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'True' Video iPod Coming Soon
Moby Cock writes "Think Secret is reporting that the true video iPod is slated for announcement soon. It will have a 3.5 inch display and will eschew the mechanical click wheel in favour of a touch screen version. The 5th generation iPod released prior to the holiday season last year is described as a souped up 4G iPod with video capabilities. This new iPod will be the 'true' video iPod. It looks like there is not going to be wireless support. The article hints that the release date could be April 1 which is the 30th anniversary of Apple."
Its coming out April 1st? Oh, it's no joke then.
>It looks like there is not going to be wireless support.
I bet it has less space than a Nomad, too!
Great, now on Apr. 1st we won't know if it's a joke or not!
OTOH, they could call it the foolPod or iFool something
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
But now I'd like to introduce to you the iPod Invisa!
Holds over 5,000,000 songs, and every picture ever taken!
Best yet, when I drop it....it's floating!!!
I have a 3G iPod myself. A video iPod with a bigger screen and a touch screen would be very nice indeed. But it has been 30 years! There has to be more than just this. C'mon. Thoughts? Ideas?
Personally, I'm hoping for an Intel based Cube. Yea, I know it would compete with the mini. Just spin it as a super-mini or something. How much would you pay for a cube looking Intel based mac that is around the same size as a mini, but runs like an iMac without the screen?
I'm very responsible, when ever something goes wrong they always say I'm responsible.
How do they plan on keeping fingerprints off the screen?
Reminder: Apple owns 1/255th of the internet.
Looks like I'll have to sell my G5 after one month of ownership:-(
Having recently bought an ipod, I have been very happy with it until I read this story and am already wished I had waited. I wonder when they are going to have built in tv reception.
Contrary to popular belief, Unix is user friendly. It just happens to be particular about who it makes friends with.
This is just getting out of hand. Every few months they are coming out with new ipods just to make people think that the ipod they have now is suddenly obsolete and should be replaced.
the real question is: will it have more than 3 hours playback time so we can actually watch films on it, unlike almost every other portable video player
Anyone else worried that the touch screen is going to get worn out over time? This isn't like a PDA's touch screen that's primarily being used by a stylus; rather it's going to be constantly touched by fingers. Although now that I think about it, this seems almost like a multimedia oriented PDA with a HDD.
Sadly, PS/2 was yet another victim of USB, which doesn't care what you plug into it, the electrical slut.
I am not an iPod owner .. but I heard the following is true:
.. you have to stick to iPod or lose the ability to transport your music? Plus when your HDD dies .. you cant regain your music.
.. if you are a band and want to sell your music (with DRM) .. you have to do it on the iTunes store .. or your music will not have the protection of DRM if it's to be put on iPods (iPod owners being a massive marketshare .. this is essential for success). The alternative is DRM free mp3 .. but then you lose the ability to protect your music. I hate DRM as much as the next guy .. but this isnt helping the situation to have Apple doing this.
Two major issues-
Apple is taking advantage of their monopoly position disallowing the playing of itunes purchased music on non iPod players. This means if you bought music for your iPod
Furthermore, because Fairplay DRM is closed
No wireless? Less space than a??
Seriously with no wireless why would I want this over a Nokia 770? Other than the storage for portable use...
-Mikey P
But I could get stuff off my DirecTiVo onto it I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
If anyone can make a great portable media player, I trust Apple would be the one to do it.
Or we will just get the MacBook, Mac Mini Solo, and a new gizmo that isn't the iPod.
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
Previous slashdot stories covered rumours about a possible upcoming Apple tablet (see here and here). However, perhaps what was really going on was that Apple was putting in place patents related to this device.
Look at the patents in question. US Design Patent No. D504,899, filed on May 10, 2005, looks like a patent for the design of an Apple tablet. Yet, perhaps they refrained from calling it a tablet in the patent (they call it "an electronic device") because they actually want it to cover the (much smaller) design of the video iPod. US Patent Application No. 20060026536, filed Jan 30, 2005, is called "Gestures for touch sensitive input devices," and the images very clearly show a device that looks like a full-screen ipod with overlayed "touchwheel" (check out this news item for commentary and images.
