Apple’s new video iPod
p2p news / p2pnet:- Apple is currently making hay with its videoPod.
Boing Boing sorts the wheat from the chaff >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Apple’s new thing? Video iPod. But more crap-o copy-blocking
By Xeni Jardin – Boing Boing
As everyone including your mom guessed, the big announcement from Apple today involved a video iPod. The 2.5", 320 x 240 screen looks super-sweet, it comes with a video-out jack for playback on your TV, and episodes of Desperate Housewives cost $1.99 (they should really be paying us to watch ‘em, but that’s another post).
Drool-worthy, no doubt. But if you believe that hardware manufacturers shouldn’t restrict your ability to enjoy video files you’ve purchased and have the legal right to play, you’ll be disappointed. Snip from Wired News story:
The video iPod will play music videos, video podcasts and movie trailers downloaded form the updated iTunes Music Store, but will not play movies ripped from DVD, which are typically copy-protected.
However, it will play unprotected movies converted to Apple’s QuickTime format, even if the movies are downloaded illegally from file-sharing services, said an Apple representative after Jobs’ presentation. It will also display home movies, which can be exported to the iPod via a new function in Apple’s iMovie software.
And here’s an excerpt from Playlistmag’s report:
Jobs explained to attendees of the media event that videos purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Music Store employ Apple’s FairPlay Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme, so they can be downloaded and played on multiple computers authorized to listen to and watch protected iTunes content, or transferred to video-capable iPods. There’s one caveat, however — videos you purchase from iTunes can’t be burned to other media such as CD-R or DVD-R discs.
Mark Pilgrim points to a DVD-ripping HOWTO:
Here’s a simple, step-by-step guide to using Handbrake for Mac OS X to rip your legally acquired DVDs into the right format to play them in iTunes 6 and the new video iPod — Link. See also: HOWTO Put Porn On Your iPod. Link. A step-by-step guide for using ffmpegX to convert porn (or pretty much any other movie file you have lying around) to the iTunes/iPod format. Don’t forget the lube!
Violet at Fleshbot has more on adult mods for the new iPod: Link
Glenn Fleishman says,
I have been musing on who the hell needs a video iPod all day in the form and design Apple chose.
* Can’t transfer TV programs, although if you have an eyeTV (which can’t tune digital cable or satellite) you might be able to port the output through a converter.
* Not much content yet designed to play on it.
* Battery life while watching video is rated at 2 to 3 hours, thus not long enough for even a half-country-hopping flight.
* Can’t burn the content you buy for it, so you suddenly have a storage and management problem.
* Only by violating the (anti-constitutional) DMCA in some cases can you begin to approximate how this device could be used as a fair use (not FairPlay) extension of one’s free TV, pay cable, and owned (not 0wnz3d) DVDs.
So this is for Greenwich-to-Manhattan commuters with disposable cash who don’t watch Lost or Desperate Housewives the night before because they’re too busy playing squash. They can watch DH on the way into work and Lost on the way back without running out of battery life…just barely.
Now, I’ll go all Long Tail on this and say that when the backlist of television is suddenly available in some reasonable form (yes, it will all be frickin’ DRM’d to death) then there’s an enormous amount of content people will pick and choose certanly at less than $1.99 per episode. I also read in one source that Apple is negotiating with the BBC for access to their massive library.
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First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
October 14th, 2005 at 3:05 pm
WHAT IF YOU COULD BUILD YOUR OWN IPOD ?
http://colossalstorage.net/display/display_n_stor.htm
October 14th, 2005 at 4:03 pm
This iPod is also crippled compared to previous versions. It is USB2 only! No Firewire!
October 14th, 2005 at 7:31 pm
I’m not going to slag on Apple or iPod. To each his own. I just can’t get that excited about watching video on such a tiny screen. Same with video on cell phone displays. Now out in public people will not only have in-ear headphones on, they’ll also be staring at a little plastic box too? Read a book.
October 14th, 2005 at 7:36 pm
so where are all you appleheaded podlovers? nothing to say in defense of this great new invention? hmmm?
oh, i see…you’re still waiting online at Radio Shack to return your cracked nanos in exchange for this rubbish?
or perhaps Radio Shack refused to refund your cash and told you to fill out a bunch of papers to be sent to apple?
maybe you’ll get your refund before your replacement ipod batteries (because earlier ones were faulty and dangerous) arrive.
good luck. enjoy quicktime and drm!
October 14th, 2005 at 8:58 pm
Catflap! Now don’t go rattlin’ the fanboy cages…
People can spend their money however they want and we’re all entitled to our opinions, even you. I’m not saying you need to turn into some wimpy poster, but you could word things so they don’t sound like personal attacks. Folks might be a bit more inclined to hear what you are trying to say.
October 14th, 2005 at 9:00 pm
*looks at eBook*
Heh.
October 14th, 2005 at 10:22 pm
Touché !
At least the displays on most portable eBook readers are about the same size as their non-electronic counterpart.
October 15th, 2005 at 4:51 am
While parent poster may appear “insensitive”, he does make valid (and correct) points. Don’t get me wrong. Apple, Microsoft, RIAA/ MPAA, they are all “businesses” after all.
One time I remember hearing some older ‘blue-collar’ gentlemen sitting in McDonalds talking. And they talked about the typical things guys talking about, such as sports, politics, new technology… and then they talked about “corporations.”
And here’s the gist. They ‘believed’ that ‘management’s’ main duties are to “increase share-holder value….”
Well, that’s a bunch of baloney, just as “capitalism increases the wealth of every citizen.”…….
Now why is that?!!! Simply, it’s a ‘fairy-tale’ “adults” tell “children.” There are quite a number of INTELLIGENT readers who visit this site, so I won’t bother explaining the details. But, I’ll do this much…. I’ve done my best (like the owner of p2pnet) to EDUCATE the masses. Sometime’s I ask myself is it worth the trouble, since they keep on making the same mistakes over and over again.
It’ is like having a drunk father. His drinking is ruining his family. Yet he simply refuses to listen to you or anyone else, even though it is destroying him inside. Now what do you do? If it was someone else’s father, you can simply turn a blind eye and ignore it. But, when it’s your father it’s a different story.
So, Apple disagrees with the RIAA / MPAA (and now the 5 movie associations….) over their greedy tactics. I don’t have a problem with people running a business, actually I applaud the guts to have entreprenuership.
What is a problem is they over-step their boundaries, and start to racket, intimate, sue, libel, and abuse the people. And as explained many times before, NOTHING is being “stolen” from the RIAA / MPAA since they NEVER OWNED it in the first place. They hijacked the creative and cultural HERITAGE of ALL the people and claimed it as their own. Now that is theft. What catnap simply did was point out the errors and sillyness of people blindly loyal to something not worth they loyalty. That is all.
October 15th, 2005 at 4:59 am
I’ve got a Samsung, it is AWESOME, no DRM, plays just about everything, including GPL codecs.
It plays XviD, DivX, MPEG4, ogg, png, jpg, mp3, etc, etc, etc