iPod Tetris Game and Cube Effects?

[MacRumors]

http://www.macrumors.com/images/macrumorsthreadlogo.gif (http://www.macrumors.com)

Appleinsider claims (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1101) that Apple will be introducing a iPod photo software update that will offer new image transitions, such as Mosaic, Cube and Fade effects.

In addition, the popular game "Tetris" is reportedly included.

The photos (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_gallery.php&gallery=120) of the effects where first published on the internet on May 28th, 2005 to a free upload service. The back-story behind these photos was that this iPod software update was made available for a short time and was downloaded by this individual. This story was suspect and unverifiable and therefore remained unpublished.

Appleinsider is publishing the same photos, but is presumably confident enough about the report to post it.

[angelneo]

Another new handheld gaming console perhaps? I wonder how good or how fast it can supports those transition or animations. Anyone has any idea of the graphics it can support?

[jimsowden]

saw this this morning, now i want one!! Is it wrong to have four ipods??
Yeah, why do you need so many? I could see two, three max. A 30 or 60gb photo, depending on capacious need and importance of size. THen maybe a shuffle for jogging or working out. If you're insane, throw a mini in there because they're cool. There is no need to have old ones in the mix, sell those b*+(|-|35.

[johnbro23]

Tetris must be really tough to play on an iPod. I wonder how they figured out the controls?

[obeygiant]

so how did some guy in Germany get a hold of this?
was apple preparing the german version of the iPod update
and just messed up?

[sjpetry]

Sadly the scroll wheel limits many games. But I guess that's why it's a music player.

And yes "Woot Tetris". :D

[JoeG4]

I guess you've never used ipodlinux, there is tetris, andit's actually very easy. You turn the wheel to move the item, play drops it to the bottom.

It looks a LOT different though:
http://www.ipodlinux.org/Image:Liv2_bluecube.jpg

[phawksworth]

Getting Tetris will be cool, and the transitions are nice too I guess, but I hope this upgrade will fix the annoying bug in the iPod photo where third party headphones trigger the autopause feature at random.

I love my iPod but this bug is a real pain. Are many of you folks experiencing this?

[obeygiant]

It looks a LOT different though:
http://www.ipodlinux.org/Image:Liv2_bluecube.jpg

yeah, it looks crappy... :D

[dejo]

I guess you've never used ipodlinux, there is tetris, andit's actually very easy. You turn the wheel to move the item, play drops it to the bottom.

How do you rotate the piece then?

[phawksworth]

Sadly the scroll wheel limits many games. But I guess that's why it's a music player.

And yes "Woot Tetris". :D

Yeah, there aren't too many games that can easily played with the clickwheel, and as a result I rarely play the included games. Tetris might be rather addictive though. I can see myself missing my stop on the tube on the way to work!!
:)

[evilgEEk]

Obviously the transitions would be pointless on a regular iPod, but I hope they bring Tetris to those of us that are sans Photo! :D

I think Tetris would be really easy to control with the iPod. Scroll wheel rotates the pieces and you just press forward/backward for right and left, pretty simple.

[Lunja]

Is it just me or did the top photo on that page looked photoshopped? Was thinking that a swirl effect (sorry- don't know its name :o ) wouldn't alter the lines of the pixels, if that's what the black lines are... Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, which I no doubt am :)

EDIT- Corrected my own spelling lol!

[doogle]

Man that is one valuable iPod!

[narco]

Tetris is cool and all, but give me Wireless Pong so I can play it with other iPods in a local area.

Fishes,
narco.

[bubbalwz]

That dude needs to clean under his nails once in awhile...

[evilgEEk]

Wireless Pong! w00t!! :D

Lunja, I'm pretty sure that image was altered to protect his serial number and name or something like that.

[johnbro23]

I think Tetris would be really easy to control with the iPod. Scroll wheel rotates the pieces and you just press forward/backward for right and left, pretty simple.
Yea, I guess that makes sense.

[buryyourbrideau]

if countless games of solitaire werent enough

now they drop this bomb on me......

:p

[Stella]

Looks good, for iPod Photo owners.

I can see the Mono G3 owners getting ready to complain right now ( thinking it'll be Photo only).

[Lunja]

Lunja, I'm pretty sure that image was altered to protect his serial number and name or something like that.


Ahem... :o :o :o Spot the non-iPod owner...

Nevermind eh?! :D

[dejo]

Obviously the transitions would be pointless on a regular iPod, but I hope they bring Tetris to those of us that are sans Photo! :D

Yeah, grayscale Tetris. That'll be great... NOT!

[CubaTBird]

hrm... for sure an ipod update at wwdc then.. though i think these games will only qualify for the ipod photo and not the others.. though i think what we may see is like color screens standard across the board cept on the mini's.. but then who knows.. its anybody's game really.

[Dr. Dastardly]

So when will we see the original Donkey Kong on these. Now that would be sweet.

And wireless pong! W00T

[apinstein]

I think it's fake.. check out this picture:

Fake Picture (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_picture.php&picture=1117298894.jpg&gallery=120)

The photo is close-up enough that you can see each pixel. The warped areas, therefore, you should still see each pixel in a regular grid.

Instead, the grid is disrputed along with the effect.

IMHO, clearly fake.

[Apple!Freak]

I thought this was a music player? Why not through a baby monitor on the thing, while your at it?

[GFLPraxis]

Is it just me or did the top photo on that page looked photoshopped? Was thinking that a swirl effect (sorry- don't know its name :o ) wouldn't alter the lines of the pixels, if that's what the black lines are... Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, which I no doubt am :)

EDIT- Corrected my own spelling lol!

I had the same thought.

[arn]

I think it's fake.. check out this picture:

Fake Picture (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_picture.php&picture=1117298894.jpg&gallery=120)

The photo is close-up enough that you can see each pixel. The warped areas, therefore, you should still see each pixel in a regular grid.


I thought it was likely a fake based on the story.... but I guess we'll see.

arn

[Lunja]

Ahem... :o :o :o Spot the non-iPod owner...

Nevermind eh?! :D


To all people thinking, like me, that it was photoshopped, I think an earlier post-er was right - It's been done to protect his serial number.

Also that effect would be darn small when viewed from normal distance ;)

[solowCX]

Yeah, grayscale Tetris. That'll be great... NOT!

You obviously never owned the original GameBoy...

[nagromme]

Re the swirls: those aren't effects (why would an iPod swirl its own About screen?)--he's just obscuring his name and S/N.

Re the controls: the article states, wheel to move, center button to rotate. (There may be no drop funtion, since Apple likes to keep your music controls working full-time. It's not purist Tetris anyway--the board is shorter.)

Re any of it: I have my doubts! Can the (current) iPod hardware really handle those 3D effects? Some of them even look anti-aliased, and all of them are presumably good enough to see on a TV.

I'd love these features via a software update, but I'm not holding my breath.

[~Shard~]

Very cool, maybe we'll see this next week @ WWDC. Regardless, just the mention of "Tetris" has made me want to play that dangerously addictive little game again... :cool:

[mrwilly123]

Getting Tetris will be cool, and the transitions are nice too I guess, but I hope this upgrade will fix the annoying bug in the iPod photo where third party headphones trigger the autopause feature at random.

I love my iPod but this bug is a real pain. Are many of you folks experiencing this?
YES! I have a 60GB iPod photo and i HATE THIS BUG. I don't think it's necessarily 3rd party headphones, though. I use Sony wrap-arounds and Sony studio monitors with my iPod. The wrap-arounds have never triggered the autopause. The studio monitors, however, have a rather long plug, and sometimes very slight movements make it pause.

The autopause (when you un-plug the headphones) is a clever feature, but I wish I could turn it off, since it hates my studio monitors.

[degrush]

If this story is true, wouldn't this guy be able to post the software update somewhere (granted Apple would try to get it taken down)?

Or he could take a snapshot of the software update menus.

[Tamer Brad]

That guy REALLY sucks at Tetris.

[chaos86]

ok the swirl effect is to cover the name, dont know why. the reason hes showing the about page is to show the version number and stuff.

if its fake, it looks pretty damn real. they followed apples style really well, especially on the tetris screen. however, that said, it would be that hard to make the screenshots in photoshop, based on ipod screenshots from apple.com or wherever, at the right resolution for the ipod screen, and upload them. i mean, the ipod photo is designed to display photos full screen. why not display a faked screenshot and take a photo of it?

[barneygumble]

Yeah, why do you need so many? I could see two, three max. A 30 or 60gb photo, depending on capacious need and importance of size. THen maybe a shuffle for jogging or working out. If you're insane, throw a mini in there because they're cool. There is no need to have old ones in the mix, sell those b*+(|-|35.

well first i have a 515mb shuffle for mountain biking, a 4gb blue mini for regular use and a 15 GB that i use at work instead of a radio with an itrip, i cannot stand ads :D

[dotdotdot]

well first i have a 515mb shuffle for mountain biking, a 4gb blue mini for regular use and a 15 GB that i use at work instead of a radio with an itrip, i cannot stand ads :D

Ditch the 15 and the mini and get a photo.

