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Apple To Unveil iPod Cellphone Next Week?
Mictian writes "Apple Computer is planning to hold a major press conference next week (September 7th) in San Francisco and the rumours say that it will be the unveiling of a new iPod cellphone (NYT). The phone would incorporate the popular iTunes software, be built by Motorola and marketed by Cingular Wireless. The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day."
Why Cingular?
Nice, but apparently it'll only hold 100 songs. And if that is true, it is not nearly enough capacity to make me switch from carrying both an MP3 player and a mobile.
This is just a few days after I get my new windows based smart phone/PDA device... I'd actually sat there playing with it and wished apple made phones. Oh well. Another year to my next upgrade.
Apple is releasing an iPod cell phone, while Nokia is releasing a tablet computer with no cell phone capabilities.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso
Now I can watch movie clips, read news AND listen to music using my mobile phone. However, every second voice conversation will still run to the lines of "Hello? Hello? Can you hear me? Is this better? Yes? OK...wait, I've lost you. Can you hear me? CAN YOU? I'll call you back. I'LL CALL YOU BACK".
Fix your damned voice communications before you introduce more junk into handsets. I have a perfectly good MP3 player, but I still lack a useful phone!
maybe FINALLY apple will be taking advantage of the fact that they have ownership of iphone.org ( http://samspade.org/t/whois?a=iphone.org&server=au to&_charset_=UTF-8&btnGo=Whois )
-- hytmal
I wonder if this will have a disk drive, Edge and WiFi? If not, I hope there are miniSD expansion slots.
If they do that and allow me to sync with outlook.
If it can do all that, it'll be a smartphone killer
It's not really a matter of new technology, but rather a matter of branding. The Apple iTunes name sells. This behavior is being done by many corporations. Virgin started it along with 7-eleven. Next to appear on the scene is Disney Mobile (not making this up). Names sell, so individuals who are dedicated to Apple and it's products will most likley purchase this type of phone/service.
A bunch of Tech Stuff
...will it run Linux? (Sorry for this)
Maybe if I put it in all caps people will listen this time. =)
kulakovich
but I'm sure it won't fare nearly as well as the iPod itself. People get tired of their cell phones after a while. Especially when something new and flashy comes out.
Gadgets really shouldn't require contracts.
"No fair, you changed the outcome by measuring it!" - Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth
Looks like this ROKR phone is kinda the 2nd Generation iPod Shuffle.
- It is a small unit with minila but reasonable capacity via Flash
- Smaller than a pack of gum, more like a piece of gum stuck to your cell phone
- Now Suffle detractors get their screen and basically a free ride on the battery life of a much larger capacity battery too
- Still priced at a minimal premium
I have also read that the software people have seen is a music player only, not iTMS integration for buying tracks, so this will sync with
- iTunes
- Address Book
- Calendar events?
- To Dos?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
...if it had 40 GB capacity would I buy this. Then I would be stuck forever with this cellphone (which, for all I know, could be crappy) and I wouldn't buy a new one even if this got old because I would already have a half-decent cellphone I'd have to carry around with me because it's also my mp3 player.
Send email from the afterlife! Write your e-will at Dead Man's Switch.
Wireless.
More space than a nomad.
Sweet.
Wow. Really? I wonder what color it will be!
How we know is more important than what we know.
I don't think such a big event (hype?) for a 3rd part product anyway.
More likely a brand new product. I still hope for a serious Media Center.
Quote: The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day.
Should read:
The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day, and sue everybody who brings out the real news for being correct and taking away the spotlight of apple.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
The advertisement for the event reads: "1,000 songs in your pocket changed everything... Here we go again". Do you really think that Apple would release a phone that holds 100 songs? My bet is a video iPod and iTunes 5 that will provide music video and movie content through the iTunes Music Store.
Subway system it is not, but any new gas smell in there would be an improvement over the current smell they got going on...
Don't anthropomorphize computers: they hate that.
I'm so glad I ignored all of Verizon's "special offers," tempting me to renew my contract that will expire in a month.
If Apple/Motorola do release an iPod phone, and it's good, I'll ditch Verizon in a heartbeat. And I'll send them a letter telling them how much I resent their effort to control what kind of tecnology they'll allow on their network. They want to gouge me for songs the way they gouge you for ringtones. Screw that!
Just need to add a PDA, WiFi, 80GB removable HD, 6MP camera w/video, DVR, GPS, and a tissue dispenser... then, "hook it to my veins!"
iTones.
Ooops, wait, the ipod seems to appeal to a much larger userbase than those who you like to call Apple-fanoys [sic!] so why shouldn't this be the case with this device?
Seriously, I think combining an ipod with a mobile phone just makes too much sense not to do it.
