ThinkSecret "confirms" 3.5-inch touchscreen iPod with hard drive

ThinkSecret is tooting its own horn with a supposed confirmation they've obtained of an iPhone-sized (3.5-inch), hard drive-based, touchscreen iPod -- ThinkSecret started talking up a touchscreen iPod 20 months ago, and apparently all that blind rumoring is finally paying off. This contradicts reports of there being flash memory in the device, and is the first time we've heard anyone sound so confident about the 3.5-inch screen size -- though it seems likely that Apple will want to use the same screen as the iPhone for bulk ordering and familiar components -- but otherwise there aren't many surprises. ThinkSecret expects up to 120GB of storage on the 1.8-inch HDD, and sees WiFi as a definite possibility, but doesn't think the reports about internet radio are too on-target. And of course, the iPod nano is supposed to go QVGA, with video playback and up to 12GB or 16GB of storage. We'd make our usual assurances of all being found out tomorrow, but in reality we're just one day away from the next round of rumors beginning, so it's a small comfort.

[Bevon Findley @ Sep 4th 2007 2:11PM]

Wow! I wont believe til i see it.

[gfar @ Sep 4th 2007 3:39PM]

Wow, I won't buy it even after I see it!!

What's the deal with people upgrading their mp3 players? Don't their current ones play .mp3s anymore? Or is it because they can't replace the battery?

[o29 @ Sep 4th 2007 4:03PM]

MP3 players lose their hip value at the rate of 5 points per month after release.

[Ryan @ Sep 4th 2007 4:06PM]

I'd consider it, but then that's because I'm still using a 1st generation iPod. The battery life is still alright, but not what it could be, otherwise, it's still an MP3 player, and that's what I care about. That's why I haven't upgraded with every revision, like some people I know.

[Jeremy Banks @ Sep 4th 2007 4:11PM]

gfar, iPods do play MP3s, and anyone who hasn't gotten that straight after this long is an idiot.

[LiQuiD_FuSioN @ Sep 4th 2007 4:15PM]

"What's the deal with people upgrading their mp3 players? Don't their current ones play .mp3s anymore? Or is it because they can't replace the battery?"

I love digital audio players, and find them very fascinating. So, I like to read up on them as much as I can and see what's going on.

For me, the Apple event scheduled for tomorrow will be very exciting for me. It will keep me from going insane to say the least knowing that there is new technology out there for me to research and try out. ;)

And also, I'd really like to see an upgrade for my current 5G iPod. I need more space to fit all my music on and would love to watch my videos in higher-resolution with a brighter screen. I think I deserve to treat myself with something nice now and then too, ya know! That's just my opinion and hope that helps a little.

[josh @ Sep 4th 2007 4:26PM]

"whats the deal with people upgrading..."

well, mine is 2+ years old at this point and has been dropped many times. i assume the hard drive is gonna pack it in sooner or later. also, i'd love to have more than 60GB of space (i use mine to shuttle files between the office and home so i regularly have 10-20 gb of files on there without even counting music or videos), and if it's actually a touchscreen with a screen as nice as the iphone, i'd like to load it up with my portfolio (i'm a photographer) to show off to potential clients i meet. the screen on my current player is too small to really do that. it would be very nice to hand someone i meet my card, then my ipod and let them thumb through my portfolio.

if it has wifi and a browser, that's a big plus too. im often stuck trying to check movie times, etc on my phone's browser (not an iphone, just a normal phone) which is very lackluster. if i could just pop into any of the places that have wifi and use a wifi ipod, that would be a nice feature. not one i would use every day but it would be nice.

[Jason @ Sep 4th 2007 4:27PM]

@gfar: I'm personally looking for something with a bigger HDD to replace my 4GB mini. It still works just fine, plays mp3s just fine, and the battery still holds a charge just fine, but my digital music collection has now far outgrown it. Personally I actually LIKE the iPod, and iTunes, so I'm looking forward to this newest generation of the iPod to replace my mini.

[gfar @ Sep 4th 2007 5:09PM]

i have a 4gb iPod mini 2nd gen. I don't drop it all the time, and it works fine still, and I have no desire to be able to change songs by touching the screen instead of pushing the click wheel.

I don't need to have tens of gigs of mp3s on it at once, it takes about 5 minutes to create a new playlist and synch it.

