Kevin Rose of Digg origins claims to have the scoop on the latest iPod nano. Mind you, this is the same Kevin Rose who
notoriously claimed that a generation one iPhone would launch in both CDMA and GSM versions with a pair of batteries and slide-out keyboard. Uh hem. This time however, he backs up his claims with this picture of a skinnier, longer, and curvier nano -- credible because it just happens to be consistent with other rumors we've seen floating around and certainly makes sense for an Apple
obsessed with
tapering edges and
video playback. Kev also claims that the iPod lineup will undergo "fairly large" price cuts to avoid the market cannibalization assumed by the lower $199 iPhone 3G purchase price. The iPod touch, which currently starts at $299 for 8GB, will see some slight cosmetic changes as well as a new 2.1 firmware update (which will obviously make its way to the iPhone). Tagging along with the iPod refresh is a new iTunes 8.0 which, according to Rose's sources, deserves the full point upgrade based on all the new features and functionality it brings. All this, "in the next 2-3 weeks."
He then adds that OS X 10.5.6 is rumored to include Blu-ray support which could point to future Blu-ray options in Apple's lineup of Macs -- oh, and ponies, lots of ponies. Listen to the man say it in his own words in the video after the break.
[Thanks, Matt and Alexis F.]
posted August 23rd 2008 4:05AM
Still would not buy one.
iPod Nano Touch,u heard it here first....and it WILL blend!
*pats self on back...and bows,ty ty ty**
Naw, I'm pretty sure I said that in a comment like three days ago. And I have photo evidence of the touch nano/nano touch.
From gimp stuff
woops, bad link.
http://picasaweb.google.com/orangesrhyme/GimpStuff#5242888802302125986
Kids, can you say Fake? And I think the nano screen is shopped, too.
this ain't real. this design is ugly as shit. why would you copy the zune form factor? do people actually buy zunes?
i think apple will roll out a nano with a touch screen.
The surface is way too perfect to be real. If anything, it looks like something the graphics engine from Grim Fandango would pop out
Hope the price drops on the iPods are true. I am in dire need of an ipod with greater storage capacity, as I am getting tired of deleting music from my 30gig just to add new music.
I think the design looks pretty good. The idea of a widescreen, video playing nano is not new... apple hinted around at this in the past, and its the next natural step. As far as glare goes, do any of you have a BB Pearl? Let it sit under any lights when looking at it from a similar angle of the render and it throws mad glare at you, but once the screen is tilted up and actually facing you, the glare disappears.
And as far as everybody saying "omg it looks like a zune!1!!1! wtf?!"... think about it. How else could they make a widescreen nano look? It will sell because its apple, and as unfortunate as that may seem, all apple needs to do is throw their logo on a dildo, call it iCock and itll be the best selling dildo in history. Its marketing. Im curious of the touch updates though... I'm in the market ;)
Hey, you hear about the new Jerry Seinfeld Microsoft commercials? Maybe Apple will get put back in their place.
iCock, good stuff. Those Mac / PC commercials would be scary though.
Two comments:
1. There is a really cool new feature on cameras call the macro setting, somebody should tell that guy. ;)
2. To the folks that don't think the iPhone can potentially decrease (but only on the small scale) iPod sales....I politely disagree. Look at it in reverse, people that want an iPod aren't the ones that will buy an iPhone instead, its the people that already have iPhones that won't see a need to rush out and but and iPod too. Their phone already has one and its a simpler solution because you don't have to carry two devices. Sure the battery life is better on the iPod but if you use Airplane mode a lot it becomes less of an issue. If somebody wants to comment...."well then you can't take calls". My answer, "no shit, but when was the last time you took a call on your nano"? ;)
I agree with what your saying but I own a 16gb iPhone and a 60gb iPod. I carry both with me at ALL times. Mainly because all my music doesn't fit in my iPhone so that's where my iPod comes in. Plus have you tried to watch a movie on a 2.5 inch screen? Not very cool. So I have my iPhone filled with a few songs and all my movies in my iTunes library. Or if I'm watching a movie on the go and somebody starts having a conversation with me, I play the movie on my iPod and continue texting on my phone. I'm sure others have similar uses for both the iPhone and iPod at the same time. :)
Looks like an anal probe.
