iPod nano, iTunes 5, iTunes Phone 815
adpowers writes "Lots of updates today on the Apple front. First we have the iPod nano, which is an iPod photo-esque replacement for the iPod mini. It comes in 2 and 4 gig varieties and is half the thickness of the mini it replaces. A new iTunes is release as well, which looks similar to Mail.app. I'm not sure I like the cosmetic changes. It also touts an improved search bar, but I can't find an explanation of what that means. Finally, Apple, Motorola, and Cingular announced the ROKR E1, which has the iTunes on a cellular phone. (Theorized last week.) It syncs with iTunes just like an iPod." Coverage of the Apple news extravaganza available at The NYT, Forbes, Gizmodo, Mobiledia, and Macworld.
On first look, quite nice (Score:5, Interesting)
That iPod nano looks ridiculously slick. Heh, and although I imagine I'm going to have my geek card forcibly removed after saying this, my first thought upon seeing it was, "What happened to all the colors?" Granted, it's form over function, but judging by the amount of iPod minis that I've seen, people like the colors.
Well, fear not: iPod nano tubes: [apple.com] Colorful iPod nano Tubes fit like a glove and offer full Click Wheel control from the outside. (Actually, as someone whose iPod sports an impressive amount of scrapes, I think this is a good idea.)
That Apple, they think of everything. Now I'm going to go back to waiting for my Dalmation iPod nano tube.
No firewire, USB 2.0 (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a shame about Cingular (Score:2, Interesting)
Does iTunes 5 fix volume adjustment? (Score:2, Interesting)
Apple, Please improve your Beta system! (Score:2, Interesting)
when "show duplicate songs" is selected from the edit menu, non-duplicate songs are displayed if the track name and artist are identical in both tracks. Surely it would be a better idea to calculate an md5 checksum or perhaps use CDDB data in order to prevent this.
I would have thought that this issue should be obvious...
ROKR questions (Score:5, Interesting)
- Why can't you sync iTunes via BlueTooth, since the phone actually has BT? First the mini mouse, now this.
- Will this phone be a full iSync citizen, or at least as much as other Moto phones? via BT?
- Can you use this phone as a Cell modem? Via BT? And why is it not EDGE capable?
- Can you sync photos via iPhoto?
- Can you purchase ringtones via iTunes?
I wish this was more of an iPhone, with the above features, than just some phone with iTunes slapped on it. As it is, it looks pretty half-baked, and I'm sorry to see Apple endorse it. I think I'm holding out until v 2.0 at least.Re:iHuh? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is just, well
audio quality? (Score:5, Interesting)
I didn't believe it until I got one (as a gift) but the shuffle has the best audio quality I've heard short of an external DAC into an spdif stream. its noisy (biased transistors in output stage?) but it has actual bass and enough drive to power headphones without distorting.
if this nano has the same audio or better, it will blow the market away for those that CARE about sound as well as the features of the player.
I wonder if the ROKR can use the same cable.. (Score:3, Interesting)
'Cause if it can then I can use my computer to charge my phone and my current iPod car charger to charge the phone
Then I wouldn't have to buy any accessories!
No more apples for me (Score:2, Interesting)
On Windows XP, syncing to it in ITunes (via USB) causes Windows to reboot about half the time.
On Linux, syncing more than a few songs at a time (in gtkpod) causes a bunch of hardware errors, resulting in the partition being set to read-only. (So I guess Linux is a little more robust in dealing with hardware problems.)
Re:New Search (Score:2, Interesting)
Conspiracy Theory (Score:2, Interesting)
I wonder if Apple picked a song from that Artist based on the recent comments he made during the Hurrican Relief Fund?
Could just be that he has a new CD out, or the person making the page was listening to the CD at the time, but I love a good conspiracy theory
Re:On first look, quite nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Which is why they should be less money
Except Sales != Profits. Most iTMS money goes to others, like the record company. But at the end of the day, iTMS profits go to improving iTMS, not to giving away iPods like AOL CD's. The iPod is perfectly usable without iTMS (I only buy songs when Pepsi or 7-11 give me credits), so it would be really stupid of Apple to give them away. Besides, if Apple was viciously undercutting competitors like the Archos using iTMS profits, people would scream about "Monopoly power", etc.
