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Ars Technica Vivisects A Video iPod
phaedo00 writes "The guys over at Ars Technica have put together another one of their infamous reviews. This time they tackle the video iPod and give it a proper review, complete with vivisection and a discussion of the guts." From the article: "It wouldn't be an Ars iPod review without a dissection (or in this case, a vivisection since the patient survived) and discussion. Talking about what changes were made on the exterior of the device is fine and well, but the real interesting stuff--to me anyways--is found within. As the old adage says, 'it's what's on the inside that counts.' With that, I'm dismantling this iPod in the name of science. All went well: I was able to put to back together and it's working fine." An interesting counter-point to previous coverage.
a vivisection since the patient survived
Vivisection means you cut on a living animal. Not that it survived the process.
Just sayin.
... it may be working now, but I think they may have invalidated the warranty (^^)
When the posters fear their moderators, there is tyranny; when the moderators fears the posters, there is liberty.
Ever heard of this thing called a metaphor?
The iPod "survived" (literally meaning it still worked, not that it was ever a living creature), therefore they found it amusing to describe the process as a "vivisection." Get over it.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Actually, dissect is a synonym for "analyze," which in this case is appropriate; however, when we say dissect, we usually wish to evoke images of tissue and high school biology. The definition of dissect has no reference to anything dying. Vivisect, on the other hand, means "to cut a body open while still alive," which means that it has to be alive in the first place. Given that the video iPod was "dead" for a part of the procedure (can't run it while it isn't connected to battery, for example), dissect may be more appropriate. However, given that this is a gadget and not a living being, I would have chosen "disassembles" or "takes apart." Vivisect just sounds cool, though. That said, was anything learned that wasn't in apple's literature? Have we now any enjoyable hacks for the video iPod?
I used to carry a bottle of whiskey for snake bite. And two snakes. -Nefarious Wheel
Since they knew they were slashdotting the hell out of it, the least they could have done was include in the summary whether the battery leads are soldered in place (as with the nano) or on a nice easy-to-swap pin connection. It's really just about the only thing I'm remotely curious about regarding the new iPod.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Your browser should ignore the file extension and instead look at the content-type header.
/reviews/hardware/video-ipod.ars HTTP/1.0
A la :
cmd> GET
cmd> Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, */*
cmd> User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows 98; DigExt)
cmd> Host: arstechnica.com
hdr> HTTP/1.1 200 OK
hdr> Connection: close
hdr> Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2005 17:00:44 GMT
hdr> Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0
hdr> MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub
hdr> X-Powered-By: ASP.NET
hdr> X-AspNet-Version: 1.1.4322
hdr> Cache-Control: private
hdr> Content-Type: text/html; charset=utf-8
hdr> Content-Length: 16964
I think that the stress testing in Ars technica's iPod nano review should be done on the video iPod as well. I clicked that link expecting to see an ipod getting run over and all I get is it being pulled to pieces.
This is what I call a proper review.
I must've skimmed over that fact in all the previous video iPod announcements, so ignore this or mark redundant if you feel so inclined. Ars seems to attribute it to decreasing the amount of space needed for the FW chipset. I'm glad Apple's still working to decrease the size, and I KNOW it's not that vital... but losing firewire seems a little sad.
Yes I know there's no rational reason for that (and they had good reasons to move on), but hey, there it is. Maybe it stems directly from my original experience with the 2G iPod (my first one) where you could just jam any old cable into the huge built in FW port on the device.
http://reviews.designtechnica.com/review3298.html
These guys actually posted their last night, worth a read too.
Instead of fostering discussion about the Video iPod, in which I get to hear bitching that it doesn't play Xvid/Divx/Grand Ogg Tarkin, I get to hear semantics arguments about why the word "vivisection" is not appropriate. Boo.
For more information, click here.
You're making Dvorak cry!
Can't you write about, I don't know, tabs in IE7 or something? Who wants to hear about the multi-billion selling iPod? Isn't there another Windows vulnerability you can write about? Maybe another non-functioning "PlayForSure" device or removed Vista feature that already exists in OS X?
I knew it! You're clearly biased!
"Sufferin' succotash."
..... is the this Vivisection of an iPod complete with a cost breakdown of the components and an estimation of what Apple makes off of each iPod.
d f
https://jefferies.bluematrix.com/docs/pdf/31086.p
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
What?!? You have insufficient love for your Apple product! Buy it a present right now and hope Steve will forgive you!
What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
The article mentions that the iPod's video codec chip is capable of decoding 640x480 MPEG-4-SP, not just the 480x480 that Apple has claimed.
Has anyone actually tried getting a 640x480 video to play on one of these?
it appears as if it is a ribbon cable or some sort, and should be easily replaced. At the very least, it's not soldered like the nano.