What I'm getting at is this: ThinkSecret may very well be right (again!). The fact that these patents were filed shows that they are working on this kind of device. I think these patent applications strongly support the notion that Apple is going to try to release a next-gen device with touch-screen based input. Sounds like a cool device.
ConsultingFair.com
Here's a trick:
Every time you have a video playing in a window on your monitor, rub your finger across your forehead, then trace a circle on top of the video.
See how long you last without having to clean it.
They should stick with the wheel.
I don't mean to be troll, but there will be a certain amount of frustration shared by the early purchases of the original ("fake"?) video iPod. Now, I suppose Apple can learn a lot of lessons from a beta version of their video device and will probably generate a lot of excitement. If I had just bought a new device a week ago, I would be upset with the new iteration being released so close to the first. Way to reward beta testers!
From Apple's perspective the issue, as I see it, is the timing of the announcement. If they are truely going to be selling this starting April 1st, then they have potentially lost a few months of video iPod sales while people wait - much like they did with the switch to the x86 architecture. Maybe this is their method of "cooking" their accounting books. 'Lets look like we have a huge loss this Quarter, and then blow away our investors with an amazing quarter when everyone purchases the new technology.'
Proof by very large bribes. QED.
Wait, so you mean Apple has bigger plans for the video store on iTunes? Come on, why is this even news? I mean it's a no brainer that Apple wants you to buy videos from them, and if you're buying their videos you must be using their player right?
It will be nice to watch a video with somebody's grubby fingerprints all over the screen.
Is the buy-use-buy-new cycle going faster and faster? I remember when I was young back in the 80s, and Commodore 64 lasted for years without the need to upgrade. The programmers could always tweak it a little bit and get some more out of the hardware. How many iterations of Apple's iPod do we need? I know this is about a "real video iPod", but why don't they make a quality machine that doesn't need more upgrades for the next coming years? Is it the almighty dollar that they're chasing with these frequent product upgrades? I guess I'm getting old.
Thanks for reading... now, mod me offtopic or something.
But I'm still waiting for the eight pound, 10-inch screen iPod that Steve Jobs announced during his podcast demo at MacWorld last month. :P
i am pretty sure that tv support in any form, directly through apple, is as dead as floppies. it just doesn't fit the disdain for some outdated technologies; and tv on computers always has been an add-on (or -in). to use the content, and make it available in a computer/internet-based wa - that is apple. being a bit early sometimes doesn't pay; but sometimes it pays big... btw.: i haven't used the tv-thingy for 10 years or so; but i download some shows from itms, and watch podcasts of the german tv news. so maybe i am the customer apple envisions (won't watch video on an i-thingy, though). have bought much more music since itms, also.
And given ThinkSecret's track record over the past 6 months, you should take all this "News" with a truckload of salt.
When the video-capable iPod was released, Apple was very clear to position it as the latest and greatest iPod music player, with the added ability to play video. It's an excellent iPod. It plays video very well. If you buy a product and it meets or exceeds your expectations, why should you care if a better version comes out six months later? Welcome to the Computer Age.
Besides, the rumor sites and press pushed it as the "video iPod." Apple never represented video as its primary function. Look at the iPod site. It's an iPod first, and a video player second.
If you're Apple, you're gonna get bashed if you sit on your laurels and don't keep coming out with newer, better, less expensive versions of the iPod. It seems Apple also gets bashed for continually improving their product lineup. Which makes sense, I suppose. I mean, Apple should really take a breather, because nobody wants the option of buying improved iPods, and Apple's competitors certainly need somet time to catch up.
Read the EFF's Fair Use FAQ
I, for one, am not in the slightest surprised.
It's a rumor on an inconsistent website about a proposed product launch on April 1st.
WTF.
"MY APOCALYPTIC TENOR HAS NOT BEEN DISPELLED!" - T-Rex, qwantz.com
WTF do they mean by the ,i>true video iPod? Is this thing on a higher plane of existence or something? iPod 6D?
"MY APOCALYPTIC TENOR HAS NOT BEEN DISPELLED!" - T-Rex, qwantz.com
You see, I love the mechanical click-wheel. It's the thing I most like about the iPod. And why I've contemplated getting one over say the Archos or DishNetwork's variant of Archos' unit.
Now, they're going to get rid of the click wheel, my guess, they'll go widescreen and sideways. Which is what I've always said a video unit should be.
