If this was real I'd buy one now.....

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 08/03/2006 13:54

Well, no one here said it was rumored. There was only a post with a link to an obviously faked image of a handheld video player. I just pointed out that there was a device out there now that has a great screen and can play videos.

Posted by: webroach

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 08/03/2006 20:43

Quote:
... obviously faked image of a handheld video player....

Ok, I'm curious. I can do some damage with Photoshop, and I don't see this. How is it "obviously fake"?

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 08/03/2006 21:06

Well, I suppose I don't have any real evidence, but Andy did say "if this were real", ISTR the web site saying that they were fake (though, in retrospect, I may have misread something), the brightness looks way off in the last picture, especially when compared to the reflection below it, and something seemed "off" about the middle one, which I've come to the conclusion is that the image seems to rest directly on the surface of the device, rather than a few millimeters inside it.

I could be wrong, though.

Posted by: webroach

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 08/03/2006 22:58

The only reason I ask is that it not only looks real to me, but is also the spitting image of what ThinkSecret hinted Apple was working on. I have yet to find them wrong.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 01:01

You have yet to find Thinksecret wrong? They're wrong on most points most of the time. I've never seen them post concise rumors. They always jump all over the map and provide so many details that regardless of what happens they'll get some right. They're doing what most of the fake psychics do. Just look at the recent press event or Macworld in January. The rumor sites were all spitting out countless product releases only to hit a few points of one or two products.

While working at my previous employer, we had prototype systems before anyone else outside of Apple. Often 6 months or more before anyone else. I'd read Thinksecret and other rumor sites every now and then and see how far off reality they were. There's no doubt some of their information did come from the inside. But a lot (and I do mean a LOT) was just complete BS and entirely fabricated. So many times it was clear to see the only reason they got even a few facts correct was by pure luck. We didn't work on the Mini, but I knew it was coming - and with integrated Intel graphics. And also knew it wouldn't be at Macworld. Big deal.

It will be quite coincidental if Apple releases something that looks like those images. First because identical images have been generated by countless people for over a month - I really don't know who made the first mockup. And of course because I don't remember seeing any Apple product scooped with accurate images before its release in the past. Just look at the BS about the Apple "boombox" recently.

Bruno

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 02:51

I can't imagine that thing would have more than 45 minutes of battery life playing movies off a hard drive. You can throw some more RAM in it for caching, and you can scale videos to the rez of the screen, but it's still not going to last too long.

Matthew

Posted by: Dignan

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 15:17

Quote:
I can't imagine that thing would have more than 45 minutes of battery life playing movies off a hard drive.

???

The 5G iPod plays movies off a hard drive...

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 15:43

Quote:
The 5G iPod plays movies off a hard drive...

Reviews seem to indicate that it gets 2 hours of life playing video. And it's got a screen half the size. Double the screen size won't use twice the power, but its bound to use quite a bit.

Matthew

Posted by: Dignan

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 16:06

Quote:
Reviews seem to indicate that it gets 2 hours of life playing video.

Really? Wow, I hadn't seen that. My appologies. I was under the impression it was much better than that. That makes me even more skeptical about seeing a thin PMP from Apple.

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 09/03/2006 16:24

Apple seems to claim 2 to 3. It'll only get worse if they let you play movies that aren't specifically encoded for the iPod's tiny screen.

Matthew

Posted by: webroach

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 10/03/2006 00:27

The iPod only allows video files with fairly specific formatting to be played. I generally get about three hours of video on mine with a full charge. But I don't really have it for videos. I have it as a portable MP3 player that just happens to allow videos.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 10/03/2006 03:03

Quote:
I have it as a portable MP3 player that just happens to allow videos.

I guess that makes sense. They keep emphasizing that video is a second thought. Maybe the design of the video iPod will address some of these problems.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 12/03/2006 18:53

Quote:
at my previous employer, we had prototype systems before anyone else outside of Apple.

So if you happened to know *just* the right time to buy Apple stock, would that be considered insider trading? Oh wait, previous employer. Darn.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 12/03/2006 22:20

In a strict sense, I suppose it could be considered insider trading if I were to have traded Apple stock. However the information I was aware of was not significant enough to give me a large advantage, or any at all for that matter. Unless there was a big event like Macworld, I didn't know when a product would be announced. And even though I knew how much money my employer would be getting for some of the contracts, trading our own stock was also a huge gamble. In simple terms, the product knowledge gave no advantage in trading the stock of either company - unfortunately.

Bruno

Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 05/04/2006 10:22

Hmmm wasn't there supposed to be a press conference from Apple on the 4th? I've not read anything

Posted by: Shonky

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 05/04/2006 10:26

April 1st actually I think it is traditionally for Apple. I haven't seen anything. I'm ready to buy today too. Still looking at the Toshiba Gigabeats and the new unreleased S60 is looking pretty nice as an iPod video competitor. Not as good as what is here though (if it exists)

Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 05/04/2006 12:03

I hope this wasn't it

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 05/04/2006 12:18

Apple have been working on Boot Camp for a few months now, but as I mentioned in another thread, I'm surprised they didn't introduce one or two products - like a new iBook. I believe BC was supposed to be released on Monday and I think I know why it wasn't. I'm just glad they managed to do it today and not next month.

