'iPod' drive set to reach 20GB

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
Form <a href="http://www.macworld.co.uk"; target="_blank">Macworld UK.</a>



'iPod' drive set to reach 20GB



Toshiba has announced 10 and 20GB versions of its 1.8-inch drives, the 5GB versions of which are employed in Apple's iPod and SmartDisk's FireFly drives.



Apple will not confirm it uses Toshiba's drives in iPod, despite representatives of both companies acknowledging that Toshiba is the only company producing a 5GB drive small enough to fit in the music player.



The drives premiered at 2GB in May 2000, and grew to 5GB in June 2001. The increased capacity comes from the addition of a second double-sided platter in the drive.



Drives of 1.8 inches are the optimum size, says Toshiba spokesperson Amy Dalphy. "There are a lot of music players with 2.5-inch hard drives out there, but they're big," she added.



While she can't name customers, Dalphy says Toshiba is working with a number of companies - many of them start-ups - on a variety of product ideas that could use Toshiba's tiny drives.



"If they do make it to market, they will change the way we do things," she says of the unannounced projects in development. Dalphy expects products should start appearing between the middle and the end of 2002, or possibly earlier. Toshiba will ship its new 20GB drive in volume in February, and the 10GB version will follow in March.



So in time for MWT. :cool:



[ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Alpha Mac ]</p>
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 29
    My current collection is about 8GB, and I'd like to add more from my CDs. I could dig a 20GB iPod.



    I just hope they do a "new iPod at same old price" deal, and maybe reduce the price of the 5GB model.
  • Reply 2 of 29
    jrcjrc Posts: 817member
    Just what we need. A reason for Apple to come out with yet another most expensive MP3 player!



    Who needs thousands and thousands of songs at their fingertips?



    Now, if they built in an MP3 server feature into that so that nearby iPod-ettes could choose off of that 4,000 songs and get them via airport...NOW YOU GOTCHERSELF a product!
  • Reply 3 of 29
    iPod:



    Big, Bigger, Ridiculous.
  • Reply 4 of 29
    20G does sound excessive for a MP3 player, but since one of iPod's features is that it doubles as a portable HD, I can't see how Apple could not try to get these bigger drives in them.



    Unfortunately they will wait until the cost is within reason. iPod is constantly getting gigged for its price, and since you can already get a 20GB MP3 player for less than the iPod, I don't expect Apple to ever really offer a more expensive model. Based on my experience with Apples hardware's update/release schedule, I expect near the end of the fourth quarter we'll see a 10GB iPod for $399.
  • Reply 5 of 29
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    20 GB is enough to hold a good amount of digital video.
  • Reply 6 of 29
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    As for the "who needs 20 GBs", I filled up my iPod and I haven't even gotten all the way through the letter "B" in my collection! I had no idea how many CDs I had, but it's more than I cared to think about until I got my iPod. I know I can swap things back and forth, but I'd sell my iPod in an instant to get a 20 GB version.



    Yes, I realize that it would probably only get me to the letter "M" or something like that...
  • Reply 7 of 29
    adam11adam11 Posts: 163member
    didnt I see on smartdisks site that the firefly 10 and 20s are already being previewed... but no release dates yet..... seems to make sense that the ipod would follow suit.



    cheers

    adam
  • Reply 8 of 29
    [quote]Originally posted by JRC:

    <strong>Just what we need. A reason for Apple to come out with yet another most expensive MP3 player!



    Who needs thousands and thousands of songs at their fingertips?



    Now, if they built in an MP3 server feature into that so that nearby iPod-ettes could choose off of that 4,000 songs and get them via airport...NOW YOU GOTCHERSELF a product!</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Exactly! I would be first in line for a device like that. :: drool ::



  • Reply 9 of 29
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    20GB !!!



    Apple iCam



    A direct to Mpeg2 tapeless consumer video recorder. This can already be done using a new standard called MicroMV (already used by Sony). it compresses the video to about half the bit rate of MiniDV (very close to DVD bit rate)



    think about it...



    Superdrives...



    Firewire...



    Li-poly batteries...



    Zero slow encoding, ready to use video source...



    And 20GB of data storage (good for about 8 hours of SD video)



    Sony uses a very small tape, but why bother using a tape at all? Few people will shoot more than 8 hours of home video, and for those who do, they can dump it to a computer via firwire. In return for losing tapes altogether, you can get a very small camera. Using that iPod battery tech, you can make a slim battery that wraps around the contour of the lens and body. Very small, very light, and perfect for use with iMovie and your brand-spanky new Superdrive iMac!



    It's coming... probably with a newer high res CCD for decent (approx 1.33MP) stills to boot.



