Prince McleanSpeaking at a Macworld press event in Australia last Wednesday, Apple Computer's Stan Ng reaffirmed his company's stance on an iPod with video-capabilities: don't expect one anytime soon.
"There is no legal way today of taking a DVD and making it viewable on a portable device. There are issues with video, and no infrastructure for acquiring that content," said Ng, now Apple's director of iPod worldwide marketing.
"For a player with a 3 1/2-inch screen, you have to wonder if it would be worthwhile. You can't watch video while you're jogging or mountain biking," he said
"Fundamentally, at a corporate level, we've been clear about our involvement in music and photos - we'll see what happens with video over time,"
At the event, Ng also previewed Apple's new product offerings including the Mac mini and iPod shuffle digital music player, sans display.
"We wanted to create a whole different way of experiencing music with a small player," he said, explaining that the shuffle should be seen as a portable extension of iTunes, where songs are arranged before being transfered to the device.
"A prime example is someone who will use the shuffle for workouts - they want faster music, so they don't want their show tunes to come up," he said.
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23 Comments
No video iPod.
This is painfully and blatantly obvious to most people. I don't know why some people feel like this would be a success ; given the tepid sales of portable DVD Players. What makes people think that shrinking the video and player down to iPod size means sales? Perhaps a lack of creativity?
Who says we want to watch video on a 3.5 inch screen? The iPod Photo shows how easy it is to hook up to a TV and play slideshows; why not videos?
Here is a good alternative if you need video playback.
http://www.g-technology.com/News/pdf...introduced.pdf
Who says we want to watch video on a 3.5 inch screen? The iPod Photo shows how easy it is to hook up to a TV and play slideshows; why not videos?
In that case, why not a Mac mini? Same prices as an iPod *Photo*. Can't stick it in your pocket, but it's certainly portable. I'm sure it won't be long before someone comes up with a battery pack for it.
In that case, why not a Mac mini? Same prices as an iPod *Photo*. Can't stick it in your pocket, but it's certainly portable. I'm sure it won't be long before someone comes up with a battery pack for it.
I have an iPod photo. I am also an architect.
With my iPod photo, I can do client presentations (with slides). Just take my iPod with me and the iPod photo AV-cable, and I am all set. And no, Mac mini doesn't do it for me - THEN, I would rather take my iBook (which I did before I got the iPod photo). But I noticed your remark was meant tongue-in-cheek...
Now, why can't I have a short QuickTime clip instead of a slide? And what's more, it would be a QuickTime clip I have made myself (like a flythrough through a design).
THAT'S WHAT an iPod video (or better: iPod QT) would be EXCELLENT for.
As said before:
The iPod Photo shows how easy it is to hook up to a TV and play slideshows; why not videos?
And those "videos" can be QuickTime clips, "self-made" with iMovie or Final Cut...
Gosh, Sony was so afraid of people "stealing" "their" music into mp3 it missed the whole emerging digital music revolution (witness their Atrac or whatever it is called digital music format). Is Apple trying to do it "Sony-like" with the (soon to be) emerging digital video revolution?