Jobs on Motorola iTunes, Video iPod, Bluetooth, And More

[ccrandall77]

Argh

If Steve really meant the things he said, then I wonder where these mythical consumers he keeps referring to are coming from.

FM radio on the iPod, while not something I'm particularly interested in, seems to be one of the biggest features people I know want in an iPod.

Bluetooth headphones sound fine... just bought Logitech ones the other day and if they were a tad smaller they'd be great for the gym.

And what about all the people clamoring for a vPod??? Seems like there's enough interest to me and I'd definitely buy one if done right. If he's basing he's attitude on the popularity of such a device based on the ones made for Windows HMC, then he's being stupid here. Most people I know, including myself, won't touch one of those because the interface sucks and we have no interest in putting down $1800+ for a HMC.

And his comment on TV and computers never converging... has he heard of MythTV??? What about Tivo (essentially a Linux box hooked to your TV). What about all the interest in CenterStage? Hell, the Bose Lifestyle is similar to having a computer hooked up to the TV in many ways and people are buying it.

It's not that people don't want vPods and integrated computers running their home media, it's that the M$ solutions out there suck and most people don't want to get a generic Wintel box and load MythTV. The other problem is getting HD/Digital cable and satellite to go through the computer w/o an external box... but CableCard technology can provide a lot of the functionality the cable box already provides.

I hope Steve is just being pessimistic to luke warm on these issues because he doesn't want to tip his hand.

 

[JW8725]

Sorry if this is a dumb question but every time i see Lord Steve he's got the same clothes on? Am i missing something here?

 

[bluebomberman]

Since when has a "no one has been successful with that yet" argument stopped Apple from innovating?

When they feel like they can't do much better than the rest, I guess.

 

[jct101]

Much better qualifiers

I particularly like the idea that nobody has made a 'dedicated' portable video player and been successful with it yet. Personally, I rip my movies to AVC/H.264 AAC (MP4) and play them on my psp all the time. It's great for series or short clips. I always wondered what a good way to market downloads for this type of file is. You can forget the 4 Meg per minute mpeg-4 vlog/videopodcasts rule of thumb. If you scale reasonably and have good compression then you can get under that one w/ ease. It's a LOT easier if you are only deploying for a smaller screen to begin with. But who would watch videos on a small screen? Put your hand in front of your face and look at how big it gets...how close do you sit to your monitor or television and how far away is your ipod? Turn the screen on its side, take up the real-estate and you have exactly the same size ipod as the psp widescreen. Screens are getting durable, but it's not like lil johnny can't come up w/ 'the wonderful new ipod hinged screen' or something. Throw something like that in at the top end and you'll have people buying them. Start slowly by deploying music videos, allowing you to author your own content w/ itunes 5.2 (aka some more free quicktime pro features) then add a few short series clips and watch your market grow as you offer more items at reasonable prices and the video compression becomes better and better (finally a fun sector to watch again).

Phone...I can't believe mot was jerked around SO much by the carriers that up until the keynote they hadn't told SJ that it wasn't really quad-band??? Talk about a learning experience. Great way to get the software out there though. Once the thrill and the backroom deals are gone you get the magic 'fill my phone' feature working on all kinds of things and the much looked for 're-install itunes mobile client' button. Go away real and Helix..give me my quicktime mobile quick-time ok.

Convergence? Yeah...ok. look we had like these cool things on the 8500's and other machines called rca inputs. It was kinda rad and stuff. The were even some tv/tuner macs. Sure I don't watch television that much...yeah I wait till it comes out on dvd..but I do watch it and for sports I went and bought a dvd recorder. Hmnn... how many people really never watch television..yeah ok..and cost of parts for a regular analog tuner that maybe just plugs in, but is apple branded..ah ha..and then a nice little dvr software piece instead of elgateyetvthirdpartyformac? Ok...I'd jump on it. Students who get iMacs..'hey want the $50 television option?' erm..like yes. Why limit yourself out of a simple market. So you can crash windows media center w/ one click ( ) this isn't windows.

Ok..I do listen to the radio..but actually it's AM and nobody wants to give it up for the ipod. Still. How about a smart remote w/ fm from apple (kinda makes sense for reception).

All in all good comments, just hope the secrecy act and corporate distortion don't turn out to be vaporware and we get nothing.

 

[Dr. Dastardly]

Theres no video of the interview anywhere is there? Or wil be?

 

[Dingle]

MCE

I have windows media center edition and I love it. And soon when the xbox 360 is released I can stream all my HD content to my other tvs as well.

 

[neocell]

- Jobs discussed video on handheld devices - such as a Video iPod. He admits that you can download videos from iTunes as well as Video Podcasts, but is uncertain if people will buy a dedicated video playback device. "So far they haven't. No one has been successful with that yet."

Doesn't need a video player. Just download the movies to your computer and watch them there. I can't imagine why he'd say the next quote:

- Jobs still insists that the convergence between TV and Computers is not going to happen.

And how hypocritical is this statement:

- Regarding new features (such as radio), "We are very careful about what features we add because we can't take them away."

What with no firewire support in the nano. He needs to get that brain filter checked

 

[MongoTheGeek]

And Apple will never make a flash based MP3 player...

 

[feakbeak]

And Apple will never make a flash based MP3 player...

Those junky flash-based players that you just throw in a drawer and forget about.

And the PowerPC processor beats the hell out of that snail of a CPU... what was it? Oh yeah, those slow Intels.

 

[jfmartin]

I guess no bluetooth any time soon.. unless he's got something up his sleeve.

Bluetooth is a pain in the ass to set up and use and IMHO, this whole thing doesn't fit well with the current iPod 'experience'... charging the headset and the iPod, yuck !

