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Friday, October 14, 2005

So Apple had their big release party and announced their secret... Apple was hitting the market with a video iPod!! Exciting news, but really no secret.

So I have now had a chance to give the video iPod a cursory examination and have pretty much decided that there is no way I will be 'upgrading'.

First of all... I am not convinced that I WANT to watch more than a few minutes of video on a screen that is only 2.5 inches square... Even if the picture quality is excellent.

Then of course, Apple did what Apple always seems to do, and they switch around all of the connections, so few of your current iPod accessories will work with it.

And the video format that it takes is certainly not standard, so unless you plan on recoding most of the video that you do have, you will have to pay Apple for the tiny bit of content that they are currenlty offering...

I am sure that they will eventually offer more content than the few episodes of Lost and Desperate House Wives that they currently have available, but are you realy going to want to pay to watch a program on a tiny screen, when you can TIVO it and watch it in the comfort of your living room on your big screen? I don't think so.

I remember Steve Jobs mentioning a while back that Apple did not want to get into the Video iPod business because they did not believe anyone would pay to watch video on a screen that was less than 3.5 inches square... I agree... so what happened Steve?

At the end of the day, I think that Apple really pushed this product to market. It doesn't have that WOW factor that a new product like this should have (that any new product should have!). I think Apple just wanted to get in the game early, and rushed to do it; there are other companies that offer better versions of the video iPod.

And what happens if the screens (which are the same as on the iPod Nano) get scratched? While not a HUGE problem on an iPod Nano, it would definately hinder watching video on such a small screen....

I am going to take a closer look at the video iPod... but I think I will sit this one out....

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