Apple Updates iPod 689
TheRaven64 writes "Apple seems to have quietly updated the iPod Photo and iPod Mini lines. The Mini now comes in 4GB and 6GB flavours, priced at $199 and $249 respectively. The iPod Photo now comes in a 30GB flavour for $349 - only $50 more than the 20GB iPod with a mono screen and shorter battery life."
So... (Score:1, Insightful)
My company would like to buy an ad on Slashdot's frontpage, too, and we're just wondering. Money? Gifts? Sex?
This gives them complete price coverage (Score:5, Insightful)
iPod Photo (Score:5, Insightful)
Anyone know what the sales figures are like?
iPod Photo over iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:ipod mini.. (Score:5, Insightful)
Skimping on accessories (Score:5, Insightful)
iPod minis no longer include an AC charger, and the iPod photos no longer include a dock, carrying case, or AV cable. Apparently they'll have USB host support with an accessory though, and you'll be able to download and view photos right from your camera.
But most shocking of all to the "faithful" is the lack of a firewire cable with any iPod. It's optional across the board. Apple sold Macs with USB 1 and Firewire very recently, so they're essentially screwing over their fans. There's already a petition [petitiononline.com] to but the cable back in the box. And you don't want to piss of a Mac fanatic!
I'm kinda disappointed with the lack of Bluetooth, though. It'd be nice to have the music pause when a call comes in on my T616, and maybe allow the headphones to double as a headset. iTunes already pauses the music for me courtesy of Salling Clicker.
A Clear Reaction to the Marketplace (Score:5, Insightful)
This time, they have realized that in order to keep this technology at the center of the business model, they must continue to innovate.
With storage devices becoming smaller and smaller, they must continue to breakthrough with the bleeding edge technology. The iPod technology is simple enough that staying on the bleeding edge makes perfect sense. I sense that they've got this one nailed and are not letting go.
Re:iPod Photo (Score:1, Insightful)
iPod Photo also has TV-out, so that's an option if you hate the small screen. And the color screen is also used for album art, to enhance your music experience.
Re:I knew it... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Apart from the slashvertising... (Score:2, Insightful)
Disk compression (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:iPod Photo (Score:4, Insightful)
I personally don't care about slideshows and such. But I really like that the album cover can be displayed while the song is playing. It may seem like a very small thing, but to someone as anal about their music collection as I am, this is very appealing.
That being said, it ain't appealing enough for me to drop $449 to upgrade my iPod.
My guess is that this is just an intermediate step towards some greater functionality. Like video or broader PDA functionality.
Re:So... (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:But no... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:So... (Score:4, Insightful)
Nobody cares about dell announcements because they just bolt together commodity hardware. You buy Apple cause you want to, you buy Dell when they give you the best deal on something you could get from a variety of sources.
Re:Skimping on accessories (Score:4, Insightful)
According to the "full comparison chart" on the store webpage, that's not true - the 20GB mono and the 20GB U2 editions still ship with a Firewire cable. I don't get why they leave it out of the bundle for the Photo iPods, though. Doesn't seem to make sense.
CF Slot (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Disk compression (Score:4, Insightful)
It's built into the file format: mp3, et al. Kinda hard to compress it further.
What the?... (Score:2, Insightful)
According to the link, CBR MP3 plays the best on the linux iPod, but there is still skipping; VBR MP3 plays at the wrong speeds; AAC support is horrid. So you take a music player, add linux, and are thrilled that you have defeatured the device by 80%... and this is supposed to make sense???
Why don't you linux freaks do something *really* creative like hacking your car's computer and loading linux on it? Sure, "driving capabilities will be far from perfect" but stalling every two miles is worth being the first linux communist on your block to have a linux powered Chevy, right?
Re:Firmware update ! (Score:3, Insightful)
-b
Re:So... (Score:5, Insightful)
Seeing as one mans meat is anothers poison, and whats good for peter isnt necessarily good for paul (enough cliches for now) i have developped a device called:
"Self controlled screening technique"
Basically I look at the conveniently provided summary and using my own personal interest as a guage, I decide whther or not to click on it and read further.
Miracualously I have no problems with articles that I don't like polluting my vision.
