Comments on: New iPod announced today

by: Tom Gilbert

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 22:20:50 +0000

Yeah that’s exactly apple’s attitude - UI over features :)

Firstly I’d like to point out that your “its an MP3 player” doesn’t hold out too well under an article linking to the press release for “iPod photo - the portable photo viewer” :p They added fricken *photo viewing* and the ability to plug it into your TV, but still no recording :p

That aside I don’t really think the principle of recording is going to confuse someone who isn’t an “ultra geek” :) The UI doesn’t need to be any more complex than a tape recorder. Anyone in the world can operate a tape recorder.

And yeah, there are tonnes of places and situations where having a 40G encoder/recorder with line-in in my pocket would be invaluable.

You’re quite right that more functional devices tend to have horrible UIs, (e.g. the iriver), but that’s not *because* they have all the features. Take away recording and the radio, and the iriver would *still* have a crappy UI :p Those devices have crap UIs because the UIs weren’t properly designed. Surely you’re not telling me that apple, the supposed UI gurus, would suddenly render the ipod UI unusable by adding a feature?

Look what they just did with the iPod photo, tonnes of complex new features, all of which are (in my opinion) much less valuable for an audio device than the ability to actually record audio.

by: daniel

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 21:41:36 +0000

do you need a recording device? its an MP3 player, always has been. hell i work with more music production than ever before and i still use a proper recording device.
the problem with all these other units is that they have gone overboard with features.

the reason the ipod has the market share is that it works, its simple to use and non geeks can use it. the thing you guys forget is that your ultra geeks, but give one of the “more features than anything” and see if your grannie can use it

by: giblet

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 09:51:59 +0000

Yeah exactly, and the really annoying thing is that the chips they are using *already support* recording and encoding, they just haven’t hooked it up. Presumably because it would make the device “too complex” or something. Apple often seem to make these UI over feature decisions and they tick me off ;p

by: dmron

Wed, 27 Oct 2004 04:37:35 +0000

There are lots of features that competitors offer and Apple doesnt, but the only one that really pisses me off is no audio recording. That’s just such an obvious and simple feature, it’s been three years now and they still dont offer it. While there haven’t been lots of occasions where I would have used it, there have been a few, and I really wish that they would just add it already.