Future iPods to be Made from Carbon Fiber, Boast Wi-Fi Syncing

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A source for Cult of Mac has revealed that Apple has been testing out wireless syncing with iPods for the past two years, and that Steve Jobs is pushing to get the technology into the next generation of iPods. While syncing a large collection of music over a Wi-Fi network smoothly has proven be difficult task for the Cupertino company, it seems carbon fiber may be the key to quicker wireless syncing.

Trouble with reliability, signal strength, case design and battery life, have all made syncing over Wi-Fi a little troublesome, according to the source, but Apple may have found the answer:

They’ve tried multiple different body designs and materials to get it to work well but it’s been slow going. They have however found many improvements using a carbon fiber design.

Apple has tested prototype carbon fiber versions of its iPod classic and last-generation iPod nano, and while the new material isn’t perfect, it has greatly improved Wi-Fi syncing. While there was no mention of other Apple devices from the source, such as the iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad, it’s expected these devices would also follow with Wi-Fi syncing capabilities.

Devices such as the iPod classic and iPod nano would need additional hardware to connect to Wi-Fi networks, whereas other devices already have Wi-Fi functionality and integrating the new technology should be as simple as a software update.

To help out with its carbon fiber testing, Apple recently employed an expert in the material called Kevin Kenny. A patent for carbon fiber cases was filed by Apple back in 2009 with Kenny’s name on it, and he recently joined the Cupertino camp after 14 years of building carbon fiber bicycles.

Wi-Fi syncing is a feature many iDevice users have been begging for for some time. It has been made possible using a tool called ‘Wi-Fi Sync’ available to jailbroken devices, which begs the question: if the hackers can do it, why can’t Apple? Well, this news proves Apple can do it – they just want to do it properly before rolling it out.

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