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Apple Updates iPod
TheRaven64 writes "Apple seems to have quietly updated the iPod Photo and iPod Mini lines. The Mini now comes in 4GB and 6GB flavours, priced at $199 and $249 respectively. The iPod Photo now comes in a 30GB flavour for $349 - only $50 more than the 20GB iPod with a mono screen and shorter battery life."
No panache. No wireless. Hard drive smaller than a Dell DJ. Lame.
How much did this ad cost?
My company would like to buy an ad on Slashdot's frontpage, too, and we're just wondering. Money? Gifts? Sex?
They dropped the 40GB mono model... and the new 30gb photo is slimmer than the older 40gb photo... :)
Just when you make it idiotproof, some idiot builds a better idiot.
When will they update the old iPod firmware to add the shuffle feature to the main menu?
... my continued holding out for one of these guys is paying off. $350 for the 30 GB iPod Photo is not a bad deal.
But it just makes me want to hold off longer so I really get my money's worth.
Another interesting note is that they only sell the regular iPod in the 20GB flavor now. They got rid of the other sizes. Guess iPod photo for everyone is the plan.
Trolling using another account since 2005.
You mean with a press release?
$100 to $350 in $50 increments. Once you start, you can't stop. "But for $50 more I can get this"
They did. They called the update the iPod Shuffle and it comes in its own separate player.
I'm pretty sure I've seen that feature on my iPod mini from day 1.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
If quietly means posting a giant, full-screen ad for the "new ipod mini and ipod photo" on the front page, well...
Thanks for that valuable contribution.
My main question is: how long before Apple eitehr (a) reintroduce a PDA or (b) morph the iPod into one?
It would, I believe, take the market from PalmSpringSourceOne but also a large chunk of the consumer Windows PDA market (the business market being firmly Outlocked into place).
Sig for sale or rent. One previous user. Inquire within.
They've got your money. If you want new features, they want you to buy a new one.
Before anybody asks: yes, it does run Linux.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I still have no idea what the purpose of the iPod Photo is. Sure, the better battery life and color screen are nice, but who really cares about carrying their photos around with them for viewing on a 1.5-inch screen? Hell, they could just lug their digital camera with them, and get mostly the same functionality...plus a camera!
Anyone know what the sales figures are like?
This space intentionally left blank.
The color screen for the mini that ALL the rumor mills were pushing?
Prof. Farnsworth - "Oh a lesson in not changing history from Mr I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!"
I believe that technically the shuffle songs feature has always been on the main menue, If you select browse, and press play (at least on my 2nd gen ipod) it plays random songs.
Yep, silent as the night breeze ;)
Attention deficit disorder is a complicated issue, spanning several major... HEY LET'S GO RIDE BIKES!
The Slashdot blurb missed one of the significant upgrades: the battery life in both iPod mini is now a lot better. The original iPod mini only lasted about 8 hours (according to Apple), the new one supposedly lasts 18. And if that turns out to be exaggerated, even 15 hours would be a very good battery lifetime for that kind of device. I wonder how they've done that - the weight hasn't increased, so it's probably not simply a battery twice as big.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
I'm probably in the minority here but I think that the iPod photo is overkill. The iPod is an excellent, simply designed music player. Bolting on photo displaying is a bit pointless. Not only is the screen still too small to be practical, even for "quick viewing", I tend to keep my iPod in my pocket all the time. Colour screens are not necessary.
so yours is better ?
i still aint buying one.
With all these new choices, it's going to be really hard for Andrew McPeters to keep his focus, you know.
You probably shouldn't click this.
iPod minis no longer include an AC charger, and the iPod photos no longer include a dock, carrying case, or AV cable. Apparently they'll have USB host support with an accessory though, and you'll be able to download and view photos right from your camera.
But most shocking of all to the "faithful" is the lack of a firewire cable with any iPod. It's optional across the board. Apple sold Macs with USB 1 and Firewire very recently, so they're essentially screwing over their fans. There's already a petition to but the cable back in the box. And you don't want to piss of a Mac fanatic!
I'm kinda disappointed with the lack of Bluetooth, though. It'd be nice to have the music pause when a call comes in on my T616, and maybe allow the headphones to double as a headset. iTunes already pauses the music for me courtesy of Salling Clicker.
In years of watching Apple make moves, this one seems to be one of the most insightful in terms of keeping marketshare. Although the competitors do not have the "cool" factor of the iPod, for once Apple seems fully aware that the competition is there, and they can not get by by merely producing superior technology.
This time, they have realized that in order to keep this technology at the center of the business model, they must continue to innovate.
With storage devices becoming smaller and smaller, they must continue to breakthrough with the bleeding edge technology. The iPod technology is simple enough that staying on the bleeding edge makes perfect sense. I sense that they've got this one nailed and are not letting go.
befuddled (noun) 1. Unable to create a pithy sig
Darn freaking blast it. I was just getting ready to buy one of those. Is there something wrong with the 40GB model?
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
Well, you see, it's ridiculously complicated to add a Shuffle feature to the menu. I mean, it would've required rewriting 2 pointers.
Actually, I was pretty peeved when I bought an iPod, they shipped a new model a month later and didn't think to add this simple hack. And before you say "Just buy another iPod", no. No thank you. This is software.
A good example of what to do is Blizzard. Every time they release new features its gets updated up and down the board. With the Warcraft 3 Expansion they gave similar functionality to the original game in a patch (without the new units). It wouldn't have killed Apple to do the same.
Unfortunately, I can't find this item anywhere on Apple's site. Anyone else have any luck?
I prefer a good RIO Karma
Ordered my 30Gb iPod Photo as soon as I got to work. Anyone know if existing accessories will work with new iPod photo models (i.e. Belkin's iTrip).
Hmmm... mine only comes in a weird plastic flavor. Sort of tastes like my cell phone... a little bit.
