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iPod nano, iTunes 5, iTunes Phone
adpowers writes "Lots of updates today on the Apple front. First we have the iPod nano, which is an iPod photo-esque replacement for the iPod mini. It comes in 2 and 4 gig varieties and is half the thickness of the mini it replaces. A new iTunes is release as well, which looks similar to Mail.app. I'm not sure I like the cosmetic changes. It also touts an improved search bar, but I can't find an explanation of what that means. Finally, Apple, Motorola, and Cingular announced the ROKR E1, which has the iTunes on a cellular phone. (Theorized last week.) It syncs with iTunes just like an iPod." Coverage of the Apple news extravaganza available at The NYT, Forbes, Gizmodo, Mobiledia, and Macworld.
...well it just might :)
Yay me! ^^
Ah...now we know why Apple's been buying up flash memory in spades.
That iPod nano looks ridiculously slick. Heh, and although I imagine I'm going to have my geek card forcibly removed after saying this, my first thought upon seeing it was, "What happened to all the colors?" Granted, it's form over function, but judging by the amount of iPod minis that I've seen, people like the colors.
Well, fear not: iPod nano tubes: Colorful iPod nano Tubes fit like a glove and offer full Click Wheel control from the outside. (Actually, as someone whose iPod sports an impressive amount of scrapes, I think this is a good idea.)
That Apple, they think of everything. Now I'm going to go back to waiting for my Dalmation iPod nano tube.
concrete5: a cms made for marketing, but strong enough for geeks.
Anyone know if the Ipod Nano is flash based? I can't find any mention of it on the Apple website (or maybe I'm just blind...) It'd be wicked if it was flash based, then I wouldn't feel nervous every time I went jogging =)
"ROKR E1"? Why didn't they call it an iPhone, probably the best name among all of Apple's products? Maybe they let Motorola, which usually prefers unpronouncable alphanumeric soup, pick the name.
--
make install -not war
Nano spec says USB 2.0 only -- and no firewire -- this means I don't think I can plug it into my MDD PowerMac. :-(
yeah, i'm not too sure about this one either..
but more pressing, the itunes note is still green?!
we've had blue. and purple, and i forget what else.. i figured at least a white or a silver..
Live EVERY week... Like it's Shark Week
No I am not a apple whore, I get the education discount (which they didn't ask for?). I was going to order a regular 20gig last week but knew something was coming out today so I looked, liked, liked price, and ordered.
Free engraving on back...
RIAA v OctberSky
Exhibit: A
iPod nano, which is an iPod photo-esque replacement for the iPod mini
I can see strongbad promoting these now. "It's not just photo-esque. It's danger-esque."
Thick as a pencil and much more fun.1
1 Do not nervously bite iPod nano.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
Last week they promised a change as big as the original iPod announcement. But somehow I am very underwelmed.
I guess it's those unrealistic hopes for a video iPod
With iTunes 5 also comes Quicktime 7 for Windows.
Just yesterday I was reading about how crap Cingular service is. You'd think they would have just released the phone and allowed the customer to choose a carrier.
Yay me! ^^
No video. Thicker than a human hair. Lame.
The new search is kinda snazzy, type a few letters and you get a little bar that lets you narrow it down by all, music, audiobooks,pod casts, videos, booklets, etc etc, certainly helpful for those with large catalogs
Live EVERY week... Like it's Shark Week
This thing replaces the ipod mini, no doubt, but really it's more the size/weight of a shuffle... very sweet. It's THINNER than the shuffle fer chrissakes!
.78 ounce
Size comparison:
Shuffle: 3.3 x 0.98 x 0.33
Nano: 3.5 x 1.6 x 0.27
iPod: 4.1 x 2.4 x 0.63
Weight comparison:
Shuffle:
Nano: 1.5 ounces
iPod: 5.9 ounces
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
These Apple nanos are going to replicate out of control and turn us all into grey goo! Or kinda whitish goo, I guess.
It's been theorized? Awesome! I've been waiting for one of these that could play Ogg...
Lame. :-)
Given that cingular.com is getting crushed right now, I'd say that the iTunes Phone will be a hit. Personally, I was hoping for a higher-res camera, as I want a 4-1 gadget to take with me (Phone, PDA, iPod, camera). Looks like I'll have to wait longer.
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
I was glad Apple chose to give us the iPod nano. The prototype iPod Emacs and iPod vi just didn't look as slick.
First a hurricane, followed by massive flooding and destruction. Then a volcano busting through Oregon, now this?!?!?!
The dark lord satan shall soon walk the earth!
Hmmm witty sig or funny sig? Maybe elitest techy sig!
Because it's not an Apple product.
It's a Motorola/Cingular product that has an exclusive license.
(and regardless, according to the USPTO, the IPHONE trademark is live for at least two registered companies—both marks involve phones, natch— so Apple's claim to such a mark is tenuous)
The nano comes in both white and black (see here and click the "black" link under the picture). Gotta say that it does look pretty nice.
I'll turn into a supernova and burn up everything. Well I'll turn into a black little hole and you'll turn into string.
Does iTunes 5 fix the issue where volume adjustment settings aren't transfered over to the iPod? A quiet song forces you to turn up the volume, and followed by a loud song, this can blow your eardrums! The only thing I truly HATE about my iTunes/iPod.
WHY is it on the bottom? Otherwise, this would be perfect!
Oh, don't be so hard on it. Soon it'll tell its owners what's going on around the country and what's happening in your neck of the woods.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
what did dell design it or something?
I see this as much more of a single than a home run.
The phone. If I could run iTunes on my phone and download somge over-the-air directly to it, that would be a potential killer app.
iTunes version 5. I'm sure it has some nifty ne features, but it's just a new release of existing software.
iPod nano. It's cool. Cooler that what it replaces. They'll sell a bunch. It's not terribly innovative though.
"I'd rather be a lightning rod than a seismometer." -Ken Kesey
I think that I have just discovered an "undocumented feature" in iTunes 5 :
when "show duplicate songs" is selected from the edit menu, non-duplicate songs are displayed if the track name and artist are identical in both tracks. Surely it would be a better idea to calculate an md5 checksum or perhaps use CDDB data in order to prevent this.
I would have thought that this issue should be obvious...
Nothing sucks like a Vax, nothing blows like a PowerMac G4
Press releases here, for those interested in more detailed information..
Apple iPod nano
Apple iTunes phone
Motorola ROKR
My iPod Mini is just so large, bulky, and thick! It's about time Apple did something to make audio players small and portable!
Nah, it's not Mork and Mindy that they're remembering, but the commonly used, unsung GNU applications. Next we'll see the iPod lsof, I think, followed by the grep.
- Why can't you sync iTunes via BlueTooth, since the phone actually has BT? First the mini mouse, now this.
- Will this phone be a full iSync citizen, or at least as much as other Moto phones? via BT?
- Can you use this phone as a Cell modem? Via BT? And why is it not EDGE capable?
- Can you sync photos via iPhoto?
- Can you purchase ringtones via iTunes?
I wish this was more of an iPhone, with the above features, than just some phone with iTunes slapped on it. As it is, it looks pretty half-baked, and I'm sorry to see Apple endorse it. I think I'm holding out until v 2.0 at least.--
$tar -xvf
is a 32mb file download. Good God, isn't that a lot bigger than past versions?
