[andretan]

Relax guys!

Realised something was missing and added it in, and did away with the Apple fonts.

[zachs]

I actually prefer the 3G design somewhat. The buttons up top make it very easy to control without looking when I have it clipped to my belt. But the new mini-style scroll wheel should be just as easy -- it's probably just that I've gotten used to the layout of the 3G.

The "Music" menu - is that just easy-access to the list of all songs, you think? Hopefully I can add other categories to the main menu, as I usually browse by Artist.

[MPMoriarty]

I think it was smart of Apple not to make the regular iPod brushed aluminum.

I like the iPod Mini look, but I like the pearl white of my regular iPod.

Those who want the aluminum look and colors can go with an iPod Mini (which I bet will see an upgrade soon) and those who like the pearl white look can go with the iPod.

As for the scroll wheel. Although it can be a little annoying at times (accidently turning up the volume while pressing a button), it's for the best. Let me explain why...

(1) Conveinance. Everything is on one wheel and makes it extremely easy to navigate. No using the wheel and then moving your fingers all the way to the buttons at the top.

(2) Consistency. They want the iPod and the iPod Mini controls to look the same.

Just my two cents.

Mike

[zachs]

Originally posted by MPMoriarty:
I think it was smart of Apple not to make the regular iPod brushed aluminum.

I like the iPod Mini look, but I like the pearl white of my regular iPod.

I think they should make the whole iPod with the white plastic (or whatever material) used on the front. Still looks nice, and you don't get the fingerpint issue.

[yoyoman]

wireless or optical or something. remember when walt said you do you have to walk to the comp to use airtunes. steve laughed as if he new about that. I hope faster transfer speeds maybe.

[bentoon]

I think they should make the whole iPod with the white plastic (or whatever material) used on the front. Still looks nice, and you don't get the fingerpint issue. [/QUOTE]

Absolutely,
It's a small detail, but Apple is great on the small details...
didn't the older ibooks have a plastic top too the newer ones look terrible

Purely cosmetic, I know, I know
don't get me wrong I was waiting for this. When I happened to be in the apple store today (Sunday) none of the staff had heard about it, I posted the newsweek article on several monitors and still nobody believed me

[yoyoman]

any one want to compent when walt said to steve about walking over to the computer with airport express and he laughed as if he new that was a problem and they will solve it in the future ( maybe ipod)

[Eriamjh]

12 hour battery life. Decent, but it isn't the 24 to 30 hours other MP3 players get. I would never buy one of those "other" players, but still... how do they do it (unless its the sheer size of them). iPod is still the smallest and biggest player out there.

The next question is: Will Apple support 3G owners with new firmware for the new navigation menu? My guess is no. Because they left the 2G owners in the dark with the 3G firmware, the same will happen here. Apple does not support old product.

[xanderwilson]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
12 hour battery life. Decent, but it isn't the 24 to 30 hours other MP3 players get. I would never buy one of those "other" players, but still... how do they do it

They don't. They base those numbers on such minimalist usage that you'd never get 24 hours on any of them. With some of the RAM based players you'll get better battery life than, say, the iPod, but they'll advertise a lot better than you'll actually get. Even Apple plays the same exaggeration game on some of its products, but I've used both the 1G and 3G iPods and don't think 10 hours is much of an exaggeration, if at all, in this case.

Alex.

[SafariX]

My 3G 15gb regularly gets 8+ hours after a year of every day use. I also encode most songs at 256 or 320.

[BuonRotto]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
The next question is: Will Apple support 3G owners with new firmware for the new navigation menu? My guess is no.

Not everything can be brought to old players via firmware. Apple brought some features to 2G iPods when the 3G ones came out, but Apple doesn't have the incentive to offer everything to old users when they're not making money off them (except maybe through the iTMS).

I've gone literally from moring to night with my iPod playing continuously. A lot of those players that claim such huge battery life do it the simple way: they have two batteries! That's how the Dell DJ does it, so it's big and weighs a lot too. Solid state (flash memory) players will also have much greater battery life but with much less capacity.

