iPod Movie Resurfaces on the Rumour Mill
Hardly a week goes by without a rumour about a video iPod, but this time the rumour seems to be backed by logic other than “wouldn’t it be cool”.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is on the verge of adding music videos to its iTunes stores. Although Apple could be doing this independently of any intention to release a video iPod, it should be remembered that iTunes was created to do one thing - shift iPods from the shelves of electronics retailers worldwide. This it has achieved incredibly successfully by making it nigh on impossible to play iTunes-purchased tracks on any other mp3 players. In Japan, where Apple have so far resisted the temptation to release an iTunes store, the iPod has recently lost its number one position to Sony. The recent news that Apple will make iTunes available in Japan may just flip this stat back on its head.
So, back to the video iPod (or iPod Movie as many sites have christened the mythical device). The logic goes that if iTunes sells videos, Apple will want to tie users into playing them on one of their devices. The drawback to this is that Apple don’t have a portable video player, so the solution is to develop one.
However, Apple have never shown the slightest sign of weakening their no-video stance for the iPod. Steve Jobs had previously said that he could see no demand for viewing feature length video on a portable device (not that this rules our shorter movies of course), but the success of the Sony PSP as a media player may, just may, be changing his mind.
Would an iPod Movie be any good? The basic iPod certainly has the capability of storing movie data, after all it’s just a small hard drive in a shiny (tiny) box. Nyko will be taking advantage of this when they release their iPod Movie Player, which will play movies back on a 3.5 inch, 65,000 colour screen. But perhaps this shows us one of the limitations. The Nyko screen isn’t big – roughly the same as a Sony PSP screen in fact – and the potential size of an iPod screen is limited by the size of the case. Apple has been miniaturizing the iPod since its launch and a movie player would probably involve a reversal of this process. If the screen remained the same size as on the current range of iPods, it’s not going to be good enough to watch anything other than short clips. Entire feature films would not be an option, but then with our current train of iTunes-inspired thought, perhaps that’s not a problem.
If the WSJ rumour turns out to be true then some of our questions may get answered. Until then EnGadget has a tongue-in-cheek guide to playing movies on your iPod Photo using some deft thumb work on the click-wheel. Is this and the Nyko the closest we’re going to come to a movie iPod?
Source: Media Center PC World
Add comment July 18th, 2005