# iPod 2 Speculation



## bjurusik (Feb 18, 2003)

I don't know much about Bluetooth, but would it support the bandwidth to transfer songs from iPod to Mac?  Also, what about Bluetooth headphones?  I think that would be a great idea, and something that Apple would likely do.  I wonder how much it would drain the battery of both the iPod and the headphones.


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## ByerlyRips (Feb 18, 2003)

Transferring songs over Bluetooth would be unbearably slow. Bluetooth headphones sounds like a cool idea, though.


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## mr. k (Feb 18, 2003)

Bluetooth headphones would be really cool...  Also does anyone think it would be feasible for an fm radio to get built into the machine?  I think the hardest part would be getting an antenna to pick up the signals...  But that would be one phenomonal music player (40g HD/FM tuner!)


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## DCD (Feb 19, 2003)

Bluetooth headphones are definitely a great idea!

But for me the ultimate iPod 2 would allow me to download my pictures from my digital camera so that i dont have to buy 20 memory-sticks!  The space is available so it would be great for people that have a passion for both music and digital photography.  Come on Apple....you know its a good idea


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## Dime5150 (Feb 19, 2003)

I really do not see a place for am/fm tuner for the ipod. I think something more suitable would be to make it XM or SIRIUS compatible. Now imagine that? I don't think there is a portable player yet that is satelite radio compatible. This would be a great idea. 

Or I was thinking a small feature would be to include a small microphone so it could be used as a personal recording device for business type applications.

If Apple could get the license for XM or SIRIUS that would be so awesome. Streaming high quality tunes from satelite radio 24/hours a day from where ever you are! Here is my proposal 

"Introducing iPod 2. The first portable music player with satelite radio. Welcome to the Apple music generation.

Introducing the new Apple Wireless Studio Headphones available for the 20 gb model and the new Apple car interface adapter. (Apple car interface adapter requires any fm/am car radio for use)

5 gb iPod also available for low price. "


$199
(5 gb 1,000 Songs)
2.4 x 4.0 x .78 in
Apple Earphones
AC Adapter
FireWire cable
Wired Remote
Carrying case
Internal Microphone for personal recording


$299    
(10 gb 3,000 Songs)                       
6.5 oz
2.4 x 4.0 x .72 in
Apple Earphones
AC Adapter
FireWire cable
Wired Remote
Internal Microphone for personal recording
Carrying case
Apple car interface adapter



$529
(20 gb 4,000 Songs)
6.5 oz
2.4 x 4.0 x .84 in
XM Satelite Radio ready           (XM subscription rates apply)
Apple Wireless Studio Headphones
AC Adapter
FireWire cable
Wired remote
Carrying case
Apple car interface adapter
Internal Microphone for personal recording


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## Pengu (Feb 19, 2003)

Uh. Hello. Steve has said iPod is NOT going to become a PDA/etc. As for either AM/FM or "Satelite" radio. Have you never heard of a walkman? They're like 15 years old and seem to have been able to pick up radio broadcasts for some odd reason. Oh that's right. Because THEY'RE NOT AN MP3 PLAYER!
As for Satelite. I've never heard of it, but most things working from a satelite need a fairly sophisticated "antenna" for want of another word, to get a good signal. And as for subscription rates..And the whole car-adaptor thing... Please.


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## senne (Feb 19, 2003)

Maybe an FM/AM receiver built into the Remote Control (with a display, so you can see your song playing on the remote)! Sony has such remotes, really cool


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## Cat (Feb 19, 2003)

This is what it is up against, the Archos Multimedia Jukebox ( 470,-):


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## lelereb (Feb 19, 2003)

Yeah, importing from digital camera would be awesome.


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## themacko (Feb 19, 2003)

I agree with the digital camera thing ... all they'd really need is to add a USB port to the thing.


