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Rumors of Next Generation of Ipods
xyankee writes "Apple is on the verge of releasing a 60GB iPod that will not only hold a ton of music, but also sport photo-viewing capabilities! Think Secret is reporting that the new iPod will also have a 2-inch high-resolution LCD display, video-out, and enhancements to iPhoto for synchronizing photos. The best part is it'll be just 2mm thicker than regular iPods. Does this mean that iPhoto for Windows might not be far behind? Also, as a note to all the rumor pundits, Think Secret nailed the iMac G5 specs a month before its announcement, so I'm inclined to believe them with this bit as well."
the iPod mini is also rumored to bump up to 6gb. (less is more, suckaz!)
// I will show you fear in a handful of jellybeans.
I'm not sure that the ability to view photos would be an incentive for me to upgrade to a newer iPod; the screen would just be too small to make it worthwhile. However, the idea of integrating the iPod with iPhoto to make it easier to transport photos from one place to another would be appealing. Being able to sync a smart list of recent photos to the iPod before going back east to visit the family would be really cool...
This rumor seems plausible, but go to macrumors and there's always some rumor or another. Thinksecret may have the best record in getting it right, but their word isn't gold. Having said that:
I'm not that excited about a photo iPod. I worry about battery life, because my 3rd gen gets only about 6 hours. The 4th gen is better, supposedly double, but it seems to me a color screen will severely drain battery life.
Now that my powerbook has a DVD burner, I find it pretty easy to burn a picture DVD in DVD Studio Pro (not free), but it plays pretty much everywhere and the media is now dirt cheap in bulk. And it has music, menus, etc. The iPod just seems like a gimmick in this arena. But maybe Stebe will surprise me!
PS Hey Stebe give me the wifi iPod rather than the photo iPod!
And if the new iPods can be connected directly to a digital camera to store, sort, review, and manage photos in the field, I'd be able to leave my laptop behind on shoots.
The only time a new feature is a bad thing is if it impairs the access or usage of an existing feature. If Apple can implement picture viewing without changing the UI dramatically, or the input method (click wheel), and doesn't make the form factor too large or the battery life too short, I'm all for it.
How long until Apple forces this article off the net?
EXCLUSIVE: 60GB iPod to pack photo-viewing features
By Ryan Katz, Senior Editor
October 8, 2004 - After three years of being synonymous with "digital music player," Apple's iPod will widen its horizons and gain photo-viewing capabilities within the next 30 to 60 days, highly reliable sources tell Think Secret.
The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499.
The new iPod is currently in production in Asia after delays from Toshiba in delivering its new 60GB drive hampered a planned early-September ramp up. Sources confirm Toshiba started shipping the drive to Apple in mid-September and iPod manufacturer Inventec began building the new device in the last two weeks.
The new iPod's form factor will be identical to the existing 4G iPods, sources report, but will be two millimeters thicker than the current 40GB iPod and marginally heavier.
The 2-inch color screen is identical in size to other iPods, but will sport a higher resolution for photo viewing. However, the new device's real shining feature will be its video-out port, which will enable users to tote their photo galleries with them, ready to be plugged into any television for big-screen viewing.
The 60GB iPod will feature only rudimentary built-in software for viewing photos, with no editing tools, sources say. Photo albums will be navigated in a similar fashion to music playlists, and a slideshow feature will provide transitions with user-specified background music, similar to iPhoto. Synchronizing features similar to iTunes will also be added to iPhoto.
The new iPod won't feature built-in flash memory stick slots for downloading photos from digital cameras, although such a feature will presumably be able to be employed through Belkin's $99 Media Reader.
Sources indicate that Apple will market the new photo iPod as being capable of storing 20,000 music tracks and 25,000 photos. As an added bonus for music fans, album artwork will be displayed on screen when it's available for a selected track.
Rumors of a 60GB iPod first surfaced in June, when Toshiba said that it was in the process of developing a 60GB drive and, much to the ire of Apple, confirmed that the iPod maker had already committed to buying it in quantity.
They're not going to market it as a 5G, but rather the top of the line 4G. From TFA:
"The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack Toshiba's new 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499."
"The problem with internet quotations is that many are not genuine" -Abraham Lincoln
Steve Jobs is on record as saying that they developed one, but that they didn't bring it to market - so Think Secret weren't that far out.
I think you might be thinking of SpyMac, with their perpetual iWalk hoaxing. ThinkSecret AFAIK has never jumped on that particular rumor bandwagon.
But ThinkSecret tends to be weary of these sorts of rumors, and usually doesn't post something like this unless they have someone they believe to be a credible inside source. Still, you're right, they're not 100%.
..
Yet I bet Mac-addicts are already swooning over Apple's "innovation" on this one.
I am the maverick of Slashdot
[built-in] limited range transmitter
I can't see them doing that, in the UK FM transmitters a la iTrip are not legal (although I believe that some retailers are selling them).
Yes, but I don't see the point. I had an iPod, and aside from the UI, everything else has been topped. What's the point of giving extra money to Apple when I can get more features somewhere else?
"Now I just have to find $500..."
Save your money and get a gmini400 that does more for cheaper.
You're right. I was thinking of SpyMac. ThinkSecret is a pretty good site. My bad... Either way, KEEP A COLOR SCREEN OFF THE IPOD. Color screens suck outdoors.
Get one of these and you can watch pr0n movies in DivX and XviD. And it's the same size as an iPod.
Apple is giving us a product that works. It is not as flexible as it could be, but not as useless as the MS offerings. Apple adds features slowly that can be exanded to meet future need. The iPod can be used to violate copyright, but it is not the primary mechanism of violation. The Windows machine, or the Mac, is in fact the primary means of violation.
With an FM tuner, however, recording music off the airwaves become a possiblity. With some widely available hacks, the iPod could become a tool for copyright violation. Which could open Apple up to yet more lazy corporations who wish to suck off the teats of an innovator.
Picture viewing though is good both short and long term. It immidately makes the extra space of the iPod meaningful. I mean how much more do we need for music. And how much more music are we going to buy? Now the extra space is not for unlicensed music, but for the family phot album. Which all parents have gigibytes of because they all have digital cameras. Long term this is a small step towards the video iPod, which the technologically ignorant critics want now, but which is not going to be a mass market item for a couple more years.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
You're joking right?
Those little white earbuds are the worst piece of crap I've ever owned. They sound terrible! Absolutely no depth, extremely tinny, and awful low-end. Not to mention the right earbud blew in the first week I got my iPod.
I am a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.
New site up already... http://iphotopod.com
I am saying the Mac's harddrive be read-only. I wouldn't want you to walk up to my 12" powerbook, plug-in a laptop, and have an Administrator account on my machine, just because your account, when you created it on your iMac, was setup as an administrator.
The iPod's non-native, or non-authenticated, computers shouldn't be able to write... However, my iPod should be able to login to my powerbook, and my mom's ibook, for example, and have Admin rights. My ipod, however, should not have admin rights on any other mac I try to log into on. That is a security hole.