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Apple Replaces B/W White iPods with Color Screens
FlameboyC11 writes "A quick check at the Apple online store shows no sign of the black-and-white screened 'white' iPods. The iPod Photo has replaced them in the 20GB and 60GB categories, but is keeping the same price scale ($300 for low end and $400 for high end). This seems like such a quick switch to color, perhaps a video player is coming faster than we think?"
The CPU isn't fast enough. Heck, it has trouble with straight .ogg files (why oh why do ogg files have to hog so much CPU anyway?), any sane video would be beyond it.
The colour interface looks so good on the iPod Photo models that there's just no excuse for it not to be across the whole line.
... but a video player? I don't want the iPod in its current form to play video. I just can't imagine anything looking good on a miniscule screen like that, but I can imagine what that'd do to a hard drive that relies on large RAM caching rather than sustained reads.
Sure, you don't actually *need* colour if you just want to listen to music, but it's more vibrant, more dynamic and fits better with the look of OS X.
And the brick game looks a little nicer too. I was hoping for Arkanoid, but there you go.
A video iPod would have to be very large to be worthwhile (I'm more than doubtful of the video success of the new Sony PSP, but it'll take a while for the results to come in on that). A large unit contradicts what the iPod is all about - a small, convenient device for a single purpose.
Lastly - I don't see why people want video while they're out and about. Audio I can understand - you can easily walk around and listen to music. Video? I look forward to the first hysterical warnings brought on by teens walking accidentally into traffic while watching their PSPs. You just can't watch video and do other things. It's too intrusive.
Screw movies. Where's my iPod Visualizer? iTunes is great and all, but does Apple really expect me to be in view of my computer every time I get stoned? £:-)
omnia tua castra sunt nobis
The iPod photos have lost the "photo" part of their name.
The 30GB iPod is no more.
The 1GB iPod shuffle is only $129 from now on.
Do not be alarmed. This is only a test.
Lets assume that I can buy video from iTMS. Do I buy a video that fills my nice 20" widescreen (1080i), or do I buy one that suites my iPod (480p)?
Being Apple its going to come in H.264. Thats great. I love playing back H.264. What I don't love is encoding it. It took me over 24 hours to encode a 2 hour DVD. As my G5 can only just handle playing 1080i there seems little chance of an iPod handling it in the near future (hell, my powerbook can't do it). So do I download the 1080i then re-encode for my iPod, or do I download the 1080i version and get the 480p version for free? I don't think so. It seems more likely that Apple will charge us twice, or not offer the 1080i version. As for re-encoding, that seems unlikely too - unless the iPod has re-encoder built into it.
As this is obviously a post designed to generate speculation...
iTMS is not a good place to get movies. A good movie requires 2 hours on continuos attention, and on average I'll watch a purchased DVD twice. Music can be enjoyed in the background and I'll listen to a good song twice a day for a month. DVD is not even like books. In general, you can (even though its hard) put a good book down at any point and still enjoy it as much. Also, DVD take up too much space. iTunes is good, because I don't have to look for a CD anymore. Everything is in one place and instantly accessable. To be equivalent, 1080 would require home users to have close to 1TB of storage. Not unlikely, but not now.
iTMS is a great place for TV. I wouldn't mind picking up a 480p TV show. I watch TV exactly once. I know this, so I don't mind deleting it once I'm done - it hurt at first, but I haven't regretted it once (I'm a natural hoarder). I consume TV differently to DVD. I wouldn't mind there being advertisements. I wouldn't mind them tracking my viewing habits and giving me adverts that I want. I would like to be able to tell my iPod that I'm interested in a product and to add the products site to my 'adverts' bookmark folder. In this respect I'd expect Apple to step into the same role as a conventional network - just with a much larger audience. But in return I'd expect the content to be free. They could sell me an add free 1080i, as long as it had no adverts and I was free to burn it to Blu-ray and the cost was similar to a song. File size aside - $5 for a 60 minute show, that I watch once seems expensive - $20 a month all you can eat, now your talking.
Scared of flying, pointy things snce 1979!
Actually, they probably did it because its cheaper to use one screen across every iPod then to have two different screens, especially since there are also differences in the way the color screens have to be hooked up... they probably had two almost completely separate manufacturing lines, due to this. By switching them all to color, they can make every ipod on the same manufacturing line, throw certain amounts of ipods into a specialized manufacturing section that puts in the right drive.
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It barely registers on the radar screen on of the mainstream. OGG support does not make financial sense given its limited appeal. I'm sure OGG Vorbis is impressive from a technical point of view compared with Mp3 but it offers nothing over ACC.
The mainstream has no interest in OGG Vorbis or installing linux on their iPods. Deal with it. Linux belongs on servers.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.