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MEDIA CENTER PC NEWSOctober 13th 2005 Video iPod Arrives, But Fails To Impress
Regular readers of Media Center PC World will know that we have been a little obsessive about the prospect of an iPod that, as Steve Jobs put it last night, 'plays movies too'. We have gone as far as predicting its imminent launch on a number of occasions, but each time, Apple have surprised us with something else altogether different. This time confidence was high that the Apple press event would finally give us the video iPod and they didn't disappoint... ....until we saw it. It's certainly an iPod, in fact it looks identical to earlier versions. The trouble is that it looks so much like an iPod that Apple have only managed to squeeze in a 2.5 inch screen. That is hardly the revolutionary viewing experience that we were hoping for and is beaten hands down by a raft of existing portable video players. You can connect it to a TV to play the video using a $19 cable, but that's not breaking new ground. There will be two versions, one with 30GB of storage and one with 60GB, in black and in white. The majority of the interest came from the announcements surrounding the video iPod. Firstly Apple has sealed a deal with Disney to make TV episodes, such as Lost and Desperate Housewives, available for download the night after they are transmitted. This will cost $1.99 per episode and is only available to users in the USA. Apple also announced an iMac that is starting to look a little like a Media Center PC. It has a very media center-like interface, although as yet, no TV tuner and hence, no PVR. It will come with a remote. Most analysts believe that this is just the start for Apple in this market and that the futures of the iMac and Video iPod might be more intertwined than we might currently think. No doubt there will be queues around the block to buy the new iPod, but for the moment our hands will stay firmly in our pockets. We’re sure that this isn’t the summit of Steve Jobs’ ambition with video – we just hope that he starts the climb sooner rather than later. |
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