And considering that mobile phones for many people have become life style articles and the ipod itself is one of the most successful life style articles, I think this could be a hughe success.
It will be at the low, low Apple price of $499.99 for the 64MB model!
OMG SOEMOEN SI H4X0RING MAI B0X3N!1!
1. There is all this speculation over a) A video iPod, yet sales of portable video devices have not taken off, unlike MP3 players before the iPod was first launched. b) An iTunes equipped phone. 2. Here are some things to think about: a) The cell phone / mobile phone networks are in a mess and not global, while WiFi is a global standard. b) The future lies in VoIP. c) The iPod OS contains an address book and a huge hard drive. Therefore, 3. An iPod with built in WiFi would be a global carrier free product and liberate people from the need to use a Mac or PC to purchase/download/sync their tunes and other data, they would simply login to the nearest WiFi network. Syncing with any Mac or PC would be wireless too which would be sweet. 4. Consider that a music playing PHONE is not original, the excellent Sony Ericsson K750i and K800 phones already do this well - and include well reviewed 2MP cameras too. (See http://www.fonebox.com/matrix ) 5. I vote for a wireless iPod as being what Apple SHOULD do, perhaps with a 2MP digicam on the back too.
O'WONDERWe're working on it.
They won't say anything -> it must be true?
I hope you're not a stock broker.
This has anything to do with them looking into buying 40% of Samsung's inventory in Flash memory http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/25/ 1820250&tid=198&tid=3 ?
I heard the new Apple product would be "revolutionary" and completely new, changing live as we know it and such... a mobile phone/iPod comination will NOT be that.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Imagine some idiot having ~500 minutes worth of ringtones!
Will iSync work with it?
Seriously I figure in 10-20 more years the desktops and laptops will be replaced with cellphones. Like Desktops and Laptops replaces the old mainframes.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Actually it will: http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000577056585/
I think it was yesterday as I was trying to figure out how to configure an employees PDA/Cellphone running Windows to download his email. And all I thought about was "Wouldn't it be great if this ran OS X?" Ha ha... Thank you Steve!
believing the big bang requires a certain amount of supernatural faith
Here's a link from Daily Wireless last Tuesday about the same??? phone, complete with pictures. http://www.dailywireless.org/modules.php?name=News &file=article&sid=4598/
This of course, may or may not be what Apple will unveil, but the information did come from Motorola via the FCC.
Its already starting to lag up.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple Computer and Motorola plan next week to unveil a long-awaited mobile phone and music player that will incorporate Apple's iTunes software, a telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement said Monday.
The development marks a melding of two of the digital era's most popular devices, the cell phone and the iPod, which has become largely synonymous with the concept of downloading songs from the Internet or transferring them from compact discs.
Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said he had been told by an industry executive that the new phone, made by Motorola, would be marketed by Cingular Wireless. Entner said it would include iTunes software, which helps power the iPod.
The software will allow people to transfer songs from a personal computer to the mobile phone, then listen to the songs, presumably through headphones. "It will allow people to lick CmdrTaco's butthole," he said of the device.
Apple, Motorola and Cingular all declined to confirm or deny the report. But Apple did announce on Monday that it would hold a major press event Sept. 7 in San Francisco that it indicated was music-related. Apple is routinely tight-lipped about pending product announcements, preferring to make a splash on the day of the event.
The plans outlined for an Apple phone are consistent with recent announcements by Motorola, which said in July 2004 that it planned to develop a device that would include the iTunes software.
Last month, Motorola said that development of the iTunes phone was on track to be unveiled by the end of September.
Jennifer Weyrauch, a spokeswoman for Motorola, declined on Monday to comment on Apple's announcement plans for next week. Weyrauch did say, generally speaking, that when Motorola unveiled a phone equipped with iTunes software, it would be a part of a line of music-oriented phones that the company calls Rokr.
Or, even worse, ~500 minutes worth of Crazy Frog ringtones...
The owls are not what they seem
Seems to me this is a red herring, designed to distract people from a much larger announcement, like say a video iPod or somesuch. iTunes on a phone? Whoopdee-fracking-doo.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
The real question is: "Does it play Ogg Vorbis?"
http://www.misterbg.org/AppleProductCycle/
"Sure there's porn and piracy on the Web but there's probably a downside too."
I credit slashdotters for predicting this way back when the iPOD was still the new kid on the block. I remember one slashdotter who specifically said this was expected. This [news] proves him right.
..call up your home computer and stream your songs from there, if you had unlimited data or some good plan like that.
Apple will also be announcing a flying car, the cure for cancer and Duke Nukem Forever.
Unfortunately, there is no evidence of this but that fits with "Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day."
