If the iPod were to expand.... I think the next logical step would be a color screen. And I think that photos would be the main purpose for this (at first)..... in conjunction with iPhoto. Later I see video...........
Akumulator, I don't want to use the media reader. That's the whole point. I could just attach a firewire cable to the camera and the ipod and just snap away without a care.
Akumulator, I don't want to use the media reader. That's the whole point. I could just attach a firewire cable to the camera and the ipod and just snap away without a care.
First you'd need a camera that supports FireWire. Good luck.
As for improvements to the iPod:
Count me in for better battery life (per charge). My iPod's is currently almost long enough, but I still worry about whether the charge will last the day.
Count me against anything that gets in the way of better battery life.
If Apple can find a way to make the iPod's battery user-upgradable without making it flimsy or ugly, great. The current battery-replacement solutions are adequate, but it would be nice to see Apple do better. From what I know about the iPod's construction, this is not a simple problem, though.
I'd like to see more and better iPod accessories, and more vendors. Belkin is great, but Griffin and Dr. Bott do well also. I was looking forward to the voice recording accessory, but it's apparently barely adequate even for the use it was designed for (voice recording).
Right now there's a disconnect between iPod and iTunes when I put my Mac to sleep while it's docked. When I wake it up, iPod flashes the do not disturb message as if it's being updated, but iTunes doesn't budge. I'd either like the iPod to be smart enough to realize that nothing's changed while the computer's asleep, or iTunes to be better at realizing when the iPod wants to be updated.
The controls are almost ridiculously touchy. They should be less touchy, or perhaps their touchiness should be settable. I've even managed to turn the backlight on without trying.
Organic Light Emitting Diodes (OLEDs) will make a color screen on the iPod a very real, battery-friendly solution. Apple is testing them now, you know they are...Kodak already has a camera implementing the technology. Monochrome screens are so 20th Century.... it's one of the silly little reasons that I don't want an iPod yet.
Video playback How could Apple NOT do this, seeing as how important QuickTime technology is to them? Eventually, somehow.
Accessories Apple won't be shy about taking away sales of any products that they feel they can design, manufacture and sell more profitably than existing iPod accessories. Cashing in on their own cow makes sense.
Enclosure It really can't get much smaller, but they could always refine the existing design. I haven't lived with an iPod day in and day out, but haven't a doubt that Apple has done (and is doing) extensive studies of how they could improve the layout and construction of the control buttons using feedback from existing users.
Improved Batteries Make them removable and longer-lasting.
Auto Manufacturer Partnering Replicate the relationship they've developed with Volkswagon. Co-brand the devices for Auto manufacturer's specs and decor. Wouldn't you love to have a leather-covered iPod to go with your bling-bling Escalade you Bankhead-bouncing gangsta you?
Narrated Access Navigating your iPod while you're driving is a Dangerously Bad Idea. What if you could navigate by audio navigation? How much memory would it take to have your iPod say "Artist", "Album", "David Bowie" as you scroll through menus, never removing your eye from the road?
What's keeping ME from buying one? Mostly the price.
As soon as I buy one they'll bring out all that stuff I wrote about....
I really want an iPod, and have since they came out. I haven't bought one, and won't buy one, unitl they come out with a color screen. I could do everyone a favor and buy one tomorrow, because I know that if I do, they'll come out with a color screen the next day.
iPhoto integration is the next logical evolution. It browses the same as iTunes, you can already store photos now (just not view them), and as I've been transfering all my CDs to my computer I've been attaching COLOR album art. It just makes sense. I agree video would be cool, but it seems the demand isn't there yet. Everyone is going digital photo though. Wouldn't it be nice to have all those photos on your iPod AND view them?
Colors? Come on. And Graphite? Where have you been the last two years? Graphite no longer exists as far as Apple is concerned. Why would they make a Graphite iPod...to match a 500MHZ G4 tower? I find the minimal white design to be great. However, an aluminum iPod that matches the PowerBooks and G5s would be too cool...perhaps a professional model with uncompressed recording, color screen, bluetooth, and maybe even IP over Firewire for networking with a remote admin tool. I'd easily drop $500 or even $600 on one of those...given a $100 price drop accross the line.
perhaps a professional model with uncompressed recording, color screen,
Why do so many people seem to want a color screen? I see no use for it, other than to make it look pretty and "keep up with the Joneses (the competition)". If iPod was meant to play video then I'd understand, or if there were some reason that the display of relevant info could be significantly improved by a color display. But as it is, I'd rather have a more energy thrifty digital watch LCD than a spendthrift color one.
