Rumor: iPod photo update to deliver new transitions, Tetris

A new version of system software for Apple Computer's iPod photo line of digital music players is rumored to add a slew of new image transitions in addition to a popular arcade game.

Rumor has it that the new version, which is expected to be called "iPod photo Software 1.2," will be made available for download sometime this month.

Packaged with the release will be a series of new transition effects for inclusion in photo slideshows. Some of these transitions are rumored to include "mosaic," "cube," and "fade" effects. Users will reportedly be able to select and set transitions from a new transition menu.

Anonymous sources also say the software update will pack a color version of the popular arcade game tetris. Users will be able to use the iPod photo's click-wheel to move the tetris blocks horizontally while the iPod click-button performs block rotation.

It's unclear precisely when Apple will release the software update, but its development is said to have already wound down.

Open images in new window for larger view.

iPod photo running Tetris

Images: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Apple released the current version of iPod photo software — iPod photo Software 1.1 — in late-March.

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24 Comments

firsttube

said about 18 years ago

That cube effect is pretty cool - not much of a groundbreaking update tho. \

atomic media fonts

said about 18 years ago

Humm, kinda lame. How about transfer your stickies to your ipod

saukland

said about 18 years ago

I wonder how you drop a piece in Tetris. Scroll and click... but that'll take forever.

nagromme

said about 18 years ago

I would really like this! Tetris is the game I've wanted for those sit-around-waiting times all along! And more photo transitions would be neat too--since I do use the TV slideshow thing.

I don't ask for a "revolutionary" update for a product that already did its job well at the start. This is more than I'd have ever expected my Photo to do when I got it.

Re the Tetris drop function: it may not have one. It won't be "purist" Tetris anyway, since the screen is fewer rows high. (They COULD use the wheel in a new way, never before done, where a touch on the wheel reacts like an Intellivision disc. The ABSOLUTE position is read, not your rotary motion, and then it could sense that you touch the lower part, the sides, whatever. From the iPod Linux project, I believe this kind of sensing is possible in the hardware. But it would be confusingly similar to the way you already click the wheel--and you WOULD click the wheel when you got too frantic in your gaming.)

But I'm skeptical... I say 50/50 chance this is a fake. For one reason only, which maybe people can clear up for me: I doubt the iPod has the 3D power to do those transitions. They look more intensive than other iPod graphics operations you see. And that shatter effect looks anti-aliased, even! (Hard to say with the blurry cube photo.)

How would such a thing be faked? Easy (well, possible):

1. Put a blank white photo on your iPod and view it. Take a close-up shot and you've got your iPod-screen texture.

2. Make your fake screen in Photoshop--you could use pieced extracted by that PC app used to re-skin the iPod UI.

3. Place your fake over the white-screen photo. Use Multiply mode to let the screen texture come through perfectly.

4. Free Transform and drag the corners into perspective.

5. Blur as needed to match the photo, and Adjust Curves to reduce the quality like an LCD.

6. Feel the need for reflections/glare? Take them from a similar photo of the iPod turned off. Composite that screen on top with a mode of Screen.

Normally I think the simplest answer is true--and multiple fake photos here is NOT the simplest. So if anyone has reason to think the iPod Photo's CPUs can handle anti-aliased 3D like that, then my 50/50 doubt can be lifted and I can look forward to a fun update