But using the screen, great...now you NEVER get rid of finger-prints. (This will be Apple's big boon-doggle.) Rather, they should have just moved the click-wheel to the backside. Oh well...guess I don't need to buy one now.
;->
[All Your Fish Are Belong To Us]
Given how grotty the current ipods become just from handling, I wonder how are they going to handle a screen where you are forced to touch it?
That's typical for a business, especially a technology one. What's ridiculous is the people that do buy into it.
Now, something where the whole face of an iPod sized box was a 16:9 HDTV display would be neat.
Interestingly, flash memory SanDisk is now #2 in MP3 players. There's an advantage in being the biggest maker of flash memory in this business.
Since the entire screen is the control(s), I don't see how you could possibly use this iPod inside of a protective case. I hope Apple is going to use something like this. Otherwise, the screen would be quickly ruined.
Since the entire screen is the control(s), I don't see how you could possibly use this iPod inside of a protective case.
I hope Apple would use something like this. Otherwise, the screen will be quickly ruined and make the iPod Nano look indestructible in comparison.
Now I'll have to buy yet another iPod.
First and foremost I am a huge Apple fan but there is a trend starting to develop that is one of the reasons the stock is dropping like a rock. They are bringing out item after item and quickly replacing it with something better. Why don't they just wait a few months and make it perfect. The video ipod was not released that long ago. For the first time I am starting to hear of people saying they are going to wait to see if something better is coming out because they heard a rumor of a better one coming out soon. This video rumor is a perfect example. I was thinking of buying a video ipod but I will certainly wait. Apple's Intel computers have had rumors of problems but hasn't even come out. Many people are waiting to let others test drive it. I love new products but lets keep some space between improvement releases. I am tired of buying something only to learn at the end of the week there is a better one coming out Monday.
4G iPods have a touch-sensitive wheel area, _not_ a mechanical click wheel. Unless I'm totally incorrect. Wtf are they talking about here? iPods haven't had a mechanical click wheel for many years.
and will eschew the mechanical click wheel in favour of a touch screen version
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Seriously, what are they doing, the mechanical click wheel is freakin sweet. That is IMHO the one think that put IPOD above all of the other music/media players out there. If they can find room on the nano for a mechanical click wheel, surely they can do the same on the new video model.
So I can save some power when I am looking at notes or something.
There is a spark in every single flame bait point.
1) Apple really was incorporated on April 1st (people don't seem to know that) and it will be the actual 30th birthday to the day.... though Steve Jobs was not at Apple for the 20th anniversary, there was a special Mac released.
2) the current iPod is referred to as "iPod with video" and not "video iPod" on Apple.com. that specific wording is why people think Apple is reserving "video iPod" for something new. i guess technically the iPod with Video is considered a modified version of the latest iPod, and not a flat out video playback device. it also may explain those patents that surfaced recently about a touchscreen-like thing that made the rumor site go bananas thinking an Apple tablet was coming. (here is one example). add the reoccurring "Apple to buy Palm" rumor and you could write a book full of speculation wrapping up all these rumors into one crazy device if you want.
anyway, that's the background on those two bits.....
I thought you had to have one to abuse it?
Apple owns 1/255 of the _addressing space_ of IPv4, namely 17.x.x.x (/8). This is _not_ the same as saying it owns 1/255ths of the entire internet, whose size does not adhere to addressing space.
Book it. Imagine all the glory and price of the 20th Anniversary Mac... times ten!
Good luck cleaning your mind off the wall.
watch the keynote. he said the next ipod would be huge! an 8lb ipod with a 10in screen! now that's the real video iPod. :P
well, europe is a bit ahead with DVB-H ... but this still follows the paradigm of network (in the sense of tv-station) provided programs. this will work out, and very successfully for DVB-H.
but the point is, that apple is not interested in this market. they enable a "new" concept large-scale: user-selected, on-demand media. and i like it, and won't wait for a show/song/news again. and i don't consume too much of it, but i get what i want, when i want, and pay then. well, i personally couldn't care less about real-time news (e.g. sports) ...
as happened with the ipod radio remote, apple even may offer old-time interfaces - but mostly will let 3rd parties do that. but they definitely won't build a DVB-H receiver in an ipod.
