iPod Video
I must admit, I am lusting after the new Video iPod. My current 10Gb Gen 2 iPod is getting a little long in the tooth.

Now some people (my wife included) wonder why I need a new iPod, or even why I’d want that much storage space? It’s simple. The new generation of iPods are about more than just music.

I currently have about 30Gb of music stored. Do I listen to it all? No. Do I want to carry it all with me? No. Do I want the ability to listen to whatever my eclectic taste of the minute demands? Absolutely. I get that with my current iPod. But there’s more to it.

Apparently, there has been discussion within Apple and even proof-of-concept work done on a feature for Mac OS X called iPod On Home (or some similar variation). What this means is that you could store your entire Home directory (Mac OS X is set up in a UNIX configuration, where everything that pertains to you, i.e. bookmarks, documents, pictures, are all stored in your Home directory) on your iPod. Big deal right, you can do that now. But what this feature allows is for you to plug your iPod in to any computer running Mac OS X with the iPod On Home feature on it, and your Home directory is available to you in its entirety. I think this is a killer feature. And if they were to set it up so that it was available on both Mac and Windows… holy hell.

Next is the obvious offering of video on this iPod. Music videos, TV shows, home movies… but nothing about big screen flicks. I personally don’t care much about the movie aspect of this (although the screen looks to be absolutely stunning). What I am interested in is the fact that this generation of the iPod is a test. Steve Jobs has publically stated that he thinks video on handheld devices is not that important at the moment. Why? Screens are too small, battery life isn’t long enough, a handheld device cannot simulate the experience of seeing a movie in a theater or your own home theater like listening to music on the iPod can. But people have been clamoring for a video iPod for so long, I think this is Job’s way of testing the waters. And if this works, and they see enough interest, when he goes to the movie studios to talk about licensing movies, he will have a lot of the chips on his side of the table. The iTunes music store is wildly successful. Can’t be too hard to turn it into a movie distribution application as well. If the video iPod also does well, he can offer that as well (but I’m sure that if the video iPod goes Hollywood, we’ll see a dramatic change in the way it looks. Think more along the lines of the PSP.)

So like I said, I’m lusting after one of these.