[Mithras]

Apple introduces iPod, a digital audio player (MP3, MP2) with a 5GB hard drive (1000 songs). 20 minute skip protection. [13:25]


straight from macminute.com

Sounds a lot like a regular Nomad-type device so far!

Ships on November 10, and iTunes 2 will probably preceed it. Very cool!

Ten hour battery life.

Whoa.

jrbd

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...3.1.1.0?273,64

[Richard Clark]

iPod ? ok cool

5 GB HD -housed in something the size of a deck of cards? Really cool

On sale - November 10

WTF is it with Apple releasing things on Saturdays???


Are we going to have another shipping snafu like with 10.1???

Release the damn thing on week day so resellers get it.

Good Grief

(from the really, really slow Apple Store...)

Holds over 1000 songs
Weighs just 6.5 ounces -- fits in your pocket
Plays up to 10 hours with 20 minutes skip protection
Auto synchronize all your music with iTunes
Transfer a whole CD in less than 10 seconds
Charge with the included power adapter or over FireWire
Breakthrough UI with an innovative scroll wheel
60 mWatt amp powers high-fidelity sound earbuds
Ultra-slim 5-gigabyte hard drive doubles as a FireWire disque


$399


Looks like the power adapter is the new iBook/PowerBook adapter!

jrbd

[JustenBias]

Apple's front page has just been updated, but the images are currently missing. 02:01 PM/ET

That's all. I gotta' run. =)

jrbd

[Lastlty... Check out apple.com/ipod and apple.com/itunes. The power adapter is similar, but instead the FireWire cord plugs into it and doubles as the power cord, it looks like. Very cool. iTunes 2 looks nice. Adios.]

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: JustenBias ]

[Richard Clark]

The new commercial is up but the video and quicktime vr demo is not working.

[SMacSteve]

All this hoopla over a freaking MP3 player! Albeit a nice mp3 player, but once again all the speculation on the web gave this thing a big build up. So far I'm diappointed. No Airport? I thought that was what would make this thing so revolutionary. Yea, I know you can rip a whole CD in 10 sec and it holds a 1000 songs. So what. I'd like to know what bit rate it is though. I'm sure I'm judging to soon, but I was expecting more.

399?!?

[Jan Van Boghout]

Is this a breakthrough digital device ???

[cteselle]

Originally posted by SMacSteve:
<STRONG>I'd like to know what bit rate it is though. I'm sure I'm judging to soon, but I was expecting more.</STRONG>

1000 songs is at the 160kbps bit rate

[Thunderbird]

$400!?! For an mp3 player!!! Wow, that has got to be the most expensive Mp3 player on the market!!

Is anybody here actually excited about this thing?? I predict that it will eventually go the way of the Cube... Great technology, way too expensive for the market. Eventually they will cut the price, but it will be too little too late.

[sheer]

$399 - $100 too much

[WinsOBoogi]

Okay...cool gizmo. Three problems.

#1) $400?!?! What the hell? Who's going to shell out $400 so that they can listen to music on the go? I'm fine with my $85 diskman, thank you, Uncle Steve. If it was..$200, it'd be a lot better. I wonder how much this thing costs to make, anyway...let's all take guesses.

#2) Okay...so maybe people want a $400 mp3 player. But this thing is only for macs, right? That's one big problem...what percentage of mac users (which is 5% of the world) are going to use this? Apple should have introduced iTunes for the PC as well...made this something that everyone can use.

#3) Once again, it's only for Macs. Too damned bad we don't even have a capable MP3 downloading program. Oh, I know, I know...people can take their CDs and upload them all into iTunes converting them into mp3, and then spend the time to upload them into the iPod. Makes sense? Yeah...right.

Bottom line: Sure it'd be cool to have my entire CD collection on one little gizmo that I can carry around wherever I am. Problem is, if I'm going to spend $400, I'd rather just buy a walkman, a CD wallet, and a bunch more CDs. I'd pay $250 at the most for this gadget.

[Brit Ben]

Apple gets it wrong again.

