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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
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
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.
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.
And funnily enough it does.
It can display album art, according to http://www.apple.com/ipodphoto/ "...And did we mention that iTunes 4.7 also autosyncs Album Art? It's true. The Album Art downloaded when you purchase music from the iTunes Music Store is transferred to iPod Photo along with the music. So while iPod Photo plays your tunes, you can enjoy the Album Art -- in color, of course -- on the Now Playing screen."
...here.
But apple included software in the existing Ipods to read smart media cards and copy data from cameras.
0 /b elkin-media-reader-for-ipod.html .. so I don't see what all the fuss is about!
Belkin makes this card reader:
http://macuser.pcpro.co.uk/macuser/reviews/4999
Out of curiousity, what was your take when the iPod Mini came out? I'll admit, I thought it was overpriced. What's the big deal? It's a bit tinier, has colors, and basically cost the same amount as the regular iPod. Yet millions of trendy people bought the iPod Mini anyway. The iPodPhoto will be the same way. It has the "iPod" name and everyone trendy and geeky will want one. Another coup for the team in Cupertino.
I also applaud the crew in the integration of photos and music in iTunes also. Apple is continuing to make the Mac look like the computer for the people.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
For only a hundred bucks more. Other similar devices have built-in compact flash slots, same or better battery life and better price. I'll pass on this, Apple.
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.
it helps to break them in a bit first.
The need to "break in" headphones is nothing but a legend.
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.
No no no. You want to get either the Shure e3cs or the Shure e5cs. Both are great. I use the e3cs on my iPod. Can't afford the e5cs at the moment.
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
I tried to point this out once before, and got moderated down for my trouble.
It's not like the headphones (or speakers) are manufactured and shipped without ever being tested! The drivers are often custom manufactured for speaker & headphone makers by OEMs in Asia (and some in the US). Before the OEM ships the drivers to the manufacturer, the units are tested to make sure the driver meets the custom specs! 99% of the time, this testing will be enough to provide adequate break-in.
If you don't believe me, maybe this will convince you. You can find similar statements fron Ken Kantor and John Dunlavy if you look hard enough.
The e5cs headphones cost as much as a high-end iPod!
Is it really necessary to use headphones such as these for an iPod? Shouldn't a $100 pair suffice for a consumer device using lossy codecs?
I tried every decent and legal way I could think of to resolve the issue w/the business before I rented the chicken suit
And the most bizarre introduction:
iPod Socks
Added with Mini Pocket Warmers you can go jogging in Faribanks, Alaska, with your iPod, and not fear frost-pod-bite. Probably not a real good idea
"This is you left and that's your left. This is your right and that's your right. You're gonna die!
You can probably recover all or most of your deleted iPod files with Norton UnErase.
/Volumes/$YOUR_IPOD"S_NAME/iPod_Control/Music. Inside will be a bunch of directories Named F*. They contain your audio files. I assume those are gone since you synced your iPod to an empty library. However, so long as you don't write anything else to your iPod in the meantime, Norton should have no trouble recovering them. Then you can just cd to where they are and cp them to someplace on your computer. Not sure what that will do to their DRM. But at least you then have both a record of your purchase and the actual files if you need to argue with Apple. Good luck.
If you mount your iPod as a disk the files are visible from the command line. Just open Terminal.app and cd to
It is cowardly, and a betrayal of whatever it means to be a Jew, to act as a white man
-James Baldwin
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!
Honestly, if you're gonna spend $500 on a pair of earbuds, you might as well get some Ultimate Ears instead. They're the lowest end model of the ultimate ears, but from I hear, they knock the socks off the ER-4S buds. They're custom fit to your ear whereas the e5cs, is universally fit, and doesn't stay in the ear that well (I've tried).
Apple is setting their sights too high (the original iPod was only bought by the most diehard Apple fans)
Uh, no.
First of all, the original iPod was only meant to work with Macs, so your attempt to denigrate it by saying that "only diehard Apple fans bought them" is completey asinine-- Mac users were 100% of the target market!
Second, your assertion is also completely wrong. The original iPod was a huge hit, and plenty of Windows users were quickly clamoring for Apple to provide a Windows-compatible model. Some Windows users bought Mac-only iPods and went to work getting them to talk to their PCs. There were quite a few apps written to accomplish this, like EphPod and xPod (later renamed xPlay, IIRC).
~Philly
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.
Untrue. They may have wanted to do it, but it turns out the IDE mode used for the iPod drive is not suitable for the CF mode used in digital cameras (or vice versa). These microdrives were probably manufacturered specifically for the iPod, unlike the microdrives used in less popular MP3 hard drive based players which were more generic.
However, the Creative MuVo did have a suitable drive, and THAT is the one that photographers bought to cannibalize, as it was cheaper than buying a microdrive by itself, so you may be thinking of that one.