A Preview of Apple's Next iPods

Apple's annual revamp of their iPod product line is still a couple of months away but speculation about the next portable media devices from Cupertino that come with white earbuds is here now.  Here's a few things that are likely to become the next iPods when they are announced in early September:

1. iPod Touch gets an A4 CPU update but no camera:  After the introduction of iPad and the iPhone 4, the iPod Touch is next to get updated to Apple's A4 processor.  Unifying all iOS devices on the A4 processor makes it easier Apple and developers. An iPod touch based on the A4 Processor would run Apps faster.  It is likely to see the enhancement in screen technology introduced with the iPhone 4 to come to the iPod touch.  The one thing that will not be coming to the iPod touch is the camera that is coveted by iPod touch owners.  Not offering a camera on the iPod touch is one way that Apple gets iPod touch owners to upgrade to iPhones, Apple just won't sacrifice that by adding a camera to the iPod Touch.

2.  iPod Nanos to get a memory upgrade and a price drop:  In order to prop up waning sales of the iPod Nano Apple will be upgrading the Nano with a 16 GB model and possibly a 32 GB model as well.  To counteract the tendency of consumers that choose between Shuffle and the Touch, expect a price drop down as low as 99 dollars.

3.  iPod Classic to get SSD or go away:  The traditional iPod classic have used regular laptop hard drives since the original 5gb first generation iPod, however the mechanical hard drive is the Achilles's Heel of the iPod Classic.  Solid state storage has come down in price enough to produce iPod Classics.  The iPod Classic sells such very low volumes Apple may just consider dumping the Classic altogether.

4. iPod Shuffle get a price drop: At the entry level Apple has to compete with every other entry level MP3 player on the market.  With plenty of 2 GB mp3 players starting as low as 19 dollars, charging 60 dollars for a 2 GB iPod shuffle isn't the way to attract buyers of a basic music player.  While the iPod shuffle has the same cool factor as every other iPod, Apple will still need to appeal to buyers of basic music players.  Apple will need to bring down the price to at least 49 dollars and should at least consider the 39 dollar price point for the 2GB Shuffle. 

ESRB Ratings of Classic Video Games: Q-Bert

Q-Bert is the adventure of a cute little orange puff ball with some kind of a tube for a nose.  He jumps on cubes arranged in a pyramid to make the tops of the cubes change colour.  The goal is to make all the tops of the cubes the colour that the game tells you to change the colour to. 

Q-Bert was originally released in 1982, twelve years before the Entertainment Software Ratings Board started handed out ratings that are slapped on every packaged video game sold. 

Chasing Q-Bert around the pyramid are a the nasty critters, such as snakes and gremlins.  When one of the enemies jumps on Q-Bert, we discover that inside that bright orange puff ball is a mouth, and a rather foul mouth at that.  Given the limited capabilities of  the Atari 2600 and the ColecoVision, Speech synthesis or voice recordings within the games weren't possible.  Instead Q-Bert's outburst of swearing is shown as random punctuation marks that are shown in place of swear words.

Had there been the ESRB when Q-Bert was released their lack of tolerance of cussing in video games would have meant that Q-Bert would have earned a mature rating.  Most kids playing would have to get mommy or daddy to buy the game for their home consoles, but back in those days most video game playing was done out side the home at a place called an arcade.  Every little kid wanting to crank every quarter from their allowance would also would have needed a fake ID.