I have two iPods, shuffle and 3G 20 GB, and I only use the shuffle for data transfer.

[revjay]

I used to play Tetris quite a bit...it became an all consuming activity...It's taken me several years to stop dreaming about re-arranging giant shapes in my sleep...I guess it will start all over again...that is if my wife ever let's me have the ipod again...she is even more addicted to Tetris than me.

[Freg3000]

Can the processor in the iPod handle rendering Cube and Mosaic transistions on the fly?

Hmmm....leaning towards fake.

[barneygumble]

Ditch the 15 and the mini and get a photo.

I have two iPods, shuffle and 3G 20 GB, and I only use the shuffle for data transfer.

I just replaced the battery in the 15GB, it is in reasonable nick but i really don't want to part with it. It is my baby!! I would be more content to get rid of the mini, but i cant seem to see it happening. I use all three ipods every day dammit. I like the mini because it is very light and does't distract me whilst walking :D

[wtmcgee]

What's stopping someone from making these images in photoshop, putting them into their iPhoto library, and then photographing the image on their iPod?

I'm not saying it is or isn't fake ... I just don't own an iPod photo, so I don't know how easy it would be to simply fake the photos that way.

In any event, either way it's not that big of a deal. New transitions and tetris.

s e a m l e s s p l a y b a c k ... for the love of god, seamless playback or crossfades would be a godsend one of these days.

[mattster16]

Tetris must be really tough to play on an iPod. I wonder how they figured out the controls?

The controls for Tetris would be easy on the Ipod. Left, Right, Down (to accelerate the brick), and center button to rotate the brick. This wouldn't allow people to change songs while in game, but hitting menu could pause the game and allow this. Tetris is the perfect game for the ipod.

[grebo]

Before releasing this to the public, I hope they also add the ability to sort by date DESC -- because the difference between 'last roll' and 'last 12 months' causes a lot of unnecessary scrolling to get to the content I'm trying to access.

[blackcrayon]

The controls for Tetris would be easy on the Ipod. Left, Right, Down (to accelerate the brick), and center button to rotate the brick. This wouldn't allow people to change songs while in game, but hitting menu could pause the game and allow this. Tetris is the perfect game for the ipod.

Don't forget that the 4G iPods, including the Photo, can read input on the click wheel like a clock (as seen by using the diagnostic test on the wheel). thus the entire wheel could work as a "joystick" (similar to how the Intellivision controller worked, if anyone had one of those :)

But like you said, it's not necessary for Tetris as you could just use the four buttons you mentioned above...

[ifjake]

What's stopping someone from making these images in photoshop, putting them into their iPhoto library, and then photographing the image on their iPod?


ah now that's a good point. that's exactly how one could do this. this could be interesting.

[JeDiBoYTJ]

I wouldnt mind a mono tetris for my 3G iPod :p although at this point, it seems very unlikely

[MacHarne]

Yet another reason to pointlessly waste battery life ;)

Something as simple as an iPod photo update including a few new transitions and a game could reasonably be released this week, I'd say. This isn't something Steve would brag about at WWDC; it would only waste his breath while he could be releasing other new products ::nudge nudge::

[ham_man]

Lets see...

Best music player ever + best game ever = happy me :D

[aussie_geek]

That dude needs to clean under his nails once in awhile...

LOL I noticed that as well.

aussie_geek

[YoNeX]

excellent :) from my knowledge, these are the main controls you'll need in tetris

ones in bold are mainly needed, having all of them would be great

Left
Right
Instant Drop
Lower
Rotate Clockwise
Rotate Counter-Clockwise (either one)

Click wheel: rotation determines how the pieces rotate, forward would be right, back would be left, play would be lower. pretty much those controls would be fine

[nagromme]

What's stopping someone from making these images in photoshop, putting them into their iPhoto library, and then photographing the image on their iPod?

Nothing at all--and the source to make the UI from could be that PC app people use to re-skin the iPod UI. So it could be done perfectly, and wouldn't be hard at all.

The more I think about it, it's so tempting that I'm amazed someone hasn't submitted such a fake before now!

So sadly, my expectations about this are near zero.

[slb]

Clickwheel to move the pieces, play to drop them, and prev/next to rotate. Easy.

[buryyourbrideau]

whatever.

i think this looks bad@$$ and i know that you all do too

you just dont want to believe it. i doubt it is photoshopped

if it is, its an awesome job

as mentioned. the vers is 1.2 which gives IMO a huge sliver of hope

the screenshots look awesome along with the EFX

[Fuchal]

Shouldn't the About window title not say Uber? :)

[Ryon]

In German, über works as "about" or "over," I believe. Like sobre in Spanish.

[buryyourbrideau]

In German, über works as "about" or "over," I believe. Like sobre in Spanish.

exactly.

that screen shot is obviously the about menu under settings. geez i hope this shiz is real.

[Bunzi2k4]

I currently play Tetris on my ipod using ipodlinux. It's totally awesome. my 3g ipod can view photos! and It automatically resizes the picture! It even has a calculator ^^.

Another interesting note, the people at Ipodlinux.org have managed to get bluecube (tetris) on an iPod Photo. although it doesn't look the same.

[bradz_id]

Is it just me or did the top photo on that page looked photoshopped? Was thinking that a swirl effect (sorry- don't know its name :o ) wouldn't alter the lines of the pixels, if that's what the black lines are... Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, which I no doubt am :)

EDIT- Corrected my own spelling lol!

EXACTLY! The first pic is a dead giveaway that he is full of crap!

[stephenli]

omg! i can imagine click wheel is a very suitable interface to play Tetris!!!
now i want an iPod photo!!!!!

[MacUser4_20]

All I can say is, clean your frickin finger nails!

[Pistol Pete]

i love how all of you point out his nails and how he sucks at tetris...yah i noticed but i wasnt goin to say anything!


ok well about the actual game:

the center button would be to drop if no one else has said it yet...

[dejo]

the center button would be to drop if no one else has said it yet...

Actually, it's been said that the center button is to rotate the piece and the scroll wheel is to move the piece left or right.

[barneygumble]

EXACTLY! The first pic is a dead giveaway that he is full of crap!

Bloody Tasmanians!!!!!!!!!!






Sorry I had to do it!

I think we will see ow this turns out in the near future. I like the idea of photoshopping images and then put them into the ipod to trick everyone :eek:

[dejo]

I think we will see ow this turns out in the near future. I like the idea of photoshopping images and then put them into the ipod to trick everyone :eek:

Yeah, sounds like the start of a fun Photoshop thread to me...

[trose]

People, please try and think.
Those "swirl" effects are not meant to be a new iPod feature, durrrr. He is blocking out personal info. Some real Sherlock Holmes' we have here.

[anodized]

EXACTLY! The first pic is a dead giveaway that he is full of crap!

Guys, of course the Swirl is photoshopped-- as been said before, it's to protect his name and serial #.

But creating a graphik in Photoshop, uploading it as a photo and viewing it as a slideshow it would seem like he's playing real Tetris-- that's another story...

How the hell did he get 1.2?!

[johnhancockII]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it strange that the iPod doesn't sit in its dock (which you can see in the background) while the battery icon in the top right corner claims the device is plugged in? Surely, this guy could have connected his iPod with a second dock or a separate cable, but it's somewhat fishy nonetheless.

[nagromme]

That icon is indeed odd and suspicious. Good catch. His cable is still plugged into the dock back there. He could have two cables, but fakery is seeming more and more likely. If that icon were simply part of an uploaded image, it would never change.

As for the "1.2", no reason those screens couldn't be photoshopped as easily as the Tetris screens--it's the same font OS X uses for instance--and then uploaded for viewing on the iPod.

And more suspicion: on my iPod Photo's "About" screen, the text on the left is NOT bolded. It looks the same as the numbers on the right. Even when I set to German. "Uber" is correct, and SN instead of S/N is correct. but the bolding is not!

Sure, Apple could have changed that for 1.2... but the ice is getting thinner.

Ah well, it was a fun fake :)

Let the iPod Photo fakes roll in... you may start with this Windows program for extracting iPod GUI elements ;)

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000610023097/

(Not to mention that it lets you hack the firmware to CHANGE those elements if you're brave. Mac equivalent anyone?)

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/2476263283872574.GIF

[russed]

if this is true i think it will be awesome. i love tetris and getting something else that can differentiate us from the rest of the ipod like up would be cool!

according to appleinsider the scroll is the move left and right and the center button is rotate. there must not be a fast drop.

personally i think the pictures look pretty real (he says hopefully!)

[Abstract]

Can the processor in the iPod handle rendering Cube and Mosaic transistions on the fly?

Hmmm....leaning towards fake.

So the iPod takes advantage of Altivec, and so that makes the cube transition possible?
:confused:

I smellz a fakey.