I wonder if it will be an eight pounder with a ten inch screen?
...but you will be pleased to hear that Apple abandoned the 10 inch model for a new 20 inch iPod that has an Intel processor, up to 500GB of storage space and a built in camera!!!
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
I'll go first:
Portable device that plays music - $100
And it has a hard drive - $150
It plays videos too - $50
On a large screen - $100
Which offers touch control - $225
And it has the Apple "iPod" product name - $74
Total cost = $699
would make more sense than a touch screen to me..
Cause this is the proper place for a Newton or Newton emulator to live!
i own an ipod shuffle. i bought it right when the shuffles first went on sale. i bought the shuffle instead of a big ipod because i wanted to save a little money, i was waiting for one single solitary feature: AUDIO THAT DOESN'T SKIP BETWEEN TRACKS.
name the one thing that a record player, an 8-track player, a tape player, and a CD player can all do, but that an iPod can not. that feature is to not have a half a second of silence between tracks. yes, yes, i know that "the MP3 format isn't easily made to fade one track seamlessly into another track" but i don't care if it's easy, it's obviously *possible*, so that fact that it hasn't been done is a travesty.
look: i listen to albums, not songs; and my favorite album is Tool's "Lateralus"; and until i can go from 'Parabol' to 'Parabola' without a moment of silence inbetween, or (worse) having to fade the last half a second of one track into the first half a second of the next track, i won't buy that damn contraption. so you don't like Tool? maybe you like Queen's "News of the World", where 'We Will Rock You' refuses to match up with 'We Are The Champions'.
bah. is this really a ridiculous thing to request? is it really THAT hard? i mean, i figure there is some kind of input stream for the MP3 data; can't that stream be buffered for two seconds, and when the read-ahead algorithm finds the end of the stream, can't it append the stream for the next MP3? here let me answer my own question: yes, it could.
i'd love to have an ipod that does video, and i'd pay five bills to get one, but if it can't even play music right, what good is it?
end rant.
I bought an ipod nano in October. Within minutes it was scratched. Within a couple of months, it was superceded by the 'untrue' video ipod.
Now the 'untrue' video ipod is being superceded by the 'true' one, and in the space of 6 months I will have an ipod that is 2 generations old.
I think it's time Apple slow down, I'm not going to spend $1200 a year collecting ipods, and I can't imagine "the masses" will either.
If however they released one robust, sturdy, feature-rich ipod that could be firmware-updated, I would happily purchase it, because it would have a lifespan that justified it.
As it is, the next 'portable media thingy' I buy will be a PSP.
Sony's PSP will be completely undermined as anything but a games machine. To this day, I still can't understand why Sony didn't put in a large HDD instead of that stupid UMD drive.
Procrastination Man strikes again!
They could have both a normal set of controls and a full (small obviously) screen just by going to a normal clamshell design. closed up, fits in pocket and works like a normal iPod, opened up to watch vids.
'True' video iPod? Already got a Sony PSP, thanks. ^_- b (In white even, god bless Japan.)
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
More crap their kids demand for Christmas. Will this be another "must have" accessory kids must have in order to be popular like all the other kids?
yea, but back then my CD player didn't skip because it was padded by the $300 i saved not buying an ipod...
Actually, there will be wireless after all.
It turns out the technology will be coming in just under the wire!
Hyuck.
What would be interesting were this to happen, is if the interface on the device looked just like Front Row but controlled through the touch screen. Were the thing to ever get wireless, then through the same Front Row interface, actually control Front Row running on a separate Mac, perhaps even a headless Mac mini. Thus it would become a remote control as well for a home entertainment system. Using it to select the music/videos you want to play. It could also have sync ability to download stuff from the Mac onto the device so you can transport it around and at someone elses place, stream video or music to that persons Mac media center for instant playing. Of course, it would need damn good battery life. But then, if this thing has a docking station with power, maybe this at that point becomes the boom box system that was rumoured.
Anyway, the point is, if they start to use the Front Row interface on it, they start to be able to bring all this stuff together under one interface.
A handheld based around Inkwell
Some folks have it working in principle using a Nokia 770 and Einstein.
Since the entire screen is the control(s), I don't see how you could possibly use this iPod inside of a protective case.
;-) So who cares if the controls are disabled.
