Jobs on Portable Video Players

[pyrotoaster]

Truth be told, I think a bigger problem for personal video players in general is content.

I can go buy a CD (or buy some iTMS tracks ) and toss 'em on my iPod. The content is there and it's easy to use. But the same doesn't apply to video. I can go buy a DVD, but I can't import the movie (to be specific, it's possible to import the movie, but not practical), and if I can't get at the content, I've got nothing to put on my personal video gadget thing.

Sure, there's content out there (I've got a few episodes of "The Critic" on my hard drive), but it's hard to get at (Even with DSL, it takes hours to download an episode of "The Critic") and often of low quality (one of my episodes of "The Critic" has a whole third of it where the audio is off by a couple seconds).

Maybe in a few years we'll see an iTMS for movies, but until then most people would have no way to even use their personal video player.

 

[sosumi99]

Steve is so right

I wish now all the people demanding a "video iPod" would stop their screaming. Job is so right. There's no market and no consumer demand for such a thing. Not the first time Jobs has shown himself to be smarter than the rest of the gadget crowd.

Good job, Jobs!

 

[sosumi99]

Originally posted by mymemory
BTW, I saw 5 iPods in NY the other day, every body has one, and I saw 2 or 3 the next day.

There are only 5 people in NY?!?

 

[jch200]

I don't know. I have a Tungsten E, with a 512MB SD card, and I love watching movies on that thing. I've got Harry Potter, and Spaceballs and all kinds of crazy stuff. (not all on there at once though of course). But the quality is really pretty mind blowing, and with the stereo headphone jack, I just plug in my iPod headphones. It's absolutely great on trips or the plane, or even just in bed, so I don't keep my wife up. Of course, you could do this on a labtop, but I can't afford one, and my palm is way more portable anyway.

That said, I would love to have a Newton, with all the new fixens. iCal, Address Book, Games, Video, Photos etc... I also love showing my iMovies on my palm, and those are usually only 5 minutes or so, and it's way easier than burning a whole DVD. Plus when I go visit my Grandparents and stuff, they don't have a DVD player, and it's super convienent to have it on the palm.

I think in another year or 2, storage will be cheaper, computers will be fast enough to do the DVD ripping (with a G5 you can rip a whole movie off a dvd in about an hour...or so I've heard from other people), and it will be convenient enough to work with video on a personal device. And if it does all that other stuff too, then that would be all the more useful. I mean, with a Newton, just sell it as a pda, that happens to play movies too, and I'd be totally happy with that.

 

[Chisholm]

I bet Steve's family has some cool "toys" at home that were never brought to market for one reason or another. I'd love to sneak a peek.

 

[jnasato]

Yah, I'd love to see what Apple has in store for us...

The Apple Lab, with their white labcoats and turtle necks.

 

[just a thought]

To me, a portable video player is something for the Sharper Image catalog. It's ALWAYS been something for the Sharper Image catalog. If most consumers wanted portable video players, they would have them--they've been available for years, after all. They used to make Hi-8 video hand-held players, Panasonic currently has a whole line of tiny laptop-and-smaller sized portable DVD players. The fact of the matter is, it's a tiny niche market compared to, say, the market of people that want to take their music with them for all of the reasons outlined above (tiny screen, can't really do anything but watch a movie, yadda yadda yadda).

Now, if Apple was actually working on something akin to the "iBox" rumors from a few weeks ago--a NON PORTABLE DVR with a DVD burner that would wirelessly Rendevous network with your iTunes library and now (thanks to iPhoto 4) your photo album, I think that that's something that could possibly have the same sort of mass appeal of the iPod. It would be something for the home, not something you'd take with you everywhere, but that's really how the vast majority of people enjoy their movies: in the home.

 

[Sabenth]

Now its going to happen but in what format is anyones guess. when we all have fat net conectons and unlimited downloads then the market opens..

 

[Khodi]

video player

This would be my ideal portable movie player: I would want it to be reasonably light, but I wouldn't want the screen to be smaller than about a sheet of paper. I would need it to multitask, and, of course, look stylish. Does anyone else realize that I just described a PowerBook?
Steve knows what we want, I wouldn't worry about it everybody.

 

[ChrisH3677]

Re: Re: VideoPOD uses

Originally posted by splashman
Regarding #1, just curious -- do you currently bring videos to a friends' house?

Maybe I'm just weird, but neither I nor my kids do that very often at all, and having a more convenient way to do it wouldn't increase my desire to do so.

We do that often, and have been for years. But it is convenient whereas who wants to send their iPod to your kid's mates house? Whereas a video or even dvd - no worries.

 

[Trekkie]

Originally posted by blueBomber
I agree that portable video is a very different beast than music. A friend of mine has a bunch of episodes of Star Trek on his pocket pc, and when he tries to show me how cool it is, I can't help but think that it's almost too gimicky. I just can't get into watching video on a tiny screen like that.

