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Apple Portable Video/Media Device?
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PVRs are the answer.
Here's what I think apple has up their sleeve...
Assuming people even want a portable video player (which is debatable), the biggest problem is that of content. DVD ripping is difficult, both technically and politically for Apple, iTunes Movie Store still struggles with the bandwidth problem, and most other 'sources' are still illegal.
The answer is some type of Apple TiVo device which would sync up with your Apple vPod. Apple releases a PVR, and if it does well in the market, they have an installed base of content to work with. Assuming that the PVR would have more storage than the vPod, you could utilize smart playlists (ala iPod Mini) and carry a couple seasons of Seinfeld or Simpsons around in your pocket, for whenever you had a spare 20 minutes to waste.
Ideally, this vPod device would have a video out adapter so you could plop the vPod onto any TV and go to town.
macNoob
/*===================*/
...bulldozing everything down to make room for what was a byzantine a labyrinth a knotty mess of manifolding passageways a tangle of confusion where the walls made an asylum of baroque, like a joke...
Here's what I think apple has up their sleeve...
Assuming people even want a portable video player (which is debatable), the biggest problem is that of content. DVD ripping is difficult, both technically and politically for Apple, iTunes Movie Store still struggles with the bandwidth problem, and most other 'sources' are still illegal.
The answer is some type of Apple TiVo device which would sync up with your Apple vPod. Apple releases a PVR, and if it does well in the market, they have an installed base of content to work with. Assuming that the PVR would have more storage than the vPod, you could utilize smart playlists (ala iPod Mini) and carry a couple seasons of Seinfeld or Simpsons around in your pocket, for whenever you had a spare 20 minutes to waste.
Ideally, this vPod device would have a video out adapter so you could plop the vPod onto any TV and go to town.
macNoob
/*===================*/
...bulldozing everything down to make room for what was a byzantine a labyrinth a knotty mess of manifolding passageways a tangle of confusion where the walls made an asylum of baroque, like a joke...
Couldn't the vPod be an add on to the iPod?
The back of the iPod has nothing of any use on it, if this device was a screen with the nessicary gubins in it approx the size of an ipod that the ipod 'docks' into.
What you think?
The back of the iPod has nothing of any use on it, if this device was a screen with the nessicary gubins in it approx the size of an ipod that the ipod 'docks' into.
What you think?
nagromme
macrumors G5
A couple facts:
1. Steve Jobs has refused to deny working on video devices, at least experimentally.
2. Apple has posted jobs FOR THE IPOD that require video compression experience.
3. My Pentax Optio camera is about the size of an iPod Mini and has TV-out for giving photo slideshows. Lots of cameras do--it's cheap and small to add. The tiny screen is not the only output possible.
4. Sony Glasstron glasses provide a virtual largish TV screen projected for only you to see. They cost starting around $250--but could be less with volume Sony never saw. http://www.vrealities.com/sony.html
5. Video need not be the MAIN purpose of a color-screen iPod to begin with. Photos could be the main new feature, with video support as a neat gimmick ready to grow into more one day.
1. Steve Jobs has refused to deny working on video devices, at least experimentally.
2. Apple has posted jobs FOR THE IPOD that require video compression experience.
3. My Pentax Optio camera is about the size of an iPod Mini and has TV-out for giving photo slideshows. Lots of cameras do--it's cheap and small to add. The tiny screen is not the only output possible.
4. Sony Glasstron glasses provide a virtual largish TV screen projected for only you to see. They cost starting around $250--but could be less with volume Sony never saw. http://www.vrealities.com/sony.html
5. Video need not be the MAIN purpose of a color-screen iPod to begin with. Photos could be the main new feature, with video support as a neat gimmick ready to grow into more one day.
macNoob said:
That could be the start of something big. Who says a tivo has to be that big in size? What if there was a device that was 2-3 tmies the size of an ipod (or had a dock) that sits on top of your TV and functions exactly like a Tivo (maybe Apple liscences tivo's subcription service). Perhaps the device has 2 40 gig HD's for x amount of recording and a built in 4 x 3" LCD screen? You record just like a tivo (with a better Apple interface) and then when you want to watch on the go (for all of use commerters/travelers) you disconnect is and watch all of your favorite programs on the device's small screen!
Best part - plug it into ANY Mac via firewire and watch through quicktime! Boom, Apple has bridged the TV/Computer gap we've all been waiting for.
Even better part - has all the same functions as your iPod, so you can sync it with iTunes for your music.
Even better than that - Lazy? Wirelessly sync it with iTunes on your Mac while plugged into the tv. (for Couch potatoes...)
...I'd be all over this for $499.
reyesmac
macrumors 65816
Anything related to the iPod will sell.
I think that what Jobs fails to realize is that there is a whole generation of kids that grew up looking at a portable video device and loved it. It was called the Gameboy. I think that a PVD with the ability to play music like the iPod would be as big of a success as the iPod. Even if it would not be with the mainstream, it would sell as much as the iPod just from people who own computers and want portability but dont need a laptop. This is a device I would buy in its first rev.
