With rumours about the iPod photo edition coming up, this came true with Apple unveiling two new iPod versions at a recent U2 music event featuring Bono and The Edge. These include the iPod Photo and the iPod U2 Special Edition. The iPod photo comes in 40GB and 60GB versions featuring a photo viewer and the iPod U2's features black casing, red Click Wheel and engraved U2 band member signatures.
The iPod photo offers the same features as the current iPod series, but with a longer battery life of 15 hours for music or 5 hours for slideshows, a 220 x 176 pixel 64k colour display and an AV cable for connection to a TV or video projector (4:3 & 16:9 aspect ratio capable). Its player also features iTunes 4.7 support with photo syncing similar to its music syncing capability and includes iPhoto software. For photo viewing, the iPod Photo is capable of displaying up to 25 colour thumbnails per screen using the same navigation as with music browsing.
The iPod U2 Special Edition celebrates the company's promotional partnership with the U2 music group. This player features the same capabilities as the current 20GB iPod, but with black casing, red click wheel and custom engravings from each of the U2 band member's signatures on the back. Apple also plans to offer over 400 tracks covering every song including rare and unreleased tracks from U2 on its iTunes store in what it calls 'The Complete U2" digital box set.
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The iPod Photo looks identical to its music playing-only cousin, but it uses a 220x176-pixel resolution color screen capable of displaying 65,536 colors. Apple's Auto-Sync technology, built into iTunes, makes sure that the iPod is playing the same music as iTunes, but it has been extended also to support the iPhoto software included as part of Apple's iLife application suite -- included on all shipping Macs and available for purchase separately. For Windows users, Auto-Sync supports Adobe Photoshop Elements, Photoshop Album or the user's "My Pictures" folder. The new photo syncing capability is supported by a new release of iTunes, version 4.7. The iPod Photo can display 25 color photo thumbnails at a time, and lets users scroll through their photos the same way they scroll through their music playlists. An included AV cable enables the iPod to connect directly to a TV or video projector as well -- the iPod will even format the photos depending on whether your set uses the conventional 4:3 aspect ratio or the 16:9 format preferred by newer widescreen sets. Apple also claims the iPod Photo sports longer battery life than previous models -- the company says iPod Photo can play music for up to 15 hours continuously, or up to 5 hours while showing photo slideshows. Available now in 40GB and 60GB capacities, the iPod Photo costs US$499 and $599 respectively. Read thefull article here. |
While the iPod has been very successful in becoming the market leader for portable digital music players, it will be interesting to see if their iPod photo takes on. So far, several companies have tried launching portable video players including photo viewing capabilities all claiming to be the next iPod killer, but so far none have turned out all that successful.
Then again, the two drawbacks with the iPod Photo include its screen resolution and no video playback capabilities. I have never seen digital audio player with a colour screen feature anything lower than a 320x200 display up until now. However, one thing Apple seems to have got right is longer playtime from its battery, although the iPod could really do with a removable battery considering the cost involved in sending back the iPod for a replacement battery a year and a half after purchase. I wonder if they fixed their battery life estimation bug in the player's firmware. :p
The iPod photo is now available in two capacities - 40GB for US$499 and 60GB for $599. The 20GB iPod U2 special edition will ship mid-November for US$349 and comes with a US$50 voucher off "The Complete U2". "The Complete U2" box set will also ship late November for US$149 in both Europe and the US.
Source: MacCentral
:::sigh::: someone add video playback... PLEASE... this will be the smallest video playback hardware ever! Come on hackers... hack this sucka! find out how to play a whole movie in an animated .gif on the ipod or something better than that, that was a dumb idea... stupid stupid!
Personally, I like the looks and price of this here gadget a lot better.....
http://www.archos.com/products/overview/gmini_400.html
....and it plays videos just fine. 
[edited by Limahl on 27.10.2004 23:38]
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