My BlackBerry already has gps, wifi browser, mp3 player and a video player too. It's better than an iPhone, (ya, ya, ya, my opinion only) and I still can't believe how excited people are to spend $500 on a new *just* mp3 player when they spent that 2 years ago.

http://www.blackberry8800series.co.uk/blackberry8820/


Jeremy Banks -- thanks for the tip, idiot.

[tb @ Sep 4th 2007 7:06PM]

What's the deal with people upgrading their mp3 players?
because my 1GB shuffle is not enough for long days and i have so many songs I don't know the title it's nice to have a screen(and also cause I wait for that kind of iPod (wifi, touch, etc) since the 2nd gen ipods)

[diulei @ Sep 4th 2007 2:11PM]

Sounds good if it's true, as this is something I'd buy. But won't Apple be worried about cannibalizing iPhone sales? I know there are a lot of people who'd rather buy an iPhone for the DAP capabilities rather than the phone.

[Constable Odo @ Sep 4th 2007 3:15PM]

I think there will be some overlap, but anyone that has an 8 GB iPhone will not be satisfied with just that if a big honking hard drive iPod is available. They'll keep the iPhone and still buy the iPod. That's a no brainer. At least that's the way the people in NYC do it. You just can't fit enough music or videos on an 8 GB iPhone. Where's the rest of your media gonna reside? Not just sitting on some computer, for sure.
Guaranteed, Apple knows it's audience. You think people will buy only one or the other? Nope. They'll definitely buy both. You wait and see.

[L @ Sep 4th 2007 3:26PM]

I'd say buying both is just plain stupid if that iPod has WiFi and a browser too. I'd rather have a small and nice phone than a pretty much huge iPhone and a big iPod...

[gibber9583 @ Sep 4th 2007 2:12PM]

thats a pretty big screen there mr. jobs

[Michael Lipkin @ Sep 4th 2007 2:18PM]

I have such a love/hate relationship with Apple announcements. I love to find out what's up, but dear god does the build-up get aggravating.

[Reyes @ Sep 4th 2007 2:21PM]

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaant.

[Dean @ Sep 4th 2007 2:23PM]

Who wants to bet it still doesn't have a built in FM tuner?

[Killian @ Sep 4th 2007 2:29PM]

and it never will, so no need to ever make this comment again. I don't know about you, but I got my iPod so I didn't have to listen to the radio

[Dean @ Sep 4th 2007 2:37PM]

There are three reasons I won't be buying an iPod without an FM tuner:

1. NPR
2. Sporting Events
3. Emergency Broadcasts

And they made a $50 tuner dongle, so I would hardly say it'll never be integrated.

[Josh @ Sep 4th 2007 3:10PM]

Um, Sporting events, at least where I am, are on AM. I would buy one with AM in a heartbeat. (Sports, news, talk). Music that's on FM is useless to me.

[ksat @ Sep 4th 2007 2:43PM]

I totally agree... There are several reasons to build in an FM Radio and to completely eliminate it from any iPod-line devices is basically eliminating a whole portion of your market. As I said in the other thread, I would bet majority of the fitness centers around use FM band to transmit TV audio to the listener. Have iPod? No TV Audio for you!

Plus, HD Radio should be easy enough, shouldn't it? I don't know what all is involved in adding HD Radio - but, why not lead the pack on this front and include it on all new iPods?

[Karim @ Sep 4th 2007 2:50PM]

> 1. NPR

I *used* to use the Radio Remote for iPod... right up until the last of the good NPR shows turned into a podcast.

- News from Lake Wobegon
- Writer's Almanac
- Selected Shorts
- Car Talk
- Wait Wait Don't Tell Me
- On the Media
- Studio 360
- RadioLab
- This American Life

Plus I don't have stay up until 2 AM to listen to Selected Shorts, then get up at 6:50 AM to hear The Writer's Almanac :-)

Free iTunes podcasts FTW!

[redvette @ Sep 4th 2007 3:11PM]

wow dean...emergency broadcasts over the radio is a reason your not buying an ipod? damn, being that much of a freakshow, you might not want to think really hard about this as you could get an an aneurysm.

