RealTechNews.com - Independent Tech

Tuesday, October 26, 2004

iPod Photo Launches
Determined to keep that healthy MP3 marketshare, Apple unveiled and is selling a new iPod Photo edition for the Mac and PC.

40GBs for $499 and 60GBs for $599, sounds pretty pricey, just like the Macs are. Some things never change. But it sure sounds cool:

"iPod Photo’s menu is easier to read than ever. That’s thanks in part to the clarity of the display — it offers 220x176-pixel resolution — and in part to the new Myriad typeface. Both sizes feature a razor sharp LCD display that lets you see your photos in vivid color — 65,000 colors, to be exact. And with its built-in backlighting, you’ll be able to admire those photos indoors or out."

"Like its famous siblings, iPod Photo sports the touch-sensitive Click Wheel. You’ll use it to navigate iPod Photo’s new photo menu scroll effortlessly through dozens of playlists, hundreds of albums, or thousand of songs."

# Permalink Posted at 1:09 PM 7 comments Email this Link

Comments on this Item:

Come on. You've got to be kidding. Apple's putting out a display like this on an mp3 player, charging that much money for it, and it doesn't play video?
Yawn.

# posted by metermax 2:59 PM

One word: useless.

# posted by David 8:49 PM

Apple could have put video on it; it could have played Quicktime movies and MPEG-2s (at a tremendous hit to battery life). However, what purpose do most people have for playing video? I don't have a DV cam that I can make home movies with, and I don't have a system that can record TV shows to MPEG-2. And I'm sure the MPAA would have a coniption if Apple let people play ripped DVD files on their player.

So, yeah, it doesn't play video. But what video would you have played? The iPod commercials?

# posted by Anonymous 6:02 AM

I view this as a mostly token action on Apple's part. People have been wanting a video-based iPod for a while, but allowing video playback would seriously hamper the already questionable battery performance of the iPod line. This is something of a half-way meeting. Pictures, but not video. However, I think it's a poor implementation. Pictures must be synchronized to the iPod via iTunes rather than iPhoto, Apple's picture organization software. The resolution of the screen is limited, as is the color depth. Cell phones are available with both a greater resolution and color depth and also have the ability to take pictures or videoas well as their primary use as a phone. Many of these can also act as limited music players. A much more reasonable action by Apple would have been to release a 60 gigabyte non-Photo iPod at the $499 price point.

# posted by Anonymous 12:12 PM

I have such a camera, and it comes with the software to make clips. I also use a little 4 mp camera that makes avi clips, up to 28 minutes in length, with sound. At that length, it fits in 256 megs. With a 40 gig hd, all I'm saying is at this price it seems silly that my 200 dollar digital camera can make and play these while the big bad new ipod with over 150X the storage can't be given video playback capability of any kind. I think the horsepower would have allowed for it.

# posted by metermax 1:35 PM

I want one of these so bad! Do you know how awesome it would be to use one of these with a digital camera and the belkin card reader? An entire vacation's worth of pictures in the palm of your hand, with space left over for your music.

# posted by Anonymous 5:47 PM

The current iPod provides that functionality - storing photos. It just can't display them. I think I can live without the display part and save $200.

# posted by ac 11:15 AM

Post a Comment