I don't see what all the fuss is about.

This new iPod line up makes perfect sense. There's nothing wrong with selling a version of the iPhone, without the phone. I own a Palm TX, which is basically the same thing as the iPod Touch (except for YouTube, and wireless music downloads). There are those out there, I'm sure, that want the features of the iPhone, but don't want the AT&T phone service.

I think the $200 price cut is the only thing to get upset about. I would be pretty unhappy if I bought one before the price cut. But I think Apple did an amazing thing to give "refunds". I'm not sure they expected such outrage from it.

Adding video to the nano; I can't see watching anything on such a tiny screen, but it makes sense for Apple to do this. What I think Apple should have done already, is make the iPod's more like the iPod Touch. Instead of having the buttons on the front, taking up possible screen space, the buttons should be on the edges, or just go the touch screen route instead. If your going to watch video on an iPod, you might as well make the screen as big as possible. It wouldn't be good if iPod owners all became deaf and blind.

And my prediction on the stock price; it will go up again, and all will be forgiven.

Early adopters always pay more. Why should the iPhone be any different? When the complaints started, I couldn't stop laughing. When I snapped up a 4GB iPhone for a needy friend at the $299 clearance price, I laughed even harder. Thanks for brightening my day, Apple fanboys!

While I can agree with michaeljim that it doesn't seem to make sense to put video on the iPod nano, it does from a business perspective. A lot of the other smaller MP3 players out there are putting video on their players as well as FM tuners and microphones. The video feature will help alleviate. What I was really happy about was the prices. I expected them to be ludicrous being new, but the prices are actually fairly reasonable given the capacity. Look at the 80 GB, which is now $249, the price the 30 GB was before.

The one thing I have to wonder about is the iPod Touch's amount of memory. I really just don't understand why they started them off with such small amounts of memory. 8GB or 16GB for something that's going to hold music, movies, pictures, games and who knows what else? I'm sure they were probably just trying to keep it thinner, but I'm sure that a lot more people would have bought the Touch if it simply had more memory, even if it was a slight bit bulkier (especially for a first-gen).

I don't get all the hate either. The price was gonna drop get over it.

I think the commotion is way overblown. Would I be frustrated if the day after I bought an iPhone the price dropped? About as frustrated as I would be the day after I bought a cell phone, mp3 player, big screen tv, or any other big ticket item.

If someone has enough money to pay for a luxury item like an iphone, then they really don't have any business being angry that they plunked down the money for it. No one forces a customer to buy a product that is double or more the price of other products on the market.

Would you be angry if you bought a nice dinner and discovered the next week that meal was now offered for 1/2 the price? In my case, if I liked the dinner, I'd go back and get it again.

People should quit acting like 4 year olds, stomping their little feet and holding their breath, and move on. You were rich enough to shell out over $500 for a phone. Some people can't afford a phone at any price...

I think the early techno adoption crowd are just lashing out because they feel they got "screwed" and are feeling stupid. But you know what, thats what you get for not waiting so stop complaining.

Personally I have an 8 gig original nano and a 30 gig video ipod and I have almost filled my 30 gig so when I have the money its either an 80 gig or touch. I would really prefer the touch because of its larger capacity and that it looks really cool.

-Jayson

I have to agree with lwvirden's post. Early adopters always cry foul when their shiny new toy is outdated a few months after buying it, but they need to realize that it is the nature of the industry. I remember buying the top of the line PowerMac G5 desktop only to see the faster Intel-based MacPros hit the street. I didn't even have my computer 4 months and it was outdated. That didn't make my computer any less powerful than it was when I bought it or make me like it any less. Technology changes rapidly and if you want to keep up with it, it will sometimes cost you. Personally, I think it was very gracious of Apple to offer people the rebate on the iPhones. How many companies would do that? Not many. Apple has always had a loyal following because they offer superior products, continually innovate, and they take care of their customers. So if you are one of those people who just has to have the latest and greatest tech gadget the day it hits the street, get used to hearing about price drops and other changes and ask yourself, "Is my gadget any less likable or cool because it costs less now?"

Working in the consumer technology industry affords me the luxury to play with most of the new toys as they are available for the public, and some before.

