The Guts Of An iPod 313
The Infamous Grimace writes: "The folks at
this Japanese web site
have provided pics of the inside of an iPod. A quick breakdown of it in English is
here. The FireWire contoller appears to be
TIs TSB43AA82, the chip is PortalPlayers PP5002B
w/ an ARM7TDMI-based core. Apparently it has encoding abilities as well. The hard-drive is Toshiba's MK5002MAL."
It's great to have sites like this (Score:5, Funny)
Can it run Linux? Can you imagine *smack*smack*smack*
Sorry.
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:4, Redundant)
The funny part about "can it run linux" here is that the line is suddenly blurred. This device is $400, has a fast processor, 5gb hard drive, and 32mb of ram - much nicer features than your standard PDA. Additionally, it would be (relatively) straight forward to enable all the standard device features (read: mp3 playback) under linux.
Yep, an iPod will totally outclass any windows CE devices we are likely to see in the next few years.
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:3, Funny)
You're right... I am really sick of displays I can read on handhelds. Why have 32 bit color and 400x200 resolution (or whatever it really is) when you can have 1bit color and half that screen size? Also, who needs a pen to input stuff when you can enter letters by pressing the up and down arrows on your iPod!
*sarcasm off* This thing is cool but let's not get TOO ridiculous. Hehe.
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It's great to have sites like this (Score:2)
To rephrase, why can we have a device with hours and hours of battery life when we can waste computational power by displaying a cool animation of musical notes coming out of a boom box, that will not help the sound quality in any way? See Steve, bloatware can be fun!
Reverse Engineering? (Score:4, Offtopic)
Re:Reverse Engineering? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Reverse Engineering? (Score:3, Funny)
Say a Korean company would like to produce a knock off of the new video camera. They'd have a hard time legitimately getting ahold of one, so they find PVT Whoever to go to the PX and buy one, then they buy it off of him. No paperwork, only cash exchange. PVT Whoever just made himself a pocket full of chump change, while the Korean company now has a product with absolutely no trace to how they obtained it to reverse engineer it.
I have a friend who is stationed in Korea, and she found what we both thought was a great deal: a Geforce3 video card for $90. He bought one and tried it and it ALMOST outperformed a Trident 1 MB video card found in older 486's. This was obviously a poor knock off of the Geforce 3 chip.
lots of wires and junk (Score:3, Offtopic)
As an Apple fan (Score:2, Funny)
iPod Copying Limitations (Score:4, Informative)
The iPod copying limitations are not really restrictions, but rather just hiding the actual MP3 files. The MP3's can be accessed thru the command line in OS X or thru a number of graphical third party utilities, a process outlined in this Mac Observer article. [macobserver.com]
Some more interesting (?) discussion about the iPod's internals and copy protection is over at a similar article on MacSlash. [macslash.com]
I'm getting an iPod myself, but not till January when hopefully they'll drop in price a bit when Apple announces their next line of products.
Re:iPod Copying Limitations (Score:2)
Just in case anyone is too lazy to follow the links...the hidden files are unhidable by using ls in the terminal window, or by setting the "show hidden files in finder" thing in TinkerTool.
My theory is they did it just so iTunes' sync function can't accidentally delete user files just because they end in ".mp3".
Re:iPod Copying Limitations (Score:2)
One would assume that if you can write a HFS+ filesystem onto a FireWire hard disk that you can get your music into the iPod no matter what OS you are using.
At least I assume it is an HFS+ filesystem, it could be FAT32, I mean it is a 3rd party OS in the iPod, the big limit is it will have to be something that both OS9 and OSX support writing, and a "little" OS can support reading.
Re:iPod Copying Limitations (Score:2)
Well, the good news is if you use it to "sync" music like Apple does trashing the filesystem isn't a big deal since all the data is still on the Linux box. Flakey FireWire could be a bigger deal though since that may make the system lock up (depending on how it flakes). Since I have a OSX box, Linux, and FreeBSD, I figure I'm covered on iPod use :-)
I still havn't decided if I want one. I did look at the demo unit the Tyson's VA Apple store has, and it was cool. I just don't know if I'm away from my normal sources of music enough to want to bother with this.
