What exactly is next gen to you besides a full screen with a cell phone style key slide layout???
To me better resolution and more codec support is a definite upgrade. My phone i consider an upgrade simply because it has better resolution and longer battery life than my last one.
Do you feel that when these players advance to having decent games on them for people to play (in higher resolution) WHILE listening to music the battery life isnt needed?
Next-gen are important features which everyone will use.
- Screen real-estate is the full length of the player
- As far as other codecs are concered with. It is a nice feature, but there are many people like myself who have a tool to convert from other codec to (quicktime) mp4 for ipod screen and resolution. Just has to be done once and thats it.
- Proper wifi or wireless usb. To allow for streaming from the pc or infact, another ipod. Lets say you are on the plane and you have a friend on another aisle and they are happily playing music, but have a film you want to see. Why not connect to him? Or how about the airplane has a server. That you can log onto and stream a movie of your choice? Or how about you are in a cafe and there is a pc with literally 1000's of songs and you can listen to them for free?
- Again, wireless that allows you to surf the net and watch decent sized and resolution clips.
- How about a touch screen, with a pen and with IM can chat using an msn or yahoo clone. Ipod brings up a HUD with keyboard and you just either push the buttons or use a pen to chat.
- 4pm Camera. I really want this, so I can ditch having a seperate device to carry around. Also can be used to capture video and as a webcam for when you are online.
- Phone? Only thing you need is a bluetooth headset to answer or make calls.
- PDA functionality. Calendar, email, sms, IM, etc.
Those are truly next-gen. My hope is that one day, there is a one device that does all. That whilst it is long, its very thin and portable.
I wont currently ask for a portable games device thrown into the mix. Whilst Zune could one day do that role. Unless there are paddles which slide in and out of the player to give on the left directional control and on the right some buttons and the full length screen allows you to play games. Its going to be a tough one to implement whilst allowing the player to be small and portable. The PSP is currently too big for me to purchase and carry around with me all the time. Like I do with the Ipod Video.
Maybe one day, I'll be on that plane, on a long hall flight. Chatting to other users on a wifi peer to peer network, checking out other videos or music that they have or even playing 8 way mario-kart? A typical 8 hour flight will just melt away.
Well, I can dream right? Although shouldnt be that far away, the components are there. Who is brave to give it to me? Apple, Creative, Microsoft?