New iPod Rumors
Rumor has it that you won't be able to watch video on the color screen, just still photos.
The argument Jobs repeats constantly is that a small screen is not a good place to watch video. Uhh, yeah, watching Ben Hur on 1.5 inch screen is not the best way to experience it. Obviously.
That doesn't mean there aren't good reasons to have video on a small screen. Inventorying and previewing video clips enroute to a studio or even a presentation is one. Showing "wallet-sized" short videos of your kids is another. I'm sure having purchased a video iPod I would find even more reasons. I don't want to be forced to find a TV to do these things. TVs are not always available. And, as stated, there are situations where the screen-size trade-off is acceptable.
The ONLY way to support the argument that watching video on a small screen should not be done has to do with technology--resolution specifically. Video optimized to "wallet size" would take up much less space and look best on the small screen, but would look HORRIBLE on a large screen. Video optimized for TV screens or High-Definition TV screens takes up MUCH more space on a computer or iPod, but may not be easy to scale to a small screen.
There are scalable video technologies out there and I sincerely hope that if Apple doesn't have that capability, they will find or re-invent it. We need to have the choice of showing video on the small screen. If Apple has concerns, they should put a warning before each video played: "this video best viewed on a TV or larger screen." In the case of small-screen optimized video, I can see preventing it from being viewed on a large screen, but a warning would probably be better: "this video was optimized for the small screen and will NOT appear correctly on a TV screen.
Done.
Whether disallowing video on the small screen of a video iPod ends up being a technology driven or even a user-experience driven decision, both of those reasons would be obscured by what would appear to be the hubris of Steve Jobs--as demonstrated by the quote on Engadget.
More on Apple?s new iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com
The news first leaked out about this a couple of months ago, but someone who claims to have actually played with a prototype of the fourth-generation iPod which is due out sometime soon says that you won?t be able to actually watch videos on its color screen (just look at digital photos), but that you will be able to connect it up to a TV via its dock and use that to watch video clips stored on its hard drive.
The argument Jobs repeats constantly is that a small screen is not a good place to watch video. Uhh, yeah, watching Ben Hur on 1.5 inch screen is not the best way to experience it. Obviously.
That doesn't mean there aren't good reasons to have video on a small screen. Inventorying and previewing video clips enroute to a studio or even a presentation is one. Showing "wallet-sized" short videos of your kids is another. I'm sure having purchased a video iPod I would find even more reasons. I don't want to be forced to find a TV to do these things. TVs are not always available. And, as stated, there are situations where the screen-size trade-off is acceptable.
The ONLY way to support the argument that watching video on a small screen should not be done has to do with technology--resolution specifically. Video optimized to "wallet size" would take up much less space and look best on the small screen, but would look HORRIBLE on a large screen. Video optimized for TV screens or High-Definition TV screens takes up MUCH more space on a computer or iPod, but may not be easy to scale to a small screen.
There are scalable video technologies out there and I sincerely hope that if Apple doesn't have that capability, they will find or re-invent it. We need to have the choice of showing video on the small screen. If Apple has concerns, they should put a warning before each video played: "this video best viewed on a TV or larger screen." In the case of small-screen optimized video, I can see preventing it from being viewed on a large screen, but a warning would probably be better: "this video was optimized for the small screen and will NOT appear correctly on a TV screen.
Done.
Whether disallowing video on the small screen of a video iPod ends up being a technology driven or even a user-experience driven decision, both of those reasons would be obscured by what would appear to be the hubris of Steve Jobs--as demonstrated by the quote on Engadget.
Why you couldn?t just watch those clips on the actual screen of the iPod itself is beyond us, except that perhaps Steve Jobs wants to prove a point about how video shouldn?t be watched on a small screen.Apple should not underestimate people's need to be able show video on the small screen.
More on Apple?s new iPod - Engadget - www.engadget.com
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