iPods

[Frootloop]

Just listened to the 09/25th show specifically about the new iPods

Personally, I found Apple's decision of reducing the capacity of the Classic a bit of an odd backwards move, sure the trend is pushing towards flash storage, but for bulk storage of content, HDD still wins in cost per GB... at least for now. It kinda leaves people with the larger music libraries out in the cold and having to choose their content. But that said, how much content DO you realistically need to carry around in your pocket? I believe that to avoid cutting out a large number of potential iPod buyers (and those wishing to replace a broken or lower capacity iPod), Apple will need to produce a flash based player at the same price point with comparable storage capability as the Classic before ceasing production of the high capacity HDD line.

As a side-note, I do wonder what Apple will do RE firmware for the 'old' Classic. I think that "Genius" is a clever idea, and for myself, its a good way of finding music that I had not played in a while or simply forgotton about. The iTunes implementaion has certainly proved to be quite adept at providing me with a playlist of long forgotton music from my existing library, and although I am unlikely to make much use of it, the link to the store is a useful feature in finding tracks that may be of interest. Obviously, the playlist can be synced to the Classic, but having the feature onboard would be a welcome feature. I remember that the first iPod I bought (silver 4gb mini) had new/improved features added via free firmware updates, so it would not be unprecedented. Incidentally, I still believe that the mini is a fantastic ipod, its fast to navigate, sounds great and has a far more responsive click wheel than the classic. Its easy to see why it was such a popular model.

On a final note, I bought my wife a Creative Zen Stone as she was looking for a tiny player with a screen. She soon gave up due to the poor navigation, so-so sound and shockingly bad battery life. I recently bought her a 2GB shuffle to replace it

[Gene Steinberg]

Just listened to the 09/25th show specifically about the new iPods

Personally, I found Apple's decision of reducing the capacity of the Classic a bit of an odd backwards move, sure the trend is pushing towards flash storage, but for bulk storage of content, HDD still wins in cost per GB... at least for now. It kinda leaves people with the larger music libraries out in the cold and having to choose their content. But that said, how much content DO you realistically need to carry around in your pocket? I believe that to avoid cutting out a large number of potential iPod buyers (and those wishing to replace a broken or lower capacity iPod), Apple will need to produce a flash based player at the same price point with comparable storage capability as the Classic before ceasing production of the high capacity HDD line.

As a side-note, I do wonder what Apple will do RE firmware for the 'old' Classic. I think that "Genius" is a clever idea, and for myself, its a good way of finding music that I had not played in a while or simply forgotton about. The iTunes implementaion has certainly proved to be quite adept at providing me with a playlist of long forgotton music from my existing library, and although I am unlikely to make much use of it, the link to the store is a useful feature in finding tracks that may be of interest. Obviously, the playlist can be synced to the Classic, but having the feature onboard would be a welcome feature. I remember that the first iPod I bought (silver 4gb mini) had new/improved features added via free firmware updates, so it would not be unprecedented. Incidentally, I still believe that the mini is a fantastic ipod, its fast to navigate, sounds great and has a far more responsive click wheel than the classic. Its easy to see why it was such a popular model.

On a final note, I bought my wife a Creative Zen Stone as she was looking for a tiny player with a screen. She soon gave up due to the poor navigation, so-so sound and shockingly bad battery life. I recently bought her a 2GB shuffle to replace it

It would, of course, be nice if Apple did do more to make older models compatible with newer features. Maybe it'll still happen -- at least sometimes.