I like the fat boy a lot. 8 GB is not enough, though.
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
and not to forget the Battery life for watching videos ...
Apple's "fatboy" iPod nano may be retired after only a year on the market to make way for a new generation of the player that will mark a return of the narrow form factor used in the first two generations of the device.
Citing "extremely confident" sources, iLounge reports the new player will retain its traditional click-wheel while sporting an elongated display with the same 1.5:1 widescreen aspect ratio as the iPhone and iPod touch, versus the 1.33:1 ratio of the prior iPod nano and iPod classic.
This will leave the player looking like, among all other things, one of Microsoft's existing Flash-based Zune players, those sources say. Apple is said to have made the move in order to preserve all of the fatboy nano's usability, while adding longer display that will allow users to rotate the device into landscape mode for viewing videos.
While iLounge is not a traditional source of insider information, it does have close ties to iPod and iPhone casing manufacturers who are sometimes privy to the dimensions of Apple's next-generation handheld devices ahead of their release.
By releasing those dimensions early, Apple affords those manufacturers ample time to develop and bring to market casings and protective holders around the same time that it introduces its remodeled handheld products.
An artist's rendition of what may be Apple's next-gen iPod nano design. | Source : iLounge.
As such, iLounge is largely credited as being one of the few publications to accurately describe the form factor of Apple's iPhone 3G handset before its public unveiling.
In its report late Tuesday, the publication also cited sources who indicated that recent rumors of next-generation iPod nanos adopting multi-colored enclosures are "most likely inaccurate."
Instead, each fourth-generation iPod nano is will more likely sport a single-colored anodized aluminum frame akin to the second-generation of the players introduced in the fall of 2006.
I personally don't see apple revamping the Nano with an elongated display. Nano knockoffs from China with elongated displays that look almost identical to the artist rendition of the supposed 4th Gen Nano have been on eBay for over a year now. Just search for MP4 Nano. Apple (although, without a perfect track record) is know for innovation and forward thinking so a Nano makeover that "copies from a copy" seems very lazy. Let's hope they roll out with something closer to the touch screen Nano idea instead. [IMG][/IMG]
Nano Touch - with a scaled down feature set compared to the iPhone and iPod Touch. The Nano will be (is already?) the new iPod - eg music player pretty much exclusively, sans internet connectivity. This will naturally exclude a large number of apps. I think the form factor will be like a scaled down Touch.
Look at that Nano 3G screen: it's too squashed horizontally (the menu overlaps the album cover). The 4G Nano needs to be wider, not taller.
And there's the problem someone else mentioned with the purported 4G Nano of the click wheel having the text (and buttons) in the wrong location when you turn it on its side to watch video. Apple would never do that, would they?
No, rather than a super tall Nano 4G, I think it's going to be super w-i-d-e. Turn the photo from the original article on its side, then rotate the click wheel 90º. Now you've got a super w-i-d-e Nano 4G. You can view the menu and the album side-by-side without overlapping. And you can view video that way.
But it will store in your shirt pocket vertically, of course.
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
It's not a matter of watching - it's a matter of what in can hold. Put a full concert on it and your memory's almost gone.
It's not a matter of watching - it's a matter of what in can hold. Put a full concert on it and your memory's almost gone.
How long is a concert these days? One hour of iPod format video is about 700MB. That should be about 10 hours of video if video is all you put on it. If it's a three hour concert, then you still have 5 to 6 GB left.
It's doubtful as it would have to be GPS, have a limited A-GPS that relies only on WiFi, or include GPRS for free like with the Amazon Kindle. None of those sound like good options to me and it takes away from Apple's baby, the iPhone.
So then give it a camera.
BTW - not everyone gives a hoot about GPS- especially us in cities without cars.
And I personally don't want Steve to know where I am.
Given the iPhone and the iPod Touch, this design should have been the obvious evolution of the previous generation, incl. the iPod.
I think that the. current design/form factor -- esp. the phatty -- was a mistake, and, perhaps to some degree, explains the slowdown in sales growth rate.
