[Arty50]

The iPod market is about to become slightly larger.
http://www.mediafour.com/products/xpod/

[JFischel]

That didn't take long...

Now, let's think about it...I'm pretty sure Uncle Steve knew exactly what would happen. I'm pleased about this actually. I'm fairly sure this won't be the last comsumer electronic device from our beloved company. So, the more cross platform love we get the better...

.jaf.

[saltines17]

Originally posted by Arty50:
<STRONG>The iPod market is about to become slightly larger.
http://www.mediafour.com/products/xpod/</STRONG>

Wow this is actually GREAT, isn't it??
Apple doesn't have to worry about Windows support, but at the same time, the other 95% of the computer-owning population can still buy an iPod.

[DyslexicCow]

If windows people buy an iPod, wouldn't that totally defeat the real purpose to buy an iPod(actually buying a mac to use it)?

[Jerjerrod]

I kinda like this idea. Apple doesn't have to spend a dime on R&D for Windows, or on supporting Windows compatibility. Some other patsy company picked that up from them without Apple having to lift a finger. And, obviously, the experience won't be nearly as good on a Windows machine.

The only con I can see to this is that Apple doesn't get to advertise Windows compatibility to attract the masses.

If nothing else, I think the fact that demand for this popped up so quickly shows clearly what a great product the iPod is. I had my worries as to it being another Cube, but I'm leaning the other way now.

[t_hah]

This totally rocks. I know some people that were thinking about buying an iPod, but the only reason they did not do it is that they did not own a Mac...and we all know that right now iPod only works with a FW Mac. This way they will buy and iPod...will start liking Apple...and who knows what might the future bring...they might end up looking at other Apple products too!


Cool!

[neurack]

It is funny that you mention that.

I showed the iPod to a friend who simply cannot stand Macs for whatever reason. His response took me pleasantly by surprise:

"If Apple's computers are anything like their mp3 player I may have been wrong about them. How much was a DVD iBook again?"

[RWoelk]

Well, naturally I want to see Apple sell these like there is no tomorrow, but I hope it takes these folks some goodly amount time to write this software. The more windows people that envy this product, the more that might at least give Apple a second look in their next major upgrade. Then again, how many Windozzz PC's have firewire out there? They are just now starting to come on board.

Whatever they come up with, it's not at all likely to be as seamless and elegant as Apples… as if that could or would ever be the case with anything Windozzzz...

[jwtseng]

I agree with the previous replies about this being generally good for Apple. I hope they sell a lot of these iPods and come up with other devices. I have to admit that I was always a little doubtful that non-Mac users would buy a Mac just because they wanted to use the little iPod -- that's what the popular reasoning is. But if people see the iPod and then extrapolate the quality and engineering to the rest of Apple's products...that's great!

The one fear that I have with these Xbox people is that they will somehow do Apple one better - that their software will in the future even eclipse the capabilities of iTunes and the MacOS. Sure Apple will sell more iPods but there will be less of a reason for people to consider Mac.

I am also curious about the whole Firewire licensing stuff. I mean, Apple came out with the Firewire standard, right? Do they get some kind of royalty for every FW device sold? If more PCs start coming out with FW, then does Apple stand to gain in this way?

[JFischel]

Yes, there was a licensing ownership type thing at some point. I think they got 25 cents for every mother board that had a firewire port on it...I'm pretty sure that includes things like Playstation 2s with their "iLink."

Josh

[FXWizard]

Originally posted by DyslexicCow:
<STRONG>If windows people buy an iPod, wouldn't that totally defeat the real purpose to buy an iPod(actually buying a mac to use it)?</STRONG>

Not necessarily. Remember that even with XPod they won't have iTunes, which goes along with what SJ was talking about regarding how a Windows machine using iPod wouldn't be as enjoyable an experience (or words to that effect).

[ 11-14-2001: Message edited by: FXWizard ]

[timmerk]

Originally posted by JFischel:
<STRONG>Yes, there was a licensing ownership type thing at some point. I think they got 25 cents for every mother board that had a firewire port on it...I'm pretty sure that includes things like Playstation 2s with their "iLink."

Josh</STRONG>

Playstation 2's have firewire? What it is it used for?

[JFischel]

There's nothing out for it yet, but I'm sure SONY has something up their sleeves. Look at the front of a system, there's two USB ports and a port called iLink. That's SONYs name for Firewire. I've had my USB mouse and keyboard on my PS2 to play Unreal Tourney. There's talk of a few different kinds of periphs. For instance, a FW HD (can anyone say iPod) to do things the same way the Xbox does but portable. Imagine that, you have all your MP3s and saved games on you iPod, snag it, go load your football team onto someone else's machine just like that...WOO HOO, Steve really is an evil genius!!!

