Video iPod?

[MacRumors]

Appleinsider claims (http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=454) that upcoming 4th generation iPods may have some interesting new video capabilities.

While not quite the "video iPod" that many have speculated, the rumored iPod will reportedly be able to show video clips on televisions via an advanced Dock which would provide for video-out.

Meanwhile MacPlus's iTunes Europe (http://www.macrumors.com/pages/2004/05/20040513060402.shtml) article from yesterday also referenced upcoming video capabilities in the iPod, but had not been otherwise confirmed.

[el_aarono]

Hmmm... I anticipate that the video part of the iPod will be targeted at music videos (but will be able to do other stuff as well, of course), which will then be available for download via the iTunes music store. Seems to be the next step. According to Steve J. people don't want to download full-length films, but downloading just one music video wouldn't be so bad.

That's my take on this.

-Later

[sw1tcher]

So can we expect to see this announced at WWDC along with new PM G5s?

[Doctor Q]

The article says that the iPod would operate as a firewire disk when the dock's video out connector was used. So you are just playing back any movies that happen to be stored on the iPod disk, not using the iPod's own interface (buttons and display).

This feature would certainly increase the demand for high-capacity iPods!

[Beck446]

A TV out is a much better idea than playing videos on that small screen. Now if only we could put WiFi in the iPod. Anyway, surely this will start more Apple Set-top box rumors; the link here, I think, is obvious.

[yoda13]

I just can't seem to save for a G5. Now I am going to have to buy one of these to add to my 1st gen iPod :D

[Mord]

This is what i said they would be like around 2 months ago "they will have no playback on screen but they will have video out" and everyone said rubbish :mad: :mad:

[sw1tcher]

This feature would certainly increase the demand for high-capacity iPods!

Not to mention increasiing the price of the iPod too.

[Abstract]

The article says that the iPod would operate as a firewire disk when the dock's video out connector was used. So you are just playing back any movies that happen to be stored on the iPod disk, not using the iPod's own interface (buttons and display).


Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you have a zillion movies and small clips on your iPod, how will you choose which video to watch if you can't use the iPod to select a movie file?

[Darwin]

Maybe I'm missing something here, but if you have a zillion movies and small clips on your iPod, how will you choose which video to watch if you can't use the iPod to select a movie file?

Im sure when you plug the iPod into a TV it will have a simple interface that will be shown on the TV screen that you can conrol with the iPod buttons :)

[Mattski]

This would certainly fit in with the iTunes movie icon found in the iTunes package.

Check it out:
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes-movie.icns

[Ja Di ksw]

Ok, so if this involves a new doc, and doesn't use the iPod except as a HD, would it be possible to use the old iPods with this, assuming you bought the new doc and had a firmware update or something? Not that I would really use this, at least not that much, just interested

[Veldek]

Hmm, I somehow doubt this, because I can’t see me carrying not only the iPod but the whole dock to a TV, then perhaps selecting the movie while the IPod is sitting in the dock to have the connection. This doesn’t sound very Apple-like. Perhaps thay found another much easier way but I can’t think of one which involves the dock and a cable.

[Trowaman]

If this happens I can already see where gen 5 will go.

-Charge on wireless firewire :D
-Broadcast via Bluetooth :D

Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

These are what I'm preceiving as the major potential breakthroughs, but this is just me. The problem I see with iPhoto is windows users, I would not think that Apple will port iPhoto over to windows as well.

[cube]

Unless this is fully multistandard, it sucks. PAL B/NTSC is not enough.
I, for one, need PAL B/PAL N/NTSC.

[Trowaman]

Ok, so if this involves a new doc, and doesn't use the iPod except as a HD, would it be possible to use the old iPods with this, assuming you bought the new doc and had a firmware update or something? Not that I would really use this, at least not that much, just interested

I would think it would be just buy a new dock, or i hope so at least. Might be iPod software 3.0 which would me 4th gen only. Who knows at this point.

[Veldek]

Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

These are what I'm preceiving as the major potential breakthroughs, but this is just me. The problem I see with iPhoto is windows users, I would not think that Apple will port iPhoto over to windows as well.

I don’t think we will see iPhoto integration, but I also hope for a color screen and the ability to put photos from your digicam on your iPod and browse them, and then import them into iPhoto later directly from your iPod.

[SiliconAddict]

WHEN? WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN WHEN?!?!?


I have a July 7th - 14th trip planned. I want to get an iPod but need something larger then 40GB. Come on apple. Screw the video. Give us at least a 50GB iPod. And if possible a color OLED display for that cover art I spent weeks downloading for my ripped CD's.

[suzerain]

Steve Jobs keeps saying [paraphrasing] "We think that people don't want to watch films on a tiny little screen." What I never understood about this was the fact that there are...like...you know...more things than films to encode into video.

Personally, I think an Apple USB TV tuner + personal DVR software + a video iPod would be a killer app. If it could encode TV in real-time into MPEG4, and then I could either watch on my computer, or transfer to my video iPod, then they would have something.

For one, I might just get an LCD television and put a Mac at the center of my home entertainment center instead of my cable box and stereo.

For two, if I am on the subway in the morning, it might be nice to watch last night's crappy network sitcom instead of reading the paper, which would mean the night before I could go out instead of sitting on my couch watching TV.

I mean, come on, people don't watch sitcoms or game shows or soap operas or whatever for the amazing video quality...

[BrianKonarsMac]

does anybody remember the rumors of apple getting into the "projector" market? i heard that they were trying to incorporate something like that into a video ipod, so you could play videos on a wall. wouldn't this be far to hot/bulky of a product? maybe thats why it was just a rumor?
Steve Jobs keeps saying [paraphrasing] "We think that people don't want to watch films on a tiny little screen." What I never understood about this was the fact that there are...like...you know...more things than films to encode into video.

Personally, I think an Apple USB TV tuner + personal DVR software + a video iPod would be a killer app. If it could encode TV in real-time into MPEG4, and then I could either watch on my computer, or transfer to my video iPod, then they would have something.

I mean, come on, people don't watch sitcoms or game shows or soap operas or whatever for the amazing video quality...

suzerain needs to talk with steve but i'd rather have a firewire/PCI-X TV Tuner, usb's bandwidth blows (then again we FINALLY have usb 2.0). I want my Mac to be my digital hub...but if i can't use it as a DVR/ HD TV/DVD Player/HD Monitor for PS3,XBOX Next, etc. then what kind of a digital hub is it? i have more to do than email and transfer music to my iPod, give me a real digital hub!

[virividox]

video out isnt that appealing to me tho.

[JFreak]

I don’t think we will see iPhoto integration.

why not? add a simple backup function to isync and store your photos into ipod. you know, there are no negative backups in the digital era, so it becomes imprtant to be able to easily backup the photo library. i have waited this feature a long time and would buy an ipod instantly if they did this. now i'm waiting, but not because of this but the minis are not sold in europe yet. however, if the next gen regular ipod has this feature, i will choose it instead of mini.

[BakedBeans]

so what are they saying that there making it storage for movies aswell as music... e.g 5 dvds an 1000 songs ect

if you could play it on your powerboooks that would be pretty neat really

[Beck446]

video out isnt that appealing to me tho.

Me neither. But surely this isn't all the update would get. I mean, all video out really entails is a fancy doc with new firmware. We should also be seeing better batter, color LCD, more storage, ect..

Plus, Home on iPod IS a killer APP. Now this would really get more people to buy Mac computers...

[Squire]

I want to get an iPod but need something larger then 40GB. Come on apple. Screw the video. Give us at least a 50GB iPod. And if possible a color OLED display for that cover art I spent weeks downloading for my ripped CD's.

Larger hard drives- even on an iPod- are always welcome. I think more and more people are using Backup with iPods, making larger capacities a real asset.

I don’t think we will see iPhoto integration, but I also hope for a color screen and the ability to put photos from your digicam on your iPod and browse them, and then import them into iPhoto later directly from your iPod.

Yeah, that Belkin card reader has one too many steps: removal of the memory card. I'd like to plug my camera right into my iPod and download that way. That would rule. Other video capabilities? Hmmm...I don't know how useful it would be on all models. Maybe the top-of-the-line would benefit by staying competitive with other video-capable products.

Squire

[BrianKonarsMac]

This would certainly fit in with the iTunes movie icon found in the iTunes package.

Check it out:
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes-movie.icnsvery strange, is it for the music videos? i don't think so. Now i'm excited :D .

[Savage Henry]

Don't get excited folks. I have it on good authority that this will not be announced at this year's WWDC: the good authority being Common Sense.

Jobs will bang up the G5 and spend a great deal of time showing how it blows the x86 to pieces. After such earth shaking reconfirmation of superiority of platform, he is hardly going to announce that you can watch poorly rendered videos on a tiny screen for 3 minutes before the battery packs in.

If I am wrong, then I will admit my imbecillic rant was the stuff of a looney, and then wait patiently for iPod gen5 which will have the much sought after toasted sandwich capabilities and polar bear repelling sirens.

:rolleyes:

[J-Squire]

THis is something that would definitely give your 99c songs from iTunes much more value. OK, so you're not getting the physical album art and liner notes, but instead you get the video clip for the song that can be played from your iPod. That is pretty sweet.
And maybe iTunes would then have the capabilities to play the video clips to all your purchased music when you listen to your library. That would be pretty cool I think. It would kick butt over the iTunes visualiser.

[Veldek]

why not? add a simple backup function to isync and store your photos into ipod. you know, there are no negative backups in the digital era, so it becomes imprtant to be able to easily backup the photo library. i have waited this feature a long time and would buy an ipod instantly if they did this. now i'm waiting, but not because of this but the minis are not sold in europe yet. however, if the next gen regular ipod has this feature, i will choose it instead of mini.