Re:On first look, quite nice (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:On first look, quite nice (Score:4, Interesting)
Not Impressed (Score:5, Interesting)
- It is substantially ugly. The basic shape is OK, but then it has the vented sides and all sorts of useless depressions, lines and curves. I would have expected Apple to demand some quality ID out of Moto (and we know Moto can do it, the RAZR and upcoming SLVR are very hot).
- The dynamics of the phone market suck for releasing new technology. Phone handsets are way overpriced for the consumer and rely on those pesky contracts. Sure the ROKR looks OK now, but how is it going to look a year from now when better stuff is available and your locked into that contract? To me, this is a major problem with the cell phone market- there are numerous technology improvements going on IRT data rates, camera quality, wireless features, design, etc... but the carrier contract lockin puts a significant strain in consumer's ability to acquire such technology at a reasonable price.
- The capacity on the ROKR sucks. 100 songs? That's less then 512mb. If your going to lock people into an MP3 playing cellphone for 2 years, give them some real capacity and/or an SD expansion slot. Hell, the slot doesn't even need to be readily accessible, throw it behind the battery (because I don't know if iTunes can manage an iPod device with removable storage) so people can upgrade as they see fit.
- It looks huge. I don't get it how they can make a tiny cellphone (again, the RAZR and it's upcoming SLVR brother) and a tiny MP3 player (the Nano and the Shuffle), but when you throw these devices together, you end up with a product that is bigger the the stand alone components tapped together even though the most space hogging portions are combined (buttons, enclosure).
Apple gets how to design a product and Motorola, while they have had some success, really needs to let Apple take the lead on ID/Product design. Moto should focus on the wireless tech, dealing with the FCC and cell carriers and manufacturing.
Imagine if you will (Score:3, Interesting)
BMW has (at least) one model car that interfaces with your ipod, so the thought isn't that far fetched.
Vorbis (Score:2, Interesting)
Come on, guys. ALL my music is in Vorbis. Help me out here.
-Peter
Re:iTunes Linux Support (Score:4, Interesting)
If Apple were to do this, the best thing to do would be to re-write ITunes as a Cocoa app (a good thing) and resurrect ``Yellow Box'' for Windows (something which Apple shied away from) and up-date enough of GNUstep to make iTunes work there by just recompiling (something which Apple is probably worried about 'cause then people could run more software on Linux instead of Mac OS X)
William
It's a Motorola Phone, not an iPod. (Score:5, Interesting)
Which means:
- Transflash card. It's really tiny, the size and thickness of my pinky nail
- Tri-band
- USB 2.0, and you get to choose between it exposing the flash card as a USB disk device, or a modem. Cable included
- Stereo speakers. It's really cool to hold it just about 20-30cm from your face and hear pretty good stereo sound
- Earphones
- Bluetooth, and yes, you can copy MP3's that way too
- Groovy multi-coloured lights on both sides of the phone
- Speakerphone
- Camera with a powerful led instead of a flash. Doubles as a flashlight
And the downsides- Sluggish user interface
- Blurry 640x480 camera. Taking into account the previous point, when you press "capture," you get to wait 2 seconds for the snapshot to be taken
- Buggy. Crashes on you, especially when the battery is low
- Really bad mpeg-4 playback. The user interface stops responding when it's playing. Sound may crap out. It will only do a bitrate so low that the picture has severe compression artifacts
- Limited functionality in BlueTooth. The only decent BlueTooth phone I've ever seen is a SonyEricsson
- No voice recording (duh), but I'm under the impression that that's a hidden feature that you can enable with a hack
Of course, the specs of the ROKR may vary, and the MP3 navigation is beyond a doubt better than on the E398, but it won't be far off.OT: Profit Maximization Requirement? (Score:2, Interesting)
False. [jnj.com] Even without clarifying your statement to include "legal profit", other concerns can be placed above the interests of the shareholders as long as they are clearly communicated (usually in the bylaws of the corporate charter).
Just because most (almost all) companies choose to put profit above all other concerns doesn't mean that all companies do. Or should.
