Apple Quietly Releases New iPods 153
redletterdave writes "At the company's media event last month, Apple introduced its fifth-generation iPod Touch and seventh-generation iPod Nano, but only mentioned an October timeframe for when it would start filling pre-orders. Without an official word, it looks like the official launch day for the new iPods is today. Apple Stores around the country are currently stocked with the new iPods and customers who pre-ordered are finally receiving email notifications that their orders have shipped, or are 'preparing to ship.' Still, it is interesting to note that Apple didn't make a special announcement or even post a press release to announce the launch of its newest media players, especially as the competition heats up before the holiday season."
quietly? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re: (Score:2)
It doesn't matter. You'll buy it no matter what it costs.
Re: (Score:2)
They increased the storage by a lot - previous generation's low-end model remains at the lowest price point. So $299 will presumably get you either a music player/PDA with lots of storage, or a 7.85" tablet with some storage.
"the competition heats up..." (Score:5, Insightful)
eh? in media players? what competition?
Re: (Score:1)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:"the competition heats up..." (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
The feature that doesn't work is "ipod out" which is a clone of the iphone screen on the in-dash display. Every other feature works. Everything else works.
Still able to control (Score:4, Informative)
If they are using the new port then they will be just like the new Iphones, the built in controls in the car will not be able to control the device...
A number of things with a USB port (like cars) can still control iOS devices with a lightning port, simply using he included cable.
Other devices that had dedicated dock connectors can still work just fine with the new connector if you get the adaptor. The only thing that will not work is playing video or "iPod Out", which was displaying a virtual iPod screen on some other device (since it needs video). That's not much of a loss though as the iPod Out interface was laggy and really low res.
Re: (Score:3)
You can hook up an iPod to my Honda, but it also takes USB drives, anything over Bluetooth and for last resort there is the aux port. My previous Honda did the same. So iPod only, is far from the truth.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
I haven't seen a non-iPod media player here in France in years. Germany either.
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't seen a non-phone, non-tablet media player in years either.
Re: (Score:2)
I haven't seen a non-phone, non-tablet media player in years either.
Do you go to the gym regularly? Half the Aerobics nuts in my gym have an iPod Nano or Shuffle lashed to their upper arm.
Re:"the competition heats up..." (Score:4, Insightful)
Joggers and people at the gym, my friend.
I have an iPhone and it has my music library on it. I use it regularly - on the bus, on the train, in the car etc. However my iPod Nano still gets pulled out every time I go running because:
a) it is much smaller and lighter than an iPhone; and
b) if it falls out of my pocket and smashes into a million pieces on the pavement, I've lost a $99 device rather than a $899 device.
Re:"the competition heats up..." (Score:5, Informative)
There is definitely competition out there, but it is minimal. If you check out Amazon's Japan best seller page for portable media players you get:
http://www.amazon.co.jp/gp/bestsellers/electronics/140474011/ref=zg_bs_nav_e_3_3371411 [amazon.co.jp]
The top 3 items are Apple iPod touch. 9 out of the top 10 items are from Apple. 17 of the top 20.
In any case, part of my point is not Apple's dominance, but the lack of anything much happening in this market.
Re: (Score:1)
Hi there. I've lived in Japan (Nakano, Tokyo) for the past 15 years, the Apple craze has really hit hard in the last 2. iPhones and iPods now totally dominate. We drank the Kool-Aid.
Re:"the competition heats up..." (Score:4, Interesting)
Cowon?
http://www.cowonglobal.com/ [cowonglobal.com]
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
eh? in media players? what competition?
The competition is not from other dedicated PMPs, but from Android phones. Why buy an ipod when you can get one of the cheap-ass androids for the same price.
(I know, I know, joggers etc like a small light PMP, but its a vanishing market)
Re: (Score:2)
yeah, but my comment was about dedicated media players. there is very little happening here. no "heat" to be found.
Re:"the competition heats up..." (Score:4, Insightful)
(I know, I know, joggers etc like a small light PMP, but its a vanishing market)
People aren't jogging any more?
Of course the iPod Touch is part of the iPod line. And it allows people access to the iOS App Store for much less money than an iPhone.
Re: (Score:2)
People aren't jogging any more?
Of course people are jogging & all the other things that a very small / light media player is good for. But the market for small / light players is vanishing because the number of joggers etc willing to get a dedicated player as well as a smartphone is shrinking.
Of course the iPod Touch is part of the iPod line. And it allows people access to the iOS App Store for much less money than an iPhone.
