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Handicapping the 6th Generation iPod
An anonymous reader writes "It's that time of the year again, when Apple rumors bloom with the fall foliage and the press is inundated with hype and wishful thinking. MP3 Newswire has a reasonably sober article addressing 17 of those rumors, even giving odds on the validity of each. From the article: 'It is the peripheral manufacturers that now have a heavy sway on what features the iPod will add to its 6th generation. The peripheral market has done more to cement Apple's proprietary technology as a standard than Apple itself, adding to the iPod's dominance. Mr. Jobs will not upset that balance without good reason and Apple's recent deal with Creative to make iPod peripherals shows he wants to feed it further. But the iPod needs something new to keep it fresh and ahead of the competition.'"
I think Apple's priorities here are fairly close to the average consumers (especially those who support copyright even if they dislike restrictive DRM). I trust Steve Jobs' business intuition enough that I don't believe the next generation iPod will be crippled, etc. Who knows what features apple has coming? It could be a new look, a new feel, maybe lighter and brighter? To be honest, I don't know what else I want out of an MP3 player, except easier booting of linux on the damn thing, for whatever reason I'd want that..
There is only one thing that could actively cripple the iPod, and that is DRM.
Apple's machine has an insurmountable mindshare lead on the competition. They have reached the point where their product name is synonymous with it's purpose. Tell 50 people that you're going to the store to buy a DAP and they'll have no idea what you're talking about, but if you tell them you're going to buy an iPod, they'll smile and tell you all about how they think iPod's are the bee's knees.
However, if Apple falls into the trap of DRMing the iPod/iTunes interface to the point where it becomes too difficult for the average person to use quickly and efficiently (read: anything that takes more than 30 seconds will lose the average person's attention span), just to appease the music conglomerates, people will very quickly lose interest.
Luckily for Apple, they're smart enough to know this, and the powers that be in the recording industry are quickly realizing that they need Apple more than Apple needs them.
Correction: Apple sabotaged Motorola's ability to be the one profitting from that phone.
Eventually you'll see your iPhone, but that time will not be until Apple is the only force behind it.
"iPod Home Entertainment System = 125:1 - Like the in-dash iPod I think it is inevitable, with an Apple widscreen TV connected to an Apple Mac mini-based DVR with dock for whatever the future top-of-the-line iPods will offer. I just don't think it is on the near horizon."
:)
You don't need a "ipod dock on a mini" to accomplish attaching a mini to any HDTV input, you just need to be able to get the content to it easily somehow. One friend of mine has had a mini attached to his HDTV for awhile now, and have most of his DVD's on the HD for play. The mini comes with a remote already, all that is missing is convenient movie sales via ITunes, or perhaps it shoud be renamed IMedia. And that seems to be a sure bet, given the "It's Showtime" announcement on Thursday.
IMHO we are on the cusp of a change in the way A/V is delivered to our tubes.... er.. i mean plasma/lcd/DLP/etc...
As much as I'm going to be burned alive for saying this, the reality is that no one outside of the Slashdot/IT/geek-cred camp cares (or even knows) about OGG support. You could do a poll of 100 people anywhere on the planet and maybe 1 or 2 of them would know what OGG is, and of those 1 or 2, I'd be amazed if they would request it on a DAP.
People know what an MP3 is, and talking about OGG and AAC and Apple Lossless just confuses them. Confusion leads to aversion. Aversion leads to fewer sales for Apple. Hence, you're going to have to get by without your OGG supporting iPod.
I'd love it as a "silent" feature, and have itunes be able to encode and play ogg as well.. they don't have to advertise or promote it, just have it there for people who want it.
IANAAE (I Am Not An Apple Engineer), but I imagine that adding such a feature would inherently add some amount of extra work to their schedule (and thusly to the cost of the unit itself). Why would Apple want to add a feature that is only important to an extremely small minority, that may add quite a bit to the overall cost of either the R&D or the unit itself?