Can you post a link to what's being paraphrased, I would very much like to see that! :D
as long as i know the ads will come regularly in article form, i don't feel so bad about not subscribing.
stuff that matters hmm.
maker of cool gadgets for discerning geeks!
So, how much does a front-page advertisement on Slashdot cost these days?
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
Why has nobody come up with disc compression software for the Ipod? Methinks that would be a huge benefit to the iPod legions.
PDA's do it.
iRiver's do it.
iPod's running linux seem to be able to do it.
Stupid hardware crippling! It's pathetic!
Good luck with that. :P
I just bought a 20Gig monochrome iPod for my wife. I would have gladly paid the extra $50 for better battery life and color
yes Linux can be hacked into anything including a can of baked beans and a cup of coffee. Doesn't mean it should be there though.
Who cares? But when, oh when will they implement gapless mp3 playback?
Well, that's the end of Apple. I guess I'll go throw my free ( thank you eMarketResearchGroup ) 40gig iPod away now.
This post wasn't too far off the mark.
I'm not a coward by any name.
this makes the iPod Photo even more useful. i know the one card adapter exists, but it was expensive........
"The new iPod Camera Connector is an optional accessory that enables customers to connect their digital camera to iPod photo and import their photos into the iPod. By simply connecting the iPod Camera Connector and a digital camera, customers can easily transfer digital images to their iPod photo, providing tremendous storage space so they can take more pictures. Imported photos are immediately viewable on iPod photo's crisp color screen, and can also be brought back to iPhoto(R) on the Mac or various photo applications on the PC. The iPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for $29."
I still want AM radio!!! It would make getting through the day at work so much easier if I could listen to talk radio, too...
One man's Funny is another man's Offtopic.
... it doesn't, yet.
We need an Apple© Slashvertisement(TM) section so we can easily block these ads.
Oh my fucking God! Fuck you Apple!
I just spent £99 on a flash-based MP3 player yesterday that works with Linux and plays OGG, but I would've well bought an iPod mini for £139 and put up with the half-assed support and converting MP3s...
Bloody typical! This is why I'm refusing to buy a Mini Mac until after Tiger is released (and hopefully, they'll update the hardware around that time too!)
Just an FYI in case anyone missed it: this latest iPod update delivers some of the small things that owners of the 3G iPods (the ones with the four buttons between the display and the touchwheel) have been waiting for.
Specifically, the 3G iPods now have "Shuffle Songs" on the top-level menu, and the "Browse" and "Playlists" menu items have been consolidated under a "Music" menu.
Lots of people were mad at Apple for not giving 3G owners these small touches that the 4Gs had; it looks like Apple listened to their complaints.
Have a look a the Archos PMA 400. It's a 30M disk-based player with a 320x240 screen, a long battery life, and the ability to record audio and video. It has USB device and master connectivity and WiFi. And it runs Linux and has lots of software available for it. What more do you want?
Been there, done that.
Among the features for older models: "Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu".
Now THAT is a good question. It's way past time they did that.
BIYC Records
They just did: http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/
If they'd put a CF slot in the iPod Photo I'd buy one today. That's a perfect setup. Let me carry my iPod, that I'll have anyway, with me on vacation instead of a notebook to dump pictures.
While Its great that they have set the price down for the mini, they have cut the firewire cable, and the power adaptor at the same time, leaving apple users with older computers stuck with their USB 1.1 connectors...
I guess that they are really looking to get into the windows users' pockets instead of the Zen micro... Its 19 for the firewire cable, and 29 for the power apadtor, so price cut isn't really a pricecut..
For thoose who have USB2 and take their laptop everywhere its a bargain after all..
more interesting is the camera connector:
The new iPod Camera Connector is an optional accessory that enables customers to connect their digital camera to iPod photo and import their photos into the iPod. By simply connecting the iPod Camera Connector and a digital camera*, customers can easily transfer digital images to their iPod photo, providing tremendous storage space so they can take more pictures. Imported photos are immediately viewable on iPod photo's crisp color screen, and can also be brought back to iPhoto(R) on the Mac or various photo applications on the PC. The iPod Camera Connector is expected to be available in late March for $29.
I agree...
i'm waiting on the new Rio Karma coming out.
It doesn't bother a lot of people (obviously - look at the sales figures)
but when i had a loan of my pals iPod it drove me mad.
So start a petition to pester them, you may well get your way. I don't think Apple is really against providing shuffle in the main menu. They added lossless compression to existing iPods before. They just so far see iPod as an appliance, not a PDA and think people may not be happy with any changes in how the existing one works.
Looks pretty good.
Updated.
http://www.apple.com/ipod/download/
42 MB download.
What's New in iPod Updater 2005-02-22
iPod shuffle Software 1.1 for iPod shuffle
* Support for iPod shuffle Battery Pack
* Increased software stability
iPod mini Software 1.3 for iPod mini
* Support for second-generation iPod mini
* Support for charging and syncing over USB with Mac OS X v10.2.8 or 10.3.4 or later
iPod Software 2.3 for iPod with dock connector
* Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
* Music menu item in Main Menu
* Support for iTunes 4.7 and later
iPod Software 1.5 for iPod with touch wheel or scroll wheel
* Shuffle Songs selection in Main Menu
* Music menu item in Main Menu
* Support for iTunes 4.7 and later
What is Slashdot now, a billboard for Apple?
Creative Labs or iRiver puts out a new product, it doesn't even get mentioned. Apple rehashes one of their shittiest players, and introduces something hardly revolutionary for an extremely inflated price, and it makes the front page.
I don't understand.
And so is anyone that actually listens to FM radio anymore. ;P Unless you are using a transmitter to broadcast your iPod to an FM reciever, but then that would be redundant, wouldn't it? ;P ;P
Laugh! It's funny!
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
These new options would have been nice to have during the holidays. Looking at the new price range, I'm sure I would have gone with the iPod photo....
Apple needs to speed things up when it comes to holidays.....