I think that what Jobs fails to realize is that there is a whole generation of kids that grew up looking at a portable video device and loved it. It was called the Gameboy. I think that a PVD with the ability to play music like the iPod would be as big of a success as the iPod. Even if it would not be with the mainstream, it would sell as much as the iPod just from people who own computers and want portability but dont need a laptop. This is a device I would buy in its first rev.
bum deal
then everyone outside the US would pay double for the hardware and not get the service or content. Great.
dongmin said:
then everyone outside the US would pay double for the hardware and not get the service or content. Great.
eclipse525
macrumors 6502a
Another idea for a video/color screen iPod(a/v) would be to have audiobooks with images. More of reference books with charts or images to discribe a specific entry. Another would be to download news content straight from Safari that contain the audio or video OR even just the text with images. Hmmmm.....
~e
~e
xtekdiver said:
Not to nitpick, but HDTV utilizes MPEG-2 for it's compression. The Elgato box just doesn't have a built in HDTV tuner, otherwise it would have no problems recording this content. In fact, it wouldn't even have to re-compress it, it would just store it on the local hard drive (or in a memory buffer, so that you could do the time-shifting).. I'm guessing that the next incarnation of the EyeTV 200 will have an HDTV tuner.
My point regarding the portable video player: How many people watch a quicktime clip in their finder, verses loading the QT application? On my CinemaHD, the finder preview would be about the size of a portable screen. There's no way I would want that.
People aren't going out and buying large 60" widescreen TVs for nothing. They want a big picture. Who wants to waste time on a 2" screen?
Besides, if I'm travelling, my powerbook already gives me a 15.2" widescreen 16x10 monitor, that plays back DVDs progressively. It has plenty of space, _and_ I can swap batteries.
... and I want to go down to a single battery device with a 2" screen, a small percentage of the space, why?
Wonder Boy
macrumors 6502a
Page 2 fodder
I repeat your question, with a bewildered shake of my head. The Sun-Times article could technically be accurate, as Jobs himself has essentially admitted that Apple R&D has worked on such a device. But that's probably been true for years.
This is a Page 2 rumor at best.
MOM said:
I repeat your question, with a bewildered shake of my head. The Sun-Times article could technically be accurate, as Jobs himself has essentially admitted that Apple R&D has worked on such a device. But that's probably been true for years.
This is a Page 2 rumor at best.
Gameboy was "video device"?
The Gameboy was not a "video device"; it sold because it was a portable gaming device. There still is no demand for a PVD, and that fact is not due to lack of appropriate and/or cheap hardware. Even for a geek like me, a PVD with holographic screen, HD resolution, 2 TB of storage and Dolby 5.1 would be worth $30, max.
reyesmac said:
The Gameboy was not a "video device"; it sold because it was a portable gaming device. There still is no demand for a PVD, and that fact is not due to lack of appropriate and/or cheap hardware. Even for a geek like me, a PVD with holographic screen, HD resolution, 2 TB of storage and Dolby 5.1 would be worth $30, max.
I am with you
I want to watch tv shows but I always miss them. I would love to be able to watch them later on and maybe have the whole first season of a show. I think one of the rumors said that the new device would make an existing device better. I smell a smart tv device coming. 🙂
I want to watch tv shows but I always miss them. I would love to be able to watch them later on and maybe have the whole first season of a show. I think one of the rumors said that the new device would make an existing device better. I smell a smart tv device coming. 🙂
billyboy
macrumors 65816
vPod but not necessarily for the US.
A pod that could handle picture or movie files as conveniently as an iPod handles music would work to a point in the US, but to tie into Apple's need to do things properly, I reckon it would be better launched in certain parts of Asia where broadband is done properly.
The pod is a digital hub. Whatever the media in question, an Apple i, v or e pod holds the music or the movie files that you can take wherever to link into a dedicated media device.
For music, the files are small, easily and quickly downloadable on a bog standard connection. The iPod happens to be a great portable playing device, but plugged into a stereo system it is a hub, ie a top dog jukebox with up to 10000 songs to do all sorts with.
Primarily a movie media pod could be a smart ass storage device that plugged easily into a TV. Of course it would have a view finder, but so does a video cam but you dont think the view finder as the correct way to view images. You can watch on the move, but that is not the point and you acknowledge it would kill your battery.
To make Apple's vPod type gizmo a cut way above anything else in the video department, it would be filled with the movie content you have downloaded seamlessly from an Apple store. At this moment in technological time, that movie content in the US and most of Europe could conveniently be almost anything except a full blown DVD quality movie - tv shows, short clips of sports events, basically material that is from the short side of moving picture land. But in places like Korea where broadband is done properly ie minimum 2MB and up to 20MB connections for consumers! full length DVD quality movies could work.
So instead of taking a laptop, or DVD or CD around to friends, and gathering around a computer screen, which Steve Jobs thinks sucks the big one, you take your collection on your vPod and plug it into a TV, which is the, dare I say "natural way" of viewing images.