The new G3 Nano and the new G6 Classic have a very beautiful and appealing interface taking the already standard menu selection screens that we are all used to, and then adding moving and cross-fading album art, video posters, or sample pictured on half the screen. The screes themselves are better looking than the previous G5 Video with perceived better detail and resolution, but one thing has caused me great stress and grief with these new units...the TV Out capability.

Gone are the days when the iPod could be connected to your television through the headphone jack with Apples proprietary A/V cable (a standard 1/8" TRRS to RCA cable with the RCA labeling switched), and drive video to your screen without needing to be plugged into a computer, power supply, or dock. Now, the new iPods will not send video signals out except if connected to the Apple Universal iPod Dock or a specific cable that contains an authentication chip in it. Without one of these devices, the TV Out switch will remain "off" until one of these devices is connected. Also, the video can only be sent out through the 30-pin connection and no longer through the headphone jack...a huge inconvenience for users.

So, now it will cost the user more money to put their favorite iPod driven content on a larger screen because of a required authentication chip in iPod peripheral products.

If you don't mind watching your iPod content on the small screen or have the desire to be completely portable, then this isn't an issue. However, if you do want to watch the content on a larger screen, you'll need to pay a little more for devices that will enable this feature.

Oh...one more thing. I have yet to find a product that was not made by Apple that will enable this feature. So if you have that Boom Box, or that Speaker Dock that has an iPod dock and video out port, chances are the unit doesn't have the authentication chip and will not output video from the new iPods.

Buyer Beware!

Technology prices drop over time. Period. I bought a 24" LCD at $1200. Now they are less than half that when 30" came out.

My 80gig video iPod is hardly in fear of being replaced. For those that haven't done it, watching video on its screen is not hard on the eyes because the screen is THAT clear and hi-res.

The iPod Touch really needs one thing: a memory card slot. I can watch video on the same size screen on a PSP for less cost PLUS have a slot so I can keep sets of movies on different cards. It also has photos, music, wifi, internet... Basically just a trade off between cool touchscreen for physical buttons. I haven't played a video game for 20 years, but using a PSP as a music/video player does let me watch movies on UMD and memory stick. Its devices like this that Apple should realize they are competing against.

My my my, Apple decides to slash its price on the iPhones and introduce BETTER iPods, and people are still complaining??

I think this reaction stems from the RDF (e.g. Reality Distortion Field) those Apple early-adopters were caught in when the iPhone came out. It's like a black-hole: the closer to the event-horizon one gets, the more time slows down and the more one is out of touch with the rest of the Universe.

Now that the RDF has abated, Apple decides to cut prices a bit (and good for them!). What gets me is the temerity those early-adopters think they're OWED a credit! I think those people forgot the number 1 rule of gadgeteering: YOU PAY TO PLAY!

Hey, I could have gotten an iPhone early too: I chose to wait, and now I think I'll go get one now! ;^)

Frankly, I think that Apple has the best product on the market in this niche. Not only did Apple revolutionize how we listen to, store, carry our music, but they also revolutionized how we buy music. Now, with the new iTunes+, which is unrestricted ownership of the content purchased, they've even gone another step further in the right direction.

I got an 80GB 5G iPod for my anniversary last year and then bought my wife one for xmas. Now, of course, I could go and get a 160GB right now for the same price, but I've barely used more than 30GB with all the music that I've either ripped or bought (so far--we're at the letter 'm' in the music collection, so there's still another 100 or so CDs to rip :-P), not to mention the videos and tv shows I have (it was AWESOME to get Season 2 of Showtime's "WEEDS" more than 2 months before the DVD was released). Given the fact that I probably won't be upgrading for quite some time, I'm not the least bit bitter about the whole thing.

As for the iPod Touch, I have to agree with most people's assessment: more people would buy one if there were a greater capacity, possibly including me! I think that the space issue is just so that they can maintain their current iPhone form factor. They're obviously using some kind of RAM, like a flash drive, rather than the hard drives used by the "classic" iPods. If they want to rearrange the form factor a bit, make it a bit bulkier, they could probably squeeze the hard drive in there and give us exactly what we want, a 80GB iPod Touch!