All indications are that this is just a normal phone with a mobile version of iTunes. Installing iTunes on a Dell doesn't make it an iPod computer. Motorola industrial design, motorola software, motorola UI, Apple's iTunes.
According to Engadget, it will.
Your first time doing what? Premature ejaculation?
I mean really, I usually read it there first ...
Great... now I can have my MP3 player and my phone stolen in one shot.
Seriously, I love combining technology - but the battery life better be more on par with the iPod rather than the typical Motorola phones or this will just suck.
Perhaps Apple/Motorola (ironic these 2 are working together again) will get it right with this phone.
BUT - Cingular will fsck it up with their horrible service.
Just my 2 cents...
I know lots of people love the clickwheel. It is great for a menu only system. However I hate to think what trying to get a number into the system would be like. click .. click ... clickk ..dang pass 8 again... clickkk ... (Yes I have set my clock it wasn't too bad but a number pad makes sense to dial with. ;) Otherwise meh..there are lots of MP3 cells out and TBH I'd say that iPod harddrive makes it a touch heavy for carry. *shrugs*
Life is like untied shoe laces; it always tripping you up and getting in your way.
I dont believe the iphone is going to go this direction just yet, but it seems like a very interesting idea. VoIP through a wifi connected cell phone... of course it would have to still have the basic usage of a normal cell until the entire world is blanketed in wifi hotspots.
"What happend to just paying for a product without being constantly nibbled to death by Credit Card Ducks?"
This is so 1337. I heard you can download music and listen to your favorite MP3s with the iPod Phone, but you have to go stand in the street with your arm bent backwards because you STILL can't get any signal from inside your house.
Will their new cellphone only have one button, just like their mice? Just kidding...
Height: 38U, Weight: 0 Newtons, Eyes: #0000FF, OS: Gray Matter 1.0 (Alpha)
I am surprised. Afterall cell phones are on the way out and WiFi phones have become the new hot thing. I would have expected Apple to come out with a WiFi phone instead but, hey, that might well be their next move.
I've said it once, and I'll say it again. Everyone says, "Your phone has a black and white screen, and doesn't have a camera". But when they need to make a call and they have their phone with them, and I'm driving, they always ask to use mine because it's the only one that ever works 100%. I don't work for Nextel, but if I did, I would brag about them in my sig.
Sig: I stole this sig.
"The companies have declined to confirm or deny the report, which would fit Apple's past pattern of being secretive to maximise the splash on announcement day."
It also fits with there being nothing in the rumour. I'm not saying it is is definitely false, but people should remember that there have always been massive amounts of rumours concerning new Apple products, and most of these end up being false.
The only way of remaining secretive is to refuse to comment on any rumours, whether they are true or not.
The iPod works because it is a music player. It is not a music recorder. It is not a fancy music organiser. It is a music player. If you want to do anything 'clever' you plug it into a Mac and control it through a GUI that elegantly handles the complexity outside of the beautifully simple player. The iPod is also a portable harddisk. If you want to use it as such, you just plug it into a Mac, and it works as a slow, but effective harddisk.
The Apple phone should be ALOT like this.
It should be a phone. It shouldn't be a web browswer, PSP, or run my house. It should also be a data point. I should be able to do nothing more than pair my mac with my iPhone and it should just work from that point on as a data point (in the absense of anything faster / cheaper).
I'm in two minds weather you should be able to input any real data at all. I have never really used the PIM functions of my phone other than to read them. If I want to change/add/delete an entry I usually fire up the closest Mac, do it on that, then resync. The only thing I can really see me doing is adding a new phone number, and dialing and, at a push, SMS (but thats soooo 90s technology).
In that respect I could see the iPhone being almost a clone of the iPod Mini, just with a menu system aimed more at PIM data, and a jog wheel that doubles as an old style phone dialler - (no touch buttons would really make it stand out).
Apple have played and won in the music player market, because they understand that people that own MP3 players own computers too. Now that line isn't as clean in the phone market, but its not that far off - and for those of use that do own both, a phone that is designed around this paradigm is what is really missing from the market (not a phone that can access my iTMS account).
Of course this phone won't be anything like that, so it will fail. It will be another Motorola monstrosity that does everything in its power in make Cingular more money at the expense of usability, battery life and my patience. As such it will be another fish in the sea, albeit a fish with Apple branding.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Sincerely,
Jayson Blair
(Oh, right, he stole someone's story, and I'm the bad guy here ...)
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
I've had two Motorolas (i730 and the V) and they simply do not perform well. Many of my friends have the RAZR as well I hear the same thing that seems to beleaguer most Motorolas: dropped calls and weak battery life. Motorola need focus on making a good phone first then work on all the bells and whistles.
