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Video iPod Apple's First Bad Move?
An anonymous reader writes "Apple has had a lot of success with the iPod brand the past few years. The NYT has an article up wondering if, just maybe, this week's release of the video iPod was too soon." From the article: "Everyone from Microsoft to Comcast - in other words, the usual suspects - is working on or looking at similar pocket-size recorders. At least two companies, Pace Micro Technology of Britain and Samsung of South Korea, have said they plan to introduce models early next year. There is also TivoToGo, a service that can forward recorded shows to various mobile devices, even Sony PSP handheld gaming units ... [anyway,] the video iPod only has it half right: if it took material from the television as readily as it did from the Internet, it could be a blockbuster. But then who would pay $1.99 to download an episode of 'Lost' from iTunes if the iPod could also hook up to your television and record that same episode free? Unlike its musical forebear, the video iPod may not be ready for prime time. "
My take on all of this is that people still want an iPod. If they want bigger than a 4 GB player to store their music, then they will go with a full-size iPod. Before, you got 20 GB or 60 GB and no video. Now, for the same price, you get 30 or 60 GB AND video. You pay the same price and you get more features. I agree with people who say "Who will use video on the iPod?" But when you realize that the iPod is a music player FIRST and a video player is an added bonus, it makes more sense. If you want a high capacity music player, then you want an iPod - everyone wants an iPod; they're cool. But then the video playing is just an added bonus. If you want a high capacity video player, then you'd get something else.
Trying to wedge PVR functionality into the portable device is overkill. It's a player. Let the computer do the work... that's why it's there.
Sorry but I love the fact that my portable video player also acts as a PVR. I don't have to re-encode video to play on it and look correct, I don't have to have a Tivo and use "Record to VCR" or Tivo2Go if I don't want to, and I don't have to pay an additional $100+ on a decent PVR card to record content that I'm just putting on a portable device.
It's apparent to me that plenty of people are speculating on how moving content to portable devices will work and how well it will work. I'm not speculating as I do it every day with my Archos AV400.
Having a built in PVR is a GOOD THING.
is not releasing higher def content. I realize that putting higher def content on the video iPod which cannot display it is dumb, but Apple already solved the "differenet resolutions for different devices" problem with the iPod photo. Obviously it would be pointless to put your 5 megapixel pictures on the iPod photo which cannot display it, it would waste space and more importantly, it would waste power because you have to spin the hard drive more just to load data that you will end up not really even using anyway. But at the same time you want to keep all those 5 megapixel pictures on your computer where you can use that kind of resolution. How did Apple solve the problem? Simple, when you first set up your iPod photo for pictures, iTunes automatically converts your photo library into a size that is usable on your iPod. Not the quickest of processes, but if you let it run in the background it shouldn't matter. I don't understand why they couldn't do this with the video content either. I bought a music video just to see what it would look like, and while it wasn't HORRIBLE I can find better looking content through other sources...
Monstar L
" People who spend $400 plus accessories and bitch about spending $2 on a missed episode can shampoo my crotch. $.99 for a song, 4-5 minutes. $1.99 for a TV show for 40 minutes."
Just shows how overpriced the songs are.
It's very true... people want to pick apart (some people, I mean) the guy/gal/company/team/country on top. It's some sort of mechanism to either defend that they haven't backed the wrong horse or that they somehow identify with the "underdog."
A poignant observation in an Apple thread. Especially seeing how the popularity of the iPod seems to function as Ultimate Vindication for those who may have 'backed the wrong horse' in the PC platform wars.
Whenever I hear the word 'Innovation', I reach for my pistol.
Heh. Some day they'll do wireless, and they'll take over the world. Wait; that's google, isn't it?
...
;-)
Anyway, here's my sample of one: A year or so back, my wife and I decided to terminate our cable service. We'd only watched TV for news and movies, really. Here in the US, TV news has long since become a joke, and when news.google.com came out, we realized very quickly that it gave us more news from more viewpoints in 10 minutes than TV did in an evening of news shows. And we subscribed to Netflix, eliminating the movies angle. We realized that the only thing we'd turned the TV on for months was the Jon Stewart's Daily Show, and even that had become available in video clips on the political blogs a day after a show was aired. We asked ourself "Why are we paying for this?"