// no
1. Will it play regular MP3s, etc like the other iPods or just iTunes music?
4. Is there USB2.0 support? 512MB at 1.1 speeds will take a long time to transfer.
2. How much for additional memory cards?
3. How much for the phone?
Im really wondering how successful this iPod/Phone mix is actually going to be. The main reason the iPod was so successful was because it was the best of its class. It aimed to do one thing..and it did it perfectly. This new phone/mp3 player combo does not excel in any category. Out of the box it only supports 100 songs. Even the 100 dollar iPod Shuffle supports more than that. People are going to decide between A) buying a cheap family phone that costs 1 with a new plan PLUS a standalone ipod that can hold hundreds if not thousands of songs and B) a new phone that costs $250 and play 100 songs + whatever $35 for an extra memory card to turn it into a decent mp3 player. Success in europe? don't even count on it...it doesnt even support 3G. Throw in the fact that its bulky and has a name that no one will ever be able to pronounce without possibly regurgitating their lunch...the "iPod Phone" (im sure thats what EVERYONE is going to be calling it) is probably not going to be as successful as hoped.
Rather then a new take on the mobile phone Apple are simply peddling an average Motorola phone that just happens to be preloaded with an iTunes player. It doesn't even look any good (especially compared to the V3). They may as well have just made a java version of iTunes player.
:), I'd guess it still uses CF media but that's practically the entire height of the unit.
On the other hand iPod nano looks pretty cool (good in black as well), be interesting to see inside one of them (hopefully pictures should appear any moment
I think it detects what your OS is, and then shows either the mac or windows version. I'm on my mac mini right now, and the screenshot is of the mac version.
Sig: I stole this sig.
Is it just me, or does anyone else detest the styling of the ROKR E1? If Motorola can release something as slick as the Razr (even if they can't spell it right), you'd think they'd be able to at least make it look nicer than some crap phone from three or four years ago. I personally think the iTunes phone would be better as a clamshell design, or some other, more crazy design I have yet to imagine... However, the phone seems to be multifunctional, allowing you to store music and data, to the tune (pun intended) of 512MB of total storage (from what I can gather from the FAQ) Apple definitely deserves props for the iPod nano. Wow, that thing looks amazing... Also, props to Apple for delivering what looks like a great new iTunes release.
I wonder how it will compare to the ipod shuffle.
I didn't believe it until I got one (as a gift) but the shuffle has the best audio quality I've heard short of an external DAC into an spdif stream. its noisy (biased transistors in output stage?) but it has actual bass and enough drive to power headphones without distorting.
if this nano has the same audio or better, it will blow the market away for those that CARE about sound as well as the features of the player.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
If Apple wants to be really shocking they should start supporting Linux. There is a growing market out there that they are just ignoring.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world - those who understand binary and those who don't
Apple and Nintendo do this a lot. They release the same products over and over again, with identical functionalities, hoping that people will be vain or stylish enough to want something that looks sleeker. I mean look at Nintendo, they have released how many Gameboy Advance systems (3?) all with the same exact functionality. Apple has released how many iPods? A company that claims to innovate, while many, many competitors have been releasing music *and* video players for almost 4 years now *for cheaper than apple's music only players*..
It's the same with entertainment media formats. I like a movie, but to see it at home I need the DVD, to watch it on my PSP I need the UMD, etc..
Quicktime 7 without iTunes can be found here... http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/standalone .html
...as the iPod?
'Cause if it can then I can use my computer to charge my phone and my current iPod car charger to charge the phone
Then I wouldn't have to buy any accessories!
"It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
Anyone else notice that all of the iTunes screenshots on Apple's site are now for the Windows, rather than the Mac version?
It changes, depending on which browser you use. In Safari they show Mac screenshots. I'd bet in IE they show Windows screenshots.
My experience with my daughter's Ipod Mini has not been overwhelmingly positive:
On Windows XP, syncing to it in ITunes (via USB) causes Windows to reboot about half the time.
On Linux, syncing more than a few songs at a time (in gtkpod) causes a bunch of hardware errors, resulting in the partition being set to read-only. (So I guess Linux is a little more robust in dealing with hardware problems.)
Currently downloading the new iTunes at 2KB/sec (this brings back memories of modem days) but I wonder: any improvement in the smart playlists?
I really would like to have functionality such as 'play songs that I added over a year ago, and songs that I added just last week, plus the latest Brainwashed podcast'. Currently the only way to do this is by nesting your smart playlists, for a smart playlist is either 'any of the criteria' or 'all of the criteria'. There is more to Boolean logic Steve!
Oh, and while were on it, album-aware smart playlists would be great too. Just because Apple sells separate tracks doesn't mean that I want half an album chopped off when I limit my playlist in time or space.
[ducking]
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
.... and that's with a 2 year contract? Please. That's way too expensive. But... I would actually consider it if it wasn't Cingular, which is THE crappiest phone service company [in the NYC area].
Why couldn't they put the hold button and headphones on the same side?
With an exclusive deal, every other phone vendor other than Cingular MUST use a non-Itunes solution. To add music to a phone is trivial, the processing power to decompress music is low speed processing compared to radio and all you need is dual channel audio chip and more flash and your good to go.
... Apple disses streaming or rent all you want models. You can have any of these three.
... they are already in almost every phone anyway.
Almost by definition, these player will be compatible with WMV (with many vendors of product) or Real formats in addition to MP3. A streaming download will be availabe from at least one music vendor (it will just be a bunch of songs stringed together that expires.) Also trivial and could be many "channel"
And, no reason why videos and cameras can't be supported
They are going to be blown out of the market due to their very closed and limited purchased-only music and no video model.
too bad.
If you look at what song is playing in iTunes, you'll see it is from the new Kanye West CD.
I wonder if Apple picked a song from that Artist based on the recent comments he made during the Hurrican Relief Fund?
Could just be that he has a new CD out, or the person making the page was listening to the CD at the time, but I love a good conspiracy theory
I'm waiting for the iPod Femto. I hear you'll be able to lodge it under a fingernail. They're just working out the headphone connector.
Looks like from the Apple site that the "mini" is no longer featured at all... guess "nano" is the new "mini", which makes me wonder about [lack of?] future accessories or software updates for the mini line. Anyone have specific info on this?
Appealing to the younger crowd with hardware and content.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/harrypotter/
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
Did anyone else notice how they danced around mentioning the number of songs the ROKR will hold. Well, buried on Apple's website is a FAQ about the ROKR. Apparently it comes with a memory card slot (not sure of type) which will be pre-loaded with 512K card from Cingular.
100 songs. That's it. Compare that to the nano which will hold 1,000 songs.
I have a 20 GB iPod, I would love to carry one device instead of two, but 100 songs is not going to cut it.
The nano looks like a nice replacement for the mini, though.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Damnit...I just got my stupid Shuffle. Now they come out with this for not much more money? I feel inadequate all of a sudden. :(
"How like you to drag your keyboard to a gun fight." - Aaron Bedard (BANE)
Not sure if this is true with other open-source DAAP sharing programs and servers, but at least with mt-daapd (not linking to avoid Slashdotting them, search Google for mt-daapd), iTunes 5.0 returns a "The shared music library 'name' is not compatible with this version of iTunes".
I assume there with be a workaround, but for the moment, don't upgrade if you rely on this functionality (like I do).
iPod nano... ...iMagnifyingGlass not included.
How exactly can Motorola get up on stage -- at an Apple-hosted event -- and present something that looks as boring as the ROKR phone? Are they hoping that people will think this thing is cool by association? It's not like they're incapable of producing slick-looking phones...
did you notice that the apple site for the new phone didn't mention how many songs it can hold? did you notice how hard it was to find that number on the cingular site, too? i'll save you the trouble: it can hold a hundred songs.
a hundred.
i have a fricking ipod shuffle, and i can hold way more than that. how hard could it possibly be to put more flash memory in these things? if you can put four gigs of flash into an "impossibly small" ipod nano, you can certainly put the same amount in what looks like an oversized phone.
ah, i'm just complaining. what i wanted was an ipod that could make phone calls, not a phone that could play a tiny selection of songs. i was waiting for this announcement to re-up my cell phone sevice, but i sure won't be buying this phone.
