[MacDEF]

Quote:

Originally posted by grinch you have a company label as part of your online moniker, and you are suprised when people call you a fanatic or fanboy? wow.

Remember that old adage about "assume" making an "ass" out of "u" and "me"?

macdef = "macro definition"

It's a Unix term. And I'm Scottish. Whoops.


If anything, I'm a Unix fanboy. But it just so happens that a lot more people say clueless things about Apple, and a lot more people seem to have "anti-everything-Apple" psychoses -- yourself included, judging by past posting history -- so there's a lot more opportunity to take issue with ignorant comments when it comes to Macs.

And you're only further proving my point that when it comes to discussing topics like Apple, those who don't know much about the topic tend to avoid the actual discussion of the issues and try to discredit people instead

 

[Dweebgal]

w00t me for being right!!!!

partly....

 

[karmypolitics]

lets move on to the feasibility of it all. Assuming that apple doesn't have some special technological miracle under its sleeve, it's player would be a lot like the creative muvo2 1.5 gb which sells for ~200 bucks. So unless they have some special technology or deal, I doubt we'll see a $100 ipod.

Remember that the Dell DJ was predicted to be something like $200 for a 20 gb and $150 for the 10 gb. Prices, of course, were much higher, so I don't think this rumor is true.

 

[MacDEF]

I heard from a friend today who is "in the industry" -- he said that a number of high-profile iPod accessory vendors were told by Apple to "expect a new iPod form factor."

I have no idea if this is true, and I don't have any more details

 

[EyEPoD]

Well We'll know soon.

My guess is that they will release one smaller version of the ipod (maybe 4, 4.5, or 5 gigs) and will market it more as a sport ipod (new formfactor). I would guess it will retail around 200-250.

I REALLY doubt you will see an ipod for 100 or even 150. But oh well, I hope they prove me wrong. I just want them to update the full ipods. Give me 60gigs (i dont believe such a hard drive exists that size), line out on the unit, some new colors (though not color attachments), and maybe 2 more hours of batter life (not necessary)...

 

[lindrone]

Even if they just update the current iPod with some lossless compression methods, I'll be very, very happy...

 

[EyEPoD]

Is it possible to do that through firmware?

 

[lindrone]

I believe it's quite possible to do that through firmware, whether not Apple has incentive to support lossless compression is questionable though.

Then again, I don't know how much ROM for firmware there is on the iPod... hmm... Maybe just take out some of those stupid games, give me a lossless codec!!!

 

[EyEPoD]

Maybe belkin will make a new attachment that adds new compression compatability.

 

[lindrone]

LOL.. I hope not, the last thing I need is another attachment to weigh down my iPod.. LOL...

 

[blessingx]

Keynote speech will be broadcast live here and on IRC here [9AM PT, Tue 06 Jan].
Or if you're going to be in San Francisco, get a free exhibit hall pass here.

 

[sno1man]

There were rumors also floating around about limited edition twentieth anniversary edition products including a g5 that was all white and an ipod that was aluminum colored like the G5 and powerbooks.

Another possiblity is that there is a 4G ipod which is mostly new cosmetics. Maybe interchangeable faceplates like those on cell phones.

Lastly flash memory is still too pricey to make a 1 or 2GB player under $200. However a 256MB sport type player with a SD slot might make sense. Plus there are no flash players from anyone that can play AAC. That alone looks like some type of opportunity.

By the way, a lot of the rumors do have a basis in truth. Apple tries and prototypes a lot of things that they never produce, the ratio is probably one in 20 that actually turn in to a real product.

When I worked for apple there was always cool stuff in the labs. An all black imac for example. Looked great but would not cool properly so was never produced.

Just my two cents worth

 

[blessingx]

Maybe related, maybe not. But Cornice announced a new 2GB microdrive today [pdf].

"The 2GB Storage Element will allow electronics device manufacturers to build new pocket-able products that store more music, video, and pictures, as well as more office productivity files such as presentations and word processing documents." The 2GB Storage Element is available to manufacturers for US$70 per unit in quantities of 100,000 per year.

 

[realmz]

This possibilty certainly raised my curiosity so i called my uncle in Palo Alto, who is a tech big-wig and usually knows these type of things.

He is pretty sure that it is a rumor and that we would know by now if they were going to do this because they would have purchased at least a decent amount of hard drives. The other major flaw is supposedly the pricing. While a mini ipod may be possible, below ~$200 is very unlikely.

Just our $.02

 

[Frenchman]

Perhaps this could be used. Though no mention is made of the interface. The high unit price might mean we won't see 100$ but perhaps 125 or 150. Still a good price.

I would think Apple would toss their weight around for the manufacturer to delay announcement until it was concurrent with the expo.

Drat, it's down to the last hours. This is the time when the questions become quite nagging