[hubert]

safarix i dont believe you. my friend benji jones doesnt believe you either and he is a liar

[yoyoman]

http://www.portalplayer.com/products/index.html
according to them that makes the os I believe has some interesting things which may be included in the ipod not sure.
The latest architecture includes significantly improved power management and internal bus performance enhancements._ New controllers include USB 2.0 Device, Host and On-The-Go (OTG) support, FireWire, and S/P-DIF as well as on-chip ATA/66 IDE controllers and dedicated DMA engines for up to four hard disk drives._ Display support is included for YUV out to an external TV encoder, color TFT VGA graphics controller, 4-bit grayscale controller or bridge interface to smart panels.
Copy or move photos from a digital camera via USB On-The-Go

Touch up photos, record voice notes, add audio soundtrack, catalog images and create slide shows

Send images directly to a color printer supporting the PictBridge™ standard .

Share and enjoy photos and multimedia slide shows on a TV

Archive music, burn CDs, email pictures,and sync MP3s and photos on a PC

any coment. It may not be for the ipod but any thing is possible. All we know is the newsweek info. For all I know they may add more features that they will show tomorrow. No doubt the 4g is out. My friend showed me the pix and he works up there in Cupertino and I asked if they were real and he said yea and told me what does it matter. Its already out.

[Brien]

Originally posted by Parky:
Here are the specs from Newsweek :-
*snip*
Longer play.

Coast-to-coasters rejoice: the new iPods are rated for 12 hours of rockin' between charges—a 50 percent boost in battery life. This is accomplished, Apple says, not by a heavier battery but diligent conservation of power.

Hoping this carries over to us 3G owners with the next update.

[Zoom]

The Apple Store is down. _Here they come...

[BluThng]

Apple Store back online with new iPods.

[DigitalEl]

Unless I'm missing something (which is always possible), it doesn't appear 3rd Gen. iPodders will get the new features. The Downloads page has ver. 2.2 of the iPod software for 3rd Gen. devices, but the software for the new click-wheel iPods is ver. 3.0.

[Ambassadeur]

Oh well, so the remote control is missing, both from the 20gig and the 40gig model. That accounts for some of the price reduction then...

[DoGoodDrugs]

40gb comes with remote and dock, 20gb has neither.


edit: 40gb doesnt come with remote, just the dream....

[Ambassadeur]

Originally posted by DoGoodDrugs:
40gb comes with remote and dock, 20gb has neither.

Ooops, the remote isn't mentioned with the specs in the store, that's where my idea is from. Even better then, the remote being included with the 40gig one.

[Parky]

No upgrade for me, I want the 60GB.

Not enough of a change from the 3rd Gen otherwise.
Pity they did not give the software update to the 3rd gen, but then that would stop more sales.

Ian

[SouthPaW1227]

A nice new addition is the inclusion of a USB 2.0 cable for us Wintel laptop owners...

Still no incentive to upgrade from my 3G 40GB iPod. While the scroll wheel is nice, the iPod looks too plain now.

[The Mick]

Damn!
I just bought my first iPod, a 40GB model on Friday. I'm not a real fan of the click wheel since it brings back moving parts, but longer battery life and $100 cheaper sounds good. I bought it at CompUSA, and I called them about it. They would charge me a 15% restock fee, so $75, and of course, I'd have to wait until they got the new ones in stock. Not sure it's worth the hassle to save $25 and get a bit longer battery life.

[mdc]

have you used the mini click wheel? i love it, i tried it once and knew i would buy a new ipod as soon as they put the wheel on it.

[The Mick]

Originally posted by mdc:
have you used the mini click wheel? i love it, i tried it once and knew i would buy a new ipod as soon as they put the wheel on it.

Yeah, my buddy has a mini. Don't get me wrong, I don't hate the click-wheel, it's just not something I'm excited about. The 3G interface works fine for me.