Regards,
Ross
Re:Vorbis (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:iHuh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Since the capability existed prior to the iTunes features, I doubt they'd strip it out, but hey, stranger things have been known to happen.
(I only went through this exercise because it pissed me off that wireless companies would charge two bucks for a cheesy polyphonic ringtone, but that I could get the actual song online at iTunes for US$.99.)
new iTunes look (Score:2, Interesting)
In general I understand Apple motivation for adding this new style - brushed metal is getting overplayed, and for good reason generally since it allows custom controls and layouts to be integrated in a nicer way than with aqua - but I think it's really badly done. The only nicely done plastic app I've seen so far is Camino (Mail.app and this new iTunes are travesties)...
Re:$50 more, 2GB less (Score:5, Interesting)
I agree with you, but we are possibly in the (or a) minority.
I said the same thing when the iPod mini came out: you could get another model of iPod at the time which was 10GB, and $50 more than the 4GB. I pointed this out to people. The response? Either 'but it comes in colours' or 'but its so small'. Lesson learned, people put a huge premium on the size/shape/appearance of the thing. The Shuffle underscores this.
Kinda too bad, I always liked the Mini body the best, with the metal... maybe it was deemed too heavy. So yes from a stats point of view it seems a bit daft but the market reaction sure seems to bear out Apple's thinking. I was also surprised that the battery life on the Nano is a touch less than a regular iPod... I guess a smaller battery overall.. but usually flash memory gives you a big power savings (eaten up in the Nano by that colour screen no doubt).
Re:new iTunes look (Score:2, Interesting)
If you look closely, say, by turning on Zoom in the Universal Access System Preference, the corners don't appear to be curved. They're at a 45-degree angle.
They look like this:
Top of window
-----
\ -corner
|
| --side of window
|
Very strange. I've never seen a window like that on a Mac. And it's a very ugly corner; you can see the individual three pixels stair-stepping down.
Does anybody thinkg this looks a lot more like a Windows Vista window?
But thank god, it's not brushed metal anymore. I'll take just about anything instead of that crap.
Oh, and I need more character to balance out my pitiful ASCII art. Anyway, another site just pointed out it looks a lot like the old SoundJam application upon which iTunes is based. I don't think so for the window itself, but when you look at the display, wow, it does.
Total Anti-iClimax (Score:2, Interesting)
iThought wrong.
I see the iPhone on the Apple site and iFeel totally iUnderwhelmed.
Quite literally my first iThought was, "that's it?"
Just another phone from Motorola except that it happens to have a mini iTunes interface.
The Nano on the otherhand
I already have a 60Gb iPod, but I think I might just get a Nano as well. I mean, it has the built in reality distortion field and everything!
Too bad Apple could be bothered with letting Motorola in on any of their Patented "Jobsian Mechanism for the Distortion of Reality" IP.
Cuz that phone is utterly pedestrian, way to go Motorola -- get handed a great opportunity to carve up some market niche and you go and deliver a phone that looks like the one 1999's been calling asking about.
But who knows, I might head on over to Cingular and check it out. Since I might be more impressed once it's actually in my grubby lil iHands.
what I want in my next cell phone.. (Score:3, Interesting)
what I want is one device, the size of my cell phone that combines all the
features of these devices.
what I want in this device:
size of my current cellphone (Audiovox cdm-9900)
cell phone features at least as good as current + mp3 ringtones
2MP 3x optical zoom camera w/ VGA/30fps movie mode
industry standard flash memory card/data in industry standard storage format
read and write files on flash card using standard tools in windows,
linux and macos
play MP3 and mpeg/mp4/divx (at VGA/30fps when driving remote display)
(limitation to proprietary formats unacceptable, but support for proprietary
formats in addition to standard formats desirable)
PDA capabilities equal to palm pilot/zaurus/WINCE (assume primary data
input by keyboard in desktop mode)
wireless keyboard/mouse/display/headphone/microphone/netwo
minimum 48 hours standby battery life/4 hours active use time (remote
desktop/mobile mode)
USB master/slave capability using standard cables
I want to be able to access _all_ data on this device from a usb/wireless
connected system as if I were looking at a hard drive/network drive
beyond solitaire/free cell/tetris/minesweeper level gaming, I dont care
about gaming performance.
graphics performance equivalent to first gen radeon is sufficient.
