Apple has refreshed it’s line of iPods today. All iPods now boast a color screen similar to the iPod Photo. Also, iTunes 4.9 has been released with support for podcasting. Mac users can use Software Update, Windows users can download it here. And the new iTunes release is riddled with references to the iTunes phone, says AppleInsider.
It’s a feature not a bug
For some unknow reason apple decided that podcasts shouldn’t show up in your regular library. Maybe in the next version.
Downloading the iPod update VERY slowly, 8.5kbps… how did I ever survive before broadband.
Try one of these instead:
http://eng.iaudio.com/product/product_X5_feature.php
They don’t have a 60GB version, however …
– It requires no drivers and works like a USB keychain drive (so those of us who use decent file managers don’t need to run the horrible iTunes)
– Supports ogg and FLAC
– FM & voice recording on board, as well as line-in encoding
– Plays video
– Supports BOOKMARKS
I don’t own this (yet), but I do own one of their flash players – the iAudio G3. That thing owns
Bah, I was really hoping 10.4.2 would come out today. I want to see DNG 3.1 fixed and a improvement on safari which leaks memory like a sive since tiger.
Color screen iPods, I hope no one was amazed by this one.
What the heck, Apple does not have a option to remove podcasts from the menu. I can remove anything else there, but no such deal for them. I could care less about Podcasts. Is this why I can’t remove it unlike radio and other such things?
because many podcasters use BT to ofload the bandwidth from their poor little servers.
do you not care about Podcasts because you think they are all morons spewing into a Mic?
many news and radio shows are hitting the podcasts, including many good documentary and high brow discussion shows from BBC and CBC.
One step forward, two steps back. B&W LCD’s are great for viewing in direct sunlight. Most colour LCD’s are barely visable. Considering most ipods probably spend a lot of time outside, this sucks.
I’ll stick with the shuffle, thanks
Mine’s still black and white… am I missing something here?
Now I see, bad wording, I was wondering why they would ship a color screen and only do B&W… can you say brain fart?
youare totally clueless
Agreed
From Apple’s website:
“Now that iPod and iPod photo are one and the same…”
Kind-of a bummer for everyone who paid extra for an iPod photo, eh? Price you pay for living on the bleeding edge, I guess.
No, I simply don’t care about it. I’m sure others enjoy it, but I don’t see what the big deal is, much like RSS integration.
I just find it sad when stuff like this is big news. Also I just don’t want to see the podcasts deal and for some reason apple doesn’t give a option to remove it like radio, which seams massively inconsistent to me.
For those who do care about it, I hope it works well.
Afro, well, everyone knew this would happen. So those people shouldn’t feel bad cause they should have bought them knowing it would happen. I’m still waiting for the mini and the normal ipod to merge into one, maybe a size in-between or just the mini, but with bigger HDs. Won’t happen tomorrow, but someday they two will be one.
Oh well, I’m happy with my 1 gig shuffle, it’s nicely beat up now and humming along, no need for a HD based one. (unless maybe they come up with a nice built in solution for hooking it to my dSLR, then things will be different.
Brad wrote:
Bah, I was really hoping 10.4.2 would come out today. I want to see DNG 3.1 fixed and a improvement on safari which leaks memory like a sive since tiger.
Color screen iPods, I hope no one was amazed by this one.
Download XCode 2.1 DMG, WebKit and build it and watch Safari ramp up in performance, drop memory requirements and be more compliant.
“- Plays video”
Yes, but only at 15fps. Experiments have shown that the iPod photo (and now presumably any color iPod) can play video at a full 30fps with audio easy. Either that Linux-on-iPod project or a future Apple update will almost certainly enable this.
Also, the iAudio X5 misses out on the wonderful usability of the iPod. Ive never seen anything that comes within even a fraction of the ease of using that little click-wheel!
Its a good product, just not quite iPod good IMHO.
I have an iPod. I love my Macs. I’m using one right now to type this. I love everything that’s Apple, and I can sometimes get caught up with the ‘computer platform jihad’ that’s been around since forever.
But how is this story got any relevance to OSNews? The last time I checked, most people come to this site to read the latest news about operating systems. I fail to see the connection between this and a consumer portable music device such as the iPod.
and the stuff you get buying it.. I’d say it’s an excellent deal… for apple. The consumer is buying something overpriced, with less quality than many of the competitors. the X5 is simply more value for money.
On the other hand, people have bought shit before…
The Queen uses an iPod, it’s that simple.
Try explain to a child or grandmother how to use explorer or WMP to sync music and then go away and stop dissing the iPod.
In the past, I would have said the iPod was rubbish. It didn’t work with anything other than iTunes (and MusicMatch), you couldn’t view it just as a harddrive, not as feature rich, overpriced…. etc…
But I’ve found that most problems I’ve personally had with the iPod have now been fixed. Not only that, but I found a 20gb open item iPod at Best Buy for $100 off, with everything included, so I snatched that baby up.
Hey, the iPod has an OS as well…
Darius:
I’m sure the iAudio is a fantastic piece of kit but most of your assertions about the iPod are either FUD or subjective. Firstly, you can use your iPod as a ‘thumb’ drive. It doesn’t need drivers, but you do need the iPod updater software installed the first time you use it because the hard drive isn’t formatted.
Your point about iTunes is entirely subjective. For the most part I have absolutely no problem with using iTunes to put music onto my iPod – it seems to me to be the most efficient way to keep your songs organised on the player. As a media application in its own right, iTunes is pretty good. It’s streets ahead of WMP in terms of usability – WMP is a horrible cluttered mess. That’s not to say that iTunes doesn’t have its problems, but overall I like it.
As for the other features you mention: I’m not sure about FLAC (one lossless codec is exactly as good as any other really), but Ogg might be nice. Then again, why would I need it? It’s debatable whether or not it produces better-sounding files and both my iPod and iTunes have licenses for mp3/AAC so that isn’t an issue, for me. The functionality to record your own voice is very much a niche requirement, so the iPod’s inability to do so (out of the box) is not a particularly devastating shortcoming.
Finally, of all the MP3 players that I have come across, the iPod is one of the most user-friendly. I bought my fiancèe a mini and within twenty minutes of opening it, she was ripping her CDs to it without any hassles.
Really, the only significant downside to the iPod (as in, entirely non-subjective) is the price which is admittedly high. Personally, I feel that mine were worth the price (the mini perhaps a little less so, given that for an extra €60 I could have gotten an iPod with four times the space) purely because of the build quality, usability and actual use I’ve gotten out of it.
did they simply remove the original ipod, rename the ipod photo, and downgrade the low end one from 30 gb to 20 gb? Did anything else change at all?