[PookJP]

Do the "play, >, <, and menu" buttons light up

[Agasthya]

Originally posted by PookJP:
Do the "play, >, <, and menu" buttons light up

Probably not.



They wheels look identical. The mini one doesn't light up so I would be very surprised if the regular one lit up.

[sworthy]

the current 20 GB version is .57 inches thick. Can anyone tell me how thick my 3G 30GB is for comparrison?

[Agasthya]

Originally posted by sworthy:
the current 20 GB version is .57 inches thick. Can anyone tell me how thick my 3G 30GB is for comparrison?

0.618110236 inches (15.7 mm)

[SafariX]

Originally posted by Agasthya:
0.618110236 inches (15.7 mm)

Hey, it isnt that small! Oh wait...you were talking about the iPod.

[Nodnarb]

When does the 4G start shipping? With a lot of Apple's products, they annoucne them, and then wait a month to ship them. Is the 4G shipping yet?
Thanks
Brandon

[mdc]

Originally posted by brandon420506:
When does the 4G start shipping? With a lot of Apple's products, they annoucne them, and then wait a month to ship them. Is the 4G shipping yet?
Thanks
Brandon

available today. my order says it will ship within 1 - 2 business days. order page says will ship before or by wednesday.

Originally posted by PookJP:
Do the "play, >, <, and menu" buttons light up

i am sure someone will be able to give 100% certain soon. but from another thread, this image came up which says they do light up.

[kentuckyfried]

=(

I just got my 15 gb back towards Father's Day.

I'd prefer the 1g's button arrangment (which has been re-incorporated into the 4g). I've found that the 3g is hard to navigate while driving with a stick shift, really easy to hit pause instead of fast-forward.

[Parky]

In the Uk you could be prosecuted for operating your iPod while driving, regardless of the button layout.

We are forbidden to use mobile phones, PDA's, etc while driving, even if the vehicle is stationary.

We can use hands free mobile phones only.

Ian

[mcsharick]

Just purchased the 40GB w/ dock, should be here Friday or Saturday. Owned a 2G 10GB, and while the 3G was tempting, particularly for the accessories and added firmware options, I waited for this! The two things that kept me back from the 3G was the placement of the control buttons and the significantly shorter battery life.

Now I 4x my space and gain in battery life and firmware niceities, and for the newly reduced price from the 3G.

And for those of you with 3G iPods, I know how you feel. It hurts and it will for sometime, but don't worry, you've got a fully functional iPod that will last you until at least the next gen if not a couple.

[Caelos]

Originally posted by yoyoman:
<portalplayer blurb>

PortalPlayer makes the processor inside the iPod, not the OS itself. The OS is made by Pixo, IIRC (I don't have my iPod with me at the moment).

Any new chip features would have to be enabled by software/firmware before we could use them.

[MrForgetable]

Originally posted by Agasthya:
Probably not.



They wheels look identical. The mini one doesn't light up so I would be very surprised if the regular one lit up.

i hope it does .

[vmpaul]

I guess this kills all those iPod as a Remote for the Airport Express rumors. Or with Wi-Fi added. Looks like a incremental upgrade, not a major re-visioning.

[TailsToo]

Originally posted by MrForgetable:
i hope it does .

There was a picture on Spymac that has a lit 4G iPod, and the click wheel does lite up (of course, the pics could be fake)

[Lancer409]

i hope to hell it looks like that spymac photo with a light blue glow. believe it or not .. aesthetics count to me .. lol .. and the grey wheel is already getting points marked down. if the menu and keys dont have a glow like the spymac picture ... i may consider getting a cheap 3 g ... i like the all white look alot, and with a remote, i would have to care too much about those four buttons .. or would i? (dunno .. dont have a ipod yet...)

[mdc]

the remote is for play, pause, next, previous, and volume. you will need to use at least the menu button to go back in the menus when you are browsing your ipod to choose your music.

after you have music chosen, you can remote away.

[quadraphonic]

Originally posted by TailsToo:
Most of the competiton revs their units every 3 months or so, but in any case my point was that Apple doesn't have a killer product next quarter, and that could start the doom and gloom again.