Its a $400 MP# player. Okay 5gig. Creative labs have that. Apple's is smaller - okay, but that doesnt really bother me. I have a tiny sony MP3 player.
Firewire, now that's damn neat, single cable hookup. Recharge whilst downloading.

Like I said on another thread -

It's a firewire something, thats for sure )

If apple aren't supporting USB 2.1 then, they're going to run
with firewire for everything. Plus firewire can provide enough
power to recharge some kind of portable peripheral.

HOWEVER, it is not revolutionary, and its double the price it should be.

I'm more impressed by iTunes 2. Hope apple don't pull support for creative NOMAD / Jukebox....

Rgds,
Ben.

[SpeedRacer]

I agree, iPod would be great, but $400 is an absurdity for my portable music needs.

iTunes 2.0... hmm... anyone want to veture a guess when we'll see the full SoundJam feature set (ie: recordable sound-in, sleep/alarm timing, and MP3 streaming broadcast integration?).

Actually they'll probably release that as MP3 Studio Pro and change $399 for that too right?

"Hey Mac enthusiasts have we got a deal for you.... you can have you're very own digital audio player and SoundJam rip(off)er for the low, low combo price of only $899! Buy now they're going fast!"

One thing i'd like to know for now... can you carry over cross-fades to CD burns as well? That would be truly sweet. Adaptec/Roxio's offering's always been a bit confusing in this regard.

Speed

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: SpeedRacer ]

[Zoom]

Come on, folks, $400 for a microsized 5G FW drive??? That's right on target. And you get a beautiful design, amazing ease-of-use, lots of battery life, elegant display... folks, that price is perfect for what you're getting. Look at the other players on the market. You get 32-64MB of storage for $150-200. This this is about twice the cost for almost ten times the storage! Even the MP3/CD players aren't close.

They couldn't have gone much cheaper with this thing. It's NOT overpriced. Well, let's just say that for what it must cost them to make, this is a fair price. Whether or not people are willing to PAY for this has yet to be seen. Personally, I'm considering it - not just for the MP3 capability but for a portable 5G of storage.

I think this is just the first product. There will be more. I think the set-top thing is still possible.

Where did they get this microdrive? IBM's little drive only goes up to 1GB, right? Plus the FW chipset? Come on, people. $400 is a fair price.

[Thunderbird]

Originally posted by Zoom:
<STRONG>Come on, folks, $400 for a microsized 5G FW drive??? That's right on target. And you get a beautiful design, amazing ease-of-use, lots of battery life, elegant display... folks, that price is perfect for what you're getting. Look at the other players on the market. You get 32-64MB of storage for $150-200. This this is about twice the cost for almost ten times the storage! Even the MP3/CD players aren't close.

They couldn't have gone much cheaper with this thing. It's NOT overpriced. Well, let's just say that for what it must cost them to make, this is a fair price. Whether or not people are willing to PAY for this has yet to be seen. Personally, I'm considering it - not just for the MP3 capability but for a portable 5G of storage.

I think this is just the first product. There will be more. I think the set-top thing is still possible.

Where did they get this microdrive? IBM's little drive only goes up to 1GB, right? Plus the FW chipset? Come on, people. $400 is a fair price.</STRONG>

But who is going to buy it??? In reality, how big is the market for a $400 Mp3 player anyway?? The Cube was a great product at a goofy price, and it failed.

Why not introduce a "good, better, best" variant of this device. Have it start at a price comparable to other mp3 players, but have, say, 500 MB or 1 gig of storage. Then the higher end technophiles could work their way up to the $400 model while the mass market flocked to a $199 model.

Great product, limited market. Doomed from the start (and I usually love everything that Apple makes.)

[vvedge]

Originally posted by SMacSteve:
<STRONG>but I was expecting more.</STRONG>

ah, you set yourself up for it

[Michel Fortin]

I don't like the new buttons at the bottom of iTunes 2 window. Why can't they use the aqua ones like in the first version?

Oh, and I'm not interested in the iPod, because I don't have a firewire port on my iBook. That's all. Thanks.

