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Apple Replaces B/W White iPods with Color Screens
FlameboyC11 writes "A quick check at the Apple online store shows no sign of the black-and-white screened 'white' iPods. The iPod Photo has replaced them in the 20GB and 60GB categories, but is keeping the same price scale ($300 for low end and $400 for high end). This seems like such a quick switch to color, perhaps a video player is coming faster than we think?"
The CPU isn't fast enough. Heck, it has trouble with straight .ogg files (why oh why do ogg files have to hog so much CPU anyway?), any sane video would be beyond it.
The colour interface looks so good on the iPod Photo models that there's just no excuse for it not to be across the whole line.
... but a video player? I don't want the iPod in its current form to play video. I just can't imagine anything looking good on a miniscule screen like that, but I can imagine what that'd do to a hard drive that relies on large RAM caching rather than sustained reads.
Sure, you don't actually *need* colour if you just want to listen to music, but it's more vibrant, more dynamic and fits better with the look of OS X.
And the brick game looks a little nicer too. I was hoping for Arkanoid, but there you go.
A video iPod would have to be very large to be worthwhile (I'm more than doubtful of the video success of the new Sony PSP, but it'll take a while for the results to come in on that). A large unit contradicts what the iPod is all about - a small, convenient device for a single purpose.
Lastly - I don't see why people want video while they're out and about. Audio I can understand - you can easily walk around and listen to music. Video? I look forward to the first hysterical warnings brought on by teens walking accidentally into traffic while watching their PSPs. You just can't watch video and do other things. It's too intrusive.
They also updated the U2 edition to the color screen, and the price is now only $30 over the default iPod price of 299.
:)
I like the U2 edition's colors, but it just wouldn't match my snowflake iBook.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Screw movies. Where's my iPod Visualizer? iTunes is great and all, but does Apple really expect me to be in view of my computer every time I get stoned? £:-)
omnia tua castra sunt nobis
Ah! I love technology. I love companies upgrading their product lines because technology gets more and more affordable.
Now. I'm a big Apple fan... But I think that the iPod is getting quite too popular. I can't go walking without seeing 10 people with it... Ahh!
And no, I don't have an iPod. It's price is quite too high for my budget.
The hip way to get your IP. No ads, ever.
I don't know how fast you think its coming - but I think it will be a cold day in Cupertino before we see one of those.
A coulour screen is one thing but even the photo functionality on the iPod itself hasn't caught on. It seems that the most common use (and even this isn't common) is actually to hook the iPod up to a TV to show off the photos, not on the dinky little screen of the iPod. Video would be an order of magnitude worse.
Kinda shows that they're listening to the customers. I grumbled when I saw the price of the iPod Colors, and I wanted one so badly, but there was no way I could afford it, and settled with the iPod deal that came with my iBook.
I'd say they're cooking a lot more inside of Apple; this is still major revision 4 of the iPod. Gen 5 could bring us a whole host of things we weren't expecting (bluetooth remote? sync to cell? wifi? bigger color screen? video?). The options are really limitless. This is just more to quell the customers who really wanted a feature that couldn't get it until now.
To me, it looks like Apple hasn't stopped innovating, but as any company, innovation can only take place in steps. The iPod, just like the iMac, iBook, Power Mac, PowerBook, and Mac OS X products all have their own release cycles now, and you can't ask them to continously flood the market with new warez; not only would this bankrupt the company, the consumers would get bored of the almost constant updates.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
that will be the device that plays back purchased videos from the iTunes Video store.
it can hold a tiny h.264 decoder chip from Texas Instruments, and can have a DVI/HDMI/S-VHS output to connect to your plasma/LCD/Standard TV. It also, of course, already has the audio output.
Charge $150 for it - that's a duable price - and stream HD and SD h.264 content you've bought from the iTunes Video store - bamo.
You're watching movies and TV shows you've paid $2 a piece for - instead of waiting for the DVD to come out.. I'm so there.
guns kill people like spoons make Rosie O'Donnell fat.
If only we had our resident Apple 'insider' around to give some info...
As Seen on TV has been strangely quiet since the x86 announcement...
i think that this is great. i have been wanting an ipod photo only because of the color screens but now i dont even have to go there. my friend has an ipod photoo and left it at my house today- i have been looking at the pictures, and they suck because the screen is so small. as far as video goes, i think they'll go to touch screens -meaning larger screen and no dial thing- before they do video. and even then, video will take up a shitload of battery so they better fix that before they go video. my ideal ipod is one that fits in my back pocket and scratches my back when i ask it to. (you know its coming to this :-D)
ASOTV has been strangely quiet for a lot longer than that, last comment was on May 23rd, here
The iPod photos have lost the "photo" part of their name.
The 30GB iPod is no more.
