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iPod Generation 4 Released
I_am_Rambi writes "According to MSNBC "The considerably tweaked fourth-generation iPod will roll out this week, and Newsweek got an advance peek. It looks a bit different, operates more efficiently, has a few more features and costs less. Here are the highlights...." Improved battery life, upto 12 hours, a click wheel, more efficient menus, multiple on the go play list, and probably one of the best changes is a lower price. $399 (down from $499) for a 40 gig, $299 (down from $399) for a 20 gig, and there are no 15 gig versions." And you can read Apple's iPod site for the full details.
Notice that price cut with 20gb version was made by leaving dock out of the package.
Nice job Hemos. Sentences should a main verb.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I guess they had to get rid of it. With $100 drop across the table, they would have been cheaper than the minis. Unfortunately, my price point would have been the 15gb with the $100 drop.
The best bit about this i feel is that apples changed the exchange rate for the UK. In the USp the 20gb now costs what the 15gb did and the 40gb costs what the 20gb used to be. But in the UK we get the 20gb model for GBP30 cheaper than the 15gb model used to be(GBP220vs GBP250). Hurray for apple!
Why do they refuse to offer an iPod for $200?
Umm... Marketing?
The iPod is very successful. Right now, the people that are buying them are going to pay a premium. When this market is saturated, they can then sell lower priced versions. This is pretty straight forward economics.
I'll be one of the first to buy the cheap version that comes out around Christmas time.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Apple will NEVER release firmware that upgrades older units to newer features unless it suits them. Example: Gen 1 and 2 iPods got ACC decoding but didn't get on the go playlists. They /could have/ done OTG playlists but that's one of the features seperating old from new.
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
Taken directly from apple's spec sheet for the new ipod:
--
Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 (32 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible, AIFF, Apple Lossless and WAV
--
I mean what does it take for us to get the OGG support into iPod? For 3 generations of this machine, one major target audiance of "switch" campaing has been unix users. We, the guys who support and now have started to love the new apple have begged for this support into iPod.
4th generation. And still no support. Lots of feedback sent, even on the official apple forums and nothing. Not even an official explanation why not.
How many generations this will take?
For example, I have over 110GB of music and other audio recorded in OGG format, rendering iPod totally useless for me. I did a quick "hey, whats your status" in my local university and situation was the same. iPod feels, looks and sounds too good to be true, everyone of us wants one. Expect for one big but.. where in the hell is the inhouse OGG support.
I know the problems with ARM processor inside iPod and lack of integer based OGG coded, but now that there is one (tremor) (http://www.xiph.org/ogg/vorbis/) and it's even in BSD license, I cant belive apple choose yet again to leave OGG support out of iPod.
Could someone please take a club and bash the ingorant iPod tech division to little pieces, since I and many like me, would pay huge sums for this support.
It could even be "silent" "no warranty" "not supported" type of deal, just could someone please answer why cant this one of the most advanced piece of modern consumer technology lack the most important feature..
OGG VORBIS - Support.
-- -Sk (coe.) uuh. yasp.
iPods do not have Ogg Vorbis support, making them evil. They should never be purchased.
There, happy now?
Why do they refuse to offer an iPod for $200? They'd sell like hotcakes. Not everyone needs 40 freakin' gigs.
They're already selling like hotcakes, nimrod.
Q: Why would you drop the price on something that you already can't make enough of?
A: You're an idiot?
If this post offends you, it's because the truth hurts. Try saving up, it's how a lot of us can afford expensive items.
I wish!
I don't see any technical reason why things like multiple generated playlists, speed-variable playback and hearing the clicker through the headphones can't be done on current iPods.
However, the current update page seems to restrict those features the the newest model.
I wish Apple wouldn't try and alienate their older customers so much like this. With software, it isn't so bad since the investment usually isn't as large. But with firmware and hardware, the investment can be quite conciderable.
"you could fly from Sydney to Singapore and still have hours of listening time left over as you stroll the Champs Elysée."