1) You obviously haven't been looking at the current lineup of 3rd party iPod cases, many cover the clickwheel (which is a touch sensitive material as well) and you can still control the iPod even with this covered, when the 3G iPod's came out with the too-sensitive clickwheel, these cases actually made the iPod more usable as they kept casual brushing with pocket linings and such from activating the clickwheel.
2) A case does not have to allow access to controls to still be a usable case to people. The slipcase that comes with the Nano does not allow you to access the clickwheel without taking it out.
2) If the screen is being covered up by the case, you can't do much video watching can you?
I didn't like this the first time when it was called the Sony Watchman. There was just something utterly sad about staring at a 2 inch tv screen. What loser is so tied to video entertainment that they can't get enough of it sitting on their couch, so they have to take it with them on a tiny screen?
Woops, I mean, i, Fool
Cross platform means I think I wanna coldfire Mac OS X box.
At first it was a mere capacity war, but they've shifted the playing field with the mini, nano, and now video iPods. I know people are often wishing they held out for the next big iPod evolution, but these days these evolutions are occuring so often that waiting simply isn't an option. Competitors are trying to copy the iPod, but by the time they finally make it to the market, their target has morphed from a clunky 20gig iPod to a tiny, polished flash player with a color screen, completely changing the focus for what the market values in a player.
And this is why Apple is so secretive about what it's working on. This element of surprise is what allows it to keep its lead over its competitors. It continues to innovate its product in logical, evolutionary steps while fighting feature bloat. And of course each revision looks even more attractive than the last. Its compeitors are too busy trying to out-do yesterday's news.
... iNTEL base mac that ...
/usr /usr/local/ /Users and so forth. That would be plenty of speed and decent power for running my home server while my wife uses it for mail and TV.
Not until Steve relents with his joke about switching. Selling both, yes. I want a Mac Mini with one of the dual-core G4+ CPUs from FreeScale, a Gig of RAM, a small, high-speed 10 or 20G disk for boot, root and swap, and a 120G disk for
There's no possible way that this story is true. Just think about the ill will this would create - the iPod being replaced, for all intents, before its warranty is up? I know that I'd feel like I was cheated, and I definitely wouldn't be alone.
The current Video iPod still has a lot of mileage left in it. Releasing a new one after this little time has passed strikes me as an idiotic move, and I don't really see Apple making it.
Goo goo g'joob.
Apple has a few screws loose if they think coming out with a new iPod product every 6 months is a good thing.
While I am all for innovation, there is also a question of blowing the wad too soon.
With every new Apple release there is always going to be a large percentage of customers that get burned. Because Apple is so secretive you can't make a wise decision on purchasing Apple's products. Buy a product at full price one day (Apple rarely discounts), and the next day Apple comes out with something 4 times faster, or more capacity, or more features, or whatever. Anybody buying the so called 5th gen Video iPod will be sour when Apple releases a better version only 6 months later.
This is going to hurt Apple in the long run because they are developing a reputation of being deceptive, not secretive, forcing customers to pay full price for a product that becomes obsolete the next day. At least if Apple practices slowly discouting product until their next release (like the REST of the technology market does), then it wouldn't be so bad when someone bought what was the state of the art iPod one day for $200 and then it is replaced with a new version at $500. Apple frequently releases new better products CHEAPER then the previous generations that we sold only the day before.
If Apple releases a revamped iPod in April, then I think they have lost touch with their customers and reputation for being a considerate company, instead churning out incremental upgrades on a regular basis, screwing early adopter all for the almighty dollar.
Apple has become Microsoft.
If Apple can't wait until next holiday season to hype up a new Video iPod then I will have lost all respect for them.
I haven't thought of anything clever to put here, but then again most of you haven't either.
If I had mod points, you'd have won yourself over to an infinite resource of +5 E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G.S...!
Of all kinds and sexiness... HAHAHA!.. hehe..hehe.. HAHAHA!... hehe.... hehe.. hehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA fuck NIBITCH!
(Does this trip you out?)
Nobody's gay for Mole-Man.
If I buy an iPod video on April 1st, will a guy in a limo come and install everything for me?
I am a viral sig. Please copy me and help me spread. Thank you.
