“According to our lead both the 2GB and 4GB shuffles are definitely set for release. As is a new 8GB iPod mini – Apple is allegedly planning to keep the 6GB version and ditch the 4GB with this addition to the mini family,” T3 reports.
Full article here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
CSFB: Apple to unveil iPod shuffle, iPod mini units with greater disk space ‘throughout the year’ – June 29, 2005
Apple lowers price of 1GB iPod shuffle to US$129 – June 28, 2005
Report: Apple preps 2GB and 4GB versions of iPod shuffle for June, August releases – May 27, 2005
20GB Apple iPod mini possible in 2007 – April 04, 2005
am i the only one who routinely skips past Mac & PC Guy‘s posts? Didn’t think so.
Sir, you need to get some new material, or at least provide a link to the Dell board where you post about the virtues of the Mac, the iPod and OSX. We already have someone here who takes delight in baiting the Kool-Aid drinkers and Joe McConnell has been fairly quiet lately.
I’m GLAD Apple keeps making these better and better if only to stave off the EVIL CREATIVE MONOPOLY!! Don’t think they’re a Monopoly? Tell me, how many companies out there are making the Zen, 15? 20? 69? The ANSWER is NONE!!! Even if someone were to want to license their technology, they stubbornly REFUSE to let anyone else make a Zen.
Good luck to Apple against the CREATIVE OVERLORDS. (Don’t even get me started on Rio and their CARBON Monopoly. How can companies be allowed to do this???)
By the way, I’m also of the opinion that if the current iPod wasn’t doing so well, we’d be seeing successive versions even quicker, but that’s just me and my antics
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I dunno. 4 gigs gets to be a lot for a no-screen, shuffle-centric iPod. I can understand the shuffle concept for the smaller capacity, but with 4 gigs of music, I think I’d want to manage it.
I never listened to songs randomly before but now it how i listen to it all the time. You are reminded of how much great music is arround!. The size of the shuffle is perfect for exercise. I have the orig ipod + 20 gig ipod and a mini as well….. in search of the perfect music companion. the shuffle is it.
Welborn – the order of the “random” playlist can be reset by pressing the play button 3 times in quick succession. This was driving me crazy for weeks, as everytime I turned my shuffle off and then on again, it would start playing the same sequence of songs. I had to find out this secret technique from discussion boards, since it was NOT mentioned in the accompanying instruction manual.
Ah — Thanks, Ronald!
2gb with screeen and $99….whoo-hoooo!
<i>From: mike k. ”Could some of you who have shuffles comment on how you use them day to day. I am specifically interested in those of you who also have a higher capacity iPod. Have you noticed a difference in your using habits? I need a shuffle for snowboarding and jogging, but i am wondering at 4 GB whether it might replace my 20GB iPod altogether. How does the shuffle’s battery life hold up in the cold?”
I can’t speak about the cold/battery life query as I haven’t extensively used mine in such conditions…
I own, have owned or have bought as gifts for others every generation iPod. I bought the first 5g 1st Generation iPod from the Apple store on the first day of availability and have upgraded to a top of the line unit when they became available to hold more of my music collection. So when the Shuffles were announced, I was underwhelmed. However, between the date of introduction and when the shuffles hit the stores, I discovered podcasting and podcasts and it occured to me that the shuffle was the perfect “auxillary” for my main iPod’s for listening to them.
What I had done (until yesterday) was use iPodder to pull the many dozens of podcasts I subscribe to off the net, and I had a pair of shuffles that I would keep the most recent podcasts on in reverse chronological order by date on them. For this purpose the shuffle is perfect. It’s small and light enough to always have with you, using the neck lanyard it’s always close at hand, yet you don’t have to search for a place to put it as you move from desk, to mobile, to car and back, the battery life is excellent, and since they are truely “solid-state” they can take jolts and knocks much better than a spinnin’ hard drive.. I switch off between the two shuffles so I always have one with the most recent sampling of podcasts. Now I’m using iTunes 4.9 instead of iPodder, and while it is going to require some adjustments to how I do things, it’s a much smoother operation than iPodder allows even with the 2.1 release.
For my usage, the Shuffle has been a boon alternative to bringing out one of my iPod Photo’s. I can see them being very useful to a number of market segments: kids, Physical Training, High-Risk environment usage (say for construction workers, etc.) over an HD based iPod or similar digital music player.
Having said that, I’d love to have a display and more capacity with otherwise the same form factor/battery life/etc. Multiple playlists would be nice too. I believe that for most people 1 gig is about the upper limit of usefulness without a display unless they use Shuffle mode all the time or are using them in a very specific order mode as I do. It’d be nice to be able to segregate music from podcasts, and catagorize podcasts to type, any of which would be difficult to manage without a display on the unit. Greater (2 gig for example) memory would mean I could have with me 2 or 3 days worth of podcasts instead 1-1.5 days, etc. but I feel 1 gig is about the upper limit for managability for most people without a display.
Yes, I still use my photo iPod’s, but not as often. The shuffle is perfect for day to day commuting and during the day use for me. My photo iPod is relegated to riding in my “work bag” for those times when I wish to listen to music instead of podcasts, or need to move large chunks of data.
Different tools for different applications. What’d be nice would be a 2gig unit with display at the $149-169 price point, a 4gig with display at $199-219, eliminate the 4gig and 6gig mini’s and put an 8gig mini at $249 (perhaps with some new colors like red and black) and possibly a color screen) to fill out the line. Those are wishes not guesses or rumors, folks.
It’ll be fun to watch as always!
I have to agree to a point with “Monopolies are bad, mkay?”. I also think they are only making minor improvements when I know they could do more. But I think its a huge stretch to call Apple a monopoly.
