Cultofmac has reported today that Apple CEO Steve Jobs is pushing hard to get Wi-Fi syncing for the upcoming iPod revamp coming later this year.
The company has apparently been testing the tech for the last two years.
Jobs has made Wi-Fi syncing one of the top priorities for the media players, which are becoming less and less relevant as more people simply buy iPhones or iPads.
So far, Apple’s engineers have had issues with “reliability, signal strength, case design and battery life” when trying for Wi-Fi syncing.
The current method for syncing involves connecting to your PC via USB cable.
Using a carbon fiber design, which the new iPods are said to have, “the engineers have found many improvements” but it is still nowhere near perfect.
Result for: media players
Samsung will launch its first true rival to the market leading iPod Touch at the CES event next month, dubbing the device the Galaxy Player.
Just like the iPod Touch is almost identical to the iPhone (without the phone and 3G capabilities), the Galaxy Player will be based on the popular Galaxy S smartphone.
The Galaxy Player will run on Android 2.2, come in 8, 16 and 32GB models, and include a standard 3.2MP camera and a 1.3MP front-side camera.
There are no current media players running Android, so the Samsung player should have an advantage over those competitors right out of the gate, due to the Android Market and its 100,000 apps. Apple, on the other hand, will be no pushover.
Samsung lacks retail presence like Apple has, as well as a brand-loyal fanbase. Furthermore, Samsung lacks a music/movie store like iTunes so it is unclear what store will come built-in.
Result for: media players
Sony has finally retired the Walkman cassette player, citing lackluster demand for the outdated device.
The company says they produced their last batch of the device in Japan in April and once that inventory clears out, the Walkman will be retired to the history books.
A Chinese company will still produce some units after Sony’s supply is exhausted but it is hard to believe they will continue to produce for the foreseeable future.
Sony began selling the Walkman in 1979 and has seen 220 million units sold over the past 31 years.
Walkman sales have been in steep decline since the introduction of portable CD players and even more so with the launch of portable MP3 players earlier this ddecade.
Sony will continue to use the “Walkman” brand, however, in phones and media players.