Offhand, the way I see it would be an opaque "touchsleeve" that the iPod would rest in. The screen could be viewed the "normal" way it is now or wide-screened with a click (or just removing it from the sensitive casing). If it's in "normal" mode, in fact, the screen under the touchsleeve could always display the same clickwheel you're used to so it would be familiar-looking. ;-)
;-) And DS ports! Hehe...
A bit weird, perhaps, but it would get around the obvious huge expense of a big, high-resolution touchscreen, as well as making screen-smudging and -scratching not a factor. Put some beefier chips in it and some enterprising folk could make some neat games for it, too.
The 5G iPod, while it may be a 4G with video capabilities, still plays video. Hence, it IS a video iPod. I have one, use it to watch Aqua Teen Hunger Force on my breaks.
Do we REALLY want a touch screen iPod? I have a hard enough problem keeping my iPod clean. Sounds like an excuse for Apple to sell some type of proprietary cleaning supplies to me.
Truthfully, the only thing that could really make this better is a better battery life when playing videos. You SUPPOSEDLY get two hours on the 30 gig 5G and three hours on the 60 gig 5G. Its annoying, you loose battery life halfway through Sound of Music. Its why most of the videos I keep on there are stuff like South Park, ATHF, and clips from Saturday Night Live, as its almost impossible to watch a movie on there, although I was able to watch all of Song of the South with one charge, but that ment no music before, and plugging it back in to charge when I finished watching the movie. Still, gives me something to do at the laundry mat.
Yay slashdot, once again bringing us all the unconfirmed useless bullshit from sources that probably don't have a clue what they're talking about. I suppose we should just axe the 'news' part from the slogan, and replace it with 'rumours'
Go Team.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
You sound like a cheapskate fashion elitist who doesn't have a clue as to how the system works.
"What? Saks updates its collection every few months? So I can't buy one outfit today and be able to brag to my friends that I am on top of the fashion world for the next few years? Oh, the horror. I have lost all respect for Saks, that evil inconsiderate Microsoft of a company."
Either accept paying the bill every few months to have the latest fashion, or quit buying fashion in your technology.
What foppery you present us with. Grow up.
I'm glad they're so quick to rush products out :) I'm going to spend another 300 on this new IPOD before my brand new IPOD 5g has had a chance to break.
:)
Dam they're fast.
I predicted this actaully. A real video Ipod would have a better screen than the 5G. The screen should cover the entire face of the Ipod and be touch sensitive. Looks like they're goign to do just that.
Pretty cool design if they do.
I just want one for free... cause i just bought a 5g!
I will not buy another Apple product. The last unit I had (Apple Shuffle) die after just 2 months of normal use. Apple product needs to do more quality assurance.
Seriously, they suggested this very idea on their last show... This seems like someone just thought 'Hey that's a good idea' and decided to post a rumour about it on their website.
Or am I crazy?
Everybody including me thinks that putting the controls directly on the screen is silly. I was just thinking, why not make the back side of the ipod touch sensitive? You can easily stroke the back of the ipod with your fingers while holding it horizontally (I presume horizontal for widescreen video). The ipod can then provide visual feedback on its interface on the front.
Can you say Newton?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Think about it... the whole world would be one big club, with synch'd house music, and gyrating-pelvic dancing in the streets!!!
Haven't you paid attention to the commercials? Its all just silhouettes dancing to music you'd easily find in the hippest of clubs.
iPods are their new medium, since MOST clubs aren't open ALL day, we need another way to know who nearby is open to a sexual encounter.
Maybe, if you've contracted a disease you'll get the sad iPod face and directions to a clinic.
Welcome to the Worldwide 21st Century Digital iPod/True/A&F/Bud Light Meet Market! ;D
Log In. Log Out. Log In. Log Out. shit! oh no! Log Out! Log Out!!! OOOooOOoohhhh... it is now safe to shut down all of the sex.
Oh well, at least we'll be able to find "videopodcast" content easier once this stuff goes mainstream.
No wireless? Less space than a Nomad? Lame.
This means if you bought music for your iPod .. you have to stick to iPod or lose the ability to transport your music? Plus when your HDD dies .. you cant regain your music.