He's right. With an iPod or really any portable player of music I can flip my chair back on the airplane, close my eyes and immersemyself int he music instead of the crowded noisy heck that a 737 can be.

With a handheld TV i have to hunch forward and stare at it in my lap, or hold it airborne over my head so I can stare at it while laying back.

Too much work. A eyeglasses mounted TV woudl be awesome. 52" screen on 1.8" of display. Sony made some, yet it cost $999 and then needed somethng to run it.

 

[BoydAnnison]

Earphones work because they go into the ear and take over your sense of sound.

Portable video players do not work because they represent a small proportion of total vision. They are equivalent to the tinny speakers in my TiBook. A cinema screen completely takes over your sense of sight (and sound*), and therefore works.

Close to the eye cinema glasses would also work, in the respect that they would take over your sense of sight, but the problem is that we would all be immobilised by our lack of real world vision. We would all need guide dogs to get to work. So that pitches cinema glasses directly against the real world cinema experience.

Try telling your girlfriend that you have two pairs of the latest iSpy digital goggles and would she like to come over to watch a movie? Compared with the experience of going out for a good pizza, the cinema, and the potential for a mutual smile after brushing hands in the popcorn bucket.

The point is that the iPod makes a solitary experience, like traveling to work, more tolerable. So it is good. Whereas portable video does not make that solitary experience more toleable, is a poor substitute for the real thing (if it is a portable video player), or destroys what should be a shared experience (if using close to the eye glasses).

So for me the only way that personal video could possibly work is to invent something completely new, something that combines real world images with video so that the user could still function - perhaps like a fighter pilot's visor display.

No thanks. Pass me the popcorn.

* Thats why we get so upset by noisy people around us in cinemas - they break the magic

 

[Photorun]

Whew, I'm so happy we dodged the set top box idea, that'd have been a massive blunder on Apple's part. There are rumors you want to be true (G5 2.6 DP with 533 RAM) and those you don't (Apple anything to do with TV).

 

[ennerseed]

HMMMM

iPod Mini (at least brand wise) = music player
iPod (at least brand wise) = multi device

 

[Vonnie]

Originally posted by revenuee
What about this as a solution.

Currently the iPod is basically a storage unit, you still need headphones, or a wire running to speakers to listen to the music...

What if rather then having a 3" screen to watch it on ... There is a Video out, that connects to either an external monitor, or a pair of glasses that projects the image in front of you for personal viewing, similar to the way headphones give you personal listening.

Two problems with those glasses:
They are ****ing expensive.
They pretty much completely blind you. You can't just walk around, watching the simpsons on those glasses, unless you like walking against a tree, or falling in a lake.

Other than that, I really don't see the point of having a portable videoplayer, except maybe some geek factor, or an "omg, it's an apple product so i must have it" kind of thing.

 

[revenuee]

Originally posted by Vonnie
Two problems with those glasses:
They are ****ing expensive.
They pretty much completely blind you. You can't just walk around, watching the simpsons on those glasses, unless you like walking against a tree, or falling in a lake.

Other than that, I really don't see the point of having a portable videoplayer, except maybe some geek factor, or an "omg, it's an apple product so i must have it" kind of thing.

YA, i noticed this was already addressed earlier in the thread anyway ...

well ... i like the video-out solution though ... load some pictures and then present them on screen, or a few video clips for a presentation ...

There are solutions like this for PDA's ...

I know the iPod isn't really meant to be a business tool, like the PDA's

A firmware upgrade and an a dock accessory could probably do this .... along with lowering the battery power to 2 hours ...

 

[ClimbingTheLog]

Re: Jobs on Portable Video Players

Originally posted by painandgreed
...goggles that create an image by painting the wearers retina wwith a laser...

It is being developed commercially at:

http://www.mvis.com/nomad/index.html

painandgreed, you took the words out of my mouth. a) Steve isn't stupid or unaware of technology, b) Microvision gear *is* headphones for video, and c) Steve may have just tipped his hand.

Apple isn't afraid of completely changing how we interact with computers; if they could get a video iPod with a Microvision display and eye tracker for under a grand they'd really have something, especially if it's a Newton.

Of course, an iPod with a color screen for sharing photos of the kids might be easier, and, heck, 40GB and a screen, let the knuckleheads watch their videos if they want to.

 

[Lepton]

Re: Tiny TV

Originally posted by mjtomlin
I used to have a tiny Casio TV. I think it was a 3" screen or maybe smaller. I can honestly say, it's a gimmick. It was very cool to have this portable TV, but the "coolness" wore off after a half hour.

I had a TV like that and thought it was great when I went on long road trips in my car. I'd pull into a rest stop and watch the TV then. But I don't think of a Mac product like that. I think of one like this:

Fold a letter size page in half. That's the size of the unit (8.5x5.5). One half inch thick. All screen. Touch screen. Stylus. 40GB hard disk. Firewire. AirPort Extreme. Apple Remote Access built in. It is not a "computer". It only runs Remote Access.

