Slashdot Mirror
New Apple iPod with Photo Capabilities
artlu was the first of many to submit: "I was just watching my Dow Jones streaming news wire, and I saw that Apple is releasing a new iPod that will have photo captabilities. The news stated that the new iPod will be able to hold 25,000 photos as well as your traditional iPod functionality." Apple's got a page up about the iPod Photo and of course a press release.
In addition to the iPod Photo, which comes in 40GB and new 60GB flavors for $499 and $599 respectively, there's also:
- iPod U2 Special Edition ($349)
- The Complete U2, a digital box set of every song ever recorded by U2, plus some crazy and rare recordings, available in November for $149 via the iTunes Music Store, with a $50 certificate towards it with the iPod U2 Edition
- iTunes 4.7
- QuickTime 6.5.2
- iPod Updater 3.0.4 (2004-10-20)
- iPod-focused Apple Store: iPod Store
- EU iTunes Music Store added to 9 more European nations, with over 700,000 songs
- iTunes Music Store is coming to Canada in November
- Press releases
Other cool things: in addition to its dock, the iPod Photo can also even output video via its own headphone jack with a special 1/8" AV cable, and the 220x176 65536-color screen also displays album art while playing, as well as color games, etc! (Don't have much/any album art? Get it!)
While Steve Jobs talked at length during the presentation about why Apple isn't doing video on a portable device itself for reasons of battery life, device/screen size, weight, etc, now that this device has video output capabilities, I think it's a clear sign of the direction; that is, future devices - or future firmware - being able to output video content to an external monitor/projector. Imagine this: your iPod dock, already at your entertainment center. The iTunes Movie Store (or, your own iMovie content). H.264/MPEG AVC (Microsoft WMV9/VC-1 has hit some snags in its bid for standardization). Download a movie, sync to your iPod. Drop the iPod in its video dock at your TV (or ANY device that has video inputs). Done. And a LOT cleaner and easier than having a whole separate computer that needs to be maintained as a part of your entertainment center. Add 802.11g with things like AirPort Express to the mix, and who knows what might come...
A little more info: .75 in compared to .57 and .69 in for the 20GB and 40GB previous model. The weight about the same however, 6.4 ounces compared to 5.6 and 6.2.
... it doesnt. Not to mention $600 (and $500 for that matter) is really reaching, considering we are just talking about music and pictures
Advertised 15 hour battery life
65k-color screen
220 x 176 pixel resolution
Same click wheel as previous generation
Not mentioned (at least in my first pass) is that, the dock will connect to tvs and display a slideshow.
Includes AV Cable (supposedly 3-plug RCA) The new ipods are slightly thicker. Each of the new ones is
Does anyone else think that this a bit overkill. 60Gb is a LOT when you are just talking about music and pictures. It would be one thing if this generation included video playback, but
In other apple news Apple Launches 9 Euro iTunes Music Stores
An iPod with picture capabilties: I dub thee The iPorn
Trolling is a art,
You can get cheaper products for $50 which will allow you to do more creative slideshows, effects, etc.
I think Apple missed the boat here. The killer function they should add to the iPod is a camera- which goes along nicely with the photo storage features. Nothing flashy or expensive, but for another $50 they could add a lens that's better than the cell phone cams.
Now I just need my iPod to allow me to make phone calls and I'm all set.
I'd take a picture, but the only camera I have is in it.
Photo *display* capabilities. When I think of photo capabilities, I think of something take can _take_ photos.
joy, every 6months, a new ipod is released.
how entertaining is this?
i atleast hope it can show album art, while you're jamming to your favorite death-metal songs!
included with the announcement is news that 9 additional countries (Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, and Spain) in Europe now have access to the iTunes Music Store and that the much awaited Canadian store will be available in November.
-- i am jack's amusing sig file
One of those little extra touches that always puts Apple products ahead of their competitors.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
So it can store photos. I can do that right now on my 20G ipod.
And it can display photos on a TV, cool.
But it can't transfer photos directly from a digital camera? You need to buy an expensive yet crappy belkin adapter for that? No thank you.
It would've been cooler had it been able to display keynote presentations to VGA...
I say it's another cube for apple.
----- Documentation is worth it just to be able to answer all your mail with 'RTFM' - Alan Cox.
captabilities meaning can capture photos ?
.
Photos and contacts and solitaire sounds like fun stuff, but what about any new audio related features--you know, since it's an audio portable and all.
Something tells me they managed to overlook Gapless Playback and OGG/FLAC support again.
If so, please visit http://store.apple.com/ ... please?
that photo capability as a secondary feature is just about worthless. Pretty soon, I'll have a phone that surfs the web, plays games, takes photos, cooks dinner, plays mp3s, wavs, oggs, avis, mpegs, and can predict the weather. None of which I'll be using since my ipod will do that anyways.
Now, when do we get Linux on it?
soon there will be super duper gadgets that will be a cellphone, digital camera, digital music player, GPS, PDA, USB memory stick, all in one SuperGadget! it slices, dices, and does all those hard to do tasks in the kitchen too...
supplys limited, call now
Sadly, Apple has made a mistake by failing to include a card reader. The iPod Photo is stuck in the paradigm of digital music, in which your computer is the center and the iPod is just a way of making the music more portable. For photos, though, I think of my camera as being the central point, not my computer. Being able to download directly from my camera's memory cards to the iPod would massively increase the number of pictures I could take without needing to go back to my desktop or haul around a laptop. Without that, this is just a minor improvement, but with the ability to download straight from memory cards it would be a major step forward.
There's no point in questioning authority if you aren't going to listen to the answers.
i know we all looooooooove apple to death around here, but uh, call me when it can *take* photographs...i really have no need to carry around 25,000 pictures...to look at...and....look at again.
Yes, yes, sharing betwixt ipods...great and all, but i don't recall the last time i wanted to have a photo that was on a stranger's laptop...ever. Sure, it's nifty, blah, blah, blah.
Call me when it's rigged with a 4mp camera. Thanks.
It was just a metter of time for the ipod to get these new capabilities.
Notice that it features now an AV port to plug it to your tv set, etc.
Since the ipod is basically a small computer or some sort of a PDA, minus PDA funtcions, will it be able to play Quicktime video with an Ipod software update in the near future?
Seems to me Jobs & Co. are moving in that direction... Looks to me like the substitute for a portable DVD player, vcr or something like that. Bring a good portion of your video library on your pocket, play it everywhere. ( ITMS videos for sale coming soon?)
I like the idea, but it's too expensive considering that it's not a phone, the display is as small as it is, there's no PDA capability, and there's no way to change any of this by installing software. This is yet another example of Apple/Jobs introducing an expensive, closed, ultimately ascetic, but very well designed piece of hardware.
Does anyone else think that this a bit overkill. 60Gb is a LOT when you are just talking about music and pictures.
Think movies.
See the last paragraph here.
So that is what the 60GB hard drives ordered by Apple from Toshiba are for. /. article with speculation found here.
Previous
Here we go again, people saying this iPod won't be a hit. They said the same thing on the original iPod and the iPod Mini. Those were both huge hits, and this one will be too.
I'd love for someone to tell me I'm wrong here, but....
What I was hoping for from this was an iPod that has an SD card slot. If I'm out and about ( the most likely time I'll use an iPod ) then being able to move the images from my camera's SD card to the iPod, freeing up space and letting me more easily review the images would be perfect.
Looks like Apple have missed a chance here - with an SD card I'd have bought one ASAP, as it is, I'm stuck looking for a product that meets my needs.
Does anyone do such a product !?
-- "I know that this is vitriol, no solution, spleen-venting, but I feel better having screamed, don't you ?"
They just added Album Art, but I want to see the entire Album insert, lyrics, artist facts and news. How hard would that be to add for songs purchased from Itunes. Think of the Value-add. It would be nice to have a FM transmitter was well.
Still no ogg.
Julius Caesar - Act I, Scene i: "What mean'st thou by that? Mend me, thou saucy fellow!"
I wonder if you can hack it to do videos.
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
I did RTA, even another click to Tech Specs, but where is the specs for the photo quality, ie megapixel? or are the photos as big as iPod's screen resolution of 220 x 176?
Rock that crushes, Paper & Scissors that don't matter.
The iPod just jumped the shark. There's a point in the life of a product where you try to integrate too much functionality. The iPod does music, and it does it very well.
Granted some people like these new integrated all in one cellphone, photoholder, music player, portable video players, but I'm going to have to go with "more is less" in this case.
I think certain devices (like the GameBoy Advance and the iPod) do well because they do one thing and they do it well. As long as they don't cripple or obfuscate the basic functionality, the iPod will still do fine. But once a company loses sight of what the product was made for and start trying to make it a swiss army knife, things tend to go downhill (N-Gage?).
I still like the iPod and I don't think it's going away. But I think Apple's starting to toe the line on the border swiss army knife land...
I'm on a few different sides of this. (It goes without saying, first, that it looks pretty cool.)
The iPod has revolutionized music in the past few years because of its simplicity and style. It does one thing, it does it very well, and it looks damn good while doing it. The iPod Photo kind of blurs those lines. Obviously, the iPod could become the next-gen portable media center: music, video, a Belkin iTV something-or-other. This gives us a glimmer of where they plan to go with this. iCinema Movie Store?
It might not, also, but I'm leaving it up to somebody else to consider thinking of ways the IP could change the way we even think about our personal photography and wallpapers and whatnot -- like the iPod changed the way many people listen to music (albums out, playlists & shuffle in). That is to say, it looks weird as a product now, but somebody's in a room somewhere thinking of ways to make this thing awesome -- maybe. And that's why I question its branding as a separate entity, because it can't just be an iPod with a color screen, no -- it's iPod Photo!
I know that whereas I have a good number of digital pictures, a $500 device with a color screen can't be $499.75 better than a damn CD-R (e.g., most DVD players now will do the same TV sharing thing with a CD-R full of JPEGs). And I own an iPod already, so I can easily see the argument for convenience among others.