Has anyone realized that pretty much all of these rumors, if real, would be crap? Theres far better things you could put in a media device. For one why don't they have a different form factor and make a longer screen, that could change orientation like many handhelds to give better movie playback? Or even better a SCRATCH RESISTANT SURFACE?
1) Replaceable faceplates
This is a HUGE issue for me. I'd like the iPod to have snap-in faceplates in various colors, and some patterns like flowers and camoflauge. White is just so... boring.
2) 3D interface
I think, with the color screens, we need to get rid of the boring list interface and do some sort of 3D spatial interface. Imagine flying through your playlist!!!
3) Integrated camera, and bluetooth headset
Get rid of the accident prone earbuds, and go with one of those cool bluetooth headsets that the business guys wear for their phones. And a camera, so I can upload pictures to all of my friends!!
4) Wireless connectivity, and IM integration
I'm thinking like a slide-out keyboard, so I can chat with my friends whenever I'm near a Wifi spot. That would rock!
These are just some of the ideas I think would make the iPod a much better product. I mean, it's a good entry into the MP3 player market, to be sure. But if Apple wants to be taken seriously, they need to start including some basic features. I don't want to pay that much money and then just be able to play MP3's.
- You can't retrieve Songs from the iPod. (yes there are programms available)
/. crowd, also doesn't do much to the average user either. Besides, the /. crowd is the ones who know of ways around these restrictions.
Sure, but the only real reason one would need to retrieve songs from an iPod would be after a re-format, and god knows that the average user simply does not reformat all that often. Hence this DRM is not really a worry for them.
- Content purchased at iTunes has DRM on it. (yes there are programms or you could burn a purchased track and then rip/mix/burn it to remove the DRM.
Agreed, but I would be willing to bet that the majority of iPod owners get their music from CD's that are ripped into iTunes. While the iTMS may be terribly successful as an online retailer, it's still got a ways to go before it catches up with physical album sales. This DRM, while inconvenient to the
I've always had a theory that the DRM on iPod's is so easy to break by intention. Apple may be being forced to apply some DRM, but they don't have to put good DRM in place.
There are extremely tough glasses, eg as used on quality watches.
And yet, every time speculation on the next generation iPod starts, people ask for:
- ogg (Face it, it's the BetaMax of this decade. Cross encode to mp3 and get over it.)
- replacable battery (plastic latch => worse design. Battery packs are available for those who need it)
- FM radio (can be bought as an extention => extra sales to Apple + lower unit cost)
- WiFi (which can not replace a wired connection => extra cost for Apple)
- BlueTooth (headsets are not universally accepted yet => unknown by Joe Sixpack => no benefits for Apple)
- CF, SD card bay (ext. for camera available. oh, to transfer music? get real.)
A new one:
- IM integration (I am listening to music in my world => do not disturb)
For what it's worth, in Japan the major mobile phone companies (DoCoMo, Vodafone/Softbank, AU) have promoted music-player phones since January or so. My current phone (DoCoMo N702iD) even plays AAC. The latest DoCoMo line of phones uses the fact that they all have music player software as their main selling point in advertising.
However, the ads specifically mention their WMA compatibility, so maybe Apple might be missing the boat in this market.
(and, of course, one of the phones is ATRAC compatible. Care to guess which manufacturer makes that one?)
Correction: Those are things that we ask for.
You're falling into the trap of assuming that we are the average consumer group, when in reality, the average iPod consumer is the 14 year old kid whose parents bought him or her and iPod for a birthday present to keep the kid from bitching about how all of his friends have one, but they don't.
Do you think that a kid who believes 50 Cent to be the voice of his generation is going to have any idea about open formats and removable memory/battery benefits?
Just because a group happens to be VERY vocal about their desires, they are not necessarily the majority, or even the most desired demographic.
I might move between up to 5 computers during a week. Is there anything wrong with me wanting to take my music with me on my iPod?
