[PatsPalace24]

Just my 2 cents, but personally I think the "NEW" 4G iPods are definately not worth it, especially if upgrading. Maybe if buying it for a first time, but not other than that. The price cut and battery life is nice, but scroll wheel is OK, really havent experimented w/ mini that much, but love my 3G. The things I was REALLY looking forward to are mainly an Airport Card in it to use as remote for Airtunes. Jobs said this to Walt at one point, but where is it Stevie? Come on! Maybe a color screen, but the battery life is definately a nice upgrade. My point is that the Airport Card is a necessity, that would totally complete the package! Just my opinion.

[awaspaas]

The first of the "Underwhelmed by the new iPod" threads has arrived. Brace yourself for the rest!

[lazydesert]

Not worth it at all ?

Let me get this straight.. 4G ipod at say.. 20 gig is not worth getting "at all" even though it's $100 cheaper than a 3G 20gig ipod..

damn.. well I guess everyone had better get to the apple store before they have to pay $100 less tomorrow...

it takes all i have to keep my head from exploding .. .

[zachs]

How are they "not worth it"? I mean, if you're just upgrading because you have to have the latest thing, then I suppose not.

But if you are upgrading from, say, a 1G or 2G iPod, they are totally worth it! Not any less so than a 3G.

[velodev]

Originally posted by PatsPalace24:
Just my 2 cents, but personally I think the "NEW" 4G iPods are definately not worth it, especially if upgrading. Maybe if buying it for a first time, but not other than that. The price cut and battery life is nice, but scroll wheel is OK, really havent experimented w/ mini that much, but love my 3G. The things I was REALLY looking forward to are mainly an Airport Card in it to use as remote for Airtunes. Jobs said this to Walt at one point, but where is it Stevie? Come on! Maybe a color screen, but the battery life is definately a nice upgrade. My point is that the Airport Card is a necessity, that would totally complete the package! Just my opinion.

Hey, folks... don't worry about this guy. He's too new to understand.

But thanks for playing, Junior. How many million have been sold? How many sold in the first week?

[ender2002]

yeah. airport. and dvd. and a tv. and a cell phone. and some 3d goggles. oh yeah. 4G is totally not worth it.

[TailsToo]

If it really can get 12 hours then I'm impressed!

[Hydra]

Let's be realistic here. Apple is gonna sell every 4G iPod they make and some people may have to wait for them. They essentially lopped $100 off the price of the top two models and included some seriously nice enhancements with the new mini-style wheel and adding 50% more battery life. The only thing not worth it are the 3G iPod which will go for far less money on eBay Sorry. People clamor for Airport in an iPod but fail to look at the downsides. The extra juice necessitated to run that wireless capability in the iPod will kill battery life in such a small device. That's OK though cause you can leave it plugged in charging... kinda defeats the purpose of "wireless" in that way, don't you think?

-Jerry C.

[goMac]

Steve never "promised" AirPort for the iPod. Someone mentioned it and his reaction was "hmmmm".

Do you know what the power draw of an 802.11 card would be?

[hubert]

patty come over my house so i can slap you in the face

[zachs]

Originally posted by goMac:
Steve never "promised" AirPort for the iPod. Someone mentioned it and his reaction was "hmmmm".

Do you know what the power draw of an 802.11 card would be?

Hell, it sucks up a ton of battery life on a PowerBook! An iPod battery would be dead in no time.

[dirtbikephil]

Hatin' on the 4G already? I'd like to get it, but I just got my 3G in November. So there's no reason for me to buy it. But I'd definitely be all over it if I had a 1G or 2G.

As for a color screen for the iPod? I don't think it's really that important of a feature. Plus it would probably suck up more battery. So no thanks on the color screen for me.

Lovers = 1
Haters = 0

[wataru]

Then why don't you ----> not buy one?

I just got a 30GB; I won't be upgrading because the new ones aren't that much better than the 3Gs. But they're nothing to bitch about.