Why do so many people seem to want a color screen? I see no use for it, other than to make it look pretty...
"Looking pretty" is the last thing for which a color screen is beneficial. The possibilities of a color interface are limitless: labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation, a more personalized experience...the list goes on and on. Of course, there are marketing reasons as well, but those really take a back seat to the richer user experience a color screen can provide if implemented properly.
"Looking pretty" is the last thing for which a color screen is beneficial. The possibilities of a color interface are limitless: labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation, a more personalized experience...the list goes on and on. Of course, there are marketing reasons as well, but those really take a back seat to the richer user experience a color screen can provide if implemented properly.
True but to make the color screen truly worthwhile, Apple would need to follow with the new technology: ie. an OLED Display over the standard LCD display. Without an OLED Display, I would think that a color screen wouldn't be worth it because of the worsened battery life over its already dismal battery life. Just my 2 cents.
labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation,
How exactly is a color screen required for those? iPod already has submenus and ratings, and genre differentiation through iTunes. A "more personalized experience" to me means "looking pretty", since "pretty" is in the eye of the iPod-holder. To me, all that stuff appears nothing more than frivolous knicknacks, whereas increased battery life is a truly useful feature. Although, I tend to be more of an ascetic, so I'm open to persuasion that there may be truly useful features that only a color screen can provide.
And yes, an OLED display would be very nice. Color <i>and</i> longer battery life. I understand the main problem with OLED right now is that the pixels burn out too quickly, although the Japanese are getting close to solving that.
Auto integration is a good idea, and partnering with a company such as Delphi or Blaupunct to get it into as many cars as possible even better. The problem that I see here is that it is a 2 device solution that should be solved with one, the car stereo. If you need an iPod to listen to your music then you need one for all the drivers of that car because the music is stored on the iPod.
What is really needed is a car stereo that can "sync" its stored music and play lists to an iPod, that way you don't need to have the iPod hooked up to the car to listen to music. The iPod is a nice vehicle for doing this, since it has a large capacity, but to make it really marketable it needs to have a lower cost version to gain even more market share.
The other solution would be to build a "removable" HD that could be hooked up to a computer to load the music, and then plugged into the auto. This would also allow the HD to be isolated from the vehicle to limit the amount of vibration that it is subjected to. I think that this would be a better solution for the auto makers, becouse it would not require anything beyond what the car is sold with. The big problem I see with the iPod as a go between is that the connectors might change, as well as other changes to the hardware/software that might make new ones incompatible with the built in stereo of older models, so 2 years down the road your original iPod breaks and you are SOL because the new iPods no longer work with the OEM stereo in your car. Or you sell the car, but keep the iPod, the new owner cant get an iPod to work with their new car. The HD solution fixes this, since it could be a standard FW HD, or even USB2 enclosure with a laptop HD to keep expense down and allow replacement of the HD in the enclosure later on.
How exactly is a color screen required for those? iPod already has submenus and ratings, and genre differentiation through iTunes.
Color would make it much easier to differentiate between things quickly. Maybe you're just not a visual person, but many people tend to associate characteristics based on color. In fact, most find it difficult to make such associations without color. With a color screen, you wouldn't have to go into a particular genre submenu to see what artists are in that genre. You could scroll through "all artists" and the genre would be hinted by a color label. The same is true for ratings, play counts, etc. I actually can't believe we're debating the usefulness of a color display. Hell, why don't we just make the PowerBook displays grayscale? It would save so much battery life!
[i]Hell, why don't we just make the PowerBook displays grayscale? It would save so much battery life! [/B]
heh. The difference is you actually need color for the many versatile uses of full-fledged computer, but for something like iPod that is extremely functionally specialized and comparatively limited, I don't see it. But you're right, there are lots of visual folks who probably would greatly appreciate a color display. And of course if all Apple's competitors go color, Apple will have to too, just to maintain face, so to speak.
