Apple says WiFi-equipped iPods are the wave of the future... maybe
By Joshua Topolsky 
posted January 22nd 2008 5:36PM
posted January 22nd 2008 5:36PM
posted January 22nd 2008 5:36PM
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@Zach
Good points. The thing about Sprint is that they offer an "unlimited" data plan for $25 (as low as $10 if you play your cards right and are on a corporate plan). Couple that with a $15 a month plan for "all you can eat" music? I'd pay $25 a month to have access to unlimited music, everywhere.
A way to mitigate the bandwidth problem would be to cap the bandwidth on cellular traffic. So you want to "stream" off your home computer? EvDO streaming is only available up to 48k AAC - a reasonable amount. Once you're home and on wifi? No longer limited. Songs from the server aren't streamed at all, they're downloaded.
Like I said, good points, but I doubt that they're insurmountable. Plus, if you're only allowing song data (rather than internet traffic, at the base subscription level) then you have a lot less to deal with, and a possible up-sell.
how come every post on apple ends with a 'maybe'..are you guys so insecure?
It's to counter the claims of Apple bias ;)
they sound like a forerunner but Archos, SanDisk, and Microsoft respectively did it before them
And HP (and Compaq before them) has been doing it for years with their iPaq line of PDA's.
Ok. Look. Comparing the Zune to the iPod touch and then criticising the Zune for not doing the same thing is really missing a lot of facts along the way.
The Zune is comparable to the iPod Classic. And unlike the iPod line - ALL Zunes have WiFi. To get WiFi on the iPod you have just one choice: the touch (or the iPhone if you want to get a phone with it) which has a touchscreen. That's not the market Microsoft was aiming at with the Zune. Get over it.
Clearly, without a touchscreen or a keyboard, putting a browser or email into a Zune would be pointless... although should they decide that having some other kind of input makes it possible, it's just an upgrade (Zunes are based on WinCE, so it's not hard to do).
The important point is that when Apple puts a feature in a device that isn't exceptionally useful in general use - YET - the Apple fans will defend it as being forward thinking and innovative, yet when anyone else - especially Microsoft - does exactly the same thing, it's stupid and pointless.
You can't have it both ways.
The Zune - when compared to roughly equivalent Apple products - is very well designed, has some interesting innovations and is forward thinking. Did they get it all right? Lord no. Are some of the ideas going to work in the future? Hard to tell. Can they be modified?
Well - here's the thing - my first gen Zune got the same firmware upgrade all the second gen Zunes got - and inherited most of the same features. It's one thing to talk about how 'Apple can add a feature in the future with an upgrade' but Microsoft has actually done it. Apple tends not to do this to motivate you to buy a new unit.
As for WiFi for MUSIC related features, at the moment both the touch and the Zune have weaknesses - and the iPod Classic/Nano doesn't have the feature at all. The fact is, this time - like it or not, Microsoft was the innovative one.
How about showing some class for once and just admit it, pat Microsoft on the back and move on. I'm sure there'll be lots more for you to find to dump on in the future.
"As for WiFi for MUSIC related features, at the moment both the touch and the Zune have weaknesses - and the iPod Classic/Nano doesn't have the feature at all. The fact is, this time - like it or not, Microsoft was the innovative one."
Come on, Jeff.
WiFi to beam heavily DRMed songs back and forth to mp3 players? Where was the innovation? It was nothing more than a gimmick, something meant to separate the Zune from the iPod. Not to mention the fact that Toshiba created the original product that MS simply rebranded.
Apple created a new mobile operating system with far better power management, a wireless store and a very useful web browser before the thought of WiFi on portable devices became meaningful (at least in America).
Now if you want to say Archos or iRiver innovated there first then I'd accept that since they did A LOT with WiFi, cumbersome as it may be, before the iPhone/iPod touch came along. And the Zune 2 has improved in its implementation so I wouldn't call it useless as some do. But to imply that squirting songs back and forth is comparable to Apple creating a new mobile platform is downright flawed.
O really? Apple says wifi iPods are the way to go? So why don't they freakin' make one! It is technologically possible to make an iPod that does not require iTunes at all. It would subscribe to podcasts and download media files over wifi all on its own. It could also work as a network share device so you could send files to it from any computer on the network. Apple's #1 problem is they create devices capable of X, Y, and Z, but they only write software that implements X.
I think its completely stupid Apple didnt put a camera in the iPod touch. My kid borrows my iphone all the time just to play with the camera, I was going to get him an iPod touch to have (and to hack and put all the games he likes on it) and I realized it didnt have a speaker or a camera. Lame.
As crazy as this concept may seem, you could always get... a camera. You know, for taking pictures. Instead of complaining that your iPod doesn't have one.
As crazy as this concept may seem, you missed Bob's point. The general idea is that iPod touch is nothing more than the iPhone sans cellular radio, bluetooth, and camera.
Apple went as far as to put a web browser into a PMP, is it absurd to reason that they should not have taken the camera out of the iPod touch? Not at all.
If technology is available, use it. Apple already has iphone with a camera and speaker, so why remove it from their version without the cell phone capabilities.
i think its the applications community that makes the ipodT great and i think THAT is the wave of the future. Anyone can throw a wifi adapter in their pmp.
I don't think it's a good idea to completely wipe the standalone music players, never. I think the touch will be the Wi-Fi part of it.
"The iPod market is bigger than just for simple music players, one of the iPod's future direction is to be one of the first WiFi mobile platforms."
minus the fact of every other fucking WiFi mobile platforms out there, zune, sansa, EVERY other thing
damn, it won't be the first, it will just be yet another one.
What is that Bejeweled icon on the touch in the pic? I don't have that on my touch and I bought the darn upgrade.