Yes, as I said in another post, one of the biggest competitors to the iPod is t
Re: (Score:2)
I actually don't see what you're observing.
I rarely see anyone that is jogging, or at the gym with a large format player (phone, ipod touch)...since they are bulky, and you don't want to drop/break/forget something that $$$, so most people I see have something that is small and clips on like the nano or the shuffle type player.
The exception I do
Re: (Score:2)
holy shit you're a clueless shut in
Considering that phone shops everywhere sell... wait for it... armband-style phone holders specifically for outdoor/sports activities, I'd guess that you should stop looking in the mirror while you post, as it seems to confuse you quite a lot.
Re: (Score:2)
holy shit you're a clueless shut in
Considering that phone shops everywhere sell... wait for it... armband-style phone holders specifically for outdoor/sports activities, I'd guess that you should stop looking in the mirror while you post, as it seems to confuse you quite a lot.
Yeah, people would want to jog around with the ever increasingly sized smartphones strapped to their wrists.
I'm sorry, you seem to have used the conditional mood where you intended the indicative...? B^)
Re: (Score:2)
The new iPod nano has a built-in pedometer, so we're a step in the right direction. Now, if they give it the capability to measure bicycling statistics, I will be all over it.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, Sandisk is probably the biggest competitor, for a few obvious reasons (no software required, but it also means no software to sync music).
But Android PMPs would be the biggest competitor. Not ones like Archos which are out there but generally low-quality, but Sony and Samsung have Android PMPs. The biggest drawback though, is that they run Gingerbread (they both have 2012 copyright dates too - imagine buying a brand new Android device and getting an outdated OS w
It was already announced. (Score:2)
It's just shipping. What's the big deal about shipping...?
Re:It was already announced. (Score:5, Funny)
I guess the difference is whether you want to use the device to listen to music, or if you're ok with just looking at pictures of it.
Re: (Score:2)
I guess I should be more clear - does that really merit front page on slashdot?
Re: (Score:2)
I see where you're coming from (imaginary slashdot full of news for nerds and stuff that matters)...
What about when the Surface comes out at the end of this month? The Surface Pro?
Just curious if your opinion differs for products with release dates further removed from announcement.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
You could buy it weeks ago, it just gets shipped now.
For normal people, the point of "buying" means you now have something and you can use it immediately. For Apple customers, the point of "buying" is giving money to Apple. The actual shipping is irrelevant.
Re: (Score:2)
Someone better inform the inland revenue department in my country since they count it as the issuing of an invoice or the exchange of money.
Re: (Score:2)
Actually, many companies don't charge you until the item has shipped. Amazon doesn't. Neither does Apple.
Re: (Score:2)
User quietly buys... (Score:2, Interesting)
...non-iPod media player of equal storage and superior features for third of iPod price.
Re: (Score:2)
I'm unsure why this is marked flamebait (but have a suspicion). I just did the same, picking up a Sansa Clip Zip. It plays all formats, can run RockBox, has a standard (MicroUSB) connector, has expandable storage (MicroSD), and is quite inexpensive. My older Sansa e260 won't last forever, and I figured I'd better get one while they're still available.
10,000 feet limitation (Score:5, Interesting)
From the specs on Apples page:
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Really? What would cause this. This means it can't be used in places like Leadville, CO for example. Is this some sleazy warranty trick? Granted, this is the same for the 4th generation but I don't understand why any media player would be limited to 10,000 feet.
Re:10,000 feet limitation (Score:4, Funny)
From the specs on Apples page:
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Really? What would cause this. This means it can't be used in places like Leadville, CO for example. Is this some sleazy warranty trick? Granted, this is the same for the 4th generation but I don't understand why any media player would be limited to 10,000 feet.
Magic Pixie dust doesn't work well at low atmospheric pressures. Want proof? How many iPhones / iPods are on Mars?
Re:10,000 feet limitation (Score:5, Funny)
Don't know why, but it is lying... (Score:3)
Really? What would cause this. This means it can't be used in places like Leadville, CO for example.
I was driving and hiking around the mountains at higher elevations than that all weekend. An iPhone 5 (with the same specs) worked just fine. I have no idea why the continue to include specs like this in totally solid-state devices, but it probably has to do with ranges all the components were tested in and they just don't want to legally claim it will work under conditions they have not tested.
Some chip in the iPod says max 10,000 ft ... (Score:2)
Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m)
Really? What would cause this.
Probably because some chip inside the iPod says its maximum operating altitude is 10,0000 ft. If a supplier says that is all the chip is rated for that is what Apple has to put on the box.