The 1GB iPod shuffle is only $129 from now on.
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
More interesting is apples bid to end this non-corporate podcasting craze. By updating the iTunes store and software yesterday to promote and supply podcasts they have effectively brought the craze to an end. See how no non-commerical podcasts can survive the battering that millions of curious users have unleased upon them. More impressive even than a slashdotting!
:( I pity the people covering those bandwidth costs. The sooner a peer-peer solution for podcasting is found the better.
Seriously though, this has rendered my favourite podcasts, with the exception of the BBC's Today programme and From Our Own Correspondant, completely inaccessable
RikF
In Soviet Russia you own your cat
I know - my comment was the parent of his one, and even then I was wondering where he was.
He may have been an Apple guy or he may have been someone posing as an Apple guy, but he seemed to know his stuff and put his points well.
Lets assume that I can buy video from iTMS. Do I buy a video that fills my nice 20" widescreen (1080i), or do I buy one that suites my iPod (480p)?
Being Apple its going to come in H.264. Thats great. I love playing back H.264. What I don't love is encoding it. It took me over 24 hours to encode a 2 hour DVD. As my G5 can only just handle playing 1080i there seems little chance of an iPod handling it in the near future (hell, my powerbook can't do it). So do I download the 1080i then re-encode for my iPod, or do I download the 1080i version and get the 480p version for free? I don't think so. It seems more likely that Apple will charge us twice, or not offer the 1080i version. As for re-encoding, that seems unlikely too - unless the iPod has re-encoder built into it.
As this is obviously a post designed to generate speculation...
iTMS is not a good place to get movies. A good movie requires 2 hours on continuos attention, and on average I'll watch a purchased DVD twice. Music can be enjoyed in the background and I'll listen to a good song twice a day for a month. DVD is not even like books. In general, you can (even though its hard) put a good book down at any point and still enjoy it as much. Also, DVD take up too much space. iTunes is good, because I don't have to look for a CD anymore. Everything is in one place and instantly accessable. To be equivalent, 1080 would require home users to have close to 1TB of storage. Not unlikely, but not now.
iTMS is a great place for TV. I wouldn't mind picking up a 480p TV show. I watch TV exactly once. I know this, so I don't mind deleting it once I'm done - it hurt at first, but I haven't regretted it once (I'm a natural hoarder). I consume TV differently to DVD. I wouldn't mind there being advertisements. I wouldn't mind them tracking my viewing habits and giving me adverts that I want. I would like to be able to tell my iPod that I'm interested in a product and to add the products site to my 'adverts' bookmark folder. In this respect I'd expect Apple to step into the same role as a conventional network - just with a much larger audience. But in return I'd expect the content to be free. They could sell me an add free 1080i, as long as it had no adverts and I was free to burn it to Blu-ray and the cost was similar to a song. File size aside - $5 for a 60 minute show, that I watch once seems expensive - $20 a month all you can eat, now your talking.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Yes, the mini is still in black and white, and there wasn't a price-cut either.
"I Know You Are But What Am I?"
"someone posing as an Apple guy"
i hope (and my faith in a portion of humanity rests on this hope) that such things are rare if not unheard of and you are only conjecturing on a hypothetical possibility of something that John Doe might think of pondering while trying to come up with a good "what if" line for a short artistic work he might get around to writing.
>But Apple has been really complacent with it's development for the last while.
"for the last while"? sounds like someone wants to make a point but has no facts or evidence so just uses meaningless vague language. congratulations, pick up your MBA on the way out.
Actually, they probably did it because its cheaper to use one screen across every iPod then to have two different screens, especially since there are also differences in the way the color screens have to be hooked up... they probably had two almost completely separate manufacturing lines, due to this. By switching them all to color, they can make every ipod on the same manufacturing line, throw certain amounts of ipods into a specialized manufacturing section that puts in the right drive.
If you like what I've said here, and want to read more, go to http://www.krillrblog.com
What OS are you running?
I thought it was a great idea, instead of having a giant iPhoto library taking up space on the hard drive, keep all your images on the iPod.... but it doesn't store the images in the original, highest resolution... so it becomes not even a good back up device
that being said, I wish I had one
The Admin and the Engineer
Have the managed to keep the same thickness as the previous non-Photo iPods? One of the reasons I didn't spring for one before (aside of the insanely high price) was the fact that it was quite a bit larger and heavier than the others. A fraction of an inch doesn't sound like much, but in your hand it definitely felt bulkier.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
Driving a color screen uses up much more batteries then a simple B&W one does. Personally I would prefer increased battery life - I don't feel the need for color in my music player.
Actually, the new color iPods tout 15-hour battery lives. I don't know what the previous iPod photos had, but my B&W 20 GB iPod from the last line claims 12 hours. Sounds like an improvement to me.
