- I already have this in my nokia n80 with fring (fring.com)

Yes, I think I mentioned it’s flash, and infact, I mentioned it has some serious advantages.

Well, seriously, now, I don’t think Apple is thinking along the lines of long-term product use… so Bluetooth would be right up the alley for this device… not to mention it’s really an iPhone internally… so it’s already designed onto the board. Hell, if Apple was thinking this thing would last 5-10 years, I might agree with ya, but I doubt we’ll see blue-tooth going away anytime soon. [Don't tell the BMW owners that their internal BlueTooth network is useless in 5 years...]

I agree with your hacking thoughts- and I’m sure that’s already in the preparations as we speak. As far as the OS bending every which way, to some extent you’ll be right… but what about adding to the kernel, or hardware awareness? Even if someone resolders on a microphone to the board, will it recognize it? Will it be available as a /dev to the rest of the OS?

In anycase, it’s a very interesting future. The fact that numerous people have discussed this very same thing- larger hard-drive, blue-tooth, etc., means that I’m not the only one wishing this thing had a bit more umph. Granted, an HD and bluetooth *would* require more battery… hell, just make it thicker. We all know the power constraints of those things. Obviously they worked out BT in their phones… the HD’s they already have in a well developed product line.

I think what we’re really seeing here, Rich, is that Apple released a product that has had little to no development other than some minor hardware changes. Hell, it sounds as though they didn’t even change the binary (see GizModo post). If that’s true, this lends a bit more credence to the Hacker-Killer status of this iPod, as well as to the product tier posturing that Apple is playing with currently… if they gave us an iPhone without the cell-connection, I guarantee the iPhone users would raise holy hell. As it is, they already raised holy-hell just over the 2 month release date and the price drop. Imagine if we were handed everything (including software from apple)… bloody murder would ensue!

Nope, this is Apple making ATT happy, and giving us a pretty sweet machine albeit crippled version if iPhone. The hacking of the iPod case (usually the first day some looney-toon gets it) will prove that one out, I think.

Cheers, and thanks a ton for stopping by, Rich. I appreciate having your viewpoint added, man! [And can understand it!]
-Allen

WiFi > Bluetooth .. gg
Not including Bluetooth is very smart, not only would bluetooth eat the battery power, but its going to be outdated very soon. If your unaware of what im talking about pick up a Globe&Mail once and a while before you whine about a product not having what you THINK you want. Theres a new set of headphones coming out thats.. Veddy nice.. Veddy nice indeed.. plus WiFi is fast enough.

Plus, we can just hack the hell out of the Touch Platform on release and im pretty damn sure the OS will bend which ever way you feel ness..

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070711-first-look-skype-for-the-nokia-n800-internet-tablet.html

http://www.osnews.com/story.php/17052/Review-The-Nokia-N800-Internet-Tablet/

Listen- you’re right. I’m not that pissed off, and hopefully my last post explains that. Apple finally gave us a “wow”! When we weren’t expecting it. Sure, the Nano with video was what we heard was down the line… and the price and size bumps etc., are somewhat to be expected.

I guess the problem, is that Apple does things so well, that often, people wonder, why can’t it be perfect? Look, it’s not exactly a media device. 80gigs would make it a media device. How did I get feature length movies on the thing? How many could I hold plus half my library of music? It’s something in between. It does both fairly well.

I hate to say this, also, but, honestly, who uses Coverflow? Even when it was a cute separate app from iTunes, no one really really used it. They used it to show off how cute things were, not for serious manipulation of their music. My feeling is it’s a cute flashy feature without much use, other than to show off nice artwork on the album covers. Will it let me surf 50-100 albums extremely quickly? Nope. But, look, I’m not really knocking coverflow. The device is sweet. I really wasn’t expecting this from Apple until way later than this. I suspected they might do it, but they’ve done some wacko things before, and I figured they might *not* do it. So, some serious f*ing Kudos to Apple for releasing this.

The reason I address it’s mobile-computing ability, is because it really is capable of mobile-computing. With the OS and the chipset, etc., you really could do some mail editing and some skyping with this device. Seriously. Hell, just to get rid of the stupidity that is the Palm Desktop and Conduit issues, I’d be a happy camper dancing in the streets, even with Black and White displays. So, here we are, the os is more than capable of SSH tunnels, more than capable of IMAP and POP mail, more than capable of doing Jabber and iChat abilities, etc. Of Course everyone is going to start talking about just that! So, don’t be surprised when the geeks start complaining there isn’t Mail.app and iChat.app and Preview.app on this thing. There should be.

So, I agree with you, Shawn. Apple did an awesome thing today by releasing this thing. Worst of it is, that I’ll likely be getting one this semester, because the damned thing is too sweet to pass up. And the price-point is reasonable.

So, just incase anyone doesn’t think I’m a Mac Evangelist anymore: “Go Apple!!” Next time, I just want them to Go a bit harder… and I’m sure they will. They’ve let the cat out of the bag with this Wifi connectivity, there’s no way they can put it back in without it seriously hurting them. We’re going to continue to see increased ability and connectivity in future hardware releases! And that’s freakin’ awesome.