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## pyroboy (Feb 19, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Pengu _
> *Uh. Hello. Steve has said iPod is NOT going to become a PDA/etc. As for either AM/FM or "Satelite" radio. Have you never heard of a walkman? They're like 15 years old and seem to have been able to pick up radio broadcasts for some odd reason. Oh that's right. Because THEY'RE NOT AN MP3 PLAYER!
> As for Satelite. I've never heard of it, but most things working from a satelite need a fairly sophisticated "antenna" for want of another word, to get a good signal. And as for subscription rates..And the whole car-adaptor thing... Please. *



Actually, the cool thing about a Walkman is that it can play tapes or listen to the radio. The technology is closer to 20 years old and I think that would be a damn neat feature. What is an MP3 player? An update on the Walkman idea.

Pengu, XM Radio, AKA satellite radio, is wonderful in concept. 100+ streams of music and conversation. It doesn't require a huge antenna and the subscription rate is fairly reasonable.

Many car radio manufacturers already have adapters available to allow you to plug in an external source such as a CD player or an MP3 player. They run between $20-100, depending on how much Kenwood (cheap) or Pioneer (expensive) choose to charge.


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## Randman (Feb 19, 2003)

For a few years, I had been using a Creative mp3 player. Small, durable and reliable. It had an FM tuner (used earphone cord as external antenna) and it had an external microphone which was quite helpful.
   These days, my iPod is great but I use my Tungsten more for practical things. And its voice memo function is wonderful as is the ability to import quality color photos (and even video clips).

 So I'd suggest a voice memo function, ability to import digital photos (which would mean color not greyscale), Bluetooth headphones and a built-in FM receiver/transceiver. You could pick up FM signals, but more importantly, you could transmit the iPod data to a radio.

  I have a small portable add-on receiver now and it's great for using in a car radio, or at work when I don't want headphones on and am stuck using the company's peecee. Just plug the small fm thingie into the iPod earphone jack and transmit directly to my radio.

I would think that's doable without sacrificing size or additional weight or too much extra cost.


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## Dime5150 (Feb 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Pengu _
> *Uh. Hello. Steve has said iPod is NOT going to become a PDA/etc. As for either AM/FM or "Satelite" radio. Have you never heard of a walkman? They're like 15 years old and seem to have been able to pick up radio broadcasts for some odd reason. Oh that's right. Because THEY'RE NOT AN MP3 PLAYER!
> As for Satelite. I've never heard of it, but most things working from a satelite need a fairly sophisticated "antenna" for want of another word, to get a good signal. And as for subscription rates..And the whole car-adaptor thing... Please. *



First of all bud take it easy and not take it personal. I never said that is WHAT is going to happen. Just ideas.

I think radio would be wrong. Satelite radio would be cool. Streaming high quality music would be great. It could take the iPod to be MORE then just an MP3 players. Its ideas thats all.

Why so condescending? People are all over trying to look for a car adapter. Why not include one? Some people like music in there cars and especially if you keep it all on this enormously expensive machine. 

Guess what? XM radio and Sirus have subscription rates so i don't understand your qualms with that. Its something that would have to happen.

Lighten up.


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## jocknerd (Feb 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Dime5150 _
> 
> 
> $199
> ...



Dude, $529? I think the 20GB is too expensive now and you want to raise the price?

It should be $199, $299, and $399.


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## boi (Feb 20, 2003)

i have this tingling feeling the new ipod is coming very soon.
i wish i had money x_x


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## binaryDigit (Feb 20, 2003)

Bluetooth headphones would be cool, but does it support a high enough bitrate to get decent fidelity?  I know they work for cellphones, but that's because the frequency range for voice is fairly narrow (and you can compress the heck out of it).

One other aspect of going BT is that then one could share their music with anyone else who had a BT headphones.  Now that would be interesting.


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## mr. k (Feb 20, 2003)

Its also been said with confidence that apple will use 10, 20 and 40 gd hard drives in their new iPods.  Toshiba manufactures them to the same size as the current iPod HD's, and just about every rumor site has backed that.  40gb... thats as big as my gd hd!  Whats that, 8000 songs?


