'True' Video iPod Coming Soon 398
Moby Cock writes "Think Secret is reporting that the true video iPod is slated for announcement soon. It will have a 3.5 inch display and will eschew the mechanical click wheel in favour of a touch screen version. The 5th generation iPod released prior to the holiday season last year is described as a souped up 4G iPod with video capabilities. This new iPod will be the 'true' video iPod. It looks like there is not going to be wireless support. The article hints that the release date could be April 1 which is the 30th anniversary of Apple."
Fingerprints (Score:3, Insightful)
Give me a break (Score:5, Insightful)
battery (Score:5, Insightful)
Touchscreen? (Score:5, Insightful)
But I could get stuff off my DirecTiVo onto it I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
If anyone can make a great portable media player, I trust Apple would be the one to do it.
Or we will just get the MacBook, Mac Mini Solo, and a new gizmo that isn't the iPod.
Video iPod? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait, so you mean Apple has bigger plans for the video store on iTunes? Come on, why is this even news? I mean it's a no brainer that Apple wants you to buy videos from them, and if you're buying their videos you must be using their player right?
Re:Is Apple an abusive? (Score:5, Insightful)
They're not taking advantage of a monopoly; this has been the case since the Music Store's introduction. As for "abusive monopoly" claims, get back to me when Apple is making deals that punish stores for selling alternatives to iPods, the way Microsoft did with Windows OEMs int he 90s. Consumers can choose any player and any format they want.
This means if you bought music for your iPod
Yes, you can regain your music. Back it up (as iTunes prompts you to) or copy it from the iPod using a third-party utility. Obviously, if you buy music from Apple, it will play on Apple's player. Don't like it? Don't use an iPod or iTunes. You have a choice.
Furthermore, because Fairplay DRM is closed
So don't do it. Just because those are the options doesn't make Apple abusive. Life's tough.
The alternative is DRM free mp3
You don't explain how it's detrimental to the situation or what is so bad about Fairplay DRM to begin with (I forget it's even there, it's so lax in its "restrictions").
Re:Give me a break (Score:5, Insightful)
I've got a 3rd gen. It works just great. I'd like the nice clear screen on the 5th gen but I don't need it at all. I'll keep mine until it dies, or they come out with something great (built-in bluetooth or wifi would probably do it). My brother used his 1st gen up until last year when it was stolen. It worked just as well as any other iPod for listening to music.
All that said, at least they are improving their product. So many companies would be content to make a meaningless change every two years or so (and a meaningless one at that) and just rake in the cash. Apple may be raking in the cash, but they are improving their product too. Look at the storage difference between a 1st or 2nd gen and a 5th, along with the screen, battery life, and thickness and tell me they haven't made a substantially better product in many ways.
Is it just me or (Score:1, Insightful)
Thanks for reading... now, mod me offtopic or something.
Re:patents suggest this is true (Score:5, Insightful)
This new story is probably fake; it's based on the notion that the video iPod isn't the "real" video iPod, which is a very strained argument. Apple has been selling videos at the resolution of the 5G iPod for some time, and the proposed device can't compete with existing portable DVD players for the purpose of watching movies. A bigger screen with the same resolution would increase watchability much less than most people think, and it would be too difficult to hold the device. These facts suggest that Apple is not about to start selling feature films, and further, that Apple is not going to start selling some kind of device massively redesigned for the purpose of video.
If this scoop started showing up in a lot of other places, I'd believe it, but nothing exclusive to ThinkSecret has been true for about six months.
Apple marketed it as an iPod with video capability (Score:3, Insightful)
When the video-capable iPod was released, Apple was very clear to position it as the latest and greatest iPod music player, with the added ability to play video. It's an excellent iPod. It plays video very well. If you buy a product and it meets or exceeds your expectations, why should you care if a better version comes out six months later? Welcome to the Computer Age.