I offered up the same sentiment on these boards shortly after the phatty was released and was laughed at. I'd love to see the breakdown of iPod sales by model. Analysts have noted that the average price per iPod over the last year has gone up, and they point to sales of the expensive touch model as a reason why. But I also think it's due to a decline (or rather a smaller increase) in sales of the nano relative to overall sales. Whether it be on the train to work, in the office, or at the gym, I've seen very, very few phat nanos in the wild.
This new rumored design is what I thought would be the 3G nano long before they unveild the wide design. It just seemed obvious, but maybe they changed the design after the Zune came out so as to not look like they were copying MS? If they go to this new design wtihout adding any significant new features, it will be a pretty clear indication that phatty sales aren't what they'd hoped for. You don't change form factors after just one year unless: A) you have new features you are implementing, or you are correcting a deficiency.
It just looks like a 1G and 2G nano, which the Zune team borrowed the shape from.
Because the zune turns sideways for video, which the ipods never did.
I have always liked the "fatty" ipod way better than previous models. I think the nano is too small for touchscreen, not to mention that many use it in sporty situations where actual buttons are handy.
And some people seem to think that nano sales have slumped, is there any real data showing that? I always got the impression that the nano sold pretty darn well, but ALL ipods have dropped a bit as more and more people get iPhones (or at least touches) instead.
How stupid. If you rotate for landscape mode, the click wheel will no longer match. Probably fake photos.
That is just an artist's rendition in the iLounge image.
Didn't Apple have a patent for making the click-wheel a display? If not, I'd think it would be pretty easy to achieve with OLED technology. You turn it and as the screen rotates the OLED change to show you the different view.
edit:How much we forget in two weeks. This patent also adds credence to the glass touchpads that are rumoured to be coming out with the next revision.
Return to the slimmer form factor is good - but, please Apple, give us better than average audio!! I want my Audiophile iPod! iPods/Apple needs to be class leading in Audio Quality.
Just go ahead and encode all your music as 256 or 320 kbps AAC files or Apple Lossless. Problem solved.
It's going to be a touch interface with a few real buttons for those of us who use it to exercise with. It will be a much more simplified interface than the iphone. Here's a mockup.
That is just an artist's rendition in the iLounge image.
Didn't Apple have a patent for making the click-wheel a display? If not, I'd think it would be pretty easy to achieve with OLED technology. You turn it and as the screen rotates the OLED change to show you the different view.
edit:How much we forget in two weeks. This patent also adds credence to the glass touchpads that are rumoured to be coming out with the next revision.
me and others who bought iPhone 3G will be p**sed off... no iPhone nano pls thanks!
next iPhone upgrade should be next year June
Why would it piss you off?? Let's face it Apple needs more than one form factor of iPhone. A smaller less capable device would still attract a great deal of interest. Maybe not from me as I'm looking for an iPhone revision that is actually a tax bigger. Even if Aplle came out with such I would not be pissed off.
Rather I would be please that Apple is innovating.
I do have to ask if you expect Apple to never introduce a new form factor model? If not why would what they introduce in the coming months be off any concern to you?
I have to say though, I think a portable music player needs to have some way to control it with tactile buttons.
It looks like the patent maintains the same feel on the current iPods with click-wheels but just makes the top panel a simple display so the info can change. I recall not understanding what they could do with a click-wheel display, but the idea of putting and accelerometer in the new Nano makes this patent useful.
He is referring to the HW that outputs the audio and he has a case. The smaller iPods have never faired well in "audiophilic" testing.
Well, except for the original white ("pack of gum") shuffle. Many considered that to have the best sound of all the iPods released so far. My 2nd gen shuffle is definitely a step down in audio quality.
Comments
What's a subway ?? I'm from Nawlins.
Trains running under ground.
In Nawlins, trains under ground would also be under water. ('course, lately the surface trains there were under water - 'sigh')
I like the fat boy a lot. 8 GB is not enough, though.
