My New Video iPod - Apple Misses Big Time
Santa was very good to me this year - better than she should have been or we agreed to, but that’s a separate story all together. Being the lucky recipient of Apple’s most current, top ‘o the line Video iPod, I’ve spent that last week less with the iPod and more about generating content to feed this new beast. While most of you know I am a long time Apple fan, there are a few glarring problems with the new 5th generation iPod and some simple inconveniences.
Problem #1: Good luck getting Video to your new Video iPod, unless you have some space left on your charge card! The original iPod became popular so quickly because iTunes made it a really simple process to move your music to the new device - remember “rip, mix, burn”? Well that works great for unprotected CDs, but thanks to the MPAA, every commerically purchased DVD you own is copy protected and it is ILLEGAL for Apple to provide you with a means to “rip” your own DVDs for use on your new video iPod. Don’t believe me? Pop a DVD into your computer and bring up iTunes or any other Apple program for that matter. While QuickTime and the DVD applications will allow you to save personal video projects (home movies) to an iPod size and setting, there is not an Apple approved method for migrating from commercial DVD to Video iPod, unless of course you’re willing to spend $1.99 per TV show or music video.
Luckily, progams already exist outside the Apple world that will do what we should legally be allowed to do. I use a program called HandBrake on my OSX machine and so far I’ve ripped nearly a dozen of my own DVDs for personal watching later on. There are some special adjustments that need to be made, but email me if you want more details (feedbackat80sAirwavesdotcom). I’ve also discovered a torrent site that seems to have two or three movies a day that are iPod ready. But I know that most people buying their new iPods will not go to all this trouble to watch their own DVDs on the iPod and that is a real shame that Apple SHOULD have worked hard to resolve ahead of time instead of taking the easy money route.
Problem #2: TV Connections Optional! The simple idea of having a portable video device is that you can connect it up to a larger screen to watch videos or review photos with friends and family seems obvious, right? Once again, this simple desire is NOT a part of the base solution that Apple provides - even with their top end iPod. No, for an additional $20 you can buy the cable that should have come with the unit in the first place. An extra $40 and you get a new dock with remote. But clearly these expensive, high profit add-ons will help Apple with another quarter of record profits - not to mention all those eps of Lost & Housewives.
Problem #3: From FireWire back to USB? This is my second iPod in about two years. The first had a FireWire connection to my machine which made transferring files quick - almost instant. Of course now with larger video files (most movies are 500-700MB) they go from FireWire to USB2.0? What the hell is this? Now it takes almost as much time to transfer a movie to the iPod as it does to to rip it in the first place! This is a bad move at the wrong time. This is also highly inconvenient for prior iPod owners just looking to upgrade because it means new cables for their docks (I had one at home and one at the office) and the power adapters need to be updated as well (another $30).
All of these troubles will create a product that will encourage consumers to seek out other devices that might offer simpler solutions. At the very minimum it has shown me an opportunity for ways to get the portable video device owners (including PSP) video content in a timely and simple format! More on that later! =D One final inconvenience - I realize that Apple made the white headphone cord an icon, but how ’bout a black dock for these new devices?
-pjc