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Steve Jobs has a Shiny New Apple to Sell You

Yesterday Apple had another big press even where they showed off some new iPods, and new version of iTunes, Movies in the iTunes Store (No longer called "iTunes Music Store"), a wireless set top box to stream video and music to a TV set from a mac or PC called iTV and finally some decent games for the iPod that you can buy and download from the iTunes store.

There is already an update to the Anti-DRM tools to counter iTunes 7. It took only 8 hours to break the DRM in the new version. That is awesome.

I am not that spited with my 5th Gen iPod since this new iPod looks like a minor upgrade. The iPod has a brighter screen and better battery life for video. My iPod screen is already pretty damn bright so I can't imagine what the new screens look like. This is sort of the 5.5 gen iPod.

Everyone was expecting a "True Video" iPod with a wide screen and I am not really disappointed in the least. I don't think a big screen would be a decent form factor for something that you are going to keep in your pocket on a regular basis. If I hold my PSP in one hand and my iPod in the other I am a hundred times more inclined to slip the iPod in the pocket of my jacket than the much larger PSP. If they released a iPod with a really big screen it would force folks to transport it in a backpack or purse. The "in your pocket and go" use from an iPod would be lost. If you really want a big wide screen portable movie player that you can't stick in your jacket pocket Microsoft has the Portable Media Center and the Ultra Mobile PC. I actually think the Ultra Mobile PC looks quite interesting as a mini-laptop solution.

The really big news is the digital distribution of movies. They are selling new movie for 15 bucks and older movies for ten bucks. The movies are DRMed so currently you can only play them on a Mac, PC or an 5th gen iPod. I guess this is where the wireless set top box iTV comes in. Apple wants you to buy and download a movie to your computer and watch it downstairs on an iTV. I still have a powerful loathing for the Cable TV monopoly so an iTV with a season pass to a new TV show would actually be something I would consider doing when I get DSL this year. I moved my iTunes library to my external hard drive so I would have plenty of space for digital movies. Apple is changing the resolution of the movies and TV shows that they sell to 640x480 as opposed to the 320x240 that they did for TV shows previously. I expect that the video chip on the iPod can play back 640x480 file and scale it down to the 320x240 screen but the larger video format takes up for times the disk space since you are dealing with four times the video data.

Unfortunately the only movie studio that has signed up is Disney so Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone, Pixar and Miramax movies are the only ones currently for sale but I expect more to come soon. I am currently rather pissed off at Disney corporation for their right-wing biased fantasy politically motivated movie that they showed on 9/11 this year as well as their lobbying against fair use and the public domain so I am not going to be handing over any of my hard earned money to Disney corp in the future. I might rent and rip their content just to piss them off. But since Steve Jobs of Apple has a fortune in Disney shares since Disney corp bought his other company Pixar it is not a surprise to see Disney content to be the first ones in the media store. I think that internet based distribution of music TV and movies is awesome I just would rather get media content from a company that I can stand.

The new games for the iPod is pretty cool. It will be interesting to see how an fast game like Pac Man or Tetris plays like with the iPod click wheel. Five bucks for Pac-Man or Tetris is about right I guess and it is obvious that they are going after the casual gamer market. It is strange that the games do not work on the new iPod Nano. I guess they require a more powerful processor but come on. Tetris and Pac-Man can't be that demanding. The new games look awesome on the iPod.

However the next iPod related purchase I am going to make is a $20 bottle of Applesauce Scratch remover. Two weeks a go I had my iPod in my shirt pocket and it was out of the protective leather case that I have been using. It slipped out of my pocket as was picking something up and it landed on the concrete face down from a height of about a foot and a half. There is now some shallow scratches on the screen and I am just kicking myself. This stuff is a liquid that is supposed to fill in the grooves and scratches and make it look all perfect again.

Of course it would have been awesome if Apple announced that they would help get DRMed iTunes tunes to work on the Xbox 360 so I would not have to keep burning and ripping CD-RWs but no luck.

Jake at September 13, 2006 Nerd

Comments

Posted by: Shawn L at September 14, 2006 6:44 AM

Posted by: Llydis at September 16, 2006 7:15 PM

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