When I walk in range of my desktop Mac, it connects. It logs me in as a user. The Mac screen is on the device. I communicate using InkWell. The hard disk in the device holds my home directory, so all my documents and preferences are there. When I walk away from my desk computer and toward yours, it logs me out of my desktop computer and into yours.

I carry my screen and Home directory with me, logging into the nearest computer that allows, or to my own computer, through the nearest AirPort Extreme base station. A useful, huge, complete, carry around computer that can work well for both business and consumer entertainment.

 

[gekko513]

Re: Re: VideoPOD uses

Originally posted by splashman
Regarding #1, just curious -- do you currently bring videos to a friends' house?

Yes. But I'm just 26 and have no kids or family, so my social life is perhaps a bit more "portable" than it would be if I had a family .

There is however another problem with this VideoPOD. I currently see no easy way to legally get movies in a digital format that would be suitable for such a device.

We would need some kind of divx with DRM and a online Movie Store.

 

[elgruga]

No chance of a video player.
Don't need them, we have powerbooks with DVD players.

The next big thing is going to be something where we can catch shows films etc on our powerbooks, with a wireless connection, like satellite.
In fact that is the next thing - instant fast satellite type connection wherever you are on your powerbook.
Total connectivity hasn't been achieved yet.

But it is going to take a new connection protocol, because 2.4 ghz wont do it.

All we have with the iPod is small size and big capacity - we dont have anything new.
Walkmans have been around for 25 years.

I sometimes wonder if we are hypnotised into believing that SciFi stuff is here now. It aint.

When you can "Beam me up, Scotty", thats when you'll know the big stuff is here.

 

[zjrhens]

jobs

I think Jobs is a great guy and i see for biusness reasons why he doenst feel that is the size of a folded dollar bill would make any interest. I'll tell you why I dream of a palm or ipod like device that would allow you to download (buy) a song right off the internet right onto your ipod without having to go to youre comuter. and being able to use rendezvous to acess your computer and listen to your music, and in the same device to acess the features of sherlock. Imagine an age where we're out and about and your gilfriend calls you on the phone and says that she wants to do dinner and a movie. So you hang up youre phone pull out your ipod and using sherlocks quick 12 internet items or so buy youre movie ticket make dinner reservations and youre all set. I dont fell however that this should have a full internet feature; I will tell you why. A palm piolet is biult for people that need to keep track and orginize things. This divice would haft to be as simple as the ipod and you would need the basic scroll wheel and 4 buts and the size is also necessary. 1 of the reasons so many ipods have been selling is because the ease of use. When people see and use the ipod for the first time they are not intimidated by a complex peice of tchnocrap that takes a few hours and instructional videos to learn how to turn it on. They can instantly pick it up and do as andvanced a thing as the guy whos had it for 3 years. Its simple, pleasing, easy on the eyes, and without technilogical intimidation, the average joe can pick it up and go. Now getting back to the video part this is why i believe it should have video even though it is a small screen. Lets say you download or rent a video from some itunes music store like service onto youre brand new ibox. You get to the climax and find that you just didnt buget you time well and haft to leave for a job interview at that very second. So you plug your ipod in download the movie it saved the spot in the transfer. You arrive at your destination. The secrety says have a seat it will be about 5 minutes. You say great pull out your ipod watch the climax get the job and have a great day. Thats what I dream of a world like that.

 

[Squire]

Re: Makes sense

Originally posted by splashman
I'm as big a tech geek as the next guy, but watching movies on a tiny screen has zero appeal to me. SJ made a good point -- with a good pair of headphones, you can have a pretty darn good listening experience. There simply isn't any equivalent in the video realm. Yet.

I feel the same way. I sometimes think my 29" TV is too small. However, the imaginary product proposed in the previous post might be a little more useful. Actually, over here, screens of that size are quite common in cars (of all places). Some cars have satellite TV and others have a DVD-player/car stereo.

Squire

 

[movabi]

hmmm

which side of his mouth is he talking from?

gosh, can't anyone give straight answers anymore. Right out of the george bush bill clinton school of saying nothing.

 

[zjrhens]

i apologize in the first sentance of what i wrote i meant that i believe a screen the size of a folded dollar bill

 

[radiofreak]

I'm torn on this.
It 'sounds' cool and I want to think I'd love it and use it but I'm not sure I would.

I could see it being a cool thing for jpeg viewing (very usefull) and maybe stuff like music videos or movie trailers. I just saw the Spider Man 2 trailer at msn,now to download it to my ipod and then be able to show my Dad at home, who does not have internet, would be cool in a way.

Imagine itunes with a new music video service.

You could download the latest Snoop Dogg,Metallica or Michelle Branch video and watch it on your video ipod.

Beyond that I don't think so,

Plus, a lot of my tv watching is sports/news. Now if I could watch football on it,then for sure.