Next Generation iPod (Video) Product?

[IlluminatedSage]

Well if we get a video capable ipod.

Would love tivo connectivity. ie, easy ability to transfer files and sync with tivo boxes.

hey, just an idea.

 

[JoeRadar]

Originally posted by arn
I guess you have to hire people with the right skills.... eh?

I think the ad would have worked wrt to finding qualified people without the word "iPod".

 

[idkew]

Originally posted by greenstork
I think you're making one big assumptions about any video iPod. That is, you're assuming it's being designed to actually watch video on. While I don't rule out the possiblity of a screen, as a matter of fact, I think it's likely, the iPod could simply be a portable video player that has a docking station to a TV.

Drop 5-10 of your favorite movies on to your iPod, drop it in the docking station next to your TV and play. This actually ties in quite nicely with a new wireless remote, pretty snazzy.

dvds are quite small, and dvd players are very cheap now. this incarnationation makes no sense. not to mention expensive and time consuming. (ripping dvds.)

 

[JoeRadar]

Originally posted by the_mole1314
I can tell you that there will be no video iPod ever.

But who said Apple won't make something else that plays video? Mabey, not an iPod?

While I could imagine a video device not having the same form factor as the current iPods, I can still see Apple using the same name.

Apple has invested heavily in name recognition for "iPod", and it has worked. The name "iPod" is now synonymous with cool and success in the music market. There may be cheaper MP3 players, but they have not caught the press attention or mindshare of the iPod.

I think Apple will include the name "iPod". Apple will start selling music videos (e.g., for $2.99) at the iTMS, and users can rip their own DVDs into their iPod AV.

 

[jeffmc425]

re: Video and Xfer speeds

Originally posted by iChan
i guess the chances of seeing a video iPod in MWSF in three is slim to none now, seeing as Apples are only advertising this job now...

what do you think??

I think it would take about 45 minutes to transfer a dvd over firewire... depends on a few things though, like how fast your drive is, FW 400 or 800, processor speed, Amount of RAM... basically, the higher the number, the faster! haha..

also, you can get single layer and dual layer dvd disc... dual layer would take twice as long...

The point is, you would not transfer the MPEG2 to the device. That would require BIG BIG disks. Instead, the movies , most likely, would be transcoded via the Quicktime subsystem into MPEG-4 or similar (H.264) and stored on the device.
And for viewing, a normal iPod screen is just two small (And being a 2 color screen doesn't help). Most likely this would be a 320x240 landscape device, with a pretty good hosrepower RISC chip that does not suck alot of power while going full bore. You want to get 30FPS at at least 500Kbit rate so there is no artifacts, etc in the playback. (Also depends on the transcoding process on the host).

Other than that, it would be interesting to see what they will come up with.

Jeff

 

[greenstork]

Originally posted by idkew
dvds are quite small, and dvd players are very cheap now. this incarnationation makes no sense. not to mention expensive and time consuming. (ripping dvds.)

I guess we just disagree, I'd much rather carry around an iPod with TV connectivity (docking station?) than 5-10 DVD's. In all likelyhood, I'll be carrying around the iPod anyway, so adding 10 DVDs to that is bulk.

Besides, if we're talking about a video iPod here, it is inevitably going to entail ripping DVDs. I am assuming that they aren't being streamed because that makes no sense to me. The iPod is, at it's core, a HD, a storage medium and I would think any video capability would entail using it as such. So if you don't see the point in ripping DVD's, take it up with Steve because if this rumor proves true, I think that is the intention of this device.

 

[Lanbrown]

Originally posted by mikeyredk
but that gives away all there future products if you know what to look for

but this is off topic

Could you then please write a job posting that would not give it away?

It gives an idea to the direction they might be taking. It gives very little away and video would be the next step.

 

[Mr.Hey]

Originally posted by iChan
i guess the chances of seeing a video iPod in MWSF in three is slim to none now, seeing as Apples are only advertising this job now...

Who knows when this was posted. They could have hired the person some time ago with out broadcasting it to the world and only recently chose to notify the Mac community .

I'm thinking that it won't playback VOB's. Instead you would have to encode it into h.263, a-la(?) QT.

