"It's the same form factor as the last generation's iPod."

The new iPod is still 5th generation. This is not a new generation, just a refresh of the current generation. It's not the first time Apple has tweaked the specs on a iPod to refresh it.

I'm sure a 6th generation is coming (although maybe not this year). And a separate Video ipod with a huge screen as well.

The new iPods are referred to as 5th Generation in all of Apple's documentation.

You've got it wrong, Microsoft is the biggest stack at the table, with consistently bad cards and good bluffing skills.

Apple has consistently good cards, but has been folding to aggressive presure from the big stack in the past. So let's hope it took the lesson.

2 of my family have already decided to hold, for the G6 iPod they know is coming. One has an older Nano the other a G3 so it's not like they're doing without:-)

The new shuffle is the gun hidden under the table, it's all about iTunes lock and load.

This evening I purchased several indie movies, well "shorts", from the iTunes Store.

•The Mysterious Geographic Explorations of Jasper Morello
• Untitled 003: Embryo
• The Last Farm

Check out the Shorts International offerings on the iTunes Store. They have some excellent selections if you are into these type of movies. Niche movies for a niche computer?

Disney and Pixar will sell a lot, but Apple needs more of the mainstream studios to make the big bucks.

From the article:

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That's just a minor nit. If you are looking for bigger problems with the new iTunes Store you'll only have to look at the new movie offerings. I have more movies in my DVD collection (to my shame).

Lessee, according to DVDpedia, I have over 1800 DVDs (boxes, not disks--lots more disks than that). Quite a few are of TV shows, but, considering that I have 16 "50 Movie" sets (some overlap, of course) and lots of other boxed sets, I probably have over 2,000 movies.

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Guest wrote:
2 of my family have already decided to hold, for the G6 iPod they know is coming. One has an older Nano the other a G3 so it's not like they're doing without:-)

The new shuffle is the gun hidden under the table, it's all about iTunes lock and load.

Apple will probably sell 'leventy million Shuffles and a gajillion Minis ... er, Nanos.

A 1 GB Shuffle would be perfect to load up a couple of audiobooks for a long plane trip--a lot smaller & lighter than a printed book. Now, if it could just detect when I fell asleep listening, it would be perfect. A useful software feature for any iPod, especially the shuffle, would be an auto-off after, say, 15 minutes, and the ability to go back to the last auto-off.

You wrote:

"It now seems only logical that Apple has realized its mistake and designed the new nano around the mini's form factor."

Um, maybe using some aluminum--still plenty of poly in the 8gb Nano--is a recognition of a mistake, though I don't share that assessment, but it is most certainly NOT the Mini's form factor. It is clearly still the Nano's form factor.

The 5th gen iPod is just under one year old. Now it plays full length movies and fun new games. What's so "disappointing" about that? Do you really expect a full new generation of every lne of product every year? Seems someone is being a tda unreasonable.

Zune is looking better? Huh? Do you realize that the Zune screen is 4" and 320 x 240. The 5tyh gen iPod screen is 2.5" and 320 x 240. I'll bet the iPod screen is brighter and has longer battery life, but we'll have to wait for tests on the Zune to know (if it's like my XBox it will be heavy, loud, and hot too).

Far from a lonely Jack, the Zune could well become a serious contender. What's still missing from the iPod? The ability to transfer music without installing software ... but more importantly the ability to move music from device to device. The Zune will do this over WiFi with some restrictions. I predict that within a week the Zune's firmware will be modified to overcome all restrictions. Welcome to a whole new of 'free musical access'. Illegal as it may be, that's one hell of a selling point.

While reading all the stuff on Zune is interesting, no matter the good and the bad, we will have to see the cost, form factor and usability once it gets here to really make an informed opinion. I wouldn't count MSFT out, especially since they have the money to have the staying power to play around with things until they get things right. I don't think Apple/Jobs will take MSFT for granted given their previous history.

I am still wondering about Zune's wireless service being a security risk. I really haven't seen that discussed in any articles. Do you think you will be allowed to bring a Zune to work with you if you are involved with any sensitive information? It will also be interesting to see how MSFT fares getting this to work across all brands of computers. Instead of the cpu makers having to make sure they work will Windows, now it is up to MSFT to make sure that their device works well with all the other hardware that is out there. Lots of interesting things out there right now.

One last thing. I would think that in order for Zune to get any traction, it will have to be available by Halloween in order to give people a chance to look and compare. I am thinking that they can't wait for Thanksgiving because many people's lists will be made up by that time or they won't take a chance on something that doesn't have a track record, unless it is really a compelling device at a compelling price. With all the things they are talking about in the Zune, I don't know if they can sell this for less than $250 and make any kind of profit on it.

Neal

that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere. The Zune will only have one model available that competes only with the regular iPod. It really doesn't have anything to compete with the shuffle and Nano which will definitely be the better sellers during the holiday season. And buying those puts users into Apple's iTunes ecosystem.

Neal

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gslusher wrote:

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Guest wrote:
2 of my family have already decided to hold, for the G6 iPod they know is coming. One has an older Nano the other a G3 so it's not like they're doing without:-)

The new shuffle is the gun hidden under the table, it's all about iTunes lock and load.

