Top stories

Journalists Cover Microsoft, Using Macs

It’s not an easy time for Microsoft — with Steve Ballmer having to field questions about being “buffoons” and an “evil empire”  at the shareholder’s meeting (.doc) — so when they get together “the world’s most influential technology pundits and online writers” (nb: we weren’t invited) for Mobius to discuss super-secret mobile tech you’d think [...]

Guide To Black Friday Apple Bargains: Cheap MacBooks, iPods and Accessories Galore

Here’s a guide for finding the best bargains on Apple-related gear during the infamous Black Friday sales on November 27. We’ve compiled a comprehensive list of gear from leaked photos of sales flyers and descriptions of sales.
The bargains include a 2.26 GHz MacBook + $150 gift card at Best Buy for $999.99 ; a 32GB [...]

Review: Voices Is Today’s Best Thing Ever, Grab It Now While It’s Cheap

New on the App Store is Voices from the clever folk at Tap Tap Tap. You can guess what it does.

Open it up, pick a silly voice. Helium is pretty silly. A microphone appears and the app even clears your throat for you (try it, you’ll see what I mean). Now speak your brains, and [...]

Review: Sony Walkman S540 Series Video MP3 Player

Press releases, you will hardly be surprised to hear, are rarely very interesting. But one arrived in my inbox a couple of weeks ago that made me double-take.
“Sony’s S Series Walkman,” it chattered, “is a serious challenger to the iPod Nano.” Gosh, really? Perhaps the Cult had better have a look at one, then, despite [...]

MSNBC Feeds iPhone Nano Rumor Mill

iphone_2.png

We’ve officially moved beyond skepticism that Apple would be able to get a foothold into the mobile market to full-on speculation for how the company will follow up the breakout success of the iPhone. According to MSNBC, it will be with the iPhone Nano. Which they make sound like…the iPod Nano. With a phone on it.

Kevin Chang, a JP Morgan analyst based in Taiwan, cited people in the supply channel that he did not name and an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark office for his report.

Apple filed a patent application document that refers to a multifunctional handheld device with a circular touch pad control, similar to the Nano’s scroll wheel.

Yeah, I’m sure that will be exactly what Apple does. I’m sorry, there’s no way Apple ever releases a product with a click-wheel. The company has sent clear messages that it considers that to be the iPod interface and the iPod interface alone. The iPhone is about multitouch. You don’t get the name otherwise.

The iPhone will quite obviously eat into iPod sales. That’s kind of the point long-term. It doesn’t mean Apple’s ready to roll out a bad product to replace good ones.

Via Digg.
Image via Information Architects

About the author

Petemortensen

Pete Mortensen is the communications lead for growth strategy firm Jump Associates and the co-author of Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy, a book and blog that are significantly more interesting than you might initially think. Pete's particular Apple avocations are both around design--interface and industrial. Follow him on Twitter!

Email the author | Read more posts by Pete Mortensen.

4 comments

    That shuffel concept is about the funniest thing I have seen all year. But, that aside, I think what he (Kevin Chang) was refering to was the patent for a “virtual” scroll wheel. It changes to numbers or icons ect. I saw a reference to this earlier somewhere. THAT, I could see possible. It would be multi-touch. It could be cool if Apple made it… well… cool, which they know how to do.

    Also, I do see them using the “Nano” tag though. And I would bet the Nano would not just be a smaller, less feature rich version (as pictured above) of the iPhone. The iPod Nano isn’t. It has a slightly different form factor, metal, comes in colors. I would suspect the iPhone Nano will have a slightly different form factor too, a slightly different interface, and will probably not have email, video and internet. Just a multi-touch phone/MP3 player. Just my thoughts.

    I don’t think it will happen not as proposed by those images above, it wouldn’t work well at all.

    The iPhone Shuffle doesn’t have a screen.

Buy Inside Steve's Brain Buy from Amazon.com Buy from Barnes & Noble