[PookJP]

This incarnation of iPod is only the beginning. iPod's real purpose is to be the Digital Hub's Suitcase.

It has already been mentioned that the iPod's screen is 4:3, the same as DV cameras, camcorders, and so on. In the future, it will be used to transer everything digital: iMovies, iTunes, iPictures, iDon'tKnows. Just imagine the ability to transfer your iProject from one place to another without the hassle of bringing your entire computer or the need to burn it to a disk. DVD-Rs aren't cheap- you could buy an iPod for far less than the cost of a dozen DVD-Rs. You could show your movie to all present with nothing more than an iPod in hand! Throw in a TV adapter and now we're really talking!

I hope the Apple team is working overtime on the actualization of the iPod. They has a great idea here, one that really excites me. Hopefully they won't keep us waiting long. A bigger drive and a color screen is all that it takes.

- Pook

[Frumpy]

That's right. A bigger hard drive and a color screen. You mean, we might not see it for a couple reasons...

1) To do that to the iPod, you would increase the price from the already outrageous to the SKY HIGH for PRO USERS ONLY. Not good now.

2) If Apple doesn't sell what is already there, then you won't see that lovely little idea of yours. The iPod will become the iCube 2.

Personally, i love it just the way it is. Priced to the point where i could get one, and that i alone would be the only person i know to own one. Good job Apple ( i mean that).

[SMacSteve]

Good point! I just hope it doesn't die before that goal is realized.

[juanvaldes]

Originally posted by SMacSteve:
<STRONG>Good point! I just hope it doesn't die before that goal is realized.</STRONG>

Could apple afford to take a loss with this for a few generations like M$ plans to do with the Xbox? Could they afford to have a flop of a round and continue to work towards the true goal?

[Nebrie]

Originally posted by juanvaldes:
<STRONG>

Could apple afford to take a loss with this for a few generations like M$ plans to do with the Xbox? Could they afford to have a flop of a round and continue to work towards the true goal? </STRONG>

Microsoft makes it's money back by charging a hefty percentage off every xbox game. The cube was a large scale project, they had so much more to lose. The cube also had a lot more problems. The main one with the iPod is price which as every other MP3 player has shown will go down to a favorable price for everybody sometime later on. Apple is willing to wait it out on this; that's why they're not being optimistic with this product unlike the cube.

[kansir]

iPod is really a good product. Good outlook and high capacity, however it is too expensive for home users. If Apple drops its price, I will buy one too.

At last, someone who gets it!

The iPod is not just about music or MP3 files. t's obvious what's coming up:

iTunes & iPod = digital music solution
????? & iPod = digital image solution

Imagine connecting your camera to an iPod and taking shots for days. Use the iPod to show and share images. Connect to your computer to edit and create collections.

Music is just the beginning. You'll notice that the overview movie on the Apple stie call it a "digital device" which implies its use in other areas.

I can't wait to see what's coming up with iPod next year!!!

[PookJP]

Addressing the price issue- the color screen and larger drive will definitely increase the price. That, my friends, is a problem. However, I believe it is equally problematic that Apple is selling an MP3 player for $400 that is marketed only to Mac users.

I see only one solution- take the loss. They need to make this thing an awesome little toy, bundle it with Mac systems, and really launch it into the market. In other words, they need to make people use it, and make people dependent on it. iPod's possibilities are tremendous, but it needs to catch on first. Thus, take a loss, get it out there, and get people in to it.

- Pook

[Wattsy]

DVD-Rs aren't cheap- you could buy an iPod for far less than the cost of a dozen DVD-Rs

WTF. DVD-R's are 30 bucks for 5 at the Applestore. I make that 72 dollars for a dozen DVD-R's.

[PeteWK]

I think the real question here is, "what is the iPod's break even point". I doubt that Apple is counting on this product helping much on the company's bottom line. It's a golly-gee-wiz product designed to enhance the brand and to lure in new Mac users. It's almost as if this thing were custom designed to be sold in the new Apple retail stores. Just imagine a newbie going into an Apple store and fondling one next to a Ti 667. That would do it for me.

PeteWK

[Nebagakid]

There must be a reason why apple didnt name it something more music related than a "Pod". I mean, come on people. Quiting not loooking beyond what is really there.

IT has updatable firmware

[nana2]

Originally posted by Nebagakid:
<STRONG>There must be a reason why apple didnt name it something more music related than a "Pod". I mean, come on people. Quiting not loooking beyond what is really there.

IT has updatable firmware

</STRONG>

Is there some kind of expansion connector on the iPod? Or are they going to pump the video out thru the headphone connector?