I just don’t see a use for it. Why carrying all your photos with you all the time? It’s just like what Steve Jobs said about movies on the iPod – you cannot look at it while walking around. Further the screen is too small for my taste. It’s good enough for a preview but not for much more. They could make it larger, but I doubt it will become large enough to actually be useful.

[suzerain]

wow.

I suppose you are attempting to infer that my statement about wanting to watch a sitcom instead of reading the paper means that I don't stay abreast of things.

Well, the answer is: newspapers are useless to me...the news in them is a day old, which was acceptable in 1986, but not now. I don't want my news in a format that is old, and gets my hands dirty.

So, you can add to the list of things I want on my video iPod as: news broadcasts (but not American ones), nature shows, sports highlights, and personal videos, like videos of my kids if I had any.

My point, anyway, was....there's a hell of a lot more to watch than Hollywood movies.

[GorillaPaws]

If this happens I can already see where gen 5 will go.

-Charge on wireless firewire :D


That's a joke right?

[tiselday]

if the new iPod 4G is able to display moving pictures, then it would not be a major technological revolution to be able to connect it to the iSight "on the fly" to have a digital video recoder with lots of HD space and good optics in a very handy form factor. The only HD based camcorders now are Samsung's IT and they have only a 1.5 GB disk...

probably an transparent plastic casing where you could attach your iPod and your iSight, et voila!! I'll be all for it!

T

[Nykwil]

if the new iPod 4G is able to display moving pictures, then it would not be a major technological revolution to be able to connect it to the iSight "on the fly" to have a digital video recoder with lots of HD space and good optics in a very handy form factor. The only HD based camcorders now are Samsung's IT and they have only a 1.5 GB disk...

probably an transparent plastic casing where you could attach your iPod and your iSight, et voila!! I'll be all for it!

T

http://forums.offtopic.com/images/smilies/pat.gif
http://forums.offtopic.com/images/smilies/slap.gif

didnt read the article did you?

it's going to be docked and played on tv why would you want to display moving pictures on your ipod screen??!!

[macker]

This is all really niche, with limited mainstream appeal. The ipod has succeeded because it is truly the 21st century walkman. Flicking through iphotos or plugging it into the tv to show movies etc just doesn't have that wow factor.

Album art is probably more likely, improved screen and battery etc. Sony are launching a Vaio HD player, which will have the album art feature and a 20hr battery.

[tiselday]

http://forums.offtopic.com/images/smilies/pat.gif
http://forums.offtopic.com/images/smilies/slap.gif

didnt read the article did you?

it's going to be docked and played on tv why would you want to display moving pictures on your ipod screen??!!

yeep, I read the article. :)

The only thing I meant was that IF the iPod gets a colour screen and IF it can display moving pictures THEN it could be used as a LCD screen for framing the films that you could take with the iSight and stored (prob as MPEG4) in the iPod, thus effectively creating together a digital camcorder of acceptable quality... :)

T

[AhmedFaisal]

Unless it supports high compression/high quality codecs such as DivX its a pretty useless feature. Sure, I bet it will support Apple MPEG4, maybe MPEG1/2, Pixlet, DV and some of the other standard codecs that Apple uses in the MOV container. However besides MPEG4 non are high quality/high compression and with all due respect, nobody besides Apple uses their MPEG4 format and the quality sucks compared to other MPEG4 derivatives such as DivX, XviD and 3ivX.
Another issue is decoding power, the ARM CPU that the iPod uses doesn't have enough punch to natively decode video so they will have to use external decoder chips. Which will those be?
Also will that player accept AVIs with MP3 audio (which QuickTime doesn't) and Ogg Vorbis audio which has become increasingly popular for Audio in Video files.
As far as I am concerned I don't see this feature bringing any additional sales unless above is true, because:
There is portable/non-portable players out that decode DivX AVIs in any format (DivX3,4,5, MPEG4-ISO, XviD, 3ivX), the non portable ones are combo DVD/DivX Players. Also I know from two manufacturers that both their portable and non-portable players will soon support advanced containers such as OGM and MKV.
So for playback alone, especially since it doesn't have an optical drive and it requires an external screen I fail to see the "Must have factor" given the limitations it most likely will have.
It might become a different issue if I could hook my iSight to the iPod and take pictures and record movies and voice stuff with preview on a color LCD in the iPod. For playback alone, Apple would have to do a lot of things they have not done in the past in order to make people want to buy the iPod.
Regards,

Ahmed

[Windowlicker]

this would be SUPERcool! Though I doubt it. They would have to put a much more powerful processor inside the thing and other stuff that would make it bigger and it would consume more power.

but if they can make it similar to the 3rd gen iPod, but just with the supermegavideo dock, i would be interested once my current 15gb dies.

[Jacknusa]

Not looking at the technichal aspect of it...

If Apple could figure out a way to use the iPod as a video display device, I think the music industry would be all ears (and eyes).

The "problem" for the music industry is that music videos are essentally a 100% cost item. there is no direct revenu derived from a music video - they are paid for by the record lables and then given free to MTV VH1 etc.

Enter ITunes store AV with the following pricing structure:

Song: $.99
Video: $1.99

I think the music industry would be tripping over them selves, not to mention it would open up some interesting possibilities to those of us who produce music videos...

For what it's worth.

jack

[JFreak]

I just don’t see a use for it. Why carrying all your photos with you all the time?

simply put, just to have a backup - when the only original you get with digital camera is the file on hard disk, you lose your photos permanently if the photo library gets destroyed/corrupted and you don't have a backup. and most people don't have. backups need to be simple, not complex, and apple knows how to do it so they should.

most people don't even consider buying an external firewire hard drive, but if the ipod can store the iphoto library, it's a winner. at a rate of 2MB/pic one can store thousands of pictures into ipod without taxing it too much, and how many regular joe has too much?

so if they advertise the lowend 15GB ipod being able to store 5000 songs and 2500 photos for example, they'd actually add value to the unused space [that many of the ipod users have] even if the ipod wouldn't be able to show the photos.

get it? auto-backup [of photo library] while doing the auto-sync [of music library]at the same time. no questions asked, no hassle, no problem. just simple security, and what if the photo library gets destroyed? no problem, just plug in the ipod and let isync rebuild it. problem solved.

[Veldek]

simply put, just to have a backup - when the only original you get with digital camera is the file on hard disk, you lose your photos permanently if the photo library gets destroyed/corrupted and you don't have a backup. and most people don't have. backups need to be simple, not complex, and apple knows how to do it so they should.

Well, you can do this already. Just copy your iPhoto folder onto the iPod and voila – you have your backup. I agree though, that having the ability to sync it, would be great. I’m a huge fan of the Home on iPod idea. It would be great, if you could sync your entire home directory and not only your iPhoto library.

[usersince86]

And if you could use your iPod to do Keynote presentations? That opens up a whole new world...

It's a remote control and a laptop all in one.

Just a thought! :rolleyes:

[BakedBeans]

Not looking at the technichal aspect of it...

If Apple could figure out a way to use the iPod as a video display device, I think the music industry would be all ears (and eyes).

The "problem" for the music industry is that music videos are essentally a 100% cost item. there is no direct revenu derived from a music video - they are paid for by the record lables and then given free to MTV VH1 etc.

Enter ITunes store AV with the following pricing structure:

Song: $.99
Video: $1.99

I think the music industry would be tripping over them selves, not to mention it would open up some interesting possibilities to those of us who produce music videos...

For what it's worth.

jack

you know thats a really good point you made there
even if they price it

itunes=99c
itunes with ivid=$1.99

then split the profits with the music companys, very good i dea

nicely said

[JFreak]

Well, you can do this already. Just copy your iPhoto folder onto the iPod and voila – you have your backup. I agree though, that having the ability to sync it, would be great. I’m a huge fan of the Home on iPod idea. It would be great, if you could sync your entire home directory and not only your iPhoto library.

i know that i can do it, but i want apple to do it so the regular joe's grandma can do it and thus i can do it a lot easier. that's the point. i want the photo library backup to be synced every time i sync my music, no questions asked and without extra effort.

(in my opinion, currently syncing of entire home directory might be too risky at current ipod hd sizes. for example i have 40+ gigs not countling the music library. i know i'm a power user, but i'm not the only one whose home directory will not fit into any of the current ipods, and i guess that's the reason why apple pulled the "home on ipod" feature from panther. maybe some day, that would be so sweet...)

[JFreak]

And if you could use your iPod to do Keynote presentations? That opens up a whole new world...

maybe some day the ipod has a cpu powerful enough :) not realistic in the near future.

[Veldek]

i know that i can do it, but i want apple to do it so the regular joe's grandma can do it and thus i can do it a lot easier. that's the point. i want the photo library backup to be synced every time i sync my music, no questions asked and without extra effort.

(in my opinion, currently syncing of entire home directory might be too risky at current ipod hd sizes. for example i have 40+ gigs not countling the music library. i know i'm a power user, but i'm not the only one whose home directory will not fit into any of the current ipods, and i guess that's the reason why apple pulled the "home on ipod" feature from panther. maybe some day, that would be so sweet...)

Well, we certainly agree in the biggest part. But I don’t think Apple would sync the iPhoto library in iTunes (together with your music). This would be a bit strange. But as I said, I agree with you that syncing is a good idea and Apple can find a way, I’m sure. And you’re most probably right that Apple cancelled the Home on iPod idea because of HD space.

[whooleytoo]

This is what i said they would be like around 2 months ago "they will have no playback on screen but they will have video out" and everyone said rubbish :mad: :mad:

It might have a picture preview on the iPod screen, or it's feasible to have a short low-res movie preview that plays on the iPod, which is contained in the same movie.