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## Dime5150 (Feb 20, 2003)

> _Originally posted by jocknerd _
> *Dude, $529? I think the 20GB is too expensive now and you want to raise the price?
> 
> It should be $199, $299, and $399. *



To ofset the price of XM compatibility. 

Go see what the cheapest XM or SIRUIS compatible deck is. I think the licensing fees add up and are passed on.

I wouldn't want it either but i think it would be realistic.


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## Ugg (Feb 20, 2003)

I have just recently become convinced that an iPod would be a good investment.  I love radio yet am rarely in the right place at the right time to listen to what I want to hear which includes NPR, BBC world service, diverse german talk radio shows, etc.  Now, if I could record these and listen to them while I am riding my bike on the weekends, wow!!! I would be in heaven.  Now I lug around a sony discman when I'm out riding, and to give it credit it never skips, the batteries last forever and it goes everywhere, but it only plays one disc at a time.  

Personally I think Apple could capture a huge market if they were to market the iPod to those like me who want to listen to radio shows but on their own time.  

Also, what would be cool would be a 4in by 6in screen so that I could load photos onto it and use it as a portable photo album.........

Anyway, my point is that a 40 gig harddrive is only the begginning.  When I got my iMac I thought 13 gigs was unfillable.... hmmmm times change fast.


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## Quicksilver (Feb 20, 2003)

iPod II. Im gonna get one since my Girlfriend has overtaken my iPod I.

Steve said that he would'nt release a PDA But but did he say never?


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## sheepguy42 (Feb 21, 2003)

1) Just the fact that satelite radio _has_ subscription fees means I don't want tto see it in my iPod. The .mac integration in OS X is one thing, but OS X has zillions of great features, and you can find alternatives (though not as nice in many cases) for all it provides. I should not have to pay a subscription for a key feature of a new iPod, which radio would be. 
2) As far as listening to radio news on the iPod now, Audio Hijack lets you record audioi from any app, so if you can find net streams of the broadcast you want to hear, you can tell RealONE to automatically connect to it at the appropriate time, have Audio Hijack automatically start recording at that time, and write a script to automatically move that to the iPod when it's done. You say there is no net stream of what you want? Plug your radio into your Mac using one of the many ways to do so, find an app that records from any input source (hint: http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/index.shtml), and again transfer the resulting file to your iPod.


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## Pengu (Feb 21, 2003)

Ok. Lets clear up a few things. My original point about Satelite radio was the same as sheepguy, not whatever the hell you people interpreted it as.
Second. As for the car-kit. Sure i think that for people who dont want to spend a lot of money on a car stereo the audio-in port on the front of many newer decks is good, but this relates in no way to any requirement from the ipod. All you need is a male-male mini-jack. My point was that including an FM transmitter is a stupid idea. it would consume a heap of power and would bump up the price unecessarily.
And as for PDA's and photos. Remember. the iPod is designed for listening to music, and other audio material. That's it. You can also use it to store address-book style contacts, but the primary use is listening to music etc. If apple think there is a market for a tablet/PDA/palm-type computer, I'm sure they'll do something about it, rather than incorporating the features into an existing product and bumping the price up.

People too often misinterpret things because they make assumptions about too many things.


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## sUICIDE_mONKEY (Feb 21, 2003)

what about streaming & providing Steve Jobs Expo speaches in downloadable mp3's ....... ?? its somethin i thought they would have had especially with the release of the iPod, ost people are still on dial-up connections which make it annoying to watch the jerkey footage and too slow to watch it for the full duration.....


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## Stridder44 (Feb 21, 2003)

One thing I hope they keep is the backing of the iPod...the shiny metal part. Why? Well, if you don't have a mirror near by, the back of the iPod works rather well, provided you don't have a bunch of scratches and stuff on it.  Hehe, yeah...it sounds dumb...but it's a cool little feature that maybe was intended.