"Just because the AC didn't know they were ramen doesn't make them any less dead."
:-P
There are the iPod, iPod nano and iPod shuffle. It just so happens that the biggest ones also play video.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
The reviewer on Ars tested video output on a standard definition CRT.
My suspicion is that output from an iPod on a modern hi-definition TV will be somewhat worse due to the upsampling that almost all modern TVs use to play back their programming at the TV's lowest native resolution. This lowest native resolution is still higher than standard definition TV.
My two cents worth - probably an inflated value.
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Working on it
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The Firewire protocol was designed for video
Pretty much every test shows Firewire 400 outperforming USB2, despite the 400 vs 480 Mbit theoretical speed difference
The performance difference is significant (at least 10%, and often more), and it goes up with bigger files, like video
You would think that a video iPod would be the place you would definitely want Firewire, at least as an option.
My daughter is getting ready to buy herself an iPod, and I may have to tell her to look for one of the previous generation - her desktop at home is a hand-me-down G4 466 MHz, which has Firewire but no USB2. Yeah, I can shove a USB2 card in it, but still...
To a Lisp hacker, XML is S-expressions in drag.
you could have shortened your response by just refering him to your sig :-)
I'd like to point out that it is still an iPod, and a good music player. You can still use it for audio when running or on your bike, or like me when you put your bike on the front of the bus and board it you can now watch video while on the bus. Once I get back to the dorm I can hook it to my TV and stereo system. But the point is it is still a music player, just now one that can play moving pictures with sound.
Computers allow humans to make mistakes at the fastest speeds known, with the possible exception of tequila and handguns
Actually since you can't really power down an iPod (it goes to sleep
but the cpu is STILL powered up, just running on low power) the DID
operate on it while it was powered.
Anyone who doesn't think the iPod video is cool can kiss my ars.
"iPods are people! They're people! Peeeeeeeeeeeee-ople!"
Apologies to Charlton Hest...hey, waitaminute, my bad - no apologies required.
Give a man a beer and he wastes an hour. Teach a man to brew and he wastes a lifetime.
They should take apart a PC. I've always wondered what's inside.
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The biggest tradeoff with this first-gen video ipod, imo, is the lack of firewire I/O. While it does allow the unit to be thinner and have a longer battery life, not to mention a lower production cost, it also reduces its appeal for Mac geeks by removing the ability to boot your Mac from it. The real-world file transfer rate of USB 2.0 is also about 10-15% slower than FW400. Mac-specific utility has apparently taken a back seat in iPod design priorities. Not what I would call a disaster for Mac users, but it points to an unfortunate, but also possibly an inevitable, sea change in Apple's tradition of treating Mac users as first-class citizens vis-a-vis the PC lumpen.
If anyone has an iPod with video please give this a try and let me know if it works.
In QT Pro copy and paste a selection from a movie into a new movie. Save it as the smaller option at the bottom (Reference movie in QT7, it had a different name before). Then on the iPod test that both movies play fine. The reference is sort of like a bookmark into the other movie. I have a few thousand of these and the new iPod would be very useful if it supports this.
Thanks.
Most new porn has done away with the "plot advancement' and 'story' scenes. Also, the hair is better. All your hard work is for nothing.
It's just a fifth generation iPod with video. Video is not its primary function, if it was, then it'd be an iPod video. God damnit, people need to stop spreading misinformation on things.
I wonder, how often does a vivisection end with the subject still alive?
Sorry, teleporters just kill you and then make a copy. A perfect, soul-less copy.
I dunno...hey, come check out my basement!
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
An alternative meaning...
2 : minute or pitiless examination or criticism
As soon as I figure out how to sync it with my TiVo, I'll be set.
Since the patient survived, it clearly was operated on when it was living.
This presumes that life cannot follow death. In the case of mammals and other higher function organisms this is generally true, however electronic devices can be completely and utterly devoid of life, and yet still attain life at a later date.
Vivisection indicates operation while the patient is living:
The act or practice of cutting into or otherwise injuring living animals, especially for the purpose of scientific research.
I believe that a correct iPod vivisection would be done while the unit is powered, and perhaps playing.
The iPod cannot be considered "living" according to the sense of the word as applied to mammals and other creatures, therefore the word "vivisection" has little or no meaning in this case as it depends on the definition of life.
-Adam
Now that I've finally been able to RTFA, I see that you are correct. Removable battery. (Really small too... they must have ramped up power efficiency a few ways to get the extended life of this iPod.) Good news.
Biggest bummer: They dropped FireWire support entirely. It's USB2 only. Probably to save space and power, not to mention money.