[Abstract]

whatever.

i think this looks bad@$$ and i know that you all do too

you just dont want to believe it. i doubt it is photoshopped

if it is, its an awesome job

as mentioned. the vers is 1.2 which gives IMO a huge sliver of hope

the screenshots look awesome along with the EFX

Wow.....it says version 1.2. Big deal. The version number is the EASIEST thing to fake!!!

Same with the appearance of the screen. The screens aren't very complex at all.

And yes, he sucks at Tetris. :p

People, please try and think.
Those "swirl" effects are not meant to be a new iPod feature, durrrr. He is blocking out personal info. Some real Sherlock Holmes' we have here.

Before you embarrass yourself, I suggest you get "hooked on phonics" and learn to read. Yes, the ENTIRE thread. Why? Because we know that already, Sherlock.

[k28]

I think it's fake.. check out this picture:

Fake Picture (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_picture.php&picture=1117298894.jpg&gallery=120)

The photo is close-up enough that you can see each pixel. The warped areas, therefore, you should still see each pixel in a regular grid.

Instead, the grid is disrputed along with the effect.

IMHO, clearly fake.

Yes it clearly fake, but for privacy propose.
There is a reason why they put that fake photoshop effect on thet screen. Basically, owner of that ipod dont want you to see the name of that iPod (which could his/her name) and serial number of iPod.

He not showing the effect on that photo AT ALL

[dejo]

Even though I am not sure if these new transitions and Tetris shots are fakes, here's how easy it was for me to make one:

LOOK! Doom3 running on an iPod photo!

[MontyZ]

s e a m l e s s p l a y b a c k ... for the love of god, seamless playback or crossfades would be a godsend one of these days.
I wish Apple would add this feature, too. I mean, if they can fade one song into the next, how hard would it be to remove the gap from continuous-play CDs broken into tracks?? I don't understand why they keep adding all these other doo-dads, but can't seem to add this one, which a lot of other people have asked for.

[nagromme]

Doom 3, I like it :D

I was thinking of faking up a mini Garage Band, or maybe a WiFi icon :)

And the Tetris/transition shots ARE fake too:
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=1492904#post1493077

[anodized]

LOOK! Doom3 running on an iPod photo!

Dude, clean under your fingernails! :D

[MontyZ]

LOOK! Doom3 running on an iPod photo!
Is that monster's penis showing?

[beatle888]

thats a photoshop filter "Filter > Distort > Twrli..."

[propropro]

thats a photoshop filter "Filter > Distort > Twrli..."

Of course it's a Photoshop filter! He has done that to hide his s/n and his name!
Look at the rest of the pictures

[ErikGrim]

Are you guys all morons? The first time a guy said that the first pic was fake, surely that guy must have been joking. OF COURSE HE USED PHOTOSHOP THERE - To hide his frickin' Name and iPod Serial Number!

Jesus!

Creating convincing pixel-lines like that are close to impossible. And believe me - I've used Photoshop professionally for compositing (and done all the fakery you can imagine) since version 1.0! That's 15 years of Photoshop work and I still couldn't fake this kind of thing (moirée lens warping with reflections and real lens focus? I'd probably go an easier route than that).

The one thing he COULD do to fake this is to create his screens on a computer first, and then display them on the iPod, like the guy with the Doom 3 pic.

[iMeowbot]

So the iPod takes advantage of Altivec, and so that makes the cube transition possible?
:confused:

It's not PowerPC of course, but it does have two 160 MHz RISC (ARM7) processors in it. Documented capabilities here (http://www.portalplayer.com/products/documents/PortalPlayerPhotoEdition.pdf); it can handle simple movies, so this isn't really outlandish at all (and remember it's only a 220 x 176 16-bit display, this isn't as intensive as doing it on a huge horkin' monitor and it's doing the transition between static images).

I smellz a fakey.
I'd rather see the MJPEG support turned on.

[Abstract]

Are you guys all morons? The first time a guy said that the first pic was fake, surely that guy must have been joking. OF COURSE HE USED PHOTOSHOP THERE - To hide his frickin' Name and iPod Serial Number!

Jesus!

Creating convincing pixel-lines like that are close to impossible. And believe me - I've used Photoshop professionally for compositing (and done all the fakery you can imagine) since version 1.0! That's 15 years of Photoshop work and I still couldn't fake this kind of thing (moirée lens warping with reflections and real lens focus? I'd probably go an easier route than that).

The one thing he COULD do to fake this is to create his screens on a computer first, and then display them on the iPod, like the guy with the Doom 3 pic.

I think its fake.

I don't believe its fake because of the lining up of the pixels. Photoshop filters misalign them........that's the whole point of the filter!!

I think they're fake because they would be so easy to fake and get us riled up. How did this one German fellow get it? I don't believe his story, much like Arn doesn't.

And the transitions.... meh.

It's not PowerPC of course, but it does have two 160 MHz RISC (ARM7) processors in it. Documented capabilities here; it can handle simple movies, so this isn't really outlandish at all (and remember it's only a 220 x 176 16-bit display, this isn't as intensive as doing it on a huge horkin' monitor and it's doing the transition between static images).

Yes, but an Intel chip of any sort would have a hard time doing the cube transition, or Exposé. I mean, when you use Exposé while watching a video, the video still frickin moves!!! Windows can't do that....they even acknowledge this, so while the processors are great and everything, I don't think they're doing this without Altivec and a graphics card, because P4s can't. I know the screens are larger on desktops, but point still stands.

[Doraemon]

Yeah, grayscale Tetris. That'll be great... NOT!

Never played Tetris on the original Gameboy?
Best gameplay of all Tetris games and it was grayscale!

[dejo]

Never played Tetris on the original Gameboy?
Best gameplay of all Tetris games and it was grayscale!

Actually I did play it on a borrowed Gameboy. Just wasn't the same as the original "desktop", colored arcade Tetris I first tried it on. But linking two Gameboys together and playing Gauntlet: that was fun!

[ErikGrim]

I think its fake.

I don't believe its fake because of the lining up of the pixels. Photoshop filters misalign them........that's the whole point of the filter!!
What are you on about? These are not photoshopped images, did you miss the 15-years experience in Photoshop? May I also mention that I am a photographer? These are photos of an iPod screen. Wether or not the images actually ON the screen are faked are a whole other subject matter.
Yes, but an Intel chip of any sort would have a hard time doing the cube transition, or Exposé. I mean, when you use Exposé while watching a video, the video still frickin moves!!! Windows can't do that....they even acknowledge this, so while the processors are great and everything, I don't think they're doing this without Altivec and a graphics card, because P4s can't. I know the screens are larger on desktops, but point still stands.Uhm, you really have no idea what you are talking about at all, do you? Exposé are not made possible with any PPC-chip, AltiVec or what have you. Exposé is all OpenGL-surfaces rendered on the graphics card! This is the Quartz Extreme display system at work and has nothing to do with the CPU apart from the whole OS X only running on PPC chips-issue.

[840quadra]

oh great,

I spend an hour on the Apple website the other night looking at the iPod range. I want to update my 15gb ipod, and get somethign with more space, as I use my iPod as a Firewire drive on many of my macintosh comptuers.

The photo is something I would love to have, and I am a BIG fan of tetris. Granted this game isn't enogh to steer me in the direction of buying a new ipod, but it is something to add to the scale :( .

[raggedjimmi]

Even though I am not sure if these new transitions and Tetris shots are fakes, here's how easy it was for me to make one:

LOOK! Doom3 running on an iPod photo!

HAH, thank you.

[raggedjimmi]

What are you on about? These are not photoshopped images, did you miss the 15-years experience in Photoshop? May I also mention that I am a photographer? These are photos of an iPod screen. Wether or not the images actually ON the screen are faked are a whole other subject matter.

if they are fake, this guy is very pro. ive been a hardcore photoshop user and a photographer for some years now and them images are perfect examples of an iPod photo's screen. even down to the distance blur and everything.

what is interesting though, and i havnt used an iPod photo so forgive me if im wrong, but it could be possible he made some images on Photoshop to look identical to the iPods, and just displayed them full-screened on his iPod?

[iMeowbot]

Yes, but an Intel chip of any sort would have a hard time doing the cube transition, or Exposé. I mean, when you use Exposé while watching a video, the video still frickin moves!!! Windows can't do that....they even acknowledge this, so while the processors are great and everything, I don't think they're doing this without Altivec and a graphics card, because P4s can't. I know the screens are larger on desktops, but point still stands.

I'm not sure what all this is about. The iPod doesn't run Windows, its CPUs aren't made by Intel, and the rumored transition involves a pair of static images, not moving ones. It wouldn't even have to require real time math in the iPod's case, since with the image and screen sizes all predefined the effect could be table driven. SIMD or a dedicated GPU would be overkill for that.

[mainstreetmark]

i recall having Tetris on one of the linux-on-ipod installations

[hob]

This thread's going round and round in circles...

Yes, it could be faked by being put full screen on the iPod photo...
Yes, tetris is on Linux for iPod...
Yes, the first image is photoshopped - but seemingly only to protect his name and serial number...