I also want to know, where does this leave iPhoto? "Now, you too can organize your pictures.. in iTunes! But you don't. You just download them there. You organize your pictures in iPhoto but you download them with iTunes, but you can also do it in iTunes if you want. Got it?"
Music, and the way that we deal with it, is such a rich site for interaction (music, audiobooks, speeches, recordings, class lectures, whatever) that it's hard to imagine where they could take photos. But then again, I mean, music, yanno, you listen to it. Photos, yanno, you look at them. So who knows.
With 40gb/60gb, you could store quite a few compressed dvds on there. I want an iMovie!
find / -name "*.sig" | xargs rm
Yes, I remember what happened when the ipod was first announced and all the naysayers got this uncomfortable bitter look when it took off.
Still, who the hell wants to look at pictures on a small lcd or display them on tv?
MPEG-2 or 4 I could understand (doesn't iRiver's next player do this?), but photos? Big deal.
I was hoping the rumors of an inexpensive flash-based iPod would come true, then I'd have an excuse to ditch my MuVo.
damn that thing is UGLY.
I reformatted my iBook recently and after iTunes installed I logged into iTMS and attempted to download my purchased music again. No can do. I read in their FAQ's that I needed to play a purchased song in order to authorize my computer. So I hooked up my iPod and it asked if I wanted to point it to my new home folder /and make it match my new home./ Not wanting to endanger my music, I said no. Well... iTunes grayed out all the songs on the iPod! I couldn't play any of them, let alone sync with it.
I unmounted it and reconnected the cable and this time agreed to let it home to my new music folder. iTunes prompty formatted the iPod and deleted my only copy of the music I'd purchased. WTF.
I currently have a support ticket with Apple on this but they have not responded. I just wanted to warn people how easy it is to DEEP FRY your entire music library when you're reloading your computer. I've seen other forum messages saying that music can only be downloaded once, so I may have lost my stuff permanently. I wonder now if I had downloaded a free song from iTMS and used that to authorize my computer if the iPod then would have been available to play the songs on and sync with.
http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/: "Use the included AV cable to connect iPod Photo to a projector or TV."
I would rather have a smaller music player than a larger, more expensive unit that provides functionality already implemented better by other devices. Sorry Apple, you dropped the ball on this one.
Every version of the iPod was predicted to "fail". From the original 5Mb to the mini.
And every prediction was incorrect, to say the least.
The iPod Photo will be wildly successful, and evolve to be the standard by which all others are judged.
Wow! More features that I'm not clamoring for!
It has a low resolution color screen that can display photos? So what. So does my PDA, and my digital camera...and they have card readers!
While the 15hour battery is an improvement, what people want is useful stuff, like video playback, audio recording, protected Windows Media support...
...here.
Today my iPod from freeipods.com is arriving. Apple has to release an iPod with a color screen on the same day. Talk about bad karma!
I wonder if I can exchange it at Best Buy?
Free Dell PC
Does this mean iPhoto for windoze is on the horizon?
You're an idiot.
Sure if you had to edit some XML file it would never happen but Apple doesn't make you do that. It stores meta-data without you even noticing: meta-information from cameras is transparently copied over and used, other meta-data is attached just by dragging a photo to a folder.
The same is true of album art, drag and drop and it's there.
Not everything (fails to) work like Windows: that's why those of us who value our time pay a little extra to buy a properly designed system rather than some cobbled together crap from Dell and Windows.
Bad analogies are like waxing a monkey with a rainbow.
Hi Guys, I am new to this sweet website. With this new iPhoto iPod I can carry pictures of my girlfriend!
It syncs with iPhoto and Photoshop albums. I don't see how this would be a big deal.
How much will you wager that this addon device is just a few months away? I mean, all they have to do is build a CCD camera that fits on top of the thing much like the camera that went onto the gameboy. It has a serial connection on the top as well as power and such. The headphone jack can be used as a line input for sound as well, if you wanted to record a sound clip along with the photo.
This is an addon that you can virtually guarantee will be created.
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Actually, I don't think it will because Apple has realized that people don't want to have to use the small devices they carry around to organize their data -- they want their computers to do that, with their large screens and easy input methods. Having the iPod Photo sync with iPhoto (or whatever else), you can sort your pictures into albums before putting them on your iPod, just like playlists. That way, you can go right to the album you want to share and present a slideshow right away. No need to sort or sift.
Per Square Mile, a blog about density
See those little thumbnails? That's all the metadata most people need. To most people a photograph isn't data (which requires metadata to make it interesting) -- it's a PICTURE. You LOOK AT IT, you don't keyword search it.
Sure, if you have a lot of pictures, looking at all of them to find one is hard. But I assume it will support the "photo album" concept of iPhoto (and the other compatible apps) just like a playlist. That's all you really need -- basic categorization.
I shoot primarily in RAW mode with my Canon EOS 10D, which produce files much larger than your average JPEG, on the order of 5-6 MB each, so even GB sized flash cards fill up quickly, especially during special event shoots like weddings, etc.
Using the iPod as an image tank would really be useful for me... but does the iPod support copying the RAW files? (I know the RAW files are camera specific, but I don't really care about viewing them, I just want to store them...)
-- Samir Gupta, Ph. D. Head, New Technology Research Group, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Kyoto, Japan.
Have you not used digital photo management software? People are already creating digital albumns and putting their phtotos together. With iPhoto it even has 'Smart Albumns' which group photos on the fly.
iPod Photo supports and syncs with albumns from iPhoto on a Mac or with Adobe Elements or Adobe Album on a Windows PC.
My Axim, which is cheaper than an iPod, can display pictures, in a much better resolution. I can also watch movies, surf the internet, listen to music, chat with friends, use as a cell phone, take notes, be a planner, store my contacts, etcc... etc... etc... Only thing it can't do that an iPod can is store 60 gig of porn. Do you really need 60 gig of pr0n though? I'm perfectly happy with my 1gig at a time.
What people? Those ones who name their mp3s like "artist-album-track-name.mp3"? I don't think the iPod is being marketed toward that niche in the first place.
As for other metadata, most of that is stored in the database file on the iPod itself. Same with the iTunes db. Reason being is that you can play a track 500 times in iTunes and it'll remember that information. You nuke your library file and re-import, and that track is back to zero plays.
So the information is associated with the file, but it's not necessarily put into said file.
Wasnt there a lot of press released on the iPod being a "focused" machine? Specifically for music? I dunno if this will pick up. Maybe.
Whatever.
I just got my iPod on friday, and now my PC doesnt recognize the ipod when it connects. Yes, its connected properly, its just not being mapped to a drive. Online faqs proved useless, and a google search revealed only other people on forums complaining about the same problem.
This does not bode well for me.
So here it is. I dont really care that much about keeping my music on the iPod, so if it gets erased, and I need to reload it, no biggie.
Does anyone have _any_ idea what I should do here? I'm totally lost. (Yes, Ive already re-installed the ipod software, no it didnt work.)
w2k, fully updated. 4th gen iPod, brand new. Someone already told me I would have to exchange it for a new one, but there has gotta be a fix.
Right?
Right?
no
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/
"Now iMovie makes it even easier for you to turn your digital photos, music and photographs into movies. And thanks to increased performance, a streamlined editing process and a series of new features, you'll be able to make movies even faster than you could before"
The new iPod has a slide show feature that allows pictures synch'd w/saved music. I think the next upgrade these slide shows should be exportable and transferrable - Have a set of pictures ready and drop them on the 'Pod or back to the Mac (or MythTV!) for video broadcasting to home montitors (TVs).
trust me, you don't want the apple earbuds anyways, whatever color they are.
sony makes some very nice earbuds that come in black. surprisingly good sound quality, and they don't hurt your ears one bit. i've had them on for hours at a time with no discomfort. sony has a lot of similar ones, but the mdr-ex71's are great.
it helps to break them in a bit first. crank up the audio from the ipod to full for 5 or 6 minutes, and you're all set.
Indeed, from TFA:
"Having both your entire photo and music collections with you wherever you go is the next big thing," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "Everyone has a digital camera and wants to enjoy and share their growing library of digital photos wherever they are. Unlike video content, photo content is free and abundant, and there are no copyright issues to deal with. "
What can I say.... Steve Jobs is a f***in' tool...
Maybe I'm a luddite, but I just don't care for photos on my iPod.
:P Problem was, you had to navigate through 3 pages of icons just to get to the app you needed.
Part of what makes my iPod so nice is that its interface is really simple. I think that this is due, in part, to the fact that it doesn't do a large variety of things. All it does is play music based on playlist, artist, or album.
I've seen similar cluttering on my TiVo. It used to be just about 4 or 5 menu items on the main screen. Now, it's packed from the top of the screen to the bottom.
My old Symbian phone did tons of stuff. Games, calendar, to-do list, camera, web browser... you could even make phone calls with it.
I don't want my iPod to become like my cell phone.
...about the original iPod, and iPod mini.
And they're runaway successes, to put it mildly.
On one hand, we had analysts and pundits of all types saying Apple will fail if it *didn't* include photo/video functionality in a handheld, and now we've got a luminary here predicting it will fail because it *did*.
Well, I think I'll trust Apple's judgment on this one, considering it seems to know what it's doing, thank you.
This sounds like a really cool device, although I don't particularly want or need one (if I was rich, though, hell yeah). What I'm excited about is the idea that this means that the prices for regular iPods *should* come down a little. For $250, I could rationalize a 20G unit. Or will Apple be dropping all the old models?
On a related note, I like the black model but I really wish it didn't come with all that U2 crap on it. Yes, they had several classic, groundbreaking albums, but they haven't been very relevant since what - the late 80s? How about the Little Feat model iPod, or the Stax/Volt collection model? I'd buy one of those.
What if life is just a side effect of some other process and God has no idea we exist?
The iPod needs metadata. People will not suddenly start putting information along with their photos.
