Apple iPod with Video and WiFi Capabilities?

An anonymous reader writes "Apple is currently seeking an engineer for its iPod hardware division. However, they are not looking for just any engineer. They are seeking an engineer with WiFi and Video integration experience. 'The iPod group is looking for a Hardware Engineer. Experience in the following areas is important: system integration, digital logic, SDRAM, Flash, ASIC's, processor selection, ATAPI, various communication protocols (ie: GSM, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, Firewire, and USB), display types and video and analog integration.'"

Comments

Slashdot's posting help wanted ads now?

[Anonymous Coward]

How much does this cost? Or is it free for Apple?

Re:Slashdot's posting help wanted ads now?

[BoldAC]

Plus... there is no proof of this. This is just some blind quote from some random site! As far as we know, this guy made this up.

I know slashdot isn't "the press" but something to suggest that this is something more than randomly created news would be interesting.

New profit model:
1. Write interest, speculative quote
2. Make guesses about the quote
3. Get slashdot to bump your article
4. Google ads on make-up article
5. Profit!

Re:Slashdot's posting help wanted ads now?

[strictfoo]

There are a number of real apple job postings related to the iPod, but none feature the word video. It appears this "news" is completely bogus.

Here are the jobs:
Hardware System Integrator - iPod
Hardware System Integrator - iPod
Hardware System Integrator - iPod SPG

Now, how easy would that have been for the slashdot editors to check? Took me about 1 minute.

Re:Slashdot's posting help wanted ads now?

[Jason1729]

I read about this last Tuesday on Apple Insider

It has more details on the source of the rumor, and this is very old news that's been spreading around the web for a week. It was also on Macrumors and several other sites last week.

Jason
ProfQuotes

Re:Slashdot's posting help wanted ads now?

[Rosyna]

They have removed the various protocols from the listing due to various rumor sites.

The listings did, in fact, say bluetooth and 802.11 just a week ago when i checked it.

Career choice

[Anonymous Coward]

Well I'd apply, but I'm too busy hanging around Slashdot.

What???

[Anonymous Coward]

What is this, Monster.com? We get product ads as articles, now we get ads for people to make new products as articles so we can get more products and therefore new articles?

My head is going to explode....

Re:What???

[Stevyn]

Yeah, it's one thing when it's articles based entirely on speculation but are at least written by columnists.

Now articles are appearing based on what's in the classifieds? Next we're going to see headlines like this:

"Bill Gates is looking for whores!"

with a link to:

"Seattle, Washington local single white male is seeking hot blonde."

very likely that it's likely?

[randyest]

From TFA:

"The iPod group is looking for a Hardware Engineer. This person will be an individual contributor on a top notch team with responsibilities for the design, implementation, and integration of digital and analog electronics. Experience in the following areas is important: system integration, digital logic, SDRAM, Flash, ASIC's, processor selection, ATAPI, various communication protocols (ie: GSM, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, Firewire, and USB), display types and video and analog integration."

Does this mean we are very likely to see an iPod with a video display and capable of sending and receiving music via WiFi? This is very likely.

What strange language the author uses there. Is he answering his own question about whether it's very likely by saying yes, it's very likely? Or is he saying that it's very likely that it's "very likely?"

I think it's very likely that I'm confused ;)

Re:very likely that it's likely?

[ack154]

And I think it's very likely that anyone what reads your post will be MORE confused... :p

Re:very likely that it's likely?

[Wordsmith]

With apologies to Brian Regan:

It's many more more likelier. Moosen.

Re:very likely that it's likely?

[gryphokk]

It's like, "How much more likely could it be?" and the answer is "None. None more likely."

Expanded iPod

[fussili]

Well, Apple's already moved into the 'home broadcast' sector with the Airport express streaming music via 802.11 protocols, so it wouldn't seem too far a stretch for them to start streaming video or DVDs around your house, perhaps onto a vPod.

However the amount of battery consumption for such a beast would be epic.

Re:Expanded iPod

[vwjeff]

They could call it the ivpod.