Hopefully those who don't bother to read the entire thread will at least note that these topics have been covered in detail...

[jdechko]

This thread's going round and round in circles...

Yes, it could be faked by being put full screen on the iPod photo...
Yes, tetris is on Linux for iPod...
Yes, the first image is photoshopped - but seemingly only to protect his name and serial number...

Hopefully those who don't bother to read the entire thread will at least note that these topics have been covered in detail...

Wait, I'm confused... :rolleyes: :)

[Yvan256]

Yeah, grayscale Tetris. That'll be great... NOT!

Yeah, it's not like Tetris was never incredibely popular on a grayscale portable console anyway.... Gameboy. ;)

[JonMaker]

Three things:

1. This is clearly a fake. The "screenshots" were photoshopped, then displayed on the iPod as photos. End of story.

2. Tetris would kick ass in grayscale. My favourite tetris clone is the one for TI-83+, which is monochrome, not to mention the one I started with in System 6.

3. Control of Tetris would be easy on an iPod. Scroll wheel rotates, the button drops, and Bob's yer uncle.

[Yvan256]

I wish Apple would add this feature, too. I mean, if they can fade one song into the next, how hard would it be to remove the gap from continuous-play CDs broken into tracks?? I don't understand why they keep adding all these other doo-dads, but can't seem to add this one, which a lot of other people have asked for.

Indeed! And even if it's a technical hurdle they just can't go around, I even found (and sent them) a solution that should be quite easy to implement.

In iTunes, when you join tracks for ripping, it stills rips it as one huge track (so you can go around the technical problem and have gapless playback), but it adds extra "start/stop" metadata so that you keep the "tracks" within the big, single file. Of course, you can't "split" those tracks (they're stuck together, if you only want one you have to have the others) but at least you keep gapless playback without losing the actual tracks.

Exemple:
Les chants magnétiques, by Jean Michel Jarre
The CD has 5 tracks. Tracks 2 to 4 need to be played without any gaps.

- Tracks 1 and 5 are ripped the usual way. Except that track 5 is still called track 5 (and not "track 3", like iTunes does at the moment if you join tracks 2 to 4).
- Tracks 2 to 4 are ripped as "joined tracks", resulting in one single track (as it currently is).

However, that "joined track" has extra start/stop metadata:
Track 2 start: 00:00:00
Track 2 stop: 05:25:12
Track 3 start: 05:25:12
Track 3 stop: 08:19:65
Track 4 start: 08:19:65
Track 4 stop: 14:31:54

Even better, since iTunes could detect the "zero second" gap between the tracks on the CD, it could pre-set the tracks as joined, automatically!

A new iTunes version and a simple iPod firmware update should do the trick after that. Just "hide" the single file to us, and act as if they were separate tracks (or maybe some subtle visual cue in iTunes but nothing that keeps us from seeing the separate tracks).

[Fuchal]

In German, über works as "about" or "over," I believe. Like sobre in Spanish.

Ah, thanks. Only knew of 'over.' :)

[Cybernanga]

Let the iPod Photo fakes roll in... you may start with this Windows program for extracting iPod GUI elements ;)

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000610023097/

(Not to mention that it lets you hack the firmware to CHANGE those elements if you're brave. Mac equivalent anyone?)



Check my sig, it has the link to the mac equivalent that I created ;)

Added the following:

It would be very easy to fake this using alterPod (Mac, written by me), iPodIcons (Mac) or iPodWizard (Win).

I'm fairly sure that the iPod does have the processing power to achieve the new transitions, 2 ARM's should be enough to do that. The iPodLinux guys have already demoed some 3D Graphics on the older iPods, so the iPod Photo should be able to handle it no problem.

However, as someone who know's quite a bit about the iPod and it's firmware, I'm not willing to say yet weather this is real or not. I'll be doing some investigations and I'll let you all know what I can find out.

aprodite (aka cybernanga) has spoken)

[cr2sh]

if they are fake, this guy is very pro. ive been a hardcore photoshop user and a photographer for some years now and them images are perfect examples of an iPod photo's screen. even down to the distance blur and everything.

what is interesting though, and i havnt used an iPod photo so forgive me if im wrong, but it could be possible he made some images on Photoshop to look identical to the iPods, and just displayed them full-screened on his iPod?

I'm abstaining from this conversation right now. :)

But let me just say... these are fake. It's clear they're fake... and if you read this thread, you'll know they're fake too.

It's funny to see all these photoshop "PROS" argue it can't be done... and then someone pointed out how to do it and display it on an ipod... and then the pros change their definitive answer. :eek:

[Cybernanga]

Photoshop has nothing to do with it.

The swirls were added using photoshop, but they were added to the final picture that was taken of the iPod (to protect his name and serial), that much is clear from looking at the pixels.

Q1. Is it possible that Apple can add these new transitions, effects and Tetris to the iPod?
A1. Yes.

For those of you who doubt this, take a look at the avi's on this page (http://booc.coob.org/ipodphoto/) for an example of an iPod displaying a 3D rotating cube, (both shaded and in wire frame), and playing tetris, chess, tic-tac-toe and a couple of other games.

Q2. Could the pic's that this guy has posted be fake?
A2. Yes, they could be faked easily.

Q3. How can we find out the truth?
A3. The only way we'll ever know if they are fake or not, is if the guy posts some video clips of his iPod. or he extracts the firmware and post's it online so that foolish people like myself can try it out, or we wait for Software Update to deliver the goods.

(Yes video can be faked, but if the iPod is in his hand and shaking slightly, it's soo much harder to fake that either we'd notice with a little inspection, or he probably wouldn't bother to take the time and energy.

I personally hope he leaks the firmware, cause that'll give me a few days of fun while I tear it apart.

[nagromme]

Check my sig, it has the link to the mac equivalent that I created ;)

Thanks :) Is there a way to try it or see it without registering first?

And thanks for the video links too--once my big attachment downloads I'm going to have to check them out.

However: for a photo slideshow, the quality must be sufficient for TV, around 640x480 or so. It's easier to animate on the iPod's small screen.

(And the boldface issue and plugged-in icon remain as evidence of fakery.)

[Cybernanga]

I sent you a PM about getting alterPod.


However: for a photo slideshow, the quality must be sufficient for TV, around 640x480 or so. It's easier to animate on the iPod's small screen.

(And the boldface issue and plugged-in icon remain as evidence of fakery.)

You are quite right about the "Quality for TV" issue, but I'm fairly confident the iPod could just about manage it. (The iPod has 2 ARM chips, and a Gameboy only has 1)

The boldface could just be a change on Apple's part, and he could have 2 cables as someone else suggested.

I'm still not sure what to call on this issue, but I'm researching hard! hehe, maybe I'll be able to provide MacRumors with a "Confirmed Exclusive" if I'm lucky ;)

[dejo]

This thread's going round and round in circles...

Yes, it could be faked by being put full screen on the iPod photo...
Yes, tetris is on Linux for iPod...
Yes, the first image is photoshopped - but seemingly only to protect his name and serial number...

Hopefully those who don't bother to read the entire thread will at least note that these topics have been covered in detail...

Could you add "Yes, Tetris can be controlled using the iPod's controls: scroll wheel moves piece left or right; center button rotates it; there, presumably, is no drop" to that list? Some people are still not getting it. E.g. :

3. Control of Tetris would be easy on an iPod. Scroll wheel rotates, the button drops, and Bob's yer uncle.

[fabsgwu]

Yeah, grayscale Tetris. That'll be great... NOT!

That's what I had on my GameBoy from 1989. It was awesome!

[Earendil]

I think it's fake.. check out this picture:

Fake Picture (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_picture.php&picture=1117298894.jpg&gallery=120)

The photo is close-up enough that you can see each pixel. The warped areas, therefore, you should still see each pixel in a regular grid.

Instead, the grid is disrputed along with the effect.

IMHO, clearly fake.

I'm not sure I see what you're saying...

If you take a macro shot of an iPod screen with a 6mp camera, you are going to capture the pixels of the iPod Display, but the picture its self will not be pixelated. Then if you blur part of it in photoshop you are going to see a very detailed 6mp blur, but you are still going to see the pixelated iPod screen.

Please let me know if I misunderstood you there.

~Tyler
Earendil

P.S.
OSX says "Pixelated" isn't a word?! :(

[nagromme]

Thanks, cybernanga.

I WANT to believe in this one, but I just can't. Occam's Razor isn't letting me.

It would be great to be wrong :)

Now, one thing I'm wondering... what are those swirls on the serial number? They look really cool and very Apple-like, but something's a little off about them in the photos. A hoax, maybe?

Couldn't resist :D

[scu]

I would love an iPod with more games. The problem is the battery life. It will be interesting to see what the iPod can do in two years.

[beatle888]

What are you on about? These are not photoshopped images, did you miss the 15-years experience in Photoshop? May I also mention that I am a photographer?\


alright MR. HighAndMighty, you can put the whip down now.

i would go on about my photoshop experience and how i eat photographers for lunch but the point is...their is no point.