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## jeb1138 (Feb 21, 2003)

> _Originally posted by Ugg _
> *I love radio yet am rarely in the right place at the right time to listen to what I want to hear which includes NPR, BBC world service, diverse german talk radio shows, etc.  Now, if I could record these and listen to them while I am riding my bike on the weekends, wow!!! I would be in heaven.*


Hey that's an great idea!  Tivo for audio programs -- nice!  I'd totally go for that, and it would be even better if it could record in the background if I was playing mp3's or something.  (As for having your computer do it, sheepguy, cool but not a very good solution imho.  First of all, wouldn't work well at all for laptops, which are often asleep and waking them up and wasting battery power to record a show isn't a good idea.  Powerbooks get around 2-3 hrs battery life max & iPods get around 10 hrs max.  And if you have a desktop wouldn't you like to take your radio show with you?  Much less convenient if you have to set up a stream or connect your radio as well as transfer your files to your iPod afterward.)

I hope Apple steals your idea Ugg...


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## mr. k (Feb 21, 2003)

I think that satellite radio would be an incredible addition to the iPod.  But as nice as it would be I don't think its the kind of thing apple would add to an iPod.  All the XM radio's made now are much bigger, and heavier then the iPod.  I dont expect that there is an incredible amount of open space in the iPod right now, and the new iPod will have a hard drive about the same size, a screen about the same size and similar components.  As much as I would love to have some type of radio in my iPod, I don't think its a very easy thing too add.  Something that seems a lot more likely is someone writing a 3rd party application to transfer recorded streaming audio onto your iPod automatically.  I think if apple add's anything new to the iPod it will be software related, like a text viewing application.


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## gwynarion (Feb 25, 2003)

> _Originally posted by pyroboy _
> *Pengu, XM Radio, AKA satellite radio, is wonderful in concept. 100+ streams of music and conversation. It doesn't require a huge antenna and the subscription rate is fairly reasonable.*



No, the antenna isn't huge (about the size of a billiard ball), but the tuner is a pretty hefty item to think about sticking in your pocket (about two or three times the size of a video cassette and weighs several pounds).  I have a Sirius system installed in my car and the three pieces that make it up are not insignificant in size.  Beyond that, though, all of these pieces have a substantially higher powere requirement than the iPod does now.

For the person who said that this feature would make the iPod the first portable satellite radio I must disagree.  Delphi makes a tuner/receiver module for XM which "docks" to connections that you install in your car(s), boat, home, etc.  There is also a "boom box" dock that makes the system fully portable.

I think this would be an absolutely stellar thing to have, but I believe we are far more likely to see a cellular-type modem that lets the iPod connect to the internet for streaming audio.


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## MDLarson (Feb 25, 2003)

Hmm, about "Bluetooth headphones..." how would that work.  Bluetooth = wireless, so would there be 2 little earbud things that you just stick in there?  'Cause they'd be real easy to lose.


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## Hobeaux (Feb 25, 2003)

actually, bluetooth headphones and headsets already exist -- in fact, they've been around for a couple of *years*.


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## senne (Feb 26, 2003)

i thought the iPods were coming out yesterday.... Where are they?


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## Eid (Mar 1, 2003)

I don't know about how things are in the US, but in the UK Digital Radio is taking off. 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/get_radio.shtml

How feasable would that be in a new iPod?

Ben


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## ddma (Mar 1, 2003)

I wonder the sound quality from a Bluetooth headphone. Any idea?

P.S. My iPod 5GB's Firewire port is died


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## fryke (Mar 1, 2003)

Bluetooth is quite low-bandwidth, and most headsets are made for voice, anyway. Creating a new one only for the iPod would certainly be okay, but sound quality would be less.


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## chevy (Mar 1, 2003)

> _Originally posted by fryke _
> *Bluetooth is quite low-bandwidth, and most headsets are made for voice, anyway. Creating a new one only for the iPod would certainly be okay, but sound quality would be less. *



Absolutely true. Bluetooth is 700kb/s max and it must be low power (or it's to heavy for a headset), so that it cannot decompress mp3 or similar encoding. Encoding for low-power are much simpler like 8-4 encoding which reduces bit rate by a factor 2 (instead of 20 for mp3). This limits to voice quality, mono. They will be improvements in the future, off course, but still this is a limitation.