The new iTunes no longer has the brushed metal window. Is this the beginning of the end for brushed metal? I wouldn't be surprised to see all of Apple's apps move towards this new look by the time they release 10.5. My personal preference: good riddance brushed metal.
"Play Outside on Sunny Days." - Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto
that's it.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
I'm certainly willing to sacrafice storage space, since I've noticed I mainly listen to a fairly narrow vein of my music collection at any one time. I've never really alternated from Metallica to Madonna in a single round-trip away from my computer.
I'm not sure about the phone, it seems a little removed from the Apple aesthetic. I kind of like it, but the Nano is the big news for me today.
Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshipped. Calvin Coolidge
This release, despite the whole digit change, doesn't change this. This is all the more ironic since Tiger now ships with an integrated spoken user interface! Blind folks, as a generalization, are at least as passionate about music and technology as the rest of us. This is a real shame.
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
The ROKR will be available in Canada exclusively from Rogers Wireless, according to this Motorola Canada site. Too bad there isn't more detailed information though. Rogers Wireless' site has no information on the phone or its pending availability unfortunately.
Open a console and type
I am totally disappointed with the Moto phone.
- It is substantially ugly. The basic shape is OK, but then it has the vented sides and all sorts of useless depressions, lines and curves. I would have expected Apple to demand some quality ID out of Moto (and we know Moto can do it, the RAZR and upcoming SLVR are very hot).
- The dynamics of the phone market suck for releasing new technology. Phone handsets are way overpriced for the consumer and rely on those pesky contracts. Sure the ROKR looks OK now, but how is it going to look a year from now when better stuff is available and your locked into that contract? To me, this is a major problem with the cell phone market- there are numerous technology improvements going on IRT data rates, camera quality, wireless features, design, etc... but the carrier contract lockin puts a significant strain in consumer's ability to acquire such technology at a reasonable price.
- The capacity on the ROKR sucks. 100 songs? That's less then 512mb. If your going to lock people into an MP3 playing cellphone for 2 years, give them some real capacity and/or an SD expansion slot. Hell, the slot doesn't even need to be readily accessible, throw it behind the battery (because I don't know if iTunes can manage an iPod device with removable storage) so people can upgrade as they see fit.
- It looks huge. I don't get it how they can make a tiny cellphone (again, the RAZR and it's upcoming SLVR brother) and a tiny MP3 player (the Nano and the Shuffle), but when you throw these devices together, you end up with a product that is bigger the the stand alone components tapped together even though the most space hogging portions are combined (buttons, enclosure).
Apple gets how to design a product and Motorola, while they have had some success, really needs to let Apple take the lead on ID/Product design. Moto should focus on the wireless tech, dealing with the FCC and cell carriers and manufacturing.
I'm not sure of the speed of the flash memory in these things but how long before photographers start buying these things to strip the CF cards? As 4GB card will run you about $300-$400 while the Nano 4Gig is $249.
R.
This is the first Ipod where I've really been impressed by the price. 4 gigs of flash alone for $249 is amazingly cheap, and you get a slick player to boot. Of course, some slashdot members will undoubtedly miss the point and complain that the price-per-megabyte is much worse than the 20/40 gigabyte hdd-variants, but compared to other flash players its incredible.
Of course, Apples been buying the flash in bulk masses and thus getting good rates, but you have to give them credit for making a 4gb flash player in a market where 512mb-1gig were previously the tops. In a market with increasing competition Apple had to do something really special to stay on top, and it looks like they've just gone and done it.
...has a color screen, but if I'm reading the iPod spec page correctly, it doesn't support photo images. Argh!
That Apple, they think of everything. Now I'm going to go back to waiting for my Dalmation iPod nano tube.
It's called a Dogcow. Moof.
Dear aunt, let's set so double the killer delete select all
OK, so the display is color. However, if I'm interested in a music player, want music. I see the nano as a step backwards because the 4GB mini was $199, so I either get half the storage for the same price, or I pay $50 more for that 4G.
Apple will probably just enter the cell phone market with an Iphone when the opportunity presents itself. I'm betting this is just a defensive move - since the relationship between Apple and Cingular/Motorola just can't be stable. Too many conflicting interests. So let Motorola handle this for now.
Apple needs to gain experience and market testing from this move, and then ditch their partners like M$ normally does. And I think if the Disney/ESPN phone service rollouts work well, Apple will have to consider an Ilife/ITunes leveraged phone service with their own hardware.
When, oh when will iTunes allow me to search library from within a playlist??? Here's how this could work: from a playlist,
1. Say, Ctrl+click into search box
Do a search, screen would split into a search results pane on top, current playlist on the bottom.
2. Drag the song you want to where you want it in the playlist.
I hate having to:
1. Click "Library"
2. Click the search box
3. Drag the song to the tiny playlist name entry in the left-hand pane.
4. Click on the playlist name
5. Drag the song to where I want it in the list.
This is something everyone does quite often. Making such a common procedure take 5 steps as opposed to 2 makes no sense at all. Hello, Apple!
(And yes, I know you can open a playlist in a separate window, but it is klunky and only useful if you are building a list from scratch, not when you want to add a couple songs on the fly.)
The new feature list says iTunes can now sync with outlook. I've been using iTunes for years now, and I just never had any desire to sync my jukebox with my email application.
Can someone explain what that feature is good for ?
My bluetooth enabled car not only linking to my phone to give me handsfree capabilities, but also streaming audio directly to the stereo system.
BMW has (at least) one model car that interfaces with your ipod, so the thought isn't that far fetched.
http://www.watacrackaz.com
I'd be willing to sacrifice a little more space to have it in flash memory.
Mercy was given to me by Christ...I must give the same to others.
I'm so ready to buy that iPod nano. The second it supports Vorbis.
Come on, guys. ALL my music is in Vorbis. Help me out here.
-Peter
wow, this is beyond parody http://gprime.net/video.php/ipodflea
Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
I wonder how much the storage capacity will be for the phone. Somewhere on the page it says "pre-upgraded to support up to 100 song", I'm not sure if I should interpret that as the song capacity.
Also, by looking at this phone, there doesn't seem to be a trackwheel or any sort of simple buttons to press.
I don't mean to sound like flamebait, but one of the major selling points for iPods was the look and the ease of use, it doesn't seem like this has either of those things.
$250 for the phone.
$480 per YEAR for service (cheapest plan).
----------
Forget it.
I'll stick to iChat for anyone with enough money to buy a computer (everyone I would now), my 2.9c/minute calling card for people that don't, and keep on waiting for a cellphone plan that doesn't involve bending over.
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
You make a very good point. I have lots of songs that would be "false duplicates" because they are alternative versions of the same song by the same artist (live album vs. studio recording, etc.)
Of course, calcing an MD5 would not find duplicates that are actually two differents rips of the same song, say at different rates or two downloads from eDonkey of the same song, etc. But it would find cases where the file got accidentally duplicated. Like if you have to move your music collection onto another disk or something.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
This bugs the hell out of me too. I end up just manually re-adding any folder I move new music into.
The iPod nano looks pretty amazing. I was stunned when I saw the first picture of it. I hadn't expected such a thin player.
I think Apple has a new hit.
I'm not sure of the speed of the flash memory in these things but how long before photographers start buying these things to strip the CF cards?
One word - Never.
Why? Because any self respecting photographer will not murk around with hacks (remember, you still have to provide the interface - be it compact flash, etc. soldering required) when near 100% reliability is needed - i.e. in their work.