I don't believe anything official was ever mentioned about a press conference though. At least I didn't notice. April 1st being a Saturday was almost surely out, even though it was Apple's 30th anniversary.

Bruno

Posted by: Dignan

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 05/04/2006 14:31

I'm pretty sure that Stevie said something about an announcement a while ago. I haven't tried to find a quote, but the guys at Engadget sounded suprised there wasn't an announcement either.

I didn't expect one on Saturday, but I thought there would be an invite sent out to journalists at least. Oh well, it's early in the month still. If there are no invites out by the 20th or something, then it will seem less likely that they'll have a press conference this month...

Posted by: DLF

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 01/06/2006 17:57

Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but here's something small and relatively low capacity (flash memory) that does (limited) MPEG4 video on what is essentially the whole front of the device. Even uses the screen edges for the interface controls, though I wonder about that.

Quote:

Blah blah blah

I'd love to see the iPod go full-surface screen.

Snip, snip snip

Bruno

Posted by: DWallach

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 01/06/2006 18:32

Do any non-Apple products fit into an iPod docking station? Now that it's being directly supported by cars, boomboxes, and other assorted gizmos, there's no particular reason that somebody other than Apple couldn't do it (except, of course, patent restrictions...).

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 01/06/2006 19:17

Do any of the "directly supported by cars" gizmos not suck?

Posted by: rob

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 02/06/2006 00:38

Quote:
Do any non-Apple products fit into an iPod docking station? Now that it's being directly supported by cars, boomboxes, and other assorted gizmos, there's no particular reason that somebody other than Apple couldn't do it (except, of course, patent restrictions...).

Apple have some very definite views about people doing that. It will be a brave company that is first to try it (or one with nothing to lose). Apple also have some technical tricks up their sleeves which would make this sort of thing very hard for products with certain functionality. Of course I can't talk about that at all.

Rob

Posted by: tfabris

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 02/06/2006 05:36

Quote:
Apple have some very definite views about people doing that.

That's really too bad. Because our world would benefit from a universal car dock for portable MP3 players. If Apple wants car MP3 audio to be truly accepted in a widespread way, and wants their players to be the most-used players for this purpose, then they need to get THEIR docks into every car. And most car manufacturers won't do that if the dock is proprietary.

If Apple opens up their dock spec, and removes the proprietary and technical limitations to other people making dock-compatible players, then they will be the pioneers and leaders in a new market that will just explode. They're in the perfect position to do it right now.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 02/06/2006 11:13

I think they're going the other route. Making the iPod ubiquitous. People won't think of anything else when they think of file-based digital audio, so if car manufacturers want to add value to their configurations, an iPod dock that's compatible only with iPod is as "universal" as they ever need get.

I still think iPod integration will continue to be a premium or "special edition" type offering for some time to come. Adoption rates for mainstream technology has grown tremendously in the past 10-15 years, so what I'm abut to say isn't a linear comparison, but think of how long it took car manufacturers to offer CD players as standard. The CD came to market in 1982.

Bruno

Posted by: Dignan

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 02/06/2006 12:56

Quote:
Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but here's something small and relatively low capacity (flash memory) that does (limited) MPEG4 video on what is essentially the whole front of the device. Even uses the screen edges for the interface controls, though I wonder about that.

The Clix is pretty, small, and supposedly the UI is very good. But there's no way that 2GB is going to be enough for anyone, really. I really wish they had made it twice (or four times) as large, stuck a 1.8" disk in there, and made something really fantastic. As it is it's probably good for riding the subway/bus into work in the mornings, but I still don't think I'd want to watch anything on that small a screen for an hour.

There's also the Samsung Sansa e270, which has 6GB and is about the size of the Nano (though about twice as thick). That has the same screen size problems, but it has more disk space and uses Micro SD expansion. I'm still not going to get it due to its size.

At the moment I think I have three choices:
1) wait for Apple to finally get around to the damn video iPod, although I'll still have to grapple with the thought of using iTunes (I do so love mass storage devices)
2) get an Archos AV5100 (nickname for the 100GB AV500). I had the AV530, but even that was too small for me when I factored in the video with the music. The 5100 is much bigger, but I love the disk space.
3) the Toshiba Gigabeat S. It's a pretty good looking device, I must say. It's got a respectable 60GB drive, and an okay-sized screen (although 2.4" might be pushing it).

Posted by: Gleep

Re: If this was real I'd buy one now..... - 02/06/2006 17:00

Quote:

At the moment I think I have three choices:
1) wait for Apple to finally get around to the damn video iPod, although I'll still have to grapple with the thought of using iTunes (I do so love mass storage devices)
2) get an Archos AV5100 (nickname for the 100GB AV500). I had the AV530, but even that was too small for me when I factored in the video with the music. The 5100 is much bigger, but I love the disk space.
3) the Toshiba Gigabeat S. It's a pretty good looking device, I must say. It's got a respectable 60GB drive, and an okay-sized screen (although 2.4" might be pushing it).

Have you seen the Cowon A2?

If this was real I'd buy one now.....