New Assortment of iPods [Archive]

IntheNet

23 Feb 2005, 01:36 PM

Apple today offers a few different iPod Mini versions (4 and 6 GB models) and cheaper iPod Photo versions (30 and 60 GB models) with longer battery life... they are gonna sell a ton of these iPod Photos at $349 I think!
http://www.apple.com
On a related note, I think folks will pass up the novelty on the cheaper Shuffle... the randomness of music play doesn't seem to be selling, but some will get it just because it's an Apple!

IntheNet

Dante

23 Feb 2005, 02:15 PM

I ordered a shuffle for my sisters birthday and there was a 3-5 week wait for it. Nobody has them in stock and those that get them in can't even keep them in stock for more than a day. Apple's making a killing from the shuffle.

As for myself, time for a new iPod. I want the 30 gig photo.

skipshady

23 Feb 2005, 02:19 PM

On a related note, I think folks will pass up the novelty on the cheaper Shuffle... the randomness of music play doesn't seem to be selling, but some will get it just because it's an Apple!I think a lot of people are confused about the Shuffle - there's nothing stopping you from setting up an ordered playlist. In terms of overall use, the Shuffle isn't too different from the full sized iPods - it's just that the Shuffle doesn't have a screen and you just have one Playlist.

I'm thinking about getting one once it's warm enough to go running though I'm perfectly happy with my 1.5-year old iPod. And I think the previous update seriously improved the battery usage.

chad

23 Feb 2005, 03:39 PM

My wife LOVES her iPod Shuffle.

Zak

23 Feb 2005, 04:13 PM

skipshady

23 Feb 2005, 05:54 PM

I love apple, and openly endorse everything they do, love my PB to death. However, short of using the iPod Photo 60GB for an external HD, I have no idea what the practical use is. Perhaps somebody who has one can better explain. Is there really a need to have that many songs and photos available?
I assume most people with high capacity iPods use them as hard drives. If you edit videos for example, it's nice to have a portable firewire drive. And you could use it to back up your computer.

Labdarugo

24 Feb 2005, 03:00 PM

I assume most people with high capacity iPods use them as hard drives. If you edit videos for example, it's nice to have a portable firewire drive. And you could use it to back up your computer.

A friend showed me her 60 GB photo iPod. I have to say, I wasn't impressed. Sure she had a bazillion pictures in it and all, but the screen was so small I couldn't see any details at all. Maybe it's a great storage device or external HD, but as a walkabout it's of limited value I think. Am I missing something?

kerpow

24 Feb 2005, 03:44 PM

I get the feeling that Apple are becoming a victim of their own success.

People are begining to get frustrated that can't buy new Apple products. I was in the London store the other day, Europe's flagship store, and was told that they had no new 12 or 15" Powerbooks, Shuffles or Mini Macs in stock. I can only assume the rush for the new iPod minis as just as bad considering the price drop.

Also, the storage industry just isn't moving quicker enough to keep up with their own innovation. By all accounts they pushed really hard to get these 6gb 1" disks in the iPod mini.

Having said that, in the 4 months I've been back in London (having lived in the States for 3 years) it is quite staggering how many people you see on the Tube wearing the distinctive iPod headphones.

skipshady

24 Feb 2005, 03:46 PM

A friend showed me her 60 GB photo iPod. I have to say, I wasn't impressed. Sure she had a bazillion pictures in it and all, but the screen was so small I couldn't see any details at all. Maybe it's a great storage device or external HD, but as a walkabout it's of limited value I think. Am I missing something?
I'm as much in the dark as you are. I don't think iPod photo is all that useful on its own. The only practical use I could think of was hooking it up to a TV, so you can run your vacation slide show. Of course, you can do that with most digital cameras too.

Apple just announced a camera-to-iPod thing so you can store your digicam photos directly to the iPod. I don't know, would people find that useful?

guamster

24 Feb 2005, 04:28 PM

I'm as much in the dark as you are. I don't think iPod photo is all that useful on its own. The only practical use I could think of was hooking it up to a TV, so you can run your vacation slide show. Of course, you can do that with most digital cameras too.

Apple just announced a camera-to-iPod thing so you can store your digicam photos directly to the iPod. I don't know, would people find that useful?

I might have found the camera-to-iPod feature useful a few years back when I was on a two-week vacation on Guam. I took a lot of pictures and kept having to transfer my pictures from my two memory sticks to my neice's computer, and then burning those pictures onto CD. The next time I returned to the island, I brought extra memory sticks with me.

I bought my U2 iPod a couple of months back through eBay for a lower price than the regular 20G iPod (I got lucky) but if I were in the market for a new one, I might be tempted to get the new 30G photo one. I would try my luck again on Ebay ;)

BTW, I love my iPod!