Most photographers I know, myself included, will spend extra cash on memory based on its perfomance and reliability. So destroying nanos is not going to be popular at all.
Just my 2 cents.
You just need to get the firewire cable and it will plug in fine since it has the same connector on the iPod nano as on any other non-shuffle iPod. It will cost like $10 at a store or a couple bucks on ebay.
Which means:
- Transflash card. It's really tiny, the size and thickness of my pinky nail
- Tri-band
- USB 2.0, and you get to choose between it exposing the flash card as a USB disk device, or a modem. Cable included
- Stereo speakers. It's really cool to hold it just about 20-30cm from your face and hear pretty good stereo sound
- Earphones
- Bluetooth, and yes, you can copy MP3's that way too
- Groovy multi-coloured lights on both sides of the phone
- Speakerphone
- Camera with a powerful led instead of a flash. Doubles as a flashlight
And the downsides- Sluggish user interface
- Blurry 640x480 camera. Taking into account the previous point, when you press "capture," you get to wait 2 seconds for the snapshot to be taken
- Buggy. Crashes on you, especially when the battery is low
- Really bad mpeg-4 playback. The user interface stops responding when it's playing. Sound may crap out. It will only do a bitrate so low that the picture has severe compression artifacts
- Limited functionality in BlueTooth. The only decent BlueTooth phone I've ever seen is a SonyEricsson
- No voice recording (duh), but I'm under the impression that that's a hidden feature that you can enable with a hack
Of course, the specs of the ROKR may vary, and the MP3 navigation is beyond a doubt better than on the E398, but it won't be far off.You make a very good point. I have lots of songs that would be "false duplicates" because they are alternative versions of the same song by the same artist (live album vs. studio recording, etc.)
Wouldn't it make sense to have already noted which version of the song each file was in, say, the track name? You know, "... (Live)" or "... (Acoustic)"? Otherwise, how do you select the one you want to hear? Sincerely curious...
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Will this work with JHymn, which decrpyts the locked files and can translate them to mp3 (for those of us with mp3 players != iPod*)? Or have they chosen to make it harder for us to exercise our fair-use rights by breaking JHymn (like they did with 4.5, 4.7, etc.)?
Everyone seems to love Apple but no one talks about the dirty tricks they play on non-iPod users who still like iTunes (for example, in one release of iTunes, all files it found that were converted by JHymn were permanently locked!!)
In development, but coming soon...
W
-------------------
This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Pre-upgraded. Think about it. Double plus ungood. If you think too hard about it, your brain starts to leak out of your ears.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Ok, does anyone have a clue as to whether this phone will use normal HTML or will it require brain-dead WAP formating? I have a old Danger Hiptop and I *LOVE* the fact that it has a normal HTML browser built-in. It doesn't have Javascript, but I can live with that most of the time.
I am amazed that at this day and age more phones don't use HTML browsers. They have nice large color screens and plenty of horsepower - what's the problem here!?!? Why can't they include a real browser?!?!
KangarooBox - We make IT simple!
The ipod phone looks a little big. I just ditched a Treo 600 for a RAZR because it was too big. I would like to see an ipod phone the size of an ipod nano. Apple, please email me when you are done, nano@phone.com. Thanks.
If memory serves, the iPod Mini's microdrive was not a complete unit from Hitachi, Apple purchased them without a controller chip(or something like that, I can't find the article right now). I wouldn't be surprised if the Samsung flash memory was somehow hard-linked to the Nano so it could not be pilfered.
Here's the latest iPod non-killer. (Story here.)
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
I typically know which version it is by looking at what album it is on.
Plus, I mostly prefer to listen to complete albums - in the order the songs were on the record. I guess that comes from growing up listening to LPs.
It still bothers me that the "sides" of the records aren't really marked in iTunes.
Avoid Missing Ball for High Score
Obviously phones were quickly going to replace iPods when they got enough memory, so Apple was smart to put their foot in the door.
Along with everything else in QT 7, iTunes now allows you to encode AAC in VBR mode. FINALLY!
- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
2GB iPod Nano: $199
Motorola RAZR: $199
With this package, I get a cool phone, a cool mp3 player, good resolution on both screens, etc. for ~$400.
OR
Motorola ROCKR: $249
With this package, I get a Nokia-esque phone, low-res screen, 100 song limit, etc.
I'd rather get a cool case for my RAZR that has a little pocket that would let me slip the Nano into. Or maybe just hotglue them together. It't probably still be slimmer than the ROCKR.
It's only a matter of time until there are combination HFP/A2DP carkits. I'm not sure how it'd work with the headunit, though -- most heads today have a "mute" input that kills the audio so a carkit can run; I've never seen one with a "barge" input to force the headunit to the aux input for automatic selection. You *could* fake something out with an IR transmitter on most aftermarket heads, but that's getting into macro-remote craziness.
A public traded company, must (yes must) maximize the profit of its shareholders.
False. Even without clarifying your statement to include "legal profit", other concerns can be placed above the interests of the shareholders as long as they are clearly communicated (usually in the bylaws of the corporate charter).
Just because most (almost all) companies choose to put profit above all other concerns doesn't mean that all companies do. Or should.
Regards,
Ross
I felt a tinge of regret for a nano second after seeing the iPod phone release. What's the big deal? My Treo 650 plays video, it displays pictures, it plays mp3 files (I have a 512mb card stuffed into it and could get bigger ones pretty easily), it takes pictures (not great, just VGA, but nice for a phone), and it takes movies w/ sound, which have been a nice addition to my personal blog or my family (mostly pictures of the chilluns). Oh yeah, it also works as a PDA and a phone.
I don't see why the iPod phone is that big a deal. The Treos have been able to play mp3s for a while now. Too bad palm didn't name them r0x0rz or whatever. Apple is so about image.
Give me a Treo any day of the week.
Lots of petrified grits
You're missing the point.
As much as we hate paying for things, there's not a whole lot we can do to avoid paying for hardware. Apple doesn't make that much money on music, but their margins on iPods are quite good. iTunes isn't so good that Linux users want it just for the sake of the software, we want official support for the hardware.
I rarely criticize things I don't care about.
Love the Nano, of course, but I won't be getting one. For me, there's one big change that matters:
I can finally group playlists (hierarchically, even)!
Consistency requires you to be as ignorant today as you were a year ago. -Bernard Berenson
Introducing iTunes for your mobile phone. With iTunes on your Motorola ROKR E1, you can listen to music on your mobile phone, wherever, whenever you want. [apple.com]
The next comment I write will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
For those unhappy souls as myself that were left unable to run iTunes after upgrading, and that are receiving a moronic 'cannot find ordinal 21 on mapi32.dll' or something like that, check this
Regards, I.-
...of looking exactly like a pocket protector :)
Seriously though, am I the only one that thinks the iPod series has all the style and charm of an old rotary phone?
Maybe I am just wierd.
*shhh, can you hear it? That is what little karma I have shriveling...*
Buy iPod nano.
Buy 5 cents of sticky velcro.
Attach to existing phone.
Pros:
Listening to tunes won't drain your phone battery.
Doesn't cost 250 USD (only 200).
Doesn't tie you to Cingular for 2 years.
About as thick as older phone models.
Holds 5 times the songs.
Can be undone at any time.
Cons:
Applying sticky substance to shiny new iPod.
Everyone will point and laugh.
OK, you did not make the memory expandable, but, 512MB was generous. Why spoil it with artificial capping of songs to only 100?
Lame apple, lame. You are getting too greedy.
.. Man, my P800 phone came with a stereo headset and mp3 capability like what, 3 years ago?
