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Rumored iPod Flash Leaked
An anonymous reader writes "Apparently a -->detailed design of the new Flash-based iPod--> has been leaked. It doesn't have a screen and is this size of a cookie!" With size estimates ranging from 256 megs to a gig, it will have a much lower price point, and can be worn around your neck. Assuming it's not just a rumor. Update: 12/07 19:31 GMT by M : Temporary working link.
What flavor cookie though ? Those BW cookies can be pretty big.
Just for a second I thought: "Why the fuck would Apple want to put Flash on an iPod?" Then I realised they mean the memory technology and not the annoying product from Macromedia.
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
I'm inclined to think rumor, but that might be because the site slashdotted at the first inclination that actual traffic MIGHT be on its way.
http://actionPlant.com
Zero Posts and it's already slashdot'd... so sad
Wow
If Apple files a Cease & Desist order, then maybe there's some truth to it. I doubt they would waste that time for a simple fanboi dream.
And I think gave a good argument why it isn't likely:
Here
T Money
World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
Wonder when they will have the IPod design out !
Because they use this forum so often to plug their products.
Just more style, then the other mp3 players, and style sells.
Ñ'
RCA is one brand that apparently comes with the armbands, but I see some others whose brand I don't know.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
The only thing that Apple could really bring to the table in this department is firewire, which really doesn't matter at these small sizes. There are already SO many flash players out there (some which are downright tiny), and without a screen, I don't see the point. That is of course, if this is true...
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
I love the smell of Slashdottings in the morning. Or at around noon, as the case may be.
(Assuming it's not a rumor), it's an interesting idea that perhaps Apple is posisition these devices as the next form of music distribution ( the CDs successor). Dependant on the price point of the device of course, one could load one of these little guys up with a new album, maybe some new features (videos/interview/etc like a DVD), add in a player and it's a pretty neat gift.
Even if it wasn't used for single album released, boxed sets (a la U2's recent release) come to mind.
And of course, DRM would become very interesting. Knowing Apple, you'd be able to transfer the files to your computer but only to iTunes.
-Teiresias
It will have a much lower price point than...? ... other iPods? ... other flash MP3 players? ... other MP3 players in general?
I can get a Gigabyte Lexar flash for their MP3 player for the low $70's off of eBay. I am using a part in the same family now "Jumpdrive" and am satisfied with its quality under heavy use.
This must be true, because I just got an iPod about 2 weeks ago.
no
I don't see how you're supposed to navigate through 1 GB of music/etc. with no screen. I've got a little 1 GB mp3 player MPIO's FL300, and I can't imagine moving through all all the various folders and songs to try to find the one I want without a screen. I suppose you'd need listen to the first few hundredths of seconds of songs as you scroll. Sounds thoroughly unpleasant to me. Am I missing something?
Don't vote for Eugene Papansanovich for Congress!
You mean Apple licensed technlogy from Macromedia and you control the playback of songs with a web browser and there's lots of annoying graphics and stuff that don't run properly on Linux?! :-o
-psy
It certainly held fewer songs, and definitely was smaller, but it was still pretty expensive. Hopefully this one actually does have a lower price point.
I had one of the original Creative Muvo players, and it was great for how small it was, but the absence of a screen was a serious hinderance. You needed to listen to the first few seconds of each song in order to tell which it was- remembering a 30-song playlist exactly is out of the question. Plus, the flash-based mp3 player market is much more crowded, so I doubt Apple could make inroads against the Creatives and Jen of Swedens and iRivers of the world. Remember, the hard drive mp3 market was much sparser when the original iPod was introduced.
It's an iPill. Or iHorsepill or iSuppos--well you get the idea.
NMG
The entire iPod theory so far has been that you have to pay more to get quality; the iPod costs a lot but it makes up for it in all it does. So conversely if Apple's going to give in and give us just another minimal-function tiny flash player, they had better price it right at or below every single other tiny flash player or this will be a massive flop.
Brand name and "lifestyle" counts for something with large prices like an iPod. But the small flash player market is totally different. If the people looking at 256M flash players were willing to pay a little bit more just to get the apple logo, they wouldn't be buying a 256M flash player in the first place.
From the article:
"....with an interface so simple your grandmother could use it."
As a 48 yo grandmother and feminist I am offended. Why don't they say a grandfather could use it ? Go ahead, mod me down....
I wonder if this supposed flash iPod will be anything like the Nachus MP3 player. I haven't heard about this player until today when I checked woot.com where they are featuring them. Sounds like the same exact concept.
SIGFAULT
the flash ipod will come out the same day as the headless imac...
"The new ones have colour screens, so it COULD happen... but Flash?! Then they'd need a touchscr... Oh, 256 mb flash, I get it."
http://www.woot.com/
?
Nachus 256MB Pendant MP3 Player
It's just about the smallest MP3 player around
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
She told me I would get laid if I told her what apple was up to. I was horny, so I gave her a cookie.
I mean, what's the point of all this anyway ?
;)
Christmas present for a significant other, soon-to-be-past elitism or what ?
Am I the ONLY person in this world to find this is "less than news-worthy" ???
There's five things a "real man" needs: his desktop (for home), his laptop (almost always), his cellphone (now almost as complex and expensive as a laptop), his toothbrush (never leave home more than one day without it), and prefered USB(and more) storage device (dooh).
That about does it, until they find a way to use nanotech to interface data and processing power directly to the brain, than you'll only need the toothbrush
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
No no no....
In Soviet Russia, the Pod flashes YOU!!!
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
A Mrs. Fields cookie or a Famous Amos cookie?
"I have an odd craving to whisper about those few frightful hours in that ill-rumored and evilly shadowed seaport of dea
Now this site is slashdotted, but does this new iPod have these??
AC comments get piped to
I hope they make one shaped like this: http://www.keebler.com/family/cookies/elfudge.jsp I guess that consumers are just not into the healthy fruit flavors anymore. They wanted something tastier.
Obama is a twitter sock puppet
For $100 you can send it back and they'll replace the battery.
PS I'm going to want a glass of milk with it (sorry, I've got a 2 year old...it's the first thing that sprang to mind)
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Flash seems to be gaining momentum as the application development platform of choice for the web and new devices like this rumored iPod. Yet it is a closed platform that Macromedia can control at will. Is history going to repeat itself with the critical apps and content of the web era locked into one platform?
A:Shit, where's my iSuppos?
