A Wireless Dock?
I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this before so excuse me if they have.
Before the iPod I used to use my portable CD player whenever I went out. When I got home at night I would place it on a little table right by my door since there was little need for it at home. It was a great system because when I would leave in the morning all I'd have to do was pick it up just before I walked out of my home, no fuss. Now with the iPod I have to walk to my computer to pick it up and put it down again. There's also another wire, adding to the mess of them surrounding my computer.
I would suggest that Apple build a new dock which featured a Wireless connection (possibly 802.11g or 802.11a/g). I would love to be able to plug it in to a power socket by the door. That way when I got home at night I could just plop it into the dock, let it recharge and take it with me in the morning. It would also mean that instead of having to reconnect the dock to my computer everytime I wanted to load some songs on, I could just send them through the network. Sure its not as fast as Firewire, but hey how many songs do you send to your iPod a night? I only send a few on average after the first time I load the bulk of my songs on to it.
I've heard many people say how they wish the iPod itself was wireless. Making the dock wireless seems like a better option. If you were to put the wireless adapter in the iPod itself you would increase its size, increase the cost, and would require a redesign of the player which would take time. Putting the wireless adapter in the dock and making it an accessory means that we wouldn't have to wait for a newly designed, larger iPod. All that it would be required is a redesigned dock and some updates to software.
so anyway there's my suggestion. anyone agree or disagree?
# 1 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Yeah, I think that's a pretty good idea, and I don't doubt we'll end up with something like that some day down the road.
Actually, when I first got my iPod last summer I was fantasizing about wireless sync all the time. Since I only really use the iPod in my car, I'd love to be able to pull into the driveway, wait a few seconds for it to grab any new material from my computer in the house, then back out and keep drivin'. :)
# 2 Re: A Wireless Dock?
I would have to disagree on this one. Wirless technology is not at the level needed to support an ipod.
Pros -
You can access the ipod within range of your PC.
The IPOD could be charge easily away from the PC.
Con -
Transferring music would be impossible. Even with 802.11g your going to average mabye double USB 1.0.
You would need another dock to transfer music via firewire or USB 2.0.
You would have pay for that second dock.
Taskman
# 3 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Notice how I said "some day down the road"? This is a wishlist for the future, remember?
Even with present-day technology, this kind of thing is far from "impossible." Via 802.11g you'd get about 5?6 megs a second ? that's about 10 seconds for an album to transfer, which is hardly a substantial amount of wait time.
I don't understand your bit about a second dock at all... If someone could engineer a wireless solution for the current line of iPods, then of course you'd have to buy another piece of hardware. If it was built into a future-gen iPod, then... er... it would be built-in, and you wouldn't have to buy anything else.
# 4 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Well first if you want 5-6mb your not going to be able to have the dock farther than 15ft at most. Which pretty much defeats the whole idea.
The second dock is needed because wireless is still to slow. You need one hooked up to the computer to do large transfers.
Down the road is right. I'm optimistic and I dont see us getting anywhere near 100mb anytime soon with wireless. When I say 100mb I mean where we ACTUALLY get 100mb. 802.11g while touting 54mpbs only averages 22 even at close range.
Now what would be cool is if bluetooth was put in the IPOD as an interim. The reason I would want this is so the ipod could stream to multiple pc's. Or several people with blue tooth earphones. However data transfer is REALLY down the road.
Taskman
# 5 Re: A Wireless Dock?
I think these wireless connections also need 802.11b support. And why not built in directly onto the iPod it self? On top of that, i wonder if can communicate with other 802.11b devices wirelessly like PDA's, Notebooks, other ipods, printers(maybe it will supprot image viewing some day) and other cool stuff.
And on top of all of these, why not include wireless energy. I've hear and read that Hp or who ever has made some prgoress on wireless energy. So far it had only supported Pda's and with in close range, but if it can be extended to a few hundreds of feet (15meters, don't know how to convert into feet) would be be a great idea.
# 6 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Taskman: I have an AirPort Extreme network (802.11g) that I use extensively, and I get transfer rates of up to 6MB/sec when I'm as much as 100 feet away from the base station. I'm not making these numbers up.