[Dark Horse]

Arrrrgh.....this thread is driving me nuts. So many repeated statements, and misplaced flames! I wish member options had a 'Only display every fifth post' - I think even then I would have read every 'I'm a photoshop legend and I'm telling you it's not fake....oh unless he just made a picture and displayed it on his iPod which would be easy' about fifteen times.

I definitely think the picture is fake BUT tetris would indeed (as people have said already!!! :rolleyes: ) be awesome on an iPod. But PLEASE make it for 3G iPods too!!

[nsjoker]

good god people, get over it. the pictures are real. the swirl is added later by that german kid to protect his personal info. nothing more, and yes, the ipod can render cube effects on the fly.

[rxcfc]

Even though I am not sure if these new transitions and Tetris shots are fakes, here's how easy it was for me to make one:

LOOK! Doom3 running on an iPod photo!

The biggest different between yours and his is probably the hardest part to fake, and that's the pixels. In his images you can clearly see the pixels and even see some of the color distortion caused by being able to slightly see the sub-pixels. I won't go so far as to say that this would be impossible to fake but I expect it would be extremely difficult. However I am only saying that the pictures themselves are not likely to be edited. It is still possible that trickery is taking place through hacking the iPod.

[dejo]

The biggest different between yours and his is probably the hardest part to fake, and that's the pixels. In his images you can clearly see the pixels and even see some of the color distortion caused by being able to slightly see the sub-pixels. I won't go so far as to say that this would be impossible to fake but I expect it would be extremely difficult. However I am only saying that the pictures themselves are not likely to be edited. It is still possible that trickery is taking place through hacking the iPod.

The only reason you don't see the pixels in my fake is that the image I posted is not as high-res as his. So, attached is a higher-res version isolating the screen. Now you can see the pixels, although somewhat out-of-focus (darn macro mode).

[mo0805]

it looks legit to me. but i'm not buying a photo until it has centipede ;) :D

[mo0805]

I sent you a PM about getting alterPod.


However: for a photo slideshow, the quality must be sufficient for TV, around 640x480 or so. It's easier to animate on the iPod's small screen.

(And the boldface issue and plugged-in icon remain as evidence of fakery.)

You are quite right about the "Quality for TV" issue, but I'm fairly confident the iPod could just about manage it. (The iPod has 2 ARM chips, and a Gameboy only has 1)

The boldface could just be a change on Apple's part, and he could have 2 cables as someone else suggested.

I'm still not sure what to call on this issue, but I'm researching hard! hehe, maybe I'll be able to provide MacRumors with a "Confirmed Exclusive" if I'm lucky ;)

what would the plugged-in icon have anything to do with it?

[dejo]

what would the plugged-in icon have anything to do with it?

Because it proves Big Foot does not exist! ;)

[Cybernanga]

what would the plugged-in icon have anything to do with it?

Someone noticed that iPod was displaying the "plugged-in" icon on screen, but you could see an iPod Dock in the background. The Dock had a cable attached.

Unless the chap has 2 cables, then the pics would definately be fake.

However if he can get his hands on the latest iPod Firmware, I'm sure that he can get his hands on a spare iPod cable.

So we are back to square one ;)

[Plymouthbreezer]

I love how know one actually reads the entire thread here at MR. A great forum, but the people who make redundant/repetitive posts (ironic, because this post itself is somewhat redundant) kill it.

I'm I the only one who actually reads *every* post in the thread before I reply (so I don't make a fool out of myself, like many here do).

[funkychunkz]

One could simply take a screenshot of an iphoto effect and take a picture of it being displayed on the ipod.

[dejo]

(If the damned Myriad font would be as thick in real use as it is in the iPod menus, this fake would be even more believable.)

[dejo]

Watching an episode of The Simpsons...

[biohazard6969]

the ipod isnt' a game boy or PSP, people don't buy it for games. i could really care less if there were more games on my ipod, it would only take up some HD space (though very minimal)

[iMeowbot]

(If the damned Myriad font would be as thick in real use as it is in the iPod menus, this fake would be even more believable.)
(just to be a royal pain) Let's see the interference patterns now :D

[dejo]

(just to be a royal pain) Let's see the interference patterns now :D

How's this?

[iMeowbot]

How's this?
That's the easy one :D. I'm talking about the moiré patterns caused by the LCD grid.

[nagromme]

I'm I the only one who actually reads *every* post in the thread before I reply (so I don't make a fool out of myself, like many here do).
One could simply take a screenshot of an iphoto effect and take a picture of it being displayed on the ipod.
I disagree that everyone should be expected to read threads--especially when they get long--or not contribute. The repetition can be annoying, but it's not stupidity, it's simply that they didn't take the time to read all that. A forum with no repetition would be neat, but a forum where you were REQUIRED (theoretically) to read all posts in a thread before adding your contribution would be a real pain.

So if I have to choose one inconvenience over the other, I'll settle for the repeats. Myself, I tend to read the first and last several posts, but not all of them. It's just not worth the time. I don't think the consequences of that are too terrible, since you can just ignore repeated points.

HOWEVER, I did think the two posts above were funny in that order :D


(If the damned Myriad font would be as thick in real use as it is in the iPod menus, this fake would be even more believable.)

You want Lucida Grande. Myriad is used for Apple product names and things, but the iPod and OS X UI use Lucida Grande. (And the different smoothing settings in Photoshop make a difference too.)

PS, although it's silly to consider faking these by any method OTHER than photographing a real iPod showing a real image (moire and all) that you uploaded... I was personally silly enough to consider just that :D Here's my senselessly difficult method...

1. Put a blank white photo on your iPod and view it. Take a close-up shot and you've got your iPod-screen texture.

2. Make your fake screen in Photoshop--you could use pieces extracted by alterPod etc. (apps used to re-skin the iPod UI).

3. Layer your fake over the white-screen photo in Photoshop. Use Multiply mode to let the screen texture come through perfectly.

4. Free Transform and drag the corners into perspective.

5. Blur as needed to match the photo, and Adjust Curves to reduce the quality like an LCD.

7. Feel the need for reflections/glare? Take them from a similar photo of the iPod turned off. Composite that screen on top with a mode of Screen. Set curves on the layer to get a true black if you need to avoid brighting the whole thing.

8. Need to have focus or brightness or color/sat vary across the screen? Make a slightly different version, and composite that over the top. A soft layer mask with a big brush (or even a gradient) will let you paint in a gradual shift of focus or lighting.

But as I said, these fakes were made by a less fun but much simpler method :D

[dejo]

You want Lucida Grande. Myriad is used for Apple product names and things, but the iPod and OS X UI use Lucida Grande. (And the different smoothing settings in Photoshop make a difference too.)

Actually I believe the iPod photo, unlike other iPods, uses Myriad font.

iPod Fonts (http://www.ipodlounge.com/index.php/faqs/answers/what-fonts-are-used-in-the-ipods-interface/)

[dejo]

That's the easy one :D. I'm talking about the moiré patterns caused by the LCD grid.

Sorry, my digital camera doesn't seem to want to cooperate and take a bad picture with moiré patterns...

[nagromme]

Actually I believe the iPod photo, unlike other iPods, uses Myriad font.

Actually the other iPods use the classic Mac font Chicago, not Lucida Grande like OS X uses.

Myriad and Lucida Grande are very similar, but not the same, and my Photo is definitely using Lucida Grande. A test: look at your song list in iTunes and on your iPod. You can see the font is a match for OS X, as expected.

Myriad is what Apple paints on the physical cases and packaging of their products. (And maybe they use it for big "logos" on some splash screens since those are like product names. I'm not sure.)

Trivia: Apple USED to print physical names (and some on-screen logo) with Apple Garamond (serif font). Then they went to Myriad. This was AFTER the OS had already gone from Chicago to Charcoal (OS 8 and 9) to Lucida Grande (X).

I always thought it was odd that iPods use the old System 7 Chicago instead of the similar but more modern OS 9 Charcoal.

More Triva: if I remember correctly, the iPod Mini uses Espy Sans on-screen. I have no idea why that is in my head... But I know it's not just a smaller Chicago. Nor is it the filenames font (Monaco? Geneva?) used pre-OS X.

[rock6079]

The only reason you don't see the pixels in my fake is that the image I posted is not as high-res as his. So, attached is a higher-res version isolating the screen. Now you can see the pixels, although somewhat out-of-focus (darn macro mode).
holly crap doom will be on the new ipods. WOW, YAH, cant wait !!! :D :D :p

haha :)

[Jesus]

If you look at the infamous first picture, along the top where it says Uber and there is the plugged in logo, there is the play icon, but there are no earphones connected, so it should be a paused icon. Also, the photographer is holding the iPod in his hands, leading up to believe no speakers or otherwise are plugged in via the dock, so I say FAKE IMAGE UPLOAD!!!!!!!!!!