Anyone have any good options to an iPod? I am not a fan of iTunes for some reason, and was wondering if there was anything I could get besides an iPod, CHEAPER, that would make me just as happy.
I don't care what it looks like, unless it is just ugly as hell.
so they are useless to me
So don't buy one then. You know you want one though.
Who's leg do I have to hump to get a dry martini around here?
Maybe there is something about drinking the Linux koolaid that I don't understand, but why the hell would you take a 100% functional iPod and load linux on it just to yield a device with "playback capabilities [that] are far from perfect"???
According to the link, CBR MP3 plays the best on the linux iPod, but there is still skipping; VBR MP3 plays at the wrong speeds; AAC support is horrid. So you take a music player, add linux, and are thrilled that you have defeatured the device by 80%... and this is supposed to make sense???
Why don't you linux freaks do something *really* creative like hacking your car's computer and loading linux on it? Sure, "driving capabilities will be far from perfect" but stalling every two miles is worth being the first linux communist on your block to have a linux powered Chevy, right?
Create an account then, under preferences you can check what stories you don't want to hear about.
You should ask both Creative Labs and iRiver why they don't come out with cool stuff.
Creative got on the ball with their iPod mini competitor. The thing comes with 2 battery packs right off the bat. The word is definitely getting out about the iPod's battery failure rates, and the expense of replacing it. I'll never be a purchaser until they fix this stuff.
Who are Creative Labs and iRiver?
Apple is finally getting a clue on making things more affordable... First the main intro of the Mac Mini, next the shuffle starting at $99 and now their flagship mp3 players have all gotten a serious discount. I mean a 30gig iPod photo is now much more attractive at $349 as for 30 gigs is plenty for music and photos and file storage for most. The 599 price for the top of the line model was a joke, but taking $150 off the price tag is a smart move. I think Apple is staring to grow a better smarter brain and is taking a more aggressive approach at putting out cost conscious products and still keeping that legendary ease of use and stability of their computers. I bet over time the Mini will get nice speed boosts and get cheaper,.. slightly and their top of the line models will get a discount.. not huge, but good like 500. This will increase marketshare and will open up a potenially new market if it does for Mac Tech folks, like myself who are far and few between. Fingers crossed baby for a world with less spyware and adbots and rootkit worries. Do not get me wrong... there are many apps written for Windows that are very cool, but has anyone noticed that tons of mainstream and other apps are coming out for OS X... time will tell. :)
I have a Sony digital camera, just an old 3.2 MP model. On my annual 2-week vacation with the kids to our CO cabin, the pictures still pile up at that file size. Sony's proprietary memory format (did I mention this was Sony?) means memory sticks are pricier than flash memory, and while I have a few I'm not really wanting to load up on them any more, especially because I'd like to switch to a Digital Rebel sometime here.
Personally I don't want to lug my laptop on vacation. That's a leash and something else to worry about packing well. The new 30 GB with a direct camera-to-iPod cable would let me dump photos without the to-laptop (and later to-home-box) deal. Along the way I could hook the little thing up to my relations' TVs and show them whatever little set of images I wanted, mostly of shots from home they haven't seen.
For me the high-res monitor seems a little much, that's mostly redundant to the camera, yep. But as a little utility added to my regular iPod, this makes a lot of sense the way Apple did it up. I have a 10 GB iPod, 3rd generation, right now, and it's not pushed for space, so I think the 30 GB model would take my books on tape (for the long drive) and music along with whatever photos I decided to keep, no problem.
So there you go. Maybe I'm the market. And I didn't consider it before, either; I'm betting the price difference was a killer for sales, at first.
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Only the 20GB regular iPod remains, does this mean they're phasing out the regular iPod?
... and in the DRM, bind them.
You are right. But that's the power of money. Slashdot furious that everyone blocks their ads with adblock had to a new find a way of funding bandwidth...
either that or they are just suckers for Apple stuff. I am a long time Mac user but I just feel physically sick when I see people going gooey over anything with an Apple logo on it. It's really fucking sad. Most of these people who idolise Apple hardware like some subtle variation in the iPod don't really use Macs properly or know anything about them. They just buy them and look at them and check their email and stuff and download songs whatever. They don't actually do any work with Apple stuff.
Unfortunately Jobs has done this.
You're kidding, right? There are at least five iPod FM radio add-ons advertised in the pages of one issue of MacWorld alone. As Jobs loves to call it, there's an entire "iPod economy" of add-ons out there.
ogg vorbis support would be nice. who will implement it first, apple of the ipodlinux guys?
..who thinks that ALL iPods are over expensive, over-rated players? Sure they look neat but every feature is now duplicated elsewhere and in nice packages and lower prices.
belkin makes a card reader that pops onto your ipod to dump pictures to, and in March Apple will have a $29 (US) accessory that will allow you to connect your ipod to your camera via USB and suck down the images.
I think these announcements make me wonder did Apple suddenly got a huge new shipment of the very small hard drives most iPod models use.
You can all thank me. It wouldn't have happenned without me.
You see, I just passed the return period on my new monochrome 40 gig. Therefore, new models are automatically released.
I have one of the original mechanical 10gig iPods. It came with with the 1.1 firmware but one day Software Update downloaded an iPod updater which triggered when I plugged the iPod in to sync.
After the update to firmware 1.4 and reboot the mechanical wheel stopped working. Even reverting to early firmwares didnt not revive it. The warranty is lapsed and there is no info online how to fix it.
Any Sony Mini Disc owners out there? I'm possibly looking to buy one of those. The high capacity discs (1GB I think) are impressive, not to mention being able to record concerts/rehearsals if you are a musician. Seems like a good alternative music player (at ~$250) that never comes up in the Dell vs. Creative vs. Apple mp3 player discussions.
The word on the street (well at least at the apple stores) was that the gold mini's we selling so poorly that they had to quietly discount them up to 50% just to get rid of their stock. Now you notice they removed this from their lineup... sorry Donald Trump.