Cheers, Shawn! Thanks a ton for dropping in, and I’m glad to have the other side represented. I don’t think I explained enough the first time that I did think the device was freakin’ sweet. And I seriously didn’t expect this from Apple so soon. I knew the could do it… I just didn’t think they would. (Burned once, twice shy.)

Cheers!
-Allen

Yeah, I completely agree with you- if they had a built-in microphone, they would have made a killing on the sale of this. I’m sort of wondering if perhaps there might not be a future option of ear-phones with a microphone built into the wire… but I really don’t see Apple doing this. Based on how little we see the iPodTouch utilizing it’s Wifi capability, I think we can’t hope for much as far as Apple support for all these wonderful capabilities. I suspect within a month we’ll see a Skype-solution in the works with working prototypes by way of the USB connection.

As it is, I have to make a clarification. Over the many years I’ve been an Apple purchaser and Mac user, I have seen things coming down the tube… hoped for a unix underpinning, seen them cripple chipsets at various times, and miss the boat on items that I felt would make their products a bit more “kick-ass”. It hurts when I see that happen. To be very honest with everyone here, this experience has taught me to be very cautious with Apple’s future. I see these possibilities, and I *hope* and *hope* for this or that from them, only to see them fubar it in one way or another. I mean in a big way, not a small way. This was one of the first times that Apple really surprised me…

It was so painfully obvious that they could market and sell (big time) a touch-screen iPod with WiFi capabilities, that I was almost banging my head against the wall with the release of the iPhone… why didn’t Apple “get it?”… and I can see now that they did “get it”… I suspect this is only the first of a number of products down the line that exploits this new touch-screen interface. Of course, the big question is: “Will Apple finally realize all our dreams and put out a tablet based *fast* chipset full-fledged osX device?” I mean, it’s so apparent the market is there… a company is even making them with an altered powerbook/wacom tablet screen. The inkwell technology is embedded into the Os. The only question is whether or not Jobs hates the Newton so much that he will never ever touch another portable hand-writing based device. That’s a sad thing, because someone will eventually beat them to it. The Toshiba tablets are already beating them to the punch (almost every doctor’s visit I’ve been to was using them).

Apple has a serious opportunity here… a bigger screen, adding inkwell handwriting recognition, a more serious chipset, a larger usb bus, bluetooth, etc. and we have a killer device. Inkwell and touch-technology is the killer-app… add google map support with GPS enabled, and you have a serious mobile computer. when I get home, I can plug into the modified DVI mini plug and USB hub and get my full desktop right from my palm.

So, what’s different about now? Why not the Newton? Well, people quite simply weren’t ready for it. Much like Os/2. Amazing system software… too big for most chipsets, and people weren’t ready for it. By the time they were, other things were a bit faster. Much like GXfonts- amazing technology, but no one really really needed it. Now- if you gave them GXfonts within a system like Pages, I think people would seriously exploit them.

I personally feel people are ready for the coffee-surfing/presentation running/communications/internet web-tablet like device which is capable of more serious work when plugged in at home. I know I’d buy it.

My belief is by Dec. next year we’ll see a much larger screen being sported on the iPod Touch, and we’ll also see options with microphones. But, Apple right now doesn’t want to piss off ATT or it’s other partners (google?) with doing anything stupid. It already pissed off a number of early adopters (iPhoners) by releasing almost the same thing within 2 months of the release. The only thing I can think of, is that Apple felt they had to release the iPhone first, or else it wouldn’t sell right… the FCC clearance took a long time… they had this developed way earlier than they are letting on. I suspect in-house they already have various touch-technology devices in the works, and perhaps we’ll see them very soon. Perhaps the dry-spell before the iPhone was just the ticket to get Apple back on the fast-track for giving users the next new thing in a timely fashion.

So, I give modest kudos to Apple for not pissing me off and make me bang my head against the wall too hard… you gave me exactly what I was thinking you should, and you did it a bit sooner than I expected (I was thinking Jan release). Now, let’s see if you open this platform up for some more serious development. Perhaps you can’t get too mad if Griffin technologies makes a Skype-ready plug-in device? After all, it’s not you doing it… so ATT can’t be too mad at you.

hahaha

Cheers, Topo, and any other readers out there!
-Allen

I’m sure you’ll be racing to buy a Zune to stick it to Apple for making the worst iPod ever (that is except for all its predecessors).

Get a grip. The device is a fricking MEDIA PLAYER not the swiss army knife of mobile computing and communications. Criticize the device for what it is meant to be, not for not being the device you wish they made.

Some of your complaints about GPS or being able to load 3rd party apps would sound like reasonable requests for future versions of the iPhone (though last I checked it hadn’t hurt sales any, with a million sold), but not not an iPod.

So many possibilities… if Apple plays the game right, this device will be very very big. But, we see they already played the game a bit wrong with the lack of the above. Let’s see what they do to developers… that will be the true mark of the times to come here.