...will buy into this kind of gadgetry. Simply put, "we're not there yet" so why bother forking out cash for an inferior device? All of the crappy devices that are coming out today and constantly changing shape, form factor and interoperability are good for businesses and bad for you. You spend all this money on a device that's only going to last you two or three years at best. Somewhere within those two or three years something better is going to come out and you'll jump on that bandwagon forking out even more cash. meanwhile the investment in this device is lost. Whatever happened to the notion of building a device that was made to last? (ie: GOOD FOR THE CUSTOMER)
.001% of the population that actually needs a way to record video for a legitimate reason (paying job or possibly some sort of visual communication need) is going to do it another way that's better than a shitty camera phone.
Today cell phones are coming with cameras and various memory card slots to support things like taking pictures, making videos, playing music and the like. Some cell phones are also offering TV. It's the whole "convergence" thing being re-released early and often, as it were. Meanwhile the consumers are being duped into spending more and more money on things they don't need but are told that they do. Do you NEED a video recorder in your phone? Really? Do you actually **NEED** that? The
Do you really NEED a music player combined with your cell phone? You've been getting along without one all this time. Why the sudden change? I'll tell you why. Because your mind is owned by the business who want (and don't deserve) access to your money! Personally, I wouldn't buy any of this crap unless it does exactly what I need. A music player on it's own makes sense. A music player combined with the markedly useless features of a phone is an ill-implemented luxury. I think I'd be far more excited if a Sony PSP was combined with cell phone functionality. The whole point being that the best portable device that *SHOULD* be the lust object of all people, is the one that can do it all, and do it all well. Not some shitty hacked together mixture of a mediocre technology (iPod) and subpar technology (cell phone).
For a while, I was tempted by the Compaq iPaqs until I realized they aren't made for people like me. They're made for suits. Who cares about schedules, meetings, writing documents in Word and Excel? Not a tech manager, that's for sure. The ideal PDA for me is one that will respond to voice commands, have a wearable display, CLI interface, Unix based, support for alternative text input and wireless. But guess what? There's nothing like that on the market because the companies that make PDAs don't sell to people like me. They sell to mindless sheeple who want gadgets as fetishistic status symbols. They know that those people will keep buying and buying and buying. It's sickening.
Our culture has hopelessly damaged itself through capitalism. These days the only reson to exist is to buy or sell. If you don't want to participate then you have to live on the fringes of society and be labelled as an eccentric. No one does anything to further culture or society anymore. There was a time when people were concerned with making sure that everyone (especially the underpriveleged) was accorded some access to things that will enrich their lives, increase their knowledge and allow them to lift themselves up. Now, everyone is concerned with how much money they make and how their investments are doing. All the while not caring that their investments may be hurting other people. (Walmart is a glaring example)
So thanks Apple. Thanks Motorola. By creating this stupid new and destined to be obsolete in less than five years product, you've convinced more fools to part with their money. That money could have been used to help our society and instead it's going to go to some office monkey walking down the street to work showing off his snazzy new cell phone/iPod. Which he will promptly lose interest in when the next Motorola cell phone comes out that has a music player, video player, brain interface, whatever... It is a truly sad age we live in.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
...But you have to use Cingular. Doesn't this turn anybody off? The idea of being locked into any service provider when choosing a device turns me off every time, but it seems that the masses are indifferent. They just see swiss army knife of digital tools and fall in love?
Awww... someone didn't get the iPaq or iPod he wanted, did he? Take your meds dude and chill for a while. ;P
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
..I don't think I'd sweat now. What with the advances in flash based memeory and tiny microdrives, I think they'll solve the storage problem to give users adequate space for more than 100 songs.
Everyone and their cuzzin Leroy has been wondering when Apple would finally resurrect a PDA, this is the closest yet (if true that is). And smartphones are getting there fast.
As I said on Macslash,
From TFA: Apple Computer is preparing a major announcement next week, dropping hints of something as critical to the company's future as the release of the original iPod in 2001.
Which is hysterical. Apple hyped the hell out of that announcement, and afterwards, everyone was just saying "An MP3 player? That's it? There's tons already" at best and "No wireless, smaller than a Nomad. Lame" [slashdot.org] at worst. No one realized that one key feature--a great UI--would set it apart and allow Apple to dominate the industry. Who would have thought at the time that it would re-define Apple as much as the iMac did 3 years earlier?
So, this new announcement is only half of the story. The other half is the effect it will have on (((whatever))) over the next few years.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
Maybe apple insisted on a click wheel with numbers in it (like touch button rotary... :) )
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000887049175/ mod up and share, cheers
--Idiots, Every single one of YOU, A flaming mass of conglomerated morons, hey wait a second, isnt that how RAID works?
