One of the chief problems that must be facing the developers is the screen size. How can that and the overall size of the devise be reconciled? Everyone knows that the current design (rectangular shape with the screen on top, and the control wheel below it) has probably reached its limit.
Rumor has it that a wide touch-sensor screen may be integrated to overcome this issue. Here's one possible image (from Mac Guides) of the product. So now the iPod can really have a truly widescreen, with the control, as it were, embedded in it.
But what touch-screen would be able to do, seems to be much more than this. Watch this video from YouTube:
Crazy Multi-Input Touch Screen (watch the volume)
Wow. Isn't that so cool? I mean, I've seen this in movies; this is like how Tom Cruise was operating that thing in Minority Report. Apple may be incorporating this into their product.
To be sure, all this is speculation. And the scratching problem easily comes to mind, among others. But this technology does seem capable of transforming iPod into something completely beyond mere portable media player.
Current music: Sleeping Butterfly, from "transition" (Masayoshi Yamazaki)
That's true. The battery has been a troublesome problem facing not just iPod but also Apple's laptops. And it's very likely that, if the touch-screen technology is successfully implemented, Apple won't stop with just playing videos. And how much more battery consuming would all these interactive stuff you can do with the screen be? etc.
Precisely those geeks who overcome these issues, we call "engineers."
Having used 5G iPod (Video) for a couple of months, while I like very much the photo function , with which I can show the pictures to my friends when we are out, I don't really appreciate the video function at this point. I mean, why would one watch a music video on that tiny screen, most likely alone (because the sound can't be shared), outside?