[JFreak]

Well, we certainly agree in the biggest part. But I don’t think Apple would sync the iPhoto library in iTunes (together with your music). This would be a bit strange. But as I said, I agree with you that syncing is a good idea and Apple can find a way, I’m sure. And you’re most probably right that Apple cancelled the Home on iPod idea because of HD space.

isync would be totally capable of doing this, and itunes could very easily launch isync in the background. how do you think the contact info will go to the ipod? isync does it. no reason why it couldn't put the photos in as well.

we'll need that 100+ gig ipod and home-at-ipod feature into panther :D

[gekko513]

What about the Home on iPod concept that the article also talks about. I think that sounds much more interesting. They just need an easy to setup mechanism for deciding semi-automatically which files not to sync over if the Home directory is too large.

[Veldek]

isync would be totally capable of doing this, and itunes could very easily launch isync in the background. how do you think the contact info will go to the ipod? isync does it. no reason why it couldn't put the photos in as well.

we'll need that 100+ gig ipod and home-at-ipod feature into panther :D

Of course. I have thought of iSync, too, but never had the idea that iTunes could start it, after you made the preferences there. This might actually work.

[Macmaniac]

Personally if they do this they should at least add a color screen so you can preview what you show, Apple should also look for a way to extend the battery life, 8 hours is just not enough.

[JDOG_]

There's no way I'd pay $1.99 for a music video. A music video is basically an advertisement and is approached that way...that's kind of why they're offered for free on iTunes, because it's just another preview to get you to buy a song. I think making people pay to "own" music videos would just be greedy.

Ok, that was totally off topic. Just give me a color screen that shows album art and an FM tuner and I'm set baby...none of this video junk.

[Gren]

I reckon that this feature would most likley to be an enhancement to the photo storage facility - allowing you to play slideshows on a screen.

Might be nice, especially if you could simply set transitions and choose background music.

[Steven1621]

apple needs to get to this before the others

[Wonder Boy]

if this is true, there will obviously be a software update. included in that update, it would be nice to see the "home on ipod" function. i dont know if thats a computer os update instead, or what, but i agree that the ipod should become more functional.

btw- i have little use for video on my ipod, but i could change my mind if all i had to buy was a new dock.

[stingerman]

There's no way I'd pay $1.99 for a music video. A music video is basically an advertisement and is approached that way...that's kind of why they're offered for free on iTunes, because it's just another preview to get you to buy a song. I think making people pay to "own" music videos would just be greedy.

Ok, that was totally off topic. Just give me a color screen that shows album art and an FM tuner and I'm set baby...none of this video junk.

You people are funny. Apple hasn't even announced anything yet. I think putting the music videos and movie trailers was done for two things, 1. to sell more music (it worked on me) and 2. to work out bandwidth issues for future video sales.

Anyone who thinks that selling movies on the Internet is not something that is needed now is crazy. Movies are being pirated at an alarming rate and the illegal Movie download business is quickly rivaling the illegal music download business with all the same quality issues as well.

[saxman]

Just give me a line in that does more than 8KHz... I guarantee musicians who record their practice sessions would dump their minidisc recorders and get an ipod. Sony is introducing 1GB minidisc products this year. I know, no one in the US uses them except musicians but having an ipod that recorded at an acceptable level would open up more of a market than video capabilities IMHO. Many music teachers require students to have a portable recording device... why not an ipod?

[Savage Henry]

apple needs to get to this before the others

Why? It will be a useless resource-absorbing appendage?

Unless they have some killer app-appendage to wodge on the side of iTunes to justify this sort of technological inrtoduction to a market leading product, I really can't see any worth in it.

Of course, that's just my opinion and I've been in a bad mood all day. I might be a little more open to the idea tomorrow.

[JFreak]

Just give me a line in that does more than 8KHz... I guarantee musicians who record their practice sessions would dump their minidisc recorders and get an ipod.

musicians who record their practice sessions and care about quality have already dumped the minidisc for good - the mbox is so cheap it's almost a crime not to use it when there's a need. with mbox (350usd) you get 24bit studio quality, with ipod (350usd) you'd probably get 16bit through crappy a/d converter. which one would you choose? :)

seriously, that won't happen. ever. ipod stands for all-digital lifestyle, and analog line-in has bad quality written all over it. and so is the fm radio. i can't understand why people keep asking these... it would be like asking an opera singer to record a heavily compressed pop hit ;) capable of anything, asked to do nothing...

[~Shard~]

I see a video iPod as having quite a few uses other than just playback of full-length movies, which, as Jobs indicated, "people don't want to do" (to paraphrase). Having this basic video integration for starters could pave the way for future viedo applications, and eventually the ability to watch movies, etc. right on the iPod. But for now, start off with music videos, maybe iPhoto slideshows, whatever else, and go from there.

Actually, since you can dump your digital photos to the iPod via the flash card reader, why not dump those 30-second digital movies you film with your digital camera as well?

Regardless of what functionality is introduced though, I think if you start talking about video/images, you absolutely need to start talking about a color screen. And this leads us into the old deabtes about battery life, etc. etc...

[Georgesimian]

The video out function seems like it would be too easy. You can already put a video on your ipod, at least for storage.

What it really needs is a video camera. Samsung and others already have hard disc video cameras. It seems the only real reason to get the ipod together with video. Otherwise, I'm with Jobs that no one wants to watch video on their ipod.

[jtquick2001]

Did you ever think that maybe they will use imovie with this new ipod? I mean it has the capability to do so. It can export to Mp4 and with iM 4 you can create a movie to work with bluetooth.

Another possiblity would be to make a imovie movie store. instead of you downloading a whole movie, you have it on a cart and as soon as you plug in your new ipod it downloads the movie right from the store. I also think that apple is going to switch now to movies. They went through music now try the movie market. Just a thought

[whooleytoo]

It seems the only real reason to get the ipod together with video. Otherwise, I'm with Jobs that no one wants to watch video on their ipod.

...except the people here who've said they want to watch video on their iPods... ;)

[Squire]

Another possiblity would be to make a imovie movie store. instead of you downloading a whole movie, you have it on a cart and as soon as you plug in your new ipod it downloads the movie right from the store. I also think that apple is going to switch now to movies. They went through music now try the movie market. Just a thought

Yeah, there was talk of that a long time ago except people (members here) were predicting the QuickTime Movie Store. I know there are a ton of issues concerning bandwidth and such but Apple has to beat the competition to this download business as well. Asia's particularly notorious, but illegally downloading movies is beginning to take a bite out of Hollywood's pockets. And with that "Most Influential in Hollywood" article a little while back, you have to wonder if Jobs & Co. are already onto this.

As for video capabilities on an iPod, I still can't see how it would benefit the majority of iPod users. Movies...nah. Pics from iPhoto...cute feature but nothing I'd pay a premium for. Maybe all this video talk is just to keep it (the iPod) ahead of the competition. I mean, if Sony's doing it...

Squire

[neonart]

How about they release a new iPod that's about the size of a large tower. One that has dual G5 processors at up to 3Ghz and a hard drive and an optical drive and a kickin' video card. In silver! With perforations on the front.

Now, that would be an iPod I'd be all over!

:rolleyes:

[Mr_Ed]

if the new iPod 4G is able to display moving pictures, then it would not be a major technological revolution to be able to connect it to the iSight "on the fly" to have a digital video recoder with lots of HD space and good optics in a very handy form factor. The only HD based camcorders now are Samsung's IT and they have only a 1.5 GB disk...

probably an transparent plastic casing where you could attach your iPod and your iSight, et voila!! I'll be all for it!

T

I was thinking something along those lines too. Not as a "I want to carry my pics and videos to share" device, but more as an aid in shooting pics/video. The Belkin product helps you accomplish this for digi photos since you can offload your pics to the iPod on the road and then bring them into your computer later.

There are devices out there that are essentially Firewire hard drives with extra logic to allow direct recording of video from your camcorder to the hard drive, allowing you to skip the "pain in the @$$" import process. Maybe the new iPod could work this way as well. Whether you are taking pictures or shooting video on the road, the iPod would be your new "best friend" :)

[saxman]

musicians who record their practice sessions and care about quality have already dumped the minidisc for good - the mbox is so cheap it's almost a crime not to use it when there's a need. with mbox (350usd) you get 24bit studio quality, with ipod (350usd) you'd probably get 16bit through crappy a/d converter. which one would you choose? :)

seriously, that won't happen. ever. ipod stands for all-digital lifestyle, and analog line-in has bad quality written all over it. and so is the fm radio. i can't understand why people keep asking these... it would be like asking an opera singer to record a heavily compressed pop hit ;) capable of anything, asked to do nothing...

Got an mbox, great little unit which I use for semi-serious recordings, not quite as small as an ipod and mic though... iRiver has a portable HD recorder with an optical in, too bad it doesn't integrate with iTunes.

Mbox = 1.8lbs, 1 USB cable, 1 mic cable,1 mic &/or mic stand,1 laptop (4-8lbs). Portable, yes, but not like a minidisc and mic or ipod and mic.

To put things in perspective, in reality, no matter what the input/output line says, sound is analog. The storage or delivery method might be digital. I don't hear 1's and 0's coming out of my speakers (-;

[iLilana]

with the release of PSP and Nintendo DS, manufacturures are able to make large quantities of small color screens. There is NO reason not to have one in the iPod. PLus as I was watching E3 footage the touch screen on th DS was sooo inviting. And WOW those graphics were smooth and fast on the new metroid game for the DS. Video is no londer a bad idea or impossible expensive.

[sarge]

Squire[/QUOTE]

Yeah, that Belkin card reader has one too many steps: removal of the memory card. I'd like to plug my camera right into my iPod and download that way. That would rule. Other video capabilities? Hmmm...I don't know how useful it would be on all models. Maybe the top-of-the-line would benefit by staying competitive with other video-capable products.





Amen to that!