That phone looks like junk, and without AD2P it looks like redundant junk.
People sjould know this. iTunes 5 breaks mt-daapd (mine is running on a Linksys NSLU2). How do I revert to 4.9?
Set your phasers on "funky"!
a beowulf cluster of these !@
Extraordinary Vacations. Exceptional Prices
Ok, it doesnt say its flash, but we can assume.
Does anyone know for sure?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
iTunes 5 for Windws appears to break support for using mac(HFS+) formatted iPods through macDrive, and instead displays a dialogue asking if you'd like to reformat the iPod.
This is probably just an oversight on apple's part, as this functionality was never 'officially' supported, although it'd be nice if they got a patch out so I can sync my iPod both at home (Mac) and at work (PC)
-- If you try to fail and succeed, which have you done? - Uli's moose
I'm sorry, but was that a comment or a press release? It's a little hard to judge from here.
Not that I'd be one to accuse the indefectible Apple of astroturfing, no, nothing like that.
4GB flash cards are more like $200, 2GB $100; 4GB Microdrives can be had for $100 also. (US prices)
That's why we have TRM fingerprints (ie, the technology that MusicBrainz uses) to identify the same song. However, you do get false collisions on a "remastered" album if you have the original too.
LOAD "SIG",8,1
iPod nano: iPod mini meets Motorola Razr
does ipod nano work with firewire or is it usb only?
How hard is it for Apple to give iTunes anti-aliased corners like every single other window in OSX? As if the old jaggies weren't bad enough, now they've just given up and squared them off! (not consistent with any other style in OSX, including the new plastic-look Mail.app). Even something as custom and cross-platform as RealPlayer manages it.
In general I understand Apple motivation for adding this new style - brushed metal is getting overplayed, and for good reason generally since it allows custom controls and layouts to be integrated in a nicer way than with aqua - but I think it's really badly done. The only nicely done plastic app I've seen so far is Camino (Mail.app and this new iTunes are travesties)...
I won't spend $250 just to move music; I want to put be able to put *anything* on it. If that means carrying the dock around, I want to know how big and heavy it is; but they keep that a secret. Furthermore, there's no technical reason this thing couldn't be an IEEE1394 host, and let me transfer files to another another one, or to some other IEEE1394 device.
And, of course, no Ogg (again!).
Each of these is a deal-breaker -- at least until Linux is ported...
They just keep making em SMALLER!
That Steve Jobs is really hungry for market share.
I just always wanted to do that.
You know, that's always how I pronounced it, and I thought of Al Roker, but more than anything... I thought of Family Guy's Quahog television station's weather man... IT GONNA RAIN!
huh?
the screen shot that link followed is the same iTunes interface that's been in place since day one.
now in the shot, the "browser" frame is turned off. maybe that's what made this look so "mailish"?
what's next in this sequence: mini, nano, ...
I can't wait for iPod Pico and iPod Femto.
Marketing: "Infinitely Small"
I wish I were old enough to put "Computer" on my resume.
And, one other precious gem from the original...
This sig donated to Pater. Long live
Nothing's wrong with Apple. What with Clear Channel's takeover of most radio stations complete, and the non-CC stations using the same formats, there's no radio worth listening to in most cities.
At least I can get WFMU on the internet ...
But a hack wouldn't be required if Apple and the camera companies collaborated on an iPod-Camera interface. What I mean is, you have your iPod in your pocket, and a cable between it and your digital camera. Every picture you take is saved to your iPod, and automatically downloaded to your computer when you plug it in.
Would that get you and other photographers into the iPod-drive-as-camera-storage thing?
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
For months I've been eagerly anticipating the Apple iTunes phone. iFigured (like many I'm sure) Apple would have heavy design influence over the phones look and feel.
... now that thing is seriously nice.
iThought wrong.
I see the iPhone on the Apple site and iFeel totally iUnderwhelmed.
Quite literally my first iThought was, "that's it?"
Just another phone from Motorola except that it happens to have a mini iTunes interface.
The Nano on the otherhand
I already have a 60Gb iPod, but I think I might just get a Nano as well. I mean, it has the built in reality distortion field and everything!
Too bad Apple could be bothered with letting Motorola in on any of their Patented "Jobsian Mechanism for the Distortion of Reality" IP.
Cuz that phone is utterly pedestrian, way to go Motorola -- get handed a great opportunity to carve up some market niche and you go and deliver a phone that looks like the one 1999's been calling asking about.
But who knows, I might head on over to Cingular and check it out. Since I might be more impressed once it's actually in my grubby lil iHands.
I don't want to haul around a phone, MP3 player, camera, PDA, notebook etc.
r king support
what I want is one device, the size of my cell phone that combines all the
features of these devices.
what I want in this device:
size of my current cellphone (Audiovox cdm-9900)
cell phone features at least as good as current + mp3 ringtones
2MP 3x optical zoom camera w/ VGA/30fps movie mode
industry standard flash memory card/data in industry standard storage format
read and write files on flash card using standard tools in windows,
linux and macos
play MP3 and mpeg/mp4/divx (at VGA/30fps when driving remote display)
(limitation to proprietary formats unacceptable, but support for proprietary
formats in addition to standard formats desirable)
PDA capabilities equal to palm pilot/zaurus/WINCE (assume primary data
input by keyboard in desktop mode)
wireless keyboard/mouse/display/headphone/microphone/netwo
minimum 48 hours standby battery life/4 hours active use time (remote
desktop/mobile mode)
USB master/slave capability using standard cables
I want to be able to access _all_ data on this device from a usb/wireless
connected system as if I were looking at a hard drive/network drive
beyond solitaire/free cell/tetris/minesweeper level gaming, I dont care
about gaming performance.
graphics performance equivalent to first gen radeon is sufficient.
I expect that there are 3 primary usage modes: mobile, remote and primary
desktop
mobile usage model:
in this mode, this should operate like a cell phone, MP3 player or camera
like a full function single purpose device for each of these uses. As a PDA
it would primarily be used for data retrieval as opposed to input, for anything
beyond trivial data input (on the level of what you would input into a cell
phone) it is ok to assume a wireless or USB keyboard will be used (i.e.
handwriting recognition not required/useful) the form factor of the divice
should not be comprimized in the false belief that a big display is needed.
the display on my cdm-9900 is more than sufficient.
with a secondary battery pack and set of display glasses, it should be possible
to watch two complete feature length VGA/30fps movies in this mode (think
flying Boston to LA)
remote desktop usage model:
in this mode, the user is primarily expecting functionality equivalent to
a high end PDA/ultra portable laptop. the keyboard would probably be a
wireless thumbboard or a rollup usb keyboard, the display would preferrably be
a wireless head mounted display (HUD-glasses). external networking
capabilities might be non-existant, or limited to analog cell phone bandwidth,
so internal processing capabilities must be able to fulfill the minimums for
this kind of use.
primary desktop usage model:
I want to just carry the device in my pocket, when I get to work, drop it
on my desk, have it recognize my keyboard, display and mouse and start driving
them. I want to be able to do everything I do on my desktop computer in this
mode. I expect that this will require remote processing to provide the
CPU horsepower necessary, but the UI will be displayed and driven here
(X11 terminal style, but once I've done initial setup, I don't want to have to
think about it. this should work from the other side of the world).
I expect it needs to be on the charger for best performance in this
mode
what's missing to accomplish this:
the biggest piece of missing technology for this application is wireless
capable monitors and really useable display glasses. by useable, I mean glasses
that work like the glasses I wear today, but also can be used as a computer
display. other than the weight issue and some manufacturing issues, the tech
is here today with an LCD film overlay laminated onto the glasses lens or a
projector/refractor model.