I really hope new iPods are released. I have a 5.5 Gen iPod. The battery is starting to fade a bit and there's problems with the actual iPod where some of my music doesn't show up through the artists and I have to dig for the song through the Songs playlist. And sometimes its kinda of a drag... :(
So I hope there's a new iPod Classic, I'm looking for an upgrade. :D
Replying to your previous comment.
You make a great point that I overlooked, capacity limitations of the iPhone. Definitely an issue especially if you like having moves on your phone. Less music is the result.
Maybe I do need an Ipod touch after all! :)
When the capacity goes beyond 32g of course.
What I really want to see is the iPhone PRO - 32 or 64 GB models with a 5 megapixel videocamera and a second 2 megapixel camera facing the user for videoconferencing.... oh, and a 3G radio that actually works like it's supposed to.
Back to the iPod - can we put a camera on the iPod Touch? How about some colors?
I really just want a new Macbook Pro. Please apple?
if that is the new nano, I would rather get the 3rd gen "fat" nano.
There's no way that Apple would make a curved screen for viewing videos. That's just nuts. Their engineers / designers are not that stupid. None of the Apple products thus far have a curved screen. Can you imagine the headaches for those who have to make cases for that thing? No way.
It is an interesting question as to if they are going to make the nano the old 2nd gen style. It's going to be an interesting trick to make the videos sideways so you have to turn the nano to play a video. How are the controls going to work to fast forward, pause, play etc.. with the scrollwheel? How does one handle that? Again, the engineers are not stupid and they're going to see the same thing and go "huh"? How is this supposed to work?
If I were in Apples shoes, here's what I would do... Come out with a Nano with a touchscreen just like the ipod touch and iphone. The iPod touch goes to 64GB as their top of the line ipod, then they'll have the 32GB and 16GB version. The classic ipod goes end of life. Ipod Nanos in the 8GB and 16GB version.
Apple is not a stupid company and so they'll streamline their ipod product line enabling lower costs which enables them to "lower the prices". They need to make a profit to survive and there is no way that this curved screened nano will sell.
I doubt they'd EOL the iPod Classic, especially if Microsoft plans on pushing out a 120GB Zune.
The Classic maxes at 160GB at the moment, the highest capacity iPod to date and there remains a fair market for high capacity devices.
I know 5 people, myself excluded, off the top of my head that are digital music pack-rats that need/love high capacity. Not to mention people that travel a lot find it convenient to have all of their music/various other media contained on a single device. I, personally, carry around 30+GB of music plus at least 5 different podcasts to which I am subscribed plus some random photos plus some other media (movies, TV shows). All told I have 90+GB of data on my iPod Classic at the moment, the discontinuation of the line meaning that my only option would be some other hard drive based player. I doubt I am alone.
Furthermore, I (also personally), hate having to pick and choose what I want on my iPod. I have music genre ADD and generally like to change things up a lot when I'm driving/walking to work/riding the subway to school etc... It's all about options, and I again doubt I am alone in that respect. Some may say that carrying around that much media is excessive, but to them I say that I'd rather have everything with me then decide I want to listen to/watch something and discover that I don't have it synced at the moment.
Not to mention the iPod Classic retains what is recognized as the "original" iPod design. It has changed over the generations, but minutely at best. The look of an iPod Classic is its the biggest advertisement. You see it and you recognize it as an iPod. It's the 'Classic'.
Apple would not only be cutting into their own market by EOLing the iPod Classic, but they'd be destroying the recognition of one of their most fundamental products.
That Nano looks like the SanDisk Sansa View. I mean, seriously like it.
Not that it's a bad thing.
This is incredibly fake.
What is the deal with Kevin Rose and his Apple predictions, anyways? His revelations always seemed backed with some sort of evidence (i.e. he doesn't seem to be just completely guessing), yet he is sometimes just spectacularly wrong. (And sometimes right on).
