Well I never…
I’m quite shocked. I was just reading the cult of mac blog on Wired as I do regularly. Apple have now released the special edition U2 branded iPod and more suprisingly, to me at least, the iPod Photo. The first being a black 20Gb fourth generation iPod with a red click wheel and the latter is a 40Gb or 60Gb iPod which looks the same as the present fourth generation model but with a colour screen that allows you to store you photos as well as music.
Apple, as well as many Mac fans, have denied that Apple were working on a video iPod or an iPod with a colour screen for a long time, citing issues with battery life and calling it unnecessary on a music device, etc. Yet here it is. The thing that galls me about it is the price, it costs £359 for the 40Gb model and £429 for the 60Gb one.
Where I work I have lost track of the amount of iPods I have sold in the last week, at £299 for a 40Gb iPod or £60 more for this new model with a colour screen, I know which one I would have chosen. I feel that Apple should have released this about a month ago as it seems like a slap to the customers who did their xmas shopping early. Maybe that’s just me. Oh and of course I’m a little bitter too, for paying £400 for a 40Gb iPod when you can now get the same thing for £100 less or a better one for £40 less but that’s the way technology works. If you wait things get cheaper or superseded.
Which leads to my final thoughts. If we look at the facts:
- Apple have now released an iPod with 60Gb of storage and a colour screen.
- In this year’s keynote Apple unveiled H.264, another Apple owned video Codec.
- Apple have obviously seen how much money there is to be made from the portable digital entertainment market, since many credit the iPod as the Saviour of Apple.
It would seem likely then that by the end of this year, if not considerably sooner, Apple will release an iPod capable of playing video.
October 29th, 2004 at 1:49 am
As I write this my 3G 20GB iPod is sitting in its dock flashing the ‘Do not disconnect’ instruction, it’s also playing my selection of choice 90’s Hip-Hop because I’ve just been playing GTA San Andreas for 5 hours and I’m in the mood for some gangsta shit. Introductions aside I’m looking at my machine and I fear that if it had sentient thought it would be one of those Carphone Warehouse phones from the adverts, you know the one where it hangs its head in shame. You see I’m probably going to upgrade my iPod after Apples next keynote – why? Well my music collection has grown to a ridiculous size and I’ll probably have the money for a 80GB version if it’s released proper. I do fear, however, that the iPod is gonna turn into some hybrid storage device. Apple learnt its lesson from the Newton and I think that a Palm/Pocket PC type machine is off of the cards but a PDA in the sense of the word is probably where the iPod is heading. The fact that Apple has released the, rather pointless I must add, Photo iPod kinda makes me think that the iPod could become a repository for your life. It already has a contacts function along with a notes program and RSS readers can be downloaded onto your machine with ease. Much like the, frankly awful, Archos machines and that other thing that looks like an iPod but plays video, I think the future iPod will play movies on top of the functions it currently has but I don’t know if it’s a function that most people will use. Using current technology the iPod could be Bluetooth enabled to allow it to pause music automatically when your Bluetooth mobile starts ringing. Hey I’m going on a bit, I’m gonna start something up in the forum if this topic hasn’t been raised already – oh and Ian keep up the good work with the site, you’re and institution now!
October 29th, 2004 at 9:59 am
Sheesh, that’s a lot of music! I have just over 16Gb on mine, that’s 3689 songs which is 10.4 days worth. 80Gb would be over 18000 songs and nearly two months of tunes!
I already see the iPod as a PDA to be honest, it stores my calendar and contacts and that’s all I really need from a PDA. Your point about it being a repository for you life is probably spot on, Apple’s range of iThings are aimed firmly at the people who have little or no knowledge of computers and just want it to work. The iMac was even sold as the hub of your digital life, so it follows that the iPod will continue evolving to store and display but not modify data.