Remember back in the day when Steve talked about the digital hub? And then when the iPod came out and he said he wanted to use them to help sell Macs? Then iTunes came out and even though Apple doesn't make much money from iTMS, Steve says he wants to use it to help sell iPods.
Evidently his plan is working. Last week that report came out showing about 6% of iPod users had switched from PCs to Macs and that another 7% plan on buying a Mac. The halo effect is boosting Apple's revenue.
So the iPod rules the HD-based market. Now it's time to take over the flash-based market and make sure no other company erodes Apple's dominance in the player market. I see this as yet another opportunity...people that can't afford an iPod will buy the new flash-based one. Money for Apple. When these people can afford it, they'll buy the big iPod. It's like the gateway drug to Macs.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
I use an Mp3-CD player from HP in my car, it has no screen and it takes 750mb CDs with anything up to 200 songs on them
Works just fine... just write the CD with the file format *artist - album - track - name.mp3* and use the "next" button to move rapidly 20 songs up and down the line, listen to the first few seconds, then move on or back as appropriate to find the right song. It encourages commonsense file-naming conventions too !
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
Size of a cookie?
Flash based?
No screen?
Sounds like the B&O MP3 Player...
http://www.beocentral.com/audio/portable/bs2.jpg
If maybe some of these links just don't exist? Think about it. If CmdrTaco felt like it he could just make up an imaginary anonymous submitter submitting an imaginary rumor backed by an imaginary leaked image on an imaginary website that doesn't load. Then he posts this all and links the nontexistent image as backup. Thousands of slashdotters see this and while they'd just go "oh more apple rumors" normally, they think "oh! well if there's a leaked image, this is probably for real!" Never mind neither they or anyone else has seen the image-- they just assume it's because the website hosting the image got "slashdotted".
Of course this is just silly hypothetical speculation, proposed because it's amusing to consider that this is *possible*; there's nothing to suggest this is happening in reality, and no logical or reasonable reason why Mr. Taco would want to do this.
Unless, of course, CmdrTaco happens to own Apple stock...
The site must be hosted on a mac. hahaha
Apple Insider sees a possible storage increase to 5GB. This will help them fit nicely into the price point niches.
I just got an iPod 5 days ago!
Check out woot.com for yourself...
I'd say you could navigate gig a music files with no screen if the music player spoke the name of the directory/file to you through the headphones.... That would not be that hard to incorporate into a unit like this. Might not be as quick to navigate to what you are looking for, but it's potentially better then listening to 3 seconds of every sone until you get there........
-m
http://www.invisik.com
Talk about "Bling! Bling!"
I resent that !
...no real man would need a CP or LT for better pressure !
No real man would ever need a drill... all you need is your toothbrush (as drilling tool), your laptop or cellphone (for better applied pressure) and an iron will.
--
This comment is to be regarded entirely as a joke.
By reading this signature you agree to not disagree with the post you just read.
didn't even read the summary
You hit a button for "change song" or "change playlist". The current song stops. A computerized voice starts somehow describing your options, you can influence those options by pressing the other buttons. It would be hard to make a good interface for this; using the standard automated phone system "For light jazz, press 1. For industrial EBM darkwave, press 2..." style interface would suck hardcore, and Apple wouldn't do this. But they might come up with something new and surprising. After all trying to fundamentally redesign the voice-based automated-phone-system interface is just the kind of rediculous thing Apple would get off on.
TheMacMind isn't known in the Mac world as being the source of intel on the latest Apple products, however through an anyonmous tipster (to you! We happen to know this person is 100% valid), we've been tipped off to a whole bevy of facts about the new Flash-based iPod from Apple. We also had this confirmed by a second contact at Apple.
.5" thick.
When I first heard about the iPod Flash, I met it with the same scepticism as Daring Fireball did.
AppleInsider brought you the basic concept, but TheMacMind is here to let loose about how the new iPod works, what it looks like, and how it feels! And we're looking forward to being there when it's released at MacWorld San Francisco! (Sorry Steve, we couldn't resist!)
The Meat: Milano cookie. That's the basic principle. I like Tim-Tams, but that's just me. Rounded edges, flat, and tiny. We're looking at something that is about 2.5" long, 1.5" wide, and just
Get this: NO SCREEN. Got a cellphone with one of those flat joysticks? This is apparently how you'll get around on the screenless iPod. Left and right move between songs, up and down change the volume, and pressing straight down will play/pause your music. With any other company, I'd be incredibly doubtful that their techs would be able to pull off anything useable. Scroll through 250 songs in one big list? We're betting Apple has something better up their sleeve, and we'll hopefully be able to tell you about the interface in the next few days. Evenything goes in and out through a full-size FireWire port. Apparently, they are also virtually indestructible. We did a mock up of the iPod Flash in 3D. You can see how big it is compared to a business card (the same size as an iPod mini) and an Apple Firewire cable.
What does that tiny size mean? Well, the iPod Flash is meant to be worn around the neck. Yep, a nice little lanyard will keep the smallest of the iPod family twirling around your neck while jogging.
AppleInsider said "less than $200", but we we're told that the Flash iPod will be priced at $99. Freaking sweet, we're hoping that that's right on the money! There have been reports of storage capacities from 256 MB - 1 GB, which would correlate with that price. This release will make an iPod available to people in any price range.
TheMacMind
Image by Robert Padbury
rpadbury@themacmind.com
More info about the Flash Ipod http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040022898/
this new iPod variant will fail miserably, mark my words. just like the lack of wireless and ogg support destroyed the original iPod's chances of success, and the lack of an FM tuner and getting the price point all wrong prevented Apple from selling more than a handful of the iPod minis, this one will never be more than a bragging point for the apple hard-core. when will Apple learn? everyone on slashdot knows how to build a killer iPod... killer...
i speak for myself and those who like what i say.
Marketing has an idea, then they *leak* the information to some site. Then Steve and the marketing watch /. Depending on our reaction, they decide if they should proceed, what features they should or shouldn't include... and save a bundle of money on actual market research.
-- If god wanted me to have a sig, he'd have given me a sense of humor.
Sounds *exactly* like today's WOOT (12/6/04) http://www.woot.com/ PCH
my NEX-II is smaller than a cookie and will cost much less than anything that apple can think of.
and it uses a 2 gig microdrive quite nicely.
I have an ipod mini for 1/3rd the price of one. but is expandable with more cards, no drm, will use AA batteries... overall makes the mini look like crap.