The ivpod. The only digital music player you can wire directly into your veins!!

2 things

[StevenHenderson]

Two thoughts:

1) Why do they feel the need to complicate the iPod? People love the fact that it does one primary thing, and does it brilliantly. The iPod is expensive enough without any more frills.

2) If they are just looking for an engineer now, just think how long before any product sees the light of day.

Re:2 things

[artemis67]

Considering that their Airport Extreme is geared towards wirelessly serving up music from your computer to your stereo system, making the iPod wireless is just a natural evolution.

job requirements can lie

[Infonaut]

I remember seeing plenty of ads in the DC metro area back in the mid-90s, in which corporations were seeking Java programmers with 5-8 years experience. I'm not kidding.

Obviously Apple knows their job announcements are scrutinized, and it wouldn't surprise me if they were casting a broader net than they need to be, as insurance against future needs that may or may not materialize.

The Ultimate Plugin?

[Dark Paladin]

Apple should probably know by now that the iPod has a lot of "value added" potential, outside of the music player.

It functions exceptionally as an MP3/AAC/AIFF/Audible player - no dispute about that. It works well as an audio recorder from what I've heard. And it also functions "decently" as a calendar/address book/note taker.

Apple might be seeing something beyond a "video iPod". Personally, based on what Mr. Jobs has said, I'd be surprised if it went that route. Most people I know don't care to be watching video as they walk/exercise/work/drive.

But what if the iPod became more of a hub? Take the current Airport Express device - 802.11 device plus audio player and print server. What if your iPod could wirelessly transmit audio to it, so you wouldn't need another computer on all the time - just pick up the iPod, and it would be like a little remote. Or you enter the room with your iPod, and the Airport Express starts playing what's on there, so you have seamless music from your earphones to your speakers.

Imagine if that could be done with video as well - just take the videos you made with iMovie or one of Apple's major movie editors, and plunk it onto the iPod. Now you can go to the other room and demo the movie on the TV set.

Remember how The Lord of the Rings was downloaded onto iPods and transferred to the editing room? Imagine a digital video camera that, instead of a small tape, just plugged in an iPod - direct from video to hard drive, and then just plug it into the computer and edit away. Or, if you have a digital camera, same thing - and now you can wirelessly transmit those photos to your computer for editing/emailing and the like.

So rather than a "video iPod", I wonder if Apple won't make the iPod an extension of the "digital hub" idea. Of course, knowing Apple, those features will work best with a Mac - but if they get other companies like HP to jump on the bandwagon and support these functions with their devices and software, Apple won't care - they'll still be selling iPods and cashing in the checks at the bank.

Of course, just an idea. I could be wrong.

Re:it shows you that...

[jared_hanson]

/me raises hand.

I usually don't reply to ACs, but the Objective-C bashing is just ignorant. Objective-C is not used much outside of the Mac OS X development community, but that does not make it a bad language. I've programmed fairly extensively in it, and I can say that it is a truly incredible language that makes tasks really simple. It is a true object oriented language (everything inherits from NSObject) yet you still get to keep pointers, which gives you a lot of power as well. It has the power of C++ and the ease of use of Java or C#.

I have yet to meet anyone with significant experience in Objective-C who can say they dislike the language.

Apple Psyops...

[macthulhu]

I think they get together in the boardroom once in a while and come up with stories to mess with people. Apple has a history of setting the bar on new tech, yet they don't (for various reasons) often get the credit for doing so. Perhaps it's a dual effort... Their "competitors" get thrown into confusion trying to figure out who they'll need to reverse engineer the product as soon as it's available, and the forums on places like /. go crazy trying to speculate what it is, and how it will perform... despite complete ignorance to what the product is.

If I were running Apple, I would do it just to read what all of us armchair quarterback types have to say about it. Think about it... People's guesses may be combinations of tech that Apple didn't think of yet, and they get free market feasability research at the same time. Plus, it's funny.

Of course, if I were running Apple I'd stop making products that get handled a lot out of white plastic (iPods, keyboards, and the like).