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## chevy (Mar 1, 2003)

Here is the BlueTooth datarates.


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## buggerit (Mar 2, 2003)

simple and effective ipod update:

 - 10/20/40 GB versions.  5gb are not available anymore (everyone knows that). 40gb 1.8" drives have also been out for some time.

 - colour screen.  this is the norm now for phones and pda's.  the tricky thing is getting it to look nice in low light AND bright sunlight.

 - mini usb port to connect to digital camera a la iPhoto.  Cut down version of iPhoto allows dowload/delete off camera and viewing capabilities.  the portability/large hard drive aspects of ipod combined with the explosion of digital cameras cries out for this feature: imagine, the end of expensive flash cards..

 - firewire 800 & 400?  combined with usb, this amounts to far too many ports.  maybe their engineering team have something up their sleeves.

Seeing as apple are pushing fw800, it would make sense to implement it in as many devices as possible, methinks.

just me two cents..

(btw, bluetooth is entirely unsuitable for gb+ transfers..)


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## mdangelo (Mar 4, 2003)

Why would apple give up on their proprietary firewire technology as teh primary primary connection medium and add a usb conenctivity card also...???


> _Originally posted by themacko _
> *I agree with the digital camera thing ... all they'd really need is to add a USB port to the thing. *


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## mightyjlr (Mar 4, 2003)

because most consumer digital cameras use USB and not firewire, it would allow you to store images from your camera on your ipod, giving you a camera with huge capacity


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## mdangelo (Mar 4, 2003)

You have a very good point, however apple is striving to propell firewire 800 into the foreground of teh standards.  Despite usb making teh ipod great for hooking digi cams up to it i am unsure as to apples position on it...



> _Originally posted by mightyjlr _
> *because most consumer digital cameras use USB and not firewire, it would allow you to store images from your camera on your ipod, giving you a camera with huge capacity *


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## mightyjlr (Mar 4, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mdangelo _
> *You have a very good point, however apple is striving to propell firewire 800 into the foreground of teh standards.  Despite usb making teh ipod great for hooking digi cams up to it i am unsure as to apples position on it... *



Apple is the reason USB is so popular.  Apple likes USB, it just likes firewire even more, considering it invented it and gets money from it.  Even though they are trying to get Firewire 800 up and running, a digital camera is one of the lasts places you are going to see it.  Putting a USB port on the iPod would be very useful for all of those people who have digital cameras, and who will buy them in the future, because almost all digital cameras will have USB for the foreseable future.


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## OzBert (Mar 17, 2003)

I'll be cool if it has a removable battery so you can carry more than one, and maybe fibre optic lighting behind the buttons that run off the screen back-light.

But if it looks cool and plays music, I'm happy!


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## twister (Mar 17, 2003)

I hope it has smarter playlists.  Ok so not the new iPod but the new software.  I hate it when my top 10 list isn't really a top 10 on the iPod.  It's the right 10 songs but not the right order.  You see the order is determined by when the song was added.  So if i make a Smart top 10 list today.  'Up' would be #1.  Next week 'Up' may move down to #2 but iPod will still show it as the first song on the list.


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## Excalibur (Mar 17, 2003)

> _Originally posted by mightyjlr _
> *because most consumer digital cameras use USB and not firewire, it would allow you to store images from your camera on your ipod, giving you a camera with huge capacity *




I'd rather not transfer gigs of data over a slow USB connection personally.


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## Dime5150 (Mar 17, 2003)

The iPod will not become a color PDA. Its going to stay a music product. MP3's.


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## gwynarion (Mar 17, 2003)

I don't know why everyone seems so obsessed with the idea of the iPod becoming more and more and more.  Colour screen, USB for digital camera integration, this, that, etc...  Apple has said any number of times that the iPod is a digital music player -- not a PDA, not a phone, and not a portable storage device for digital cameras.  I expect that Apple will continue to improve the iPod, but I am sure that they will do so in order to make it a better music player.  If they are going to sell a device that does more than that I am sure they will creates something new.


