Apple to unveil low-cost iPod?

The battery cannot be replaced, it is "built in" so to speak, once the battery will no longer hold a charge, the device is useless.

supposedly, the cost to have Apple replace the battery is really expensive so people decide to go and buy the next iPod. i am guessing that the battery is too sexy to be readily replaced by the consumer just like how the "sexy" iPod is so expensive.

I just heard somehwere yesterday that you can get it replaced for $90USD, and have it professionally done, or $80USD and do it yourself.

Oh yeah it was on TechTV, but I am still a little skeptical. The whole battery issue is VERY important, because who wants to buy something that can't be replaced?

No kidding! I wasn't aware the battery wasn't even able to be replaced by the user.

Man... I was really wanting to get one of these, but if I can't replace the battery when it runs out of charge, I think I'll keep holding off.

I know we've become a disposable society, but give me a break! That is WAYYY to much money to hand to the junk collector. Sheesh!

I got me a zen 60GB. its savage I wouldnt touch an ipod. 8 hours battery life (zen has 14) pah my zen laughs at it with its suppiorior audio fidelity.

I love flash based mp3 players my old one was a brillent intel pocket concert but it only held like 128megs

Well it would take a long time for the iPod battery to not hold a charge anymore. We're not talking you have it for a month then it doesn't work anymore. I don't know alot about batteries, but of course the stock one would last a few years.

I have also heard that the batteries crap out in the ipod and can't be replaced by the end user!! I also heard that Apple has now decided that they will replace the battery for around $100.00 if your battery does die on you! (that's still way too much for a battery)

As for the cost of MP3's on i-tunes, $1.00 a song is WAAAYYYYYY too much money. I look at it like this: the average cd you might buy at a retail store holds 15+ songs and costs around $12.99-$13.99, if wanted to get the whole album off i-tunes then it's MORE expensive from the start!!

This needs to be a cheaper (MUCH cheaper) alternative to buying the cd from a retail store. It needs to be $0.25 per song before I'm going to jump on the i-tunes bandwagon. some people may think that's not enough, but if an artist has a hit song and say just 1 million people buy it for .25 cents = $250,000.00 Thats a lot of money! plus, most artist have more than just one hit song per album.

i'm done ranting for now...........

Actually, some of the albums on iTunes cost $9.99 if you buy the whole album at once. And also, if it cost 25 cents a song, Apple would probably be losing a lot of money because of the royalties it has to pay to the RIAA and the processing fees from the credit card companies. Then they actually wouldn't be able to charge your card until you bought 2 songs cuz most of the time, the minimum you have to spend to use your card is 50 cents.

Granted that is a lot of money, but it's not enough for 90% of the artists out there today who want to produce the least amount and quality of music for the most amount of money.

the batteries used in the i-pod are lithium-ion batteries, nothing like nicad batteries. the best way to ensure the longetivity of them is to try to keep them as fully charged as possible, rather than running them down.

i always thought what sngx1275 said was true, you need to run them down and fully charge them, but this is only true with nicad batteries. i regularly use a nimh battery pack without discharging it, and it has lasted for well over a year without building up a noticeable memory.

at the end of the day it all comes down to how the person uses it, if its kept as full of charge as possible the battery will last for a long time, but if it is run out regularly then the life of the battery will be shorter.

id be the first in line at futureshop to buy one if they ever come out.

I would buy a $100 iPod as well, but not now as I have a perfectly functional MP3 CD player.

If they come out with a 5 gig player for anywhere near $100 it will be a huge hit. I will buy 4- one for the car, my computer, my stereo and my girlfriend. There is no player on the market at that price with even 512mb of memory that I am aware of.

considering 10gb is still about triple that then i doubt they will be able to produce a 5gb one for around $100. i was wondering wether it was going to be another hdd or flash memory, as the cheaper ones are usually flash memory.

i think for $100 512mb would be very reasonable, 256 built in and another 256 on a card, or some other form of removable media.

anyway i dont think its possible for them to screw it up, its stil got the i-pod name so people will still buy it!