News

Report: Sept. 7 Event Said to be iPod Phone Debut

Tuesday, August 30th, 2005 at 3:00 AM - by

Apple's announced Sept. 7th event, will be to announce the long-awaited mobile phone and music player with iTunes capability, The New York Times reports in its Tuesday edition (free subscription required).

A telecommunications industry analyst who has been briefed on the announcement told the newspaper that the new phone, to be made by Motorola, would be marketed by Cingular Wireless. Roger Entner, a telecommunications analyst with Ovum, a market research firm, said it would include iTunes software, which helps power the iPod.

"Apple, Motorola and Cingular declined to confirm or deny the report," the story stated. "But Apple did announce on Monday that it would hold a major news event on Sept. 7 in San Francisco that it indicated was music-related. Apple is routinely tight-lipped about pending product announcements, preferring to make a splash on the day of the event."

The plans outlined for an Apple phone are consistent with recent announcements by Motorola, which said in July 2004 that it planned to develop a device that would include the iTunes software. In July of this year, Motorola said that development of the iTunes phone was on track to be unveiled by the end of September.

The NYT story said it was not clear whether the iTunes phone would allow users to download songs directly from the Internet onto the phone, "though music industry analysts said they doubted that such a capability would be immediately available."

The NYT story contradicts a story from Reuters which reports Apple will use the September 7 event to possibly announce "an updated iPod Shuffle music player with much more capacity."

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jimothy said:

member since 04 Jun 2004 with 589 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 8:49 am

A phone? How boring is that? I mean, we've been hearing about this for a year now. Instead of actually shipping products, Apple needs to focus on fostering newer and bigger rumors.

By way of another Mac new site, I've received incontrovertible evidence of the next great music device from Apple: iPod noggin. Read on:

"Two words: Implantable iPod.

Several more words: Forget hard drive. Forget flash. Forget headphones, while you're at it. This puppy is installed into your brain, and uses brain cells for storage.

This will bring new meaning to "I can't get this song out of my head," to which the standard reply will now be, "Did you try re-syncing with iTunes?" (Note: re-syncing may also be necessary after late night cram sessions, head injuries, and beer binges. College students are expected to require frequent re-syncing)."

I know, I wouldn't believe it myself had I not just made it up yesterday. But it's gotta be true. It's at least more exciting than this dumb Motorola device. iTunes wielding phones is so next month, you know! We're moving at Internet speed baby; we need rumors that are at least a year, two years--a decade!--away.

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Steve W said:

member since 22 Nov 2002 with 482 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:18 am

jimothy wrote:
This puppy is installed into your brain, and uses brain cells for storage.

I hope it includes a utility for clearing out old files; there's lotsa crap in my head I'd like to delete. It should include a way to reset permissions as well, since some of the still-useful stuff requires a lot of cranium processor time just to connect one bit of info with another. (Sniffs) "Damn, what is that? Reminds me of, um, um... Curses, can't remember!"

Actually, it sounds like we'll need OSXI for this!

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mshoaf said:

member since 02 Dec 2002 with 112 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 9:54 am

Quote:
“1000 songs in your pocket changed everything. Here we go again.” (with a picture of the pocket on a pair of blue jeans)

Ok, so I haven't actually SEEN the invite, but why does everyone keep saying this announcement is definitely music-related? Are there some clues on the invitation that confirm this?

Apple is very very good at taking an existing device (but not mainstream...yet) and making it immensely more user-friendly and convenient, as well as more stylish. That's what they did with portable digital music players, and they did it twice with computers (the original Macintosh, and the first iMac). Then all competitors, including those who already produced their competing devices prior to the Apple announcement, are left scrambling to market a me-too product.

They seem to be bringing up the most recent time they have made such an impact on the digital world, being the intro of the iPod. They expect this next thing to make the same impact. So this COULD mean music, or phone, or video, or a combo of any or all the above, or some other device that we won't know how we ever lived without after this announcement.

That said, I was just about to hit the "Checkout Now" button on an order for a new 60GB iPod when the news of this announcement popped up yesterday. Now, I'll wait till Wednesday afternoon to decide whether to continue my order or not.

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algr said:

member since 07 Aug 2003 with 283 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:43 am

If it is an iTunes phone, one possibility is that it is bluetooth enabled and can download music at high speed from free wi-fi hot spots. This would be much better then solutions where you have to download music through the phone network, which is slow, and expensive. Maybe you could even download songs from other people's nearby phones, and just the payment goes through the cell network. If you play a song enough, your cell starts recommending it to others!

I'd still like to see an Apple hard drive based camcorder though. I don't think that movies on an iPod will fly because you can already do this with 8mm camcorders, (5 hrs per tape) and it never took off. Selling music videos and short films over ITMS might work though.

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A guest said: (hide)

Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:49 am

I saw a report on CNN.com that said pictures and details about this phone are posted on the FCC's website... but I haven't been able to find the particular url for this page. Anyone else come across this article?

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kevdo said:

member since 09 Dec 2004 with 54 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 11:55 am

The jeans photo shows the fifth pocket. Too small for an iPod (esp. one to play video) but definitely small enough for a cell phone.

Looks like it's gonna be the iTunes phone.

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algr said:

member since 07 Aug 2003 with 283 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 12:19 pm

My guess:

It's a flip phone, with all the iPod controls on the outside. You open it just to talk and download music. Comes with a headset that includes mike to talk, and an "answer the phone" button so that if someone calls you you don't even have to pull the phone out of your pocket.

And wi-fi downloads.

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fartheststar said:

member since 04 Jan 2004 with 213 posts, unranked, send him a message or view his profile

Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:44 pm

How long will that battery last?

-They've got to get that one right this time - the first time. Not theoretical maximums, but real ones considering you'll listen to you phone and talk on your phone.

"Honey I got to let you go or else I can't finish listening to the new Bloodhound Gang tune"

This - with one of those high powered Toshiba batteries, yet to be released that is rumoured to charge in less than one minute would be wicked.

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