iPod Photo
 

Apple has just released a new iPod. The only new feature I see right now is Photo capability and color LCD with the OS X theme and it is ~.20" bigger. I have the iPod 4G 20GB right now, and I don't think I will be getting this new one since it is a little overpriced at $500 for 40GB and $600 for 60GB.

http://images.apple.com/ipodphoto/im...hs10262004.jpg

It looks cool, but needs video-playback to be worth the extra 200...

I have the 40G IPod, and the only real complaint I have with it is battery life when doing a lot of song skipping - it's good for about 4 1/2 hours tops...

What kind of battery life is this thing going to have?

Battery life is supposed to be "Up to 15 hours of music playback; up to 5 hours of slideshows with music". It's heavier and thicker because it has more battery in it.

Interesting that it didn't replace the current 20GB and 40GB models; this is just a separate product line. The screen has almost double the pixels; the renders look very nice.

agreed. haven't seen one in person yet, but have been holding out for a color screen. pix of it look nice. unfortunately though, i can't afford the extra $$... guess i'll have to wait a little longer for that price drop... damn that technological innovation! always changing... and getting better... :-\

some of the new battery replacements boast 22 hours of battery life...

Cynthetiq, are you talking about battery replacement as the sending it back to Apple to get a new battery installed, or doing a third party battery installation DIY style?

also, are you referring to the 4G ipod or another generation?

there is a lot of potential without video. I want some simple keynote presentation work.

But really it's like a picture phone without being able to take pictures or make calls.

1st thru 3rd generation...

and it's a 3rd party replacement... I don't remember where I saw it, I think in a NYTimes or Wired article.

Some people have found that performing a complete "restore to factory settings" brings back lost battery life; I haven't seen a good explanation, however. Remember that this deletes all the songs on the iPod, so only do this if you have everything saved elsewhere.

I have a 1st Gen 5 gb, and it no longer mounts. I uploaded some video to a folder inside the ipod, and after that it wouldn't mount to my computer or any other computer. I have not taken it to get fixed yet. I have been listening to music from 2003 for a long time.

I was excited to hear about this, mainly because I have an obscene amount of music. The 60 gig still won't quite hold all of my music, but if gives me hope that Apple will continue to make this thing bigger and bigger. When they introduced the 4th gen models without increasing size, I was a little worried.

I just hope they make the larger size available in the standard models, since I have no interest in taking my pictures with me.

Thanks for the info Cynthetiq.

Bionic Monkey, they are allowed to increase the hard drive capacity due to the ever shrinking hard drives provided by Toshiba. I think there was a post on TFP about the leak from Toshiba about sending their newest 60gig drives in the line used in ipods to apple and they were speculating this ipod would be released..

i think they will try to stick to this size for as long as possible.. honestly, all of these new "media players" i see that play divx and everything arent too useful for me.. they are large enough to be cumbersome for me to the point I would rather have my laptop.

also, as a side note, 60+ gigs of music is indeed a lot, so I would definatley agree with the obscene amount comment *grin*

No video :(

Tha battery life alone is good news. What's next? Maybe a cell phone? Video, of course. Maybe decent headphones?

I'm glad I haven't bought this product yet, because the photo feature really rocks. I've been saving money for months and I think that I will be able to purchase it by Christmas...

i guess i was just lucky, but my 10g ipod (which i bought second hand last time i was in japan) has never had battery issues.
as for the ipod photo... wow... 60g and colour... and in about two weeks there'll probably be a camera attachment from one of the 3rd party companies.
i really doubt Apple would allow there to be a battery life issue in this model since the battery and price are the only serious complaints that have been made.

and their goes all the resell value of my 3rd gen...

I barely ever use my Ipod anymore (bought it a little over a year ago) because the battery sucks so much. I was getting less an hour or less of play time when I stopped using it. Not sure if I trust any "22" or "15" hour claim right now.

it doesn't seem like they are using color as well as they could.
they should have some other designs/skins for the interface. right now it's indistinguishable from the macs of the mid nineties. yawn.

the 12 hour battery seems more like 8 now, after several weeks of use. it wouldn't be such a big deal if the battery was easily replaced.
also they should have the screen turn off after a given time (unless i just can't find this option). that would save some battery over extended listening periods.

Sounds like a bad idea.

Video playback would be good.
1. D/L movie off internet
2. put on ipod
3. plug into TV and watch
4. profit(not really)

Meh. I know there's something to be said for not carrying around half a dozen different devices everytime you leave the house. But everytime a company tries making a multiple-function device, it ends up doing neither well. I'd rather have several devices to that one thing exceptionally, than one or two devices that do a lot of things mediocre.

everyone here having battery issues, i dont know what you've done to it, but i have a original 5gb ipod from 2001 which stills getsabout 8 hours of battery life. Not bad considering the ammount of abuse i've put it through.

Iceburn, try booting it in firewire disk mode (hold down menu and pause a few seconds to reset it, then hold down forward and back until it boots up) Then try running the ipod software restore on it, whether you see it mount or not.

