Slashdot Mirror
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.
"from the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept."
No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
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!
LOL - from the people who won't follow your link:
.78" thick 6.5 ounces. 5 GB HDD, 10 hr battery life, charged via FireWire. Works as a firewire drive as well. Works in conjunctions with iTunes 2. Here are Live updates". No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame.
Posted by CmdrTaco on Tuesday October 23, @12:20PM
from the well-thats-not-very-exciting dept.
The BrownFury writes "At an invitation only event Apple has released their new MP3 player called the iPod. iPod is the size of a deck of cards. 2.4" wide by 4" tall by
Good call Taco!
Another proprietary standard in the Corporate marketplace; clearly an exclusivity deal between Apple and Pepperidge Farm. What follows will be 4 years of "Mint iPod", "Orange iPod" and eventually, "Double Chocolate iPod" and "Enrobed iPod".
The open source community must respond quickly to this threat in its inimical global fashion. An open standard for digital music players must be started based on the Danish butter cookie, or, "dansk-be/urrhoekkoe/n" standards. There is enough community-based prior art on this one, that we should stand our ground.
I will be the first in line for a "3 sugar pretzel"-sized music player, as long as I don't have to whack it against a desk (crumble the cookie) to get it to work.
More info about the Flash Ipod http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000040022898/
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
The iPod suffers from the same problems any lithium battery-powered device does. If you use it certain ways, the battery will quickly die, the same as ANY MP3 player with that type of battery.
My sig is blank, I typed this by hand.
God damn, I love how history repeats itself.
... weird, it's almost as though Apple understands their market better than Slashdot geeks do, though obviously that _couldn't_ be the case.
:)
iPod announced: Slashdot crowd says "Oh come on, there are a ton of mp3 players, including these CD-MP3 players which are the wave of the future. And $400? Another Apple lunacy that won't sell!"
iPod mini announced: Slashdot crowd says "Oh come on, it's $250! And a third the capacity of the $300 version! I'd pay $50 more to get three times the capacity! Another Apple lunacy that won't sell."
iPod flash announced: Slashdot crowd says "Oh come on! It's $200! And the market's already saturated with flash players! I don't see the point. Another apple lunacy that won't sell."
It's
Look, I sympathize. I've twice in my life looked at products my own company was developing and said "that's stupid, it'll never sell!" The first time was when working at Berkeley Systems and looking at the first You Don't Know Jack demo (you know, the only product originally made by BSI that's still around to one degree or another?); the other was at Macromedia, looking at Dreamweaver "Oh come on, anyone who really wants to code HTML uses vi/emacs! Who'd pay $400 for another WYSIWYG HTML editor when they can get hotmetal for free?" Turned out? A ton of people who wanted a good one.
Face it -- we're just not very good at predicting market success for some products
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.
Just thought that you might like to know that you are taking the worst possible approach to maintaining the life of your lithium batteries. Lithium battery life is shortened by all of the following:
*) High charge state in warm/hot conditions
*) Deep discharge cycles
*) Extreme discharge (not possible with most modern electronics - built in safety circuits prevent this)
Two generally recommended practices are:
1) Charge early and often. Keep the battery at close to full charge.
2) When storing the battery for long periods of time without use (more than several weeks), discharge to about 40% of capacity and store in a cold location. Avoid freezing the battery, but down to 40-50 degree F will help preserve the charge capacity.
The reason people see their laptop batteries fail quickly is because they keep high charge levels with high temperature for months on end. This will shorten the useful life dramatically.
Take it or leave it, but I work in the consumer electronics industry and deal with the technical issues related to Lithium-ion batteries frequently.