I have also adapted this for other entertainment and news media such as the television.
Like Slashdot, this technique is free so I can use it how I like, meaning the
If anyone wants more info on employing my methods in their own workplace you can get in touch with me at quit.whining@thepoweroftheobvious.com
Apple is getting affordable (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:iPod Photo over iPod (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm hoping that eventually Apple will port Keynote to the iPod photo (yes, I know that you can make a slideshow and port that, but I mean native Keynote files with all effects). Every academic will want one, just to be able to to carry his lectures in his pocket, without lugging around a laptop or dealing with the potential complications of running a presentation on somebody else's computer.
it exists now, and will be cheaper in March (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What the?... (Score:5, Insightful)
It's interesting because for some of us, the ability to tinker offers possibilities that might be more compelling than the original capabilities of the device.
I have an ipod mini.. which I might like Linux on (not sure if it works on minis yet though). Why? I dunno, because then I can explore ideas about what I can do with a little device with 5 buttons and a scroll wheel. I can imagine little ways in which I can tweak it to suit MY tastes, and not apple's decision about common denominator tastes.
Not to knock Apple's UI for the ipod or anything: it's a very nice interface - but the idea of being able to tweak it for my own purposes is very exciting. It's a tinkerer thing. It doesn't have to be useful to the general population - it only has to be useful to me.
-Laxitive
Re:Sucks (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Am I the only person.. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:One thing the editor left off.. (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What the?... (Score:3, Insightful)
At the moment, playback isn't really reliable. That's being worked on, and it's quite possible that in a few months MP3 playback will work as well as it does under the Apple firmware. Once that's done, other formats can be added (Vorbis is theoretically doable on the iPod, the decoder just needs optimization). No, iPod Linux isn't a replacement for the Apple firmware just yet, but it certainly has potential.
In the meantime, Linux on the iPod allows you to run non-music applications as well. There are quite a few games available - everything from tetris to chess. People are working on PDA-type apps, as well as useful stuff like a metronome or guitar tuner.
In addition, you can unlock features like microphone and stereo line-in recording that aren't available in the Apple firmware. If all you want your iPod to do is play music, then iPod Linux probably isn't for you. But there are a whole lot of legitimate uses that people might have.
Re:HQ recording ... (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason I got an iPod over the iRiver and the others you mentioned is because it doesn't have a voice recording feature. You see I can't have recording devices or cameras in my office and that is where I was planning on using my music player the most. So the iPod was (almost) the only choice I had. I love it though and have got my whole family hooked on the idea of getting one.
(But don't even ask how screwed I am when it comes to cell phones.)
Re:One thing the editor left off.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm a pedantic grammar elitist. Your slogan should be: Think differently, swine.
Seriously though, who let that marketing campaign get through editing?
Re:iPod Photo over iPod (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:CF Slot (Score:3, Insightful)
READ ME MODS! (Score:1, Insightful)
These mods and their shitty elitist behavior make me so sick, but rather than leaving as they'd prefer me to do, I'm telling them right to their fat Apple faces that they are biased, overcharged, brainwashed idiots. So you go ahead, mark me down as Troll, Offtopic or whatever, it won't diminish me, it'll only diminish you.
Re:iPod Photo (Score:3, Insightful)
The iPod Photo is not about photos. Repeat after me: The iPod Photo is not about photos.
OK, so that was an overly confrontational way to start a post. But let's plow on.
The iPod Photo is about Apple transitioning the iPod series to colour screens. Notice how the only black-and-white iPod remaining is the 20GB model - everything else is colour. Mark my words, the next time we get a refresh, it'll be a 20GB iPod Photo, and the black-and-white version will be gone.
If you're going to move the iPod series to colour screens, you want to make sure that they've got a distinctive name, to differentiate them from the standard - you can't just call them iPod. The obvious name is "iPod Color". But why stop there? "iPod Photo" is even better.
I think that Apple has reached the limit of hard drives - most people don't need 60GB for music storage. So I think that in the future, instead of increased hard drive space, they'll push the limits on size... by transitioning everybody to the iPod mini form-factor. You'll get a 10GB iPod mini, then a 20GB. And at some point, those will come in colour too.
Re:ipod mini.. (Score:2, Insightful)