Apple will probably sell 'leventy million Shuffles and a gajillion Minis ... er, Nanos.

A 1 GB Shuffle would be perfect to load up a couple of audiobooks for a long plane trip--a lot smaller & lighter than a printed book. Now, if it could just detect when I fell asleep listening, it would be perfect. A useful software feature for any iPod, especially the shuffle, would be an auto-off after, say, 15 minutes, and the ability to go back to the last auto-off.

Auto-off is included in the software for the regular iPod and the Nano.....I've used it when listening to my iPod while falling asleep.

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Guest wrote:


Auto-off is included in the software for the regular iPod and the Nano.....I've used it when listening to my iPod while falling asleep.

OK, where is it? I don't have a Nano but I do have a 5G iPod. I can't find any setting for this. There is a setting to turn off the backlight after X seconds, but that's not auto-off. The 5G iPod will pause if the headphone plug is pulled, but that's not auto-off, either.

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gslusher wrote:

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Guest wrote:


Auto-off is included in the software for the regular iPod and the Nano.....I've used it when listening to my iPod while falling asleep.

OK, where is it? I don't have a Nano but I do have a 5G iPod. I can't find any setting for this. There is a setting to turn off the backlight after X seconds, but that's not auto-off. The 5G iPod will pause if the headphone plug is pulled, but that's not auto-off, either.

Check out these links:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60945

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61144

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Edison Carter wrote:


Check out these links:

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=60945

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=61144

Thanks. I found it, myself, a few minutes before I checked here. I didn't dig deep enough into the Clock function. That will be useful. So will be the alarm clock--to wake me up with something fairly loud, compared to an Audible audiobook. I put Sleep on the Main menu and got rid of Shuffle songs, which I never use.

MSFT might not have the cards in this game but they do have the cash to play for a long time.

Microsoft will not be able to do things as it normally does when it comes to hardware sales. Their long track record of selling hardware at a loss (Xbox, 360), only to make it up on the software end won't work in the mp3, Portable media arena will it? Apple's margins are pushing 50% on iPods. So therein lies the profit. Apple's iTunes store is priced to cover costs, pay royalties, and make a "modest" profit on a per-download basis. So how does Microsoft compete? The hardware can't be a loss-leader only to have its sales driven by an online store that barely turns a profit. They cant sell content for MORE than iTunes and realistically hope to compete, so making it up on content (software titles) isn't going to cut it. So What Microsoft has to do with Zune is produce a high-margin product that has as much, or in this case MORE value (in terms of features offered) than an "equivalent" iPod, but they have to price it at or below Apple's comparable unit. I believe it will have to be below in this case in order to take a meaningful swipe at he iPod cache'. Additionally, The Zune store will have to sell downloads at equal or better quality with a DRM scheme AT LEAST as permissive as Apple's and its library will have to be comparable in terms of quality and selection...priced competitively with iTunes of course. Finally, Microsoft will have to create a software platform that is comparable to iTunes in terms of ease-of-use, functionality, and "cool". These are a lot of no-so-small hurdles to overcome. Apple achieved what it has so far in slow, methodical baby steps over a 6 year period. Something will eventually dethrone the iPod as king of all digital media players, but I seriously question whether Zune will be that contender.

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acdc1174 wrote:
Something will eventually dethrone the iPod as king of all digital media players, but I seriously question whether Zune will be that contender.

I agree with all of your statements/observations/expectations. But this last one leaves me wondering if it won't be Apple that outdoes themselves to beat the iPod.


[sidebar]I remember when MP3s were first available. I was using WinAMP and AudioGrabber and burning 650 meg CDs of my songs. No naming schemes, no consistency in the quality of the compression, and no portable player. I remember being really annoyed that I couldn't put that CD into my CD player and have it work. I knew how simple WinAMP was, and I kept staring at my Sony Discman and HP 48G+ graphing calculator (with fairly large screen) wishing I knew how to merge the two. The variety of controls of the calculator, as well as its screen, and the ability to read CDs from the discman. Throw in a stripped down version of Linux and you have yourself a portable MP3 player.

At the time I was selling cameras at a local shop. Digital cameras had been known to exist, but few had ever seen one. My brother got one (320x240? 640x480?) as part of some promotion. We weren't impressed. But then as the 1024x768 res and higher cameras started coming out (Olympus seemed to lead the way, at least within the stock we sold) we started to see solid state memory cards. Capacities of 4mb and 8mb weren't impressive to a guy who wanted to make a compact MP3 player, but I saw the potential.

It was a long time before I saw an actual portable device for playing MP3s. You know what it was? A CD player with a big LCD screen (monochrome) and a bunch of buttons. Some unheard of computer company produced it, and the sound left much to be desired, but I was very happy to have it. And I paid $150 for it. Eventually better devices showed up, including solid state models, and then Apple changed the landscape forever. Their engineers and designers knew exactly what I wanted.


Why the trip down memory lane? Because I believe someone like me is already imagining the Next Big Thing. Hopefully s/he has the skills to develop it, in ways that I couldn't for mine. And then Steve & Jonathan can make it sexy in ways that nothing with batteries (and I mean nothing) ever has before.

Or will it lack batteries?


- Jon