Here's five things Apple could put in the next update to the iPod's software that would make it a music power tool (in order of how much I want them):
1. Line-in recording
iPod hackers have shown that the iPod is capable of recording a few seconds of audio through it's headphone port. Being able to record through this port as actual line in would enable you to record pure audio whenever you could get a line. No, the current voice recorder doesn't count.
2. Multi-band on-the-go EQ
A 'Manual' item in the EQ menu would bring up a interface that had a few (say, five) vertical bars that could be chosen with the scroll wheel, selected, then adjusted with the scroll wheel.
3. On-The-Go playlist reordering
The On-The-Go playlist is great, but I'd like to be able to reorder the songs in it. You could choose a song by holding down the Select button (which is how songs are put in the On-The-Go playlist in the first place). Then once the song was selected the scroll would be used to move it up and down in the playlist, pressing the Select button again would set it.
4. Playlist resorting
When a playlist was selected, holding down certain buttons (the Forward and Backward buttons, for example) would bring up a menu the would allow sorting according to various criteria, like Artist, Song Name, My Rating, etc.
5. Playlist Folders
This would allow all related playlists (Soft Rock, Metal Rock, etc.) to be put in a single folder (Rock). Browsing through dozens of playlists would then be a breeze instead of a pain.
A great thing about all these changes is that they don't complicate or clutter the interface for those who don't want to use them.
Here's to iPod software version 3.0!
Harold Martin
is a freelance software developer and author. Visit him at
his blog.
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Showing messages 1 through 21 of 21.
what iTunes needs to have
2005-04-29 01:04:37
NOS
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the next iTunes software that comes out for mac & PC (i have a mac) should let you create a second library so that if 2 people in your family have iPods running from the same computer you don't need to have all of eachothers songs
iPod for audio books
2004-06-25 22:50:49
Cleonw
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One addition I would love to see is the ability to bookmark. OK, when you stop and restart later, it remembers where you were, but if accidentally jump to the start of the track again, of if you fancy something else for a change, and come back later to what you were listening to, then skipping forward 6 hours, at 20 seconds a time can be a real pain in thr bum.
I would like to be able to add multiple bookmarks to multiple files, and tab through them.
i would be really good if there was some way of typing on the ipod so you could make your own notes on the ipod on-the-go and you add things to your contacts, calendars and to-do lists as they came up.
It would be great to be able to transfer your files from the iPod back to the PC...I recently had my PC crash and I lost all my data...now I have an iPod full of songs but cannot transfer them from the iPod to the PC, thus i've lost tons of songs.
Cary
How about a bookmark feature for audio books? Lately I had an audio book on the iPod that was extracted from 6 audio CDs (over 6 hours of spoken words all in all). I mostly listen to books in the evenings, playing music during the day.
It would be great to set a bookmark where I left off at night, to continue the following evening, not just the track, but exactly at the point where I stopped listening. A number of named bookmarks would be handy in case of listening to 2 or 3 different audio books.
Media reader support extended
2004-01-29 01:21:15
fneunemann
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In fact I bought my iPod not "just for playing music" :-) Of course thats the main application of it. Anyway, I love to have the Belkin media reader in my (photo) rucksack, plus the iPod, while travelling.
Just one large enough CompactFlash card required for a camera like the Nikon D-100, filling it up whith photos and them move em over onto the iPod. How about a color display (like on a Palm Tungsten T2) for reviewing the photos and tossing the bad ones?
I also agree that the possibility of deleting files as well as playlists and songs would be great.
This is a great collection of suggestion regarding iPod improvements. Unfortunately in a couple of days these improvement ideas will be buried by other post in weblog land. It is also tough to see how many people would like to see what feature.
You can find the solution for these problems at the demand aggregation site PublicMind (http://publicmind.com). We had already a request for the removal of the gaps between songs at our site: http://www.publicmind.com/enduser/group.jsp?node=266 with no publicity it has already 29 members. Please sign up if you want this to happen too.
There are also two that were not listed here as of yet: Support for the OGG and the FLAG format.
