TheMacMind had a page up yesterday with rumoured pictures of the next iPod, the flash-based super-mini iPod. It's a tiny little thing you'd wear around your neck.

First thought was, hey that's what I had predicted a couple of months ago! D'oh, I did, to a friend of mine, but not here. Oh well. :-) I figured this would be the next design when I saw the tiny MP3 player a Taiwanese friend of mine brought home from Vancouver one weekend. It was a wear-around-the-neck design, but really quite ugly. It was shiny metal, boxy with "sharp" corners, and an unusable little LCD display. I thought to myself, Apple could do that, properly.

At UVic I see lots of kids walking around with little MP3 players on their necks, so clearly it's a desirable thing for young people. I think it identifies a person with music, which they hope would make you think they were hip. :-)

The design shown makes a lot of sense. No LCD. Gasp! Not really. The walkman had no screen and it did just fine. The device was rumoured to have Bluetooth connectivity so you could actually browse your player with your phone. That also makes a lot of sense... now that I've played with Salling Clicker I see how attractive that is... less bulky things to carry around... everything is big because everything needs a screen! The UI is simple and functional. I would not be surprised at all if those pics were the real deal.

And if it really was only $99, they would fly off the shelves. I wish I could afford to buy some AAPL. :-) With that rumour, new PowerBook rumours, IBM rumours, it should be quite a Macworld SF next month!

PS: It appears TheMacMind site is down. Apple Legal?