(unless the ability to turn off the autopause can as a new feature in v.1.2 :rolleyes: )

Just my 2 cents

Jesus

[dejo]

If you look at the infamous first picture, along the top where it says Uber and there is the plugged in logo, there is the play icon, but there are no earphones connected, so it should be a paused icon. Also, the photographer is holding the iPod in his hands, leading up to believe no speakers or otherwise are plugged in via the dock, so I say FAKE IMAGE UPLOAD!!!!!!!!!!

(unless the ability to turn off the autopause can as a new feature in v.1.2 :rolleyes: )

Just my 2 cents

Jesus

Well, you can "turn off the autopause" after the headphones are disconnected simply by hitting the Play button. You don't HAVE to have headphones connected for the iPod to play. It just autopauses WHEN the headphones are disconnected. Sorry, that argument isn't proof...

[nagromme]

Good call on the play icon. Why would someone bother playing a disconnected iPod for a photo?

But someone making a fake might WELL include the play icon without thinking.

Nobody's saying these issues are proof, but they cast so much doubt that fakery becomes the simplest explanation. We've now found THREE things that are highly suspicious (the bold, the battery icon, the play icon).

On the other hand, maybe:

* Apple added boldface where none had been.

* He bought a second charging cable in addition to the one sitting on his desk, and even though he already had full charge, he complicated his photo by plugging in the second one and tethering himself while taking the pictures. (You can have the backlight on permanently regardless.)

* He pressed Play on a disconnected iPod from which no sound is emerging--or else is holding a second dock in his hand and has that connected to his stereo for the ultimate awakward photo shoot.

Maybe those are true. I hope they are.

But...

[dejo]

Myriad and Lucida Grande are very similar, but not the same, and my Photo is definitely using Lucida Grande. A test: look at your song list in iTunes and on your iPod. You can see the font is a match for OS X, as expected.

Yeah, I guess you're right, although the tail on the 'a' looks more Myriad than Lucida to me, but maybe that's cuz it's hard to render on the iPod. But an 'M' is definitely Lucida: straight not sloped.

But, here's what fooled me: Apple uses Myriad in their mockups for the iPod Photo! I was using the Apple PR images as my "source" and it's Myriad on them.

[SiliconAddict]

Another new handheld gaming console perhaps?

Not with a scroll wheel it isn't. At best gaming on the iPod is a curiosity. Its like gaming on 90% of the PDA’s out there. The device simply wasn’t designed around gaming. How on earth you will ever manipulate the bricks at higher levels with one hand is beyond me. All I know is I hope they have the same classic songs associated with Tetris. *hums THE song in his head*

[dejo]

Maybe those are true. I hope they are.

But...

Yeah, no definitive proof of fakery or validity either way, far as I can tell, but it certainly smells suspicious.

Now if he had a picture of Big Foot holding the iPod... ;)

[celebi23]

That icon is indeed odd and suspicious. Good catch. His cable is still plugged into the dock back there. He could have two cables, but fakery is seeming more and more likely. If that icon were simply part of an uploaded image, it would never change.

As for the "1.2", no reason those screens couldn't be photoshopped as easily as the Tetris screens--it's the same font OS X uses for instance--and then uploaded for viewing on the iPod.

And more suspicion: on my iPod Photo's "About" screen, the text on the left is NOT bolded. It looks the same as the numbers on the right. Even when I set to German. "Uber" is correct, and SN instead of S/N is correct. but the bolding is not!

Sure, Apple could have changed that for 1.2... but the ice is getting thinner.

Ah well, it was a fun fake :)

Let the iPod Photo fakes roll in... you may start with this Windows program for extracting iPod GUI elements ;)

http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000610023097/

(Not to mention that it lets you hack the firmware to CHANGE those elements if you're brave. Mac equivalent anyone?)

http://img.engadget.com/common/images/2476263283872574.GIF

Yes, there is a mac version of that. I just need to find it, be back soon.

[MontyZ]

1. Put a blank white photo on your iPod and view it. Take a close-up shot and you've got your iPod-screen texture.

2. Make your fake screen in Photoshop--you could use pieces extracted by alterPod etc. (apps used to re-skin the iPod UI).

3. Layer your fake over the white-screen photo in Photoshop. Use Multiply mode to let the screen texture come through perfectly.

4. Free Transform and drag the corners into perspective.

5. Blur as needed to match the photo, and Adjust Curves to reduce the quality like an LCD.

7. Feel the need for reflections/glare? Take them from a similar photo of the iPod turned off. Composite that screen on top with a mode of Screen. Set curves on the layer to get a true black if you need to avoid brighting the whole thing.

8. Need to have focus or brightness or color/sat vary across the screen? Make a slightly different version, and composite that over the top. A soft layer mask with a big brush (or even a gradient) will let you paint in a gradual shift of focus or lighting.

But as I said, these fakes were made by a less fun but much simpler method :D
Do you think this guy, or most people, would know how to do all this properly just make a fake? Plus, something this processed in Photoshop would probably be noticeable to most graphics pros. Not sure it is a fake myself. Not convinced by the arguments so far.

[MontyZ]

In iTunes, when you join tracks for ripping, it stills rips it as one huge track (so you can go around the technical problem and have gapless playback), but it adds extra "start/stop" metadata so that you keep the "tracks" within the big, single file. Of course, you can't "split" those tracks (they're stuck together, if you only want one you have to have the others) but at least you keep gapless playback without losing the actual tracks.
I've actually never tried joining tracks for burning CDs yet, but, it's good to know that iTunes at least maintains the start/stop info so you can jump to the next song, even if in the middle of a long, joined track. I thought it would just consider the entire CD one, long track.

But, I don't see why it's so complicated to remove the gap between two different tracks when playing back-to-back without having to join tracks. Forget Tetris or photo effects, this is what I want in the next iTunes/iPod!!

[Jesus]

can we draw this to a close.

1. This source seems questionable.

2. If it is a fake, it is a .jpeg image sent to a 'Photo to fake the UI.

3. The Swirls in the 1st picture are to hide the guy's s/n and name.

You got that

(Kapeesh)

[dan-o-mac]

This download was available for a short period of time and only one person has it? I find that hard to believe. If it was available for a short period of time i'm sure this would have been on every mac Bittorrent site and all over Limewire, Aquisiton, etc.

[dejo]

2. If it is a fake, it is a .jpeg image sent to a 'Photo to fake the UI.

Actually, it might also be one of these other supported formats: BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only) and PNG formats. ;)

(I used TIFFs for my fakes)

[nagromme]

Do you think this guy, or most people, would know how to do all this properly just make a fake?

I don't even know the guy. But I don't think you read the post of mine that you quoted :D

"But as I said, these fakes were made by a less fun but much simpler method :D "

[nagromme]

Here, because I couldn't help myself :D It's 1024x768 if viewed full size.

Proof of so MANY things all in one place... !

(And just for fun I used my above Photoshop method to put the image on the screen. That image was NOT on my iPod when I took the picture. And of COURSE that's not how the Tetris fakes were made--they were just snapshots of fake images uploaded to the iPod.)

[Dark Horse]

Watching an episode of The Simpsons...

And there I thought that Steve said there just wasn't the content for a video iPod ;) :rolleyes:

Me wanty.

[Dark Horse]

Here, because I couldn't help myself :D It's 1024x768 if viewed full size.

Proof of so MANY things all in one place... !


Is it just me, or is bigfoot wearing a medallion in that picture?

Is bigfoot actually BA Baracus from the A-Team?....many proofs indeed!

[hob]

can we draw this to a close.

1. This source seems questionable.

2. If it is a fake, it is a .jpeg image sent to a 'Photo to fake the UI.

3. The Swirls in the 1st picture are to hide the guy's s/n and name.

You got that

(Kapeesh)
Amen jesus.

[nagromme]

Is it just me, or is bigfoot wearing a medallion in that picture?

He's wearing SOMETHING white that goes in his ears, that's for sure....

Also a demo of the new photo-enhancement capabilities in the 1.2 firmware.

[dejo]

Here, because I couldn't help myself :D It's 1024x768 if viewed full size.

Proof of so MANY things all in one place... !

LOL! Excellent work! I think I even see an extraterrestrial hiding behind a tree there...

[Whistleway]

not sure i remember,,,but, do tetris blocks come in two pieces?

[LaMerVipere]

Screw Tetris.

Give me Pong or give me death.

:cool:

[iCreate]

Pathetic. Transitions? I can understand that on the iPod Photo, but surely there must be more useful functionality to be added than this.

[anodized]

Pathetic. Transitions? I can understand that on the iPod Photo, but surely there must be more useful functionality to be added than this.

Well, that's why it's v. 1.2 instead of 2.0 ;)

[nagromme]

Pathetic. Transitions? I can understand that on the iPod Photo, but surely there must be more useful functionality to be added than this.

Agreed. Minor improvements should never be made. Little things should never be added. Only big things.

[iCreate]

Agreed. Minor improvements should never be made. Little things should never be added. Only big things.
Small improvements and enhancements are fine, but nothing here is worth mentioning at any industry show. If it just happens to show up in software update then fine, just as long as it's not presented as a must have feature or something that will substantially improve the overall appeal of the product.

