My Arse, a Video iPod!, my arse!
Apple recently posted an invitation to a mysterious event on October 12th with three words on it: "One more thing...". (Which, for those of you who don't religiously watch Steve Jobs's keynote speeches is what he always says just when you think they couldn't wow you more.) At any rate, the rumours are flying that Apple will releasing the much-talked-about Video iPod. For the record, I'd like to say, "Poppycock!" There's no way in hell that Apple is going to release such a device. And I'll outline why...
Update, October 12th: I sit corrected.
One: who wants to watch a movie or TV show on a screen not much bigger than your cell phone? Two: the thing about the iPod (and Stevie J has said similar words) is that you can use while you are doing other things like walking, riding, working, etc. With video content, you cannot multitask. (Trust me, I've tried -- it dunna work.) Three: where are you going to get content? No one is going to have the patience to rip their own DVDs and re-encode. Nor will people pay money for a program/movie whose resolution is going to be so tiny it could only be watched on a Video iPod. Four: storage. Videos take up a lot of space (let's say it does use a high quality resolution) -- you'll only be able to fit a handful of movies on your player or computer.
I'd really like to know who actually wants such a device. For all of the people speculating and expecting it to happen, would they actually go out and buy one? I doubt it. These are the same people who complain about the price of an iPod, and a Video iPod would certainly cost more. So, enough about the Video iPod! It's not going to happen!
Apple is not one to give clues away, and so I really doubt that the use of movie-theatre curtains really is foreshadowing anything about the announcement. I really don't see the point of speculating at all, because chances are I'll be wrong, just like everyone else. One week isn't that long to wait!
Comments
I'm a certified fence-sitter about Apple rumours, but I'd like to offer four counter-reasons why Apple *will* release a video iPod: 1. Sony PSP: Sony and Apple are butting heads in a lot of areas (I think a merger is long-term inevitable), but right now Apple sees the PSP platform as a threat to the iPod platform. They want to maintain their lead by offering something, even if it's not the most popular thing in the world, to counter it. Remember the lack-lustre beginnings of iPod Photo? It didn't take off right away, but it was *there*, and the functionality eventually made it down to the rest of the family. 2. QuickTime: Apple's never liked QuickTime, the player was one of the last visible bits of the default system to be Cocoa-ised. What's with all the attention it's been getting lately? There's some fantastic MPEG-4 stuff in there now. MPEG-4 is flexible enough to degrade itself to be played anywhere. Hours of movies and TV shows can be stored even on my first-generation iPod. The player finally got Cocoa-ised. The code was cleaned up. Hmm. 3. The curtains: Nano's announcement had a jeans motif, as in "fit this in your pocket". What's with the curtain? Hmm. 4. Pixar: Apple's getting into the movie distribution business and they're aiming to do it better than their music distribution business. Steve knows Hollywood, he's commercialised computer animation and helped its acceptance as an art form, he's successfully told Disney to take a hike. Bonus 5. Nano: Two separate announcements produce more news stories than one announcement of two products. The "Nano announcement" was actually "supposed" to be for the ROKR. In the days that followed, it turned into the "Nano announcement". The Nano beat the ROKR, and Steve knew it would. Bonus 6. Apple's never happy with status quo. They're up to something. I think Steve gets bored easily. This is very long for a comment, I think I'll blog it on my own site too. - Jurgen Schaub, Wednesday, October 5, 2005 I'm with you on the reasons Patrick, but I think they'll still release a video iPod eventually, if not now, if only because it's one of those "wouldn't hurt" type things. It's not a big stretch to add video capabilities to the device, and even though it *would* be pretty useless, well... that hasn't stopped cell phone manufacturers from adding all kinds of useless do-dads to their products. I like Jurgen's theory: Apple will announce the video iPod but they'll have something more interesting that people will focus on instead. Or... Alternative crazy conspiracy theory: That'd be *sorta* cool. :) - Luke, Thursday, October 6, 2005 I'm voting for a video iPod next week. I don't think Apple would send out an invite like that if it weren't something big. In fact, it's probably something that no one has predicted. But a video iPod isn't all that unbelievable. Consider that over half of the meaning in a film is transferred through sound and music and you can begin to see how watching a film on small screen could be feasible. Apple will have to have a system for burning DVDs and delivering them online. That's the real problem. I don't see there being enough bandwidth at the consumer level for this to be viable. Okay, so after talking myself though this I'm going to agree with you. No video iPod. But maybe new PowerBooks? Oooo! New PowerBooks! I can't wait! - Ian Wojtowicz, Saturday, October 8, 2005 Okay, wait. Maybe it is bluetooth sunglasses with embedded micro video cameras and microphones on each arm that stream the visions and sounds of your life wirelessly onto your fancy new iPod. Of course, as everyone knows, life stored in VCD quality MPEG1 format in stereo vision with stereo audio tracks would require about 1.2GB per hour. So your new 100GB video iPod could hold about 5 days of waking life. Moreover, the stereo retinal projectors in these sunglasses would enable people with these new iPods to spend their weekends reminiscining in great detail about how they spent their week. Plus that all that wifi stuff Luke mentioned would let you trip out living someone else's life for a while. Imagine being bored on the bus or metro when an adhoc Rendezvous network of these devices puts you in right in the middle of someone else's life -- an hour ago. Time and place shifting, digital, out-of-body flashbacks, brought to you by Apple. Yeah. That's where I'm putting my money. All of it. - Ian Wojtowicz, Saturday, October 8, 2005 |  |
Post a comment |