That being said, I think it could be the video store that Apple has supposedly been working on, possibly with Sony. Certainly they have the infrastructure to deliver the product, given all that they've done for iTMS. Since this has been long-awaited and the media herd is bleating about the phone, I'll place $10 on the video store at 10-1.
Too bad Vegas doesn't make book on these things. Trust me, those bookies in Vegas know how things will break, because their livelihood depends on it. More, if they are working for a guy with a name like "Vinnie the Nose", their lives may depend on it. If you want to see how a sports season will turn out, look at Vegas' oddsmakers.
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
That was my impression as well when I read the event ad. My guess? Apple is planning on a September 7th launch of the vaunted video iPod on the West Coast, while allowing Moto to launch the iTunes phone on the East Coast at the same time. Talk about dropping the bomb...
(oh and if the iTunes phone is candybar-form and not RAZR-frm, I'll be bmmd and will wait for the RAZR vrsn)
how much you want to bet they seek an injunction before September 7? :->
I understand it will come fitted with the original iPod rotary scroll wheel for rotary dialing. ;)
The future is in beta
Nah, the phone will incorporate something called "iradio" which will let you link the phone's playlist to your home PC's music collection.
Anything you have at home, you can stream to the phone. And if you don't have it, you can use iTunes to buy it and then stream to the phone.
Is it just me or does this sound a bit like glorified "music on hold" and a great way to make sure I have no battery left for making actual calls. There must be a service fee involved.
I'd rather save my battery for calling the boss or my SO or 911 when needed instead of playing music.
Sig for hire.
Man, what a crackpot idea, dialing a phone using a circular motion....hogwash.
c hines_Culnane4/images/RotaryPhone.jpg
Oh, wait...
http://williamstown.k12.ma.us/weblessons/SimpleMa
But there is another kind of evil that we must fear most... and that is the indifference of good men.
...four years ago, and look how well that turned out. I for one would be more affected by an iPhone than I have been by that silly overpriced gizmo.
The pain was excruciating and the scarring is likely permanent, but that just means it's working.
Slashdot user Mictian did not deny the rumours that he is really a energy being fromt he planet ZuTon 4, which means that he obviously is.
- The Amazina Llama
Call me when hackers have got it to boot into Linux, with the PalmOS GUI. Then it'll run the SW I want, over the 3G network, with an interface useable on a tiny device. When Verizon and Sprint try to charge me for downloading songs that they have nothing to do with, I'll just stream over a secure tunnel I make to my home computer over my cablemodem. If Apple can't deliver, I'll wait for Palm to hook me up.
--
make install -not war
start your engines...
Great, cause motorola phones aren't slow enough now when all they're trying to do is DIAL.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is kinky.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The software will allow people to transfer songs from a personal computer to the mobile phone, then listen to the songs, presumably through headphones.
First off the announcement hinted at the revolutionary nature of the new product by envoking the invites to remember when Apple first put *1000* songs in their pocket. An iTunes based phone is not revolutionary like that, especially when it is limited to between 100-250 songs. Furthermore, the iTunes based phone has been delayed at least three times now. Would Apple book the event and take a chance that Motorola or Cingular delayed it yet again right before the event? Nope.
Likewise, the Samsung agreement to purchase 40% of their flash memory is too soon for Apple to bring out an iPod Mini based upon flash (but will happen by Christmas 2005). And I can't see Apple booking an event like this to announce the iPod Mini receiving a color screen (although that would be a great complimentary announcement but Apple would probably wait until the school promotion of getting a free iPod Mini with an iBook expires on Sept. 30th).
My money is on an iPod Video model. With video blogs becoming popular and the iTune Music Store enabling videos, the time is right. Plus, Apple probably would love to bloody the noses of Archos and Creative a bit more.
My fingers are crossed that there's some sort of agreement for compatibility with TiVo-To-Go, but I'm sure that won't be the case for now.
Then again, I was totally wrong with assuming the rumors of switching to Intel chips were incorrect...
"Right now, somewhere in this world, Scott Baio is plowing a woman he doesn't love," - Peter Griffin, *Family Guy*
Bitter and illiterate is no way to go through life. Also, remember that all generalizations are wrong.
Mr. Mac Fanoy
Run by Steve Jobs.
Revolutionary usually just means it looks really, really cool.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
They're finally going to announce how I'm going to get my 25 bucks back!
To complete the pattern Apple will sue those (only the little guys) who published the speculation.
I don't have the wits to figure out how to do something on a cellphone, and am to stubborn to do something sensible like RTFM, so I shall blame Cingular for my own shortcomings.
This would fit in with their buying of 40 percent of Samsung's second finanical half output of flash memory.
Even a 1 gig phone with my iPod would be pretty nice. Now if only they used allofmp3.com instead of the iTunes music store.