Most important (to me) good news: It's the exact same width, so if I do end up buying one for some reason, it will fit in the same car-cradle as my current 3rd Gen model, with a tiny bit of padding to make up for lack of thickness. Needing to buy new accessories after moving up an iPod generatin or two is always a real buzz-kill.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
Nono. AC's are varelse: when we are unable to deal with them, the only solution is complete and total annilation. Moderation war is unavoidable.
There has been an error!
While the loss of firewire is no doubt tragic to some people, to the overwhelming majority it's really no big deal -- comparable transfer rate with USB 2.0, and virtually any computer built recently has loads of USB 2.0 ports.
IMHO, the greatest misfeature of iPods is their continued lack of a user-replaceable battery. This has been a problem since the first-generation model, and still hasn't been addressed on the fifth. The "send us your iPod and we'll replace the battery for you" solution is mighty inconvenient and expensive, especially for those of us who don't live in the US.
Besides the advantage of being able to zip over to the local electronics store for a new battery when the original one stops holding a charge, it would also allow people to own more than one good battery, thus providing a simple way to extend the effective battery life... battery died? Just pop in a fresh one.
This seems like a huge value-add that would be really easy and inexpensive to implement. I know I won't be buying an iPod until they do.
A HUGE feature IMHO that Apple and others are leaving out is that these new ipods record high quality stereo from a mic, into wav files. After recording, simply mount your ipod then drag the file to your desktop.
Voice recording settings:
Low (22.05 KHz, mono)
High (44.1 KHz, stereo)
Apple now has a certification program. All accessories that have a "Made for iPod" logo on them will work with all iPods Apple ever makes. Apple gets royalties. Creative has a similar certification program which is free. But in any case, this problem should not occur in the future as long as you buy certified accessories.
The video out is 640x480, but only photos can use the full res.
Videos can be up to 480x480 if they are MPEG-4 (although some other combinations work too, like 640x336), and are output at the resolution they are encoded at, not just at 320x240.
Also, it's not wider. It just plain isn't. It's easy to verify, it's ridiculous that someone would do a review and get that wrong.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Discounting HDTV, the "Widescreen" DVD's are still technically formatted at a 4:3 aspect ratio on the disc. The only difference is that video is "squished" down from the 16:9 widescreen ratio. Video material that is flagged as widescreen and sent to a widescreen TV will be "unsquished" by the TV and stretched back out to fill the screen without black bars. On a standard aspect tv, the playback device must do this unsquishing itself and add the black bars to bring it back to a 4:3 ratio. The purpose of this setting in the iPod is probably the same as it is in a DVD player -- to tell it whether it should pass the video and flag is is (Widescreen = yes), or unsquish, add the black bars, and strip the flag (Widescreen = no). On programming that already is the standard 4:3 ratio this will make no difference.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not an Apple-hater -- far from it. I use a Mac at work (designer) all day long, and you'd have to to pry my PowerBook® from my cold dead hands and all, but anyone that thinks it's earth-shattering is more than slightly behind the times. I've been watching video (divx, xvid, you name it), listening to mp3's *and* oggs for almost 2 years now on my Treo 600. It's also my cell phone, calendar, addressbook, yada-yada... I can even use it to ssh, vnc, ftp, or connect to Samba shares on my server at home and run several game console emulators on it (NES, GB, SG, etc.). The video iPod does have more disk space (although I've never had problems filling up my Treo's 2 Gig expansion card -- which card I can swap out for more space, if I ever *do* need it). Another key advantage is that my Treo 600 is also a digital camera and can even be a video camera. I use it to take short home movies of my kids when we're at the park or fair, or whatever and then export to mpegs. Not that the video iPod isn't cool and all, I'd just like to see more honesty in reporting the originality of the feature set.
---
Umm, Frankenstein's Monster was made of random body parts, not the Doctor himself!
Nooooo! Frankenstein's Monster was intelligently designed. Nothing that complex could be made from random body parts.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
Having just purchased a Nano, I was curious to find out what effect it would have on my hearing while riding. Answer: none that I would worry about.
1. Once you go faster than a slow ride, there's enough wind noise to cut down hearing anything else by at least 50%. The iPod buds are less intrusive than this.
2. There's not a whole lot of road noise to hear anyway. Modern cars are so quiet that a cyclist has to rely on seeing the cars rather than hearing them.
It's not illegal for car drivers to have their windows up, radio on and aircon blasting away. When I do that in my car, I can't hear shit. I have watched emergency service vehicles come up behind me, sirens blaring, and I couldn't hear them. My radio's not up loud. So if no-one cares that car drivers can't hear anything, and aren't required to (deafness is not an impediment to getting a driver's licence) then I don't understand why people get all out of whack about those damned cyclists with their damned headphones on.
Speaking of which, it's time to listen to some space music http://207.200.96.225:8020/ mmmm spacey.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."