In addition we created a request for every suggestion from this weblog including the comments. You can find them here:
http://www.publicmind.com/enduser/category.jsp?node=391
If we missed one it is easy to add your own:
http://www.publicmind.com/enduser/new_group.jsp?node=391
If enough people sign up, Apple will notice and we will influence the future development of the iPod.
For example the top right corner shows which are the most requested features. (No gap followed by OGG support ...)
Given that the iPod's physical and UI designs were simple, effective and obviously well thought-through, I am shocked with the poorly-designed remote. Not only is it counter-intuitive to have buttons aligned in the same direction as the clip, there is no display. Obviously we don't want it to be gigantic in size...and I think Sony did a great job with their remote - so many functions in a simple and well-designed format. And the great thing about it? It's been designed to run horizontal to the clip orientation - more user-friendly IMO.
Some simple music navigation & management
2004-01-25 01:28:34
brianburt1
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For all the money they've put into the physical design, I think the UI is missing some basic features:
-- Advancing to next album instead of song ... the Rio/Soul MP3CD players did this by: hit FF, then release, and then hold down FF. This is especially useful in a car or anytime using the remote.
-- Changing the rating on the whole album
-- Changing the genre on a song or album
-- Within a playlist, I'd still like to see by Album, Artist etc. (My playlist aren't really ordered playlists but Smart Playlists as filters by stars and genre)
-- For long artist, album and song names, if I pause on it it should scroll
These are damn trivial and would improve it's usefullness a lot for those of us who are album- rather than song-centric.
A lot of flash-based players provide built in AM/FM with the ability to record the radio signals.
These features are on so many other systems I can only presume it is simply a chipset and it obviously doesn't cost much so it should be a easy job for Apple to add it in.
This is a no brainer because it would provide a great value-add to a product that currently is priced as a luxury lust-for.
Video I can take or leave but at least you can store those files on the iPod in whatever format you want.
I agree that this first choice for me, also. I work a lot with musicians at contra dances, and there is no easy way to record an evening dance. I have a mini-disk recorder, but it records less than an hour before it runs out of space. A big iPod can record an evening, and I could go back later and edit out what I don't want.
As you said, we know the hardware is there to be able to do this, it is just a matter of the software inside allowing us to record our own performances.
A must have!!
2004-01-23 08:22:12
pivot
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Yes! It would be good to make this a known 'most wanted' item, because Apple apparently thinks it's too complicated.
How about video playback .. a la Jukebox
2004-01-23 02:55:45
Russell Miles |
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This has been bantered around the gadget magazines for going on half a year now, but including all the things mentioned above (and believe me, bluetooth would be really neat for headphones AND potentially peer to peer sharing ... ) I would really like to see a video iPo9d. Something completely out there in front of everything once again. I liked the suggestion in a uk mag recently that it be the size and shape of the regular iPod but have a single huge screen (one complete side of the iPod). Controls would be touch sensitive on the screen itself, withthe usual hard lock mechanism to turn that off when needed) and display would be in true 16:9 for DVD video playback in landscape.
Still, hasn't everyone got an xmas 2005 list yet ? ;-)
A far simpler request
2004-01-22 21:57:38
jsfarmer
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All I want is to be able to delete songs FROM the iPod.
Two reasons
1. Sometimes I find a track or album i really don't want and would like to zap it on the spot.
2. With the new media reader, you can avoid bringing a laptop on a trip, but you can't make room on your iPod for digital photos without a laptop.
-Jeff
clickable Now Playing
2004-01-22 18:22:06
harryhoode
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I think you should be able to scroll up and down the Now Playing screen. Clicking on the artist would take you to all the artists songs. Clicking on the album name would take you to that album.
Logical easy escape from shuffle and no additional items in the interface.
Bluetooth
2004-01-22 15:05:17
leejoramo1
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No more stinking wired headphones.
More suggestions
2004-01-22 12:29:56
cviebrock
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- An easy way to turn shuffle on and off
- If I'm listening to all of my songs in shuffle mode, and I hear one I really like, an easy way to play the rest of the songs on that album
- A way to change the rating of a song through the iPod, and synching of that information back to iTunes
How about a file browser?
2004-01-22 10:19:49
joshuawait
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How about a file browser? I know there is a hack to make a file browser, but how about an Apple supplied one so that users can see what files they are toting besides their music?
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