Most digital cameras create basic metadata as the Exif tags embedded in standard JPEG files. They provide basic informations such as camera type, shutter, aperture and original photo creation date (not necessarily the same as when the actual file was created). It's enough for iPhoto to sort pictures "by (virtual) roll", probably iPod software will work in similar way. On the musical side, iPod allows you to edit some of the metadata iTunes store in your musical library (you can alter your rating of a given file and also you automatically alter "last listening date" and "play count" just by playing a song file). Probably new iPod will also allow you to rate your photos and maybe change some of their arrangements.
Especially when you are using the device as temporary storage for a photo shoot. My Canon 10D files are an average of 6MB. Give me a few hours at a weding or a sports event and I will be filling that drive up pretty fast.
Last summer I shot over 3000 pictures in two days at a trap shooting competition - that's roughly 18 GB of photos. Everything fit in my camera bag and I got some great pics.
Does it strike anybody else as odd that you manage your photos on this thing using iTunes instead of iPhoto where you are presumably managing your photos? I realize that iTunes already has all the iPod management code built in and that it would be awkward to have iPhoto and iTunes working to manage the iPod at the same time - but it still feels contrived.
Maybe we're supposed to just deal with it until Apple gets Tiger out the door and Sync services are built into the OS proper? It just doesn't feel very Mac-Like this way...
Culture is more than commerce
How many Mbits is the camera?
I've owned a Canon Digital Rebel (EOS 300D) for a little over 3 months now and have acquired approximately 7GB of photos in that time (not counting RAW images). This is purely a hobby. I'm sure other amateur photographers will agree with me that 60GB isn't really overkill, even just for photos, let alone for both photos and music.
I am sick and tired of features that do not promote the further acceptance of pr0n! I want features that will allow me to display picture of women in latex catsuits tied to chairs in... *oh wait a minute*
This
Everything has a camera in it now-a-days. I just don't see the relevancy. If you need to take pictures of yourself when you're on your cell phone, listening to music, and while chatting, having a camera attached to every appliance you own is the least of your worries. Heh.
I can show my grandparents the goatse pics instead of just relying on good storytelling.
This is a really savvy move by Apple.
0 .html?sid=j22ky2jsbjy33jsby433yk). But, with their massive spin machine, they'll enlarge their market share with this baby step, and then take the next step in hardware offerings by saying the next new iPod will play video.
They market this new feature of the iPod which really isn't anything too spiffy compared to the Archos. (http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_40
This product is mostly old tech with great spin (and the Apple brand name).
I think it's a nifty move on Apple's part, but I'm wondering just how successful this one's gonna be (and how long it is until they unveil the next step -- video capability)...
-Chris
Two fish swim into a wall, one turns to the other and says, "Dam".
If anyone wonders why the new photo display capabilities aren't handled by iPhoto (it seems odd to have iTunes take care of pictures now), it's because there isn't a PC version of iPhoto. Apple wants both Mac and PC users to take advantage of the new iPod Photo. It seems that iTunes is evolving more into iPod Central. Maybe... iiPod!
I'd love to see Apple add a USB 2.0 I/O port to this iPod. My Canon Digital Rebel connects via USB 2.0 and I'd love to have an iPod to quickly offload images to instead of lugging around a laptop. I know you can get a Belkin card reader add-on but it woudl be much easier to simply plug-in my USB 2.0 cable to the iPod and have it download the RAW files automatically. If ti did this I'd be first in line to buy one. Now I'm only mildly interested and perhaps will put off getting an iPod until I see this model.
No, he needs to lose his virginity.
I am easily capable of transfering pics to my phone via bluetooth, but its stprage is rather limited
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
Looks like it's time for this link again.
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame. -You know who...
When you reformat your computer, you lose all the data... including music. Music isn't special, even if you got it from iTMS.
...a cell phone that plays music via iTunes?
That really is a ridiculous comment. What he means, obviously, is that the photos that most people have on their computers are their own, not some megacorp's, but the way he said it makes it sound ludicrous. As if copyright only applies to moving pictures....
Every version of the iPod was predicted to "fail". From the original 5Mb to the mini.
And every prediction was incorrect, to say the least.
Actually, the 5MB iPod did fail; it was never released. The little sucker only played one song!
Good thing Apple held off on releasing the iPod until the 5GB version!
Um, what's up with iPhoto integration? I see iTunes 4.7 does the transfer but I'd think that if it were on a Mac vs. PC that iPhoto with an autosync system like iTunes would be the way to go. Perhaps that's coming later.
Finally, it comes with a dock. It can do slideshows. How about throwing in a wireless remote? Just a thought.
The iriver announced a video player a few days ago and there were a bunch of people bitching about it being $600 (for 20 or 30 gig) I think.
Yes 60 gig is more, but will there ever be a firmware upgrade to actually support video playback?
Or, are you talking about it simply being a storage unit for movies, with playback being done someplace else?
creation science book
I know there are competing players with radios, but after you try the ipods UI there is no going back. I guess I will just have to wait until they release one with a radio.
iPorn
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
You care enough to post. Go away, poo-poo head.
Why? Because Apple refuses to put an FM tuner in any of their music players...or because they refuse to ship an inline remote anymore...
-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GIT d? s: a-- C++++ UL++++ P++ L+++ E- W++ N o-- K- w--- O- M+ V PS+ P
This is gonna be fun. I think I may be better off with a Treo 650 and a new SanDisk 2GB SD flash card installed...
iCaramba!
Neither your pda nor your digital camera has a 60GB HDD. Currently, I back up my massive photo collection to an external drive that I have to connect to my computer when the relatives come over. That is now history! I am currently wasting 10GB on pictures and music on my laptop that I can immediately reclaim. Not to mention all the time I have wasted deciding which 10 GB to have on my laptop, and which to consign to the backup drive.
gosh is this a retarded idea! There is no video, and the screen scks up battery life. The only people this is going to benfit is pervs. no whtey can l.isten to music an d masturbate public bathroom.s andf you can look at photos on a pda with better resolution
Every /. poster should read that page before posting to this story.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I only need one!
The Archos AV300 and AV400 series have had the capability to display photos and album artwork on the device or via video-out for at least a year now. But perhaps they're not direct competitors, in the sense that they're higher-end products primarily for playing and recording video, not for music like the iPod.
Enter the Archos Gmini 400, a 20GB iPod-sized device that has practically all the features that this newly-announced iPod Photo has, and has been available since August. Plus, it has a CompactFlash card slot. Oh, and also it plays DivX video. And it costs barely $50 more than a non-photo G4 iPod of the same capacity.
Apple's products have more style, sure. But if you're looking for the best feature/price ratio, the common wisdom still holds -- consider non-Apple products.
It also comes with a SmartMedia reader and CompactFlash reader - neither much bigger than the cards themselves, and able to dump a large card in a matter of a minute or 3.
That's an appreciable market - people who want to take a convenient, tiny download option on vacation instead of their laptop. If it includes music for those long flights or when you can only pick up C&W across the midwest, bonus!! The Belkin adapter is bulky, needs batteries and is (so I hear) very slow!
I suspect the "Here, let me show you" market will dwindle. The number of photos you have to leaf thru to find the "good" pic will grow exponentially, nobody will be interested in waiting. (Unless it is pr0n).
iTunes 4.7 still can't use an iPod as a source for party shuffle (this is a factor for me because my music is on a network share at home, and I hook my iPod to my PowerBook at work for music).
I filled out a bug report shortly after the Party Shuffle feature was released (iTunes 4.6?) and it was almost immediately closed as a duplicate.
I'm miffed.
I don't know about the price-point and everything, but the first thing I thought of when I saw the ability to output to a TV/projector coupled with the excellent scroll-wheel navigation was Powerpoint presentations. If they can make something that can display powerpoint presentations, it would be a huge hit with businessmen...they could have their roadshow in their pocket and not need to lug their laptop to a meeting. Also, they could control the presentation with the clickwheel.
Just a thought.
"A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep." --Saul Belloe
With all the rumors of a photo ipod that have been floating around for months, I was always curious how Apple would handle this for Windows users. It appeared that Apple had two choices:
I think it's interesting, but clever, that Apple took the rather unorthodox approach of transfering photos via iTunes. It would seem a good compromise that doesn't leave either of their supported ipod platforms out in the cold. Sure, this crossover muddies the water in terms of each program's functionality; but it works as a simple way to offer the new hardware to a wider audience.
Despite the new photo display capabilities, I for one will welcome the fact that the built-in Solitaire game will actually be in color. I just might be tempted to play it now. ^_^
The new iPod has a longer battery life than the old one did.
15 hrs is the new estimate for music use, and that's with the color screen. 5 hours if you do continuous slideshows.
I am concerned about any program, any piece of hardware, any treaty, any law that treats me as a consumer, not a citizen
That's insulting to us faggots. We do not want anything to do with Apple.
Thank you.
Well how about a built in fm tuner, support for OGG Vorbis, FLAC soon, Open Source Firmware, etc.
And hey, maybe I don't feel like paying $200 more for a feature I might use once or twice. I'm sure I'm not the only one who has never even considered "Damn, if only my music player had a camera!"
to keeping a print in your wallet or purse to show people? I'm not saying I want to carry 200 photos in my wallet, but I bet most people only want to see a few at a time anyway. I carry a few photos of my family in my wallet. I have a couple of additional snapshots at my desk. I have no need (or desire) to carry a lot of photos around and force people to sit through a 3 hour slideshow.
Now if you could dump your RAW format digital pics to the iPod Photo, that would be something. No more hauling a laptop or multiple memory cards around.
. there used to be a sig here.....
Not to mention $600 (and $500 for that matter) is really reaching, considering we are just talking about music and pictures.
Sheesh!