It might be a fair price but it isn't going to be the right price for most people.

[Michel Fortin]

I don't like the new buttons at the bottom of iTunes 2 window. Why can't they use the aqua ones like in the first version?

Oh, and I'm not interested in the iPod, because I don't have a firewire port on my iBook. That's all. Thanks.

[aaanorton]

I like it.
It will be really cool when you can plug your camera into it and transfer your photos. iPhoto?

[Zoom]

Are they're using standard 2.5" hard drives. Is that possible? Will it fit in that enclosure? I'm guessing not, but I'm no expert. But if so, then maybe this is overpriced.

This is all still settling in. I'm having mixed emotions now.

[tunaslurpee]

All right, the product looks cool, it's small. Great

$400? some people may be able to afford it, I guess. Even though you can get a 20GB player for less.

But doesn't iTunes only work with Macs? And who has firewire? Mostly Mac users

So let me get this straight. Steve is selling only to firewire capable Mac users, and no one else.

Gee. I'm going to hook this up to my Cube and feel cutting edge.

Bomb.

Solbo hit it. I was ready to spend up to $250 on an Apple-branded MP3-player...and I'm kind of an Apple fanatic. But $400? Who besides a very small group of rich-Apple-kids would get that?

You can get a 10GB QPS firewire drive that clips onto your belt AND a Rio800 with change left over.

[SMacSteve]

Ok, maybe I jumped the gun. Now I think this is a bad idea. It's Mac only, so how is this going to make people want to go buy a Mac just so they can rip a bunch of songs to go. Maybe I'm just to old. I'm just happy to burn a cd and put it in the car with me. I'm not into the digital mp3 revolution and I don't think many other people are either. I think Apple would be better off trying to get back into the PDA market. At least it appeals to a wider market.

[Joe Cool]

Sorry if this is redundant, but it says that you can save files on it to and use at as an HD.

COOOOOL

[Zoom]

Good point about the Mac/FW limitations. That could be a serious problem. If this thing only works on Macs, I think they're in serious trouble. Even if you have a PC with FW (agreed, this is rare), how could you get your music to/from it? It's probably HFS+ or UFS, right? You'd need some sort of Windows utility. So, I'd say that you might need to port iTunes to Windows. And then you're going to need to beef it up to come close to competing with WinAmp and the likes. For one thing, you'll have to have skins - and Apple would never allow that.

Damn. I'm afraid this might indeed by another Cube debacle.

[GORDYmac]

Hey guys, don't piss on Apple because they didn't read your minds .

This happens at every announcement: Someone imagines the perfect device, assumes that Apple is going to make it, and then gets pissed when they're blown completely off-base.

I'm with the posts above who believe that 5GB of portable storage, MP3 player, compact design, and FireWire make for a pretty cool gadget...

and I'm buying one

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: GORDYmac ]

$400 - ?????
What the hell is Apple thinking?
Who's gonna buy this thing for $400 - ?????
Who can afford this thing for $400 - ?????
I mean three of these things = a iBook, NOT.
Steve, please get your cost structure in order
on new Digital Hub Devices!!!!

Beacon

from Maccentral (in attendance):

Jobs: "We have thought than when we get a little spare time, we will look at taking it to Windows. We know the experience won't be as good, but we will probably look at that down the road."

So it is only for Macs (and only for Mac people who have the need to carry 1,000 songs around with them).

[JL!]

OK, Apple. Here's the deal:

Is it cool? Yes.
Is it easy to use? Totally.
Is it beautiful? Absolutely?
Is it functional? Yep.

Is it priced within $50 of what it should be?

No.

Honestly, $400 is laughable. $350 tops, and $300 would be a good deal. This thing will definitely go the way of the Cube. High price at first, high cool factor, then Apple realizes too late that the price was too high and tries to save it as it's drowning.

Sorry guys, but most people just don't like their music enough to drop $400. Only the type of people who brag about their stereo components would buy this at that price.