I won't be impressed with them until they come out with some of the ideas here.
"iRule. Override all iPods within a given radius with your choice of music" - now we're talking.
Like car accidents, most hardware problems are due to driver error.
That is what I was thinking.
If the interface was fantastic (but this is Apple), then audio feedback could work, especially in conjunction with a small "eraser" pointer on the device and spatial menus. Simple menus (four choices) could be accessed directly by pressing the pointer in a direction, hearing feedback of the choice you picked, and pressing the pointer to confirm. In a longer list (like your album database) the pointer would act like a scroll, with how hard you push it scrolling faster or slower. Good "clicky" audio feedback on the scroll would give you an idea where you are in your database, and when you slow down enough, it would tell you what album you're on (voice synth from ID3 tags).
It wouldn't be as good as a screen, but it could work.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Prepare for NetTunes loaning you as many albums as you want for a monthly fee.
That would only be catching up to Roxio's Napster, which already offers such a service: rent every album in Napster's repertory for $10/mo.
pwned.
If they change the thing that much, its something else.. its not a iPOD.. except by brand..
Might still be a good product.. But its different..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Just because "halo effect" is recieved from the iPod does not mean it will be recieved in the same way from the hypothetical iPod Flash. There are two problems here:
1. A selection effect. The Macintosh and the iPod both target the same group-- people who are willing to pay more for a pleasant experience with their electronics. If someone buys an iPod that means they're okay with paying a bit more for a device that might not have quite as much functionality or disk space as some of the same-price-range alternatives, due to a perception that the thing they're buying will look cooler or be nicer to use or make them happier. This means this is the ideal person to make some sort of iMac sales pitch to. If you make a cheap minimal flash player you lose this selection effect; you are now targetting the budget market, where the halo effect is less likely to be effective because these are the people more likely to just go buy eMachines or whatever it is they make these days with a minimum of fuss.
2. The reason people are convinced to buy macs from the iPod is that after using their new iPods, they basically just think, I am really enjoying my iPod. If their music players are this nice, wouldn't their computers be even better? And start looking into getting a mac. So in order for the halo effect to kick in from the iPod the person has to be really impressed by the iPod. Being really impressive, even for the lower cost, is going to be a heck of a lot harder with a device without a screen or such. So the halo effect will be much harder for Apple to attain via the iPod Flash, if it's real.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
what was that Bushism again... "Too bad all the people who know how to run this country are busy running taxicabs or cutting hair"...
The Flash Based iPod Endangered Mystery! In the dense forests of the Pacific Northwest dwells the strange and beautiful creature known as Flash Based iPod perhaps. Sadly, logging and human settlement may threaten what might be his habitat, although if it's not they don't. Flash Based iPod populations require vast amounts of land to remain elusive in. They typically dwell just behind rocks but are also sometimes playful, bounding into thick fogs and out-of-focus areas. Remember, it's up to us. Flash Based iPod is a crucial part of the ecosystem if he exists. So lets all help keep Flash Based iPod possibly alive for future generations to enjoy unless he doesn't exist. The end!
"Dude, your cookies look pretty cool, but they taste like shit."
"What cookies?"
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
call me cynical, but such things only ever serve to give companies press. whethers its good or bad press, its still press. its like viral marketing - "have you seen such and such hardware specs, wow, cool!"... equally, we're giving it press by using this very medium. *yawn* we're caught in a vicious neverending cycle.... HELP!!!!
If there was an iPod that looked like the mockup on macmind I would buy it in a ... well, flash. Congrats to the person who probably faked the picture for the enticing design!
It's a remote control, either wired-in or bluetooth for a next-gen ipod. Either that or just a plain hoax. Someone mod me up!
That in the middle is an Apple Pro mouse with a click-wheel pasted on top.
:-)
Apple isn't releasing a display-less iPod... too frustrating to navigate through songs.
I also happen to have a business card here (heh) and the size shown in the picture leaves you with a really finger crimping wheel to use.
Anyways... I DUB THEE... iPill!
-Don.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
just go to www.woot.com to see something exaclty like this.
They should make the flash part replacable so that as new higher density flash USB drives comes out, if they are the right dimensions, you can just plug them in. Or directly swap the data with your friends. That would be sweet...
I mean what market segment wouldn't want a little mp3 player that you plug your flash drive into and it provides the jack, power, and player? If apple's not doing this then I will patent the idea...
is that it will be a mini with a CF card instead of a microdrive. manufacturing such a beast it just changing the card that it has. Although in aisa small flashed based mp3 players are king.. we'll see..
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Lately i have wanted a USB drive to store some critical files, just as a backup. I could clear up some memory and put it on my pod, but I don't carry it around all the time. It would be nice to have.
So, if apple did come out with a 1 gig flash player with Firewire, that would be cool. I use some for music and some for data. If it were $150, and that is a 50% markup over other usb drives, it would be quite pratical. At $200 I think the price to too close to a mini.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
nt
My iPod can run right along with me. I wish my knees could!!
Harpo Tunnel Syndrome--my wrist feels funny.
For this to be completely useful, the player needs a SD slot. I recently coughed up the lordly sum of $30 to ComputerGeeks.Com for a cheap little MP3 player. It's built like crap, the voice recorder function isn't worth a tinker's damn, but it has two things in its favor: 1.) a usable FM tuner, and 2.) a SD slot.
If I want to access the 64MB of flash in the player itself, I have to use a proprietary Windows piece of software (Actually POS is a good acronym for the device's software) to get to it. However, I can use a USB SD reader/writer which is a certified USB Mass Storage Device under Linux to load the SD up with MP3s. It's a kludge, but not an offensive kludge.
Undoubtedly an iPod Flash would be, in itself, a USB2/Firewire Mass Storage Device. If Apple brings out an iPod Flash with a SD slot (I'd even settle for an XD slot, despite the fact that this semi-proprietary flash format pisses me off) then I am there to buy one. Big time.
This might be the surprise for next month's Macworld San Francisco. An iPod iCanAfford. Stay tuned.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
I like to throw in an occasional one-two-one skip every time I go out for a run. It reminds me of my childhood.
And what do you do in case you come across a puddle? Run around it? Pfft, much easier to skip over it IMHO.
Just my 2 cents...
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
TMM switched hosting companies recently, and they've taken us offline. We thought we could survive a slashdotting, alas, we cannot.