I expect that there are 3 primary usage modes: mobile, remote and primary
desktop
mobile usage model:
in this mode, this should operate like a cell phone, MP3 player or camera
like a full function single purpose device for each of these uses. As a PDA
it would primarily be used for data retrieval as opposed to input, for anything
beyond trivial data input (on the level of what you would input into a cell
phone) it is ok to assume a wireless or USB keyboard will be used (i.e.
handwriting recognition not required/useful) the form factor of the divice
should not be comprimized in the false belief that a big display is needed.
the display on my cdm-9900 is more than sufficient.
with a secondary battery pack and set of display glasses, it should be possible
to watch two complete feature length VGA/30fps movies in this mode (think
flying Boston to LA)
remote desktop usage model:
in this mode, the user is primarily expecting functionality equivalent to
a high end PDA/ultra portable laptop. the keyboard would probably be a
wireless thumbboard or a rollup usb keyboard, the display would preferrably be
a wireless head mounted display (HUD-glasses). external networking
capabilities might be non-existant, or limited to analog cell phone bandwidth,
so internal processing capabilities must be able to fulfill the minimums for
this kind of use.
primary desktop usage model:
I want to just carry the device in my pocket, when I get to work, drop it
on my desk, have it recognize my keyboard, display and mouse and start driving
them. I want to be able to do everything I do on my desktop computer in this
mode. I expect that this will require remote processing to provide the
CPU horsepower necessary, but the UI will be displayed and driven here
(X11 terminal style, but once I've done initial setup, I don't want to have to
think about it. this should work from the other side of the world).
I expect it needs to be on the charger for best performance in this
mode
what's missing to accomplish this:
the biggest piece of missing technology for this application is wireless
capable monitors and really useable display glasses. by useable, I mean glasses
that work like the glasses I wear today, but also can be used as a computer
display. other than the weight issue and some manufacturing issues, the tech
is here today with an LCD film overlay laminated onto the glasses lens or a
projector/refractor model.
Yellow Box (Score:3, Interesting)
I assumed all the other versions were kind of doing that.
Re:Make your own ROKR (Score:3, Interesting)
Applying sticky substance to shiny new iPod.
Everyone will point and laugh.
You forgot:
Phone will not automatically pause music when call comes in.
Not that the pros don't still far outweigh the cons.
Re:On first look, quite nice (Score:3, Interesting)
People keep saying, but I don't believe it's true, in the US or any other country.
Has any public company anywhere ever been sued for "not maximizing the profit of its shareholders"?
Now, I do know of cases where stockholder groups have sued a company's officers for taking actions that seriously damaged a company. But that wasn't the claim. The claim was that a public company "must maximize the profit of its shareholders". That's something very different from running the company into the ground. I'm looking for a case in which a company was successfully prosecuted for actions that didn't maximize stockholder profit.
If there were actually a case to be made here, I'd think that there would be plenty of opportunity. For example, last week both Wal-Mart and Anheuser-Busch sent truckloads of bottled/canned water and food to New Orleans, and handed the food and water out without charge. At least one cell-phone company sent trucks with phones, generators and APs to New Orleans to help with the communication problems. Such actions were very clearly was at the expense of the stockholders. While the DHS may have interfered with these trucks, I'll bet that neither company will be sued by stockholders. Similar cases abound. Every time there's some sort of local emergency, there are always a few companies that start sending aid, at the expense of their stockholders.
But I've never read of a lawsuit over this.
Anyone know of any cases that were settled against the company? Anyone know of any cases at all of such a suit even being filed?
I suspect that short of radical malfeasance, a public company can in fact do as it wishes with its money without fear of being dragged into court by the stockholders. But I'd be interested in reading of evidence to the contrary.