Is there anything better than clicking through Microsoft ads on Slashdot?
I called verizon to double-check that my contract was satisfied and that I would have no fees if I cancelled. After telling me, they asked why I wanted to cancel my account. I told them I wanted to switch to a carrier that didn't disable features on their phones and would allow me to sync the basic functions of the phone (address book, calendar, ringtones, graphics) with my computer. The rep then argued with me that I needed a smartphone to do that. When I said I didn't need the extra functionality that a smartphone has and wasn't willing to pay that much she said that "advance features come at an increased cost". Well, thanxcyabuhbye, verizon. I'm not going to waste any more time when i know that other carriers have low-cost phones that work the Apple iSync. It's like they don't want to listen, just argue with you.
"I forgot my mantra."
A phone or standalone device with full access to the entire iTunes catalog at a low annual resubscription rate. Maybe the pricing is integrated with a phone plan? $60 annually standalone or maybe phone plan + $5 per month?
I haven't seen the form factor of this thing yet... so I may be off base here. I think they're getting it wrong. I don't want to listen to or buy music with my phone. My phone sits in my pocket/holster, is hard to get at, and any day I "forget" it at home, I'm actually kind of happy.
But I love to borrow my daughter's iPod shuffle. I can wear it and listen to it for hours. Tile the bathroom floor with it, etc. The point is, its pleasent to be plugged into for long periods. But I've noticed that when I play the music loud (which is always), I don't hear the phone down the hall unless I manage to figure out how to hook up its ringer to the subwoofer and shake the house to its core.
So I was thinking... wouldn't it be cool if the iPod hooked into the phone network, and when someone called, the music dimms and gentle "pinging" is plexed in. The lanyard has one of those throat mikes on it. Through some action, I choose to answer the call (or not and the volume return and pinging goes away), the music cuts out completely, and now it's just like I'm using Skype with a headset.
One man's pink plane is another man's blue plane.
Apple's retooled remember? It pulled the iPhone off the release date the last time. Why? VoIP. Integration with your computer. It'll blow your mind. Apple may even move into the VoIP business model.
That's wild guess...
Given good speech recognition, or at least a touchscreen, why have buttons at all? Maybe one for activating the voice-dial feature, but otherwise, why not? you're going to be talking anyway...
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
Does that phone immediately hang up, and send an alert to the FBI, giving your excact location (via built in GPS ) the moment it picks up any Di$ney
material that you might have playing in the background while talking to someone?
Nokia is releasing a tablet computer with no cell phone capabilities
Makes sense to me, have you used the most recent phones? I'm not even sure you can figure out how to make a call on them if you wanted to between the cameras, video, and browsing features. The phone feature was just dead weight that was costing too much to keep in the phone.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
The interesting thing about an Apple phone though is that likley it would have an effect on the hardware itself, rather than just changing the package and faceplate of some generic phone. So it's really a step beyond simple branding.
In a way I guess you can call this an evolution of branding into IP branding, that combines marketing with technical IP to add features to something it otherwise could not have.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
as long as they (a) revolutionize cell phone UI in some way and (b) add one or two features customers would really love (maybe open WiFi and/or open computer/peripheral connectivity via USB), it should make some pretty big waves in the cell phone market. Camera is fine in or out, music player is totally optional although a separate Shuffle battery may accomplish that without much trouble. Of course, we're talking Cingular, whose reception is still rather sucky in many places.
Before people write off Apple in this venture, I'd say you should read the original comments about the iPod before making rash statements here...
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Run DMC? sounds like Kenny G!
"Speaking the Truth in times of universal deceit is a revolutionary act." -- George Orwell
Slashcode expects an implicit opening sarcasm tag, duh. This feature was clearly added by some perl programmer.
I'm sure whatever it is, if it has the iPod name on it, it will sell like hotcakes. Think of the Shuffle. If any other brand tried to market that piece of shit, they'd have trouble selling it to anyone.
In Soviet Russia, backwards is everything.
USB works fine for all my peripheral needs right now thank you very much. The day you cant point me to an external hard drive that uses PCI-X and has a standard cable that doesn't cost an arm and two heads, then I'll take what you said a little more seriously. That's the problem with you early adopters. You find some new technology you think is going to be the end all and be all for the rest of time and you run with it. Only to find out that no one agreed with you because it was either, too expensive or way too unstable. I mean look at SCSI. That was a dismal failure on the desktop. Apple invented it and tried to push it as a standard, but they didn't get anywhere because it was godawful expensive and terribly unstable. Eventually it got into server rooms (only God knows why) and today we're stuck with legacy nightmares from the SCSI background.
