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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.
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.
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 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!
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.
Now this site is slashdotted, but does this new iPod have these??
AC comments get piped to
Size of a cookie?
Flash based?
No screen?
Sounds like the B&O MP3 Player...
http://www.beocentral.com/audio/portable/bs2.jpg
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.
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.
It's not the skipping that's the problem with jogging. The large memory buffer handles that fine. It's the extra wear and tear on the drive itself. I'd be interested to see someone do a study about the MTBF of those drives comparing them operating motionless and operating under the shock of jogging.
Jack Valenti and Orrin Hatch will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes.
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
A computer noise announces the track name at the press of a button.
;)
Thats what i'd do anyway
Bush and Blair ate my sig!
The wallet in my coat pocket was periodically hitting one of the (very sensitive) buttons on the corded remote control. Putting it into hold mode fixed that (and had the added bonus of making me feel really stupid).
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Although I would agree that your definition of the term "skipping" is probably the original derivation in this context, I also use it to refer to missing some of the audio, as in "to skip lunch" means to miss lunch.