-eric
I'm gunning for one of the 6gb ones (since the new darker colors look yummy), but a couple of things that suck: 1) Firewire cables no longer included, and 2) NO AC ADAPTER???? Unless I'm mistaken, but in the tech specs page it doesn't included the adapter as a "bundled item." A big WTF???
Note that Apple changed the DRM decryption system on iPods when the Mini was released, and all iPods released since then. On older models, the decryption key could be pulled from the iPod and used to decrypt the DRM (this was the original hack by DVD-Jon). With newer models, the updated files on the iPod have not been decyphered, so you must use the FairKeys hack (this was the second hack by DVD-Jon). If you update your old iPod, you will probably be forced to use the FairKeys hack, wich involves communicating with Apple. I'm leaving my original iPod alone in order to decrypt files without any packets going off to Cupertino...
Didn't want a Shuffle, so I figured it was safe and two weeks ago I took the plunge and bought an iPod mini.
From now on I'll always wait for the update.
-- Boycott Shell
Most DVD Rom burners are still 4.5 capacity which would backup an entire ipod mini ($200.00) Thi mini's are stylish as hell and cheap. With the addition of podworks software (amoung numerous others but thats what I use) and your dvd burner you have a system with unlimited dvd "ipod loadsets."
COOL!
Call it an ultraportable notebook. Give it a 4" transflective VGA screen, a 40GB hard drive, 256MB RAM, Airport Extreme, and one of those new G3 processors that IBM is working on. It would run a full blown Mac OS X, but the installer would know to leave out things that are too much for such a small machine. It would have an active stylus like the tablet PC. Price it around $1000-$1500. I only have a PDA because I can't carry a full-blown Mac around in my pocket. If they make one of these, I'd drop my Zaurus in a second.
I am surprised that Apple hasn't added support for AACplus (or HE-AAC, IIRC?) to the iPod line and especially to the ITMS. Considering that the songs they sell are 160kbps "old" AAC, I would have killed to see how they sounded using AACplus. Considering ~48kbps AACplus 'net streams are being peddled as being better than 128MP3 streams (shoutcast et al), to hear a 160kpbs AACplus file would have been interesting.
Actually, weren't they rumoured to annouce support for AAC+ back in nov.'04? Considering this could end up being a good marketing tool ("new and improved!"), I wonder what is keeping them up on this.
Have you ever actually played with any of iRiver's products? I love my iRiver h320. I bought it several months ago before the iPod's color update. The iPod never really stood a chance in my mind when I held the two side by side. It was about the same size, but the iRiver had so much more to offer.
To be fair, the iPod (then) *was* nice, but I needed the ability to transfer pictures from my camera to a large storage device. The iRiver offered that, the ability to view the photos, and play music as well. Everything I needed!
Does the new iPod support USB-on-the-go (OTG)? That would make it very competetive to the h320 for my needs.
"False hope is why we'll never run out of natural resources!" - Lewis Black
... my continued holding out for one of these guys is paying off.
Is there any reason why you should be feeling smug for "knowing" the obvious? Tech prices always fall. The competitors' prices have fallen too. As a percentage of price, the iPod still demands about the same premium as it did two years ago.
Another way of looking at it: I paid $450 for a 30GB about two years ago. You can get a 20GB (the closest model) for $300 now. The battery on the 20GB is newer but my HD is bigger and I got a dock with my iPod... so let's call them roughly equivalent. That means I paid $150 for two years of having this wonderful device instead of either swapping CDs or carrying around some other bulky, obtuse mp3 player.
That seems like a great deal to me.
Ordered it, then discovered the lead time changed to 3-4weeks from 2-3. That was a month ago, today I checked the status, its been pushed back another 3 weeks.
Note to self: Never order stuff from apple right after it was just released.
i'm buying myself some hardware for my bday this weekend. what should i get?
1) ipod photo
2) imac g5
3) ibook
4) mac mini and maybe an ipod
i can't decide! i really need an everyday desktop machine tho.
yes, you are. there is the occasional slashdot poster who agrees with you; but maybe this is just you with another ID?
It's a 30 Gigabyte harddisk player. Sorry for the typo.
A few years back, Steve Jobs proclaimed that Apple would emerge from the recession in a strong market position by innovating through the economic downturn. I wonder how that turned out.
If you have to explain a joke, it's not really a joke then (or a really bad joke)
Unless Apple have also designed a new AC Adapter, that combination 'aint going to fly. All the adapters I've seen use a firewire connector on them.
Or is that a way of saying the price is really $20 more.
Also, on ALL iPods, you need the AC Adapter in order to flash the firmware.
Cheers.
Worst case scenario, it gives the consumer choice. I'm thinking of getting an ipod. I understand they charge off USB, and since I have a powerbook, the chances of me nuking the battery on the ipod before I can get it back to be charged from my laptop - or some other USB port - is about nil.
So I'll be happy to save the cash and not be forced to pay for something I don't need (the AC adapter).
Well about freaking time! :) Why did they wait so long?!? Was anyone really buying iPods with the Shuffle feature over similar ones without?
Ok, another guy calling for a RTFM reply.
But i'll try and be nice.
shuffle has been present in the ipod since first generation 5gig ipod:
it is a setting: you go into "settings" and choose "suffle " "by songs/album/off"
Then any playlist you pick will shuffle.
The only thing that you could be complaining about is the lack of a shuffle choice at top level of the menu, which would shuffle the whole content of the ipod. You can still get that by making sure the setting for shuffle is on, and going into songs, and just starting anywhere in your songs list.
But I don't want to shuffle my whole ipod content, rather my playlist.
So I really don't miss this feature.
I'd rather see the feature that lets me update my rating live on the ipod, like the newer ipods, since 3rd generation, can.
(the best way to sort your music: create a playlist of "unrated" and rate them on the road. And the rated songs automatically join any smart playlist that is based on rating critetia , even before synch!)