Sounds like the wonderful and now-defunct Cube all over again.

JL!

[Zoom]

Originally posted by SMacSteve:
<STRONG>I'm not into the digital mp3 revolution and I don't think many other people are either.</STRONG>

At least on this point I think you're wrong. College kids and probably high school kids are all over this stuff. I'm not in that age range (or even close ) and I'm totally into MP3s. There is a definite market for this. The main reason there hasn't been an explosion of players (home, car, portable) is because the big stereo component makers are in bed with the RIAA in some way, shape or form, and we all know the RIAA's stance on MP3s. They're holding off until they can create a controllable format. Personally, I think they're too late and the no-name brands are going to suck up tons of profits until the big guys wake up and smell the coffee.

Still, I might not fork over $400 for this - and I have two FW Macs that I could use it with. If I wouldn't, who would?

I'm feeling worse and worse about this thing.

Now, if I could dock this thing and use it with my home stereo or with my car stereo, too, I'd be sold!!

[vvedge]

hey, I spent 300 bucks for a few top of the line MD players. And now I'm regretting it. I mean, I carry around 6 MDs at a time. Thats a pain on the pockets man! This would solve my problems... yes.. I want this thing! Screw MiniDiscs... I'm wasting my time... ... now to find $400 somewhere

Hello, people...are you reading this? It only works with Macs!

Don't ask youself how many kids want one of these...ask yourself how many kids who own Macs want one of these!

[cpac]

Originally posted by Zoom:
<STRONG>

Now, if I could dock this thing and use it with my home stereo or with my car stereo, too, I'd be sold!!</STRONG>

Of course you can. Just plug your stereo into the headphone jack (I've been doing this with my TiBook for quite some time). Not sure if you can get a car stereo to do this, but with one of those tape things that car-discmen use, you could do it no problem.

Personally I think a 5GB Drive that can play MP3s (or WAVs or AIFFs or anything, as the iPod can) is a deal at $399.

(And in response to the guy who suggested the belt-mounted HD and a Rio -come on, that's a huge amount of hardware to be hauling around. iPod's a pack of cards!)


cpac

Nice point, aaanorton. iPod doesn't seem like a pure mp3 player name, it sounds like it could be used to store and do other stuff. If it wasn't for the black and white LCD screen I'd say it could be used as an external storage for a digital camera, using the screen as an image preview. But then its firewire, not usb as with most of the new digicams.

It looks cool, iTunes 2 should be good, $400 (I make that £250-£300) sounds competetive with the Creative Jukebox and Archos MP3. It's a mac product (no Windoze software or driver problems), it works straight off with iTunes, doubles as an external HD and if they're telling the truth speed wise, is v. fast. Sounds good for the money to me, what are you moaning about, guys?

I have nothing to say.

[itai195]

Originally posted by &lt;KeyLimePi&gt;:
<STRONG>Hello, people...are you reading this? It only works with Macs!

Don't ask youself how many kids want one of these...ask yourself how many kids who own Macs want one of these!</STRONG>

Isn't the idea to get people who don't own macs to want to buy one?

[Elvin]

I guess we can really believe Jobs about Apple not unveiling a new Newton, when their digital hub only listed iTunes, iMovie, iDvD, Pictures. But does this mean a new Quicktake down the line, plus better Image Editing programs?

[Elvin]

It looks really cool, but for a $600 Canadian price tag, I might as well go out and buy another used laptop! The recharging over Firewire and Mac only features are a nice touch, but I think I'm more excited over iTunes 2 Better sound quality, crossfades and an equalizer are just what I'm looking for.

[Jan Van Boghout]

<STRONG>
College kids and probably high school kids are all over this stuff.</STRONG>[/QUOTE]

I am 16 and I'm starting to love that iPod , but I absolutely can't afford to spend 400 $ for an mp3 player . I will never ever ever have a thousand songs I want to carry with me , and for the price of one iPod , I can buy some other mp3 player (less space , but I've seen cool ones too) , a webcam , scanner , and still have some money left over .
I already asked my parents to buy one , but for them 5 GB isn't enough . 100 cd's per iPod would mean at least buying four , so ...
iPod =
iPod's price =

[mithral]

Originally posted by Zoom:
<STRONG>

Now, if I could dock this thing and use it with my home stereo or with my car stereo, too, I'd be sold!!</STRONG>

Actually, you CAN. At least with your home stereo.