I really want an iPod, and have since they came out. I haven't bought one, and won't buy one, unitl they come out with a color screen. I could do everyone a favor and buy one tomorrow, because I know that if I do, they'll come out with a color screen the next day.
iPhoto integration is the next logical evolution. It browses the same as iTunes, you can already store photos now (just not view them), and as I've been transfering all my CDs to my computer I've been attaching COLOR album art. It just makes sense. I agree video would be cool, but it seems the demand isn't there yet. Everyone is going digital photo though. Wouldn't it be nice to have all those photos on your iPod AND view them?
iPhoto integration seems like the best next step. It should be easy enough to do to current iPods, especially with a USB connector on there now.
I don't like Belkin's card reader solution, it's crap. There's no reason why we can't get a utility and USB cable that DL's images directly from the camera without the need to remove cards and re-insert them. When I plug my USB still camera into my windows box it just shows up as a disk. Same on the PB. iPhoto launches, but a disk mounts on the desktop too, and I could just treat the files as regular old files to drag and drop and copy as I please. Just about every camera I've seen must use some form of USB mass storage protocols now -- I doubt drivers or processing power is an issue now.
You don't need color to make this work, nor to make it work well. Just get the pics into the pod as "rolls" of film, then keep on shooting.
I would love colour, but I agree that if it's to the detriment to battery life then no colour.
Colour would be good to view thumbnails of images that are stored - with options to delete images one by one. Also, the colours of my iCal calendars would be nice if impletemented in a colour screen iPod - all those black dots on each day really don't mean much.
Also, having the album art on the iPod would be nice, but not that important.
I agree that bluetooth should be included to sync contacts, calendars and basic stuff like that - how often do you add new albums to your iTunes database?
I've got a 2nd generation 20GB iPod, and at the moment the 3rd gen aren't enough to warrent an upgrade. Hopefully the 4th gen are
I think everything that the first poster suggested was right on the money. I don't care about most of the rest, color screen and photo/video features are just not necessary on a device like the iPod, in fact they are detrimental because of the battery. There could be a separate PhotoPod if enough people want one.
Car integration: For now I'd be happy with a cheap cigarette lighter charger which incorporated FM send. This for the folks that change cars a lot etc. and do not wish to modify the car at all. Then there should be the total integrated version, with a slide in dock, integration into car control system, etc.
Line in adds lots of value, wouldn't add price much. (I'd also like a lower quality but functional built in mic, which doesn't really cost or weigh anything.)
Then, of course, the battery should be user replaceable. Nicest solution would be to have two sturdy thumb screws holding it, so battery change would be toolless - even if you only have to do it every two or three years.
Comments
Originally posted by Akumulator
Nah........ you can just use this .
If the iPod were to expand.... I think the next logical step would be a color screen. And I think that photos would be the main purpose for this (at first)..... in conjunction with iPhoto. Later I see video...........
Akumulator, I don't want to use the media reader. That's the whole point. I could just attach a firewire cable to the camera and the ipod and just snap away without a care.
Originally posted by AppleLuva
Akumulator, I don't want to use the media reader. That's the whole point. I could just attach a firewire cable to the camera and the ipod and just snap away without a care.
First you'd need a camera that supports FireWire. Good luck.
As for improvements to the iPod:
Count me in for better battery life (per charge). My iPod's is currently almost long enough, but I still worry about whether the charge will last the day.
Count me against anything that gets in the way of better battery life.
If Apple can find a way to make the iPod's battery user-upgradable without making it flimsy or ugly, great. The current battery-replacement solutions are adequate, but it would be nice to see Apple do better. From what I know about the iPod's construction, this is not a simple problem, though.
I'd like to see more and better iPod accessories, and more vendors. Belkin is great, but Griffin and Dr. Bott do well also. I was looking forward to the voice recording accessory, but it's apparently barely adequate even for the use it was designed for (voice recording).
Right now there's a disconnect between iPod and iTunes when I put my Mac to sleep while it's docked. When I wake it up, iPod flashes the do not disturb message as if it's being updated, but iTunes doesn't budge. I'd either like the iPod to be smart enough to realize that nothing's changed while the computer's asleep, or iTunes to be better at realizing when the iPod wants to be updated.