I think the Australian 'localisation team' need to do better than a find and replace of 'New York' & 'Paris'...
Only big ligs use sigs.
In addition to the marketing aspects pointed out by other folks, let me remind you of the economics of marking these things.
Hard disks, such as those used in the iPod, have high fixed costs to produce. So while it may be possible to cram more bits in the same package as technology advances, its difficult to take an older, smaller disk and produce them cheaply. The single biggest cost in producing an iPod is the hard disk. QED, etc.
Also, given that iPods in all varieties have been selling like hotcakes from the start, why would Apple want to lower the price? Clearly lots of people are willing to pay the $300-$500...I know I was.
I have a Gen 1 iPod that I've used pretty much daily. Excellent device, but the battery is starting to go. Thought about retiring it and buying a new model, but then I Googled for a replacement battery and found one for $30. Comes with a clear and concise user's manual -- see here. From the manual, looks pretty easy to drop in a new one, so I went ahead and ordered one.
Of course, Apple wants you to pay them to do it: http://www.apple.com/batteries/replacements.html. But if your iPod is out of warranty, and you're a DIY guy, you can try to replace it yourself: http://www.ipodbattery.com/.
This is one lame signature, please read the message above instead.
you CAN replace the batteries yourself -- for $30 - $50. http://www.ipodbattery.com/
Josh Thomas Topics Education Group
for bringing their products to the masses.
Now its cool to own mac stuff, and not as geeky. When im podding down the street I get stopped by common folk, conversations are struck and I'm meeting new people all from a little white music device.
"oh I want one of those, whats yours" - is all thats said until a conversation is struck.
I have a 3rd gen ipod, and very happy with it. I wont bother with a mini, or the 4th because mine is going great guns.
Some would say expensive, but if they can charge the market and get away with it to get the best margin then goodluck to them.
Europe has some legal requirements that increase costs. For example, in the UK at least, you can return anything you buy within 10 days of buying it, for full refund, even if you simply decide you don't like it anymore. As far as I know you can't do this in the US.
See UK T&C ("If you have received the ordered Product(s) and have simply changed your mind about purchasing them you may return the Product(s) or entitlement to Service to us for a refund..."), US T&C.
(This applies to everything, not just Apple products.)
Sure.
20 gigs: $299
40 gigs: $399
15 gigs with Ogg support: $499
I mean, come on. What do you really mean by "huge?" They obviously don't feel that the cost of integrating the feature would be worth the effort. And when I think about it, I can't blame them: hell, I'm willing to bet that they wouldn't have included mp3 support if it wasn't for the fact that the installed base made that the "cost of entry" for the device to the market. Otherwise, they'd just have gone with AAC (and later, ALC).
Oh, and by the way: what do you mean by "many like you?"
Somehow, I kinda doubt your conception of "many" jibes with theirs.
THE LIST:
-50% more battery
-Removal of 4 buttons with a single click wheel like the iPod mini
-A little thinner
-Better menu UI design
-Shuffle songs feature
-Faster or slower e-book reading by 25% without changing the readers voice pitch
-Price drop
Remember, it's hard to improve on something many people think is perfect (the sales #'s agree with that statement). But it's nice to see the company keep-on-truckin' and improve things. Some people might bitch about "thinner" being only 1 mm, but holy SHIT! At least they are trying! Better then 1 mm thicker!
Having a built-in radio receiver would be nice, but I'd hardly call it a "must-have, life-saving" feature.
Maybe you should ask Steve Jobs to include a weeks dry rations and heart defibrillator too.
This expression is used continually everywhere to describe run away success in sales, popularity, etc. It was used here in this thread at least a dozen times when talking about the fantastic sales of the iPods.
.
I do not understand this? Who are these hotcake vendors? Where are they selling these hotcakes everyone talks about being so popular? Who buys these hotcakes anyway?