Originally posted by Nebagakid:
<STRONG>There must be a reason why apple didnt name it something more music related than a "Pod".</STRONG>

Could it be because Fraunhofer Labs owns the trademark to the mp3 name?

Nah, it couldn't be that simple, could it?

[kidtexas]

I'm sure Apple wanted to name this thing the "iMP3". That makes sense. It really flows off the tongue, doesn't it?

Originally posted by kidtexas:
<STRONG>I'm sure Apple wanted to name this thing the "iMP3". That makes sense. It really flows off the tongue, doesn't it?</STRONG>

mp3 certainly flows off the tongues of tech-savvy people. IM (an acronym for instant messenger) certainly flows off the tongues of tech-savvy people. There is no reason that imp3 should not flow off the tongues of tech-savvy people, seeing as how it's a contraction of IM and mp3.

But there's that Fraunhofer trademark, which complicates things.

[MacGregor]

I certainly hope this is the first of many steps to digital devices that work best and easiest and ultimately most cost efficiently with the Mac. The problems I see, though, with some of this optimistic speculation are:

1. One would think even the secretive Steve Jobs would imply this expansive future more than to just note it's ability to store data other than music. If this was the first step toward a portable media device, wouldn't he want to hint at that?

2. To store music and data and have a color screen .... wow, a Clie ... WITHOUT pda functionality. The Clie doesn't have the storage obvously, but it does have handrec., lots of software and expansion options. Anyway, how many songs or photo's do you need to carry around with you?

3. It isn't being bundled yet. PookJP is right about getting this out and fast. This should be bundled, bundled and bundled by giving resellers special prices. Then it should be bundled, bundled and more bundled with titles, like "100 of the World's Best Loved Symphonies," or "1000 Polka Favorites" or other ways of getting music legally and cheaply pre-stored on it BEFORE people buy it. And if it IS a fancy looking harddrive, why not have it bundled with freeware and sound effects and Unix instructional audio files. Value added content is a must.

Let's this is at least as popular as the Cube.

[SpeedRacer]

Originally posted by nana2:
<STRONG>

Is there some kind of expansion connector on the iPod? Or are they going to pump the video out thru the headphone connector? </STRONG>

No, they're going to pump it through the AV Connector that serves a dual-function as the iPod headphone jack ala the iBook.

Someone who shells out $400 for one of these things, chip in another $19 and snag yourself an A/V connector, plug it into the iPod, and see what happens with some DV files uploaded to your iPod.

I'm prepared to take back all those derogatory iPod comments if i can watch Episode I in full-screen glory from a device the size of a deck of cards! ...come to think about it had the choice of one movie to take with me it probably wouldn't be Episode I!

PS: Anybody notice that new Belkin "Y" audio adaptor on the Apple Store Accessories section? Looks like Apple really is positioning this as a portable home stereo jukebox.

Speed

[SpeedRacer]

Another interesting little tidbit... Anybody notice how this new iPod uses a power adaptor that looks a heck of a lot like the power adaptor in the the iBooks/Powerbooks, but that it plugs into via that adaptor via a standard Firewire cable?



Very interesting. Now does this imply that the iPod would run off the power supplied from any AC-powered device with an open Firewire port? Either way, looks like this may be paving the way for a wave of new Apple-branded Firewire-powered digital devices to come.

Speed

[Jim Witte]

On MacSlash, there is a great rambling thread about the iPod, (and cute silly names that it IPOD could stand for). One thing pointed out was that VST or some vendor has a 5GB Firewire hard disk for the *same price*. So if you consider that what you're really buying is a small hard disk (by today's standards that is - I can remember when 500 MB was big), with an MP3 player on top of it as gravy so to speak - then the price begins to look a little more reasonable.

The main thing I wonder is this: when the price of the hard drive inside comes down (which it will, it always does..), will Apple drop the price of the iPod, or be like it seems it has always been in the past, and take a higher profit cut?

What I'm really wondering is if the firmware can be hacked. If you could get audio in, and get an MP3 encoder working (doesn't it have a DSP in it? Is *that* what the job classification of 'microprocesser engineer' that was being asked about a while ago on mosr.com about?), then it would be a basically like a minidisk player, just with a really big capacity. I wouldn't be suprised if this is one of the first revisions, if it has enough processor power. Though this is likely to make the RIAA suits run scared - even though analog recording is protected under AHRA.

Does anyone know if the drive can be used for data and mp3s at the same time?

If it can be hacked, it might be time to get off my duff and start writing that Newton work-alike in Scheme...

[Nebagakid]

there is a reason for a non-music name like da' POD

The headphone or audio out is the same thign like on the iBook where you put that adapter in and it can play QT files on a TV...
has anyone tried with their prototype iPod to do that? plug in that iBook chord?

get it?
NO!\