[Randman]

Why a color screen? It would eat battery life. Unless it connected somehow with a device like a media reader to show photos.
And AirTunes is meant to be used with a Mac. Apple still sells computers.
I may upgrade when the 60GB is announced. I do hope the new software will be released as a Software Update though.

[tekno_geek911]

I bought a 15GB iPod Friday morning....The new iPod looks OK I guess(dont care for the grey wheel) but I wont be upgrading unless I can trade up for free,I think I might be able to since I bought it only 3 days ago.

[mcsharick]

PatsPlace wrote...

Just my 2 cents, but personally I think the "NEW" 4G iPods are definately not worth it...

OK, I'll take the bait...I'm upgrading from a 2G 10GB to a 4G 40GB and here's why:
Always liked the control buttons on or next to the scroll wheel, hated the placement of the control buttons on the 3G iPod.

2G had a 10+ hour battery life, why would I pay for an iPod with 2-4 hours shorter battery life? Wow, I'm glad I waited on this one.

The firmware upgrade from the 2G to the 3G made it very tempting, that and all the accessories that would only work with the 3G, but still not quite enough, plus no price drop. Now Apple has released a finely tuned and "enhanced in the right places" 4G iPod!

$100 cheaper than the respective previous generation, drastic improvement in battery life, control/scroll wheel now as it should be, mulitple playlists added to, changed, and deleted, the 4G iPod is definitely the best release yet.

And a word to the 3G owners, coming from a soon to be former 2G owner, its going to hurt for a while. But be patient, your iPods are still good, and you can wait this out for a 5G, right? I expect there to be whole generations of "odd" and "even" G iPod owners. Skip a gen or two, it won't kill ya.

[Link]

I'm about a week late to the game.. forgive me I was on vacation

I predict that 1. Apple will release overpriced 'updated' device with modest improvements over the previous version, 2. The apple fanboys will rush to bash the **** out of underwhelmed people and proclaim it's a bargain even if they have to pay with blood, 3. Apple will get overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of preorders and brag brag brag, 4. The internation ship date will be delayed for ages and piss all the europeeings off...

5. 6 months later apple will still have a backlog of orders..
6. Said people will start canceling orders (as with imac g4 and ipod mini)...
7. Cnet will give the ipod flack
8. Some moron will start a site about bad batteries
9. Some other moron will sue apple over bad batteries...
10. A UK newspaper will bash apple's advertisements and a UK agency will force them off the air or newspapers..

In essence a typical apple product release.

[DanMacMan]

I for one dig the new design. Switching to the click wheel is a no brainer, keeping the iconic white case is as well. And since I am among those who have yet to buy an iPod, now is the time (especially with my birthday a week away). Kudos Apple, staying ahead of the curve and setting trends. By the way, the store is back up!

[chris v]

Originally posted by Link:
I'm about a week late to the game.. forgive me I was on vacation

I predict that 1. Apple will release overpriced 'updated' device with modest improvements over the previous version, 2. The apple fanboys will rush to bash the **** out of underwhelmed people and proclaim it's a bargain even if they have to pay with blood, 3. Apple will get overwhelmed by hundreds of thousands of preorders and brag brag brag, 4. The internation ship date will be delayed for ages and piss all the europeeings off...

5. 6 months later apple will still have a backlog of orders..
6. Said people will start canceling orders (as with imac g4 and ipod mini)...
7. Cnet will give the ipod flack
8. Some moron will start a site about bad batteries
9. Some other moron will sue apple over bad batteries...
10. A UK newspaper will bash apple's advertisements and a UK agency will force them off the air or newspapers..

In essence a typical apple product release.

Overpriced? You really don't have a clue, do you. Did you have any idea that Apple had just dropped the price by $100.00 each? Have you any clue about anything at all?