[barneygumble]

Here, because I couldn't help myself :D It's 1024x768 if viewed full size.

Proof of so MANY things all in one place... !

(And just for fun I used my above Photoshop method to put the image on the screen. That image was NOT on my iPod when I took the picture. And of COURSE that's not how the Tetris fakes were made--they were just snapshots of fake images uploaded to the iPod.)

The patterson film, it's gold jerry, gold

[Les Kern]

Oooooh! TETRIS! And Cube effects! Revolutionary! Astounding! Apple does it again!
I'll prepare my drool cups.
Bah.

[cxny]

I never played any video game as much as on the original Game Boy/Tetris bundle from 20 years ago. It would definately influence my decision to upgrade to iPod Photo, with my new 250GB iMac I could spare 60GB for music. No... I'll wait for 80 or 100GB.

[MontyZ]

I'd be more interested if the next iPods were able to do all of my work for me. Now THAT would be worth $500.

[dongmin]

He's wearing SOMETHING white that goes in his ears, that's for sure....

Also a demo of the new photo-enhancement capabilities in the 1.2 firmware.you mean an ipod shuffle, right?

the next ipod ad campaign perhaps?

[thatguy_youknow]

If this has been posted sorry.

Could they not have just made the sreens on their computer, make them into JPG's, put them in iPhoto, and transfer them to the iPod. If it were a video maybe then I would think it to be true.

[nagromme]

If this has been posted sorry.

Could they not have just made the sreens on their computer, make them into JPG's, put them in iPhoto, and transfer them to the iPod. If it were a video maybe then I would think it to be true.

That's a possibility, I think. Someone probably could do that.

[trose]

Before you embarrass yourself, I suggest you get "hooked on phonics" and learn to read. Yes, the ENTIRE thread. Why? Because we know that already, Sherlock.
Yes, I realize I'm late in replying to you, was busy all day.

I wasn't aware that a few individuals acted as a single "we" entity on these forums :rolleyes:
How about you read the ENTIRE thread (which I did, before even making my first post) and look at the handful of folks who still were calling BS due to misaligned pixels.

Internet tough guys, gotta love 'em. I'm sure I'll get a nice "witty" reply back from you.

[GeeYouEye]

I'm calling fake, for the simple reason that Tetris is, by definition, played in a 10x20 block grid. Not 10x15 or 10x17 which it appears to be here, and there's no way Apple could screw up the game by doing it otherwise. That, plus the odd battery and play icon. I would be less surprised by the addition of the cube and mosaic transitions however. If they do though, hopefully they'll include the original Spectrum Holobyte music for levels 0-9 (they might as well, since they'd have to license the name and game anyway). Ah, Red Army, Moscow Nights, Volga Boatman, Two Guitars, Dark Eyes, the Nutcracker piece, Korobushka, Coda, Birch Tree, Fast Dance, and Famous Dance... now that was music... 22kHz, 8 bit Studio Session sound files that don't work under PPC processors... ah those were the days.

[smack416]

I added a .mov to iTunes yesterday and was informed by iTunes during an iPod sync that my model of iPod does not support that media type, so it will not be uploaded. Am I being naive in suggesting that Apple will publish an update that allows .mov support on the iPod Photo?

That would certainly make me feel better about being one of the dozen or so people that bought the 60GB for absurd amounts of money when it was first released.

[neildmitchell]

Tetris is Uber Cool!
I could listen to my 90's cheesey happy hard core Tetris song as I play!:)
Not that I would, but I could :D

[JohnD]

I'd like to believe this is real, as it'd be novel to have Tetris on the iPod, but I've noticed two additional clues this may be a fake, in addition to the bold font, the play icon displayed with no headphones plugged in, and the A/C power icon with the dock in the background.

First, the play icon appears to be totally black on my monitor. Even though the picture is slightly dark, and the iPod is rotated slightly to the left (darkening the contrast), the play icon should be greyscale shaded.

Second, the vertical scroll bar on my iPod photo, while on the "About" page ends 1/3 of the way into the version number, while the scroll bar on the photo in question goes down beyond the version number. The only 2 lines below the S/N are "Model" and "Format" - one of those would have to be missing for the scroll bar to be longer.

[Piarco]

I'm now unsure...

I was in the Apple Store on Regent Street yesterday to help a friend decide on whether the iPod Photo can be used as a serious in-the-field photo storage device, and whether the available battery packs can charge the ipod as well as just extend play, as well as various other questions she had around the filing deleting of the photos...

Anywhoo, the Apple guy mentioned that Tetris was indeed making its way onto the iPods with colour screens. Now its possible he knew something we didn't, and that it is actually going to happen..... or he has also read this thread or the article that spawned it......

Hence me being now unsure....

[cr2sh]

Oooooh! TETRIS! And Cube effects! Revolutionary! Astounding! Apple does it again!
I'll prepare my drool cups.
Bah.

And yet the thread still has a postivie rating! I say Wasteland this POS.

Don't playa hate, congratulate!

What does that even mean in the context of a falsified ipod photo screen? Do you just go around rambling things off that you hear on TV? Thanks fo contributing to the discussion.

[nagromme]

First, the play icon appears to be totally black on my monitor. Even though the picture is slightly dark, and the iPod is rotated slightly to the left (darkening the contrast), the play icon should be greyscale shaded.

Second, the vertical scroll bar on my iPod photo, while on the "About" page ends 1/3 of the way into the version number, while the scroll bar on the photo in question goes down beyond the version number. The only 2 lines below the S/N are "Model" and "Format" - one of those would have to be missing for the scroll bar to be longer.

I do think it's fake, but those two elements ARE shown in the photos just the way my iPod looks.

My About scrollbar ends below the version number just like that: I have no Format line at all. Maybe that only appears if your iPod is formatted for DOS? Mine is Mac. Good catch spotting the difference, even so :)

And the gray shading on the Play icon is really only visible on mine if you tilt your iPod to the right a bit. Straight on or to the left (like the photos) you really get pretty much a black silhouette.

[swissmann]

Sadly the scroll wheel limits many games. But I guess that's why it's a music player.

And yes "Woot Tetris". :D

This is one reason why I am hoping for an Apple alternative to their music player in the form of a PDA/phone.

[kirk26]

LOL, look at all the negatives! Damn you Apple for putting something fun on my iPod!!! You guys crack me up.

[JohnD]

Anywhoo, the Apple guy mentioned that Tetris was indeed making its way onto the iPods with colour screens. Now its possible he knew something we didn't

I know someone who works in an Apple store. He's told me employees know nothing about new products until the day they arrive. Your sales guy most likely reads one of these websites. I also have a friend who works at Apple, but I know better than to even bother asking him about it...

[JohnD]

My About scrollbar ends below the version number just like that: I have no Format line at all. Maybe that only appears if your iPod is formatted for DOS? Mine is Mac. Good catch spotting the difference, even so :)

Yeah, I have the Windows version. The last line on the "About" page says "Format Windows". Odd they wouldn't include info for the Mac version. I could go either way on this one, but hope it's real - only time will tell. If only he'd post video of the game playing and transitions moving. Most, if not all digital cameras can record some form of video these days.

[shyataroo]

That iPod has a larger hard drive too. According to the photo, 55.8GB were used and 17.2 were free put the two numbers together and it comes out to be 73GB. So, what we are seeing here is the next iPod Photo or someone who is smart enough to also update the hard drive. so it would be even more convincing that its a new iPod Photo


Why doesn't someone translate what the german words say and see if they match up to the iPod.

[JohnD]

That iPod has a larger hard drive too. According to the photo, 55.8GB were used and 17.2 were free put the two numbers together and it comes out to be 73GB.

Those numbers are "Capacity" and "Available".

[nagromme]

Why doesn't someone translate what the german words say and see if they match up to the iPod.

They match--any iPod can be set to German to check. Mine looks just like that when in German... except that I don't see boldface on the left.

[Lou Zer]

I do think it's fake, but those two elements ARE shown in the photos just the way my iPod looks.

My About scrollbar ends below the version number just like that: I have no Format line at all. Maybe that only appears if your iPod is formatted for DOS? Mine is Mac. Good catch spotting the difference, even so :)

And the gray shading on the Play icon is really only visible on mine if you tilt your iPod to the right a bit. Straight on or to the left (like the photos) you really get pretty much a black silhouette.

Maybe this has been brought up already, I don't know. But you people need to look at the tetris pictures! There's two pictures showing tetris being played. The second photo is the exact same as the first photo except two more lines are missing, one of which was the bottom line. How exactly did he clear the bottom line of the first photo if he were playing tetris. Keep in mind he's only cleared three lines, and only two lines since the first screen. Sorry, but in my tetris experience, there ain't no way to get from picture one to picture two.

The tetris is fake, and as such, the whole thing can't be trusted.

[couchpotato]

Oh you guys, these pictures aren't fake at all. EXIF data is still intact for them, check it out for your self. So, they aren't photoshoped.