Plug in iPod. Play songs stored on iPod via iTunes on the computer.
No, you can't permanently download the songs from the iPod to the computer - maybe use a DVD instead, and get a backup in the process? Even Apple's DRM allows you to have 5 (IIRC) authorised copies of a song you've downloaded from iTMS on various computers and players.
Next time you comment, make sure you know what you're talking about. Sheesh. Bet you'd be one of the first to cry FUD on a Microsoft says something bad about Linux story.
I bought a Treo so I wouldn't have to carry a phone AND a PDA AND an iPod everywhere I go - now I'm down to Treo + iPod. If Apple would make a combined iPod + PDA + phone, I would buy it in a minute. The Newton had features that the rest of the PDA community still can't hold a candle to - why don't they dust those designs off and have another look at them?
:-)
Hey, and if they could put a spot on the back for credit cards and money, I could leave my wallet at home too!
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
Just to clarify, transparent aluminum oxide or alumina, a ceramic, is often confused by the news as "transparent aluminum metal". Alumina is one of the hardest materials next to diamond. The polycrystalline mineral form of aluminum oxide is called corundum while both sapphire and ruby are transparent single crystal forms with various impurities giving color. Sapphire single crystals are grown commercially and sold as substrates for making gallium nitride LEDs, the blue ones, because a gallium nitride substrate is too costly. Presumably, watch makers also purchase this single crystal sapphire for use in watch faces.
The new device will be 4" by 6" by 0.75. The unit will be white plastic. All sides will be flat except all corners are rounded. There are no controls on the device except a hold switch. There will be an iPod dock port and a headphone jack and an infrared port. The entire front will be a touch sensitive 16:9 color screen. The front is touch sensitive. The device will have a rechargable battery and a hard disk. The battery is user replacable and the unit can be opened relatively easily by the user.
The device will work in multiple modes. As an iPod you hold it vertically. The entire screen shows the list of artists, menus and so forth. Touch anywhere on the screen and a translucent image of a click wheel appears. The location of the wheel varies a bit according to unit orientation and touch position. You use it as usual. Drag around the circle to scroll, tap or press to click in the five positions. The unit senses strength of touch by pressure on the case and/or variation in area of contact. Bluetooth allows loading stuff on the device albeit slowly, and using BT headphones.
The unit also works as a video player. The click wheel appears on top of the video as you touch. BT allows slow file transfers. Of course the port is high speed.
The unit also works as a learning remote control. A set of remote buttons appears on touch. It is an IR remote for CE devices, and a Bluetooth remote for your Mac. Your Mac shows a second screen on the screen of the device. Your touch controls the cursor and you can use guestures, and type if necessary on an onscreen keyboard. Fully control your Mac through this, ala Apple Remote Desktop. Audio output from Mac transmits to device so you can hear it. Using a bluetooth headset you can both hear the other Mac and transmit your voice to it, to control ot via Apple Speech recognition.
The unit also is a GSM quad band phone. You open the unit and put in your SIM card. Phone controls appear on the touch screen. Use BT headset and voice control.
This is all speculation. But it is perfectly logical and CAN BE DONE NOW. Well worth $500. I don't know if it comes out next week but you can bet the farm it will come out.
Mike from www.myallo.com/blog
Apple already sabotaged that
Apple did? Multiple choice:
The first thing a person would want to do with such an iTunes-phone is download something from iTunes and use it as a ringtone. But you cannot do this with the ROKR. This is because:
a) Apple hates it when you buy songs off iTunes.
b) Motorola would rather you paid them $2.99 for the ringtones they already provide.
c) The technology to make this happen is just too hard and/or expensive.
You like your Macintosh better than me, don't you Dave? Dave? Can you hear me Dave?
Motorola has always made extremely unstable phones. It's no surprise that that one was buggy too.
No one knows whether the ROKR is buggy or not because when people heard "holds 100 songs", no one bought one to find out whether it was buggy.
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