I'm sure it's just coincidence... but a potential track from Madonna's forthcoming album is called "The Beat Goes On", produced by Pharell Williams. It leaked a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't sound strong enough to be a Madonna single... but who can say. Madonna's next releases are scheduled for October.
I think we'll see te widescreen iPod touch this time around. At least, I hope so. I'm already standing here with my money... I've wanted one since I saw what it could do on iPhone.
When I first saw the invite, I thought, "Widescreen". If they include a TV tuner for the Japan model, they will have a sensational hit. Cell phones here that include TV tuners (the whole country is now digital TV) sell like hotcakes.
I doubt they could get that cheap. The 8GB nano is $249 now and can't do video. To add video & double the memory... I just don't think they can drop the price.
Probably not drop the price, but a 16GB player with video at $250 probably wouldn't be an issue. It would be a question of interest. I just found an interview with a Sansa rep (or maybe CEO) that said that they won't do that this year, but they say that their market is sub-$150. They had an 8GB nano-like (though thicker) video player since last year.
I just want a widescreen iPod that's at least 80GB. I don't care if it's touchscreen. I don't care if it runs OS X (though both of those would be cool). And I really, really couldn't care less if it has WiFi, which I would just see as a battery-waster.
Widescreen. 80GB. You can do that, right Apple?
I promised my fiancée that a new iPod would be the only "big ticket" item I'd buy before our wedding (we're paying for it ourselves). My 40GB 4th gen (monochrome screen!) is chugging along without a problem, but it is starting to feel rather dated.
"The beat goes on" was a Sonny & Cher song and the ipod on the invitation is NOT widescreen...
So, just out of interest, was the Cher song title itself a reference to the Beatle's 1970 statement or just a rip off?
I am with the camp that says it will an iPhone like iPod in every way only without the phone and the Beatles catalog will be available, indeed as with U2, a Beatles iPod will be available. Perhaps it will be yellow like the submarine? lol
Another iPod? (Yawn.) It's been done. Ipods are falling out of people's drawers we've got so many. We're saturated. If you want to do another iteration of something, try the Cube or the Newton.
— OS X based. Will look similar to iPHone except will be shorter as it doesn't need an external speaker, and will be fatter to accommodate HDD. I predict 60 and 100GB variety with a slight chance of an 60.80 and 120GB options.
— Will these new 6G iPods have Wifi with Safari, Mail, and Widgets. My first reaction is no, but perhaps the top end model will offer the WiFi Option.
iPod Nano
— Double the capacity. With inflated NAND prices I doubt we'll see a price reduction. THESE WILL NOT RUN OS X! There is no need and the ARM CPU and RAM will just not allow it. It will also not play back video. There just isn't' enough power.
iPod Shuffle
— Maybe a 0.5 to 1.0GB increase but it's not really practical on a device with no display. I suggest lowering the price-point and keeping the same capacity.
Beatles
— I do think the entire Beatles catalog will be on iTunes Sept. 5th. What I wonder is if Apple, Inc. also has some other deal with Apple Corp that will allow them not only sell music but to promote new music.
— The labels are the ones making all the money They promote the artists and do all the advertising so they should be making a goood deal of profit for their investment, but iTunes is in a unique position of being able to promote and advertise bands too... and at a much reduced cost and with much less overhead and significantly less risk.
— We've already seen how emusic.com has helped promote new music, so why shouldn't Apple do the same. The only problem I see is that the major labels will certainly not like it, but with iTunes being the 3rd largest retailer is there really anything they can do about it at this point? Oh yeah, they can team up with Real/MTV and Walmart. haha
— I foresee Apple cutting out the middle man and promoting new music from independent labels. That is more money for Apple and more money for the artists. This also undermines their biggest internet-based competitor.
AppleTV Movie Rentals
— This is so overdue and will make the AppleTV the "4th leg" of Apple's product line and not just a "hobby" appliance. Jobs certainly tried to play that one off. But will it be available on Sept 16th? Despite my overwhelming desire that it is, I don't think it will pass.
— There will be no TV Tuner! Apple wants you to stream video via iTunes. The movie deals are certainly lagging behind, but a TV tuner with DVR would kill the iTunes Store overnight. If anything were to happen, Apple would rather sell you DVD, HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray optical drives that interface with the unused USB port on the AppleTV... but I don't see that happening either unless there is no chance that MPAA will budge on their current stance.
Using iPod for Data Storage
— Can we expect that PDF, DOC, and XLS files will be viewable using Coverflow in these OS X based iPods? It certainly would be nice. All they have to add Preview.app to make this possible. Of course, this isn't even available on the iPHone yet.
Mail, Notes, To Dos and Address Book
— Will we be able to at least download and view our (read title) this items in the new 6G iPods. That would be such a great benefit, but that may cannibalize the iPhone a bit if they did that.
— With Address Book now running on OS X I would like the option to at least add new Address Book contacts, Notes and To Dos that will auto sync with iTunes. The latter two will have to wait until Leopard is released.
Okay, I think that is all my concerns, questions and thoughts on the subject.