R.Mo
Agreed. They've mostly been doing software stuff; AAC, iTMS, photos, library sharing, shuffle, etc. The only thing of note they've released is the iPod Shuffle in the last year; of course Apple is milking their products for as much as they can, so it's not all bad.
Last year was the iPod mini, this year is the iPod shuffle, so it's not as if there's a drought. If they don't release a new 'high end' model next year, then Apple will be forced by market economics to play the volume game, because prices can only drop.
GPL Deconstructed
No, you are not.
But what if your ads display on this nice color screen?
> Kinda shows that they're listening to the customers.
Can you replace the battery? Especially now that there's a color screen to drain even more of it?
I am no longer wasting my time with slashdot
Complacentcy will kill ya. Look out Apple. For the 'kings of innovation' there isn't much to see for the last while.
The only thing of note they've released is the iPod Shuffle in the last year
What the hell are you and the GP talking about?? Apple has done a crapload this year. They released iLife 05, iWork, Tiger (a signifigant upgrade to the Mac OS), and probably more software I'm forgetting; They released the Mac Mini, they have updated (if I recall) every one of their computer lines (for instance a month or two ago they upgraded the iMacs and made them slightly cheaper), they released the shuffle (as you mentioned) and they announced their switch to Intel (which doesn't have any tangible benefits for the consumer yet, but I'm sure it's taken up a ton of their time).
If anything, Apple does stuff too fast. It's really easy to buy something from Apple and then weeks later wish you'd waited just a little longer (but if you do that you'll always be waiting).
Thinkin' Lincoln - a web comic of presidential proportions
Say, any word/rumours on the iPod Mini receiving this upgrade?
Actually, you can set up slide shows instead. Of course, you'll want to have the slide show set up in advance of any ... celebration.
t ingstarted_t10.html
http://www.apple.com/support/ipod/tutorial/ip_get
You've obviously got a weird cowlick thing going on on the left side of your head...
Crow T. Trollbot
And just imagine if they had used their new improved battery with the B&W screens. You'd have even more then 15 hours then.
A Multiplayer Strategy Game for Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux
Sorry, I wasn't too clear that I was only talking about mp3 players.
Of course I was pretty specific in only mentioning the iPod, iPod mini, and iPod shuffle, and the article talks about iPods...
So if we narrow the conversation to only mp3 players, yes, Apple is taking their sweet time (complacent). I expect another revision of the iPod with the new ARM core powering the mini, giving them a good battery life improvement without changing anything else.
Then if we don't see some real 'improvement' there is the real chance that an alternative competing mp3 player will finally catch up with software and hardware.
GPL Deconstructed
I don't believe in the need to. By the time my battery dies, I'll be ready to purchase a new one. Apple expects the same from you. If you have a problem with that, tough. Apple's got a system you can send in and have them replace your battery for you, if you'd like.
If you care so much about user replaceable batteries, use some other player.
"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the President to explain to us what the exit strategy is." G.W.Bush
Increased processor speed is not "innovative." Nor does it mean much to most users, these days. Apple has been making some great software and an innovative OS. That's way more important than mere clock speed. What's the point in having a fast clock if you haven't got good software to run on it, or useful accessories for your machine?
... and then they built the supercollider.
I doubt it. They base those run times on setting a continuous playlist and then see where it dies, and then average it for the life of the pod. The screen after a few seconds of starting the playlist in both ipod color and b/w are just changing a few pixes a second (song title and track position), hardly costing anything in terms of battery life. No backlight is being used, and no songs played that have not been pre-buffered (no fast hard drive spins)
When I try to sync Rocket Boom to my color iPod using the latest version of iTunes (3.9) - I get the error that "this iPod model does not support video"...
OGG can play on an ipod. actually, i've played ogg on MY 40gb ipod photo. Using code from the linux on ipod project i successfully booted into linux, and played back several normally encoded ogg files I copied to my ipod. they played effortlessly.
don't spread misinformation with such conviction, please.
The use of the expression "outside the box," ironically, is so businessspeak cliche that it's become a sign of conventional thinking.
(That said, I do agree that some signs are out there. Personally I'd suspect Apple wanted to sell a sort of iPod cradle/set-top box instead, not fold video into the main iPod line. Be a good product line to hold them over for the intel chip CPUs.)
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
Of course something big is about to happen, and video may be it. Remember, the iPod is only half of the iTunes / iPod combination punch, and iTunes just hit version 4.9. That means the next revision, 5.0, is going to most likely include something big. I can't see Apple being the kind of company that'll release a new major version of iTunes without something big under the hood. Video may be it.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Ah, another advance in pretty, but questionably useful technology. Excuse me, but I'm not a gadget-o-phile, and I'm not sure what the big deal with a color screen is. It looks nice - does the iPod actually work any better?