[Adam Silver]

The PS2 FireWire port is used to link PS2's together for some multiplayer games. Not too many games support this feature as it requires multiple PS2's and television sets within a close distance.

And, no, Sony doesn't pay Apple for every FireWire port it makes. Sony is a member of the IEEE 1394 Consortium. Members of this group don't have to pay the fee.

[frazzledglispa]

Originally posted by JFischel:
<STRONG>There's nothing out for it yet, but I'm sure SONY has something up their sleeves. Look at the front of a system, there's two USB ports and a port called iLink. That's SONYs name for Firewire. I've had my USB mouse and keyboard on my PS2 to play Unreal Tourney. There's talk of a few different kinds of periphs. For instance, a FW HD (can anyone say iPod) to do things the same way the Xbox does but portable. Imagine that, you have all your MP3s and saved games on you iPod, snag it, go load your football team onto someone else's machine just like that...WOO HOO, Steve really is an evil genius!!!</STRONG>

You wouldn't be able to charge your iPod from the PS2 though - Sony's iLink is 4 pin firewire - it doesn't carry power the way real firewire does. Why they decided to reduce the functionality of firewire is beyond me.

[JFischel]

I wasn't aware that if you were member of the IEEE 1394 club you didn't have to pay royalties...Thanks very much for the clarification.

As far as the reduced juice that flows through the iLink port, I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the power supply of the PS2. I imagine it throws a lot less wattage / amps than a regular "PC" power supply.

Regards,

Josh

[Adam Silver]

No, that's the way Sony implements FireWire on all of its devices. It uses four pins instead of six. The missing pins supply power.

[dws]

Vaporware?

It is amazing to me that there has been so much press over Mediafour's announcement. Apparently, few actually went to their site to read about the details.

There is no XPod software - yet. They have plans to put out a beta version sometime in the near future, in the next few weeks; but are uncertain about a final ship date.

This company specializes in making software to read and format disks in HFS format, so it should be rather simple for them to create a program that allows files to be transferred in the format that can be read by the iPod. From there, things get a little grey...

MediaFour says that the software will offer an Explorer-style interface. They also insist that the one-way 'protection' scheme created by Apple will be followed in XPod.

On the iPod side of things, the device's internal operating system expects the playlist database file to be in the format used by iTunes. Since Apple has not released the software hooks for people to write third party software that interacts with this database, I'm not sure how MediaFour expects to create it. Perhaps the operating system on the iPod can function without Playlist functionality. But, no playlist function would dramatically reduce the usability of the iPod. I believe that all the other information displayed is taken from the MP3 tags, so they should have little trouble letting the iPod do that on its own.

MediaFour has also announced that their XPod software will work as a plugin from within Windows Media Player; though they don't explain what they mean by this. I cannot imagine how you would be able to access the iPod from within Media Player, without some kind of deal with Microsoft itself. It is one thing to create a program where you manually copy files/folders onto an iPod, but to get an automatic synching ability from within Media Player seems like a remote possibility. MediaFour is not a huge software developer, who has that kind of access to the inner halls at Microsoft.

I think that a program to use the iPod on WinXP COULD be a win/win situation for Apple. They don't have to bother with trying to keep software compliant with Microsoft's ever-changing OS and yet they can sell the iPod to the masses. The main danger would be if XPod turns out to be a poorly-crafted piece of software, that promises more than it delivers and is hard to use; leaving all the people who purchased an iPod for use on WinXP feeling that the iPod is a piece of crap (not really knowing how well it works on a Mac).

Instead of hailing this vaporware as a great achievement, we should all worry about the negative ramifications should XPod turn out to be much less than MediaFour hopes! I don't want to disrespect the good people at MediaFour. After all, they live just south of me in Des Moines, Iowa! But, they are a one-software shop. MacDrive 2000 is their only product! Reviews of that software are good, though they do not lead the field in Mac/PC file management software. Also, WinXP has been out for some time (a long time in beta form), and they are still working on a version of MacDrive that will work with it! I hope that they have the expertise required to create a piece of software that will allow automatic synching with the iPod (which is the real jewel in the iPod crown), but I must admit that I have my doubts. They are very clear in saying that they have had no communication with either Apple or Microsoft about their project.

It should be interesting to see how all this plays (pun intended!).

dws

dweeb.

[Euphrates]

Instead of hailing this vaporware as a great achievement, we should all worry about the negative ramifications should XPod turn out to be much less than MediaFour hopes!

If they complain about the possible poor functionality of the software, we'll tell them to gets Macs. How ironic it would be that Windows users would make of a Macs for being too easy and simple, yet complain when the XPod is more difficult than iTunes to use!