“Apple Inc. will use a media event next month to unveil a new breed of iPod digital music players that have been injected with the company’s most vital asset — the Mac OS,” Kasper Jade reports for AppleInsider.
“The move will culminate a multi-year effort on the part of the Cupertino-based electronics giant to form a new platform of digital devices around the common core of its legendary operating system software and expertise in industrial design,” Jade reports. “Three of Apple’s four business segments — the Mac, iPhone and Apple TV — already rely on derivatives of the Mac OS. In surgically replacing the iPod’s Pixo-influenced OS with a modern-day variant of its homebred software, the company will have effectively scaled the Mac OS across its entire product matrix.”
“Apple has also been working on Mac OS-based iPod software for models that will retain their click-wheels — such as third-generation iPod nanos. Interface concept videos recently published and then pulled from MacRumors consisted of genuine Apple material to this effect, AppleInsider can confirm,” Jade reports.
Rumored new iPod UI:
“People familiar with this year’s plans say Apple’s iPod roadmap for the fall now calls for as many as four new models — most, if not all, will employ NAND flash — including major evolutions of both the flagship video iPod and iPod nano lines,” Jade reports.
More in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
Mac OS X everywhere! As it should be. Can you say “hundreds of millions of Mac OS X users?” We knew you could. We’d dance around and chant “developers,” but we’re not big, dumb, sweaty, hopelessly-outmaneuvered monkeyboys.
Mac OS X Pussy?
Sweetness!
Well, here’s hoping. I’ve been wanting my touch screen, iPhone-esque iPod for a looong time.
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I’ll be well disappointed if the new ipod UI is the one in the video. Come on apple stop milking things… a want a BRAND NEW 6g iPod…. with a brand new UI.
I wonder what the “new OS business segment and digital device family in 2008” is all about? A tablet Mac? Any guesses?
The weakest link in the iPod is the hard drive for various reasons.
The second is the customer: They seldom read the instructions, the warranty info or go online for self help.
Getting rid of the hard drive is a step in the right direction.
Bleh. Ugly.
And, incidentally, the time is inconsistent in this demo – time is off by a few seconds between Addis Ababa and Accra… looks decidedly un-Apple to me…
@ Linux Guy
Here’s your tablet Mac: http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook
1. buy aapl on pullbacks,
2. hold,
3. repeat.
Apple is in a panic. They’ve been forced to completely redesign a failing iPod because of Microsoft’s fantastic success with the superior Zune.
Hey Apple, those footsteps you hear are Microsoft blasting by you with an awesome plan for making your digital life portable and easy to use. How does it feel to enter a marketplace with poor partnerships and without a viable strategy which includes DRM and interfaces that only confuses customers? Losers.
Your potential. Our passion.™
If it ain’t broke, why fix it? I don’t see the current iPod as needing a whole new OS. After all, if the opinions expressed on MDN were characteristic of iPod users as a whole, Apple would be turning out iPods that would create lead from gold.
“those footsteps you hear are Microsoft blasting by you with an awesome plan”
That sounds plausible considering Microsoft’s thousands of programmers and billions in R & D, but most of us won’t be around when it actually happens some time near the heat death of the universe.
Erm, that would be “lead into gold”.
“Getting rid of the hard drive is a step in the right direction.”
Getting rid of the customer is probably easier.
I hope this is turns out to be true! My 40GB iPod Photo just died on me!
Busting…
… iPods that would create lead into gold?
You were right the first time…
… iPods that would create lead from gold.
If this Mac OS X interface shown in the video is any indication, it should be quite nice. We are only seeing a few interface elements. It sure looks a heckuva lot better than the current iPod OS.
I must say, a phoneless widescreen iPod with massive flash memory would be quite a feat. (And fit quite nicely in my briefcase.) Especially since those big (64GB?) flash “drives” are pretty expensive at this point. I’d want more than 80GB, since that’s what I’ve got now.
Maybe Apple’s economy of scale will drive the price down to a reachable and affordable level. Apple could probably promise to sell at least 5 million of the things a year. Could any other company wanting to use big flash memory cards promise the same?
Busting…
I’d prefer gold from lead, personally.
Or gold from shit, since it’s easier to get. Finally a use for the Zune!
i don’t care if has flash or platters, i want it to have a wifi safari like the iPhone, just no phone.
i think the odds are terrible. maybe someday, but not for years.
still, if santa or steve is listening, that is what i want!
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The new iPods will be “OS X” based, NOT “Mac OS X” based. Get it right. The iPhone runs on “OS X” not Mac OS X as well.
OS X and Mac OS X are not the same thing.
Here we go on the OS X VS. MAC OS X crap again… <sigh>
Here’s a news flash, folks, iPods have ALWAYS run OS X. Please read this:
http://www.roughlydrafted.com/RD/RDM.Tech.Q3.07/DD5FFFA5-2CDA-46C7-ADE9-E4AD4BF01602.html
OS X is a modular, portable OS that can be adapted to many platforms while retaining core features, toolsets and APIs. Splitting hairs and getting into semantic arguments is irrelevant.
Mac OS X runs on a Macintosh computer. OS X runs on the iPhone and on these new iPods. It’s really not that difficult to figure out…
Yup, this is good.
“OS X runs on the iPhone and on these new iPods.”
…and every other iPod in the world. Pixo was just the interface layer, like Quartz on the Mac. The article is not accurate.
Software designed for Mac OS X runs on Mac OS X computers, not on any other OS X based devices.
Besides, Apple does not refer to the OS on the iPhone or on the iPod as “Mac OS X” but rather as “OS X.” So I think I’ll go with what Apple themselves call it and not with what someone with a blog claims thank you very much.
@ ChrissyOne
Sometimes the lemmings never listen. What can ya do.