The difference between Theory and Practice is greater in Practice than in Theory.
A CF card would only fit in there in one direction, and there would be no room for the mobo below or above it, the top case above it, and only barely for the metal back below it. And you'd have no room left for the battery.
It is only just over twice the size of a CF card.
Are you sure you have a real grasp of how small this thing is?
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
What if iTunes 5 is on an encapsulated runtime?
I assumed all the other versions were kind of doing that.
All it takes is an Apple Official lib_ipod_io.so
/dev/nastybits' into the iPod control routine.
Closed, supported, portable. Wrap any ol' thing around it, just don't ask them to replace it when you 'cat
I'm holding out for the Femto.
iPod Femto: the first MP3 player to be injected directly into your bloodstream!
Free, legal music for iTunes users.
...because they want to use that name later, if they make their own, prettier one, or if Motorola leave them...
I wouldn't call that a false collision; if I have two versions of the same song, one remastered and one not, then I certainly do want them marked as duplicates, so I can take the earlier version off.
First Apple released the iPod, then the iPod Mini. Now there's the iPod Nano.
And last year, Apple introduced the Mac Mini.
<joke>Does this mean we should expect the Mac Nano sometime next year?</joke>
iTunes 5 lets you remove Podcasts from the list of sources now, although you need to do so via the Parental Controls menu and not the General menu.
.... but does the phone support music on hold? :)
Right, because anybody who has a positive impression of this thing must be an Apple shill. No way they could actually think it's a neat piece of hardware, huh?
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
A feature I've been looking for (no use for podcasts) - but earlier iTunes versions wouldn't allow you to hide the podcasts icon on the left. Thought it was funny because you can disable other entries you don't use.
Now you can go to "Parental Control" on preferences and disable it (as well as music store and shared music)
When you hear hoofbeats, think horses, not zebras
I'm frustrated that iTunes 5 does not allow you to search by genre in the new search bar. You have to use the cumbersome "browse" window instead.
Same thing as owning QTP6 then upgrading to Tiger. :(
You are required to use the new version, and thus buy a new key.
I wish upgrades were free.
Personally I do not like the iPod nano. I have owned an Ipod mini 4gb since they were released and have been looking for a reason to upgrade. I am disappointed Apple have chosen to kill off the mini form factor. I would have liked to have seen them upgrade the mini to a larger hd (8gig), a colour screen and video output. I think the iPod phone is a good idea and I hope Nokia get in on this but I hope the headphones and cabling are decent. Last time i tried to use my phone as a music player I found the cord got tangled something crazy.
Why can't Apple make a flash player with a decent battery life? 14 hours is pathetic considering that iRiver has tiny flash players that can get 40 hours of a single Alkaline AA for a couple years now. I assume that this is only with the backlight off most of the time too. The shuffle only gets a paltry 12 hours and doesn't even have to deal with a screen. I would expect much better considering they have the packaging advantage of integrated Li-ion. Where is Apple's engineering prowess?
I am becoming gerund, destroyer of verbs.
They don't advertise this on any of the pages, but if you look at the quicktime VR of the iPod Nano, you'll see that the headphone jack is on the bottom, next to the dock connector. This makes sense for the lanyard headphones (which hang the iPod upside-down) but under normal use I prefer the jack on top.
Now I need to re-rip everything. :(
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
Clearly, this new machine is not 1/1000000000 the size, mass, length, width, or depth of an iPod. Damn you, Steve Jobs, you were all good until you decided to pervert a perfectly good system of nomenclature to no apparent purpose!
...it's really a sad day for America when we require a goddamn ACT OF CONGRESS to make our DVD players work properly. ~
No, what's next is Apple re-brands their software division as Nanosoft.
... and then they built the supercollider.
Exactly. GP should know by now that apple fanbois always use apple market speak when talking about apple hardware. I've talked to more than one person who said that the G5 was "the world's most powerful personal computer" (word for word from the ads) right around the time that the G5 came out.
The Farewell Tour II
Just tested them (Windows version):
iTunes 5 rebuilds the music library, so you might be unable to revert to iTunes 4.9.
iTunes 5 has a new interface look, and it automatically use the language set up in the "Regional and Language Options" control panel, under the "Regional Options" tab. It seems clever, but it is not since this setting is used to define the default currency, time format, etc. NOT the default language of the GUI. This setting exists in Windows XP but does not appear on regular consumer versions (only on Corporate ones, when a Microsoft MUI extension is installed). Yes, it's stupid since other OS like MacOS X let you switch the language of the entire interface even on the cheapest Mac you can get, but it's the way Microsoft did it. The only right way to define the UI language is to do it on a per-app basis. Which means : Add a bloody "Language" options to the iTunes preferences instead of trying to play the smart guy. I have an English version of Windows and my Regional Options are set to French, but I'd like iTunes to be in ENGLISH like the rest of the UI.
iTunes 5 still not support OGG.
iTunes 5 is unable to read correctly some very old AIFF files I still have in my Library (by "old", I mean "from my Atari ST": 12,538Khz 8 bit mono). QuickTime 7 opens them perfectly and it worked with iTunes 4.9.
QuickTime 7 is a real pain in the ass. I mean it. First, if you registered QuickTime 6, you need to pay again to register QuickTime 7. The player has the exact same limitations than the previous versions: it's unable to open files which have Unicode filenames or filenames that are >31 characters. Yes, exactly like on MacOS 9! Furthermore, the very convenient menus to work with tracks (delete tracks, enable tracks, extract tracks etc) disappeared. Now you must open the Movie Properties dialog, go to the correct tab, enable or disable the track(s), go back to the movie window, work on the track(s), go back to the Movie Properties dialog, etc. I use QuickTime Pro mostly to correct the movies I do with my little camera without recompression (the sound is delayed by 1 sound frame), now with this version it's became a real torture. By the way, if you use any keyboard shortcut of the Pro version (for example Ctrl-F for Fullscreen) but have the basic player only, you get a message asking if you want to register. It seems very clever too, except that some movies I made use QuickTime scripts associated to some keyboard shortcuts... like Ctrl-F. Guess what's happening ?
I've always been a big supporter of QuickTime, hoping that QuickTime 7 would be the same leap for the Windows versions that it was for the OS X version of QuickTime 6... I guess I had too much expectations...
It would also be nice if it group by artist then album rather than just reordering a flat list.
Check out the Browse button at the top right of the window. That's what you're looking for.
Duct tape is like the Force. It has a light side, a dark side, and it holds the universe together.
But hey, I only struggled with the motherboard for several months and talked to several MSI techs who all confirmed this; it's not like I have any actual idea what I'm talking about, hmm?
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Well then you know what? that's Apple's fault. They chose to use the Window Installer. Many companies build their own, use the old VB installer, or anything. Apple has a large Team, why don't they design their own installer.
There is other installers then windows installer. Most of them work decently. There's also better ways to do this. And writing your own installer isn't hard for a group like Apple.
The problem is actually QT 7, I installed the stand alone, and that's giving errors. here's the problem... why isn't the Itunes and QT installer together giving errors when QT 7 alone can tell the errors. That's a big mistake.
And why does ITunes 5 not link immediatly with Itunes 4 on a neighboring computer at work as well as removing his whole play list?
If apple wasn't to dominate markets, it's gotta play the field. It wants to win points, not just blame their failings on Microsoft, but succeed and prove them to build the Elite work. I admire Apple's work towards the highest quality stuff, but this just proves the reason they are great is because they don't allow anyone to get into their works to mess it up.
That's fine but let's be honest, Quality is all good, but variety is the spice of life. That's why I rather surf the internet on a computer, rather then a console.
