them one inch, but mine never fussed a single time when I dropped it from my desk (about 5 feet) or my bed (about 3 feet).
Yeah, I know, don't Feed the troll:
I had a great Sony Walkman in highschool.
Several in fact...
It was a marvel of minaturized tech: when not loaded with a cassette it slid shut to a size smaller than a cassette! It was tiny and light, sounded great.
It was also the most fragile piece of consumer tech I have ever owned.
Which is why I had more than one... as it was constantly being replaced under warrany... mostly for drops less than 2 feet.
And it cost a fair bit more than the second iPod i bought yesterday for my household. The first of which has taken a few spills and continues to function *JUST FINE* thank you.
I suppose if you're referring to the low end of the Sony Walkman line intended to compete with the knockoffs, then yes... all that bulk and plastic and their very disposeable nature would lead one to consider hurling them at the pavement to test durability.
Better... my ass.
It's a pyramid scheme. They know that 99% of people will get a few friends to sign up, but not enough to earn an iPod. There are also lots of "mysterious reasons" why people get their order cancelled.
Engadget did a little investigative reporting about freeipod.com.
For more information, click here.
Here in Europe the 15Gb iPod is about 450 euros, or more than $500. Remember that the salaries here are much lower than in the US, and the taxes much higher. So, to compare, I should ask you if you would think that $1000 for a 15Gb iPod is overpriced or not. I thought so.
Post, not the Times! It was the New York Post that got the VP selection wrong.
It costs $29-$49 to replace
More here and here.
GPL Deconstructed
And with that you just explained why most people buy iPods. Not to flame you, but most people don't care about support for anything beyond MP3 and "whatever iTMS uses". Most people also don't care about how the files are stored on the disk. Just the fact that an iPod can be used as a FW/USB external disk is good enough, although most people probably don't care about this either.
So, yes, once again it comes down to the interface. You can easily use it with one hand while driving, walking, whatever, and it's just fairly intuitive.
Does it still use the dock?
Almost certainly - now that 3rd-party products (like the BMW connector and Dension ICELink) are using that dock connector, Apple will most likely stick with it for some time-- and I believe it was designed with that in mind.
Does is still use the same remote connector?
Dunno, but probably.
Will there be a "line in" dock?
Doubtful, since the article makes no mention of built-in recording features. You still need a third-party accessory to record, so it would be up to one of those devices to allow line-in.
Is the screen size the same?
The screen size looks the same. The article says the 4G is a bit thinner, but that's apparently it in terms of form factor changes.
Will the 3g iPod be upgradeable to some of the new features?
Wouldn't surprise me at all, it certainly looks feasible. We'll probably get an iPod Firmware Update out of it to add some new features-- I'd guess that the 3G will probably get firmware revision 2.5, and the 4G's firmware will be called 3.0.
If the powersavings is mostly done in software, will 3g iPods get more life with a firmware upgrade?
It's certainly possible, and as a 3G owner, I'd love to see improved battery life in my exisiting unit though I have only run out of juice once in the year that I've had mine.
~Philly
loops and hoops? Are you joking?
;-) )
;-) - some mp3) and iPod
./ readers.
:
:
Test one:
have a cd, have an iPod:
1) put cd in tray, close tray.
2) let iTunes find CDDB data, then click import, let import happen.
3) plug-in iPod.
( 3)a) let iTunes work its magic, no user assistance required
4) uplug ipod.
Which one of these steps qualify as a hoop or a loop? Pray tell me.
Test two:
have mp3 in a folder on HD (or on a separate disk, if you friend just plugged in his USB disk-on-key to give you -illegally?
1) locate mp3 files
2) drag and drop these to iTunes window
(which lets iTunes add them to its reference library, and if you set preferences so, copy them to its library folder too: better actually, if they are on removable media)
3) plug in iPod
( 3)a) let iTunes work its magic )
4) un-plug iPod
Now, if you have an issue with that, I might have to lower my opinion on some of
Some comments before flame arises:
* If your ipod capacity is inferior to the volume of your music files, you will have to tweak iTunes magic, obviously.
i.e.
1) either have it let you manually put music on said iPod, up to its capacity
=> annoying after a while... but no worse than managing files and mp3 player as a removable media (because you still have gained bonus as music is also available for iTunes to play and organise)
2) or: create manual playlists, and only these will be set to update on ipod.
- you then have to be sure you drag and drop the mp3 files to the playlist, not just iTunes library (step 2 is still one step, just asks you to be a bit more attentive)
=> slightly less annoying, but you have to remember to drag music to the playlist (and not to general library). Still, next time ipod is plugged in, magic works. Only downfall? don't overload the playlist and exceed iPod capacity. Or buy a bigger one
3) or: create SMART playlists (on top of your manual fixed ones):
for example, a playlist that tells iTunes that it will be made of the 100 latest new songs.
=> any new songs added to iTunes (step 2) will be copied to iPod (step 3a)
* if you don't like iTunes for your mp3 (matter of taste, I let you off on this one), you might not like iPod either; so end of story.
* Now for my personal opinion (above were just plain verifiable FACTS )
The combination of iTunes+iPod gives you a solution where YOU have
- ease of use (amazing music playing experience, brainless management of songs, easy and fast synch, etc)
-, control (smart playlists, various settings to be found in prefs, like "import in XXX format, at XXX rate", or "let me / let iTunes organise my music library folders" and more)
- elegance in the whole approach, and respect for the user (you easily learn to use it, and can do tons with it -burn audio / mp3 cds, organise party playlists, edit all MP3 tags of songs, one or many at once, add cover art, etc etc. AND it has been designed for intelligent people by intelligent people)
Where were the loops and hoops again?