We've been complaining about Apple not having a sub-grand machine, and now it's too much? Come on! It's got Firewire and USB 2.0, a generous 220x176 built-in display (with AV-out if a 2" screen is too small for you whiners), and comes with real games (my Ti PB can't touch this)! Plus, it's portable! Plug in a keyboard, mouse, and your 37" TV and you've got one mean machine.
Now we just need that Doom 3 port and we're set. I don't think Brick will hold my attention all that long...
Look, I'm whining again already. Sheesh...
First, a nice colour screen. Second, they brought the battery life UP to 15 hours.
It's already won. The displaying of photos is nice... I'll probably use it to carry my portfolio with me. "Oh, you're an artist? What kind of work do you do?"
But I'd buy it as my replacement iPod anyway. The photo bit is clever marketing of something that's *free* for them with the new screen.
There are video players, sure, that will do this, but like everything else about the iPod this is elegant.
I love how every time someone mentions ogg in an ipod thread, they get OMG TROLL attached to them. Just because someone is pointing something out doesn't mean they are trying to kill your sacred cow. Grow up, please.
When you look at the state of the world, how can you not become a radical, liberal anarchist?
Can the Ipod Cell Phone be far behind? If so, they should bring back sidetalkin'.
Since when has this country used intellectual elite as a pejorative term?
If you could transfer photos from your digital camera to your iPod. No need to take along a laptop to store a few weeks worth of vacation photos!
Dunno if the new iPod will do this (doesn't look like it.. plus it probably requires some support by the camera guys).. I'm just wishing here..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Why can I not get a black iPod without the U2 add ons? Why does the black iPod have a blue backlight? A deep red or amber would more appropriate and easier on the eyes. Whats with blue LEDs and blue blacklight these days?
Personal Opinion: U2? Ugggh. Who listens to that pop band anyways. They should make a Led Zeppelin iPod engraved with a lemon being squeezed on the back.
Bore your friends with your vacation photos? Carry around PowerPoint presentations?
This sounds like a "hey, we can add this useless feature for no hardware cost" idea.
The iPod does miss the boat too, however; at least at the moment it looks like you can only tranfer photos via iTunes (if you want to be able to view them on the screen), which means you need a computer to connect between your camera and the iPod (and also means that they will be stored in whatever format iTunes uses, not in raw format). There is already a tool out that lets you transfer photos to an iPod for storage, but again, you lose any iPod interface to looking at the photos.
Honestly this would be a cool gimmick but I wouldn't see myself buying one. I could see buying a device that was made to store photos that had a bigger screen, smaller clickwheel (or put it on the back), and an easy way to get information from photo media (CF, stick, whatever) into the device in whatever format you want, as well as an easy way to plug the device into a TV to play back. The point would be to eliminate the computer as the intermediary, so you can just carry around your camera and this thing... no need to buy new media every time you fill up the stick, and no need to run home to your computer in the middle of a shoot.
- The Complete U2, a digital box set of every song ever recorded by U2, plus some crazy and rare recordings, available in November for $149 via the iTunes Music Store, with a $50 certificate towards it with the iPod U2 Edition Who is going to be interested in this? Any real fan would already own the CD's. Seems like alot of cash to me for mp3's.
Santa's elves better not make their own iPods, or there will be lawsuits.
Vote for Pedro
I was really looking forward to this, not because I'm a U2 fan per se, but because a black iPod did sound immensely cool. I thought it would look like an official version of this. Just a few problems, I now realise. The click-wheel is ugly, it only stores 20gb, and it's only available in the US. Damn.
a lot of us, especially being slashdot readers, critize this move. but go ahead and find the ipod mini release artice. yea. now realize that for awhile, apple sold every mini it had available and had the entire nation on backorder for months.
yea.
i just bought a G4 40 gig 3 weeks ago. i'm kind of pissed myself, but really i do realize that not a lot of functionality has been added. if you really want to, you could take the cover off of the ipod, paint it black, if you're half competent you can do a decent job, and you've got the u2 ipod. the "box set" being sold with the ipod is also available from itunes for 149 dollars....for over 400 songs.
ipod hacks already exist to act as a picture viewer, and there are belkin devices that actually integrate flash cards directly to any dock connector ipod, in case you've forgotten.
finally, and most importantly, you have plenty of people with too much money, who will buy them for the same reasons as the mini; they're appealing and everyone wants the bleeding edge.
$> man woman
$> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
I have heard your plea and have a surprise for you this Christmas!
An S-Video to RCA adapter!
You really shouldn't have masturbated in the company bathroom on June 5th, 2:37 pm.
With Love,
Santa Claus
P.S. The tinfoil underwear doesn't work.
The 15GB iPod WAS my music backup!
I'm not trolling here... it is simply stunning how with one simple click of a "YES" button you can lose your entire music library. I didn't agree to let iTunes WIPE my iPod. I agreed to let it re-home to my new user's music folder. What if I had loaded MP3s from my other computer? Would those be toast too?
It's a BAD design element, something they need to correct. And... if I am on an authorized computer... logging into iTMS with my "authorized" account... why shouldn't I be able to download my songs anew? It doesn't make it any less secure against people burning just their 10 CD limit. I could download a new album, copy it to several authorized PCs, and burn 10 copies from EACH workstation. Why restrict downloads to just one?
Yeah, too bad you still aren't officially allowed to store your music collection on your iPod instead of your laptop.
That is to say, Apple does not support you copying the music you own off your laptop onto your iPod and then let you copy it back on your laptop at a later time. (Yes, Slashdot types know how to copy the hidden files, but that backdoor doesn't help the typical user and could be closed at any time.)
This new feature is a lot of money for not a lot of feature. The lack of a card reader makes it sort of silly. Granted, there may be an adaptor but that sort of ruins the elegance.
Why, by the way, do you need a 60GB photo collection on an HD with a low res screen???? So you can subject your relatives to the worlds smallest marathon slide show. That would be really convenient...Sure, you can copy the photos back to a laptop, but you can do that with current iPods. So what?
What he means, obviously, is that the photos that most people have on their computers are their own, not some megacorp's, but the way he said it makes it sound ludicrous.
:-)
No, what he really means is that the photos that most people admit to having on their computers are their own, not some megacorp's. In reality most of their still images do belong to some corporation.
... Until I find out if it will play my photos in Ogg Vorbis. Whatever that is.
my password is private, but unchanged.
You forgot Poland!
I'll buy a new iPod when I can transfer music from someone else's iPod wirelessly, then listen to it via my bluetooth headset. hint, hint Apple...
Who do I have to blackmail to get some representation around here!?!?!?!?
Is not an indicator of future results."
--AC (my stock broker, really)
I checked out the site you linked, and this "Archos" thing you are talking about is NOT MADE BY APPLE! Why would I buy something not made by Apple? Apple is what al my friends are buying and that is what I will buy too. Idiot.
Slashdotters are, as usual, not what this iPod's aimed at. Think more in terms of proud family members - mothers and aunts especially.
/. were predicting doom and failure ("the prices! OH THE PRICES!!!"). I don't think I need to point out how things turned out...
How true, before all you cynics open your mouths remember when the iPod was first introduced; all the comments on
Now that Apple finally found a way to sink its teeth into the market, I think they're going to be careful about the moves they make this time, especially with competitors itching to steal the market.
Best. Webhost. Ever. Dreamhost.
Just give me a modern Newton replacement with a 60GB, CF support, and WiFi support I know you can do it. But chances are it would cost more than a 12" powerbook. I have been an Apple user for years and was an owner of a first gen iPod. But this following of the Sony model of consumer electronics ( new hardware every 3 months) is pointless. I know jobs has a Sony fetish give me a usable color device for photos. Something with a 6x7cm screen and CF/WiFi not this half assed approach. If you want this market take it...but your not going to get it this way.
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
crap. And I haven't gotten my free one yet!! *sigh* Here we go again.
On www.carolkaye.com there is a discussion in the forums about some of Carol Kaye's music (you've heard her even if you don't recognize the name) being available on the iTunes store but not being properly licensed.
The album in question is "Thumbs Up" by Carol Kaye, Mitch Holder, and Ray Pizzi.
It's probably not intentional, but it makes you wonder how many artists are getting ripped off by the "legitimate" sites.
Something tells me you need to be a little more selective of your "shot's". At a trap shoot no less. I can't imagine what you would do during a wedding. More like +2 Bragging.
Could someone please explain how one would go about changing the store a particular account is connected with? I mean, I purchased music in the UK store but would now want to use the new Belgium store with my more "day-to-day" Belgian bank account. How do I ensure my bought music remains playable for me whilst changing the account to use the other store?
(If it's even possible to do that at all!)
And while Archos has a nice system it can't display RAW files either. So for now I'll stick with my 30 GB ipod, and my 20 GB Wolverine SixPac image tank.
Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. - Anais Nin
Perhaps Apple will be opening another store soon -- for adults only!
But now they come out with a bigger one, with a color screen! I want! (especially if they put in a visualization option, so I can trip out to my music aurally and visually)
I'm not really understanding all the posts saying, 'big deal, color screen, shows pictures, who cares?' Try comparing it with cell phones. Who still has a b/w lcd cell phone display, and of those who do, how many are adamantly opposed to getting a color display? Of the five people on the planet who seem not to have a cell phone (or the bajillion that are upgrading), are they going to go with the clunky old models, or the ones with color? Apple is gunning for a wide market, not to the market of obscure geeks who want to listen to their euro-techo collection from the 80's, formatted with OGG or FLAC (depending on the particular religion), on a device with a black and green display. In case y'all haven't noticed, we ain't normal people. Quit bitching about the idiot-resistant interfaces of Apple, and try to remember the time you would have drooled over the pretty colors of a new gadget.
I bit the bullet and purchased a 40GB 4G in July/August to upgrade/replace a 128MB RCA Lyra that started my addiction of having music with me at all times. In the 3 months of heavy use of my iPod, here's the list of what i would like to see:
integrated SD-memory reading (my dig camera uses SD cards, they're smaller than CF, and while not as flexible as far as legacy use and capacity, almost every portable device i've looked into purchasing uses SD or xD memory over CF.