“MCCFR” I don’t believe its purely a matter of technical limitation. When a bigger drive comes out I’m sure they will use it. But realistically how many songs do u need to carry with you? The adavancement that I’m talking about is already being done in other players, Apple just refuses to do it until they have sucked every penny out of every small increment of improvement- I want FM radio. You can’t say it can’t be done because even the shuffle knock off had one.
Now having said that if I was Apple and could string it out for millions of dollars more I would do it to but I’m just a consumer so I want my FM radio!
Mac & PC Guy wrote: “FOr me, a 100GB iPod would be awesome. The extra space will let me go lossless or uncompressed *and* stay portable.”
It’s more complicated than merely disk space. The non-flash iPods use flash memory to hold about 25 minutes of 128 Kbps music. That’s 25 * 60 * 128 Kb or 192,000 Kb or 24,000 KB or 23.4 MB stored in flash memory. I store my music in one of my iTunes libraries in Apple Lossless format. When I assume a four minute song, my Apple Lossless library averages 24.5 MB per song.
Accordingly, not even one song on average would fit into flash memory on any disk-based iPod. That’s bad. We’re talking about under four minutes of skip protection and too much disk usage. (I use this library to stream music through Airport Express to my stereo system.)
Moreover, I only have 5,042 songs in this library (at 4:57 per song) and the library consumes 148.31 GB of disk space. This is compressed but lossless. There’s no way to hold a moderate-sized library like this on any iPod we’ll see in the near future.
I agree that 192 kbps is not sufficient for CD quality (which is itself compromised), but I also agree that for mobile use it’s fine. My shuffle and my Grado SR-80 headphones make truly wonderful music while in the gym, outside, on a plane, etc., at 192 kbps.
8 GB iPod mini I can believe, but a 4 GB Shuffle borders on ridiculous. 4 GB of flash memory is still beyond cutting edge and simply the cost would make such a device way, way more expensive than the $199 mini.
From a marketing perspective, jumping from 1 GB to 4 GB doesn’ make sense either.
Most likely, for these two reasons, Apple will probably continue to offer 512 MB at $99, 1 GB at $129, and maybe introduce a 2 GB model at $149. But 4 GB of flash memory just isn’t credible. T3 is full of it.
Mr. Mackey:
Another point of view is that Apple refuses to do it because their research/gut instinct tells them that FM Radio/inbuilt voice recording/insert name of function is a relatively niche requirement that would either a) create extra cost and increase the rice point or b) fragment the range as you would land up with a different model for each individuals needs/wallet.
Far better to leave the development of such add-on functionality to third-parties who have a capability to be more responsive to the needs of the niche marketplaces.
As an example: XM radio often comes up on people’s wishlists. But the problem is that XM only exists in the USA, whilst most of the rest of the world – Japan excluded – has opted for a de jure standard, namely DAB. For Apple to support XM would mean creating a fragmented production line, which – at peak times – would probably lead to regional stock shortages and gluts that would upset customers and shareholders in equal measure.
BTW, I meant “price point”, not “rice point” which is patently silly!
The rice point is the best part, speaking of kernels.
MCCFR:
I see your points, they could certainly be a possibility. I agree that smaller third parties can afford to be more nimble but I think that a major core feature like an FM tuner should be handled by Apple.
I agree with you totally about XM. I would enjoy the product but it doesn’t make good business sense to me to offer it, yet, anyway. But I do feel like FM radio is quite ubiquitous. I have never been to Europe or Asia so feel free to correct me if I’m wrong but couldn’t that function be used anywhere in the world?
While I love the iPod, I have two, I must confess that I have wanted a built in FM tuner since the iPod was first announced. I might just be blinded by my own desire have it.
The iPod Mini move would be smart, but not the Shuffle.
>Mike K wrote: am i the only one who routinely skips past Mac & PC Guy’s posts? Didn’t think so.
Sure sounds like you skipped over my post (yet again) since you decided to comment on it.
I’m actually at a loss to understand why you chose to make that comment. While I am critical of Apple, Microsoft, MDN, and such… I do give credit where credit is due. I believe my posts to be a little more centered than so many on this board – not overly praising of Apple and not ready-to-bash-Microsoft at a moments notice.
Now what exactly about that bothers you?
>Mike K wrote: am i the only one who routinely skips past Mac & PC Guy’s posts? Didn’t think so.
Sure sounds like you skipped over my post (yet again) since you decided to comment on it.
I’m actually at a loss to understand why you chose to make that comment. While I am critical of Apple, Microsoft, MDN, and such… I do give credit where credit is due. I believe my posts to be a little more centered than so many on this board – not overly praising of Apple and not ready-to-bash-Microsoft at a moments notice.
Now what exactly about that bothers you?
>Mike K wrote: am i the only one who routinely skips past Mac & PC Guy’s posts? Didn’t think so.
Sure sounds like you skipped over my post (yet again) since you decided to comment on it.
I’m actually at a loss to understand why you chose to make that comment. While I am critical of Apple, Microsoft, MDN, and such… I do give credit where credit is due. I believe my posts to be a little more centered than so many on this board – not overly praising of Apple and not ready-to-bash-Microsoft at a moments notice.
Now what exactly about that bothers you?
Mr. Mackey:
Ubiquitous, but dying.
Here in the UK, we are already beginning to pilot the analogue switch-off which means that FM probably only has another 3-4 years of commercial life before it qualifies as “legacy” technology and six years before the FM tone disappears altogether.
Whilst most countries are not being that aggressive with the digital switchover, some smaller nations are being even more ambitious so again I would argue that even FM support in an iPod is a dead-end investment in time and effort that would be better spent delivering H.264 playback or somesuch.
Thanks randomizing for the tip, Ronald Sausage.