.. and then it dies in 4 or 5 years or whatever (flash or HD failure) I should buy an iPod again if I want to carry that music around?? Or, eat my investment in all the songs I'd bought. That's ridiculous. You are telling me this isn't as bad as giving OEM's a discount for being an exclusive MSFT shop? Tell me, in 5 years, if someone else comes out with an mp3 player that's vastly superior in features and design .. people are going to have to THROW AWAY/re-buy their HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS in music investment in order to switch to it? In other words, because of Apple's propreitery file format lock in .. a better mp3 player will be locked out of the market. It would be illegal for the new mp3 player to "break" the format so that customers can use the iTunes music.
.. it's cool and fun now .. until 10 years from now.
Obviously, if you buy music from Apple, it will play on Apple's player. Don't like it? Don't use an iPod or iTunes. You have a choice.
So basically, you are telling me that if I spend hundreds of dollars on music for my iPod
Apple isn't being clear about the fact that when you buy music from iTunes your portable music player is going to be iPod forever unless you plan on re-purchasing your music. It's like getting a tattoo
Yes, the OEM's "had a choice" too.
I have had an iPod mini, iPod photo and now a vPod. They've been great, but one shortcoming of all these ipods which I come up against occasionally, particularly while using it in my car, is that you can't see the clickwheel in the dark. Thus I see a virtual touch-screen clickwheel as an obvious and much needed improvement, mainly because you'd be able to see it in the dark. That it allows for a larger display in the same (or smaller) form-factor would of course be a nice bonus. Yeah, you'll have to deal with fingerprints/smudges, but that's what a shirt sleeve is for. I'll take that minor nuisance in exchange for the night-time visibility of the scrollwheel and larger display.
--- What?
We've already fogotten the rumors from the last conference. Apple will release a mac mini with frontrow 2 that has dvr functionality in conjunction with this vIpod where the two complete the media experience suggested by the existance of Tivo and PSP. With all the content deals Apple's been working on as well as the Disney deal, Apple's not so much poised to rule the living room as it is to moving the TV watching experience out of the living room entirely.
And why bother with this vIpod anyway, does it not make tons more sense to invest in some kind of heads up display/glasses unit that turns that crappy little screen into a 12 ft personal movie screen? Didn't somebody announce that at CES?
no joke.. I ripped my entire CD collection (>300 CDs) with LAME -V2 --vbr-new and half of the tracks end prematurely when played on my 4G iPod. They play just fine in iTunes, but the iPod cuts the last 3-90 seconds (never consistent) from the end of about half the tracks.
I now ended up losslessly encoding my CD collection and transcode to AAC 128kbps just for the stupid iPod. It's asinine that my TIVO!! has no trouble with LAME VBR, but the iPod, which is supposed to be a music player!! does not. This thing is so getting replaced with a NOMAD as soon as its battery dies. :(
My complaint is that if you walk into a shop right now and drop $400 on an ipod, in a couple of months it'll have been superceded.
If you walk into a shop and buy a PS2, PSP, XBOX or any other 'pricey toy', you will get years from it.
Y'know, that's funny, 'cause my 3G iPod, which is 2 1/2 years old now, and (by your logic of counting all iPod lines as the same) probably a dozen generations out of date...and yet, it still works, it still plays all my songs—tell me just how it's been "superseded"?
If you have to have the latest and greatest, then yeah, you're going to have a frustrating time keeping up (especially if you automatically assume that the most recently released iPod is the Best Ever, even if it's the Nano, which is a completely different product line than the full-sized iPod...). On the other hand, if you can hold your manly ego in check for a while, you might realize that if the iPod Nano was good enough for you then, it just might still be good enough for you now...it's not like Apple has magically taken away its features, or activated some kind of failsafe that corrodes away the insides and ages it all 20 years overnight...
Just chill. Unless you're very unlucky, your Nano will not need to be "superseded" for another few years, and for the same money you would be spending on the iPod Video, you can buy the 10G iPod Holo, that plays holographic movies and is controllable by brainwaves ;-)
Dan Aris
Fun. Free. Online. RPG. BattleMaster.
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I don't care about any of the other cosmetic stuff. PLEASE up the resolution to at least NTSC standard. 320x200 (or 240) sucks big time when watching it on a big screen. And I'm NOT about to pay 1.99 for low resolution video!
Man, I remember when that thing came out. Actually I bet I have the MacWorld with it on the cover, if I dug around some (sad, I know).