Here's a mirror of the image (hosted on .mac)
http://homepage.mac.com/dark_lotus/ipodflash.jpg
I dont accept cookies you insensitive clod!
Im dreaming ofa big bndwdth, That can resist the
http://www.engadget.com has it on their front page. Looks photoshopped to me.
Gorkman
What if the flash version has the same form factor as the iPod mini? And instead of making a distinction between HD vs Flash, they'd simply call it "iPod Mini in 3 sizes": 4 gig, 1 gig, 0.5 gig? Same concept as it's big brother's 3 different sizes.
I love the iPod mini interface and form factor. I have a hard time seeing how apple could reduce the size and still produce a great UI. Of course, apple has a great track record for proving pundits wrong...
There are holes of course...
1) I have no idea if it's economically feasible to produce the flash based iPod versions at attractive price points...
2) There's also the question of whether or not offering the mini at lower costs would cause brand dilution (is that the right term? marketing 101 was a long time ago) and damage the precious cachet that apple's built up...
The fanboys love when apple files suits against little web sites.
It somehow validates their effeminate nature and makes them feel like they're part of something.
They're weird.
It has always been by firm belief that it is NOT a good idea to have a phone, MP3 player, or PDA so SMALL, that you could swallow it.
You *KNOW* it's only a matter of time before someone does.
I've used ITMS for a while, and now have an iPod (not purchased, it was a "reward" for a job well done - and I'd probably have preferred the cash). Before the iPod I owned two different flash-based MP3 players.
:-)
Perhaps Apple can make a usable MP3 player. Both of the flash-based MP3 players I owned before my iPod had clunky interfaces that were torture to use. It was easy to just play, but setting up playlists, suffling, etc. was a process that took a long time. The PC software sucked, too.,
The digital watch sized buttons were also a pain. I frequently had to pull one out of it's nylon holder to squint at the tiny screen and manipulate the tiny buttons.
If I were still in the market for a player, I think Apple's intergration with ITMS and the usability factor might influence me to give these a look. If they exist
Interested in a Flash-based MAME front end? Visit mame.danzbb.com
This is a bad move by Apple on two fronts. First, economically it makes no sense to compete in a highly saturated flash mp3 market where margins are razor thin. If they don't have the money for a hard drive based player why would they be expected to pay a premium over equally good products?
Second, and I think Dailmer, BMW and Jaguar can all attest to this - you are degrading your real product line. By coming out with a very low end model you detract from the cache of your high end models.
Apple-X.net :: TheMacMind.com Unveils Flash iPod Concept Image Based On Inside Info (Image Mirror Included)
Enjoy!
--Trent L.
CEO of Apple-X.net
"If you are an idealist it doesn't matter what you do or what goes on around you, because it isn't real anyway."-R.P.W.
i can prove the image is fake, they wrote the name as 'iPod Flash', with an uppercase F. But, shortly after the iPod photo came out, Apple changed the name of the 'iPod Photo', to 'iPod photo' . I doubt apple would release something that, when they recently enforced their new naming convention.
I'm not particularly impressed with the design. the one from woot.com is much cooler-looking.
Assuming this is a genuine product design, I'd say that Apple figured out that many people happily use their iPod remote control, most of the time, to manage their way through a few favourite playlists. That being so, why not bring to market a smaller, cheaper, microPod that has all the music in the rmote itself?
Right now, the iPod and iPod mini have a lot of marketshare because of two things:
1. Look
2. Feel
Look: If you pull out either an iPod or the "white headphones" (um, like the ones I have in now attached to the iPod on my desk), you'll have people who know what it is. When I was in DC on business, I was easily able to notice the people with iPods.
Feel: The Jog Wheel (patented or copyrighted by Apple, I'll let the lawyers here complain about which) is a perfect medium for MP3 players. Up, down, find the song and fast forward or back - all in one interface.
So what would an iPod flash look light?
Here's my $0.02: it will look like an iPod mini.
Take an iPod mini. Take out the hard drive and squeeze the electronics together. With just flash RAM, you could probably have a device that looks the same, acts the same, costs $100 - $150 (256 MB - 1 GB), and looks like an iPod Mini only with the thickness of two stacked quarters, and weighs a little more. Battery could still last 12 hours (remember - no moving parts).
So, for Apple to make a "display-less device" that nobody would recognize as an iPod, I call "bullshit".
I'll use the same skills for when I was 12 and heard about a new "Star Wars Episode I" coming out "someday": until I saw a trailer, I wouldn't believe. Saved me about 10 years of unhappiness. (Granted, not seeing Episode I would have saved me more, but that's another story for another day.)
52 Weeks, 52 Religions with John Hummel
actually, this sounds like it would be perfect for my blind friend. :D She would have purchased an ipod, except for the fact that it would have been impossible for her to use it. she's looking for a device that can record class lectures, and is tired of carrying around a big, old tape recorder..
Apple literally* cannot keep $250 minis on the shelves. Why do they want to introduce something cheaper? And unless it's voice-activated, I don't think a display-less MP3 player can be made that Apple would call "easy to use."
* and I mean literally, literally. Not in the new bass-ackwards "there were *literally* a million people in line at the deli" but literally, literally, literally. I was in an Apple store a few months ago. Spent maybe 45 minutes there having my iBook looked at. In that time (weekday day, mind you) about a half-dozen people came in:
"Got any iPod minis in stock?"
"No."
"OK."
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Anyone have a mirror?
In other news, iPod competitors leak fake rumors in order to sabotage christmas iPod sales.
One point of contention seems to be "how will you navigate a music collection with no screen?" as an argument against making a player this small.
... maybe "bump" or resistence feedback of some sort, brail-like but electronic so you can use the input without looking at the player at all.
:)
The answer has been around for quite some time, but Apple is the kind of company that could actually do it right: an audio interface to replace the display. People are already wearing earphones, they could listen to the menus instead of viewing them.
The other issue is replacing the input wheel. Rather than taking audio input (speech), it's more likely they would change the form factor and make new input hardware to fit on a smaller device with a different form factor than the iPod or iPod mini.
I could see the input hardware being more sensitive to touch, because you don't have the visual feedback of a screen
Consider this a starting point for discussion...