JF

 

[Lacero]

Music videos downloaded onto iPods? No thanks. The last thing I want is some freckled-faced prepubescent school girl riding the bus singing to a karaoke song while her school bag is hitting me in the face.

 

[zekesauce]

itunes 5 error message and video ipod

check it out, see this error in itunes while trying to sync to a 4g 40gb ipod photo. I've imported a .mov file into my library, and when trying to sync, i get this error. cannot be played on "this ipod"

interesting huh?

 

[MacVault]

I don't really care too much about having a radio/tuner in my ipod but I would love to have a voice recorder built in so I could take notes, record meetings, etc. I know you can do it with add-ons to the big ipod but I hate bulky addons.

I also still think that video would be very useful. I would not watch full length films on the ipod itself but for imformational purposes or as a way to transport video to a display device(TV) it would be great!

...just my $0.02

 

[oskar]

check it out, see this error in itunes while trying to sync to a 4g 40gb ipod photo. I've imported a .mov file into my library, and when trying to sync, i get this error. cannot be played on "this ipod"

interesting huh?

iPod video next Tuesday! Sorry zekesauce, you must be excited with Apple Expo Paris and all, but this old news.

 

[oskar]

What with no firewire support in the nano. He needs to get that brain filter checked

I agree. Somehow I believe Apple wasn't thinking too much about Mac users when they took off firewire functionality from the nano.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

Jobs saying that "no-one has made portable video players work" does't fit. No-one has made online music stores work as well as the iTMS, and no-one has made portable music work like the iPod.
If they give it a try, i reckon it would work.

 

[840quadra]

Well that doesn't make any dang sense. Neither was the portable music player market until Apple came along.
If Apple doesn’t want to enter the market fine by me. I’m getting something that will play my DVD rips of my Blockbuster all-you-can-eat films. I’ve found my new best method for watching movies\TV shows is ripping them, dropping them on my iPaq 4700, returning the movie, watch the movies on either my iPaq or my TV, then simply delete it and move on to the next one. I’ve got a que of something like 20 movies\TV shows built up because I go through 8 a week and watch only one or two in a couple day period. It’s the perfect setup. I’d love it in H.264. Too bad Jobs doesn’t want to invigorate any other industries. I’m starting to seriously eye the PSP. Hopefully the next gen will have a built in hard drive so all the TV shows I’m going though can be dumped on that thing.

Keep in mind the comments on this same article that go into how "secret" apple is about future plans.

We will all have to wait and see.

 

[1984]

Nobody would buy a dedicated video playback device, but that doesn't rule out a product that can both play music and video (music videos and iMovie files) and is the size of a current "big" iPod.

That is it exactly. The next full size iPod will be able to play videos downloaded from iTMS but will not be designed specifically for video playback. Same as how the iPod can now display photos. It's not a big enough feature to warrant plastering "iPod Video" on it which they leaned from the whole "iPod Photo" situation. Keep in mind they have hired people for the iPod team specifically for their experience with video codecs. They are up to something.

 

[840quadra]

I agree. Somehow I believe Apple wasn't thinking too much about Mac users when they took off firewire functionality from the nano.

I think it was a matter of available space in the nano, and the known fact that more PC users buy ipods then Mac users. I hate knowing that , but it is a fact that needed to be addressed when Apple decided to make a small device, and was forced to choose one sync method.

We still have LOTS of mac only features that we can enjoy that the PC users cannot!

iMovie
iChat
iDVD
Safari
and great ipod nano / ipod integration with iPhoto, something that PC users don't get !

 

[corywoolf]

Good to see SJ being honest...

I bet the mac mini gets EOL'd in the next 6 months. The eMac might get it too. What could replace the eMac? Maybe a no thrills version of the iMac?

 

[840quadra]

We WILL be putting digital SD/HD tuners in future iMacs - we always strongly deny what we do in 6-12 months time so the opposition dont get a jump on us. iLife06 will have a new app just for this using the new H264 codec. DRM is the only hurdle.

I would be happy to see this happen. For a bit of a history lesson, the last Apple built TV Tuner enable Macintosh was phased out during the beginning of Steve’s iCEO term at apple in the Late 90's

Apple has already produced computers with TV tuners built in, and the capability to capture the video, and share the files over a network. I have 2 such Macintosh computers in my collection. Both are early PowerPC computers, (A 6500/275, and a Performa 6320cd).

Anybody remember Apple Video player? It wasn't robust, and didn't offer many features, but it did capture decent quality video, had compression features built in, and with Appleshare, you could share the videos with anyone on your local network.

 

[G5Unit]

Oh I just wanted to tell everyone that their will be a blutooth iPod by the end of the year. I have good sources.

 

[swingerofbirch]

going to hell

Jobs keeps saying not to steal, etc...has there really been a final word on file sharing music?

I remember Canada said it was legal in the US it has mostly been deemed illegal?

Isn't it kind of like recording songs of the radio?

I am someone who has purchased from iTunes and who continues to download from Limewire. If it were clear in my mind that what I was doing were illegal, I would like to think I wouldn't do it. I am not entirely sure that I believe the idea iof intellectual property law is constitutional.

I am not saying I am right. Actually, I really don't know. No one has ever convinced me that it really is illegal.

I do know that Jobs said that the average iTunes account holder has downloaded 60 songs each. If people were only downloading legally, there would be no need to ever have more than a low end Shuffle!

 

[illegalprelude]

No dedicated video players?

Last time I checked, the PSP played movies. Has well over 100 UMD's for it that are selling like hot cake, and on a 1GB memory stick, you can easily put 2-3 movies on it and watch.
Source:
http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2005-09-20/
In the short time that PSP has been out in the US, as of 1 1/2 months ago, over 9 million UMD movies have been sold so Jobs cant give crap about people not interested.

 

[dejo]

The PSP is not a dedicated video player.