[ulovemikeroch @ Sep 4th 2007 6:58PM]

So killian, you mean to say that if you have a DAP with radio, that automatically means you have to use and listen to the radio? I'm pretty sure I can get a better DAP with radio, for about the same price and better features, and yet I still don't have to use the radio function. *Gasp* I guess Apple is not as good as everyone thinks.

Sure all you people might say you don't need radio, but I personally think it's better to have it even if you don't use it. It's not like the radio function adds 3 inches to a DAP. Look at the Mobiblu Cube 1500DAH, or the Cube2. It has radio, and those things are freaking tiny. Radio is like a 5 dollar feature anyways, and the DAP's that do have it are all similarly priced. (Which is basically almost every player out there on the market except for the iPod.)

[John @ Sep 4th 2007 4:29PM]

Because it would kill you to hear about the funnel cloud over the hills and out of your vision. Bravo.

I have no love for the radio, but it serves a purpose. If it ends up in the iPod, cool. If not, no big deal. If they do add it in, it ought to have an option to allow emergency broadcasts to cut in, even if the radio is off. Sounds annoying, but they don't have emergency broadcasts THAT often. Heck, those of us who have a little common sense wouldn't need an emergency broadcast switch; we'd just check it out ourselves when things don't look right.

[aograin @ Sep 4th 2007 4:44PM]

@ redvette: Love the Lewis Black reference :)

[Kris Burbidge @ Sep 4th 2007 2:23PM]

This might be the first time I actually buy a new Apple product that just came out. Check that, I'll go buy a refurb 80GB for way cheap once this comes out. ha ha ha!

[kuzu-b @ Sep 4th 2007 2:24PM]

Now watch when other people start making touchscreen mp3 players people will yell iPod ripoff... despite the fact the I bought a 3.5 in touchscreen mp3 player with a hard drive 3 years ago. But I guess it doesn't count as stealing until Apple does it first huh?

[Peppie @ Sep 4th 2007 2:29PM]

No, only when the apple fanboys compare their product to yours and say theirs is better (predictably)is it stealing :P

[Constable Odo @ Sep 4th 2007 2:47PM]

And may I ask, exactly what player was that? Is the company still in existence? I'd like to see some of it's current models. I know that Archos still has touch screen models.

[kuzu-b @ Sep 4th 2007 4:02PM]

It was called the m:robe, it was decent for 3 years ago, only complaint was that searching was so slow (because of the hard drive) The screen was absolutely gorgeous though. I don't think they support it anymore, and I wouldn't buy another one unless they made it thinner and faster, but I just wanted to let it be known that this is a clear case of a product that has an obvious design, so when you start seeing touch screen mp3 players a year from now, I don't want people crying iPod ripoff.

And one correction, it had a 3.7 inch touch screen.

[jason51873 @ Sep 4th 2007 4:53PM]

I totally agree - look at iTv - linksys and netgear where making products that do the same thing a long time before iTv came out. But people still drone on and on about how "innovative" iTv is.

Remove the MAC logo and all of a sudden its a copy cat POS that only "windows fan boys" like.

[Liam @ Sep 5th 2007 1:31PM]

firstly its apple TV, if they called it iTV and sold it here in the UK they would have got sued like crazy and had to change the name due to us having channels called iTV.

I know what your saying about people crying its a stolen idea, i was unaware there was other touchscreen mp3 players out there but i do believe you.

Also i have never heard anyone say how revolutionary apple tv is at all, if anything i hear so many complaints, i never invested in it personally as i stream everything from my mac to my xbox. A lot of gadgets do this now, i have even seen a dvd player that streams from pc's. Anyone who says apple tv is revolutionary might need to rethink this opinion.

[Patrick Ryan @ Sep 4th 2007 2:25PM]

Eh. I'm cool with it as long as it doesn't come with a price increase. I, and I think most people, never use and never will use the video part of the video iPod.

[Mark @ Sep 4th 2007 6:05PM]

I would never ever use the 'video' ability of an iPod...who wants to watch a movie on a screen that small? I purchased the iPod nano for that reason. I wish Apple would have continued the line of iPods which have 20+ gigs but no video on it. I don't wish to pay for a feature that I'm not going to use.

[James @ Sep 4th 2007 2:34PM]

Never use the video part of a video iPod? Are you serious? Ever heard of DVDFab? That's the sole reason I'm buying the new iPod.