----- rL
some of the other flash mp3 players work with Macs, but they are a mess to use..... if this is anywhere as easy to use as a full ipod and sync albums or playlists then it will be fun, add that it will work with songs bought from iTms (no others do right now). now if it is somewhat sweat/rain resistant and it would be awesome. water is one of the fears i used to have about taking an ipod running, and those waterproof cases add a lot of bulk. i don't need 4 - 60 gigs of music even if i am running 10 miles. also, strapping $250 to my arm seems to declare "mug me".
Portable cassette tape players (are they still around?) had no display. In the pre-digital age we'd have to put the tape in, press play for a few seconds, hit fast-forward, press play, etc. The luxury of finding "next song" didn't even exist. Sony managed to sell millions of those things.
I'll grant that we are living in a different technological age and people's expectations are higher. But I think it should be possible to come up with a usable no-display device that people won't mind, even if it's not as nice as a player with a display. There's a lot of mini FM radios on the market that have tuning without a display, which people seem to buy.
If you give a geek a cookie (iPod)....
At first I thought that having no screen would be a horrible move, but it makes sense.
I use my flash based player when I go for a jog and I don't think I've ever looked at the screen. Actually the screen has so much dust on the inside of it (brilliant Creative construction), you can barely see it anyway.
$5 says that the Apple Marketing Machine calls this the iPod Sport.
Certainly there are many Apple fans who will buy anything with their logo, but won't many of these folks already have Ipods? And for new customers, there will be a lot of other products (even some good ones, from the reviews I've read) that Apple will have to compete with. Of course, they already have the advantage of name-recognition, so who knows, maybe it'll do well.
Why carry two things around? It looks like 2005 will be the year cell phones get music capability. Once the size and weight gets low enough, there's no reason for a separate music box.
Isamu Sanada rocks. Check out his idea for the ipod flash @ applele.com.
Ahem...
"Artist" "U2" "Play all"
Why do you need a screen?
[Of course, the odds this new iPod has voice command input is probably 2 orders of magnitude lower than the new iPod actually existing.]
Flash Ipod
Maybe the site was hosted on the mp3 player.
you also didnt consider the rest of the world. most of asia cant afford to pay 200 bucks for an iPod mini, but everyone has one of those silly flash based thingies that holds 2 cds worth of mp3s at a time, even 60 year olds. Apple needs to capitalize on that demand.
iTunes remote control. not an iPod.
control the mac in your office you're running iTunes on and streaming the audio to your living room stereo with airport express.
i thought it might have some display to show the current song/playlist, but i must have been wrong. could be handled with a small display/receiver unit (not shown) that sits on your stereo shelf...
kinda like this: http://www.keyspan.com/products/usb/urm17a/ only cooler and Apple-simple.
just riffing. i don't know anything.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
"Seeing as you are unfamiliar with sarcasm ..
I will close the cash register now."
I noticed this was moded as a Troll. But its not,.. Its funny. Funny Funny..
Especially with slashdots ability to predict successful products.
By your comment, I assume you won't ever consider purchasing a laptop computer of any sort either?
Probably wouldn't buy a good 35mm film or digital camera either, right?
You never know "how long its going to last" when you buy a piece of portable electronics, but you *can* make an educated guess based on the look, feel and reports of others over time, plus a little knowledge of other similar technologies.
My iPod feels far from "disposable". In fact, I spent the $50 or so extra to extend its warranty out a couple extra years, because I intend to hang onto it a while.
Wait am i missing something here...the whole reason the IPOD was successful as a mp3 player was because they were the first one's to make the hard drive type players with screens fashionable and useful. Now they want to make a "cookie" sized one to break into the market of FLASH type players which is already SATURATED?
I would figure something a little more newsworthy to include wind of apple producing an IPOD similar to the current model with extended battery life and a quieter hard drive. I have no complaints abou the IPOD line, and apple has done well off of it, but at the same time apple should learn to recognize its successes and improve on them...hasn't this been apple's BIGGEST problem over the past 20 years, not following through on its successes?
Why is it people think flash doesn't fail?
I've lost a fair amount of data on my Sony camera's memory stick when it started going bad and quit saving things reliably on parts of it.
You can only rewrite/erase flash so many times before it fails, and from my observations - some cards out there fail long before they should.
doesn't the BMW interface pretty much let you select from 4 special car playlists and then just skip back and forth in those? maybe you can do more than that, but that's in the car..... if you are running or whatever you are not going to use the full navigational features of the ipods, picking a playlist and having the ability to skip a song here and there would be great. give me the ability to randomize the playlist and i would be even more happy. in terms of a device to use when doing a workout or going for a walk, that's all you need. the saved weight/size/battery/price would make it even more worth it.
think about it... 1 gig of AAC music is about 14 hours of non-repeating music. if this is targetted at gym people, they don't need a 4 gig mini just to use for workouts.
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
So in 2001 Taco said the iPod was lame, and insinuated that obvously no one would buy it. How was this a good call? In my book that ranks up with "640k should be enough for anybody."
god you a moron. 5000000000 million people have seen this already, give it a rest.
if this release included price drops on the iPod Mini.
Most of may declares this to be null and void, an irritating rumor with no substantiation. Still, if Apple did develop a flash-based player, one could hardly be too surprised. Jobs says that flash players wind up in drawers, unused gifts given by an uncle who didn't know what else to give. And he might be right, too. But as it was said, the numbers speak for themselves. People ARE eating up these tiny little players, and if Apple wanted a piece of that pie, claiming full compatibility with iTunes...well, who knows? For those who've been waiting for a cheaper alternative to the iPod, this might just fit the bill. Not that Apple ever cared about pricing...
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't know any BJ, but if I did, I think I would feel dirty asking him/it for a pizookie.
I used to bulls-eye womp-rats in my pants
Seems, right or wrong, theres a lot of new Apple hardware leaks. I believe this is an unlikely product for Apple since the iPod is really a high-margin product which Apple tends to focus on. For the budget minded consumer, there are already too many competitiors. If this "leak" is actually from Apple, I believe executives have planted fake information to small groups of people within the company. People only need to know what they need to to do their job. This way when something gets leaked its easy to find out who did it and fire them.
ever walk into an apple store? the most popular item is undoubtedly the ipod mini. these things sell not because of "value" or number of gizmos but for design.
you don't find teenage girls walking into best buy, picking up a rio mp3 player and saying "ooh it's so cute, i want pink!" "yuck becky, pink is so last week, i want gold. that's hot." but you do see that in apple stores. and then their mom comes in behind them and says, "ok, but you're not getting that louis vuitton bag for christmas!"
i'd like to see a breakdown by ipod model as well, but anecdotal data says the ipod mini has cache among markets that other mp3 players don't even address. other tech companies are trying to market to the slashdot crowd, with gee-whiz features and more storage for less money. apple's realized the rest of the world is a much bigger, less fickle market and now they're getting paid for it.