Interestingly chip suppliers sometimes have chips that are mil-spec (military grade) that are rated for higher altitudes. What is the difference, aside from price, sometimes it is merely a matter of testing. Chips rated as mil-spec may actually get tested at low pressure (simulating high altitude). Regular chips get no
Re: (Score:3)
Heard of Verification and Validation?
Basically, when a company makes a claim, it has to have the claim proven by a series of tests. Some of them can be trivial (is it green? Yes, it is green), but others may not be as trivial. For example, battery life. What is the use case for the battery? Is it in sleep mode, is random noise coming out of the speakers (random noise having a different average power draw than a sine wave or 'music'). You get the picture.
So, there's some component in the iPod that eithe
Re:10,000 feet limitation (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:3)
Perhaps it is a leftover spec from when they did have spinny hard drives....
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Having taken an iPhone 3GS to the summit of Everest...
Good signal?
Huh. (Score:5, Funny)
Apple Quietly Releases New iPods
Not quietly enough, obviously...
(I kid, I kid!)
Re: (Score:2)
Competition (Score:2)
Care to elaborate on that? Do you mean the competition between the various Apple players? Or are you suggesting there are other serious players in this market?
Re: (Score:2)
Do you mean the competition between the various Apple players?
The biggest competitor to iPods produced by Apple is not another iPod, but the iPhone. Nearly everyone carries a phone, why carry two devices?
More importantly from Apple's POV is the competition from low end android phones. They're the same price as even the cheapest iPods, and offer a whole fuck-ton more functionality to boot.
Yet another re-invention of the iPod Nano (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
Personally, I was very disappointed at the removal of video from the Nano. I used it on rare occasions, like airplane flights, on my 3rd gen Nano. When it died I got a 6, and was shocked at how crippled the 6 was. I returned it and found myself a 5th gen Nano (which actually cost more) and am very happy with it.
Re: (Score:1)
If $149 is too much there's still the iPod Shuffle for $49.
Re: (Score:1)
They need to finally ship a new iPod CLASSIC that has something bigger than a dinky fucking 150gb drive. I've been waiting YEARS for this.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
It has a built-in pedometer. That's what interests me.
Maybe because iPods are irrelevant? (Score:1)
Re:Maybe because iPods are irrelevant? (Score:4, Informative)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
All an iPod is is an over priced flash drive. Who actually uses it for anything other than a music storage device? Most of the time you either "dock" it or you just use your smart phone instead when you're on the go.
An iPod touch is an iPhone without the phone. Sorry, but none of my flash drives can run iPhone apps or have a camera or connect to Wifi.
The iPod nano has the Nike+ app and a FM radio and you can watch videos on it. You must have some fancy flash drives if they can do that.
If you are gonna knock something, at least do enough research about what you are knocking that you don't come across as, uh, ..., less than knowledgable.
Re: (Score:2)
All an iPod is is an over priced flash drive. Who actually uses it for anything other than a music storage device? Most of the time you either "dock" it or you just use your smart phone instead when you're on the go.
An iPod touch is an iPhone without the phone. Sorry, but none of my flash drives can run iPhone apps or have a camera or connect to Wifi.
AFAIk the ipod touch can't be used as flash drive, or at least, not as easy as one. Please pick another model for flash drive comparison
iPod Touch is perfect for corporate drones like me (Score:2)
My employer provides a "smart" phone - a BlackBerry Bold. It's... terrible for anything other than very light browsing and, of course, its core business functions (not that it performs many of these terribly well, either, but that's for another post). The phone's best feature, by far, is that it's free. And, as I have a free smart phone with the basic necessities, I'd rather not shell out my own cash just to have a second phone to carry around. In my case, an extra $75/month+ is a lot to pay for a better in
Where is the new iTunes 11? (Score:3)
Re:Where is the new iTunes 11? (Score:4, Insightful)
iTunes doesn't need an overhaul it needs an axe.
Seriously Idevice sync, media player and iTunes Store should be separate apps.
Re: (Score:3)
They can exist as modules under a single lightweight application UI, actively loaded and unloaded as necessary. That kind of SW design would answer most people's criticisms surrounding "bloat".
At the very least the current hodgepodge UI needs to die and be reborn.
Re:Where is the new iTunes 11? (Score:4, Interesting)
None of what you wrote has any meaning to the vast majority of PC and Apple users.
Re: (Score:2)
It wouldnt, however, answer complaints of "general suckage", "crashes", and "inexplicably breaks cd burning".