[Michael @ Sep 4th 2007 2:40PM]

I may be in the minority, and I agree it's not the most ideal way to watch something but I've used my iPod to watch several TV Shows & some movies while traveling. It's especially convenient when crammed into a coach seat on a plane. Now that I've upgraded to an iPhone I find it much more pleasurable to watch movies on it when the laptop just isn't feasible.

[Constable Odo @ Sep 4th 2007 3:16PM]

You might be in the minority. I've watched so many shows and have a nice library of iPod videos. I've watched many seasons worth of The Simpsons, X-Files, Stargate SG-1, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, Serenity. The whole miniseries of Band of Brothers. I use an ADS Instant Video-To-Go dongle and it can batch convert .avi files to .mp4 so fast it'll spin your head.

I can certainly understand if you have no need to watch videos on a tiny screen, but I'm telling you that this is what's gonna drive future PMP and cellphone sales whether it makes much sense to you or not.

[waiownsyou @ Sep 4th 2007 2:30PM]

Personally, I don't care (and I don't see why anyone else would) about a new iPod. Almost everyone has an iPod. They all do the same thing, only with a little more features and glitz. It's like buying a 2007 model car to replace a 2006 model car that's exactly the same, only the door handles are modified.

But psh. Apple always throws nice reveal parties. It's only one month until OS X Leopard, so let's get ready for the next wave of OSes! WEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[Karim @ Sep 4th 2007 3:05PM]

Totally apt analogy, because everyone knows, in the automotive industry between 2006 and 2007, the size of the windshield DOUBLED, along with the number of passenger seats. LOL

[rey_rodriguez @ Sep 4th 2007 2:31PM]

AWEEEEEEEEEEEEEESOME!

[Constable Odo @ Sep 4th 2007 2:33PM]

That's the model I'm getting. I knew it had to be. Anything less is going backwards for Apple and serious iPod users. This is going to be the killer model and Apple's stock will soar through the Christmas holidays. Let me count the ways:
wide-screen
120 GB hard drive
MultiTouch
WiFi
extended life battery
digital radio
OTA downloads
$400
A possibility of iPod-to-iPod Chat function.

I think a lot of strictly PMP manufacturers are going to lose even more market share. This will be the must-have device for back-to-school use. That stock pundit Cramer said that those companies might as well give up and go into another business that the iPod doesn't touch.

[riggs @ Sep 4th 2007 2:44PM]

KEEP DREAMING

[l0ftn @ Sep 4th 2007 2:50PM]

why does anyone in school need a recreational device

[k-karcher @ Sep 5th 2007 8:00AM]

What's the point of multitouch on something as small as an iPod, if you generally use the device with one hand?

And wouldn't apple releasing an "iTouchPod" compete with their new iPhone? It doesn't make any sense to release a device that supposedly does everything, then another one that does less. If they really are releasing an iTouchPod, they should have released it before the iPhone, that way there's appropriate technological buildup and anticipation behind it.

[Constable Odo @ Sep 5th 2007 10:58AM]

I don't have any idea what's going to be released. I'm just adding up all the features that the rumors I've read indicate. I'll wait and see today before I pass judgment.

[Justin @ Sep 4th 2007 2:38PM]

A 120 gig touchscreen video iPod would be a dream come true...that comes two months two late. Now that I have an iPhone, i'm not really looking to double up and buy a touchscreen iPod.

I'm not a capacity hound and i need my phone/e-mail so i'm not interested in trading in the iPhone for this device. But i'm definitely intrigued. This would be a great birthday gift for mom.

I'm more interested in the Beatles in iTMS rumor to be honest. Ringo recently added his catalog to the store, so all signs point to..."maybe"?

I also hope any UI updates featured on the iPod will also be updated on the iPhone. But that goes without saying.

[ScOObyDoo @ Sep 4th 2007 2:38PM]

Has ThinkSecret EVER been right about a new iPod?

[J. Chung @ Sep 4th 2007 2:51PM]

Well, they've been doing "spray and pray" on their rumors for quite a long time, so I guess they got something about iPod right... rarely.
I personally don't believe ThinkSecret.

[Alex @ Sep 4th 2007 2:39PM]

If it's the same thing with a different interface, I think it's just a facelift and won't buy it. Still most people will still buy it for the coolness factor. I call that a waste of money. Here's how it works: nothing new, but yours is old, you must get the new one.