Teeny-Tiny Thumbdrive
I got this in the post today from Hong Kong. It's a KingMax 4GB USB drive. I can't put into words how small this thing is, so I took this picture with a pencil for a size comparison. The pencil is of the standard size (it's a Faber-Castell Columbus 2103 HB, pencil-nerds), and the USB drive is of the teeny-tiny size. And I plugged it into my PC, and it really does hold 4GB.
So, in theory, why isn't the iPod Shuffle available up to 4GB? And surely you could fit more than 8GB into a Nano too? Wouldn't a 16GB or 32GB Nano just be the absolute bollocks? Or even a 32GB iPhone (if you're stupid enough to buy an iPhone, whenever it eventually comes out)?
I love tiny technology.
(posts)
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Comments
Wow! My favourite pencil in the world... EVER! ;-) Seriously, don't you just love tech stuff? Well, I know I do...
Posted by: SharkyUK | April 5, 2007 2:03 PM
Well the iPod has other gubbins in it. Like gubbins to play the music, and to control it.
Also the cost of the type of memory does vary by the quality, and thumb drives I would expect to have different quality memory.
Also they way the two devices use power is different.
You will see bigger memory iPods out, probably this year infact. But I'm not sure the comparison is entirely apples and apples.
Posted by: Adrian | April 8, 2007 2:40 PM
Well, this teeny-tiny thumbdrive seems to have good, solid, very fast memory. Is memory not memory though? As in all the same? I know some is faster than others, but for streaming music into your headphones you needs like less than 1MB/s transfer speeds.
I think soon we'll see an iPod the thickness of the Nano, the width of an iPod, with like 500MB in it, and a full-screen touchscreen of course. An like 48 hours battery life. Within two or three years.
And the iPhone will go the way of the Newton.
Posted by: Matt | April 8, 2007 3:49 PM
It's not just the speed of the memory but how much power it needs and how many read writes it can handle and how easily it can corrupt. Memory for us is probably just memory. Memory for apple buying a lot of it, is not just memory, but buying the right memory for the product.
You'll probably see a 30GB flash based iPod late this year or early next year with the iPhone interface on it. Batter life is dependant on size still so the smaller you make it the less long it can last.
500GB of flash memory? Maybe but I wouldn't hold my breath just yet.
The iPhone I doubt will be a Newton. I suspect it will be a very successful phone and lead the way for more products in that area. Be interesting to see when or if they launch an iPhone nano if the product line is successful.
Posted by: Adrian | April 8, 2007 4:54 PM
The iPhone being a totally closed system, will sell really well at first, but I doubt will see any sort of market penetration along the lines of the iPod.
Apple tried to do too many things at once, and ended up with bit of a mess, imho. They would've been better off going for the "iPhone Nano" first, and then the full-sized version, thus learning as they went.
Of course, I fully expect to be proven wrong.
Posted by: Matt | April 8, 2007 7:17 PM
Except the iPhone is not a closed system. The iPhone can run other software. It's just initially they think it will work better without opening it of limiting the way you can add to it (so only apple tested software or dashboard style widgets for example).
The reason they did both at the same time is the market they are going after. The iPhone is not a cheap device and removing the iPod features it still would have been an expensive device. By having both devices and a cutting edge brand new iPod interface they get the early iPod adopters and those wishing to consolidate devices. the iPhone nano would have been too pricey and not sold. At least not initially. The iPhone cost is about par with equivalent devices.
I think they have got their strategy just perfect. Although it's hard to say till one see and uses an actual iPhone, which is equally why it's probably hard to say if it really is a mess or quite smooth.
Posted by: Adrian | April 8, 2007 11:30 PM