Like any tool, it just requires to know its logic and how it works. But unlike most tools, this one is bloody simple.
I reckon that iTunes is one of the simplest and most useful out there, and is taking a huge place in my life, by being so unobstrusice and useful...
=====
I lie all the time, including now
- Click wheel (like the iPod Mini)
- A millimeter thinner
- More efficient Menus
- Multiple on-the-go playlists
- Listen to audiobooks slower or 25 percent faster without affecting pitch
- Longer play - 12 hours of battery life due to more power conservation
- Lower price: 40GB - $399, 20GB $299 (no 15 gig model now)
- Still white
Sig Nature
Got my iBook July 2002. It's a 12 inch 700 MHz Combo drive model (G3). The hard drive, a Toshiba MK2018GAS, died April this year. But it's not like I ever treated my laptop well - I wanted a machine I could use *anywhere* and that's exactly what I did. So yes, I *did* carry it around with the drive spinning. And I suppose that eventually caused the drive's quality to deteriorate (it first had lots of problems writing and reading data; then it would start getting so far that it couldn't find all of the kernel on the drive any more, and that's when I realized booting from an emergency Linux CD might be a good idea to do backups.)
Replaced it upon others' advice with a Hitachi HTS548060M9AT00 (i.e. a Travel Star with 60 GB). Note that you lose any kind of warranty by replacing a hard drive, and that it's everything but easy.
Also upped RAM, first to 384 Megs, then to 640 Megs. It makes a huge difference. You don't want to use OS X with anything less than 384 Megs, but it won't be a *joy* with anything less than 512 Megs. Everyone will tell you that.
The hardware itself is incredible. Durable, lightweight, and really powerful enough for everyday work (I'm a programming and networking guy), watching DVDs, burning, etc. Of course, it goes without saying that Mac OS X is one of the best modern operating systems out there. As long as you're willing to deal with *slightly* less hardware and software compatibility (and even that seems to keep getting better) than you'd have on x86 machines, you're good to go. As an example, I just bought a Canon PowerShot A80 yesterday (great product I might add). It said on the backside that it would come with Mac OS X drivers. But up to now, I never used those. I plugged the thing in via USB and instantly, through Apple's ImageCapture software, had access to 1) downloading pictures, 2) sharing camera access over the web - thusly also to Windows and Linux PCs (ImageCapture comes with a built-in web server), 3) taking photos from the Mac, either manually or even in periodic intervals (again, this feature can be accessed from other machines through the network) and simple operations like rotating the images. Note again that this worked without *any* configuration - neither on the camera nor on the iBook - and without any glitches. Now, if I wanted advanced functionality such as Canon's photo stitching tool, I would of course have to install that. But the point is, if someone were to bring his camera over and it supports standards like PTP, I'm ready to go to use it. (My experience with using the Canon on Windows XP has been *muchly* different.)
(I should maybe note that the iBook does not come with PCMCIA, decreasing upgradeability. You can, of course, get lots of FireWire devices for external hard drives or TV tuners and whatnot, but Gigabit Ethernet or FireWire 800 will never be options for you.)
If there's anything else you want to know, you may want to register at applenova.com; they have quite a few experienced people there (it's obviously a "fan" board though, but that doesn't mean the people aren't critical of Apple).
Hope that helps.
At the 28 April iTunes anniversary conference call, Arik Hesseldahl from Forbes asked Teh Steve about that.
So, if support for that format is something that would make you buy and iPod, it might be a good idea to tell them!
...would be gapless MP3 playback, like on the Rio and coming up (or already there?) on the iRiver iHP series. It's just a pain in the butt listening to live or DJ mix CD's with the annoying pause between tracks.
I can't understand why this feature isn't already in iPods - it really should be on top of the developers' todo list. Maybe Apple is so convinced that "nobody listens to albums no more"?
I thought the idea behind the iPod was that it loaded about 30 minutes of music into a buffer -- a conveniently-sized 32 MB buffer -- so that it would only have to spin up the hard drive occasionally and thus conserve battery power. If that is, in fact, the case, then something else must account for the gap between songs -- something that could probably be corrected with a firmware upgrade. Perhaps it does not start decompressing the next track until the previous track has been completely played? In any case, gapless playback would be a nice feature in my book.
If it's not one thing it's your mother.
Yes, the newer iPods are curvier and sexier because of it, but the ergonomics of the touch buttons is TERRIBLE.
Writing as someone who uses his iPod in the dock 99% of the time, I like the 3g touch buttons much more than the 1g hard buttons. I don't have to put my hand behind the iPod to push a button and having the click sound on gives me all the feedback I need.
Why can't we have an iPod with sexy curves and tactile buttons?
I think you're confusing iPods with Jeri Ryan :-).
I live ze unknown. I love ze unknown. I am ze unknown.
There's no radio because Apple wants to sell the same box internationally.
Personally, I don't listen to radio, so it's not a big loss to me.
The iRiver series (Hxxx) with similar functionality have radio (FM only though), and also an option to select your country of residence in order to adjust radio settings appropriatelly (Europe / Japan / USA)