=====
I lie all the time, including now
Of the new line, only the old mono ipod comes with a firewire cable now - the new minis come with only USB 2 cable as do the photos. A recognition that USB 2 is good enough? Just a reflection that the lions share are users are on windows boxes w/o firewire anyways?
a 6GB ipod Mini for that cheap...it would almost be worth it to relegate my 4G 40GB 'pod to my vehicle, and keep the mini with me. I've pondered that since i got it, epecially with the lackluster battery life (my day usually lasts much more than 8 hours without seeing the charger, and recently i've noticed it has gotten even shorter...it's only 6-7 months old now...) I would have to dock the 6GB player nightly for recharging and reloading, but the 40GB would be teathered to a cigarette lighter adapter and has enough damned songs on it now they only time i'd need to dock it would be to update the firmware (at which point it'd pick up any new music i updated since...). So tempting...
:) Along with a Powerbook G5, two mac minis and a dual 3Ghz G5, oh and pigs with wings too! but the pod mini may be a reality :-)
so a mini may be on the horizon
No 80GB model yet? But I want to store every piece of music ever created in my pocket!*
*at 1bps
This is NOT offtopic, ipod zealots. These things have FM/AM/weather radios, also.
Saw the "Apple Update..." headline and nearly lost it.. bought an ibook at lunch time and it made me unusually nervous
You're absolutely right. Playing around with technology and modifying it to figure out how it works is a total waste of time, because that's no fun at all. Only functionality is worthwhile.
f'ing hell. finally cracked and got a mini last week, and now i see that i could have had double the battery life for $50 less. any way i can get this out of them?
Why hack? Because it's there. Chill the fuck out, bitch. There's nothing wrong with someone having a hobby of trying to make hardware do things other than what it was designed to do. People like you back in the 80s would have been like: "why the hell would you take a perfectly functional piece of IBM business hardware and make it run games and graphics demos." Shut the fuck up and go back to your own narrow-minded shithole of a universe and let creativity thrive without your empty criticism. (Who the hell modded this guy up anyway?)
Join Tor today!
*** dons amateur psychologist's hat ***
I am developing a theory about hardcore linux users. For a long time I could never understand their fetish with essentially breaking otherwise acceptable consumer devices in order to get linux to run on them "just because I can."
I am now convinced that if given a wheel, a hardcore linux user will seek to reinvent that wheel in some archane manner while the thought of *using* that wheel to actually get something done -- like say, transportation? -- would be met with the questions like "why would you want to do *that*?" or "I could build a new wheel from duck tape and bailing wire instead of rubber!" etc, etc, etc...
*** doffs amateur psychologist's hat ***
Apple has started releasing stuff outside of major events like Macworld, so you can't always rely on that old, wait until Macworld is over strategy.
Genius I tell ya. How many people will will go "well hell, for just $50 more I can get the..." or kids adding $50 to the money their parents are putting down to get the next level up?
Genius.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
They dropped the 40GB mono model...
Good thing too. Most of my music is now in stereo.
Damn, guess all that cash moneh went to blingin' that grill and sales of the bling-bling gold iPod fell :(
Dammit, now i'll have to buy a blinged out mp3 player from these two guys. Shizzle mah nizzle, these will be tiz-ite. Seriously, the second guy is the president and CEO.
[/joke-end-tag-for-those-who-are-slow]
Seems like to me that they are gradually going get rid of the mono screen altogether....Which would be cool. I am glad Apple keeps making the iPod (no matter which flavor you choose) more and more affordable.
This is an honest question and not intended to be a troll- why is it that everytime Apple releases a new product or updates and existing one it's treated as news?
I don't remember seeing a FP article last time Creative or whoever released a new portable MP3 player.
The way I see it, Apple will ride the iPod wave and continue to make millions from the industry they basically created (look at all the iPod accessories now...). Why mess with something good?
HOWEVER, the iPod makes such a great testbed for Apple's efforts. "Hmm, how small can we make a nice color screen? Hmmm, how small can we make a big honkin' HD?" Maybe they're just testing this all out as they prepare to roll out a PDA. Except...this won't be just a PDA. It'll be a small Mac with a 60 gig hard drive, with some groovy input/output setup, and will completely wow the computing world yet again.
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
They do have cool stuff (FM radio and ogg suport), they just don't look like it.
Creative zen players are cheaper then the iPod, but the iRiver ones are more expensive.
That is a good question, why can't they design something pretty and practical?
>4Megapixels are not uncommon on consumer class digital camera's today. Say, for example, you have a Canon IXUS 40. If you take pictures in 2272*1704 with the least amount of compression available (aka. best quality the camera can offer) each picture takes ~2.67MB per picture. The 16MB Flashcard which is installed by default, will hold 6 of these pictures. The better the camera gets, the more relevant the size gets. It's not uncommon for hobby photographers to have semiprofessional gear. And these guy's tend to take a lot of pictures.
And since big flashram cards are still pretty pricy (~140$ for 1GB here), i think the iPod Photo makes perfect sence. For example, i could install 256MB Flashram in the camera, which will be enough for 96HQ pictures on the IXUS. And then, if I'm away from my computer for several days(like on a vaction, attending a expo or such) i could just backup to my iPod which gives me a nice platform to manage my pictures on, untill i get home. Plus, it's a iPod. So it will play music and look neat while I'm on that vacation or what ever.
But there is not mention if they also upgraded the iAnus port? The iAnus port on my iPod is a little looser than I prefer :(
You can also find this news post at Bits of News
Bits of News Giving you the latest bits.
Yeah. How dare they get utility and enjoyment out of something they've purchased. Assholes!
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Bwah? They changed the price of the iPod? But the 40 gig iPod cost $399. That's just how it is.
So I head over to store.apple.com. What else have they changed? iPod photo? 60gb?! Only $449! Sign me up!
So for only $50 more than I'd expected to pay, I get 20 extra GB, and a color screen.