Apple put out the new Cinema displays, plus I'm sure the iPod mini craze and new 4G iPods will sustain them until the new iMacs come out. After that.. we got X-Mas!!

A question though.. is there new software for the 4Gs? Is this the end of software updates for 3Gs?

[rytc]

Originally posted by Parky:
Here are the specs from Newsweek :-

The click wheel.

The iPod keeps getting slimmer and more streamlined. While the initial version had a relatively boxy feel, subsequent versions have been curvier and smaller. This one is about a millimeter thinner and, more significantly, eliminates the control buttons that sat under the display screen. Instead, it uses a "click wheel," where the controls are placed on the compass points of the circular touchpad that lets you scroll through menus. This is an innovation carried over from the diminutive iPod Mini. "It was developed out of necessity for the Mini, because there wasn't enough room [for the buttons]," says Steve Jobs. "But the minute we experienced it we just thought, 'My God, why didn't we think of this sooner?' "

Ian

I find it rather stupid how they talk about eliminating the buttons to create a more streamlined look etc etc. As far as I can see they new 4G ipods now look almost identical to the original iPods, with the four buttons placed around the scroll wheel.
What's the bet that the next revision will place the buttons back under the screen and the following revision will place them back around the scroll wheel......and around and around we go.

[Lancer409]

Click the following link for lots of pix of the new 4g ipod compared to the older ipods and even a mini .. the new ipod is almost as thin as the ipod mini!
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,239...=131820,00.asp

[kentuckyfried]

a video out port would be awesome!

I mean, sometimes, I like *cough*put*cough* put films on my hard drive, especially region 3 import dvd's. The difficult part about this though is that's it's kind of cumbersome to move the desktop or laptop out into the living room to do this. Being able to do this with an iPod would be wonderfully versatile...perhaps not practical now, but later down the line.

I don't know how apple would pull that off though...One thing I noticed for the first time this past weekend is that you need to connect up speakers to the laptop, there's no way to set the audio out to the tv's built-in speakers. That could be problematic for using the ipod for video playback. building in a video out port (like S-video) might be prohibitively expensive as well.

why does everybody complain about the regular iPods not having brushed metal? I'm sure they have their reasons for that...most notably, the issue of cost again. The Minis aren't $250 for no reason. Yeah, it would be nice, but it'd probably jack the price up.

anyhow...I'm really happy they put the buttons to surround the scroll wheel. All non-mechanical...and I don't need to worry about pressing the wrong circular button while driving. It became frustrating enough that I used the 3G much less than my original.
Looking forward to this when Target carries it so I can get my 20% dicount.

Originally posted by OreoCookie:
The design is disappointing.
I hoped for an iPod mini design, i. e. brushed metal in colors.

[nbnz]

Originally posted by Lancer409:
Click the following link for lots of pix of the new 4g ipod compared to the older ipods and even a mini .. the new ipod is almost as thin as the ipod mini!
http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow/0,239...=131820,00.asp

You've put the same post in every iPod thread!
Thanks for the link, those comparison photos make me want to sell my 3G and get a 4G.

[kentuckyfried]

I'm so glad I was able to return my 3G to Target yesterday. Thank God for their 90 return policy.

[gkorsgard]

The new ipods are shipping. I just got my fedex tracking number for the iPod and a number for the case!

[Socially Awkward Solo]

Wow, no dock and no remote, no wonder it is cheaper when they cost $39 each.

[AC Rempt]

The lack of a dock, remote and case makes that much of a difference to me. You can sync without the dock, and I never use the remote since I use my iPod in my car. I also bought a much better case than the one Apple ships, so I think it's nice to have the option of getting these things if you want them, but if you don't use them, you simply pay less.

I'd rather use the extra money buying more music.

I'm also pretty excited about the new wheel. The touch-sensitive buttons are just too sensitive for my taste, and I would rather have a more tactile response.

As soon as I can get rid of my 3G 20, I'm ordering up.