I don't think they thought the battery part through or made any internal
p enetration/field/feasability/user/political
cost/benefit/product/marketing/witchcraft/budget/
studies related to your point.
You ought to email apple and let them know this is an issue for you.
I think it's rechargeable though, so you've got that going for you.
didn't creative already make a zen nano? i guess they r daring creative to file the lame interface lawsuit.
Will Apple get Robin Williams (The actor not the tech writer) to advertize the iPod Nano?
I've talked to a couple who bragged about the "UNIX-based OS", when I'm damn sure they barely know what a 2 button mouse is, much less UNIX.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
Wow...check out the headphones on the nano accessory page. Necklace-turned-headphones! I've been seeing that design in Korea for the past year and a half now. Gotta admit though, Apple's overengineering is beautiful.
I have a "5Gig" (4.66Gig) Seagate USB2 hard drive that is almost too small for the program I want to keep on there (and will definately be too small in the near future). When I ran out of space I was intending to purchase a 6Gig Mini, but Apple seem to have dropped their "maximum small" option to 4Gig. Does anyone know of a nice, small and bus-powered 6-8Gig portable USB2 hard drive other than the old Mini?
So Kanye West wrapped up the keynote eh? How uncomfortable must that have been. "BROKE BROKE! ...WE WANT PRENUP!" HAHA that was hilarious!
If I knew what I was talking about, there would prolly be more text.
No bluetooth. Less storage than a Nomad. Lame.
Doesn't flash write a lot slower than an HDD?
If Chaos Theory has taught us anything, it's that we must kill all the butterflies.
http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/19074/ The Iridium theme for MacOSX 10.4 can make all of those different kinds of windows (including the ones from the new iTunes) match each other. Wouldn't it be nice if Apple would provide us with a unified GUI! (BTW: This is a shameless plug. I wrote Iridium.)
But seriously folks, where the U2 ipod looks strange (maybe it's that inflamed zit of a click wheel), the black nano looks great (at least in the pictures).
It would be nice if that 2TB laptop from the earlier posting was true. That way we could have TB portable media players about the size of an iPod mini or nano, anything smaller is starting to get awkwardly small, devices get smaller, our hands don't. And they should have easily removable batteries and 6.1 channel output.
Itunes 5 is just another version, no big news there. I have no interest in the phone, $250 plus 2yr contract. 100 songs, probably has a 256mb miniSD or similar card. Corporate espionage anyone? It's ipod-like so it can probably be used as an external drive, might be another thing to add to the list of things you can't bring into the office, but it should be airplane safe.
My mini is only 6mo old, no need for anything else.
F7 doesn't work, ignore spelling and grammar
AAC is better than MP3, and supported. Best of all, iTunes will convert your stuff to 128kbit AAC on the fly (at least for the Shuffles it will) when doing a fill, meaning I can fit 2x the songs, and lose not much quality as compared to my 256kbit VBR MP3 standard.
I know you want Ogg support, but there are plenty of other players which support that. Apple is about image and functionality.
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
I give the Nano double thumbs-up. Very slick design. And the fact that we're up into multiple gigabytes in a completely solid state device is pretty exciting. I have a 1GB Shuffle, which I'm really happy with, mainly because of its size and weight (or lack thereof), excellent audio quality and solid-state-ness. I'd probably consider getting a Nano if I had the money.
... improvable amp from the Mini?
The thing I'm most interested to learn, though, is how its bass response compares to other models. As is detailed here, the Shuffle has a far superior amplifier (based on a push-pull design, I believe) and as a result performs way above the competition in the lower end of the spectrum. The old Mini, however, was the worst of the lot. It just couldn't flesh out those wide low-frequency waves.
So, which amp did the Nano get? The gutsy push-pull setup from the Shuffle, or the
You know, unlike the morons that made FireWire 800, USB 2.0 is backwards compatible. I use an iPod Shuffle with my Sawtooth Mac just fine.
Actually, unless the nano has faster flash, the speeds of USB 2.0 are wasted. I reckon my shuffle does about 20MB/s, compared with 11MB/s for USB 1.1 and 480MB/s for USB 2.0.
Just wait until they integrate a camera in to the iPod, and market it as an accessory for the discriminating high-tech peepers.
Introducing the iPod pico
Just like driving a car:
(D) to go forward
(R) to go backward
When Apple released the shuffle, practically everyone bitched that it had no screen. I accept their apology. :-)
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
here... is about as close as you'll get these days I'm afraid.
;-)
Of course, that would require you to switch to a GSM carrier
WTF is this about? It took a long time.
(It happened when I started iTunes 5 for the first time.)
i went to go see this motorola/ipod phone at webster hall tonight in NY.. all in all, cool but very very sluggish.. all the demo booths had phones with roughly 5 or 6 albums on them, and just that alone drastically slowed down the display. plus they didn't have any instructions, or tell anyone that to get the phones to play music you had to disconnect them from their laptop stations, a very bad move. this place was full of music writers that couldn't get passed the "Do not Disconnect Screen" to make the thing do what it was actally supposed to do. But they did have free drinks, which put most people in a really good mood.. Also, a really cheasy speech by motorola's head of marketing. i'm sort of suprised Apple has gotten behind something so sluggish. in the time it takes to load up one song from the main screen, i can grab a real ipod from my other pocket and play whatever i want to hear. someday it might be a nice little gadget, but not now, not sure why either but definately not right now...
...It still does not support paid-subscription Podcasting. :-(
There are a lot of people that want to be download radio talk shows produced by Clear Channel's Premiere Radio Networks using iTunes' Podcast support feature instead of the custom software provided by Premiere Radio Networks. I wouldn't be surprised that before the end of this year there will be an update to iTunes 5 that will support paid subscription Podcast downloads, which could open the door for a lot of radio shows to be downloaded via iTunes to your computer. After, if iTunes supports paid download of music, why not paid download of radio shows in Podcast format?
(It's actually difficult for me to confirm, cos my playlist was named "Musique achetée" before the upgrade, left over from a flirtation with French, but I've checked to see that it said "ongaku" from other sources.)
Has this changed in the English version as well? Maybe music videos and other contents are on the way soon?
And here I was, thinking that Apple was coming to its senses when the Mini came out with a nice sturdy scratch-resistant aluminum case.
Am I the only one who thinks it's absolutely ridiculous that ipods are so susceptible to scratches and blemishes? It amazes me how many people have to uglify their gorgeous ipods with rubber skins, just so that it doesn't look like a dog's breakfast!
That said, I opted to use a near-invisible Podshield on mine from Trendygeek. Still absurd that I have to even do that though.
They already sell music videos, but the new search sure seems to be paving the way to a full-fledged video store. Why else would you really need to distinguish between audio and video search results unless they were expecting people to be seeing a lot of video in iTunes.
Come on Apple, let us buy TV shows!
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
On Slashdot, Uninformed Speculation wins every time :)
Troc.
Troc's dubious podcast and blog: http://www.trocnet.net
It is a real legitimate question to ask: why do people feel it is fine for Apple to do these things, and anathema for MS to do similar things? Why, for example, if MS were to start taking people to court for running Office under Wine, would there be a universal outcry, when if Apple starts taking people to court for buying and running X on Dells, an awful lot of people here would applaud?
How is a comment about Apples clever pricing for the Nano offtopic on a story that has Nano in the subject line? I should meta-moderate more, but I don't actually want mod points...
I paid the going retail price for a Windows screen reader and got a free Unix computer!
I already use 20gb 4g iPod as a portable drive. The interface is very clunky if you ask me. I have to have spare batteries for the connector and pray to for it to work.
In fact on my last trip, it just plain refused to work.