Outside of having an apple lable attatched to this, and being told that your 'intended' to wear it around your neck (I am dubious of this idea), how is this different from something like the Rio Cali?
-Millions of Monkeys, Millions of typewriters, 6 hours of sorting through faeces encrusted pages to find: This post
Hey, if they can make this look like jewelry or an accessory, this thing will be in fashion magazines up the wazoo. It'll be next year's fashion accessory to have. There will be ipod flash brooches by Kate Spade and Louis Vuitton. I don't think any other company would be able to pull it off either.
thank god, I was wondering when they would tone it down and make something "Ordinary"
For twenty gigs of storage? And people said my iPod was expensive.
If you want a simple, compact flash player that reads CompactFlash cards (they are up to 2 gigs now, right?), and is really cheap, then check this:
http://store.yahoo.com/frontierstore/
NexKube - 49$.
I pesonally own the NexIA - it's wicked!
Bigger picture guys, there's no SCREEN. Doesn't mean there's no display. They already solved how to display information without a screen: http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2002/12/20021227191 929.shtml/.
They could easily project the information through the case (menus, song names, etc) when necessary... this would make it easier probably than building screens to fit in odd locations, plus it would be a lot more slick and very cool. Think mini-rear projection display into a portion of the casing. (Thus, the display would be invisible when not in use.)
And you apparently don't know a lot about marketing if you think that Apple "could not produce enough". There are such things as manufactured shortages.
Quick on the heels of the iPod mini Apple has just released version 1.0 of the manufacturing shortage known as "iShort". iShort was designed to make it harder to sell a product so that you could claim "we just can't make enough".
iShort has been used internally for 20 years and has been such a success they are now selling it to other manufacturers.
Look for it to be available, in short supply, in early 2005.
He's 58 years old, and learned how to use it in about 5 minutes.
Figuring out how to plug the usb cable in took another minute. The cable signage is bad, so you can't tell which orientation is right until you try.
Well actually, Apple wasn't blazing a trail in disk-based mp3 players either. It wasn't blazing a trail in the 4gb market, and it won't be blazing a trail in the flash market.
Well, it depends on which mass market you're talking about. The iPod is hardly a niche, given that it basically owns its category. The iPod mini is hardly a niche, given that also owns its category.
In fact, Apple owns the market. What kind of niche are you talking about?
What you probably mean is "Apple needs to drop the price down even lower to broaden the iPod market."
Value depends on what the consumer is looking for. My father-in-law values size more than capacity. He doesn't have a lot of music to begin with, so the mini was fine.
You're making the classic mistake of thinking that consumers are like you in their value judgements. They aren't. Consumers buy for all sorts of reasons, and a lot of those reasons don't appear rational to disinterested observers.
"It doesn't have a screen and is this size of a cookie!"
There have been mp3 players the size of cigarette lighters out for years now. The Apple version sounds big and bulky in comparison.
Please tell me you're not driving while you're operating that monstrosity.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
thanks but no thanks apple, I am quite happy with my thumb 2x1x1 inch sized 256MB no moving parts different LED colors display bundle of joy
So where are the play and stop buttons?
most of the time it's on random-jump mode but yes, usually
No display = no need to look at it. I sit it in the well under the hand-brake where I can find it without looking. My iPod proves far more of a distraction in the car so I don't tend to use it there.
I have been a user for about 10 years. This ends Feb 2014. The site's been ruined. I'm off. Dice, FU
So any of you marketing geniuses want to explain why Apple would release this product after the Christmas season?
(I would love to buy one for my nephew's present, but January is too late.)
-ch
Seems to me that this concept is already available...and only for $80 from http://woot.com/ today
Come up with some concept shots of something obivously completely wrong, report it to Slashdot. Boom! Instant traffic.
Some of the article discussion complains that leaving out the screen is a bad move, but is that necessarily the case?
Maybe not.
In the essay What have we got to lose? (as anthologized in _The Salmon of Doubt_), Douglas Adams gives a fascinating overview of all the cases where a clever new product was born not by adding some dazzling new feature, but by identifying properties that could easily be dispensed with.
So... an iPod with no screen. Well why not? How often do you actually look at the screen? Probably not very -- most of the time the device sits in your pocket, and a lot of people just control the thing through Apple's remote control, which of course has already dispensed with the screen, and has in fact left you with something that looks a lot like the device in the article's photo.
But okay, some of the complaints are right -- browsing through even a modest music collection can get tedious when the only controls you have are to skip forward & back by a track. Being able to see what's going on is nice, but do you have to be able to see it when every iPod listener is already ipso facto listening to the device? Think about it: this would be an excellent place to use some kind of audio / speech interface, and Apple certainly knows how to design a system that way, having had a speech interface built into Macs for many years now.
That may or may not be what Apple is up to here, but it seems like an obvious future direction for the suite of products. It wouldn't surprise me at all if, for example, a future version of the bundled headphones doubled as a microphone somehow, so that you could control the device by just saying "iPod, shuffle playlist Beatles", and it would go forth and do your bidding, and you didn't have to dig it out of your pocked or your backpack or whereever you keep yours stashed.
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
Apple's mere existence is based on a Graphical User Interface. Why would they develop a product without one? If such a product exists, I question this mockup for two reasons:
1. No screen
2. No dock connector
A few sights picked up leaks from Sirius and Apple over a deal to make Satellite Ipods:
Satellite iPod Rumors
What's Next For The iPod?
I wish to remain anonymous on this post but give it a change......because it sounds friggin Awesome
Maybe we'll even get a Howard Stern signature ipod.
I'm not the first to notice this, but look at a white iMac mouse (or a picture of one), and then look at the picture (if you can find it not /.ed). Looks like someone photoshopped on a wheel from an iPod. I call shenanigans!
-Ryan
I think the major piece missing from this puzzle is that there is no center button on this rendering.
I think there has to be a display for the 512MB and 1GB models - even just a three- or four-line LED (look at your pager - you'll see what I mean) would work.
iPod / Mini : Don't Steal Music
iPod Flash!: For external use only
(or...we will not gnaw on our iPod Flash)
I speculate that the reason there is no screen on the unit is because it is on the headphones remote instead.