Apple is my new favorite company.
Off topic, does anyone know where the Apple call center is? Cute accent...
Stupid like a fox!
I'm guessing that they waited so long so that they could have their limited number of engineers work on features for teh iPod taht is selling 8 million in a year, vs teh 2 million that exist of the old model.
The 4th gen and 3rd gen are different beasts inside. It's probably not simply a recompile to get code on one to the other. There is a porting effort involved.
Macobserver quoted the following:
For the third quarter of 2004, the iPod accounted for 92.1% of the market for hard drive-based music players, according to the NPD Group, up from 82.2% a year ago. Players from Creative Technology and Rio were a distant second and third, with 3.7% and 3.2% of the market, respectively. Market share numbers for the fourth quarter have yet to be released.
So for hard drive players (~60% of the portable digital music player market) that is:
- 92.1% Apple iPod (all non-shuffle varieties)
- 3.7% Creative (all HD models)
- 3.2% Rio (all HD models)
- 1% Other HD players
This is a breathtaking dominance of the market space that serves as an indicator for the related on-line music purchase/subscription market. If 7.9% of the hard drive players are non-Apple, and we assume the larger capacity HD player market space is where the most volume from these services is coming from, then that is a small piece of pie for all the players (Napster, Buy, Wal-mart, others?) to carve up into a successful and sustainable (profitable) business.
Further, Apple's iPod Shuffle is targeting the remaining ~40% flash-based player market. Even if the Shuffle is 50% as effective in market penetration as big brother iPod is, that would leave Apple with a (wildly) estimated ~45% of the flash player market. So again, competition would be nosing for larger nibbles, instead of the crumbs of the HD market, but still a far smaller pie to distribute.
All this points (for me anyway) to an impending consolidation of WMA related service offerings. Specifically, I would look for Napster to end it's offerings after Wallstreet destorys an already paltry stock for the failure of a $30M campaign against iTunes Music Store with the "Do the Math" campaign. Also, I would look for Buy.com to further phase out their download music store in favor of higher margin CD sales as they find even offering $0.79 selected tracks isn't creating market traction. The "hope" for WMA may be in Wal-Mart - the icon of the price elastic shopper - who may prefer $0.89 downloads (and $189 players) to Apple's $0.99, $199 combinatons.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
These new options would have been nice to have during the holidays. Looking at the new price range, I'm sure I would have gone with the iPod photo....
Nice for you yes, but not for Apple. Apple probably sold as many ipods as it could produce for the last holiday season. Why would they introduce a price drop during a time of very high demand? For one it makes no sense since you don't NEED the increased sales, but also, you may not WANT the increased "sales" in that if you are at production max meeting current demand, it can hurt you in the marketplace if demand too far exceeds supply (Apple has been bitten by this many times in the past).
So the big holiday rush is over and now they are setting the market up for the coming year (ipod shuffle and the new $50/increment price points). They will now probably cruise through the rest of the year with maybe a minor addition later. All gearing up for the NEXT holiday season of course.
I own a dock for my Mini and, aside from being moderately easier to drop in the dock instead of connecting the snap-on cable, it's a wash. Anything I can do with the dock I can do with a cable that plugs directly into the iPod instead of the dock.
It's a nice thing to have, but I don't think it's worth the purchase price, in hind sight.
"Politicians find new names for institutions which under old names have become odious to the people."
I just bought a silver one for my wife as a Valentines present, and not even two weeks later they go and update it.
DAMN YOU STEVE!!!
Artist will always make art.
My questions are:
1. Why the fuck do you care if people drool over a company's product? Does it really affect your life so much that you feel 'physically sick'? Sounds like you need to visit a therapist.
2. Why do you care if they 'only' use their computers to browse the web, check email, or download music? How is that not using a computer 'properly'? When were the rules written that said you had to do more with your computer in order to be able to own one or *gasp* like a manufacturer's product?
Personally, I work in IT. I do have occation to work on Macs here in the office doing repairs and other maintainance tasks. I own a Mac as part of my computer menagerie. I drool over Apple products from time to time.
Feel sick yet?
Enemy of the Sun
Well no, it doesn't. If you do that it loads your entire song collection into one big playlist. Whether it plays that list randomly, or from top to bottom, depends on whether you have shuffle on or off. You can't turn shuffle on or off without dipping into the options menu.
You're misunderstanding what people are asking for. Everybody knows that the old ipods can shuffle, it's just a pain to turn it on or off. If I'm playing my "Driving" playlist, I want it shuffled, but if I'm playing some random song I want it off. Most of the other settings I never change, but the shuffle setting I change repeatedly.
As far as I know the "Shuffle Songs" at the top level of the menu does not "shuffle the whole content of the ipod"; it merely turns the shuffle setting on or off without the annoyance of dipping into the options menu.
I have seen the future, and it is inconvenient.
I have not updated my iPod firmware for awhile and I'm not going to. I can copy my music files directly from the ipod to my hard drive just by browsing to the folders. I've been told by others that they can't do that and I'm afraid that a firmware update will end that for me. I have a 2nd generation ipod that is about a year old. I think I updated the firmware right when I got it so the firmware is ~1 year old as well. Can anyone else do this with a new firmware upgrade? I'd like to get the new shuffle feature as well.
USB 2.0 charges the iPod more slowly than Firewire. With the removal of both the Firewire and AC Adapter accessories, charging speeds will take a hit. The difference will be more dramatic for people using computers with USB 1.1 (older Macintosh computers, for example). These users are forced to buy the AC Adapter cable, Firewire cable, and cable splitter accessory at a cost of $80 to achieve the same functionality as their PC and New Mac peers (who must pay only $50 now).
Of course, I don't have a laptop either. So when I am away from the house, the AC Adapter is my only charging option.
And FM receiver or FM transmitter for use in your car? I can find lots of transmitters, but I can't find a receiver with some perfunctory googling. Maybe you can point to one.
