iPod Photo Underwhelming

October 26th, 2004

Filed under:
Technology

iPod Photo Underwhelming

Everyone’s all aflutter today over the iPod Photo (tagline-”why should your ears have all the fun?”). Just so we’re clear on what the iPod Photo is, it’s an iPod that will display (importantly, not take) images. On “a vivid two-inch screen”. What kind of world do we live in when a two-inch screen is a feature to boast about? It’s got all of 220 x 176 pixel resolution. The 40 GB version costs about CAN $130 more than the standard iPod.

What’s the use case scenario for this thing? It’s implicit to me that the majority of people use their iPods when they’re alone. Why, then, would you want to store a bunch of photos on your digital music player? Something to look at while you’re listening? Are you that lame? If that was Apple’s reasoning, they should just put better games on the thing and deliver us from a world of Breakout knockoffs.

I guess this is for people who don’t have a laptop, don’t want to print photos out and want to show digital photos to people where there aren’t computers. Where’s that? Hiking in the woods? On the subway? I don’t get it.

Yes, there are probably rare times when you both have your iPod and want to show a photo to somebody. And I can see that having colour on the display might be aesthetically appealing, and is the natural evolution of the device. Still, does this really merit this much excitement and coverage? But, then, if a janitor at Apple takes a bad spill in a sub-basement, the technology press covers it.

In short, Apple, I’m unimpressed. Next time, just make the thing smaller again.

Comments: 11 Responses so far

joke
October 26th, 2004
1:24 pm

I agree that Apple has missed the boat on this one. There is a potential market — people who take a lot of photos, need somewhere to store them, and don’t want to haul a laptop around with them. This is pretty useful when you’re travelling abroad or hiking, and take a lot of big photos with your digital camera, and a natural use for a portable harddisk like the iPod. I have 2.5GB of Compactflash cards, and I still have to clear them off and burn CDs sometimes when I’m travelling. But Apple, unbelievably, didn’t put a Compact Flash/SD slot in the new iPod, rendering this pretty cumbersome. Plus, I doubt if the battery is good enough to download 60GB of CF, or if it is fast enough to display/zoom in on 3MB JPEGs reasonably quickly.

The resolution number, 220×176, is too low. I almost don’t believe it. People have been making 2″ LCDs on digital cameras with 250,000 (6.5x as many) pixels for a while. In any case, it’s welcome that Apple is finally making a colour iPod. I think it means that more people will make iPod video games now.

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Chris
October 26th, 2004
1:51 pm

I think they missed on this too. I do like the fact that the iPod is up to 60 gig capacity though. It sure beats my overstuffed 3G 15 gig version (that I have to constantly swap music on). I wish they had a 60 gig regular iPod, that would suit me well.

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Anonymous
October 26th, 2004
1:52 pm

Very well put, Mr. Barefoot.

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Anonymous
October 26th, 2004
1:55 pm

What’s more interesting in today’s announcements is the fact that the iTunes Music Store is coming to Canada in November.

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Richard
October 26th, 2004
1:59 pm

The more exciting news is that iTunes Music Store Canada is coming.

I don’t know what exactly I would want in a portable photo display solution. I guess probably a foldable display that folds out to 4×6″ size, and a nice high resolution.

I mostly show my photos on my LCD TV.

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'nee
October 26th, 2004
2:47 pm

Porn. That’s all I’m sayin’.

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daryl
October 26th, 2004
4:02 pm

don’t ever buy apple products.

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joke
October 26th, 2004
4:59 pm

I have a tonne of Apple products (Ti and Al powerbooks, Airport Express, iPod etc…) and I think they’re all quality, although I have had to send some things in on warranty occasionally. The iPod has some moving parts and a battery with a limited lifetime, that varies depending on how much you use it. If you don’t like that, buy a solid state MP3 player with a small memory that won’t work with iTunes. The iPod is cheap, so if the battery runs out after two years, replace it.

The great thing about Apple is ever since OS X (I wouldn’t have touched a Mac before) they’ve had their user interfaces nailed. OS X, Safari, iTunes, iPhoto, Safari and the cool new iMac G5 are all great.

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