Besides, the rumor sites and press pushed it as the "video iPod." Apple never represented video as its primary function. Look at the iPod site [apple.com]. It's an iPod first, and a video player second.
If you're Apple, you're gonna get bashed if you sit on your laurels and don't keep coming out with newer, better, less expensive versions of the iPod. It seems Apple also gets bashed for continually improving their product lineup. Which makes sense, I suppose. I mean, Apple should really take a breather, because nobody wants the option of buying improved iPods, and Apple's competitors certainly need somet time to catch up.
Welcome to Consumerism (Score:1, Insightful)
I, for one, am not in the slightest surprised.
So to sum up... (Score:4, Insightful)
WTF.
Fingerprints (Score:2, Insightful)
Scratchproof? (Score:4, Insightful)
I hope Apple would use something like this [tdk-europe.com]. Otherwise, the screen will be quickly ruined and make the iPod Nano look indestructible in comparison.
Re:Give me a break (Score:3, Insightful)
Sheesh, by April 1st, it will have been seven months since the last iPod. It's not like it's that recent. They haven't announced anything, and this is just a rumor from a notoriously inaccurate rumor site, and already the Apple-bashers are out in full force.
It's particularly amusing commentary coming from the likes of Slashdot, a tech news site that follows fast-paced technology, including computer hardware updates. Every month I read about new processors that make my current one obsolete, but nobody makes comments that companies are "screwing everyone" (another poster here) or that it's "getting out of hand."
Re:Welcome to Consumerism (Score:2, Insightful)
Who mods up this kind of crap? Bashing America for no reason doesn't make you enlightened or witty, and neither does bashing "capitalist and consumerist society"...which is the same society that produced that computer you're typing on and the servers Slashdot is running on. Slashdot, by the way, is owned by one of those evil American companies.
Put on your thinking caps! (Score:2, Insightful)
i have a feature i prefer (Score:5, Insightful)
name the one thing that a record player, an 8-track player, a tape player, and a CD player can all do, but that an iPod can not. that feature is to not have a half a second of silence between tracks. yes, yes, i know that "the MP3 format isn't easily made to fade one track seamlessly into another track" but i don't care if it's easy, it's obviously *possible*, so that fact that it hasn't been done is a travesty.
look: i listen to albums, not songs; and my favorite album is Tool's "Lateralus"; and until i can go from 'Parabol' to 'Parabola' without a moment of silence inbetween, or (worse) having to fade the last half a second of one track into the first half a second of the next track, i won't buy that damn contraption. so you don't like Tool? maybe you like Queen's "News of the World", where 'We Will Rock You' refuses to match up with 'We Are The Champions'.
bah. is this really a ridiculous thing to request? is it really THAT hard? i mean, i figure there is some kind of input stream for the MP3 data; can't that stream be buffered for two seconds, and when the read-ahead algorithm finds the end of the stream, can't it append the stream for the next MP3? here let me answer my own question: yes, it could.
i'd love to have an ipod that does video, and i'd pay five bills to get one, but if it can't even play music right, what good is it?
end rant.
this is why apple is dominating (Score:2, Insightful)
And this is why Apple is so secretive about what it's working on. This element of surprise is what allows it to keep its lead over its competitors. It continues to innovate its product in logical, evolutionary steps while fighting feature bloat. And of course each revision looks even more attractive than the last. Its compeitors are too busy trying to out-do yesterday's news.
Re:April 1st? (Score:2, Insightful)
But maybe Apple spoilers are just so popular that media companies feel they would lose out by not printing rumors. Does(n't) that legitimize the existence of spoiler sites?
What? (Score:5, Insightful)
While I am all for innovation, there is also a question of blowing the wad too soon.
With every new Apple release there is always going to be a large percentage of customers that get burned. Because Apple is so secretive you can't make a wise decision on purchasing Apple's products. Buy a product at full price one day (Apple rarely discounts), and the next day Apple comes out with something 4 times faster, or more capacity, or more features, or whatever. Anybody buying the so called 5th gen Video iPod will be sour when Apple releases a better version only 6 months later.
