Why oh why the wires?
The latest iPod Nano is a beautiful piece of engineering. It's
amazingly thin, light and compact for the amount it stores, has a
clear, bright screen, and it's aluminium body is remarkably resistant
to scratches.
It's elegant interface and design have been praised and written about
endlessly, but there is one thing which is not quite so elegant - the
mass of wires you need to listen, charge or sync it.
Apple are so good at making wireless bits "just work" - my wireless
keyboard and mouse connect to the Mac without the awkward
button-pushing, code entering pairing rituals of Windows; the iPhone
Remote application picks up and controls any copies of iTunes which
happen to be nearby on the network.
There's three wired functions which would be made so much more elegant
and simple if Apple could cut the wires for the next version...
1. Why can't the iPod (or iPhone for that matter) wirelessly sync with
iTunes when I enter the room where iTunes is? Or for that matter, via
the cloud, from anywhere?? I know Bluetooth is slow, and wi-fi adds a
power and size overhead - but from a user's point of view, it would be
very elegant alternative to keeping track of where I put that USB cable.
2. Wires for the headphones - if anyone could miniaturise the batteries
and wireless needed to stick a little wireless bud in your ear, Apple
could.
3. Wires for charging. There's been lots of developments in the field
of wireless charging - my dream scenario would be an area on the Mac
keyboard or MacBook body, which, when you place the iPod on it, holds
it in place with a magnet (like the power cable) and wireless charges
up the battery (while, of course, wirelessly synching!). My electic
toothbrush does this, so why can't the iPod?
Apple, if you do this, my royalty is only 10%
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