P.S. the headphones they include are pretty nice. Not as nice as the Etymotic Research ones, but a lot better then what most CD players include! They are also removable so one could use quality headphines, or try to drive a line-in if you want.
Re:iPod Copying Limitations (Score:2, Funny)
But Linux runs on iSeries.
First Airport, now this... (Score:4, Interesting)
Lucent 802.11b cards, AMD based base stations, and not Portal designed mp3 player and UI by Pixo.
Now if they can only work together with AMD and NVIDIA to introduce a new low cost entry level Mac ($500 range) and use DAISY type runtime optimzation and recompilation in the OS to make it hardware agnostic...
Re:First Airport, now this... (Score:4, Informative)
True, but it's a little weird to see that the OS for this device isn't actually Apple's, but a third party's. Seems like the only thing Apple really contributed to it was the design and, of course, the iTunes 2 integration.
But hey, it looks like a Mac product and works like a Mac product. Who really cares who actually designed the guts?
Now if only they'd open-source the OS so that we could build our own....
Out of Apple's court :) (Score:2)
Still, it makes me wonder how hard it would be to hack it make it so uploaded mp3s via FireWire are playble, and thus make it PC compatible
Re:First Airport, now this... (Score:2, Interesting)
According to my anonymous source at PortalPlayer, it's based on Lineo's RXTC [lineo.com] microkernel. Of course, the ``application'' side has been hacked on quite a bit and has had significant additions to the database and filesystem added, but it's still RXTC based.
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:First Airport, now this... (Score:3, Offtopic)
Now if they can only work together with AMD and NVIDIA to introduce a new low cost entry level Mac ($500 range) and use DAISY type runtime optimzation and recompilation in the OS to make it hardware agnostic...
Or use instead of an expensive AMD a cheaper G3 processor.
The problem is, that most G3 processors are cheaper than those from AMD and use 10 to 20 times less power.
One of the advantages of the PPC family that it uses less power for more computing power.
The PPC8500 will use something like 15 watts peak on 1,6 Ghz and will be two times faster than the P4 running at 2 Ghz..
So, with 60 watts you get 8 times the computing power of a P4 at 2 Ghz..
O yeah, you can get a G4 with Nvidea Geforce 3.
No problem at all.
I own a PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
If the CPU is cheaper than AMD's, why is an entry level Mac 50% more expensive than an entry AMD or Intel?
Okay, so maybe I don't know enough to judge, but somewhere some component is raising the cost... and if the hard drive, memory, video, and CPU aren't it... maybe it's the chipset and drivers, in which case using the NForce and NVIDIA drivers may drive the cost down of the system by $100? Who knows except Apple?
Re:I own a PowerBook G4! (Score:4, Insightful)
PC-clone makers don't need to do any of this. They just buy commodity parts, assemble them, and the most expensive component they have is Windows. For consumer machines, their goal is to have the biggest MHz number and CD/DVD speed rating.
Re:I own a PowerBook G4! (Score:2)
Still, then, it's a question of economies of scale, isn't it? Cases are slightly more expensive, CPUs are slightly more expensive, mobos are slightly more expensive, engineers to write drivers, etc, because there's no volume involved...
Re:I own a PowerBook G4! (Score:5, Insightful)
Part could be they tend to use high quality parts (e.g. the monitor on the iMac may be small but it has far less edge distortion then the small monitors I see at CompUSA, and better color then most of them). They could get away from that by making a "craptastic" Mac, but would it help them to convince people that Mac's are better by selling them something bad? (Note: many people already think this about the iMac, or about leaving SCSI for IDE, or...still one has to admit that many parts of the iMacs are not the cheap parts that the "value" PCs use)
Part of it may be they have to spread the design costs over a smaller number of sales. It costs X dollars to make a new motherboard chipset. If you take Apple's claim of 5% market share as fact, then a PC part has the potential of having 20 times as many people to spread the design costs and other NREs over then a Mac part. So the "northbridge" is going to have a lot more cost charged to each buyer then one from SiS. They can combat that a little by only having a few different parts there (say one for the whole iMac line, maybe shared with the iBook, one for the 1st gen TiBook, one for the 2nd gen TiBook and the G4's...), the PC market's five or so chip makers still have more people to spread the NREs over... There are also NREs for each machine. Again Apple can make that hurt a little less by only having four lines of machine and only 2, 3, or 4 in each line vs. the N bizzilian PCs, it still hurts a bit.