And like I said, there's really no need for a "second" dock. The new-gen dock with wireless capability simply plugs into your computer just like the current ones do, and acts as either a wired or wireless interface to your iPod.
# 7 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Well I know wireless technology is still pretty slow these days but the wireless link would only really be used when loading new songs on to the iPod. I mean I loaded the bulk of my music on to the iPod when I first got it. I have never really needed to reload it. I do however usually load about 2-3 new albums over the course of the week. So its not like I'm sending a gig at a time and really at that point even at a 6MB/sec transfer time, it doesn't really take that long. Its not like the Firewire/USB 2.0 connection would have to be removed, infact you would still need it in order to charge the iPod. So if you had a really large number of songs to send you could just plug if back into the computer, or use the dock that comes with the iPod.
# 8 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Originally posted by ephraim
Taskman: I have an AirPort Extreme network (802.11g) that I use extensively, and I get transfer rates of up to 6MB/sec when I'm as much as 100 feet away from the base station. I'm not making these numbers up.
And like I said, there's really no need for a "second" dock. The new-gen dock with wireless capability simply plugs into your computer just like the current ones do, and acts as either a wired or wireless interface to your iPod.
Ok I dont mind having a normal tech conversation. However I trie to avoid entering what I call "Fantasy Land." I am a PC user and not a Mac user, however I know that no 802.11g product for the PC can do that performace. I checked up on your Airport extreme and sure enouph both zdnet(http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Apple_AirPort_Extreme_base_station_wireless_access _point/4505-3334_16-20852329-4.html?tag=review) and cnet report that at 25ft they were able to get 16.8mb and after that it lost considerable performance. They then mentioned at 100ft the signal was completly gone.
Now lets say you dont live in a house but in an open field that somehow allows this speed. We then have our second problem. 6MB/s. Do you realise what your saying? You using the Megabyte acronym. Not megabit. Your saying that at 100feet your getting 6 megabytes per second. That is rouphly 47 megabits per second. Which is nearly the max speed 802.11g can go at. I dont mean to sound harsh but I do not like it when technical knowledge is not conveyed correctly.
So lets finish this up. Since we know that past 25 feet the signal is going to degrade down to 6 megabits. As I am quite certain you simply mixed up the difference between megabye and megabit. At 6 megabits and the average song being 3 megabytes it will take about 4 seconds a song and about 50 seconds an album.
However this is a reasonable speed and for small uploads it could work. The only problem would be is that if apple went this route they would use airport obviously which may or may not leave pc users out in the cold.
Taskman
# 9 Re: A Wireless Dock?
well if it does use airport extreme, i think i will be possible for conection via pc and apple, if not, y not make two seris like the originals
# 10 Re: A Wireless Dock?
I have heard Airport does work with PCs as well. I don't see why it wouldn't. They are both the same standard anyway.
# 11 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Ya i suppose, but who knows, maybe it works better with Apples, in terms of spped, then with Pcs. If u know what i mean
# 12 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Taskman: I am neither misinformed nor mixed up. I know what the difference between a bit and a byte is, thank you very much. Look, I really have nothing to argue about with you ? I can see with my own eyes the transfer rates I'm getting, and you are quite free to choose to disbelieve in them.
# 13 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Are you in a open place or building? I've never heard of such speed before. But cool.
# 14 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Originally posted by ephraim
Taskman: I am neither misinformed nor mixed up. I know what the difference between a bit and a byte is, thank you very much. Look, I really have nothing to argue about with you ? I can see with my own eyes the transfer rates I'm getting, and you are quite free to choose to disbelieve in them.
Look your wrong. It is NOT possible. Do you know that no 802.11g network PC or Mac can get the speeds your getting when the wirless NIC is 5 feet away?
Regardless I am done with this post. If you want to keep living in la la land, please go right ahead.
Taskman
# 15 Re: A Wireless Dock?
Wait isn't 54 mbps the maximum speed? how is it impossible for one to get 47 mbps? In order to call it 54 mbps doesn't it have to be capable of coming close to that once in a while (he did say he gets transfer rates up to 6MB/sec which I would take it's normally slower
