Apple unveils video iPod

[KronoRed]

http://news.com.com/Apple%20unveils%...?tag=cnetfd.ld

The company also rolled out a new iMac and a new version of iTunes, iTunes 6, just five weeks after the debut of iTunes 5.

The iPod has "been a huge hit for us, so it's time to replace it," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said as he showed off the new product at a press event in San Jose, Calif.

Apple's new video iPod "Yes it does video," he said. The music players, which come in black or white with a 2.5-inch screen, will be available in a 30GB model for $299 and a 60GB for $399. Those are the same prices as current models with the same storage capacities. The new devices hold up to 15,000 songs, 25,000 photos or more than 150 hours of video, Apple said.

Jobs kicked off the event by revealing a new iMac G5 that will be similar to the current model, but thinner. The 17-inch 1.9GHz desktop goes for $1,299; the 20-inch 2.1GHz model is $1,699. The iMacs will have a built-in iSight camera with still and video capabilities and a new bundled Apple remote that lets users watch music, photos and video from 30 feet away.

At the gathering, Jobs used the tiny white remote control like an oversized iPod Shuffle to play a Black Eyed Peas video and an "Incredibles" DVD and also to play home movies and photos.

Through the new version of iTunes, consumers will be able to buy TV shows, in addition to music. Shows available for purchase one day after broadcast will include ABC television offerings "Lost" and "Desperate Housewives" and the Disney Channel's "That's So Raven." It will take 10 to 20 minutes to download an episode, said Jobs. Each will cost $1.99 and will be ad-free. Users can also download six short films from Pixar Animation Studios for $1.99 each.

Apple last week sent out invitations that included the words "One more thing..." Wednesday's announcements took place at San Jose's California Theatre, where Apple introduced the U2 iPod and the first color-screen iPod Photo.

The video iPod arrives just one month after Apple unveiled its pencil-thin iPod Nano. Company executives said on Tuesday that demand for the Nano is strongly outstripping Apple's ability to supply the flash-memory-based music players.

Apple's video device isn't the first to hit the market. Sony currently markets a handheld computer called the Type U in Japan that can be used to watch videos. Consumers can also watch movies (with a tiny Universal Media Disc) on the PlayStation Portable.

Intel and Microsoft, meanwhile, designed a portable media player back in 2002 that some manufacturers brought to market last year. (First it was known as Media2Go and later as the Portable Media Center.) Meanwhile, Samsung and others have come out with phones that can receive TV signals, thereby allowing commuters to watch shows on their cell phones.

Previous Next So far, though, portable video hasn't been a big seller. The screens on these devices are far smaller than TVs. Video can also sap battery life. Watching TV over cellular signals, some Korean consumers found out, can really rack up bills. (New versions of the cell phone TVs use a TV tuner card, rather than deliver TV over the cellular network.)

Sony execs, though, recently said that sales of Universal Media Disc movies for the PSP are a little better than expected.

CNET News.com's Michael Kanellos contributed to this report

[Unassisted]

Just in time for the holiday season, too. Market watchers must be skeptical, since Apple's share price has dropped 10% today.

[westofyou]

Wow who could have thunk of that?

[Unassisted]

Wow who could have thunk of that?

I was always partial to this kind...

[Roy Tucker]

This is going to be huge. Just huge. Tipping point and all that.

The paradigm continues to shift from analog TV to cable TV to digital TV to DVR to now completely disconnected TV watching.

The problem still remains with rights management and encryption of the digital content. How do you keep people from Kazaa-like trading of TV shows and movies?

[Caveat Emperor]

The problem still remains with rights management and encryption of the digital content. How do you keep people from Kazaa-like trading of TV shows and movies?

I actually think this is going to be much easier than getting people to kick the illegal music download habit.

Part of it is the fact that using Kazaa/Ares/Bit-Torrent for teleivision shows and movies is that it's much more inconvenient than downloading music. A music download is usually only a couple megabytes and your odds of finding someone that you can quickly grab a song off (who has a fast connection) on a P2P filesharing service is pretty good for most popular songs. You can quickly grab what you need and have it to listen to in under a few minutes.