Re:Disinformation?

[el-spectre]

Are you kidding? Have you ever seen an IT job description? Most of the ones I've seen are long lists of technologies (that are often mutually exclusive), written to be as vague as possible. I've seen junior programmer positions w/requirements that would make a Senior Architect nervous...

I qualify with my A+ cert!!

[Mateito]

Experience in the following areas is important:

system integration - Check. I installed Samba last week

digital logic - Check. That's ones and zeros, right?

SDRAM - Check. I use that in my camera

Flash - Check. I flashed my DVD-rom thingy to be region free

ASIC - Um. That's like a CPU for a nintendo.

processor selection - Check. AMD beats Intel every time. Only fan boys use Intel.

ATAPI - Check. I've installed Harddrives before

various communication protocols (ie: GSM, Bluetooth, IEEE 802.11, Firewire, and USB) - Check: I've got a GSM phone and a USB flash drive.

display types and video and analog integration. - Check. How easy peasy! Just match the colors on the cable plugs and the sockets.

Apple, here I come!

Wonder if I should change my name to "iMateito"?

Does no one else have an Apple ID?

[Have Blue]

Sign into Apple's job site and go to job requisition ID 2142016 . You should find this:

The iPod group is looking for a Hardware Engineer. This person will be an individual contributor on a top notch team with responsibilities for the design, implementation, and integration of digital and analog electronics. The applicant should be familiar with computer system architecture and digital design. Duties include schematic capture, prototype bring-up and debugging, hardware bug tracking, functional verification, signal characterization, and manufacturing support.

The ideal candidate is someone from a consumer electronics background dealing with high volume, low power, high quality products.

Required Experience:

• BS/MS EE or equivalent required.
• Must have great EE fundamentals.
• 5+ years overall experience needed, 3+ years in a lead role preferred.
• Experience in the following areas is important: system integration, digital logic, SDRAM, Flash, ASIC's, processor selection, ATAPI, various communication protocols, display types and analog integration.
• Broad experience: both digital and analog.
• Experience building actual products in labs.

Note that there is nothing in there about video or wireless; the parenthetical expression in the article text was added by the reporter and the video integration comment is completely out of left field. This is either extremely wishful thinking on the part of Overclockers Club or an outright fabrication.

Re:Ok, we know /. is anti-M$

[anthonyclark]

It's simple, really. /. is a privately owned site. It isn't the BBC with some kind of public charter that specifically says 'we are unbiased'.

Plus the /. crew love apple hardware :-)

Re:Disinformation?

[stratjakt]

Sure, I saw one today that wanted 10+ years of C# experience.

Luckily I have access to that hyperbolic time chamber. It's hard to code in there though, this pointy headed glowing guy is always throwing energy beams at me.

Re:Disinformation?

[dasmegabyte]

C# is the conceptual child of C++ and Java. If you have three or four years of C#, another three of Java, and another three of C++, I'd take you over a guy who's had, say, 9 years of C and six months of C#. Or a background in perl or something. "10+ years of C# experience" takes less newspaper then "10+ years of programming experience in object oriented languages, at least two of which should be in C#"

Of course, it could also be written by a complete idiot.

Re:No wifi/video..but maybe a built in FM transmit

[Oculus Habent]

Remote sounds most likely. I see a couple possibilities...

1. AirTunes-capable überDock. Play AirTunes from your iPod over 802.11g with a Bluetooth remote. This would involve the various protocols: FireWire & USB for the dock, 802.11g for the network, Bluetooth for the remote...

2. iPod PVR? Store video to your iPod & play it at any A/V capable dock or computer. Not, repeat not to play video on your iPod. Just as you can purchase audio copies of various radio broadcasts, you could purchase video copies of television programs at the Apple Media Store. Same simple anti-copy restrictions would apply. H.264 codec w/ FairPlay wrapper?

I don't see Apple putting the time and money into making the iPod more expensive for a feature set that so few people will use (wireless xfer, video iPod).