The new iPod could look the same as the current one only with a color screen. Perhaps they will give it the multi-function wheel from the iPod mini and assign new functions to the existing four buttons. Maybe the bottom two models will remain as they are aside from boosts to 20GB and 40GB and the top model will have the color screen and 60GB drive.
A lot of people would like to use an iPod to store photos taken with their digital cameras. People have been clamoring for this in the digital photography forums but all they got was the ill-conceived Belkin adaptor. Not exactly an ideal soultion.
My thought! Hasn't there been a rumor that a new version of the Belkin device would feature an USB-port to do exactly that? But it is still the same bulky device due to the card-slots and the battery compartement.
I would be like to have an iPod-powered, Dock-Connector-connected, iPod-sized USB(-2?)-add-on that lets you download your pictures directly from your camera.
I just don't see a market for a video iPod (or any of the other handheld video devices... e.g. Archos, iRiver, and some new ones using Microsofts OS on the way). I've got the gadget bug as bad as anyone (I've got five HDD digital audio players) and can typically talk myself into getting the next piece of techno-gear that I have no use for pretty easily. Even I seem to have a difficult justifying one of these gadgets. Be it a new iPod, or one of the already existing ones. I see them more as tablet PCs... one of those ideas manufacturers sink R&D money into... but serve very little practical use (wouldn't most of us prefer to "type" than try write on a tablet PC anyway?). I don't think tablet PCs have or will take off until there becomes something fundamentally more useful about them than a typical notebook. I think being able to offload pics from a digital camera onto a Pod is a nice idea.. it makes use of the space alot of people might not be using... a color display clearly makes this a more useful solution.
But, who's to say that Apple might not take the technology in a direction that no one expects... and we'll all be walking around with white cords dangling from our iGlasses which display movie theater size screens directly into our eyes.
I'm a sucker for these vPod threads just as i'm a gadget toating techno-weenie.
Funny thing is: I'm in the camp that believes that there will never ever be any kind of significant consumer market for such a device.
Portable audio devices can provide a near audiophile experience to people while they accomplish some other, primary task. Portable video devices cannot. They cannot provide a near videophile experiece, nor can they be used while performing some other task other than perhaps the task of waiting. Perhaps they could be used for information/reference purposes, but for this, a cell phone would be more suited to consumer needs.
Portable video entertainment devices have existed for decades and yet remain purely entertainment devices for gadget geeks. People (in general) just aren't entertained by video on a tiny screen.
Comments
Originally posted by TWinbrook46636
A lot of people would like to use an iPod to store photos taken with their digital cameras. People have been clamoring for this in the digital photography forums but all they got was the ill-conceived Belkin adaptor. Not exactly an ideal soultion.
My thought! Hasn't there been a rumor that a new version of the Belkin device would feature an USB-port to do exactly that? But it is still the same bulky device due to the card-slots and the battery compartement.
I would be like to have an iPod-powered, Dock-Connector-connected, iPod-sized USB(-2?)-add-on that lets you download your pictures directly from your camera.
But, who's to say that Apple might not take the technology in a direction that no one expects... and we'll all be walking around with white cords dangling from our iGlasses which display movie theater size screens directly into our eyes.
Funny thing is: I'm in the camp that believes that there will never ever be any kind of significant consumer market for such a device.
Portable audio devices can provide a near audiophile experience to people while they accomplish some other, primary task. Portable video devices cannot. They cannot provide a near videophile experiece, nor can they be used while performing some other task other than perhaps the task of waiting. Perhaps they could be used for information/reference purposes, but for this, a cell phone would be more suited to consumer needs.
Portable video entertainment devices have existed for decades and yet remain purely entertainment devices for gadget geeks. People (in general) just aren't entertained by video on a tiny screen.
</my $0.02>