...sure, because EVERYTHING on wikipedia is true and accurate...
touch video iPods are going to cost some coin. if the 4gb iPhone is 499, then any touch iPhone with large capacity [100 gb HDD] will probably be the same or more money. i don't care if it doesn't have safari or a phone, the gsm antenna and extra bit of software aren't that expensive, and they won't cannibalize the iPhone that quickly.
i see full-screen touch iPods at $399 [80 gb] and $449 [100 gb], both w/ wifi & bluetooth [maybe IrDA for some sweet syncing 100 gigs of music in about a month.]
i would be surprised if the nano [w/ video?] goes to 16gb for less than $299, and from the shots i've seen, i'm not too impressed w/ the design. i'll have to see it in person though. there will be price cuts on the low end - but will it be $99 2Gig nano's or $79 2Gig shuffles? i don't see a place for both.
if these iPods are all flash [beat goes on, end of hard drives] then steve is a fool. it's far too soon, and very few people are going to "upgrade" from a 30 or 80 gb iPod to a 16gb model.
Anyone expecting Apple to drop there prices lower than this really doesn't know anything about the company - they've never been about being the cheapest, they are about being the best.
Thanks. So the Beatle's publicist ripped off Cher lol
Or probably ripped off Sonny. I think he did the writing. At the time of the Beatles demise, the Sonny and Cher song was still in everyone's memory-- it was a hit song for them-- so most likely the Beatles release was referring to the song's message, namely, that things are changing, technology moves on, but life goes on for most people pretty much the same. You'd have to know the impact of the Beatles' dissolution at the time. It was like the end of an era. The Beatles were just saying, hey, life goes on, you'lll get over it.
So maybe Apple is just letting us know that we will see the natural evolution of things that are already out there. Improved iPods. They're overdue.
Of course, if the Apple PR folks remember BOTH the Beatles' release AND the S&C song, that would be a cool double entendre hinting at the possibility of the Beatles's music finally being available on iTunes.
A bigger screen Nano cannot coexist with the current iPod. The Nano and the classic iPod will thus morph together into one product. It is a shame because I really like the current Nano design.
Comments
Is it just me, or is the 5th a Wednesday? I guess Labour Day pushes the event back a day. Yay! New iPod Day!
.. and the 5th is my birthday!
Whee!
I doubt they could get that cheap. The 8GB nano is $249 now and can't do video. To add video & double the memory... I just don't think they can drop the price.
Probably not drop the price, but a 16GB player with video at $250 probably wouldn't be an issue. It would be a question of interest. I just found an interview with a Sansa rep (or maybe CEO) that said that they won't do that this year, but they say that their market is sub-$150. They had an 8GB nano-like (though thicker) video player since last year.
Widescreen. 80GB. You can do that, right Apple?
I promised my fiancée that a new iPod would be the only "big ticket" item I'd buy before our wedding (we're paying for it ourselves). My 40GB 4th gen (monochrome screen!) is chugging along without a problem, but it is starting to feel rather dated.
"The beat goes on" was a Sonny & Cher song and the ipod on the invitation is NOT widescreen...
So, just out of interest, was the Cher song title itself a reference to the Beatle's 1970 statement or just a rip off?
I am with the camp that says it will an iPhone like iPod in every way only without the phone and the Beatles catalog will be available, indeed as with U2, a Beatles iPod will be available. Perhaps it will be yellow like the submarine? lol
So, just out of interest, was the Cher song title itself a reference to the Beatle's 1970 statement or just a rip off?
Nope, the song is actually older than the beatles quote, namely from 1967
(Hail be wikipedia and general boredom
Nope, the song is actually older than the beatles quote, namely from 1967
(Hail be wikipedia and general boredom
Thanks. So the Beatle's publicist ripped off Cher lol
— OS X based. Will look similar to iPHone except will be shorter as it doesn't need an external speaker, and will be fatter to accommodate HDD. I predict 60 and 100GB variety with a slight chance of an 60.80 and 120GB options.
— Will these new 6G iPods have Wifi with Safari, Mail, and Widgets. My first reaction is no, but perhaps the top end model will offer the WiFi Option.
iPod Nano
— Double the capacity. With inflated NAND prices I doubt we'll see a price reduction. THESE WILL NOT RUN OS X! There is no need and the ARM CPU and RAM will just not allow it. It will also not play back video. There just isn't' enough power.
iPod Shuffle
— Maybe a 0.5 to 1.0GB increase but it's not really practical on a device with no display. I suggest lowering the price-point and keeping the same capacity.
Beatles
— I do think the entire Beatles catalog will be on iTunes Sept. 5th. What I wonder is if Apple, Inc. also has some other deal with Apple Corp that will allow them not only sell music but to promote new music.
— The labels are the ones making all the money They promote the artists and do all the advertising so they should be making a goood deal of profit for their investment, but iTunes is in a unique position of being able to promote and advertise bands too... and at a much reduced cost and with much less overhead and significantly less risk.