It's a webclip icon of the Bejeweled game you can play at http://www.popcap.com.
I just like my mp3 players to play music thanks.
I have a ipod touch. It really needs support for 802.1x. I am a student. The campus uses 802.1x for connecting to the wireless system. I looked up that many campuses and businesses use it also.
I for one don't want wifi on my music player, if i'm an area with no open wifi what would be the purpose of it for me nothing.
How many places do you go to that have open wifi
Tons, actually. Outside of my house, many libraries and other public facilities. Also, many (well, maybe not many, but more than you'd think) people have open networks, years ago, when I had gotten a Cingular 8125 (*nostalgia*), I was surprised to see how many open networks there were.
Besides, a lot more communities are working on providing free WiFi access. WiFi and other wireless internet technologies truly are the wave of the future.
You know, it gets really, really, really old hearing Apple declare they are the first to do things, just to have the media blindly go along with them. So you think that wireless connectivity might be the "wave of the future" when it comes to media players? Gee, maybe that has something to do with why Sony/Ericsson sold 50 million Walkman Phones over the past few year, and Nokia has sold hundreds of millions of music phones!
What is really sickening is that for year Apple has maintained this myth that they control the media player market by releasing figures of "dedicated" media player sales that factor out phones, factor out PDAs, factor out smartphones, and pretty much anything but an iPod, then say "look we have 95% of all the device sales of things that are exactly like our product." Anytime anyone pointed out that their phone, or PDA, could do the same thing and more, people would come back and say "that doesn't count, because we are talking about dedicated players, and no one wants a phone or web browser, or calender, or note app on their dedicated media player, which is why the iPod is so brilliant." Now, about 5 years late, Apple comes out with a brain dead PDA that has a calender, and note app, and web browser, and everyone says "how does Apple come up with such brilliant ideas? No one else ever thought to put those features in a touchscreen media player! they are brilliant, and this is the wave of the future!"
Guess what, these have been out for a long time, they are called PDAs, and many companies were putting them out before there even was an iPod! God, people are stupid!
I don't get why you're so angry. Where did Apple claim they were the first ones to implement wireless into a music player? Can you show me where they said that? I think you're getting mad for no real reason.
"So you think that wireless connectivity might be the 'wave of the future' when it comes to media players?"
Wave of the future is Engadget's headline, not a quote from anyone at Apple during the conference call.
The statement was:
"We believe one of the iPod [touch's] future directions is to become the first mainstream Wi-Fi mobile platform, running all kinds of mobile applications."
Keywords being WiFi, mainstream and mobile platform. I fail to see what 50 million SE phones, the grand majority of which don't even have WiFi, have to do with that statement.
What they mean to say is that, rather than niche devices like the Nokia internet tablet, they see a future where the iPod is a mainstream family of portable WiFi instruments used by hundreds of millions of people across the world. They feel that they have advantages such as iTunes that will allow them to accomplish this before competitors do.
"one of the iPod's future direction is to be one of the first WiFi mobile platforms."
That is from the article.
I am sure that any of the producers of the tens of millions of Windows Mobile, Palm, and Sony devices that have been out for years with Wi-Fi would take quite an issue with the iPod being even close to among the "WiFi mobile platforms."
"one of the iPod's future direction is to be one of the first WiFi mobile platforms."
That is from the article.
I am sure that any of the producers of the tens of millions of Windows Mobile, Palm, and Sony devices that have been out for years with Wi-Fi would take quite an issue with the iPod being even close to among the "WiFi mobile platforms."
Sorry about the double post. Sometimes it can be really hard to tell if the comment actually posted or not, when you submit it, and you just get a blank page.
To MacVicta
You mean those "niche" devices like the Nintendo DS, Sony PSP, Windows Mobile handhelds and Palms? Because I am pretty sure those have sold one or two more units that the Nokia Internet Tablet.
Sorry, I also am obviously having typing, as well as posting difficulties today, as I meant to say
would take quite an issue with the iPod being even close to among the "*the first* WiFi mobile platforms."
Oh and Zak, as to "why so angry?" The answer is that I can already see the beginnings of another Internet Apple Myth, where even though there have been handhelds out for years from companies as diverse as Nintendo to Dell, everyone will from now on claim that any handheld that has Wi-Fi is just following the lead of the iPod, which was the first handheld to include Wi-Fi, because Apple says so.
An iPod touch with an iPhone dock.
hmmm
though i
(previous comment got screwed up w/ the heart symbol)
though i heart Engadget, it is truly comical how if the juxtaposition had occurred, M$ would've been criticized out the wazoo for the zune copying etc..etc.. here Apple announces they're going to do something like the Zune (and many other devices) and not a peep it peeped.
$0.02
What about ad hoc wifi ipod/iphone networks? I'm sure some of you have thought of this. iPods* connecting to each other on the fly to create wireless mesh networks and tapping into nearby hot spots to send data back and forth. This would work really well in dense urban areas, although they'd have to implement a way to prevent overloading of the access points. You could look at what people around you have on your ipod, with permission of course, and download directly from them, after asking the main itunes server if thats ok and paying it 99 cents of course.
*So what do you do when you start a sentence with iPod, does it become Ipod or IPod? Should I completely avoid beginning a sentence with the word iPod?
"Apple says WiFi-equipped iPods are the wave of the future... maybe"
Are they saying Zune has the right idea? Was Steve Jobs inebriated? :)
With microphones and an SDK?
Funny, they just made an ad about "What are you going to to in 2008 pc? Copy everything you did in 2007"
Well well well, a Zune (like it or not) has wifi build in. The wave of the future?
Isn't it a bit later for them to be calling this "first WiFi mobile platforms".