This is going to hurt Apple in the long run because they are developing a reputation of being deceptive, not secretive, forcing customers to pay full price for a product that becomes obsolete the next day. At least if Apple practices slowly discouting product until their next release (like the REST of the technology market does), then it wouldn't be so bad when someone bought what was the state of the art iPod one day for $200 and then it is replaced with a new version at $500. Apple frequently releases new better products CHEAPER then the previous generations that we sold only the day before.
If Apple releases a revamped iPod in April, then I think they have lost touch with their customers and reputation for being a considerate company, instead churning out incremental upgrades on a regular basis, screwing early adopter all for the almighty dollar.
Apple has become Microsoft.
If Apple can't wait until next holiday season to hype up a new Video iPod then I will have lost all respect for them.
Re:Is Apple an abusive? (Score:3, Insightful)
Knowing some musicians they told me an interesting observation: They do not care if their stuff is copied, because they tend not to make too much money with it anyways. They rather concentrate on licensing their songs to companies who, for example, want to use them in commercials.
So who helps DRM? It seems it helps the companies who peddle in music, not neccessarily the artist, they rather win by more people listening (or so they tell me).
Re:Give me a break (Score:5, Insightful)
<curdmudgery>Now follows some of my experiences with and thoughts on gadgets on the go, video included - and why I won't be buying a video iPod anytime soon. Meh. Too many toys and too damned often. Find one that just does the job well and use it until it dies. Chances are there will be something shiny and 10 times better to replace it when your beloved device gives up the ghost and you won't be a pennyless gadget whore after waiting it out. Let the the other gadget whores support the constant onslaught for you. I mean c'mon, video on the go? I commute by train and see many folks squinting at their ipods and Archoses, er Archi, et al and it seems more a pain in the ass than anything. I even tried the whole video snarfing thing to my PSP - even had it scripted out so that other than the time consuming part of it I had to do little more than pick a show or two to suck off the Tivo, plug in the PSP to charge and download and then just dismount it grab and go in the morning. That lasted about 3 months at best. I went back to playing games on it or just reading and left the TV viewing for home. IMHO, Video-on-the-go is novel but unless you're on a long trip nothing replaces sitting down at the end of the day to a nice show or two. Why the hell do you want to spend your commute times or lunch in your cube watching more toob when you can read, (not for you drivers) have conversations, mess with your computer or go take a walk to lunch with friends? Enough with the video, put down the cellphone and socialize. As for the PSPs (and Nintendo DSes) You can make many friends on a bus/train/carpool with network gaming. Good times and much more entertaining than hunkering down over a TV show, movie or two. The video part is just a sales gimmic, play with your friends. Play with yourself! Um, wait...
This last bit is even further off topic but this reminds me of something along similar lines of thought. Like I said before, I commute almost two hours each way daily by train and I am absolutely amazed at how many people, sitting next to one another will gab the entire trip on their mobiles and yet never even strike up conversation with those around them on the train, day in and day out. We see each other every damn day and at least a forth (or so it seems) manage more than a cursory good morning/evening to our fellow, consistent traveling companions. Weird.</curdmugery>
Re:i have a feature i prefer (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Give me a break (Score:3, Insightful)
It's just as ridiculous a statement as your generalization was, after all.
I purchased a 3rd. gen. iPod 40GB when it first came out, and hung onto it until this last Xmas, when I sold it (at a big loss - but so it goes) and got a 60GB iPod video. As you might have guessed, more storage capacity is one of the prime reasons that I'm willing to upgrade. But the iPod video opens up whole new uses for the device too. All of a sudden, people are buying them to watch TV shows or even movies ripped from DVDs while they're on the go. The rumored new iPod allows turning the whole unit sideways to get more screen real-estate, which could be a big justification for an upgrade, even for a recent iPod video purchaser.