— We've already seen how emusic.com has helped promote new music, so why shouldn't Apple do the same. The only problem I see is that the major labels will certainly not like it, but with iTunes being the 3rd largest retailer is there really anything they can do about it at this point? Oh yeah, they can team up with Real/MTV and Walmart. haha
— I foresee Apple cutting out the middle man and promoting new music from independent labels. That is more money for Apple and more money for the artists. This also undermines their biggest internet-based competitor.
AppleTV Movie Rentals
— This is so overdue and will make the AppleTV the "4th leg" of Apple's product line and not just a "hobby" appliance. Jobs certainly tried to play that one off. But will it be available on Sept 16th? Despite my overwhelming desire that it is, I don't think it will pass.
— There will be no TV Tuner! Apple wants you to stream video via iTunes. The movie deals are certainly lagging behind, but a TV tuner with DVR would kill the iTunes Store overnight. If anything were to happen, Apple would rather sell you DVD, HD-DVD and/or Blu-ray optical drives that interface with the unused USB port on the AppleTV... but I don't see that happening either unless there is no chance that MPAA will budge on their current stance.
Using iPod for Data Storage
— Can we expect that PDF, DOC, and XLS files will be viewable using Coverflow in these OS X based iPods? It certainly would be nice. All they have to add Preview.app to make this possible. Of course, this isn't even available on the iPHone yet.
Mail, Notes, To Dos and Address Book
— Will we be able to at least download and view our (read title) this items in the new 6G iPods. That would be such a great benefit, but that may cannibalize the iPhone a bit if they did that.
— With Address Book now running on OS X I would like the option to at least add new Address Book contacts, Notes and To Dos that will auto sync with iTunes. The latter two will have to wait until Leopard is released.
Okay, I think that is all my concerns, questions and thoughts on the subject.
touch video iPods are going to cost some coin. if the 4gb iPhone is 499, then any touch iPhone with large capacity [100 gb HDD] will probably be the same or more money. i don't care if it doesn't have safari or a phone, the gsm antenna and extra bit of software aren't that expensive, and they won't cannibalize the iPhone that quickly.
i see full-screen touch iPods at $399 [80 gb] and $449 [100 gb], both w/ wifi & bluetooth [maybe IrDA for some sweet syncing 100 gigs of music in about a month.]
i would be surprised if the nano [w/ video?] goes to 16gb for less than $299, and from the shots i've seen, i'm not too impressed w/ the design. i'll have to see it in person though. there will be price cuts on the low end - but will it be $99 2Gig nano's or $79 2Gig shuffles? i don't see a place for both.
if these iPods are all flash [beat goes on, end of hard drives] then steve is a fool. it's far too soon, and very few people are going to "upgrade" from a 30 or 80 gb iPod to a 16gb model.
Anyone expecting Apple to drop there prices lower than this really doesn't know anything about the company - they've never been about being the cheapest, they are about being the best.
This could be early morning blurry vision, but you can kind of make out "THE BEATLES" from the album cover titles.
Cover 1: THE
Cover 2: [space]
Cover 3: BEA
Cover 4: T (guys arms spread like a t)
Cover 5: L (lines come together in an L-like shape)
Cover 6: E (f you squint at the tree, you can force a capitol E out)
Cover 7: S (look at just the black, and ignore the H)
Let's hope they stick some BBC and C4 stuff on there soon too.
I suppose I can now start consider buying AppleTV and, err, a TV I suppose.
Thanks. So the Beatle's publicist ripped off Cher lol
Or probably ripped off Sonny. I think he did the writing. At the time of the Beatles demise, the Sonny and Cher song was still in everyone's memory-- it was a hit song for them-- so most likely the Beatles release was referring to the song's message, namely, that things are changing, technology moves on, but life goes on for most people pretty much the same. You'd have to know the impact of the Beatles' dissolution at the time. It was like the end of an era. The Beatles were just saying, hey, life goes on, you'lll get over it.
So maybe Apple is just letting us know that we will see the natural evolution of things that are already out there. Improved iPods. They're overdue.
Of course, if the Apple PR folks remember BOTH the Beatles' release AND the S&C song, that would be a cool double entendre hinting at the possibility of the Beatles's music finally being available on iTunes.
This could be early morning blurry vision, but you can kind of make out "THE BEATLES" from the album cover titles.
Cover 1: THE
Cover 2: [space]
Cover 3: BEA
Cover 4: T (guys arms spread like a t)
Cover 5: L (lines come together in an L-like shape)
Cover 6: E (f you squint at the tree, you can force a capitol E out)
Cover 7: S (look at just the black, and ignore the H)
I hate to say it, but I see it.
Except the 'S' at the end.
After 905 the iPod family might be like this:
1/ Shuffle
2/ Nano
3/ Widescreen iPod
iPod (touch screen): 60GB $299, 100GB $399
iPod mini (stubby video): 16GB $199
iPod nano (current design): 4GB $99 (silver), 8GB $149 (old 4GB colour options)
iPod Shuffle: 2GB $59
i like this, but 16GB still expensive.
1. scratch proof materials
2. similar design but varied capacity and screen size
3. similar color offers (aka more colors for iPod Video REAL)
4. slightly cheaper price OR more capacity than the competitor
5. ...