What did you *think* the iPod was going to be?

[jutus]

Since we couldn't speculate here, what are some of the guesses that the AI crowd came up with prior to the announcement? Why were you led to believe that the annoucement would be your guess?

Apple PDA? MP3 player? i****? ;)

[cdhostage]

I seriously thought it would be a large-capacity MP3 player... I should hire myself out as a swami.

[Belle]

Put it this way, I set my sights to their usual levels of pessimism when we're expecting a new Apple product, and was pleasantly surprised by iPod.

[applenut]

set top box with iDVD, iTunes, iMovie with a hard drive, airport, firewire, and DVD-R.

the ultimate digital hub and the center of the home entertainment system. oh well.

[ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: applenut ]</p>

[BRussell]

I was 100% certain that it wouldn't be an mp3 player.

[Alpha Mac]

MP3 and CD player Combo.

[Mac The Fork]

I had no idea. Well, I had ideas, but none of them measured up to the hype. I was hoping it wouldn't be a big expensive box to attach to a hi-fi system, like some predicted.

[imacFP]

I felt pretty sure it would be a MP3 player.

[pscates]

I thought it would be some sort of PDA/e-mail/mp3 device.

The return of the Newton, basically, only with modern styling and a lot more functionality than just a standard PDA from Palm or Handspring.

I was thinking PDA, address book, to-do list, calendar (all the usual stuff), plus e-mail/contact capability and a built-in mp3 player.

Looks like I was trying to pack everything cool into one device. Of course, it would've cost $899 too, so...

[EmAn]

I really was unsure, but I thought it might be some kind of music device.

[Scott_H]

I was hoping it wouldn't be an MP3 player.

I knew it would have nice features and be priced out of most people's range.

[ 11-18-2001: Message edited by: Scott H. ]</p>

[Logan Cale]

I was pretty sure it would be an MP3 player.

[jutus]

I thought that the mp3 functionality would be a given.

But I really thought that they might include a small color lcd to watch streaming video on, plus a little color video camera. The idea would be that you could vid conference with other owners of the device as well as people running "iPhone" software on OS X. Not to mention watch QTSS broadcasts provided by Apple. Boom, instant ad revenue. Tied in with Airport networks, this would make a pretty useful corporate tool. For example I'd be able to walk around the plant at work and show our vendors/customers things on the production floor, etc.

I thought the mp3 playing would be secondary.

[Crusader]

Set top recording box MPEG 2, or 4 with Airport & Digital sound out & in.

So the set up would go like this:

You can record a TV show at anytime, no subscription.

Airport used to transfer MP3's to the box, and from (like making the sound from a TV show into a MP3, or grabbing something off whatever is hooked up to your sound system)

Can play quicktime files (what you send over with airport)

Can transfer video capture to your mac (airport)

of course airport might be to slow so a gigabit ethernet port too.

Darn was I wrong... :(

[gordy]

An audio interface for you home entertainment system, that connected to you mac via Airport and played MP3's in the Mac's iTunes library, from the Mac'd hard drive. It could be really cheap, maybe $199.

I guess iPod's cool too.

[apple.otaku]

An Airport-enabled MP3 player that let you sync either with a USB cable or wirelessly but also play songs off your computer or streamed off the internet wirelessly as well. I imagined a larger unit than the iPod with a bigger and better screen featuring an "iTunes lite" interface. Greyscale with EL backlight. You could manage everything wirelessly with this interface kind of like how you could browse the file directory of your Mac via your Newton with the Newton Connection Kit. That is what made me think of the idea in the first place. Didn't consider a hard drive. Figured it would have 128MB and CF slot. Still wish this is what they came out with...

apple_otaku

[ 11-19-2001: Message edited by: apple_otaku ]</p>

[ZO]

I thought it would've been the iBrator with a 64MB solidstate memory chip with speaker that connected and charged through firewire. It would automatically connect to iPorn.com and download the latest naughty Mp3s for her pleasure (or his... depending on your sexual affiliation).

At least I go the firewire part right

:p

[ColorClassicG4]

I figured that Fran and Escher had seized control of Apple and had forced them to produce a sub-3-lb. Newton replacement.

[Matsu]

iBrator. LOL.

People have wanted Apple to drop the 'i' branding, but how can they? It's pure genius, everything sounds good with an 'i' in front of it. iBrator! hahahaha. Or how bout the iTool instead if iTools? Litium-polymer powered marital Aids anyone???

[CapnPyro]

i thought it was going to be pretty much what the iPod is now, only with a larger full color Palm size screen (what is that about 3 or 4 inches?). with a version of OS X Lite or something like that in it that'd be used as a PDA/mp3 player thing

[Scott_H]

[quote]Originally posted by CapnPyro:
<strong>i thought it was going to be pretty much what the iPod is now, only with a larger full color Palm size screen (what is that about 3 or 4 inches?). with a version of OS X Lite or something like that in it that'd be used as a PDA/mp3 player thing</strong><hr></blockquote>

Huh? You thought it would be what it is now only a fully blown PDA?

[Aphelion]

[quote]Originally posted by applenut:
<strong>set top box with iDVD, iTunes, iMovie with a hard drive, airport, firewire, and DVD-R.
the ultimate digital hub and the center of the home entertainment system. oh well.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Yes! The "Missing Link" to the Digital Lifestyle ... I was hoping for that as well.

[quote]Originally posted by jhtrh:
<strong>Set top recording box MPEG 2, or 4 with Airport & Digital sound out & in.
So the set up would go like this:
You can record a TV show at anytime, no subscription.
Airport used to transfer MP3's to the box, and from (like making the sound from a TV show into a MP3, or grabbing something off whatever is hooked up to your sound system)
Can play quicktime files (what you send over with airport)
Can transfer video capture to your mac (airport)
of course airport might be to slow so a gigabit ethernet port too.
</strong><hr></blockquote>

Wow quite a list jhtrih, I'll restate my idea from an earlier post:

The "Apple Digital Hub": Make it fit the stereo component form factor (Rack Mac?) 1.75" high by 18" wide. Rails for a 5.25" drive (SuperDrive in the high end, DVD/CD-RW standard) as well as mounts for a 3.5" hard drive. License TiVo technology, just like Sony does. Oh, and one more thing, license the Nintendo Game Cube technology as others are doing (Panasonic) and use the IBM "Gecko" iteration of the G3 to power it.

So there you have it, the "Apple Digital Hub" link it via firewire to any Mac and have standard connections for the TV and Stereo. Cool Apple Design remote control included.

[ 11-20-2001: Message edited by: Aphelion ]</p>

[CapnPyro]

scott, i was thinking it would be a firewire pda w/ a large harddrive and color lcd, yes. i was hoping for an applified pda :)

[cdhostage]

[quote]Originally posted by ZO:
<strong>I thought it would've been the iBrator with a 64MB solidstate memory chip with speaker that connected and charged through firewire. It would automatically connect to iPorn.com and download the latest naughty Mp3s for her pleasure (or his... depending on your sexual affiliation).

At least I go the firewire part right

:p </strong><hr></blockquote>

Haha. I've got the original iBrator mock-commercial if anybody wants it. Email me at cdhostage@mac.com . I put it on the AIBoards iDisk once, but somebody deleted it along with some other funny mogvies.

[Matsu]

Awww, come on, post it here.

[PookJP]

More innovative.

[AppleProphet]

Moving to Digital Hub.