Yes the ARM7 based CPU in the iPod Photo is infact powerful enough to do these transitions. Infact, its even powerful enough to play compressed video's. Now would apple let you play a movie off your iPod, right to a TV? Obviously not, but this is only a software limitiation, at the courtesy of most likely jobs him self.

[Don't panic]

Maybe this has been brought up already, I don't know. But you people need to look at the tetris pictures! There's two pictures showing tetris being played. The second photo is the exact same as the first photo except two more lines are missing, one of which was the bottom line. How exactly did he clear the bottom line of the first photo if he were playing tetris. Keep in mind he's only cleared three lines, and only two lines since the first screen. Sorry, but in my tetris experience, there ain't no way to get from picture one to picture two.

The tetris is fake, and as such, the whole thing can't be trusted.

it couldn't be played, unless they are two different games starting from the same or similar set-up or unless there is the possibility to zap unfinished lines.

from the first frame (14pt) to the second there are three lines missing: the bottom one (with one space), the fifth from bottom (again with one space) assuming that after the visible incoming pink block an orange 2x2 came down, and then a vertical red, green, yellow and orange again). at some point the third line was eliminated (corresponding to the eight line in the first image, which would include the two middle of the new green, the foot of the pink L, two empty spaces, the two middle off the yellow, the top of the red and an other empty space).

so the images are compatible but the missing lines are not following the rules that i know.

edit: it's bizarre that one would go through so much work to make the alleged fakes an not use a more simple scenario as screenshots

[nagromme]

Oh you guys, these pictures aren't fake at all. EXIF data is still intact for them, check it out for your self. So, they aren't photoshoped.

They don't have to be. The photos are real and unretouched (except the S/N). But the screens are fakes. Uploaded to the iPod and then photographed.

[jinzo012]

Tetris on my iPod...oh yeah...that's the good stuff

[nagromme]

I posted this summary of the above in another thread. Thought it would be useful here too:

Signs this is a fake:

1. It's easy to fake because you just make an image, upload it on the iPod and view it like any photo, and then your image really IS on the iPod and you can photograph it at will with no additional Photoshopping needed.

2. Battery icon shows "plugged in" even though the dock and charging cable are seen in the background. The guy COULD have bought a second charging cable, and plugged it in for no apparent reason while taking the photo, just to make things extra awkward, but....

3. Boldface on the left side of the About (Uber) menu, which a real iPod (even in German) does not have. Apple could have added that, but...

4. Icon shows that iPod is playing even though no headphones are attached. And pulling out the headphones pauses an iPod automatically. He could have re-started playback for no reason with nothing connected, but...

5. The two Tetris shots show a sequence of events that's impossible in Tetris. Rows at the bottom have been cleared, despite the mess over top preventing any changes down there.

All together, it's too much doubt. Too bad.

Expect many more such fakes (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=129604&page=6&pp=25#post1494261)--it's too easy (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=129604&page=5&pp=25#post1493846) on iPod Photo!

[~Shard~]

I posted this summary of the above in another thread. Thought it would be useful here too:

<snip>



Thanks nagromme, I for one appreciate your due diligence on this! :cool:

[toughboy]

You obviously never owned the original GameBoy...

I agree...

[iHateWindows]

I love the cube effect.

[bagoffrog@cox.n]

I think it's fake.. check out this picture:

Fake Picture (http://terra1.deaggi.net/index.php?p=show_picture.php&picture=1117298894.jpg&gallery=120)

The photo is close-up enough that you can see each pixel. The warped areas, therefore, you should still see each pixel in a regular grid.

Instead, the grid is disrputed along with the effect.

IMHO, clearly fake.

I hate to burst your bubble, but the photo was clearly photoshoped after the photo was taken so as to cover the iPod's serial number and user name, obviously so as to maintain some anonimity. Those swirls were probably not meant to be a new feature of the version 1.2 software. http://forums.macrumors.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=1492606#

[nagromme]

:D

I can't put my finger on it, but something about this thread really tickles my funny bone.

:D

[Foocha]

I just visited the Apple site, and momentarily they showed an entire iPod games download section. Whilst it was there I was able to download loads of amazing 3D games for my iPod photo, including V-Rally (see evidence below). Then, inexplicably, Apple pulled then entire site - maybe they changed their mind.

Strange, huh?

http://homepage.mac.com/grahambower/ipod_vrally_small.jpg
Full Size (http://homepage.mac.com/grahambower/ipod_vrally.jpg)
Edit: to re-size images

[MontyZ]

Wow, that is strange, especially because it's just like what happened to that German guy and Tetris. Such an amazing coincidence.

Oh, and thanks for posting a huge-a$$ photo that screws up the width of the page. You need to learn iPhotos resizing features.

[~Shard~]

I just visited the Apple site, and momentarily they showed an entire iPod games download section. Whilst it was there I was able to download loads of amazing 3D games for my iPod photo, including V-Rally (see evidence below). Then, inexplicably, Apple pulled then entire site - maybe they changed their mind.

Strange, huh?

You're going to be hard-pressed to find anyone who's going to take you seriously after all that has been discussed and debunked in this thread already.

If you downloaded all these games from Apple's site then please open up your Download Manager, which will have a record of all your recent downloads, then take a screen grab of it for us to show what all has been downloaded recently, i.e. your iPod games, and that might help. Or, dig into your browser cache and find some links or something along those lines to back up your claim. Otherwise, this will be considered no different than the pics we saw earlier in this thread. :cool:

[MontyZ]

I think he (Foocha) was just joking.

[~Shard~]

I think he (Foocha) was just joking.

I hope so, but he never indicated anything in his post along these lines, so I never find it safe to assume.

[nagromme]

Wow, that is strange, especially because it's just like what happened to that German guy and Tetris. Such an amazing coincidence.

Oh, and thanks for posting a huge-a$$ photo that screws up the width of the page. You need to learn iPhotos resizing features.


I too think he was joking. I like it :D

But as an aside... big images no longer mess up MacRumors for me! I don't know when that changed, but everyone else's post fits the exact width of my browser at any size I make it. Only the one image post is any wider. Cool.

[MontyZ]

But as an aside... big images no longer mess up MacRumors for me! I don't know when that changed, but everyone else's post fits the exact width of my browser at any size I make it. Only the one image post is any wider. Cool.
Same for me. But, I still find it visually disturbing! :)

[Kingsnapped]

I'm calling fake, for the simple reason that Tetris is, by definition, played in a 10x20 block grid. Not 10x15 or 10x17 which it appears to be here, and there's no way Apple could screw up the game by doing it otherwise.

Look at all the little handheld LCD tetris games. Joe-sixpack does not care about how many lines can fit in a game of tetris. I'm sure a consumer would rather play "unofficial" tetris than no tetris at all.

[MontyZ]

Well, I guess now that iPod has Pong, it can move up to Tetris. What's coming next? Froggie Jump?

[Foocha]

Sorry about the big picture, which I have re-sized so as not to cause offence. I just wanted everyone to see the pixels on the iPod, so that I could "prove" how true my story really was :D

[~Shard~]

Sorry about the big picture, which I have re-sized so as not to cause offence. I just wanted everyone to see the pixels on the iPod, so that I could "prove" how true my story really was :D

Well, you get an A for effort... ;)

[chaos86]

what i want to see is an upgrade to the existing pong game to make it playable. i.e. not letting it do that stupid crap every second hit that makes it go really fast, diagonal, and at an angle you cant hit. i hate that crap

[nagromme]

Did you ever get multi-ball in iPod Bricks? :D

I don't know what triggers it... maybe just clearing a number of screens? It happens, though, and I think it's intentional.

[dejo]

Well, I guess now that iPod has Pong...

The iPod has Pong? I think you are confusing the iPod's Brick game (a variation of Breakout) with Pong. They are not the same thing.

[nagromme]

I've been known to use Pong and Breakout as generic terms for ANY paddle and ball game :)

But maybe he meant the people running Pong on their iPods with Linux. I feel like I've seen a screenshot of that.

[~Shard~]

Breakout is awesome, I coded myself a version of it in TurboPascal back in the days in my Comp Sci class in high school. Ah, good times...

[chaos86]

well i forgot it was brick and not pong. someone mentioned pong before and i used the same word. oh dear. i shall be shunned from all mac forum use from now on because of this horrendous mistake.

brick still has crap programming causing the player to lose a ball every dozen or so hits because an inevitable corner hit sends it haywire. youd think after 4 generations of ipod, 2 photos, and 2 minis, theyd fix one of the four games they tout on the ipod website under features.

[MontyZ]

The iPod has Pong? I think you are confusing the iPod's Brick game (a variation of Breakout) with Pong. They are not the same thing.
Oh, you're right. Brick. It's like Pong, but for one person. :)

[MontyZ]

So, I guess this whole Tetris thing was just another hoax.

Or maybe that's why Apple is moving to Intel chips: so they can add Tetris to iPod!!

;)