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
and not to forget the Battery life for watching videos ...
for some people "Always not enough"
Apple's "fatboy" iPod nano may be retired after only a year on the market to make way for a new generation of the player that will mark a return of the narrow form factor used in the first two generations of the device.
Citing "extremely confident" sources, iLounge reports the new player will retain its traditional click-wheel while sporting an elongated display with the same 1.5:1 widescreen aspect ratio as the iPhone and iPod touch, versus the 1.33:1 ratio of the prior iPod nano and iPod classic.
This will leave the player looking like, among all other things, one of Microsoft's existing Flash-based Zune players, those sources say. Apple is said to have made the move in order to preserve all of the fatboy nano's usability, while adding longer display that will allow users to rotate the device into landscape mode for viewing videos.
While iLounge is not a traditional source of insider information, it does have close ties to iPod and iPhone casing manufacturers who are sometimes privy to the dimensions of Apple's next-generation handheld devices ahead of their release.
By releasing those dimensions early, Apple affords those manufacturers ample time to develop and bring to market casings and protective holders around the same time that it introduces its remodeled handheld products.
An artist's rendition of what may be Apple's next-gen iPod nano design. | Source : iLounge.
As such, iLounge is largely credited as being one of the few publications to accurately describe the form factor of Apple's iPhone 3G handset before its public unveiling.
In its report late Tuesday, the publication also cited sources who indicated that recent rumors of next-generation iPod nanos adopting multi-colored enclosures are "most likely inaccurate."
Instead, each fourth-generation iPod nano is will more likely sport a single-colored anodized aluminum frame akin to the second-generation of the players introduced in the fall of 2006.
[ View this article at AppleInsider.com ]
I personally don't see apple revamping the Nano with an elongated display. Nano knockoffs from China with elongated displays that look almost identical to the artist rendition of the supposed 4th Gen Nano have been on eBay for over a year now. Just search for MP4 Nano. Apple (although, without a perfect track record) is know for innovation and forward thinking so a Nano makeover that "copies from a copy" seems very lazy. Let's hope they roll out with something closer to the touch screen Nano idea instead. [IMG]
No, no, no.
And the original article may be wrong, too.
Look at that Nano 3G screen: it's too squashed horizontally (the menu overlaps the album cover). The 4G Nano needs to be wider, not taller.
And there's the problem someone else mentioned with the purported 4G Nano of the click wheel having the text (and buttons) in the wrong location when you turn it on its side to watch video. Apple would never do that, would they?
No, rather than a super tall Nano 4G, I think it's going to be super w-i-d-e. Turn the photo from the original article on its side, then rotate the click wheel 90º. Now you've got a super w-i-d-e Nano 4G. You can view the menu and the album side-by-side without overlapping. And you can view video that way.
But it will store in your shirt pocket vertically, of course.
Doesn't that make more sense?
Really? Eight gigs is about two week's worth of unrepeated music for me, if played 8 hours a day. It's not a lot of video though, but I think it's a lot more than most people can stand to watch on such a small screen.
It's not a matter of watching - it's a matter of what in can hold. Put a full concert on it and your memory's almost gone.
It's not a matter of watching - it's a matter of what in can hold. Put a full concert on it and your memory's almost gone.
How long is a concert these days? One hour of iPod format video is about 700MB. That should be about 10 hours of video if video is all you put on it. If it's a three hour concert, then you still have 5 to 6 GB left.
It's doubtful as it would have to be GPS, have a limited A-GPS that relies only on WiFi, or include GPRS for free like with the Amazon Kindle. None of those sound like good options to me and it takes away from Apple's baby, the iPhone.
So then give it a camera.
BTW - not everyone gives a hoot about GPS- especially us in cities without cars.
And I personally don't want Steve to know where I am.
Given the iPhone and the iPod Touch, this design should have been the obvious evolution of the previous generation, incl. the iPod.
I think that the. current design/form factor -- esp. the phatty -- was a mistake, and, perhaps to some degree, explains the slowdown in sales growth rate.