Apple also has to pay more for quality control. They make a fairly wide array of products, and they all have to work together because they can't point their fingers at as many other people. If you buy an HP PC and it sucks, when you call they can point their finger at the maker of the app (most bundled Apps on a PC are not made by the PC maker, Apple tends to ship largely their own software, or software branded as theirs), failing that they can point their finger at Microsoft (or wash their hands of you if you have Linux), Apple can only blame themselves for the OS...
Apple also seems to do more research then most places, and that costs. It also pays though.
Lastly, Apple has higher profit margins then PC makers (except in the server market). It makes sense to me for them to trim those to the bone on the low end iMac, but who knows if they do.
Re:First Airport, now this... (Score:2)
The OS is Pixo's, we don't know if the UI is Pixo's or Apple's.
From extension.. (Score:2)
If the design is good, then the OS and drivers and everything above the OS does not know and does not have the means to know what the hardware is.
That seems to be a good enough description for agnostic, doesn't it? It's an analogy, and not a 100% fit.
D'ohhh! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:D'ohhh! - 90 day (Score:2)
It worries me a bit that they put such a short warantee on it. Apple knows how to set warantees. The early Airport base stations had a huge failure rate after just over one year. (Bad capacitors. Thank goodness a google search and a trip to radio shack will get you back in business.)
Re:D'ohhh! - 90 day (Score:2)
Let's just hope there is no "burning powerbook adapter" issue with this thing...
iPod price vs. Toshiba drive price (Score:5, Informative)
If anyone wants the Toshiba drive, they should buy an iPod and rip it apart. This gives them the drive, PLUS you get a battery, various ICs, an LCD display, and some decent earbuds
Guess Apple's price for the iPod isn't really a rip off.
-- Olentangy
Re:iPod price vs. Toshiba drive price (Score:2)
Must...control...fist...of death.
Oh, certainly; every OEM in the world buys these drives by going to the Toshiba website and putting in an order for 10,000 of them @ $399 each...
Use your heads, people. I have seen so many smug comments about how Apple is not making any money on this produt, with the premise being that the drive alone costs them $399.
It doesn't, of course. Now, the drive probably isn't cheap, but you can be *sure* they have got as sweet a deal as is humanly possible on these drives (which are now no doubt getting great press). The high price at the website probably partly reflects the fact that a good, big, chunk of Toshiba's entire production is going to a certain hardware vendor in Cupertino, with an option for them to buy even more drives, so they don't now have much incentive to lower prices for anybody else until they've got their production process ramped up a bit more.
If Apple is making less than a 20% margin on the iPod, I'd be completely stunned. Not that this is a rip-off (many people will pay it), but let's not get all silly here...
Re:iPod price vs. Toshiba drive price (Score:5, Informative)
Yeah, too bad this is a 1.8" drive - much smaller. 5GB is currently the highest capacity Toshiba makes.
Re:iPod price vs. Toshiba drive price (Score:2, Insightful)
I heard apple is paying $100 per drive. It must be true, I heard it from a guy who heard it from a guy on /. who heard it from his nephew who heard it from his classmate who heard it from his little brothers baby sitter who heard it from her hair dresser who heard it from a woman whose husband works at apple.
Thank you for the useless and factless speculation.
t.
ARM (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:ARM Intel (Score:2, Informative)
I find ARM interesting. It is well on its way to be the worlds leading processor architecture. It is already used in 70-80% of mobile phones. Recently Microsoft stopped supporting Hitachi, MIPS chips for Pocket PC2002 and only supports ARM chips now. Palm already announced they would be using ARM in future.
