Alpine + Ipod - New Product
Oatnet, you are overanalyzing my posts. I am not trying to challenge your expertise, I have no expertise to challenge you with on this subject.
I was just reading the above posts about the price, to the untrained eye it looks like I got a good deal versus 2 weeks ago. I have no idea what 3g or 4g is with the thing, I didn't read about Toshiba too carefully, didn't matter to me. It still plays music I assume - that's why I bought it. If the new model makes me coffee too, terrific
The fine print on the Apple site says "Apple and its vendors are not responsible for printing errors. " Somewhere else it says you can't return an engraved ipod. Like I said, I have a friend with Apple. If something goes wrong with the unit in six months I'll moan to her, if its over six months, that's life, it's only $400 and I expect electronics to go out any more.
For the battery life and space, I saw some commercial online (guy walking around with a spray can and a template spraying apple posters) that the batteries last like 18 months and that's apple's big scam since you can't replace them or something to that effect, that's my joke...I have 15GB of music, I don't think I'll need the 60GB model until the battery dies in about 18 months...probably not even then, unless someone loads a bunch of music on my PC. I bought the darn thing so I would have more music than last year from my 256MB MP3 player for the drive from Arizona to So Cal. I could have bought the mini-me version and I would probably be just as happy.
That all said, let me move on and help me on this similar topic - do you know of any cradle or mounting option that puts the thing within reach without a remote? You can help me there and I'll take all the advice you can offer on that subject.
I'll see you at the Megameet. I made your nice blue badge (based on your car color) and made the maps for the route again this year. Won't give the route away, but it will be awesome.
See you in Irvine, we'll get a drink and you can show me how the f--- to use the darn thing.
-Jordan
I was just reading the above posts about the price, to the untrained eye it looks like I got a good deal versus 2 weeks ago. I have no idea what 3g or 4g is with the thing, I didn't read about Toshiba too carefully, didn't matter to me. It still plays music I assume - that's why I bought it. If the new model makes me coffee too, terrific

The fine print on the Apple site says "Apple and its vendors are not responsible for printing errors. " Somewhere else it says you can't return an engraved ipod. Like I said, I have a friend with Apple. If something goes wrong with the unit in six months I'll moan to her, if its over six months, that's life, it's only $400 and I expect electronics to go out any more.
For the battery life and space, I saw some commercial online (guy walking around with a spray can and a template spraying apple posters) that the batteries last like 18 months and that's apple's big scam since you can't replace them or something to that effect, that's my joke...I have 15GB of music, I don't think I'll need the 60GB model until the battery dies in about 18 months...probably not even then, unless someone loads a bunch of music on my PC. I bought the darn thing so I would have more music than last year from my 256MB MP3 player for the drive from Arizona to So Cal. I could have bought the mini-me version and I would probably be just as happy.
That all said, let me move on and help me on this similar topic - do you know of any cradle or mounting option that puts the thing within reach without a remote? You can help me there and I'll take all the advice you can offer on that subject.
I'll see you at the Megameet. I made your nice blue badge (based on your car color) and made the maps for the route again this year. Won't give the route away, but it will be awesome.
See you in Irvine, we'll get a drink and you can show me how the f--- to use the darn thing.

