After reading “Ideas for the new iPod — loud and clear” by Howard Wolinksy, as well as the latest from Phil Swann, I thought I’d muse on what they may be announcing. Here are my predictions:
1) Widescreen iPod: this just makes sense. The cool factor here would be Apple completely re-inventing their GUI, either with an all-touchscreen version, or possibly moving all the buttons to the edges or back of the unit. This would allow them to keep the same form factor while improving the video display. Plus it’s better than the video Scoble found about a Msft-designed iPod!
2) iTiVo: in an ideal world, Apple would buy TiVo, then make a nicer looking box with the basic TiVo GUI. Then within a year they could put out a 2nd-generation unit that has very slickly merged some iPod-isms with some TiVo-isms. I don’t think this will happen anytime soon, but an Apple-powered DVR does not seem likely, although I could easily predict the model would be about recording ON the Mac, as opposed to a brand new box in the living room…
3) iPhone: highly debatable topic here, will/should Apple make a mobile phone? I think it’s possible (here’s a counterpoint), my theory goes like this: Apple worked with Moto to make a phone, but Moto screwed it up. So then Moto made the SLVR, and did a good job of it. But the whole time Apple guys were saying to themselves “we could blow this out” and now they’re doing it. If we don’t see it this week, I still believe it’s in a lab somewhere!
4) OS X Mobile edition: Both Om Malik and Michael Gartenberg have been talking about Windows Mobile 5.0 a lot recently. I’ve heard that there are already 100 different WM5 devices announced or shown so far. Why should they have all the love? It’s not a “typical” Apple thing to do, but then again, 10 years ago nobody would’ve predicted Apple running up a 90+% market share in MP3 players!
5) Nothing! Absolutely nothing! Okay, by “nothing” I mean a new iBook with a bigger screen, or bigger hard drive. Or an iPod with a 100GB hard drive… boring boring boring!
But then again, they might just crank out another iProduct…
First the earth cooled. And, then the dinosaurs came, but they got too big and fat, so they all died, and they turned into oil. And, then the Arabs came and they bought Mercedes Benzes. And they bought cell phones, which were about the size of my head.
Then, cell phones got a little smaller, a little more portable, and didn’t require their own power generators that you had to store in the trunk of your car.
And we liked StarTac, and the world was good for a time.
I’ll take a Razr-sized phone with a revamped keypad (I need distinct buttons) and some better GUI features (I dare say WM5.0 would be my choice right now). Either that or just go ahead and build it into my shoe.
Our old friend Jonas did something I am always nervous about doing – he installed a beta Web browser on his PC. Quite adventurous in my opinion! Anyhow, he took a look (or should I say listen) to Songbird, which is basically a rich media Web browser that incorporates audio files with Web sites. 