New iPods

[adderslj]

U2 iPod (cool colours)

Photo iPod - would anyone use this? Does the iPod need photo functionality? Discuss.

U2 - Vertigo (Single Version) - Vertigo

Comments

[slog.livejournal.com]

oooooh.

*drool*

[fraserspeirs.livejournal.com]

The photo iPod is pricey, and there are some kinks to be worked out vis-a-vis smooth integration with the Belkin media reader, but darn if it's not the coolest thing ever.

[brusse.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, it's not for me. I'm trying to reduce the amount of electronics in my life. (I sound like a hippie, let's all hug a tree and sing "All you need is love").

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

Hmmm... for me the beauty of the ipod is that in form and function it is perfect to do one thing and one thing alone. Apple have created the worlds best device for playing electronic format music. Why ruin that by sticking a camera in it?

[adders.livejournal.com]

It doesn't actually have a camera - it just syncs your iPhoto or Photoshop Album (on PC) pics onto the device, and allows to to view them on the screen, or on a TV.

I do tend to agree, though. This isn't a natural fit for an otherwise simple and elegant device.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

So it's a very expensive photo album? Or perhaps some sort of attempt to drive sales of even larger capacity ipods? After all, not many people out there will have 60Gb+ of mp3s (my wild generalisation for the morning). Video next?

[adders.livejournal.com]

Not video next - Jobs has explicitly said that he think (a) people don't have video to watch on the thing yet and (b) even if they did, they wouldn't want to watch it on a 2" screen. I think he's right on that.

So yeah, you're paying around £50 extra from the standard 40Gb iPod for a fancy digital photo-album (and back-up of your pics, I suppose), as well as cover art when you listen to your music.

However, another comment made me realise that, coupled with the flash media readers available for iPod, this does turn the iPod into the photographer's perfect companion. Rather than lugging a laptop around, just empty your camera into the iPod, check the pics, and carry on shooting.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

I think young Stevie's got it right. Portable video will only really take off once video glasses are perfected (allowing effective screen size to be very large). That's a way off still.

Sure, you could use the ipod as a photographic companion. But why bother? Anyone that is serious about their digital photography will carry multiple media cards, and be able to preview/delete pics on their camera anyway. If media cards were still very expensive, sure, I could see it being used for storage, but the high card capacities available and relative small size of the photograph file makes it a somewhat pointless exercise imo. You'd still need your laptop to edit the photo.

[adders.livejournal.com]

If you're _really_ serious about your photography, are using an 8mp camera digital SLR or better, you'll be burning though a 1Gb card pretty quickly. Rather than fiddling with multiple £150 1Gb Compact Flash card, just wang the whole lot into a small white device in your pocket, which is oh, so much more portable than your laptop. It makes a lot of sense to me.

Having just watched the launch video, (Bono being sarcastic about record companies...) the idea of the photo iPod is beginning to grow on me a little. They'll need to drop in price a little before they get wide acceptance, but they make it real easy to show friends and family a slideshow of pics on the TV.

I'm not convinced that they needed to do it, but it does make a nice add-on.

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid I remain unconvinced. But then I'm not a photographer, I'm a music fan. I want my music player to play music. I have a camera to take photos with, memory cards to store them on and a pc to edit them. My microwave doesn't double as a fridge, I can't make phonecalls on my dvd player and my PDA won't make coffee.

Give me elegance over sophistication anyday (and this from a techy). The elegance of the iPod's form and function is what has allowed me to get over my suspicion of Apple and lust after one. This idea seems a dilution of its strengths.

Now I just need to earn enough cash to afford one!

[adders.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm not convinced myself just yet, but on the other hand, it's already doing double duty for me. I have a small attachment that turns it into a voice recorder, and I'm now using it for interviews.

And while I see your point about devices' functions, how about the counter examples like, more noticably, mobile phones? Or even PCs themselves?

[ephraim.livejournal.com]

I use my mobile phone for 2 functions. Voice calls and text... and have come to the conclusion that i don't need it for anything else. It has games, wap, a calendar, a modem, java enabled downloads and e-mail. I use it for none of these.

As for PCs, that's slightly different. But only slightly. If there was a single other device that performed the functions that I use my pc for, but did them better, I'd be there in a shot. But for word processing, games and e-mail/internet - there's nothing that betters it.

[melindadansky.livejournal.com]

Ohhhh... If only the red and black iPod had been available when we bought ours.

And as for the camera option: Everything needs a camer option! You never know when you may want to take a picture! Must have camera constantly at the ready!