If you thought Apple's popular musical hard drive was expensive, check out this new iPod rumoured to be on the way...

So they say. Seems like a logical Apple-type evolution... of course all of the Mac crazies will be whining for full on video. I'm just not sure I'll be one of them yet...

The geeks want video and the geeks are as wrong as they were about the iPod failing in the first place (and Nathan thought that too, apparently... ).

I really like the idea of the iPhoto share... imagine popping around to your gran's with your iPod and a video cable to plug into her TV to show her all your photos... :pac:

Simon

Hey, I'm a geek. Just not a card-carrying one.

The only, only reason to add a color screen to an iPod can be summed up in two words: better games. :p The iPod is a listening device. Color is superfluous for people using it for music.

Now, if you could plug a digital camera directly into a color iPod, it would make for a nice photo storage device. But if you have to carry around a card reader and adapter cable and all that junk to use it, forget it. Too un-Apple-like.

Digital video on an iPod is pointless. I don't really see any appeal in having a portable video player, when you have to go to the hassle of digitizing and recompressing the video to get it onto the iPod in the first place. Too much work for too poor of an end result.

I could care less about video and pictures on an iPod.

If you ask me, I would want the next iPod to have recording capabilities, so you could record music off a stereo or radio. THAT would make my heart pound.

I'd sure like to be able to record with it too, but I'd want to be able to select the format. I wouldn't want it to just do MP3 or AAC.

Radio would be nice, but only if the extra circuitry didn't increase the size of the iPod any.

Like the wheel, or a spoon, the ipod is perfect, and by adding to it, only changes, does not get better.


The only thing that can TRULY make it better is a lower price.

I dunno... I dropped my spoon in the garbage disposal and it's not so perfect anymore.

I'd like to see the iPods' prices drop, but not if it involves putting them through a garbage disposal.

Which doesn't really make any sense, but it's the end of the day, and my brain went home a couple of hours ago.

A price drop and a record with multi input function - record from external sources - would get me to purchase one.
The iPod is indeed an excellent device, possibly tops in its field, and God knows mp3's run my life but, the one main factor for folks like me in Trinidad & Tobago is cost. It takes $6.30 (in my currency) to make $1 US dollar. That put's an iPod Mini at appr. $1569, then when you factor in s&h, import duties, skybox fees... yer lookin' at close to $2,000.
To drop the jaw a bit further, when I bought my 266DT in '98, I paid close to $16,000 TT dollars - and that was IMPORTED!! Purchasing it locally would have cost me more like $21,000!!!

But I digress needlessly...
Given the huge popularity and success of the iPod, there's no reason AT ALL to hope for a price drop (like they do with the Macs). So, I'll just have to hope for a windfall to get one. One thing's for sure... I DO want one.

Any discussion of an iPod with photo/video capabilities just would not be complete without the inevitable comparison to Microsoft's new Portable Media Centers. It'll be interesting to see how folks react to this "iPod killer."

Even if it was the coolest thing in the world, what phrase do you suppose is most likely to be heard from the kids this holiday shopping season?

"Mom, Dad...can I get an iPod for Christmas?"

or

"Mom, Dad...can I get a Windows Mobile powered Portable Media Center for Christmas. Oh and by the way, they're not actually made by Microsoft. You'll need to look for something called a Creative Zen Portable Media Center or a Samsung YH-999 Portable Media Center. And actually we'll have to upgrade our computer to the latest version of Windows XP so we can encode content for use with the [insert brand name here] Portable Media Center. But that won't be a problem, will it?" :rolleyes:

Virgin's new "iPod killer" appears to have decent specs, but it's seriously ugly.

That's something that never ceases to amaze me about Apple. Not so much that their designs are so good, but that other companies still haven't figured out how important good design actually is. Or what good design is, for that matter.

This is the missing feature in iLife, IMHO: it would be very nice to convert old video tapes into an A/V iPod. I used the Archos 400 and it's the perfect anti iPod. Sure, the interface and the look is not so good but it reads and encode mp3, play jpegs, and avi files (divx 5)...all viewable on a TV, nice! Very useful for digitize vinyl records too

Apple needs all the help they can get, only 2 million iPods sold last qtr !!!! up some 500% from same time last year and up from 809k (?) the qtr b4... throw a bigger sexier colour one on top of that and that fanciful talk of 1 million per month might be achievable ! yikes !

I may never be able to respect Apple again. :dead:

Hell ya Radio Shack! And more importantly... Walmart. This holiday season the iPod officially becomes the Trojan Horse that Apple's been looking for. I guarantee that Apple's market share* goes up next year. Who knew a little MP3 player would have such a big impact on our favorite company, eh?

* And by market share I mean the share of market in the markets that Apple currently competes in. Not the large-scale, big-business, cheap Dell box market of mainstream America.

EDIT: Sorry... to clarify my take on Apple's current "market share" let me give you a few examples of what I actually know: my neighborhood of 10 homes has 8 PC users and 2 Mac users = 20% market share. The Reno advertising scene I'm familiar with is roughly 9 to 1 in favor of Apple = 90% market share. And unfortunately the corporation I work for runs well over 2,000 Dell boxes/various other PCs and about 10 Macs = .5% market share.

If you ask me this is what Apple's been missing all along!

Probably the biggest reason people haven't bought Macs in recent years has been the findability factor. Even with the internet driving computer sales, many people (including my brother) want the ability to walk into a store and buy whatever program they want (or need). Outside of the major cities, that is at present impossible with Macs.

With the iPod, they're doing stuff right. You're able to find it in thousands of places, and in towns like Osage, Iowa (population: 5,000). And THAT, by itself, will garner it sales when the rest of the market tries to flood the iPod out.

Now, if iTunes would allow WMAs to be sold through it (I don't expect to see MP3's sold through iTunes anytime soon)...

That'll never happen. As long as it's AAC format you have that many more people being turned on to QuickTime. That little iPod does much more for Apple than sell hardware.

I'm glad the iPod is being sold in more retail outlets... Target, Best Buy, and such. But Radio Shack is... well... Radio Shack. It's always been pretty much a joke of a store, and in recent years it's been reduced to pretty much selling cell phones and lousy stereo cables (and I used to frequent the store on a fairly regular basis before it began its current death spiral). Maybe Apple will gain a few sales out of it, but selling an iPod at Radio Shack is like selling a G5 at K-Mart. I guess though that's why they hooked up with HP. It buffers Apple from having to deal with those retailers directly.

I agree with Dave about WMAs, too. Never gonna happen. Not while Apple still has the bulk of the hd-based MP3 player market and the leading online music store. There's simply no reason for them to play nice with Microsoft (or anyone else) and Steve is taking full advantage of it. Apple has market share, and they're going to smack other companies around with it for awhile.

My gripe with the iTMS is that I wish the bit rate were higher on the music. I'm unlikely to purchase anything there if I can find it on a CD.

Now, if they started offering out-of-print stuff, that would be different. (But then higher quality would be even more crucial.)