The new iPod was released earlier today, and I can’t say that I am as impressed as the rest of the crowd. Sure, it’s a new iPod, but does it bring anything useful to the plate? I know that you’re going to tell me that it adds video support. Well, that’s nice, but how would you use it?
When the iPod Photo premiered, I couldn’t think of it as more than a digital wallet photo gallery. Well, I was wrong. As it turns out, the iPod Photo proved to be a valuable presentation tool. One could save his or her slideshow presentation as a series of .jpg images, add them to their iPod Photo, and hook it up to a projector to run the presentation from, without having to carry a heavy computer, and without having to worry about the various random computer glitches that plague most modern presentation applications. So, now you can export that presentation as a QuickTime movie, let it run by itself, and pause it at key locations. Well, it’s not a major improvement, but at least I found a way to put those nifty animations back into my iPod-powered presentations.
Beyond that, I still can’t think of a way to justify the video support in the new iPod. When I bought my first iPod, I was delighted that I could listen to my entire library of music, while working, without having to change CDs. In fact, that is still the primary function of my iPod. However, watching a video on your iPod’s screen is a completely different story. There is no way that you can watch a video on that tiny 2.5-inch screen without causing some disruption to the current task at hand. And, please don’t tell me that you plan to watch your videos on it while driving.
Since the new iPod obviously replaces the old iPod, there really is little to argue about. I suppose that I could purchase a 4GB iPod nano with no video support, but then I would be missing out on the 26GB of extra space that I would have received for only $50 more. Even though I can’t justify the video support, the new iPod still makes an effective music player, presentation tools, and external hard drive.
2 responses
You know at first I thought the same way about the video being useless on a tiny screen but then I realized how useful it would be for short clips or TV show episodes while commuting on public transport or when you’re a passenger in a car or similar situations.
I think Apple are going about this the right way by releasing the video content that they have, full length movies just wouldn’t work but I think shorter stuff will work for when you are on the go.
Very good point! I’m rarely in a passenger or public transportation situation, so I never considered that possibility. Perhaps some clever third-party software and one of the many available battery pack accessories will make viewing legally obtained copies of full-length movies on the iPod more of a possibility in the future.