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## Arden (Mar 17, 2003)

What about Airport connectivity?  The new iPods could A) connect to an Airport-equipped Mac and download new tunes at broadband speeds, B) transmit tunes across an Airport network for all equipped computers to listen to, or C) both.

My opinions on the topics mentioned so far:

- AM/FM sounds like a great idea.  The iPods are already easily portable collections of CD's, why not add radio to the mix?
- XM sounds like a good idea for the future.  For one thing, it costs $10/month or so, and it's weighty to carry.  If they can get it down (in mass & price), I'm sure it will become viable for the iPod.
- Digital pictures I'm not so sure about.  I can see storing them, but viewing them?  Sounds more like a PDA.  I can see wanting everything integrated into one device, but not the iPod.
- Bluetooth headphones sounds like a cool idea, but in Bluetooth's current state it won't happen.  Besides, Apple would have to make them the large headphones that work like a hair band instead of ear buds.  Maybe in the future.


> _Originally posted by Excalibur_
> *I'd rather not transfer gigs of data over a slow USB connection personally.*


You wouldn't have to.  People aren't suggesting replace the Firewire port with USB (rather, replace it with Firewire 800), but add a USB port to allow digital cameras to connect to it.  However, this will increase the number of ports on a device with limited room for them, and Apple almost certainly won't do it.


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## Excalibur (Mar 17, 2003)

IIRC those the speed of the iPod hard drive can't saturate the Firewire 400 for file transfer. So I would think that extra cost to add the Firewire 800 might not be good though.

I see your point on the USB, however we both agree there isn't enough room to add all these 'goodies' here and keep the same size and a lower price.


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## kilowatt (Mar 17, 2003)

ok, lots of cool ideas, no doubt. But, lets look at what 1) fits into an ipod, and 2) goes along with Apple's plan (not that we know 100% what that really is anyway....)


The iPod is your Digital Music Solution.

So, its my feeling that we won't be seeing any digital camera hook ups, even though that would be cool (BTW, firewire is a host-to-host protocol, so it would be uber easy for apple to allow device hook up to that port, opening up a huge range of perifirls (sp?) for the iPod).

Satelite Radio is definately in the same nitch market. But, as an FCC licensed Radio Tech, I can tell you that its not at all going to happen. For one, that ipod is going to need a tuned antenna, and it can't be just lying on the table, or moving arround as digital music players do.

Digital FM and normal FM are posabilities, but I don't think they are going to happen. True, Radio Shack has a product that is *specifically* designed to compete with the iPod (see radioshack.com, type in '42-8050'). And yes, it does have recording for voice, and FM. I just don't know if thats right for something so... Pure.

Now, what does the iPod need, to just be a cooler iPod?

Now we're talkin. This is the question we must ask. 

1) More audio output options. Bluetooth headphones aren't really that great. But, a 2.4ghz link or even 49mhz wireless headphone output might be neat. Kinda doubt it though. 

But, I'd say an FM Modulator isn't out of the question. With that on board, you could set the iPod next to any normal FM Receiver, even an in-dash unit, and tune into your iPod. It would be a sure hit at parties - just bring your ipod, place it next to the dj booth, etc.

Optical I/O via the 1/8" head phone jack is very common in MiniDisc recorders, and the iPod is certainly used by people who have other optical gear. This would be used for playing tunes on larger systems with perfect clarity. Or, recording directly off a DAT drive, cd player, etc.

I think Apple will come up with one of the above ideas in due time - we need more than analog 1/8" output.

2) Recording. the iPod will definately have to impliment this one way or another, the question is, how.

a) The headphone jack could double as a stereo audio input jack, or the aformentioned optical i/o. Maybe both.

b) Small electrit built-in mic, for voice, and limited music use.

c) Radio. Once again, I doubt this, though it would no doubt be sweet. You have to remember the small size we're dealing with here.

3) Finally, what other options for getting sound into the iPod could we use?

