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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."
60GB = Lots of pr0n
P0rn to go.....
How handy !(pun intended)
Think Secret, while not 100% accurate, does have a pretty darn good track record for pre-release specs. It's certainly the most credible Mac rumor site out there. I'm inclined to believe them as well. Now I just have to find $500...
didn't the iPod make it because it played MP3s, and played them well?
Think Secret also spent a lot fo time showing the new Apple PDA along with supposed screen shots and that never surfaced...
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...
The article says in the next 30-60 days. Although that makes sense in terms of the holiday shopping season, didn't they just come out with the 4th gen ipod, oh, 3 or 4 months ago? You still have problems finding accessories for the 4th gen--most of the cases sold in the stores are still for the 3rd gen ipod.
"Righteous speed demon and trust fund party darling of justice"
Someday they will manage the technological feat of incorporating an FM tuner into the IPod. When I have the option of listening to NPR or my music collection I may switch to the IPod. Right now I will stick with my IRiver player.
I totally get this. I carry photos around on my Palm all the time. When I come back from vacation or whatever, I can dump the images to the Palm and then I can show them to folks. As long as it's a very good screen (like the one on my Tungsten|T3) the pictures will show up very well.
I also keep my T3 docked on my desk at work, and use the slide show feature to cycle through photos there while it's not in use. It makes a very appealing digital picture frame. An iPod in its dock, with a good color screen, would serve well in this capacity too.
FWIW, IMHO, IANAL, prices and participation may vary.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
When I bought my treo, I was so happy to ditch having to walk around with two geeky devices. So of course I ended up buying a 20 gig iPod and still walk around with two geeky devices. Jobs has said the smartphone is the future of the PDA - does that mean an eventual merging of these technologies?
www.lonseidman.com
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.
As digital cameras keep producing larger and larger file sizes, it's getting to be quite worthwhile to have someplace to dump the contents of your flash cards.
If this new i-pod has a CF reader built in, I wouldn't need to carry half a dozen 512MB flash cards, I could just fill one card, dump it into the i-pod and keep on shooting.
Devices like this do exist already, but none of them are really easy to use and carry.
Drop it in the toilet of the men's restroom at your office.
ipods lick balls.
So...you can't afford one either, eh?
What i would like to see is a winamp style visualation feature. Just use a QVGA 16-bit color screen.
I know, you dont NEED it, but it would be better than picture support.
A digital camera adapter
I could see a 4 MP camera that would attach right to the bottom of the iPod. Now that would be cool, an iPod with photo-taking capabilities. There might just be a good market for that. Plus, 60 GB of photos in your camera would be sweet ...
***
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
Yeah, I hate how their portable digital music player only plays DRM music.
Oh, wait, that is not Apple, that is Sony.
Well, I still hate how their media player software really only wants to rip in a DRM/proprietary format.
Oh, wait, that is not Apple, that is Microsoft.
What is Apple doing again?
Your argument is analogous to not buying a certain car because it comes with a tow-hook standard, and saying "I don't buy into this towing nonsense. I am not buying anything with a tow-hook." The damn car still works fine if you completely ignore the presence of the tow-hook!
News flash: You do not have to use DRM at all on the iPod.
The best part is it'll be just 2mm thicker than regular iPods.
Yeah, but how much thinner will your wallet be?
Oh, it would be wicked cool if the iPod would display the album art of any songs it's playing - with the song name superimposed over the top. Ahh
Imagine what this capability would do for the interface in general...
Yum. I'd buy.
And I'm not talking about voice notes, either, but CD-quality, stereo, uncompressed audio, from a mic or line input. The iPod chipset is supposed to support this already, so all it would need is a software update. Apparently...
I do concert recordings (with permission), and that would make things so much easier. [fx: sigh]
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Yawn...
Archos AV400 supports audio, video (divx/xvid), photos and act as a USB external drive too. 80GB models are available today and work with most any OS.
It seems to me that iPods tend to be more of a status symbol than a breakthrough in technology.
[This is not meant as a flame. I own a 17" Powerbook myself.]
ipods lick balls.
Now I see why they are so expensive.
This is it. The beginning of Apple's "media center" strategy.
And it's completely different from the way Microsoft and others are approaching it.
Everyone else has been going about it from the respect of making a whole freaking separate *computer* a part of your entertainment/AV center. A computer with its own maintenance and patching needs, another computer that needs to be upgraded, another computer to break, etc.
Apple started it with AirPort Express...a wireless device, that integrates with your existing wireless or wired network, integrates with your entertainment center, has analog and digital optical audio outputs, and seamlessly meshes with the applications and techniques you ostensibly already use (or will switch to) for managing your music collection.
Now, an iPod, with a massive amount of storage, and clearly with a dock or some other capability to attach to an external video device, such as a TV, even if only for viewing photos. This means that some type of interface - whether it's on the TV or the iPod's own screen - has been built to navigate through items that reside on the iPod. Meaning that video playback (as long as the iPod and/or dock can handle the playback/decoding) would be trivial.
Imagine this: download a movie or other video content on your Mac. Perhaps via the iTunes Store. Sync with your iPod. Drop your iPod into its dock at your entertainment center. Select content (a movie?) and play. Simple. Clean. Doesn't require you to have 45 computers.
So, yes, this new iPod is "just as expensive" as a PC someone might build or buy to integrate into your entertainment center as a media PC. But think about NORMAL PEOPLE for a second. Think about how unbelievably cool this is.
If this turns out to be true, and the iPod ends up having a nice color screen then Apple could have a real winner on their hands with the iPod + iSight combination. Right now the iSight only needs a firewire connection. With a color screen it would now be possible to use the two as a camcorder if Apple would support this. Apple sent college students to both the democratic and republican conventions with iBooks and iSights to do interviews with the delegates. It seems pretty obvious that that camcorder-like feature is on Apple's radar screen. Personally I could care less about video and more about audio recording. I wish Apple would allow 44.1khz lossless recording with the iPod. Then the iPod (plus external battery) would supplant the portable DAT recorder as the primary tool for LEGAL concert tapers. This is not piracy, but sanctioned recording from the artists. For more information see archive.org/audio
on my PornPod. Cool!
I drank what? -- Socrates
More thoughts:
Step 1) Find or write software to convert JPEG into audio files
Step 2) Find or create hardware to decode the sounds you get from playing back those files into signals that your TV understands over an RCA cable or what have you
Step 3) Insert iPod in between the product of step 1 and the product of step 2
This time it really applies:
Step 4) ????
Step 5) Profit!
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...