Great. My iPod's Obsolete.

[cegerer]

Well, that didn't take long. Bought my iPod a few weeks ago and now it's obsolete.

After three years of being synonymous with "digital music player," the Apple Computer Inc., Cupertino, Calif, USA, iPod will gain photo-viewing capabilities within the next 30 to 60 days, reliable sources tell Think Secret. The new iPod, which will sit at the top of Apple's fourth-generation line-up, will pack the new Toshiba 60GB 1.8-inch hard drive, a 2-inch color liquid crystal display, iPhoto synchronization, audio/video-out capabilities, and will sell for $499.

The new iPod is currently in production in Asia after delays from Toshiba in delivering its new 60GB drive hampered a planned early-September ramp up. Sources confirm Toshiba started shipping the drive to Apple in mid-September and iPod manufacturer Inventec began building the new device in the last two weeks, reported Think Secret.

The new iPod's form factor will be identical to the existing 4G iPods, sources report, but will be two millimeters thicker than the current 40GB iPod and marginally heavier. The 2- inch color screen is identical in size to other iPods, but will sport a higher resolution for photo viewing. However, the new device's real shining feature will be its video-out port, which will enable users to tote their photo galleries with them, ready to be plugged into any television for big-screen viewing.

The 60GB iPod will feature only rudimentary built-in software for viewing photos, with no editing tools, sources say. Photo albums will be navigated in a similar fashion to music playlists, and a slideshow feature will provide transitions with user-specified background music, similar to iPhoto. Synchronizing features similar to iTunes will also be added to iPhoto.

The new iPod won't feature built-in flash memory stick slots for downloading photos from digital cameras, although such a feature will presumably be able to be employed through a Belkin $99 Media Reader.

Sources indicate that Apple will market the new photo iPod as being capable of storing 20,000 music tracks and 25,000 photos. As an added bonus for music fans, album artwork will be displayed on screen when it's available for a selected track.

[motion]

Still just a rumor at this point.... but quick, stick it on eBay! You should be able to get most of your money back, well minus $75 or so...

[cantdrv55]

I've had mine for a year and I just bought my son the 20gb model yesterday. Frankly, I don't know if I'd need the color screen or photo capabilities of the new one. Heck, I still don't have a camera phone. I mainly use the iPod for audio books anyway plus I got them both cheap through an employee discount. I don't think I'd want to pay $500 for the new model.

[techweenie]

Technology advancing? Shocking! Who could have predicted?

I'll prolly stick with my 2nd generation iPod until the new versions can play full-length 30-fps videos and wirelessly output to external monitors or TVs.

Seriously, there has to be some logical end to the notion of 'convergence.' Who would have predicted cell phones with picture-taking ability 5 years ago? Or PDA/cellphone/MP3 player combos? Today, iPods have some rudimentary PDA functions, and can function as backup drives as well.

The nice thing about having 70% of the market is that lots of companies are adding functionality to iPods.

[}{arlequin]

cantdrv,
do you boot up your own audio book cds onto the computer and then onto the ipod or do you have a place where you can download the audio books?

[on-ramp]

what's an ipod? no, seriously.

[CarreraS2]

Originally posted by techweenie
Who would have predicted cell phones with picture-taking ability 5 years ago?

5 years? Actually, the idea has been around for more than ONE HUNDRED years!

Amazing Camera Phone Prediction

[techweenie]

Originally posted by SoCal911SC
5 years? Actually, the idea has been around for more than ONE HUNDRED years!

LOL!

What would we do without The Onion?

[goat]

Great I just bought one myself, but at least I only paid a little over cost.
Check out these links for iPod extras.
http://www.ipodlounge.com/
http://everythingipod.com/
http://eshop.macsales.com/
http://www.bubbledesign.com/html/habitat.html

[cantdrv55]

Originally posted by }{arlequin
cantdrv,
do you boot up your own audio book cds onto the computer and then onto the ipod or do you have a place where you can download the audio books?

Hi, I download the audio books onto my computer and then use iTunes to upload them to the iPod. Kinda cumbersome but way better than hauling around four or five audiobooks at a time. That's how many I have loaded onto the iPod and I just delete them after I "read" them.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

This whole "photo viewing" craze is kinda silly, IMHO. What are you gonna do, walk around listening to music while pestering other people with photos of your dog?

[}{arlequin]

thanks.

[concentric]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
This whole "photo viewing" craze is kinda silly, IMHO. What are you gonna do, walk around listening to music while pestering other people with photos of your dog?

For me it's awesome since I moonlight doing visuals during rock shows and sometimes installations. Now instead of having tons of slides and a slide projector, I can just use my LCD projector and bring an Ipod, which I'd have on me anyway.

Anyway, what about Porsche pictures

JCM

[lendaddy]

Don't they still play music on the radio?

[jyl]

The rumoured photo iPod will probably be more expensive and may have a shorter battery life (alway-backlit color screen vs sometimes-backlit B&W screen).

Anyway, if you do end up with a "spare" iPod, you can always wire it into the car stereo.

[BlueSkyJaunte]

Dunno if it has to be always-backlit. My iPAQ (PDA) has a pretty decent "transreflexive" color LCD that shows good color without the backlight (well, really a sidelight) on.

[cegerer]

Actually, I don't see much use for the 'picture-viewing' feature. My 20G is doing just fine. Got most of my music library on it and haven't even put a dent in the memory yet.

[concentric]

I'm actually stoked, since the 60GB is the first chance I'd have to put all my music on an Ipod. If they get up to 100GB, I could even do all the vinyl.

JCM

[jyl]

When you find a simple efficient way to rip the vinyl to disk, let us know. I'm looking for a method that is foolproof enough that I could pay the kid next door to do it, like $1.00 a record and I'd set up two or three record players so she could parallel process - seems like a decent way to earn some money while doing her homework.

[jyl]

Originally posted by BlueSkyJaunte
Dunno if it has to be always-backlit. My iPAQ (PDA) has a pretty decent "transreflexive" color LCD that shows good color without the backlight (well, really a sidelight) on.

That's cool. Maybe we'll see those in laptops someday? The LCD is such a big power consumer, if you didn't have to backlight then we'd get better battery life.