I offered up the same sentiment on these boards shortly after the phatty was released and was laughed at. I'd love to see the breakdown of iPod sales by model. Analysts have noted that the average price per iPod over the last year has gone up, and they point to sales of the expensive touch model as a reason why. But I also think it's due to a decline (or rather a smaller increase) in sales of the nano relative to overall sales. Whether it be on the train to work, in the office, or at the gym, I've seen very, very few phat nanos in the wild.
This new rumored design is what I thought would be the 3G nano long before they unveild the wide design. It just seemed obvious, but maybe they changed the design after the Zune came out so as to not look like they were copying MS? If they go to this new design wtihout adding any significant new features, it will be a pretty clear indication that phatty sales aren't what they'd hoped for. You don't change form factors after just one year unless: A) you have new features you are implementing, or
Why bring the Zune into it?
It just looks like a 1G and 2G nano, which the Zune team borrowed the shape from.
Because the zune turns sideways for video, which the ipods never did.
I have always liked the "fatty" ipod way better than previous models. I think the nano is too small for touchscreen, not to mention that many use it in sporty situations where actual buttons are handy.
And some people seem to think that nano sales have slumped, is there any real data showing that? I always got the impression that the nano sold pretty darn well, but ALL ipods have dropped a bit as more and more people get iPhones (or at least touches) instead.
How stupid. If you rotate for landscape mode, the click wheel will no longer match. Probably fake photos.
That is just an artist's rendition in the iLounge image.
Didn't Apple have a patent for making the click-wheel a display? If not, I'd think it would be pretty easy to achieve with OLED technology. You turn it and as the screen rotates the OLED change to show you the different view.
edit:How much we forget in two weeks. This patent also adds credence to the glass touchpads that are rumoured to be coming out with the next revision.
Return to the slimmer form factor is good - but, please Apple, give us better than average audio!! I want my Audiophile iPod! iPods/Apple needs to be class leading in Audio Quality.
Just go ahead and encode all your music as 256 or 320 kbps AAC files or Apple Lossless. Problem solved.
Just go ahead and encode all your music as 256 or 320 kbps AAC files or Apple Lossless. Problem solved.
He is referring to the HW that outputs the audio and he has a case. The smaller iPods have never faired well in "audiophilic" testing.
That is just an artist's rendition in the iLounge image.
Didn't Apple have a patent for making the click-wheel a display? If not, I'd think it would be pretty easy to achieve with OLED technology. You turn it and as the screen rotates the OLED change to show you the different view.
edit:How much we forget in two weeks. This patent also adds credence to the glass touchpads that are rumoured to be coming out with the next revision.
I have to say though, I think a portable music player needs to have some way to control it with tactile buttons.
Maybe this would be good enough:
http://store.apple.com/us/product/MA070G/D
If I could use it with iPhone, I would probably grab one just to have real transport control buttons and not have to use earbuds.
me and others who bought iPhone 3G will be p**sed off... no iPhone nano pls thanks!
next iPhone upgrade should be next year June
Why would it piss you off?? Let's face it Apple needs more than one form factor of iPhone. A smaller less capable device would still attract a great deal of interest. Maybe not from me as I'm looking for an iPhone revision that is actually a tax bigger. Even if Aplle came out with such I would not be pissed off.
Rather I would be please that Apple is innovating.
I do have to ask if you expect Apple to never introduce a new form factor model? If not why would what they introduce in the coming months be off any concern to you?
Dave
I have to say though, I think a portable music player needs to have some way to control it with tactile buttons.
It looks like the patent maintains the same feel on the current iPods with click-wheels but just makes the top panel a simple display so the info can change. I recall not understanding what they could do with a click-wheel display, but the idea of putting and accelerometer in the new Nano makes this patent useful.
He is referring to the HW that outputs the audio and he has a case. The smaller iPods have never faired well in "audiophilic" testing.
Well, except for the original white ("pack of gum") shuffle. Many considered that to have the best sound of all the iPods released so far. My 2nd gen shuffle is definitely a step down in audio quality.