I don't know why the grandparent post was modded down. I also complained about no FM tuning on the iPod a while back and get modded down. iPod fans seem really sensitive about this. There still exist SOME great independent FM music stations, and I would like to listen to NPR, just like some want to listen to their AM talk radio stations. Plus, my gym transmits the audio portion of TVs set up in front of the stationary machinery over local FM. I would use this feature a lot more often than showing off or storing vacation photos.
What exactly changed on the 4GB? Has the battery life increased?
I just ordered one last night, and it was $149 plus tax...
http://www.dellrumors.com
Ok, I apologize.
:-) )
;-)
I just reacted like that because I have met so many clueless users who could not find the shuffle setting, that I assumed this was your gripe.
I understand the NEED expressed there, which is: give me a shuffle switch function.
But this is not what the shuffle top-level menu choice does.
I have a 5gig 1st gen iPod, a 20gig 3rd gen, and a 40gig 4rth gen. (yes I have good prices on them
The "shuffle songs" on the latter plays ALL songs from the ipod.
I have a "shuffle" ipod too, and the shuffle shuffles
=====
I lie all the time, including now
Found one, but it's not even available yet, and it's apparently a "first."
I think you'll find that they did add that feature to the main menu during the last major firmware update for the iPod and iPod mini. If you've never updated the firmware on your iPod/iPod mini, then you can find the update here and here.
If you have updated your firmware before, might be worth running through the process again, just in case some of the features didn't install properly.
Insane people are always sure they are fine. It is only the sane people who are willing to admit that they are crazy.
"I'm not sure I would define a product that doesn't come with a keyboard, mouse or screen as "complete". Perhaps if all you want to do is admire your $449 white brick, the mac mini is complete."
/.ers saying, Apple forces me to buy another monitor, waaaaa
Oh come on! I remember all these
Apple makes me pay for their stupid mouse, waaaa.
Use what you have or buy a cheap set. Apple even lowered their prices on their accessories. Granted a 20" Apple monitor is still expensive, but nobody is twisting your arm, so why kavetch?
Yeah, but it's still a good idea to wait for an update.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
That's interesting, except that oh wait, it's total bullshit. (except maybe on the newest ipods). Older ipods and all of apple's laptops battery life is severely over estimated. I have a 700mhz ibook whose battery was rated for 5 hours, I *never* got more than three hours, even with it sitting idle (yes, I did test that), and the battery totally died after two years. I also have the original ipod. At first it *almost* got the rated 8 hours of life. But after about 6 months it was 5-6 hours, now I'm lucky to get 2.
Joseph?
... of the new mini to the level of the iPod Shuffle?
I've learned to buy the lowest spec that has been recently released. That would point to one of the *books or the mini mac. Try it for a year, and if you need/still want more, sell it for close to what you paid. Apple tends to support their hardware for a while (unless it's beige). This does depend on what you're using it for, since some software (Motion for example) limits how low you can go. I'm running two 1999 G3's on 10.2.8 and am now looking at new hardware. Looking (I'm really cheap).
he was taking issue that a complete system comes with a keyboard and mouse.
it is an inexpensive system, but nowhere near complete.
unfortunately, after 2.3 update shuffle doesnt appear on the main menu. it's still buried in main>settings>shuffle which i find annoying as crap. ...
oh hold up! if you go into settings>main menu>you can flip "Shuffle songs" to "on"
woo! unfortunately it just shuffles them up, it doesnt allow you to click it and deshuffle. as in: i'm listening to track 3 of an album and instead of shuffling to the next song, i want to listen to track 4.
e
you can re-condition it.
But I really like that the album cover can be displayed while the song is playing. It may seem like a very small thing, but to someone as anal about their music collection as I am, this is very appealing.
If you were *really* as anal as you claim, you wouldn't be satisfied with a tiny little reproduction of (the front only of) the album cover.
It sounds about as appealing as those 1970s cassette reissues of classic albums which reduced the 12"x12" LP cover to a 2.5"x2.5" piece of crap on the front of an otherwise generic template which omitted almost everything from the LP except the track listing and copyright notices.
If I wasn't so bored of my CD collection, I'd have bought an iPod by now, but slapping in functionality like the iPod Photo smacks of the featuritis that Apple's imitators are more reliant upon.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I'm sure they dropped the dock because most people get a nice skintight case for their iPod and then can't use the dock without more fiddling than the cable.
The dock sounds good, but in the end mine just gathers dust.
Hi, Just got the Shuffle today, and have a few pointers for those of you who will be getting it shortly. First, If you have a windows machine, the Shuffle's manual says XP SP2 is necesarry. On my computer, iTunes and the shuffle installed and work cleanly on SP1.
Also, during the installation of the shuffle, it request you to plug it in, in order to check whether it needs to be formatted, and then *immediatly* asks you for the serial number on the back of the ipod (which cannot be seen when it's plugged in) -- write it down before plugging it in.
Now I'm not saying I like computers as much as I did before I recognized the wonders of "woman", but I do enjoy using them a whole lot more now!
Women? Sorry, but you're in denial mate. Sorry, but it's true; just ask any -1 troll....
"@pp13 u53r5 4r3 teh gh3y!!!!!!!!"
Thank you Mister Troll.
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
I had a dream about this the other day.
I meet Steve Jobs at a party for the opening of the new MoMA. He bumps into me and I say, "Oh I'm...sorry, Steve I didn't mean to...do that, i hope I...didn't spill your drink."
"What's up with all the pausing," he asks.
"Oh, I had cancer," I say, "And I had my...voice box replaced with an...IPod."
Three months later, the gapless playback was fixed. Ahh, dreams.
screw the ogg support. you and the other six people who want it are all who care.
IPod is an overhyped, overpriced mp3 player. Why Slashdot keeps promoting it I have no idea. I'm sick of it, and all the Apple nuts who mod any posts down that criticizes anything made by Apple.