CV

[Peter]

Originally posted by PatsPalace24:
Just my 2 cents, but personally I think the "NEW" 4G iPods are definately not worth it, especially if upgrading. Maybe if buying it for a first time, but not other than that. The price cut and battery life is nice, but scroll wheel is OK, really havent experimented w/ mini that much, but love my 3G. The things I was REALLY looking forward to are mainly an Airport Card in it to use as remote for Airtunes. Jobs said this to Walt at one point, but where is it Stevie? Come on! Maybe a color screen, but the battery life is definately a nice upgrade. My point is that the Airport Card is a necessity, that would totally complete the package! Just my opinion.

great... who are you?

[GORDYmac]

Heck, I'm gettin one. I'm glad the ports didn't change, so I can also throw an iTalk and that Belkin camera transfer thing in the mix.

Classic iPod owner here. I'll keep both.

[-Q-]

I'll get one when they have a 60GB available. I really don't like the buttons on the 3G when compared to my first generation iPod. The click wheel on the iPod mini (and now 4G) seems to be much better.

[PatsPalace24]

Ok, first of all, I didn't mean to come off like that. I am just saying that IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO, that means it's not gonna be the same as yours... it did not meet all the hype that I had predicted.. but actually, the more I look at it, and the replies you guys gave, it seems more and more convincing. No harm done here, I just want some different opinions. THanks

[Link]

Originally posted by chris v:
Overpriced? You really don't have a clue, do you. Did you have any idea that Apple had just dropped the price by $100.00 each? Have you any clue about anything at all?

CV

You mean the ipod's only $199 now? I see 20gb at $299 and 40gb at $399.. I guess the store is broken

From what I can see the battery life is about 2 hours more than they advertised for ipods years ago, probably almost the same when you get down to :"real life".. there's not support for many new formats, the design change was ENTIRELY PREDICTABLE, and for a company that prides itself in constantly being 20 miles ahead of the competition I can't see how they're THAT far ahead when their updates are small at best.. and always predictable.

Ya know? I'm not trying to start a flame war but apple has really taken a **** in their design realm. When the imac got it's generation updates (original to DV, G3 to G4), the changes were significant, even if spread apart. Maybe I'm just overreacting here but I would have thought perhaps better backlighting techniques, a more powerful ipod, an API for the OS, who knows what else, would have been stuff looked into by now

I guess I just have high expectations

[hmurchison2001]

Originally posted by PatsPalace24:
Ok, first of all, I didn't mean to come off like that. I am just saying that IMO IMO IMO IMO IMO, that means it's not gonna be the same as yours... it did not meet all the hype that I had predicted.. but actually, the more I look at it, and the replies you guys gave, it seems more and more convincing. No harm done here, I just want some different opinions. THanks

Don't sweat it PP24. Apple has remain conservative regarding the iPods until supply catched demand. In Q3 800k people bought the iPod 3G. There is something that people are drawn to in the iPod. It's far too risky to add a bunch of features to a hot seller that may change how we interact. If Apple makes the iPod UI more complex it'll gain new users but may turn some users off as well.

We all want to see some cool stuff but right now the most important think is gaining critical mass. We're on the verge of totally devasting the WMA online services. Once that happens Apple can license the DRM to a bunch of willing 3rd parties and now our music has much more reach. I'm hoping that by CES 2005 there are some nice announcements regarding iTunes and AAC. I want to see more 3rd party support and more partnerships. Roll on baby roll on.

[mdc]

Originally posted by Link:
You mean the ipod's only $199 now? I see 20gb at $299 and 40gb at $399.. I guess the store is broken

3g 20gig used to be $399 and now it is 20gig for $299.
3g 40gig used to be $499 and now it is 40gig for $399.

looks like $100 price drop to me

Originally posted by Link:
Maybe I'm just overreacting here but I would have thought perhaps better backlighting techniques, a more powerful ipod, an API for the OS, who knows what else, would have been stuff looked into by now

i have a question. what better backlighting techniques do you think are needed? my current ipod lights up in the dark when i hold the menu button. the screen turns blue and the buttons turn red. what more do you need?

more powerful? what for? playing music, the games, calendar, and contacts work perfectly fine as it is. i don't see a need for more power.

api for the os. i agree, that could be interesting to see what people would make for the ipod.