ARM is an intellectual property company that licences it's processor architecture to semiconductor manufacturers. Intel pay an initial licence fee for the ARM architecture and pay royalties to ARM. Intel, Motorola and Texas Instruments (for Digital Signal Processors) are unique in having architecture licences from ARM which allow them to add their own value through modifications to the basic ARM architecture, whilst other manufacturers can only produce the original ARM designs.
Intel originally purchased StrongARM from Digital, which had the first architecture licence from ARM, but Intel has been buying new architecture licences as well as normal licences from ARM. Intel's new ARM architecture is called Xscale which which will replace StrongARM.
Doesn't seems like a bad deal after all (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Doesn't seems like a bad deal after all (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyhow, it seems likely that the supply of the components might be a little tight for a while, so it makes sense to set the price high and sell it to the faithfull for a little while, before dropping the price and making it more widely available. It does Apple no good to make it available for Windows or at a low price but then not be able to meet the demand. Much better to hold off and make it available to Windows and/or drop the price later when the supplies grow.
Then again, they already sell a number of very nice things such as their LCD monitors that will not (easily) work on anything other than a modern Mac. Why should this be any different? If you want one I suppose you can hack your own support into your system of choice, eh?
Unofficial non-Mac support (Score:2)
Re:Unofficial non-Mac support (Score:2, Informative)
sorry but you will also have to update the database file in the ipod somehow so it knows the new mp3's are there I don't know what that invovles but it's a bit more then just copying the files over
Re:Doesn't seems like a bad deal after all (Score:2)
For the last time, the client (without any editing features) is free! If you want to CREATE or EDIT any movies (for example assemble a collection of images into a sorensen 3 encoded movie) then you need to pay $30.. I imagine that's probably because the encoding portion of many codec are liscensed for a fee, while the decoding portion is generally liscensed for free. So, in summary, Apple is charging for the editting features to cover the costs that they incur in liscensing fees..
In the immortal words... (Score:3, Troll)
Sony Guts!
Macintosh Jr commercial (Score:2, Funny)
Article on geek.com (Score:3, Informative)
Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple didn't create the iPod to sell iPods. They created it to sell Macs.
Interface used to be a compelling reason to pick a Mac over a Wintel box--the Mac OS was just THAT much better. Say what you want about Windows
In short, they need to offer things that you can ONLY do on a Mac. They've already done a few of these things
In short, every columnist and reviewer who criticizes Apple for making iPod Mac-only is just doing their work for them. That kind of criticism is EXACTLY what Apple needs right now
Plus, the iPod is all shiny. I like shiny.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2)
If by 'something' you mean 'use the iPod', then you are correct.
However, if by 'something' you mean 'use a cool MP3 player', you are dead wrong.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple created iPod to make a profit on iPod. They did not create iPods to break even on iPod and proliferate the mac platform, nor did they create iPod to take a loss on iPod and proliferate the mac platform.
At the very worst, Apple is avoiding additional software costs on the iPod project by leaving it as Mac only and not worrying about other platforms. But the truth here is that Apple did not make a $400 MP3 player so they could sell more $800 desktop computers. That would be the most ludicrous marketing campaign ever, since any company could come out with a $500 MP3 player next month with superior features, support all platforms, and invalidate any need to purchase both a mac and a computer.
I really dont understand why people think this is unique to a Mac. If you look at what's really going on here, Apple outsourced a lot of the work on the iPod. Chances are, the companies that did this work retained some rights to the work they did. So, if any other company wants to make an MP3 player, they could easily come in with a similar offering to the iPod, at a similar price, with whatever customizations they want, by simply contacting the companies Apple outsourced the work to.
Really, honestly, wake up and smell the maple nut crunch.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2, Interesting)
Clearly, in light of this, they haven't designed iPod to fatten their wallets. There's more than meets the eye here.
The hard drive alone, when bought by the end-consumer, retails for $399.
Personally, I've already ordered my iPod and I can't wait to get it!