So we switched to DSL (speakeasy), including VoIP. Half the price for a real IP link with no port blocking. They're very nice if the local power structure permits them to sell in your neighborhood.
Meanwhile, we'd been following the iPod stories, bue hadn't seen anything that persuaded us to buy one of the cute little gadgets. Now, with the announcement of videos, my wife (the real old-movie freak) is mentioning "iPod" once or twice a day. My bet is that she'll wait until she sees a couple in action, and then she'll have to buy one. She'll then drop her Netflix subscription. She'll just download the movies to her Mac PB, where she'll watch most of them. Some will go to the iPod. Depending on the price they settle on, this will probably be comparable to the Netflix subscription price, but a lot more convenient.
Now if they'd just incorporate a "smartphone" (phone + calendar), with full-time internet access, it'd be an instant sell. We could carry just the one electronic barnacle.
And if they'd run OSX internally, I could even program it
(Yeah, I know; linux or freebsd would be better. But what're the chances of either of those?
(And while I'm dreaming, how about a browser that works with google maps, and GPS capability? Wouldn't it be fun to work on software that combines these in a wireless gadget?)
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
I think everybody should go watch the Oct 12 video on the Apple website. For one thing, it has the Eminem add that was pulled. But more importantly everyone should sit down and pay close attention to what the iMac does now and how Steve compared the remote that comes with it to the MS Media Center remotes. Now is anybody really going to use a 17 inch iMac as a TV replacement? Probably not. Maybe in the kitchen, but I doubt it.
So is Steve just smoking crack here? Of course not. Now consider the Apple 30" cinema display hooked up to that remote. Things become a bit more compelling, don't they? Am I saying that Apple is going to make a Tivo? They might, but I'm guessing they won't. Here's why. The broadcasters hate Tivo. To them, Tivo means they just gave away the show AND the viewer skipped the ads. Same goes for BitTorrent, which has content producers frightened even more. Apple is offering them an alternative. Try to capture some of the Tivo/BT market by selling the show a day later with no ads. That way the broadcaster gets paid, and paid fast. The home viewer can watch the show on their Apple set top box or on the iPod. My guess is that the iTunes video store will start to grow to include older shows and eventually movies.
One thing nobody has mentioned is HD. Obviously the current iPods can't do it, but it won't be long. Apple is playing this smart, leveraging the popularity of the iPod and iTunes to establish the relationships with content producers that will get them on board.
Finally, another thing that nobody has mentioned is video in the car. If you have kids you know that a DVD player is not the best solution in the world. Not only do you have to mess with disks, but many children's disks are only about 20 minutes long and looping that over and over again on a long drive will make you want to murder Thomas, Percy, Gordan, and even Edward. What if instead you could put all your kids' shows on an iPod and hook that up to the screen in the car instead? Parents across the nation will go nuts for this and will download content just to keep themselves sane by avoiding repetition. I know that if I get one of these I'm going to rip all the Sesame Street and Thomas DVDs we have to it immediately and then park the thing in the car. And yes you can do it, just not with Apple software, for now at least.
Lasers Controlled Games!
It's also time for Palm to stop fucking Apple users. I've had Apple computers since 1985 and Palm devices since 1996, and without fail, as an Apple user, I had to pay extra for docks or connectors, got the short end of the stick on included software, and generally was treated like some sort of ghetto stepchild. Their desktop software for OS X started out lousy and never got better, the syncing is abysmal, and the hardware is overpriced for what you get.
Then I got an iPod mini and realized that I really didn't need to input things into a PDA right that second, and that in exchange of the syncing ease of an iPod, I could just wait to type in my little notes once I got home or the office.
So no, it's not just that it has a little fruit logo on it, it's because my needs were simple, and after eight years Palm still couldn't get them right, and I bailed.