[Link]

Originally posted by hmurchison2001:
Don't sweat it PP24. Apple has remain conservative regarding the iPods until supply catched demand. In Q3 800k people bought the iPod 3G. There is something that people are drawn to in the iPod. It's far too risky to add a bunch of features to a hot seller that may change how we interact. If Apple makes the iPod UI more complex it'll gain new users but may turn some users off as well.

Makes sense.. kinda like chevy and the corvette.. thanks for bringing it up this way

[Eriamjh]

Actually, the "real" price drop is probably less than $20. Why? No case or remote on either. They are $39 each from Apple and now are not included.

I don't feel so bad about my 9 month old 3G 40GB now. My remote and case are used often.

[boardsurfer]

Originally posted by PatsPalace24:
Just my 2 cents, but personally I think the "NEW" 4G iPods are definately not worth it, especially if upgrading. Maybe if buying it for a first time, but not other than that. The price cut and battery life is nice, but scroll wheel is OK, really havent experimented w/ mini that much, but love my 3G. The things I was REALLY looking forward to are mainly an Airport Card in it to use as remote for Airtunes. Jobs said this to Walt at one point, but where is it Stevie? Come on! Maybe a color screen, but the battery life is definately a nice upgrade. My point is that the Airport Card is a necessity, that would totally complete the package! Just my opinion.

heh. Can't afford one either eh?

[Scotttheking]

Originally posted by Eriamjh:
Actually, the "real" price drop is probably less than $20. Why? No case or remote on either. They are $39 each from Apple and now are not included.

I don't feel so bad about my 9 month old 3G 40GB now. My remote and case are used often.

Yeah, it's sneaky marketing. The price didn't really drop. One can also argue the same thing about "new features." Almost every software feature could be added to every ipod, but Apple doesn't update the old ones in order to try and get people to buy new ones.
To get the ipod that was $400 now costs $380. Whee, big price drop! Although, the interface looks much better then the awful one that was the 3G.

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by lazydesert:
Not worth it at all ?

Let me get this straight.. 4G ipod at say.. 20 gig is not worth getting "at all" even though it's $100 cheaper than a 3G 20gig ipod..

What's all this about a price drop? The 20G no longer comes with the dock, remote or carrying case (a $120 value). Looks to me like the 4G 20Gig Pod is $20 more than the 3G 20Gig when you factor in accessories. Actually, it doesn't look like any of the models come with the remote or carrying case anymore (even though the case was junk, you were still paying for it)

(edit: whoops, didn't read far enough to see that this was already covered)

[Wiskedjak]

Originally posted by mdc:
3g 20gig used to be $399 and now it is 20gig for $299.
3g 40gig used to be $499 and now it is 40gig for $399.

looks like $100 price drop to me

3G Base model used to be $299. 3G Mid model used to be $399.
4G base model is still $299 and the 4G mid model is still $399.
When the 4G top model appears (the 60G), it will likely be $499.

Doesn't look like the prices dropped to me. Rather, the models were upgraded.

[Link]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
3G Base model used to be $299. 3G Mid model used to be $399.
4G base model is still $299 and the 4G mid model is still $399.
When the 4G top model appears (the 60G), it will likely be $499.

Doesn't look like the prices dropped to me. Rather, the models were upgraded.

It's all in the marketing and the apple fanboys who will jump off a cliff if steve jobs told them to

[TailsToo]

Originally posted by Wiskedjak:
What's all this about a price drop? The 20G no longer comes with the dock, remote or carrying case (a $120 value). Looks to me like the 4G 20Gig Pod is $20 more than the 3G 20Gig when you factor in accessories.

(edit: whoops, didn't read far enough to see that this was already covered)

The 40GB doesn't have a a remote anymore either, so to compare Apple to Apples,(no pun intended) you would need to keep that in mind as well.