    [ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>
  • Reply 10 of 29
    If you don't want to compress your music, you can always use more HD space.



    Right now, the iPod can hold about 8 CDs uncompressed. Going to 20GB would allow it to hold 32....
  • Reply 11 of 29
    If I had a 20Gb iPod, I would store all my music on it and free up the space on my computers hard drive.
  • Reply 12 of 29
    jcgjcg Posts: 777member
    [quote]Originally posted by Matsu:

    <strong>20GB !!!



    Apple iCam



    A direct to Mpeg2 tapeless consumer video recorder. This can already be done using a new standard called MicroMV (already used by Sony). it compresses the video to about half the bit rate of MiniDV (very close to DVD bit rate)



    [ 01-16-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Quicktime live is next month, and the next MPEG standard is based on Quicktime technology. I think Apple would use a camera like this to highlight that technology. The quesion is will they? This is a market with a lot of players right now, who would Apple team up with to produce it?
  • Reply 13 of 29
    [quote]Originally posted by JCG:

    <strong>



    Quicktime live is next month, and the next MPEG standard is based on Quicktime technology. I think Apple would use a camera like this to highlight that technology. The quesion is will they? This is a market with a lot of players right now, who would Apple team up with to produce it?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Canon. If anyone, it would be Canon.



    But what i would hope is that they offer a very simple camera. Lens, LCD, zoom. that's it. No "extra FX" or crap. No manual focus. No manual exposure. No white balance. Optical stabilizer, yes.



    That way it's a camera - a good camera still, but can be sold for less than $400. (probably $399).



    Then later on they can offer two or three models from $199 - $399, with the high-end having manual controls.



    Then when those 1.8" drives are holding 100GB, they can offer a $399 model that records standard HDTV (which all Camcorders will have to do within a few years) and standard 16:9.



    Andrew
  • Reply 14 of 29
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    I want a 50GB iPod. I want the ads to say "10,000 Songs in You Pocket." Then I could store my music files in CD audio files. Not all of my CDs, though. Max 80 of them or so at 650 megs apiece.
  • Reply 15 of 29
    buggybuggy Posts: 83member
    I really believe that there is going to be much more to the iPod than just a HD and a MP3 player.



    A 5 gig drive while a nice size, will not cut it for some of the other possibilities.



    DV CAM

    Data wallet

    Personalized main HD for terminal set-ups

    Movie player without DVD or CD



    I am sure there are many more that I can't even concieve of right now.



    Apple is getting more and more into miniturization. This drive will assist their dreams.
  • Reply 16 of 29
    cdhostagecdhostage Posts: 1,038member
    Even better. A portable 1 terabyte drive. For all your holographic 3D-TV needs!



    I wonder how long a movie at DVD qwuality you could store on that...



    Hmm.

    A 2-hour movie fits on a 5 GB disk, so a 400 hour movie could fit on a 1000 GB disk.

    Go to <a href="http://terabyte.net/terabyte.htm"; target="_blank">http://terabyte.net/terabyte.htm</a>; and that will show things off. That follows the 1.024 step up instead of the HD maafactureer's habit of going up in thousands.
  • Reply 17 of 29
    iCam could become a reality, suppose apple incorporates the 20 gig drive into a camera, still/movie digital camera, then you could hold a decent amount of video footage and I'm sure it would be seemless with other apple products(current ones)

    as for the iPod, I could see a 5 gig model and a 10 gig model being made, my friend got the nomand jukebox, its actually not as bad as I thought, his reasoning why he didn't get the iPod is that he doesn't need firewire transer speeds cause he can just transfer a load of shit overnight,he got it as a gift, no doubt his dad saw the iPod and said "well why would I want this it only have 5 gigs" his dad, though he knows comptuers and networking well enough, is still very close minded when it comes to performance and usablity, the jukebox has a terrible battery life and its ENORMOUS! this thing is just about the size of 2 compact cd players and the screen(though its is bigger than I thought) is still hellishly small, and the controls are wickedly evil, personally I had a dream the other night and though the iPod wasn't th focus of hte dream, it was in my dream and I had one, and it was awesome, cause it was one of those SUPER realistic draems, but then when I woke up I thought "wheres my iPod?"
  • Reply 18 of 29
    mithrasmithras Posts: 165member






    Sounds good to me.
  • Reply 19 of 29
    FYI...



    After some searching I found:



    "View Genre while browsing" in Preferences.
  • Reply 20 of 29
    odinn5odinn5 Posts: 107member
    If they would somehow enable iTunes to encode MP3 Pro the current 5 gig HD would fit twice as many songs as it does now.

    Wouldn't it?
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