-Jordan
Originally Posted by walkabt,Jul 30 2004, 11:20 PM
I was just reading the above posts about the price, to the untrained eye it looks like I got a good deal versus 2 weeks ago.
That's where the price difference came from.
I was just reading the above posts about the price, to the untrained eye it looks like I got a good deal versus 2 weeks ago.
[QUOTE]Somewhere else it says you can't return an engraved ipod.
Originally Posted by rworne,Jul 31 2004, 01:10 AM
The reason it's such a good deal is that Apple is not including the remote control or the carrying case with the 4G iPods as they did with the 3G iPods. Each of those items is $39.
That's where the price difference came from.
That's where the price difference came from.
-JD
Crap - that 60gb is gonna be a longer wait than I expected. Guess I'll have to go with the 40gb anyhow - for now.
That is, unless this is how Toshiba is covering up for their snafu in mentioning the 60gb for the ipod in the first place!
-JD
===================================
Toshiba 60GB 1.8-inch drive 'in Q4'
By Martyn Williams
Toshiba will begin mass-producing a 60GB, 1.8-inch hard-disk drive before the end of the year, it said today.
Such drives are commonly used in digital music players and sub-notebook computers. The new drive offers a 50 per cent improvement in storage space over Toshiba's current highest capacity 1.8-inch hard-disk drive yet manages this without being physically larger. The major factor that contributed to this increase was an advancement made in a thin-film technology used for both the head and platter, said Midori Suzuki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba in Tokyo.
This enabled Toshiba to increase the density at which data can be stored on the disk's surface: the areal density of the new disks is 93.5Gbits per square inch versus 61.2Gbits per square inch on the current models, she said. This means each disk platter in the new drives can accommodate 30GB of data compared with 20GB in the current highest capacity drive.
Smaller, bigger, faster
As a result a two-platter drive can hold up to 60GB of data. The jump in density is also having a positive effect at the middle of Toshiba's 1.8-inch drive range. The company's current 30GB model relies on two disk platters and so is 8 millimetres thick but this capacity can now be accomplished with a single platter, allowing the drive thickness to be reduced to 5 millimetres.
Toshiba has also reduced the size of the sliders that keep the drive's read/write head at the correct distance above the disk surface, Suzuki said. The new "femto" sliders are 35 per cent smaller than current "pico" sliders and that means the head assembly can get closer to the outer edge of each platter and access more of the disk surface for data storage.
Another advantage of the new drive is lower power consumption. It has been cut by an average 20 per cent over current drives because of an adaption in the way the disk spindle motor is controlled, Toshiba said.
Mass production is due to begin in the fourth quarter of the year. Toshiba declined to provide prices for the drives but said initially they will likely be sold at a premium in terms of price-per-bit over the current drives.
Apple a customer?
For companies like Toshiba that manufacture drives for consumer electronics products such advances in technology are one of the few ways they can answer customer demands for more storage space. Without them Toshiba would have been forced to add an extra disk platter to get to 60GB and that would have made the drive thicker. In turn, this would have made any products based on the drive bulkier and that's going against the trend amongst music player and computer makers for smaller and lighter products.
Last month, for example, Apple Computer announced the fourth generation version of its iPod music player that is 1 millimetre thinner than its previous models. Apple uses the Toshiba drives in its iPods.
Wednesday's official announcement of the new drive is no surprise. Not only are hard-disk drive makers constantly pushing technology to increase the storage capacity but a Toshiba representative at the Computex trade show in Taiwan in June said the company was planning such a drive.
At the time Cindy Lee, deputy manager of Toshiba Digital Media Network Taiwan's hard disk drive division technical department, said Apple had already placed an order for the drives. Apple declined to comment.
That is, unless this is how Toshiba is covering up for their snafu in mentioning the 60gb for the ipod in the first place!
-JD
===================================
Toshiba 60GB 1.8-inch drive 'in Q4'
By Martyn Williams
Toshiba will begin mass-producing a 60GB, 1.8-inch hard-disk drive before the end of the year, it said today.
Such drives are commonly used in digital music players and sub-notebook computers. The new drive offers a 50 per cent improvement in storage space over Toshiba's current highest capacity 1.8-inch hard-disk drive yet manages this without being physically larger. The major factor that contributed to this increase was an advancement made in a thin-film technology used for both the head and platter, said Midori Suzuki, a spokeswoman for Toshiba in Tokyo.
This enabled Toshiba to increase the density at which data can be stored on the disk's surface: the areal density of the new disks is 93.5Gbits per square inch versus 61.2Gbits per square inch on the current models, she said. This means each disk platter in the new drives can accommodate 30GB of data compared with 20GB in the current highest capacity drive.
Smaller, bigger, faster
As a result a two-platter drive can hold up to 60GB of data. The jump in density is also having a positive effect at the middle of Toshiba's 1.8-inch drive range. The company's current 30GB model relies on two disk platters and so is 8 millimetres thick but this capacity can now be accomplished with a single platter, allowing the drive thickness to be reduced to 5 millimetres.
Toshiba has also reduced the size of the sliders that keep the drive's read/write head at the correct distance above the disk surface, Suzuki said. The new "femto" sliders are 35 per cent smaller than current "pico" sliders and that means the head assembly can get closer to the outer edge of each platter and access more of the disk surface for data storage.
Another advantage of the new drive is lower power consumption. It has been cut by an average 20 per cent over current drives because of an adaption in the way the disk spindle motor is controlled, Toshiba said.
Mass production is due to begin in the fourth quarter of the year. Toshiba declined to provide prices for the drives but said initially they will likely be sold at a premium in terms of price-per-bit over the current drives.
Apple a customer?
For companies like Toshiba that manufacture drives for consumer electronics products such advances in technology are one of the few ways they can answer customer demands for more storage space. Without them Toshiba would have been forced to add an extra disk platter to get to 60GB and that would have made the drive thicker. In turn, this would have made any products based on the drive bulkier and that's going against the trend amongst music player and computer makers for smaller and lighter products.
Last month, for example, Apple Computer announced the fourth generation version of its iPod music player that is 1 millimetre thinner than its previous models. Apple uses the Toshiba drives in its iPods.
Wednesday's official announcement of the new drive is no surprise. Not only are hard-disk drive makers constantly pushing technology to increase the storage capacity but a Toshiba representative at the Computex trade show in Taiwan in June said the company was planning such a drive.
At the time Cindy Lee, deputy manager of Toshiba Digital Media Network Taiwan's hard disk drive division technical department, said Apple had already placed an order for the drives. Apple declined to comment.
Someone finally did it - they took apart the 4g IPOD for our benefit:
Click HERE to see the dissected 4g Ipod!