Is his source just not that reliable? Does Apple just have a ton of things at near production ready level to the last minute, and then only goes forward with one actual product? Is this deliberate misdirection by Apple-i.e. are they just using celebs like Rose to disseminate rumors and build up hype?
I just think its pretty interesting that he has so much information (true or not), and that he's so willing to share it.
Another cheap looking device to add to the apple range.
That screen looks smash-a-lichis.
@Jonathan D-BOSS
why am i not surprised u know what an anal probe look like?
While I don't think apple is stupid enough to curve the screen... a "widescreen" nano with video playback and an accelerometer for landscape viewing would be a not-terrible idea.
it looks weird. but thats what everyone said when they saw the fat nano.
Uh, that's totally a blurry render. And a bad one at that.
Notice the stretched UVs on the scroll wheel.
Not to mention this is just not an Apple design.
apple would never have that much excess body; look at the miles of vacant space surrounding the clickwheel. fake. widescreen doesn't seem to be a part of apples design philosophy for audio players. apple doesn't need to compete directly with zune; why would it? the flash zune fails utterly. there's probably only going to be a slight aesthetic change on the nano and a doubling of capacities.
on the side, I would definitely like to know people's predictions for what's going to happen to the classic, now that the touch is approaching a memory capacity to mark it as beyond just a neat gimmick.
a 64GB ipod touch with dedicated play/pause/power and volume buttons would make it a real audio player. any player that can't be controlled inside a pocket is just too inconvenient for my tastes.
i think its all fake, that nano desgn is very much like all the Asian crap going out, and since wen do apple make small cosmetic changes to a major model then release it as the 2nd version. HE failed to mention anything about the upcoming mac book revision, and why would we 8.0 wen they just spent ages on the 7.7? are apple really going to keep the click wheel? when the new nano is released IT WILL NOT look like that rendering, why would apple go bak to an old design and curve it? what point, this guy just shoots in the dark and every now and again he gets sumthing right
Will it rock?
Matt, your point on the Classic going EOL is well taken. I could see it being the case of not going EOL just yet. I give it about a year and then we'll start seeing 128GB iPod Touches which will then replace the Classic line. I do forsee there being a 64GB version this September. On the Nano, who knows what is going to happen on that. But we all know that it is NOT going to be what's pictured in this blog. I seriously think (and hope) that it will be a touchscreen Nano. Anything else would just be a shoddy substitute from Apple.
It doesn't look like something Apple would design. Time will tell...
The new iPod Touch better come with integrated bluetooth stereo functionality and of the A2DP/AVRCP variety or they are just further cementing their arrogance as a Consumer Electronics company!!! Consumers have been clamoring for it for quite some time and it is not a feature, which will cost hundreds to incorporate - it's strictly tied to their arrogant marketing principle, where they think when one see's another with white corded headphones coming out of their head, they are presumably connected to an Apple producte!! Get over it as they already have a huge market share and now integrate the functionality in order to take the iPod/iPhone to the next level!!
If they keep this up, they will find their sales curve flatten out as other products are now providing connectivity to iTunes, which will have Bluetooth Stereo functionality (i.e. RIM Bold/Thunder).
Looks nice, although I still think the 1G is the best looking aesthetically. Too bad it picked up scratches just by breathing on it though. I put together a collage of all 4 nanos generations just to make sure nostalgia wasn't playing tricks on me, you can see them all next to each other here: http://img176.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ipodnanog14fc8.jpg
Looks nice, although I still think the 1G is the best looking aesthetically. Too bad it picked up scratches just by breathing on it though. I put together a collage of all 4 nanos generations just to make sure nostalgia wasn't playing tricks on me, you can see them all next to each other here: http://img176.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ipodnanog14fc8.jpg
OMG!Ponies!!11!
I think Gen 2 was easier to workout / run with. The 3rd gen looks nicer, but is a pain to use on the go! I'd say its a go for functionality sake.
Twit.tv and twitlive.tv. Found them!