“Taiwan-based Wintek will be the panel supplier of Apple’s new iPod video, according to sources at upstream suppliers. Apple is set to launch a next-generation iPod video in August with the new products featuring a touch screen panel similar to the iPhone, the sources noted,” Susie Pan and Emily Chuang report for DIGITIMES.
“The Taiwan-based panel maker will begin shipping capacitive touch screen panels in the second half of 2007, according to sources,” Pan and Chuang report.
Full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Linux Guy And Mac Prodigal Son” for the heads up.]
i wonder how its gonna work, with the tiny ipod screen and all….
I hope so. AT&T is not good where I live. Wifi would be nice but not a deal breaker. If this is true my daughter will have a 5g and I get a new one!
MW: good-as in real good if true. Reports from Digitimes!
@ kennyyy921
What makes you think it will be the same screen size as an ipod video?
Good good. Whatever it takes to keep jacking up the price of AAPL then good.
Not sure if they would ship Widescreen iPods, before the iPhone has actually come out in Europe (which according to everyone may be at the earliest in November).
If they ship Widescreen iPods first, then I would likely buy the iPod, and pass on the iPhone until Version 2.0 comes out (with 3G, and possibly even GPS).
On the other hand, if the iPhone comes first, I’m buying the iPhone, just because of the video iPod inside.
So I think they’re gonna delay any Widescreen iPods until the iPhone is available everywhere.
So in other words, you think that Apple is pretty much basing their decisions on your desires?
can someone please explain the big deal about gps? i got through the mountains just fine this weekend in the sequoias with google maps and no gps. just saw where i had to go and got there.
why do you need the coordinates? why is that so important? if you need gps, wouldn’t you be better off just getting a regular ol’ gps system somewhere? you think the battery is bad now on the iPhone, wait til there’s another thing sucking it up. plus, what if you’re out in the middle of nowhere and something bad happens? if you’ve been on the phone’s gps all day and the battery is shot, who are you going to call when you get back to a spot for reception? Oh, no one.
Anyway, I would love to know the fascination with that feature. Someone explain it please.
@@ Midnight
Sure. I am after all the centre of the universe, and all shall bow to me!
Nah, seriously, of course not, but I wonder if maybe other people in Europe feel the same. If many do, it may cannibalize iPhone sales in Europe, once it does come out, and maybe Apple is thinking that way too.
If not, great. Waited long enough to finally get a new iPod.
4.5″ screen?
There’s plenty of demand for phone-less iPhone/iPod with an 80 or 100GB hard drive.
I’ll sell you my 80GB 5.5G iPod cheap.
Cover-Flow on a big screen iPod would be fantastic. Yeah, I actually scan CD covers for all the music I rip for my iPod (mostly lossless, too!), so a bigger screen would be a nice thing. Apple has GOT to fix the crappy iPhone headphone jack, though.
@shawn
Okay I shall just assume that you know what GPS is, and that it is IMMENSELY practical, especially when driving. We’re talking voice guidance here constantly updated according to your position, not turn based manual flicking of screen maps, which, if you take a wrong turn and lose track where you are, stop being of any help immediately.
You’re completely right, I agree that GPS on the iPhone may kill any usable batterylife. A TomTom One GPS navigator for the car can AFAIK run for two hours on battery before it needs charging, and that thing is huge compared to the iPhone (although the TomTom’s battery is probably much cheaper).
I think it all comes down to people wishing to have as many functions possible in as few devices possible. Every mobile phone these days has a camera, although most of the times it’s crap quality, makes for thicker phones and probably affects battery life as well. People would be much better off having a seperate digital camera, but they choose not to, and the market has reacted to that.
Now GPS is turning up in more and more phones, and in spite of all the disadvantages you mentioned, it seems that soon it will be pretty much standard in high end phones, too.
Apple is entering a market of insanely fierce competition, much more so in Europe and Japan. It will have to adjust to what the other players offer, and then top it (like it did in the US), if it wants to carve out a niche.
I think it’s all about
Hm. Yeah. Ignore the last unfinished sentence. Too much rambling already!
