Post #14,868
10/23/01 10:45:24 PM
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The iPod thing
The new 'breakthrough digital device' from Apple is the [link|http://www.apple.com/ipod|iPod].
Is a 5gig hard-disk MP3 player a breakthrough? I'm not entirely sure.
On the plus side, it's FireWire. And it can recharge it's 10-hour battery from the FireWire port. It can also function as a FireWire hard drive. It doesn't suffer from DRM, asit doesn't have any. The LCD is a good size, and backlit. The UI, as far as I could tell from the pictures, looks usable.
However it's not all roses of course. At $399 (US) it's more expensive than a 6gig Creative Nomad Jukebox, though the Nomad is larger, heavier, and, umm, not made by Apple :) And anyone looking to remotely sync their iPod via 802.11b can look elsewhere. Mind you, how much fun would transferring 5gig over a 11mbps connection be?
As a 'breakthrough digital device' it does raise some interesting questions though. Can two iPods be hooked together over FireWire to enable music/file sharing without the need for a computer to act as intermediary? Will it work as a firewire HD on Windows boxes?
As far as scurrilous rumour go, there's always the possibility that the iPod is a kind of viability/robustness test for an embedded OS that could have other uses ... an MP3 player is a good start (by way of its relative simplicity) for building the fundamentals of, say, a PDA OS...?
On and on and on and on,
and on and on and on goes John.
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Post #14,886
10/24/01 12:45:01 AM
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Interesting speculation
In addition, there's the possibility of getting additional functionality through firmware upgrades so who knows what the long-term plan is.
I think there might be more to this than we currently are seeing.
Tom Sinclair
Speaker-to-Suits
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Post #14,896
10/24/01 1:32:43 AM
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on iPod
I agree, we're just seeing the tip of this iceberg. A quick glance at a [link|http://www.dictionary.com/cgi-bin/dict.pl?term=pod|dictionary] reveals several possible meanings for pod. Isn't the choice of name rather odd for a humble (cough) MP3 player? Wouldn't iMusic, or iPlayer or similar be more natural? iPod, hmmm, pretty generic for a device fraught with potential.
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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Post #14,902
10/24/01 2:53:36 AM
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iPod DV
--
Chris Altmann
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Post #14,971
10/24/01 1:43:56 PM
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Invasion of the iPod people!
Help! I'm being replaced by an iPod Person! :)
That was the first thing that came into my mind when I first heard about it. iPlayer or iMusic would have sounded better.
Picking up the pieces of my broken life.
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Post #14,982
10/24/01 2:13:48 PM
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I've also heard tell
since it doubles as a external drive, there's nothing stopping you from installing MacOS (or even OSX) on it, assuming you can boot from a FireWire drive.
Let's see...a boot disk with all of my diagnostic/repair tools on it...sweet!
Tom Sinclair
Speaker-to-Suits
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Post #14,994
10/24/01 3:56:22 PM
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iPod has a bit of "Copy Protection"
From [link|http://www.techtv.com/products/consumerelectronics/story/0,23008,3355973,00.html|TechTV]: Since Apple believes strongly in intellectual property rights, the designers included a unique feature in iPod: the player links itself to your iTunes database on one machine only. You can't take your iPod to work, or to a friend's, who also has iTunes, plug it in, and share your MP3s. The system reminds you that "Your iPod is linked to another iTunes database" and gives you the option to leave it that way or link to the new iTunes database -- at which point you will lose your MP3 files. While this is a great way to prevent MP3 theft, it could present a problem, should you want to use your iPod at work and at home. --
Chris Altmann
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Post #14,997
10/24/01 4:12:18 PM
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Didn't know the details
But others are saying that you can mount this think on your desktop like an external drive. Doesn't this mean you can drag your MP3s to your hard drive, link to your friend's iTunes, grab their MP3s, copy them back to your iTunes library and re-link to your own tunes?
A bit elaborate, but remember I'm working from ignorance of the facts here.
Tom Sinclair
Speaker-to-Suits
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Post #16,107
11/1/01 6:08:53 PM
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Re: The iPod thing
[link|http://www.business2.com/articles/mag/0,1640,34982,FF.html|Apple's 21st-Century Walkman] talks about the potential of the iPod. Brent is pretty jazzed with it and is seeing visions of how things could be. Personally I think he's been too close to Job's Reality Distortion Field. But there's no denying the potential iPod has to change some well established conventions. 32M of RAM, 5G of disk, CPU (power?) and fast connectivity to the base station. Sheesh, that was an average desktop not so long ago. The only question in my mind is, can they sell it? $400 is pretty steep and the install base that can use it might not be large enough to make it profitable.
I can't see that Apple would make a Windows app compatible with the iPod, there aren't very many Windows machine out there with Firewire on them. Would the average Windows user spend $400 on an iPod, $100 for a Firewire card and the hassles of making it work? Would Apple put up with that? Hey, just get an iMac...
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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