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Apple Rumored to Be After Samsung Flash Memory
Steve Nixon writes "An unconfirmed report today from Reuters quotes an industry analyst firm iSuppli as saying that Apple plans to buy as much as 40 percent of Samsung's second-half flash memory output.
The NAND flash memory cards will be used in a new, 4 GB iPod Mini, which Apple would release in time for the holiday shopping season, the report stated. The current version of the 4 GB mini contains a hard drive. Apple's iPod Shuffle uses flash memory."
Flash memory is going to do wonders for both battery life and size. Maybe I'll buy one of the new iPod minis if the rumors are true.
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Why is it all I see on Slashdot now-a-days is stories that were on engadget yesterday?
Having a 4GB iPod for $50 less thana full iPod seemed like a bad idea, but it worked. I'm wondering if using flash, which should increase price, will shorten the gap between the Mini and the low-end iPod. Then again, maybe apple wants people to notice the GB/price ratio and get the full-fledged iPod instead.
I don't get it.
Battery life is only an issue when you travel with it and forget to bring your charger. I just drop it in the dock at night and let it synch and recharge. As for ruggeddness - the Mini is hard to break - I've dropped mine several times with no problems. It also is more than acceptably light weight.
So, it's wait and see as to why Apple is doing this.
"The impossible often has a certain integrity that the merely improbable lacks" - Dirk Gently
...which has the best MTBF Vs. Cost? Flash or HD?
Given the history of CF cards on my digital camera, I'm not going to rush out when this releases. Anyone got some good hard data on which rules for this sort of thing and not "well, Apple must have done their homework if they're doing it". I leave everything before Mac OSX as evidence that they ain't perfect.
If my grammar and spelling are off, I am [distracted/tired/careless] (take your pick)
And here's a great big reason why Apple doesn't support Ogg Vorbis (besides the fact that it doesn't do anything for you that MP3 doesn't), it's widely used for distributing music on bittorrent based sites, that is to say that it is widely used in piracy, and Apple doesn't need to get assfucked by the RIAA over iPod sales for a bunch of geeks, especially after the Grokster decision.
cheap labor conservatives - they want to keep you hungry enough to be thankful for minimum wage.
This is similar to the fact that when Apple introduced the iPod the 5Gb drive it used actualy cost more then the iPod retailed for causing many to buy iPods just for the drive. Of course Apple was probably less then 1/3 that price for them due to there sizable orders.
disagree - battery life is paramount on portable devices as are size and weight. I tend to travel places where there is no place to plug in a charger. You should view any portable device as portable only when it has charge, so a device with less battery life is in a sense less portable.
Size and weight play into the opportunity cost of the device. I have to carry a lot of stuff when I'm traveling around. Music is nice to have, but am I willing to lose an entire pocket to it? Am I willing to have an additional something warm and heavy clunking against my thigh (whoa, I'm asking for it with that one). the lesser those size/weight/heat issues become, the more likely one is to consider the device worthy of occupying their luggage space.
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Anyway, yea, I would love to be enlightened
No problem.
1. ipods run MP3's natively. No encoding to a proprietary format (ATRAC) and losing quality as with minidisc.
2. "sonicstage sure, stupid program, but its easy" Meet iTunes. It's not stupid, it's quite awesome, and quite easy. And it's a great portal into a digital music store.
3. You have to use interchangeable discs. My iPod has 40GB. I have 5000 songs, over a dozen audiobooks, and now a dozen constantly synced podcasts on this thing. I drive a lot, and what I feel like listening to at any given moment can change frequently.
4. You can use ipods like portable hard drives. Because they are.
5. Apple engineering. Sorry, the iPods are a thing of beauty and great UI. This counts, A LOT.
6. Marketing. iPods are hip. MDs were never hip. Yeah, this counts as well. When you see white headphones, you know there's an ipod on the other end. Steve Jobs is fucking brilliant at marketing.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
320kbps MP3s are a fucking waste of diskspace and time. You gain nothing with a bitrate that high, a 192VBR would be much better.
And in case nobody has bothered to tell you or you're too ignorant to do your own research, there is no DRM on files you rip yourself, so I have no idea what you're talking about at the end there.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
yeah but hard drive's measure access time in milliseconds while ram accesses in nanoseconds. When you're playing hundreds of ~5 mB files access time is far more important than transfer rate.
Not to mention a flash iPod could be much smaller and weigh a lot less with much longer battery life.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
They're making a name for themselves this week! Lots of rumours and speculation :)
over Apple. I sense backhanders in return for hype
Bad journalism or maybe just useless English composition skills: it is rumoured
that Apple want flash memory. Then they say they *WILL* be used in 4GB iPod
Mini's. How can you have an unconfirmed rumour and attach such certainty in it?
Neko
I've had a K750i for 4 months now and I can tell you that it will not replace an iPod. Unless you upgrade the ROM to the W800 ROM, you won't have sorting capabilities (artist, album, etc), 1GB+ Duo sticks are expensive, and unless you get a dongle, you're stuck with the crap headphones included with the phone. The battery life on the K750i isn't the greatest, either. While mp3 listening uses less battery, you won't be using it much if you value having a low battery. There's a workaround for the kernel panic the K750i causes when you disconnect it via USB (I always use Bluetooth) that you'll need to read about.
The K750i is a great phone with a great camera, but it's not a good mp3 player. Oh, you'll use the FM radio even less than the mp3 player.
$200 for a flash drive is nothing.
The current Hitiachi drive alone in the mini is $500.
In case you haven't been around in the last year, the current minidisc players play mp3s. No encoding to other formats. Also, these have the ability to record in raw PCM stereo, with a mic. And upload it USB to your computer to edit.
That's great. But the guy asked why MDs never took off like ipods. MDs just added the feature you speak of DUE TO the popularity of mp3 players.
If you love DRM, enjoy. Not me.
iTunes DRM has never adversely effected me.
And yes, you can also use the new minidisc models as external USB storage drives. 1GB disc are about $6 each.
See above. I am not giving a state of the union on md's, I am explaining why they didn't take off like ipods.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Correlation versus causation. You haven't shown shit.