Most of the SAN technologies were built with SCSI technology but ony after decades of revision made them reliable and stable. The pricepoint is still prohibitive though. That's why any server room I run is using ATA drives in Windows 2K boxes with dynamic disks. I've got one box with 20 drives providing the bulk of storage for my organization. The drives are all concatenated into one big dynamic disk that then gets partitioned the way I need it. The best of security from NTFS on DOS and the best of performance by having all the drive spindles moving at the same speed. Try that with your antiquated OS X and BSD boxes. Oh what? You can't? I'm sorry you made the wrong choise to go with SCSI because you are early adopters.
The same thing is going to happen with these phones. You'll buy into them only to be green with envy when Microsoft debuts "Microsoft Phone 2008". We'll see who has the last laugh then.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
Well more like a phone with itunes.
Doubt I'll switch service providers to get one. Highly doubt it.
d
out
Now, you have to understand that most audio equipment is designed around an "ideal" supply of a smooth 60Hz (or close to it) frequency, not one with warbles overlaid. So when you record your tapes and listen to them (both times!) you're getting, essentially, noise from your TV and from your home computer, overlaid on the tape. It's not just the audio, but, like from the TV, the vision part of the signal, and from the computer the raw data going from your memory to your CPU, plus bigger spikes as your hard disk head is moved around or your CD tray opens.
And don't think you're safe using batteries either. The fact your AC wiring goes all around your house means that a magnetic field containing exactly the same type of interference is being generated, and, thanks to the faraday-cage nature of the wiring, is actually being reflected into it.
What you need is a "voltage smoother". They're a little bit expensive. A lot of people think you need one for the hifi, but as the salesman was telling me, that's not true, you're trying to preserve the integrity of the current in the entire house, not just for the hifi, because if you didn't, you still get the electro-magnetic field interfering with your recordings. So you need to get one for every electric device you have that plugs into the mains. This will protect your circuits, and ensure you get a good quality electric supply.
Also consider one of those specially shielded AC cables. They're really good.
I did it. The entire thing in the end cost me a hair under $10,000, but the results are amazing. My hi-fi sounds like a concert hall now. The accoustics are, frankly, stunning. I didn't realise what a major difference poor quality AC current would make.
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Both have a transflash slot that will support up to 512 mb ram through the phones mp3 player.
How is this any different?
Not that I'm complaining, I like my new RAZR *grins*
Try comparing rate plans to Cingular and you'll see why they wait until phones are cheaper, you get 1.5-2.0x minutes for the money. No rollover though *shrug*
Ocean is land, covered with water.
That makes a lot of sense, but I doubt our Certron cassette using friend would have understood that. I've been eyeing the gold plated power leads at my local audio shop for a while now. Maybe I should treat myself to a splurge and get the shielded ones. They're about $175 per cable. By the way, do you know if I would need one voltage smoother per power strip, or should I get one per receptacle in the power strip? I know it might push the price up a bit, but I read an article a few months back in Audiomage magazine that mentioned how the introduction of microwave devices such as microwaves, cell phones and hig speed desktop supercomputers can cause problems in power strips. Due to the micro nature of microwaves, the wiring in a powerstrip is akin to the wiring in a house. All of the same factors you mention above apply within the power strip. So my assumption would be that I'd need some kind of power filtering suppository for the power strip. Does that sound right to you?
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
I've noticed my microwave oven causes all sorts of problems when I use my cordless phone. Do you think it is partially responsible for the poor quality recordings I've been getting, or does it not really output that much power (I don't think phones do) and the microwave oven is a more likely bet?
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
It all has to do with frequencies and harmonics. It really could be either device because the frequency of your cell phone is more likely to have a harmonic relationship with the sounds on your cassette since the phone is used for voice transmissions. But, there are other factors like the color of the paint in the room you're listening to the recordings in. Green paint happens to have a harmonic relationship with sounds in the 22.5 kHz range which is just above the normal hearing range. (Although I can personally hear up into the 32 kHz range myself) Since most people can't hear that high, a room painted with olive green paint is the best listening environment possible.
It's preferrable to paint that color, in flat, on the ceilings, walls, floors and most funrnishings. Plus you want all of your furnishings and decor to be flat green as well. My couch and loveseat are olive green velvet. That provides the least reflection of other colors of light that would mar the quality of your playback. If you can afford to go this far, even replacing the light bulbs with green lights would help tremendously. Since I'm color blind that has the negative effect of making it look like the room turns black when I flip on the green lights. So I had to go with yellow which isn't as good but it's better than nothing. Chances are you might be able to do the green light thing though.
-"...bad old ideas look confusingly fresh when they are packaged as technology" - Jaron Lanier (Digital Maoism on Edge.o
"I'll ditch Verizon in a heartbeat. And I'll send them a letter telling them how much I resent their effort to control what kind of tecnology they'll allow on their network."