[JFreak]

To put things in perspective, in reality, no matter what the input/output line says, sound is analog. The storage or delivery method might be digital. I don't hear 1's and 0's coming out of my speakers (-;

you're definetely right, but i wasn't referring to that ;) i meant that because it is a lot cheaper to build good quality all-digital devices - which ipod is - it is not feasoble to ask apple to put in analog technology, because as ipod stands for quality the a/d conversion and the analog signal chain would have to be top quality also, and that my friend - as you probably know - costs a lot of money.

ipod is meant to store/play the consumer level end product (16bit mastered audio), and it is not meant to be a recording device. sure, apple could do one, but knowing apple standards it would be matching the mbox and not some lame minidisc+mic combo.

if you want quality, use quality gear. if you want portability, use portable gear. if you want both, use both. simple.

[1macker1]

They have to make some major improvements. Because come companies are already in the video/music player market.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?product_id=2485475&cat=132412&type=19&dept=3944&path=0:3944:3983:96469:132412:132412

I think it's pretty cool. RCA has one also.

[michaelrjohnson]

If this happens I can already see where gen 5 will go.

-Charge on wireless firewire :D
-Broadcast via Bluetooth :D

Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

These are what I'm preceiving as the major potential breakthroughs, but this is just me. The problem I see with iPhoto is windows users, I would not think that Apple will port iPhoto over to windows as well.

firstly, i didn't read the whole thread up till this point (yet). but i have to tell you, if you can pull off "Charge on wireless firewire" (read: wirelessly recharging your iPod battery) you, my friend will be a billionaire... however, that's just NOT possible.







...yet

[&RU]

I can definitely see the iPod being used as a video recording device. Both in the 'Tivo' sense of the word (take your favourite shows over to a friends house, like the good old days of VHS), and also (this is my contribution to the rumor) for use with video cameras.

Right now there are professional video camera hard drives that attach to your camera so that you do not have to swap tapes - and you can then plug into your computer for editing (I think Sony makes one).

I have never been interested in getting an iPod but if those were features, then I would seriously consider getting one.

[saxman]

if you want quality, use quality gear. if you want portability, use portable gear. if you want both, use both. simple.

Well said. It just seemed like a half-hearted effort for Apple to put in the ability to record 8Khz sound with an add-on device. IMO, they asked for better and more recording features to be requested... but to be all things to all people is impossible.

[gauriemma]

Hmm, I somehow doubt this, because I can’t see me carrying not only the iPod but the whole dock to a TV, then perhaps selecting the movie while the IPod is sitting in the dock to have the connection. This doesn’t sound very Apple-like. Perhaps thay found another much easier way but I can’t think of one which involves the dock and a cable.


Nor can I. But there has to be. if not, what would be the real benefit? The main selling point of the iPod (outside of the capacity) is the portability. If you have to hook it into the dock, then hook the dock into a monitor, why not just use your computer?

There must be more to the story. Otherwise, I can't see the value in this 'feature'.

[Brian Haworth]

Don't get excited folks. I have it on good authority that this will not be announced at this year's WWDC: the good authority being Common Sense.

Jobs will bang up the G5 and spend a great deal of time showing how it blows the x86 to pieces. After such earth shaking reconfirmation of superiority of platform, he is hardly going to announce that you can watch poorly rendered videos on a tiny screen for 3 minutes before the battery packs in.
:rolleyes:

Indeed. The screen is too damn small for video. But it isn't too small for a Visualizer. I'd like to see a color LCD with Visualizer options.

[AirUncleP]

If I took a DVD to a friends house I wouldn't take my DVD player. I would assume he lived in 2004 and had one already.

This being said. Apple would love the the iPod to become so popular that most people had the dock abilities at home so you would just bring over your iPod and plug in to your friends set-up.

iSight hasn't accomplished this (no iSight for me because no one I know is smart enought to have one also) and I don't think the iPod will. If the above ever came to be true, I would love to be an Apple stock holder.

[Veldek]

Nor can I. But there has to be. if not, what would be the real benefit? The main selling point of the iPod (outside of the capacity) is the portability. If you have to hook it into the dock, then hook the dock into a monitor, why not just use your computer?

There must be more to the story. Otherwise, I can't see the value in this 'feature'.

If this rumor is true, of course. Because we could have found the argument why it can't be...

[Mr.Hey]

Porn has never been more portable! :D

[mact]

I posted a thought on this site last year and maybe I will turn out to be right after all...

The Ipod would make a perfect DV hard disk recorder. Plug it into your DV camcorder and as well as spooling the footage to your tape, the camcorder writes it out to the iPod hard drive. Each take you shoot is saved to a seperate file and when you want to edit the footage you just plug the ipod into your Mac and the files are there - no grabbing footage - all your cuts and takes already nicely split into files. DV Camcorders already all send the start and stop signals as well as timecode nicely out of the DV port.

Your tape simply becomes a backup of the shoot and you probably wipe over it after a few eeks.

Sony already make a unit which does this. All Ipods probably have enough hardware to do this already - just a matter of new firmware. The Sony unit is around £1400 for a 20Gb unit - the Ipod would probably trash this product immediately - every serious DV enthusiast would buy one straight away for the time saving factor alone - image all wedding videographers having a backup written to hard disk of their precious wedding footage - makes sense really.

The ipod is small also which means that you can have it in your pocket as you shoot. There is also the small factor that you can only shoot 83mins (SP) on a DV tape - a 40Gb Ipod could record about 170 minutes!

(sorry for repeating a little of what has been said on the previous pages!)

[potterfast]

My guess is that should they add video capabilities, it will use the new video compression spec Apple showcased, as well as by several other vendors (not M$), at NAB. It was said to be scalable from Video on Phones to higher than current DVD quality.

[ethernet76]

Unless this is fully multistandard, it sucks. PAL B/NTSC is not enough.
I, for one, need PAL B/PAL N/NTSC.

Need? Aren't all TVs NTSC compatable? Are you seriously worried about quality? Think about TVs, your standard TV has a resolution of about 1024x768. All stretched out over how many inches? Unlike monitors bigger TVs don't get better resolution.

Secondly I assume they'll use the same standards as they did for the powerbooks.

However this does make me question the "dock." I assume it will be doing all the computing and decompression of MPEG-4 and so on. How big is it going to be?

However, this would be the greatest idea ever. Finally a reason to spend $500 on an iPod. While my music collection is a mere 10 gigs, I could easily spend 50 gigs on video. I mean honestly, I hate it when going to some one's house to watch a movie for them to say, "Sorry I don't have a dvd player. I do have crocodile dundee on VHS though!"

Yes, it happend. Seriously.

Let's just hope they are well engineered unlike the gen 1 ipods and the mini.

[jackc]

I hope the iPod mini gets a bigger drive for those of us who just want a good music player, and not this video nonsense. Figure out a way to boost battery life, and I'll be a happy camper.

[whooleytoo]

Apple to introduce iFlicks DVD ripping software, with DRM, so the ripped movie can be transferred to one iPod. Plug the iPod into any TV via the new Dock, and you're carrying (some of) your DVD collection with you.

</loony theory>

[JonGraves]

Take a look at the PortalPlayer web site for a description of their newer audio/jpeg/video player platforms, Since the current iPod is based on a Portalplayer chipset it is possible that future versions will be too.

Jon

www.portalplayer.com

www.elecdesign.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=7373

[killmoms]

Need? Aren't all TVs NTSC compatable? Are you seriously worried about quality? Think about TVs, your standard TV has a resolution of about 1024x768. All stretched out over how many inches? Unlike monitors bigger TVs don't get better resolution.

You are grossly overestimating the resolution of standard definition TVs. An NTSC TV has about 480 lines of effective vertical resolution (additional lines are specified, but are not visible, and used for things like closed catptioning, etc.). That's why 720 x 480 re-scaled to 4:3 (640 x 480) is used for DVDs. When you output anything higher to an NTSC display, say, from your computer, it's being scaled down. That's why you can't read anything.

HDTVs are a whole 'nother ballgame.

--Cless

[applefans]

This would certainly fit in with the iTunes movie icon found in the iTunes package.

Check it out:
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes-movie.icns

does that mean we may possibly purchase music TV or even movie from iTMS to be playback and store in the ipods? :p

[dho]

Unless it supports high compression/high quality codecs such as DivX its a pretty useless feature. Sure, I bet it will support Apple MPEG4, maybe MPEG1/2, Pixlet, DV and some of the other standard codecs that Apple uses in the MOV container. However besides MPEG4 non are high quality/high compression and with all due respect, nobody besides Apple uses their MPEG4 format and the quality sucks compared to other MPEG4 derivatives such as DivX, XviD and 3ivX.
Another issue is decoding power, the ARM CPU that the iPod uses doesn't have enough punch to natively decode video so they will have to use external decoder chips. Which will those be?
Also will that player accept AVIs with MP3 audio (which QuickTime doesn't) and Ogg Vorbis audio which has become increasingly popular for Audio in Video files.
As far as I am concerned I don't see this feature bringing any additional sales unless above is true, because:
There is portable/non-portable players out that decode DivX AVIs in any format (DivX3,4,5, MPEG4-ISO, XviD, 3ivX), the non portable ones are combo DVD/DivX Players. Also I know from two manufacturers that both their portable and non-portable players will soon support advanced containers such as OGM and MKV.
So for playback alone, especially since it doesn't have an optical drive and it requires an external screen I fail to see the "Must have factor" given the limitations it most likely will have.
It might become a different issue if I could hook my iSight to the iPod and take pictures and record movies and voice stuff with preview on a color LCD in the iPod. For playback alone, Apple would have to do a lot of things they have not done in the past in order to make people want to buy the iPod.
Regards,

Ahmed

Finally, someone who reads the article AND understands it :)

[jared_kipe]

Man you guys jump all over the guy who says "charge by wireless firewire," however I doubt any of you are physicists. Basically all electro-magnetic waves (radio, light, etc.) are just oscillating energy. The purpose of an antenna is to capture some of that wave. It is completely POSSIBLE to charge a device off of an EM wave, this is what solar power is after all. However due to the way a wave spreads out from the source, whatever portion of the wave you would be capturing would be too small to make charging a battery possible. You would have to be radiating at huge power consumption levels to get to a device say.. 5m away.

