Amidst a whole lot of fanfare, glitz, glamor, and a bit of spying, Apple finally did what everybody has been speculating about for years. They launched a new iPod, and yes, it plays videos. The whole world seems to be going crazy; whoever bought an iPod in the last six months is regretting having done that, for the new one is the same price as the old one, yet is
better.
Sure, it is better, but not so much better that anybody with a Photo iPod should bother upgrading. Now, don't get me wrong. The iPod still remains THE
music player to have, Apple is still THE best company in the world (though Google is fighting hard to get there), and Steve Jobs is still GOD, but the new iPod is just more of what the old iPod was, and not a revolution. It is still a music player that does
video, and not the other way around.
Digging a little deeper, I have come to the conclusion that it isn't even
built in the same spirit and philosophy as the original iPod.
You see, the original was an MP3 player, and no more. It didn't have any newfangled copyright protection technology, nor did it support iTunes' AAC audio format. It was built for the 'MP3 Pirates', and they loved it. Then, Apple got smarter and piggybacked their own format onto iPod’s popularity, DRM and all, and started selling tunes on their own. They converted an illegit business into a legit one. They did so by providing the pirates with a
quality experience at what seemed like a fair price. You can download near-CD quality music from Apple's music store for 99 cents a piece. No worrying about fakes or viruses, and you could be sure the music you’re getting is the best quality possible at that size.
On the other hand, if you were to look at today's situation in the exact same way, Apple should have launched a media player capable of playing DiVX or XVID, two of the most popular pirated video formats on the net. If you visit a Bittorrent network like Mininova.org, you can find HD Quality episodes of Desperate Housewives, Lost, and much more at any given point in time, all encoded in these formats, and just like Apple’s service, they too come out with the latest episode within hours of it being aired.
If Apple wanted to do this for real, iPod style, and to get legit customers as well, they should have launched a High Definition Video service, and the Video iPod should have had at least a DVD resolution display. Instead, they've got generic MPEG 4 and H.264 video formats with DRM, and a small VCD quality screen (that's less than 1/4th the resolution of DVD, and 1/16th that of HD Video). This is equivalent to offering legit mono AM radio quality in the age of pirated 5.1 Surround Sound Super Audio CDs.
And that’s not going to cut it for the real videophiles. Sure, enough customers who will buy the new iPod will use it for Music and Videos both, they’ll even buy the “Buck’n 99 Cents” clips off Apple’s service, and I’m pretty sure that’ll be enough for Apple to convince more movie studios and TV channels to start selling their content on the Internet, but till that happens, I don’t see Apple upping the ante and launching a proper video player.
Why did Steve Jobs build a half-hearted product? God works in mysterious ways, but let your digital priest decode his ways for you.
I believe Apple has done this “low-fi” tactic specifically to discourage pirates from hopping on to the Video iPod, or cracking Apple’s video service. If they can find significantly better quality material for free, and the iPod won’t play it, they won’t bother Apple, and that will translate into a healthy image in front of the copyright owners.
But what about the consumer? Well, for once, it seems, Apple has sold a part of their soul to the devil (or maybe just leased it for some time), so take my advice, if you really want a video player, look elsewhere.
Where to look? Look at the Creative Nomad Vision; it may be more expensive when comparing gigabyte - byte with the iPod, but it's got a display that's almost twice the size, and four times the resolution of the new iPod, plays all the formats you could lay your hands on, and has a built-in card slot to copy and view all the photos from your digicam's card. Hell, you can even listen to FM radio, or take voice notes with the built-in microphone.
Published: October 23, 2005
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