REMOVEABLE BATTERY - for the love of christ would they get this one right. it would really ease my mind significantly if they'd make it interchangable at home, maybe on the fly, where i can keep a spare battery handy as i do for my cell phone and dig camera, (2 spares in teh case of the camera) and when one goes dead, i do a swap. the thought of having to send my 4G off in a year or two at the cost of an ADDITIONAL $100 because they found it more convienent to design an integrated battery on an otherwise superior product gives me shivers.
iCal and Address Book for Windows, or at the very least an iTunes extention that lets you manage these two precious entities. Oh, and a smart playlist parameter for whether or not a song is checked!
Adjustable click wheel sensitivity and a dedicated reset button. My wheel has the most annoying tendancy to NOT want to move ONE click. no matter how softly i caress it or how little i bump it i usually move 2 or 3. maybe it's because i have larger than normal fingers or something. idk. also, if the thing has the remote possibility of choking on a bad mp3 and crashing, i'd love to have a manual reset button that doesn't go through software. That process sounds like something M$ came up with. many times mine will crash and run itself dead because the reset method doesn't work. even docked.
If they're going to integrate a color screen onto the ipod they shouldn't have went the LCD route, but used emerging tech like full color organic Electro-Luminescent displays (think Pioneer's high end car stereos) Sony just released a PDA in japan based on this screen design, which is far superior to LCD for the parameters of a portable device. It requires no battery-hungry and heat generating back light. It has better viewability (word?) in direct sunlight than LCDs. It may not have the color detail, but the resolutions are comparable. It would be suitable for a small display like the iPod Photo's. This would ahve allowed them to retain at least somehwat more of the battery life.
Are you listening Mr Jobs? Some of these things are not that damned difficult to implement, and others would just take a bit of time and effort.
Good point. Still, in my current fix, I fail to sympathize with them. ::smiles::
I would gladly pay $.50 to $5.00 to re-download my purchased music. I'm not a criminal here... just a Mac user. I expect to have to watch my back when working with Linux and Windows. If I'm logged in as root it is all business. But syncing with iTunes? It should be fail-safe. I have friends with hundreds and hundreds of dollars of digital music. Making one-button answers to ambiguously worded questions that destroy your investment is not going to assist customers in meeting their needs, let alone encourage people to pay for digital content.
I don't need photo display capabilities. I need a portable player that can actually play albums correctly. Yes, something else than Rio Karma.
Now is the time you release your top secret "photo player" for the iPod.. you know the one I've been talking about???
Seriously, I believe it would be trivial for some of the more hardcore engineers here to
1. Encode sound of JPEG being transmitted over a MODEM into MP3
2. Decode MP3 played back through iPod into a device the size of an iTrip that reencodes the MODEM sounds into NTSC signals for your TV
3. ????
4. Profit!
Seriously. Griffin where are you!?
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
I like how streamlined the iTunes interface is already. Keep the music app for music; why add exta bloat? The ease of use, to me, is both the reason that I use iTunes and why I recommend it to others. Although I'm sure Apple put a lot of effort into maintaining the interface when they added this in, the iPod is obviously still evolving and I'm sure they have even bigger plans than photos in the future.
Development of an outside utility that could be used to sync just seems like a good plan to me: a springboard to provide scalable expansion in the future. How difficult would it be to extend this functionality to an app like iSync? After that, a Windows version of this would not need to be as feature-intensive and could serve only those purposes needed by the iPod line. The iTunes music store is becoming available in more and more countries all the time, and now the "iTunes is a dual-platform iPod sync'er" could easily be replaced by "iTunes is a capital-generating music store." The iPod is needed to play the music anyway (not that I favor this fact, it annoys me to no end) -- voila, both are made to serve each other.
Maybe though I'm getting ahead of things; maybe Apple is already thinking of this and iTunes is just a quick fix in the meantime. I use both Windows and Mac platforms equally and I can see a big opportunity for improvement on both sides of the fence. I'm also a little biased by my use of both platforms in the following respect: I wish it were easier to sync my calendar, contacts, and notes directly to and from my iPod instead of using other more complicated methods (bi-directional music/photo syncing in unnecessary for my purposes, but would be an added bonus). Right now I use my old Palm m125, but I do very little actual data entry on my Palm since I'm in front of a computer all day anyway. I like the easy interface of the iPod for browsing my calendar and contacts. The only reason I even carry my Palm around is that its the only thing that syncs both ways on both platforms and therefore always has the most current data. Then again, this could all just be a pipe dream. Thoughts?
...Can it run X?
Apple is getting to the point where they're releasing a new iPod every few months. You had a lot of angry people on the last release with the 4th gen, who ordered a 3rd gen a week before and Apple refused to exchange. Now think of the people who waited for the 4th gen clickwheel's bugs to be worked out, bought it and now this model comes out. Eventually people will just start waiting, figuring Apple will release a new product in XX amount of time.
we have phones that take pictures, why not put a camera in this thing? Even a simple one. Doesn't make much sense without it.
It kind of looks like they're aiming towards camera phone owners? Perhaps (realistically) an iPhon (oumlots (sp?)) over the o) in the not-to-distan future?
And the most bizarre introduction:
iPod Socks
Added with Mini Pocket Warmers you can go jogging in Faribanks, Alaska, with your iPod, and not fear frost-pod-bite. Probably not a real good idea
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
Doesn't everyone already have a digital camera that has "real" features, higher resolution, etc? If I just want a low res camera, practically every cellphone now features one.
... if the new iPod actually took pictures.
These would all be factors...
The beautiful thing about digital cameras is that you CAN just take a ridiculous amount of pictures at the time of the event. That way, when all is said and done, you have a far better chance of having more worthwhile shots. If you have a limited number of shots, then you have to spend more time making sure that each shot is perfect. If you're a professional photographer, that's probably a good thing. If you're Joe Average who may not have the highest skill at photography, taking a large amount of pics means that you can just snap pictures of everything that is going on and have a better chance of ending up with better pictures. And there are always variable that you can never account for. Maybe your hand shook a bit while taking the picture. Maybe the light reflected in just the wrong way. While I was in Japan, I would typically take the same picture at least twice, to have a better chance of the pic coming out good. If you're taking pictures somewhere that you might not return to again for a long while, it's better to be safe than sorry.
Moreover, the pictures that you import won't immediately be visible on your iPod. You still have to plug your iPod into your computer, add them to iPhoto, then sync them back to your iPod through iTunes.
So, far from ideal, especially for a product called the iPod Photo.
I would have thought it more logical for a music device that comes with a color screen and a giant HD to be used for playing music videos
Especially since the Apple music store already offers the music video downloads for it.
looks like Apple has been listening!
15 hours versus meagerly 8 hours of the last
models....;-)
remosito
Does anyone have an idea how the new screen does in daylight?
I know a most ( if not all ) color PDA's pretty much suck in bright daylight..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
i think people that expect apple to put every whim they have into the ipod by default should step back and think about the bustling accessory market that the ipod has created. why would apple want to jeopradize that? a healthy accessory market means the ipod lives longer as you fiddle it into an ultra gadget. plus is allows apple to keep a semi-reasonable price point.
scott king
Just like Apple is suposed to have gone out of business every year or two since the mid 80s?
Who's leg do I have to hump to get a dry martini around here?
Ouch, you missed it. 90% of the market just wants a gadget that can hold their pictures and show them to their friends. They don't care if you can print it larger than 4x8 inches. If it looks good on the little screen, it takes the place of a wallet. If it looks good on a TV, it takes the place of photo albums. People already like the Ipod for music. This is going to sell well.
Sooner or later, we will take for granted the ability to store and share our experiences with others. The ability to tell stories with images, video clips and sound will be part of what it takes to be considered literate.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What do you think this is?
:P
It just uses iTunes as the interface between iPhoto and the iPod.
iAmright
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
Come off it, that "3 pages of icons" is a bit of an exaggeration. Assuming you were using a Series 60 phone, all the common functions - making a phone call, accessing your contacts, sending an SMS - are only a button press or two away. There are even (usually) hardware buttons to go direct to the camera and web browser!
Compared to other "fully featured" phones, Symbian phones have a straightforward user interface. And you can reorganise it to be the way that you like it,
Honestly, would someone please explain to me, on a device that can hold 60 GB of data, how the @#$#@$ the compression or "features" of ogg vorbis are any better than any other format such as high quality mp3s or AAC files? What on earth is the big deal? With compressed audio files, the goal is to get a certain audio quality, X, in a given file size. So, if you can get that quality using Ogg Vorbis in file size Y, but using MP3 or AAC you can get that exact same audio quality, but the file is 10 % larger, BUT the device holds 60 @#@#$ Gigabytes, WHO CARES. I understand that a lot of people have large music libraries in formats other than MP3 or AAC, and for that, I don't have a response, but aside from that, who cares what format it's in, as long as it's a relatively small file size and you are able to achieve that X audio quality that you as a listener prefer? At some point, time really plays a factor here. If can get 5% better sound quality by rippign it using program X and then running it through program Y and then tagging it using program Z, OR I can just increase the bitrate by 32 or 64 kbit in iTunes. I'm just going to buy a bigger hard drive and use iTunes. It's soooo easy. You put the CD in and hit Import, AND if you have already imported the CD and you're just changing the format (for example, I am now ripping my CDs in Apple Lossless so I can listen to them at full quality using my Airport Express) it replaces them which saves hours of time by not having to go back and delete duplicates and add them to playlists, etc. I have about 10,000 songs in iTunes right now, and that's growing as I rip about 600 of my CDs, in that situation, as long as I can achieve that audio quality X that I desire (Lossless for my Airport Express, or 192 AAC for my iPod), I really couldn't care any less what format the music is encoded in.)
I'm not surprised Apple chose #3. Now, why Apple didn't design the iPod photo to download photos directly from a digital camera via a USB 2.0 cable, that's another question entirely...