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2, Insightful)
so yes they used outside hardware, as they do 90% of the time. so what did apple do themselves? well how about the design? how about putting it all together to work so perfectly? how about the easiest MP3 player interface ever to be released today!
ive heard many people talking about the archaos MP3 player, have you ever navigated through over 1000 songs on there, looking for one paticulair song? its a nightmare! apple knows interfaces, they are one of the best at it, its so easy with the ipod.
before i let ya go, id like to address your BOLD statement. "Apple did not make a $400 MP3 player so they could sell more $800 desktop computers". you are very right my friend, they did not do it to sell 800 dollar boxes, cause apple wishes they didnt even have to sell an 800 dollar box. they want this to increase the sale of iBooks and Power Books and Power Macs and top of the line iMacs. of course they are making some money off the iPod, but its all about selling macs, thats all its EVER about with Apple. i gurantee you that.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, Nomads are going to keep selling, just because they're 20 gigs vs. 5 gigs, but do you think people are going to continue to put up with USB transfer after they've seen what FireWire can do?
Apple gets a royalty from every firewire port sold... Six months from now, will you even consider a mp3 player that has USB over one that has firewire, once all the other companies get FW into their products? Of course not, 10 minutes vs a day to transfer all your music is pretty significant.
The iPod is going to have an incredible effect on FireWire's consumer adoption, even more for PC users than mac users. USB2 may have just had yet another stake driven into it's heart.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2)
They have since reduced that price, and basically give it away.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2)
Maybe so, but the majority of people who will want one of these things will already have a perfectly good computer with their favourite operating system installed.
However nice the iPod is, Apple are severly delluding themselves if they thing that people are going to purchase an iMac because of the iPod.
Some people might, but I cannot see droves of people throwing away their P3's in favour of an iMac.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2)
The website says it's $249, hardly half the price
The Archos was nice until the iPod came out; now here's something faster by 30x and lighter by half and smaller by half and more batter life to boot.
So the big event is how smaller, lighter, faster, and longer the iPod is than, say, the Archos. You just have to pay for that luxury.
Evidently you don't value those strengths, so the iPod doesn't mean anything to you.
Re:Mac-only ..... nobody seems to get it. (Score:2)
8 hours is indeed not half the battery time, not even close.
It's not the closed shop mentality, so much as using retailers I'm familiar and comfortable with. In this case, the manufacturer of said device, or Amazon, or Buy. Amazon lists the 6gb Archos jukebox at $239, which isn't much cheaper than Archos's list price.
Will the iPod last? (Score:2, Insightful)
solid-state memory.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:solid-state memory.... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, many multi-level filesystems use them. Recently accessed files tend to live in RAM and a hard drive. Not so recently ones on a hard drive. Really not so recently used ones are off on mag tape (or WORM media) in a jukebox.
AFS also use to use local disk to cache files from the network, I think CODA can do the same.
Oh, and many web browsers cache files on local disk (or at least in the filesystem, which is normally local disk, but could be solid state, or across the network...). Netscape, and MSIE for example :-)
A few thoughts on the matter (Score:4, Insightful)
Anyone who may have been considering purchasing a Toshiba MK5002MAL will now give MUCH greater consideration to buying an iPod instead. I know it's not as easy to switch out as a 'true' PCMCIA device, but even if you don't have a Mac, you can still use it as a FW drive. This will drive sales up considerably - there is a market for it outside the Mac world even without iTunes and its MP3 capabilities. And how long before someone hacks it, makes it work with other OSes.
Know what I think? I think Apple SHOULD release a Windows version of iTunes, and CHARGE FOR IT! How long have Mac users had to pay extra to play with Windows? VPC, SoftWindows, Orange Micro PCI adapter cards, MacLink, the list goes on. Well, you know what, Windows users? If you want the ease, the function, and yes, the glitz and shiny baubles, then BUY APPLE! Or else commence hacking...
In addition, one easter egg has already been discovered - the game Breakout! is hidden within. MacAddict [macaddict.com]reports on it, as does MacityNet. [macitynet.it] Who knows what other goodies lurk within, or that Apple will release for it. I, for one, do not believe that an MP3 player is all that Apple has planned for it. We've had a few pleasant surprises since it's previewing, who knows what will happen once it's released to the general public. I, for one, want one VERY much.
