Apple Computer, Inc. might be close to announcing a new iPod model boasting a 60GB hard disk, a 2″ colour LCD, iPhoto syncronisation and audio/video out capabilities according to the Think Secret rumour-mill.
The new iPod is currently in production in Asia after delays from Toshiba in delivering its new 60GB drive hampered a planned early-September ramp up. Sources confirm Toshiba started shipping the drive to Apple in mid-September and iPod manufacturer Inventec began building the new device in the last two weeks.
Think Secret have suggested a retail price for the new iPod of $499.
I was never a huge fan of the iPod. It seemed great at first, but then they just kept releasing a new model every year, and was until the last generation priced significantly higher than other equally-reliable digital audio players. Just seemed like a rip-off to me. I’m looking forward to the 40 gig Karma, personally. My 20 gig one is great and I had gotten a pretty good deal on it.
I’m not buying it. Maybe FM receiver and improved recording, maybe line-out sans the dock, maybe even built-in synching with iphoto and far more importantly built in usb2/firewire speed extraction of images from cameras…but color screen would waste a lot of batteries, especially if it was high enough resolution to display photos in a reasonable format, and video (try running a digicam sans lcd for a while and see how much longer it lasts)
Not sure if the hard drive can even spin fast enough to handle good quality video… they’re like 4000 rpm drives IIRC… and the video out implies you can use it with a TV or something… I dunno. My guess… 60 gig, sure, that’s obvious… unless they skip the single 60 platters and take advantage of smaller 40s and go with 80 or something, which wouldn’t surprise me at all… other changes… probably not much. AM/FM receiving would be nice though. Sometimes I want to listen to NPR or some other talk radio, and some people like like listening to baseball games and the like.
I agree with you JC. There are other things I’d like to see in an iPod before a colour screen: FM/AM tuner and Bluetooth (for unwired headphones and remote) at the very least.