USB Host support is much more complex than just being a USB device. Plus they would have to deal with multiple protocols and even some device drivers. Just look at the size of the code that makes up libgphoto!
Backup firmware: dd if=/dev/sda1 of=ipod-backup-firmware
Install new firmware: dd if=ipod-new-firmware of=/dev/sda1
(adjust /dev/sda to the actual device on your system). Why won't Apple release the firmware files so we can upgrade our iPods like everyone else? Instead, it's necessary to hack the firmware files out of the Windows updater, a really annoying process.
Can You Say Linux? I Knew That You Could.
I hope X11 will run on the new ipod via the linux on and ipod project. Then it could play movies! :) (and a lot more other things)
I love Mac OS X, compared to say, Windows or Linux. Just my preference. Nevermind that you can't play 30fps video without skipping when you pull down menus. It's only 1990 and BeOS couldn't do that with 9 videos, no skipping.
Apple's always thought "people don't need a 2 or 3-button mouse," or "people want this."
It's too bad that Apple doesn't get it! I'll still buy their stuff, but damn, they cut off their own potential market...
Steve
Well, for an mp3 player, 499$ is not only on the extremely high side, but does anyone seriously need to pay 30% more to get photo display capabilities?
And of course there is the traditional Apple Premium that we all know and love.
I'd say a equivalent iRiver player will do the job just as well and support OPEN FORMATS too! Like Ogg and FLAC!
Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
Tech specs for iPod Photo
Sorry, forgot. I also forgot to call you an ignorant slut. My apologies.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
trailers site (implies long standing relationship with movie companies.)
emphasis on wireless connectivity (broadcast from computer to TV via airport?)
ipod gaining ability to connect to TV (port movie around to other places.)
iDVD and iMovie apps for home production of movies
recent leaps in video codecs for improved quality and small transmission size to be included in 10.4
sucess of netflix and similar alternatives to rental stores
I bought a pair of Etymotic ER-4P a few years ago and can not imagine using anything else. The sound quality is nothing short of amazing and I can use them as ear plugs on airplanes (to drown out the screaming kids around me)...and no batteries to worry about either!!
The only bad part is the price ($330) -- they've actually gotten MORE expensive (up $30) since I purchased my pair. Considering how long I've had them (2+ yrs) and how often I use them (everyday) they have been a great purchase.
Besides, the white ear buds not only suck -- they aren't "cool" either (according to Wired)
Well done. You have a rock solid argument that may well be the exact reason for lack of this functionality. But that doesn't fix the fact that the functionality isn't there.
Your logic is flawed. Why would they waste money and resources designing functionality into the product that they can't possibly use or sell? Or raise the cost of manufacture & the sale price by bloating it with redundant hardware of no value to the consumer? Why do all that now when they can release another one a year from now with all these things, and tempt customers to dive into their cheque books for a second or third bite at the 'apple'?
It make no business sense at all to do what you suggest.
I'm sorry, I know this will probably get modded as a troll, but who the fuck wants to watch a movie on a TWO INCH SCREEN?! Are you really gonna sit on a plane holding your ipod a foot from your face for 2 hours?
The iPod is good, nay, amazing, at was it is/was, an mp3 player. I don't see the point in paying an extra $100-$200 for a tiny screen so I can see album art when I change songs or show pictures to people who will probably be more interested in the ipod then the picture itself.
However, that said, this will probably sell by the truckloads since people are stupid and are amused by flashy lights and colors. bah.
The "Insert Quote Here" line is almost as predictable as inserting an actual quote.
Of a trap shoot though!! C'mon! It's clay pigeons flying and someone shooting. Did he shoot a picture for every clay that was thrown?
This thing is $500! That's outrageous for a portable video players. Other companies sell similar products for less than $350.00
Free Desk
I really wish that apple would add the ability to record high quality audio to the iPod. Displaying photos seems like an odd tangent for a music device, whereas recording audio is a natural addition to an audio device.
I have to say, that I am a mac user, and I bought the original 5g ipod, but, now the features of the ipod are wearing thin. I really like the iRiver h340, but there is no mac support. The iPod is pretty much the only game in town if you own a mac, which is disappointing.
I thought iTunes offers MP3 or AAC ripping, not AIFF. AIFF is such an archaic format it's existence anywhere is solely for legacy applications. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
*unzips pants, starts whacking it*
Maybe if I keep playing with programming embedded systems and FPGA development kits I'll eventually be able to design it for myself...
Doesn't it make you feel good to know that our freedoms are protected by politicans, lawyers and journalists.
Just had a thought that what the new iPods allow you to do is to deliver visual books/presentations for people on the go. I could imagine scanning or taking photos of pictures from a book or pictures that tell a story. You can then record an audio track that will either narate the pictures or tell the story using Garageband. Upload both the files to your ipod and you're ready to go. I imagine my 4 year old son would really like looking at pictures of his favorite book and having his father narate the story. Great for long car rides. Add RSS 2.0 enclosures and the whole Podcasting thing has a new meaning.
As an Apple shareholder and happy owner of some Apple products, all I can say is: Thank God Slashdot members don't run Apple.
Every time Apple introduces a new product, there is an endless series of posts about why it sucks, why it won't sell, what features were left out, why the new features are worthless, why it's too expensive, lists of poorly selling products that are "superior" and have more features and on and on and on.
Apple's revenues are up, their profits are up, they have a slew of successful products and they have a lot of happy customers.
Give it a rest guys. Let the market decide if the latest offering sucks. Based on history, when Slashdotters say an Apple product won't sell, it ends up being a phenomenal success.
Sadly, this function is what I wish Palm had, an AV port out through their headphone jack like this and like my camera. Presentations could be done via Documents to go or screen shots of the palm with Word/Excel, etc. But why they don't include it....and make you buy a 3rd party hack with a SD card contraption.
I've done presentations with my camera before and it worked pretty good. (Save slides as jpg and upload)
When I think of photo capabilities, I think of something take can _take_ photos.
Well then, Think Different.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Thanks for the heads up.
You've got a workable solution with the Wolverine. Too bad it doesn't display images either. I did find a good price for it at costco, however.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
all i can say is thank god iPod Photo is its own entity and hasn't eliminiated the normal iPod line. I want my black and white screen, long battery life, and focus on playing MUSIC when I get my iPod in December.
...and that's all there is to it.
I liked the approach of not relying on iPhoto - it does have iPhoto integration so you can use albums from there. But it also support Elements 3 albums, great for PC users (possibly Mac? Didn't think they included that feature on the Mac though). And of course just pulling files from directories which is how a lot of people do things - or good for quick pulls from a group of photos that come via email.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I can't help but think this is dumb. What's the point of being able to display photos on an iPod? I assume it has something to do with digital integration of everything in your house, using the iPid as a portable storage medium, and if that's the ultimate goal, I support this addition. Otherwise, what's the point?
And we have a new winner for the Stupidest Motherfucker On the Earth award!
It's not a camera, brainiac.
Interesting Apple align themselves with useless music industry cardboard cut outs U2.
No one listens to U2
No one likes U2
No one hears anything about U2 other than when they mysteriously win yet another 'life time acheivment/greatest band ever/asset to the industry' bs award.
Everyone hates U2 and would like Bono to fall down a big hole in the ground.
I think Apple's new strategy of cosying up to these fake clowns is the right direction for Apple. I can't wait to see what special well earned awards the music industry bestow on our beloved heroes U2 next time.....
BLEUGHHHHHH...
I think the new Photo iPod will do very well. But the missing key that would really make it take off is a set of much better media readers.
Right now the Belkin device is really slow, and also requires seperate batteries. In addition you can't transfer too much to the iPod without it dying either.
Apple has taken care of a few of those items with a larger battery. It could probably support a standalone unpowered reader, powered from the iPod itself.
So now all they need is new readers that are unpowered and a bit faster than the current ones to really take off in the market. While it would have been nice to be able to transfer pictures directly from cameras, good media reading capabilities will do just about as well in the market at large.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
That's a brilliant idea... (speaking as someone who carries an iBoook around to do just that). I've been considering an iPod for a while now, if I could do that it'd save me carrying my laptop with me and I'd buy it.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
The iPod is a great mp3 player. It's simple and ergonomically ideal.
Please don't "second system" it with tons of add-on features like photo browsing, video, card readers, FM transmitter, TV tuner, wireless telephony, blah blah blah...
+++
NO CARRIER
But can you display photos on the photo iPod that you've captured with the Belkin accessory?
I've (so far) not seen anything that indicates you can, and if you could, you'd think this would be a big feature they'd be touting. With this feature, the iPod photo would be very useful to me. Without it, I think I can stick with my 10 GB 2nd Gen iPod for a little while longer.
It's not offtopic, dumbass. It's orthogonal.
Now if Apple will just update Keynote to where it can export slides into the iPod Photo, I could use the iPod to connect to a LCD projector for a slideshow presentation rather than lugging a laptop.
the iPod Photo can also even output video via its own headphone jack with a special 1/8" AV cable
:P
You mean this cable?
I wonder if with the new iPod updater, I can play back photos on my 4G non photo iPod through that cable?
If not then this could still work I guess
...unfortunately no one can be told what The Mat^H^H^HGoatse is...they must experience it for themselves...
Parent post is true! This is the main reason why lots of handheld devices were not able to control usb devices for the longest time. Even right now, there are few PDAs that support usb-host.
http://griffintechnology.com/products/earjams/
Can you ping me now? Gooood! | Manhappenin.Net - Things to do
I gotta admit, as a long-time Mac user, fan and shareholder, I'm a little disappointed.
Let me get this straight. I use iTunes to sync my photos with my iPod and if I used iPhoto to organize my library, iTunes has to import them before I can sync?
This makes absolutely NO sense, Steve! What are you thinking. iPhoto should be the software that I use to sync photos to my iPod, not iTunes. Sure, it's two different apps and iPhoto isn't available for Windows (yet), but whos to say that everyone is going to do both music and photos anyway?
