12 replies to this topic

[Maren]

Story from CNN:

Apple unveils video iPod

Apple Computer Inc. unveiled Wednesday an iPod capable of playing videos, evolving the portable music player of choice into a multimedia platform for everything from TV shows to music videos.

Videos will now be sold online alongside songs on Apple's iTunes Music Store.

Citing a groundbreaking deal with ABC Television Group, Apple chief executive Steve Jobs said the online iTunes store will sell episodes of hit shows "Desperate Housewives" and "Lost" for $1.99 each, making them available the day after they air on television for viewing on the new iPod's 2.5-inch color screen.

Analysts consider Apple's much-anticipated introduction of a video iPod a test of whether consumers would embrace video on such a small screen. Over-the-air TV services are already available for cell phones but the quality remains substandard.

"It's never been done before, where you could buy hit TV shows and buy them online the day after they're shown," said Jobs whose other company, Pixar Animation Studios Inc., has a long relationship with ABC's parent, The Walt Disney Co.

Competing portable video players have been available for several years but very little compelling content has been available, and Apple's move comes amid fledgling initiatives to offer original video programming on the Internet.

"This is the first giant step to making more content available to more people online," said Robert Iger, Disney's chief executive. "It is the future as far as I'm concerned. It's a great marriage between content and technology and I'm thrilled about it."

The new video iPod, available in black or white, will be able to play video and podcasts. A 30-gigabyte version will sell for $299 and a 60-gigabyte, $399. Extra features on both versions include a clock, a calendar that Jobs said never looked better, a stop watch and a screen lock.

"It's really very beautiful and very thin," Jobs told assembled journalists and guests.

The video iPod will lock TV shows and music videos downloaded from the iTunes store with copy-protection software, just as Apple does for music. But it will also support the MPEG-4 video standard, meaning users could view home movies and other unencrypted videos on it.

Attached Files

•  video_ipod.gif   21.08K   0 downloads

[Carl]

Freaking sweet, if it actually is as good as it looks, I have a present I want to buy myself for Christmas, haha.

Of course, as you know from Lougan's blog post promoting Tyler's nanoscratch site, you need to give it some time to make sure they don't have really irritating problems like that iPod nano does.

[Maren]

Yeah, I know what you mean.  But still, it's pretty cool.  I like the idea of being able to buy shows and watching them whenever, wherever.

[Carl]

Yeah, I know what you mean.  But still, it's pretty cool.  I like the idea of being able to buy shows and watching them whenever, wherever.

Well, I can set up my computer to act as a VCR, convert the resulting video file into one the video iPod supports, and be good to go

[Zach]

I've tried that vcr to avi stuff, the sound was pretty damn shoddy.

I'll wait til the price comes down (300-400 bucks?????) and there are some reviews out about it.

[Carl]

I've tried that vcr to avi stuff, the sound was pretty damn shoddy.

I'll wait til the price comes down (300-400 bucks?????) and there are some reviews out about it.

Nah, I've got an external tv tuner card from hauppage (sp?).  It records pretty well as long as you test it extensively first (gotta get all the compression settings and stuff just right).

[Keith]

........this should be available on the PSP.  It probably will be, eventually.  It just needs some kind of bigger storage device.  The next ten to twenty years in technology is going to be fucking great.

[Carl]

........this should be available on the PSP.  It probably will be, eventually.  It just needs some kind of bigger storage device.  The next ten to twenty years in technology is going to be fucking great.

I thought you could put movies on the PSP already?

[Keith]

You can watch movies on their UMDs, but not actually have it on the psp.  There's no storage on the PSP for things like that.  Streaming it to the PSP like they are gonna do on the video iPod is something PSP is incapable of, without storage media.

[Carl]

You can watch movies on their UMDs, but not actually have it on the psp.  There's no storage on the PSP for things like that.  Streaming it to the PSP like they are gonna do on the video iPod is something PSP is incapable of, without storage media.

Um.....
http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000980024404/

????

[Keith]

You're not really seeing the real picture here though.  The apple's new iPod video thing is #1 - Very simple to use, and #2 - has a storage device of 30 gigs.  The PSP reads from UMDs or memory sticks - find me a 30 gig memory stick, and we'll be in business.  #3 - that tutorial is *not* for the average user.

The apple's video iPod is streamable and downloadable from anywhere - you don't need a computer.  The PSP, you need a computer and all sorts of software and decoders and shit.  It can be done, but it's not practical, and still is not possible to store many videos on a single storage media.  Hence why I said, it just needs some kind of bigger storage device.

[Carl]

I'd love to have an actual 256 MB memory stick.  Not a pro, or a duo, or a combination of two of them, but a single unit.  I could fit a whole DVD on one of those (with the kind of screen I'd be using if I had that kind of memory stick).