The controls are almost ridiculously touchy. They should be less touchy, or perhaps their touchiness should be settable. I've even managed to turn the backlight on without trying.
Video playback How could Apple NOT do this, seeing as how important QuickTime technology is to them? Eventually, somehow.
Accessories Apple won't be shy about taking away sales of any products that they feel they can design, manufacture and sell more profitably than existing iPod accessories. Cashing in on their own cow makes sense.
Enclosure It really can't get much smaller, but they could always refine the existing design. I haven't lived with an iPod day in and day out, but haven't a doubt that Apple has done (and is doing) extensive studies of how they could improve the layout and construction of the control buttons using feedback from existing users.
Improved Batteries Make them removable and longer-lasting.
Auto Manufacturer Partnering Replicate the relationship they've developed with Volkswagon. Co-brand the devices for Auto manufacturer's specs and decor. Wouldn't you love to have a leather-covered iPod to go with your bling-bling Escalade you Bankhead-bouncing gangsta you?
Narrated Access Navigating your iPod while you're driving is a Dangerously Bad Idea. What if you could navigate by audio navigation? How much memory would it take to have your iPod say "Artist", "Album", "David Bowie" as you scroll through menus, never removing your eye from the road?
What's keeping ME from buying one? Mostly the price.
As soon as I buy one they'll bring out all that stuff I wrote about....
iPhoto integration is the next logical evolution. It browses the same as iTunes, you can already store photos now (just not view them), and as I've been transfering all my CDs to my computer I've been attaching COLOR album art. It just makes sense. I agree video would be cool, but it seems the demand isn't there yet. Everyone is going digital photo though. Wouldn't it be nice to have all those photos on your iPod AND view them?
http://forums.appleinsider.com/showt...threadid=34384
Originally posted by Michael Wilkie
perhaps a professional model with uncompressed recording, color screen,
Why do so many people seem to want a color screen? I see no use for it, other than to make it look pretty and "keep up with the Joneses (the competition)". If iPod was meant to play video then I'd understand, or if there were some reason that the display of relevant info could be significantly improved by a color display. But as it is, I'd rather have a more energy thrifty digital watch LCD than a spendthrift color one.
Originally posted by fbg111
Why do so many people seem to want a color screen? I see no use for it, other than to make it look pretty...
"Looking pretty" is the last thing for which a color screen is beneficial. The possibilities of a color interface are limitless: labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation, a more personalized experience...the list goes on and on. Of course, there are marketing reasons as well, but those really take a back seat to the richer user experience a color screen can provide if implemented properly.
Originally posted by Michael Wilkie
"Looking pretty" is the last thing for which a color screen is beneficial. The possibilities of a color interface are limitless: labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation, a more personalized experience...the list goes on and on. Of course, there are marketing reasons as well, but those really take a back seat to the richer user experience a color screen can provide if implemented properly.
True but to make the color screen truly worthwhile, Apple would need to follow with the new technology: ie. an OLED Display over the standard LCD display. Without an OLED Display, I would think that a color screen wouldn't be worth it because of the worsened battery life over its already dismal battery life. Just my 2 cents.
-Ryan
Originally posted by Michael Wilkie
labels, submenus, artist rating and genre differentiation,
How exactly is a color screen required for those? iPod already has submenus and ratings, and genre differentiation through iTunes. A "more personalized experience" to me means "looking pretty", since "pretty" is in the eye of the iPod-holder. To me, all that stuff appears nothing more than frivolous knicknacks, whereas increased battery life is a truly useful feature. Although, I tend to be more of an ascetic, so I'm open to persuasion that there may be truly useful features that only a color screen can provide.
And yes, an OLED display would be very nice. Color <i>and</i> longer battery life. I understand the main problem with OLED right now is that the pixels burn out too quickly, although the Japanese are getting close to solving that.
What is really needed is a car stereo that can "sync" its stored music and play lists to an iPod, that way you don't need to have the iPod hooked up to the car to listen to music. The iPod is a nice vehicle for doing this, since it has a large capacity, but to make it really marketable it needs to have a lower cost version to gain even more market share.