Re:what I want in my next cell phone.. (Score:2, Interesting)
A device that is a cell phone and only a cell phone. No mp3 player. No camera. No video playing. No web browsing. Other devices do those better- 'tis better to have many small, great devices than one large, batteryless, shitty one. SMS is okay, because that's a cell phone feature. If given the choice between a large, readable black and white screen (Visor Edge quality) and a tiny, ugly, battery-draining color screen, give me the color screen. Give me a long-lasting battery. Give me Bluetooth2 to connect it to other devices that do other things (like browse the web and take pictures, and use the phone as a modem). And make it look cool.
Thanks.
Re:$50 more, 2GB less (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm one of those people. I knew very well what the costs were. I'm well aware of how much space 4GB is compared to 15 or 20GB.
Secondly, I am by no means an apple whore. The iPod mini is the only apple product I have ever bought in my entire life.
I don't give a shit, I like the mini better. It's smaller, it's cuter. I don't care if it was the same price as big ipod, I would have bought the mini. Hell, I'd probably have paid up to $50 more for the mini than for the larger ipod.
Aesthetics matter. The marginal value of an extra 10 gigs of space is not worth the marginal cost of the larger size and non-rounded edges for me (don't care about the colors really, I got a silver iPod mini).
Anyway. Now I'm wondering how much I can sell this thing for and use the cash to a nano with.
-Laxitive
Re:$50 more, 2GB less (Score:3, Interesting)
Sure, I get it. It was a no-brainer for my girlfriend also. But for me, personally, I still like the original idea of the iPod: all your music with you all the time. I have an old 10gig one (2nd gen still going strong! I got a miracle battery, I guess) and I just cannot see myself going down from 10 gigs, now that I've had it. That's the difference. I have about 20 gigs of music and I still hate having to pick and choose. I've become totally spoiled. So while I dig the small form factor, I (again personally) fall on the side of slightly bigger, way more storage. I don't consider my view to be 'correct', its just another view. I get the Smaller is Better thing. But I just have a lot of damn music I want with me.
Apple provides this, its just called a regular iPod, and that's the segment I fall into. They are smart to go with this stepped approach, roughly $50 between each model up the chain.
Re:On first look, quite nice (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:$50 more, 2GB less (Score:3, Interesting)
Lesson learned, people put a huge premium on the size/shape/appearance of the thing. The Shuffle underscores this.
Or there may be very real, practical considerations that upset the 'bang for the buck' equation. For instance, when I bought an iPod, I wanted something I could wear exercising. The mini fit the bill, as the smallest and lightest then-available iPod. Sure, other iPods had a lot more capacity for not much more money, but they were also a lot bigger and heavier; the mini fit my intended use.
Of course, there was still room for improvement, and when the shuffle came out, I snapped one up. For a 1 hour workout, capacity isn't that big a deal; I Auto Fill it every morning and I'm good to go. The shuffle is also delightfully low maintenance, owing at least partially to the flash storage and the lack of a backlit (or any) screen; I can toss it in a corner and pick it up a week later and it still plays. My mini's battery needs to be recharged if it sits more than a day or two. So for a grab-it-and-go solution the shuffle wins hands-down; what it lacks in capacity and interface it more than gains in transparency (you forget you're wearing it, it's that light and small), lack of worry (at $79, if it gets destroyed it's not that big a deal), etc.
My mom and I both have shuffles and minis and they fit our comparable lifestyles. My brother, who doesn't exercise and wants only to be able to carry a little device for car listening, instead of the huge binders of CDs he used to truck around (especially now that he lives in the city and parks on the curb and had to carry all that weight/bulk in every night or risk losing a window -- though probably not the CD collection, unless the thieve(s) were into obscure, bad death rock and bootleg CD-Rs) has a single high-capacity iPod 4G and is exceedingly happy with it. For him, the capacity/cost ratio is the controlling factor.
Not for me. I'll be getting a nano immediately; I've been bicycle-commuting and wearing my mini on an armband; this will be a nice replacement for that, with all that I love about the shuffle and all I occasionally miss about the mini (the capacity; the shuffle's great at the gym, the mini's better trekking to/from work and on errands).
was at the release party tonight ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Paving the way for video store... (Score:3, Interesting)
Come on Apple, let us buy TV shows!