Personally, I was the most angry when Apple sold out the whole iPhone revolution by contracting with only one provider (if you have ANYTHING to be angry about, that and the price cut should be it!). The announcement that the iPhone was coming sparked the anticipation of major upheaval in the cell phone market, something along the lines of what the iPod did to the marketing and experiencing of music. The iPhone had things that no cell provider wanted in a device--Wi-Fi! With wi-fi, the iPhone can connect to the web, e-mail, and other digital content via a wireless internet connection, something they can't charge their customers for (because you're not using their airtime minutes to access content). I was expecting Apple (as were many fellow tech-heads) to unleash this techno-marvel on the whole of the unsuspecting cell provider marketplace. They had the stores already in place to sell the device (like with the iPod), and if they'd really wanted to create a stir, they could have bought bulk airtime from a major carrier (like Virgin did) and offered their own calling and service plans. How awesome would that have been, to watch all these cell providers, to whom we've been beholden for years with all their crap about contracts in order to purchase worthwhile technology, squirm at all the business and money they would have been losing. I mean, even if people would have stayed with their original carriers, any time they hit a wi-fi hotspot, they would have been able to access all the multimedia and internet content they wanted without having to purchase a multimedia plan or waste a single second of airtime! Nothing in this world would have been sweeter, and Apple would have sold tens of thousands more units than they sold by contracting with one provider and caving to their whims in terms of providing a specific kind of technology.

Now, they simply took out the phone and created the iPod Touch to try to reach the rest of the market they lost because no one wants to go to AT&T Wireless (I know I never will sign with AT&T, no matter how many iPhones they might offer me at any price), but because this nifty little device lacks the moxie to carry my 35GB of content it's basically worthless to me, unless I just want to replace my Palm TX.

In the end, Apple will recover, and people will buy the iPod Touch because it's totally frickin' cool, despite the fact that it's a glorified, overgrown nano. However, in the end, I'm behind Apple 100%. I love my Apple products--my household owns 2 80GB 5G iPods, a 2G Shuffle, a MacBook Pro 15" (Intel inside :-P), and an AirPort Extreme Base Station (that nifty little wireless router that is firmware upgradable, currently supports the NEXT-N protocol, and has a built-in USB 2.0 port that allows me to network virtually limitless numbers of devices depending on how many USB hubs I want to chain together--pure genius). There is no way I will wish Apple ill. Still, I will with them to get their heads in the right place when it comes to their new technologies. If they had made the iPhone compatible with any service you happened to be with, if they had given the iPod Touch more capacity, and if they had just realized that the demand for these products was going to allow them to release them at a reasonable price-point and still recoup their R&D investment, they wouldn't have any actions to defend nor would their stock price have taken a hit (from which it will recover). Instead, they had their head in the wrong place and it's currently costing them, including this kind of negativity, which I frankly can't help but think comes largely from those PC users who just can't get used to the fact that Apple still has the best mp3 player and the #1 online music store in the business, that it was the Apple group that revolutionized this very important part of American society and not Bill Gates (who, frankly, still keeps copying from Apple to design his new GUI tools in his Windows/Vista operating systems--if you don't believe me, just check out some of the features in OS X Tiger and the expected Leopard and then compare them to Vista: Live Search=Spotlight anyone?).

Cheers, all. And for those of you who are all "sour grapes" because you chose to be an early adopter of a new technology, which is perhaps your fist Apple purchase, grow up already. You're getting a $100 credit to spend any way you see fit! Go buy some music or some other content and be happy that you didn't just get the middle finger from Apple, who was really under no obligation to give you anything. If you can afford to play, then you can afford to pay. That's the way it goes. I know I couldn't afford to buy the phone when it dropped, so now I get to not only benefit from having you work out the bugs for me but I also get to enjoy the new price point, just like I will when I finally drop the dough on a PS3 and/or and Xbox 360! Booyakasha!

:-)

only1xiape made some very good points. I still use my 30 gig I-Pod daily, but have been craving to get an MP3 player that had a larger screen, but was holding out for Apple to do it right. They finally do, but it will not hold that much, so the wait continues. I hate planned obsolescences, but that is how business is done. The Apple company knew what the people wanted before they placed the order to have all these I-Phones and I-Touches manufactured. They will come out with an I-Touch with a larger hard drive and other features we cannot live without later down the road. Not because we asked for it here, but to make the ones they just sold obsolete.

Live Love
David Rich

Apple can do wrong.