Energy: u=1/2?E^2+1/2(B^2/?) (J/m^3)
Power: S(ave)=1/2?cE^2=1/2(c/?)B^2=EB/(2?) (W/m^3)

However, it would be feasible to charge a device with say ... a plate where you could just put it down onto every day. This technology already exists, my toothbrush charges without ever (electrically) touching it's charger. Those who say it can never be done, obviously haven't studied much about Poynting Vectors.

[Penman]

Not looking at the technichal aspect of it...

If Apple could figure out a way to use the iPod as a video display device, I think the music industry would be all ears (and eyes).

The "problem" for the music industry is that music videos are essentally a 100% cost item. there is no direct revenu derived from a music video - they are paid for by the record lables and then given free to MTV VH1 etc.

Enter ITunes store AV with the following pricing structure:

Song: $.99
Video: $1.99

I think the music industry would be tripping over them selves, not to mention it would open up some interesting possibilities to those of us who produce music videos...

For what it's worth.

jack

Just so you know I've posted this comment a lot myself and don't you all forget it!

Please let's stop saying who wants video? You sound like people debating the value of seeing fuzzy images of distant events on a distorted 5 inch screen (early TV) or playing 'games' that involve manipulating colored blocks with a keyboard (early computer games). Mobile video will blow audio away.

I'll cetainly watch video from a few inches on a 2.5" screen if given the opportunity. With headphones and 20/20 vision it's not a problem at all.

Audio only's so '99.

As for 'what will Apple invent' - they buy the iPod technology from a well known third party. I forget the URL but I'm sure it's in the thread somewhere. Just look to see what's available and then wait for Apple to impliment.

[VicMacs]

yeah anyways.... who doesnt get Poynting Vectors?

[Penman]

Man you guys jump all over the guy who says "charge by wireless firewire," however I doubt any of you are physicists. Basically all electro-magnetic waves (radio, light, etc.) are just oscillating energy. The purpose of an antenna is to capture some of that wave. It is completely POSSIBLE to charge a device off of an EM wave, this is what solar power is after all. However due to the way a wave spreads out from the source, whatever portion of the wave you would be capturing would be too small to make charging a battery possible. You would have to be radiating at huge power consumption levels to get to a device say.. 5m away.

Energy: u=1/2?E^2+1/2(B^2/?) (J/m^3)
Power: S(ave)=1/2?cE^2=1/2(c/?)B^2=EB/(2?) (W/m^3)

However, it would be feasible to charge a device with say ... a plate where you could just put it down onto every day. This technology already exists, my toothbrush charges without ever (electrically) touching it's charger. Those who say it can never be done, obviously haven't studied much about Poynting Vectors.

I'm a physicist (well I have a degree in Applied Physics and one in Microelectronics and Computing). You're talking about Star Trek stuff. An energy beam would be a danger if it were to carry any serious power at all (imagine that energy as monochromatic light and you'd have a laser capable of burning holes in things). Plus the 'holy grail' of energy conversion is an efficient way to turn 'heat' into useful energy again. The only ways we have of doing that are ridiculously inefficient (hence the limited use of Solar Panels - they don't work very well).

Putting light aside you'd be looking at other more or less energetic forms of EM radiation and frankly, a house where narrow beams of ionising radiation are being used to charge things doesn't sound like fun. As for lower energy bands - Radio Frequency waves at high energy are used to cook meat. Enough said?

As for your toothbrush - it works via electromagnetic induction. There's no energy beam (the contact is made when a loop in your toothbrush enters the field of the charger - it won't work over long distances).

Remote power is a very nice idea but a way off. We'd use it for spaceships (which waste almost all their capacity carrying fuel for energy) before we used it for iPods.

[billyboy]

Whatever aspect of video they implement, I think it is time for some Mac only features to try entice some switchers. So far iPods dont really force people to change their computer, at least till their PC dies from using the iPod so much

[ingenious]

This would certainly fit in with the iTunes movie icon found in the iTunes package.

Check it out:
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes-movie.icns

can u post a pic of this?

[Koodauw]

I've been dreamin of the iTunes music store to sell music videos for a long time. Now those I would actually pay to download.And new iPod to play them on, I would have to have one! Oh man please let this be true. Don't let me down Steve!

[mrsebastian]

that would be pretty sweet to watch music videos on the ipod with a decent sized screen and tv output :)

[Jerry Spoon]

[QUOTE=Trowaman]
Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

The one thing I would love to see is the iPod working with iPhoto. And the best way for that to work would be for it to show through a tv. Give me that feature and I'll buy the biggest iPod Apple offers.

[iLilana]

Man you guys jump all over the guy who says "charge by wireless firewire," however I doubt any of you are physicists. Basically all electro-magnetic waves (radio, light, etc.) are just oscillating energy. The purpose of an antenna is to capture some of that wave. It is completely POSSIBLE to charge a device off of an EM wave, this is what solar power is after all. However due to the way a wave spreads out from the source, whatever portion of the wave you would be capturing would be too small to make charging a battery possible. You would have to be radiating at huge power consumption levels to get to a device say.. 5m away.

Energy: u=1/2?E^2+1/2(B^2/?) (J/m^3)
Power: S(ave)=1/2?cE^2=1/2(c/?)B^2=EB/(2?) (W/m^3)

However, it would be feasible to charge a device with say ... a plate where you could just put it down onto every day. This technology already exists, my toothbrush charges without ever (electrically) touching it's charger. Those who say it can never be done, obviously haven't studied much about Poynting Vectors.

and we would all grow brain tumors then die

[jared_kipe]

I'm a physicist (well I have a degree in Applied Physics and one in Microelectronics and Computing). You're talking about Star Trek stuff. An energy beam would be a danger if it were to carry any serious power at all (imagine that energy as monochromatic light and you'd have a laser capable of burning holes in things). Plus the 'holy grail' of energy conversion is an efficient way to turn 'heat' into useful energy again. The only ways we have of doing that are ridiculously inefficient (hence the limited use of Solar Panels - they don't work very well).

Putting light aside you'd be looking at other more or less energetic forms of EM radiation and frankly, a house where narrow beams of ionising radiation are being used to charge things doesn't sound like fun. As for lower energy bands - Radio Frequency waves at high energy are used to cook meat. Enough said?

As for your toothbrush - it works via electromagnetic induction. There's no energy beam (the contact is made when a loop in your toothbrush enters the field of the charger - it won't work over long distances).

Remote power is a very nice idea but a way off. We'd use it for spaceships (which waste almost all their capacity carrying fuel for energy) before we used it for iPods.

You must have misread, I said it was possible, not feasible. Plus I was speaking of non coherent waves, not beams, hence the m^3. I'm sure a beam (coherent packets) has an energy measure in linear or square meters. I also know that my toothbrush is induction, point was that it was wireless. I was thinking of a way of wirelessly charging an ipod, by having a plate where you could drop it every day. You see, if you were to have just this one spot on your desk you could put the ipod, that would take care of wireless charging, and wireless firewire would take care of syncing.

[~Shard~]

All these features being discussed would be cool, but I'm still quite happy with my 3G 20 Gigger - it'll be good enough for me for quite a while yet! I think I'll just wait until the iPods have color screens, video capabilities, better batteries, built-in wireless FireWire and a built-in iSight. :cool:

[Spades]

I don't see why the same thing can't be done with video that can be done with audio. We rip CDs and put them on small portable players because carrying around a CD player with the CDs is too cumbersome. Well, why not ripping DVDs and putting them on a small portable player because carrying a DVD player with the DVDs is too cumbersome? I'm not particularly interested in watching movies on a 3" screen either, especially since most stuff I watch has subtitles, but I'm very interested in being able to carry around a single device that I can plug into a TV.

There's just the small issue of how you would legally rip DVDs. Most of the video I want to watch isn't actually DVD, so it doesn't bother me, but to sell the idea I think Apple either needs to sell the movies online, or convince whatever the appropriate association is to let them let people rip and covert the DVDs.

And while we're dreaming, why just NTSC and various of PAL compatibilities? How about HDTV?

[minstryoffunk]

You people are funny. Apple hasn't even announced anything yet. I think putting the music videos and movie trailers was done for two things, 1. to sell more music (it worked on me) and 2. to work out bandwidth issues for future video sales.

Anyone who thinks that selling movies on the Internet is not something that is needed now is crazy. Movies are being pirated at an alarming rate and the illegal Movie download business is quickly rivaling the illegal music download business with all the same quality issues as well.

You know what this means:

iMovie Video Store
DVD quality movies @ 99¢ each.

That could pave the way for a vPod to be sold along the iPod with a high capacity drive and increased power for video playback. Imagine the ability to carry around 100 hollywood classics in your pocket.

That would be a good place to incorporate the iSight and thus making it into a portable HD camcorder. There should be a wy for the iSight to clip directly on top, like it does with monitors currently

[JonGraves]

Why not stick a Zip100 drive in there while you are at it!

Jon

[Chip NoVaMac]

Need? Aren't all TVs NTSC compatable? Are you seriously worried about quality? Think about TVs, your standard TV has a resolution of about 1024x768. All stretched out over how many inches? Unlike monitors bigger TVs don't get better resolution.

Secondly I assume they'll use the same standards as they did for the powerbooks.

However this does make me question the "dock." I assume it will be doing all the computing and decompression of MPEG-4 and so on. How big is it going to be?

However, this would be the greatest idea ever. Finally a reason to spend $500 on an iPod. While my music collection is a mere 10 gigs, I could easily spend 50 gigs on video. I mean honestly, I hate it when going to some one's house to watch a movie for them to say, "Sorry I don't have a dvd player. I do have crocodile dundee on VHS though!"