Labdarugo

24 Feb 2005, 05:36 PM

Having said that, in the 4 months I've been back in London (having lived in the States for 3 years) it is quite staggering how many people you see on the Tube wearing the distinctive iPod headphones.

Must have bought them here in NY! ;)

servotron

02 Mar 2005, 01:16 PM

I don't get the usefulness of the iPod Photo either.

As for the 60g iPods... there are people out there with use for that much space, just for music.

Hell, I could easily fill two iPod 60g's, one of them almost to the brim just with my classical music collection... add in the 40 gigs of hardcore punk and they're almost full without even getting a single song from my hip hop, classic rock, 80's, jazz, soundtracks, etc...

Now... realistically, do I NEED that much music available at my fingertips? No.. that's what my hard drive is for, and the computer being hooked up to the home stereo system. I have 2 ipods, a 1st Gen PC 5g, and a 3rd gen 20g. Both have aftermarket batteries after wearing out the originals... while it's easy to get huge variety out of the 20g, but the 5g is a little more of a challenge, since I'm a full album listener instead of singles one at a time... you just have to load it with whatever you're in the mood to hear in the next several days, and change it out if/when you get sick of those 50 albums.

skipshady

02 Mar 2005, 06:00 PM

My guess is that the iPod photo was Apple's way of introducing the color screen but justifying the price bump with a new feature. It couldn't have been that hard to add a photo viewer capability to a machine that already is a quasi-PDA. I'm sure if someone spent enough time, they could hack an older iPod to show pictures in b&w.

Metros Striker10

03 Mar 2005, 05:48 PM

Apple should find a way to build a camera into these iPod Photos. If cell phones can have one, iPods have to be able to.

phats_away

04 Mar 2005, 04:22 AM

skipshady

04 Mar 2005, 10:57 PM

rumor is the next gen due out in the fall will have 2 or 3x the battery life unless they add more power hungry featuers (better screen, bluetooth etc). the people who make the innards have vastly reduced the power consumption of the hardware
Well, there have been rumors of Bluetooth iPods (which would be great with Bluetooth-enabled cars) and I think color display is a given.

Playlist tells you which iPod's right for you: http://playlistmag.com/features/2005/03/pickpod/index.php?lsrc=mcrss-0305

Mad_Bishop

05 Mar 2005, 10:27 AM

I finally got an extended session with an ipod and I have to say, I really, really want one. I thought that perhaps it was a little one-use to suit me, but the think is so slick! I'll have to wait, because there's no way I could use anything less than the 40Gb and I can't afford one yet.

TURI9

22 Mar 2005, 12:26 PM

Ok guys, well im kinda late on this whole Ipod thing and im not sure how it all works. I just got a 30gb Photo Ipod.My computer is a Windows ME(Millenium Edition). So i inserted the cd into the comp. Next it installed something and said 2 files were missing or something of that sort. The names were something like USBMAP.blah blah blah. So i put skip. Then it asked me to insert the Ipod so that it could be formatted if needed. I did that but theres 3 different spots to use and ive tried them already but nothing seems to happen, so i just went ahead and put skip that. So now i try to open up that Ipod Updater and it tells me "Ipod requires Windows 2000 (SP4) or Windows XP. Please update your windows software and try again." So what should i do or try or what am i gonna have to do about this? HELP will be appreciated so much and if u need further details on this ask me and well see what we come up with.

Mad_Bishop

08 Apr 2005, 06:35 PM

My wife LOVES her iPod Shuffle.
I just got a 1Gb iPod Shuffle for my anniversary from my wife (was going to get me a mini, I'm glad she didn't) and I freaking love it. Plenty of storage, use as a pen drive (I used my old 128Mb pen drive so much that the solder broke apart inside) and I can plug it into the front of my head unit in my car. And it's so tiny.

My only problem is that I want to use a male-to-male mini-plug to connect my shuffle to the front of my head unit, and I can't find such a thing. Radioshake doesn't carry a male-to-male in that size, and I haven't found anything on Google. How hard would it be to (or is it even possible) to soldier the ends of a male-to-male cable together to end up with just a plug? I'm looking for a really clean install.

Kryptonite

08 Apr 2005, 07:47 PM

I just got a 1Gb iPod Shuffle for my anniversary from my wife (was going to get me a mini, I'm glad she didn't) and I freaking love it. Plenty of storage, use as a pen drive (I used my old 128Mb pen drive so much that the solder broke apart inside) and I can plug it into the front of my head unit in my car. And it's so tiny.

Just wondering, but why would you prefer the shuffle over the mini?