A pod that could handle picture or movie files as conveniently as an iPod handles music would work to a point in the US, but to tie into Apple's need to do things properly, I reckon it would be better launched in certain parts of Asia where broadband is done properly.
The pod is a digital hub. Whatever the media in question, an Apple i, v or e pod holds the music or the movie files that you can take wherever to link into a dedicated media device.
For music, the files are small, easily and quickly downloadable on a bog standard connection. The iPod happens to be a great portable playing device, but plugged into a stereo system it is a hub, ie a top dog jukebox with up to 10000 songs to do all sorts with.
Primarily a movie media pod could be a smart ass storage device that plugged easily into a TV. Of course it would have a view finder, but so does a video cam but you dont think the view finder as the correct way to view images. You can watch on the move, but that is not the point and you acknowledge it would kill your battery.
To make Apple's vPod type gizmo a cut way above anything else in the video department, it would be filled with the movie content you have downloaded seamlessly from an Apple store. At this moment in technological time, that movie content in the US and most of Europe could conveniently be almost anything except a full blown DVD quality movie - tv shows, short clips of sports events, basically material that is from the short side of moving picture land. But in places like Korea where broadband is done properly ie minimum 2MB and up to 20MB connections for consumers! full length DVD quality movies could work.
So instead of taking a laptop, or DVD or CD around to friends, and gathering around a computer screen, which Steve Jobs thinks sucks the big one, you take your collection on your vPod and plug it into a TV, which is the, dare I say "natural way" of viewing images.
Inspector Lee
macrumors 6502a
I'm not sure if I was linked to this article a few weeks back on this site or what, but I believe this could possibly be the rumored device.
It is some type of tablet incorporating 802.15.3 technology for the wireless transfer of video to or from a television or cinema display. I don't know if this is possible or how it might affect iPod sales (if it can stream music also) so I figured I'd throw it out to the sharks to gnaw on.
Of course, if this product exists, it'll cost the farm.
It is some type of tablet incorporating 802.15.3 technology for the wireless transfer of video to or from a television or cinema display. I don't know if this is possible or how it might affect iPod sales (if it can stream music also) so I figured I'd throw it out to the sharks to gnaw on.
Of course, if this product exists, it'll cost the farm.
Wonder Boy said:
Not to pick on you specifically, but the victimization constantly represented here is so ludicrous. Apple makes billions of dollars and sells huge numbers of products and employs a worldwide workforce. MAINSTREAM. Just because Mac users are particularly loyal (read "consistent") consumers of whatever Apple products that the majority doesn't use DOES NOT mean that you are being countercultural or something. It is not only laughable but also sort of unnerving to hear people say a corp is not mainstream when they have ads in the damn Super Bowl...pretty much the most "mainstream" venue in American culture.
As for the portable video issue: I agree with the car-based argument. There is not a single situation I can imagine where I would be out of my house, not have my pbook, and really want to watch a video. I don't think people will buy something like this (esp. at 6 or 8 hundred or whatever was imagined above) just for on the bus and airports. It would have to do more!
WonderBoy said:
way to be. everyone loves an easily amused consumer.
Capt Underpants
macrumors 68030
Wonder Boy
macrumors 6502a
PBGPowerbook said:
you cant tell me that when you first bought a mac you thought it would be cool cause nobody else would have have one. i did. macs are not mainstream. the ipod is. but absolutly do not classify the mac platform (OS and everything else) as mainstream.linux is less mainstream.but mac as mainstream? be serious.
Wonder Boy
macrumors 6502a
Capt Underpants said:
ya i did, big deal. its a product thats 2, almost 3 years old. its the best player out there. nice, congrats. but that is the only aspect of apple that is mainstream, or atleast accepted by the majority.
when i can search for a dvd at best buy kiosk on a mac, then i will consider apple mainstream. until then, they will still be apart of the counter culture (by my standards, of course.)
Perhaps we are just disagreeing on the terms, not the facts.
Ask any person on the street if they've ever heard of Apple computer or the Macintosh.
Even though odds are they do not own a mac, they will have heard of this enormous electronics company who consistently places ads (for their computers and their music players) in tons of major magazines and television shows. This is what I call mainstream.
Ask any person on the street if they've ever heard of Apple computer or the Macintosh.
Even though odds are they do not own a mac, they will have heard of this enormous electronics company who consistently places ads (for their computers and their music players) in tons of major magazines and television shows. This is what I call mainstream.
Capt Underpants
macrumors 68030
Wonder Boy said:
I guess it all depends on what you believe the extent of mainstream is. I know that most people in my family and my friends have atleast have some amount of knowledge of Apple. I do tend to thing that apple is mainstream. They have an ever-growing number of stores, and their products are in CompUSAs and many other electronics stores. You can't go into Starbucks without seing one (well maybe sometimes, but alot of times there is a mac user there).
Apple is one company. There are hundreds of PC manufacturers in this world, yet only one Apple. Apple is different, yet all together mainstream at the same time. Kudos to them.