If you look at historical precedent, minidisc players, walkmans there has been a trend towards putting the bulk of the controls on a small lcd remote. The added market benefit of this is that consumers are locked into your proprietary headphones - perhaps a reason why apple could afford to price the player so cheaply.
In addition, from a design point of view, I imagine the engineers reasoned that if you are wearing the unit around your neck it is a little difficult to read the screen at the same time.....
Might this be the prototype of the wireless phone that can access the iTunes store? Would make a lot of sense if the screen was on the inside of a clam-shell design. (the scale in the mock-up would have to be wrong) I wouldn't mind losing the camera for a few of my favorite albums. The price seems about right as well.
Emi
Apple took a great deal of care to provide a new socket that could plug into computers via either firewire or USB 2.0. This is so they could break into the wintel market in a big way. Now they are taking a step back to a standard firewire cable? Somehow, I don't think so.
Dude, my grandpa just turned 82 and still prunes the hedges in his "home away from home" property, cuts the lawn, drives his car, waters his plants, knows how to use a VCR *and* a cell phone (hell I'm 20 and I'm using his old one!!), and even somehow always knows more than me in any given situation (heheh)...
Saying "even a grandfather could use it", people would just be like "uhh... I sure hope so"... seeing as I know very very few older men who wouldn't be able to figure out just about any relatively user-friendly device like an iPod...
Also, implying that they should say "even a grandfather could use it" is just as sexist as what was already written. How would that be any better? You're being entirely hypocritical...
I doubt Taco does either.
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
I own the latest generation 20Gb ipod. I love it. What has really sold me on this is that I take my entire music collection with me -- I don't have to pre-select what songs I have access to, I have access to all of them. It's an under-rated concept that unless you've bought in, you'll probably scoff and think "nah, that doesn't appeal, I'm used to stuffing 10 CDs in my car, and so I don't need that feature".
But an "ultra-mini" size is a different product in my mind. It would force me to pick the 100-200 songs that I want to travel with. That bit of overhead just might not "work". It's too similar to a "walkman" (or discman, etc.) What I think they'll need to do to sell it to me, is to make the track management really really good.
Incidentally, in case you don't have one: I come from a Windows / *nix background, and I like the Apple interface (jog and iTunes both). Sure it's hard to scroll through 3k songs on a jog dial, but if you're a little consistent with your genres or other classification methods, it's workable.
Aren't all links on /. temporary?
Poland. ....oops, sorry. Meant to say, don't forget the lukewarm reaction to the iPod mini as well.
I've got more mod points and GMail invi
I don't really see why the flash based market is an important one for Apple. It is very unlikely that they are going to secure a market-share that even remotely compares to what they have done with HD based players. There are just too many off-brand flash players out there that can be had for obscenely low prices. The iPod is considered a "premium" product; like it or not a lot of the iPods popularity is due to the fact that it carries a certain amount of image and prestige. Doesn't Kate Spade and Gucci sell Ipod cases that cost almost as much as the Ipod itself? By releasing a low-cost version Apple is really risking "cheapining" the brand and damaging its image. I would think Apple has much more to lose, in the long term, than they have to gain by releasing this product.
Doesn't it seem odd that a low-end device, using slow, flash-based memory would use firewire instead of USB? For a device like this, firewire would simply be overkill for the job.
If this thing even does exist, I'll put my money on it being USB based.
8==8 Bones 8==8
Of course only an AC troll like you would assume you need to "overpower whatever station", when there's already a blank frequency available for such devices. (DUH!!)
Yes, I do enjoy my MP3 player. Gee, I say MP3 player, not "TV/VCR/DVD" or 'TV/VCR/DVD/MP3' or 'TV/VCR/DVD/PVR/DVD-R/WATCH-RADIO-SCUBA-GEAR'. Did you read that, troll?
So how about you just STFU and stop being a waste of internet bandwidth, lameass troll?
AC comments get piped to
Call it the iFraud. These guys, these supposed anonymous source website types, are fucking clown shoes.
I'm guessing at $199 for a 2 GB version. Apple is probably able to get 2GB of flash memory for less than $100.
The iPod mini was more expensive and bigger(more storage) than people though it would be.
Well I for one feel it is a fake! Sure, the image looks dodgy but that is to be expected as it is not a picture of the actual product, but done up by an outsider. I also do not believe Apple would leave off both the scroll wheel AND a screen. You can't really live without a screen with that many tunes and the wheel is Apples is one of the major features and of the iPods. But the biggest problem I see is that it is firewire. Look at the previous releases and you will see Apple is moving to USB. First the mini came out with only USB included and then the 4G iPod came out with USB and Firewire. The mini I feel was more aimed at the fashion conscious, especially girls. The majority I am sure would have been windows users who did not necessarily have firewire. I can see a flash based iPod being aimed at similar groups of people. Why would they release a flash player with firewire then? Especially when they know that a large number of people purchasing these will want to use it on their old Win98 Boxes with no firewire (and probably only USB 1.1). I think they should just release a smaller iPod mini. Chuck a 1Gb CF card in their instead and sell it at $200. Heck, maybe even release a 256Mb or 512Mb version as well! It is not like the cards are expensive!
Hey, I know that Amazon.com is not an official chanel, but you might look there for some advance information. Namely ipod minis (each flavor listed individually) are on the bestseller list - interspersed occassionally with another competing MP3 player and the other ipods. This should be ample evidence that the minis are a substantial component of the ipod unit sales. Add this type of market research to your toolkit and you might have an advantage...
I'm sorry, but what is that about? Who's going to wear their iPod around their neck?
It is so inconvenient! When you walk, drive, exercise, etc... it will always be in the way!
Why not have an iPod that can be strapped to the arm? That way it won't move as much and won't get in the way of various activities.
Last week that report came out showing about 6% of iPod users had switched from PCs to Macs and that another 7% plan on buying a Mac.
The margin of error in that survey was larger than either of those reported percentages. Therefore the reported "news" was worthless. If you look at Apple's figures you see all their dollar revenue increase comes from iPod sales while Mac sales are flat on the high-end and actually down on the low end. If there was a "halo" effect then it exists in the mind of analysts and Steve Jobs and is not being reflected in the harsh truth of revenues.
Furthermore, no figure was given or elicited for the percentage of PC users who had switched from using Macs.
