“Mac4Ever is reporting that a Motorola product manager in France has ‘accidentally’ confirmed that Apple is going to introduce an iPod with built-in Bluetooth (ostensibly for wirelessly streaming audio to your car stereo or something along those lines),” Engadget reports.
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Indications from around the “Mac Web” are pointing to something(s) coming from Apple this Tuesday. An iPod with built-in Bluetooth would allow for, among other things, short-range personal broadcasts: i.e. your own “radio station” in a car, subway car, house, plane, schoolroom, etc.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
RUMOR: new Apple ‘iPod mini’ due soon to feature color screen, possible 6GB capacity for US$249 – February 18, 2005
RUMOR: 5GB Apple iPod mini due ‘as early as next week’ – February 17, 2005
NEW POWERBOOKS THIS TUESDAY!!!
[Sorry, couldn’t resist. It’s been such a long time since I’ve heard anyone say that…]
I guess I need a blue tooth head unit.
New PB’s this tuesday? What is this… I just ordered mine on wednesday, sigh.. atleast it hasn’t gotten here yet. I’ll just ship it back and order a new one on tuesday…
well .. wireless headphones for iPod that would be cool indeed .. especially if you could use them for your mobile phone as well if needed to take a call and they could interoperate. … just i am not sure if bluetooth has enough bandwidth for a good quality stereo sound / somebody with more knowledge could maybe answer this
MacMDStudent – I think reogozhin is lying about the new powerbooks… just making it up.
i just dont see point of BT ipods. hooking up with a wire is more reliablle and i can only assume faster. wireless headphones would be cool, but not enough to get me to upgrade from my 3G.
That will probably soon read FORMER Motorola product manager…
slow….
Wireless earbuds?!
According to http://www.apple.com/bluetooth/ , Bluetooth 1.0 can transfer at the rate of 1Mbps and Bluetooth 2.0+ can do 3Mbps.
The specs for audio CDs are:
Sample rate: 44.1 kHz
Channels: 2 (stereo)
Bits per sample, per channel: 16
Levels per sample: 65,536
Total data rate (Mb/s): 1.4112
Conclusion, Bluetooth 1.0 is capable of squeaking out near CD quality, but Bluetooth 2.0 would clearly be the choice for quality audio streaming to wireless earbuds or to wirelessly connect the iPod to a car stereo.
Does this mean the new G6’s and Tiger will be out Tuesday also?
By the way, don’t think about using Bluetooth as a good USB or Firewire substitute to transfer data from your Mac to iPod…
Bluetooth 2.0+: 3 Mbps
USB: 12 Mbps
USB 2.0: 480 Mbps
Firewire: 400 Mbps
Firewire800: 800 Mbps
…besides, Bluetooth can’t recharge your iPod’s battery.
“The interview with Nedelcou reveals that consumers will soon be able to listen to music wirelessly from their iPod through their car speakers.”
Why or how would Motorola France know about Apple’s plans? The quote implies to me that MOTOROLA will be announcing something soon w/ a Bluetooth bridge, not Apple.
We shall see…
Usually, Steve likes to personally announce his OS X updates to a large audience. I do think that the greater the lead in front of any Longhorn announcement the better. Maybe he’ll do something different (for Apple) and do it via a commercial during the Oscars.
The Oscars would also be also be a good place to introduce wireless iPod earbuds. The iPod hides in a small purse and the wireless earbuds wrap back behind her ears and hidden by her hair… wearing a tiger-striped, sequined dress wouldn’t hurt either.
[Being recently unemployed, I’d love a job at Apple… hint… hint!]
Bluetooth would only be good for transmiting audio to another device. IE: Car or Haedphones. Not for storing music.
… or how about transferring to a new Airport Express with Bluetooth?
AirPort Express with Bluetooth 2.0 would be great for streaming audio from your iPod to your Home stereo ! Like a remote control with display
BlueTooth would also be great for sharing your songs on your iPod to another iPod! There’s so much potential for this technology! This is what I can come up with at the moment:
– iPod to iPod music sharing (that would kick serious ass!)
– iPod to iPod file sharing (afterall, it’s an external hard drive)
– wireless headphones (maybe earbuds, too? would be an engineering feat!)
– streaming to your car or home stereo (no more iTrip static for your car stereo)
– syncing with iTunes and iSync
– transfering contact info to/from mobile phones
I should clarify:
– iPod to iPod music streaming
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MacMDStudent,
I can’t believe you fell for that ‘New powerbook’ post.
I hope the MD in your name stands for ‘macarama dancing’ student and not ‘Medical Doctor’ student.
Or downloading info directly to your iPod via bt from your cell phone connection to the Internet. Things like directions (audio or notes format), maps (notes). Or .mac connections for syncing calendar, contacts.
3 Mbps doesn’t sound like much but it’s much faster than dial-up. And for small updates (a few songs), it wouldn’t be bad.
BTW, Motorola is pushing this thing called iRadio – which will work through bt to connect the cell phone to the car speakers and home speakers, and a bunch of other stuff. The new iPods could certainly be connected to that in some way.
I like the concept of a BT iPod, not so much for syncing with the computer (although you could) but for the prospect of wireless headphones, music streaming, and also the potential of a bluetooth iPod remote. Maybe it could multifunction as a remote for BT Macs as well.
do any current car stereos come with BlueTooth to receive the stream?
I have long thought that Apple should make its own car deck to go with the iPod. If you have ever seen a flip face cassette deck then just imagine the cassette slot as slightly wider and deeper, you slide your iPod in there, it charges off the car battery, you flip the face back up and you have some kind of scroll wheel and big display. They could do different models, colour screen, artwork display, regular radio, voice recorder as you drive, etc.
Say hello to iCar, iStereo, CarPod, PodCar, iAuto, whatever
Everyone who currently has an iPod hacked into his or her car stereo would buy one of these. We are Apple users, after all, and elegantly simple solutions are what we crave.
the above idea could also support an external CD changer, for those days when a new disc comes out and you don’t have time to transfer it to your iPod first
Speculation city
Maybe bluetooth on an iPod would allow you to use it as a remote control so you can play World of Warcraft all day and night without having to get your lazy asses off the couch.
Gamers suck.