And I think Apple could release something similar to PS2 handheld with a diagonal screen. Maybe instead of having the screen face exposed like the PS2-HH, it could look like a normal iPod with the 3" screen on top just for playing audio. And when you want to watch videos you could flip open the top to reveal the screen (attached to the back of the lid and not hard-drive part; to much heat dissipation could damage the screen) the beneath which will have identical buttons. A scroll wheel is much better for scrubbing through videos than the regular stationary (>>) button to controls video playback.

 

[junior]

Re: you want a video iPod with a bigger screen?

Originally posted by copperpipe
Get yourself the 12" powerbook...

I don't know... Your iPod seems awfully expensive.

 

[byamabe]

Originally posted by greenstork
I guess we just disagree, I'd much rather carry around an iPod with TV connectivity (docking station?) than 5-10 DVD's. In all likelyhood, I'll be carrying around the iPod anyway, so adding 10 DVDs to that is bulk.

Just wondering if you are really going to invest the time to RIP and transfer those 5 - 10 movies. What happens when you get the ROTK: director's cut the night before your trip to Europe. Are you gonna spend the night baby sitting the RIP and transfer?

 

[crees!]

Re: How long to RIP a DVD?

Originally posted by byamabe
Does anyone know how long it takes to RIP a DVD and then transfer it over firewire to another device?

Well it depends how large the DVD is. Whether is has 7GB or 9GB or whatever of data files. Normally (on my PB) it takes about 30 minutes to rip a DVD then it's just over a minute per GB to transfer over Firewire 400... So you're looking at an average of 40 minutes or so.

 

[ccuilla]

Originally posted by idkew
just hope that if apple adds video to the ipod it a) does NOT affect battery life and usability or b) offers an audio only iPod in addition to the new A/VPod.

i still miss the point of video on a 1" screen.

One poster already pointed out some assumptions. But there are others here. Why assume that a "video iPod" will be the same form factor as the current iPod? This is the most likey assumption to be wrong. Furthermore, maybe there will be an iPod AV that is NOT a music player. Maybe iPod will become a "brand umbrella" much as "Mac" is...there is a wide variety of "Macs" (eMac...iMac...PowerMac). It seems Apple would likely follow a similar model with iPod (ePod...iPod...PowerPod anyone?)

Think bigger. Think about a product "family"...think "walkman".

 

[bensisko]

Originally posted by idkew
dvds are quite small, and dvd players are very cheap now. this incarnationation makes no sense. not to mention expensive and time consuming. (ripping dvds.)

Yeah... I bet someone said the same thing about CDs not too long ago...

 

[jeffmc425]

Originally posted by byamabe
Just wondering if you are really going to invest the time to RIP and transfer those 5 - 10 movies. What happens when you get the ROTK: director's cut the night before your trip to Europe. Are you gonna spend the night baby sitting the RIP and transfer?

That is assuming that you are getting the content from a DVD. However, if you look how iTunes Music Store does it, you get the songs in the format already for the device. It makes sense to have an iTunes Video Store with movies already transcoded/formatted for the device. Makes it clean, and makes it manageable.

 

[wordmunger]

Who says this is about movies? What about adding visuals to the music function of the iPod? All the sudden one of the drawbacks of the iPod--that you don't get cover art/liner notes--becomes a feature: buy the album from ITMS (as opposed to just one track) and get a 5-minute interview with band members, a music video, all the song lyrics, and a bunch of still photos, all playable on your iPod's new color screen.

 

[bousozoku]

Re: you want a video iPod with a bigger screen?

Originally posted by copperpipe
Get yourself the 12" powerbook...

Sure, I can also see the 12 inch PowerBook as a replacement for GameBoy Advance SP. Yeah, just flip open your 12 inch PowerBook anywhere and start playing games or video. Uh huh.

 

[AmigoMac]

Power pod...

Sometimes I would like to take a look at my family pictures, specially when I'm traveling... and of course our home videos, no movies, maybe I would like but it will take a lot of GB all together... Apple, you have the answer... Sure they have already some 80 GB pods in cupertino...

iPod A/V , Power-pod?, photopod ? (I don't want to do a topic from these names) ... are just that, names...

But still think about my pics in that little white box...

 

[truedat]

On a somewhat related note...

I had heard that the iPod was selling well this holdiay season and today I observed it first-hand. Went into Compusmart in Toronto (one of the bigger chains that sells Macs here) and saw 5 people buy iPods in the 15 minutes I was there. I overheard the store manager say that they were the only one in the city who had iPods and that the remaining 9 that they had would be gone by this afternoon. Hopefully this translates into a good sales quarter and boosts my AAPL shares in January.