-JD
Click HERE to see the dissected 4g Ipod!

-JD
JD,
Apple has already bought out the whole first wave from Toshiba. They're terrible liars
You should 60 GB 4G iPods by the end of Summer (or whenever Steve Jobs gives a keynote speach around that time).
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,...,RSS,RSS,00.asp
Apple has already bought out the whole first wave from Toshiba. They're terrible liars
You should 60 GB 4G iPods by the end of Summer (or whenever Steve Jobs gives a keynote speach around that time).http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,...,RSS,RSS,00.asp
Originally Posted by flitcroft,Aug 5 2004, 05:33 PM
JD,
Apple has already bought out the whole first wave from Toshiba. They're terrible liars
You should 60 GB 4G iPods by the end of Summer (or whenever Steve Jobs gives a keynote speach around that time).
http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,...,RSS,RSS,00.asp
Apple has already bought out the whole first wave from Toshiba. They're terrible liars
You should 60 GB 4G iPods by the end of Summer (or whenever Steve Jobs gives a keynote speach around that time).http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,...,RSS,RSS,00.asp
-JD
I got my ipod on Tuesday. I can't believe how small the thing is. It's dinky. I loaded my less than 15GB of music in about 20 minutes or so (wasn't watching the time) and started using it. Really easy to use, a lot simpler than I imagined and it makes the Dell DJ I bought last year (and returned) look like a used Yugo. I like the Music quiz game, reminds me of name that tune.
The only downside is that I have spent more than the device on itunes in the two days since getting the unit...once you start seeing songs you like its tough not to click BUY
I bought the proclip mounts for the ipod and my dell axim. They arrive tomorrow and I'll post pics after the weekend of my new in car setup. I need to make a bracket that will hold both mounts so I can have GPS navigation and a monstrous amount of music at the same time
The only downside is that I have spent more than the device on itunes in the two days since getting the unit...once you start seeing songs you like its tough not to click BUY

I bought the proclip mounts for the ipod and my dell axim. They arrive tomorrow and I'll post pics after the weekend of my new in car setup. I need to make a bracket that will hold both mounts so I can have GPS navigation and a monstrous amount of music at the same time