I'm almost worried this is a sign of the end of good, clean, simple design and good usability. Hopefully I'm wrong and once I try out the software it will make more sense.
now if they just get it to sync with xp mce 2005. oh, man, it sure would be nice to have tv shows on my ipod.
This Sig is removed due to factual inaccuracy
I have these in white and they go rather nicely with the ipod. I've also found the MDR-EX71SL to be comfortable, but as far as I can tell, the white version is not sold in the States.
...any of you haters have to say about this device.... Apple is going to sell a SHITLOAD of them and that pisses you off... HA HA.
For those of us who have missed out on the iTMS this time round (namely us poor Aussies) we also miss out on the bonus bit that come with the U2 iPod. The bit that all the coutries with an iTMS get
For our trouble we get to pay $569 (approx US$425). The joys of living in a small market.
Join the Digital TV discussion @ http://forums.dvbowners.com
I've used them a couple of times- they hurt my ears. Painfully so. The only headphones I've found that I like are an old pair of Sony behind-the-heads with the prongs that sit between the ear and the head ripped off (I wear glasses, thank you).
The Apple iPod earbuds, regardless of their quality, absolutely SCREAM "MUG MY RICH ASS!" in large friendly letters.
It'd be fabulous to plug your firewire camera (or videocam) into the iPod and use it as an easy stoage device. THAT would be really cool.
Camera manufacturers - work with Apple on this one!
I saw this on the web, so it must be true ;-) That when they first came out, photographers were ripping out the drives from the Ipod (Not sure because of price or just availability) This feature may be a result of customer demand, and not just high concept marketers.
OK, maybe I'm being thick but I don't get it. I'm going to take pictures with my digital camera then download it to my PC/Mac then upload it to my iPod? Why? I don't really need to lug around 25,000 pictures. Can someone shed some light on this for me (sans condescending, pompous remarks)?
I would have to disagree with your assessment of the iPod Photo. First of all, the regular iPod is only $100 cheaper than the iPod Photo, not "half the price." Secondly, you can look at photos on any television, not just on the iPod screen. Thirdly, if your digital camera holds 25,000 photos, I'm sure the memory card alone cost a lot more than $100. And I'm sure your digital camera doesn't automatically sync with your latest pictures, doesn't allow you to make custom albums, doesn't allow you to output slideshows with music, and so on. Say what you want about wanting to save money, but for people who want to carry lots of pictures around with them, paying $100 more is very, very reasonable. And that doesn't even count the full-color album artwork, a clearer screen, and the various other perks of a color iPod.
What is illegal is sharing the resulting .ogm (xvid) files.
It does not matter if the DVDs are encripted, I bought them, I can use them anyway I see fit, provided that I DO NOT SHARE the movies with other people. NO DMCA around here!
Now I can carry my porn discreetly. No more carrying Husltleror Playboy around. Just scan it, load it up on the iPod, and now you have a porn archive. Sure you could use it for other stuff, but that wouldn't be as much fun.
Agreed. You'll have all of that and it'll suck at doing all of it. My family just bought a bunch of new cameraphones and I can attest that after a month, the camera is effectively worthless (not that the first month was any good anyway). My major beef is sync. My data/media devices need to sync in standard formats/connectors. The state of sync in phones today is absolute garbage. At least the iPod doesn't suck so badly on that.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Also, I'm never again going to repeat what a Nikon sales rep. tells me without checking it out myself. Sorry, my mistake. You're right, it doesn't play MP3s. I don't know why not, it would make this a killer unit...
I'm sorry, but I respect Apple's design principles, and I don't believe that adding these other features is going to affect the ease of listening to music.
-Bullseye
Okay, I want the bloody thing do support OGG for music but does the contraption now support PNG for images or some silly Macintosh PIC format?
I think someone else had a post about device-to-device USB involving a lot of other electronic or at least control software - it might have been more than they wanted to stuff in the iPod.
The iPod does support high-speed (or was that full-speed)? USB - though you're right that most cameras dont. I think that's wha a media reader is more practical. Also it support firewire which a few cameras support. Media readers are the most usable solution, though typically most portable storage devices actually don't read much faster that USB 1.1. speeds so perhaps the lack of high-speed camera transer would not be too big a deal.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
No, you have to lick the candy UI.
Fraternising with fellow Mac users will inevitaby infect you with HIV and HCV, but that's off topic.
Trust me, you need a pair of ER-4P Earphones by Etymotic Research. I've been using them since got my iPod and they beat anything else out there. Check out this review.
When I first saw the story that's what I thought the new iPod could do. Be an Image Bank. Plug the USB cable from your camera, or slot in the Compact Flash, and download the images. Very useful on Holidays. There's a bunch of iPod-like things out there that do it already. If it could do that, I might buy one. But just being a digital photo album is a bit dissapointing and useless to me.
For those of us who get our music from less-than-legit providers, where can I download high-quality Album Art?
The iPod Video (or Video iPod, VideoPod, or whatever you want to call it) one step closer.
I know, mod me down redundant, but I just had to say it.
Regards,
Articulos para gente geek: Poleras, linux, libros y mas
Now somebody needs to write something that automatically syncs the iPod with something like Autopr0n, and Apple'll sell a kazillion more.
"It is our blasphemy which has made us great, and will sustain us, and which the gods secretly admire in us." - Zelazny
karma whoring for santa :p ... oh, and, santa, while you're there, try and pick me up some credit.
for a minute there, i lost myself...
So,
How long before they have some cool accessories for the iPod?
A 4 Megapixel camera with digital zoom and a flash, Also acts as a video recorder?
iPod dock - photo printer 4"x6" prints right from the iPod?
DVD uploader software to quick-load your DVD to the iPod?
Digital Video Recorder connector & software - hook up your iPod to your cable TV - records your favorite shows while you're at work?
A/V wireless connector - watch streaming videos from your docked ipod from any TV in the house.
Interchangeable battery packs - oh wait,
now I am asking for too much!!!
Granted some people like these new integrated all in one cellphone, photoholder, music player, portable video players, but I'm going to have to go with "more is less" in this case.
So would I, personally. But the market doesn't. Have you not noticed the phenomenal success of camera cell phones in the current market? Everybody buys the damn things, even though (as yet) they take screen-only low-res pictures and only one or two models have a flash to make them genuinely useful.
The reason, really, is that adding a camera to your cell phone doesn't take much extra space, internally, externally or on the keypad. Same with iPod Photo: it costs more money, sure, but the color screen hardly takes up extra space and the "Photos >" menu on the main screen is a whole extra line of text. It doesn't add bulk to the device, just cost.
If you can afford $300 for an iPod to begin with, then another $100 for real added value (assuming you take digital photos to use with it) is easier to justify. As always, Apple will listen to those who open their wallets.
And what is the AAC Apple license?
Me thinks the OGG license doesn't fit in with the AAC license and not to mention the future additions to AAC Apple is planning.
More importantly, why would Apple include OGG support when they want to push AAC and its MPEG-4 bits onto the 3GPP and 3GPP2 standards.
This says it all: http://www.apple.com/mpeg4/3gpp/ not to mention the specifics on MPEG-4 http://www.apple.com/mpeg4/
OK, you pay $50 more and get a $50 discount on the U2 everything-we-ever-recorded collection.
The U2 iPod still looks like a good deal to me, and of all the new releases, it's the one I'd be looking at. The reasons:
I like U2 and have a fair bit of respect for them (although many people here don't). But I've never really bought a lot of their stuff. It's probably the sales pitch, but yeah, I'd probably buy their entire collection.
(Although I'm in Australia, and we don't even have an iTunes Music Store... from what I can see, although you still pay more, you don't get the $50 discount voucher...)
It's black and red. That's cool. It's even more distinctive than your usual iPod. Plus, it'll be a limited edition, since I don't see Apple selling these forever.
It comes with a dock, which I'd be buying otherwise.
My music collection lies somewhere between 4GB and 20GB, so I'd be looking at a 20GB device anyway. Obviously, this is not the case for everybody reading Slashdot. But for many people...
Companies involved in various aspects of this market include Archos, Nikon, Sony, SanDisk and Epson, as well as a whole slew of smaller names like I/OMagic, Sima, Transcend, Vosonic, Innoplus, Digi Magic and Delkin.
Right now, today, the new iPod Photo isn't destroying their market share. But as of today, we're at the point where we can buy an iPod and a little gizmo (like the SanDisk one) we stick flash cards into for display on a TV... or just buy an iPod Photo. With that Belkin attachment, any iPod can be your place to dump photos in the field. And other than adding card slots, most of the other features other products have that the iPod Photo doesn't offer can be added in firmware updates. One at a time. Step by step. Until another market segment is overrun by white-earbudded iPod people. :)
But by the time that happens, the iPod Photo will probably have video playback capability, since again, that's totally just a matter of adding the capabilities through a firmware upgrade. Sure, it's not a top priority for Apple right now, but they've got the hardware now, and just have to code the functionality in the firmware.
In a year or two, will we all be saying "iPod uber alles" with regard to things other than music? Dunno. But if it happens, I won't be surprised.
Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
Is it just me, or does the blue-and-green matchup look too XP-like?
That's the million dollar question. :P
Peace
Museums and galleries have already been using regular iPods as tour guides, example, so with a color screen to display the artwork at the same time, this seems a natural fit.
I'm not familiar with the iPod headphones but it is true that most all speakers and headphones sound different after 100 hours of hard use compared to when they're new. Like any mechanical part, especially one that has a flexible part, it tends to wear in to it's natural state. This is especially true of metal and composite designs. Usually the characteristics will change from "tinny" or "shrill" to "warm" and "smooth". There are certainly exceptions but after listening to over 25 speakers and quite a few headphones this has been my experience.
iTunes is quickly being overloaded with the movie trailers and now the photo-syncing. It seems logical to change the name of the program to represent something that organizes your iPod files. I can't think of a catchy name right now but something general like iLibrary or iManager will be a better long term move if they want to keep everything together.