Yes, it happend. Seriously.

Let's just hope they are well engineered unlike the gen 1 ipods and the mini.

Hopefully they will have HDTV quality available.

[ericmooreart]

Yes yes it all makes sense!!! First itunes music, then movie trailers through itunes... Next is downloadable music videos right to your pod. My prediction is September 2004

[ericdano]

video out isnt that appealing to me tho.

Me either, but stereo recording on an iPod would!!!!!!!!!

[Windowlicker]

Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

about this color lcd thing. why does everyone want it on iPods?! what's the advantage of having a color lcd on your portable aac player? I can't really think of any good use for it..

[Windowlicker]

You know what this means:

iMovie Video Store
DVD quality movies @ 99¢ each.

lol! i totally dropped! it might have something to do with beer, but anyway ;D

(not that it wouldn't be great to be able to dl dvd quality movies @ 99c each)

[whooleytoo]

This would certainly fit in with the iTunes movie icon found in the iTunes package.

Check it out:
/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/Resources/iTunes-movie.icns

It also has MPG(iTunes-mpg.icns), MPEG4 (iTunes-mpeg4.icns), and most interestingly, MPEG4 Protected (iTunes-mpeg4p.icns) - This is in addition to AAC Protected (iTunes-aacp.icns).

[kiwi]

I like the iPod but I got an Archos instead because of the audio/video/photo recording features as well as playback on lcd or TV out. Even with just audio functions, Archos had built in microphone and line in audio loooong before the iPod. The color lcd screen is fine for viewing video, even on the first generation models, mostly short clips or iMovies I made or as a viewfinder and playback of what I had recorded. At least Archos lets the user decide what they want to do as opposed to withholding these features. Apple contradicts itself when it comes to viewing video on a tiny screen. They get very excited when it is QT MPEG 4 video on a cell phone but then claim that "people don't want to watch video on a tiny screen". I agree that "background" uses such as audio are used more than "foreground" uses that require your attention such as viewing video, but at least Archos gives me that choice to make for myself. I suspect Apple is waiting more for technology that allows good form/size/battery life etc. Maybe in the future the iPod mini will be for audio and the iPod (video) for other apps such as video.

[Trowaman]

about this color lcd thing. why does everyone want it on iPods?! what's the advantage of having a color lcd on your portable aac player? I can't really think of any good use for it..

it ties into the picture capabilities. It is a get one get both feature. Remember, these are all jsut my opinions

[SiliconAddict]

You know what this means:

iMovie Video Store
DVD quality movies @ 99¢ each.



No chance in hell.

[Doctor Q]

You must have misread, I said it was possible, not feasible. Plus I was speaking of non coherent waves, not beams, hence the m^3. I'm sure a beam (coherent packets) has an energy measure in linear or square meters. I also know that my toothbrush is induction, point was that it was wireless. I was thinking of a way of wirelessly charging an ipod, by having a plate where you could drop it every day. You see, if you were to have just this one spot on your desk you could put the ipod, that would take care of wireless charging, and wireless firewire would take care of syncing.You mean I bought this huge Tesla coil for nothing? I set it up in the living room so I could charge my iPod whenever I wanteded. :D

[SiliconAddict]

about this color lcd thing. why does everyone want it on iPods?! what's the advantage of having a color lcd on your portable aac player? I can't really think of any good use for it..

For that matter what use is a scroll wheel when buttons are just as good. What use is the metal finish on the back of the iPod when plain white or gray would be just as good.

Its all about the character of the device. Imagine your coverart being displayed on the top half of the screen while the track name and time remaining is below it. Is it a critical feature? Hardly, but its a feature that smacks of Apple detail.

And before someone tells me that color screens eat at battery life go pick up a color gameboy and tell me how many hours you get off of its screen. There are plenty of options available to make a color screen very battery friendly. At this point the hard drive is where the real battery drain is.

[Penman]

You must have misread, I said it was possible, not feasible. Plus I was speaking of non coherent waves, not beams, hence the m^3. I'm sure a beam (coherent packets) has an energy measure in linear or square meters. I also know that my toothbrush is induction, point was that it was wireless. I was thinking of a way of wirelessly charging an ipod, by having a plate where you could drop it every day. You see, if you were to have just this one spot on your desk you could put the ipod, that would take care of wireless charging, and wireless firewire would take care of syncing.

Non-coherent is fine but still not feasible. There is no efficient, safe way fo wirelessly transmitting energy. Induction's the closest we can get right now. If you don't 'beam' the energy you'll waste the vast majority of it for no good reason.

It's not too necessary. I posted a link here a while ago regarding technology allowing a full charge for a battery in 30 seconds which is available today. That'd be a far better addition for an iPod. The key is to charge the battery - being in a iPod charging energy field while you walk down the street is highly improbable.

As for color screens - phone's don't need them either. iPods are about 'I want' not 'I need' - all the cool stuff's driven that way. Even from a user standpoint, color navigation can be decidedly more elegant than monochrome. I'm sure Apple will devise a truly gorgeous interface.

[Chip NoVaMac]

Originally Posted by minstryoffunk

You know what this means:

iMovie Video Store
DVD quality movies @ 99¢ each.


No chance in hell.

Though I wonder if it means that we might see $9.99 DVD quality movies...

[ALoLA]

It might become a different issue if I could hook my iSight to the iPod and take pictures and record movies and voice stuff with preview on a color LCD in the iPod.

I like that idea. Imagine a small form factor aluminum case that matches the iSight. iSight attaches directly to Firewire port on top. Color LCD screen that can fold out and flip. So essentially, it'll look like a plam sized DV camcorder. But when not capturing video, detach the iSight and it can be used like an iPod. I think it might work. :)

[Trowaman]

about this color lcd thing. why does everyone want it on iPods?! what's the advantage of having a color lcd on your portable aac player? I can't really think of any good use for it..

WAIT!!!! NEW THOUGHT BESIDES PHOTO VIEWING!!!!

The iTunes visualizer, to go. Something to sit and watch when bored . . . or on a drug trip, who knows ;)

*This is a joke, don't read too much into this.

[gobi]

Has anyone any clue what the girl (i don't her name nor the guy's) is talking about in the intro to the trailer? I hear her talking about downloads to the iPod...

[InsiderTravels]

Squire

Yeah, that Belkin card reader has one too many steps: removal of the memory card. I'd like to plug my camera right into my iPod and download that way. That would rule. Other video capabilities? Hmmm...I don't know how useful it would be on all models. Maybe the top-of-the-line would benefit by staying competitive with other video-capable products.

Amen to that!

Sorry if somebody already mentioned this but....

Didn't Belkin just announce a new device that looks almost like the card reader but is able to transfer images directly from your camera to the iPod? I saw it on their website a few days ago, but at that time it wasn't actually available for purchase yet.

[Squire]

Sorry if somebody already mentioned this but....

Didn't Belkin just announce a new device that looks almost like the card reader but is able to transfer images directly from your camera to the iPod? I saw it on their website a few days ago, but at that time it wasn't actually available for purchase yet.

Digital Camera Link for iPod w/Dock Connector
Thanks for pointing that out.
http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Section_Id=201526&pcount=&Product_Id=173207#


I posted a thought on this site last year and maybe I will turn out to be right after all...

The Ipod would make a perfect DV hard disk recorder. Plug it into your DV camcorder and as well as spooling the footage to your tape, the camcorder writes it out to the iPod hard drive. Each take you shoot is saved to a seperate file and when you want to edit the footage you just plug the ipod into your Mac and the files are there - no grabbing footage - all your cuts and takes already nicely split into files. DV Camcorders already all send the start and stop signals as well as timecode nicely out of the DV port.


I shot an hour and 40 minutes of video with my DV camcorder a little while back. Once imported, it ended up being over 20 gigs. There would be no room left for my 16 gigs of music. (Of course a 50 GB hard drive would do the trick.)

I like that idea. Imagine a small form factor aluminum case that matches the iSight. iSight attaches directly to Firewire port on top. Color LCD screen that can fold out and flip. So essentially, it'll look like a plam sized DV camcorder. But when not capturing video, detach the iSight and it can be used like an iPod. I think it might work. :)

A few people have mentioned an iPod-iSight contraption. Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't that be an awkward device to drag around? (Of course, they'd probably announce some accessories to make it more appealing.)

Maybe I'm not being creative enough in my thinking but I think longer battery life and a color screen are the only improvements we'll see on the iPod itself; the dock's a different story.

Squire

[jared_kipe]

Non-coherent is fine but still not feasible. There is no efficient, safe way fo wirelessly transmitting energy. Induction's the closest we can get right now. If you don't 'beam' the energy you'll waste the vast majority of it for no good reason.

It's not too necessary. I posted a link here a while ago regarding technology allowing a full charge for a battery in 30 seconds which is available today. That'd be a far better addition for an iPod. The key is to charge the battery - being in a iPod charging energy field while you walk down the street is highly improbable.

As for color screens - phone's don't need them either. iPods are about 'I want' not 'I need' - all the cool stuff's driven that way. Even from a user standpoint, color navigation can be decidedly more elegant than monochrome. I'm sure Apple will devise a truly gorgeous interface.

I said it wasn't feasible. The problem with coherent is that there is no way it would really be able to work, you would need the source to either track your ipod, or you would have to place your ipod in the same spot every day to charge it. The reason I said non coherent is because it has an inkling of working, but like we BOTH said, you would waste power into empty space (or not so empty, causing brain tumors). I also never mentioned the possibility of having a charging magnetic induction field (which could totally work, it is after all the basis of what one guy said earlier a Tesla coil, and ALL other power transformers, and now that I think about it, thats pretty genius too because you could use wall current in the base coil, no reason to change voltage as the number of windings inside the ipod would handle that) be while you were walking down the street. Thats like suggesting that your ipod would sync to whoever's computer it got near. Remember that all wireless transmission protocols for computers are simply antenna based simple waves. It should only charge on an ipod charging base station, most likely where you would be within the aforementioned wireless firewire. The beauty would be that it wouldn't have to come out of it's case (unless you had some awesome metal one that acted as a Faraday cage).

