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Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by edesignuk

I was talking more about the backlight draining the battery.
And regarding the GBA's screen, can you honestly tell me you would want to watch a movie on such a terrible, unlight screen such as that?
What it would need is a screen more the quality of the old Sega GameGear, which if you remember took loads of batteries which died instantly!

I have a Sega GameGear and yes I do remember it's battery appetite. It's really funny that almost 10 years ago Sega had a better portable then the brand new GBA. Better screen better graphics.

To those pointing out the backlight for the GBA thank you but I already new about it.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by RBMaraman


It's just like a videocamera. It you use the color LCD screen, you lose a ton of the battery life. if you use the black and white viewfinder, you keep the battery at a much higher charge. Color screens use much more battery power, mainly because a higher power source is required to convert an image to color. The gameboy advance is different because it pulls its power source from Duracell type batteries that function differently than lithium-ion batteries. This is really a coincidence, because in my film class today, we talked about battery life of screens in black and white and color.

The difference is not that the screen is color or black and white. It's that the viewfinder screen is about 1/10 the size and therefore needs much less backlight. The point is, is that the backlight uses the power not the screen. Why would it take more power to switch a color pixel on or off rather then a black one.
 
Re: iPod as photo storage

Originally posted by bignumbers
If a future iPod can do photo storage/display, Apple would have a hit on their hands if it provided some form of compatibility for memory (CF/SD/etc) cards. An external adapter is fine; some adapters are FW already.

Some of the larger pro digital cameras need more storage than the 1GB cards out there now. I'd love to remove my 1GB card from my Canon 11MP SLR (the one I have in my dreams), upload the photos into my iPod for storage, then reuse the card in the camera.

Such devices already exist, but are single-purpose thus aren't as justifiable as a multipurpose iPod.

Such device (with color screen, movie playing and recording capabilities, etc.) exist NOW, and it is called the Archos MultiMedia JukeBox.

http://www.archos.com

iPod? No, thanks...:p
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by MacBandit

Why would it take more power to switch a color pixel on or off rather then a black one.

Because each color pixel is three independant switches (R,G,B) instead of one.

For most applications, the additional power to manage color versus grayscale is not noticable, however, as other components take up much more power.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by jettredmont


Because each color pixel is three independant switches (R,G,B) instead of one.

For most applications, the additional power to manage color versus grayscale is not noticable, however, as other components take up much more power.

Seems that in a way you are just prooving my point. The other components mainly being that a color screen really needs a back light.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by MacBandit


Seems that in a way you are just prooving my point. The other components mainly being that a color screen really needs a back light.

Yes, if your point is that a (non-backlit) color screen won't drain the battery much faster than the current screen (which, I believe, was your original point), you are correct, as the rest of the system takes more power (even without the backlight) than the LCD pixel grid.

However, on the narrow point of (paraphrasing) "why would a color pixel take more power to turn on/off than a grayscale pixel?", the answer is that the color pixel takes more energy because you are switching three small crystals, not one larger one, and switching three crystals takes more energy than switching one.

On the other hand, if the color screen really needs a (full-time) backlight to be useful, then there's no question that changing to a backlit color screen will dramatically reduce the battery life of the unit. Not because it is color, but because it is backlit.
 
Hey,

First off, I would like to say that I don't have much time, so I haven't read the posts carefully. Hence I'll prob repeat what someone has said...

iPod 2 sounds very familiar. I've had an unreliable source (actually I have no idea how reliable he is) but he said:

*There will be a 40 GB iPod :confused:
*It will have a color screen ;)
*It will have a digi cam attachment/accessory, i'm guessing like the add-ons for the new phones out there
*I'll go out on a limb and say digi camcorder attachment as well, tho' he didn't think so, and I highly doubt it. :D

There was something else...you see he was discussing this with me a month or so ago and I thought he was just blowing hot-air. But just in case he was right, I'll pester some more out of him. Makes for good rumors!:D
 
Originally posted by arn
not sure the point of a color screen....

arn

probably the same idea of a color palm

it looks nice but is not that necessary for that type of item, but there are people who will think that it's cool with a color screen and go out and buy it

i just need to get into the 21st century and get firewire:D
 
FireWire to USB for keyboards

I'd like to see the ability to connect a USB keyboard to an iPod so that I can add/update/delete people and calendar events on the iPods. It would also be cool to be able to download pics from digital cameras to the iPod harddrive too even if you can display them on the iPod screen.
 
Battery life is Apple's fault..

Originally posted by iwantanewmac
(...)In fact I love the ipod.....,
only problem is it won't cherge that good anymore....wich is quite annoying.
And no1 has been able to solve it.
SOme say it's a bad battery and some say it's worn firewire connectors...who knows.(...)