Does anybody care about what I want? Hum?
Ok then, the next-gen iPod will have all of the features of the iPhone except cellular, including Wi-Fi, and it will come with a slightly wider screen, and come in 30, 50 and 80GB models. And if black and white are our only two choices then I hope Apple goes with black.
MW=justice – As in, that would be justice for not having ATT service where I live, and that would be justice for making a video capable iPhone with only 8GB of non-upgradeable memory. And can you imagine where an iPhone-looking iPod would leave the Zune? Ha! It would be the first time in history that a piece of crap would become a downright tragedy.
the fact that people are willing to buy an iPhone and hack it to basically be an 8 gig widescreen iPod with WiFi shows that there is a demand. i don’t think people will stop buying the phone just because it exists either, they are two separate markets in many ways….
the other rumor was, what, macworld? interesting time change.
if apple can follow up their iPod/iPhone success with a true video touch screen iPod with WiFi, products like the zune look even more pathetic than they already are. if they follow that with some kind of incredible notebook announcement….
Apple could find themselves on the fast track to 25-30% market share if they aren’t careful.
MW: “suddenly” the cult of mac is losing its elitist appeal.
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The iPhone IS the new iPod.
The new Nokia smartphone has GPS and when it’s switched on the thing has 2 hours of battery life!!
Not so smart, eh?
Apple made the right decision leaving it out until it’s more juice-economical.
“You’re completely right, I agree that GPS on the iPhone may kill any usable batterylife.”
This is true, but then, I would think Apple could build a switch into the GPS system that would, say, only turn on the chip if the iPhone was plugged in to a car charger or something. Make it a simple pref like on any laptop. That way the GPS would be on when I needed it (in the car) and off when I was unplugged. If you *wanted* it to run on battery power, for the last few dozen yards between your car and the GeoCache, you could turn it on manually. That would be very cool and (I would think) stone simple to do.
-c
MW: ‘range’ (Finder)
@Shawn, I’m sure it was good & hope you enjoyed the surrounding! Although has Midnight pointed out GPS… true gps systems just cannot be out done especial on the open seas. I’m sure & confidant the Apple & Google will bring a tremendous leap of tech & “software” to make it easy functional for a slim phone!! Maybe another 2y’s for the hard tech, but there are some places that just not mapped for instance Trinidad & Tobago! Anyway this is more good news for iPod, now wether they would release world-wid same time is another question I think so.
thank you for that explanation midnight. i understand the “more features, less devices” thing. i can safely say though that the google maps app in iPhone works great. it gives you directions and everything. voice directions are obviously better than looking down at a screen periodically, but if you’re checking at stop lights or something, not so bad. plus, if the phone is in an area where reception is non-existent, your phone is pretty much rendered useless so, no more directions! that would be the only benefit I can see – relying on a satellite as opposed to a cell network. oh well, to each his own i guess. i don’t go many places where i’d need gps, which is why i haven’t bought one for my FJ. to me it just seems like a bit much, but since the market is, as you said, very competitive, apple needs to keep up with certain aspects of it.
An 80 to 120 gig touchscreen video iPod with WiFi would be pretty cool. Say $350 for the 80 gigger and $450 for the 120 gigger.
@CH1
Another thing they could do is turn off the GPS whenever no movement was sensed after a few minutes.
A few years ago I designed a GPS tracking device for attaching to an albatross, and it would power up for a second or so every minute to snatch a coordinate. The battery was the same general type used in cellphones and it would last around 10 days. GPS power isn’t really that much of a battery killer.
Wintek Inc. Has officially denied about this rumor.
This may seem like a stupid question, but do you have to pay subscription to use GPS? If so, I know I wouldn’t use it even if Apple did include it in the iPhone.
@Philip
I know that on the Nokia N95 you can use GPS without a subscription – but if you wish for VOICE directions, you need to pay up!
MDN MW: “filled” – as in, filling Nokia’s pockets with your money.
GPS is pretty much irrelevant for me. I use this cool new technology I found at gas stations and from AAA. They call them maps. They are difficult to refold but they do work.
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