The headphone jack on the iPod is a standard headphone jack, just like on the iMac, iBook, etc. All you need is a $5 mini-plug(headphone) to RCA cable, and you can plug it into the auxillary port on virtually any commercial receiver/ boom box/ minicomponent setup/ whatever. Plus, it comes through in 2-channel stereo. I've got the exact same setup with my iMac - works great.

I'm not sure about car stereos. I'm pretty sure you could just get a standard audio tape adapter (the kind that come with portable CD players) for about $10 and use that. If you only have a CD player in your car and no audio-in jacks... well, I guess that's your car's fault, then.


Good luck,

-mithral

[BiCuriousGeorge]

Wow, talk about a niche market, Steve. You're appealing to who, here? The vast masses who have:

1) a Firewire-enabled Mac,
2) a huge MP3 collection, preferably stored in iTunes,
3) a burning desire to carry it all with them wherever they go, in a device no larger than a shirt pocket,
4) a completely unrelated yet pressing need for a spare 5GB portable Firewire storage drive, and
5) $400 bucks to blow.

For that price you should at LEAST be able to plug it into your home/car stereo system, and also record direct audio input in AIFF and/or WAV format. How complicated is DA/AD conversion, anyway? (Legit question, here, I'm not up on the technical side of digital audio....how tough would this have been to add?)

Ridiculous product. Worse than the Cube. Just rename it the "iGoofed", Steve, and kill it off right now.

[Thunderbird]

Originally posted by GORDYmac:
<STRONG>Hey guys, don't piss on Apple because they didn't read your minds .

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: GORDYmac ]</STRONG>

They don't have to read our minds... They can ASK us what we want! If Apple wasn't so secretive, then perhaps they could do some market research before blindly introducing a new product with the hopes that somebody will buy it!

Apple stockholders rely on Apple management to effectively "read the minds" of consumers. By pricing this thing at $400, Apple has eliminated 95% of the Macintosh owners who might like to own it if it were more reasonably priced. And since it only works with Macintosh, Apple has eliminated as potential customers 99.9% of the people who might be in the market for an mp3 player.

This is a great device with an undefined market. Maybe Steve Jobs would be willing to shell out $400 for it, but I'd be willing to bet that most consumers in the market for a similar device will look right past the iPod simply because of the price.

[tunaslurpee]

Originally posted by BiCuriousGeorge:
[QB]
For that price you should at LEAST be able to plug it into your home/car stereo system, and also record direct audio input in AIFF and/or WAV format. How complicated is DA/AD conversion, anyway? (Legit question, here, I'm not up on the technical side of digital audio....how tough would this have been to add?)
QB]

Nomad already has it, so I'd say it's not too hard.

[BiCuriousGeorge]

Oh, okay, so you CAN plug it into a home/car stereo...how about an audio in, too? This would be an awesome device if you could get analog audio IN and digital audio OUT.....

[Max8319]

i just ordered it......$100 dollars too much, but it'll be better than my mp3cd player RIO volt.......$300 would be very reasonable....oh well.....there goes my bank account once again

[coffeïne]

some other equivalent products:

Thomson:
Lyra PDP-2800 -&gt; HD 10 Go / USB/ MP3 Pro + software / 500 € http://www.thomson.fr

pjbox:
Hango PJB 100 -&gt; HD 2 to 6 Go / USB / MP3 / 961 € http://www.pjbox.com

[Thunderbird]

Oh, and another thing... What is with the name??? iPod? What the heck is an iPod? The "i" thing has been really overdone. Anybody else think the name is a poor choice?

&lt;edited for spelling&gt;

[ 10-23-2001: Message edited by: Thunderbird ]