Re: (Score:2)
They already exist as modules under a single lightweight UI. The core of iTunes hasn't changed in a long time, and on a Mac it's perfectly suitable. On a PC it's not as good, because it essentially runs on top of a modern version of an updated Openstep feature that let you run Openstep on top of Windows. This whole thing is a big beast and to my knowledge, is only used for Quicktime and iTunes.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
iTunes doesn't need an overhaul it needs an axe.
Seriously Idevice sync, media player and iTunes Store should be separate apps.
Take off. Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
TBH though, I don't have a problem with it. But if you're going to kill something, kill it with fire. Thermonuclear fire.
Re: (Score:2)
Is it that Apple is waiting for the release of the iPad mini before iTunes 11.0 is released?
Re: (Score:2)
Strange that Apple wouldn't release the iTunes overhaul in conjunction with these iPods. That overhaul is well overdue, more than any iPod refresh...
http://www.apple.com/itunes/new-itunes/ [apple.com] - Coming in October
Close enough?
I have a smartphone, who cares (Score:2, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
people offer that to kids so that they won't have to pay a crazily expensive dataplan.
Re: (Score:2)
Stupid lightning adapters (Score:1, Troll)
We should have paid more attention to the articles 3-4 months ago about those damn cables and their authenticator chips.
Maybe they're keeping a lower profile so people don't point out the new ipods have the same proprietary, border-line uncopy-able cables?
Re: (Score:2)
they're not authenticator chips. They're demuxing chips.
Not that it matters to the /. crowd. Unless you can be super cheap and buy a 5 pack of cables for 10 bucks IT'S EVIL AND MUST BE ELIMINATED.
Re: (Score:2)
Can you explain that, please?
I didn't call them evil. I will call them greedy as hell and fleecing the users for an expensive cable that they have made a particular way to charge far more.
Re: (Score:2)
But when the port is meant for more than just USB, then the matter of fleecing becomes less obvious.
Also, 19 bucks for a cable isn't expensive. It isn't cheap but not what I'd call expensive. It's not meant to be just for charge and sync it's also meant for all sorts of peripherals.
Re: (Score:2)
Even more significantly, the "adapter" actually does digital to analog conversion as well, so the legacy interface works with analog output. You just won't find a microcontroller with DAC in a $3 cable...
Re: (Score:2)
Wow, I didn't even realize the cable had a chip in it.
And speaking of lightning cables... I'm not really one for silly aftermarket bling cases, cables, etc, but an electroluminescent cable that changes speed based on the battery charge? That's kind of cool :)
http://www.tgdaily.com/mobility-features/66737-apples-lightning-cable-cloned [tgdaily.com]
"Disable Advertising" option not working (Score:5, Funny)
Sorry about that (Score:2)
Strange - I thought I had that ticked, but I can still see this story.
My bad, I had the "increase advertising" option ticked, it must be bleeding over to other users.
Oddest thing; congruence with lightning adaptor. (Score:1)
The strangest thing about the timing to me was that at exactly the same point in time we suddenly have the Lightning adaptors arriving as well.
I could not believe there was such a fuss over things like Apple Maps, which by and large work fine for most people - meanwhile a truly massive slipup on Apple's part, not shipping with adaptors day one, was underway. It's been weeks since the iPhone 5 launch and only now is Apple finally shipping adaptors... that is not good planning and a really disservice to cust
Umm... the new iPods WERE announced... (Score:2)
Probably better of not doing so (Score:2)
Apple can only eat crow so many times in one month.
Mystery ~= (Score:2)
Thrill-seeker demand up. Holiday Store-buster Blame Down. Profit up. Stock value up.
Tech support = quantity > quality
Status quo.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
They didn't make a special announcement, because there is nothing special about the product
But apparently Slashdot thinks otherwise
Slashdot will pick up anything from Apple, including "quiet release"
Re:The didn't make an announcement (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdot will pick up anything from Apple, including "quiet release"
Quiet release sounds like what an Apple fanboy does after he finds out his iPod preorder shipped.
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
iPhone minus the phone (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
Re:They didn't... because Telecomm Cos are Nervous (Score:4, Interesting)
Re: (Score:2)
Are you seriously suggesting the newest 'touch' was 'quietly released' due to some conspiracy by the 'telecommunications firms which promote the Iphone"?
Could you stand in a mirror and read your post to yourself for me? After doing so, can you say it doesn't sound just a wee bit tin-foil-hat-ish?
Re: (Score:2)