I hadn't looked at it in a while, but it's interesting to note how similar it is to the iMacs of today. Sure, the iMacs don't have those big Bose speakers running up and down the side, but they have a lot of the same general design features.
Also, I think the 20th Anniversary Mac was built with a lot of laptop parts, which at the time was a fairly odd thing to do in a desktop machine; now we're seeing a lot of that in their products.
I find it most interesting because Apple, over the years, has acquired a reputation as a company that gets into a market way ahead of its time (Set-Top boxes with Pippin, handhelds with Newton, etc.), gets burned, and then retreats out of that market for what seems like forever. It's interesting to look back and see a one-off product like the 20th A.M. coming back (in small amounts) in main-line products, years later.
"Ladies and gentlemen, my killbot features Lotus Notes and a machine gun. It is the finest available."
I thought the whole point of the iPod was that it was easy to use. The clickwheel was supposed to be this great innovation that really completed the UI and let users easily navigate long menus with just their thumbs. Is getting rid of the clickwheel and adopting a touchscreen really a good idea?
120 characters for a sig? That's bloody useless.
Cut your own tracks...
If two sequential tracks on an album are effectively one work, there are plenty of good, and even free, mixing programs that you can use to create a single merged track with the fade you want.
I don't see how you could possibly use this iPod inside of a protective case.
You can buy a 12-pack of PDA screen protectors that will last the lifetime of the iPod for under ten bucks.
Darn tootin' it ain't rocket science.
There shouldn't even be an issue.
There's no technical reason, given a tiny bit of buffering, why a player can't have the beginning of the next track ready to play the instant the last track ends - especially when the unit has a "fade" feature. Default should be a 0-second "fade", not a gap interrupting the music.
We're paying hundreds of $$$ for gizmos that are entirely capable of uninterrupted playback, yet track transitions are disturbingly discernable silent gaps.
The whole point is to make it EASY, even TRIVIAL to load music on a player and play in a manner the listener expects. There's no friggin' reason why someone should have to dork around with merging tracks, setting bookmarks, etc. Yes, those duct-tape fixes can be done without much difficulty, but the whole point is fixing something that shouldn't be broken in the first place.
Can we get a "-1 Wrong" moderation option?
While I think Apple may very well be releasing an iPod with the screen covering the whole face of the machine, I doubt it. Firstly 3,5 Inches (diagonally?) is really small, and using that for touch sensitive input is going to be difficult. It might well happen, but it won't be that revolutionary if Apple can't make the touch sensiive user interface worthwhile.
Rather, as has been inferred in a number of articles on Apple's touch sensitive scroll wheel patent recently, is that Apple also bought out a company that makes devices that have touch sensitive input for more than one finger or touch point at once. This allows far more in the way of gestures than a single touch point. Combine this with a scroll wheel, which may or may not need multiple touch points (it would make it easier to use), and you have an idea of where Apple is going.
Personally, I'm still hopinng for the day when Apple makes a simple digital scratch pad that replaces a block of writing paper. Lighter and smaller than a tablet PC (which are too heavy, too big and too complex), this would be the ultimate dream of students the world over.
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Here's another good idea. Change channels on your HDTV by throwing tennis balls at touch sensitive spots on the screen.
(consider the above suggestion a copyright) ;)
The touchscreen will get destroyed unless they come up with some new polymer that is stronger, or use a flip cover.
I just got a video iPod, and given the reviews stating that the screen is easier to scratch than earlier iPods, I refused to use it until the screen was safely behind a hard plastic cover (and it still had a tiny scratch before I even took off the new-product plastic cover). Kindof hard to put a protective cover over the screen when you need to touch it.
But will it run Linux?
Are for idiots who buy crappy headphones. If the music doesn't sound like you want it to sound, the problem isn't the mix, it's you. Philistine.
can I have it?
"You can see I know very little about pimp policy." George McGovern.
I bought a Video IPOD on Monday at $395 and by Thursday the 9th, the price had already dropped by $50.00. I was also listening to the C|Net Buzz Podcast and they stated that the release of the IPOD was a rumor, but a price drop in the virtually new V Ipod almost confirms it. My question is, won't the touch screen be a true pain. The smudges are going to drive viewers nuts!