For Apple to truely proclaim a price drop, the old 15GB should still be in the lineup. They would sell well at $249. It might take some of the pressure off of the Minis. The way they have it today, the price of admission into the ipod club is the same.

[an0therdumbsn]

all they did was follow the original ipod pricing trend with eliminating a third higher slot.
gen 4 = bigger colorless ipod mini with a frimware upgrade.
Great for new comers to the scene or gen 1/2 owners however i would love a gen 3 owner to justify paying 300-400 for a gen 4.

[ort888]

It's very annoying that none of the new firmware features will work on 3G iPods. It really helps point out the fact that the new 4G iPods have hardly any new features.

It's not so much that the new iPods suck. It's just that they fail to impress me.

What would I have liked to see?

A new enclosure, preferably made out of a material that doesn't get scratched to hell after 1 month of daily use.

A case that allows for future upgrades to the battery and hard drive. Make it a little easier for the average person to get into the thing.

A way to have more control over the interface. Change font size, get bitrate, year, track number, etc... info on the go, support for cross-fading, and a better EQ.

[mdc]

Originally posted by an0therdumbsn:
however i would love a gen 3 owner to justify paying 300-400 for a gen 4.

because i really like the click wheel on the mini.
my music collection is almost filling up my 3g 15gig.
90% of my flights are international. 4 hours extra battery life is great

are those okay?

[discotronic]

Originally posted by an0therdumbsn:
i would love a gen 3 owner to justify paying 300-400 for a gen 4.

Because I can.

[zelig2]

Originally posted by an0therdumbsn:
however i would love a gen 3 owner to justify paying 300-400 for a gen 4.

two words... Disposable Income

(plus I like the extra battery power + click wheel, not to mention I instantly sold my old 20GB G3 on ebay for 250 so now it's even less of a cost)

[Link]

Something I didn't realize is that the 4G still qualifies for the powerbook rebate.. meaning a 20gb for $70 o_O I can hardly wait!

But my bro will probably be buying the ipod off of me as I said he could before *shrug* oh well I don't really need another ipod anyway

I COULD give him my 10gb 2g but I'm not sure if he'd want it or not *shrug* Hrmmm

[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

[ort888]

The new 20 gig iPod is only 1/20th of an inch thinner then the old 20 gig iPod.

They are comparing the 40 gig gen 3 iPod to the 20 gig gen 4 ipod. The actual difference is negligable, maybe the thickness of 2 or 3 playing cards stacked together.

[yoyoman]

yea its not really a price drop if they don't include the case and remote.
Second I wish they had 802.11b or g built in for airtunes. I mean when walt said do you really have to walk to your computer steve laughed as if he new a answer we wanted.
I do not like the gray scroll wheel looks so ugly.
I hope the price of the case and remote drop eventually though.
As for color screens oled would do just the job with 3 to 5 colors with less power than a lcd like on a phone. great for ical and the calander.

[John G. Stillmank]

Would you pay $100 for the case and the remote? (Rhetorical question.) No, you wouldn't.

A remote with earbuds separately used to be about $40. How much are the earbuds worth? If you say nothing, okay, then that means the remote is $40 and the case then $60? No way.

And be honest, do you remote users actually use the remote? I tried it but prefer just to use the iPod controls.

And the dock? You don't need it if you have the cable, which is also included. If you are a stereophile like some of us, the dock lets you connect the line-out to your receiver. Buy one if you need it.

The price dropped people. Maybe not by a whole $100 if you want to argue about the case and remote, but it dropped. Don't expect everything to be free. You pay a lot extra for stuff you want in your car (air, leather, sunroof, etc.). Why punish Apple for making smart business decisions that will sell more iPods? (Believe it!)

P.S. If you don't like it, don't buy it. Simple. Quicherbellyakin: "I don't like this, I don't like that, it's not that much different/better, they didn't drop the price, why aren't the sun and the moon included" really means "I'm pissed I don't have an extra $400!"