Apple announces new "iPhone".

Originally Posted by killmoms

Well, technically, you don't have to use iTunes. But, since all iPods are metadata-based, they do need an index, unless you use an alternative firmware like RockBox. Of course, you all already know I'm a much bigger fan of metadata-driven filesystems (especially for media), since it allows for greater flexibility. But there's a dead horse I don't feel like beating today.

Anyway, I'd imagine the same touchscreen iPod interface will come to the regular iPod sometime this year. The only question is whether Apple will do it before or after the iPhone launches. I'd bank on after, so as not to downplay the iPhone's buzz. I'm calling it sometime this Autumn—6th gen touch-screen iPod. Of course, if by "decent media support" you mean things like FLAC, APE, or OGM/MKV/AVI, then... I mean, isn't that a dead horse too at this point? :P

Personally I prefer players that use metadata or a filesystem structure to organize the files. I like the system of the iRivier H320 where I can just transfer files as if it were a hard drive and then build the metadata tags if I choose to.

The reason I haven't bought an HD player recently is that I'm looking for one that can do several things:

-I'd like to to be able to play m4a, mp3, ogg, and flac. While I try to get everything in mp3 that I can (purely because of compatibility), that's not always possible in the illegitimate online market of p2p.
-It must have gapless playback if I want to play a seemless album (such as a live performance).
-I must be able to make playlists on the go.
-It must be as intuitively usable (interface-wise) as an iPod or iRivier H320.
-It'd be nice to have it the size of the more recent iPods.
-I don't want to have to use an external program to transfer files and a database program akin the the one iRiver uses would be very nice.

For some reason, no one has thought of including this rather unassuming list of features.

Jam it back in, in the dark.