I two would find it ENORMOUSLY cool to play video or music video on a nice little screen. Who cares if it is small, you can get it 5 inches from your freaking eyes, that makes it like ... like huge!!! I also would find it enormously useful to have some kind of input (pen or otherwise) to search for music, or enter data into a new and improved PDA like subsystem. Maybe we could get another branch of iPods, one with color and PDA type functionality, and one with just large music. Or maybe just make the mini into the music only ipod, and make the real iPod into video PDA. All I can say is if they include only album art and itunes visuals, I'm gonna have to skip the next ipod.

And with that said, I might need to start using this one...
"Don't read too much into this, it was a joke(about the likely hood of charging by EM radiation, though I like the idea of charging through current induction)"

[Chip NoVaMac]

Squire

Yeah, that Belkin card reader has one too many steps: removal of the memory card. I'd like to plug my camera right into my iPod and download that way. That would rule. Other video capabilities? Hmmm...I don't know how useful it would be on all models. Maybe the top-of-the-line would benefit by staying competitive with other video-capable products.





Amen to that![/QUOTE]

Nice idea, but with the current crop of cameras this would require going through the USB 1 port that most digital camera have. Too slow for what i think you are looking for. And would still require you to reformat your card.

For video cameras it would be easier, because of the Firewire ports.

[Chip NoVaMac]

I two would find it ENORMOUSLY cool to play video or music video on a nice little screen. Who cares if it is small, you can get it 5 inches from your freaking eyes, that makes it like ... like huge!!! I also would find it enormously useful to have some kind of input (pen or otherwise) to search for music, or enter data into a new and improved PDA like subsystem. Maybe we could get another branch of iPods, one with color and PDA type functionality, and one with just large music. Or maybe just make the mini into the music only ipod, and make the real iPod into video PDA. All I can say is if they include only album art and itunes visuals, I'm gonna have to skip the next ipod.



You are right on. People seem to be happy with the phone screens for small videos.

I know that I would be happy if Apple came out with the Maxi iPod. It would sized along the lines of the Pocket PC. With a larger HDD (or maybe 2 of the iPod HDD's installed), a color screen that would allow better video viewing, and stylus input on that screen.

[BeakerAndGreg]

If the next ipod does have a color screen, it will simply to be used to display the same album art you can display in itunes now. Then maybe a few interface changes since color could add to it a bit.

[SeaFox]

Why can't they add something truly useful to most consumers?

Like recording?

Or a tuner?

Or three times the battery life?

They're as bad as cell phone makers.

[Chip NoVaMac]

Why can't they add something truly useful to most consumers?

Like recording?

Or a tuner?

Or three times the battery life?

They're as bad as cell phone makers.

All of these would be nice, but the most useful would be better battery life. But if it required a larger sized iPod, then it it is a no go.

[ebunton]

Hmmm If Apple includes a decent-sized colour screen (eg 2.5 inches or up) and assuming they'd like to keep the size the same (or smaller... good idea), where is the clickwheel going to go??

[Porchland]

All of these would be nice, but the most useful would be better battery life. But if it required a larger sized iPod, then it it is a no go.

I'd be happy to see alliances with the auto manufacturers and after-market installers to start making iPod docks a standard option/upgrade. I'm down with iTrip and all, but the quality is inconsistent at best.

An extra hundred bucks to put an inconspicuous iPod dock by the cup-holder? Done.

[Stick_Fig]

Apple's not going to do the video-out thing and make people walk up to their TVs to keep fixing it. They just won't.

Here's what I'm suggesting. The remote is going to be significantly altered. First, the new iPod will accept Bluetooth connections from a remote. The remote will still be simple as heck, but will now be a disconnectable control base for a TV-based barebones OSX, which will allow users to listen to music, watch videos, and flip through photos. True simplicity in multimedia.

It will still be a music player when it's off the dock, but so what? When it's on it, it's going to kick ass :)

[aswitcher]

Must say I am looking forward to the next evolution of the iPod. Evolve or die in the long run, and Apple can afford to keep innovating with the ipod fever about at present. I expect WWDC will have something new ipoddy for us.

[Squire]

Ipoddy...I like that.

Well, let's see what they definitely WILL do:

1) keep it aesthetically pleasing.
2) keep it easy as pie to use.
3) keep it as close to cutting edge as possible without compromising #1 and #2 above.

(Sorry...I just wanted to comment on the word ipoddy but I thought I had to add a little more.) ;)

Squire

[MacAficionado]

Who are they? Do they actually make the software for the iPod?

If so, then maybe this answers something, I don't know. I was looking at the legal folder in the iPod and decided to check out Portal and this I found.

http://www.portalplayer.com/news-and-events/photo_jukebox.htm

Care to speculate? :confused:

[dongmin]

Who are they? Do they actually make the software for the iPod?

If so, then maybe this answers something, I don't know. I was looking at the legal folder in the iPod and decided to check out Portal and this I found.

http://www.portalplayer.com/news-and-events/photo_jukebox.htm

Care to speculate? :confused:

portalplayer's platform is used in other media players. what you see is not necessarily what you'll get (in the ipod at least).

[JOD8FY]

What would be neat is if the iPod could transfer songs via bluetooth back and forth between iTunes and an iPod. That would be something. I guess the only problem would be transfer speed, but I'm sure Apple would think of something... :)

JOD8FY

[tomatobush]

That would be awesome. Although its not like its much of a hassell the way it is set up now. :)

[Open-Your-Eyes]

Let's put things straight.

4th generation ipod from a consumers point of view...

Colour screen to allow equaliser display... and of course to allow such an increase in power drain...

new battery technology, boasting greater playback.

Don't get me wrong, i love the ipod, just got the 20gig last april but... can't there be an option to turn the screen off? Wouldn't that increase the battery life and allow us to listen to more of our banging beats? I mean, its not as if you look at the screen 24/7.

Guess we shall find out in a few years time.

[~Shard~]

Let's put things straight.

4th generation ipod from a consumers point of view...

Colour screen to allow equaliser display... and of course to allow such an increase in power drain...

new battery technology, boasting greater playback.

Don't get me wrong, i love the ipod, just got the 20gig last april but... can't there be an option to turn the screen off? Wouldn't that increase the battery life and allow us to listen to more of our banging beats? I mean, its not as if you look at the screen 24/7.

Guess we shall find out in a few years time.

Sorry, maybe I'm not awake yet this morning, but why exactly would you need a color screen to display an equalizer?

[Open-Your-Eyes]

Sorry, maybe I'm not awake yet this morning, but why exactly would you need a color screen to display an equalizer?

My apologies, I believe that I was looking for the word 'visualiser', but, not exactly a necessary feature, just something to give an object which needs little more style... more style.

[~Shard~]

My apologies, I believe that I was looking for the word 'visualiser', but, not exactly a necessary feature, just something to give an object which needs little more style... more style.

Ah, gotcha, kay that makes more sense. ;) Yah, I suppose a visualizer would be a neat little extra for the iPods when they get color screens, but I wonder how many people would actually watch it constantly – I know I hardly look at my iPod when I’m playing it, and wouldn’t really have time to stare at the screen, especially when I’m running, biking or driving. ;) It would be a cool feature, but definitely not a necessity, and it would definitely be a huge battery hog, since having color screens on their own would no doubt suck the batteries pretty dry.

[Squire]

Ah, gotcha, kay that makes more sense. ;) Yah, I suppose a visualizer would be a neat little extra for the iPods when they get color screens, but I wonder how many people would actually watch it constantly – I know I hardly look at my iPod when I’m playing it, and wouldn’t really have time to stare at the screen, especially when I’m running, biking or driving. ;) It would be a cool feature, but definitely not a necessity, and it would definitely be a huge battery hog, since having color screens on their own would no doubt suck the batteries pretty dry.

I listen to my iPod in the car and...in the car. Okay, also when I'm waiting for a oil change or waiting in the barber shop. A better battery would be the biggest (and most necessary) improvement although I've only run out of power once or twice. (It goes in the dock as soon as I walk through my front door.) As far as the other possible features are concerned, do you think they'll be truly useful or simply aimed at "keeping up with the Joneses" of the portable music market? As blatantly obvious as this sounds, I think it would be cool to have features that not only do things better than the current competition, but also trump them on a bunch more. You know, just to have the Dell engineers scrambling back to the drawing board. ;)

Squire

[~Shard~]

I listen to my iPod in the car and...in the car. Okay, also when I'm waiting for a oil change or waiting in the barber shop. A better battery would be the biggest (and most necessary) improvement although I've only run out of power once or twice. (It goes in the dock as soon as I walk through my front door.) As far as the other possible features are concerned, do you think they'll be truly useful or simply aimed at "keeping up with the Joneses" of the portable music market? As blatantly obvious as this sounds, I think it would be cool to have features that not only do things better than the current competition, but also trump them on a bunch more. You know, just to have the Dell engineers scrambling back to the drawing board. ;)

Squire

I agree – I think longer battery life would make good practical sense, but I know a lot of iPod users who, like you and I, essentially plug their iPods into the dock the second they get home – for them, perhaps longer battery life isn't a big issue. I know personally, I've been out doing things, running, biking, etc. and have maybe used up 3 or 4 hours of the battery in a single sitting, but that's about it – once I get home, back into the dock it goes! Otherwise, I'm in my car, driving, in which case I have my iPod plugged into the charger so that's a non-issue as well.