With TV shows, the filesizes make downloading difficult since it takes a large amount of time to download a file -- so finding a good source to download is often difficult and time consuming. When I've ventured into the occasional TV episode download (when I miss an episode of West Wing or Battlestar Galactica), it's been with mixed quality. Sometimes I'll get an episode in a matter of hours, sometimes the downloads will take full days or multiple days. If Apple can provide a stable download source where you can download a TV episode quickly and reliably, then I think they'll pull a lot of people off the free downloading due to the sheer convenience alone.

Further, I think the number of people engaged in trading and swapping of TV and movies online is far, far less than the number of people who participated in music swapping. Thus, I think the in-built reluctance to "pay for something we used to get for free" that a lot of people had against paying for MP3 downloads simply isn't present along with video downloads.

I think this is going to be huge -- I think the announcements from Apple were huge. The video iPod, with the video iTunes sales and the new "Front Row" software for the iMac look like they may finally be the products which bring about the convergence of TV and computing...

[westofyou]

This is going to be huge. Just huge. Tipping point and all that.

The paradigm continues to shift from analog TV to cable TV to digital TV to DVR to now completely disconnected TV watching.

The problem still remains with rights management and encryption of the digital content. How do you keep people from Kazaa-like trading of TV shows and movies?

Hey Roy... remember when there were only 3-4 channels and you had to change the channel with *gasp* your hands? Ruff and Ready where are you now?

[OldRightHander]

Hey Roy... remember when there were only 3-4 channels and you had to change the channel with *gasp* your hands? Ruff and Ready where are you now?

Or having to climb up onto the roof because the wire came unhooked from the antenna, or you wanted to turn the antenna around some to try to get a better picture.

[Unassisted]

This is going to be huge. Just huge. Tipping point and all that.

The paradigm continues to shift from analog TV to cable TV to digital TV to DVR to now completely disconnected TV watching.

The problem still remains with rights management and encryption of the digital content. How do you keep people from Kazaa-like trading of TV shows and movies?

I agree that Apple is tapping into an unstoppable trend, but I think the screen is too small on this particular device. Sony's PSP is a better size, but doesn't have this capability out of the box.

The trading is already happening via BitTorrent and Usenet. And it's happening a lot, if what I'm reading in blogs is any indication.

Maybe this will ultimately lead more people to use mass transit, so they can watch their favorite shows on the way to and from work?

[Roy Tucker]

Or having to climb up onto the roof because the wire came unhooked from the antenna, or you wanted to turn the antenna around some to try to get a better picture.

I still remember my dad making me go stand in the corner of the family room with one arm straight up and one leg stuck out so that we could get proper rabbit ears antenna reception of the Browns game. If I dropped my arm, the picture went all to heck and he yelled at me. I finally drafted my little sister to stand there.

On one old VHF TV, the channel changer plastic knob broke and we had to use vise grips to turn the little metal rod. High tech stuff.

I forgot to put UHF in my little time line.

[westofyou]

I still remember my dad making me go stand in the corner of the family room with one arm straight up and one leg stuck out so that we could get proper rabbit ears antenna reception of the Browns game. If I dropped my arm, the picture went all to heck and he yelled at me. I finally drafted my little sister to stand there.

On one old VHF TV, the channel changer plastic knob broke and we had to use vise grips to turn the little metal rod. High tech stuff.

I forgot to put UHF in my little time line.

Roy still holds a grudge against Milt Plum for stomping out Lenny Dawson.

[cumberlandreds]

Or having to climb up onto the roof because the wire came unhooked from the antenna, or you wanted to turn the antenna around some to try to get a better picture.

Or how about climbing up the side of a mountain to repair a TV line that some yahoo shot through with their shotgun. My dad ran up and down the side of a mountain to repair our TV line for many years. All that work for just three channels. He finally got tired of it, signed on to cable and I finally got to see what ABC was all about.

[Unassisted]

Or having to climb up onto the roof because the wire came unhooked from the antenna, or you wanted to turn the antenna around some to try to get a better picture.

I bought an over-the-air (OTA) digital TV receiver about a month ago. Since the signals are directional and I live between transmitter sites, I have to move my rabbit ears antenna to receive all of the stations in my area. The difference from the old days before cable is that the payoff is better, since DTV reception is crystal clear. Bottom line: it looks better than my analog cable signal and it's free!

[westofyou]

I finally got to see what ABC was all about.

[Roy Tucker]

Roy still holds a grudge against Milt Plum for stomping out Lenny Dawson.

No, I was a Jim Ninowski fan. Who was this Frank Ryan guy?