Santa? I've been a REAL good boy this year, I swear...
(tig)
The underlying theme (Score:2, Interesting)
Does anyone actually see people going from the Wintel environment to Mac? How about the other way around? It seems to me that Mac's market share has been pretty stagnant for awhile, and I just don't see anything changing it as this point.
This seems to be Apple trying to solidify their own market, and push out into a currently unexplored market. But even if a few Wintel users drop the $400 for the device, I seriously doubt that many are going to buy a Mac to go with it. I still see both machines at targeted at different markets, different consumers.
Face it, both Apple and Wintel are good at what they do. I sometimes think that the perception that there is a market for "converting" people between these two platforms is ludicrous. I don't think Apple thinks they can convert people to Mac with this device because I don't think that market really exists in any significant number.
Especially when you see the bitterness between the two camps.
Re:The underlying theme (Score:2, Funny)
Count me in (Score:2)
I'm tired of all the crap I put up with when working on PC's (and I've worked on lots of different PC's, having to work on not only my own machines but also machines at work and friends machines). Also, the Mach core of OSX really appeals to me and I love the ability to have a well put together Unix environment (I'm especially fond of the OSX packaging structure).
I'll still keep my old Wintel machines and use them as Linux servers, but I look forward to using OSX as a primary development environment.
Re:The underlying theme (Score:4, Insightful)
OS X has been making some really impressive inroads in to the Windows camp. Many tech columnists who have been anti-Mac forever have actually been saying that OS X trumps Windows XP. That's really impressive.
The iPod, of course, is only the first step. It's quite obvious from this story that the iPod has more capabilities than Apple is enabling at this point. I predict that they're eventually going to roll out a lot more "digital devices" in the future. Sure similar things will on the PC side, but the ease and integration of the future "iPods" will be the real draw.
Apple has a good solid business plan, healthy gross margins and a strategy. I really think that OSX, the future iPods, the retail stores and the attention to detail and integration are going to bring some very impressive returns for Apple in the near future. They'll never have 95% market share, but if one in every ten home computers is a Macintosh, that will all the critical mass they'll need.
But I digress. Apple has screwed up a lot in the past, but this is not the same Apple they used to be. If they can convert an old time Mac-hater like me, I have a lot of faith in their future.
- j
Re:The underlying theme (Score:2)
This gives Mac people something to feel good about, something else to point to and say "Look, isn't this cool? Don't you wish you had one?" Me, I'm glad I left Mac for Intel and Linux, but the iPod does make me pretty jealous. It's something to make those who stayed feel like whatever sacrifices they've made are worthwhile.
Re:The underlying theme (Score:2)
Since I switched, most of my friends and family have switched to Macs and we are all happier than ever before. I don't get calls about "Windows won't print!" and "there's no sound!" and "Windows is mysteriously crashing!" etc etc anymore. My 56 year-old aunt tried to record her music for two years on a high-end desktop PC and never got it to work right, and then she recorded a song and made an iMovie around it on her first day with a PowerBook. She put the movie on the Web in streaming video, just working with the built-in tools that came with the box, and she had never put anything on the Web before. Even the Web space and streaming server space was included with the price of the box. Once people start iMovie, they just "get it" right away. It's amazing to watch them work with no help required and turn out cool stuff.
I still have one close friend who calls me with Windows problems. Recently, she had one of those Outlook viruses that sends out your personal files to your address book, and she basically stopped using her computer for a long while because she was so frustrated by the privacy violation that it represented. She already uses a Mac at work, and when she found out that Mac users just rolled merrily through Y2K, Melissa, I Love You, Code Red, Nimda, etc she decided to get a Mac, too, and is shopping for one right now. An educated consumer is Microsoft's worst problem, because they have been lying to people for years. My friend realized she had enough computer-savvy to trust her own decision to pick the best computer for her needs, and it was a Mac. A few years ago she would just get the "safe" choice.