The other solution would be to build a "removable" HD that could be hooked up to a computer to load the music, and then plugged into the auto. This would also allow the HD to be isolated from the vehicle to limit the amount of vibration that it is subjected to. I think that this would be a better solution for the auto makers, becouse it would not require anything beyond what the car is sold with. The big problem I see with the iPod as a go between is that the connectors might change, as well as other changes to the hardware/software that might make new ones incompatible with the built in stereo of older models, so 2 years down the road your original iPod breaks and you are SOL because the new iPods no longer work with the OEM stereo in your car. Or you sell the car, but keep the iPod, the new owner cant get an iPod to work with their new car. The HD solution fixes this, since it could be a standard FW HD, or even USB2 enclosure with a laptop HD to keep expense down and allow replacement of the HD in the enclosure later on.
Originally posted by fbg111
How exactly is a color screen required for those? iPod already has submenus and ratings, and genre differentiation through iTunes.
Color would make it much easier to differentiate between things quickly. Maybe you're just not a visual person, but many people tend to associate characteristics based on color. In fact, most find it difficult to make such associations without color. With a color screen, you wouldn't have to go into a particular genre submenu to see what artists are in that genre. You could scroll through "all artists" and the genre would be hinted by a color label. The same is true for ratings, play counts, etc. I actually can't believe we're debating the usefulness of a color display. Hell, why don't we just make the PowerBook displays grayscale? It would save so much battery life!
[i]Hell, why don't we just make the PowerBook displays grayscale? It would save so much battery life!
heh. The difference is you actually need color for the many versatile uses of full-fledged computer, but for something like iPod that is extremely functionally specialized and comparatively limited, I don't see it. But you're right, there are lots of visual folks who probably would greatly appreciate a color display. And of course if all Apple's competitors go color, Apple will have to too, just to maintain face, so to speak.
Originally posted by cementdolphin
I really want an iPod, and have since they came out. I haven't bought one, and won't buy one, unitl they come out with a color screen. I could do everyone a favor and buy one tomorrow, because I know that if I do, they'll come out with a color screen the next day.
iPhoto integration is the next logical evolution. It browses the same as iTunes, you can already store photos now (just not view them), and as I've been transfering all my CDs to my computer I've been attaching COLOR album art. It just makes sense. I agree video would be cool, but it seems the demand isn't there yet. Everyone is going digital photo though. Wouldn't it be nice to have all those photos on your iPod AND view them?
yes, absolutely!
I don't like Belkin's card reader solution, it's crap. There's no reason why we can't get a utility and USB cable that DL's images directly from the camera without the need to remove cards and re-insert them. When I plug my USB still camera into my windows box it just shows up as a disk. Same on the PB. iPhoto launches, but a disk mounts on the desktop too, and I could just treat the files as regular old files to drag and drop and copy as I please. Just about every camera I've seen must use some form of USB mass storage protocols now -- I doubt drivers or processing power is an issue now.
You don't need color to make this work, nor to make it work well. Just get the pics into the pod as "rolls" of film, then keep on shooting.
Colour would be good to view thumbnails of images that are stored - with options to delete images one by one. Also, the colours of my iCal calendars would be nice if impletemented in a colour screen iPod - all those black dots on each day really don't mean much.
Also, having the album art on the iPod would be nice, but not that important.
I agree that bluetooth should be included to sync contacts, calendars and basic stuff like that - how often do you add new albums to your iTunes database?
I've got a 2nd generation 20GB iPod, and at the moment the 3rd gen aren't enough to warrent an upgrade. Hopefully the 4th gen are
Car integration: For now I'd be happy with a cheap cigarette lighter charger which incorporated FM send. This for the folks that change cars a lot etc. and do not wish to modify the car at all. Then there should be the total integrated version, with a slide in dock, integration into car control system, etc.
Line in adds lots of value, wouldn't add price much. (I'd also like a lower quality but functional built in mic, which doesn't really cost or weigh anything.)
Then, of course, the battery should be user replaceable. Nicest solution would be to have two sturdy thumb screws holding it, so battery change would be toolless - even if you only have to do it every two or three years.