Someone allready mentioned 802.11b (Airport). This is a great idea, as it certainly has the bandwidth and popularity. Being able to trade files with local iPod users would no doubt be cool. (the DMCA would just love that...) And being able to 'tune' into streaming audio would be sweet too.

But I feel the iPod is more geared towards high-class audio. Not streaming this and that, or kiddie file sharing. 

The obvious enhancements will be in hard disk space, file accesss speed, software upgrade, etc.

Color screen, you say? _Maybe._  I doubt it, because the iPod has a very simple, refined appearance. Plus, its not at all needed.

Your comments?


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## Arden (Mar 18, 2003)

I definitely agree that the iPod needs audio in.  What's likely: a built-in, low-medium quality mic in the top or bottom for voice dictation, etc.  What would be cool: a true audio-in port, so you could plug in a microphone and record music, speeches, etc. without the need of a computer.  That would be awesome: record guitars, drums, horns, etc. on your iPod, then transfer them to the computer, storing all your AIFFs on the iPod!

AM and FM radio have been around for a hundred years, and XM is just taking off, so it's unlikely that an infant technology like XM will make its way into the iPod soon, but it would be very cool.  I think the iPod should include a tuner, and with the microphone, you could record audio from the radio right in your iPod.

If the iPod were equipped with Airport, it could not only receive files from your computer, but also stream them across the network so everyone can listen to them.  Apple already has measures in place to avoid bootlegging, so this could be a way to share without file sharing.  However, I doubt it has room to fit an Airport antenna, so this is also unlikely.

Maybe Apple could add a feature like the 17" TiBook has, whereby the silk-screen buttons light up in low light.  Then you could see in the dark what you are doing without having to know the buttons.  And a color screen isn't necessary, but it should be plenty bright and have a backlight so you can see your playlist in the dark as well.  I know these would take power, but that's the tradeoff.


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## mr. k (Mar 18, 2003)

I can't wait!  I think ill go for an iPod when the new models are released, whenever that is.  My friend is getting one pretty soon, and I can play with his until then!  But an iPod with audio in, a mic and am/fm radio would be INCREDIBLE!  Worth thousands of dollars if you ask me :b  I would buy one in a second, and Im already getting all excited about it.


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## texanpenguin (Mar 18, 2003)

OK - streaming audio over Airport Extreme is very likely I think - and a huge selling-point.

Firewire 800 should only be introduced on the high-end high-capacity high-price iPod I think, since 400 is fast enough for most people.

PCMCIA card support would be something I would cry for - so you could BUY an Airport Extreme card, or a FireWire 800 card and insert it into near invisible slots at the bottom or something... I don't know about how feasible this would be, but if this fit into the machine comfortably, it's a HUGE plus. Think about it! USB cards for people without FW cards in their desktops! The possibilities then are endless; since you could use it in your laptop also.

Ooh, and some slim-arse speaker(s) that looked as nice as the rest of the system, and fit in with it. Laptop speakers are small, and iPod's wouldn't need to be stereo - just mono for listening dictated audio over.

So long as it doesn't fall into the trap of Sony's Clie, and adds plenty of extras at the expense of beauty, it'll rock.


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## buggerit (Mar 18, 2003)

> _Originally posted by texanpenguin _
> * Think about it! USB cards for people without FW cards in their desktops! The possibilities then are endless; since you could use it in your laptop also.
> 
> Ooh, and some slim-arse speaker(s) that looked as nice as the rest of the system, and fit in with it. Laptop speakers are small, and iPod's wouldn't need to be stereo - just mono for listening dictated audio over. *



The possibilities may be endless, but unfortunately, the space available isn't.

Think about it:

"Apple announces new iPod with x number of new features! Now even bulkier and thicker than before!!"

Considering the starting point of the 1.8" HD, there is definately no room for a PC card slot or speakers.  Maybe as addon's, but then you have to make room for some sort of 'universal adapter port'.

but i still like the idea of iMiniPhoto and a usb port..


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