Da Blog
If they made it out of brushed aluminum and hung around the neck on a balled chain, it would look just like a dog tag. They could also be personalized like dog tags.
I don't see how you're supposed to navigate through 1 GB of music/etc. with no screen.
Even though the Archos players have screens, the open-source personal jukebox software Rockbox recently implemented a Talking Menu system that can announce directories and playlists. It's useful for non-visual operation, and it proving to be a hit with blind users. Rockbox is being ported to some of the iRiver players...
Da Blog
You're right that computer-generate audio directory listings can be good. Even though the Archos players have screens, the open-source personal jukebox software Rockbox recently implemented a Talking Menu system that can announce directories and playlists. It's useful for non-visual operation, and it proving to be a hit with blind users. Rockbox is being ported to some of the iRiver players...
Da Blog
For an idea of how this could be accomplished on a lightweight portable player
Or you could look at an already-existing system that works pretty well... Even though the Archos players have screens, the open-source personal jukebox software Rockbox recently implemented a Talking Menu system that can announce directories and playlists. It's useful for non-visual operation, and it proving to be a hit with blind users. Rockbox is being ported to some of the iRiver players...
Da Blog
as far as length of use is concerned. Also, as with everything from apple it is more expensive than it is worth. I think I will stick with my $50 mp3 cd player with it's 700 meg.
BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING!
when you slow down enough, it would tell you what album you're on (voice synth from ID3 tags)
You're right that computer-generated audio directory listings can be done easily. Even though the Archos players have screens, the open-source personal jukebox software Rockbox recently implemented a Talking Menu system that can announce directories and playlists. It's useful for non-visual operation, and it proving to be a hit with blind users. Rockbox is being ported to some of the iRiver players...
Da Blog
its not like an ipod mini (even maybe the regular one) had any size problems :P but i'll be damned about that $99 price.
It is just not a general solution and therefore Apple won't embrace it. Just MO.
...here.
(Where is the laughing? Why do I not hear laughing? Well at least there's no DRM...)
Caveat Emptor is not a business model.
that seems to me to be the least plausible suggestion made in the article.
wearing it around your neck means one of two things. 1) a choker or 2) a dangly fellow.
obviously, a choker won't work for working out, as it might kill you. who knows. and a dangly one can get caught on things but, more importantly from apple's standpoint, would look sloppy and inelegant. twisting all over, bouncing around. not apple's style. more likely another armband connection, if anything.
to ferret out the rumors, you have to think like a steve jobs. and i can't see him jumping up and down on stage to watch his cookie necklace bounce around. and also, come to think of it, why make a device that points out that the more expensive "higher-end" ipods have a flaw (skipping)?
i'm voting no on this rumor. exit polls show yes leading, so i feel confident.
go get it
Because everyone knows men are smarter than women. Now get in the kitchen cook my dinner! Or get a life. Either one works. The article didn't say "all grandmothers are stupid and can't work technology LOL!". I somehow doubt this article set back women's rights in any way, but you are illustrating why so many people hate feminists. You remind me of a magnet on my refrigerator: "This is a feminist bookstore, THERE IS NO HUMOR SECTION!"
*Sorry for the redundancy -- saying "evil DRM" is like saying "tuna fish," since all DRM is evil. I was just using it for emphasis.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Calling him a "froody frood" is just stupid. ; )
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
I bet like Sony has long done, apple will sell an optional remote that is inline with the headphones and will show the song titles. This will clip onto your shirt or sleeve just like you see so many people doing with minidisc players or net walkmans. I still think for this to be realistic though they need another button for "Random" so you can listen to the playlist in order or on shuffle. That's about all the choice someone wants when there's only 20-30 songs on it.
Hit the treadmill for a 35 minute 10k and you will skip the iPod. Every Time.
It is ugly and the whole no-screen thing boggles my mind. Maybe I am too simple for something like that, but the whole thing looks silly to me. I am certain however that people will buy it and $100 for 256mb isn't half bad. I think I've seen the RIOs for nearly double.
What's wrong? Did you swallow your iPod again?
RTFM; please, I beg you.
I have noticed this process in the UK applying to political announcements to the press (eg the press are fed stories that come out as "Tony Blair is expected to announce ... tomorrow" or "Lord X's report on ... is expected to show that ...").
The press *could* wait a day and then report the facts, but they want to get in first.
The politicians / spin doctors can then work on the feedback ready for the real announcement. They can re-write abstracts, press releases, prepare responses...)
1. Leak prototype info /. crowd thinks it's "lame" and will never sell.
2. Go to market if
3. Profit!
Yup, looks good.
Up down buttons without visual feedback (as pictured in the posted links)? Seems difficult to get good random access to songs that way. Audio feedback seems to be too slow to be useful, and spoken commands are a non-starter for me: I have this option on my Acura navigation system: a recent example of how this works: Me: "nearest gas station" Navi: "remove gas stations" Me: shouting, "NO, DISPLAY gas stations" Navi: "remove gas stations" This is on a $40k vehicle. I wouldn't expect a whole lot better on a $200 personal electronic gizmo.
sigs are for losers (except to point out that sigs are for losers)
Woah. Four "troll" mods for speaking about an open-source audio feedback system. Someone hates blind people!
Da Blog
Probably because you posted the same info half a dozen times.
/. after all, where too many people focus only on new topics for the new new thing karma whoring angle, neglecting the old ones. Topics go stale within 60 minutes and their eyeball count declines almost to zero.
Probably because different people said exactly the same thing half a dozen times. You think they are going to notice a response to their statement in someone else's thread? I doubt it. This is
If something is worth saying then it's worth repeating. It's worth repeating.
Da Blog
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4107487.stm OWNED :P
omgwtfhaxbbq
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
the guy got sued i believe its real, folks. apple wouldnt sue if it wasnt real :P
Viable Slashdot alternatives: https://pipedot.org/ and http://soylentnews.org/
I used to go on a 4mi run every other day with my iPod. While I don't typically switch songs in a playlist during my jogs, they are encoded at high bitrates (so I imagine the hard drive gets accessed more often). I would carry the iPod in either hand, alternating occasionally and trying to limit the motion of the hand it was in somewhat.
I have also run into the problem where songs might stop playing, or skip slightly. It actually got so bad that I started hearing the "click of death" from my iPod hard drive (3 months after I got my 4G), and respite restoring it it would take minutes to mount. Needless to say, I've sent that one back and have a new one now-- that I won't take out running.