> Face it, both Apple and Wintel are good
> at what they do
Sure, but a lot of people are out there trying to make Windows PC's do the things that Macs are good at, like working with audio, video, graphics, or easy plug and play reliable operation for the home user. Some of them are even doing that professionally because their IT guys are all MSCE's who want to "standardize" on MS in order to "cut costs". Ha ha ha ha ha. So stupid. Like it fucking matters to make IT guys happy! Think about the users and their productivity and your core business why don't you? Too many people are being shoe-horned into the Windows platform just for interoperability, when (ironically) a cross-platform industry is the only thing that will ever guarantee interoperability. You can now run the same software on Linux, Solaris, Irix, and Mac OS X with very little trouble at all, while on the other hand, MSN (the ISP) starting trying to block non-Microsoft browsers the other day. I mean, think about it.
This article is about how iPod is not as expensive as it first appeared, once you see how much better it is at what it does than its competition. The same is true for all Apple products
Software guts (Score:4, Interesting)
If Windows could read HFS+ hard drives with firewire without the 3rd party software, you could just plug it in and upload whatever you wanted.
All the music files are in an invisible folder at the root level of the drive. Very easy to copy. I don't know about adding files that way, there may be a playlist that needs to be updated as well...
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Question about the battery. (Score:2, Informative)
Keeping the unit under consistant trickle charge (ie maintained at full) will aviod this until you use it. When in use, allow the battery to fully discharge before charging in order to maintain battery effeciency. It's annoying because I think that the all chargers should come with a "discharge" option.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
English Breakdown link text: (Score:2, Informative)
We're closing down our forums for about 30 minutes due to extremely high traffic. Our higher-capacity server is ready, and we will move to it in the next few days, which should prevent problems like this.
Thanks for your patience.
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Disk Drive Physics. (Score:2)
So, given that the hard drive is sleeping much of the time, I would guess that they just use the standard Toshiba drive in the way that Toshiba recommends, without complicating things.
Anyone curious about the hard drive like I am? (Score:2)
The drive has a normal 44-pin notebook IDE connector, but pins 41 and 42, instead of being 5V for logic and motor, are 3.3V.
- 1.8" sized drive
- 1 Platter
- 5.007 Gigabytes
- 5mm High
- 15ms Average Seek Time
- ATA (1 - 5) Interface
- Ultra66 Supported [they seem to contradict themselves here!]
- 1024KB Buffer
- Rotational speed of 4,200rpm
- MTTF 300,000 Hours
Beautiful little unit...Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:2)
.
inside the US.
So the rest of the world will laught at the US and still uses it.
Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
So, you think that what is the law in the US tomorrow won't be the law in your country the day after, eh?
Well, we still don't have something like the DMCA here in Europe.
And if I want to buy a regioncode free DVD-player I can buy one almost anywhere.
There is no law which makes this illegal.
Second, don't forget that most European country's don't have the best government money can buy (-; .
If you want to be free then don't move to the USA.
Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:2, Interesting)
Ha! Cracking CSS can get you arrested in Europe. Still think you are safe from our corporate sponsored legal system?
As with most things (not all, but most), Europe is on the same track as the US, just a few years behind. Sit tight friend, we will bring opression to you!
Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:3, Insightful)
Depends on what part of Europe. Unfortunately, if your country is a signatory to the convention regarding intellectual property (I wanted to say berne Convention, but I'm not sure that's correct), then your government may be obliged to pass a law equivalent to whatever idiot legislation we pass here to "protect" copyright owners.
Re:Yeah but. . . (Score:2)
and
Re:PortalPlayer (Score:5, Funny)
And I'm sure apple will be very sad if you crush the mp3 player that YOU PAYED FOR.
--T
Re:PortalPlayer (Score:4, Interesting)
I was in an SDMI meeting when that is precisely what was proposed. The drop dead codes would be encoded into CDs. The first time that the MP3 player saw the drop dead code it would set a switch so that it would only accept SDMI encoded MP3 files.
That was the first and last meeting with those loonies that I attended. The basic idea that they had was that I would spend several million dollars building security technology for them and they would pay me $0.10 per player until the royalties reached a certain point when they would buy my interest out completely for about $100K.