But yah, I'd like to see Apple release something that makes the Dell engineers scramble as well – something noticeably and substantially better than current features, which other MP3 player manufacturers could not ignore. :cool:

[MontgomeryBurns]

Airported ipod with Shared-music access. And a color screen to view album art.

[~Shard~]

Airported ipod with Shared-music access. And a color screen to view album art.

I question how many people would be really into viewing their album art on the iPod though... If there was addiitonal functionality introduced with the color screen, then fine, but if it was simply for album art then a color screen would be a waste - and not just of battery life!

[MontgomeryBurns]

Album art is the only useful thing a color screen of that size could display. Why would you want a 2" screen for video?

[~Shard~]

Album art is the only useful thing a color screen of that size could display. Why would you want a 2" screen for video?

Good point - ergo, if album art is indeed the only useful thing that could be displayed on a screen that size, then we will never see a color screen on an iPod. Until the screen becomes larger or additional functionality (apart from viewing album art) is incorporated, it simply does not make sense to have a color screen on an iPod. Thanks for reaffirming my earlier post.

[johnbro23]

Don't get me wrong, i love the ipod, just got the 20gig last april but... can't there be an option to turn the screen off? Wouldn't that increase the battery life and allow us to listen to more of our banging beats? I mean, its not as if you look at the screen 24/7.

I never thought of that. That seems like something apple would do, in order to make everyone happy. They'll be able to claim "up to 20 hours of music (or something close to that) with the screen off". What do you think? To me, that sounds like a very good idea.

[~Shard~]

I never thought of that. That seems like something apple would do, in order to make everyone happy. They'll be able to claim "up to 20 hours of music (or something close to that) with the screen off". What do you think? To me, that sounds like a very good idea.

Doesn't Apple already incorporate similar functionality into its wireless keyboards and mice, i.e. a feature to turn off the devices when not in use to conserve battery life? I could be wrong, but that rings a bell... A similar feature for the iPods would definitely be a good idea, as many people don't really look at their iPod screens as they're listening to them except to change tracks/playlists, etc. For me, I either have my iPod hooked into my car adapter while I'm driving, or have it with me when I'm at the gym, running or biking - in all cases, I rarely ever look at the screen once I get a playlist going...

[Quark]

Some have commented on Bluetooth -- that may happen for everything that iSync does for your iPod.

The big ones are:
1. Wireless Firewire
2. Larger, higher res color screen
3. New backlighting using "Indiglo" tech
4. Smaller form factor
5. Larger HD
6. Larger internal cache (memory)
7. 20% price decreases across the board, including the iPod mini

The video features are not going to be in the iPod -- they will be in the other one...

The photo features are going to be expanded and you'll be able to put them on a TV and create "on-the-go" type picture presentation.

Gotta run,
Quark

[neonart]

Some have commented on Bluetooth -- that may happen for everything that iSync does for your iPod.
...
1. Wireless Firewire
2. Larger, higher res color screen
3. New backlighting using "Indiglo" tech
4. Smaller form factor
5. Larger HD
6. Larger internal cache (memory)
7. 20% price decreases across the board, including the iPod mini
...
The photo features are going to be expanded and you'll be able to put them on a TV and create "on-the-go" type picture presentation.

Bluetooth would be nice for contacts and stuff, but of course not for music transfer. WiFi1394 would be incredible, but unlikely for a while.

Price decrease is always good and possible. Photos on the go thing is another one of those geek-o-rator bullet-point features that will be used seldom IMO.

[sushi]

I'd be happy to see alliances with the auto manufacturers and after-market installers to start making iPod docks a standard option/upgrade. I'm down with iTrip and all, but the quality is inconsistent at best.

An extra hundred bucks to put an inconspicuous iPod dock by the cup-holder? Done.
That would be a great idea.

Last summer, when I was back in the states visiting I went to one dealer, who when I mentioned that I had an iPod and wanted to connect it directly via a jack, said no problem and would make the modification of adding a jack for free.

Good deal. But I had to ask as it was non standard.

Sushi

[usersince86]

My 2 cents:

iPod Pro
======
50Gig
color screen
jpg photo capability (w/slideshow feature)
am/fm tuner
16 bit, 44.1KHz voice recorder (mono)
iTunes 5 compatible
iPhoto compatible (available with iLife)
Garage Band compatible (available with iLife)
home-on-iPod
new scroll wheel
ear buds
up to 10 hour battery life
ProDock (see below)

ProDock (also sold separately for 3rd gen. ipods)
======
a/v in/out (stereo)
digital audio in/out
charger
firewire and usb 2 cables

Price: $599. choice of white or black

Yeah, I know... but I can dream, can't I???


:rolleyes:

[neonart]

My 2 cents:

iPod Pro
======
50Gig
color screen
jpg photo capability (w/slideshow feature)
am/fm tuner
16 bit, 44.1KHz voice recorder (mono)
iTunes 5 compatible
iPhoto compatible (available with iLife)
Garage Band compatible (available with iLife)
home-on-iPod
new scroll wheel
ear buds
up to 10 hour battery life
ProDock (see below)

ProDock (also sold separately for 3rd gen. ipods)
======
a/v in/out (stereo)
digital audio in/out
charger
firewire and usb 2 cables

Price: $599...

Right... That'll happen... :p

But hey, nothing wrong with dreaming.

[P47GThunderbolt]

The ipod is capable of holding at least 20 minutes of full motion video.
I have had a mac administrator demonstrate that ability in 2001 when I purchased my g4. He simply filed the video on the ipod. By normal press "T" firewire to register his hard drive affiliation. He then played back the video off the ipod. Although from what I do understand my sony digital camera also had usb capture record also. Bluetooth ir could be used by an ipod and the isight using bluetooth for connection although buffering may be needed. Incidentally the ipod was then connected to my g4 using firewire and transferred my video no problemo for me to edit in Imovie thank you.

[Squire]

That's interesting. It would be cool if recent iPod photo buyers could check this out on their new toys. If it was possible then, it would likely (more likely) be possible now...in color.

Is this what is commonly referred to as an Easter Egg?

Squire

[~Shard~]

That's interesting. It would be cool if recent iPod photo buyers could check this out on their new toys. If it was possible then, it would likely (more likely) be possible now...in color.

Is this what is commonly referred to as an Easter Egg?

Squire

I don't think he meant the iPod itself played the video - I think he meant that the iPod stored the video file, which when connected to his G4, played the movie for him which he viewed on his G4's screen. I think he was simply stating that the iPod was capable of storing a video on it, due to its large hard drive, and then capable of being used to play the movie via the FireWire connection.

ThunderBolt, you can correct me if I'm wrong though...

[virus1]

My 2 cents:

iPod Pro
======
50Gig
color screen
jpg photo capability (w/slideshow feature)
am/fm tuner
16 bit, 44.1KHz voice recorder (mono)
iTunes 5 compatible
iPhoto compatible (available with iLife)
Garage Band compatible (available with iLife)
home-on-iPod
new scroll wheel
ear buds
up to 10 hour battery life
ProDock (see below)

ProDock (also sold separately for 3rd gen. ipods)
======
a/v in/out (stereo)
digital audio in/out
charger
firewire and usb 2 cables

Price: $599. choice of white or black

Yeah, I know... but I can dream, can't I???


:rolleyes:

ok... but would it be one or two feet thick? :eek:

my guess is apple will show thier magic wand and create a new os for ipod photo allowing people to do video. That speech of jobs about how bad it would be to have video in an ipod made no sense... the ipod is not as bulky or as heavy as the other players. Then, Apple can make a movies section in the itms. 9.99 a movie, ipod photo quality using the new H264 codec for keeping the file size down.

[dejo]

My 2 cents:

iPod Pro
======
50Gig
color screen
jpg photo capability (w/slideshow feature)
am/fm tuner
16 bit, 44.1KHz voice recorder (mono)
iTunes 5 compatible
iPhoto compatible (available with iLife)
Garage Band compatible (available with iLife)
home-on-iPod
new scroll wheel
ear buds
up to 10 hour battery life
ProDock (see below)

ProDock (also sold separately for 3rd gen. ipods)
======
a/v in/out (stereo)
digital audio in/out
charger
firewire and usb 2 cables

Price: $599. choice of white or black

Yeah, I know... but I can dream, can't I???


:rolleyes:

If you're dreaming why not include:

- At least 100GB of space
- CompactFlash slot (with adapters for all other card types)
- wireless connection to Airport Express
- wireless connection to iSight
- STEREO 16 bit, 44.1KHz line-in recorder (not just for voice anymore)
- video record and playback

Oh. And most importantly, FireWire 800 compatible! FireWire 400 is just too slow for 100GB.

P.S. Please explain: new scroll wheel?

[Squire]

I don't think he meant the iPod itself played the video - I think he meant that the iPod stored the video file, which when connected to his G4, played the movie for him which he viewed on his G4's screen. I think he was simply stating that the iPod was capable of storing a video on it, due to its large hard drive, and then capable of being used to play the movie via the FireWire connection.

ThunderBolt, you can correct me if I'm wrong though...

Oh. Yeah, right. That makes more sense after a re-read.

Squire

[Zappaman]

After doing a little searching, I came across this company that plans on releasing a product for wireless power for handheld devices in 2005.

Check it out at http://splashpower.com/

They seem to be in discussions with companies trying to integrate their technology into future products. No word that Apple is involved, but wouldn't this be cool for Gen 5 iPods. You could charge your iPod on their SplashPad and broadcast via Bluetooth or WiFi.

Cool stuff.

-Zappaman




If this happens I can already see where gen 5 will go.

-Charge on wireless firewire :D
-Broadcast via Bluetooth :D

Other features I think the iPods could currently use right now:

-Color LCD
-Ability to browse you iPhoto library
-Radio

These are what I'm preceiving as the major potential breakthroughs, but this is just me. The problem I see with iPhoto is windows users, I would not think that Apple will port iPhoto over to windows as well.http://splashpower.com