That's an aspect of Verizon's behavior that is regrettable. At the same time, they do offer some things that I really care about in a phone:
1) Their national coverage is outstanding.
2) The customer service people are actually helpful.
3) They allow you to use data essentially "for free" on their network (60-120K, depending on area).
Really, a phone is a phone, and in my view, the fact that I can't get an ipod built into my phone pales in comparison to being able to get a signal pretty much anywhere.
Yes, what they did with bluetooth is dumb, but all the cellular carriers treat their customers like sheep, so I'm not surprised.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
"It takes 10-15 minutes to fill my 4G iPod mini over FireWire"
Well Duh, you hardly ever fill the whole thing.
When you add songs to your iPod, its usually an album at a time (or for you ADHD kids who listen to singles only, one song at a time), so that's about 50M of data. Easily do-able over WiFi in under a minute.
Enough excuses for Apple. Get it done and stop whining.
Only someone who is colour-blind would advocate painting a room Olive Green.
Are your sure you're not thinking of Maroon?
Cool. Now I should have enough battery life to listen to mp3's until lunchtime..
Tough shit for anyone who actually wants to call me after then.
I dount Nokia are making a tablet PC. It will be made by another company and released under the nokia brand; this type of thing is extremely common. I remember there was once a point when there were only four widescreen TV-tube factories in the world, and all the manufactures sourced their parts from them. I'm stitting here with two Triniton displays in front of me (tell-tale black horizonal lines at 1/3 and 2/3 positions), yet neither is branded by Sony.
It should be a phone. It shouldn't be a web browswer, PSP, or run my house. It should also be a data point. I should be able to do nothing more than pair my mac with my iPhone and it should just work from that point on as a data point (in the absense of anything faster / cheaper).
why not? The Japanese have been making decent Web Browsing phones for a bit now. I Mode does kind of suck but compared to newer phones...
Easy to use and having multiple functions aren't mutually exclusive on a hand held yet developers and consumers treat it as such.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
OMG sweetness, I love ipods! I dont have one beacuse its too expensive but they are so cool!!! are these going to be 49.99???
You need three syllables on the first and third lines, and five on the second to form a proper haiku.
So close, and yet so far...
Sounds a lot like my secretary.
if people are wiling to buy a psp for the movies instead of a portable DVD player and buy movies at inferior quality just to play them on a sucky system which is the only means to play them. I think apple can sell a product inferior to an iPod and make money.
Finally. This will detach podcast listeners from their computers. As long as it has enough storage space, this should be a big boon for the medium.
Alexey
You idiot. If you had been around slashdot for longer than 5 minutes, you'd know he was mocking Taco's original review of the iPod.
"No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame."
This turned out to be one of the most wrong calls in the history of tech, made by our beloved taco.
FYI: Nokia already offers a one-button cell phone - the Nokia 7280. Actually, it's closer to an iPod's scroll wheel, but still...
Solitary, Poor, Nasty, Brutish and Not Quite As Tall As I'd Like To Be.
Well, then the Verizon girl lied even further, because Verizon also crippled their Treo 650, which is one of the "smartest" smartphones out there. I have the Cingular model, and a coworker had the Verizon version. She took a pic that she wanted to xfer to her machine, and I told her to just use Bluetooth. But she couldn't figure out how. We went back and forth about the proper steps, until I finally looked at her Treo, and I saw with my own eyes that selecting send on a picture goes immediately to the built-in email app, which of course uses SMS. My version gives me a dialog box asking if you want to use IR, Bluetooth, email, etc. A $600 phone and Verizon is still pulling this shit.
Now, there are 3rd party Palm apps which will let you do it (Filez is probably the best), but why the fuck should the customer have to jump through hoops like this?
A sentence you'll never see on an Internet discussion board: "You know what? You're right."
A GSM/GPRS/UMTS phone, preferably one that takes two SIMs, allowing it to listen on two networks simultaneously. Quadband and UMA support would beperfect
A 3 megapixel Kodak-quality camera
The ability to act as an 802.11g peer or hub, with the machine showing up as a basic server on the network that you can just copy files to and from, plus network routing for when the phone's in GPRS/etc mode.
A 10G (or better) mini-HD, so I can store all my music rather than have to decide what music I'm going to listen to in advance
Good MP3 and Ogg support
Standardized 2.5mm handsfree and 3.5mm stereo headset jacks
Openable to reveal a landscape touchscreen plus a minikeyboard
Don't forget:Personally, I want my old Nokia back, with its monochrome screen and no data service or ringtones and enough battery life that I could use it for a whole long weekend without charging or rationing...
Folks, I have travelled back in time to let you all know what is being announced on September 7.
People, it is big.