Re:PortalPlayer (Score:3, Insightful)
First, mp3 is built into their iTunes encoder, along with AIFF. It's a good format to them.
Second, Steve Jobs said he does not believe technology will prevent piracy. "It's a behavorial issue, not a technology issue." On every iPod box, there is a label inside saying "Don't Steal Music."
I would be VERY suprised if they put in some form of circumvention. Maybe if the guard changes in 10 years...
Y100 piece (Score:2)
Re:Dimensions? (Score:2)
Re:More info on the battery? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Translated Version (Score:2, Funny)
The forcing Sad iPod was indicated. One time to try seeing you want
It will do also the air, but the one which is not seen happy is
I love you babelfish!
Re:Translated Version (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Why no USB then? (Score:2)
Firewire hard disk ability
HFS+ (I think) capability
I suspect Linux people may get this first, if only because Darwin and Linux have HFS+ support and Windows doesn't (yet).
Drivers possibilities for Linux (Score:5, Informative)
First, of course, you need mount the thing. The documented way to enable Firewire disk mode is through the configuration UI in iTunes, but this TIL article [apple.com] has instructions on how to set Firewire mode manually. Finally you'll need to get it to work with the Linux IEEE1394 drivers. Most Firewire hard drives are already supported, so it may work out of the box. Go to the Linux1394 [sourceforge.net] pages for more information.
Re:Why no USB then (Apple PC required)? (Score:2, Funny)
Thank you for your interest in the iPod. We appreciate the input of users such as yourself. Unfortunately, we have no plans to support your platform at this time. We would like to direct you to our online Apple Store and our selection of the popular iBook laptops.
- Department of Irony
Re:Why no USB then? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Why no USB then? (Score:2)
Apricorn has a USB drive thats powered exclusivly by the USB cable - it's has a battery for a bit of a boost during spinup. http://www.apricorn.com/ezstorage.html [apricorn.com]
Re:Why no USB then? (Score:2)
My first thought was "ask a Nomad owner"... I own a USB RIO (500) and I gotta say, the speed of the USB connection is a pain even for filling the 64MB of that little machine's memory. I can't imagine what it'd be like to use USB to load a 20GB Nomad!
That having been said though, if the ARM processor that runs the iPod has a USB controller built in (I don't know much about such things), then why not inculde a USB connection for all the machines out there that do not have firewire ports but do have USB ports? Now, it really wasn't that long ago that there were shipping Macs that didn't have firewire (many of the iMacs in use out there do not and they're probably in the homes of the target market for the iPod...and then there are a whole bunch of Powerbooks and iBooks...again the owners of which are Apple's target market.) Beyond all those machines, there are a lot of PC's out there that do not have firewire but do have USB ports...
That brings me to a point that many others have said before me, so at risk of being moded-down for being redundant, it seems that apple could really sell a lot of these little units if they were PC/Windows/Linux friendly. The iPod is so close to perfect in so many ways that it makes some of the flaws it does have stand out more than they might otherwise.
But those are just my thoughts...
-t
Re:Isn't this more beautiful? (Score:2)
Otherwise, the iAudio is much better as a small portable mp3 player; 10 hours of playback with 2 hours of music? Just a little unbalanced.
Re:Isn't this more beautiful? (Score:2)
It isn't an iPod. Sure you can store 185mb of data on a mCDR, but it's not like this thing can actually *burn* on the fly with it's USB port or something.
The whole hype about the iPod is that it's a portable stylish Firewire hard drive with an mp3 player integrated into it.
The Rip!Go is a CD player with an integrated mp3 player. The iAudio is an mp3 player, only.
Nifty (Score:2)
However,at USB speeds, it's pretty slow. If it were Firewire, was cdrw, and less than $300, I'd be *all* over it.
As it is, I'm gonna have to look into it now
Re:got vmware? (Score:2)
>running Mac OS on top of Windows 2000 with
>VMWare (eww windows, haha don't worry it's for
>linux too)
This isn't really a credible claim.
There may be a MacOS emulator that
can run on Windows 2000, but it is
not VMWare.