At first, I completely fell in love with the new iPod, the one that plays the video on a slightly larger screen, you’ve probably seen it. I’ve cooled on it a bit, but only because I have no intention of buying the first version of any Apple product (there’s always bugs).
It’s definitely the most significant iPod released since the original, and it certainly realizes the idea of a portable entertainment unit, being able to carry a very wide cross section of media available at a moment’s notice. There are some first-gen kinks to be worked out: no FF or REV, an inability to play anything other then MPEG-4 video, but these things will be worked out either by the hackers or by Apple in subsequent versions, or by the various P2P sites (releasing iPod formatted files).
Like I said, I won’t be buying one, my only need for a portable currently is driving in the car, and the iPod shuffle suits that just fine. But once the bugs are worked out, this might be one situation where my technofever overpowers me.
I’ve been saying for awhile that I’m holding out for a 60GB iPod, but now that it’s here I wonder if it’s worth the money. The fact that you can get a PSP that has more features that also plays games leaves me wondering if this iPod has enough to offer. I guess I’ll keep playing the waiting game.
The PSP has an awesome screen but I think as a portable media player it loses out because of the storage limitations. I believe the biggest memory cards you can get for it right now are like 1 GB, and those cost you at least another $100 on top of the price of the PSP. That’s barely enough to store MP3s, much less video.
As a matter of fact, I deleted a paragraph about how this iPod (rather, version two) and the PSP are in a race to my wallet—with some trickery, you can play Gameboy ROMs (and other systems) on the PSP, not to mention Wifi, music and video.
There’s a very strict disk space limitation with the PSP, but it benefits from the fact that it’s swappable.
Now, if there was only some way to connect one of these iPods to a PSP…
I love the iPod, have from the start. And while this seems like a really nifty gadget, I don’t know if I will ever buy this or any other portable video player. If I want to watch a movie, I want it on a 52+ inch screen that’s 2 feet from my face. A friend of mine has the PSP, and it’s possibly the most annoying appliance I’ve ever seen. There is something inherantly wrong with a portable video game system with realistic graphics. Portable systems should never go beyond what 16 and 32 bit systems of the past (PS1 or under). Again for the same reason I don’t want to watch movies on a 0.5 inch screen. I want big colourful graphics smashing me in the corneas, not fine detailed pixels i need a microscope to see.
Nano for life.
Billy: I don’t know, I think it’s hard for anyone who doesn’t ride the bus or subway to really appreciate the need for portable video. I think that’s the real market for these devices.
I know that if I lived in the city, I’d already have one of these (or a PSP) and be watching Future Boy Conan on the transit.
Why don’t you wait till you get home to watch some tv like the rest of humanity, freak :)