Actually, battery life on all iPods plummetted after installation of the 1.2 firmware... Did you ever notice that since it got its clock feature, it never *truly* turns off? It can't or it would lose track of the time.. there's no seperate battery/clock chip to track time, so it has to sit in a quasi-sleep mode which only turns off the display and HDD while it updates the clock and tracks appointments to alarm on and stuff... Hence the processor now always burns battery life.. so leave it on a full charge "off" for a week, turn it on, and it's almost dead.. Apple's fault. I want to revert firmware back to 1.1.. where can I find it??
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: viewing movies, think about it!

Originally posted by RBMaraman


It's just like a videocamera. It you use the color LCD screen, you lose a ton of the battery life. if you use the black and white viewfinder, you keep the battery at a much higher charge. Color screens use much more battery power, mainly because a higher power source is required to convert an image to color. The gameboy advance is different because it pulls its power source from Duracell type batteries that function differently than lithium-ion batteries. This is really a coincidence, because in my film class today, we talked about battery life of screens in black and white and color.

Color screens use more power because of the number of transisters.. An active matrix color screen at the size and resolution (in terms of pixels) could use up to 3x more power *in theory* because instead of one transistor to control each pixel's on/off or grey level.. Under color, a pixel is made of three different elements, and you have to have three transistors to control each primary color element of a color pixel (red, green, blue).. :O

I think Apple will go color screen.. it's a given. If they didn't... it wouldn't be Apple! (Apple always goes first.. Apple watches know Apple innovates it first, then everyone else copies them)... I'm wondering if there will be a Blue Tooth tie-in.. if that's why they held off on the built in Blue Tooth, so they can introduce it all at once computers, ipods, and all in the SF mega show! :)
 
Re: Battery life is Apple's fault..

Originally posted by Xapplimatic


Actually, battery life on all iPods plummetted after installation of the 1.2 firmware... Did you ever notice that since it got its clock feature, it never *truly* turns off? It can't or it would lose track of the time.. there's no seperate battery/clock chip to track time, so it has to sit in a quasi-sleep mode which only turns off the display and HDD while it updates the clock and tracks appointments to alarm on and stuff... Hence the processor now always burns battery life.. so leave it on a full charge "off" for a week, turn it on, and it's almost dead.. Apple's fault. I want to revert firmware back to 1.1.. where can I find it??

If you hold the play/pause button down for a couple seconds it will shut off and the battery will last a very long time. I've had one sitting for about 3 weeks now and it still has 2/3 of it's battery life left. This is with at most an hour useage on it.
 
I think it would be sweet if they had a tv tuner attachment for the color lcd screen. And maybee some color mimi games. I know all this is getting away from the original purpose of the ipod but the ground work is there....why not go all they way.
 
new harddrive for the iPod? any way to replace it? and where to get it?
 
FM modulator

I think an FM modulator would be a nice addition to the iPod. This would allow it to be used with car stereos as well as home stereos very easily. I think I heard of some other mp3 players that have this and I know its very easy to add on to and mp3 player including the iPod, it would just be a nice feature, if not an option on the new iPod.
 
Re: FM modulator

Originally posted by pepeleuepe
I think an FM modulator would be a nice addition to the iPod. This would allow it to be used with car stereos as well as home stereos very easily. I think I heard of some other mp3 players that have this and I know its very easy to add on to and mp3 player including the iPod, it would just be a nice feature, if not an option on the new iPod.

Dude! Add both the FM modulator and a microphone and we could have the much-anticipated iMrMicrophone!

Seriously, though, I don't think an FM modulator is a good thing as anything but an option. The quality through FM is sub-par, and add-on (just plug into your headphones jack) modulators are plentiful from other manufacturers. It adds no value in the area where Apple excels (ease of use and computing). And FM modulators are regulated and hence more expensive than they should be, so for the 90% of us who'd never use such an option, I say leave it off!
 
Originally posted by big
new harddrive for the iPod? any way to replace it? and where to get it?

There's a fairly new mp3 player out (similar to ipod) which is basically a case and allows you to stick a harddrive in...I saw it in the most recent Macworld Australia.
 
Something that I saw in What hi-Fi the other day got me thinking about a possible solution to the color display issues (for watching movies/viewing pictures and stuff)

What I had in mind was keep the ipod as it is pasically, greyscale LCD and all, but incorperate a video out port (svideo/component/whatever) and then sell seperately a small screen - say 5" widescreen TFT with the appropriate connection - that way you'd only have to suffer the associated battery loss from colour display when you actually needed to use it, plus the system cost wouldn;t get oushed up too much more, and anyone that doesn;t want to use the colour screen doesn;t need to buy it.

This is purely conjuncture, but I think it could work, at least in theory :)
 
ok mmmdreg, but where do you get harddrives.... seeing that I could crack open my iPod....I want a 40 gig or 20 or 30...where could you get one?
 
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