Personally, no
Re:Fingerprints (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Give me a break (Score:2, Insightful)
How many consumer electronic devices do you expect to hold their cost after /nearly three years/?
I don't expect my cellphone of 3 years ago to be worth much now, but you sound disappointed you didn't get nearly list price for it, when it's 3 generations old.
Re:patents suggest this is true (Score:3, Insightful)
History has shown that the images in Apple's utility patent filings rarely bear direct resemblance to the devices they end up in. (And before the trolls come in: Yes this is legal and normal, as the images are only "one embodiment" of the invention being patented.)
"Gestures for touch sensitive input devices", for instance, could easily be interpreted as applying to the existing touchpads in PowerBooks and MacBooks, which are multipoint devices capable of interpeting gestures. Also the so-called "Chameleon iMac" patent seems in retrospect to describe the PowerBook's illuminated keyboard. And if I remember correctly the iPod's "Click Wheel" is covered by the patent for "Mouse with rotary dial".
I'm just saying that I wouldn't put much faith in the drawings in utility patents. The design patent you cited (which is quite clearly larger than an iPod) is much more convincing, however.
quit whining (Score:5, Insightful)
You sound like a cheapskate fashion elitist who doesn't have a clue as to how the system works.
"What? Saks updates its collection every few months? So I can't buy one outfit today and be able to brag to my friends that I am on top of the fashion world for the next few years? Oh, the horror. I have lost all respect for Saks, that evil inconsiderate Microsoft of a company."
Either accept paying the bill every few months to have the latest fashion, or quit buying fashion in your technology.
What foppery you present us with. Grow up.
Re:Give me a break (Score:3, Insightful)
Now my new 5G has a 20 hour battery, four times the capacity, video, album artwork, and charges over USB. It was cheaper than my 2G too.
Clearly I'm deluded into thinking this was a significant difference.
So...does your "superseded" Nano still work? (Score:3, Insightful)
My complaint is that if you walk into a shop right now and drop $400 on an ipod, in a couple of months it'll have been superceded.
If you walk into a shop and buy a PS2, PSP, XBOX or any other 'pricey toy', you will get years from it.
Y'know, that's funny, 'cause my 3G iPod, which is 2 1/2 years old now, and (by your logic of counting all iPod lines as the same) probably a dozen generations out of date...and yet, it still works, it still plays all my songs—tell me just how it's been "superseded"?
If you have to have the latest and greatest, then yeah, you're going to have a frustrating time keeping up (especially if you automatically assume that the most recently released iPod is the Best Ever, even if it's the Nano, which is a completely different product line than the full-sized iPod...). On the other hand, if you can hold your manly ego in check for a while, you might realize that if the iPod Nano was good enough for you then, it just might still be good enough for you now...it's not like Apple has magically taken away its features, or activated some kind of failsafe that corrodes away the insides and ages it all 20 years overnight...
Just chill. Unless you're very unlucky, your Nano will not need to be "superseded" for another few years, and for the same money you would be spending on the iPod Video, you can buy the 10G iPod Holo, that plays holographic movies and is controllable by brainwaves ;-)
Dan Aris
Re:Oh, and (Score:2, Insightful)
Clearly.
Shouldn't be an issue (Score:3, Insightful)
There shouldn't even be an issue.
There's no technical reason, given a tiny bit of buffering, why a player can't have the beginning of the next track ready to play the instant the last track ends - especially when the unit has a "fade" feature. Default should be a 0-second "fade", not a gap interrupting the music.
We're paying hundreds of $$$ for gizmos that are entirely capable of uninterrupted playback, yet track transitions are disturbingly discernable silent gaps.
The whole point is to make it EASY, even TRIVIAL to load music on a player and play in a manner the listener expects. There's no friggin' reason why someone should have to dork around with merging tracks, setting bookmarks, etc. Yes, those duct-tape fixes can be done without much difficulty, but the whole point is fixing something that shouldn't be broken in the first place.