“We picked the iPod mini as one of our favorite music players when it debuted, thanks to its superior ergonomics, great in-hand feel, easily readable screen, jazzy colors, and generally good music performance. Apple’s recent refreshing of the player has made it even better. The Apple iPod mini 6GB holds 50 percent more music, has more than twice the battery life, sounds better, and costs the same ($249 direct) as the original 4GB mini (which now costs $199),” Bill Machrone writes for PC Magazine.
“The new mini’s other features are mostly unchanged, except for one cute addition: The player automatically pauses when you pull out the earphone plug. It’s a nice counterpoint to the feature that automatically starts the player when you insert the earphone plug,” Machrone writes. “The newest mini is a worthy upgrade to a wildly popular player. With the addition of an FM receiver and perhaps a recording function (features found on other players in this size and price range, such as the Creative Zen Micro), it would be perfect.”
Full article here.
that microwave toaster thing is SO cool!
I’d like to know how to get the news on my iPod. I don’t want to deal with so many electronic devices and those cheap radios are just that…. cheap.
I’d also like to be able to listen to the newest Japanese/Korean/Chinese/Indian Music… all of which there are radio stations for.
Who cares if radio is old technology. SO is the internal combustion engine, but I don’t see everyone flying around in electric cars.
In fact, hard drives are old technology… they should be using all Flash.
An iPod with recording capabilities would be great. It would be worth a price increase. With a whole “iPod stuff ecosystem” in place, you’d think one of the manufactures like Belkin or someone would produce an FM reciever module, there sare at least a couple of transmitters. Seems that the aftermarket add-on makers are not convinced that it would be a great selling high demand item.
On the other hand, with the consolidation of radio station owners, the drivel is the same. Morning shows, two jerks who fake laugh to long and to loud at each others’ jokes. The same 15 songs every hour. Afternoon radio, more of the same except one idiot laughing to long and to loud at his own jokes. I’ll pass on radio. In fact, I have since getting an iPod 2.5 years ago
Clearly there is a need for iPods with features that Apple don’t offer. They’re not for me personally, but I do understand why some people clamour for them.
I can also understand Apple’s reasons for not cluttering the design with other features.
However, if a user absolutely must have FM radio, a voice recorder or even a step counter built in, their only option is to get an alternative to the iPod and most likely to also download their music from a rival service to iTMS.
Apple would do well to offer other companies the opportunity to manufacture approved alternatives under licence.
Apple would be able to block any prospective model that was considered too similar to an existing or forthcoming iPod, but manufacturers would be able to make devices that work with AAC/FairPlay and iTMS and extend the ways in which they’re used.
There are still plenty of opportunities to further expand how we listen to iTunes. Nobody is currently making a HiFi iTunes player that allows users to choose iTMS tracks, there is no in-car audio solution that actually has a built-in iTMS compatible hard drive player and nobody is making a player with a speaker in it, such as you might like in a kitchen. There are a number of workarounds that get close, but workarounds are nowhere so good as dedicated solutions.
I can remember when having an electric drill was rather special and you made it more useful by buying an attachment to turn it into a jigsaw or sander. These days, nobody does that. We have a drill but we also have powered saws and powered sanders. Using adapters is clumsy and is ultimately a short term fix. The same is true of iPods with loudspeaker attachments, FM tuner attachments or voice recording attachments. If you want that feature enough, you’re better getting it as a built-in dedicated feature.
Digital music means more than merely listening on white earbuds. Apple has built excellent foundations, but there is so much more that can be done and it would need carefully selected partners.
Unless all these options are available, customers will look for alternative solutions and those solutions might involve using a rival format. It’s in Apple’s interests to keep as many customers as possible using their format.