I went out to the Apple store this weekend to take my iBook in for repairs, and while there was able to look at the new iPod Photo. Now, I've been skeptical on this one since it was released -- who would want to look at photos on such a small screen? Seems to me that an iPod Photo should take the shape more of a Star Trek Datapad than the same shape of the current iPod. But then, I was also skeptical of the iPod itself when it was first announced (that is, up until I had one).

So what can I say about it? Well, it's neat. Navigating through photos was pretty painless and much more quick than I'd have figured (a perception mainly caused by iPhoto's slowness). The color screen is quite nice and I love the new click-wheel (which is also on the current iPod's and iPod mini's.) Back when I got my first iPod, I couldn't imagine how the interface could be improved upon. When I got the 3G iPod I lamented the circular buttons surrounding the wheel but enjoyed the non-moving parts. This new click wheel is perfect IMO, combining the best aspects from both.

Will I go out and buy one? No. While having photos on my iPod is neat, the small screen doesn't make it worth the price increase. Will I, every now and then, yearn for the ability to have photos on my iPod, yes, now that I've seen it done.

the entire structure for the ipod (Interactive Planned Obsolescense Device) should have been overhauled. whether it be by touch senstive screen, or a system where, like the discman i used before my ipod, i could use the buttons ON THE SIDE of the player to skip songs while the unit was still in my pocket, yo. if i am going to have to take the device out of my pocket just to go to "live forever" instead of "honey" by mariah carey, it should be a lot simpler than the dumb wheel that we get. it should be 3 BUTTON TAPS tops, 2 perhaps. the structure needs to be overhauled. i'm sure there is a better device out there, but lacking the highschool hip cache.

$600 is just too much. I imagine that within 4-6 months, we'll see a price drop.

I have a 30 GB iPod. I'd love to get a 60. Having color and photo ability is cool, although the screen is still small...as I read in a newspaper article, "it's just like a camera phone, except it can't make phone calls or take pictures." :)

If it goes down between $400 and $500 I'd probably consider it.

that's what the headphone remote is for...

I just purchased a 4G 40gig iPod from the NYC Apple Store while I was there on vacation.. (The apple store in NYC is beautiful!)

I'm very happy with my purchase, although the battery life has supposedly been fixed I am not at all impressed with it... but am willing to live with it as I like my iPod alot.

I wasn't impressed with the Color iPod at all. I have a Camera and I have a color PDA. I needed an MP3 player and nothing else, so I bought a standard non-photo iPod.

I am new to the iPod community.. Does anyone have any suggustions on customizing, etc. of my new iPod? (sorry for going off topic)

Is there any news on the video Ipod? Its been rumoured for ages...

Well, Steve Jobs has repeatedly said 'no' when asked about the video iPod.

My thoughts exacltly....I wonder why not?? Codecs?? Copyrights?

I jsut got my 40GB iPod and I looooooooove it.

I am so happy with it.

Steve Jobs says it again: no video iPod - Engadget
There might me a more recent quote from him as well, but it would say the same thing.

Gooid point from jobs...the ipod is perfect for what it does...duct taping video onto it..wouldn't be helped by its form/functionality. I'm guessing if the pod went video, it'd have to look completely different. Jobs is a smart man.

If they were to introduce video, the entire unit would have to be redesigned... a bigger screen, different controls, etc. I'm not so sure they could keep the unit that small with a large color screen... and the battery life would be terrible (I would think, even with lithium ion batts.)

The technology is there... units like the iRiver, etc. have proven it... but they are still pretty bulky in size, whereas the iPod probably wouldn't be accepted by the masses if it got much larger... iPod fans have gotten so used to the compact design.. I know I have, and I'd be apprehensive about buying anything much larger just to listen to music, etc. even if it did play video, I'm not sure I'd need it.

Besides, iPod is for music... my iBook plays the videos... :)

wanna sell it? pm me!

Well looks like I'm one of the few to get the photo. I like it, not sure if it was worth the extra $100 bucks but too late now. I like having my iPhoto lib with me to show off. My 10 gig iPod had filled up and I needed room to expanded. Any questions about it performance wise? let me know. Never really tested batt life...mostly connect it to odd PC speakers around campus throughout the day and the batt last me enough for that.

I agree, $600 is way too much IMO.

To think of what I can buy for $600, and then compare that to one iPod.. Seems very overpriced to me.

I'm getting close to maxing out my 30 GB iPod classic, and I have one question for those of you who have an iPod Photo.

I see what the Now Playing screen looks like when there is album art available for the track:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3.../ipodphoto.jpg

What does it look like when there isn't album art? Does it leave a blank box where the art would be, or does it move the text over so that you have more space to view the tags? (I'm trying to figure out if I need to start creating album art where it is missing, or to delete all the art that I've picked up along the way.)

Redlemon: It moves the text over just like on a normal now playing screen. Personally I have not loaded up much album art because I dont spend much time looking at the screen when it is playing.
Oh and the price of the ipod 60Gb is no longer $600. It has been lowered to $440-$450 depending on where you buy it. I got mine off newegg for 440 with free shipping and I will say this is a damn good investment.

I feel your pain about filling up the 30 GB. I have a 30 and I'm emptying it constantly to make room for new stuff.

I'm going to hold off until an 80 comes out. I imagine it'll happen late in the summer or early in the fall. The drive is out there, it's just a matter of time...