Disclaimer: never tried the iPodPhoto conection.
And the only way this would become a powerful offering was if there was either a cradle for the iPod to attach to the bottom of the camera (ala battery pack) or if it worked using wireless protocol. The first approach is not very feasible, as I already find my D70s + lens + speedlight to be rather heavy.
No, the Mac Shuffle was back in the late 80's on mac's with only one floppy drive (pre SE days)
I've owned a few MD units, I have to say those are some of the slickest portable media devices I've owned. Only the iPod was able to make me break away from it, and then only grudgingly because I miss the ability to record from practically any audio source.
:)
At one point I had the opportunity to disassemble one of them, the circuitry and mechanisms inside those things are, as you say, ludicrously tiny.
I'll definitely make a point to keep an eye out for those books. Sound like they might be an interesting read.
"I'm a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar."
-Hoban Washburn
I'm on Tiger and upgraded from 4.9 to 5.0 and now iTunes hangs while trying to do something with my Store purchased music. I even tried readding all my music to the Library and it hangs on any iTunes purchased music. I'm sure it some type of DRM upgrade bug... And I'm not alone check out the Apple Discussions, http://discussions.info.apple.com/ for more stories like mine.
The OP is right in that corporations are legally obligated to maximize profit for the shareholders. While your alternative visions of maximizing profit make a lot of sense for private companies, shareholders have to be convinced, or have enough faith in, the CEO/Board of Directors to pursue anything but the most obvious, straightforward strategies for making the most money. This is extremely difficult and few people can pull it off, which is why Mr Pepsi (you know who) was kicked out, and Mr Jobs is back in Apple. Basically, you have no more idea about what you're talking about than the slashdotters you criticize. Pot Kettle Black
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
You mean Mbps, or Mb/s. That is, bits per second, not bytes per second, which is what MB/s indicates. Also, "high-speed" USB 1.1 is 12 Mbps, not 11. for what it's worth.
But to the shuffle -- you're really only getting 20 Mbps (2.5 MB/s) for transfers? Or are you actually getting 20 MB/s (160 Mbps), which would be more what I'd expect?
You should have noted that they "must," as in its United States Law must. I hate to disillusion people, but "non-profits" often rack up expenses specifically to eat revenue. The paychecks of the CEO and Board of Directors has to come from somewhere! Non-profits usually also have incentives to expand and diversify their companies. What you meant to say is "charitable organizations." Non-profits can be companies that just funnel revenue in different ways than for-profit companies, and get some tax-breaks for doing it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Signature_bloc
Look at this. I think Apple gave them a press kit or something before hand or something so they could get their site up at launch time.
EDIT: Oops! Did I put someone's referral code in there? ;-)
And here's an analysis of the memory component costs of the iPod nano. The Semico guy's lowest estimate was $160 as a wholesale price for the the 4GB of flash memory.
So what does a two button mouse have to do with UNIX?
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
I predict that at some stage Apple / Pixar will be obliged to buy Cingular or Verizon to guarantee control and distribution of a platform. Difficult but not impossible. That, together, with taking the design of the next generation iPhone inhouse (with possibly Motorola manufacturing). No one who follows Apple can believe that Jobs was in anyway happy with the ROKR. IT IS BUTT UGLY COMPARED TO THE USUAL APPLE PRODUCTS.
I am not impressed by iTunes 5 at all. When I hear software going from version X.z to version Y, I expect some pretty big changes. This kind of step is similar to that we saw from iTunes 4.8 to iTunes 4.9: adding one big feature with a few other features thrown in the mix. The big feature here is ROKR and iPod nano support. I look at this like OS X 10.4 Tiger: Lots of little nicities, nothing you'll notice on top. Smart Shuffle looks useful, as will Playlist Folders. The reorganized Preferences Menu confused me for a bit, but I got used to it.
Now, what annoys me here is the fact that iTunes 5 is just now introducing features we should have seen long ago. Primarily AAC VBR, and officially endorced bookmarking. I've been converting my audiobooks to AAC and using a "Make Bookmarkable" script to hack in my bookmarking support for quite some time now. It's about time they introduced this feature, long overdue. So is their "Exclude from shuffle" option.
iPod nano
I am a current iPod Mini owner. Not a day goes by when I don't wish I had spent a little more an gotten the full-sized iPod. However, I've tried to make due. Since I upgraded my iBook's hard disk, my music collection expanded from the conservative 4 GB to a large (for my taste) 6.3 GB collection, which includes a large amount of old radio dramas which I have acquired in preparation for a road trip in which I anticipate much boredom.
One thing I never really liked about the Mini was the lack of all-around support. iPod Speaker/Docks were one in particular. Everything was built around the 3G or 4G iPods, and never seemed to say, flat out, "Yes, iPod Mini will work with this." Theoretically, the Dock connector should allow everything to work with it, but with the smaller form factor, will the Mini fit in there without putting all the stress on the connector?
Now, us Mini Owners are going to be up a creek with the nano. Since it's clear the nano is replacing the Mini, accessories for the Mini will start to disappear. Apple is notorious in my mind for not having a lot of legacy hardware support (Does the 1G or 2G iPod even have Podcast support?).
I also have another problem with the nano replacing the Mini. It's flashed based, so shouldn't it be an upgrade for the Shuffle? Apple starts with 5GB, goes to 10GB, then gives us 4GB, up to 6GB, now capping us at 4GB with a base model at 2GB (that's following minimum space, excluding Shuffle). If you're going to offer us less space, at least charge us less for it! Don't give us 6GB now, only to discontinue it in two weeks, and force us to go down to 4GB. Or Apple should at least upgrade the Mini line with 10GB and 15GB drives.
I'm not about to buy a nano. First, my music collection is too big (I hate having to pick-and-choose). Second, I like having some extra hard disk space handy (for storage, temp space, scratch disk for memory heavy applications, who knows). Third, it looks like it would be unweildy. I find it inconvinient to work the Click Wheel on my Mini because I have to bend my thumb in so far to make a full circle. I remember owning a 1G iPod for Windows. If I were to test those two, side by side, I would have chosen the 1G for comfort. Now, look at the size of the nano. Can you imagine an adult's hand trying to work that itty bitty Click Wheel?
But, yes, I know people will buy it anyway. I'm sure there's someone out there who imported one of those necklaces that can be folded into a pair of headphones from Japan, or are waiting for their iPod Femtos, so before you start flaming with all of the now redundant comments, just bear in mind that this is just my opinion.
Rawr
thanks the mod down! I really appreciate that, now no-one will be able to answer my question of:
Does iTunes offer streaming music, much like Raphosdy and MusicMatch, et al.??
Not to be overrated, lol
what? what I thought we were in the trust tree in the nest, were we not?
Someone had to say it. Anyway, where is the $$$ incentive in putting a free file format support into iPod? Apple wants to make money using their AAC, as they should. I'm afraid that ogg will never see iTunes or iPod compatibility, just like mp3 is disabled in Fedora Core, but for a much better reason. Money.
Umm, in my experience Ogg is a fine technology. It just doesn't offer anything that Apple needs.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
http://playlistmag.com/reviews/2005/09/ipodnanoacc essories/index.php?lsrc=mwrss
http://www.thecorporation.com/
Apple did a lot of laying off and shrinking of R&D before the recent change in fortunes. I don't know what you consider "post-bubble," because Apple had a lot of problems previous to the internet bubble, and as a hardware, not an internet company, mostly impervious to "The Bubble" You're also giving credit to whole corporations "HP is tanking and laying off..." where you should be looking at the CEOs at the time of these decisions. Its easy to look like a smartguy when you're being so stupid.