Vip News : Apple iPod Video, the first look

The first thing that hits you the moment you look at the new iPod Video is the sheer weightlessness of the thoroughly power-packed device. The slim look combined with a multitude of features including the ability to play video makes this another winner from Apple's seemingly brimming stables.
The last four years have been 24 karat ones for Apple and it does not look like losing the edge in the iPod market in the near future.

Last month's iPod Nano was struggling to meet the market demand and the iPod video looks to be going the same way. Come to think of it, Apple has not promoted the device as big on video; it has simply released this as a fifth generation of the device. By and large this is true. The 2.5-inch, 320-by-240-pixel screen is certainly a welcome addition to the iPod, but this is not the only selling point. Videos are played at roughly 30 frames per second.

This is roughly the same quality as a broadcast TV signal. However, the image quality is something that leaves room for improvement and Apple will want to look closely at this segment for the next line of Video iPods. The details are a little bit obscured in the background and the shiny tint of the screen reflects a lot of light making viewing dark scenes a bit cumbersome. Two models are available in 30GB and 60GB capacities. You can also choose between black or white colors though black has turned out to be more popular.

Downloading videos from the iTunes store at $2 each is simple enough. A 45-minute, 196MB episode of Lost takes about 15 minutes to download. This can be transferred onto the PC and viewed there as well. Apple says that the 30GB model can store 7,500 songs or 75 hours of video and has a battery life of 14 hours.

At the launch Steve Jobs had said, "This is the best IPod for music ever, and customers basically get the video for free." This is cent percent true. The 30GB Video iPod retails for £219.

Posted on : Sat, 22 Oct 2005 20:05 GMT | General News
By : Pippa Fielding