I certainly am not interested in buying hotcakes. They probably aren't Atkins friendly anyway. In fact, they don't sound so appetizing to me. Do they come with syrup? Are they sold with powdered sugar coating? Or fruit toppings? How about with butter or creamc heese?
Sounds like the popular pancakes that used to be sold in Moscow.
Surely this isn't where the term "selling like hotcakes" comes from, right?
How about we all change this old fashioned, outdated and silly phrase!
Lets all being using the term "Selling Like iPods!" instead. .
Roger Born
writing.borngraphics.com
"Out of my mind. Back in five minutes."
I used to feel the same. Finally I admitted I'd made the wrong choice, re-ripped as VBR mp3s, got an iPod and never looked back.
/.ers tend to overestimate the real world impact of their pet technologies.
It's not the first time (and won't be the last) that I'd backed the wrong horse. For instance, I preferred the Amiga to the PC, but I lost out there too. Market forces meant that I either stayed back with my little minority interest and my politics, or I (begrudgingly at first) followed the herd.
I held out for a good while for ogg support, now I've had 9 months of happy iPodding and I couldn't care less. I really don't see the benefit of vorbis over decent bitrate VBR. I also don't think 95% of the people who've bought iPods have any idea at all what ogg, flac, aiff, audible and so on are.
Whenever I see the spec, though, I always wonder how many people are carrying round an iPod full of WAVs...
Geoff
DRM? I think you have your facts wrong there buddy...of course this is /. so misinformed seems to be a prerequisite for posting.
... and so on. In case you have something against AAC, which in my opinion is the best sounding format by far, you can rip songs through iTunes to VBR MP3. The only time any DRM is involved is if you buy music from the iTMS, which you certainly don't have to do unless you want to.
First off, AAC, the standard that iTunes compresses to, is an open standard based on mpeg 4. Unlike Windows media 9, it adds no DRM to music you rip from a cd. You can take those AAC files and play them in any player that supports the OPEN standard of AAC, Advanced Audio Codec, the Audio portion of Mpeg 4. Also you can play a ton of other formats on iPods, AIFF, mp3, wav
As for Linux, I would bet that apple is trying to come up with a way to get iTunes to Linux. Of course you have to understand that there are many different distributions to support and they aren't about to distribute iTunes as source to be compiled on each individual distribution. Hence getting itunes to linux is harder than porting to windows. Think about how many different windowing environments there are.
Anyways, until hardware prices drop you aren't going to see Apple dropping their prices. And I think if they could drop their prices while maintaining their profit ratio, they would. Why wouldn't they want to gain more of the mp3 player market?
Just make sure you aren't misinforming other people here because you are only relaying information you heard word of mouth. Do some research before you go spouting opinions as fact.
My record collection was entirely converted to VQF. VQF. It was going to be the next big thing-- sounded better than mp3 at lower bitrates. Well, we all know how that turned out... who's heard of vqf now?
Learned an important lesson about "better" standards. Unless it's got widespread adoption, or improves things by an order of magnitude, it's not going anywhere. Vorbis may sneak in as people start using it here and there (video games, etc...) just because it's free, but I'd expect that to take a LONG time. For now, I'm sticking with mp3 for portables, and keeping the files in FLAC for easy reconversion next time. If only I'd had the storage space for that the first time around-- converting LPs is *tedious*.
*The 60gb hds are actually for the iMac G5's that will float on a cushion of air and have a hockey puck base which can make any flat surface into an air hockey table. Who says we Mac users don't get any of the good games? I love air hockey.
*Pure conjecture
"Hot cakes cooked in bear grease or pork lard were popular from earliest times in American. First made of cornmeal, the griddle cakes or pancakes were of course best when served piping hot and were often sold at church benefits, fairs, and other functions. So popular were they that by the beginning of the 19th century 'to sell like hot cakes' was a familiar expression for anything that sold very quickly effortlessly, and in quantity." From "Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins" by Robert Hendrickson (Facts on File, New York, 1997)
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