 

[Belly-laughs]

Peas and beans

The Oxford Dictionary has the following description of the word "pod":

a usu long thin case containing seeds that develops from the flowers of various plants, esp peas and beans

In other words, a pod contains the next generation of plants and the survival of the above mentioned species. So is it not natural to think that in the everchanging world of consumer electronics, our favourite pod will have to continue to mutate in order to stay ahead of it´s competitors? Find fresh nutritious fields never layed hands (or roots) on by others?

The iPod showed everyone else where to go, now it´s time to move on and create new conceptions of the letter "i".

 

[Mr.Hey]

Re: Power pod...

Originally posted by AmigoMac
Sometimes I would like to take a look at my family pictures, specially when I'm traveling... and of course our home videos, no movies, maybe I would like but it will take a lot of GB all together

Agree, but family? why not hot girls(WooHoo) pics .

As to the size of these vids I think thats what h.263 is for. It won't be full DVD quality much like AAC (nor is Mp3 high quality) but its good for your home stereo, computer, maybe even a small TV the size of a computer screen(30" Apple cinema display!!!) . This makes the computer more centralized for the digital hub concept. Its a shame Apples not going with h.264 it would have been the high quality we all want in a more compact size.

 

[ccuilla]

Re: On a somewhat related note...

Originally posted by truedat
I had heard that the iPod was selling well this holdiay season and today I observed it first-hand. Went into Compusmart in Toronto (one of the bigger chains that sells Macs here) and saw 5 people buy iPods in the 15 minutes I was there. I overheard the store manager say that they were the only one in the city who had iPods and that the remaining 9 that they had would be gone by this afternoon. Hopefully this translates into a good sales quarter and boosts my AAPL shares in January.

The Apple (on-line) Store won't ship any more until after Christmas. Wife still bought one for me. Hopefully Apple forecasted demand well and isn't "leaving too many dollars as the door" (lost sales) because of no stock.

 

[alandail]

The iPod already has the ability to store your iPhoto library, but has no way to view the library.

I'd love an iPod that adds a video out port for doing slide shows. I'm not even sure they need another port as you can do video over firewire. Take the iPod and hook it up to a tv and view photos. Think about when you're visiting relatives. No need to drag a computer along to show them your latest pictures or home movies, just hook your iPod up to your TV.

And what I'd really love to see is an iPod or something similar that can handle HDTV complete with multi-channel digital sound. There currently isn't a good way to own an HDTV movie. An iPod that supported HDTV could go for $999 easy - imagine a video version of the iTunes music store. The download times would be longer, but you could buy a movie during the day and watch it that evening.

 

[ITR 81]

Think about it we've got a photo reader but you can't even view the pics.
To me this adding album cover art and graphics would be first part of the vPod.

Eventually they will allow use to store DV footage we just shot or allow us to store DVD's so we can just hook it up to the AV ports on a TV to view them.

If they ever make broadband over powerlines a std we could also see a DVD DL store. But I would say a majority of the pop. would have to be on broadband before that happens and alot of pop. is still not broadband.

 

[alandail]

Re: Re: On a somewhat related note...

Originally posted by ccuilla
The Apple (on-line) Store won't ship any more until after Christmas. Wife still bought one for me. Hopefully Apple forecasted demand well and isn't "leaving too many dollars as the door" (lost sales) because of no stock.

That's odd - I ordered 2 personalized iPods tuesday from the Apple store, they shipped yesterday (from China), and are arriving today.

I just checked, the Apple store says the 40 gig models are available before Christmas if you don't want them personalized.

I think the issue is simply they are selling them as fast as they can build them and there aren't many shipping days left before christmas.

 

[ccuilla]

Re: Re: Re: On a somewhat related note...

Originally posted by alandail
That's odd - I ordered 2 personalized iPods tuesday from the Apple store, they shipped yesterday (from China), and are arriving today.

I just checked, the Apple store says the 40 gig models are available before Christmas if you don't want them personalized.

I think the issue is simply they are selling them as fast as they can build them and there aren't many shipping days left before christmas.

Just went there and see:

"Delivery available AFTER 12/25"

as well as:

"Personalized iPod delivery available AFTER 12/25"

For all models (well, the 40GB says 12/24.)

Perhaps different story for different countries?