What we'd like to see: iPod

Right, seeing as we've reached 50 posts with the day before yesterday's "iTunes Improvements, Part II", I thought I'd say how awesome you guys are.

Without you, there'd be no Dear Cupertino - so get those submissions in, guys! Email Joel at: joel.esler[at]me.com Exams are finally finished now, and seeing as I've got a a bit of spare time, I thought I'd share the iPod love...

Dear Cupertino,



So we've heard that Apple might be making the MacBook Air out of carbon fiber, and we've also heard that Apple might be releasing iPhone OS 2.2 sometime within the next few days, but what about the unloved 17" MacBook Pro?

In any case, the iPod has gone through a number of revisions and is a solid product that doesn’t need many revisions. However, there are a couple of ways that the best portable media player on the market could be made even better...

• A "Shuffle by Album" option on the iPhone and iPod Touch - would be great when we want to listen to different music from different albums, obviously.

• The ability to browse by Album artist in the navigational menu.

• Support for Cover Flow to sort by Album Artist, instead of just by Artist name.

• Enable transcoding of Apple Lossless to 128kbps (or better) AAC on the iPod - which I think is currently enabled for the iPod Shuffle.

• The ability to browse artists by the "Sort Artist" field tag (from the file's metadata) instead of the "Artist" tag, but only if it is set. This will help get rid of duplicates caused by featured artists or remixers entered into the Artist field.

• 802.11n Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi of any sort would be desirable in any form, but seriously, Apple - if other nameless media players have it, why not on the iPod?

Thanks,
Ian Rawluk

Editor's note: Ian, you're a full-blown legend, mate! Thanks for all your submissions so far.
Image courtesy Apple.