“It was a very iPod Christmas, to be sure, but Apple needs to keep wowing us with new must-have gadgets. Topping that list would be TiVo-like digital video recorder software. Add a Mac Mini, a flat-screen monitor and a Front Row remote, and you’ve got yourself a digital entertainment hub worthy of the name,” Erick Schonfeld writes for Business 2.0.
“Many people still pine for a real iPhone that blends the best of the iPod with a cell phone. (The Motorola Rokr just doesn’t cut it). But I’d like to see other iPod mashups as well, such as an iPod with built-in FM or satellite radio, or an iPod boombox with tiny, built-in speakers. How about an expanded line of video iPods with bigger screens and DVD drives? And putting Bluetooth in every iPod for wireless headphones should be easy enough,” Schonfeld writes. “Come to think of it, why can’t people custom-upgrade their iPods with whatever features or hardware they want (bigger hard drive, bigger screen, Bluetooth, satellite radio) just like they can with their laptops?”
Full article with proposed New Year’s resolutions for Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, Amazon, and Disney here.
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“Apple’s New Year’s Resolution: Keep pushing the envelope”
Yeah, Apple really needs to be told to ‘push the envelope’.
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XM should be coupled with itunes, not the iPod.
http://www.freemacblog.com/my-version-of-itunes-xm/
New Year’s Revelation: Lick and stamp the envelope.
“or an iPod boombox with tiny, built-in speakers”…
Are you kidding? Like those tiny, throw-away “boom boxes” they give you when you open a bank account? THAT’s pushing the envelope?
Gimme a break.
It amazes me how Apple is held to such a high standard – I appreciate all the great things they do but…
when was the last time that Microsoft WOWed anyone? or any other company for that matter and was EXPECTED to do so.
Just how much water does Steve Jobs have to walk on before people drop their fear of Apple?
Well, I guess the petrolium companies have a pretty good WOW! effect everytime I gas up.
“Apple needs to keep wowing us with new must-have gadgets”
Why? They already have a great product line that other companies would die to have created over 12 years – not the 18 months Apple created them in…
Apple has innovation in its DNA and the blood in its veins is pure creativity.
It will continue to wow us, but we don’t need journo’s telling us they HAVE TO.
Message to MS: “Return to sender, address unknown.
No such number, no such zone . . .”
A few good ideas here & there, but iPod boom box and user upgradeable iPods are not some of them. Those that are good ideas (XM and bluetooth) are not new. I guess this journalist had a deadline.
I’ve got a great iPod idea: Keep the device simple so any idiot can operate it, but provide a flexible connector so third-party developers can make expansions like displays and speakers and transmitters.
Also make the case seemless so unsightly bolts don’t rust and crack the case when retightened too much. Engineer it so that all the parts fit together in the smallest possible configuration.
Or just throw all the parts loosly in a box so anyone with a bottle of glue can make whatever iBlob they want.
MW: alone, as in Apple alone seem to be able to make a decent product. No wonder with thinking like this author’s.
“Pushing the envelope” is such a wanky expression. It’s little more than
“paper pushing”, which probably came from a manager somewhere.
I’d like a kitchen sink with mine so I can do the dishes while I listen to music.
Turn the iPod into a PC where bits and pieces can be bolted on by anyone and his brother.
Yea, like that has worked well in the past.
Let’s change the OS to linux while we’re at it. Call it the iDIY because no one else will help you with it.
“Turn the iPod into a PC where bits and pieces can be bolted on by anyone and his brother.
Yea, like that has worked well in the past.
Let’s change the OS to linux while we’re at it. Call it the iDIY because no one else will help you with it.”
Yes, the PC has failed with its 90%+ share of the home market. And Newegg.com is a failure too for making millions selling comp. parts. It certainly hasn’t worked well
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And Linux’s a failure too because all those businesses running Red Hat must not have any support ….right…. Go back and crawl back under your zealot hole.
ipod with a internal dvd player?!?!? please stop writing things…
pushing the envelope has nothing to do with paper or envelopes. It is an expression from test pilots. The “envelope” was the set of conditions determining the safe operating ranges of an aircraft. Airspeed, altitude, attitude etc. Pushing the envelope was seeing how far past the safe zone an airframe could be pushed, for example altitude limits. Since test pilots determine the safe conditions, they are the ones that “push the envelope” to the max extent for the various conditions. The rest of us then stay inside that “envelope”. where it is safe. Q.E.D. “pushing the envelope” involves a lot of risk to the pusher, so to speak.
Reading this story, I can’t help but recall the episode of the Simpson’s where Homer was offered a chance to design a car the way he’d like to! I’m can just imagine if this guy got to design a iPod. It would have racing stripes, colorful streamers, maybe a beer-bottle opener, and who knows what else.
Plain and simple truth:
Apple doesn’t deal in gadgets, they deal in products.
Gadgets don’t live on, products do.
That’s all!
I already have the “iPod boombox!” I simply couple my iPod with my Altec-Lansing inMotion speakers. It’s very nice not having all that weight on my shoulder from my older boombox.
Great couple of paragraphs, Erick Schonfeld.
Many people still pine for a real iPhone that blends the best of the iPod with a cell phone.
I think that Apple could make a good smart phone if they really wanted to put their mind to it. Lord knows it would sync better than all of these other phones on the market.
How about an expanded line of video iPods with bigger screens and DVD drives?
That’s a great idea!!! Hey wait a minute. That’s what I do with my TiBook now.
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