iPod Wishes
I love my iPod. It’s an older generation 3 15GB model, but it has served me well. While there is a lot about it that I like, there are definite areas where it could be improved. What follows is I think the next generation should have.
The entry level model should be 40GB with a 60GB upgrade model. Why? Lossless audio. Lossless audio is a perfect digital copy of the original CD source that has been compressed by a factor of 2. Obviously this requires more space than a normal compressed audio file which is compressed by a factor of 5 to 10.
24 hours of battery life is a must. I don’t think this is unreasonable. The current models can do about 13, 15 for the iPod Photo.
The iPod has never been known for its audio quality. It doesn’t sound bad… it just doesn’t sound good. At higher volumes, the sound distorts horribly. The solution for this is an external amp, so that you can keep the iPod at low volumes and boost the signal with the amp. If the iPod came with a quality built-in amp, this wouldn’t be needed.
There needs to be a DJ mode. If you’re using an iPod at a party and you don’t have playlists created ahead of time, your only option is to use the “to-go” feature by which you add songs to a playlist by holding down the center button. One slip of the finger and you can release too early, playing the song instead of queuing it. There needs to be a better way of adding, reordering, and deleting songs from playlists so that you can use an iPod as a portable jukebox at a party with ease.
There are other things that are likely to be coming such as a color screen, photos (on the regular iPod), and video capability. Honestly, those are cool, but I think the iPod should work on becoming a master at music first.
In related news, I have 19.38GB of music and only 13.80GB of space on my iPod. I could really do for a 40GB model, but I won’t be upgrading until the iPod I described comes to fruition.