Um, if price was a concern for the cheaper models, what makes you think a 5-600 dollar model is cheaper?
I think if the iPod had stayed primarily a device connected via an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port, it would have pretty much stayed a niche device primarily sold to Macintosh users.
But Apple smartly realized that for the iPod to really succeed it had to accommodate PC's running Windows; once Apple produced an iPod that could be connected through the USB 2.0 port and run with Windows-based software, that's when the iPod really took off in popularity.
Of course, they don't support iTunes if that's a big deal for you...
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
Speaking as a "HUGE U2 fan"(but not a complete sucker), I think it's underwhelming.
It's only the 20GB model (my current iPod is nearly full @ 40GB), the red wheel looks ugly, and I already have every U2 album and a bunch of their CD singles in my collection and on my iPod, so the Digital Box Set would have about 1 song I want and can't find on CD (and that's assuming that "A Celebration" will be included).
So this appears to be aimed at U2 fans who not only don't have all that many albums in their collection, they'd be better off if they didn't own any U2 albums, so as to get the maximum value for their iPod purchase.
Weird.
considering its in the same price range range as the linux running *Video* playing (with a composite output for the home theater addict on the road), and considering it came out later shouldn't this be called the I-river killer and shouldn't someone making some "profound" comment on how it could never "kill" the I-river or is it just an apple fanboy bit? http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/23/ 1316243&tid=97&tid=141&tid=1&tid=1 06/
btw I'm new here but does everyone on slashdot suffer from instant amnesia?
looks like something designed by the Third Reich.
I hereby nickname it "the NaziPod".
exactly- they have to sell ipods (and ipodphotos) to win users if they want to make a bundle
what i was hoping for though was syncing in iphoto *as well* if you have a mac... though maybe this would just be more complex. given how well iphoto integrates with the rest of os x i suppose integrating it with itunes isnt such a big deal!
one thing tho: iphoto is a beast with more than a gig of photos - if it doesnt crash or will even let u import more photos - 60gb in one iphoto library?? GET REAL!! i use iphotolibrary manager, which is great - but i can see syncing being a bitch when i have to change libraries all the time!
sure u can set the whole directory... but will this use your albums from multiple libraries?
The iPod photo... in order to get photos on it, I have to download from my camera or CF card to the computer, then upload to the iPod. What is the point?
What was Apple thinking? How does this make me want to buy an iPod?
If Apple had 1/2 a brain, they'd have stuck a card reader in it. Or allowed a card reader to plug directly into it. I have 8 gig worth of CF cards. I'd love to be able to go to a shoot w/ just an iPod, my camera, and a few cards.
Instead, I'll buy an Image Tank or somethign else that's capable of downloading from memory cards.
Nice move Apple. You could have improved a good product.
-- No sig for you!
Anyone also looking forward to try to run linux on this?
First of all, it has more computing power (it has to display/decode images realtime while still playing music). It also has more storage space and battery life, making it more intressting.
Also, it has a color screen o.O
So linux on this version might actually be usefull...
If you don't like in-ear phones, you might want to try the Koss Porta Pro. Excellent thingy!
But as far as I know, the rest of the insert, the back cover, and the lyrics are not available digitally from a reliable source.
I have a hard time believing that Apple would have trouble getting cd booklets in a digitized form from the record companies if they believed they could sell them. And at that, I would be willing to bet that it would be a cheap proposition for Apple. The record companies already have the cd booklets in some digitized form, so it would simply be a matter of a little editing/conversion work to get them into something Apple could use. And if Apple can convince the record companies that there is money to be made by making those booklets available, I just don't see the record companies putting up any fight now that they've seen the kind of success Apple has produced with the iTMS.
Perl - $Just @when->$you ${thought} s/yn/tax/ &couldn\'t %get $worse;
stock ipod earphones are really poor. beyer's are great, but the open air ones are enormous, as expensive as an ipod, and leak. the sony 71's are about the same price as a large pizza in an average restauraunt, in-ear fitting and are black to avoid being mugged. what more do you want, you fool?
you can almost certainly do this by simply turning round the polarising filter in front of the physical LCD - always used to work on LCD calculators when i was a kid....
No, I don't like the crippled-ness of iPod's calendar. I was just throwing that in because it decreases the ability to use the iPod as a PDA. I wonder how played-with those pictures are on Apple's website are, whether they fit pictures to the screen of the iPod, but they don't actually look that good in person. Having a way to transport your pictures will be nice for those who take tons of digital pictures but have nowhere to save them while they're traveling. I have often wondered what iPods would be like if they had color. But why do they have to make it look like XP, and not keep with the OSX look? I realize they're trying to appeal to Windows users, but if this whole advertising the iPod everywhere thing is supposed to be getting people to switch to Mac, wouldn't it make sense to get people accustomed to seeing that interface? And how well will people be able to see the pictures on the little tiny iPod screen? Reasonably well, I guess, but if it's not good, I expect people will be disappointed.
I think this was designed for me, it is SO VERY peculiar. I was recently trying to get a 3G 40GB iPod at an Apple store. (They still have them, and are trying to move them for $370.) I do not want the 4G 40 GB because the icelink does not fit that model yet. Also the 4G 20GB does not come with a dock. This U2 one comes with two cables and a dock! More than adequate for leaving one at work and one at home. Also the interior of my car is black as well as the icelink connectors and proclip which will match the iPod case. Even better the red click wheel, it matches the majority of the interior lights in the car! And the blue screen, the same color that my dash instruments are. (I drive a VW Golf.)
So if you take into account the extra dock (which I would buy anyway) this makes the U2 iPod only $10 more than the regular iPod. Also when I went to college I gave my tape collection to my little brother. All of my old music collection including everything by U2 I had is gone anyway! More than 400 hundred U2 songs for 100$ is a great deal to me. I was a pretty big U2 fan back in the day, mostly because they were so politically and socially relevant to me at that time. By the time I was in college, well they did not seem to be at the same level in those respects. But they did make some good (ie successful on the charts) songs after I stopped caring so it would be nice to have such a round collection again.
The only bad thing is the signatures on the back. I really wanted to laser engrave some silly 'government warning' on the back of my iPod, oh well.
Now I just need to convince my wife that this is something worthwhile to purchase...
An article about this on www.dpreview.com mentions that the ipod by default downsamples the images when transferring them from the camera. This obviously defeats the point for many people who want to use it as a massive memory card for when travelling etc. Apparently the ipod would have trouble showing the large images that can come from digital cameras.
Does anybody know more about this? I'm presuming its at least an option to transfer the full-size images!?
But you're still comparing a $500 device vs. other devices (like the gMini) that run at least $100 less. And play movies. And have the same battery life. It's not a bargain if every competitor beats you.
I agree... Mr. Jobs has to worry about the MPAA if he were to offer video... you see, adding video might "induce" me to steal movies to fill up my nice generous disk space. And I'd have to say, it was apples fault - before a video ipod was in existence I would never do such a thing!!!
Seems people here have missed out on the tidbit that Apple projects to sell over 17.7 million songs on the iTMS for October. That's up from 10.8 million songs in May. At this rate they will reach 20 million songs per month by December (or sooner). That's 240 million songs per year and growing. I don't have numbers for the rest on the online music industry (a little help here from anyone with the time to get current numbers) but it seems that they are increasing their lead. Can you say "juggernaut"?
Does anybody else think the U2 iPod's colour scheme would make a great Emily iPod??
Kinda makes me want to get one just to paint some Emily artwork over the autographs!
For everything else, there's massacres.
I hereby place the above post in the public domain.
Given:
1) Airport express
2) iPod with big drive
The next step is wireless streaming from the iPod to the Airport Express.
The remote is the music, and the music is the remote.
I am living proof of the Peter Principle
Slashdot now has got lots of hits from Apple HQ sales department.
And they say "Oh great! Geeks say it will crash! Remember iPod guys, we are at right path"
What Apple has effectively done is made things more difficult for Mac iPod Photo users in order to make things easier for Windows iPod Photo users. I'm rather grumpy about that. You'd think Apple would have done it the other way around.
Do not touch -Willie
To those who modded my post above "troll":
Get a grip. If you disagree with what I say, then reply and explain your position. This entire thread is a ridiculous Apple-love-fest. Everything I said above I would reiterate, although I should have also added that iPods are over-priced!
Give me open hardware running open software and I'll pay iPod prices. Until then I'm not going to applaud each of Apple's tiny inconsequential improvements.
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.
Besides from missing on the price point, and the minimal functionality of the ipod photo you forget that they have increased the battery life to 15 hours of music playing time. Given that using a backlight on a previous ipod would cause you to not get the "up to 8 hours" of playing time, the new ipod photo will give you "up to 15 hours" while using a backlight 100% of the time. When I first looked at the ipod photo I had for some reason thought it was $200 more than the 4G version, I guess because I would automatically think, get the 60GB,(I just purchased a 40 GB 4G 3 weeks ago) so I thought the the new capabilities where not worth $200 more, but then when I opened my eyes and actually looked at the prices, I feel that it is not a bad deal. I was also able to play with a demo unit at the Apple Store in SoHo, the color screen is very sharp and it was kinda cool to see the album art (in color) as well as the games. I just want to know that if you use the contacts from Address Book in OS X if the pictures associated with that person will also display.
At any rate, I now want to sell my 40 GB and pick up a 60 GB iPod Photo.
Where does a sig get you in life?
I wonder if he photo ipod is really big/heavy. The 40gb was already fairly thick.
And another thing!
I'm not the only one irritated by Apple's fight against their own customers by breaking the iPod download software with a so-called software "update".
Step out of the iPod stupor long enough to recognize that we should demand more of the companies we support with our purchases.
Like Digital Freedoms? Then donate to EFF before they're gone.