Next!
old iPod photo 40GB (incl. all above acc.) = $380
as long as you want the accessories, with the new ones you get 33% less storage for 13% more $$. Oh, it is 10% thinner and 10% lighter.
[ordering my clearance 40GB now]
How does one load up an iPod Shuffle on linux?
Basically, I can mount that sucker on linux as a USB device, and I can see the existing AAC files, but when I copy on a folder of mp3's, how do I play them on the shuffle?
Can't seem to make it work.
Any hints from the slashdot hive-mind?
I can't tell you how fucking sick these mods make me. They mark everything down they want to, not caring to be unbiased and "for the community". Each little incremental story about "Apple releases new software update 2.13.4.3.129b9!" Everyone comes out of the woodwork and says "Apple is the greatest, iPod is the greatest, Steve Jobs is the greatest, OSX is the greatest!" and they all sit around in a circle jerk. All the people that praise Apple and anything having to do with how good they are gets +5 Informative, Interesting or even Funny if the mod only slightly chuckles. Anything else like the iRiver or any reasonable competitor is marked as a phony faker just trying to horn in on Apple's "deserved marketshare". Are you Apple fanbois trying to give Apple a monopoly on the portable music market?
These mods and their shitty elitist behavior make me so sick, but rather than leaving as they'd prefer me to do, I'm telling them right to their fat Apple faces that they are biased, overcharged, brainwashed idiots. So you go ahead, mark me down as Troll, Offtopic or whatever, it won't diminish me, it'll only diminish you.
Ipod is overpriced, thought the same one could tell about all Apple's products.
You can buy a tiny Archos 20GB mp3 player for about $200. Save yourself some money.
The MP3 format doesn't directly support gapless playback, sorry.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
That would be something to see
Anyone notice on the side of the iPod page it says:
Get the most out of your iPod photo. Coming in March, new software lets you:
I *would* say it's an indication of an iPhoto-like app for the PC, but it made no mention of being Windows- or Mac-specific, so maybe it's just some other program or iTunes enhancement that would be more appropriate for managing photos on an iPod photo.
R.Mo
Cute, but it's not and iPod.
You must have missed the part of the product spec that says the iPod Photo can sync with iPhoto albums directly.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
Current lineup
100 512 MB iPod shuffle
150 1 GB iPod shuffle
200 4 GB iPod mini
250 6 GB iPod mini
300 20 GB iPod
350 20 GB iPod U2
350 30 GB iPod photo
400 40 GB iPod (no more!)
450 60 GB iPod photo
500 40 GB Mac mini
600 80 GB Mac mini
800 40 GB eMac
1000 80 GB eMac
Old lineup:
250 4 GB iPod mini
300 20 GB iPod
350 20 GB iPod U2
400 40 GB iPod
500 40 GB iPod photo
600 60 GB iPod photo
that's cost/capacity/product. (Okay I got carried away with including eMac etc.)
So what is my point? Perspective iPod shoppers get a much better deal on the 30 GB iPod photo now (costs $150 less than the previously cheapest iPod photo, and costs in the range of iPod monos - avg of 20 GB and now-extinct 40 GB mono models). New iPod mini buyers definitely win from this aswell. Notice that the 6 GB model is strategic, and it competes against a myriad of other companies manufacturing a 5 GB model, which they use to woo customers for having one GB more capacity.
I'm pretty sure I've seen that feature on my iPod mini from day 1.
Which feature? Shuffle songs? If so, a read of Apple's site will show that the only new Mini features are support for the new Mini and support for USB charging on OS X v10.2.8/10.3.4 or later-is now sold separately on the Mini.
R.Mo
Did you check whether there's still an AC adapter and a Firewire cable included?
? firewire&1
Most of the new iPods do not include these items anymore.
See the
Apple should bring FireWire back to iPods
petition here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/mod_perl/signed.cgi
Regards,
Walter.
Sorry, somehow some of my comment got cut off; it should have read:
Which feature? Shuffle songs? If so, a read of Apple's site will show that the only new Mini features are support for the new Mini and support for USB charging on OS X v10.2.8/10.3.4 or later--probably because the Firewire cable is now sold separately on the Mini.
R.Mo
is it slower to sync a FAT -formatted ipod on a mac? I heard it was an hence I havent changed from HFS
I still find it ridiculous that windows will support any-formatted/burnt cd/dvd but wont support other files systems
whereas osx still cant read packet written burnt cds, but has no probs with multiple file systems...
You must live on the nice end of town. "$5 me love you long time" still qualifies as a rip-off in some parts of town.
As far as I know the "Shuffle Songs" at the top level of the menu does not "shuffle the whole content of the ipod"; it merely turns the shuffle setting on or off without the annoyance of dipping into the options menu.
no. "shuffle songs" at the top level starts playing your entire library. shuffled.
if you want to turn shuffle on/off u still have to go thru multiple levels of menu.
The full update list follows:
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
PORN!!!
Best. Webhost. Ever. Dreamhost.
I'm going to laugh when the ipod evolves into the Newton.
Watch, they'll go back and include the cable and up the prices 50 bucks each. Just to make the petition people happy.
I recently paid $499 for the same thing. I basically bought it for the cool color screen. I could care less about the photo features.
My other first post is car post.
also has became 18 hours from 8 hours.
lol. you got pwned.
It does come with an AC adapter, but not with a Firewire cable or dock. I don't really need Firewire cable, USB works for me. And even though it does have an AC adapter, I don't know when I'll use it. I plan on charging through my USB port. It also doesn't include a dock, which is a bummer, but I'll get over it.
Stupid like a fox!
If you can't watch mpeg4 or divx content on this thing, it still won't sell. It'll have some real competish when the PSP comes out next month.
http://bolson.org/ipodchart.html
Compare storage per dollar, storage per ounce, volume, density and other values.
Start Running Better Polls
an iPod cel phone, where you use the wheel like an old fashioned dialer, clicking noise and all. It would be so cool and retro.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz